Life of Napoleon Bonaparte. Volume III

503

"Malevolence has delighted in representing the Emperor as of a mistrustful character; and yet on this occasion, where ill-intentioned men might have made any attempt upon his person, his only guard at headquarters was the Portuguese legion, which watched as carefully over him as the veterans of the army of Italy could have done." – Savary, tom. ii., part ii., p. 91.

504

"General Bertrand, the Emperor's aide-de-camp, was the officer who executed this splendid work. He was one of the best engineer officers that France could boast of since the days of Vauban. The exhaustless arsenal of Vienna had supplied us with a profusion of timber, and also with cordage, iron, and with forty engines to drive the piles in." – Savary, tom. ii., part ii., p. 93.

505

Nineteenth Bulletin of the French army; Jomini, tom. iii., p. 248; Savary, tom. ii., part ii., p. 105.

506

"The island of Lobau was a second valley of Jehosophat; men who had been six years asunder met here on the banks of the Danube for the first time since that long separation; 150,000 infantry, 750 pieces of cannon, and 300 squadrons of cavalry, constituted the Emperor's army." – Savary, tom. ii., part ii., p. 109.

507

"On the day after the battle, Napoleon, on passing by Macdonald, held out his hand to him, saying, 'Shake hands, Macdonald – no more enmity between us – we must henceforth be friends; and, as a pledge of my sincerity, I will send you your marshal's staff, which you so gloriously earned in yesterday's battle.'" – Savary, tom. ii., part ii., p. 128.

508

"Out of seventy-two hours of the 4th, 5th, and 6th July, the Emperor was at least sixty hours on horseback. In the height of the danger, he rode in front of the line upon a horse as white as snow (it was called the Euphrates, and had been sent to him as a present from the Sophi of Persia.) He proceeded from one extremity of the line to the other, and returned at a slow pace: it will easily be believed, that shots were flying about him in every direction. I kept behind, with my eyes riveted upon him, expecting at every moment to see him drop from his horse." – Savary, tom. ii., part ii., p. 120.

509

Twenty-fifth Bulletin; Jomini, tom. iii., p. 267; Savary, tom. ii., part ii., p. 117.

510

Twenty-seventh Bulletin.

511

Le Royaume de Westphalie, par un Témoin Oculaire, p. 66; Mémoires de Rapp, p. 123.

512

Le Royaume de Westphalie, par un Témoin Oculaire; Jomini, tom. iii., p. 287.

513

Geschichte Andreas Hofer, Leipsic, 1817; Jomini, tom. iii., p. 290; Savary, tom. ii., part ii., p. 143.

514

Mémoires sur la Guerre de 1809.

515

"Sir Walter confounds the object of the Revolution with its horrors. Napoleon may well have said uncontradicted, 'that from him would date the era of representative governments' – that is to say, of monarchical governments, but founded upon the laws. He might have added, without contradiction or exaggeration, that he had put an end to the atrocities of the Revolution and to popular fury, the renewal of which he prevented. Impartial posterity will, perhaps, reproach my brother with not having kept an even way between the weakness of Louis XVI. and an inflexible firmness: it will reproach him with not having confided the preservation of the rights and the newly-obtained advantages of the nation to fundamental and stable laws, instead of making them rest on his own existence: but I am greatly deceived if it will confirm the predictions of Sir Walter. I believe that it will divide the good and the advantages of the French Revolution from its excesses and horrors, the end and suppression of which it will attribute to Napoleon." – Louis Buonaparte, p. 58.

516

Fais.

517

Fais.

518

Illegible.

519

Nouveau Repertoire de Jurisprudence, au mot Commission.

520

521

A sense of shame caused these words to be erased, but the operation has left them still legible. The attempt at concealment shows the sense of guilt, without hiding the crime.