balzac - folk tales of napoleon

7/28/2019 Balzac - Folk Tales of Napoleon

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FOLK-TALES OPNAPOLEON


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fohâleief of âpocon

ÂPOLEO^DERPROM THE RUSSIAN

THE ÂPOLEON OFTHE PEOPLEFROM THE FRENCH OF HONOR DE BALZACTRANSLATED WITH INTRODUCTION BY

GEOKGE KENNAN

NEW YORKTHE OUTLOOK COMPANY1902


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THP LIBRARY OFCONGRESS,'T'vr, Copies ReceivedJIJN. '25 1902ACOPVRIQHT ENTRYAaSS^ XXa No,it U JCOPY B.Copyright, 1902, by

The Outlook Company

THE DEVINNE PRESS

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CONTE^TSPAGENapoleonder 1

The Napoleon of the People ... 45


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l^TRODUCTIOKMost of the literature that has itsorigin in the hfe and career of agreat man may be grouped and class-ified under two heads : history andbiography. The part that relatesto the man's actions, and to the in-fluence that such actions have had inshaping the destinies of peoples andstates, belongs in the one class ; whilethe part that derives its interest mainlyfrom the man's personality, and dealschiefly with the mental and moralcharacteristics of which his actionswere the outcome, goes properly intothe other. The value of the literatureincluded in these two classes depends

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II^TRODUCTIOlSralmost wholly upon truth; that is,,upon the precise correspondence ofthe statements made with the real factsof the man's hfe and career. Historyis worse than useless if it does notaccurately chronicle and describeevents ; and biography is valuelessand misleading if it does not truly setforth individual character.

There is, however, a kind of great-man Hterature in which truth is com-paratively unimportant, and that isthe literature of popular legend andtradition. Whether it purports to behistorical or biographical, or both, itderives its interest and value from thelight that it throws upon the tempera-ment and character of the people whooriginate it, rather than from theamount of truth contained in the

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INTRODUCTION^statements that it makes about theman.The folk-tales of Iâpoleon Bona-

parte herewith presented, if judgedfrom the viewpoint of the historianor the biographer, are absurdly andgrotesquely untrue ; but to the an-thropologist and the student of humannature they are extremely valuable asself-revelations of national character ;and even to the historian and the bi-ographer they have some interest asevidences of the profoundly deep im-pression made by Iâpoleon's person-ality upon two great peoples theRussians and the French.The first story, which is entitled" âpoleonder," is of Russian origin,

and was put into literary form, oredited, by Alexander Amphiteatrof of

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IJNTTKODUCTIO^St. Petersburg. It originally ap-peared as a feuilleton in the St.Petersburg " Gazette " of December13, 1901. As a characteristic speci-men of Kussian peasant folk-lore, itseems to me to have more than ordi-nary interest and value. The treat-ment of the supernatural may seem,to Occidental readers, rather daringand irreverent, but it is perfectly inharmony with the Russian peasant'santhropomorphic conception of Deity,and should be taken with due allow-ance for the educational limitations ofthe story-teller and his auditors. TheRussian muzhik often brings God andthe angels into his folk-tales, anddoes so without the least idea of treat-ing them disrespectfully. He makesthem talk in his own language be-


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IKTKODUCTIOI^cause he has no other language ; andif the talk seems a little grotesqueand irreverent, it is due to the lowlevel of the narrator's Hterary culture,and not to any intention, on his part,of treating God and the angels withlevity. The whole aini of the story isa moral and religious one. The nar-rator is trying to show that sympathyand mercy are better than selfishambition, and that war is not onlyimmoral but irrational. The conver-sation between God, the angels, andthe Devil is a mere prologue, in-tended to bring Kapoleon and Ivan-angel on the stage and lay the founda-tion of the plot. The story-teller'skeen sense of fun and humor is shownin many little touches, but he nevermeans to be irreverent. The whole


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introductio:n^legend is set forth in the racy, idio-matic, highly elliptical language ofthe common Russian muzhik, and istherefore extremely difficult of trans-lation ; but I have tried to preserve,as far as possible, the spirit and flavorof the original.The French story was first reduced

to writing or at least put into liter-ary form by Honor de Balzac, andappeared under the title of " The Ka-poleon of the People " in the thirdchapter of Balzac's " Country Doc-tor." It purports to be the story ofISTapoleon's life and career as relatedto a group of French peasants by oneof his old soldiers a man namedGoguelat. It covers more time chron-ologically than the Russian storydoes, and deals much more fully and

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IIS^TRODUCTIONcircumstantially with historical inci-dents and events : but it seems to meto be distinctly inferior to the Russiantale in power of creative imagination,unity of conception, skill of artistictreatment, and depth of human inter-est. The French peasant regards]!^apoleon merely as a great leaderand conqueror, "created to be thefather of soldiers," and aided, if notdirectly sent, by God, to show forththe power and the glory of France.The Russian peasant, more thought-ful by nature as well as less excitableand combative in temperament, admitsthat Kapoleon was sent on earth byGod, but connects him with one ofthe deep problems of life by using himto show the divine nature of sympa-thy and pity, and the cruelty, im-

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IJN^TRODUCTIOKmorality, and unreasonableness of ag-gressive war. The only feature thatthe two tales have in common isthe recognition of the supernaturalas a controlling factor in ^apoleon'slife. The French peasant believesthat he had a guiding star ; that hewas advised and directed by a famil-iar spirit in the shape of a " RedMan" ; and that he was saved fromdangers and death by virtue of a se-cret compact with the Supreme Being.The Russian peasant asserts that hewas created by the Devil, and thatGod, after having given him a soulby accident, first used him as a meansof punishing the Russian people fortheir sins, and then made him reallya man by inspiring him with thehuman feelings of sjnnpathy and

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IIS^TRODUCTIOKcompassion. In the French storyISTapoleon appears as a great mihtaryleader, whose hfe and career reflecthonor and glory upon France. In theRussian story he is merely the leadingactor in a sort of moral drama, or his-torical mystery-play, intended toshow the divine nature of sympathyand compassion, the immorality ofwar, and the essential solidarity andbrotherhood of all mankind.

George Kentn^at.

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NAPOLEOISTDER


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KAPOLEOJS^DEE 'IOl^G ago but not so very long

ago; our grandfathers rememberit the Lord God wanted to punishthe people of the world for theirwickedness. So he began to thinkhow and by what means he could pun-ish them, and he called a council of hisangels and archangels to talk aboutit. Says the archangel Michael tothe Lord God: "Shake them up, therecreants, with an earthquake."

1 The Russian peasant's name for NapoleonBonaparte. The final syllable "der" has per-haps been added because to the ear of the peas-ant "Napoleon" sounds clipped and incomplete,as "Alexan" would sound to us without the"der."

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^APOLEOl^DERthe second place, the rascally sinnershave become cunning; they '11 geton steamboats and sail all over theflood."Then all the archangels were per-

plexed, and began to screw about intheir seats, trying to invent or thinkof some calamity that would bring thewicked human race to its senses andstir up its conscience. But they hadbeen accustomed, time out of mind, todo good rather than evil; they hadforgotten all about the wickedness ofthe world; and they could n't think ofa single thing that would be of anyuse.Then suddenly up comes Ivan-

angel, a simple-minded soul whom theLord God had appointed to look afterthe Russian muzhiks. He comes up

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NAPOLEOKDERand reports: "Lord, Satan is outsidethere, asking for you. He does- n'tdare to come in, because he smellsbad;^ so he 's waiting in the entry."Then the Lord God was rejoiced.

"Call Satan in!" he ordered. "Iknow that rogue perfectly well, andhe has come in the very nick of time.A scamp hke that will be sure to thinkof something."

Satan came in. His face was asblack as tanned calfskin, his voice washoarse, and a long tail hung downfrom under his overcoat.

" If you so order," he says, " I '11distribute your calamities for you withmy own hands."" Go ahead with your distribution,"

1 That is, he brings with him the sulphurousodor of hell.6


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IS^APOLEOKDERsays the Lord God; "nobody shallhinder you."

