Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Volume II.Scott, Walter
History
Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Volume II.
Scott, Walter
France -- History -- 1789-1815; Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821
Towards the end of October 1797, the Directory announced, that there
should be instantly assembled on the shores of the ocean an army, to be
called the Army of England, and that the Citizen-General Buonaparte was
named to the command. The intelligence was received in every part of
France with all the triumph which attends the anticipation of certain
victory. The address of the Directory numbered all the conquests which
France had won, and the efforts she had made, and prepared the French
nation to expect the fruit of so many victories and sacrifices when they
had punished England for her perfidy and maritime tyranny. "It is at
London where the misfortunes of all Europe are forged and
manufactured--It is in London that they must be terminated." In a solemn
meeting held by the Directory, for the purpose of receiving the treaty
of peace with Austria, which was presented to them by Berthier and Monge
on the part of Buonaparte, the latter, who had been one of the
commissioners for pillaging Italy of her pictures and statues, and who
looked, doubtless, to a new harvest of rarities in England, accepted, on
the part of the army and general, the task imposed by the French rulers.
"The Government of England and the French Republic cannot both continue
to exist--you have given the word which shall fall--already our
victorious troops brandish their arms, and Scipio is at their head."
[Sidenote: PARIS--MADAME DE STAËL.]
[Sidenote: Dec. 5.]
While this farce, for such it proved, was acting in Paris, the chief of
the intended enterprise arrived there, and took up his abode in the same
modest house which he had occupied before becoming the conqueror of
palaces. The community of Paris, with much elegance, paid their
successful general the compliment of changing the name of the street
from Rue Chantereine to Rue de la Victoire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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