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"This is fainting," said the valet, alarmed. | not successful. His "Homer reciting his "No, Jean, my good fellow," said Sir Poems was chiefly remarkable for its reThomas Lawrence, politely correcting him, semblance to Mr. Westall's manner, and for "it is dying ;" and he breathed his last. containing a well-drawn figure of Jackson, the pugilist. Of his "Satan calling up the Legions," Anthony Pasquin cruelly wrote: that "it conveyed an idea of a mad German sugar-baker dancing naked in a conflagration of his own treacle." Over an attempt at a Prospero and Miranda, he subsequently painted on the same canvas a portrait of Kemble as Rolla.

His remains were interred in St. Paul's Cathedral, near the coffins of his predecessors the presidents, Reynolds and West. "Since the days of Nelson," said Etty, who followed the hearse, "there has not been so marked a funeral."

...

The estate of the dead man was only just equal to the demands upon it. His popularity ought to have brought him wealth, And was he a male coquette ? "No," anbut, strange to say, he was always embar-swers a lady,—and it is a question that rerassed. Yet he did not gamble, was never quires a lady's answer," he had no plan of dissipated, never viciously extravagant; but conquest. .. But it cannot be too strongly he kept no accounts, was prodigal in kind- stated, that his manners were likely to misness to his brother-artists, and in respond- lead without his intending it. He could not ing to the many appeals to his charity. write a common answer to a dinner invitaPerhaps, too, he rather affected an aristo- tion without its assuming the tone of a bilcratic indifference to money. He spent let-doux. The very commonest conversation much time in gratuitous drawing and paint- was held in that soft, low whisper, and with ing for presents to his friends. It is prob- that tone of deference and interest which able that his death was hastened by his in- are so unusual, and so calculated to please. cessant work, to meet the demands made I am myself persuaded that he never intenupon him for money. Washington Irving tionally gave pain." saw him a few days before his death, and relates that "he seemed uneasy and restless, his eyes were wandering, he was as pale as marble, the stamp of death seemed on him. He told me he felt ill, but he wished to bear himself up." In one of his letters the painter wrote: "I am chained to the oar, but painting was never less inviting to mebusiness never more oppressive to me than at this moment." Still he could play his courtier part in society, and was always graceful and winning. Haydon, who never loved a portrait-painter much, yet says of Lawrence, that he was "amiable, kind, generous, and forgiving." Further on he adds: "He had smiled so often and so long, that at last his smile had the appearance of being set in enamel." But then Mr. Haydon prided himself on his coarseness, defiance, and hatred of conventionality, deeming these fitting attributes of the high artist.

It is only as a portrait-painter that Sir Thomas can now be esteemed. His attempts in another line of art were few and

Perhaps he was not capable of very deep feeling, and liked to test the effects of his fine eyes. He wooed the two daughters of Mrs. Siddons, never being quite clear in his own mind which he really loved. He tired of the one, and was dismissed by the other, or so rumor told the story; however, his friendly relations with the family do not appear to have ceased.. One of the sisters died. "From the day of her death to that of his own," writes a biographer, "he wore mourning, and always used black sealingwax. Uncontrollable fits of melancholy came over him, and he mentioned not her name but to his most confidential friend, and then always with tenderness and respect." It would have been more desirable, perhaps, that he should have exhibited a little more feeling during the lifetime of the lady; but perhaps marriage was not in the programme of the courtly rival of Hoppner, of the painter "that began where Reynolds left off," as the sinking Sir Joshua is reported to have declared of him.

From The Athenæum.

