Folk-Tales of Napoleon

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Honoré de Balzac. Folk-Tales of Napoleon

INTRODUCTION

NAPOLEONDER1

THE NAPOLEON OF THE PEOPLE2

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Long ago – but not so very long ago; our grandfathers remember it – the Lord God wanted to punish the people of the world for their wickedness. So he began to think how and by what means he could punish them, and he called a council of his angels and archangels to talk about it. Says the archangel Michael to the Lord God: "Shake them up, the recreants, with an earthquake."

"We've tried that," says the Lord God. "Once upon a time we jolted to pieces Sodom and Gomorrah, but it didn't teach them anything. Since then pretty much all the towns have become Sodoms and Gomorrahs."

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"Exactly so," replies Napoleonder; "that's what I want very much to do."

"And have you thought," says the Lord God, "that when you go forth to conquer you will crush many peoples and shed rivers of blood?"

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