VOLUME III.
Portrait of Sir Hudson Lowe, to face the title. Ground Plan of Longwood 21 The House in which Napoleon was Born 113 The Burning of Moscow 164 Napoleon’s Return from Elba 302
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VOLUME IV.
Portrait of Count De Las Cases, to face the title. Napoleon at Saint Helena 149 Death of Napoleon 386 Statue of Napoleon on the Place Vendome 388 Tomb of Napoleon 399
PREFACE.
Circumstances the most extraordinary have long kept me near the most extraordinary man that ever existed. Admiration made me follow him, without knowing him, and when I did know him, love alone would have fixed me for ever near his person. The world is full of his glory, his deeds, and his monuments; but no one knows the true shades of his character, his private qualities, or the natural disposition of his soul. This great void I undertake to fill up, and for such a task I possess advantages unexampled in history.
I collected and recorded, day by day, all that I saw of Napoleon, all that I heard him say, during the period of eighteen months in which I was constantly about his person. In these conversations, which were full of confidence, and which seemed to pass, as it were, in another world, he could not fail to be portrayed by himself as if in a mirror, in every point of view, and under every aspect. Henceforth the world may freely study him: there can be no error in the materials.
COUNT LAS CASES.
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MEMOIRS
OF
THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON.
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