The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1880-04-09

honor myself? Never! I shall kr row
how to die, if necessary, but not how to
cede one inch of my territory. Your
monarchs who are born to thrones can
allow themselves to be beaten twenty
times running. and then return to their
capitals as if nothing had happened to
them. 1 cannot, because I am only a
pdrUe,au of a soldier. Ny rule will not
survive the day upon which shall no
longer be powerful and terrible. I
made great mistake in emitting to cal
culate what an army cost me-the finest
ever seen by man. I can fight against
mankind, but not against the elements.
The cold has vanquished, has crushed
me. In one single night lost 30, 900
horses, frozen to death. Indeed, have
lost all save my honor and my conscious
ness of what I owe to valiant people,
which, after these unheard-of calamities,
has given me new proofs Of its devotion
to me, of it's conviction that I alone am
fit to govern it. I have remedied the
losses of last year. Look at my army.
Consider the victories that have just
won. My troops shall parade before
you"
''And it is just the army" interrupt
ed, "that wishes for peace" 'sNo, not
the army eagerly rejoined Napoleon, p
''but my Generals. They desire peace.
I have no generals left worth speaking
of. The Moscow winter has demoral-
lied them. 1 have seen the bravest of
them crying like children. Physically
and morally they are broken down. A
fortnight ago I could have made peace.
Now can do so no more. I have won
two battles, and I will not make peace. :"
I observed: "F'rom all that your Majesty
has said to Ele, gather afresh that any
understanding between your Majesty and
Europe is impossi BILE. The peaces you
have concluded have never been any
thing more than temporary truces. The
moment has arrived at which Europe and
yourself must cast down your gauntlets
at one another's feet, and then respect
lively pick them up again. In the strug-
gle that will ensue, believe me, Europe
will not succumb."
'tDo you imagine, then, that you can
overthrow me with coalation ?" rejoined
Napoleon. "How many are you, your
allies-four, five, SIX. twenty The
greater the number, the more I shall be
at my ease. I accept your challenge, but
I can assure you" he continued, with a
forced smile, ''that we shall see one an
other again in Vienna next October. By
that time you will see where are your
good friends the Russians and Prussians.
Do you, perhaps, count upon Germany :?
Just recall 1909 to your mind. My sol
diers will suffice me to keep the German
population in hand, and for the fidelity
of the German Princes, I am guaranteed
by their fear of you. If you will only
declare yourselves neutral and. observe
neutrality, will commence operations
in Prague. Station 800, 900 men in Bo-
hemia, and let your Emperor give me
his word not to declare war against me
before the negotiations are terminated.
That will be enough for me-"
s'The Emperor I replied, ''has Of
fered his meditation, not his neutrality to
the Powers. Russia and Prussia have
accepted his mediation. You must now
this very day declare what you meal
to do. Either you will accept my prop
osition, and we will settle the terms for
the duration of the negotiations, or you
will reject it, and my master, the Em-
peror, will then consider himself at lib
erty as far as his further decisions are
concerned. The situation is urgent upon
us. The army must have food to eat.
In few days we shall have $50, 900 men
in Bohemia. They can stop there for
a few weeks, but not for months" Here
Napoleon again interrupted me to break
off into long depression respecting the
possible strength Of our army. Accord
ing to his calculations we could not, at
the very most, get together more than
deductions upon the normal numbers of
the Empires population, upon his esti
mate of our losses in the late wars, and
upon our system of recruitment. I be-
trayed considerable surprise at the incor-
rectness of his assumption, and told him
that he could very easily obtain more ac-
curate information. s'I myself" OBJ
served, sswill be bound to furnish Your
Majesty with complete list of your bat
tailions Can it be that Your Majesty is
less correctly informed respecting the
strength of the Austrian army?" ssI am
quite well informed" replied Napoleon.
"I possess most exhaustive reports upon
your combatant strength, and am per-
fectly sure that I have not been deceived
as regards the, c5ifre of your effective
forces. M. de Narbonne has sent out
host of spies, and his reports extend in.
detail even to the drummers of your
army. My headquarters staff has been
no less active, and know best what re-
lance is to be placed upon my informa-
ton. My calculations are based upon
mathematical propositions; therefore,
they are sure. After all, nobody has got
more than he can have"
He then took me to his study and
showed me the muster rolls of our army,
just as he received them daily. He went
over them with extreme carefulness,
regiment by regiment. Over this ques-
ton alone we disputed for more than an
hour. When we returned into his re-
ception room he said nothing more about
the political issues at stake, and might
have fancied that he wished to distract
my attention from the purpose of my
mission had I not known by experience
how great an adept he was in these we'll
calculated roundabout ways. He talked
about his operations in Russia, and was
extremely diffuse anent what had hap
pened after his last return to France.
Every word he said made it more and
more clear to me that his exclusive OBJ
iect was to convince me that his reverses
in 1912 were entirely attributable to the
winter season, and that his prestige in
France had neyer been greater than in
consequence of those very events. After
listening TO him for half an hour inter-
rupted him with the remark that sshis
own words afforded me striking proof
of the necessity that he should bring all
these variations of luck and Ill luck to a
full stop. Fate may betrat y6p2 OBJ
--s1sr