The Substance of Some Letters, Volume 1

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Page 41 - Marseillaise," which were received in raptures, and accompanied by the whole house at the end of each verse. The enthusiasm was at its utmost pitch. Napoleon entered at the third scene. The whole...
Page 7 - Emperor of the French, King of Italy, Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, Mediator of the Swiss Confederation.
Page 36 - ... with an air of sedate impatience. As the front columns of each regiment passed him, he lifted the first finger of his left hand quickly to his hat, to return the salute, but did not move either his hat or his head. As the regiments advanced, they shouted, some loudly, some feebly,
Page 373 - The King of Naples has left the army. Your husband is very brave on the field of battle ; but he is weaker than a woman or a monk when he is not in the presence of the enemy. He has no moral courage.
Page 37 - I could not see which, and rushed directly towards the Emperor. He was within arm's length, when the grenadier on the left and an officer jumped forwards, and, seizing him by the collar, pushed him farther back. Napoleon did not move a muscle of his body ; not a line, not a shade of his face shifted for an instant. Perfectly unstartled, he beckoned the soldiers to let loose their prisoner ; and the poor fellow approaching so close as almost to touch his person in front, talked to him for some time...
Page 35 - The vast palace of kings ; the moving array before me ; the deep mass of flashing arms in the distance ; the crowd around, the apparatus of war and empire, all disappeared, and, in the first gaze of admiration, I saw nothing but Napoleon — the single individual, to destroy whom the earth was rising in arms from the Tanais to the Thames. I know that I never should have beheld him with delight in the days of his despotism, and that the principal charm of the spectacle arose from the contemplation...
Page 102 - ... block from a scarecrow to a saint; — the wax-chandlers contemplated the inevitable re-illumination of all the extinguished candlesticks of every shrine; — days and nights, all the gates of all the churches were expanded, whilst their rival shops were shut. Relics rattled together from the four quarters of the capital, to be re-adjusted and re-enshrined by a second St. Louis. But the king might have given their daily bread...
Page 42 - ... with that of Napoleon, nor will any of those accorded to the heroes of the very many ceremonies I have witnessed in the course of my life. Talma played Hector in his usual powerful style ; and having mentioned the name of this great actor, I cannot forbear adding a story I heard from him, which shows that Napoleon has some ability in turning a kind compliment. At the first meeting between the Emperor and actor since the return from Elba, the former, addressing him with his usual familiarity,...
Page 181 - Peu importe que Napoléon ait été proclamé empereur par l'armée et par les habitants des pays où il a passé ; peu importe que les puissances coalisées aient ou non tenu les conventions qu'elles avaient faites avec lui : la France n'appartient ni aux soldats, ni aux habitants qui se sont trouvés sur la route de Cannes à Paris.
Page 82 - ... patriotic and thinking persons, who would have found some excuse for this step, in the poverty of the royal treasury, and in the difficulty of supporting an army calculated for forty-four millions of subjects, in a kingdom reduced to a population of twenty-eight millions — had there not been repeated proofs of profusion in other instances, and had not the restored family betrayed, in many ways, a settled disregard of this great national body. Every saloon in Paris abounds with stories of the...

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