No matter, we cut our way home through
the whole pack of the nations, Wherever the Emperor showed
himself we followed him; for if, by sea or land, he gave us the
word 'Go!
the whole pack of the nations, Wherever the Emperor showed
himself we followed him; for if, by sea or land, he gave us the
word 'Go!
Warner - World's Best Literature - v03 - Bag to Ber
After that
stroke- consul! And then, as it was not for him to doubt the
Supreme Being, he fulfilled his promise to the good God, who, you
see, had kept His word to him. He gave Him back his churches,
and re-established His religion; the bells rang for God and for
him: and lo! everybody was pleased: primo, the priests, whom he
saved from being harassed; secundo, the bourgeois, who thought
only of their trade, and no longer had to fear the rapiamus
of the law, which had got to be unjust; tertio, the nobles, for he
forbade they should be killed, as, unfortunately, the people had
got the habit of doing.
## p. 1421 (#215) ###########################################
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
1421
But he still had the Enemy to wipe out; and he wasn't the
man to go to sleep at a mess-table, because, d'ye see, his eye
looked over the whole earth as if it were no bigger than a man's
So then he appeared in Italy, like as though he had stuck
his head through the window. One glance was enough. The
Austrians were swallowed up at Marengo like so many gudgeons
by a whale! Ouf! The French eagles sang their pæans so loud
that all the world heard them — and it sufficed! 'We won't play
that game any more,' said the German. Enough, enough! ' said
all the rest.
« To sum up: Europe backed down, England knocked under.
General peace; and the kings and the people made believe kiss
each other. That's the time when the Emperor invented the
Legion of Honor – and a fine thing, too. In France -- this
is what he said at Boulogne before the whole army - every
man is brave. So the citizen who does a fine action shall be
sister to the soldier, and the soldier shall be his brother, and the
two shall be one under the flag of honor. '
“We, who were down in Egypt, now came home.
All was
changed! He left us general, and hey! in a twinkling we found
him EMPEROR. France gave herself to him, like a fine girl to
a lancer. When it was done — to the satisfaction of all, as you
may say — a sacred ceremony took place, the like of which was
never seen under the canopy of the skies. The Pope and the
cardinals, in their red and gold vestments, crossed the Alps
expressly to crown him before the army and the people, who
clapped their hands. There is one thing that I should do very
wrong not to tell you. In Egypt, in the desert close to Syria,
the RED MAN came to him on the Mount of Moses, and said,
All is well. Then, at Marengo, the night before the victory,
the same Red Man appeared before him for the second time,
standing erect and saying, Thou shalt see the world at thy feet;
thou shalt be Emperor of France, King of Italy, master of Hol-
land, sovereign of Spain, Portugal, and the Illyrian provinces,
protector of Germany, savior of Poland, first eagle of the Legion
of Honor - all. ' This Red Man, you understand, was his genius,
his spirit, - a sort of satellite who served him, as some say, to
communicate with his star. I never really believed that. But
the Red Man himself is a true fact. Napoleon spoke of him,
and said he came to him in troubled moments, and lived in the
palace of the Tuileries under the roof. So, on the day of the
## p. 1422 (#216) ###########################################
1422
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
sums
coronation, Napoleon saw him for the third time; and they were
in consultation over many things.
“After that, Napoleon went to Milan to be crowned king of
Italy, and there the grand triumph of the soldier began. Every
man who could write was made an officer. Down came pensions;
it rained duchies; treasures poured in for the staff which didn't cost
France a penny; and the Legion of Honor provided incomes for
the private soldiers, — of which I receive mine to this day. So
here were the armies maintained as never before on this earth.
But besides that, the Emperor, knowing that he was to be the
emperor of the whole world, bethought him of the bourgeois,
and to please them he built fairy monuments, after their own
ideas, in places where you'd never think to find any. For
instance, suppose you were coming back from Spain and going
to Berlin — well, you'd find triumphal arches along the way, with
common soldiers sculptured on the stone, every bit the same as
generals.
In two or three years, and without imposing taxes on
any of you, Napoleon filled his vaults with gold, built palaces,
made bridges, roads, scholars, fêtes, laws, vessels, harbors, and
spent millions upon millions, such enormous
that he
could, so they tell me, have paved France from end to end with
five-franc pieces, if he had had a mind to.
“Now, when he sat at ease on his throne, and was master of
all, so that Europe waited his permission to do his bidding, he
remembered his four brothers and his three sisters, and he said
to us, as it might be in conversation, in an order of the day,
My children, is it right that the blood relations of your Emperor
should be begging their bread? No. I wish to see them in
splendor like myself. It becomes, therefore, absolutely necessary
to conquer a kingdom for each of them, — to the end that French-
men may be masters over all lands, that the soldiers of the
Guard shall make the whole earth tremble, that France may spit
where she likes, and that all the nations shall say to her, as it
is written on my copper coins, “God protects you! ” “Agreed,'
cried the army.
We'll go fish for thy kingdoms with our bay-
onets. Ha! there was no backing down, don't you see!
, If he
had taken it into his head to conquer the moon, we should have
made ready, packed knapsacks, and clambered up; happily, he
didn't think of it. The kings of the countries, who liked their
comfortable thrones, were naturally loathe to budge, and had to
have their ears pulled; so then — Forward, march! We did
## p. 1423 (#217) ###########################################
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
1423
march; we got there; and the earth once more trembled to its
centre. Hey! the men and the shoes he used up in those days!
The enemy dealt us such blows that none but the grand army
could have stood the fatigue of it. But you are not ignorant
that a Frenchman is born a philosopher, and knows that a little
sooner, or a little later, he has got to die. So we were ready to
die without a word, for we liked to see the Emperor doing that
on the geographies. ”
Here the narrator nimbly described a circle with his foot on
the floor of the barn.
“And Napoleon said, “There, that's to be a kingdom. And
a kingdom it was. Ha! the good times! The colonels were gen-
erals; the generals, marshals; and the marshals, kings. There's
one of 'em still on his throne, to prove it to Europe; but he's a
Gascon and a traitor to France for keeping that crown; and he
doesn't blush for shame as he ought to do, because crowns, don't
you see, are made of gold. I who am speaking to you, I have
seen, in Paris, eleven kings and a mob of princes surrounding
Napoleon like the rays of the sun. You understand, of course,
that every soldier had the chance to mount a throne, provided
always he had the merit; so a corporal of the Guard was a sight
to be looked at as he walked along, for each man had his share
in the victory, and 'twas plainly set forth in the bulletin. What
victories they were! Austerlitz, where the army manæuvred as if
on parade; Eylau, where we drowned the Russians in a lake, as
though Napoleon had blown them into it with the breath of his
mouth; Wagram, where the army fought for three days without
grumbling.
We won as many battles as there are saints in the
calendar. It was proved then beyond a doubt, that Napoleon had
the sword of God in his scabbard. The soldiers were his friends;
he made them his children; he looked after us; he saw that we
had shoes, and shirts, and great-coats, and bread, and cartridges;
but he always kept up his majesty; for, don't you see, 'twas his
business to reign. No matter for that, however; a sergeant, and
even a common soldier could say to him, My Emperor, just as
you say to me sometimes, My good friend. ' He gave us an
answer if we appealed to him; he slept in the snow like the
rest of us; and indeed, he had almost the air of a human man.
I who speak to you, I have seen him with his feet among the
grapeshot, and no more uneasy than you are now,- standing
steady, looking through his field glass, and minding his business.
## p. 1424 (#218) ###########################################
1424
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
'Twas that kept the rest of us quiet. I don't know how he did
it, but when he spoke he made our hearts burn within us; and
to show him we were his children, incapable of balking, didn't
we rush at the mouths of the rascally cannon, that belched and
vomited shot and shell without so much as saying, Look out! '
Why! the dying must needs raise their heads to salute him and
cry, LONG LIVE THE EMPEROR! '
“I ask you, was that natural ? would they have done that for
a human man ?
“Well, after he had settled the world, the Empress Josephine,
his wife, a good woman all the same, managed matters so that
she did not bear him any children, and he was obliged to give
her up, though he loved her considerably. But, you see, he had
to have little ones for reasons of state. Hearing of this, all the
sovereigns of Europe quarreled as to which of them should give
him a wife. And he married, so they told us, an Austrian arch-
duchess, daughter of Cæsar, an ancient man about whom people
talk a good deal, and not in France only, — where any one will
tell you what he did, — but in Europe. It is all true, for I myself
who address you at this moment, I have been on the Danube,
and have seen the remains of a bridge built by that man, who,
it seems, was a relation of Napoleon in Rome, and that's how
the Emperor got the inheritance of that city for his son. So
after the marriage, which was a fête for the whole world, and in
honor of which he released the people of ten years' taxes, - which
they had to pay all the same, however, because the assessors
didn't take account of what he said, - his wife had a little one,
who was King of Rome. Now, there's a thing that had never
been seen on this earth; never before was a child born a king
with his father living. On that day a balloon went up in Paris
to tell the news to Rome, and that balloon made the journey in
one day!
“Now, is there any man among you who will stand up and
declare to me that all that was human ? No; it was written
above; and may the scurvy seize them who deny that he was
sent by God himself for the triumph of France !