" Will you permit me," Satan says,"to bring about an invasion of for-eigners?"The Lord God shook his finger atSatan and cried : " Is that all you can

think of? And you so wise!""Excuse me," Satan says, "Why

does n't my plan show wisdom?""Because," replies the Lord God,

" you propose to afflict the people withwar, and war is just what they want.They 're all the time fighting amongthemselves, one people with another,and that 's the very thing I want topunish them for."" Yes," says Satan, " they 're greedyfor war, but that 's only because theyhave never yet seen a real warrior.

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I^APOLEOI^DERSend them a regular conqueror, andthey '11 soon drop their tails betweentheir legs and cry, ' Have mercy,Lord!Save us from the man of blood ! '"The Lord God was surprised.

"Why do you say, my little brother,that the people have never seen a realwarrior? The Tsar Herod was a con-queror; the Tsar Alexander subdueda wonderful lot of people ; Ivan-Tsardestroyed Kazan; Mamai-Tsar thefurious came with all his hordes;and the Tsar Peter, and the greatfighter Anikahow many more con-querors do you want?"

" I want Kapoleonder," says Satan." Napoleonder ! " cries the LordGod. "Who 's he? Where did he

come from?"" He 's a certain little man," Satan


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JS^APOLEOITOERsays, "who may not be wise enoughto hurt, but he 's terribly fierce in hishabits."The Lord God says to the arch-

angel Gabriel : " Look in the Book ofLife, Gabriel, and see if we 've gotNapoleonder written down."The archangel looked and looked,

but he could n't look up any suchperson.

" There is n't any kind of Kapo-leonder in the Book," he says. " Sa-tan is a liar. We have n't got Hapo-leonder written down anywhere."Then Satan replies : " It is n't

strange that you can't find ^apo-leonder in the Book of Life, becauseyou write in that Book only the namesof those who were born of humanfathers and mothers, and who have


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IÂPOLEOOT)ERnavels. lâpoleonder never had afather or a mother, and, moreover, ,hehas n't any navel and that 's so sur-prismg that you might exhibit him formoney."The Lord God was greatly aston-ished. " How did your Kapoleonder

ever get into the world?" he says."In this way," Satan rephes. "I

made him, as a doll, just for amuse-ment, out of sand. At that very time,you. Lord, happened to be washingyour holy face ; and, not being careful,you let a few di'ops of the water oflife splash over. They fell fromheaven right exactly on lâpoleon-der's head, and he mimediately tookbreath and became a man. He is liv-ing now, not very near nor very faraway, on the island of Buan, in the

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NAPOLEOI^DERmiddle of the ocean-sea. There is aHttle less than a verst of land in theisland, and N^apoleonder lives thereand watches geese. Kight and dayhe looks after the geese, without eat-ing, or drinking, or sleeping, or smok-ing; and his only thought ishow toconquer the whole world."TheLord God thought and thought,

and then he ordered: "Bring him tome."

Satan at once brought ISTapoleonderinto the bright heaven. The Lord Godlooked at him, and saw that he was amilitary man with shining buttons.

" I have heard, ISfapoleonder," saysthe Lord God, " that you want to con-quer the whole world."

" Exactly so," replies ^apoleonder ;" that 's what I want very much to do."11


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ÂPOLEOI^DER" And have you thought," says theLord God, "that when you go forth to

conquer you will crush many peoplesand shed rivers of blood?"

" That 's all the same to me," saysâpoleonder ; "the important thing forme ishow can I subdue the wholeworld."

"And will you not feel pity for thekilled, the wounded, the burned, theruined, and the dead?""ôt in the least," says Napoleon-

der. "Why should I feel pity? Idon't like pity. So far as I can re-member, I was never sorry for any-body or anything in my life, and Inever shall be."Then the Lord God turns to the an-gels and says: "Messrs. Angels, thisseems to be the very fellow for our

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ISTAPOLEOKDERbusiness." Then to ^apoleonder hesays : " Satan was perfectly right.You are worthy to be the instrumentof my wrath, because a pitiless con-queror is worse than earthquake, fam-ine, or deluge. Go back to theearth, I^apoleonder ; I turn over toyou the whole world, and throughyou the whole world shall be pun-ished."Napoleonder says: "Give me armies

and luck, and I '11 do my best."Then the Lord God says : " Armies

you shall have, and luck you shallhave; and so long as you are merci-less you shall never be defeated inbattle ; but remember that the momentyou begin to feel sorry for the shed-ding of blood of your own people orof othersthat moment your power

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NAPOLEOIS^DERwill end. From that moment yourenemies will defeat you, and you shallfinally be made a prisoner, be put intochains, and be sent back to BuanIsland to watch geese. Do you under-stand?""Exactly so," says Napoleonder.

" I understand, and I will obey. I shallnever feel pity."Then the angels and the archangels

began to say to God : " Lord, whyhave you laid upon him such a fright-ful command? If he goes forth so,without mercy, he will Mil every liv-ing soul on earth he will leave nonefor seed!"

" Be silent ! " replied the Lord God."He will not conquer long. He isaltogether too brave ; because he fearsneither others nor himself. He thinks

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KAPOLEO]N[DERhe will keep from pity, and does notknow that pity, in the human heart,is stronger than all else, and that nota man living is wholly without it."

" But," the archangels say, " he isnot a man ; he is made of sand."The Lord God replies : " Then youthink he did n't receive a soul whenmy water of life fell on his head? "sTapoleonder at once gathered togethera great army speaking twelve lan-guages, and went forth to war. Heconquered the Germans, he conqueredthe Turks, he subdued the Swedes andthe Poles. He reaped as he marched,and left bare the country throughwhich he passed. And all the timehe remembers the condition of success pity for none. He cuts off heads,

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IS^APOLEOISDERburns villages, outrages women, andtramples children under his horses'hoofs. He desolates the whole Mo-hammedan kingdom and still heis not sated. Finally he marcheson a Christian country on HolyRussia.In Russia then the Tsar was Alex-

ander the Blessed the same Tsarwho stands now on the top of the col-umn in Petersburg-town and blessesthe people with a cross, and that 'swhy he is called " the Blessed."When he saw I^apoleonder march-ing against himwith twelve languages,Alexander the Blessed felt that theend of Russia was near. He calledtogether his generals and field-mar-shals, and said to them: "Messrs. Gen-erals and Field-marshals, how can I

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]S^APOLEOKDERcheck this ^apoleonder? He is press-ing us terribly hard."The generals and field-marshals re-

ply: "We can't do anything, yourMajesty, to stop Kapoleonder, becauseGod has given him a word.""What kind of a word?"

" This kind: ' Bonaparty.'" But what does ' Bonaparty ' mean,

and why is a single word so ter-rible?"

"It means, your Majesty, six hun-dred and sixty-six the number ofthe Beast ^ ; and it is terrible becausewhen ]S"apoleonder sees, in a battle, thatthe enemy is very brave, that his ownstrength is not enough, and that his

1 A reference to the Beast of the Apocalypse

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"The nttmber of the beast is the number of aman : and his number is Six hundred threescoreand six" (Rev. xiii. 18).17


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NAPOLEONDERown men are falling fast,^ he imme-diately conjures with this same word,' Bonaparty,' and at that instant assoon as the word is pronounced allthe soldiers that have ever servedunder him and have died for him onthe field of battle come back from be-yond the grave. He leads them afreshagainst the enemy, as if they werealive, and nothing can stand againstthem, because they are a ghostly force,not an army of this world."Alexander the Blessed grew sad;^

but, after thinking a moment, he said r"Messrs. Generals and Field-marshals,we Russians are a people of more thanordinary courage. We have foughtwith all nations, and never yet beforeany of them have we laid our faces in

1 Literally, "lying down with their bones."18


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NAPOLEONDERthe dust. If God has brought us, atlast, to fight with corpses his holywill be done I "We will go against thedead !So he led his army to the field of

Kulikova, and there waited for themiscreant I^apoleonder. And soonafterward, ISTapoleonder, the evil one,sends him an envoy with a paper say-ing, " Submit, Alexander Blagoslo-venni, and I will show you favorabove all others."But Alexander the Blessed was a

proud man, who held fast his self-respect. He would not speak to theenvoy, but he took the paper that theenvoy had brought, and drew on it aninsulting picture, with the words, " Isthis what you want?" and sent it backto ^apoleonder.

