"Let my son often read and reflect on history: this is the onlytrue philosophy."—Napoleon's last Instructions for theKing of Rome.
POST 8VO EDITION, ILLUSTRATEDFirst Published, December 1901.
Second Edition, revised, March 1902.
Third Edition, revised, January 1903.
Fourth Edition, revised, September 1907.
Reprinted, January 1910.CROWN 8VO EDITION
First Published, September 1904.
Reprinted, October 1907; July 1910.DEDICATED TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD ACTON, K.C.V.O., D.C.L.,LL.D. REGIUS PROFESSOR OF MODERN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OFCAMBRIDGE, IN ADMIRATION OF HIS PROFOUND HISTORICAL LEARNING, ANDIN GRATITUDE FOR ADVICE AND HELP GENEROUSLY GIVEN.
An apology seems to be called for from anyone who gives to theworld a new Life of Napoleon I. My excuse must be that for manyyears I have sought to revise the traditional story of his careerin the light of facts gleaned from the British Archives and of themany valuable materials that have recently been published bycontinental historians. To explain my manner of dealing with thesesources would require an elaborate critical Introduction; but, asthe limits of my space absolutely preclude any such attempt, I canonly briefly refer to the most important topics.
To deal with the published sources first, I would name as ofchief importance the works of MM. Aulard, Chuquet, Houssaye, Sorel,and Vandal in France; of Herren Beer, Delbrück, Fournier,Lehmann, Oncken, and Wertheimer in Germany and Austria; and ofBaron Lumbroso in Italy. I have also profited largely by thescholarly monographs or collections of documents due to the laboursof the "Société d'Histoire Contemporaine," theGeneral Staff of the French Army, of MM. Bouvier, Caudrillier,Capitaine "J.G.," Lévy, Madelin, Sagnac, Sciout, Zivy, andothers in France; and of Herren Bailleu, Demelitsch, Hansing,Klinkowstrom, Luckwaldt, Ulmann, and others in Germany. Some of therecently published French Memoirs dealing with those times are notdevoid of value, though this class of literature is to be used withcaution. The new letters of Napoleon published by M. LéonLecestre and M. Léonce de Brotonne [pg.VIII] have alsoopened up fresh vistas into the life of the great man; and the timeseems to have come when we may safely revise our judgments on manyof its episodes.
But I should not have ventured on this great undertaking, had Inot been able to contribute something new to Napoleonic literature.During a study of th