vision necessary for the well-being of the soldier. He fell upon the enemy with all the confidence of victory which would have been inspired by superior numbers, discipline, and equipment. In a fortnight the whole aspect of things was changed; and here was his first address to the army:

Such language was never before addressed to a French army. It excited the solders even to delirium. They would have "Soldiers! You have, in fifteen days, gained six followed him to the ends of the earth. victories, taken twenty-one standards, fifty pieces Nor was such an event foreign to his of cannon, several fortresses, made fifteen hundred thoughts. The army no longer obeyed-it prisoners, and killed or wounded more than ten was devoted. It was not led by a mortal thousand men ! You have equalled the conquer commander-it followed a demigod. ors of Holland and the Rhine. Destitute of all When he sailed from the shores of France, necessaries, you have supplied all your wants. Without cannon, you have gained battles-with- on the celebrated expedition to Egypt, the out bridges, you have crossed rivers!-without destination of the fleet was confided to shoes, you have made forced marches!-without none but himself. Its course was directed brandy, and often without bread, you have bi- first to Malta, which, as is well known, subvouacked! Republican phalanxes, soldiers of mitted without resistance. When lying off Liberty, alone could have survived what you have its harbor, Bonaparte thus addressed the suffered! Thanks to you, soldiers!—your grateful country has reason to expect great things of splendid army which floated around him you! You have still battles to fight, towns to take, rivers to pass. Is there one among you whose courage is relaxed? Is there one who would prefer to return to the barren summits of the Appenines and the Alps, to endure patiently

the insults of these soldier-slaves?

No!-there is none such among the victors of Montenotte, of Millesimo, of Dégo, and of

Mondovi !

"My friends, I promise you this glorious conquest; but be the liberators, and not the scourges of the people you subdue!"

"Soldiers!-You are a wing of the army of England. You have made war on mountain and plain, and have made sieges. It still remains for you to make maritime war. The legions of Rome, which you have sometimes imitated, but not yet equalled, warred with Carthage by turns on the sea and on the plains of Zama. Victory never abandoned them, because they were brave in combat, patient under fatigue, obedient to their commanders, and firm against their foes. But soldiers !

Europe has its eyes upon you; you have great destinies to fulfil, battles to wage, and fatigues to

suffer."

Such addresses acted on the army with electrical effect. Bonaparte had only to When the men from the mast tops diswalk over northern Italy, passing from tri-covered the towers of Alexandria, Bonaumph to triumph in that immortal compaign with a facility and rapidity which resembled the shifting views of a phantasmagoria. He entered Milan, and there, to swell and stimulate his legions, he again

addressed them:

"You have descended from the summits of the Alps like a cataract. Piedmont is delivered. Milan is your own. Your banners wave over the fertile plains of Lombardy. You have passed the Po, the Tessino, the Adda-those vaunted bulwarks of Italy. Your fathers, your mothers, your wives, your sisters, your betrothed, will exult in your triumphs, and will be proud to claim you as their own. Yes, soldiers, you have done much, but much more is still to be accomplished. Will you leave it in the power of posterity to say that in Lombardy you have found a Capua? Let us go on! We have still forced marches to make, enemies to subdue, laurels to gather, and insults

to avenge.

parte first announced to them the destination of the expedition:

Frenchmen!-You are going to attempt conquests, the effects of which on the civilization

and commerce of the world are incalculable. Behold the first city we are about to attack. It was built by Alexander."

As he advanced through Egypt he soon perceived that he was among a people who were fanatical, ignorant, and vindictive, who distrusted the Christians, but who still more profoundly detested the insults, exactions, pride, and tyranny of the Mamelukes. To flatter their prejudices and confirm their hatred, he addressed them in a proclamation conceived in their own Oriental style:

"To re-establish the capitol, and re-erect the "Cadis, Sheiks, Imans, Charbadgys, they will statues of its heroes; to awake the Roman peo-say to you that I have come to destroy your reple, sunk under the torpor of ages of bondage;-ligion! Believe them not. Tell them that I come behold what remains to be done! After accom- to restore your rights, and to punish your usurpVOL. XIII. No. II. 11

ers, and that I, much more than the Mamelukes, I rectory with the haughty tone of a master respect God, his prophet, and the Koran ! who demands an account of his servants, and as though he were already absolute sovereign of France:

Tell it to the people that all men are equal before God Say that wisdom, talents, and virtue, alone constitute the difference between man and

man.

