ts of France. He engaged in this utterly egotistical
enterprise with contradictory means, and in an impossible position. From
thence came the reverses he suffered, and the evil he produced.

It presented a strange spectacle to intelligent spectators, and one
slightly tinged with the ridiculous, on both sides, to see Napoleon and
the heads of the Liberal party arranged against each other, not to
quarrel openly, but mutually to persuade, seduce, and control. A
superficial glance sufficed to convince that there was little sincerity
either in their dispute or reconciliation. Both well knew that the real
struggle lay in other quarters, and that the question upon which their
fate depended would be settled elsewhere than in these discussions.

If Napoleon had triumphed over Europe, assuredly he would not long have
remained the rival of M. de La Fayette and the disciple of Benjamin
Constant; but when he lost the day of Waterloo, M. de La Fayette and his
friends set themselves to work to complete his overthrow.

From necessity and calculation, the true thoughts and passions of men
are sometimes buried in the recesses of their hearts; but they quickly
mount to the surface as soon as an opportunity occurs for their
reappearing with success. Frequently did Napoleon resign himself, with
infinite pliability, shrewdness, and perception, to the farce that he
and the Liberals were playing together; at one moment gently, though
obstinately, defending his old policy and real convictions; and at
another yielding them up with good grace, but without positive
renunciation, as if out of complaisance to opinions which he hesitated
to acknowledge. But now and then, whether from premeditation or
impatience, he violently resumed his natural character; and the despot,
who was at once the child and conqueror of the Revolution, reappeared in
complete individuality.

When an attempt was made to induce him to insert, in the Additional Act
to the Constitutions of the Empire, the abolition of the confiscation
proclaimed by the Charter of Louis XVIII., he exclaimed passionately,
"They drive me into a path that is not my own; they enfeeble and enchain
me. France will seek, and find me no longer. Her opinion of me was once
excellent; it is now execrable. France demands what has become of the
old arm of the Emperor, the arm which she requires to control Europe.
Why talk to me of innate virtue, of abstract justice, of natural laws?
The first law is necess