it hard to be lying here, helpless and suffering, while your Emperor and your companions in arms enjoy their triumph?"
"Oh no, madame," he said with animation; "I cannot think of that. Nor could you, if you belonged to my Czar. If you had seen the flames of Moscow; had heard the thunder when the mines exploded that laid half our Kremlin in ruins; had witnessed the faith and courage that upheld him then, had watched the long and weary conflict he has waged from that hour until now—patient, wise, self-sacrificing, undaunted,[1]—you would rejoice for him in the very depths of your heart that the goal is won at last, that he stands a conqueror in the midst of Paris, and possesses the gate of his enemies!" In his eagerness he half raised himself, his eyes sparkled, and his whole face flushed with excitement.
"Gently, gently, my poor young friend," said Madame de Talmont in a tone of almost motherly tenderness. "I fear you will hurt yourself."
"Oh no, madame;"—but even as he spoke his colour changed rapidly, and his lip quivered with the pain he tried to hide.
Meanwhile, many thoughts were passing through the mind of the silent but observant Clémence. There was a little stand beside the bed, upon which were a phial containing medicine, a small book, and a clean white cambric handkerchief. She saw, with interest and pleasure, that the book was a copy of
- ↑ He could say all that and more with perfect truth. The conduct of Alexander during the War of Liberation forms a very bright page in his history. He spared no effort to infuse his own courage, energy, and determination into his allies. At the outset, he wished for the chief command of the united armies, a position for which he was well qualified, and to which he possessed every possible claim. But Austrian jealousy interfered: for it must be remembered that Francis of Austria had given his daughter in marriage to Napoleon, so that the infant heir of the common enemy was the grandson of one of the allied sovereigns. Inspired by his cabinet, the Austrian general, Prince Schwartzenberg, opposed the arrangement, and Alexander quietly gave way. He appeased the indignation of the King of Prussia, and reconciled Schwartzenberg with him. He broke up his own enormous armies into auxiliary corps, most of which he placed under the command of his allies; and abandoning the lower ambition of being the nominal head of the confederation, contented himself with being its soul and its inspiring genius. It was he who planned, and urged upon his allies, the march upon Paris that brought the war to a successful termination.
