42 DESTINY, FATE 



Again he says in another place, "I have, however, often 

 thought since on this point of morals, and I believe, if 

 thoroughly considered, it is always better to suffer a man to 

 terminate his destiny, be it what it may. I judged so 

 afterwards in the case of my friend Duroc, who when his 

 bowels were falling out before my eyes, repeatedly cried to 

 me to have him put out of his misery. I said to him, 

 'I pity you, my friend, but there is no remedy; it is necessary 

 to suffer to the last.' " 



Again we read, "the most energetic measures were im- 

 mediately adopted to prevent any rallying-point for the 

 disaffected. Bills were everywhere posted, exhorting the 

 citizens to be quiet, and assuring them that powerful efforts 

 were in the making to save the Republic. These minute 

 precautions were characteristic of Napoleon. He believed in 

 destiny; yet he left nothing for destiny to accomplish. He 

 ever sought to make provision for all conceivable contin- 

 gencies." 



"The death of Fox was one of the fatalities of my 

 career,"" he says in another place. "Had his life been pro- 

 longed, affairs would have taken a totally different turn. 

 The cause of the people would have triumphed, and we 

 should have established a new order of things in Europe." 



Again we read, "This," said Napoleon, "is one of the 

 thousand absurdities which have been published respecting 

 me. But the story you have just mentioned is the more 

 ridiculous, since every individual about me well-knows how 

 careless I am with regard to self-preservation. Accustomed 

 from the age of eighteen to be exposed to the cannon-ball, 

 and knowing the inutility of precautions, I abandoned myself 

 to my fate. When I came to the head of affairs, I might still 

 have fancied myself surrounded by the dangers of the field 

 of battle, and I might have regarded the conspiracies which 

 were formed against me as so* many bomb-shells. But I 

 followed my old course, I trusted to my lucky star, and left 

 all precautions to the police. I was, perhaps, the only 

 sovereign in Europe who dispensed with a body-guard. 

 Every one could freely approach me without having, as it 

 were, to pass through military barracks." 



Again, Napoleon believed it was his destiny that impelled 

 him to divorce Josephine. His affections and will were all 

 against such an act. It was the intervention of destiny. 

 "My destiny," he says, "is stronger than my will." 



Further, one day at the battle of Niemen he saw a 

 soldier trying to dodge a cannon ball. "My friend," he said, 

 "you have nothing to fear. If your name is not written on 

 that ball it cannot hit you, if it is written you could not 



