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

j574 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.,condition of the French army; but winter has been administratiou was accurate, that of superintendence
productive of a general calamity, ill consequence of not less so. The obligations of the public filnctionwhich the army had sustained very great losses." aries were held as strict as those of military men.
One would have thought, from his mode of stating But during the length of Napoleon's absence on the
the matter, that the snow had surprised him in the Russian expedition, a plot was formed, which served
imidst of victory, and not in the course of a disastrous to show how little firm was the hold which the
and inevitable retreat. system of the Imperial government had on the feelThe Moniteur was at first silenton the news from ings of the nation, by what slight means its fhll
} Russia, and announced the advent of the emperor as might be effected, and how small an interest a news
if he had returned firom Fontainebleau; but after an revolution would have excited. It seemed that tle em- interval of this apparent coldness, like the waters peror's power showed stately and stable to the eye,
of a rivelr in the thaw, accumulating behind, and at like a tall pine-tree, which, while it spreads its shade
length precipitating themselves over, a barrier of broad around., and raises its head to heaven, cannot
ace, arose the general gratulation of the public func- send its roots, like those of the oak, deep into the
tionaries, whose power and profit must stand or fall bowels of the earth, but, spreading them along the
wvith the dominion of the emperor, and whose voices shallow surface, is liable to be overthrown by the
alone were admitted to represent those of the peo- first assault of the whirlwind.
pie. The cities of Rome, Florence, Milan, Turin, The final purpose of Malet is not known. He was
Hamburg, Amsterdam, Mentz, and whatever others of noble birth, and served in the mousquetaires of
there;were of consequence in the empire, joined in the royal houselihll before the Revolution, which
the general asseveration, that the presence of the inclined many to think that he had the interest of
emperor alone was all that was necessary to con- the Bourbons in view. As, however, he had risen to
vert disquietude into happiness and tranquillity. the rank of g6n6ral de brigade in the republican
The most exaggerated praise of Napoleon's great army, it is more probable that he belonged to the
qualities, the most unlimited devotion to his service, sect of Philadelphes.* In 1808, General AMalet was
the most implicit confidence in his wisdom, were committed to prison, as concerned in an intrigue
the theme of these addresses. Their flattery was against the emperor; and he was still under the renot only ill-timed, considering the great loss which straint of the police, when lie formed the audacious
the country had sustained; but it -was so grossly scheme which had so- early succeeded. While anexaggerated in some instances, as to throw ridicule der a confinement now lenient, in a Maison de Sant6,
even upon tile high talents of the party to whom it lie was able to execute, or procure to be executed,
was addressed, as daubers are often seen to make a forged paper, purporting to be a decree of the
-a ridiculous caricature of the finest original. In the Senate, announcing officially the death of the empefew circles where criticism on these effusions of ror, the abolition of the imperial government, and
loyalty might be whispered, the authors of the ad- the establishment of a provisional committee of addresses were compared to the duped devotee in nministration. This document was to appearance
Moliere's comedy, who, instead of sympathizing in attested by the official seal and signatures.
his wife's illness, and the general indisposition of his On the 23d of October, at midnight, he escaped
family, only rejoices to hear that Tartuffe is in ad- from his place of confinement, dressed himself in
mirable good health. Yet there were few even his full uniform, and accompanied by a corporal in
among these scoffers who would have dared to stay the dress ot'an aide-de-camp, repaired to tile prison
behind, had they been commanded to attend the of La Force, where he demanded and obtained the
emperor to Notre Dame, that Te Demln might be liberation of two generals, Lahorie, and Guidal, who
celebrated for the safe return of Napoleon, though were confined under circumstances not dissimilar to
purchased by the total destruction of his great his own. They went together to the barracks at tle
army. Minims, not then inhabited by any part of the truest
But it was amongst the public offices that the re- and lmost attached followers of Napoleon, who,
turn of the emperor, so unexpectedly, produced the while his power was tottering at homne, were strevwdeepest sensation. They were accustomed to go on ing withl their bones the snows of Russia and the
at a moderate rate Avith the ordinary rotutine of duty, deserts of Spain, but by battalions of raw conscripts
while the emperor was on any expedition; but his
return had tile sudden effect of the appearance of A secret society in the army, whose immediate object
the master in the school, from which he had been a it has to overthrow the InLperial power, and whose Wltishort time absent. All was hbustle, alertness, exer- inate purposes a-ere not perhaps known to themselves.
tion, and anticipation. On the present occasion, Their found, r was Colonel Jacques Joseph Oudet, a Swiss,t
doable diligence, or the show of it, was exerted; for at once a debauchee and an enthusiast, on the p'al pf his
all feared, and some with reason, that their conduct colntryman-Rousseau. He was shot the night befole the
on a late event might have incurred the severe cen- battle of Wagram, not, as hi3 followers alleged, by a party
sure of the emperor. We allude to the conspiracy of of Austrians, but by gendarmes, commissioned for that
-J alet, a singular incident, the details of which we purpose. His sect comntilued to subsist, and Mass6na didl
not escape suspicions of being implicated in its intrigues.
hlave omitted till now. There was a communication in their name to Lord WelDuring Bonaparte's former periods of absence, the lington, in May, 1800; but the negotiation was not of a
government of the interior of France, under the ma- character which the British general chose to encourage.
nagement of Cambac6res, went on in the ordinary - Southey's History of the Peninsular War, Vol 1I,
course, as methodically, though not so actively, as p. 303.
when lNapoleon was at the Tuileries; the system of t Col. Oudet was a native of Franche-Comwtd. Ed.