Memoirs of Lucien Bonaparte (Prince of Canino): Part the First (from the Year 1792, to the Year 8 of the Republic) |
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18th Fructidor 9th Thermidor accused administration Ajaccio ALLIED REPUBLICS amongst arms army assassins assembly attack authority Barras blood Bonaparte Brumaire cause ceased chamber chief Cisalpine citizens colleagues command commission committee confidence constitution Corsica council of ancients council of five courage crime danger dared declared decree defend demand departments deputies desired despotism direc doubt election electoral endeavored enemies equally error evils executive directory executive power favor five hundred force France French Frenchmen glory hatred hope interior Italy Jacobins Jourdan king legislative body Liamone liberty longer Lucien Bonaparte measures menaced ment Messidor Milan millions minister months Napoleon notwithstanding oath opinion Paoli Paris party patriotism peace political popular society proposed Rastadt re-unions representatives republican repulsed revolution Roger Ducos royalists sentiments Sièyes sitting suffrage Suwarrow tax upon salt Thermidor thought thousand tion tribune triumph troops universal suffrage Vendemiaire victory vote
Popular passages
Page 61 - ... ruins. Pavia presented me in a few moments after with a spectacle even more deplorable. That great city had been delivered up to pillage in the morning : the traces of blood had not been effaced : the bodies of the peasants, who had refused to surrender, were not carried away : people were occupied by funeral rites within the gate by which I entered. The streets and places were transformed into a perfect fair, where the conquerors were selling, to hideous speculators, the spoils of the vanquished...
Page 27 - Frenchmen, as good, or perhaps better than I was — have slipped down that precipice ! How many of those unfortunate beings, born of parents equally virtuous as my own, and gifted, like me, with a good education, — have fallen ! Yes, that is by far the worst of all social states, where an honest man is exposed to become criminal, — where the fate of each is at the mercy of all, — where we are never certain of what we may say, what we may do, or what will become of us on the morrow.
Page 21 - ... administrators of the departments to send troops to the aid of Ajaccio; a deputation of three members to accompany us to the Jacobins of Paris, to denounce the treason of Paoli and demand vengeance — all these measures were adopted with urgency and unanimity. My colleagues not having funds sufficient for the journey to Paris, I determined upon accompanying the deputies of Marseilles alone, and we left the assembly together at midnight.
Page 60 - ... Napoleon was no longer at Milan. The revolt of Pavia had just broken out : and it was said that the general was gone to the banks of the Adige, to chastise the guilty city. I hastened to Pavia : upon the road my eyes were struck with the distant reflection of a vast fire. ... It was the village of Binasco delivered up to the flames to expiate the assassination of several of our straggling soldiers. I traversed the burning ruins. Pavia presented me in a few moments after with a spectacle even...
Page 19 - I fancied myself a personage of sufficient importance, who could not fail to attract the notice of the crowd which covered the port of Marseilles, where we landed in the evening. We scarcely allowed ourselves a moment of repose, so great was our anxiety to arrive at the popular society. In a vast saloon, which admitted very little light, were seated the members of the society, all of them with red caps on their heads.
Page 60 - Corsica, of what kind he does not tell, but the real object seems to have been to prepare the way for his future election as deputy. We think it worth while to extract his testimony as to the style in which the French carried on this war : — ' I had obtained permission to quit the north to go to Milan, where our army had made its entry. Napoleon was no longer at Milan. The revolt of Pavia had just broken out : and it was said that the general was gone to the banks of the Adige, to chastise the...
Page 20 - Motion upon motion succeeded one after the other. An order for printing my speech — a message to the administrators of the department to send troops to the aid of Ajaccio — a deputation of three members to accompany us to the Jacobins of Paris, to denounce the treason of Paoli, and to demand vengeance ; — all these measures were adopted instanter and with unanimity.
Page 26 - Poor France ! How many times I have thanked Providence for not having abandoned me to the intoxication of so extraordinary a position, so dangerous at my age, and for having surrounded me with plain and simple persons ready to assist me in the good intentions with which I had inspired them, as they would have been equally ready to have aided me, had I been inclined to commit excesses ; for in those moments of democratical despotism, (the worst of all despotisms,) the power of an orator, as long as...
Page 20 - ... national confidence, and as having only returned into his island that he might deliver it up to the English. They, above all, were not spared in my figures of rhetoric. It was the chord most likely to touch the feelings of my auditors, and I made it my favourite theme. I was overpowered with caresses and compliments ; they would not let me quit the tribune ; and I chattered away for about two hours at random. Motion upon motion succeeded one after the other.
Page 1 - U, indeed, in the book that is worth extracting : — ' When the revolution opened in 1789, the grand era of political reform, I had entered my fifteenth year. After having been for some time at the College of Autun, and at the military school of Brienne, lastly at the seminary of Aix in Provence, I returned to Conica.