Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. V, No. XXV, June, 1852Various
General
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. V, No. XXV, June, 1852
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
Napoleon has been accused of an improper affection for Hortense. The
world has been filled with the slander. Says Bourrienne, "Napoleon
never cherished for her any feeling but a real paternal tenderness. He
loved her after his marriage with her mother, as he would have loved
his own child. At least for three years I was a witness to all their
most private actions, and I declare I never saw any thing that could
furnish the least ground for suspicion, nor the slightest trace of
a culpable intimacy. This calumny must be classed among those which
malice delights to take in the character of men who become celebrated,
calumnies which are adopted lightly and without reflection. Napoleon
is no more. Let his memory be accompanied only by that, be it good or
bad, which really took place. Let not this reproach be made a charge
against him by the impartial historian. I must say, in conclusion, on
this delicate subject, that his principles were rigid in an extreme
degree, and that any fault of the nature charged, neither entered his
mind, nor was in accordance with his morals or his taste."
At St. Helena Napoleon was one day looking over a book containing an
account of his amours. He smiled as he glanced his eye over the pages,
saying, "I do not even know the names of most of the females who are
mentioned here. This is all very foolish. Every body knows that I had
no _time_ for such dissipation."
THE CHURCH OF THE CUP OF COLD WATER.
One beautiful evening, in the year 1815, the parish priest of San
Pietro, a village a few miles distant from Sevilla, returned much
fatigued to his little cottage, where he found his aged housekeeper,
the Señora Margarita, watching for him. Notwithstanding that one is
well accustomed to the sight of poverty in Spain, it was impossible
to help being struck by the utter destitution which appeared in the
house of the good priest; the more so, as every imaginable contrivance
had been resorted to, to hide the nakedness of the walls, and the
shabbiness of the furniture. Margarita had prepared for her master's
supper a rather small dish of _olla-podriga_, which consisted, to say
the truth, of the remains of the dinner, seasoned and disguised with
great skill, and with the addition of some sauce, and a _name_. As she
placed the savory dish upon the table, the priest said: "We should
thank God for this good supper, Margarita; this olla-podriga makes
one's mouth water. My friend, you ought to be grateful for finding so
good a supper at the house of your host!" At the word host, Margarita
raised her eyes, and saw a stranger, who had followed her master. Her
countenance changed, and she looked annoyed. She glanced indignantly
first at the unknown, and then at the priest, who, looking down, said
in a low voice, and with the timidity of a child: "What is enough for
two, is always enough for three; and surely you would not wish that I
should allow a Christian to die of hunger? He has not tasted food for
two days."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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