Page:Napoleon (O'Connor 1896).djvu/290

274 this affair, it might possibly have been Josephine, but at all events it was not the man of genius, desperately smitten, smitten 'like a fool,' who was dying with love at the feet of this pretty doll."

I have sufficiently indicated my opinion of Barras. He was undoubtedly one of the greatest men of his time, but it was a greatness founded on utter baseness. The vindication which he has published of himself only tends to confirm the impression which posterity was inclined to form of him with the materials already at its disposal. It is curious that a man should, under his own hand, have supplied the evidence by which conjecture should be turned into certainty, suspicion into unquestioning conviction.