ghost, Clio
will hover above the scenes of Napoleon's exploits and will find
little to record but promises broken and development arrested by his
unteachable successors.
But the march of Humanity is only clogged: it is not stayed. Ere long
it breaks away into untrodden paths amidst the busy hives of industry
or in the track of the colonizing peoples. The Muse follows in
perplexity: her course at first seems dull and purposeless: her story,
when it bids farewell to Napoleon, suffers a bewildering fall in
dramatic interest: but at length new and varied fields open out to
view. Democracy, embattled for seven sad years by Napoleon against her
sister, Nationality, little by little awakens to a consciousness of
the mistake that has blighted his fortune and hers, and begins to ally
herself with the ill-used champion of the Kings. Industry, starved by
War, regains her strength and goes forth on a career of conquest more
enduring than that of the great warrior. And the peoples that come to
the front are not those of the Latin race, whom his wars have stunted,
but those of the untamable Teutonic stock, the lords of the sea and
the leaders of Central Europe.
* * * * *
The treatment of the ex-Emperor henceforth differed widely from that
which had been hastily arranged by the Czar for his sojourn at Elba.
In that case he retained the title of Emperor; he reigned over the
island, and was free to undertake coasting trips. As these generous
arrangements had entailed on Europe the loss of more than 80,000 men
in killed and wounded, it is not surprising that the British Ministers
should now have insisted on far stricter rules, especially as they and
their Commissioner had been branded as accomplices in the former
escape. His comfort and dignity were now subordinated to security. As
the title of Emperor would enable him to claim privileges incompatible
with any measure of surveillance, it was firmly and consistently
denied to him; while he as persistently claimed it, and doubtless for
the same reason. He was now to rank as a General not on active
service; and Cockburn received orders, while treating him with
deference and assigning to him the place of honour at table, to
abstain from any acknowledgment of the imperial dignity. Napoleon soon
put this question to the test by rising from dinner before the others
had finished; but, with the exception of his suite, the others did not
accompany him on deck.
|