successful captain because he was a mighty Monarch. Of all his
campaigns, the most memorable are the campaign of the Adige, where the
general of yesterday, commanding an army by no means numerous, and at
first badly appointed, placed himself at once above Turenne, and on a
level with Frederick; and the campaign in France in 1814, when, reduced
to a handful of harrassed troops, he combated a force of ten times their
number. The last flashes of Imperial lightning still dazzled the eyes of
our enemies; and it was a fine sight to see the bounds of the old lion,
tracked, hunted down, beset--presenting a lively picture of the days of
his youth, when his powers developed themselves in the fields of
carnage.

Napoleon possessed, in an eminent degree, the faculties requisite for
the profession of arms; temperate and robust; watching and sleeping at
pleasure; appearing unawares where he was least expected: he did not
disregard details, to which important results are sometimes attached.
The hand which had just traced rules for the government of many millions
of men, would frequently rectify an incorrect statement of the situation
of a regiment, or write down whence two hundred conscripts were to be
obtained, and from what magazine their shoes were to be taken. A
patient, and an easy interlocutor, he was a home questioner, and he
could listen--a rare talent in the grandees of the earth. He carried
with him into battle a cool and impassable courage. Never was mind so
deeply meditative, more fertile in rapid and sudden illuminations. On
becoming Emperor he ceased not to be the soldier. If his activity
decreased with the progress of age, that was owing to the decrease of
his physical powers. In games of mingled calculation and hazard the
greater the advantages which a man seeks to obtain the greater risks he
must run. It is precisely this that renders the deceitful science of
conquerors so calamitous to nations.