The life of Napoleon Buonaparte, emperor of the French. By Sir Walter Scott.

LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 179
by the destruction of the hopes of the house of Botr- fered her share of revolutionary miseries. After her
heon under the reviving influence of wlich, twenty husband, General Beauharnais, had been deprived
years afterwards, he himself was obliged to succumb. of his command, she was arrested as a suspected
Butthe long path which closed so darkly was now person, and detained in prison till the general liberaopening upon him in light and joy. Bonaparte's high tion, which succeeded the revolution of 9th Therservices, and the rank which he had obtained, midor. While in confinement, Madame Beauharnais
rendered him now a young man of the first hope and had formed an intimacy'with a companion in disexpectation, mingling on terms of consideration tress, Madame Fontenai, now Madame Tallien, from
) among the rulers of the state, instead of being re- which she derived great advantages after her ti-iend's
garded as a neglected stranger, supporting himself marriage. With a remarkably graceful person,
with difficulty, and haunting public offices and bu- amiable manners, and an inexhaustible fund of goodreaux in vain, to obtain some chance of preferment, humour, Madame Beauharnais was formed to be an
or even emp!oyment. ornament to society. Barras, the thermidorien hero,
From second in command, the new general soon himself an ex-noble, was fond of society, desirous of'
became General-in-chief of the Army of the Interior, enjoying it on an agreeable scale, and of washing
Barras having found his duties as a Director were away the dregs which jacobinism had mingled with
incompatible with those of military command. He all the dearest interests of life. He loved show, too,
employed his genius, equally prompt and profound, and pleasure, and might now indulge both without
in improving the state of the military forces; and, in the risk of falling under the suspicion of incivism,
order to prevent the recurrence of such insurrections which, in the reign of Terror, would have been inas that of the 13th Venddmiaire; or Day of the Sec- curred by any attempt to intermingle elegance with
tions, and as the many others by which it was the enjoyments of social intercourse. At the apartpreceded, he appointed and organized a guard for ments which he occupied, as one of the Directory,
the protection of the representative body. in the Luxembourg Palace, he gave its free course
As the dearth of bread, and other causes of to his natural taste, and assembled an agreeable
I disaffection, continued to produce commotions in society of both sexes. Madame Tallien and her
Paris, the General of the Interior was sometimes friend formed the soul of these assemblies, and it
obliged to oppose them with the military force. On was supposed that Barras was not insensible to the
one occasion, it is said, that when Bonaparte was charms of Madame Beauharnais,-a rumour which
anxiously admonishing the multitude to disperse, a was likely to arise, whether with or without foundavery bulky woman exhorted them to keep their tion.
ground. " Never mind these coxcombs with the When Madame Beauharnais and General Bonaepaulets," she said; " they do not care if we are parte became intimate, the latter assures us, and
all starved, so they themselves feed and get fat." we see no reason to doubt him, that although the,
-" Look at me, good woman," said Bonaparte, lady was two or three years older than himself,* yet
who was then as thin as a shadow," and tell me being still in the full bloom of beauty, and extremely
which is the fatter of us two." This turned the agreeable in her manners, he was induced, solely
laugh against the Amazon, and the rabble dispersed by her personal charms, to make her an offer of his
in good humour. If not among the most distinguish- hand, heart, and fortunes,-little supposing, of
ed of Napoleon's victories, this is certainly worthy course, to what a pitch the latter were to arise.
of record, as achieved at the least cost. Although he himself is said to have been a faMeantime circumstances, which we will relate talist, believing in destiny and in the influence of his
according to his own statement, introduced Bona- star, he knew nothing, probably, of the prediction
parte to an acquaintance, which was destined to of a negro sorceress, who, while Marie Jos6phine
Ihave much influence on his future fate. A fine boy, was but a child, prophesied she should rise to a
of ten or twelve years old, presented himself at the dignity greater than that of a queen, yet fall from it
levee of the General of the Interior, with a request before her death.t This was one of those vague
of a nature unusually interesting. He stated his auguries, delivered at random by fools or impostors,
name to be Eugene Beauharnais, son of the ci- which the caprice of fortune sometimes matches
devant Count de Beauharnais, who, adhering to the with a corresponding and conforming event. But
revolutionary party, had been a general in the repub- without trusting to the Afirican sibyl's prediction,
lican service upon the Rhine, and falling under the Bonaparte may have formed his match under the
ca.seless suspicion of the Committee of Public * Bonaparte was then in his twenty-sixth year. Juos6Safety, was delivered to the Revolutionary T'ribunal, phine gave herself in the marriage contract for twentyand ftll by its sentence just four days before the eight.
overthrow of Robespierre. Eugene was come to t A lady of high rank, who happened to live for some time
request of Bonaparte, as General of the Interior, in the same convent at Paris, where Jos6phine was also a
that his father's sword might be restored to him. pensioner or boarder, heard her mention the prophecy,
The prayer of the young supplicant was as interest- and told it herself to the author, just about the time of the
ing as his manners were engaging, and Napoleon Italian expedition, when Bonaparte was beginning to
felt so much interest in him, that he was induced to attract notice. Another clause is usually added to the
cultivate the acquaintance of Eugene's mother, prediction-that the party whom it concerned should die in
cultivate the acquaintance of E ugne' s mother, an hospital, which was afterwards explained as referring
afterwards the Emnpress Josephine. to Malmaison. This the author did not hear from the same
This lady was a creolian, the daughter of a planter authority. The lady mentioned used to speak in the highest
in Martinique. Her name at full length was Marie terms of the simple manners and great kindness of Madame
[oseph Rose Tascher de la Pagerie. She had suf- Beauharnais.