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tradicted, has been retouched in conse- to complete the monster which the world quence of any statements advanced by never saw, there were many amongst us. the above author.

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who arrayed him in all bad qualities, contradictory and inconsistent ; interweaved with the giant vices all the baser imperfections of humanity, and, to justify their hatred and their fear, denounced him as a coward and a fool.

ENGLISH MINISTERIAL FALSEHOODS. The horror which it has been the fashion either to feel or to affect at the name of a Frenchman, without being taken off the nation at large, has been latterly concentrated and accumulated It was in vain that the imputed poisupon the head of Napoleon; whom, af- onings, and assassination of single capter exhausting every opprobrious epithet tives, became an idle tale, abandoned at before unapplied to any potentate, it was last by those who gave to them their at last agreed to designate as the Enemy original credit. The Emperor of the of the human race, a title belonging French, King of Italy, Protector of the par excellence, to the Evil One, and cal- Confederation of the Rhine, was still to culated to inspire a sort of blind terror be charged with withdrawing from his and universal detestation of this Satannic throne and his myriads in arms, to stranpersonage. Posterity will hardly know gle an unarmed British sailor; and it how to reconcile the proverbial courage and sense of our countrymen with the expression of such fears as they will find in the predictions and revelations of the preachers and politicians of the present age; who, by helping out the Apocalypse with an anagram, behold in this warrior sometimes the Horned Beast, at others Apollyon himself.

was still to be accounted a want of patriotism for an Englishman to regard him in any other light than the murderer of his countrymen. The fall of this Dagon by no means terminated the persecution of his name, nor of his imputed worshippers.

Those who knew him most, liked him least; a vulgar familiarity constituted all The children of the present genera- the charm of his converse, which, after ation have been taught to start at the all, could have no effect upon the open name of Bonaparte as if he was in the heart of plain honesty, averse to the bush; our colleges and academies have blandishments of a knave. Not content given prizes to those who should best to visit with indignation those who did portray his crimes. The painter has not regard him as the weakest and the sketched a countenance to correspond most dangerous being in existence, yet with the fancied features of treason, without any power of attraction; as the murder, cruelty, and pride. Not the most insignificant and the most to be terrors of a degenerate Roman could dreaded of mortals, yet never to be lishave beheld the imp-begotten Attila un- tened to for a moment; it was found der an aspect so hideous. The pious, useful to assert, that the admiration of from their pulpit, prayed for that resig- such a character, which was to be so nation, patience, and humility, under much deprecated, did not in fact exist. this Scourge of God, which were recom- A scandalous story had been told of the mended from the benches of parliament inclinations manifested towards this as the true Christian virtues necessary for worthless personage by the crew of the those who were to be borne along with frigate which conveyed him to Elba. It out a murmur by the current of events, was too true and undeniable that the to bear all trial of taxation, and to be officers of that ship had listened to the content with the mean instruments voice of the tempter. For this the comthrough whom (the help and cunning of manding officer had received his reward. man being altogether of no avail) they What was his reception at home in return might, in the appointed time and hour, for having bestowed upon an acknowlwork out their salvation. Such was the edged emperor the honours of sovereigngeneral feeling; to be insensible to ty, and for not having employed those which was looked upon as the proof of a torments of insult by which the fallen hardened mind, perverted by, or perhaps monarch might feel his dignity to be already associated with wickedness. It dying, it would be little to the credit of is true, and more strange, that, in order of our admiralty to record.

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The sailors of the Undaunted frigate when the play closed, every body moved are stated to have resisted all that cajole- off without ceremony, not waiting for his ment which succeeded with the officers; Majesty's exit. and to have refused a gratuity offered them at disembarkation by the emperor, in terms both rude and contemptuous

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The general disinclination of the Belgians to their union with Holland is acknowledged on all hands. It is not so they would take none of Mr. Bona- clear that they are attached to France: parte's money.' Could the writer of but it is no less certain than reasonable, the nemoir have invented both the re- that they would prefer annexation to fusal and the speech? He should have any power sufficiently strong to carry the known that the sailors did receive about war into a foreign territory, instead of four hundred louis d'ors from Napoleon; fighting for their own borders. and that the boatswain, in their name, The occupation of Belgium by France addressed him on the quarter-deck, in a was supposed to be the necessary and short harangue, in which he thanked his instant consequence of Napoleon's rehonour, and wished him long life and turn. The day was fixed for his arrival prosperity in the island of Elba, and at Brussels. It was said to be the debetter luck another time. The fact is mand of the French army and people, notorious to every man on board the and the desire of the Belgians themfrigate at the time as to the fiction, I selves. know not to what extent it has been believed or spread.

