LAST DAYS AND DEATH.
1832-1844
Joseph in England.--Letter from La Fayette.--Letter from Joseph to La
Fayette.--Letter from Victor Hugo.--Letter from the Duchess of Abrantes.
--Restoration of Napoleon's Statue to the Column of Austerlitz.--The
Law of Proscription.--Letter from Madame Letitia.--Letter from Joseph
to Louis.--Meeting of the Brothers in London.--Testimony of Louis
Napoleon.--The Attempt at Strasbourg.--Letter from Louis Napoleon to
his Uncle Joseph.--Failing Health of Joseph.--The Remains of the Emperor
brought back to France.--Letter of Thanks from Joseph.--Sickness and
Death.--Character of Joseph.
Joseph, finding himself in England in 1832, and his nephew, the Duke
of Reichstadt, no longer living, took up his residence in London. He
earnestly desired to join his wife and mother in Italy. But the jealousy
of the Allies would not allow him, until he was absolutely sinking in
death, to place his foot upon the Continent. His universally recognized
virtues secured for him, from all classes of society, a cordial
reception.
While Joseph resided in England, the celebrated Spanish chief, Mina, who
had been one of the most formidable of the leaders of the guerrillas,
made several visits to the ex-King, expressing the deepest regret that
he had not sustained him. He stated to Joseph that his intercepted
letters had so revealed his true character, that others of the leaders
who had operated against him were now in his favor.
La Fayette wrote Joseph a letter of sympathy in view of his double
affliction in the loss of his son-in-law, Napoleon Louis, and his
nephew, the Duke of Reichstadt. The letter, from which we make the
following extract, was dated La Grange, October 13, 1832:
"MY DEAR COUNT,--I am deeply affected by those testimonials of
confidence and friendship which you kindly give me. And I merit them
by all those affections which attach me to you. It is with profound
sympathy that I share in your grief from the two cruel bereavements.
I should immediately have written to you in London, had I not been
informed that you were on the route to Italy. I have, however, since
learned that your entrance into Rome has been interdicted to your filial
piety by a base and barbarous policy."
La Fayette also expresses his deep regret that the Orleans Government
persisted in the decree which banished the Bonaparte family from France.
Joseph, in a reply dated London, Nov. 10, 1832, writes:
"MY DEAR GENERAL,--I have received your kind letter, and I thank you
with all my heart. It is true that I love, as much as you do, the
institutions of the United States. But I am near to France, and I do not
wish to see it vanish from my eyes like a new Ithaca. I prefer France
to the United States as the residence for my declining years, and I rely
upon your powerful co-operation to secure that for me. It only remains
for me to hope to see my country as happy as that which I have just
left--a country which I love above all others except my native soil. A
day will come undoubtedly, in which France will have no occasion to envy
even happy America. As soon as it shall be clearly understood that all
ought to devote themselves to the happiness of all, the most difficult
thing will be accomplished. May we live long enough to witness that, and
may I have the happiness of renewing my long friendship in our common
country, in sometimes speaking to you of the admiration and gratitude
with which you are regarded in the New World."
The following letter from Victor Hugo reflects such light upon the
reputation of Joseph Bonaparte, as to merit insertion here. It was dated
Paris, Feb. 27, 1833:
"SIRE,--I avail myself of the first opportunity to reply to you.
Monsieur Presle, who leaves for London, kindly offers to place this
letter in the hands of your Majesty. Permit me, sire, to treat you ever
royally, _vous traiter_ _toujours royalement_. The kings whom Napoleon
made, in my opinion nothing can unmake. There is no human power which
can efface the august sign which that grand man has placed upon your
brow. I have been profoundly moved by the sympathy which your Majesty
has testified for me upon the occasion of my prosecution for '_Le Roi
S'amuse._' You love liberty, sire. Liberty also loves you. Permit me to
send you, with this letter, a copy of the discourse which I pronounced
before the Tribunal of Commerce. I am very desirous that you should see
it in a form different from the reports in the journals, which are
always inexact.
"I should be very happy, sire, to go to London to clasp that royal hand
which has so often clasped the hand of my father. M. Presle will inform
your Majesty of the obstacles which at the present moment prevent me
from realizing a wish so dear. I have very many things to say to you. It
is impossible that the future should be wanting to your family, great as
has been the loss of the past year. You bear the grandest of historic
names. In truth, we are moving rather toward a republic than toward a
monarchy. But, to a sage like you, the exterior form of government is
of but little importance. You have proved, sire, that you know how to be
worthily the citizen of a republic. Adieu, sire; the day in which I
shall be permitted to press your hand in mine will be one of the most
glorious of my life. While waiting for this your letters render me proud
and happy."
