(No, sire, but it's not very exciting!)

You are wrong. You should take things as they come. It won't last forever!

2d. (To Drouot.) Order the Abeille to take in supplies for a week this evening. Eight sailors of the Guard are to go on board, so as to cruise to-morrow off Cape St. André and observe the movements of the French ships that appear to be cruising around the island. The captain in command of the Abeille will have an additional 100 francs a month until he can be given a larger ship. Get him a good glass if he hasn't one.

3d. (Note.) On Sunday there will be a ball in the large reception room. The invitations must cover the whole island, though they must not include more than 200 persons. There must be refreshments, but no ices because of the difficulty of getting them. The whole must not cost more than 1000 francs.

On Sunday the 15th the Academy might inaugurate its theatre and give a masked ball. On the 22d I may give another ball. On the 29th there might be a second masked ball at the theatre.

February 16th. (To General Drouot.) Order the brig into port to be careened and have its copper bottom overhauled, and its leaks stopped, and generally put into seaworthy condition. Have it painted like the English brigs. I want it in the bay and ready, as I have said, by the 24th or 25th of this month.

Order M. Pons to charter two large-sized vessels for a month, brigs or xebecs of more than 90 tons.

18th. Drouot, all France regrets me and wants me. In a few days I shall leave the island.

24th. Ali! France! France!

26th. I am leaving the island of Elba.

Twenty-four hours before weighing anchor only Bertrand and Drouot knew the secret.

28th, at sea:
I shall reach Paris without firing a shot.

March 1st, Golfe Jouan:
(To the army.) Soldiers! we were not defeated!

Soldiers! In my exile I have heard your voice. I have come to you through every obstacle, every danger. Your general, called to the throne by the voice of the people, and raised on your bucklers, is back among you; come to him! Pluck off the colours that the nation has proscribed, and that, for twenty-five years, were the rallying point of all the enemies of France. Put on the tricolour cockade; you wore it in our great days. Here are the eagles you had at Ulm, at Austerlitz, at Jena, at Eylau, at Friedland, at Tudela, at Eckmühl, at Essling, at Wagram, at Smolensk, at the Moskowa, at Lützen, at Wurschen, at Montmirail! Do you believe that the little handful of Frenchmen who are so arrogant to-day can support their sight? 'They will return whence they came; there let them reign as they pretend that they did reign these last nineteen years.

Soldiers, rally around the standard of your chief! Victory will advance at the double! The Eagle, with the national colours, will fly from steeple to steeple to the towers of Notre Dame. Then will you be able to display your honourable scars. Then will you be able to claim the credit of your deeds, as the liberators of your country. In your old age, surrounded and honoured by your fellow-citizens, all will respectfully listen while you narrate your great deeds; you will be able to say with pride: "And I also was one of that Grand Army that twice entered the walls of Vienna, of Rome, of Berlin, of Madrid, of Moscow, and that cleansed Paris from the stain left on it by treason and the presence of the enemy!"

6th, Gap:
Citizens, I am deeply touched by your demonstrations. Your hopes will be fulfilled; the nation's cause will triumph once more. You are right to call me your Father; I live only for the honour and for the happiness of France. My return dispels all your anxieties, guarantees your property. To-day equality among all classes, and the rights you enjoyed for twenty-five years and that our fathers so longed for, become once more a part of your existence.

9th, Grenoble:
Citizens, when in my exile I learned all the misfortunes that weighed on the nation, that the rights of the people were trampled on, and that I was reproached for my inactivity, I lost not a moment, I embarked on a frail vessel, I crossed the sea amid the warships of various nations, I landed on the soil of the fatherland, and I thought of nothing but of flashing with the rapidity of the eagle to this good city of Grenoble, of which I knew the strong patriotism and devotion to me.

Men of Dauphiné, you have fulfilled all my hopes!

