ation: Napoleon (1. The General 2. The Consul 3. The Conqueror
4. The Emperor.)]

Old soldiers are apt to be boastful when they tell, as did the Nonesuch,
of the deeds of a leader whom they so often followed to victory. Madame
Foa's pen has long since stopped its task of writing of French heroism
for the boys and girls of France; but it never wrote anything more
attractive or inspiring than the delicious bit of boasting that it put
into the mouth of this dear and battered old veteran of Napoleon's
wars,--Corporal Nonesuch of the Soldiers' Home.

For, if the American boys and girls who have followed this story will
read, as I trust they will, the entire life-story of this marvellous
man,--Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French,--they will learn that
much of the boasting of old Nonesuch was true story, as he assured his
comrades; while some of it, too, was,--let us say, the exaggeration of
enthusiasm.

But there was much in the career of the great Napoleon to inspire
enthusiasm. The determined and persistent way in which, while but a
boy, he climbed steadily up, using the obstacles in his path but as the
rounds of a ladder to lift him higher, affords a lesson of pluck and
energy that every boy and girl can take to heart; while the story of his
later career, through the rapid changes that made him general, consul,
conqueror, emperor, is as full of interest, marvel, and romance as
any of those wonder-stories of the "Arabian Nights" for which "the
youngster" expressed so much admiration, but which old Nonesuch so
contemptuously cast aside.

There were dark sides to his character; there were shadows on his
career, there were blots on his name. Ambition, selfishness, and the
love of success, were alike his inspiration and his ruin. But, with
these, he possessed also the qualities that led men to follow him
enthusiastically and love him devotedly.

But people do not all see things alike in this world; and since the
downfall and death of Napoleon, those who recall his name have either
enshrined him as a hero or vilified him as a monster. Whichever side in
this controversy you make take as, when you grow older, you read and
ponder over the story of Napoleon, you will, I am sure, be ready to
admit his greatness as an historic character his ability as a soldier,
his energy as a ruler, and his eminence as a man. And in these you will
see but the logical outgrowth of his self-reliance, his determination,
and his pluck as a b