The celebrated Duchess of Abrantes, wife of Marshal Junot, sent her
_Memoirs_ to King Joseph by the hands of M. Presle. The following
extracts from the letter of the duchess to M. Presle shows the
enthusiastic attachment which Joseph won from his friends. The letter
is dated Paris, 1833.
"Will you be so good, sir, as to have the kindness to take charge of
the book which I send with this, and also of the letter which I address
to his Majesty, King Joseph? I earnestly desire that both should be
transmitted to him as promptly as possible. I very much wish, sir, I
could have the pleasure of seeing you. My attachment for King Joseph is
so profound and so true, of such long-standing, so established upon
bases which can never crumble, that I would give days of my life to talk
a moment with persons loving him as I do, and speaking to me as I speak
of him and think of him. As for me, to see him for one moment would be
now the fulfillment of the most ardent of my wishes.
"With these feelings, you will perceive, sir, how happy I shall be to
have him soon receive this letter, which I entrust to you. It contains
my wishes for the new year. And I can truly say that there is not
another heart in France more sincerely devoted to his happiness--his
true happiness and his glory. Ah! sir, I assure him that in France there
is one being who is warmly attached, sincerely devoted to him, as are
all hers. My children have been cradled in the name of Napoleon, and
that without concealment. The misfortune of their father has been an
additional tie to attach them to the memory of the Emperor, and to
all those who bear his revered name. The bust of the Emperor is in my
alcove, by the side of the font in which I place my lustral water. There
I every morning and evening repeat my prayers. Why should I not say
this? I do it because my love for my country constrains me to fall upon
my knees before that name which constituted its glory and its happiness
for fifteen years."
On the 28th of July, 1833, the Louis Philippe Government, in reluctant
concession to the almost universal voice of the French people, restored
the statue of Napoleon to the Column of Austerlitz, in the Place
Vendome. It is scarcely too much to say that as that statue rose to
its proud eminence, the whole French nation raised a shout of joy. A
Parisian journal, _The Tribune_, intending perhaps to reflect upon the
Government, expressed surprise in not seeing a single member of the
Bonaparte family shaking the dust of exile from his feet, and coming, in
the broad light of July, claiming a "just reparation." Joseph wrote to
the editor from London a letter containing the following sentiments:
"I have read in your journal of July 29th the article in which you give
an account of the solemnity which took place on the 28th at the foot of
the Column of Austerlitz, upon the inauguration of the statue of the
Emperor Napoleon. You attribute the absence of his brothers to very
strange sentiments. Are you ignorant, then, that an iniquitous law,
dictated by the enemies of France to the elder branch of the Bourbons,
excluded these brothers, out of hatred to the name of Napoleon? Would
you wish that, in defiance of a law which the National Majesty has not
yet repealed, we should bear the brands of discord into our country at
the moment when it re-erects the statue of our brother? _Every thing for
the nation_, was the motto of our brother. It shall be ours also.
"Instead of speaking, as a hostile journal would have done, in casting
the blame upon patriots proscribed, who wander over the world the
victims of the enemies of their country, would it not have exhibited
more of courage and of justice on your part, sir, to recall to the
electors of France that Napoleon has a mother who languishes upon a
foreign soil, without it being possible for her children to speak to
her a last adieu? She shares with three generations of her kindred,
including sixty French, the rigors of an exile of twenty years. They are
guilty of no other crime than that of being the relatives of a man whose
statue is re-erected by national decree.
"The name of Napoleon will never be the banner of civil discord. Twice
he withdrew from France, that he might not be the pretext for the
infliction of calamities upon his country. Such are the doctrines which
Napoleon has bequeathed to his family. It is because the French people
know well that his pretended despotism was but a dictatorship, rendered
necessary by the wars which his enemies waged against him, that his
memory remains popular. Is it just, is it honorable that his family
should still be condemned to endure the anguish of exile, and to hear
even his ancient enemies reproach the French with the injustice of their
proscription?"
This law of proscription, dictated by the Allies on the 12th of January,
1816, and re-affirmed by the Government of Louis Philippe, was as
follows:
"The ascendants and descendants of Napoleon Bonaparte, his uncles and
his aunts, his nephews and his nieces, his brothers, their wives and
their descendants, his sisters and their husbands, are excluded from the
realm forever."