History of the Consulate and the Empire.[Histoire du Consulat et de l'Empire, par M. A. Thiers. Tome XI.] Paris, Lheureux; London, Dulau, & Co.

of the Revolution; the king showed in fact, that, as one prerogative of his position, he was determined to provide himself with enemies; and this with the legions of the popular Cæsar encamped around him. A military plot preceded the Elba exodus. It was reported to the emperor in his island. Great

THE scene narrows to Elba and widens to the Field of May. At length the squadrons are gathered which will ride against the Eng-names and great influences hovered near it, lish squares at Waterloo. The next volume half resolved and undeclared. The matter is to open upon that battle of battles. To ripened swiftly, while the downcast master Napoleon in his islet dominion M. Thiers de- of nations acted Robinson Crusoe in the purvotes only a few disdainful sketches. It was ple over his few miles of territory, and, by not tempting to exhibit the man of Auster- dint of military genius, contrived to parade litz and Lodi, like a veteran in second child- eleven hundred men. The people who, a hood, amusing himself with a toy army, min- few days before his arrival, had burnt him iature politicians, and a mimic fleet. Yet in effigy, were now his rejoicing subjects; those little battalions and that light flotilla, they were delighted to see his engineers opened the path to the Tuileries. It is all scarping and building at Porto-Ferrajo; but demonstrated that, after the adieux of they expected infinite results when they saw Fontainebleau, when seventy thousand men the Napoleonic horses and cattle turned forth might still have been rallied behind the for- on the pastures of Pianosa, where, on the peak est, the emperor insincerely signed his abdi- of a rock, stood a solitary fort, which, says M. cation. He had not renounced the sceptre; Thiers, fifty men might have rendered imhe submitted, in order that he might breathe, pregnable. Suppose that, instead of humand that the world might contrast the glory bling him at Waterloo, a coalition had locked of his reign with the impotence of the Bour-him up in that cloudy, little Gibraltar, or bon monarchy. Certainly, it was impossible blown the hill from beneath him! Now, all to believe too implicitly in the imbecility of was ready at Elba, except a Treasury. Nathe legitimate race. The Restoration began poleon waited, vaguely. His mother watched with a masquerade of hypocrisy, and it is him closely. The Princess Pauline Borghese difficult to decide whether the king or the divined, perhaps, the mysterious hopes of his Imperialist, who pretended to be cajoled, soul. Moreover, she had partly been taken proved himself the worst imposture. But into his confidence, when, as bearer of a mesthe Bourbons could never wheedle cleverly. sage to Murat, she told that unlucky PalaThere was always a strut in their affability, din to reserve himself for future opportuni-an affability in their condescension. What- ties. And so the Elba potentate held his ever they did well, they did too late. And court, went to the theatre, rode, walked, in their policy, organized for the security of boated, contemplated writing his own histhe restored throne, a similar dilatoriness tory, read the French newspapers, and, it displayed itself. In January, 1815, there yet cannot be doubted, convinced himself that remained in Europe a fragment of the Bon- he might and must return to France. M. apartist Empire-the kingdom of Murat. Thiers is not emphatic on this point; but All was at length prepared for its overthrow. the truth speaks in every act, and, so to France and Austria were united to consum- speak, every attitude of Napoleon during his mate their last revenge, when the seal of Sol-Eiba retreat. The sovereigns of Europe, omon was broken, the giant was once more persuaded by Alexander of Russia, had at liberty, and the patched-up dynasty van- grotesquely deluded themselves when they ished like an image of snow. Louis the thought to imprison this explosive spirit forEighteenth had left himself absolutely with- ever within sight of the continent which out support. He could not be, to the army. he had swept with his victories. When too the successor of Napoleon; he hesitated to late, they regretted the error, and it was in invoke a political power by assembling the contemplation at Vienna to change his place. Chambers; he evinced a strange desire to of exile from the Mediterranean to the Atlantamper with established rights; old preju- tic. Not from his imperial wife did he receive dices and hatreds were raised from the tombs this intelligence. She, the real avenger of

shal Ney? Perhaps Macdonald behaved better when, afraid of being reconciled with the emperor against his will, he put spurs to his horse, and galloped away as though an enchantment were pursuing him. Assuredly, that he and Ney never fought Napoleon was owing to no treachery on their part. The troops, even at Paris, refused to shout Vive

