Count Segur relates that, after the battle of Borodino, when Napoleon
and his escort were going over the field, a horse stepped on a dying
man, who expired with a groan. Napoleon uttered a shriek of pain. Some
one, to soothe him, said, "It was only a Russian." With much warmth,
Napoleon replied, "After victory there are no enemies, but only men."
His despatch was marvellous. He was generous, and never forgot the
poorest who needed his kindness. He was ambitious; but Europe, fearing
him, forced him into many of his wars. He knew how to govern himself as
well as others. He said of Lannes, one of his generals who lost his
temper, that a man could not be great who permitted himself to get
angry. The officer heard of this remark, and ever after controlled his
temper.
Napoleon was more moral than his age. He loved children and nature. "How
many times," says Bourrienne, as they walked toward Rueil from
Malmaison, "has the bell of the village church interrupted our most
serious conversations! He would stop, lest the noise of our footsteps
should drown any portion of the delightful sound."
He believed, in an age of unbelief. He said to Bertrand at St. Helena,
"I know men, and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a man....
Everything in him astonishes me. His spirit overawes me, and his will
confounds me. Between him and whoever else in the world there is no
possible term of comparison."
Napoleon compared the reign of Christ with that of Cæsar, Alexander,
Hannibal, and of himself; "My armies have forgotten me, even while
living, as the Carthaginian army forgot Hannibal. Such is our power! A
single battle lost crushes us, and adversity scatters our friends....
What an abyss between my deep misery and the eternal reign of Christ,
which is proclaimed, loved, adored, and which is extended over all the
earth! Is this to die? Is it not rather to live? The death of Christ! It
is the death of God."
The life of Napoleon, truly called "the Great," is more interesting and
pathetic than any novel. It will always remain one of the marvels of the
world.
[Illustration: LORD NELSON.]
HORATIO NELSON.
It is a significant fact that the life of a leader is never an easy one.
Nelson's life was one of struggle from beginning to end; a battle with
poverty, lack of appreciation ofttimes by his country, much ill-health,
domestic disquietude, and many hardships. He died at forty-seven, the
greatest naval hero of the age.
Horatio Nelson, the son of a country rector, the Rev. Edmund Nelson, was
born Sept. 29, 1758, at Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, England. The mother,
Catherine, was descended from a good family, her grandmother being an
elder sister of Sir Robert Walpole, Earl of Oxford. Catherine died when
her little son, Horatio, was nine years old, leaving eight out of eleven
children to mourn their capable mother. Nelson said of her later, just a
short time before he died, "The thought of former days brings all my
mother into my heart, which shows itself in my eyes."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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