The penalty for violating this decree of banishment was _death_. Madame
Letitia had been informed in Rome that the Louis Philippe Government
contemplated abolishing the decree of exile, so far as _she alone_ was
concerned. In response she wrote, April, 1834, to a distinguished
gentleman in Paris, M. Sapey, as follows:
"MONSIEUR,--Those who recognize the absurdity of maintaining the law
of exile against my family, and who wish nevertheless to propose an
exception, do not know either my principles or my character. I was left
a widow at thirty-three years of age, and my eight children were my only
consolation. Corsica was menaced with separation from France. The loss
of my property and the abandonment of my fireside did not terrify me.
I followed my children to the Continent. In 1814 I followed Napoleon
to the island of Elba. In 1816, notwithstanding my age, I should have
followed him to Saint Helena had it not been prohibited. I resigned
myself to live a prisoner of state at Rome; yes, a prisoner of state.
I know not whether that was through an amplification of the law which
exiled me with my family from France, or by a protocol of the allied
powers.
"I then saw persecution reach such a pitch as to compel the members
of my family, who had devoted themselves to live with me at Rome, to
abandon the city. I then decided to withdraw from the world, and to seek
no other happiness than that of the future life; since I saw myself
separated from those for whom I clung to life, and in whom reposed all
my souvenirs and all my happiness, if there were any more happiness
remaining for me in this world. How could I hope to find any equivalent
in France, which was not already poisoned by the injustice of men in
power who could not pardon my family the glory which it has acquired?
"Leave me, then, in my honorable sufferings, that I may bear to the tomb
the integrity of my character. I will never separate my lot from that
of my children. It is the only consolation which remains to me. Receive,
nevertheless, monsieur, my thanks for the kind interest which you have
taken in my affairs."
On the 15th of January, 1835, Joseph wrote to his brother Louis, the
father of Napoleon III., as follows:
"MY DEAR BROTHER,--I have received your letter of the 27th of December.
I am afflicted by the depression of spirits in which it was written. It
is true that for many years fortune has been constantly severe with us.
But it is something to be able to say to one's self that fortune is
blind. And an irreproachable conscience and a good heart offer many
consolations. They accompany us wherever we go, and prevent us from
being too severe in our turn against fortune and her favorites of the
day.
"It is indeed true that there are but few gleams of happiness to be met
in this life. The least unfortunate have still their storms. There are
but few privileged men. How many there are whom we must admit to be more
unhappy than we are. And we do not sufficiently take into account the
sufferings of dishonored men, whose conscience will at times awake and
react upon those who have done it violence. Those who have borne arms
against their country, against their benefactor, who have sold their
services to foreigners, think you they can be happy? The consciousness
of not having merited the abandonment of which you speak, is not that
a happy sentiment? It is necessary then for us to perceive what we
are in this life, and not what we could wish to be. Being men, we are
destined to live, that is to say, to suffer. But we can preserve our
own self-respect, and the esteem of the friends who appreciate us. So
long as that continues, one is not absolutely unhappy. In that point
of view, no person ought to be more satisfied than yourself, my dear
Louis. All other evils over which we have no control are hard to endure,
undoubtedly. But their necessity, in spite of ourselves, should lead us
to bear them. We ought to submit to that which we can not prevent.
"Still, I can say nothing upon this subject which you do not know
as well as I do. But I am not writing a dissertation. I recount my
sensations and my sentiments as they flow from my pen. The consciousness
of not meriting the evil which one suffers greatly mitigates that evil.
Adieu, my dear Louis. I love you as ever. We have not known any
revolutions in our affections."
Soon after Joseph had established himself in London, he called his
brothers Lucien and Jerome, and his nephew, Prince Louis Napoleon, to
join him there. The acts of the Government of Louis Philippe and the
intense opposition they encountered engrossed his meditations. Fully
satisfied that the Government could not maintain itself in the course
it was pursuing, Joseph deemed it important for the triumph of what
he called the popular cause, to effect a cordial union between the
Republican and Imperial parties. The Government thwarted this union by
sending spies into the clubs, who, joining those associations, assumed
to be earnest democrats, and strove in every way to promote discord,
while they extolled in most extravagant terms the brutal deeds of Marat,
St. Just, and Robespierre. Joseph could not act in harmony with such
men, and the projected alliance was abandoned.[AM]
[Footnote AM: Oeuvres de Napoleon III., tome deuxieme, p. 449.]
