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THE

MISCELLANEOUS PROSE WORKS

OF

SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART.

VOL. VIII.

LIFE OF NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE.

VOL. I.

Sed non in Cæsare tantum

Nomen erat, nec fama ducis; sed nescia virtus
Stare loco solusque pudor non vincere bello.
Acer et indomitus; quo spes quoque ira vocasset,
Ferre manum, et nunquam temerando parcere ferro:
Successus urgere suos; instare favori

Numinis impellens quicquid sibi summa petenti
Obstaret: gaudensque viam fecisse ruina.

LUCANI Pharsalia, Lib. I. 1

1[" But Cæsar's greatness, and his strength, was more Than past renown and antiquated power;

'Twas not the fame of what he once had been,

Or tales in old records and annals seen;

But 'twas a valour restless, unconfined,
Which no success could sate, nor limits bind;
'Twas shame, a soldier's shame, untaught to yield,
That blush'd for nothing but an ill-fought field;
Fierce in his hopes he was, nor knew to stay
Where vengeance or ambition led the way;
Still prodigal of war whene'er withstood,
Nor spared to stain the guilty sword with blood;
Urging advantage, he improved all odds,

And made the most of fortune and the gods;
Pleased to o'erturn whate'er withheld his prize,
And saw the ruin with rejoicing eyes."-RowE.]

EDINBURGH: PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND CO., PAUL'S WORK,

LIFE

OF

NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE,

WITH A

PRELIMINARY VIEW OF THE FRENCH

REVOLUTION.

BY

SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART.

VOL. I.

ROBERT CADELL, EDINBURGH;

WHITTAKER AND CO., LONDON.

1834.

OLIV.

ADVERTISEMENT.

[SIR WALTER SCOTT left two interleaved copies of his LIFE OF NAPOLEON, in both of which his executors have found various corrections of the text, and additional notes. They were directed by his testament to take care, that, in case a new edition of the work were called for, the annotations of it might be completed in the fashion here adopted, dates and other marginal elucidations regularly introduced, and the text itself, wherever there appeared any redundancy of statement, abridged. With these instructions, except the last, the Editor has now endeavoured to comply.

"Walter Scott," says Goethe, "passed his childhood among the stirring scenes of the American War, and was a youth of seventeen or eighteen when the French Revolution broke out. Now well advanced in the fifties, having all along been favourably placed for

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