"'When I plan a battle,' said he to Roederer, 'no man is more pusillanimous than I am. I magnify to myself all the dangers and all the evils that are possible under the circumstances. I am in a state of agitation that is really painful. But this does not prevent me from appearing quite composed to people around me; I am like a woman giving birth to a child.'"
It is also a necessary part of this system that he should be always looking ahead, and this aspect of his character is also set forth with picturesqueness by himself:
"Passionately, in the throes of creation, he is thus absorbed with his coming greatness; he already anticipates and enjoys living in his imaginary edifice. 'General,' said Madame de Clermont-Tonnerre to him one day, 'you are building behind a scaffolding which you will take down when you have done with it.' 'Yes, madame, that's it,' replied Bonaparte; 'you are right, I'm always living two years in advance.' His response came with 'incredible vivacity,' as if it were the result of a sudden inspiration, that of a soul stirred in its innermost core."
XV.
WHAT HIS MEMORY HELD.
And then Taine proceeds to give some notion of all that was contained in this single brain, and, powerful as the summing-up is, it will yet be seen
