. The life of Napoleon I, including new materials from the British official records . but the timeswere extraordinary, and he rightly judged that when aContinental war was brewing, the most daring course wasalso the most prudent, namely, to go to Paris. ThitherPaoli allowed him to proceed, doubtless on the principleof giving the young madcap a rope wherewith to hanghimself. On his arrival at Marseilles, he hears that war has beendeclared by France against Austria; for the republicanMinistry, which Louis XVI. had recently been compelledto accept, believed that war against an absolute monarchwou
. The life of Napoleon I, including new materials from the British official records . but the timeswere extraordinary, and he rightly judged that when aContinental war was brewing, the most daring course wasalso the most prudent, namely, to go to Paris. ThitherPaoli allowed him to proceed, doubtless on the principleof giving the young madcap a rope wherewith to hanghimself. On his arrival at Marseilles, he hears that war has beendeclared by France against Austria; for the republicanMinistry, which Louis XVI. had recently been compelledto accept, believed that war against an absolute monarchwould intensify revolutionary fervour in France andhasten the advent of the Republic. Their surmises werecorrect. Buonaparte, on his arrival at Paris, witnessedthe closing scenes of the reign of Louis XVI. On June20th he saw the crowd burst into the Tuileries, when forsome hours it insulted the king and queen. Warmlythough he had espoused the principles of the Revolution,his patrician blood boiled at the sight of these vulgar out-rages, and he exclaimed : Why dont they sweep off four. I HO D O < o -SG ^ II THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND CORSICA 33 or five hundred of that canaille with cannon? The restwould then run away fast enough. The remark is sig-nificant. If his brain approved the Jacobin creed, hisinstincts were always with monarchy. His career was toreconcile his reason with his instincts, and to impose onweary France the curious compromise of a revolutionaryImperialism. On August 10th, from the window of a shop near theTuileries, he looked down on the strange events whichdealt the coup de grdce to the dying monarchy. Againthe chieftain within him sided against the vulture rabbleand with the well-meaning monarch who kept his troopsto a tame defensive. If Louis XVI. (so wrote Buona-parte to his brother Joseph) had mounted his horse, thevictory would have been his — so I judge from the spiritwhich prevailed in the morning. When all was over,when Louis sheathed his sword and w
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