Page:Napoleon (O'Connor 1896).djvu/291

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CHAPTER VII.

JOSEPHINE.[1]

The memoirs of Barras leave so bad a taste in the mouth that it is necessary to seek some violent relief; and my next essays will be taken from the writings of those whose admiration for him was unstinted.

With the first of the volumes which supply the material for this portion of the volume, I shall have to deal briefly. The Count de Ségur is very interesting, especially to military readers, but he goes over ground which I have already traversed.

The volume is mainly interesting as an antidote to the "Memoirs of Madame de Rémusat," whose pictures of Napoleon's personality and Court supplied Taine with the chief material for his indictment.

The reader will not have forgotten the truly

  1. "An Aide-de-Camp of Napoleon: Memoirs of General Count de Ségur." Translated by H. A. Patchett Martin. (London : Hutchinson.) "Napoleon and the Fair Sex." Translated from the French of Frédéric Masson. (London : Heinemann.) " The Private Life of Napoleon." Translated from the French of Arthur Lévy. (London : Bentley.)