some people he gained, and wished to have it believed that he had also won to his side those whose sense of duty led them to resist him. Herein his success was wonderful.
"My father came out from this second conversation even more thoughtful than from the first, and on entering the hotel he gave orders that we should proceed on the following day. But General Bonaparte was going to make a visit of inspection of the points in the neighbourhood of the town suitable for fortification, and all the post-horses had been engaged for him. For the moment I thought that my father would be angry, but he confined himself to saying: 'There's the beginning of omnipotence.'"
IV.
NAPOLEON OFTEN DECEIVED.
The next passage I will quote will show how attentive Napoleon was to details, and yet how, in spite of all his precautions, he was deceived. The very terror which he inspired was often the cause of his being kept in ignorance:
"The Emperor used as a rule to treat his officers with kindness, but there was one point on which he was, perhaps, over severe. He held the colonels responsible for maintaining a full complement of men in the ranks of their regiments, and as that is precisely what is most
