Uncle Bernac eBook

’You can tell that we do not live under a very terrible tyranny, Monsieur de Laval,’ said he, ’or we should hardly venture to discuss our ruler so frankly.  The fact is that we have said nothing which he would not have listened to with pleasure and perhaps with approval.  He has his little frailties, or he would not be human, but take his qualities as a ruler and I would ask you if there has ever been a man who has justified the choice of a nation so completely.  He works harder than any of his subjects.  He is a general beloved by his soldiers.  He is a master beloved by his servants.  He never has a holiday, and he is always ready for his work.  There is not under the roof of the Tuileries a more abstemious eater or drinker.  He educated his brothers at his own expense when he was a very poor man, and he has caused even his most distant relatives to share in his prosperity.  In a word, he is economical, hard-working, and temperate.  We read in the London papers about this Prince of Wales, Monsieur de Laval, and I do not think that he comes very well out of the comparison.’

I thought of the long record of Brighton scandals, London scandals, Newmarket scandals, and I had to leave George undefended.

‘As I understand it,’ said I, ’it is not the Emperor’s private life, but his public ambition, that the English attack.’

‘The fact is,’ said de Caulaincourt, ’that the Emperor knows, and we all know, that there is not room enough in the world for both France and England.  One or other must be supreme.  If England were once crushed we could then lay the foundations of a permanent peace.  Italy is ours.  Austria we can crush again as we have crushed her before.  Germany is divided.  Russia can expand to the south and east.  America we can take at our leisure, finding our pretext in Louisiana or in Canada.  There is a world empire waiting for us, and there is the only thing that stops us.’  He pointed out through the opening of the tent at the broad blue Channel.

Far away, like snow-white gulls in the distance, were the sails of the blockading fleet.  I thought again of what I had seen the night before—­the lights of the ships upon the sea and the glow of the camp upon the shore.  The powers of the land and of the ocean were face to face whilst a waiting world stood round to see what would come of it.

CHAPTER XII

THE MAN OF ACTION

De Meneval’s tent had been pitched in such a way that he could overlook the Royal headquarters, but whether it was that we were too absorbed in the interest of our conversation, or that the Emperor had used the other entrance in returning from the review, we were suddenly startled by the appearance of a captain dressed in the green jacket of the Chasseurs of the Guard, who had come to say that Napoleon was waiting for his secretary.  Poor de Meneval’s face turned as white as his beautiful ruffles as he sprang to his feet, hardly able to speak for agitation.