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]NJ^APOLEOKDERThen they fought and slashed oneanother on the field of Kulikova, and

in a short time or a long time our menbegan to overcome the forces of theenemy. One by one they shot or cutdown all of Kapoleonder's field-mar-shals, and finally drew near to JS^apo-leonder himself.

" Your time has come ! " they cry tohim. " Surrender ! "But the villain sits there on his

horse, rolhng his goggle-eyes Hke anowl, and grinning."Wait a minute," he says coolly.

" Don't be in too big a hurry. A taleis short in telling, but the deed is longa-doing."Then he pronounces his conjuring-

word, "Bonaparty" six hundred andsixty-six, the number of the Beast.

Instantly there is a great rushing20


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I^APOLEOJS^DERhorse, holding his sides with laughter,and shouted: "Aha! My old men arenot to your taste ! I thought so ! Thisis n't like playing knuckle-bones withchildren and old women ! Well, then,my honorable Messrs. Dead Men, Ihave never yet felt pity for any one,and you need n't show mercy to myenemies. Deal with them after yourown fashion.""As long as it is so," replied thecorpse-soldiers, " we are your faithfulservants always."

Our men fled from Kulikova-field toPultava-field; from Pultava-field tothe famous still-water Don; and fromthe peaceful Don to the field of Boro-dino, under the very walls of MotherMoscow. And as our men came to

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NAPOLEOI^DERthese fields, one after another, theyturned their faces again and againtoward Napoleonder, and fought himwith such fierceness that the brigandhimself was delighted with them."God save us!" he exclaimed, "whatsoldiers these Russians are! I havenot seen such men in any other coun-try."

But, in spite of the bravery of ourtroops, we were unable to stop Napo-leonder's march; because we had noword with which to meet his word.In every battle we pound him, anddrive him back, and get him in a slip-noose; but just as we are going todraw it tight and catch him, the filthy,idolatrous thief bethinks himself andshouts "Bonaparty!" Then the deadnien crawl out of their graves in full

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NAPOLEO^DERuniform, set their teeth, fix their eyesupon their officers, and charge ! Andwhere they pass the grass withers andthe stones crack. And our men areso terrified by these unclean bodiesthat they can't fight against them atall. As soon as they hear that accursedword "Bonaparty," and see the bigfur hats and the yellow faces of thedead men, they throw down their gunsand rush into the woods to hide.

" Say what you will, AlexanderBlagoslovenni," they cry, "for corpseswe are not prepared."Alexander the Blessed reproached

his men, and said: "Wait a little, bro-thers, before you run away. Let 'sexert ourselves a little more. Dogthat he is, he can't beat us always.God has set a limit for him somewhere.

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I^APOLEONDERTo-day is his, to-morrow may be his,but after a while the hick perhaps willturn."Then he went to the old hermit-

monks in the caves of Kiev and onthe island of Valaam, and bowed him-self at the feet of all the archiman-drites andmetropolitans, saying: "Prayfor us, holy fathers, and beseech theLord God to turn away his wrath;because we have n't strength enoughto defend you from this Napoleonder."Then the old hermit-monks and the

archimandrites and the metropolitansall prayed, with tears in their eyes, tothe Lord God, and prostrated them-selves until their knees were all blackand blue and there were big bumpson their foreheads. With tearful eyes,the whole Russian people, too, from

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JS^APOLEOJ^DERthe Tsar to the last beggar, prayedGod for mercy and help. And theytook the sacred ikon of the HolyMother ofGod of Smolensk,the pleaderfor the grief-stricken, and carried it tothe famous field of Borodino, and,bowing down before it, with tearfuleyes, they cried : "O Most Holy Motherof God, thou art our life and our hope !Have mercy on us, and intercede forus soon."And down the dark face of the ikon,

from under the setting of pearls in thesilver frame, trickled big tears. Andall the army and all God's people sawthe sacred ikon crying. It was aterrible thing to see, but it wascomforting.Then the Lord God heard the wail

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ISTAPOLEOKDERof the Holy Virgin the Mother ofGod of Smolensk, and he cried out tothe angels and the archangels: "Thehour of my wrath has passed. Thepeople have suffered enough for theirsins and have repented of their wick-edness. IS^apoleonder has destroyednations enough. It 's time for him tolearn mercy. Who of you, my ser-vants, will go down to the earthwhowill undertake the great work ofsoftening the conqueror's heart?"The older angels and the archangels

did n't want to go. " Soften his heart ! "they cried. " He is made of sandhe has n't any navelhe is pitilesswe 're afraid of him ! "Then Ivan-angel stepped forwardand said : " I '11 go."At that very time ^apoleonder had

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ISTAPOLEOISDEEjust gained a great victory and wasriding over the field of battle on -agreyhound of a horse. He trampledwith his horse's hoofs on the bodiesof the dead, without pity or regret,and the only thought in his mind was,"As soon as I have done with Russia,I '11 march against the Chinese andthe white Arabs ; and then I shall haveconquered exactly the whole world."But just at that moment he heard

some one calling, " J^apoleonder ! OIS^apoleonder ! " He looked around, andnot far away, under a bush on a littlemound, he saw a wounded Russiansoldier, who was beckoning to himwith his hand. ^vTapoleonder wassurprised. What could a woundedRussian soldier want of him? Heturned his horse and rode to the spot.

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KAPOLEOKDER"What do you want?" he astedthe soldier." I don't want anything of you," the

wounded soldier replied, " except ananswer to one question. Tell me,please, what have you killed mefor?"

]^apoleonderwas stillmore surprised.In the many years of his conqueringhe had wounded and killed a multi-tude of men; but he had never beenasked that question before. And yetthis Russian soldier did n't look as ifhe had anything more than ordinaryintelUgence. He was just a young,boyish fellow, with light flaxen hairand blue eyes evidently a newrecruit from some country village."What do you mean 'killed youfor ' ? " said ^apoleonder. " I had to

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NAPOLEONDERkill you. When you went into thearmy, did n't you take an oath thatyou would die?"

" I know what oath I took, ]N^apo-leonder, and I 'm not making a fussabout dying. But youwhy did youkill me?""Why should n't I kill you," said^Tapoleonder, "when you were theenemy,that is, my foe,come outto fight me on the field of Borodino?"

"Cross yourself, I^Tapoleonder ! "said the young soldier. " How couldI be your foe, when there has neverbeen any sort of quarrel between us?Until you came into our country, andI was drafted into the army, I hadnever even heard of you. And hereyou have killed meand how manymore Hke me ! "

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ÂPOLEOKDEE"I killed," said âpoleonder, "be-cause it was necessary for me to con-

quer the world."" But what have I got to do with

your conquering the world?" repliedthe soldier. " Conquer it, if you wantto I don't hinder. But why did youkill me? Has killing me given youthe world? The world does n't be-long to me. You 're not reasonable,brother âpoleonder. And is it pos-sible that you really think you canconquer the whole world?"

" I 'm very much of that opinion,"rephed Kapoleonder.The little soldier smiled. " You 're

really stupid, Kapoleonder," he said."I 'm sorry for you. As if it werepossible to conquer the whole world!""I '11 subdue all the kingdoms,"

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IÂPOLEOI^DERreplied Kapoleonder, "and put allpeoples in chains, and then I '11 reignas Tsar of all the earth."The soldier shook his head. " And

God?" he inquired. "Will you con-quer him? "

âpoleonder was confused. " ISô,"he finally said. " God 's will is overus all ; and in the hollow of his handwe live."

" Then what 's the use of your con-quering the world? " said the soldier." God is all ; therefore the world won'tbelong to you, but to him. Andyou '11 live just so long as he has pa-tience with you, and no longer.""I know that as well as you do,"

said Napoleonder."Well, then," replied the soldier,

" if you know it, why don't you reckonwith God?"

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IS^APOLEONDERl!^apoleonder scowled. "Don't saysuch things to me ! " he cried. " I 've

heard that sanctimonious stuff before.It 's of no use. You can't fool me!I don't know any such thing aspity."