"Is there on your land a fine farm?-it belongs to the Mamelukes. Is there anywhere a beauti ful slave, a fine horse, a splendid house ?-they all belong to the Mamelukes. If Egypt be really their farm, let them show what grant God has given them of it. But God is just and merciful towards his people. All Egyptians have equal rights. Let the most wise, the most enlightened, and the most virtuous rule, and the people will be happy.

"There were in former days among you great cities, great canals, and vast trade. What has destroyed all these, if it be not the cupidity, the injustice, and the tyranny of the Mamelukes?

"Cadis, Sheiks, Imans, Charbadgys, tell it to the people that we also are true Mussulmans, Was it not we that subdued the Pope, who exhorted nations to war on the Mussulmans? Are we not also friends of the Grand Signor?

"Thrice happy those who shall be on our side! -happy those who shall be neuter: they will have time to be acquainted with us, and to join

with us.

"But wo, wo to those who shall take arms for the Mamelukes, and who shall combat against us! For them there will be no hope! They shall perish!"

After quelling the revolt at Cairo, he availed himself of the terror and superstition of the Egyptians to present himself to them as a superior being, as a messenger of God, and the inevitable instrument of Fate:

"Sheiks, Ulemas, Worshippers of Mahomet, tell the people that those who have been my enemies shall have no refuge in this world nor in the next! Is there a man among them so blind as not to see Fate itself directing my movements?

"Tell the people that since the world was a world, it has been written, that after having destroyed the enemies of Islamism-after having beaten down their crosses, 1 should come from the depths of the west, to fulfil the task which has been committed to me. Show the people that in the holy volume of the Koran, in more than twenty places, what happens has been foretold, and what will happen is likewise written."

"I can call each of you to account for the most hidden thoughts of your heart; for I know all, even the things you have not whispered to another. But a day will come when all the world will plainly see that I am conducted by orders from above, and that no efforts can prevail against

me."

When Charlatanism was the weapon most effective, he there scrupled not to wield it for the attainment of his ends.

After the 18th Brumaire, surrounded by his brilliant staff, he apostrophized the Di

"What have you done with that France which I left you surrounded with such splendor? I left you peace-I return and find war. I left you the millions of Italy-I return and find spoliation and misery! What have you done with the hundred thousand brave French, my companions in arms, in glory, and in toil? THEY ARE DEAD!”

Bonaparte was remarkable for contemptuqusly breaking through the traditions of military practice. Thus, on the eve of the battle of Austerlitz, he adopted the startling and unusual course of disclosing the plan of his campaign to the private soldiers of his army :

"The Russians," said he, "want to turn my

right, and they will present to me their flank. Soldiers, I will myself direct all your battalions; depend upon me to keep myself far from the fire, so long as, with your accustomed bravery, you bring disorder and confusion into the enemy's ranks; but, if victory were for one moment uncertain, you would see me in the foremost ranks, to expose myself to their attack. There will be the honor of the French infantry-the first infantry in the world. This victory will terminate your campaign, and then the peace we shall make will be worthy of France, of you, and of me!"

What grandeur, combined with what pride, we find in these last words!

His speech after the battle is also a chefd'œuvre of military eloquence. He declares his contentment with his soldiers-he walks through their ranks-he reminds them who they have conquered, what they have done, and what will be said of them; but not one word does he utter of their chiefs. The emperor and the soldiers-France for a perspective--peace for a reward--and glory for a recollection! What a commencement, and what a termination !—

"Soldiers! I am content with you; you have covered your eagles with immortal glory. An army of one hundred thousand men, commanded by the emperors of Russia and of Austria, have been, in less than four hours, cut to pieces and dispersed; whoever has escaped your sword has Forty stand of cobeen drowned in the lakes. lors-the standards of the imperial guard of Russia-one hundred and twenty pieces of cannon, twenty generals, and more than thirty thousand prisoners are the results of this day, for ever celebrated. That infantry, so much boasted of, and in numbers so superior to you, could not resist your shock, and henceforth you have no longer any rivals to fear.

