Page:Napoleon (O'Connor 1896).djvu/78

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62
Napoleon.

it will see who is master. The nation needs a chief, one who is famous through his exploits, and not theories of Government, phrases, and speeches by ideologists, which Frenchmen do not comprehend.'"

And when he is recommended to make peace and end the war in Italy, he says:

"'It is not for my interest to make peace. You see what I am, what I can do in Italy. If peace is brought about, if I am no longer at the head of the army which has become attached to me, I must give up this power, this high position I have reached, and go and pay court to lawyers in the Luxembourg. I should not like to quit Italy for France except to play a part there similar to that which I play here, and the time for that has not yet come—the pear is not ripe.'"

XXVI.

THE CAUSES OF HIS FALL.

Finally, his desire to rule the whole world brings Napoleon to his fall. He has been such a scourge to humanity that humanity rises up in revolt against him. He has taken Spanish, Italian, Austrian, Prussian, Swiss, Bavarian, Saxon, Dutch, as well as French lives; the nations hate him as much as their monarchs.

"Unquestionably with such a character nobody can live; his genius is too vast, too mischievous, and