Page:Napoleon (O'Connor 1896).djvu/328

312

all these outbursts of passion one can detect, as M. Lévy points out, a vague sense of apprehension and coming danger. Napoleon had not failed to see the "tepidity" which his wife felt towards him, and he knew, perhaps, that her past had not been altogether without reproach. In any case, he is tormented all through his campaign; and in the midst of those mighty victories which were dazzling the world, amid all the acclaims of that triumphant army—in the midst, too, of the dangers which Napoleon madly ran—his innermost heart is constantly tortured with the idea that his love is not returned, that his confidence is betrayed. It is impossible not to tarry with some pleasure at this stage of Napoleon's career; it is somewhat like the early, innocent maidenhood of a woman that has ended disastrously.

Here is what is said of Napoleon by one of his secretaries of this period:

"General Bonaparte, however taken up he might be with his position, with the matters entrusted to him, and with his future, had yet time to give himself up to thoughts of another kind. He was thinking constantly of his wife. He longed for her, and watched for her coming with impatience. He often spoke to me of her and his