11th, Lyons:
The old soldiers came at the head of the inhabitants of their villages and assured them that I really was Bonaparte. Peasants pulled from their pockets 5 franc pieces with my effigy, and said: "Yes, that's the man!"

(To Maria Louisa, Empress of the French, at Schoenbrunn.) Madame et chère amie, I have reascended my throne.

12th. (To Marshal Ney.) My Cousin: My chief of staff is sending you marching orders. I feel sure that on hearing I was in possession of Lyons you made your soldiers go back to the tricolour flag. Carry out Bertrand's orders and join me at Châlons. I shall receive you as I did the day after the battle of the Moskowa.

21st, Paris:
(To Fouché.) According to first information the King is in the neighbourhood of the Somme. Try to get news about this matter.

(To Marshal Davout.) Order the Count de Lobau to assume command of the 1st military division and of all the troops there. If there are bad colonels with the Paris troops, put proposals before me for replacing them.

Communicate by semaphore in the course of the morning my arrival in Paris, and your appointment as Minister of War.

26th. Princes are the first citizens of a State. Their power is more or less extensive as the nations they govern decide. Sovereignty is hereditary only because that is the interest of the people. Apart from this doctrine I do not recognise legitimity.

I have given up the idea of the Grand Empire, of which, in fifteen years, I had only laid the foundations. Henceforth the happiness and consolidation of the French Empire will be the object of all my thoughts.

I thank my good city of Paris for its sentiments. It gave me special pleasure to enter its walls on the anniversary of a day, four years ago, on which the people of this capital gave me such touching evidence of its interest in the affections nearest my heart. To be here I had to come on in advance of my army, and to trust myself unattended to that national guard which I myself created, and that has so fully attained the object of its creation. I am ambitious of retaining its command for myself.

27th. (To Davout.) Establish workshops in Paris for mounting 400 muskets a day, with spare parts. It will give the city employment.

29th. From the date of the present decree the slave trade is abolished.

30th. (To General Rapp.) At the time when you came back from Egypt, at the time that Desaix was killed, you were only a soldier; I have made a man of you. I shall never forget your conduct on the retreat from Moscow. Ney and you are among the few whose souls are as tempered steel. And at your siege of Dantzig you did more than the impossible.

April 1st. The work of fifteen years is undone, it cannot be begun afresh. It would take twenty years and the sacrifice of twenty millions of men. In any case, I need peace and can obtain it only by victories; I will not raise false hopes in you; I allow it to be said that there are negotiations, but there are none. I foresee a difficult struggle, a long war. To maintain it the nation must support me; but in return it will demand liberty, - it shall have it. The situation is a new one. I ask for nothing better than advice, - a man is not at forty-five what he was at thirty. The repose of a constitutional monarch may suit me. It would suit my son even better.

(To Francis I, Emperor of Austria.) At a moment when Providence has placed me once more in the capital of my State, my keenest wish is soon to see my wife and my son. My efforts will tend exclusively to consolidate the throne that the love of my people has restored to me, and some day to transmit it, settled on unshakeable foundations, to the child whom Your Majesty has guarded with paternal affection. As the maintenance of peace is essential to my object I have nothing more at heart than to maintain it with all the Powers, but I attach special importance to maintaining it with Your Majesty.

11th. We must assume that the enemy will declare war about the 1st to the 15th of May.

18th. A great number of Frenchmen have followed the Count de Lille: for instance, Marshal Victor, Generals Bordesoulle and Maison. A hint was thrown out to them that they might return; they answered that it would be at the head of 500,000 men.

(To Marshal Masséna.) I have read your proclamation with pleasure. I am very anxious to see you. If the state of your health unfits you for anything save to return to the south, I will send you back there from Paris.

22d. I propose presenting eagles to all the regiments at the Assembly of May, which will take place about the 25th of that month.

(Constitutional Act.) Napoleon by the grace of God and the Constitution Emperor of the French, to all present and to come greeting.

