When, and O when, does this little Boney come?
Perhaps he’ll come in August, perhaps he’ll stay at home;
But it’s O in my heart, how I’ll hide him should he come.
Where, and O where, does this little Boney dwell?
His birth-place is in Corsica—but France he likes so well,
That it’s O the poor French, how they crouch beneath his spell.
What cloathes, and what cloathes, does this little Boney wear?
He wears a large cock’d hat, for to make the people stare;
But it’s O my oak stick! I’d advise him to take care!
What shall be done, should this little Boney die?
Nine cats shall squall his dirge, in sweet melodious cry;
And it’s O in my heart, if a tear shall dim my eye!
Yet still he boldly brags, with consequence full cramm’d,
On England’s happy island his legions he will land;
But it’s O in my heart, if he does, may I be d—d.’
In June of this year, Bonaparte, and Josephine, took a tour into Belgium, and the Côtes du Nord. What it was like, cannot better be told than in the words of De Bourrienne. ‘Bonaparte left Paris on June 3: and, although it was not for upwards of a year afterwards, that his brow was encircled with the imperial diadem, everything connected with the journey, had an imperial air. It was formerly the custom, when the kings of France entered the ancient capital of Picardy, for the town of Amiens to offer them, in homage, some beautiful swans. Care was taken to revive this custom, which pleased Bonaparte greatly, because it was treating him like a king. The swans were accepted, and sent to Paris, to be placed in the basin of the Tuileries, in order to show the Parisians, the royal homage which the First Consul received, when absent from the Capital.’ So it was all through his progress. The caricature here described is, of course, exaggerated, but it shows the feeling which animated the popular breast on this particular journey.
‘Boney at Brussels’ is by I. Cruikshank (August 14, 1803), and here he is represented seated on a throne, with a Mameluke, armed with sword and pistol, on each side of him. He is provided with a huge fork in each hand, with which he is greedily feeding himself from dishes provided in the most humble and abject manner by all kinds of great dignitaries.
He has his mouth full of an ‘Address to the Deified Consul.’ The next morsel, which is on one of the forks, is ‘To the Grand Consular Deity,’ and the other fork is dug well into ‘We burn with desire to lick the Dust of your Deified feet.’ A prelate begs him to ‘Accept the Keys of Heaven and Hell;’ and other dishes are labelled ‘Act of Submission,’ ‘Your most abject Slave, Terror of France,’ and ‘The Idol of our Hearts, Livers, Lights, Guts, and Garbage, Souls and all.’
‘John Bull out of all Patience!!’ is by Roberts (August 16, 1803), and represents him in a Cavalry uniform, and a most towering rage, astride of the British Lion, which is swimming across to France. He is shouting out, ‘I’ll be after you, my lads—do you think I’ll stay at home waiting for you? If you mean to come, d—n it, why don’t you come? do you think I put on my regimentals for nothing?’ Boney and his army are running away, the former calling out ‘Dat is right my brave Friends, take to your heels, for here is dat dam Jean Bool coming over on his Lion.’
The subjoined illustration also does duty for ‘The Sorrows of Boney, or Meditations in the Island of Elba, April, 15, 1814,’ but, having priority, it appears here as:—