Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol IV. No. XX. January, 1852.

Оглавление

Various. Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol IV. No. XX. January, 1852.

EARLY AND PRIVATE LIFE OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.1

THE GERMAN EMIGRANTS – A SKETCH OF LIFE

CONSPIRACY OF THE CLOCKS

MAURICE TIERNAY, THE SOLDIER OF FORTUNE.3

CHAPTER XLVIII

CHAPTER XLIX

CHAPTER L

TALK ABOUT THE SPIDER

AMALIE DE BOURBLANC, THE LOST CHILD. – A TALE OF FACTS

THE GAME OF CHESS. – A SCENE IN THE COURT OF PHILIP THE SECOND

HOW MEN RISE IN THE WORLD

THE BROTHERS

SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF M. THIERS

LIFE AND DEATH

A BLACK EAGLE IN A BAD WAY

THE POTTER OF TOURS

KNIGHTS OF THE CROSS

ANECDOTES OF WILD BEASTS. – LEOPARDS AND JAGUARS

A FASHIONABLE FORGER

TO BE READ AT DUSK

MY NOVEL; OR, VARIETIES IN ENGLISH LIFE.5

CHAPTER VII

CHAPTER VIII

CHAPTER IX

CHAPTER X

CHAPTER XI

CHAPTER XII

CHAPTER XIII

CHAPTER XIV

THE OPERA

HIGH LIFE IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

MONTHLY RECORD OF CURRENT EVENTS

EDITOR'S TABLE

EDITOR'S EASY CHAIR

EDITOR'S DRAWER

LITERARY NOTICES

MR. POTTS’S NEW YEAR’S

WINTER FASHIONS

Отрывок из книги

Napoleon’s Expedition to Egypt was one of the most magnificent enterprises which human ambition ever conceived. When Napoleon was a schoolboy at Brienne, his vivid imagination became enamored of the heroes of antiquity, and ever dwelt in the society of the illustrious men of Greece and Rome. Indulging in solitary walks and pensive musings, at that early age he formed vague and shadowy, but magnificent conceptions of founding an Empire in the East, which should outvie in grandeur all that had yet been told in ancient or in modern story. His eye wandered along the shores of the Persian Gulf, and the Caspian Sea, as traced upon the map, and followed the path of the majestic floods of the Euphrates, the Indus, and the Ganges, rolling through tribes and nations, whose myriad population, dwelling in barbaric pomp and pagan darkness, invited a conqueror. “The Persians,” exclaimed this strange boy, “have blocked up the route of Tamerlane, but I will open another.” He, in those early dreams, imagined himself a conqueror, with Alexander’s strength, but without Alexander’s vice or weakness, spreading the energies of civilization, and of a just and equitable government, over the wild and boundless regions which were lost to European eyes in the obscurity of distance.

When struggling against the armies of Austria, upon the plains of Italy, visions of Egypt and of the East blended with the smoke and the din of the conflict. In the retreat of the Austrians before his impetuous charges, in the shout of victory which incessantly filled his ear, swelling ever above the shrieks of the wounded and the groans of the dying, Napoleon saw but increasing indications that destiny was pointing out his path toward an Oriental throne.

.....

About thirty of the French troops fell in the attack upon Alexandria. Napoleon, with his prompt conceptions of the sublime, caused them to be buried at the foot of Pompey’s Pillar, and had their names engraven upon that monument, whose renown has grown venerable through countless ages. The whole army assisted at the imposing ceremony of their interment. Enthusiasm spread through the ranks. The French soldiers, bewildered by the meteor glare of glory, and deeming their departed comrades now immortalized, envied their fate. Never did conqueror better understand than Napoleon what springs to touch, to rouse the latent energies of human nature.

Leaving three thousand men in Alexandria, under the command of General Kleber, who had been wounded in the assault, Napoleon set out, with the rest of his army, to cross the desert to Cairo. The fleet was not in a place of safety, and Napoleon gave emphatic orders to Admiral Brueys to remove the ships, immediately after landing the army, from the bay of Aboukir, where it was anchored, into the harbor of Alexandria; or, if the large ships could not enter that port, to proceed, without any delay, to the island of Corfu. The neglect, on the part of the Admiral, promptly to execute these orders, upon which Napoleon had placed great stress, led to a disaster which proved fatal to the expedition. Napoleon dispatched a large flotilla, laden with provisions, artillery, ammunition, and baggage, to sail along the shore of the Mediterranean to the western branch of the Nile, called the Rosetta mouth, and ascend the river to a point where the army, having marched across the desert, would meet it. The flotilla and the army would then keep company, ascending the Nile, some fifty miles, to Cairo. The army had a desert of sixty miles to cross. It was dreary and inhospitable in the extreme. A blazing sun glared fiercely down upon the glowing sands. Not a tree or a blade of grass cheered the eye. Not a rivulet trickled across their hot and sandy path. A few wells of brackish water were scattered along the trackless course pursued by the caravans, but even these the Arabs had filled up or poisoned.

.....