His subjects for meditation were many and heavy. In his
brief yet brilliant career, he had surpassed all other con-
querors since Osymandyas, the first warlike King who deso-
lated the earth, or Palamedes of Argos, the earliest ranger of
an army in battle array. No monarch had ever been so stricken
as Napoleon, with that fondness for war which has been
called by Erasmus the " malady of princes." His struggle
with England cost us £1,159,000,000. The six Peninsular
campaigns cost France, in men, 600,000 lives. The Allies did
not suffer less. 1,200,000 beings perished in one comer of
Europe alone. From this sacrifice of men and money, in a
portion only of the unparalleled struggle, may be guessed
at what fearful cost Napoleon had maintained a few years
of glory, and covered France, at last, with an invading and
triumphant enemy.
Europe now held him prisoner, and England had charge of
his person. He had hated her more bitterly than any of
his enemies. He had seen the immense advantages to be
derived from peace, if not an alliance, with England ; and
he had never been able to render such a circumstance agree-
able but to the eyes of a few statesmen in Great Britain.