"Well, here's the Emperor of Russia, that used to be his
friend, he gets angry because Napoleon didn't marry a Russian;
so he joins with the English, our enemies, - to whom our
Emperor always wanted to say a couple of words in their bur-
rows, only he was prevented. Napoleon gets angry too; an end
## p. 1425 (#219) ###########################################
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
1425
had to be put to such doings; so he says to us: - 'Soldiers!
you
have been masters of every capital in Europe, except Moscow,
which is now the ally of England. To conquer England, and
India which belongs to the English, it becomes our peremptory
duty to go to Moscow. Then he assembled the greatest army
that ever trailed its gaiters over the globe; and so marvelously
in hand it was that he reviewed a million of men in one day.
Hourra! ' cried the Russians. Down came all Russia and those
animals of Cossacks in a flock. 'Twas nation against nation,
a general hurly-burly, and beware who could; Asia against
Europe, as the Red Man had foretold to Napoleon. "Enough,
cried the Emperor, I'll be ready. '
“So now, sure enough, came all the kings, as the Red Man
had said, to lick Napoleon's hand! Austria, Prussia, Bavaria,
Saxony, Poland, Italy, every one of them were with us, flatter-
ing us; ah, it was fine! The eagles never cawed so loud as at
those parades, perched high above the banners of all Europe.
The Poles were bursting with joy, because Napoleon was going
to release them; and that's why France and Poland are brothers →
to this day. (Russia is ours,' cried the army. We plunged into
it well supplied; we marched and we marched, - no Russians.
At last we found the brutes entrenched on the banks of the
Moskova. That's where I won my cross, and I've got the right
to say it was a damnable battle. This was how it came about.
The Emperor was anxious. He had seen the Red Man, who
said to him, My son, you are going too fast for your feet; you
will lack men; friends will betray you. ' So the Emperor offered
peace. But before signing, Let us drub those Russians! ' he
said to us. Done! ' cried the army. Forward, march! said
the sergeants. My clothes were in rags, my shoes worn out,
from trudging along those roads, which are very uncomfortable
ones; but no matter! I said to myself, As it's the last of our
earthquakings, I'll go into it, tooth and nail! We were drawn
up in line before the great ravine, - front seats, as 'twere.
Signal given; and seven hundred pieces of artillery began a con-
versation that would bring the blood from your ears. Then
must do justice to one's enemies — the Russians let themselves
be killed like Frenchmen; they wouldn't give way; we couldn't
advance. Forward,' some one cried, here comes the Emperor! '
True enough; he passed at a gallop, waving his hand to let us
know we must take the redoubt. He inspired us; on we ran, I
III-90
## p. 1426 (#220) ###########################################
1426
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
was the first in the ravine. Ha! my God! how the lieutenants
fell, and the colonels, and the soldiers! No matter! all the more
shoes for those that had none, and epaulets for the clever ones
who knew how to read. Victory! ) cried the whole line; Vic-
tory! '- and, would you believe it? a thing never seen before,
there lay twenty-five thousand Frenchmen on the ground. 'Twas
like mowing down a wheat-field; only in place of the ears of
wheat put the heads of men! We were sobered by this time,-
those who were left alive. The Man rode up; we made a circle
round him. Ha! he knew how to cajole his children; he could
be amiable when he liked, and feed 'em with words when their
stomachs were ravenous with the hunger of wolves. Flatterer!
he distributed the crosses himself, he uncovered to the dead, and
then he cried to us, On! to Moscow! To Moscow! ' answered
the army.
“We took Moscow. Would you believe it ? the Russians
burned their own city! 'Twas a haystack six miles square, and
it blazed for two days. The buildings crashed like slates, and
showers of melted iron and lead rained down upon us, which was
naturally horrible. I may say to you plainly, it was like a flash
of lightning on our disasters. The Emperor said, 'We have
done enough; my soldiers shall rest here. So we rested awhile,
just to get the breath into our bodies and the flesh on our bones,
for we were really tired. We took possession of the golden cross
that was on the Kremlin; and every soldier brought away with
him a small fortune. But out there the winter sets in a month
earlier,-a thing those fools of science didn't properly explain.
So, coming back, the cold nipped us. No longer an army — do
you hear me ? - no longer any generals, no longer any sergeants
even.
'Twas the reign of wretchedness and hunger,-a reign of
equality at last. No one thought of anything but to see France
once more; no one stooped to pick up his gun or his money if
he dropped them; each man followed his nose, and went as he
pleased without caring for glory. The weather was so bad the
Emperor couldn't see his star; there was something between him
and the skies. Poor man! it made him ill to see his eagles fly-
ing away from victory. Ah! 'twas a mortal blow, you may
believe me.
“Well, we got to the Beresina. My friends, I can affirm to
you by all that is most sacred, by my honor, that since mankind
came into the world, never, never, was there seen such a
## p. 1427 (#221) ###########################################
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
1427
fricassee of an army- guns, carriages, artillery wagons — in the
midst of such snows, under such relentless skies! The muzzles
of the muskets burned our hands if we touched them, the iron
was so cold. It was there that the army was saved by the pon-
toniers, who were firm at their post; and there that Gondrin —
sole survivor of the men who were bold enough to go into the
water and build the bridges by which the army crossed — that
Gondrin, here present, admirably conducted himself, and saved
us from the Russians, who, I must tell you, still respected the
grand army, remembering its victories. And,” he added, pointing
to Gondrin, who was gazing at him with the peculiar attention
of a deaf man, Gondrin is a finished soldier, a soldier who is
honor itself, and he merits your highest esteem. ”
“I saw the Emperor,” he resumed, “standing by the bridge,
motionless, not feeling the cold -- was that human ? He looked
at the destruction of his treasure, his friends, his old Egyptians.
Bah! all that passed him, women, army wagons, artillery, all
were shattered, destroyed, ruined. The bravest carried the
eagles; for the eagles, d'ye see, were France, the nation, all of
you! they were the civil and the military honor that must be
kept pure; could their heads be lowered because of the cold ? It
was only near the Emperor that we warmed ourselves, because
when he was in danger we ran, frozen as we were-
wouldn't have stretched a hand to save a friend. They told us
he wept at night over his poor family of soldiers. Ah! none but
he and Frenchmen could have got themselves out of that busi-
we, who
ness.
"We did get out, but with losses, great losses, as I tell
you. The Allies captured our provisions. Men began to betray
him, as the Red Man predicted. Those chatterers in Paris, who
had held their tongues after the Imperial Guard was formed,
now thought he was dead; so they hoodwinked the prefect of
police, and hatched a conspiracy to overthrow the empire. He
heard of it; it worried him. He left us, saying: Adieu, my
children; guard the outposts; I shall return to you. ' Bah! with-
out him nothing went right; the generals lost their heads; the
marshals talked nonsense and committed follies; but that was
not surprising, for Napoleon, who was kind, had fed 'em on gold;
they had got as fat as lard, and wouldn't stir; some stayed in
camp when they ought to have been warming the backs of the
enemy who was between us and France.
## p. 1428 (#222) ###########################################
1428
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
But the Emperor came back, and he brought recruits, famous
recruits; he changed their backbone and made 'em dogs of war,
fit to set their teeth into anything; and he brought a guard of
honor, a fine body indeed! - all bourgeois, who melted away like
butter on a gridiron.
“Well, spite of our stern bearing, here's everything going
against us; and yet the army did prodigies of valor. Then
came battles on the mountains, nations against nations, — Dres-
den, Lutzen, Bautzen. Remember these days, all of you, for
'twas then that Frenchmen were so particularly heroic that a
good grenadier only lasted six months. We triumphed always;
yet there were those English, in our rear, rousing revolts against
us with their lies!
No matter, we cut our way home through
the whole pack of the nations, Wherever the Emperor showed
himself we followed him; for if, by sea or land, he gave us the
word 'Go! ' we went. At last, we were in France; and many a
poor foot-soldier felt the air of his own country restore his soul
to satisfaction, spite of the wintry weather. I can say for myself
that it refreshed my life. Well, next, our business was to defend
France, our country, our beautiful France, against all Europe,
which resented our having laid down the law to the Russians,
and pushed them back into their dens, so that they couldn't eat
us up alive, as northern nations, who are dainty and like southern
flesh, have a habit of doing, - at least, so I've heard some gen-
Then the Emperor saw his own father-in-law, his
friends whom he had made kings, and the scoundrels to whom
he had given back their thrones, all against him. Even French-
men, and allies in our own ranks, turned against us under secret
orders, as at the battle of Leipsic. Would common soldiers have
been capable of such wickedness? Three times a day men were
false to their word, - and they called themselves princes !
So, then, France was invaded. Wherever the Emperor
showed his lion face, the enemy retreated; and he did more
prodigies in defending France than ever he had done in conquer-
ing Italy, the East, Spain, Europe, and Russia. He meant to
bury every invader under the sod, and teach 'em to respect the
soil of France. So he let them get to Paris, that he might swal-
low them at a mouthful, and rise to the height of his genius in
a battle greater than all the rest, - a mother-battle, as 'twere.
