The Last Cavalier: Being the Adventures of Count Sainte-Hermine in the Age of Napoleon. Alexandre Dumas

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СКАЧАТЬ LXXVII - Indian Nights

       LXXVIII - Preparations for a Wedding

       LXXIX - The Wedding

       LXXX - Eurydice

       LXXXI - Return to Pegu

       LXXXII - Two Captures

       LXXXIII - Return to Chien-de-Plomb

       LXXXIV - A Visit to the Governor

       LXXXV - A Collection for the Poor

       LXXXVI - Departure

       LXXXVII - What Was Happening in Europe

       LXXXVIII - Emma Lyonna

       LXXXIX - In Which Napoleon Sees That Sometimes It Is More Difficult to Control Men Than Fortune

       XC - The Port of Cadiz

       XCI - The Little Bird

       XCII - Trafalgar

       XCIII - Disaster

       XCIV - The Storm

       XCV - Escape

       XCVI - At Sea

       XCVII - Monsieur Fouché’s Advice

       XCVIII - A Relay Station in Rome

       XCIX - The Appian Way

       C - What Was Happening on the Appian Way Fifty Years before Christ

       CI - An Archeological Conversation between a Navy Lieutenant and a Captain of Hussars

       CII - In Which the Reader Will Guess the Name of One of the Two Travelers and Learn the Name of the Other

       CIII - The Pontine Marshes

       CIV - Fra Diavolo

       CV - Pursuit

       CVI - Major Hugo

       CVII - At Bay

       CVIII - The Gallows

       CIX - Christophe Saliceti, Minister of Police and Minister of War

       CX - King Joseph

       CXI - Il Bizzarro

       CXII - In Which the Two Young Men Part Ways, One to Return to Service under Murat, and the Other to Request Service under Reynier

       CXIII - General Reynier

       CXIV - In Which René Sees that Saliceti Was Not Mistaken

       CXV - The Village of Parenti

       CXVI - The Iron Cage

       CXVII - In Which René Comes Upon Il Bizzarro’s Trail When He Least Expects It

       CXVIII - In Pursuit of Bandits

       CXIX - The Duchess’s Hand

       APPENDIX

       I His Imperial Highness, Viceroy Eugene-Napoleon

       II At Lunch

       III Preparations

       A NOTE TO THE READER

       A NOTE ABOUT PREPARING THE TEXT

       About the Author

       By the same author

       Copyright

       About the Publisher

PART I BONAPARTE

       I Josephine’s Debts

      “NOW THAT WE ARE in the Tuileries,” Bonaparte, the First Consul, said to Bourrienne, his secretary, as they entered the palace where Louis XVI had made his next-to-last stop between Versailles and the scaffold, “we must try to stay.”

      Those fateful words were spoken at about four in the afternoon on the 30th Pluviose in the Revolutionary year VIII (February 19, 1800).

      This narration begins exactly one year to the day after the First Consul’s installation. It follows our book The Whites and the Blues, which ended, as we recall, with Pichegru fleeing from Sinnamary, and our novel The Companions of Jehu, which ended with the execution of Ribier, Jahiat, Valensolles, and Sainte-Hermine.

      As for General Bonaparte, who was not yet general at that time, we left him just after he had returned from Egypt and landed back on French soil. Since the 24th Vendémiaire in the year VII he had accomplished a great deal.

      First of all, he had managed and won the 18th Brumaire, though the case is still being appealed before posterity.

      Then, like Hannibal and Charlemagne, he crossed the Alps.

      Later, with the help of Desaix and Kellermann, he won the battle of Marengo, after first losing it.

      Then, in Lunéville, he arranged peace.

      Finally, on the same day that he had David’s bust of Brutus placed in the Tuileries, he re-established the use of “madame” as a form of address. Stubborn people were still free to use the word “citizen” if they wanted, but only yokels and louts still said “citizeness.”

      And of course only the proper sort of people came to the Tuileries.

      Now it’s the 30th Pluviose in the year IX (February 19, 1801), and we are in the First Consul Bonaparte’s palace in the Tuileries.

      We shall now give the present generation, two thirds of a century later, some idea of his study where so many events were planned. With our pen we shall draw as best we can the portrait of that legendary figure who was considering not only how to change France but also how to turn the entire world upside down.

      His study, a large room painted white with golden moldings, contains two tables. One, quite beautiful, is reserved for the First Consul; when seated at the table, he has his back to the fireplace and the window to his right. СКАЧАТЬ