tailieunhanh - THE NAPOLEON OF THE PEOPLE

The Napoleon of the People was originally published in Le Medicin de Campagne (The Country Doctor). It is a story told to a group of peasants by the character of Goguelat, an ex-soldier who served under Napoleon in an infantry regiment. It was later included in Folk-tales of Napoleon: Napoleonder from the Russian, a collection of stories by various authors. This translation is by Ellen Marriage and Clara Bell. THE NAPOLEON OF THE PEOPLE Napoleon, you see, my friends, was born in Corsica, which is a French island warmed by the Italian sun; it is like a furnace there, everything is. | THE NAPOLEON OF THE PEOPLE By Honore De Balzac Translated by Ellen Marriage and Clara Bell. PREPARER S NOTE The Napoleon of the People was originally published in Le Medicin de Campagne The Country Doctor . It is a story told to a group of peasants by the character of Goguelat an ex-soldier who served under Napoleon in an infantry regiment. It was later included in Folk-tales of Napoleon Napoleonder from the Russian a collection of stories by various authors. This translation is by Ellen Marriage and Clara Bell. THE NAPOLEON OF THE PEOPLE Napoleon you see my friends was born in Corsica which is a French island warmed by the Italian sun it is like a furnace there everything is scorched up and they keep on killing each other from father to son for generations all about nothing at all tis a notion they have. To begin at the beginning there was something extraordinary about the thing from the first it occurred to his mother who was the handsomest woman of her time and a shrewd soul to dedicate him to God so that he should escape all the dangers of infancy and of his after life for she had dreamed that the world was on fire on the day he was born. It was a prophecy So she asked God to protect him on condition that Napoleon should re-establish His holy religion which had been thrown to the ground just then. That was the agreement we shall see what came of it. Now do you follow me carefully and tell me whether what you are about to hear is natural. It is certain sure that only a man who had had imagination enough to make a mysterious compact would be capable of going further than anybody else and of passing through volleys of grape-shot and showers of bullets which carried us off like flies but which had a respect for his head. I myself had particular proof of that at Eylau. I see him yet he climbs a hillock takes his field-glass looks along our lines and says That is going on all right. One of the deep fellows with a bunch of feathers in his cap used to plague him a good