Travels in France during the years 1814-1815 - Patrick Fraser Tytler (good books to read in english txt) 📗
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Sentimental Journey, Vol. II. p. 87.
[3] De l'Allemagne, tom. 2d. 303.
[4] "We have no more war."
[5] "Great silence."—"Ah! how terrible is this house! It is the house of God, and the gate of Heaven."
[6] "Don't be alarmed, Sir; this is nothing."
[7] "War! war!"
[8] A small bit of wood.
[9] "Adieu! to meet at supper."
[10] "It is well enough for the moment, but this will not last long."
[11] "He shewed at his sports, that spirit of tyranny which he has since manifested on the great stage of the world; and he who was doomed one day to make Europe tremble, commenced by being the master and terror of a troop of children."
[12] Such are the emphatic expressions made use of by a French gentleman, who took the trouble to draw up for me a short memoir, containing what he considered the most correct and well authenticated circumstances in the political life of Napoleon.
[13] "Sire," said a General to him, while congratulating him on the victory of Montmirail, "what a glorious day, if we did not see around us so many towns and countries destroyed." "So much the better," said Napoleon; "that supplies me with soldiers!"
[14] "Well, in an hour the ladies of Rheims will be in a fine fright."
[15] They seize him, they conduct him to the town-hall, before a military commission, which proceeds to his trial, or rather to his condemnation. An hour was scarce elapsed when an officer appears, orders the doors to be opened, and demands if sentence is pronounced. They tell him that the judges are about to put the question to the vote, "Let them instantly shoot him," said the officer; "this is the Emperor's order." The unfortunate Goualt is condemned.—The voice of mourning is heard throughout the whole city. The proprietor of the house which Bonaparte had chosen for his head-quarters solicits an audience; he obtains it. "Sire, (said M. Duchatel), a day of triumph ought to be a day of mercy; I come to entreat your Majesty to grant to the whole city of Troyes the pardon of one of her fellow-citizens, who has been condemned to death." "Begone! (said the tyrant, with a savage look), you forget that you are in my presence." It was 11 o'clock at night when the unfortunate man left the town-hall, escorted by gens-d'armes, and carrying, attached to his back and breast, a writing in large characters, in these words, "Traitor to his country," which was read by light of flambeaux. This heart-rending assembly advanced towards the market-place, appointed for the execution of criminals. There they wished to bind the eyes of the accused;—he refused, and said, with a firm voice, that he knew how to die for his King. He himself gave the signal to fire, and exclaiming, "Long live the King! Long live Louis XVIII!" he drew his last breath.
[16] Revenge is their first law, lying the second, and to deny their God is the third.
[17] "The distinguishing features of this man are, lying and the love of life; I go to attack him, I shall beat him, and I shall see him at my feet demanding his life."
[18] "Promote this officer; for if you do not, he knows the way to promote himself."
[19] "To dissipate the royalists, and to batter the Parisians even at their firesides."
[20] "At break of day the Austrians commenced the attack, at first gently enough, afterwards more briskly, and at last with such fury, that the French were broken on all sides. At this frightful moment, when the dead and the dying strewed the earth, the first Consul, placed in the middle of his guard, appeared immoveable, insensible, and as if struck by thunder. In vain his Generals sent him their Aides de Camp, one after another, to demand assistance. In vain did the Aides de Camp wait his orders. He gave none. He scarcely exhibited signs of life. Many thought, that, believing the battle lost, he wished himself to be killed. Others, with more reason, persuaded themselves, that he had lost all power of thought, and that he neither heard nor saw what was said or what passed about him. General Berthier came to beg he would instantly withdraw; instead of answering him, he lay down on the ground. In the meantime, the French fled as fast as possible. The battle was lost, when suddenly we heard it said, that General Dessaix was coming up with fresh troops. Presently we saw him appear at their head. The runaways rallied behind his columns. Their courage returned—fortune changed. The French attacked in their turn, with the same fury with which, they had been attacked; they burned to efface the shame of their defeat in the morning."
[21] "I die regretting that I have not lived long enough for my country."
