Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, January 1885Various
General
Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, January 1885
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Literature -- Periodicals
or dishonorable, than _Jonathan_, though his great abilities, and
the great stakes he played for, threw the knavery into the shade.”
Again, he tells the following of Napoleon: “Buonaparte’s mind was,
in its details, low and ungentlemanlike. I suppose the narrowness of
his early prospects and habits stuck to him; what _we_ understand by
_gentlemanlike_ feelings he knew nothing at all about; I’ll give you a
curious instance.
“I have a beautiful little watch, made by Breguet, at Paris, with a
map of Spain most admirably enamelled on the case. Sir Edward Paget
bought it at Paris, and gave it to me. What do you think the history
of this watch was—at least the history that Breguet told Paget, and
Paget told me? Buonaparte had ordered it as a present to his brother,
the King of Spain, but when he heard of the battle of Vittoria—he was
then at Dresden in the midst of all the preparations and negotiations
of the armistice, and one would think sufficiently busy with other
matters—when he heard of the battle of Vittoria, I say, he remembered
the watch he had ordered for one whom he saw would never be King of
Spain, and with whom he was angry for the loss of the battle, and
he wrote from Dresden to countermand the watch, and if it should be
ready, to forbid its being sent. The best apology one can make for this
strange littleness is, that he was offended with Joseph; but even in
that case, a _gentleman_ would not have taken the moment when the poor
devil had lost his _châteaux en Espagne_, to take away his watch also.”
In a letter to Croker, the duke tells the story of the truth of his
order to the Household troops at Waterloo, “Up, Guards, and at ’em,”
so often quoted as the _mot d’ordre_ of that famous charge which
finally decided the day: “I certainly did not draw my sword. I may have
ordered, and I dare say I did order, the charge of the cavalry, and
pointed out its direction; but I did not charge as a common trooper.
“I have at all times been in the habit of covering as much as possible
the troops exposed to the fire of cannon. I place them behind the top of
the rising ground, and make them sit and lie down, the better to cover
them from the fire.
“After the fire of the enemy’s cannon, the enemy’s troops may have
advanced, or a favorable opportunity of attacking might have arrived.
What I must have said, and possibly did say was, Stand up, Guards! and
then gave the commanding officers the order to attack.
“My common practice in a defensive position was to attack the enemy at
the very moment at which he was about to attack our troops.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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