NAPOLÉON Ier (1769-1821) Empereur

Lot 953
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10000 - 15000 EUR
NAPOLÉON Ier (1769-1821) Empereur
MANUSCRIT autograph, III; 1 page in fol. on leopard watermarked laid paper from the English manufacturer Budgen & Wilmott. Early version of a chapter from the Memoirs to serve the history of France under Napoleon on the Directoire and the causes of the coup d'état of 18 fructidor. This passage, entirely in Napoleon's hand, with deletions and corrections, corresponds to sections I and II of chapter XVI of the Italian Campaigns entitled Journée du dix-huituit fructidor in the Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de France sous Napoléon.... published in 6 volumes by Firmin-Didot in 1823-1825, and included in the Works of Napoleon I on St. Helena given following the Correspondence (Imprimerie Impériale, t. XXIX, pp. 346-349). Numbered III, it was crossed out with a vertical pencil stroke after its use in the copy of the Memoirs, and offers an entirely different first version of the published text. "[Les Républicains rigides biffé] It was seen with astonishment that the first Directory of the government composed of 5 conventionals was against the Convention they were driven out of Paris. The energetic patriots who had marched and had been in the various events of the Revolution companions of the members of the Government were removed from the councils. In the first months of its administration the Directory allied itself with the most energetic part of the republicans, all that it did to caress the aristocracy and to reconcile itself with the sufrages of the high class of the society only made this one more demanding and gave it new means to harm. There were many removals from the list of emigrants, and always [...] on the most intriguing and active agents of the foreign faction. However, this conduct of the Directory was the result of his faith and blindness. He soon realized that the precipice was deepening beneath his feet. He then abruptly turned back and defied what he had done, called back the men he had left behind
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