bestowed on him by the master, along with the profits he can make out of
the vanquished.[3361] All that he now cares for is rapid promotion, and
in any way, noble or ignoble, at first, of course, on the main road,
that is in straining himself and risking his life, but likewise on a
new road, in an affectation of zeal, in practicing and professing blind
obedience, in abandoning all political ideas, in devoting himself no
longer to France, but to the sovereign: sympathy for his comrades gives
way to harsh rivalry; soldierly friendships, under the anticipation
of advancement, die out. A vacancy due to death is for the benefit of
survivors and they know it. "At Talavera," says Stendhal, "two officers
stood together at their battery, while a ball comes and the captain
falls. 'Good,' says the lieutenant, 'now Francois is dead and I shall be
captain.' 'Not yet,' says Francois, who was only stunned and who gets
up on his feet. These two men were neither unfriendly nor inimical, only
the lieutenant wanted to rise a step higher in rank." And this shrewd
observer adds: "Such was the furious egoism then styled love of glory
and which, under this title, the Emperor had communicated to the
French."

On this slope the slide is rapid and abject. Each, at first, thinks
of himself; the individual makes of himself a center. The example,
moreover, comes from above. Is it for France or for himself that
Napoleon works?[3362] So many immense enterprises, the conquest of
Spain, the expedition into Russia, the installation of his brothers and
relations on new thrones, the constant partition and rearrangement of
Europe, all those incessant and more and more distant wars, is it for
the public good and common safety that he accumulates them? What does
he himself desire if not to push his fortunes still farther?--He is too
much ambitious (trop ambitionnaire), say his own soldiers;[3363] and yet
they follow him to the last. "We have always marched along with him,"
replied the old grenadiers,[3364] who had traversed Poland to penetrate
into Russia; "we couldn't abandon him this time and leave him alone by
himself."--But others who see him nearer by, those who stand first and
next to him, do as he does; and, however high these have mounted, they
want to mount still higher, or, otherwise, to keep their places, or,
at least, provide for themselves and hold on to something substantial.
Massena has accumulated forty millions and Talleyrand sixty;[3365] i