THE KING OF THE NETHERLANDS.

The Prince of Orange has buckled on his armour, and has forbidden the English under his command to say that Bonaparte is a great man. By some accident, no one talks of his father, nor seems to recollect that he was one of the last batch of kings.

THE LONDON PAPERS.

No disturbance of any kind has taken place in Paris. The accounts in the English newspapers, which would make it appear that this capital is as on the day of the Barricades, are known by those on the spot to be most ridiculous and malicious forgeries. I see, in those honourable channels of ministerial falsehood and folly, that the partisans of NaHis Majesty the king of the Nether- poleon are insulted in the streets, and lands is a sound not yet familiar to Brus- ladies, the wives of generals, torn from sels, where the garlands are yet green beneath the windows of the palace by that adorned his triumphal entry. The the mob, for wearing imperial purple or town-house and some few houses in the violet-coloured robes-that strong guards park are hung with stripes of orange- surround the Tuileries and patrol the bunting; and by the edge of the canal streets-that the emperor never sleeps leading to the palace of Lâchen is a twice in the same bed-never shews triumphal arch, recording the reception himself without distrust and an ill recepof Gulielmus Primus. These machines, tion, and takes every precaution against and the placard of that article of the assassination. The whole is untrue Vienna Congress by which the Nether- from beginning to end-invented either landers were transferred to the house of in London by Mr. de Blacas and his Nassau, are the only evidences that put worthy stipendiary of the Times, or you in mind of the new monarchy. If transmitted from hearsay and the reports you mention the king, they ask you whe- of the royalists on the coasts of Britther you allude to the old prince, or to tany. The misinformation of the EngLouis XVIII. His Majesty is very kind glish journals may well attract the attenand condescending :-he received a ball tion of the continental world, and it is from the citizens" wives the other day, impossible to read their representations and honoured a puppet-show (I speak of the state of things in France and Parliterally) with his presence. Yesterday is without indignation and contempt, he was at the theatre: it was ill lighted, particularly such of them as are stamped and worse attended; not a person of with the true image of official effrontery: apparent gentility was present, to greet but what can be expected from men who the new sovereign. Some thirty stood take as much pains to be ignorant, and up in the pit when he entered; but, pertinaciously to avert all fact, as others

employ to obtain a fair statement of far-famed unornamented hat, and his them ?

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REVIEW OF THE NATIONAL GUARD.

simple coat and single star and cross. He cantered down the lines; as he passI have seen him twice: the first time, ed near the spot at which I had placed on Sunday the 16th, at the review of the myself for a better view, he suddenly national guards; the second time, at the drew up and spoke to a man in the Francais, on the following Friday, April ranks: an old soldier near me said 21, at his first visit to that theatre since aloud, without addressing himself to any his return. Having witnessed the first one (the tears glistening in his eyes,) appearance of the Bourbon princes last "See how he stops to read the petition year in front of the national guard and at of the meanest of his army." I caught the same theatre, I am able to make repeated glances of him as he glided some comparison between the two re- through the ranks, at the end of each of ceptions, and what is called the popular which he stopped a short time, as well as ity of each dynasty. before several soldiers in the line, who I was in the apartments in the Tuile- held out petitions for his acceptation. ries allotted to Madame la Reine Hor- His progress was announced from right tense, who was present at one of the to left and left to right, by continued acwindows, together with some ladies of clamations. The battalions then movthe court. The beautiful was of ed nearer towards the palace in close the party she manifested the utmost inquietude; told me that she had no alarm from the guards, but was uneasy at the appearance of several people in plain clothes crowding round the steps of the great porch of the palace, where the emperor was to mount his horse : however, she recovered herself, and seemed to forget her fears, when the discharges of cannon at the Invalides announced the surrender of Marseilles, and the pacification of the whole empire.