"Soldiers! when the French people placed upon my head the imperial crown, I entrusted my self to you; I relied upon you to maintain it in the high splendor and glory, which alone can give it value in my eyes. Soldiers! I will soon bring you back to France; there you will be the object of my most tender solicitude. It will be sufficient for you to say, I was at the battle of Austerlitz,' in order that your countrymen may answer, 'Voilà un brave !'"

On the anniversary of this battle, he used to recapitulate with pleasure the accumulated spoils that fell into the hands of the French, and he used to inflame their ardor against the Prussians by the recollection of those victories; thus, on the morning of another fight, he apostrophized his soldiers in the following manner:-"Those," pointing to the enemy, "and yourselves, are you

not still the soldiers of Austerlitz!" This was the stroke of a master.

"The forests, the defiles of Franconia, the Saale, and the Elbe, which your fathers had not traversed in seven years, you have traversed in seven days, and in this interval you have fought four fights and one pitched battle. You have sent the reand to Berlin. You have made sixty thousand nown of your victories before you to Potsdam prisoners, taken sixty-five standards, six hundred pieces of cannon, three fortresses, and more than iwenty generals; and yet nearly one-half of you still lament not having fired a shot. All the provinces of the Prussian monarchy, as far as the banks of the Oder, will be in your power."

It is true, and it will occur to every mind, that a large part of the force of this eloquence of the camp in the case of Bonaparte, depended on the astounding character of the facts which he had the power of repeating. Even now, after these miracles of military prowess have been repeated in as many versions by an hundred contempo

"Soldiers! it is to-day one year, this very hour, that you were on the memorable field of Austerlitz. The Russian battalions fled terrified; their allies were destroyed; their strong places, their capitals, their magazines, their arsenals, two hundred and eighty standards, seven hundred rary five grand fortified places, were pieces of cannon, in your power. The Oder, the Warta, the deserts of Poland, the bad weather, nothing has stopped you. All have fled at your approach. The French eagle soars over the Vistula; the brave and unfortunate Poles imagine that they see again the legions of Sobieski.

historians in every living language, we cannot read these simple references to them without being overwhelmed with amazement. The narrative of them borders often on the impossible, and forcibly impresses us with the justness of the adage, that truth is often more wonderful than fiction, and that the Soldiers! we will not lay down our arms un-historian has often to record that from til a general peace has restored to our commerce its liberty and its colonies. We have, on the Elbe which the novelist would shrink. and the Oder, recovered Pondicherry our Indian establishment, the Cape of Good Hope, and the Spanish colonies. Who shall give to the Russians the hope to resist destiny? These and yourselves.

Are we not the soldiers of Austerlitz?"

He commenced the Prussian campaign by a speech that burned and flashed like lightning itself

You are

"Soldiers! I am in the midst of you. the vanguard of a great people. You must not return to France unless you return under triumphal arches. What! shall it be said you have braved the seasons, the deep, the deserts, conquered Europe, several times coalesced against you, carried your glory from the East to the West, only to return to your country like fugitives, and to hear it said that the French eagle had taken flight, terrified at the aspect of the Prussian armies? Let us advance, then; and since our moderation has not awakened them from their astonishing intoxication, let them learn that if it is easy to obtain any increase of power from the friendship of a great people, its enmity is more terrible than the tempests of the ocean."

At Eylau, he thus honored the memory of his brave warriors who had fallen :

"You have marched against the enemy, and you have pursued him, your swords in his reins, over a space of eighty leagues. You have taken from him sixty-five pieces of cannon, sixteen standards, and killed, wounded, or captured, more than forty-five thousand men. Our braves who have remained on the field of battle, have died a glorious death. Theirs is the death of true soldiers."