But there, there! the Parisians were afraid for their twopenny
skins, and their trumpery shops; they opened the gates. Then
erals say:
## p. 1429 (#223) ###########################################
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
1429
the Ragusades began, and happiness ended. The Empress was
fooled, and the white banner flaunted from the windows. The
generals whom he had made his nearest friends abandoned him
for the Bourbons,-a set of people no one had heard tell of.
The Emperor bade us farewell at Fontainebleau:-'Soldiers! '-
I can hear him now; we wept like children; the flags and the
eagles were lowered as if for a funeral: it was, I may well say
it to you, it was the funeral of the Empire; her dapper armies
were nothing now but skeletons. So he said to us, standing
there on the portico of his palace:- My soldiers! we are van-
quished by treachery; but we shall meet in heaven, the country
of the brave. Defend my child, whom I commit to you. Long
live Napoleon II. ! ' He meant to die, that no man should look
upon Napoleon vanquished; he took poison, enough to have
killed a regiment, because, like Jesus Christ before his Passion,
he thought himself abandoned of God and his talisman. But the
poison did not hurt him.
“See again! he found he was immortal.
“Sure of himself, knowing he must ever be THE EMPEROR, he
went for a while to an island to study out the nature of these
others, who, you may be sure, committed follies without end.
Whilst he bided his time down there, the Chinese, and the wild
men on the coast of Africa, and the Barbary States, and others
who are not at all accommodating, knew so well he was more
than man that they respected his tent, saying to touch it would
be to offend God. Thus, d'ye see, when these others turned him
from the doors of his own France, he still reigned over the whole
world. Before long he embarked in the same little cockleshell
of a boat he had had in Egypt, sailed round the beard of the
English, set foot in France, and France acclaimed him. The
sacred cuckoo flew from spire to spire; all France cried out with
one voice, LONG LIVE THE EMPEROR! In this region, here, the
enthusiasm for that wonder of the ages was, I may say, solid.
Dauphiné behaved well; and I am particularly pleased to know
that her people wept when they saw, once more, the gray over-
coat. March first it was, when Napoleon landed with two hun-
dred men to conquer that kingdom of France and of Navarre,
which on the twentieth of the same month was again the French
Empire. On that day our MAN was in Paris; he had made a
clean sweep, recovered his dear France, and gathered his veterans
together by saying no more than three words, I am here. '
## p. 1430 (#224) ###########################################
1430
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
« 'Twas the greatest miracle God had yet done! Before him,
did ever man recover an empire by showing his hat ? And these
others, who thought they had subdued France! Not they! At
sight of the eagles, a national army sprang up, and we marched
to Waterloo. There, the Guard died at one blow. Napoleon,
in despair, threw himself three times before the cannon of the
enemy without obtaining death. We saw that. The battle was
lost. That night the Emperor called his old soldiers to him; on
the field soaked with our blood he burned his banner and his
eagles, - his poor eagles, ever victorious, who cried Forward
in the battles, and had flown the length and breadth of Europe,
they were saved the infamy of belonging to the enemy: all the
treasures of England couldn't get her a tail-feather of them. No
more eagles ! — the rest is well known. The Red Man went over
to the Bourbons, like the scoundrel that he is. France is crushed;
the soldier is nothing; they deprive him of his dues; they dis-
charge him to make room for broken-down nobles - ah, 'tis pit-
iable! They seized Napoleon by treachery; the English nailed
him on a desert island in mid-ocean on a rock raised ten thousand
feet above the earth; and there he is, and will be, till the Red
Man gives him back his power for the happiness of France.
These others say he's dead. Ha, dead!
'Tis easy to see they
don't know Him. They tell that fib to catch the people, and
feel safe in their hovel of a government. Listen! the truth at
the bottom of it all is that his friends have left him alone on the
desert island to fulfil a prophecy, for I forgot to say that his
name, Napoleon, means lion of the desert. ” Now this that I
tell you is true as the Gospel. All other tales that you hear
about the Emperor are follies without common-sense; because,
d'ye see, God never gave to child of woman born the right to
stamp his name in red as he did, on the earth, which forever
shall remember him! Long live Napoleon, the father of his peo-
ple and of the soldier! ”
"Long live General Eblé! ” cried the pontonier.
“How happened it you were not killed in the ravine at Mos-
kova ? asked a peasant woman.
«How do I know? We went in a regiment, we came out a
hundred foot-soldiers; none but the lines were capable of taking
that redoubt: the infantry, d'ye see, that's the real army. ”
“And the cavalry! what of that? ” cried Genastas, letting him-
self roll from the top of the hay, and appearing to us with a
## p. 1431 (#225) ###########################################
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
1431
suddenness which made the bravest utter a cry of terror. « Eh!
my old veteran, you forget the red lancers of Poniatowski, the
cuirassiers, the dragoons! they that shook the earth when Napo-
leon, impatient that the victory was delayed, said to Murat, “Sire,
cut them in two. ' Ha, we were off! first at a trot, then at a
gallop, 'one, two,' and the enemy's line was cut in halves like an
apple with a knife. A charge of cavalry, my old hero! why,
'tis a column of cannon balls! »
“How about the pontoniers ? " cried Gondrin.
"My children,” said Genastas, becoming suddenly quite
ashamed of his sortie when he saw himself in the midst of a
silent and bewildered group, “there are no spies here, — see, take
this and drink to the Little Corporal. ”
LONG LIVE THE EMPEROR! ” cried all the people pres-
ent, with one voice.
“Hush, my children! ” said the officer, struggling to control
his emotion. “Hush! he is dead, He died saying, "Glory,
France, and battle. My friends, he had to die, he! but his
memory — never! »
Goguelat made a gesture of disbelief; then he said in a low
voice to those nearest, «The officer is still in the service, and
he's told to tell the people the Emperor is dead. We mustn't be
angry with him, because, d'ye see, a soldier has to obey orders. ”
As Genestas left the barn he heard the Fosseuse say,
« That
officer is a friend of the Emperor and of Monsieur Benassis. ”
On that, all the people rushed to the door to get another sight
of him, and by the light of the moon they saw the doctor take
his arm.
"I committed a great folly,” said Genestas. "Let us get home
quickly. Those eagles - the cannon - the campaigns!
longer knew where I was. ”
What do you think of my Goguelat ? ” asked Benassis.
"Monsieur, so long as such tales are told, France will carry
in her entrails the fourteen armies of the Republic, and may at
any time renew the conversation of cannon with all Europe.
That's my opinion. ”
I no
## p. 1432 (#226) ###########################################
1432
GEORGE BANCROFT
(1800-1891)
BY AUSTIN SCOTT
He life of George Bancroft was nearly conterminous with the
nineteenth century.
He was born at Worcester, Mass. ,
October 3d, 1800, and died at Washington, D. C. , January
17th, 1891. But it was not merely the stretch of his years that
identified him with this century. In some respects he represented
his time as no other of its men. He came into touch with many
widely differing elements which made up its life and character. He
spent most of his life in cities, but never lost the sense for country
sights and sounds which central Massachusetts gave him in Worces-
ter, his birthplace, and in Northampton, where he taught school.
The home into which he was born offered him from his infancy a
rich possession. His father was a Unitarian clergyman who wrote a
Life of Washington) that was received with favor; thus things con-
cerning God and country were his patrimony. Not without signifi-
cance was a word of his mother which he recalled in his latest years,
“My son, I do not wish you to become a rich man, but I would have
you be an affluent man; ad fluo, always a little more coming in than
going out. ”
To the advantages of his boyhood home and of Harvard College,
to which he went as a lad of thirteen, the eager young student
added the opportunity, then uncommon, of a systematic course of
study in German, and won the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at
Göttingen in 1820. He had in a marked degree the characteristics of
his countrymen, versatility and adaptability. Giving up an early pur-
pose of fitting himself for the pulpit, he taught in Harvard, and
helped to found a school of an advanced type at Northampton.
Meantime he published a volume of verse, and found out that the
passionate love of poetry which lasted through his life was not
creative. At Northampton he published in 1828 a translation in two
volumes of Heeren's History of the Political System of Europe,' and
also edited two editions of a Latin Reader; but the duties of a
schoolmaster's life were early thrown aside, and he could not be
persuaded to resume them later when the headship of an important
educational institution was offered to him. Together with the one
great pursuit of his life, to which he remained true for sixty years,
he delighted in the activities of a politician, the duties of a states-
man, and the occupations of a man of affairs and of the world.
## p. 1432 (#227) ###########################################
GEORGE BANCROFT.
## p. 1432 (#228) ###########################################
Ipui
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## p. 1432 (#229) ###########################################
SAPNT
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GEORGE BANCROFT.
Walls
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GEORGE BANCROFT
1433
Bancroft received a large but insufficient vote as the Democratic
candidate for the Governorship of Massachusetts, and for a time he
held the office of Collector of the port of Boston. As Secretary of
the Navy in the Cabinet of Polk, he rendered to his country two
distinct services of great value: he founded the Naval School at
Annapolis, and by his prompt orders to the American commander in
the Pacific waters he secured the acquisition of California for the
United States. The special abilities he displayed in the Cabinet were
such, so Polk thought, as to lead to his appointment as Minister to
England in 1846. He was a diplomat of no mean order. President
Johnson appointed him Minister to Germany in 1867, and Grant
retained him at that post until 1874, as long as Bancroft desired it.
