ill have twenty years, just the
double of Cromwell. And remark, I change nothing, I progress; I do
not overthrow, I build up. Suppose that Caesar, at thirty years of age,
instead of being merely the first roue of Rome, had been its greatest
citizen; suppose his campaign in Gaul had been made; that his campaign
in Egypt was over, his campaign in Spain happily concluded; suppose that
he was thirty years old instead of fifty--don't you think he would have
been both Caesar and Augustus?"

"Yes, unless he found Brutus, Cassius, and Casca on his path."

"So," said Bonaparte, sadly, "my enemies are reckoning on assassination,
are they? In that case the thing is easy, and you, my enemy, have the
first chance. What hinders you at this moment, if you feel like Brutus,
from striking me as he struck Caesar? I am alone with you, the doors
are shut; and you would have the time to finish me before any one could
reach you."

Cadoudal made a step backward.

"No," said he, "we do not count upon assassination, and I think our
extremity must be great indeed before any of us would become a murderer;
but there are the chances of war. A single reverse would destroy your
prestige. One defeat would bring the enemy to the heart of France. The
camp-fires of the Austrians can already be seen from the frontiers
of Provence. A cannon-ball may take off your head, as it did that of
Marshal Berwick, and then what becomes of France? You have no children,
and your brothers--"

"Oh!" cried Bonaparte, "from that point of view you are right enough;
but, if you don't believe in Providence, I do. I believe that nothing
happens by chance. I believe that when, on the 15th of August, 1769 (one
year, day for day, after Louis XV. issued the decree reuniting Corsica
to France), a child was born in Ajaccio, destined to bring about the
13th Vendemiaire and the 18th Brumaire, and that Providence had great
designs, mighty projects, in view for that child. I am that child. If
I have a mission, I have nothing to fear. My mission is a buckler. If I
have no mission, if I am mistaken, if, instead of living the twenty-five
or thirty years I need to accomplish my work, I am stabbed to the heart
like Caesar, or knocked over by a cannon-ball like Berwick, Providence
will have had its reasons for acting so, and on Providence will devolve
the duty of providing for France. We spoke just now of Caesar. When Rome
followed his body, mourning, and burned the houses of his murdere