The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-10

the Bonaparte Family"
 "HE fall of Robespierre and his
 \ party Guly, f7sD was temporary
 | blow to the fortunes of the Bona partes, connected as they were with that side of the revolution. General Bonaparte was arrested, and, although afterward liberated, was still suspected and degrad- ed His release was purchased by the sacrifice of his rank in the army, and lie lost all the fruits of the brilliant repu- tation he had won, and was thrown an outcast upon the world, at the age of % ignominiously expelled from the profess sion in which he had already begun to father prospective laurels.
 After his discharge from the army and from captivity, Napoleon had proceeded to Paris, with the view of claiming from the new government reparation of the wrongs he had suffered. But all his ap- plications being frutless, he found him. self in a situation at once most galling and deporable; since, to his impetuous spirit, the want of employment at time when avtive service offered so many chances of distinction, must have been in- tolerable while his Restitution was such that he often lacked the means of procur- ing dinner
 Yet his ardent imagination was even then filled with reveries of the greatness he might achieve; and 1t was on an oriental field his thoughts wandered in brilliant perspectives; for he deemed Eu- rope tame and sterile in comparison with Asia as a theatre of glorious enterprise. He cherished the idea of leaving France ana offering to the Turkish Sultan the sword his country was unworthy to pos sess; but averse to go forth as a mere adventurer, he submitted a proposition to the government for heading a detach- ment of officers to improve the discipline of the Ottoman forces and prepare them for a more equal encounter with the trained soldiers of Russia. This proposi- tion however, was not entertained and the impatient hero was compelled to await more propitious period to realize his scheme of revolution and eonquest in the east To the very end of his career his mind was full of the most romantic wis., ions of eastern grandeur, and his magnificent and wild imagination pre- sents a vivid contrast to the vigorous grasp of his intellect, the coolness of his judgment, and the crystal clearness of his understanding.
 The throne of Constantinople or Hin dustan was one of the dreams of his earliest yonth, and even in the midst of his most splendid European conquests, gorgeous visions of palms and pagodas were seldom long absent from his fancy. | Big with enthusiastic dreams of future power, Bonaparte, poor, unemployed and unfriendly, lotered about the streets of Paris. scowling at the effeminate dandies who pranced in the promenades on ca parsoned horses, and lisped the praises | of singers and dancers at the opera-for | the metropolis of terror had been sud- denly changed to one of exaggerated gay ety-frequenting coffee houses, theatres, gambling houses and other places of amusement; strolling in deserted avenues in the stiffness of evening to indulge in pensive meditations, or to beguile the | weary time leading, In short, life oi pure vagabondsm, which has Its joys in the days of youth, when the spirits are buoyant and hope Is. elastic. but 1 which is replete with moments of anguish and remorse. In such paroxysms or the conscience, despair is prone to seize upon
 the mind, and inspire its victims with | lamentable impulses So Napoleon fell
 under the dire temptation, and one night started along the quays to throw himseh from one of the bridges over the Seine On his way he encountered an n'old friend
 whom he had not seen since they were
 comrades of the camp, and to whom he | related the sad story of his distresses
 which affected not him only, but objects dearer to him than himself. The friend
 was moved by the mournfu tale, and
 presented to the intending suicide bag of gold, whose magic touch at once dis'
 pelled the gloomy humors which had i'm | pelled him to his fearful purpose. x
 Thus rescued from an inglorious death the teeming era of revolution at lengtr
 summoned into conspicuous action th'
 desolate and woe-worn Napoleon-an ih
 surrection occurring in Paris, he was foI tunate enough to be. chosen among the UT
 dcers appointed to- suppress It. lie a' once assumed the direction of affairs. In stantlv he opened upon the insurgents
 a terrific discharge of grapesno', w"'s'
 staggered, overthrow and routed .hein
 The battle was neither long nor ops'm
 ate. the insurgents could make no heae
 against the tempest of balls vomitef
 ae eainst them by their pitiless and scien l tiec enemy. The conqueror in the bro.
 was hailed with acclamation by the grate
 full assembly, and in reward of his ser
 v;ces he was nominated to be general o
 the army of the interior. By his achieve lment he saved the revolution. for had tn