This etext was produced by David Widger
By CONSTANT
1895
Though this work was first published in 1830, it has never before beentranslated into English. Indeed, the volumes are almost out of print.When in Paris a few years ago the writer secured, with much difficulty,a copy, from which this translation has been made. Notes have been addedby the translator, and illustrations by the publishers, which, it isbelieved, will enhance the interest of the original work by Constant.
"To paint Caesar in undress is not to paint Caesar," some one has said.Yet men will always like to see the great 'en deshabille'. In thesevolumes the hero is painted in undress. His foibles, his peculiarities,his vices, are here depicted without reserve. But so also are hiskindness of heart, his vast intellect, his knowledge of men, hisextraordinary energy, his public spirit. The shutters are taken down,and the workings of the mighty machinery are laid bare.
The late Prince Napoleon (who was more truly "the nephew of his uncle"than was Napoleon III.), in his Napoleon and His Detractors, bitterlyassails this work of Constants attacking both its authenticity and thecorrectness of its statements. But there appears no good reason to doubtits genuineness, and the truthfulness of many of its details is amplysupported by other authorities. Notwithstanding its excesses andfollies, the great French Revolution will ever have an absorbing interestfor mankind, because it began as a struggle for the advancement of thecause of manhood, liberty, and equal rights. It was a terribly earnestmovement; and, after the lapse of a century, interest continues unabatedin the great soldier who restored order, and organized and preserved thenew ideas by means of his Civil Code and a firm government.
Countless memoirs have been published by those who lived in those heroictimes. Yet everything which will cast new light upon the chief actors inthat great drama of humanity is still seized upon with avidity,especially whatever concerns the Emperor.
This is not merely because he was a great conqueror; for such were, aftertheir fashion, Genghis Khan and Timour, and hundreds of others. But itis because of the human interest which attaches to the wonderful careerof Napoleon and the events of which he was the central figure.
Never did poet or novelist imagine scenes so improbable. The son of anobscure lawyer in an unimportant island becomes Emperor of the French andKing of Italy. His brothers and sisters become kings and queens. Thesons of innkeepers, notaries; lawyers, and peasants become marshals ofthe empire. The Emperor, first making a West India Creole his wife andEmpress, puts her away, and marries a daughter of the haughtiest andoldest royal house in Europe, the niece of a queen whom the people ofFrance had beheaded a few years before. Their son is born a king—Kingof Rome. Then suddenly the pageantry dissolves, and Emperor, kings, andqueens become subjects again. Has imagination ever dreamed anythingwilder than this? The dramatic interest of this story will alwaysattract, but there is a deeper one. The secret spring of all those rapidchanges, and the real cause of the great interest humanity will alwaysfeel in the story of those eventful times, is to be found in Napoleon'sown explanation—"A career open to talents, without distinction ofbirth." Till that day the accident of birth was the key to every honorand every position. No ma