Napoleon the Little

Отрывок из книги

Victor Hugo

Napoleon the Little

.....

The President of the Assembly, still standing, proceeded thus (I quote verbatim the words recorded in the Moniteur): “We call God and man to witness the oath which has just been sworn. The National Assembly receives that oath, orders it to be transcribed upon its records, printed in the Moniteur, and published in the same manner as legislative acts.”

It seemed that the ceremony was now at an end, and we imagined that Citizen Charles-Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, thenceforth, until the second Sunday in May, 1852, President of the Republic, would descend from the tribune. But he did not; he felt a magnanimous impulse to bind himself still more rigorously, if possible; to add something to the oath which the Constitution demanded from him, in order to show how largely the oath was free and spontaneous. He asked permission to address the Assembly. “You have the floor,” said the President of the Assembly.

.....