Pencillings by the Way: Written During Some Years of Residence and Travel in EuropeWillis, Nathaniel Parker
General
Pencillings by the Way: Written During Some Years of Residence and Travel in Europe
Willis, Nathaniel Parker
Europe -- Description and travel
The majestic sounds were still rolling through the dome when we came
to the monument of _Turenne_. Here is another comment on the character
of Bonaparte's mind. There was once a long inscription on this
monument, describing, in the fulsome style of an epitaph, the deeds
and virtues of the distinguished man who is buried beneath. The
emperor removed and replaced it by a small slab, graven with the
single word TURENNE. You acknowledge the sublimity of this as you
stand before it. Everything is in keeping with its grandeur. The lofty
proportions and magnificence of the dome, the tangible trophies of
glory, and the maimed and venerable figures, kneeling about the altar,
of those who helped to win them, are circumstances that make that
eloquent word as articulate as if it were spoken in thunder. You feel
that Napoleon's spirit might walk the place, and read the hearts of
those who should visit it, unoffended.
We passed on to the library. It is ornamented with the portraits of
all the generals of Napoleon, save one. _Ney's_ is not there. It
should, and will be, at some time or other, doubtless; but I wonder
that, in a day when such universal justice is done to the memory of
this brave man, so obvious and it would seem necessary a reparation
should not be demanded. Great efforts have been making of late to get
his sentence publicly reversed, but, though they deny his widow and
children nothing else, this melancholy and unavailing satisfaction is
refused them. Ney's memory little needs it, it is true. No visiter
looks about the gallery at the _Invalides_ without commenting
feelingly on the omission of his portrait; and probably no one of the
scarred veterans who sit there, reading their own deeds in history,
looks round on the faces of the old leaders of whom it tells, without
remembering and feeling that the brightest name upon the page is
wanting. I would rather, if I were his son, have the regret than the
justice.
We left the hospital, as all must leave it, full of Napoleon. France
is full of him. The monuments and the hearts of the people, all are
alive with his name and glory. Disapprove and detract from his
reputation as you will (and as powerful minds, with apparent justice,
_have_ done), as long as human nature is what it is, as long as power
and loftiness of heart hold their present empire over the imagination,
Napoleon is immortal.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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