f other men. Such a being, so unlike others, could neither
excite nor feel sympathy: he was more or less than man. His bearing,
his mind, his language have the marks of a foreigner's nature--an
advantage the more in subjugating Frenchmen....

Far from being reassured by seeing Bonaparte often, he always
intimidated me more and more. I felt vaguely that no emotional feeling
could influence him. He regards a human creature as a fact or a thing,
but not as an existence like his own. He feels no more hate than love.
For him there is no one but himself: all other creatures are mere
ciphers. The force of his will consists in the imperturbable
calculations of his egotism: he is an able chess-player whose opponent
is all humankind, whom he intends to checkmate. His success is due as
much to the qualities he lacks as to the talents he possesses. Neither
pity, nor sympathy, nor religion, nor attachment to any idea
whatsoever would have power to turn him from his path. He has the same
devotion to his own interests that a good man has to virtue: if the
object were noble, his persistency would be admirable.

Every time that I heard him talk I was struck by his superiority; it
was of a kind, however, that had no relation to that of men instructed
and cultivated by study, or by society, such as England and France
possess examples of. But his conversation indicated that quick
perception of circumstances the hunter has in pursuing his prey.
Sometimes he related the political and military events of his life in
a very interesting manner; he had even, in narratives that admitted
gaiety, a touch of Italian imagination. Nothing, however, could
conquer my invincible alienation from what I perceived in him. I saw
in his soul a cold and cutting sword, which froze while wounding; I
saw in his mind a profound irony, from which nothing fine or noble
could escape not even his own glory: for he despised the nation whose
suffrages he desired; and no spark of enthusiasm mingled with his
craving to astonish the human race....

His face, thin and pale at that time, was very agreeable: since then
he has gained flesh--which does not become him; for one needs to
believe such a man to be tormented by his own character, at all to
tolerate the sufferings this character causes others. As his stature
is short, and yet his waist very long, he appeared to much greater
advantage on horseback than on foot; in all ways it is war, and war
only, he is fitted for. H