“As to the Emperor Francis, his good-nature is well known, and makes him constantly the dupe of the designing. His son will be like him.
“The King of Prussia, as a private character, is an honourable, good, and worthy man; but, in his political capacity, he is naturally disposed to yield to necessity: you are his master so long as you have power on your side, and your arm is uplifted to strike.
“As for the Emperor of Russia, he is a man infinitely superior to these: he possesses wit, grace, information; he is fascinating, but he is not to be trusted: he is devoid of candour, a true Greek of the Lower Empire. At the same time he is not without ideology, real or assumed:—after all, it may only be a smattering derived from his education and his preceptor. Would you believe,” said the Emperor, “what I had to discuss with him? He maintained that inheritance is an abuse in monarchy, and I had to spend more than an hour, and employ all my eloquence and logic, in proving to him that this right constitutes the peace and happiness of the people. It may be, too, that he was mystifying; for he is cunning, false, and expert . . . . . . . . .; he will push his fortunes. If I die here, he will be my real heir in Europe. I alone was able to stop him with his deluge of Tartars. The crisis is great, and will have lasting effects upon the Continent of Europe, especially upon Constantinople: he was solicitous with me for the possession of it. I have had much coaxing on this subject; but I constantly turned a deaf ear to it. It was necessary that that empire, shattered as it appeared, should constantly remain a point of separation between us; it was the marsh that prevented my right from being turned. As to Greece, it is another matter!” And, after talking awhile upon that country, he renewed the subject: “Greece awaits a liberator! There will be a brilliant crown of glory! He will inscribe his name for ever with those of Homer, Plato, and Epaminondas!—I perhaps was not far from it, when, during my campaign in Italy, arrived on the shores of the Adriatic, I wrote to the Directory, that I had before my eyes the kingdom of Alexander!—Still later I entered into engagements with Ali Pacha; and when Corfu was taken from us, they must have found there ammunition and a complete equipment for an army of forty or fifty thousand men. I had caused maps to be made of Macedonia, Servia, Albania, &c. Greece, the Peloponnesus at least, must be the lot of that European power which shall possess Egypt. It should be ours.”
END OF VOL. I.
ANDOVER: STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY B. BENSLEY.
Footnotes
[1]. I had put in the text une véritable Journée des Eperons,[[2]] and must not omit to state what led to its being expunged.
The Emperor who alone knew I kept a journal at St. Helena, one day expressed a wish that I should read a few pages to him: on coming to this expression, inadvertently thrown in, he suddenly exclaimed, “What have you done! Erase, erase, sir, quickly! Une Journée des Eperons! what a calumny! Ah! unfortunate army! brave men! you never fought better!” Then after a pause of a few moments, he added in a tone expressive of deep feeling:—“We had some base wretches amongst us! May heaven forgive them! But as to France, will she ever recover from the effects of that ill-fated day!”
[2]. In allusion to the battle of Guinegatte, fought near Boulogne in 1513, between the army of Henry VIII. and that of France. The French were completely routed on this occasion, and the celebrated Bayard taken prisoner while covering the retreat; this was so precipitate that the day was ever after styled La Journée des Eperons (or day of spurs), because as stated by contemporary historians, the French army made more use of their spurs than lances.—Editor.