In a brief sketch which Louis Napoleon, while a prisoner at Ham, wrote
of his uncle Joseph just after his death, he says: "In general, Prince
Louis Napoleon was in accord with his uncle upon all fundamental
questions; but he differed from him upon one essential point, which
offered a very strange contrast. The old man, whose days were nearly
finished, did not wish to precipitate any thing. He was resigned to
await the developments of time. But the young man, impatient, wished to
act, and to precipitate events.
"The insurrection at Strasbourg, in the month of October, 1836, thus
took place without the authorization and without the participation of
Joseph. He was also much displeased with it, since the journals deceived
him respecting the aim and intentions of his nephew. In 1837 Joseph
revisited America. Upon his return to Europe in 1839 he found his
nephew in England. Then, enlightened respecting the object, the means,
and the plans of Prince Louis Napoleon, he restored to him all his
tenderness. The publication of _Les Idees Napoleoniennes_ merited his
entire approbation. And upon that occasion he declared openly that, in
his quality of friend and depositary of the most intimate thoughts of
the Emperor, he could say positively that that book contained the exact
and faithful record of the political intentions of his brother."
It will be remembered that Louis Napoleon, after the attempt at
Strasbourg, was sent in a French frigate to Brazil, and thence to New
York, where he remained but a few weeks, when he returned to Europe to
his dying mother. At New York, under date of April 22, 1837, he wrote
the following letter to his uncle Joseph at London. The letter very
clearly reveals the relation then existing between them.
"MY DEAR UNCLE,--Upon my arrival in the United States, I hoped to have
found a letter from you. I confess to you that I have been deeply pained
to learn that you were displeased with me. I have even been astonished
by it, knowing your judgment and your heart. Yes, my uncle, you must
have been strangely led into error in respect to me, to repel as enemies
men who have devoted themselves to the cause of the Empire.
"If, successful at Strasbourg, and it was very near a success, I had
marched upon Paris, drawing after me the populations fascinated by the
souvenirs of the Empire, and, arriving in the capital a pretender, I had
seized upon the legal power, then indeed there would have been nobleness
and grandeur of soul in disavowing my conduct, and in breaking with me.
"But how is it? I attempt one of those bold enterprises which could
alone re-establish that which twenty years of peace have caused to be
forgotten. I throw myself into the attempt, ready to sacrifice my life,
persuaded that my death even would be useful to our cause. I escape,
against my wishes, the bayonets and the scaffold; and, having escaped,
I find on the part of my family only contumely and disdain.
"If the sentiments of respect and esteem with which I regard you were
not so sincere, I should not so deeply feel your conduct in respect to
me; for I venture to say that public opinion can never admit that there
is any alienation between us. No person can comprehend that you disavow
your nephew because he has exposed himself in your cause. No one can
comprehend that men who have perilled their lives and their fortune to
replace the eagle upon our banners can be regarded by you as enemies,
any more than they could comprehend that Louis XVIII. would repel the
Prince of Conde or the Duc d'Enghien because they had been unfortunate
in their enterprises.
"I know you too well, my dear uncle, to doubt the goodness of your
heart, and not to hope that you will return to sentiments more just in
respect to me, and in respect to those who have compromised themselves
for your cause. As for myself, whatever may be your procedure in
reference to me, my line of conduct will be ever the same. The sympathy
of which so many persons have given me proofs; my conscience, which does
in nothing reproach me; in fine, the conviction that if the Emperor
beholds me from his elevation in the skies, he would approve my conduct,
are so many compensations for all the mortifications and injustice which
I have experienced. My enterprise has failed; that is true. But it has
announced to France that the family of the Emperor is not yet dead;
that it still numbers many devoted friends; in fine, that their
pretensions are not limited to the demand of a few pence from the
Government, but to the re-establishment, in favor of the people, of
those rights of which foreigners and the Bourbons have deprived them.
This is what I have done. Is it for you to condemn me?
"I send you with this a recital of my removement from the prison of
Strasbourg, that you may be fully informed of all my proceedings, and
that you may know that I have done nothing unworthy of the name which I
bear. I beg you to present my respects to my uncle Lucien. I rely upon
his judgment and affection to be my advocate with you. I entreat you, my
dear uncle, not to be displeased with the laconic manner in which I
represent these facts, such as they are. Never doubt my unalterable
attachment to you.