" Indeed," said the soldier, " is itso? Have a care, JSTapoleonder ! Youare swaggering too much. You liewhen you say a man can live withoutpity. To have a soul, and to feel com-passion, are one and the same thing.You have a soul, have n't you? "

" Of course I have," rephed Kapo-leonder ; " a man can't Hve without asoul."

" There ! you see ! " said the soldier." You have a soul, and you believe inGod. How, then, can you say youdon't know any such thing as pity?You do know ! And I believe that at

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I^APOLEONDERthis very moment, deep down in yourheart, you are mortally sorry for me;only you don't want to show it. Why,then, did you kill me? "

ISTapoleonder suddenly became furi-ous. " May the pip seize your tongue,you miscreant! I '11 show you howmuch pity I have for you I " And,drawing a pistol, Napoleonder shotthe wounded soldier through the head.Then, turning to his dead men, hesaid: "Did you see that?""We saw it," they replied; " and aslong as it is so, we are your faithfulservants always."

IsTapoleonder rode on.At last night comes ; and IsTapoleon-der is sitting alone in his golden tent.

His mind is troubled, and he can'tunderstand what it is that seems to

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^APOLEO^STDERbe gnawing at his heart. For yearshe has been at war, and this is the firsttime such a thing has happened.IsTever before has his soul been sofilled with unrest. And to-morrowmorning he must begin another battle the last terrible fight with the TsarAlexander the Blessed, on the field ofBorodino."Akh ! " he thinks, " I '11 show them

to-morrow what a leader I am! I '11lift the soldiers of the Tsar into theair on my lances and trample theirbodies under the feet of my horses.I '11 make the Tsar himself a prisoner,and I '11 kill or scatter the wholeRussian people."But a voice seemed to whisper in

his ear: "And why? Why?""I know that trick," he thought.

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NAPOLEONDEErid of that soldier. And, more thanall, he wonders at himself. " What anextraordinary occurrence ! " he thinks." I 've killed millions of people, of allcountries and nations, without theleast misgiving; and now, suddenly,one miserable soldier comes andthrows all my ideas into a tangle ! "

Finally ISTapoleonder got up; butthe confinement of his golden tentseemed oppressive. He went out intothe open air, mounted his horse, androde away to the place where he hadshot to death the vexatious soldier."I 've heard," he said to himself,

" that when a dead man appears in avision, it is necessary to sprinkle earthon the eyes of the corpse; then he '11lie quiet."

I^apoleonder rides on. The moon37


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]^APOLEOl!^DERis shining brightly, and the bodies ofthe dead are lying on the battle-field inheaps. Everywhere he sees corrup-tion and smells corruption."And all these," he thought, "I

have killed."And, wonderful to say, it seems tohim as if all the dead men have thesame face, a young face with blueeyes, and blond hair, and the faintshadow of a mustache, and they allseem to be looking at him with kindly,pitying eyes, and their bloodless lipsmove just a httle as they ask, withoutanger or reproach, "Why? Why?"

l^apoleonder felt a dull, heavy pres-sure at his heart. He had not spiritenough left to go to the little moundwhere the body of the dead soldierlay, so he turned his horse and rode

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]N^APOLEO]S^DERback to his tent; and every corpsethat he passed seemed to say, " Why?Why?"He no longer felt the desire to rideat a gallop over the dead bodies of theRussian soldiers. On the contrary, hepicked his way among them carefully,riding respectfully around the remainsof every man who had died with honoron that field of blood; and now andthen he even crossed himself and said :"Akh, that one ought to have lived!What a fine fellow that one was ! Hemust have fought with splendid cour-age. And I killed him why? "The great conqueror never noticed

that his heart was growing softer andwarmer, but so it was. He pitied hisdead enemies at last, and then theevil spirit went away from him, and

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ÂPOLEOKDERleft him in all respects like otherpeople.The next day came the battle. Na-

poleonder led his forces, cloud uponcloud, to the field of Borodino; buthe was shaking as if in a chill. Hisgenerals and field-marshals looked athim and were filled with dismay."You ought to take a drink ofvodka, N apoleonder," they say; "youdon't look like yourself."When the Russian troops attackedthe hordes of Iâpoleonder, on thefield of Borodino, the soldiers of thegreat conqueror at once gave way.

"It 's a bad business, âpoleon-der," the generals and field-marshalssay. " For some reason the Russiansare fighting harder to-day than ever.You 'd better call out your dead men."

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I^APOLEO^DER^apoleonder shouted at the top of

his voice, " Bonaparty ! " six hundredand sixty-six, the number of theBeast. But, cry as he would, he onlyfrightened the jackdaws. The deadmen did n't come out of theh^ graves,nor answer his call. And ISTapoleon-der was left on the field of Borodinoalone. All his generals and field-marshals had fled, and he sat therealone on his horse, shouting, "Bona-party Bonaparty ! "Then suddenly there appeared be-

side him the smooth-faced, blue-eyed,fair-haired Russian recruit whom hehad killed the day before. And theyoung soldier said: "It 's useless toshout, ISTapoleonder. ISTobody willcome. Yesterday you felt sorry forme and for my dead brothers, and be-

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ÂPOLEOI^DERcause of your pity your corpse-soldiersno longer come at your call. Yourpower over them is gone."Then Iâpoleonder began to weep

and sob, and cried out, "You haveruined me, you wretched, miserablesoldier ! "But the soldier (who was Ivan-

angel, and not a soldier at all) replied:" I have not ruined you, âpoleonder ;I have saved you. If you had goneon in your merciless, pitiless course,there would have been no forgivenessfor you, either in this life or in the lifeto come. Kow God has given youtime for repentance. In this worldyou shall be punished ; but there, be-yond, if you repent of your sins, youshall be forgiven."And the angel vanished.

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NAPOLEOI^DERThen our Don Cossacks fell on

lâpoleonder, dragged him from hishorse, ^nd took him to Alexander theBlessed. Some said, " ISâpoleonderought to be shot ! " Others cried,"Send him to Siberia to! "But theLord God softened the heart of Alex-ander the Blessed, and the mercifulTsar would not allow Iâpoleonder tobe shot or sent to Siberia. He orderedthat the great conqueror be put intoan iron cage, and be carried aroundand exhibited to the people at countryfairs. So Kapoleonder was carriedfrom one fair to another for a periodof thirty summers and three yearsuntil he had grown quite old. Then,when he was an old man, they senthim to the island of Buan to watchgeese.

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THE KAPOLEOK OFTHE PEOPLE


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THE I^APOLEO]^ OF THEPEOPLENAPOLEOIS", my friends, wasborn, you know, in Corsica.That 's a French island, but it 'swarmed by the sun of Italy, and every-thing 's as hot there as if it were afurnace. It 's a place, too, where thepeople kill one another, from father toson, generation after generation, fornothing at all; that is, for no reasonin particular except that it 's theirway.

Well, to begin with the most won-1 A story told to a group of French peasantsone evening, in a barn, by Goguelat, the villagepostman, who had served under Napoleon in aregiment of infantry.

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THE Iv^APOLEO^derful part of the story, it so happenedthat on the very day when ^apoleonwas born, his mother dreamed that theworld was on fire. She was a shrewd,clever woman, as well as the pret-tiest woman of her time; and whenshe had this dream, she thought she 'dsave her son from the dangers of lifeby dedicating him to God. And, in-deed, that was a prophetic dream ofhers! So she asked God to protectthe boy, and promised that when hegrew up he should reestablish God'sholy religion, which had then beenoverthrown. That was the agreementthey made; and although it seemsstrange, such things have happened.It 's sure and certain, anyhow, thatonly a man who had an agreementwith God could pass through the

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OF THE PEOPLEenemy's lines, and move about inshowers of bullets and grape-shot, as]!^apoleon did. They swept us awaylike flies, but his head they nevertouched at all. I had a proof of that I myself, in particular at Eylau,where the Emperor went up on a littlehill to see how things were going. Ican remember, to this day, exactlyhow he looked as he took out his field-glass, watched the battle for a minute,and finally said : " It 's all right ! Every-thing is going well." Then, just ashe was coming back, an ambitiouschap in a plumed hat, who was alwaysfollowing him around, and who both-ered him, they said, even at his meals,thought he 'd play smart by going upon the very same hill; but he hadhardly taken the Emperor's place

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THE NAPOLEO]^^when-batz!away he went, plumeand all!N^ow follow me closely, and tell me

whether what you are going to hearwas natural.

