[20] See “Memoirs.”

[21] See “Memoirs.”

CHAPTER IV

THE OLIGARCHY, THEIR AGENTS AND APOLOGISTS

It would be an easy task to enlarge on the excellent qualities of this wonderful man.  Volumes could be written about this phase of his dazzling career alone, and yet we have miscreants such as Talleyrand proclaiming to the Conference of “Christian Kings” and traitors that the greatest, most powerful, and most humane prince of the age “must be exterminated like a mad dog.”  The news of his flight from Elba and arrival in Paris, vociferously acclaimed by the French people as their lawful sovereign, threw this band of parasites into apoplectic terror; Talleyrand, of all creatures, dictating to the Conference as to the wording of the proclamation that should be issued outlawing his Emperor, whom he and they styled “Usurper.”  If it were not so outrageous a violation of decency, we would look upon it as the most comical incident notified in history.  Talleyrand, the most accomplished traitor and barefaced thief in Europe, except perhaps Bourrienne, he who could not prevent himself from fumbling in his sovereign’s and everybody else’s pockets whenever the opportunity occurred, to be allowed to sit in conference with the anointed rulers of Europe is really too comic.

Napoleon was styled “Usurper” by these saintly Legitimists, not one of whom attained kingship so honourably and legitimately as the man whom they had sworn to destroy, even though the whole of Europe were to be drenched in blood by the process of it.  They set themselves to disfranchise and usurp the rights of the French people, who had only just again ratified by millions of votes his claim to the throne, and the gallant and heroic response to their requisition that he should leave Elba and become their ruler again.  Surely it will never be contended that Napoleon’s claims were less legitimate than those of the Prince of Orange, or the Elector of Hanover, or Frederic William the great Elector, whose sole qualification for kingship consisted in having the instincts of a tiger.  Of the latter Lord Macaulay says, “His palace was hell, and he the most execrable of fiends.”  His sole ambition seemed to be to pay fabulous sums for giant soldiers, and he showed an inhuman aversion to his son, afterwards known as Frederic the Great, and his daughter Wilhelmina.  He was as ignorant and ill-conditioned a creature as could be found in the whole world, a cowardly rascal who found pleasure in kicking ladies whom he might meet in the street and ordering them “home to mind their brats.”  No more need be said of the father of the great Frederic, whose “Life” took Thomas Carlyle thirteen years in searching musty German histories to produce.  Carlyle says, “One of the reasons that led me to write ‘Frederic’ was that he managed not to be a liar and charlatan as his century was”; and indeed his adoration for Frederic is quite pardonable.