He interests us as he
stands for France and for Europe; and he exists as captain and king,
only as far as the Revolution, or the interest of the industrious
masses found an organ and a leader in him. In the social interests,
he knew the meaning and value of labor, and threw himself naturally
on that side. I like an incident mentioned by one of his biographers
at St. Helena. "When walking with Mrs. Balcombe, some servants, carrying
heavy boxes, passed by on the road, and Mrs. Balcombe desired them,
in rather an angry tone, to keep back. Napoleon interfered, saying,
'Respect the burden, Madam.'" In the time of the empire, he directed
attention to the improvement and embellishment of the market of the
capital. "The market-place," he said, "is the Louvre of the common
people." The principal works that have survived him are his magnificent
roads. He filled the troops with his spirit, and a sort of freedom and
companionship grew up between him and them, which the forms of his
court never permitted between the officers and himself. They performed,
under his eye, that which no others could do. The best document of his
relation to his troops is the order of the day on the morning of the
battle of Austerlitz, in which Napoleon promises the troops that he
will keep his person out of reach of fire.
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