ISTapoleon, you know, had promisedthat he 'd keep his agreement withGod to himself. That 's the reasonwhy his companions and even hisparticular friends men like Duroc,Bessires, andLannes, who were strongas bars of steel, but whom he moldedto suit his purposes all fell, likenuts from a shaken tree, while hehimself was never even hurt.But that 's not the only proof that

he was the child of God and was ex-pressly created to be the father ofsoldiers. Did anybody ever see him aheutenant? Or a captain? I^ever

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OF THE PEOPLEHe was commander-in-chief from thestart. When he did n't look morethan twenty-four years of age he wasalready an old general ever sincethe taking of Toulon, where he firstbegan to show the rest of them thatthey did n't know anything about thehandling of cannon.

Well, soon after that, down comesthis stripling to us as general-in-chiefof the Army of Italy an army thathad n't any ammunition, or bread, orshoes, or coats; a wretched armynaked as a worm. " ISTow, boys ! " hesaid, "here we are, all together. Iwant you to get it fixed in your headsthat in fifteen days more you 're goingto be conquerors. You 're going tohave new clothes, good leggings, thebest of shoes, and a warm overcoat for

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THE ÂPOLEONêvery man; but in order to get thesethings you '11 have to march to Milan,where they are." So we marched.We were only thirty thousand bare-footed tramps, and we were goingagainst eighty thousand crack Germansoldiers fine, well equipped men ; butISTapoleon, who was only Bonapartethen, breathed a spirit of I don'tknow what into us, and on wemarched, night and day. We hit theenemy at Montenotte, thrashed 'em atRivoli, Lodi, Areola, and Millesimo,and stuck to 'em wherever they went.A soldier soon gets to like being aconqueror; and Iâpoleon wheeledaround those German generals, andpelted away at 'em, until they did n'tknow where to hide long enough toget a little rest. With fifteen hundred

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OF THE PEOPLEFrenchmen, whom he made to appeara great host (that 's a way he had),he 'd sometmies surround ten thousandmen and gather 'em all in at a singlescoop. Then we 'd take their cannon,their money, their ammunition, andeverything they had that was worthcarrying away. As for the others, wechucked 'em into the water, walloped'em on the mountains, snapped 'em upin the air, devoured 'em on the ground,and beat 'em everywhere. So at lastour troops were in fine feather espe-cially as ^apoleon, who had a cleverwit, made friends with the inhabitantsof the country by telling them that wehad come to set them free ; and then,of course, they gave us quarters andtook the best of care of us. And itwas not only the men: the women

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THE :n^apoleo:n^took care of us too, which showed theh^good judgment !

Well, it finally ended in this way:inYentose, 1796,which was the sametime of year that our March is now,we were penned up in one corner ofthe marmot country: but at the end ofthe first campaign, lo and behold!we were masters of Italy, just as!N^apoleon had predicted. And in themonth of March following that is,in two campaigns, which we fought ina single year he brought us in sightof Vienna. It was just a clean sweep.We had eaten up three different armiesin succession, and had wiped out fourAustrian generals; one of them awhite-haired old chap was burnedalive at Mantua like a rat in a strawmattress. We had conquered peace,

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OF THE PEOPLEand kings were begging, on theirknees, for mercy. Could a man havedone all that alone? ]Srever! He hadthe help of God; that's certain! Hedivided himself up like the five loavesof bread in the Gospel; he plannedbattles at night and directed them inthe daytime : he was seen by the sen-tries going here and there at all hours,and he never ate or slept. When thesoldiers saw all these wonderful things,they adopted him as their father.But the people at the head of the

government over there in Paris, whowere looking on, said to themselves:" This schemer, who seems to have thewatchword of Heaven, is quite capa-ble of laying his hands on France.We 'd better turn him loose in Asiaor America. Then maybe he '11 be

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THE NAPOLEOIS^satisfied for a while." So it waswritten that he should do just whatJesus Christ did go to Egypt. Yousee how in this he resembled the Sonof God. But there 's more to come.He gathered together all his oldfire-eaters the fellows that he hadput the spirit of the Devil into andsaid to them : "Boys ! They 've givenus Egypt to chew on to keep usquiet for a while; but we '11 swallowEgypt in one time and two movements just as we did Italy. All you pri-vate soldiers shall be princes, withlands of your own. Forward I "

" Forward, boys ! " shouted the ser-geants.So we marched to Toulon, on ourway to Egypt. As soon as the Eng-lish heard of it, they sent out all their

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OF THE PEOPLEships of war to catch us ; but when weembarked, ^apoleon said to us : " TheEnghsh will never see us; and it isonly proper for you to know nowthat your general has a star in thesky which will henceforth guide andprotect us."As 't was said, so 't was done. Onour way across the sea we took Malta(just as one would pick an orange inpassing) to quench Napoleon's thirstfor victory ; because he was a manwho wanted to be doing somethingall the time.And so at last we came to Egypt ;and then the orders were different.The Egyptians, you know, are peoplewho, from the beginning of the world,have had giants to rule over them,and armies like innumerable ants.

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THE NAPOLEKTheir country is a land of genii andcrocodiles, and of pyramids as big asour mountains, where they put thebodies of their dead kings to keepthem fresh a thing that seems toplease them all around. Of courseyou can't deal with such people asyou would with others. So when welanded, the Little Corporal said to us :" Boys ! The country that you aregoing to conquer worships a lot ofgods that must be respected. French-men should keep on good terms witheverybody, and fight people withouthurting their feelings. So let every-thing alone at first, and by and bywe '11 get all there is."I^ow there was a prediction amongthe Egyptians down there that Napo-leon would come ; and the name they

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OF THE PEOPLEhad for him was Kebir Bonaberdis,which means, in their hngo, "TheSultan strikes fire." They were asmuch afraid of him as they were ofthe Devil ; so the Grand Turk, Asia,and Africa resorted to magic, andsent against us a demon named Mody[the Mahdi], who was supposed tohave come down from heaven on awhite horse. This horse was incom-bustible to bullets, and so was theMody, and the two of 'em hved onweather and air. There are people whohave seen 'em ; but I have n't anyreason, myself, to say positively thatthe things told about 'em were true.Anyhow, they were the great pow-ers in Arabia ; and the Mamelukeswanted to make the Egyptian soldiersthink that the Mody could keep them

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THE ^APOLEO^from being killed in battle, and thathe was an angel sent down fromheaven to fight I^apoleon and getback Solomon's seal a part of theirequipment which they pretended tobelieve our general had stolen. Butwe made 'em laugh on the wrong sideof their mouths, in spite of theirMody !They thought Hapoleon could com-

mand the genii, and that he hadpower to go from one place to an-other in an instant, like a bird ;and, indeed, it 's a fact that he waseverywhere. But how did they knowthat he had an agreement with God?Was it natural that they should getsuch an idea as that ?

It so happened, finally, that he car-ried off one of their queens a wo-

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OF THE PEOPLEman beautiful as the sunshine. Hetried, at first, to buy her, and offeredto give for her all his treasure, and alot of diamonds as big as pigeons'eggs ; but although the Mameluke towhom she particularly belonged hadseveral others, he would n't agree tothe bargain ; so ^apoleon had tocarry her off. Of course, whenthings came to such a pass as that,they could n't be settled without a lotof fighting ; and if there were n'tblows enough to satisfy all, it was n'tanybody's fault. We formed in bat-tle line at Alexandria, at Gizeh, and infront of the Pyramids. We marchedin hot sunshine and through deepsand, where some got so bedazzledthat they saw water which theycould n't drink, and shade that made

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THE ]S^APOLEOKthem sweat ; but we generally chewedup the Mamelukes, and all the restgave in when they heard sTapoleon'svoice.He took possession of Upper and

Lower Egypt, Arabia, and the capi-tals of kingdoms that perished longago, where there were thousands ofstatues of all the evil things in crea-tion, especially lizardsa thunder-ing big country, where one couldget acres of land for as little as hepleased.

