individual is the great secret of forming false judgments; and this is what our age has the most need to defend itself against.

The executions ordained at Pavia, Leghorn, Arquata and in the Marches have been charged to me as crimes. These executions were imperatively commanded by circumstances and by the safety of the French army. Had I balanced, it was lost; there was no alternative. Had not that been the case would I have ordained those executions,-I, who for my ulterior projects, had more than ever occasion to raise men from the people of Italy? In Europe, and in our day, the blood of men is not shed in vain.

At the time of the revolt of the imperial vassals, I found myself in a position eminently critical; I leave those to judge of it who knew the country and the spirit of the inhabitants.

I occupied, it is true, the city of Milan which was republican in appearance; but this imperfect republic was the work of only a small number of men, which my presence alone rendered strong, being more tormented with ambition than with the passion of liberty.

Dazzled by my first success, I committed a great error, the consequences of which might have been most fatal for my glory, and the safety of the French army. I wished in a season in which the heat is excessive in the environs of Mantua, at once to take that city without heavy artillery, to annihilate the enemy's army, conquer the Roman states and subdue Venice. This was, I repeat, an error, a very great error; but I made no mention of it to any of my generals, although I knew all the extent of it nevertheless to have repaired it, absolves me from one half of the blame. I never yet think of this epoch of my life without some palpitations of the heart, so much had an excess of ardour accumulated perils around me.

Mantua defended itself with courage; tho Pope and Venice were under arms; the King of Naples had all his forces ready; Romagna menaced to rise up, as it did a few days after in so terrible a manner; the greater part of the imperial vassals were in full revolt, and, to complete my dangers, General Wurmser* suddenly arrived to put himself at the head

* In the margin of the page containing this paragraph, is a note in the hand-writing of Buonaparte, and is conceived thus:- Wurmser has suffered great defects, but never, that I know, has he committed

of the Austrian army. At the news of his arrival, the Tyrolese aroused from their stupor, showed themselves quite ready to crush me. I appeal to my contemporaries, if my position was not sufficiently critical. The least feebleness on my part, and all was lost, my glory and my army. Had my troops conceived my danger, it would have been a great misfortune. I knew the French soldier; he is not fond of being in peril to disguise from him his situation in such a case, is the best thing to be done.

Of all the dangers which surrounded me, the most urgent was the revolt of the people in my own army. It was not a common repression that I had to effect; it was a terrible chastisement which I had to inflict, in order to spread a salutary terror. Time pressed upon me; the chastisement was as prompt as it was dreadful, and the inconceivable effect which followed, is a victorious answer to the accusation which my enemies have wished, and would still endeavour to bring against me.

After exposing the conduct of the Directory, he thus proceeds:

The French are all fire for a hero of whom a brilliant action entitles him to that appellation: but should this hero return to domestic society, there are only a very few honest men who would think of him; witness Moreau.

I had mounted too brilliant a courser to suffer him to perish uselessly in the stable. Europe presented nothing worthy my attention; I then planned the expedition to Egypt. It served me only at first as a last resource: involving myself always in idea into the consequences which this enterprise might produce, if brought to a good termination, I was agreeably surprised to see that France found incalculable advantages in the plan. The English were persuaded of it, and posterity will be of the opinion of England."

To accuse the Directory of having conceived the project of conquering Egypt, for the purpose of sending me thither, and by that means getting rid of me, is a calumny. The project was mine, and mine alone. It is possible that in giving its consent, the Directory cherished the hope that I should return no more; but that is only a supposition, and in similar matters, positive proofs are necessary.

great faults. Beaulieu knew better than he, the art of positions, and the war of defiles, but Wurmser excelled him in the general manage ment of a decisive affair."