Since we were called, fifteen years ago, by the will of France to the government of the State, we have, at various times, attempted to improve its constitutional forms according to the necessities and desires of the nation, and by taking advantage of the lessons of experience. Our object then was to organize a great European federal system that we had adopted as conforming with the spirit of the age and as favouring the advance of civilization. From now on our object will be only to increase the prosperity of France so as to strengthen civil liberty. From this it follows that several modifications must be made in the constitutions and other laws that govern this Empire.

27th. (To Marshal Ney.) Order magazines to be formed at Avesnes for 100,000 men and for 20,000 horses for 10 days.

(To General Bertrand.) Send one of my campaigning outfits off to Compiègne.

May 9th. (To Count Mollien.) It is of the utmost importance that the funds due to the regiments for clothing expenses should be paid in within a week. I have 100,000 men that are useless because I have no money to clothe and equip them. The fate of France lies there; set to work night and day, and take measures so that we can raise this money immediately.

15th. (To Prince Lebrun.) I have received your letter; I shall not hide from you that I no longer viewed you as Arch Treasurer, because you had accepted a lower station in the Chamber of Peers from the Royal Government. But I recognised so much affection and heart in yesterday's address, and in the manner in which you delivered it, that I can refuse you nothing, and that I am very glad to forget anything that was not right which you did during my absence. I shall have the patent of Arch Treasurer sent to you; you are entitled to what you have reconquered.

17th. (To Drouot.) I have already told you that the officers of the Young Guard must advertise and get to work recruiting in Paris. Send officers to the various town halls, have a band and drummers, and do everything to stimulate the young men.

27th. The Guard will probably start soon; there will then be no troops left in Paris.

28th. (Note for the Duke of Vicenza.) It is probable that the Chamber will vote a resolution about the King of Rome to voice the indignation that Austria's conduct should provoke. This would have a good effect.

Méneval is to make a report dated the day after his arrival. He will set forth the conduct of Austria and the other Powers to the Empress from Orléans up to the time of his leaving Vienna: the violation of the treaty of Fontainebleau by, so to speak, snatching her and her son from the Emperor; in this connection he will emphasize the indignation which his grandmother the Queen of Sicily showed at Vienna. He will dwell particularly on the separation of the Prince Imperial from his mother, from Mme. de Montesquiou, on his tears as he left her, on the apprehensions of Mme. de Montesquiou for the safety, for the life of the young Prince. He will keep within bounds on this last point. He will mention the distress of the Empress at being separated from the Emperor. She was thirty days without sleep at the time of the Emperor's embarkation. He will insist on the fact that in reality the Empress is a prisoner, since she is not allowed to write to the Emperor.

June 1st. Gentlemen, Electors, Deputies of the army and navy to the Champ de Mai:

Emperor, Consul, soldier, I hold all from the people. In prosperity, in adversity, on the battlefield, in council, on the throne, in exile, France has been the one and only object of my thoughts and of my deeds.

Frenchmen, you are returning to your departments. Tell the citizens that we are at a great moment, that with union, energy, and perseverance we shall emerge victorious from this struggle of a great people against its oppressors. Tell them that the foreign kings whom I have placed on their thrones, or who owe me the preservation of their crowns, who, in the days of my prosperity, all begged my alliance and the protection of the French people, are to-day aiming their blows at me.

Frenchmen, my will and my duties are those of the French people; my honour, my glory, my happiness, can be none other than the honour, the glory, and the happiness of France.

3d. Prince Jerome is to serve with the rank of lieutenant-general. He must join the army at once.

(To Marshal Davout.) Herewith you will find a copy of my orders for the cavalry of the army. Marshal Grouchy will command it. All unemployed generals are at his disposal. Order Marshal Grouchy to be at Laon on the 5th so that we may open the campaign on the 10th.

(To Marshal Soult.) Draw up a plan for the movement of the corps of General Gérard from the Moselle to Phillippeville, masking it as much as possible from the enemy. We should be there on the 12th, by making long days' marches.

