tful, his promises vague, his resources uncertain; and
they remained quiet spectators of the combat.

It is not, in fact, by concealments, that people are reduced or
hurried away: to subjugate them, it is necessary, to convince their
hearts and their understandings; and the heart and the understanding
comprehend no language but the straight forward voice of truth.
Unhappily this language was no longer known to Murat. Since his
accession to the throne, he had adopted the system of dissimulation
and duplicity, which pretty generally characterise Italian politics.
These narrow politics, which support themselves by cunning and
temporizing, were incompatible with the French blood, that circulated
in his veins; and the continual conflicts, that arose between his
novel inclinations and his natural petulance, were incessantly
rendering his words and actions at variance, and leading him into
devious paths, where he could not fail, to go astray and meet his
ruin.

Nevertheless, such is the magic power of the sacred words of liberty
and our country, that Murat did not utter them in vain. Bologna and a
few cities declared for him; and a number of young Italians ran to
enlist under his standards. Victory favoured their first steps; but
Napoleon did not deceive himself: the moment had been ill-chosen, he
foresaw the defection or ruin of Murat, and what passed beyond the
Alps no longer inspired him with any thing but disgust. From that time
he turned his attention with more ardor than ever to the means of
struggling alone against his adversaries, whose proceedings began to
assume a threatening appearance.

The royal government, partly through fear, partly from economy, had
disorganized the army, reduced the regiments one half, changed their
denominations, and dispersed the soldiers among new battalions.

Napoleon re-established the regiments on their ancient footing;
restored to them their glorious surnames of Invincible, Incomparable,
Terrible, One to Ten, &c. &c., which they had acquired and merited in
the field of battle. He recalled to their standards the brave men who
had been banished from them; and the army, which was scarcely
fourscore thousand strong, soon reckoned on its lists near two hundred
thousand fighting men.

The marines[97] and guards of the coasts, who so brilliantly
signalized their courage in the plains of Lutzen and Bautzen, were
united under the command of their officers, and formed a body of
fifteen or