An Aide-de-camp of Napoléon: Memoirs of General Count de Ségur

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Hutchinson, 1895 - France - 432 pages
 

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Page 86 - IT is BETTER TO KILL THE DEVIL THAN TO LET THE DEVIL KILL US ! ' " This last sentence, it is said, instigated the murder; such, at least, was the general report. Since the accession of Ferdinand VII. I have heard that the apothecary who administered the poison, voluntarily confessed his guilt; but for this I cannot vouch, as I was not at that time in Spain.
Page 362 - I send you twenty flags taken by our armies at the battles of Wachau, Leipzig and Hanau; it is a homage which I am pleased to render you. 1 wish you to consider it as a proof of my great satisfaction with your conduct during the regency which I entrusted to you. This letter having no other purpose, I pray God that He may have you in His holy and worthy keeping. "(Signed) NAPOLEON.
Page 95 - This political crime might therefore remain a solitary one, and as our future and that of the whole of the healthy-minded party in France depended on the First Consul, why should we give way to despondency? His hitherto unsullied rectitude of conduct had, it is true, suffered a lapse; he had slipped away from us, but that was all the more reason why we should strengthen our grip and endeavour to...
Page 281 - ... crime, destroy it, and thus " disarm the severity of our martial laws. " He had hardly finished speaking, before the happy princess had thrown the fatal letter into the very heart of the fire.
Page 101 - days, Sire." — "I can only give you one," retorted the Emperor. — "That is an impossibility," answered the Marshal. — "Impossible, Sir!" exclaimed the Emperor, "I am not acquainted with the word; it is not in the " French language, erase it from your dictionary." He at once indeed prescribed such measures as would ensure the possibility of embarking within twentyfour hours. But on the morrow, whether from his usual success in overcoming great difficulties, or from the knowledge that he had...
Page 130 - ... French people, I placed upon my head the imperial crown, I received from you, and from all citizens, the promise to maintain it pure and without blemish. All the promises I have made to you I have kept ; the French people in their turn have made no engagement with me which they have not even surpassed. Frenchmen, your emperor will do his duty; my soldiers will do theirs; you will do yours.
Page 177 - ... of the Austrian army. A heavy rain fell without cessation, and the prisoners were amazed to see the Emperor, who had not taken off his boots for a week, wet through, covered with mud, and more tired than the humblest drummer. When some one spoke of it, he said to Prince Lichtenstein : " Your Emperor wanted to remind me that I was a soldier. I hope he will acknowledge that the throne and the Imperial purple have not made me forget my old trade.
Page 225 - Rapp on arriving said in a loud voice, " Sire, I took the liberty of taking your chasseurs ; we have overwhelmed and crushed the Russian Guard and taken his artillery." " It was well done, I saw it," answered the Emperor ; " but you are wounded, my dear fellow.

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