332 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



SECTION IV. 



La cabane contenait & peine quelques meubles l indispensables. 

 L'enfant endormi, quoique ses joues fussent pales* et ses braa 

 maigres, etait bien range(a) dans sa couchette. Sur uu mauvais 

 grabat, etait etendue(6), malade et souffrante, une femme jeune 

 encore,* mais dont les traits fletris faisaient peine a voir. La 

 misere de ces pauvres gens toucha profondement 4 le ccEur de 

 Madame Bonaparte; rien de pareil encore ne s' etait offert a ses 

 regards. 



' Vous etes malade, ma bonne femme," * dit Madame Loetitia 

 en s'approchant ; "un medecin vous donne-t-il des soins?" 



" Ah ! Madame, de pauvres gens comme nous ne doivent 6 pas 

 reclamer des soins qu'ils ne peuvent payer." 



Pendant ce dialogue, Napoleon s' etait approche 7 de 1' enfant 

 qui faisait du filet, et n'avait pas tarde a faire avec lui plus 

 ample connaissance. 



Depuis ce temps, la cabane etait souvent 8 le but des prome- 

 nades de Madame Loetitia et de ses enfants. 



Jacopo, 9 tel est le nom du fils du pficheur, s'etait surtout 

 concilia les bonnes graces 10 de Napoleon, qui, sur ses menus 

 plaisirs, trouvait toujours le moyen de mettre quelque chose de 

 c6te pour lui. Aussi etait-il devenu pour Jacopo 1'objet d'une 

 eorte de culte 1 ' et d'adoration; pour Napoleon, Jacopo aurait 

 tout sacrifie, 12 jusqu'i sa vie. 



Cependant, lorsque Napoleon cut atteint(c) 1'age de dix ans," 

 il dut(tl) quitter Ajaccio. Avant de partir, 1'enfant alia faire 

 ses adieux 14 h. la tamille du pecheur, et ce ne fut pas sans verser 

 qnelques larmes qu'il se separa do Jacopo. II avait une tres- 

 jolie boite en ebene, 15 de la grandeur a peu pres d'nne tabatiere, 

 a laquelle il(e) tenait beancoup ; il y grava son nom avec la 

 pointe d'un canif, t 16 en fit cadeau & Jaccpo, qui la rec,ut en 

 sanglotant, et la plai-a immediatement 1 ' sur son cceur. Jamais 

 ce souvenir ne devait le quitter. 



Nous ne suivrons point Napoleon dans les differentes phases 

 do ea prodigieuse fortune. 



Le deux decembre mil huit cent cinq, 18 1'armee francaise etait 

 campeo dans les plaines d'Austerlitz. Le soleil se leve ; entoure 

 de ses marechaux, 1'Empereur attend, 19 pour donner ses ordres, 

 quo 1'horizon soit tout il fait eclairci. 



"Soldats," s'ecria-t-il, " il faut finir cette campagne par un 20 

 coup de tonnerre!" Et le combat s' engage aux cris de Vive 

 1'Empereur! 



COLLOQUIAL EXERCISE. 



10. Avait-il obtenu 1'amitiiS de 



1. Que contenait la cabane ? 



2. Que dit 1'auteur a 1'tSgard de 

 1'enfant endormi ? 



3. Que voyait-on sur un inauvais 

 grabat? 



4. Quel sentiment Madame Lce- 

 titia ^prouva-t-elle ? 



5. Que dit-elle en s'approchant ? 



6. Que r^pondit la pauvre ma- 

 lade? 



7. Qu'avait fait Napoleon pen- 

 dant ce dialogue ? 



8. Ou Madame Lcetitia et les en- 

 fants allaient-ils souvent depuis 

 cet instant ? 



9. Quel etait le nom du fils du 

 pecheur ? 



Napoleon ? 



1 1 . Qu'^tait devenu Napoleon pour 

 Jacopo ? 



12. Qu'aurait fait le petit garden 

 pour son bienfaiteur ? 



13. Quand Napoldon dut-il quitter 

 Ajaccio ? 



1 4. Qu'olla-t-il faire avail t de partir? 



15. Qu'avait-il alors ? 



16. Que fit-il de la boite ? 



17. Ou Jacopo pla?a-t-il le cadeou ? 



18. Quel jour 1'arm^e fraix;aise 

 etait.-elle campde dans les plaines 

 d'Austerlitz ? 



19. Qu'attendait 1'Empereur ? 



20. Que <?it-il aux soldats ? 



(o) Bien rang^, neatly arranged. 

 (b) Etendue, lying; from Jtendre. 

 (f) From atteindre. 



NOTES. 



(d) Dut, teas obliged to; from devoir. 



(e) A laquelle il tenait beaucoup, 

 which he valued much.. 



