The Napoleon of the People

The Napoleon of the People

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Title: The Napoleon of the People
Author: Honore de Balzac
Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7958] [This file was first posted on
June 5, 2003]
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THE NAPOLEON OF THE PEOPLE
BY
HONORE DE BALZAC

PREPARER'S NOTE
The Napoleon of the People was originally published in Le Medicin de
Campagne (The Country Doctor). It is a story told to a group of
peasants by the character of Goguelat, an ex-soldier who served under
Napoleon in an infantry regiment. It was later included in Folk-tales of
Napoleon: Napoleonder from the Russian, a collection of stories by
various authors. This translation is by Ellen Marriage and Clara Bell.

Napoleon, you see, my friends, was born in Corsica, which is a French
island warmed by the Italian sun; it is like a furnace there, everything is
scorched up, and they keep on killing each other from father to son for
generations all about nothing at all--'tis a notion they have. To begin at
the beginning, there was something extraordinary about the thing from
the first; it occurred to his mother, who was the handsomest woman of
her time, and a shrewd soul, to dedicate him to God, so that he should
escape all the dangers of infancy and of his after life; for she had
dreamed that the world was on fire on the day he was born. It was a
prophecy! So she asked God to protect him, on condition that Napoleon
should re-establish His holy religion, which had been thrown to the
ground just then. That was the agreement; we shall see what came of it.
Now, do you follow me carefully, and tell me whether what you are

about to hear is natural.
It is certain sure that only a man who had had imagination enough to
make a mysterious compact would be capable of going further than
anybody else, and of passing through volleys of grape-shot and
showers of bullets which carried us off like flies, but which had a
respect for his head. I myself had particular proof of that at Eylau. I see
him yet; he climbs a hillock, takes his field-glass, looks along our lines,
and says, "That is going on all right." One of the deep fellows, with a
bunch of feathers in his cap, used to plague him a good deal from all
accounts, following him about everywhere, even when he was getting
his meals. This fellow wants to do something clever, so as soon as the
Emperor goes away he takes his place. Oh! swept away in a moment!
And this is the last of the bunch of feathers! You understand quite
clearly that Napoleon had undertaken to keep his secret to himself. That
is why those who accompanied him, and even his especial friends, used
to drop like nuts: Duroc, Bessieres, Lannes-- men as strong as bars of
steel, which he cast into shape for his own ends. And here is a final
proof that he was the child of God, created to be the soldier's father; for
no one ever saw him as a lieutenant or a captain. He is a commandant
straight off! Ah! yes, indeed! He did not look more than
four-and-twenty, but he was an old general ever since the taking of
Toulon, when he made a beginning by showing the rest that they knew
nothing about handling cannon. Next thing he does, he tumbles upon us.
A little slip of a general-in-chief of the army of Italy, which had neither
bread nor ammunition nor shoes nor clothes--a wretched army as naked
as a worm.
"Friends," he said, "here we all are together. Now,