under rulers and
generals the inveteracy of whose hatreds he could well understand. But
at least his position would be greatly improved by a successful
preliminary campaign, any success in short, to say nothing of so great a
one. If he could show himself once more the inimitable Captain, the
thunderbolt of war, the organizer of victory, the Napoleon of other days,
the effect upon France, at least, would be electrical. And the world
would again take notice.

The Emperor had to admit that, save in the army, there had not been much
response from tired-out, exhausted France, to the appeals of its once
irresistible and beloved leader. But the spirit of the army was that of
devotion itself. There was a kind of a blind madness in it of which men
spoke afterward as a phenomenon that could only be recognized, that could
never be explained or understood. They could not account for it. Yet it
was a powerful factor, the most powerful, indeed, that enabled the
Emperor to accomplish so much, and fall short of complete triumph by so
narrow a margin.

The spirit of this new army was not that burning love of liberty which
had animated the armies of the early republic and turned its
tatterdemalion legions into paladins. It was not the heroic consecration
of the veterans of later years to their native land. It was a strange,
mysterious obsession, a personal attachment to Napoleon, the
individual--an unlimited, unbounded tribute to his fascination, to his
own unique personality. It has not died out, and seems destined to live.
Even in death Napoleon, after a century, exercises the same fascination
over all sorts and conditions of men! Wise and foolish alike acknowledge
his spell. Men hate, men loathe much of that for which the Corsican
adventurer and soldier of fortune stood; they see clearly and admit
freely the thorough and entire selfishness of the colossal man, but they
cannot resist his appeal, even after one hundred years!

Yet in the long run no personal attachment, however deep, however ardent,
however complete, can take the place as the inspiration for heroic deeds
of that deeper passion of love of country. Nor can any personal devotion
to a mere man produce such a steadfastness of character as is brought
about by adherence to a great cause or a great land. A great passion
like the love of a people for a great country and that for which it
stands is eternal. Usually the feet of clay upon which the idol stands
ha