Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 7.djvu/209

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NAPOLEON


Happy those who shall remain neutral! They will have time to know the result, and then will join us.

But woe, eternal woe, to those who take arms in favor of the Mamelukes and fight against us! There will be no hope for them; they will perish!

Sheiks, Ulemans, believers of Mohammed, make known to the people that those who have been enemies to me will find no refuge either in this world or the other. Is there a man so blind as not to see that Destiny itself directs my operations?[1]



V

ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF AUSTERLITZ[2]

(1806)

Soldiers, it is this day a year ago, at this very hour, that we were upon the memorable plain of Austerlitz. The Russian battalions fled appalled. Their allies are no more. Their fortresses, their capitals, their magazines, their arsenals, twoo

  1. Napoleon's famous remark at the Pyramids was not part of any of these speeches. As Thiers relates the incident, the army on its march suddenly came within sight of "the gigantic Pyramids gilded by the sun," and then "halted as if seized with curiosity and admiration." With his face "beaming with enthusiasm," Napoleon "began to gallop before the ranks of the soldiers," and pointing to the Pyramids exclaimed "consider that from the summits of these Pyramids forty centuries have their eyes fixed upon you." Thiers gives only these words.
  2. Translated "by a member of the New York Bar."

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