Five days after, Barras proposed to the Convention to appoint their defender, General Bonaparte, second in command of the Army of the Interior; a proposal which was adopted by acclamation. "The nature of the insurrection of the sections," remarks Scott, "was not ostensibly royalist, but several of its leaders were of that party in secret; and if successful, it would most certainly have assumed that complexion. Thus, the first step of Napoleon's rise commenced by the destruction of the hopes of the house of Bourbon, under the reviving influence of which, twenty years afterwards, he was, himself, obliged to succumb."

Barras, who had retained the chief command of the Army of the Interior, soon resigned it to his new favourite, to be efficaeiously applied to the improvement of the military department and the greater security of the Convention. Our author connects with the history of Napoleon's management, this anecdote:

"As the dearth of bread, and other causes of disaffection, continued to produce commotions in Paris, the General of the Interior was sometimes obliged to oppose them with the military force. On one occasion, it is said, when Buonaparte was anxiously admonishing the multitude to disperse, a very bulky woman exhorted them to keep their ground. Never mind these coxcombs with the epaulettes,' she said; they do not care if we are all starved, so they themselves feed and get fat.'—'Look at me, good woman,' said Buonaparte, who was then as thin as a shadow, and tell me which is the fatter of us two.' This turned the laugh against the Amazon, and the rabble dispersed in good-humour.”

As the first marriage of the hero belongs to this period, and is not the least interesting of the memorable occurrences in his life, we shall extract Sir Walter's pages on that subject:—

"A fine boy, of ten or twelve years old, presented himself at the levee of the General of the Interior, with a request of a nature unusually interesting. He stated his name to be Eugene Beauharnois, son of the ci-devant Vicomte de Beauharnois, who, adhering to the revolutionary party, had been a general in the Republican service upon the Rhine, and falling under the causeless suspicion of the Committee of Public Safety, was delivered to the Revolutionary Tribunal, and fell by its sentence just four days before the overthrow of Robespierre. Eugene was come to request of Buonaparte, as General of the Interior, that his father's sword might be restored to him. The prayer of the young supplicant was as interesting as his manners were engaging, and Napoleon felt so much concern in him, that he was induced to cultivate the acquaintance of Eugene's mother, afterwards the Empress Josephine.

This lady was a Creolian, the daughter of a planter in St. Domingo. Her name at full length was Marie Joseph Rose Tascher de la Pagerie. She had suffered her share of revolutionary miseries. After her husband, General Beauharnois, had been deprived of his command, she was arrested as a suspected person, and detained in prison till the general liberation, which succeeded the revolution of the 9th Thermidor. While in confinement, Madame Beauharnois had formed an intimacy with a companion in distress, Madame Fontenai, now Madame Tallier, from which she derived great advantages after her friend's marriage. With a remarkably graceful person, amiable manners, and an inexhaustible fund of goodhumour, Madame Beauharnois was formed to be an ornament to society. Barras, the Thermidorien hero, himself an ex-noble, was fond of society, desirous of enjoying it on an agreeable scale, and of washing away the dregs which Jacobinism had mingled with all the dearest interests of life. Ile loved show, too, and plea sure, and might now indulge both without the risk of falling under the suspicion of incivism, which, in the reign of Terror, would have been incurred by any at

tempt to intermingle elegance with the enjoyments of social intercourse. At the apartments which he occupied, as one of the Directory, in the Luxembourg Pa lace, he gave its free course to his natural taste, and assembled an agreeable society of both sexes. Madame Tallien and her friend formed the soul of these assemblies, and it was supposed that Barras was not insensible to the charms of Madame Beauharnois,—a rumour which was likely to arise, whether with or without foundation.

When Madame Beauharnois and General Buonaparte became intimate, the latter assures us, and we see no reason to doubt him, that although the lady was two or three years older than himself, yet being still in the full bloom of beauty, and extremely agreeable in her manners, he was induced, solely by her personal charms, to make her an offer of his hand, heart, and fortunes,-little supposing, of course, to what a pitch the latter were to arise. Buonaparte was then in his twenty-sixth year: Josephine gave herself in the marriage contract for twentyeight.

Although he himself is said to have been a fatalist, believing in destiny and in the influence of his star, he knew nothing, probably, of the prediction of a negro sorceress, who, while Marie Joseph was but a child, prophesied she should rise to a dignity greater than that of a queen, yet fall from it before her death. This was one of those vague auguries, delivered at random by fools or impostors, which the caprice of Fortune sometimes matches with a corresponding and conforming event. But without trusting to the African sibyl's prediction, Buonaparte may have formed his match under the auspices of ambition as well as love. The marrying Madame Beauharnois was a mean of uniting his fortune with those of Barras and Tallien, the first of whom governed France as one of the Directors; and the last, from talents and political connexions, had scarcely inferior influence. He had already deserved well of them for his conduct on the Day of the Sections, but he required their countenance to rise still higher; and without derogating from the bride's merits, we may suppose her influence in their society corresponded with the views of her lover. It is, however, certain, that he always regarded her with peculiar affection; that he relied on her fate, which he considered as linked with and strengthening his own; and reposed, besides, considerable confidence in Josephine's tact and address in political business. She had at all times the art of mitigating his temper, and turning aside the hasty determinations of his angry moments, not by directly opposing, but by gradually parrying and disarming them. It must be added to her great praise, that she was always a willing, and often a successful advocate, in the cause of humanity.