During his stay there he concluded just naturalization treaties with
Germany, and in a masterly way won from the Emperor, William I. ,
as arbitrator, judgment in favor of the United States's claim over
that of Great Britain in the Northwestern boundary dispute.
Always holding fast his one cherished object,--that of worthily
writing the history of the United States, -- Bancroft did not deny him-
self the pleasure of roaming in other fields. He wrote frequently on
current topics, on literary, historical, and political subjects. His eulo-
gies of Jackson and of Lincoln, pronounced before Congress, entitle
him to the rank of an orator. He was very fond of studies in meta-
physics, and Trendelenburg, the eminent German philosopher, said of
him, “Bancroft knows Kant through and through. ”
His home — whether in Boston, or in New York where he spent
the middle portion of his life, or in Washington his abode for the last
sixteen years, or during his residence abroad — was the scene of the
occupations and delights which the highest culture craves. He was
gladly welcomed to the inner circle of the finest minds of Germany,
and the tribute of the German men of learning was unfeigned and
universal when he quitted the country in 1874. Many of the best
men of England and of France were among his warm friends. At
his table were gathered from time to time some of the world's great-
est thinkers, men of science, soldiers, statesmen and men of affairs.
Fond as he was of social joys, it was his daily pleasure to mount his
horse and alone, or with a single companion, to ride where nature in
her shy or in her exuberant mood inspired. One day, after he was
eighty years old, he rode on his young, blooded Kentucky horse along
the Virginia bank of the Potomac for more than thirty-six miles. He
could be seen every day among the perfect roses of his garden at
“Roseclyffe,” his Newport summer-home, often full of thought, at
other times in wellnigh boisterous glee, always giving unstinted care
and expense to the queen of flowers. The books in which he kept
the record of the rose garden were almost as elaborate as those in
## p. 1434 (#232) ###########################################
1434
GEORGE BANCROFT
son.
which were entered the facts and fancies out of which his History
grew. His home life was charming. By a careful use of opportuni-
ties and of his means he became an “affluent” man. He was twice
married: both times a new source of refined domestic happiness long
blessed his home, and new means for enlarged comfort and hospi-
tality were added to his own. Two sons, children of his first wife,
survived him.
Some of Bancroft's characteristics were not unlike those of Jeffer-
A constant tendency to idealize called up in him at times a
feeling verging on impatience with the facts or the men that stood
in the way of a theory or the accomplishment of a personal desire.
He had a keen perception of an underlying or a final truth and pro-
fessed warm love for it, whether in the large range of history or in
the nexus of current politics: any one taking a different point of
view at times was led to think that his facts, as he stated them, lay
crosswise, and might therefore find the perspective out of drawing,
but could not rightly impugn his good faith.
Although a genuine lover of his race and a believer in Democracy,
he was not always ready to put implicit trust in the individual as
being capable of exercising a wise judgment and the power of true
self-direction. For man he avowed a perfect respect; among men
his bearing showed now and then a trace of condescension.
In con-
troversies over disputed points of history - and he had many such -
he meant to be fair and to anticipate the final verdict of truth, but
overwhelming evidence was necessary to convince him that his judg-
ment, formed after painstaking research, could be wrong.
His ample
love of justice, however, is proved by his passionate appreciation of
the character of Washington, by his unswerving devotion to the con-
ception of our national unity, both in its historical development and
at the moment when it was imperiled by civil war, and by his
hatred of slavery and of false financial policies. He took pleasure in
giving generously, but always judiciously and without ostentation.
On one occasion he, with a few of his friends, paid off the debt from
the house of an eminent scholar; on another, he helped to rebuild
for a great thinker the home which had been burned. At Harvard,
more than fifty years after his graduation, he founded a traveling
scholarship and named it in honor of the president of his college
days.
As to the manner of his work, Bancroft laid large plans and gave
to the details of their execution unwearied zeal. The scope of the
(History of the United States) as he planned it was admirable. In
carrying it out he was persistent in acquiring materials, sparing no
pains in his research at home and abroad, and no cost in securing
original papers or exact copies and transcripts from the archives of
## p. 1435 (#233) ###########################################
GEORGE BANCROFT
1435
England and France, Spain and Holland and Germany, from public
libraries and from individuals; he fished in all waters and drew fish
of all sorts into his net. He took great pains, and the secretaries
whom he employed to aid him in his work were instructed likewise
to take great pains, not only to enter facts in the reference books in
their chronological order, but to make all possible cross-references to
related facts. The books of his library, which was large and rich in
treasures, he used as tools, and many of them were filled with cross
references. In the fly-leaves of the books he read he made note with
a word and the cited page of what the printed pages contained of
interest to him or of value in his work.
His mind was one of quick perceptions within a wide range, and
always alert to grasp an idea in its manifold relations. It is remark-
able, therefore, that he was very laborious in his method of work.
He often struggled long with a thought for intellectual mastery. In
giving it expression, his habit was to dictate rapidly and with enthu-
siasm and at great length, but he usually selected the final form
after repeated efforts. His first draft of a chapter was revised again
and again and condensed. One of his early volumes in its first man-
uscript form was eight times as long as when finally published. He
had another striking habit, that of writing by topics rather than in
strict chronological order, so that a chapter which was to find its
place late in the volume was often completed before one which was
to precede it. Partly by nature and perhaps partly by this prac-
tice, he had the power to carry on simultaneously several trains of
thought. When preparing one of his public orations, it was remarked
by one of his household that after an evening spent over a trifling
game of bezique, the next morning found him well advanced beyond
the point where the work had been seemingly laid down. He had
the faculty of buoying a thought, knowing just where to take it up
after an interruption and deftly splicing it in continuous line, some-
times after a long interval. When about to begin the preparation of
the argument which was to sustain triumphantly the claim of the
United States in the boundary question, he wrote from Berlin for
copies of documents filed in the office of the Navy Department, which
he remembered were there five-and-twenty years before.
The History of the United States from the Discovery of America
to the Inauguration of Washington' is treated by Bancroft in three
The first, Colonial History from 1492 to 1748, occupies more
than one fourth of his pages. The second part, the American Revo-
lution, 1748 to 1782, claims more than one half of the entire work,
and is divided into four epochs:-- the first, 1748-1763, is entitled
(The Overthrow of the European Colonial System'; the second,
1763-1774, “How Great Britain Estranged America'; the third, 1774-
parts.
## p. 1436 (#234) ###########################################
1436
GEORGE BANCROFT
1776, America Declares Itself Independent'; the fourth, 1776-1782,
“The Independence of America is Acknowledged. The last part, ,
The History of the Formation of the Constitution,' 1782-1789, though
published as a separate work, is essentially a continuation of the
History proper, of which it forms in bulk rather more than one
tenth.
If his services as a historian are to be judged by any one portion
of his work rather than by another, the history of the formation of
the Constitution affords the best test. In that the preceding work
comes to fruition; the time of its writing, after the Civil War and
the consequent settling of the one vexing question by the abolition
of sectionalism, and when he was in the fullness of the experience of
his own ripe years, was most opportune. Bancroft was equal to his
opportunity. He does not teach us that the Constitution is the result
of superhuman wisdom, nor on the other hand does he admit, as
John Adams asserted, that however excellent, the Constitution was
wrung «from the grinding necessity of a reluctant people. ” He does
not fail to point out the critical nature of the four years prior to the
meeting of the Federal Convention; but he discerns that whatever
occasions, whether transitory or for the time of “steady and com-
manding influence,” may help or hinder the formation of the now
perfect union, its true cause was “an indwelling necessity” in the
people to form above the States a common constitution for the
whole. ”
Recognizing the fact that the primary cause for the true union
was remote in origin and deep and persistent, Bancroft gives a ret-
rospect of the steps toward union from the founding of the colonies
to the close of the war for independence. Thenceforward, sugges-
tions as to method or form of amending the Articles of Confeder-
ation, whether made by individuals, or State Legislatures, or by
Congress, were in his view helps indeed to promote the movement;
but they were first of all so many proofs that despite all the contrary
wayward surface indications, the strong current was flowing inde-
pendently toward the just and perfect union. Having acknowledged
this fundamental fact of the critical years between Yorktown and the
Constitution, the historian is free to give just and discriminating
praise to all who shared at that time in redeeming the political hope
of mankind, to give due but not exclusive honor to Washington and
Thomas Paine, to Madison and Hamilton and their co-worthies.
The many attempts, isolated or systematic, during the period
from 1781-1786, to reform the Articles of Confederation, were happily
futile; but they were essential in the training of the people in the
consciousness of the nature of the work for which they are responsi-
ble. The balances must come slowly to a poise. Not merely union
## p. 1437 (#235) ###########################################
GEORGE BANCROFT
1437
ous.
strong and for a time effective, was needed, but union of a certain
and unprecedented sort: one in which the true pledge of permanency
for a continental republic was to be found in the federative principle,
by which the highest activities of nation and of State were condi-
tioned each by the welfare of the other. The people rightly felt,
too, that a Congress of one house would be inadequate and danger-
They waited in the midst of risks for the proper hour, and
then, not reluctantly but resolutely, adopted the Constitution as a
promising experiment in government.
