“. . . I am half way thro’ the 3rd volume of Bourrienne. Although my interest about Nap is greatly lessened by his wholesale use and destruction of mankind—not for the sake or defence of France, but for some ‘lark’ of his own, to be like Cæsar or Alexander, and for his damned nonsensical posterity that he is always after—then again he comes over me again by his talents, and by a kind of simplicity, and even drollery, behind the curtain whilst he is so successfully bamboozling all the world without. Don’t suppose I am partial to him because when Bourrienne
* It was on the morning of the 15th June, three days before Waterloo, that Bourmont deserted; and he went to Blücher, not to Wellington. † The expression Gérard used was that he would pledge his head: so when Gérard reported Bourmont’s treachery, the Emperor tapped Gérard playfully on the cheek, saying:—“Cette têtê, donc, e’est à moi, n’est ce pas?” adding more gravely, “mais j’en ai trop besoin.” |
| 1829.] | FIRST TRIP ON THE RAILWAY. | 203 |