They were married 9th March 1796; and the dowry of the bride was the chief command of the Italian armies, a scene which opened a full career to the ambition of the youthful General. Buonaparte remained with his wife only three days after his marriage, hastened to see his family, who were still at Marseilles, and, having enjoyed the pleasure of exhibiting himself as a favourite of Fortune in the city which he had lately left in the capacity of an indigent adventurer, proceeded rapidly to commence the career to which Fate called him, by placing himself at the head of the Italian army."

Our author, before he describes the Italian campaign, explains thus the system of the conqueror:

"For victory, he relied chiefly upon a system of tactics hitherto unpractised in war, or at least upon any considerable or uniform scale. It may not be unnecessary to pause, to take a general view of the principles which he now called into action."

"No man ever possessed in a greater degree than Buonaparte, the power of calculation and combination necessary for directing decisive manœuvres. It constituted indeed his secret-as it was for some time called-and that secret cousisted in an imagination fertile in expedients which would never have occurred to others; clearness and precision in forming his plans; a mode of directing with certainty the separate moving columns which were to execute them, by arranging so that cach division should arrive on the destined position at the exact

time when their service was necessary; and above all, in the knowledge which enabled such a master-spirit to choose the most fitting subordinate implements, to attach them to his person, and, by explaining to them so much of his plan as it was necessary each should execute, to secure the exertion of their utmost ability in carrying it into effect.

Thus, not only were his manœuvres, however daring, executed with a precision which warlike operations had not attained before his time; but they were also performed with a celerity which gave them almost always the effect of surprise. Napoleon was like lightning in the eyes of his enemies; and when repeated experience had taught them to expect this portentous rapidity of movement, it sometimes induced his opponents to wait, in a dubious and hesitating posture, for attacks, which, with less apprehension of their antagonist, they would have thought it more prudent to frustrate and to anticipate.

Great sacrifices were necessary to enable the French troops to move with that degree of celerity which Buonaparte's combinations required. He made no allowance for impediments or unexpected obstacles; the time which he had calculated for execution of manœuvres prescribed, was on no account to be exceeded-every sacrifice was to be made of baggage, stragglers, even artillery, rather than the column should arrive too late at the point of its destination. Hence, all that had hitherto been considered as essential not only to the health, but to the very existence of an army, was in a great measure dispensed with in the French service and, for the first time, troops were seen to take the field without tents, without camp-equipage, without magazines of provisions, without military hospitals; the soldiers eating as they could, sleeping where they could, dying where they could; but still advancing, still combating, and still victorious.

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It is true, that the abandonment of every object, save success in the field, augmented frightfully all the usual horrors of war. The soldier, with arms in his hands, and wanting bread, became a marauder in self-defence; and in supplying his wants by rapine, did mischief to the inhabitants in a degree infinitely beyond the benefit he himself received; for it may be said of military requisition, as truly as of despotism, that it resembles the proceedings of a savage, who cuts down a tree to come at the fruit. Still, though purchased at a high rate, that advantage was gained by this rapid system of tactics, which in a slower progress, during which the soldier was regularly maintained, and kept under the restraint of discipline, might have been rendered doubtful. It wasted the army through disease, fatigue, and all the consequences of want and toil; but still the victory was attained, and that was enough to make the survivors forget their hardships, and to draw forth new recruits to replace the fallen. Patient of labours, light of heart and temper, and elated by success beyond all painful recollections, the French soldiers were the very men calculated to execute this desperate species of service under a chief, who, their sagacity soon discovered, was sure to lead to victory all those, who could sustain the hardships by which it was to be won."

The Italian campaigns constitute an epoch in the history of the art of war. They are sketched by Sir Walter with admirable graphic power: every movement and every battle are most clearly and skilfully traced and connected; and, as he has narrated them, they are adapted to impart the highest ideas of Bonaparte's talents as a general and political manager. The Duke of Wellington is said to have declared that Sir Walter's account of the battle of Waterloo was the best he had seen, and wonderfully faithful, not less than vividly picturesque, in most of its details. We cannot but think that if Napoleon had lived to peruse this spirited relation of his first splendid manœuvres and successes, he would have been nearly as well satisfied as the hero of Waterloo. All credit is given to the supremacy of his youthful genius, the originality and felicity of his strokes, the bril

liancy and magnitude of his triumphs; and to the personal valour, and presence of mind, with which his evolutions and critical situations as a commander were accompanied. Sir Walter, without having performed or seen any military service, had established, merely by descriptions, a certain authority with regard to scenes of war and martial merit, which, we may presume, will be enhanced by the part of his work under consideration. As, at no subsequent period of Bonaparte's life did he achieve victories so signal against odds so immense, and with means comparatively so inadequate, his biographer deemed it necessary in the outset of his military history, to show in minute detail the character of his tactics, and illustrate his new and sure system of energetic concentration of force on some vital part of his enemy's array.