Bancroft's treatment of the evolution of the second great organic
act of this time — the Northwestern ordinance — is no less just and
true to the facts.
stroke- consul! And then, as it was not for him to doubt the
Supreme Being, he fulfilled his promise to the good God, who, you
see, had kept His word to him. He gave Him back his churches,
and re-established His religion; the bells rang for God and for
him: and lo! everybody was pleased: primo, the priests, whom he
saved from being harassed; secundo, the bourgeois, who thought
only of their trade, and no longer had to fear the rapiamus
of the law, which had got to be unjust; tertio, the nobles, for he
forbade they should be killed, as, unfortunately, the people had
got the habit of doing.
## p. 1421 (#215) ###########################################
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
1421
But he still had the Enemy to wipe out; and he wasn't the
man to go to sleep at a mess-table, because, d'ye see, his eye
looked over the whole earth as if it were no bigger than a man's
So then he appeared in Italy, like as though he had stuck
his head through the window. One glance was enough. The
Austrians were swallowed up at Marengo like so many gudgeons
by a whale! Ouf! The French eagles sang their pæans so loud
that all the world heard them — and it sufficed! 'We won't play
that game any more,' said the German. Enough, enough! ' said
all the rest.
« To sum up: Europe backed down, England knocked under.
General peace; and the kings and the people made believe kiss
each other. That's the time when the Emperor invented the
Legion of Honor – and a fine thing, too. In France -- this
is what he said at Boulogne before the whole army - every
man is brave. So the citizen who does a fine action shall be
sister to the soldier, and the soldier shall be his brother, and the
two shall be one under the flag of honor. '
“We, who were down in Egypt, now came home.
All was
changed! He left us general, and hey! in a twinkling we found
him EMPEROR. France gave herself to him, like a fine girl to
a lancer. When it was done — to the satisfaction of all, as you
may say — a sacred ceremony took place, the like of which was
never seen under the canopy of the skies. The Pope and the
cardinals, in their red and gold vestments, crossed the Alps
expressly to crown him before the army and the people, who
clapped their hands. There is one thing that I should do very
wrong not to tell you. In Egypt, in the desert close to Syria,
the RED MAN came to him on the Mount of Moses, and said,
All is well. Then, at Marengo, the night before the victory,
the same Red Man appeared before him for the second time,
standing erect and saying, Thou shalt see the world at thy feet;
thou shalt be Emperor of France, King of Italy, master of Hol-
land, sovereign of Spain, Portugal, and the Illyrian provinces,
protector of Germany, savior of Poland, first eagle of the Legion
of Honor - all. ' This Red Man, you understand, was his genius,
his spirit, - a sort of satellite who served him, as some say, to
communicate with his star. I never really believed that. But
the Red Man himself is a true fact. Napoleon spoke of him,
and said he came to him in troubled moments, and lived in the
palace of the Tuileries under the roof. So, on the day of the
## p. 1422 (#216) ###########################################
1422
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
sums
coronation, Napoleon saw him for the third time; and they were
in consultation over many things.
“After that, Napoleon went to Milan to be crowned king of
Italy, and there the grand triumph of the soldier began. Every
man who could write was made an officer. Down came pensions;
it rained duchies; treasures poured in for the staff which didn't cost
France a penny; and the Legion of Honor provided incomes for
the private soldiers, — of which I receive mine to this day. So
here were the armies maintained as never before on this earth.
But besides that, the Emperor, knowing that he was to be the
emperor of the whole world, bethought him of the bourgeois,
and to please them he built fairy monuments, after their own
ideas, in places where you'd never think to find any. For
instance, suppose you were coming back from Spain and going
to Berlin — well, you'd find triumphal arches along the way, with
common soldiers sculptured on the stone, every bit the same as
generals.
In two or three years, and without imposing taxes on
any of you, Napoleon filled his vaults with gold, built palaces,
made bridges, roads, scholars, fêtes, laws, vessels, harbors, and
spent millions upon millions, such enormous
that he
could, so they tell me, have paved France from end to end with
five-franc pieces, if he had had a mind to.
“Now, when he sat at ease on his throne, and was master of
all, so that Europe waited his permission to do his bidding, he
remembered his four brothers and his three sisters, and he said
to us, as it might be in conversation, in an order of the day,
My children, is it right that the blood relations of your Emperor
should be begging their bread? No. I wish to see them in
splendor like myself. It becomes, therefore, absolutely necessary
to conquer a kingdom for each of them, — to the end that French-
men may be masters over all lands, that the soldiers of the
Guard shall make the whole earth tremble, that France may spit
where she likes, and that all the nations shall say to her, as it
is written on my copper coins, “God protects you! ” “Agreed,'
cried the army.
We'll go fish for thy kingdoms with our bay-
onets. Ha! there was no backing down, don't you see!
, If he
had taken it into his head to conquer the moon, we should have
made ready, packed knapsacks, and clambered up; happily, he
didn't think of it. The kings of the countries, who liked their
comfortable thrones, were naturally loathe to budge, and had to
have their ears pulled; so then — Forward, march! We did
## p. 1423 (#217) ###########################################
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
1423
march; we got there; and the earth once more trembled to its
centre. Hey! the men and the shoes he used up in those days!
The enemy dealt us such blows that none but the grand army
could have stood the fatigue of it. But you are not ignorant
that a Frenchman is born a philosopher, and knows that a little
sooner, or a little later, he has got to die. So we were ready to
die without a word, for we liked to see the Emperor doing that
on the geographies. ”
Here the narrator nimbly described a circle with his foot on
the floor of the barn.
“And Napoleon said, “There, that's to be a kingdom. And
a kingdom it was. Ha! the good times! The colonels were gen-
erals; the generals, marshals; and the marshals, kings. There's
one of 'em still on his throne, to prove it to Europe; but he's a
Gascon and a traitor to France for keeping that crown; and he
doesn't blush for shame as he ought to do, because crowns, don't
you see, are made of gold. I who am speaking to you, I have
seen, in Paris, eleven kings and a mob of princes surrounding
Napoleon like the rays of the sun. You understand, of course,
that every soldier had the chance to mount a throne, provided
always he had the merit; so a corporal of the Guard was a sight
to be looked at as he walked along, for each man had his share
in the victory, and 'twas plainly set forth in the bulletin. What
victories they were! Austerlitz, where the army manæuvred as if
on parade; Eylau, where we drowned the Russians in a lake, as
though Napoleon had blown them into it with the breath of his
mouth; Wagram, where the army fought for three days without
grumbling.
We won as many battles as there are saints in the
calendar. It was proved then beyond a doubt, that Napoleon had
the sword of God in his scabbard. The soldiers were his friends;
he made them his children; he looked after us; he saw that we
had shoes, and shirts, and great-coats, and bread, and cartridges;
but he always kept up his majesty; for, don't you see, 'twas his
business to reign. No matter for that, however; a sergeant, and
even a common soldier could say to him, My Emperor, just as
you say to me sometimes, My good friend. ' He gave us an
answer if we appealed to him; he slept in the snow like the
rest of us; and indeed, he had almost the air of a human man.
I who speak to you, I have seen him with his feet among the
grapeshot, and no more uneasy than you are now,- standing
steady, looking through his field glass, and minding his business.
## p. 1424 (#218) ###########################################
1424
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
'Twas that kept the rest of us quiet. I don't know how he did
it, but when he spoke he made our hearts burn within us; and
to show him we were his children, incapable of balking, didn't
we rush at the mouths of the rascally cannon, that belched and
vomited shot and shell without so much as saying, Look out! '
Why! the dying must needs raise their heads to salute him and
cry, LONG LIVE THE EMPEROR! '
“I ask you, was that natural ? would they have done that for
a human man ?
“Well, after he had settled the world, the Empress Josephine,
his wife, a good woman all the same, managed matters so that
she did not bear him any children, and he was obliged to give
her up, though he loved her considerably. But, you see, he had
to have little ones for reasons of state. Hearing of this, all the
sovereigns of Europe quarreled as to which of them should give
him a wife. And he married, so they told us, an Austrian arch-
duchess, daughter of Cæsar, an ancient man about whom people
talk a good deal, and not in France only, — where any one will
tell you what he did, — but in Europe. It is all true, for I myself
who address you at this moment, I have been on the Danube,
and have seen the remains of a bridge built by that man, who,
it seems, was a relation of Napoleon in Rome, and that's how
the Emperor got the inheritance of that city for his son. So
after the marriage, which was a fête for the whole world, and in
honor of which he released the people of ten years' taxes, - which
they had to pay all the same, however, because the assessors
didn't take account of what he said, - his wife had a little one,
who was King of Rome. Now, there's a thing that had never
been seen on this earth; never before was a child born a king
with his father living. On that day a balloon went up in Paris
to tell the news to Rome, and that balloon made the journey in
one day!
“Now, is there any man among you who will stand up and
declare to me that all that was human ? No; it was written
above; and may the scurvy seize them who deny that he was
sent by God himself for the triumph of France !
