The Memoirs of Mr. Charles J. YellowplushThackeray, William Makepeace
General
The Memoirs of Mr. Charles J. Yellowplush
Thackeray, William Makepeace
Didactic fiction; England -- Fiction; Household employees -- Fiction; Humorous stories; Master and servant -- Fiction
“No one was so likely to be able to defeat Bonaparte as the Crown
Prince, from the intimate knowledge he possessed of his character.
Bernadotte was also instigated against Bonaparte by one who not only
owed him a personal hatred, but who possessed a mind equal to his, and
who gave the Crown Prince both information and advice how to act. This
was no less a person than Madame de Stael. It was not, as some have
asserted, THAT SHE WAS IN LOVE WITH BERNADOTTE; for, at the time of
their intimacy, MADAME DE STAEL WAS IN LOVE WITH ROCCA. But she used her
influence (which was not small) with the Crown Prince, to make him
fight against Bonaparte, and to her wisdom may be attributed much of the
success which accompanied his attack upon him. Bernadotte has raised the
flame of liberty, which seems fortunately to blaze all around. May it
liberate Europe; and from the ashes of the laurel may olive branches
spring up, and overshadow the earth!”
There's a discuvery! that the overthrow of Boneypart is owing to MADAME
DE STAEL! What nonsince for Colonel Southey or Doctor Napier to write
histories of the war with that Capsican hupstart and murderer, when here
we have the whole affair explaned by the lady of honor!
“Sunday, April 10, 1814.--The incidents which take place every hour are
miraculous. Bonaparte is deposed, but alive; subdued, but allowed to
choose his place of residence. The island of Elba is the spot he has
selected for his ignominious retreat. France is holding forth repentant
arms to her banished sovereign. The Poissardes who dragged Louis XVI.
to the scaffold are presenting flowers to the Emperor of Russia,
the restorer of their legitimate king! What a stupendous field for
philosophy to expatiate in! What an endless material for thought! What
humiliation to the pride of mere human greatness! How are the mighty
fallen! Of all that was great in Napoleon, what remains? Despoiled
of his usurped power, he sinks to insignificance. There was no
moral greatness in the man. The meteor dazzled, scorched, is put
out,--utterly, and for ever. But the power which rests in those who have
delivered the nations from bondage, is a power that is delegated to them
from heaven; and the manner in which they have used it is a guarantee
for its continuance. The Duke of Wellington has gained laurels unstained
by any useless flow of blood. He has done more than conquer others--he
has conquered himself: and in the midst of the blaze and flush of
victory, surrounded by the homage of nations, he has not been betrayed
into the commission of any act of cruelty or wanton offence. He was as
cool and self-possessed under the blaze and dazzle of fame as a common
man would be under the shade of his garden-tree, or by the hearth of his
home. But the tyrant who kept Europe in awe is now a pitiable object for
scorn to point the finger of derision at: and humanity shudders as it
remembers the scourge with which this man's ambition was permitted to
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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