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Show AOl.EON'S MIRACULOUS ESCAPES. Be 6emed to Live In a Charmed Circle and Went About With No Fear. In reply to the question in what err-gagements err-gagements he considered himself to have been in the greatest danger of losing los-ing his life Napoleon once said, "In the commencement of my campaigns. " Indeed if further proof were demanded to 6how that he did not spare himself t Toulon it is only necessary to add that, during the 10 weeks of its siege, Napoleon, in addition to a bayonet wound in his thigh, had three horses shot under him, while at the siege of Acre during the expedition to Egypt he lost no fewer than four in the same manner. During the last days of his life, when captivity, disappointment and sickness had well nigh completed their work, it Is said that the agnny of his fatal disease dis-ease drew from him on many occasions the pitiful cry of, "Why did thecannoD balls spare me?" During his long military career Napoleon Na-poleon fought 60 battles, while Caesar fought but 50. In the early part of his career he was utterly reckless of danger while on the battlefield, and this spirit of fearlessness contributed largely to the love and esteem in whioh he was held by his armies. There was a curious belief among the English in Napoleon's time that he had never been wounded, and indeed the report was current that he carefully, if not in a cowardly man ner, refrained from exposing himself. Nothing could be more contrary to the truth, for he was in reality several times severely wounded, but as he wish- ed to impress upon his troops the belief that good fortune never deserted him, and that, like Achilles, he was well aigh invulnerable he always made a secret of his many dangers. He therefore there-fore enjoined once for all upon the part, of his immediate staff the most ahsoinf silence regarding all circnms'-Ice this nature, for it is almost possible to calculi -- -T -ud disorder wni- - oul" nave resulted from the B--jnrest report or the smallest doubt elative to his existence. Upon the single sin-gle thread of this man's life depended not only the fate and government of a great empire, but the whole policy and destiny of Europe as welL j |
