Page:Napoleon (O'Connor 1896).djvu/66

50 or calumniates his Minister, his Court, and his wife; he purposely stabs people in the most sensitive part; he tells one that he is a dupe, a betrayed husband; another that he is an abettor of assassination; he assumes the air of a judge condemning a criminal, or the tone of a superior reprimanding an inferior, or, at best, that of a teacher taking a scholar to task."

Instance after instance can be given of this, as for instance:

"After the battle of Jena, 9th, 17th, 18th, and 19th, there is, in the bulletins, comparison of the Queen of Prussia with Lady Hamilton, open and repeated insinuations, imputing to her an intrigue with the Emperor Alexander. 'Everybody admits that the Queen of Prussia is the author of the evils that the Prussian nation suffers. This is heard everywhere. How changed she is since that fatal interview with the Emperor Alexander. . . . The portrait of the Emperor Alexander, presented to her by the Prince, was found in the apartment of the Queen at Potsdam.

Taine's picture, Napoleon is so overbearing towards his Ministers, that it seems incredible that he could have got any man to serve him―except