[19] "To dissipate the royalists, and to batter the Parisians even at their firesides."
[20] "At break of day the Austrians commenced the attack, at first gently enough, afterwards more briskly, and at last with such fury, that the French were broken on all sides. At this frightful moment, when the dead and the dying strewed the earth, the first Consul, placed in the middle of his guard, appeared immoveable, insensible, and as if struck by thunder. In vain his Generals sent him their Aides de Camp, one after another, to demand assistance. In vain did the Aides de Camp wait his orders. He gave none. He scarcely exhibited signs of life. Many thought, that, believing the battle lost, he wished himself to be killed. Others, with more reason, persuaded themselves, that he had lost all power of thought, and that he neither heard nor saw what was said or what passed about him. General Berthier came to beg he would instantly withdraw; instead of answering him, he lay down on the ground. In the meantime, the French fled as fast as possible. The battle was lost, when suddenly we heard it said, that General Dessaix was coming up with fresh troops. Presently we saw him appear at their head. The runaways rallied behind his columns. Their courage returned—fortune changed. The French attacked in their turn, with the same fury with which, they had been attacked; they burned to efface the shame of their defeat in the morning."
[21] "I die regretting that I have not lived long enough for my country."
[22] We may lay it down as a maxim, that in every state the desire of glory exists with the liberty of the subjects, and diminishes with the same; glory is never the companion of servitude.
[23] "The youth of the present day are brought up in very different principles: the love of glory, above all, has taken deep root; it has become the distinguishing attribute of the national character, exalted by twenty years of continued success. But this very glory was become our idol; it absorbed all the thoughts of the brave fellows whose wounds had rendered them unfit for service—all the hopes of the youthful warriors who for the first time bore arms; an unlooked-for blow has been struck, and we now find in our hearts a blank similar to that which a lover feels who has lost the object of his passion; every thing he sees, every thing he hears, renews his grief. This sentiment renders our situation vague and painful; every one seeks to hide from himself the void which he feels exist in his heart. He is looked upon as humbled, after twenty years of continued triumph, for having lost a single stake, which unfortunately was the stake of honour, and which had become the rule of our destinies."—Caront's Memoir.
[24] "The French are the only people in the universe could laugh even while freezing."
[25] "Well, there's more materials—more flesh for the cannon!"
[26] "My faith, there's a fine consumption." The word Consommation, is also a mess, a finishing. It is not easy to say whether it was used in one or all of these senses by Napoleon.
[27] "It was icy cold. The dying were yet breathing; the crowd of dead bodies, and the black gaps which the blood had made in the snow, were horribly contrasted. The staff were sensibly affected. The Emperor alone looked coolly on that scene of mourning and of blood. I pushed my horse a few paces before his, for I was anxious to observe him at such a moment. You would have said that he was devoid of every human feeling; that all that surrounded him existed but for him. He spoke coolly on the events of the evening before. In passing before a groupe of Russian grenadiers who had been massacred, the horse of one of the aides-de-camp started. The Emperor perceived it: "That horse (said he, coldly) is a coward."
[28] "Workmen who had just left their workshops, peasants escaped from the villages, with bonnets on their heads, and a staff in their hands, in six months became intrepid soldiers, and in two years skilful officers and generals, formidable to the oldest generals in Europe."