depuis, 'afterwards

de Sainte- Hélène. Napoleon's Memoirs were drawn up from his own recitals by two members of his staff at St Helena, General Gourgand and Count Montholon. They contain many elaborate falsifications, and, says Prof. Seeley, "by dwelling almost exclusively upon the earlier period and on the Waterloo campaign, they helped forward the process by which he was idealized after his death. They reminded the world that he, who had lately fallen in defending a free nation against a coalition of kings and emperors, was the same who, in his youth, had been the champion of the First French Republic against the First Coalition. They consigned the long interval to oblivion.*'

1. 36. ne eomposait point son personnage. Personnage is often used of the part played in society, life, &c, especially with verbs like jouer, remplir, faire, soutenir.

Page 26.

1. 1. débita. The first meaning of débiter (probably from Latin debitum) is ' to sell retail.' It is applied to reciting verses, &c. (l'enfant débita bien son compliment), and then of any sort of ' deliverance,' in its sense of speechmaking — of course with the same irony as attaches to the English noun.

1. 2. tout mêlé de trivial et de grandiose. Napoleon's extreme volubility and his incoherent way of talking are well known. He would dictate dispatches so fast that his secretaries could not keep pace with him, and often interlard them with oaths and coarse expressions. At the Council of State he constantly broke into long digressions. " Nulle

parole," says M. Taine, "si jaillissante et déversée à si grands flots, parfois sans discrétion ni prudence, lors même que l'épanchement n'est ni utile ni digne : c'est que son âme et son esprit regorgent..."