en these with proper
generosity is an indication that reason and knowledge are taking the
place of stereotyped international prejudice, political and personal.
We are beginning to see more clearly through the fog of enmity that he
had rare virtues, besides having unparalleled genius. The divorce of
Josephine was unquestionably political, though had he been the
ferocious creature he has been made to appear, the opportunities she
gave him so frequently would have justified the divorce at a much
earlier stage on other than political grounds.

It ill becomes a nation which knew George I., George IV., and Henry
VIII. to take such unctuous exception to the gentle and benevolent
attitude of Napoleon before and after the annulment of the marriage.

FOOTNOTES:

[31] It has been asserted that when Josephine found the divorce to be
inevitable she herself suggested the alliance with Marie Louise. One
reason for believing that this might be the case lies in the fact that
the affection of Josephine's children for Napoleon suffered no
diminution on account of the divorce--indeed, Eugene took a leading
part in the negotiations for the marriage.

[32] In the notorious "Letters from the Cape," addressed to Lady
Clavering and variously attributed to an Englishman, Las Cases, and
even Napoleon himself, there is noted a curious coincidence with
regard to the two Franco-Austrian alliances. Both marriage contracts
were signed under somewhat similar circumstances, and in both cases
fetes were held in honour of the event. At the marriage fete of Louis
XVI. and Marie Antoinette a calamity occurred which resulted in the
loss of about two thousand lives. To celebrate the union of Napoleon
and Marie Louise, Prince Schwartzenberg gave a fete, at which a fire
occurred, the Prince's wife and some twenty other people being burnt
to death. The superstitious drew attention to the coincidence, and it
is said that Napoleon looked upon it as an evil omen.

CHAPTER VII

RELIGIOUS NOTIONS OF NAPOLEON

In contrast with members of the oligarchy, who threw all moral
restraints to the winds, Napoleon towers above them. Take any
grounds--administrative, strategical, religious, domestic--he was
preeminent above his contemporaries. On religious grounds alone, those
thoughts of his which have been recorded not only disclose the insight
of a man of affairs, but reveal the thinking mind of a deeply
religious being. His conversations with Gourgaud on re