XXV.
HIS JUDGMENTS ON HIMSELF.
His miscalculation arises from another cause—the excessive imagination, which so often led astray that cold, calculating, splendid mind. "The Emperor," said M. de Pradt, that keen observer of him, whom I have often quoted already, "is all system, all illusion, as one cannot fail to be when one is all imagination. Whoever has watched his course has noticed his creating for himself an imaginary Spain, an imaginary Catholicism, an imaginary England, an imaginary financial state, an imaginary noblesse, and still more, an imaginary France."
A curious thing about him is that occasionally he has glimpses of his own faults and of the verdict which will be passed upon him. Take, for instance, his judgment upon his treatment of his subordinates:
"He was heard to say, 'The lucky man is he who hides away from me in the depths of some province,' And another day, having asked M. de Ségur what people would say of him after his death, the latter enlarged on the regrets which would be universally expressed. 'Not at all,' replied the Emperor; and then drawing in his breath in a significant manner indicative of universal relief, he replied: 'They'll say, Ouf!'"