My Guard will all be at Soissons on the 21st.

7th. (To Soult.) Give positive orders for stopping an communications along the whole of the northern Rhine and Moselle frontiers; not a stage or carriage must pass.

I think you had better start to-morrow night. You will go straight to Lille, incognito so far as possible, and make all arrangements. You must get the latest information as to the enemy's positions.
 

My travelling carriage must be made ready, without any one's knowing it, so that I can start two hours after issuing my orders.

11th. I leave to-night to place myself at the head of my army.

(To Marshal Davout.) Send for Marshal Ney; if he wants to be in the first fighting, tell him to get to Avesnes, where my headquarters will be on the 14^th.

12th, Laon:
Neither at Laon nor at Soissons have I found any of the stores that were promised me for the army.

Avesnes:
The infantry of the Imperial Guard will bivouac a quarter of a league in front of Beaumont and will be ranged in three lines. Each army corps will march with its sappers leading, and the bridging material collected by the generals. The corps must be well closed up and in good order. Moving on Charleroi every opportunity must be seized for getting forward and crushing any hostile bodies that may be manœuvring or attempting to attack the army.

14th. To-night I shall move headquarters to Beaumont. To-morrow, the 15th, I move on Charleroi, where the Prussian army is, which will result in a battle or the enemy's retreat. The army is splendid, and the weather pretty good; the country seems well disposed.

(To the army.) Soldiers! This is the anniversary of Marengo and of Friedland, that twice decided the fate of Europe. Then, as after Wagram, as after Austerlitz, we were too generous; we believed in the protestations and in the oaths of the princes whom we left on their thrones! And now, coalized against us, they are aiming at the independence and the most sacred rights of France. They have begun an unjust aggression. Forward! Let us march against them; are not they and we the same men?

Soldiers! You were one against three at Jena against these same arrogant Prussians; at Montmirail, you were one against six. Madmen! A moment's prosperity has blinded them. If they enter France they will find their graves. Soldiers, we have forced marches to make, battles to fight, dangers to encounter, but with constancy the victory will be ours; the rights, the honour, of our country will be reconquered. For every Frenchman who has courage the moment has come to conquer or to die.

15th, Charleroi, 11 A. M.:
Good-morning, Ney, I am glad to see you. You can assume command of the 1st and 2d corps. Push the enemy back along the Brussels road and take position at Quatre Bras.
 

Evening:
The army has forced the passage of the Sambre near Charleroi and is throwing out pickets midway between Charleroi and Namur, and Charleroi and Brussels. We have captured 1500 prisoners and six guns. Four Prussian regiments have been routed. The Emperor, who has been in the saddle since 3 A. M., has come in very fatigued. He has thrown himself on a got to rest a few hours, and will be in the saddle again at midnight. We may have serious fighting to-morrow.

General Gérard reports that Lieutenant-General Bourmont, Colonel Clouet, and Captain Villoutreys have deserted to the enemy.

16th. (To Ney.) I am sending you my aide-de-camp, General Flahault, with this letter. The chief of staff should have sent you orders, but you will get mine more quickly because my officers ride faster than his.

I am moving the Guard to Fleurus, and shall be there myself before noon. I shall attack the enemy if they are there, and reconnoitre to Gembloux. There, according to events, I will come to a decision, perhaps at three this afternoon, perhaps at night.

(To Marshal Count Grouchy.) I shall reach Fleurus between ten and eleven; if the enemy hold Sombreffe I shall attack them, and even at Gembloux and take that position, as I intend to start to-night and operate with my left wing, commanded by Marshal Ney, against the English. All my information points to the Prussians not being able to oppose us with more than 40,000 men.

3 P. M.:
It may be that in three hours the result of the campaign will be decided. If Ney carries out his orders well, not a gun of their armies will escape me.

