The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1880-01-07

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a parvenu of soldier. Ny rule will not
survive the day npon which / shall no longer
be powerful and terrible. / made a great
mistake in emitting to calculate what an
army cost me-the finest ever seen by man.
L can fight against mankind but not against
the elements. The cold has vanquished, has
crushed me. In one single night 1 lost 3d.
GOO horses, frozen to death. Indeed, i have
lost all save my honor and my consciousness
of what / owe to valiant people which,
after these unheard of calamities, has given
me new proofs Of its devotion to me, of its
conviction that i alone am fit TO govern it.
/ have remedied the losses of last year Look
at my army. Consider the victories that
have justwon. My troops shall parade before
you
NAPOLEON AND HIS GENERALS.
"And it is just the army" interrupted,
''that wishes for peace" mo, not the
army" rejoined Napoleon, eagerly, "but my
generals They desire peace. l have no
generals worth speaking of left. The Mos
COW winter has demoralized them. / have
seen the bravest among them crying like
children. Physically and morally they are
broken down. A fortnight ago could have
made peace. Now can do so no more |
have won two battles, and L will not make
peace / observed: From all that your
majesty has said to me, l gather afresh
that any misunderstanding between your
majesty and Europe is impossible The
peaces you have concluded have never
yet been anything more than Temporal
~ truces. The moment has arrived at which
Europe and yourself must cast down your
gauntlets at one another's feet and respective
ly pick them up. In the struggle that will
ensue, believe me, Europe will not succumb."
"Do you imagine, then, that you can over
throw me by coalition2" rejoined Napoleon
How many are you, your allies-four, five,
six, 2O2 The greater your number the more
| shall be at my ease. / accept your chal-
lengel But can assure you" he continued
with a forced smile, ''that we shall see one
another again in Vienna next
October. By that time you will
see what will have become of your good
friends, the Russians and Prussians Do you,
perhaps, count upon Germany Just recall
1909 to your mind. My soldiers will suffice
me to keep the German populations in hand,
and for the fidelity of the German princes, l
am guaranteed by their fear of you If you
will only declare yourselves neutral, and
observe neutrality, will commence negotia-
tons in Prague. Will you have an armed
neutrality So be it. Station 3OOG, 900 men
in Bohemia, and let your emperor give me
his word not to declare war against Inc before
the negotiations shall have terminated
That will be enough for me-"
SPIES IN DIPLOMACY.
"The emperor" replied, "has offered his
mediation, not his neutrality 10 the powers
Russia and Prussia have accepted his media
Xnr. 10 Iao1
what you mean to do. Either YOU will
accept my proposition, and will settle term
for the duration of the negotiations, or you
will reject it. and my master, the emperor,
will then consider himself at liberty 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 5000 men in Bohemia. They
can stop there for few weeks, but not for
months" Here Napoleon again interrupted
me to break of into long depression re-
speeding the possible strength of our army.
According to his calculations we could not
at the most get together more than 1906
men in Bohemia He based his deductions
upon the normal numbers of the empires
population, upon his estimate of our losses
in the late wars, and upon our system of
recruitment. ! betrayed considerable sur
prise at the incorrectness of his assumption,
and told him that he could very easily pro-
cure more accurate information. al myself'
Iobserved, twill be bound to furnish your ma
Jesty with a complete list of your battalions
Can it be that your majesty Is less correctly
informed respecting the strength of the Aus
trian srmy?" II am quite we'll informed"
replied Napoleon, II possess most exhaustive
reports upon your combatant strength, and
am perfectly sure that / have not been de-
ceived as regards the chiffre of your effective
forces. NJ. de Narbonne has sent out a
host of spies, and his reports extend in de-
tail even to the drummers of YOUR
army. My headquarters staff has been no
less active; and know best what reliance is
TO be placed upon nay information. NV cal
culations are based upon mathematical pro-
positions; therefore they are sure. After all,
nobody has got more than he can haveP'
SACRIFICING HUMAN LIFE.
He then took me into his study and
showed me the muster rolls of our,,srmy, just
as he received them daily. He went over
them with extreme carefulness, regiment by
Over this question alone we dis
puted for more than an hour. When we
returned into his reception room he said
stake, and | might have fancied that he
wished to distract nv attention from
the purpose of my mission had
not known by experience how great an adept
he was in these well-calculated round
about ways. He talked about his operations
in Russia, and was extremely diffuse anent
what had happened after his last returns to
France. Every word he said made it more
and more clear to me that his exclusive OBJ
ject was to convince me that his reverses in
1872 were entirely attributable to the winter
season, and that his prestige in France had
never been greater that in consequences of
those very events. After listening to him
for half an hour interrupted him with the
remark that ''his own words afforded me
striking proof of the necessity that he should |
bring all these variations of luck and ill-luck
70 full STOP" ''Fate may betray you,' |
nhaarvaI che Ala - 1919