g, or the mighty changes that already moved across the
destinies of France. To my eyes the conqueror of Lodi needed no title;
what sceptre could equal his own sword? France might desire in her pride
to unite her destinies with such a name as his; but he, the general
of Italy and Egypt, could not be exalted by any dignity. Such were my
boyish fancies; and as I indulged them, again there grew up the hope
within me that a brighter day was yet to beam on my own fortunes, when
I should do that which even in his eyes might seem worthy. His very
reproaches stirred my courage and nerved my heart. There was a combat,
there was a battlefield, before me, in which my whole fame and honor
lay; and could I but succeed in making him confess that he had wronged
me, what pride was in the thought? "Yes," said I, again and again, "a
devotion to him such as I can offer must have success: one who, like me,
has neither home nor friends nor country to share his heart, must have
room in it for one passion; and that shall be glory. She whom alone I
could have loved,--I dared not confess I did love her,--never could be
mine. Life must have its object; and what so noble as that before me?"
My very dreams caught up the infatuation of my waking thoughts,
and images of battle, deadly contests, and terrific skirmishes were
constantly passing before me; and I actually went my daily rounds
of duty buried in these thoughts, and lost to everything save what
ministered to my excited imagination.

We who lived far away on the distant frontier could but collect from the
journals the state of excitement and enthusiasm into which every class
of the capital was thrown by Napoleon's elevation to the Monarchy. Never
perhaps in any country did the current of popular favor run in a stream
so united. The army hailed him as their brother of the sword, and felt
the proud distinction that the chief of the Empire was chosen from their
ranks. The civilian saw the restoration of Monarchy as the pledge
of that security which alone was wanting to consolidate national
prosperity. The clergy, however they may have distrusted his sincerity,
could not but acknowledge that to his influence was owing the return of
the ancient faith; and, save the Vendeans, broken and discomfited, and
the scattered remnants of the Jacobin party, discouraged by the fate of
Moreau, none raised a voice against him. A few of the old Republicans,
among whom was Camot, did, it is true, proclaim their di