CHAMBERS'S

POCKET MISCELLANY.

YOUNG NAPOLEON.

THE story of this youth's brief and uneventful existence possesses a deep, though in some degree painful, interest. A course of policy over which he had no control, and the propriety of which it is no part of our present purpose to discuss, confined him through life to a strange and unnatural position, and exerted a blighting influence on his fate. From this the chief interest of the young Napoleon's history arises, and not from any incidents by which it was distinguished.

Young Napoleon was born in Paris on the 20th March 1811. His birth was attended with danger both to the mother and the offspring, insomuch that the medical attendant, a man of the first celebrity in his profession, lost courage, and was afraid to do what was necessary. At this juncture, the Emperor Napoleon appeared in the apartment, and commanded him to proceed as if the patient were the wife of an ordinary burgess. Everything subsequently went on well, and the Emperor in a short time had the satisfaction of presenting his infant son to the assembled officers of the imperial court, by

whom the child was hailed King of Rome'-the title which had been destined for him. At the same moment, the citizens of Paris were informed of the birth of an heir to the empire, by the reverberations of 100 cannon, which was the signal pre-appointed.

When this event took place, the power of Napoleon was at its height, and the empire, of which the newlyborn infant was the undisputed heir-apparent, was the mightiest, certainly, to which any human being had ever had the prospect of succeeding. Reverses, however, one after another, began to shake this great power, even while the unconscious heir to it was passing his infant days in the lap of pomp and adulation. In 1814, the Empress Maria Louisa, who had been left in Paris, while the Emperor was engaged against the allied armies, conceived it necessary to leave the capital with her son, then three years old, on account of the approach of the enemy. This was the first time that the changes of the period had affected the boy, and he, according to Sir' Walter Scott, 'is said to have shewn an unwillingness to depart, which, in a child, seemed to have something ominous in it;' as if he foreboded, young as he was, that there would be no return. Such was indeed the case; he never saw his father again. On Napoleon's abdication, and removal to Elba, Maria Louisa was not permitted to go with him, but was taken, along with her child, to the court of her father, the emperor of Austria. Neither by negotiation nor by stratagem could Napoleon ever afterwards procure the restoration of his wife and child.

Though carried to Austria when little more than four years old, the previous life of the young Napoleon had been passed amid scenes of too striking a nature not to leave on his mind some deep impressions. His intelligence, moreover, was precocious, and his manners so grave and reflective, that it was a remark of the people about him, that he never was a child. Not being of a communicative disposition, he did not talk himself, as ordinary children would have done, out of the recollections of former days. They lay treasured in the heart of the

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forlorn, and only saw the light in a moment of excitement. One day, for example, when in the midst of the imperial family, one of the Austrian archdukes shewed him a silver medal that had been struck in honour of himself, and asked him if he knew whose image was impressed on it. "It is I,' said the boy proudly, when I was king of Rome.' The remembrance of his own former consequence, and the greatness of his father, says his early tutor M. Foresti, were constantly present to his mind. From his infancy a love of truth distinguished him, and he used to pronounce the very word truth with an air and gesture of solemnity, which frequently made those about him smile. On observing this, he shewed his self-command by silently desisting from the use of the word.

In another particular, he evinced the remarkable strength of his early impressions. No entreaties, advices, or commands, could at first prevail upon him to begin the study of the German tongue, which was the first instruction attempted to be communicated to him. He would not even pronounce a word of the language, and maintained this resolution a long time for one so young. When prevailed on at last to begin, he mastered the tongue with uncommon ease and rapidity. M. Foresti, the tutor who remained with him for many years, informs us that the reasoning powers of young Napoleon were strongly developed even at this period. He yielded a point always on conviction, but only on conviction. He was good-natured to his inferiors, and friendly to his tutors, though without any lively expression of his feelings, thinking always a great deal more than he said.' He received reprimands with firmness, and soon acknowledged their justice, though perhaps annoyed at the time.

Such was the character in boyhood of young Napoleon, as described by M. Foresti, who, along with M. Collins, a German writer of talent, had the charge of his early instruction at Schönbrunn. As the boy's mind opened, a difficulty came in the way, which kept his tutors, says M. Foresti, in a species of torture.' This was the

incessant interrogation of them by the youth respecting his father. The emperor of Austria, on learning the state of matters, gave the teachers permission to speak freely a wise step, as the event shewed. For a short time, the boy drank from the newly-opened fountain, as if his thirst was insatiable. He overwhelmed us with questions, and exhibited an affluence of ideas perfectly surprising. After a few days, he seemed satiated with what he had heard, and became more calm, more reserved on the subject. It may seem incredible, but it is nevertheless true, that at no time, under any circumstances, was he ever heard to utter one word of regret in connection with his father's fall.' When he was ten years of age, the news of his father's death reached Schönbrunn. The boy wept bitterly when the intelligence was communicated to him, and his sadness endured for several days.

After his elementary education was completed, and studies of a higher nature entered upon, the bent of young Napoleon's mind began to develop itself. Of all the classical works in the dead languages laid before him, he took heartily only to the warlike commentaries of Cæsar. Indeed, so early as the age of seven, this bias to military pursuits had been shewn; and the emperor, though intending him originally for the Church, had indulged him with the uniform of a private. He afterwards went through every other rank, and learned the duties of each in its minutest details. Before the commissions appointed to watch over his educational progress, he shewed extraordinary aptitude, and many of the performances and essays which he prepared for these examinations, are said to have presented tokens of remarkable genius. They are written in Italian and other modern tongues-which he spoke and wrote with easeand now lie in the imperial archives at Vienna.

At the age of fifteen, young Napoleon's school-boy days may be said to have closed. After that period he was permitted access to every book without exception, relative to the history of his father and the French Revolution.

He read them with inconceivable avidity, and became a more perfect master of everything that has been written on these subjects than the best-informed persons around him. His collections, in French, on history and other useful subjects, are said to be immense. The liberality of the emperor furnished the pecuniary means of indulging these tastes. By an imperial decree, he was created Duke of Reichstadt, and endowed with Bohemian estates yielding L.20,000 sterling yearly; and latterly, he had a separate household, with the rank of an Austrian prince. But though his slightest wish was gratified; though he was supplied to excess with books, horses, and equipages; though he was surrounded with attendants and instructors-he was still, in a social sense, in solitude. This was the product of policy, not unkindness; for his grandfather, the emperor, shewed always a strong affection for him. In fact, the youth may be said to have given his own assent to the mode of life we have described. After he had reached what was considered a fit age, the minister Metternich, at the emperor's request, gave the son of Napoleon, in a series of interviews, the Austrian version of the history of his father, which had the anticipated effect on the youth's noble and ingenuous mind. His confidence was entirely won, and this had the practical result of rendering all those attempts abortive, which were frequently made by adventurers desirous of engaging the youth in political schemes. He is reported to have said to the emperor and Metternich: 'The essential object of my life ought to be, to make myself not unworthy of the glory of my father. I shall hope to reach this point of my ambition, if I can appropriate to myself any of his high qualities, taking care to avoid the rocks on which he split. I should be lost to a proper sense of his memory, if I became the plaything of faction, and the instrument of intrigue. Never ought the son of Napoleon to condescend to play the miserable part of an adventurer!' The example of Prince Eugene, who won high military fame without the stain of ambition, was that set before the young Napoleon.