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Van Loon, Hendrik Willem, 1882-1944

"The Story of Mankind"

Helena--
they knew that a British garrison guarded him day and night
--they knew that the British fleet guarded the garrison which
guarded the Emperor on his farm at Longwood. But he was
never out of the mind of either friend or enemy. When illness
and despair had at last taken him away, his silent eyes continued
to haunt the world. Even to-day he is as much of a force
in the life of France as a hundred years ago when people
fainted at the mere sight of this sallow-faced man who stabled
his horses in the holiest temples of the Russian Kremlin, and
who treated the Pope and the mighty ones of this earth as if
they were his lackeys.
To give you a mere outline of his life would demand
couple of volumes. To tell you of his great political reform
of the French state, of his new codes of laws which were
adopted in most European countries, of his activities in every
field of public activity, would take thousands of pages. But
I can explain in a few words why he was so successful during
the first part of his career and why he failed during the last
ten years. From the year 1789 until the year 1804, Napoleon
was the great leader of the French revolution. He was not
merely fighting for the glory of his own name. He defeated
Austria and Italy and England and Russia because he, himself,
and his soldiers were the apostles of the new creed of
``Liberty, Fraternity and Equality'' and were the enemies of
the courts while they were the friends of the people.


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