The forces which Bonaparte had under his command, were originally between fifty and sixty thousand men, ill provided, however, in several respects. His first great battle was with the Austro-Sardinian army under Beaulieu, at Monte Notte; and it exemplified that truth and mathematical certainty of combination, which enabled him on many more memorable occasions, even when his forces were inferior in numbers, and apparently disunited in position, suddenly to concentrate them and defeat his enemy, by overpowering him on the very point where he thought himself strongest." In the course of a campaign of scarcely a month, he secured the mountain passes that gave complete possession of the road to Italy; gained three battles over forces superior to his own; inflicted on the enemy a loss of twenty-five thousand men in killed, wounded, and prisoners; took eighty pieces of cannon, and remained in full communication with France. The king of Sardinia at once surrendered his realm to him, by treaty. We must pass by his subsequent early movements on the Austrians; the battle of Lodi,-which is described by Scott with as much fire as it was fought by the French; his triumphal entry into Milan; the blockade of Mantua; the subjugation of the minor princes of the north of Italy, and the contributions levied upon them; the extreme severity exercised on some of the refractory cities; the system of extortion and deception practised with Tuscany, Rome, and Naples; and the great treasures in money and works of art, which were obtained by rapacity and intimidation. With regard to the seizure and translation of the masterpieces of the pencil and chisel, our author makes a series of remarks, so just and sensible, that we must indulge ourselves in copying a portion of them:

"Hitherto, works of art had been considered as sacred, even during the utmost extremities of war. They were judged to be the property, not so much of the nation or individuals who happened to possess them, as of the civilized world in general, who were supposed to have a common interest in these pro

ductions, which, if exposed to become the ordinary spoils of war, could hardly escape damage or destruction. To take a strong example of forbearance, Frederick of Prussia was a passionate admirer of the fine arts, and no scrupulous investigator of the rights conferred by conquest, but rather disposed to stretch them to the uttermost. Yet when he obtained possession of Dresden under circumstances of high irritation, Frederick respected the valuable gallery, cabinets, and museums of the capital of Saxony, and preserved their contents inviolate, as a species of property which could not, and ought not, to fall within the rights of a conqueror. He considered the Elector as only the keeper of the gallery; and regarded the articles which it contained as belonging to the civilized world at large.

There are persons who demand the cause of this distinction, and require to know why works of art, the value of which is created solely by the opinion of those who pretend to understand them, and is therefore to be regarded as merely imaginary, or, as it is called by lawyers, a mere pretium affectionis, should be exempted from that martial law which disposes at pleasure of the real property of the vanquished.

It might easily be shown in reply, that the respect due to genius of the highest order, attaches with a sort of religious zeal to the objects of our admiration in the fine arts, and renders it a species of sacrilege to subject them to the chances of war. It has besides already been hinted, that these chef-d'œuvres being readily liable to damage, scarcely admitting of being repaired, and absolutely incapable of being replaced, their existence is hazarded by rendering them the objects of removal, according to the fluctuation of victory.

But it is surely sufficient to say, that wherever the progress of civilization has introduced rules to qualify and soften the extremities of war, these should be strictly adhered to. In the rudest ages of society, man avails himself of the right of the strongest in the fullest extent. The victor of the Sandwich Islands devours his enemy-the North American Indian tortures him to death-almost all savage tribes render their prisoners slaves, and sell them as such. As society advances, these inhumanities fall out of practice; and it is unnecessary to add, that, as the victorious general deserves honourable mention in history, who, by his clemency, relaxes in any respect the rigorous laws of conquest, so he must be censured in proportion, whose conduct tends to retrograde towards the brutal violence of primitive hostility.

Buonaparte cannot be exempted from this censure. He, as the willing agent of the Directory under whose commands he acted, had resolved to disregard the neutrality which had hitherto been considered as attaching to the productions of the fine arts, and, for the first time, had determined to view them as the spoils of conquest. The motive is more easily discovered than justified."

"It is indeed little to the purpose, in a moral point of view, whether the motive for this species of rapine were or were not genuine love of the art. The fingering connoisseur who secretes a gem, cannot plead in mitigation, that he stole it, not on account of the value of the stone, but for the excellence of the engraving; any more than the devotee who stole a Bible could shelter herself under a religious motive. But, in truth, we do not believe that the French or their general were actuated on this occasion by the genuine love of art. This taste leads men to entertain respect for the objects which it admires; and feeling its genuine influence, a conqueror would decline to give an example of a species of rapine, which, depriving those objects of admiration of the protection with which the general sentiment of civilized nations had hitherto invested them, must hold them up, like other ordinary property, as a prey to the strongest soldier. Again, we cannot but be of opinion, that a genuine lover of the arts would have hesitated to tear those paintings from the churches or palaces, for the decoration of which they had been expressly painted, and where they must always have been seen to the best effect, whether from the physical advantages of the light, size of apartment, and other suitable localities connected with their origi nal situation, or from the moral feelings which connect the works themselves with the place for which they were primarily designed, and which they had oc