Complete Project Gutenberg Collection of Memoirs of NapoleonVarious
History
Complete Project Gutenberg Collection of Memoirs of Napoleon
Various
Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821
Bonaparte never felt greater satisfaction in the-whole course of his life
than he experienced from Paul's enthusiasm for him. The friendship of a
sovereign seemed to him a step by which he was to become a sovereign
himself. At the same time the affairs of La Vendee began to assume a
better aspect, and he hoped soon to effect that pacification in the
interior which he so ardently desired.
It was during the First Consul's residence at the Luxembourg that the
first report on the civil code was made to the legislative body. It was
then, also, that the regulations for the management of the Bank of France
were adopted, and that establishment so necessary to France was founded.
There was at this time in Paris a man who has acquired an unfortunate
celebrity, the most unlucky of modern generals--in a word, General Mack.
I should not notice that person here were it not for the prophetic
judgment which Bonaparte then pronounced on him. Mack had been obliged
to surrender himself at Championnet some time before our landing at
Frejus. He was received as a prisoner of war, and the town of Dijon had
been appointed his place of residence, and there he remained until after
the 18th Brumaire. Bonaparte, now Consul, permitted him to come to
Paris, and to reside there on his parole. He applied for leave to go to
Vienna, pledging himself to return again a prisoner to France if the
Emperor Francis would not consent to exchange him for Generals Wrignon
and Grouchy, then prisoners in Austria. His request was not granted, but
his proposition was forwarded to Vienna. The Court of Vienna refused to
accede to it, not placing perhaps so much importance on the deliverance
of Mack as he had flattered himself it would.
Bonaparte speaking to me of him one day said, "Mack is a man of the
lowest mediocrity I ever saw in my life; he is full of self-sufficiency
and conceit, and believes himself equal to anything. He has no talent.
I should like to see him opposed some day to one of our good generals;
we should then see fine work. He is a boaster, and that is all. He is
really one of the most silly men existing; and, besides all that, he is
unlucky." Was not this opinion of Bonaparte, formed on the past, fully
verified by the future?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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