Ten Years' Exile: Memoirs of That Interesting Period of the Life of the Baroness De Stael-Holstein, Written by Herself, during the Years 1810, 1811, 1812, and 1813, and Now First Published from the Original Manuscript, by Her Son.Staël, Madame de (Anne-Louise-Germaine)
History
Ten Years' Exile: Memoirs of That Interesting Period of the Life of the Baroness De Stael-Holstein, Written by Herself, during the Years 1810, 1811, 1812, and 1813, and Now First Published from the Original Manuscript, by Her Son.
Staël, Madame de (Anne-Louise-Germaine)
Authors, French -- 19th century -- Biography; France -- History -- Consulate and First Empire, 1799-1815; France -- Intellectual life -- 19th century; Intellectuals -- France -- Biography; Staël, Madame de (Anne-Louise-Germaine), 1766-1817; Women -- France -- Intellectual life
(I have made kings, madam, and have not wished to be one:) promising
himself to be more than a king, when the opportunity should offer.
Every day some fresh blunder of this poor king of Etruria was the
subject of conversation: he was taken to the Museum, to the Cabinet
of Natural History, and some of his questions about quadrupeds and
fishes, which a well educated child of twelve years old would have
been ashamed to put, were quoted as proofs of intelligence. In the
evening, he was conducted to entertainments, where the female opera
dancers came and mixed with the ladies of the new court; the little
monarch, in spite of his devotion, preferred dancing with them, and
in return sent them next day presents of elegant and good books for
their instruction. This period of transition from revolutionary
habits to monarchical pretensions in France, was a most singular
one; as there was as little independence in the one, as dignity in
the other, their absurdities harmonised perfectly together; each of
them in their own way formed a group round the parti-coloured
potentate, who at the same time employed the forcible means of both
regimes.
For the last time, the 14th of July, the anniversary of the
revolution, was celebrated this year, and a pompous proclamation was
put forth to remind the people of the advantages resulting from that
day, not one of which advantages the first consul had not made up
his mind to destroy. Of all the collections that were ever made,
that of the proclamations of this man is the most singular: it is a
complete encyclopedia of contradictions; and if chaos itself were
employed to instruct the earth, it would doubtless, in a similar
way, throw at the heads of mankind, eulogiums of peace and war, of
knowledge and prejudices, of liberty and despotism, praises and
insults upon all governments and all religions.
It was at this period that Bonaparte sent General Leclerc to Saint
Domingo, and designated him in his decree our brother-in-law. This
first royal we, which associated the French with the prosperity of
this family, was a most bitter pill to me. He obliged his beautiful
sister to accompany her husband to Saint Domingo, where her health
was completely ruined: a singular act of despotism for a man who is
not accustomed to great severity of principles in those about his
person; but he makes use of morality only to harass some and dazzle
others. A peace was in the sequel concluded with the chief of the
negroes, Toussaint-Louverture. This man was, no doubt, a great
criminal, but Bonaparte had signed conditions with him, in complete
violation of which Toussaint was conducted to a prison in France,
where he ended his days in the most miserable manner. Perhaps
Bonaparte himself hardly recollects this crime, because he has been
less reproached with it than others.
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