his service to the State in precocious
youth, and in its hour of need, and won its confidence. But unlike Adams
he could not wait the dull delays of slow and laborious, but sure
advancement. He sought power by the hasty road that leads through fields
of carnage, and he became, like Adams, a supreme magistrate, a Consul. But
there were other Consuls. He was not content. He thrust them aside, and
was Consul alone. Consular power was too short. He fought new battles, and
was Consul for life. But power, confessedly derived from the people, must
be exercised in obedience to their will, and must be resigned to them
again, at least in death. He was not content. He desolated Europe afresh,
subverted the Republic, imprisoned the patriarch who presided over Rome's
comprehensive See, and obliged him to pour on his head the sacred oil that
made the persons of kings divine, and their right to reign indefeasible.
He was an Emperor. But he saw around him a mother, brothers and sisters,
not ennobled; whose humble state reminded him, and the world, that he was
born a plebeian; and he had no heir to wait impatient for the imperial
crown. He scourged the earth again, and again fortune smiled on him even
in his wild extravagance. He bestowed kingdoms and principalities upon his
kindred--put away the devoted wife of his youthful days, and another, a
daughter of Hapsburgh's imperial house, joyfully accepted his proud
alliance. Offspring gladdened his anxious sight; a diadem was placed on
its infant brow, and it received the homage of princes, even in its
cradle. Now he was indeed a monarch--a legitimate monarch--a monarch by
divine appointment--the first of an endless succession of monarchs. But
there were other monarchs who held sway in the earth. He was not content.
He would reign with his kindred alone. He gathered new and greater
armies--from his own land--from subjugated lands. He called forth the
young and brave--one from every household--from the Pyrenees to Zuyder
Zee--from Jura to the ocean. He marshalled them into long and majestic
columns, and went forth to seize that universal dominion, which seemed
almost within his grasp. But ambition had tempted fortune too far. The
nations of the earth resisted, repelled, pursued, surrounded him. The
pageant was ended. The crown fell from his presumptuous head. The wife
who had wedded him in his pride, forsook him when the hour of fear came
upon him. His child was ravished from his sight. His k