Well, while I^apoleon was attend-ing to his business inland, where heintended to do some splendid things,the English, who were always tryingto make us trouble, burned his fleet atAboukir. But our general, who hadthe respect of the East and the West,

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OF THE PEOPLEwho had been called "my son" by thePope, and "my dear father" by thecousin of Mahomet, resolved to punishEngland, and to capture the Indies, inpayment for his lost fleet. He wasjust going to take us across the RedSea into Asia a country where therewere lots of diamonds, plenty of goldwith which to pay his soldiers, andpalaces that could be used for tapeswhen the Mody made an arrangementwith the Plague, and sent it down toput an end to our victories. Thenit was. Halt, all! And everybodymarched off to that parade fromwhich you don't come back on yourfeet. Dying soldiers could n't takeSaint Jean d'Acre, although theyforced an entrance three times withnoble and stubborn courage. The

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THE NAPOLEONPlague was too strong for us ; and itwas n't any use to say " Please don't !"to the Plague. Everybody was sickexcept Kapoleon. He looked freshas a rose, and the whole army saw himdrinking in pestilence without beinghurt a bit. How was that? Do youcall that natural?Well, the Mamelukes, who knew

that wewere all in ambulances, thoughtthey 'd bar our way ; but they could n'tplay that sort of game with Napoleon.He turned to his old fire-eaters thefellows with the toughest hidesandsaid : " Go clear the road for me."Junot, who was his devoted friend anda number one soldier, took not morethan a thousand men, and slashed rightthrough the army of the pasha whichhad had the impudence to get in our

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OF THE PEOPLEway. Then we went back to Cairo,where we had our headquarters.And now for another part of thestory. While IS'apoleon was awayFrance was letting herself be ruinedby those government scalawags inParis, who were keeping back thesoldiers' pay, withholding their linenand their clothes, and even lettingthem starve. They wanted the sol-diers to lay down the law to the uni-verse, and that 's all they cared for.They were just a lot of idiots jabber-ing for amusement instead of puttingtheir own hands into the dough. Soour armies were beaten and wecould n'tdefend our frontiers. THE MA^Twas no longer there. I say "the man"because that 's what they called him;but it was absurd to say that he was

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THE ]SrAPOLEO:N^merely a man, when he had a star ofhis own with all its belongings. , Itwas the rest of us who were merelymen. At the battle of Aboukh-, witha single division and with a loss ofonly thi'ee hundred men, he whippedthe great army of the Turks, and hus-tled more than half of them into thesear-r-rah like that! But it washis last thunderclap in Eg}^t; be-cause when he heard, soon afterward,what was happening in France, hemade up his mind to go back there." I am the savior of France," he said," and I must go to her aid." Thearmy did n't know what he intendedto do. If they had known, they wouldhave kept him in Egypt by force andmade him Emperor of the East.When he had gone, we all felt very

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OF THE PEOPLEblue; because he had been the joy ofour Hves. He left the coinmand toKlber a great lout of a fellow whosoon afterward lost the number of hismess. An Egyptian assassinated him.They put the murderer to death bymaking him sit on a bayonet; that 'stheir way, down there, of guillotininga man. But he suffered so much thatone of our soldiers felt sorry for himand offered him his water-gourd. Thecriminal took a drink, and then gaveup the ghost with the greatestpleasure.But we did n't waste much time

over trifles like that.IS'apoleon sailed from Egypt in a

cockle-shell of a boat called Fortune.He passed right under the noses of theEnglish, who were blockading the

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THE IS^APOLBON"coast with ships of the line, frigates,and every sort of craft that could carrysail, and in the twinkling of an eye hewas in France; because he had theability to cross the sea as if with asingle stride. Was that natural?Bah! The very minute he reachedFrjus, he had his foot, so to speak,in Paris. There, of course, every-body worships him. But the first thinghe does is to summon the government." What have you been doing with mychildren the soldiers? " he said to thelawyers. " You are nothing but a lotof poll-parrots, who fool the peoplewith your gabble, and feather yourown nests at the expense of France.It is not right; and I speak in thename of all who are dissatisfied."They thought, at first, that they

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OF THE PEOPLEcould get rid of him by talking him todeath; but it did n't work. He shut'em up in the very barrack where theydid their talking, and those who did n'tjump out of the windows he enrolledin his suite, where they soon becamemute as fish and phable as a tobacco-pouch. This coup made him consul;and as he was n't one to doubt theSupreme Being who had kept goodfaith with him, he hastened to fulfilhis own promise by restoring thechurches and reestablishing religion;whereupon the bells all rang out inhis honor and in honor of the goodGod.Everybody then was satisfied : first,

the priests, because they were pro-tected from persecution; second, themerchants, because they could do

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THE ^APOLEOJS^business without fearing the "we-grab-it-all" of the law; and finallythe nobles, because the people wereforbidden to put them to death, asthey had formerly had the unfortu-nate habit of doing.But I^apoleon still had his enemiesto clear away, and he was not a manto drop asleep over his porringer.His eye took in the whole world asif it were no bigger than a soldier'shead. The first thing he did was toturn up in Italy as suddenly as ifhe had poked his head through awindow ; and one look from him wasenough. The Austrians were swal-lowed up at Marengo as gudgeonsare swallowed by a whale. Then theFrench VICTORY sang a song oftriumph that all the world could hear,

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THE IS^APOLEO^leon left us he was only a general;but in no time at all he had becomeEmperor. France had given herselfto him as a pretty girl gives herself toa lancer.Well, when everything had beensettled to everybody's satisfaction,

there was a religious ceremony suchas had never before been seen underthe canopy of heaven. The Pope andall his cardinals, in their robes ofscarlet and gold, came across the Alpsto anoint him with holy oil, and hewas crowned Emperor, in the presenceof the army and the people, withgreat applause and clapping of hands.But there is one thing that it would

not be fair not to tell you ; and that isabout the EED MA^". While IS'a-poleon was still in Egypt, in a desert

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OF THE PEOPLEnot far from Syria, the Red Man ap-peared to him on the mountain ofMoses (Sinai), and said to him, "It 'sall right! " Then again, at Marengo,on the evening of the victory, the sameRed Man appeared to him a secondtune, and said: "You shall see theworld at your feet : you shall be Em-peror of France ; King of Italy ; mas-ter of Holland; sovereign of Spain,Portugal, and the Illyrian provinces;protector of Germany; savior ofPoland; first eagle of the Legion ofHonor everything ! "

This Red Man, you see, was hisown idea; and was a sort of messen-ger whom he used, many people said,as a means of communication withhis star. I 've never believed that,myself, but that there was a Red

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THE ]SÂPOLEO]^Man is a real fact. âpoleon him-self spoke of him, and said that helived up under the roof in the palaceof the Tuileries, and that he oftenused to make his appearance in timesof trouble. On the evening of hiscoronation Iâpoleon saw him for thethird time, and they consulted togetherabout a lot of things.After that the Emperor went to

Milan, where he was crowned Kingof Italy; and then began a regulartriumph for us soldiers. Every manwho knew how to read and write be-came an officer; it rained dukedoms;pensions were distributed with bothhands; there were fortunes for thegeneral staff which did n't cost Francea penny; and even common soldiersreceived annuities with their crosses

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OF THE PEOPLEof the Legion of Honor I get mineto this day. In short, the armies ofFrance were taken care of in a waythat had never before been seen.But the Emperor, who knew that he

was the emperor not only of the sol-diers but of all, remembered the bour-geois, and built wonderful monumentsfor them, to suit their own taste, inplaces that had been as bare before asthe palm of your hand. Suppose youwere coming from Spain, for example,and going through France to Berlin.You would pass under sculpturedtriumphal arches on which you 'd seethe common soldiers carved just asbeautifully as the generals.

In two or three years, and withouttaxing you people at all, l^apoleonfilled his vaults with gold; created

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THE NAPOLEONbridges, palaces, roads, schools, fes-tivals, laws, harbors, ships; and spentmilUons and milhons of money somuch, in fact, that if he 'd taken thenotion, they say, he might have pavedall France with five-franc pieces.