Josephine, was waiting for the ultimate down- | professions. Louis the Eighteenth, however, fall of her husband to lean on the arm of Wel- was stunned, and again did the right thing lington at a court ball. The beginning of at the wrong time. He made a constituthe end was come, and then began the march tional speech in the Chambers-a fortnight from Cannes to Paris. too late. Efforts were made to blind the It is a familiar story, but M. Thiers tells it public; reports were circulated that Bonain a way to fascinate all readers. The little parte had been defeated, and had taken refuge army sweeps on exultingly, gathering power among the mountains, in which, it was added, and volume as it goes; the march becomes he would speedily be entrapped, and exccuted triumphal; gates open; arches are flung like a common malefactor. Destiny, faithacross the streets; regiment after regiment less to the Bourbons, did not permit their links itself to the lengthening column; Na- mild representative to hang the conqueror of poleon bares his breast and asks what sol- Austerlitz; or, as they preferred to express dier of the empire will fire at the emperor; it, the "cowardly brigand." Ney's part was the Royalist cities are avoided: the eagles the most ignoble of all. He went to the are "flying from steeple to steeple until king, promising to lead an army which they settle upon the towers of Notre Dame." should return with Napoleon, "vanquished At first the returned exile is familiar and and a captive." M. Thiers says that he was popular; as his force increases he becomes reported to have added "in a cage of iron." slightly more imperial; his manifestoes He thinks the words might have been used, change into proclamations: his offer of ser- and that they would have been pardonable vice to France assumes the tone of author- in a soldier. Were they pardonable in Marity; he is a candidate at Grenoble, but at Lyon he is a king; in the former place he lodged at a tavern; at the latter he drove direct to the door of a palace. On the road, a carriage is stopped. It contains the Prince of Monaco, once devoutly Imperialist, now Royalist to the marrow. "Where are you going? asked Napoleon. "I am going home," answered the prince. "And so am le Roi!-in presence of Napoleon they I," said the emperor. And then the emper- thronged to their idol as Xenophon's Greeks or met an old woman who had never heard might have thronged had the great God of of his downfall, fancying him still at the War suddenly appeared to them, helmeted Tuileries. So he fell musing on the vanity and sandaled, to lead the war. The marof human ambition, but he did not on that shals were nothing in their eyes, unless they account, think of returning to Elba. No: were marshals of the empire. They would France, he exclaimed, was crying aloud to die for Ney, if Ney were fighting for the Lithim. How distinctly the cries of nations tle Corporal; they disdained him as the genare heard by the aspirants to thrones, before eral of Louis the Eighteenth. All this is they mount them, and how deaf are auto- most picturesquely and cogently set forth by crats sometimes in the rarefied atmosphere M. Thiers in one of the most admirable volof that altitude! The stream rolls on, swell-umes of his magnificent history. "The briging and brightening, and the demigod it was carrying upon its waves proclaimed that he bore in his hands the gifts of peace for Europe and liberty for France. Neither Europe nor France believed. M. Thiers is a votary of Bonapartism; but he admits that all far-sighted men, even among those who loved the Bonapartist name, deplored the attempt and foresaw the catastrophe. They knew how his invitation to Marie Louise would be received, and what credit the Emperor Francis of Austria would attach to his

and of Elba" was clearly making progress when the pliant Ney exclaimed, "Soldiers, the cause of the Bourbons is lost forever! " A Royalist officer then broke his sword, saying, "Sir, we must turn away, that we may not behold this spectacle :

"And what would you have me do?' answered the marshal: Can I drive back

the sea with my hand?' Others, admitting the impossibility of compelling the soldiers to fight against Napoleon, expressed their regret that Ney should, within so short a

space of time, have played two such opposite parts. You are children,' replied the marshal; it was necessary to decide in one way or the other. Could I go and hide myself like a coward, in order to evade the responsibility of events!' The Marshal Ney could not have taken refuge in obscurity. Moreover, there was only way of mitigating the evil, which was to make an immediate declaration, in order to avert civil war, and in order to get into our power this man who is returning, to prevent him doing mischief; 'for,' he added, I do not mean to give myself up to a man, but to France; and if this man wants to take us again to the Vistula, I will not follow him.' After having thus silenced his rebukers, Ney received at dinner, besides his generals, all the commanders of regiments, with the exception of one officer, who refused to be present."