At Friedland, he again apostrophized his army :-

"In ten days you have taken one hundred and twenty pieces of cannon, seven standards, killed, wounded, or captured sixty thousand Russian prisoners; taken from the enemy all its hospitals, all its magazines, all its ambulances, the fortress of Koenigsberg, the three hundred vessels that were in the port, laden with every species of munitions, and one hundred and sixty thousand muskets, that England had sent to arm our enemies. From the banks of the Vistula you have passed to those of

the Niemen, with the rapidity of the eagle. You celebrated at Austerlitz the anniversary of my coronation; you have this year celebrated here the anniversary of Marengo. Soldiers of the

grand army of France, you have been worthy of yourselves and of me!"

In 1809, when prepared to punish Austria for her treachery, he again adopted the bold and unexpected course of confiding to the army his great designs. He mingled amongst the soldiers, and made them share he never allowthe spirit of his vengeance; ed himself to be separated from them, and made his cause their cause. What a military elan there is in the following speech!-

of this gorgeous drama. Behold! the scene is the court of Fontainebleau. Listen to his solemn adieux to the faithful remains of his army-to those soldiers who could not bring themselves voluntarily to separate from their general, and who were weeping around him. Antiquity affords no scene at once so heart-rending and so solemn :—

For

"Soldiers! I make you my adieux. twenty years, that we have been together, I have been content with you! I have always found you on the road to glory. All the powers of Europe are armed against me alone; some of my generals have betrayed their duty and France. France has deserved other destinies. With you "Soldiers! I was surrounded by you when the and the other braves who have remained faithful sovereign of Austria came to my bivouac in Mo-to me I could have maintained a civil war, but ravia; you heard him implore my clemency, and France would have been unhappy. Be faithful to swear eternal friendship for me, his victor in three your new king-be obedient to your new chiefscampaigns. Austria owed everything to our gene- and do not abandon your dear country. Do not rosity; three times has she perjured herself. Our lament my fate. I shall be happy so long as I reh past successes are a sure guarantee of the victo- know that you also are happy. I might have ries that await us; forward, then, and let the ene- died. If I have consented to live, it is still to your my acknowledge its conqueror in our very aspect." glory. I will write the great deeds that you have done. I cannot embrace you all, but I embrace your general. Come, General Petit, let me press you to my heart. Bring me that Eagle, and let me embrace it also. Ah! dear Eagle, may this kiss which I give you be remembered by posterity. Adieu, my children. My prayers will always accompany you. Preserve my memory!"

It was with a like ardor he animated the army sent to Naples against the English. His speech appeared to move with the pas de charge:

"Soldiers! march; throw yourselves upon them in a torrent, if these feeble battalions of the tyrant of the deep will even await your approach. Do not wait to inform me that the sanctity of treaties has been vindicated, and that the manes of my brave soldiers, murdered in the ports of Sicily, on their return from Egypt, after having escaped all the perils of the deep, the deserts, and of a hundred fights, have at last been appeased!"

It was also to beat down the power of his implacable and eternal enemy, that he harangued the army of Germany, on his return, and that he opened before its view the conquest of Spain :

"Soldiers! after having triumphed on the Danube and the Vistula, you have traversed Germany by forced marches-I order you now to traverse France without a moment's repose. Soldiers! I have need of you. The hideous presence of the leopard defiles the peninsula of Spain and Portugal; let it fly terrified at your look. Carry your victorious eagles even to the columns of Hercules; there, also, you have treachery to revenge. Soldiers! you have surpassed the renown of modern armies, but have you equalled the glories of the legions of Rome, who, in the same campaign, triumphed on the Rhine and on the Euphrates, in Illyria and on the Tagus?"

Let us now pass to the penultimate act

He departed, and in the island of Elba he organized that expedition, the mere narrative of which seems almost fabulous.

He had not yet set foot on the shores of France, when already, from the deck of that frail skiff "which bore Cæsar and his fortunes," he gave to the winds and the waves his celebrated proclamation. He evoked before the eyes of his soldiers the images of a hundred fights, and sent his eagles before him, as the harbingers of his triumphant return :—

Soldiers in my exile I heard your voice. We have not been conquered, but betrayed. We must forget that we have been the masters of nations, but we must not allow others to mingle themselves in our affairs. Who shall pretend to be master in our country? Resume those eagles that you had at Ulm, at Austerlitz, at Jena, at Montmirail. The veterans of the army of the Sambre and the Meuse, of the Rhine, of Italy, of Egypt, of the west, of the grand army, are humiliated. Come, place yourselves under the flag of your chief. Victory will march at the pas de charge. The eagle, with the national flag shall fly from steeple to steeple, until she lights on the towers of Notre Dame !"