The right wing made up of the 3d and 4th infantry and 3d cavalry corps, commanded by Marshal Grouchy, was in position along the hills at the back of Fleurus. At three o'clock General Lefol's division of General Vandamme's corps got into action and carried Saint Amand, from which it drove the enemy at the point of the bayonet. On the extreme right Marshal Grouchy and General Pajol fought at the village of Sombreffe. The enemy had 80,000 or 90,000 men in line, with many guns.

At seven o'clock we had carried all the villages; the enemy still occupied the plateau of Bussy in force. The Emperor moved forward with the Guard to the village of Ligny. Eight battalions of the Guard advanced with the bayonet, with four squadrons of the body-guard, General Delort's and General Milhaud's cuirassiers and the horse grenadiers of the Guard in support. The Old Guard advanced with the bayonet against the enemy's columns on the heights of Bussy, and in an instant covered the field of battle with dead. At ten o'clock the battle was over and we were in possession of the field.

17th, near Ligny, 11 A. M.:
(To Grouchy.) While I start after the English, you must pursue the Prussians.

On the road from Quatre Bras to Genappe, 4 P. M.:
Fire! fire! they are the English!

6 P. M., Farm of the Belle Alliance:
The Emperor orders that the army be ready to attack at nine in the morning.

18th, Battlefield of Waterloo:

8.30 A. M.:
There are ninety chances in our favour.

I tell you Wellington is a had general, the English are bad soldiers; we will settle the matter by lunch time.

(Soult: I sincerely hope so!)

(Order.) As soon as the army is in position, about one o'clock, when the Emperor gives the order to Marshal Ney, the attack will commence for capturing the village of Mont Saint Jean, where the crossroads are. Count d'Erlon will open the attack.

At three in the afternoon the Emperor ordered the Guard forward to the plateau which the 1st corps had occupied at the beginning of the battle. The Prussian division, the advance of which was anticipated, opened fire on the skirmishers of Count de Lobau along all our right flank.
 

This morning we had ninety chances in our favour; we still have sixty. And if Grouchy moves quickly, Bülow's corps will be completely destroyed.

The Emperor intended to push home an attack on Mont Saint Jean which should have been decisive, but by one of those impatient movements so frequent in our military history and that have so often been fatal to us, the reserve cavalry, seeing the backward movement made by the English to avoid our artillery fire from which they had already suffered heavily, advanced to the plateau of Mont Saint Jean and charged the enemy. This movement, which, made at the right moment and supported by the reserves, would have decided the battle, made without supports and before matters were settled on the right became fatal. All our cavalry became engaged in mutual support. There, for three hours, many charges were delivered in which we broke several squares of British infantry and captured six flags, which, however, did not compensate the losses suffered by our cavalry from grape and musketry. We could not engage our reserves until we had disposed of the flank attack of the Prussian corps.
 

Troops! Where do you expect me to find them? Do you want me to make them?
 

This attack continued and developed perpendicularly to our right flank. The Emperor sent General Duhesme with the Young Guard and several reserve batteries. The enemy were checked and driven back; they were spent and no longer to be feared. That was the moment for attacking the enemy's centre. At half-past eight the four battalions of the Middle Guard that had been sent up to the plateau beyond Mont Saint Jean to support the cuirassiers and that were being annoyed by the enemy's grape, advanced with the bayonet to carry their batteries. The light was failing; a charge made in their flank by several English squadrons threw them into disorder; the fugitives recrossed the valley. Several regiments near by, seeing part of the Guard in flight, thought it was the Old Guard, and were shaken; shouts of: All is lost! The Guard is beaten! were raised. The soldiers even declare that at some points ill-disposed men shouted: Every man for himself! However that may be, a panic spread over the whole battlefield; a disorderly rush was made towards our line of retreat; soldiers, gunners, wagons all crowded in to reach it.
 

We must die here, we must die on the battlefield!
 