"Your tender and respectful nephew,
"NAPOLEON LOUIS."[AN]
[Footnote AN: For a short time after the death of his elder brother,
Louis Napoleon, in accordance with the understood wish of the Emperor,
adopted the signature of Napoleon Louis. Soon, however, he again resumed
his original name.]
In 1840 the health of Joseph began to be seriously impaired. In London
he had an attack of paralysis, which induced him to go to the warm baths
of Wildbad, in Wurtemberg. He was somewhat benefited by the waters, and
cherished the hope that he might join members of his family in Italy.
But the Continental sovereigns so feared the potency of the name
of Bonaparte upon the masses of the people that his request was
peremptorily refused. Thus repulsed, he returned to the cold climate
of England.
In 1841, the King of Sardinia, who was strongly leaning toward popular
principles, allowed Joseph to take up his residence in Genoa. He was
conveyed to that city in an English ship. He had been there but a few
weeks, when the Duke of Tuscany, commiserating his dying condition,
kindly consented that he should join his wife, his children, and his
brothers in Florence.
In 1842 Joseph bequeathed to the principal cities of Corsica several
hundred valuable paintings, which he had received as a legacy from his
uncle, Cardinal Fesch.
In 1843, the Government of Louis Philippe, with marvellous
inconsistency, voted to demand the remains of the Emperor Napoleon from
the British Government, and to rear to his honor, beneath the dome of
the Invalides, the monument of a nation's gratitude, while at the same
time that Government persisted in banishing from France all the members
of the Napoleon family.
A very earnest petition was sent at this time to the Government,
numerously signed by Frenchmen, praying that the decree of banishment
against the Bonaparte family might be annulled. But the Louis Philippe
Government declared in council that the resolution of the Government to
prolong the exile of the family of Napoleon was positive and unchanging.
Joseph wrote a letter of thanks in behalf of the Bonaparte family to the
signers of the petition, in which he said:
"The elder branch of the Bourbons, brought back to France by foreign
bayonets, we have ever frankly treated as enemies. They did not conceive
the hope of degrading us in our own eyes. It has been reserved for the
younger branch to call artifice to its aid--to glorify the dead
Napoleon, and to traduce, to proscribe his mother, his sisters, his
nephews, fifty or sixty French people, charged with the crime of bearing
his name.
"Were Napoleon living to-day, he would think as we do. He would
recognize in France no other sovereign than the French people, who alone
have the right to establish such a form of Government as to them may
seem best for their interests. The too long dictatorship of Napoleon was
prolonged by the persistence of the enemies of the Revolution, who
endeavored to destroy in him the principle of national sovereignty from
which he emanated.
"At a general peace, universal suffrage, liberty of the press, and all
the guaranties for the perpetual prosperity of a great nation, which
were in the plans of Napoleon, would have been unveiled before entire
France, and would have made him the greatest man in history. His whole
thoughts were made known to me. It is my duty loudly to proclaim them.
He sacrificed himself twice, that he might save France from civil war.
The heirs of his name would renounce forever the happiness of breathing
the air of their native country, did they think that their presence
would inflict upon it the least injury. Such are the principles, the
opinions, the sentiments of all the members of the family of Napoleon,
of which I am here the interpreter. _Every thing for and by the
people._"
In the few remaining years of his life, nursed by the tender care of his
wife Julie, who was to him an angel of consolation, Joseph remained in
Florence, his mind entirely engrossed with the misfortunes of his
family. He had become fully reconciled to his nephew, and keenly
sympathized with him in his captivity at Ham. The glaring inconsistency
of the Government of Louis Philippe in persisting to banish from France
the relatives of a man whom all France almost adored, simply because
they were that great man's relatives, often roused his indignation.
The thought that he was an exile from his native land--from France,
which he had served so faithfully, and loved so well--embittered his
last hours. Supported by the devotion of Julie, and by the presence of
his brothers, Louis and Jerome, to both of whom he was tenderly
attached, he awaited without regret the approach of death.
On the 23d of July, 1844, Joseph breathed his last at Florence, at the
age of sixty-six years. He left his fortune, which was not very large,
to his eight grandchildren. He also requested that his remains should be
deposited in Florence until the hour should come when they could be
removed to the soil of his beloved France. Queen Julie survived him but
a few months. Her remains were deposited by the side of those of her
husband, and of her second daughter, the Princess Charlotte, who died in
1839.