HISTORIC SKETCHES. XXXVILL 



THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 



THE existence of the Italian Republics is one of the most 

 curious facts of the Middle Ages. When it is considered that 

 until a comparatively recent time, republican institutions were 

 nowhere tolerated, and that in what we are pleased to call the 

 Dark Ages the one-will system of despotism was all but univer- 

 sal, it is matter for wonder that in the very centre of the 

 civilised world there should have been suffered to grow up and 

 to flourish states four-ied upon universal suffrage, institutions 

 which lacked in every particular, even in the matter of order, 

 the elements of public policy which were in common use 

 throughout the known world. 



Yet the many independent tiny states which sprang tip in 

 Italy about the beginning of the tenth century, and multiplied, 

 replenishing the earth immediately around them, and subduing 

 it until the end of the twelfth century, answered exactly to this 

 description. They were the outcome of decaying princely impe- 

 rialism, which was not strong enough to crush out their life ; 

 they were the vanguard against nascent priestly imperialism, 

 which failed to thrive so long as they stood true to themselves 

 and to the princi-ples on which they were founded. 



It may sound strange, but imperial Rome herself was the 

 exainple by which the republics guided themselves ; in this as 

 in many other matters she was the model for the world. After 

 the departure of the emperor and the government to Constan- 

 tinople (A.D. 334), the Romans, left to themselves, had to 

 improvise a ruling system, and to organise the means of resist- 

 ance to those external foes who daily threatened to destroy 

 the empire, and who did, in fact, again and again come down in 

 force upon its frontiers and offer violence even to the Eternal 

 City. The Romans, accordingly turned back to an old page in 

 their history, and deeming that the republican times were- those 

 of greatest past strength and glory, moulded their new govern- 

 ment upon the old, and for a while presented the spectacle of 

 democratic institutions in the very cradle of despotism. They 

 were not strong enough, not united enough, to establish them- 

 selves en permanence on this basis, and in a very short time 

 their bishop, who had been invited to take a share in the 

 government, acquired royal prerogatives in it, and subverted 

 republicanism while retaining the form of it. Whether but for 

 this the Romans would have preserved their independence it is 

 hard to speculate, impossible to say ; the German emperors and 

 French kings were too much interested in possessing her, and 

 in winning the prestige which possession of Rome gave to 

 allow her to remain in peaceful enjoyment of independence ; 

 but she set the example which was largely followed by cities of 

 less seeming importance than her own she was the model on 

 which were founded the mediaeval Italian Republics. 



It may be as well to mention here how Italy came to bs 

 under the dominion of the French emperors, a dominion from 

 which she emerged into the republican phase of her existence. 

 After the decline of the Western Roman empire at the end of 

 the fifth century, eight Gothic kings in succession held sway- 

 over Italy, but the last of these being expelled in the year 553 

 by Narses, acting in behalf of the Greek emperor, the southern. 

 portion of the peninsula reverted to the imperial rule, while the^ 

 northern part remained under the kings of Lombardy. Over 

 districts of the recovered south the Greek emperor appointed 

 governors, called exarchs, the chief of whom had his seat of 

 government at Ravenna ; and these viceroys held 1 a sort of 

 authoritative place for over a century and a half, the Bishop of 

 Rome having equal authority with them, or rather superior 

 power, for half-savage princes in the north, who paid no atten- 

 tion to, showed no respect for the imperial lieutenants, forbore 

 at the bidding of the Roman bishop to use that violence they did 

 not scruple to show to the arm of flesh that pretended to hold 

 them off. Time, however, wore off the fear which belief or 

 superstition inspired, and Lombard kings began at last to think 

 that ecclesiastical princes were no more to be respected! than 

 lay princes, seeing that they combined the secular element with 

 the clerical in a union that admitted of no distinction between 

 themselves and others. About the year A.D. 712, therefore, 

 Luitprand, King of Lombardy, began to turn his attention 

 southward, and was only dissuaded by the strongest solicita- 

 tions of the Pope from sacking the city of Rome. Forty years 

 afterwards, his descendant, Astolphus, urged by suggestions of 

 conquest, was undeterred even by religious considerations, and 

 was only kept at bay by the intervention of foreign arms. The 

 Greek emperor having been appealed to in vain the exarchate 

 of Ravenna had already fallen the Pope applied to the 

 Frankish emperor, the most powerful prince in Western Europe, 

 for assistance. Pepin the Short quickly responded to the 

 invitation, and the mere terror of his threats kept the Lombard 

 hands off. Desiderius, the son of Astolphus, however, relieved 

 by the great monarch's death from the dread of immediate 

 danger, led an army to the south, and intended to acquire for 

 himself the Eternal City. Charlemagne, the successor of Pepin, 

 anxious to obtain for himself recognition as ths arbiter in Italy, 

 and solicitous also of acquiring the imperial dignity, listened 

 attentively to the requests from the Pope; and when Desiderius 



