Napoleón en Santa Helena

THE REVOLUTION AND ITS LEADERS.

"Up to July 14, 1789, I would not have stayed the
Revolution; the King had good sense; what he wanted
was vigor. He was like my brother Joseph, who, when
King of Spain, complained to me about Belliard, the Gov-
ernor of Madrid. When I spoke to Belliard, he replied:
'It is true, Sire. I was in command. Every day I had to
give my own orders and to arrange my own plans, for
King Joseph did not think about plans or orders once a
month.' "

"At the time of the oath of the Tennis Court, I think
Louis XVI. might have arrested the Revolution, but
though he had daring in reserve, he lacked decision at the
right moment for action. He had more talent than most
men. He knew it, and that was the reason why he per-
sisted in wishing to govern France by himself. He ought,
like Louis XIII., to have taken a competent prime minis-
ter, and to have let him act. Perhaps if Monsieur de
Montmorin had governed France the Revolution might
not have taken place."

The Constituent Assembly had better have taken the
.Duke of Orleans for King, and have at once changed the
succession. Foreign powers would probably not have
interfered. Some people might have said that to acqui-
esce in such a change of dynasty would have been dis-
honorable in the Duke of Orleans, but the splendor of
royal robes can conceal anything. I declare I believe
that if Louis XVI. had made his escape at Varennes, the
Duke of Orleans would have been elected King, and the
Revolution might have taken a very different course."

"Louis XVI., after his flight, deserved what happened
to him! He had made us all swear to be faithful to the
constitution, and then he deserted us!"

Brunswick acted very foolishly during his
campaign in Champagne. When a general invades a
country he must not be afraid of giving battle. He must
***ow up his enemy until he can attack him. Brunswick
ought not to have given the French time to breathe. Who
at that time could have stopped the Prussian general?"

"I think the massacres of September may have pro-
duced a powerful effect on the men of the invading army.
In one moment they saw a whole population rising up
against them. Everywhere there was blood and murder.
It has been said that during the Revolution honor took
refuge with the Republican armies, but I can declare from
my own knowledge, that those who massacred in September
were almost all soldiers, who, before going to the fron-
tier, were resolved to leave no enemies behind them. It
was Danton who made the project. He was a very extraor-
dinary man; a man capable of anything. One cannot
understand why he separated from Robespierre, or why
he should have suffered himself to be guillotined. It
seems as if the two millions he had appropriated in Bel-
gium had changed his character. It was he who said,
'De raudace! puts de I'audace! et encore de Taudace!' "

"Marat was naturally a clever man, but he was more
or less mad. What gave the public great confidence in
him was, that in 1790 he had prophesied what would hap-
pen in I79 2 - He kept up a lone fight against every man.
He was a very singular being. Such abnormal persons
are not seldom found in history. Whatever people may
say of them they are not despicable characters. Few men
have made their mark on the world as they have done."

"Robespierre will never be well known in history. It
is certain that Carrier, Freron, and Tallien were more
bloody-minded than he.

"Danton left many friends behind him, among them
Talleyrand and Smonville. He was a real party-chief,
greatly beloved by his ***owers."

"All I read in the 'Moniteur' confirms my opinion of
Robespierre. The Constituent Assembly drew up an
absurd constitution. It was ridiculous to decree that the
King might not do as he pleased with his own Guards,
without asking the permission of the Assembly. The
mayor of any little insignificant town under the constitution
would have had more power than a marshal of France."

" Robespierre was overthrown because he wished to
become a moderator, and to arrest the Revolution.
Cambaceres told me that the day before his death he made
a magnificent speech to that Affect, which had never been
printed. Billaud and other Terrorists thought he was
becoming too little of a Jacobin, and would certainly cut
off their heads, so they leagued together against him, and
excited the so-called 'honest men' to overthrow 'the
tyrant/ but really that they might take his place and
make the Reign of Terror worse than ever. But as soon
as Robespierre fell, the popular explosion was so great
that the Terrorists, do what they would, were powerless
to get the upper hand again."

"Marat was a singular man. He boasted in the
Chamber of being guilty of the things for which other
men tried to frame excuses. Charlotte Corday, I think,
did a noble deed in defense of society."

"What I approved in Marat was his perfect frankness
about himself. He was an original. He said what he
thought. Single-handed he fought all men."

"In my opinion the Duke of Orleans never conspired
against the King. There had always been an Orleans
party in France because all dissatisfied members of the
royal family instinctively turn their eyes toward that
branch which is nearest the throne. It is the same thing
now."

"Carrier was a perfect monster, a beast of prey.
What atrocities he committed! How did it happen that
no one murdered him? A taste for murder came from
making a god of Marat, who was a madman, and his
coffin was placed in the Pantheon!"