Joseph was eminently calculated to embellish society and to adorn the
arts of peace. His literary attainments were very extensive, and in the
Tribune he was eminent, both as an orator and a ready debater. Familiar
with all the choicest passages of the classic writers of France and
Italy, and thoroughly read in all the branches of political economy,
with great affability of manners and spotless purity of character, he
would have been a man of distinction in any country and in any age. To
say that he was not equal to his brother Napoleon is no reproach, for
Napoleon has never probably, in all respects, had his equal. But Joseph
filled with distinguished honor all the varied positions of his eventful
life. As a legislator, an ambassador, a general, a monarch, and a
private citizen, he was alike eminent.
From the commencement of his career until his last breath, he was
devoted to those principles of popular rights to which the French
Revolution gave birth, and which his more illustrious brother so long
and so gloriously upheld against the combined dynasties of Europe. This
sublime struggle of the people throughout Europe, under the banners of
Napoleon, against the old regime of aristocratic oppression, profoundly
moved the soul of Joseph. The honors he received, the flattery at times
lavished upon him, did not corrupt his heart. "Under the purple," says
Napoleon III., "as under the cloak of exile, Joseph ever remained the
same; the determined opponent of all oppression, of all privilege, of
every abuse, and the earnest advocate of equal rights and of popular
liberty."
In his last days, Joseph, whose conversational powers were remarkable,
loved to recall the scenes of his memorable career. With the most
touching simplicity, and with a charm of quiet eloquence which moved all
hearts, he held in breathless interest those who were grouped around
him. With pleasure he alluded to the comparatively humble origin of his
family, which had counted among the members so many kings. He was fond
of relating anecdotes of the brother of whom he was so proud, and whom
he so tenderly loved. One of these characteristic anecdotes was as
follows:
"Joseph," said the Emperor to me one day, "T----[AO] has infinite
ability, has he not? Well, do you know why he has never accomplished any
thing great? It is because grand thoughts come only from the heart, and
T---- has no heart."
[Footnote AO: Talleyrand.]
Though Joseph was a man of extraordinary gentleness of character and
sweetness of disposition, the cruel treatment of his brother at Saint
Helena he could never allude to without intense emotion. In speaking of
the destitution of the Emperor in the hovel on that distant rock, his
eyes would fill with tears, and his voice would tremble under the
vehemence of his feelings.
The course pursued by the Government of Louis Philippe, the whole
internal and external policy of that unhappy monarch, arresting the
progress of popular rights at home and degrading France abroad, and
especially its gross inconsistency in lavishing honors upon the memory
of Napoleon, and yet persisting in banishing his descendants, roused
his indignation.
We can not conclude this brief sketch more appropriately than in the
words of Louis Napoleon, written when he was a captive at Ham, and
when his uncle Joseph had just died in exile at Florence.
"If there existed to-day among us a man who, as a deputy, a diplomatist,
a king, a citizen, or a soldier, was invariably distinguished for his
patriotism and his brilliant qualities; if that man had rendered himself
illustrious by his oratorical triumphs, and by the advantageous treaties
he had concluded for the interests of France; if that man had refused
a crown because the conditions which it imposed upon him wounded his
conscience; if that man had conquered a realm, gained battles, and had
exhibited upon two thrones the light of French ideas; if, in fine, in
good as in bad fortune, he had always remained faithful to his oaths,
to his country, to his friends; that man, we may say, would occupy the
highest position in public esteem, statues would be raised to him, and
civic crowns would adorn his whitened locks.
"Well! this man lately existed, with all these glories, with all these
honorable antecedents. Nevertheless upon his brow we see only the
imprint of misfortune. His country has requited his noble services by an
exile of twenty-nine years. We deplore this, without being astonished
at it. There are but two parties in France; the vanquished and the
vanquishers at Waterloo. The vanquishers are in power, and all that
is national is crushed beneath the weight of defeat."
These words were written in the year 1844. The Empire is now restored.
The decree of exile against the Bonaparte family is annulled. The heir
of the Emperor sits upon the throne, recognized by all the nations in
the Old World and the New. The time has come when the character of
Joseph Bonaparte can be, and will be justly appreciated.
THE END.
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
1. Minor changes have been made to correct typesetters' errors, and to
ensure consistent spelling and punctuation in this etext; otherwise,
every effort has been made to remain true to the original book.
2. The chapter summaries in this text were originally published as
banners in the page headers, and have been moved to beginning of the
chapter for the reader's convenience.