"Well, here's the Emperor of Russia, that used to be his
friend, he gets angry because Napoleon didn't marry a Russian;
so he joins with the English, our enemies, - to whom our
Emperor always wanted to say a couple of words in their bur-
rows, only he was prevented. Napoleon gets angry too; an end
## p. 1425 (#219) ###########################################
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
1425
had to be put to such doings; so he says to us: - 'Soldiers!
you
have been masters of every capital in Europe, except Moscow,
which is now the ally of England. To conquer England, and
India which belongs to the English, it becomes our peremptory
duty to go to Moscow. Then he assembled the greatest army
that ever trailed its gaiters over the globe; and so marvelously
in hand it was that he reviewed a million of men in one day.
Hourra! ' cried the Russians. Down came all Russia and those
animals of Cossacks in a flock. 'Twas nation against nation,
a general hurly-burly, and beware who could; Asia against
Europe, as the Red Man had foretold to Napoleon. "Enough,
cried the Emperor, I'll be ready. '
“So now, sure enough, came all the kings, as the Red Man
had said, to lick Napoleon's hand! Austria, Prussia, Bavaria,
Saxony, Poland, Italy, every one of them were with us, flatter-
ing us; ah, it was fine! The eagles never cawed so loud as at
those parades, perched high above the banners of all Europe.
The Poles were bursting with joy, because Napoleon was going
to release them; and that's why France and Poland are brothers →
to this day. (Russia is ours,' cried the army. We plunged into
it well supplied; we marched and we marched, - no Russians.
At last we found the brutes entrenched on the banks of the
Moskova. That's where I won my cross, and I've got the right
to say it was a damnable battle. This was how it came about.
The Emperor was anxious. He had seen the Red Man, who
said to him, My son, you are going too fast for your feet; you
will lack men; friends will betray you. ' So the Emperor offered
peace. But before signing, Let us drub those Russians! ' he
said to us. Done! ' cried the army. Forward, march! said
the sergeants. My clothes were in rags, my shoes worn out,
from trudging along those roads, which are very uncomfortable
ones; but no matter! I said to myself, As it's the last of our
earthquakings, I'll go into it, tooth and nail! We were drawn
up in line before the great ravine, - front seats, as 'twere.
Signal given; and seven hundred pieces of artillery began a con-
versation that would bring the blood from your ears. Then
must do justice to one's enemies — the Russians let themselves
be killed like Frenchmen; they wouldn't give way; we couldn't
advance. Forward,' some one cried, here comes the Emperor! '
True enough; he passed at a gallop, waving his hand to let us
know we must take the redoubt. He inspired us; on we ran, I
III-90
## p. 1426 (#220) ###########################################
1426
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
was the first in the ravine. Ha! my God! how the lieutenants
fell, and the colonels, and the soldiers! No matter! all the more
shoes for those that had none, and epaulets for the clever ones
who knew how to read. Victory! ) cried the whole line; Vic-
tory! '- and, would you believe it? a thing never seen before,
there lay twenty-five thousand Frenchmen on the ground. 'Twas
like mowing down a wheat-field; only in place of the ears of
wheat put the heads of men! We were sobered by this time,-
those who were left alive. The Man rode up; we made a circle
round him. Ha! he knew how to cajole his children; he could
be amiable when he liked, and feed 'em with words when their
stomachs were ravenous with the hunger of wolves. Flatterer!
he distributed the crosses himself, he uncovered to the dead, and
then he cried to us, On! to Moscow! To Moscow! ' answered
the army.
“We took Moscow. Would you believe it ? the Russians
burned their own city! 'Twas a haystack six miles square, and
it blazed for two days. The buildings crashed like slates, and
showers of melted iron and lead rained down upon us, which was
naturally horrible. I may say to you plainly, it was like a flash
of lightning on our disasters. The Emperor said, 'We have
done enough; my soldiers shall rest here. So we rested awhile,
just to get the breath into our bodies and the flesh on our bones,
for we were really tired. We took possession of the golden cross
that was on the Kremlin; and every soldier brought away with
him a small fortune. But out there the winter sets in a month
earlier,-a thing those fools of science didn't properly explain.
So, coming back, the cold nipped us. No longer an army — do
you hear me ? - no longer any generals, no longer any sergeants
even.
'Twas the reign of wretchedness and hunger,-a reign of
equality at last. No one thought of anything but to see France
once more; no one stooped to pick up his gun or his money if
he dropped them; each man followed his nose, and went as he
pleased without caring for glory. The weather was so bad the
Emperor couldn't see his star; there was something between him
and the skies. Poor man! it made him ill to see his eagles fly-
ing away from victory. Ah! 'twas a mortal blow, you may
believe me.
“Well, we got to the Beresina. My friends, I can affirm to
you by all that is most sacred, by my honor, that since mankind
came into the world, never, never, was there seen such a
## p. 1427 (#221) ###########################################
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
1427
fricassee of an army- guns, carriages, artillery wagons — in the
midst of such snows, under such relentless skies! The muzzles
of the muskets burned our hands if we touched them, the iron
was so cold. It was there that the army was saved by the pon-
toniers, who were firm at their post; and there that Gondrin —
sole survivor of the men who were bold enough to go into the
water and build the bridges by which the army crossed — that
Gondrin, here present, admirably conducted himself, and saved
us from the Russians, who, I must tell you, still respected the
grand army, remembering its victories. And,” he added, pointing
to Gondrin, who was gazing at him with the peculiar attention
of a deaf man, Gondrin is a finished soldier, a soldier who is
honor itself, and he merits your highest esteem. ”
“I saw the Emperor,” he resumed, “standing by the bridge,
motionless, not feeling the cold -- was that human ? He looked
at the destruction of his treasure, his friends, his old Egyptians.
Bah! all that passed him, women, army wagons, artillery, all
were shattered, destroyed, ruined. The bravest carried the
eagles; for the eagles, d'ye see, were France, the nation, all of
you! they were the civil and the military honor that must be
kept pure; could their heads be lowered because of the cold ? It
was only near the Emperor that we warmed ourselves, because
when he was in danger we ran, frozen as we were-
wouldn't have stretched a hand to save a friend. They told us
he wept at night over his poor family of soldiers. Ah! none but
he and Frenchmen could have got themselves out of that busi-
we, who
ness.
"We did get out, but with losses, great losses, as I tell
you. The Allies captured our provisions. Men began to betray
him, as the Red Man predicted. Those chatterers in Paris, who
had held their tongues after the Imperial Guard was formed,
now thought he was dead; so they hoodwinked the prefect of
police, and hatched a conspiracy to overthrow the empire. He
heard of it; it worried him. He left us, saying: Adieu, my
children; guard the outposts; I shall return to you. ' Bah! with-
out him nothing went right; the generals lost their heads; the
marshals talked nonsense and committed follies; but that was
not surprising, for Napoleon, who was kind, had fed 'em on gold;
they had got as fat as lard, and wouldn't stir; some stayed in
camp when they ought to have been warming the backs of the
enemy who was between us and France.
## p. 1428 (#222) ###########################################
1428
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
But the Emperor came back, and he brought recruits, famous
recruits; he changed their backbone and made 'em dogs of war,
fit to set their teeth into anything; and he brought a guard of
honor, a fine body indeed! - all bourgeois, who melted away like
butter on a gridiron.
“Well, spite of our stern bearing, here's everything going
against us; and yet the army did prodigies of valor. Then
came battles on the mountains, nations against nations, — Dres-
den, Lutzen, Bautzen. Remember these days, all of you, for
'twas then that Frenchmen were so particularly heroic that a
good grenadier only lasted six months. We triumphed always;
yet there were those English, in our rear, rousing revolts against
us with their lies!
No matter, we cut our way home through
the whole pack of the nations, Wherever the Emperor showed
himself we followed him; for if, by sea or land, he gave us the
word 'Go! ' we went. At last, we were in France; and many a
poor foot-soldier felt the air of his own country restore his soul
to satisfaction, spite of the wintry weather. I can say for myself
that it refreshed my life. Well, next, our business was to defend
France, our country, our beautiful France, against all Europe,
which resented our having laid down the law to the Russians,
and pushed them back into their dens, so that they couldn't eat
us up alive, as northern nations, who are dainty and like southern
flesh, have a habit of doing, - at least, so I've heard some gen-
Then the Emperor saw his own father-in-law, his
friends whom he had made kings, and the scoundrels to whom
he had given back their thrones, all against him. Even French-
men, and allies in our own ranks, turned against us under secret
orders, as at the battle of Leipsic. Would common soldiers have
been capable of such wickedness? Three times a day men were
false to their word, - and they called themselves princes !
So, then, France was invaded. Wherever the Emperor
showed his lion face, the enemy retreated; and he did more
prodigies in defending France than ever he had done in conquer-
ing Italy, the East, Spain, Europe, and Russia. He meant to
bury every invader under the sod, and teach 'em to respect the
soil of France. So he let them get to Paris, that he might swal-
low them at a mouthful, and rise to the height of his genius in
a battle greater than all the rest, - a mother-battle, as 'twere.
But there, there! the Parisians were afraid for their twopenny
skins, and their trumpery shops; they opened the gates. Then
erals say:
## p. 1429 (#223) ###########################################
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
1429
the Ragusades began, and happiness ended. The Empress was
fooled, and the white banner flaunted from the windows. The
generals whom he had made his nearest friends abandoned him
for the Bourbons,-a set of people no one had heard tell of.
