Page:Napoleon (O'Connor 1896).djvu/171

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The Estimate of an Official.
155

known as Lucien, and afterwards as Prince de Canino, a title given to him by the Pope, had a fiery soul. He was ambitious and greedily fond of money. Public affairs had all the more attraction for him in that he had played an important part in them on the 18th Brumaire, and he could lay the flattering unction to himself that his firmness on that day so fraught with peril had greatly contributed to its success. He deserted the Court at the time his brother reached the summit of grandeur, and when he was in a position to promise the highest destinies to all the members of his family. On his becoming a widower, it was impossible to cause him to renounce his matrimonial views with a divorcée, who had been his mistress for some time past, and sooner than yield, he went into a voluntary exile, from which he did not return until after many trials, which finally led him to England, at the time of the misfortunes of 1815. During his stay in Italy, he seemed to make it a point of honour to show his loyalty to the Pontifical Government, whose subject he had become."

Joseph had exactly the same temperament:

"Joseph, the eldest of the family, had ascended the throne of Spain, after having occupied that of Naples. Witty, voluptuous, effeminate, although courageous, nothing in his incredible fortunes was to him a cause for surprise. I heard him in January, 1814, make the extraordinary claim that