order; the gates in front of the triumphal arch were thrown open, and the remaining twenty-four battalions, marching from the Place du Carousel in the court, were inspected in the same manner by the emperor. Afterwards a space was made vacant in the midst of the court, half way between the palace and the triumphal arch. Napoleon advanced thither with his staff drawn round behind him. A large body of the officers of the national guard then quitted their ranks By half-past one, twenty-four battal- and rushed towards the emperor, who adions of the guard had marched into the dressed them in a speech. After some court of the Tuileries. There were no thronging and movements, the emperor troops of the line or of the imperial guard wheeled round into an open space, beunder arms on that day, but there were fore the porch of the Tuileries, and put several military men amongst the specta- himself in front of his staff to review the tors about the porch, who consisted whole body of the troops who prepared chiefly of women and of the above-men- to pass by in columns of companies: tioned persons, apparently of the lower two officers of the guard were kind classes. Your friend and my enough to push me forwards within ten self, were, I think, the only gentlemen in paces of him; many of the spectators plain clothes. We waited silently, and were about the same distance from him for some time at the window; the anxi- on his right and his left, whilst a whole ety of the ladies was renewed, but in- line of them stood opposite, just far stantly dissipated by the shouts of Vive enough to allow the columns to march bel'Empereur, which announced that Na- tween them and the emperor.-The poleon was on horseback. He rode off staff were behind; Count Lobau was to the left of the line, but the approaching close upon his left, with his sword shouts told that he was returning. An drawn. Scarcely had a regiment passed, officer rode quickly past the windows, when he suddenly threw his foot out of waving his sword to the lines to fall back the stirrup, and, coming heavily to the a little, and shortly afterwards followed ground, advanced in front of his horse, Napoleon himself, with his suite, and which was led off by an aide-de-camp, distinguished from amidst their waving who rushed forwards, but was too late plumes and glittering uniforms, by the to take hold of his stirrup. The mar

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shals and the staff dismounted, except hair was of a dark dusky brown, scatterCount Lobau. A grenadier of the ed thinly over his temples; the crown guard, without arms, stood at the empe- of his head was bald. One of the names ror's left hand, a little behind; some of affection given him of late by his soldspectators were close to his right. The iers is "notre petit tondu.” He was gendarmerie on horseback took but little not fat in the upper part of his body, but pains to keep them at a respectful dis- projected considerably in the abdomen, tance. The troops were two hours pass- so much so, that his linen appeared being before him; during the whole of neath his waistcoat. He generally stood which time any assassin, unless disarmed with his hands knit behind or folded beby his face of fascination, might have fore him, but sometimes unfolded them; shot or even stabbed him. Sir Neil played with his nose; took snuff three Campbell, who found him so ordinary a or four times, and looked at his watch, being, would hardly forgive me for being He seemed to have a labouring in his thus particular in the description of my chest, sighing or swallowing his spittle. first sight of the man, who, without my He very seldom spoke, but, when he did, taking into consideration whether he be smiled, in some sort, agreeably. He a spirit of health or goblin damned," looked about him, not knitting but joinfixed my eyes and filled my imagination. ing his eye-brows, as if to see more miThe vast palace of kings-the moving nutely, and went through the whole tearray before me the deep mass of flash- dious ceremony with an air of sedate ing arms in the distance the crowd impatience. As the front columns of around-the apparatus of war and em- each regiment passed him, he lifted the pire all disappeared, and, in the first first finger of his left hand quickly to his gaze of admiration, I saw nothing but hat, to return the salute, but did not Napoleon, the single individual, to de- move either his hat or his head. As the stroy whom the earth was rising in arms regiments advanced they shouted, some from the Tanais to the Thames. I loudly, some feebly, "Vive l'Emperknow that I never should have beheld eur!" and many soldiers ran out of him with delight in the days of his des- their ranks with petitions, which were potism, and that the principal charm of taken by the grenadier on the emperor's the spectacle arose from the contempla- left hand once or twice the petitioner, tion of the great peril to be encountered afraid to quit his rank, was near losing by the one undaunted mortal before my his opportunity, when Napoleon beckeyes. Let me say also that the persua- oned to the grenadier to step forward and sion that the right of a powerful and take his paper. A little child, in true great nation to choose their own sover- French taste, tricked out in regimentals, eign was to be tried in his person, and marched before one of the bands, and a the remembrance of the wonderful general laugh ensued. Napoleon conachievement by which he had given an trived to talk to some one behind him at opportunity to decide that choice, con- that moment, that the ridicule might not tributed in no small degree to augment reach, nor be partaken by him. A secmy satisfaction. He has been of late ond child, however, of six years old often seen and described by those who perhaps, dressed out with a beard like visited him at Eiba. I can only say that a pioneer, marching in front of a regihe did not appear to me like any of his ment, strode directly up to him with a portraits, except that one in the saloon of petition on the end of a battle-axe, which the palace of the legislative body, nor the emperor took and read very compladid I ever see any man just like him. cently. Shortly after an ill-looking felHis face was of a deadly pale; his jaws low, in a half suit of regimentals, with a overhung, but not so much as I had sword by his side, ran from the crowd heard; his lips thin, but partially curled, of spectators, opposite or from amidst so as to give to his mouth an inexpressi- the national guards, I could not see ble sweetness. He had the habit of re- which, and rushed directly towards the tracting the lips, and apparently chew- emperor. He was within arm's length, ing, in the manner observed and object- when the grenadier on the left and an ed to in our great actor, Mr. Kean. His officer jumped forwards, and, seizing