[22] We may lay it down as a maxim, that in every state the desire of glory exists with the liberty of the subjects, and diminishes with the same; glory is never the companion of servitude.
[23] "The youth of the present day are brought up in very different principles: the love of glory, above all, has taken deep root; it has become the distinguishing attribute of the national character, exalted by twenty years of continued success. But this very glory was become our idol; it absorbed all the thoughts of the brave fellows whose wounds had rendered them unfit for service—all the hopes of the youthful warriors who for the first time bore arms; an unlooked-for blow has been struck, and we now find in our hearts a blank similar to that which a lover feels who has lost the object of his passion; every thing he sees, every thing he hears, renews his grief. This sentiment renders our situation vague and painful; every one seeks to hide from himself the void which he feels exist in his heart. He is looked upon as humbled, after twenty years of continued triumph, for having lost a single stake, which unfortunately was the stake of honour, and which had become the rule of our destinies."—Caront's Memoir.
[24] "The French are the only people in the universe could laugh even while freezing."
[25] "Well, there's more materials—more flesh for the cannon!"
[26] "My faith, there's a fine consumption." The word Consommation, is also a mess, a finishing. It is not easy to say whether it was used in one or all of these senses by Napoleon.
[27] "It was icy cold. The dying were yet breathing; the crowd of dead bodies, and the black gaps which the blood had made in the snow, were horribly contrasted. The staff were sensibly affected. The Emperor alone looked coolly on that scene of mourning and of blood. I pushed my horse a few paces before his, for I was anxious to observe him at such a moment. You would have said that he was devoid of every human feeling; that all that surrounded him existed but for him. He spoke coolly on the events of the evening before. In passing before a groupe of Russian grenadiers who had been massacred, the horse of one of the aides-de-camp started. The Emperor perceived it: "That horse (said he, coldly) is a coward."
[28] "Workmen who had just left their workshops, peasants escaped from the villages, with bonnets on their heads, and a staff in their hands, in six months became intrepid soldiers, and in two years skilful officers and generals, formidable to the oldest generals in Europe."
[29] "They cut down the crops of men three times a-year."
[30] "It is only under a government as wise and as great as yours, that a simple soldier like me could have formed the project of carrying the war into Egypt.—Yes, Directors, scarcely shall I be master of Egypt, and of the solitudes of Palestine, than England will give you a first rate ship of the line for a sack of corn."
[31] "If I present myself with troops (said Napoleon) it is only to please my friends, for in truth, I have the greatest desire of appearing there as of old; Louis XIV. appeared in the Parliament in boots, and a whip in his hand."
[32] "I am one of those whom men kill, but whom they cannot dishonour; in three months we shall have peace—either the enemy shall be chased from our territory, or I shall be no more."
[33] "I have called you around me to do good; you have done ill. You have among you persons devoted to England, who correspond with the Prince Regent, by means of the Advocate Deseze. Eleven-twelfths of you are good; the rest are factious. Return to your departments;—I shall have my eye on you. I am one whom men may kill, but whom they cannot dishonour. Who is he among you who could support the load of government. It has crushed the Constituent Assembly, which dictated laws to a weak king. The Fauxbourg St Antoine would have assisted me, but it would soon have abandoned you. What are become of the Jacobins, the Girondins, the Vergniaus, the Guadets, and so many others? They are dead. You have sought to bespatter me in the eyes of France. This is a heinous crime;—besides, what is the throne? Four pieces of gilded wood covered with velvet. I had pointed out to you a Secret Committee; it is there that you should have established your griefs. It was in the family that our dirty linen should have been washed. I have a title; you have none. What are you in the Constitution? Nothing. You have no authority. The Throne is the Constitution. Every thing is in the throne, and in me. I repeat it to you, you have among you factious persons. Mr Lainè is a wicked man; the rest are factious. I know them, and I shall pursue them. I ask you, Was it while the enemy were among us that you ought to have done such things? Nature has endowed me with great courage, it can resist every thing. Much has it cost my pride, but I have sacrificed it. But I am above your miserable declamations. I had need of consolation,—and you have dishonoured me. But no; my victories crush your complaints. I am one of those who triumph or who die. Return to your departments.
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