Wanderings in Corsica: Its History and Its Heroes. Vol. 2 of 2Gregorovius, Ferdinand
History
Wanderings in Corsica: Its History and Its Heroes. Vol. 2 of 2
Gregorovius, Ferdinand
Corsica (France) -- Description and travel; Corsica (France) -- History
He went out shooting on occasion of that visit to Ajaccio, and spent a
day in Milelli, where he wrote the pamphlet against Buttafucco. How many
wonderful deeds lay already behind him! how many princes and peoples
had the might of his sword and the thunder of his phrases already
overthrown! He called his herdsmen about him, and richly rewarded that
Bagaglino who had aided him in carrying out his first _coup d'état_.
He distributed his herds and his lands. His nurse, too, Camilla Ilari,
came to see him: she embraced him weeping; and as she presented him
with a flask of milk she had brought, said in her _naïve_ and simple
way: "My son, I gave you the milk of my heart—take now the milk of my
goat." Napoleon gave her a comfortable house in Ajaccio, and a large
extent of arable land; and when he became Emperor, he added a pension of
3600 francs. After remaining six days in Corsica, he again sailed from
Ajaccio for France.
He never afterwards visited his native island; but fate one day gave
him a sight of it, when, a defeated man, whom history had laid aside
as no longer available for its aims, he stood upon the narrow cliff of
Elba. Then ironic destiny showed him the obscure corner from which, as
a child of fortune, he had issued into the world to seek a career.
Later, on St. Helena, his thoughts constantly recurred to Corsica.
People on their deathbeds usually wander back in imagination through
the course of their lives, and dwell with greatest pleasure on
their childhood. He spoke a great deal of his native island. In the
Commentaries, he says on one occasion: "My good Corsicans were not
contented with me in the time of the Consulate and the Empire. They
affirmed I had done little for my country.... Those who hated me, and
still more those who envied me, were continually on the watch; all
that I did for my Corsicans was cried down as a theft and an injustice
to the French. This necessary policy had turned away the hearts of my
countrymen from me, and made them cold towards me. I pity them, but I
could not act otherwise. When the Corsicans saw me unfortunate, abused
by many an ungrateful Frenchman—when they saw all Europe in conspiracy
against me, they forgot all, like men of steadfast and incorruptible
virtue, and were ready to sacrifice themselves for me if I had
wished.... What memories Corsica has left me! I think with joy still
on its fair regions, on its mountains; I remember still the fragrance
that it exhales. I should have bettered the lot of my beautiful Corsica,
I should have made my fellow-countrymen happy; but days of misfortune
came, and I have not been able to carry out my plans."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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