insmen were degraded
to their first estate, and he was no longer Emperor, nor Consul, nor
General, nor even a citizen, but an exile and a prisoner, on a lonely
island, in the midst of the wild Atlantic. Discontent attended him there.
The wayward man fretted out a few long years of his yet unbroken manhood,
looking off at the earliest dawn and in evening's latest twilight, towards
that distant world that had only just eluded his grasp. His heart
corroded. Death came, not unlooked for, though it came even then
unwelcome. He was stretched on his bed within the fort which constituted
his prison. A few fast and faithful friends stood around, with the guards
who rejoiced that the hour of relief from long and wearisome watching was
at hand. As his strength wasted away, delirium stirred up the brain from
its long and inglorious inactivity. The pageant of ambition returned. He
was again a Lieutenant, a General, a Consul, an Emperor of France. He
filled again the throne of Charlemagne. His kindred pressed around him
again, re-invested with the pompous pageantry of royalty. The daughter of
the long line of kings again stood proudly by his side, and the sunny face
of his child shone out from beneath the diadem that encircled its flowing
locks. The marshals of the Empire awaited his command. The legions of the
old guard were in the field, their scarred faces rejuvenated, and their
ranks, thinned in many battles, replenished, Russia, Prussia, Austria,
Denmark and England, gathered their mighty hosts to give him battle. Once
more he mounted his impatient charger, and rushed forth to conquest. He
waved his sword aloft, and cried "TETE D'ARMEE." The feverish vision
broke--the mockery was ended. The silver cord was loosed, and the warrior
fell back upon his bed a lifeless corpse. THIS WAS THE END OF EARTH. THE
CORSICAN WAS NOT CONTENT.

STATESMEN AND CITIZENS! the contrast suggests its own impressive moral.

THE END.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Life and Public Services of John
Quincy Adams, by William H. Seward

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