weakness decrees I should leave as I found thee,
Decay'd in thy glory, and sunk in thy worth.
Oh! for the veteran hearts that were wasted
In strife with the storm, when their battles were won--
Then the Eagle, whose gaze in that moment was blasted,
Had still soar'd with eyes fixed on victory's sun!

Farewell to thee, France!--but when Liberty rallies
Once more in thy regions, remember me then,--
The violet still grows in the depths of thy valleys;
Though wither'd, thy tears will unfold it again--
Yet, yet, I may baffle the hosts that surround us,
And yet may thy heart leap awake to my voice--
There are links which must break in the chain that has bound us,
Then turn thee and call on the Chief of thy choice!

I

Napoleon, when at the height of his fame, was looked upon by the
European Powers as a man whose lust of conquest was a terrible menace
to all constituted authority. The oligarchies thought themselves bound
to combine against him in order to reseat the Bourbons on the throne
of France and restore law and order to that distracted country. What a
travesty of the actual facts!

The people of France had risen against the tyranny and oppression of
the French kings and nobles, and out of the welter of the Revolution
Napoleon rose to power and, by his magnetic personality, welded the
chaotic elements into unity, framed laws which are still in operation,
and led his country to wonderful heights of glory.

Well may the crowned heads of Europe have feared this man, whose
genius put all their mediocre and unenlightened achievements in the
shade. Had they been blessed with the same vision as he, they would
not have opposed but co-operated with him, by introducing into their
own constitutions saner laws such as some of those in the Code
Napoleon. But instead of this, they began a campaign of Press
vilification, and Napoleon's every act was held up as the deed of a
monster of iniquity. Plots, open and secret, to dethrone him were
continually in progress, only to be frustrated by the genius of the
man of the people.

As an instance of this, and of the one-sided view taken by all ranks
and classes of Napoleon's opponents, let us contrast two cases which
are in some respects parallel. The many plots to assassinate the First
Consul--especially the one that very nearly succeeded when he was on
his way to the opera--and the knowledge that an organized band of
conspirat