1829.] De Bourrienne’s Memoirs. 509 
Directory. Sir Walter Scott does not flatter the national vanity of England, 
in thus magnifying a mole-hill into a mountain, and admitting that the bare 
idea of invasion was a subject of so much alarm to the British government.” 
* On his arrival at Toulon, to take the command of the army of the east, 
(Yarmée de l’Orient,) Bonaparte learned that the laws inflicting the pain of 
death upon emigrants continued in full force, and that not long previously, an 
old man of more than eighty years of age had expiated the offence of emigra- 
tion by a military execution. Indignant at such horrible barbarity, Bona- 
parte dictated to me a letter, in the form of a general order, expressive of his 
detestation of such proceedings, and his determination to visit them in future 
with exemplary severity. This letter saved the life of an unfortunate man in 
the predicament above alluded to; and, on that occasion at least, the influence 
of a powerful name was nobly exercised. A man named Simon, who had 
followed the fortunes of his masters by emigrating with them, and who now 
dreaded the severity of the laws, learned, by some accident, that I was in 
want of a servant. He addressed himself to me, and frankly avowed his 
position. He suited me, and I engaged him in my service. He afterwards 
expressed his apprehensions of being seized on going to the port to embark. 
Bonaparte, to whom I spoke of him, and who had just signalized his abhor- 
rence of an act of cruelty similar to that which gave rise to Simon’s alarm, 
replied to me in the kindest manner, ‘ Give him my portfolio to carry, and let 
him remain near you.’ The words ‘ Bonaparte, General-in-chief of the Army of 
the East,’ were inscribed in large letters of gold upon a handsome green mo- 
rocco leather portfolio. Whether it was the portfolio, or the circumstance of 
his being in my service, that saved him, I know not, but at all events he passed 
without molestation.” ; 
“ One of the most remarkable amusements of Napoleon during the voyage 
to Egypt, consisted in appointing three or four persons, after dinner, to main-= 
tain a given proposition, and as many to oppose it. These discussions were 
not without their object. They afforded him opportunities for studying the 
mental capabilities and resources of those with whom it was his interest to be 
thoroughly acquainted, in order that on after occasions each might fill the 
station for which the nature of his talents had best adapted him. Those who 
have lived in intimacy with Bonaparte were not surprised that after these 
‘keen encounters’ of wit, he uniformly paid a greater deference to those who 
had skilfully defended an absurd opinion, than to those who had espoused the 
cause of reason and common sense ; and it was not merely superiority of talent 
that influenced his judgment on this point ; for he really preferred the sophist 
who had argued plausibly in defence of absurdity, to the reasoner who, with 
equal power, had employed his eloquence in support of a tenable proposition. 
He himself always named the subject of discussion, and generally contrived 
‘to turn it upon questions of religion, of government, or of the art of war. On 
one occasion he proposed for the subject of argument, the question if the 
lanets are inhabited: on another, the age of the world. At another time he 
introduced the discussion of the probability of the destruction of the globe 
which we inhabit, by water or by fire—the truth or fallacy of presentiments— 
and the interpretation of dreams. 
“ During the course of a long voyage it was not to be expected that some 
casualty should not happen, that some person should not accidentally fall 
overboard. The latter circumstance frequently happened on board the 
Orient, and afforded proofs of the humanity of the man, who subsequently on 
the field of battle was so prodigal of the blood of his soldiers, and who was 
destined to shed that blood in torrents throughout the land to which we were 
then steering our course. From the moment that any one fell overboard, the 
general enjoyed no repose till he was saved. He instantly gave orders for the 
vessel to lie to, evinced the keenest anxiety till the unfortunate man was taken 
up, and ordered me to recompense in the handsomest manner the efforts of 
