giving room to the life
within. It is interesting to note the genesis of
Napoleon's ideas and the pertinacity with which he held
them.]

It has been asserted that on the dreadful day of August tenth
Buonaparte's assumed philosophy was laid aside, and that he was a mob
leader at the barricades. His own account of the matter as given at
St. Helena does not bear this out. "I felt," said he, "as if I should
have defended the King if called to do so. I was opposed to those who
would found the republic by means of the populace. Besides, I saw
civilians attacking men in uniforms; that gave me a shock." He said
further in his reminiscences that he viewed the entire scene from the
windows of a furniture shop kept by Fauvelet de Bourrienne, brother
of his old school friend. The impression left after reading his
narrative of the frightful carnage before the Tuileries, of the
indecencies committed by frenzied women at the close of the fight, of
the mad excitement in the neighboring cafes, and of his own calmness
throughout, is that he was in no way connected either with the actors
or their deeds, except to shout, "Hurrah for the nation!" when
summoned to do so by a gang of ruffians who were parading the streets
under the banner of a gory head elevated on a pike.[28] The truth of
his statements cannot be established by any collateral evidence.

[Footnote 28: Las Cases: Memorial de Sainte Helene, V,
170.]

It is not likely that an ardent radical leader like Buonaparte, well
known and influential in the Rhone valley, had remained a stranger to
the Marseilles deputation. If the Duchesse d'Abrantes be worthy of any
credence, he was very influential, and displayed great activity with
the authorities during the seventh and eighth, running hither,
thither, everywhere, to secure redress for an illegal domiciliary
visit which her mother, Mme. Permon, had received on the seventh. But
her testimony is of very little value, such is her anxiety to
establish an early intimacy with the great man of her time. Joseph, in
his memoirs,[29] declares that his brother was present at the conflict
of August tenth, and that Napoleon wrote him at the time, "If Louis
XVI had appeared on horseback, he would have conquered." "After the
victory of the Marseillais," continues the passage quoted from the
letter, "I saw a man about to kill a soldier of the guard. I said to
him, 'Southron, le