Finally, when he was comfortablyseated on his throne, he was so thor-oughly the master of everything thatEurope waited for his permission be-fore it even dared to sneeze. Then,as he had four brothers and three sis-ters, he said to us in familiar talk, asif in the order of the day : " Boys ! Isit right that the relatives of your Em-peror should have to beg their bread?^o! I want them to shine, just as Ido. A kingdom must be conquered,therefore, for every one of them; sothat France may be master of all; so

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OF THE PEOPLEthat the soldiers of the Guard maymake the world tremble; so thatFrance may spit wherever she likes;and so that all nations may say to her,as it is written on my coins, 'Godprotects you.' "

"All right!" says the army. "We'llfish up kingdoms for you with thebayonet."We could n't back out, you know ;and if he had taken it into his headto conquer the moon, we should havehad to get ready, pack our knapsacks,and climb up. Fortunately, he did n'thave any such intention.The kings, who were very comfor-

table on their thrones, naturally did n'twant to get off to make room for hisrelatives ; so they had to be draggedoff by the ears. Forward !

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THE :n^apoleo:n^We marched and marched, andeverything began to shake again. Ah,how he did wear out men and shoes

in those days! He struck such tre-mendous blows with us that if wehad been other than Frenchmen weshould all have been used up. ButFrenchmen are born philosophers, andthey know that a little sooner or ahttle later they must die. So we usedto die without a word, because wehad the pleasure of seeing the Em-peror do this with the geographies.[Here the old soldier nimbly drew acircle with his foot on the floor of thebarn.]

"There! " he would say, "that shallbe a kingdom ! " And it was a king-dom. Ah, that was a great time!Colonels became generals while you

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OF THE PEOPLEwere looking at them; generals be-came marshals, and marshals becamekings. There 's one of those kingsstill left, to remind Europe of thattime; but he is a Gascon, and hasbetrayed France in order to keep hiscrown. He does n't blush for theshame of it, either; because crowns,you understand, are made of gold!Finally, even sappers, if they knewhow to read, became nobles all thesame. I myself have seen in Pariseleven kings and a crowd of princes,surrounding ISTapoleon like rays of thesun. Every soldier had a chance tosee how a throne fitted him, if he wasworthy of it, and when a corporal ofthe Guard passed by he was an objectof curiosity; because all had a sharein the glory of the victories, which

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THE NAPOLEON^were perfectly well known to every-body through the bulletins.Andwhat a lot of battles there were !Austerhtz,wherethearmymanuveredas if on parade; Eylau, where theRussians were drowned in a lake as ifN^apoleon had blown them in with asingle puff ; Wagram, where wefought three days without flinching.In short, there were as many battlesas there are saints in the calendar.And it was proved then that IN^apoleonhad in his scabbard the real sword ofGod. He felt regard for his soldiers,too, and treated them just as if theywere his children, always taking painsto find out if they were well supphedwith shoes, linen, overcoats, bread, andcartridges. But he kept up his dignityas sovereign all the same; because to

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OF THE PEOPLEreign was his business. However,that did n't make any difference. Asergeant, or even a common soldier,could say to him " Emperor," just asyou sometimes say "my dear fellow"to me. He was one that you couldargue with, if necessary; he slept onthe snow with the rest of us; and, inshort, he appeared almost like anyother man. But when the grape-shotwere kicking up the dust at his veryfeet, I have seen him going aboutcoolly,no more disturbed by themthan you are at this minute,lookingthrough his field-glass now and then,and attending all the time to his busi-ness. Of course that made the restof us as calm and serene as John theBaptist. I don't know how he man-aged it, but when he spoke to us, his

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THE IS^APOLEOI^words put fire into our hearts; and inorder to show him that we really werehis children, and not the kind of mento shrink from danger, we used tomarch right up to great blackguardsof cannon which bellowed and vomitedballs without so much as saying"Look out!" Even dying men hadthe nerve to raise their heads andsalute him with the cry of " Long livethe Emperor!" Was that natural?Would they have done that for a mereman?

Well, when he had settled all hisfolks comfortably, the Empress Jose-phine who was a good woman allthe same was so fixed that shecould n't give him any family, and hehad to leave her. He loved her quitea little, too ; but for reasons of state he

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OF THE PEOPLEhad to have children. "When thekings of Europe heard of this trou-ble, they came to blows over thequestion who should give him a wife.He finally married, they told us, an

* Austrian woman. She was a daughterof Caesar's a man of ancient timeswho is much talked about, not only inour country, where they say he madeeverything, but in Europe. It 's true,anyhow, that I have myself been on theDanube, and have seen there the re-mains of a bridge that this man Caesarbuilt. It appears that he was a rela-tive of I^apoleon's in Rome, and that 'swhy the Emperor had a right to takethe inheritance there for his son.

Well, after his marriage, when therewas a holiday for the whole world,and when he let the people off ten

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THE JSTAPOLEO^years' taxes (which were collected allthe same, because the tax-gatherersdid n't pay any attention to what hesaid) , his wife had a little boy who wasKing ofRome. That was a thing whichhad never been seen on earth before a child born king while his fatherwas still living. A balloon was sentup in Paris to carry the news toRome, and it made the whole distancein a single day. Iôw will any of youtell me that that was natural? ISTever!It had been so written on high.

Well, next comes the Emperor ofRussia. He had once been Iâpoleon'sfriend ; but he got angry because ourEmperor did n't marry a Russianwoman. So he backs up our enemiesthe English. ]!âpoleon had long in-tended to pay his respects to those

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OF THE PEOPLEEnglish ducks in their own nests, butsomething had always happened toprevent, and it was now high time tomake an end of them. So he finallygot angry himself, and said to us:"Soldiers! You have been mastersof all the capitals of Europe exceptMoscow, which is the ally of Eng-land. In order to conquer London, aswell as the Indies, which belong toLondon, I find it necessary to go toMoscow."

Well, there assembled then thegreatest army that ever tramped ingaiters over the world; and the Em-peror had them so curiously well linedup that he reviewed a million men ina single day."Hourra!" shout the Russians.And there they were those animals

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THE JS^APOLEOKof Cossacks who are forever runningaway, and the whole Russian nation,all complete ! It was country againstcountry a general mix-up, whereeverybody had to look out for himself.As the Red Man had said to l^apoleon," It 's Asia against Europe."

"All right!" replied the Emperor,"I '11 take care." And then camefawning on Napoleon all the kings ofEurope,Austria, Prussia, Bavaria,Saxony, Poland, Italy, all flatteringus and going along with us. It wassplendid! The French eagles nevercooed as they did on parade then,when they were held high above allthe flags of Europe. The Polescould n't contain themselves for joy,because the Emperor intended toset them up again as a nation

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OF THE PEOPLEand for that reason the French andthe Poles have been like brothers eversince."Russia shall be ours!" cried the

army.We crossed the frontier,the wholelot of us,and marched, and marched,

and marched. No Russians ! At lastwe found the rascals, camping on thebank of the Moscow River. That 'swhere I got my cross; and I takeleave to say that it was the damnedestof battles! IS'apoleon himself wasworried, because the Red Man hadappeared again and had said to him,"My son, you are going too fast;you will run short of men, and yourfriends will betray you." Thereuponthe Emperor proposed peace; but be-fore the treaty was signed he said to

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THE NAPOLEONus, "Let 's give those Russians adrubbing !"

" All right I " said the army." Forward I " shout the sergeants.My clothes were going to pieces

and my shoes were all worn out fromtramping over the bad roads outthere, but I said to myself, "^evermind; since this is the last of therumpus, I '11 make 'em give me abellyful!"We were drawn up near the edgeof the great ravine in the front

seats! The signal was given, andseven hundred pieces of artillery be-gan a conversation that was enoughto bring the blood from your ears.Well, to do justice to one's enemies, Imust admit that the Russians letthemselves be killed like Frenchmen.


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OF THE PEOPLEThey would n't give way, and wecould n't advance."Forward!" shouted our officers.

"Here comes the Emperor!" Andthere he was, passing at a gallop, andmotioning to us that it was very im-portant to capture the redoubt. Heput new life into us, and on we ran.I was the first to reach the ravine.Ah! Mon Dieu! How the colonelsare falling, and the lieutenants, andthe soldiers! But never mind!There '11 be all the more shoes forthose who have n't any, and epauletsfor the ambitious fellows who knowhow to read.At last the cry of "Victory!" rang

all along the hue ; butwould you be-lieve it?there were twenty-five thou-sand Frenchmen lying on the ground !