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AssGaper dijo:

Un emperador europeo e islamico? jajaja, entoces se levantaba su propio ejercito y pueblo contra él, violaría las bases de la ilustracion!!!!

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Curioso impertinente dijo:

Que podría haber sometido España si se hubiese quedado más tiempo. Que Rusia habría sido derrotada, si no se hubiese quedado demasiado tiempo en Moscú.

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Mineroblanco dijo:

En sus charlas con sus acompañantes en la isla de Santa Elena, Napoleón quiso autojustificarse. Reconoció que su oleada turística de España fue un error, pero nunca reconoció que la oleada turística de Rusia fue su suicidio político.
En aquella época USA no era una gran potencia, Rusia sí, pero tenía un sistema social muy débil basado en los latifundios y la aristocracia, que acabó posibilitando la revolución de 1917 y la caída del régimen zarista, y no era una gran potencia tecnológica, como lo es ahora

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Taliván Hortográfico dijo:

Bueno, Kozak, todo eso se lo concedo de la Rusia de 1880, pero la percepción que se tenía de Rusia en, digamos, 1820, no era la misma. Como España, era una monarquía más bien marginada en el extremo de Europa que luchaba por salir del atraso y superar unas herencias medievales. Ellos supieron formar unas élites y unas cuasi-élites (científicos, profesores, ingenieros) y nosotros sólo supimos formar unas semiélites, hasta cierto punto, pero no les dimos reconocimiento social, mientras la nobleza y la Corte seguían siendo un pilinguiferio.

Rusia, como los Estados Unidos, experimentaron un crecimiento enorme, no sólo en lo territorial, en sólo unas décadas.

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Hoy 15 de Abril de 1821 en Loongwood, isla de Santa Helena.
Este es mi testamento o acta de mi última voluntad.

Muero en la religión apostólica y romana, en cuyo seno nací hace más de cincuenta años.

Deseo que mis cenizas descansen en las orillas del Sena, en medio del pueblo francés al que tanto he amado.

No habiéndome dado mi cara esposa Maria Luisa mas que motivos de aprecio le conservo hasta la última hora el mas tierno cariño, y le ruego que vigile solícitamente para preservar a mi hijo delas asechanzas de que se ve amenazada su tierna edad.

Recomiendo a mi hijo que no olvide nunca que nació príncipe francés, y que no consienta ser instrumento de los triunviros que oprimen a los pueblos de Europa. Su obligación es no tomar jamás las armas contra Francia ni causarla el menor perjuicio, debiendo adoptar mi divisa: Todo para el pueblo francés.

Muero prematuramente asesinado por la oligarquía inglesa y su sicario: el pueblo inglés no tardará en vengarme.

El fin con poca gracia de las dos invasiones que ha sufrido Francia, cuando le quedaban tantos recursos, se debe a la traición de Marmont, Augereau y Lafayette. A todos perdono, y ¡ Ojalá pueda la posteridad francesa perdonarlos asimismo!

Doy gracias a mi buena y muy excelente progenitora, al cardenal (Fesch) a mis hermanos José, Luciano, Jerónimo, Paulina, Carolina, Julia, Hortensia, Catalina, a Eugenio, por el interés y afecto que me han conservado. Perdono a Luis por el libro que publicó en 1820 lleno de falsedades y de documentos adulterados.

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8. I disavow the "Manuscript of St. Helena," and other works, under the title of Maxims, Sayings, &c., which persons have been pleased to publish for the last six years. Such are not the rules which have guided my life. I caused the Duc d'Enghien to be arrested and tried, because that step was essential to the safety, interest, and honour of the French people, when the Count d'Artois was maintaining, by his own confession, sixty assassins at Paris. Under similar circumstances, I should act in the same way.

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5. Idem, Ten thousand francs to the subaltern officer Cantillon, who has undergone a trial upon the charge of having endeavoured to assassinate Lord Wellington, of which he was pronounced innocent. Cantillon has as much right to assassinate that oligarchist as the latter had to send me to perish upon the rock of St. Helena. Wellington, who proposed this outrage, attempted to justify it by pleading the interest of Great Britain. Cantillon, if he had really assassinated that lord, would have pleaded the same excuse, and been justified by the same motive--the interest of France--to get rid of this General, who, moreover, by violating the capitulation of Paris, had rendered himself responsible for the blood of the martyrs Ney, Labédoyère, &c.: and for the crime of having pillaged the museums, contrary to the text of the treaties.

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Curioso impertinente dijo:

A él le traía al pairo todo lo que frenara su ambición. De poder escoger habría sido un déspota oriental.

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