The regeneration of the people of Egypt would have done me much honour; but it was impossible. That people, with some few exceptions, are generally besotted by despotism: too stupidly organised to be revenged, they take a delight in it, mechanically. Mortals, degraded from all generous sentiments they are morally and physically incapable of appreciating the benefits of European civilization, and of blessing the hand of the legislator who wished to restore them to the dignity of other nations. I have been more than once tempted to imitate Omar and Mahomet, but in another sense: viz. to invite, sword in hand, the people of Egypt to the enjoyment of all their rights; but more personal interests claimed all my attention.

The French admiral improperly wished to fight against Nelson, and our fleet was destroyed at Aboukir; Brueix, it is true, died gloriously on board. His death expiated his fault, but did not repair it. I say his fault, for it was his own. Five or six days previous, Rapp or Junot, my aidesde-camp, had carried him an order to retire to Cadiz.

An army transported to another hemisphere, being de prived of the correspondence with the mother-country, can no longer be supplied with provisions, and is an army two thirds lost. It was even a miracle that the French were able to do so much in Egypt.

I was ignorant of every thing passing in France. Kleber could replace me in Egypt, where sooner or later it was necessary to finish the campaign by a capitulation. I put all in order, embarked, and arrived safely at Frejus.

There

I was overwhelmed with grief at finding France so different from what I had made it before my departure for Egypt. My conquests were lost, the armies were discouraged and suffering and the interior was torn by factions. needed not so much to excite my indignation against the Directory, the cause of all the evil, and principally against Barras, whom I knew to have more especially conducted affairs and taken the lead.

The encouraging reception I met with from Frejus to Paris, and that which I afterwards received in the capital, proved that the French placed great hopes in me.

Menaced from without, torn by factions in the interior, France required a good head and a firm hand to draw it from the precipice. I believed myself reserved for the honour of

rendering it this service. General Moreau might, it is true, have the same pretensions; but he did himself justice in believing he had no genius but in the day of battle: he thought wisely, for he would have failed.

(To be resumed.)

THE KING AND HAWK.

THE Persians relate of one of their kings, that being one day on a hunting party with his hawk upon his hand, a deer started up before him; he let the hawk fly, and followed it with great eagerness, till at length the deer was taken. The courtiers were all left behind in the chase. The king, thirsty, rode about in quest of water, till, having reached the foot of a mountain, he discovered some trickling down in drops from a rock. He took a little cup out of his quiver, and held it to catch the water. Just when the cup was filled, and he was going to drink, the hawk shook his pinions, and overset the cup. The king was vexed at the accident, and again applied the cup to the crevice in the rock. When the cup was replenished, and he was lifting it to his mouth, the hawk clapped his wings, and threw it down a second time. The king, enraged, flung the bird with such force against the ground, that it expired.

At this moment, the table-decker came up. The king having still a great mind to taste the water that trickled down the rock, but being too impatient to wait till it was again collected by drops, he ordered the table-decker to go to the top of the rock, and fill the cup at the fountain head. The table-decker, on reaching the top of the rock, found an immense serpent lying dead, and his poisonous foam mixing with the water that fell over. He descended, related the fact to the king, and presented him with a cup of cold water out of his own flagon.

As the king lifted up the cup to his lips, the tears gushed from his eyes. He related to the table-decker the adventure of the hawk, and reproached himself deeply for the fatal consequences of his anger and precipitancy. During the remainder of his life, say the Persians, in their figurative style," the arrow of regret continually rankled in his breast."

Percy Anecdotes.

16.

Est via quæ videtur homini iufta: nouifsima autem cius deducunt
homines ad mortem.

Prov. 4.

Here is a mixture of gallantry and devotion. A young lady who has precipitately taken the veil, seems to have admitted her lover into her apartment. She is kneeling before an altar, and hesitates whether to persist in her devotions, or listen to the amorous ditties of the youth, who, seated on a bed, accompanies them on a Theorbo lute. Death extinguishes the candles on the altar; the painter hereby intimating the punishment which awaits on criminal love.

SIR,

SINGULAR RECOVERY FROM DEATH.

I AM about to detail the circumstances of an event which,

VOL. I.]

H

[No. III.