Page:Napoleon (O'Connor 1896).djvu/33

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Taine's Portrait.
17

All the brothers of Napoleon were likewise remarkable in their way; and finally, the family picture is completed, and Napoleon's character is also indicated by what Napoleon himself says of one of his uncles. He "delights in calling to mind one of his uncles who, in his infancy, prognosticated to him that he would govern the world because he was fond of lying."

VIII.

NAPOLEON'S BEGINNINGS.

Moody, rancorous, hating the French as the conquerors of his country, Napoleon as a youth looked on the events of the French Revolution with the detachment of a foreigner. In 1792, when the struggle between the monarchists and the revolutionists was at its height, he tries to find "some successful speculation," and thinks he will hire and sub-let houses at a profit. On June 20 in the same year he sees the invasion of the Tuileries, and the King at a window placing the red cap on his head. "Che Coglione!" (What a cuckold!) he exclaims, and immediately after, "How could they let the rabble enter! Mow down 400 or 500 of them with cannon-balls, and the rest of them would run away."

"On August 10, when the tocsin is sounding, he regards the people and the King with equal contempt; he rushes to a friend's house on the