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 Noticing some "Napoleon" literature on one of the writing-tables, I regretted that "I had not thought of bringing a book about the 'little Corsican,' instead of merely offering my congratulations on a magnificent victory."

"Please never think of such a thing," he replied. "He interests me as a great general, but"

"I understood your interest amounted almost to veneration, or so it is said."

"What a strange rumour! I naturally study all the great strategists; but to compare the Sakharia with Austerlitz is surely no great compliment."

The Ante-room at Tchan-Kaya.

Though I confess to being considerably startled by this emphatic declaration, it reminded me of a conversation with Monsieur Clemenceau some years before the war.

"He told me," I said, "that he considered Lord Rosebery's enthusiastic admiration of Napoleon had been almost a blot on his own political career