On the morrow of his arrival at the Tuil

leries, and amidst the astonishment which followed that night of enthusiasm and intoxication, he called his old guard around his flag, and presented it to his brave companions of the island of Elba :

"Soldiers! behold the officers of the battalion who have accompanied me in misfortune. They are all my friends-they were dear to my heart: wherever I saw them, they represented to me the different regiments of the army. Among these six hundred veteran companions were men of all the regiments. All reminded me of those great days, the memory of which is so dear to me- -for all were covered with honorable wounds, received in those memorable battles. In loving them I loved you all. Soldiers of the French army! they bring you back those eagles, which will serve you as a rallying point. In giving them to the Guard, I give them to the whole army. Treason and unhappy circumstances have covered them for a time with mourning; but, thanks to the French people and to you, they re-appear, resplendent with all their former glory. Swear that they shall be found always wherever the interests of the country shall call them. Let the traitors and those who invade our territory never be able to stand before their looks."

"These, and ourselves-are we no longer the

saine men.

Prussians, now so arrogant, you were one against Soldiers! at Jena, against these same two, and, at Montmirail, you were one against three. Let those among you who have been prisoners with the English tell you the tale of their prison-ships, and of the frightful evils that they have suffered.

"The Saxons, the Belgians, the Hanoverians, the soldiers of the Confederation of the Rhine, groan at being obliged to lend their arms to princes who are hostile to justice and the people's rights."

"Soldiers!" said he, " I will follow your steps, although absent. It was the country you served in obeying me; and if I have had any share in your affections, I owe it to my ardent love for France-our common mother. Soldiers! some few efforts more, and the coalition will be dissolved. Napoleon will be grateful to you for the blows you are going to give.”

Some days afterwards, at the assembly in the Champs de Mars, he speaks not of the glory of the battles, nor of the devotion of the soldiers, but, being in the presence ed in British waters, he addressed the folFrom on board the Bellerophon, anchorof the people and of the legislative bodies, ed in British waters, he addressed the folhe extols the grand principle of the nation-lowing letter to the Prince Regent :—

al sovereignty :

"YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS,-Overcome by the factions which divide my country, and by the hos "Emperor, consul, soldier-I hold all from the tility of the great powers of Europe, I have termipeople. In prosperity, in adversity, on the battle-nated my political career, and I come, like Thefield, at the council-board, on the throne, in exile, mistocles of old, to sit down at the hearth of the France has ever been the only and constant object British people. I place myself under the protec of my thoughts and of my actions. Like that tion of their laws, which I claim from your Royal king of Athens, I sacrificed myself for my people, Highness, as the most powerful, the most conin the hope of seeing realized the promise given, stant, and the most generous of my enemies." to preserve for France its national integrity, its honor, and its repose."

On the meeting of the Chambers, he addressed them, conjuring them to forget. their quarrels in the face of the imminent danger of the nation:

"Let us not imitate the example of the lower empire, which, pursued on all sides by barbarians, exposed itself to the laughter of posterity, by oc. cupying itself with paltry dissensions at the moment when the battering ram struck on the walls of the city. It is in difficult times that great nations, like great men, develop all the energy of their characters."

Falling unexpectedly amongst the army, he recalled to its recollection that it ought not to allow itself to be alarmed by the

At St. Helena, his imagination retraced. his past life, reverted to Egypt and the East, and the brilliant recollections of his youth.

I should have done better," said he, striking his forehead, "not to have quitted Egypt. Arabia waited for a hero. With the French in reserve, and the Arabians and Egyptians as auxiliaries, I should have rendered myself master of India, and should now have been Emperor of all the East.”

Dwelling still on this grand idea, he used to say

"St. Jean d'Acre taken, the French army would have flown to Damascus and Aleppo, and, in the twinkling of an eye, would have been on the Euphrates. The Christians of Syria, the Druses, the