The Old Guard, which was in reserve, was struck and carried away.

June 19th, Philippeville:
Deep within me was the instinct that the result would be fatal!

(To King Joseph.) All is not lost. I estimate that collecting all my forces I shall have 150,000 men left. The national guards and a few plucky marching battalions will give me 100,000 men; the depot battalions 50,000. I therefore have 300,000 men to face the enemy with at once. I can drag my artillery with carriage horses; I can raise 100,000 conscripts; I can arm them with the muskets of royalists and ill-disposed national guards; I will raise a levy en masse in the Lyonnais, Dauphiné, Burgundy, Lorraine, Champagne; I will crush the enemy; but everybody must help me, and not deafen me. I am starting for Laon: I shall doubtless find troops there. I have not heard from Grouchy; unless he is captured, as I fear he is, I shall have 50,000 men in three days. Write and tell me what effect this horrible scrimmage has had on the Chamber. I think the deputies will realize that their duty, in this great crisis, is to join me in saving France. See that they support me as they should; above all courage and firmness.

21st, Paris:
I had had no food for three days! I was extremely tired. As soon as I arrived I jumped into my bath, and had something to eat.

(Lavalette: He came to me with a frightful, epileptic laugh!)

Ah! my God!

The army did wonders; it was seized with a panic. Ney behaved like a madman. I am exhausted. I must have two hours' rest. I am bursting, here!
 

Well, all is not lost. I shall inform the Chamber of what has occurred. I hope that this step will rally them around me. After that I shall go off again.

(Message to the Chamber of Representatives.) Mr. President: After the battles of Ligny and of Mont Saint Jean, and after having arranged for rallying the army at Avesnes and Philippeville, for the defence of the frontier fortresses, and of the cities of Laon and Soissons, I have come to Paris to concert measures for the national defence with my ministers, and to come to an understanding with the Chamber concerning all that the safety of the country demands.

I have appointed as a Committee the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Count Carnot, and the Duke of Otranto to renew and continue the negotiations with the Powers, so as to discover their real intentions and to put an end to the war, providing that is compatible with the independence and honour of the Nation.
 

My political existence is at an end.

22d, morning:
If they mean to use force with me, I shall not abdicate. I must be left to come to my decision in peace. Tell them to wait.

4 P. M.:
Lucien, write: When I began the war to maintain the national independence, I counted on the unanimous support of every individual, of every official. I had good reason to anticipate success. Circumstances appeared to be changed. I offer myself as a sacrifice to the hatred of the enemies of France. I only hope that their declaration may prove sincere, and that their hostility is solely to my person. Let all unite for the public safety and to remain an independent nation. I proclaim my son, under the style of Napoleon II, Emperor of the French.
 

They have forced me to it!

(Vive l'Empereur! Vive l'Empereur!)

They have done so much for me! Will the people ever know how much this night of indecision and of agony has cost me? I had to give in, and once done, it is done; I am not for half measures.

I could not be, I would not be, a king of the mob!

23d. Ah, wretched man! What have you written there? Strike it out, sir, strike it out quickly! A battle of the spurs! What a mistake! What a calumny! A battle of the spurs! Ah! poor army! brave soldiers! You never fought better!

24th. They are debating, the hounds, with the enemy at our gates!

(To Hortense.) Malmaison is yours. Will you grant me hospitality there?

25th. (To Barbier.) The Grand Marshal requests M. Barbier to bring to Malmaison to-morrow:
some books on America;
a schedule of all that has been printed about the Emperor during his various campaigns.

The great library must be invoiced to an American firm that can ship it to America by way of Havre.

Malmaison:
(To the army.) Soldiers! Although absent, I shall follow your footsteps. Every regiment is known to me, and I shall render justice to its courage when it gains a success over the enemy. We have been calumniated, you and I. Those who are incapable of judging you have seen in the proofs of devotion you have given me a zeal of which I was the sole object; let your future successes show that it was above all our country you served in obeying me, and that if I own a share of your affections I owe it to my ardent love for France, our common Mother. Save the honour, the independence, of the French, remain till the end such as I have known you during twenty years, and you will be invincible.
 