But it was distinctly understood, and on this point M. Thiers leaves us in no doubt, that the chiefs of the army were resolved to endure no longer the warlike tyranny of Napoleon, his arrogance, his passion for conquest, or his habit of crushing the French people while he flattered them.

66

I

"I am going to see him,' said Ney; am going to talk with him, and I will declare to him that he shall not lead us to another Moscow. It is not to him that I give myself; it is to France; and if we adopt him as the representative of our glory, it is not to a restoration of the Imperial system that we shall lend ourselves.'. . . He wrote a letter to his wife, in which he detailed all he had done, and concluded with these characteristic words, My friend, you will not weep when you come out of the Tuileries.'"

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unfolded his papers, and was about to begin, when he interfered. You have no need to excuse yourself,' he said; 'your excuses and mine are to be found in events, which are stronger than men. But let us speak no more of the past, and indeed only remember it that we may conduct ourselves better in the future.' After these preliminary words, Napoleon, leaving the marshal no time to utter a word, explained to him the position of affairs. . . He declared that he would accept the Treaty of Paris; he mentioned what he had caused to be said at Vienna; that he relied much on this communication and the intervention of Marie Louise to prevent a fresh struggle with Europe, and that, on his arrival at Paris, he would surround himself with the most enlightened men, in order to deliberate with them on the reforms to be effected in the Imperial constitution."

...

Ney was anticipated in all that he had proposed to say. But he and the emperor pretended to be more mutually satisfied than they actually were. Napoleon's road lay through the shadows of Fontainebleau:

"At four in the morning, on the 28th March, he entered that court of the palace of Fontainebleau where, eleven months previously, he had addressed his adieux to the Imperial Guard. Already a group of cavalry, deserters from the army of Milan, had arrived to form his guard. On setting foot inside the palace, where the first empire had reached its end, and where the second seemed likely to begin, his face became lit up as by a sentiment of intense satisfaction. The turn of fortune had been indeed amazing, and in cured of all illusions (we shall presently see that vast mind, which at Elba had been the proofs), joy, for an instant, silenced policy."

There was a touch of shame in that; it betrayed, too, something ignominious in the But the turmoil at the Tuileries! The nature of the man. The Tuileries then was feeble fury of the Royalists! The prospects the temple in which he worshipped; it mat- of a second emigration! The glimpses of tered little whether a Bourbon or a Bo-coat-linings in the wardrobes of gentlemen naparte sat under the crimson canopies. anxious to wear their garments inside out! Clearly, at the moment, the Bourbons were All Paris was expectant. The very horses at a discount. Louis the Eighteenth was promising to die for his people, as a preliminary to running away. Napoleon had now recovered his dear Marshal Ney :

in the cavalry barracks seemed to sniff the approach of the man who had fed so many vultures. Napoleon being at Fontainebleau, the Bourbon thought better of dying; the "With profound sagacity, having divined gates of the palace court were closed at all that the marshal had prepared to say, it re-eleven o'clock; the royal family entered a quired but a moment to inform him that Ney would encounter him at once with excuses and remonstrances. Now, he wanted to dispense with the one, and to spare himself the other. He met him with open arms, exclaiming, Embrace me, my dear marshal.' Then Ney

carriage; the old dynasty drove through the silent streets. Next morning :

"Great anxiety was prevalent throughout a curious multitude to know what had happened. The were some servants in livery

moving about, but not a single officer or a "You are at Paris!' he said, on persingle guard mounted, except the ordinary ceiving her; 'you are the only person I had groups of the National Guard outside the not wished to see here.'-'I remained,' she gates. The white flag floated above the main answered, weeping,' to nurse my mother.'dome; some cries of Vive le Roi! were' But after the death of your father!'' Afheard, but that of Vive l'Empereur! the military, as yet, dared not utter. Soon the fatal secret was discovered, and the news filled Paris in the twinkling of an eye."