The Emperor bade us farewell at Fontainebleau:-'Soldiers! '-
I can hear him now; we wept like children; the flags and the
eagles were lowered as if for a funeral: it was, I may well say
it to you, it was the funeral of the Empire; her dapper armies
were nothing now but skeletons. So he said to us, standing
there on the portico of his palace:- My soldiers! we are van-
quished by treachery; but we shall meet in heaven, the country
of the brave. Defend my child, whom I commit to you. Long
live Napoleon II. ! ' He meant to die, that no man should look
upon Napoleon vanquished; he took poison, enough to have
killed a regiment, because, like Jesus Christ before his Passion,
he thought himself abandoned of God and his talisman. But the
poison did not hurt him.
“See again! he found he was immortal.
“Sure of himself, knowing he must ever be THE EMPEROR, he
went for a while to an island to study out the nature of these
others, who, you may be sure, committed follies without end.
Whilst he bided his time down there, the Chinese, and the wild
men on the coast of Africa, and the Barbary States, and others
who are not at all accommodating, knew so well he was more
than man that they respected his tent, saying to touch it would
be to offend God. Thus, d'ye see, when these others turned him
from the doors of his own France, he still reigned over the whole
world. Before long he embarked in the same little cockleshell
of a boat he had had in Egypt, sailed round the beard of the
English, set foot in France, and France acclaimed him. The
sacred cuckoo flew from spire to spire; all France cried out with
one voice, LONG LIVE THE EMPEROR! In this region, here, the
enthusiasm for that wonder of the ages was, I may say, solid.
Dauphiné behaved well; and I am particularly pleased to know
that her people wept when they saw, once more, the gray over-
coat. March first it was, when Napoleon landed with two hun-
dred men to conquer that kingdom of France and of Navarre,
which on the twentieth of the same month was again the French
Empire. On that day our MAN was in Paris; he had made a
clean sweep, recovered his dear France, and gathered his veterans
together by saying no more than three words, I am here. '
## p. 1430 (#224) ###########################################
1430
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
« 'Twas the greatest miracle God had yet done! Before him,
did ever man recover an empire by showing his hat ? And these
others, who thought they had subdued France! Not they! At
sight of the eagles, a national army sprang up, and we marched
to Waterloo. There, the Guard died at one blow. Napoleon,
in despair, threw himself three times before the cannon of the
enemy without obtaining death. We saw that. The battle was
lost. That night the Emperor called his old soldiers to him; on
the field soaked with our blood he burned his banner and his
eagles, - his poor eagles, ever victorious, who cried Forward
in the battles, and had flown the length and breadth of Europe,
they were saved the infamy of belonging to the enemy: all the
treasures of England couldn't get her a tail-feather of them. No
more eagles ! — the rest is well known. The Red Man went over
to the Bourbons, like the scoundrel that he is. France is crushed;
the soldier is nothing; they deprive him of his dues; they dis-
charge him to make room for broken-down nobles - ah, 'tis pit-
iable! They seized Napoleon by treachery; the English nailed
him on a desert island in mid-ocean on a rock raised ten thousand
feet above the earth; and there he is, and will be, till the Red
Man gives him back his power for the happiness of France.
These others say he's dead. Ha, dead!
'Tis easy to see they
don't know Him. They tell that fib to catch the people, and
feel safe in their hovel of a government. Listen! the truth at
the bottom of it all is that his friends have left him alone on the
desert island to fulfil a prophecy, for I forgot to say that his
name, Napoleon, means lion of the desert. ” Now this that I
tell you is true as the Gospel. All other tales that you hear
about the Emperor are follies without common-sense; because,
d'ye see, God never gave to child of woman born the right to
stamp his name in red as he did, on the earth, which forever
shall remember him! Long live Napoleon, the father of his peo-
ple and of the soldier! ”
"Long live General Eblé! ” cried the pontonier.
“How happened it you were not killed in the ravine at Mos-
kova ? asked a peasant woman.
«How do I know? We went in a regiment, we came out a
hundred foot-soldiers; none but the lines were capable of taking
that redoubt: the infantry, d'ye see, that's the real army. ”
“And the cavalry! what of that? ” cried Genastas, letting him-
self roll from the top of the hay, and appearing to us with a
## p. 1431 (#225) ###########################################
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
1431
suddenness which made the bravest utter a cry of terror. « Eh!
my old veteran, you forget the red lancers of Poniatowski, the
cuirassiers, the dragoons! they that shook the earth when Napo-
leon, impatient that the victory was delayed, said to Murat, “Sire,
cut them in two. ' Ha, we were off! first at a trot, then at a
gallop, 'one, two,' and the enemy's line was cut in halves like an
apple with a knife. A charge of cavalry, my old hero! why,
'tis a column of cannon balls! »
“How about the pontoniers ? " cried Gondrin.
"My children,” said Genastas, becoming suddenly quite
ashamed of his sortie when he saw himself in the midst of a
silent and bewildered group, “there are no spies here, — see, take
this and drink to the Little Corporal. ”
LONG LIVE THE EMPEROR! ” cried all the people pres-
ent, with one voice.
“Hush, my children! ” said the officer, struggling to control
his emotion. “Hush! he is dead, He died saying, "Glory,
France, and battle. My friends, he had to die, he! but his
memory — never! »
Goguelat made a gesture of disbelief; then he said in a low
voice to those nearest, «The officer is still in the service, and
he's told to tell the people the Emperor is dead. We mustn't be
angry with him, because, d'ye see, a soldier has to obey orders. ”
As Genestas left the barn he heard the Fosseuse say,
« That
officer is a friend of the Emperor and of Monsieur Benassis. ”
On that, all the people rushed to the door to get another sight
of him, and by the light of the moon they saw the doctor take
his arm.
"I committed a great folly,” said Genestas. "Let us get home
quickly. Those eagles - the cannon - the campaigns!
longer knew where I was. ”
What do you think of my Goguelat ? ” asked Benassis.
"Monsieur, so long as such tales are told, France will carry
in her entrails the fourteen armies of the Republic, and may at
any time renew the conversation of cannon with all Europe.
That's my opinion. ”
I no
## p. 1432 (#226) ###########################################
1432
GEORGE BANCROFT
(1800-1891)
BY AUSTIN SCOTT
He life of George Bancroft was nearly conterminous with the
nineteenth century.
He was born at Worcester, Mass. ,
October 3d, 1800, and died at Washington, D. C. , January
17th, 1891. But it was not merely the stretch of his years that
identified him with this century. In some respects he represented
his time as no other of its men. He came into touch with many
widely differing elements which made up its life and character. He
spent most of his life in cities, but never lost the sense for country
sights and sounds which central Massachusetts gave him in Worces-
ter, his birthplace, and in Northampton, where he taught school.
The home into which he was born offered him from his infancy a
rich possession. His father was a Unitarian clergyman who wrote a
Life of Washington) that was received with favor; thus things con-
cerning God and country were his patrimony. Not without signifi-
cance was a word of his mother which he recalled in his latest years,
“My son, I do not wish you to become a rich man, but I would have
you be an affluent man; ad fluo, always a little more coming in than
going out. ”
To the advantages of his boyhood home and of Harvard College,
to which he went as a lad of thirteen, the eager young student
added the opportunity, then uncommon, of a systematic course of
study in German, and won the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at
Göttingen in 1820. He had in a marked degree the characteristics of
his countrymen, versatility and adaptability. Giving up an early pur-
pose of fitting himself for the pulpit, he taught in Harvard, and
helped to found a school of an advanced type at Northampton.
Meantime he published a volume of verse, and found out that the
passionate love of poetry which lasted through his life was not
creative. At Northampton he published in 1828 a translation in two
volumes of Heeren's History of the Political System of Europe,' and
also edited two editions of a Latin Reader; but the duties of a
schoolmaster's life were early thrown aside, and he could not be
persuaded to resume them later when the headship of an important
educational institution was offered to him. Together with the one
great pursuit of his life, to which he remained true for sixty years,
he delighted in the activities of a politician, the duties of a states-
man, and the occupations of a man of affairs and of the world.
## p. 1432 (#227) ###########################################
GEORGE BANCROFT.
## p. 1432 (#228) ###########################################
Ipui
'i، iii
:
أو
11
اد
## p. 1432 (#229) ###########################################
SAPNT
wapi
GEORGE BANCROFT.
Walls
## p. 1432 (#230) ###########################################
## p. 1433 (#231) ###########################################
GEORGE BANCROFT
1433
Bancroft received a large but insufficient vote as the Democratic
candidate for the Governorship of Massachusetts, and for a time he
held the office of Collector of the port of Boston. As Secretary of
the Navy in the Cabinet of Polk, he rendered to his country two
distinct services of great value: he founded the Naval School at
Annapolis, and by his prompt orders to the American commander in
the Pacific waters he secured the acquisition of California for the
United States. The special abilities he displayed in the Cabinet were
such, so Polk thought, as to lead to his appointment as Minister to
England in 1846. He was a diplomat of no mean order. President
Johnson appointed him Minister to Germany in 1867, and Grant
retained him at that post until 1874, as long as Bancroft desired it.
