‘Thenceforth the French, in Egypt, only marched from victory to victory, until the departure of Napoleon for France.
‘We believe that all the deeds with which the red man has been credited are only fables which conjecturors have invented; but, at least, in him they discover the emblem of a good Genius, who pointed out to Buonaparte what he ought to do to assure at least the love and gratitude of the people. But an evil Genius, whom they suppose to have been clothed in green, appeared to him at St. Cloud, at the time of the 18th Brumaire, and gave him counsels, which prevailed, for the misfortune of the world, over those of the red man, and led him to his ruin.’
Balzac, in a delicious booklet,[36] in which an old soldier gives the history of his beloved Emperor, makes him say, ‘There is one thing which it would be unjust, if I did not tell you: In Egypt, in the Desert, near Syria, The Red Man appeared to him, in the mountain of Moses, to tell him, “All went well.”
‘Then at Marengo, on the evening of the Victory, he saw, standing before him, the Red Man, who said to him:
‘“Thou shalt see the world at thy feet, and thou shalt be Emperor of the French, King of Italy, Master of Holland, Sovereign of Spain, Portugal, the Illyrian Provinces, Protector of Germany, Saviour of Poland, First Eagle of the Legion of Honour.”
‘This Red Man, do you see, was his idea, his own: a kind of lackey, who helped him, as many say, to communicate with his star. I, myself, have never believed that but the Red Man is a veritable fact, and Napoleon has spoken of him himself, and has said that he visits him in troublous moments, and that he stays at the palace of the Tuileries, in the upper apartments. Then at his Coronation, Napoleon saw him, in the evening, for the third time, and they were in deliberation about many things. Then the Emperor went straight to Milan to crown himself King of Italy....
‘At length we found ourselves, one morning, encamped at Moskowa.[37] It was there that I gained the Cross, and I take the liberty of saying that it was a cursed battle! The Emperor was uneasy: he had seen the Red Man, who said to him:
‘“My child, thou art going too fast, men will fail thee, and friends will betray thee.”’
And the old soldier, almost at the end of his story, says, ‘The remainder is sufficiently well known. The Red Man passed over to the Bourbons, like a scoundrel, as he is. France is crushed,’ &c.
It is needless to say that this legend was known in England, and was not lost sight of by the satirist.