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THE ^apoleo:n^A trifle, eh? Well, such a thing hadnever been seen before. It was aregular harvest field after the reaping;only instead of stalks of grain therewere bodies of men. That soberedthe rest of us. But the Emperorsoon came along, and when we formeda circle around him, he praised us andcheered us up (he could be veryamiable when he liked), and made usfeel quite contented, even althoughwe were as hungry as wolves. Thenhe distributed crosses of honor amongus, saluted the dead, and said, "On toMoscow ! "

"All right ! To Moscow I " repliedthe army.And then what did the Russians dobut burn their city! It made a six-mile bonfire which blazed for two

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THE ÂPOLEOlSrlô army, no generals, no sergeantseven! After that it was a reign ,ofmisery and hunger a reign wherewe were all equal. We thought ofnothing except of seeing France again.ISTobody stooped to pick up his gun,or his money, if he happened to dropthem ; and every one went straight on,arms at will, caring nothing for glory.The weather was so bad that ]Sâpoleoncould no longer see his star the skywas hidden. Poor man! It madehim sick at heart to see his eagles fly-ing away from victory. It was acrushing blow to him.Well, then came the Beresina. And

now, my friends, I may say to you, onmy honor and by everything sacred,that neverno, never since man livedon earth has there been such a

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OF THE PEOPLEwe were so nearly frozen that wewould not have held out a hand toour dearest friend. They say that heused to weep at night over his poorfamily of soldiers. Nobody but heand Frenchmen could ever have pulledout of there. We did pull out, but itwas with loss terrible loss. Ourallies ate up all of our provisions, andthen began the treachery which theRed Man had foretold.The blatherskites in Paris, who had

kept quiet since the formation of theImperial Guard, thought that theGuard had finally perished. So theygot up a conspiracy and hoodwinkedthe Prefect of Police into an attemptto overthrow the Emperor. He heardof this and it w^orried him. When heleft us he said: "Good-by, boys.

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THE KAPOLEOKGuard the posts. I will come backto you."

After he had gone, things wentfrom bad to worse. The generalslost their heads; and the marshalsquarreled with one another and didall sorts of foolish things, as wasnatural. ^apoleon, who was good toeverybody, had fed them on gold untilthey had become as fat as pigs, andthey did n't want to do any moremarching. This led to trouble, be-cause many of them remained idle inforts behind the army that was drivingus back to France, and did n't eventry to reheve us by attacking theenemy in the rear.The Emperorfinally returned, bring-ing with him a lot of splendid recruitswhom he had drilled into regular war-

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OF THE PEOPLEdogs, ready to set their teeth into any-thing. He brought also a bourgeoisguard of honor, a fine troop, whichmelted away in battle like butter on ahot gridiron. In spite of the bold frontthat we put on, everything went againstus ; although the army performed featsof wonderful courage. Then cameregular battles of mountainsnationsagainst nations at Dresden, Lutzen,and Bautzen. Don't you ever forgetthat time, because it was then thatFrenchmen showed how wonderfullyheroic they could be. A good grena-dier, in those days, seldom lasted morethan six months. We always won, ofcourse ; but there in our rear were theEnglish, stirring up the nations totake sides against us. But we foughtour way through this pack of nations

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OF THE PEOPLEmany generals say. Then Kapoleonsaw arrayed against him his ownfather-in-law, his friends whom hehad made kings, and all the scoundrelswhom he had put on thrones. Finally,in pursuance of orders from highquarters, even Frenchmen, and alliesin our own ranks, turned against us ;as at the battle of Leipsic. Commonsoldiers would n't have been meanenough to do that! Men who calledthemselves princes broke their wordthree times a day.

Well, then came the invasion.Wherever ^Tapoleon showed his lionface the enemy retreated; and heworked more miracles in defendingFrance than he had shown in con-quering Italy, the East, Spain, Europe,and Russia. He wanted to bury all

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THE ]^APOLEOKthe invaders in France, and thus teachthem to respect the country; so he letthem come close to Paris, in order toswallow 'em all at a gulp and rise tothe height of his genius in a battlegreater than all the others a regularmother of battles ! But those cowardlyParisians were so afraid for theirwretched skins and their miserableshops that they opened the gates of thecity. Then the good times ended andthe " ragusades " began. They fooledthe Empress and hung white flags outof the palace windows. Finally thevery generals whom Hapoleon hadtaken for his best friends deserted himand went over to the Bourbons ofwhom nobody had ever before heard.Then he bade us good-by at Fontaine-bleau.

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OF THE PEOPLE"Soldiers!"I can hear him, even now. "We were

all crying like regular babies, and theeagles and flags were lowered as if ata funeral. And it was a funeralthe funeral of the Empire. His oldsoldiers, once so hale and spruce,were little more than skeletons.Standing on the portico of his palace,he said to us :

" Comrades ! We have been beatenthrough treachery; but we shall allsee one another again in heaven, thecountry of the brave. Protect mychild, whom I intrust to you. Longlive IS^apoleon II ! "Like Jesus Christ before his lastagony, he believed himself deserted

by God and his star; and in orderthat no one should see him conquered,

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THE KAPOLEOJS^itwas his intention to die ; but, althoughhe took poison enough to kill a wholeregiment, it never hurt him at allanother proof, you see, that he wasmore than man: he found himself im-mortal. As he felt sure of his businessafter that, and knew that he was to beEmperor always, he went to a certainisland for a while, to study the naturesof those people in Paris, who did notfail, of course, to do stupid thingswithout end.While he was standing guard downthere, the Chinese and those animalson the coast of Africa Moors andothers, who are not at all easy to getalong withwere so sure that he wassomething more than man that theyrespected his tent, and said that totouch it would be to offend God. So

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THE NAPOLEO^conquer the kingdom of France andISTavarre ; and on the 20th of the samemonth that kingdom became theFrench Empire. On that day THEMA^ was in Paris. He had made aclean sweep had reconquered hisdear France, and had brought all hisold soldiers together again by sayingonly three words: "Here I am."'T was the greatest miracle God hadever worked. Did ever a man, beforehim, take an empire by merely show-ing his hat? They thought thatFrance was crushed, did they? ^ota bit of it! At sight of the Eagle anational army sprang up, and we allmarched to Waterloo. There theGuard perished, as if stricken down ata single blow. Napoleon, in despair,threw himself three tunes, at the head

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OF THE PEOPLEof his troops, on the enemy's cannon,without being able to find death. Thebattle was lost.That evening the Emperor called

his old soldiers together, and, on thefield wet with our blood, burned hiseagles and his flags. The poor eagles,who had always been victorious, whohad cried " Forward ! " in all our bat-tles, and who had flown over allEurope, were saved from the disgraceof falhng into the hands of their ene-mies. All the treasure of Englandcould n't buy the tail of one of them.They were no more !The rest of the story is well known

to everybody. The Red Man wentover to the Bourbons, like the scoun-drel that he is; France was crushed;and the old soldiers,who were no longer

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THE IÂPOLEOINôf any account, were deprived of theirdues and sent back to their homes,,inorder that their places might be givento a lot of nobles who could n't evenmarch it was pitiful to see them try!Then âpoleon was seized, throughtreachery, and the Enghsh nailed himto a rock, ten thousand feet above theearth, on a desert island in the greatocean. There he must stay until theRed Man, for the good of France,gives him back his power. It is saidby some that he is dead. Oh, yes!Dead! That shows how little theyknow him ! They only tell that lie tocheat the people and keep peace intheir shant}^ of a government. Thetruth of the matter is that his friendshave left him there in the desert tofulfil a prophecy that was made about

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OF THE PEOPLEhim for I have forgotten to tell youthat the name lâpoleon reallymeans " Lion of the Desert."

This that I have told you is gospeltruth; and all the other things thatyou hear about the Emperor are fool-ish stories vdth no human hkeliness.Because, you see, God never gave toany other man born of woman thepovêr to write his name in red acrossthe whole world and the world willremember him forever. Long liveâpoleon, the father of the soldiersand the people!

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balzac - folk tales of napoleon

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