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
and our college intimacy was fully renewed. I was not very well off, and
adversity was hanging heavily on him; his resources frequently failed
him. We passed our time like two young fellows of twenty-three who have
little money and less occupation. Bonaparte was always poorer than I.
Every day we conceived some new project or other. We were on the
look-out for some profitable speculation. At one time he wanted me to
join him in renting several houses, then building in the Rue Montholon,
to underlet them afterwards. We found the demands of the landlords
extravagant--everything failed.
At the same time he was soliciting employment at the War Office, and I at
the office of Foreign Affairs. I was for the moment the luckier of the
two.
While we were spending our time in a somewhat vagabond way,
--[It was before the 20th of June that in our frequent excursions
around Paris we went to St. Cyr to see his sister Marianne (Elisa).
We returned to dine alone at Trianon.--Bourrienne.]--
the 20th of June arrived. We met by appointment at a restaurateur's in
the Rue St. Honore, near the Palais Royal, to take one of our daily
rambles. On going out we saw approaching, in the direction of the
market, a mob, which Bonaparte calculated at five or six thousand men.
They were all in rags, ludicrously armed with weapons of every
description, and were proceeding hastily towards the Tuilleries,
vociferating all kinds of gross abuse. It was a collection of all that
was most vile and abject in the purlieus of Paris. "Let us follow the
mob," said Bonaparte. We got the start of them, and took up our station
on the terrace of the banks of the river. It was there that he witnessed
the scandalous scenes which took place; and it would be difficult to
describe the surprise and indignation which they excited in him. When
the King showed himself at the windows overlooking the garden, with the
red cap, which one of the mob had put on his head, he could no longer
repress his indignation. "Che coglione!"
he loudly exclaimed. "Why have they let in all that rabble! They should
sweep off four or five hundred of them with the cannon; the rest would
then set off fast enough."
When we sat down to dinner, which I paid for, as I generally did, for I
was the richer of the two, he spoke of nothing but the scene we had
witnessed. He discussed with great good sense the causes and
consequences of this unrepressed insurrection. He foresaw and developed
with sagacity all that would ensue. He was not mistaken. The 10th of
August soon arrived. I was then at Stuttgart, where I was appointed
Secretary of Legation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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