him by the collar, pushed him farther roit," and "c'etoit lui,"-Achille, raised back. Napoleon did not move a mus- the whole parterre, and interrupted the cle of his body; not a line, nor a shade actor for some moments. Napoleon of his face, shifted for an instant. Per- was very attentive: whilst I saw him, fectly unstartled, he beckoned the sold- he spoke to none of those who stood beiers to let loose their prisoner; and the hind him, nor returned the compliments poor fellow, approaching so close as al- of the audience: he withdrew suddenly most to touch his person in front, talked at the end of the play, without any noto him for some time with eager gestures, tice or obeisance, so that the multitude and his hand on his heart. The emperhad hardly time to salute him with a or heard him without interruption, and short shout. As I mentioned before, I then gave him an answer, which sent saw the Bourbon princes received, for him away apparently much satisfied with the first time, in the same place last year. his audience. I see Napoleon at this Their greeting will bear no comparison moment. The unruffled calmness of with that of Napoleon, nor will any of his countenance, at the first movement those accorded to the heroes of the very of the soldier, relaxing softly into a look many ceremonies I have witnessed in the of attention and of kindness, will never course of my life. be erased from my memory. not stocks, nor stones, nor Tories. I The treason of Marshal Ney was not am not ashamed to say, that, on recover- in consequence of any preconcerted ing from my first surprise, I found my scheme. The marshal, when he left eyes somewhat moistened; a weakness Louis, had not any intention of betraying that never fails to overpower some per- him; nor did he adopt the line of consons, when alone and unrestrained by duct so justly condemned, until he found ridicule, at the perusal of any trait of the troops at Lons le Saulnier had deterunmixed heroism, especially of that un- mined upon joining the Emperor: when daunted tranquillity of mind which they were ordered by him on the parade formed and finished the master-spirits to march against Napoleon, they replied of antiquity.

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NAPOLEON'S VISIT TO THE THEATRE.

NEY.

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by shouts of laughter and cries of vive T'Empereur. Nevertheless, the marshal had actually made every disposition for a movement against his ancient master.*

LABEDOYERE.

CAMPAIGN OF 1814.

As to Napoleon's reception at the Français, it is impossible to give any idea of the joy by which he was hailed. The house was choaked with spectators, who Colonel Henry Labedoyere went over crowded into the orchestra. The play with his regiment to Napoleon from the was Hector. Previously to the rising of impulse of the moment, and, as I know the curtain, the airs of La Victoire and from the officer of Napoleon's suite who the Marseillaise were called for and per- received the first intelligence of his comformed amidst thunders of applause, the ing, without the least previous intimation spectators joined in the burthen of the being conveyed to the Emperor. song. An actor of the Feydeau rose in the balcony, and sung some occasional The conduct of the imperial troops in words to the Marseillaise, which were the campaign of 1814 was such as to exreceived in raptures, and accompanied cite the admiration of the allies. Never by the whole house at the end of each were the valour, discipline, and skill of The enthusiasm was at its ut- very inferior numbers more brilliantly most pitch. Napoleon entered at the displayed than in the battles of Champthird scene. The whole mass rose with Aubert, Montmirail, Vauchamp, Mora shout which still thunders in my ears. mans, Montereau, Craone, Rheims, The vives continued till the Emperor, Arcy sur Aube, and St. Dizier; and, in after bowing to the right and left, had despite of the fatal termination of the seated himself, and the play was recom- war, the citizens and peasantry, who menced. The audience received every speech which had the least reference to their returned hero, with unnumbered plaudits. The words "enfin il repa

verse.

*I learnt this afterwards on the spot from an Englishman, settled as a commissary at Dole, This, who received the marshal's orders. written long before his trial, has been proved by the details of the

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