Poor Josephine! I cannot get used to being here without her. It seems as though I may see her coming out of an alley at any moment, picking some of these flowers that she loved so much!

I want to leave France now. Let them give me the two frigates I asked for, and I shall start at once for Rochefort.

29th. They are still afraid of me! I wanted to make one last effort to save France. They would not let me!

5 P. M. Departure for Rochefort.

July 14th, Island of Aix:
(To the Prince Regent of England.) Your Royal Highness: Exposed to the factions that divide my country and to the enmity of the powers of Europe, I have closed my political career, and I come, like Themistocles, to claim hospitality at the hearth of the British people. I place myself under the protection of their laws, which I demand from Your Royal Highness, as from the most powerful, the most constant, and the most generous of my foes.

15th, on the bridge of the Epervier, 6 A. M.:
General Beker, return to the island of Aix. It must not be said that France handed me over to the English.

Departure for H. M. S. Bellerophon.
(To Captain Maitland.) I come on board your ship to place myself under the protection of the laws of England.

August 4th, on board H. M. S. Bellerophon:
I solemnly protest here, in the face of heaven and of men, against the violation of my most sacred rights, in disposing of my person and of my liberty by force. I came on board the Bellerophon freely; I am not the prisoner, I am the guest of England. From the instant I boarded the Bellerophon I was at the hearth of the British people. I appeal to History! It will place on record that an enemy who during twenty years waged war against the British people came freely in his misfortune to seek a refuge under their laws; and what, more striking proof could he display of his esteem and of his trust? And how did England reply to such magnanimity? She pretended to hold out the hand of hospitality to her enemy, and when he had placed himself in her power, she slew him!
 

Whatever shall we do in that remote spot? Well, we will write our Memoirs. Yes, we shall have to work; and work is the scythe of time. After all, a man must accomplish his destiny; that is my great doctrine. Well, let mine be fulfilled!

7th, on board H. M. S. Northumberland; departure for St. Helena.
Here I am, Admiral, at your orders!
 

They can call me what they like (General Bonaparte), they cannot prevent me from being myself.

13th, at sea:
What time is it? - Let's play vingt et un.

September 4th. Vendémiaire, even Montenotte, did not convince me that I was a really great man; it was only after Lodi that the idea took possession of me that I might easily become a decisive actor on our political stage. Then flashed the first spark of high ambition.

6th. I returned from the campaign of Italy not worth more than 300,000 francs of my own; I might easily have brought back ten or twelve millions, and I should have earned them; I never handed in any accounts, nor was I ever asked for any. I expected, on my return, some great national reward; but the Directoire put the matter on one side. My proclivity was for creating and not for possessing. My property lay in glory and fame: the Simplon for the people; the Louvre for the foreigners, were to me more of a property than the private domains. I bought diamonds for the Crown; I repaired the royal palaces; I crammed them full of furniture; and I found myself on occasion thinking that the money spent by Josephine on her hothouses or gallery was a positive injury for my Botanical Gardens or my Paris Museum.

14th. I did not usurp the crown; it was in the gutter and I picked it out; the people placed it on my head: their act must be respected.

18th. What latitude are we in? What longitude? What is the run since yesterday?

28th. In revolutions a man can be sure of nothing except what he is doing; it would not be reasonable to affirm that things might not have turned out differently.

October 8th. The men of 1815 were not the men of 1792. The generals were afraid of everything. I needed some one to lead the Guard: had Bessières or Lannes been there I should not have been defeated. Soult didn't have a good staff.

17th. Landing at St. Helena.

(If you surfed directly to this page, please go to the Napoleonic Literature Home Page to see the wealth of information that's available on this website.)