During his stay there he concluded just naturalization treaties with
Germany, and in a masterly way won from the Emperor, William I. ,
as arbitrator, judgment in favor of the United States's claim over
that of Great Britain in the Northwestern boundary dispute.
Always holding fast his one cherished object,--that of worthily
writing the history of the United States, -- Bancroft did not deny him-
self the pleasure of roaming in other fields. He wrote frequently on
current topics, on literary, historical, and political subjects. His eulo-
gies of Jackson and of Lincoln, pronounced before Congress, entitle
him to the rank of an orator. He was very fond of studies in meta-
physics, and Trendelenburg, the eminent German philosopher, said of
him, “Bancroft knows Kant through and through. ”
His home — whether in Boston, or in New York where he spent
the middle portion of his life, or in Washington his abode for the last
sixteen years, or during his residence abroad — was the scene of the
occupations and delights which the highest culture craves. He was
gladly welcomed to the inner circle of the finest minds of Germany,
and the tribute of the German men of learning was unfeigned and
universal when he quitted the country in 1874. Many of the best
men of England and of France were among his warm friends. At
his table were gathered from time to time some of the world's great-
est thinkers, men of science, soldiers, statesmen and men of affairs.
Fond as he was of social joys, it was his daily pleasure to mount his
horse and alone, or with a single companion, to ride where nature in
her shy or in her exuberant mood inspired. One day, after he was
eighty years old, he rode on his young, blooded Kentucky horse along
the Virginia bank of the Potomac for more than thirty-six miles. He
could be seen every day among the perfect roses of his garden at
“Roseclyffe,” his Newport summer-home, often full of thought, at
other times in wellnigh boisterous glee, always giving unstinted care
and expense to the queen of flowers. The books in which he kept
the record of the rose garden were almost as elaborate as those in
## p. 1434 (#232) ###########################################
1434
GEORGE BANCROFT
son.
which were entered the facts and fancies out of which his History
grew. His home life was charming. By a careful use of opportuni-
ties and of his means he became an “affluent” man. He was twice
married: both times a new source of refined domestic happiness long
blessed his home, and new means for enlarged comfort and hospi-
tality were added to his own. Two sons, children of his first wife,
survived him.
Some of Bancroft's characteristics were not unlike those of Jeffer-
A constant tendency to idealize called up in him at times a
feeling verging on impatience with the facts or the men that stood
in the way of a theory or the accomplishment of a personal desire.
He had a keen perception of an underlying or a final truth and pro-
fessed warm love for it, whether in the large range of history or in
the nexus of current politics: any one taking a different point of
view at times was led to think that his facts, as he stated them, lay
crosswise, and might therefore find the perspective out of drawing,
but could not rightly impugn his good faith.
Although a genuine lover of his race and a believer in Democracy,
he was not always ready to put implicit trust in the individual as
being capable of exercising a wise judgment and the power of true
self-direction. For man he avowed a perfect respect; among men
his bearing showed now and then a trace of condescension.
In con-
troversies over disputed points of history - and he had many such -
he meant to be fair and to anticipate the final verdict of truth, but
overwhelming evidence was necessary to convince him that his judg-
ment, formed after painstaking research, could be wrong.
His ample
love of justice, however, is proved by his passionate appreciation of
the character of Washington, by his unswerving devotion to the con-
ception of our national unity, both in its historical development and
at the moment when it was imperiled by civil war, and by his
hatred of slavery and of false financial policies. He took pleasure in
giving generously, but always judiciously and without ostentation.
On one occasion he, with a few of his friends, paid off the debt from
the house of an eminent scholar; on another, he helped to rebuild
for a great thinker the home which had been burned. At Harvard,
more than fifty years after his graduation, he founded a traveling
scholarship and named it in honor of the president of his college
days.
As to the manner of his work, Bancroft laid large plans and gave
to the details of their execution unwearied zeal. The scope of the
(History of the United States) as he planned it was admirable. In
carrying it out he was persistent in acquiring materials, sparing no
pains in his research at home and abroad, and no cost in securing
original papers or exact copies and transcripts from the archives of
## p. 1435 (#233) ###########################################
GEORGE BANCROFT
1435
England and France, Spain and Holland and Germany, from public
libraries and from individuals; he fished in all waters and drew fish
of all sorts into his net. He took great pains, and the secretaries
whom he employed to aid him in his work were instructed likewise
to take great pains, not only to enter facts in the reference books in
their chronological order, but to make all possible cross-references to
related facts. The books of his library, which was large and rich in
treasures, he used as tools, and many of them were filled with cross
references. In the fly-leaves of the books he read he made note with
a word and the cited page of what the printed pages contained of
interest to him or of value in his work.
His mind was one of quick perceptions within a wide range, and
always alert to grasp an idea in its manifold relations. It is remark-
able, therefore, that he was very laborious in his method of work.
He often struggled long with a thought for intellectual mastery. In
giving it expression, his habit was to dictate rapidly and with enthu-
siasm and at great length, but he usually selected the final form
after repeated efforts. His first draft of a chapter was revised again
and again and condensed. One of his early volumes in its first man-
uscript form was eight times as long as when finally published. He
had another striking habit, that of writing by topics rather than in
strict chronological order, so that a chapter which was to find its
place late in the volume was often completed before one which was
to precede it. Partly by nature and perhaps partly by this prac-
tice, he had the power to carry on simultaneously several trains of
thought. When preparing one of his public orations, it was remarked
by one of his household that after an evening spent over a trifling
game of bezique, the next morning found him well advanced beyond
the point where the work had been seemingly laid down. He had
the faculty of buoying a thought, knowing just where to take it up
after an interruption and deftly splicing it in continuous line, some-
times after a long interval. When about to begin the preparation of
the argument which was to sustain triumphantly the claim of the
United States in the boundary question, he wrote from Berlin for
copies of documents filed in the office of the Navy Department, which
he remembered were there five-and-twenty years before.
The History of the United States from the Discovery of America
to the Inauguration of Washington' is treated by Bancroft in three
The first, Colonial History from 1492 to 1748, occupies more
than one fourth of his pages. The second part, the American Revo-
lution, 1748 to 1782, claims more than one half of the entire work,
and is divided into four epochs:-- the first, 1748-1763, is entitled
(The Overthrow of the European Colonial System'; the second,
1763-1774, “How Great Britain Estranged America'; the third, 1774-
parts.
## p. 1436 (#234) ###########################################
1436
GEORGE BANCROFT
1776, America Declares Itself Independent'; the fourth, 1776-1782,
“The Independence of America is Acknowledged. The last part, ,
The History of the Formation of the Constitution,' 1782-1789, though
published as a separate work, is essentially a continuation of the
History proper, of which it forms in bulk rather more than one
tenth.
If his services as a historian are to be judged by any one portion
of his work rather than by another, the history of the formation of
the Constitution affords the best test. In that the preceding work
comes to fruition; the time of its writing, after the Civil War and
the consequent settling of the one vexing question by the abolition
of sectionalism, and when he was in the fullness of the experience of
his own ripe years, was most opportune. Bancroft was equal to his
opportunity. He does not teach us that the Constitution is the result
of superhuman wisdom, nor on the other hand does he admit, as
John Adams asserted, that however excellent, the Constitution was
wrung «from the grinding necessity of a reluctant people. ” He does
not fail to point out the critical nature of the four years prior to the
meeting of the Federal Convention; but he discerns that whatever
occasions, whether transitory or for the time of “steady and com-
manding influence,” may help or hinder the formation of the now
perfect union, its true cause was “an indwelling necessity” in the
people to form above the States a common constitution for the
whole. ”
Recognizing the fact that the primary cause for the true union
was remote in origin and deep and persistent, Bancroft gives a ret-
rospect of the steps toward union from the founding of the colonies
to the close of the war for independence. Thenceforward, sugges-
tions as to method or form of amending the Articles of Confeder-
ation, whether made by individuals, or State Legislatures, or by
Congress, were in his view helps indeed to promote the movement;
but they were first of all so many proofs that despite all the contrary
wayward surface indications, the strong current was flowing inde-
pendently toward the just and perfect union. Having acknowledged
this fundamental fact of the critical years between Yorktown and the
Constitution, the historian is free to give just and discriminating
praise to all who shared at that time in redeeming the political hope
of mankind, to give due but not exclusive honor to Washington and
Thomas Paine, to Madison and Hamilton and their co-worthies.
The many attempts, isolated or systematic, during the period
from 1781-1786, to reform the Articles of Confederation, were happily
futile; but they were essential in the training of the people in the
consciousness of the nature of the work for which they are responsi-
ble. The balances must come slowly to a poise. Not merely union
## p. 1437 (#235) ###########################################
GEORGE BANCROFT
1437
ous.
strong and for a time effective, was needed, but union of a certain
and unprecedented sort: one in which the true pledge of permanency
for a continental republic was to be found in the federative principle,
by which the highest activities of nation and of State were condi-
tioned each by the welfare of the other. The people rightly felt,
too, that a Congress of one house would be inadequate and danger-
They waited in the midst of risks for the proper hour, and
then, not reluctantly but resolutely, adopted the Constitution as a
promising experiment in government.
Bancroft's treatment of the evolution of the second great organic
act of this time — the Northwestern ordinance — is no less just and
true to the facts.