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ter that death I found in the Emperor Alexander a protector for my children, and I was compelled to take care of their prospects.'"Your children! better for them exile and misery than the protection of the emperor of Then assembled the spirits of the resurgent Russia.' But you, sire, did you not consent empire. First came Excelmans, who stalked that the king of Rome should owe the Duchy through the chambers and corridors of the of Parma to the generosity of that prince ? empty palace, and ordered the tricolor to be Not replying to this cogent argument, Naset floating. Then followed Bassano, Ro-poleon proceeded, And this action-who advised you to it?' (The princess was pleadvigo, Decres, Mollien, Gaudin, the Queen ing before the French tribunals to recover Hortense and the ex-queen of Spain, the the custody of her children.) They have wife of Joseph. In a moment the Tuileries forced you to reveal family miseries which was crowded with the Imperialist aristoc- ought to have remained concealed, and you racy. About nine o'clock in the evening, a have lost your cause-very well done!' But single carriage turned from the Boulevards, immediately repenting his severity, and opensingle carriage turned from the Boulevards, ing his arms to an adopted daughter whom outside the Invalides, along the Quays, and he loved, Napoleon embraced her, saying, ‘I thence to the gates:am a good father, you know, and we will then, our poor Josephine die-in the midst speak no more of these things. You saw, of our disasters, that death was a blow to my heart.""

"The carriage was driven into the court before any one knew whom it contained. But a moment sufficed to spread the intelligence. Then, Napoleon, snatched from the hands of Caulaincourt, Bertrand and Drouet, The file of ancient comrades lengthened was carried in the arms of his old officers, -Cambacères, Bassano, the Dukes Vicenza, seized with a delirium of joy. A tremen- Gaeta, Rovigo, Decres, Counts Mollien, dous shout of Vive l'Empereur! had given Regnaud de St. Angely, Lavalette :-then, notice to the crowd of high functionaries the glorious Davoust. Fouché played a that swarmed through the Tuileries. They more careful game. To all Napoleon held rushed towards the staircase, and, forming a current opposed to that of the officers, who were struggling up, a sort of contest took place which was almost alarming, since they were smothering one another and stifling Napoleon. They carried him thus to the top of the staircase, uttering frenzied cries, and he, for the first time in his life, unable to conquer the emotion he felt, allowed some tears to escape, and then, being deposited on the floor, walked on without recognizing any one, but yielding his hands to those who pressed around him, kissing them, and overwhelming him with homage. In a few moments, recovering himself, he welcomed his most faithful adherents, embraced them, and, without taking a moment for repose,

consulted with them as to the formation of a government."

In twenty days the empire had been reestablished. But wise men looked on and doubted. Hortense, protected by the Emperor Alexander, had remained at the French capitol, a circumstance which embittered Napoleon against her :

moderate, re-assuring, even caressing language. "I was a year in the Isle of Elba, and there, as in a tomb, I heard the voice of posterity." He thought Austria anxious for peace, and England crippled by her debts. Vanity might induce Russia, and hatred Prussia, to resume the war. And to France he promised the millennium. But he knew that war, and war on a terrible scale, was inevitable. Alexander of Russia had pledged his last man and his last rouble to help in crushing him. France again assumed a martial aspect. Four hundred thousand men were to take the field; two hundred thousand were to garrison the fortresses. Europe burned with impatience to see these new legions dispersed and the disturber chained; and M. Thiers, in a series of eloquent passages, explains how it had become next to an impossibility that the civilized world should be convinced or conciliated by Napoleon. But in the estimation of the English people, he assumes, the Bour

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