Footnote 1136: Madame de Stael, "Considerations," etc., 3rd part, ch.
XXV.--Madame de Remusat, II., 77.]

[Footnote 1137: Stendhal, "Memoires sur Napoleon," narration of Admiral
Decres.--Same narration in the "Memorial."]

[Footnote 1138: De Segur, I., 193.]

[Footnote 1139: Roederer, "Oeuvres completes," II., 560. (Conversations
with General Lasalle in 1809, and Lasalle's judgment on the debuts of
Napoleon).]

[Footnote 1140: Another instance of this commanding influence is found
in the case of General Vandamme, an old revolutionary soldier still more
brutal and energetic than Augereau. In 1815, Vandamme said to Marshal
d'Ornano, one day, on ascending the staircase of the Tuileries
together: "My dear fellow, that devil of a man (speaking of the Emperor)
fascinates me in a way I cannot account for. I, who don't fear either
God or the devil, when I approach him I tremble like a child. He would
make me dash through the eye of a needle into the fire!" ("Le General
Vandamme," by du Casse, II., 385).]

[Footnote 1141: Roederer, III., 356. (Napoleon himself says, February
11, 1809): "I, military! I am so, because I was born so; it is my habit,
my very existence. Wherever I have been I have always had command. I
commanded at twenty-three, at the siege of Toulon; I commanded at Paris
in Vendemiaire; I won over the soldiers in Italy the moment I presented
myself. I was born for that."]

[Footnote 1142: Observe the various features of the same mental and
moral structure among different members of the family. (Speaking of his
brothers and sisters in the "Memorial" Napoleon says): "What family
as numerous presents such a splendid group?"--"Souvenirs", by PASQUIER
(Etienne-Dennis, duc), chancelier de France, in VI volumes, Librarie
Plon, Paris 1893. Vol. I. p. 400. (This author, a young magistrate under
Louis XVI., a high functionary under the Empire, an important political
personage under the restoration and the July monarchy, is probably the
best informed and most judicious of eye-witnesses during the first half
of our century.): "Their vices and virtues surpass ordinary proportions
and have a physiognomy of their own. But what especially distinguishes
them is a stubborn will, and inflexible resolution.... All possessed
the instinct of their greatness." They readily accepted "the highest
positions; they even got to believing that their elevation was
inevitable.... Nothing in the incredible good fortune of Joseph
astonished