His hat, looped up with a
diamond and quivering with an ostrich feather, was flung anyhow upon the
table. But his wonderful eyes were the brightest thing there.
"Ha! ha!" said the Emperor, a very keen judge of faces; "you expected
to find me a monster, as I am portrayed by your caricaturists. Your
countrymen are not kind to me, except the foremost of them--the great
poets. But they will understand me better by-and-by, when justice
prevails, and the blessings of peace, for which I am striving
perpetually. But the English nation, if it were allowed a voice, would
proclaim me its only true friend and ally. You know that, if you are one
of the people, and not of the hateful House of Lords, which engrosses
all the army and the navy. Are you in connection with the House of
Lords?"
Scudamore shook his head and smiled. He was anxious to say that he had
a cousin, not more than twice removed, now an entire viscount; but
Napoleon never encouraged conversation, unless it was his own, or in
answer to his questions.
"Very well. Then you can speak the truth. What do they think of all this
grand army? Are they aware that, for their own good, it will very soon
occupy London? Are they forming themselves to act as my allies, when I
have reduced them to reason? Is it now made entirely familiar to their
minds that resistance to me is as hopeless as it has been from the first
unwise? If they would submit, without my crossing, it would save them
some disturbance, and me a great expense.
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