1830.] Constant's Memoirs of Buonaparte. 177 



in his easy chair, and operating, according to his old custom, on one of the 

 arms with his penknife, for some minutes observed his awkward guest in 

 silence. At length, however, he opened the following dialogue. 



" ' Well, my fine fellow/ (the peasant, recognizing the sound of his voice, 

 turned round, and made another scrape:) f well/ pursued the first consul, 

 ' has the harvest been good this year?' ( Why, saving your presence, 

 Citizen General, not bad.' 



" ' The earth to be productive, must be well ploughed, eh?' demanded the 

 first consul : ' Your fine gentlemen are not fit for that work ?' ' Why, 

 without offence, General, it requires a good iron fist to hold a plough.' 



" ' True,' replied Buonaparte with a smile ; ' but a hale hearty fellow, like 

 you, must in his day have handled something better than a plough. Methinks 

 you could do justice to a firelock or a broadsword.' 



ef The peasant, upon this, stood square to his front, and held up his head 

 with a martial air. ' General/ said he, ' I have done like the rest. I had 

 been married five or six years, when the beggarly Prussians, saving your 

 presence, General, cut us out work. Then came the conscription. A musquet 

 was placed in my hand, and a knapsack on my back : march, was the word. 

 Ah ! we were not equipped like those strapping lads I saw in the court-yard.' 



" f Why did you quit the service ?' asked the first consul, who seemed to 

 take considerable interest in the conversation. ' General, every one his turn: 

 it rained sabre-cuts, and I had my share ;' (here the peasant stooped, and 

 separating his hair, displayed a large scar on his head ;) ' after a few weeks 

 at the hospital, I was discharged, and returned to my wife and my plough.' 



" ' Have you any children ?' ( Three, General ; two boys, and a girl. 



" ( You must make a soldier of your eldest boy ; if he behaves well, I'll 

 take care of him. Adieu, my brave fellow ; when you want me, come and 

 see me again.' The first consul then demanded some louis from M. de 

 Bourrienne, and gave them to the peasant, of whom I was desired to take 

 charge. We had scarcely reached the anti-chamber, when the visitor was 

 called back. 



" ' Were you at Fleurus ?' said Napoleon. ' Yes, General.' 



" ' Can you tell me the name of your general-in-chief ?' ' To be sure I 

 can ; General Jourdan/ 



" ' Right good by ;' and I was forthwith followed by the veteran soldier 

 of the republic, overjoyed at his reception." 



In the following, we have an instance of a gratifying compliment paid 

 by Napoleon, at the expense of his brother Jerome, to an officer distin- 

 guished solely by his gallantry and services : 



" I may here be permitted to mention a circumstance in proof of the esti- 

 mation in which the first consul held the officers and soldiers of his army, and 

 which he manifested towards them on all occasions. I was one morning in 

 Napoleon's bed-chamber, at the hour usually devoted to his toilette. Besides 

 those in attendance, there was no one in the apartment except the brave and 

 modest Colonel Gerard Lacuee, one of the first consul's aides-de-camp. M. 

 Jerome Buonaparte, who had then scarcely attained his seventeenth year, and 

 whose irregularities had already afforded frequent subjects of complaint to his 

 family, was shortly afterwards introduced. His brother Napoleon, who was 

 in the habit of reprimanding and lecturing him, as a father might his son, was 

 the only person of whom Jerome seemed to stand in awe. The first consul 

 was anxious that his brother should enter the navy, not so much from a wish 

 that he should adopt that profession, as that he might be withdrawn from the 

 temptations to which the rising fortunes of his family continually exposed so 

 young a man, and which Jerome was far from even desiring to withstand. 

 The latter' s chagrin was excessive : he accordingly seized every opportunity 

 of declaring his unfitness for the naval service : it is even said that at an exa- 

 mination by the inspectors, he allowed himself to be refused as not qualified, 

 though with the slightest application on his part he might have easily passed. 

 M.M. New Series VOL. X. No. 56. Z 



