Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. XXIII.—April, 1852.—Vol. IV.: NoneVarious
General
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. XXIII.—April, 1852.—Vol. IV.: None
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
Let every publicity be given to what is
done."
[Footnote 3: "Fouché," said Napoleon, "is a miscreant of all colors, a
priest, a terrorist, and one who took an active part in many bloody
scenes of the Revolution. He is a man who can worm all your secrets out
of you, with an air of calmness and unconcern. He is very rich; but his
riches have been badly acquired. He never was my confidant. Never did he
approach me without bending to the ground. But I never had any esteem
for him. I employed him merely as an instrument."]
The Council of Five Hundred, in great confusion and bewilderment,
assembled at eleven o'clock. Lucien immediately communicated the decree
transferring their session to St. Cloud. This cut off all debate. The
decree was perfectly legal. There could therefore be no legal pretext
for opposition. Napoleon, the idol of the army, had the whole military
power obedient to his nod. Therefore resistance of any kind was worse
than folly. The deed was adroitly done. At eleven o'clock the day's work
was accomplished. There was no longer a Directory. Napoleon was the
appointed chief of the troops, and they were filling the streets with
enthusiastic shouts of "Live Napoleon." The Council of Ancients were
entirely at his disposal. And a large party in the Council of Five
Hundred were also wholly subservient to his will. Napoleon, proud,
silent, reserved, fully conscious of his own intellectual supremacy, and
regarding the generals, the statesmen, and the multitude around him, as
a man contemplates children, ascended the grand staircase of the
Tuileries as if it were his hereditary home. Nearly all parties united
to sustain his triumph. Napoleon was a soldier. The guns of Paris
joyfully thundered forth the victory of one who seemed the peculiar
favorite of the God of war. Napoleon was a scholar, stimulating
intellect to its mightiest achievements. The scholars of Paris,
gratefully united to weave a chaplet for the brow of their honored
associate and patron. Napoleon was, for those days of profligacy and
unbridled lust, a model of purity of morals, and of irreproachable
integrity. The proffered bribe of millions could not tempt him. The
dancing daughters of Herodias, with all their blandishments, could not
lure him from his life of Herculean toil and from his majestic
patriotism. The wine which glitters in the cup, never vanquished him. At
the shrine of no vice was he found a worshiper. The purest and the best
in France, disgusted with that gilded corruption which had converted the
palaces of the Bourbons into harems of voluptuous sin, and still more
deeply loathing that vulgar and revolting vice, which had transformed
Paris into a house of infamy, enlisted all their sympathies in behalf of
the exemplary husband and the incorruptible patriot. Napoleon was one of
the most firm and unflinching friends of law and order. France was weary
of anarchy and was trembling under the apprehension that the gutters of
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