—­ceased as if by enchantment.  The flotilla entered the port safe and sound and he went back to the camp, where the sports and amusements prepared for the soldiers commenced, and in the evening the brilliant fireworks which were let off rose in a luminous column, which was distinctly seen from the English coast.—­[It appears that Napoleon was so well able to cover up this fiasco that not even Bourrienne ever heard the true story.  D.W.]

When he reviewed the troops he asked the officers, and often the soldiers, in what battles they had been engaged, and to those who had received serious wounds he gave the cross.  Here, I think, I may appropriately mention a singular piece of charlatanism to which the Emperor had recourse, and which powerfully contributed to augment the enthusiasm of his troops.  He would say to one of his aides decamp, “Ascertain from the colonel of such a regiment whether he has in his corps a man who has served in the campaigns of Italy or the campaigns of Egypt.  Ascertain his name, where he was born, the particulars of his family, and what he has done.  Learn his number in the ranks, and to what company he belongs, and furnish me with the information.”

On the day of the review Bonaparte, at a single glance, could perceive the man who had been described to him.  He would go up to him as if he recognised him, address him by his name, and say, “Oh! so you are here!  You area brave fellow—­I saw you at Aboukir—­how is your old father?  What! have you not got the Cross?  Stay, I will give it you.”  Then the delighted soldiers would say to each other, “You see the Emperor knows us all; he knows our families; he knows where we have served.”  What a stimulus was this to soldiers, whom he succeeded in persuading that they would all some time or other become Marshals of the Empire!

Lauriston told me, amongst other anecdotes relating to Napoleon’s sojourn at the camp at Boulogne, a remarkable instance of intrepidity on the part of two English sailors.  These men had been prisoners at Verdun, which was the most considerable depot of English prisoners in France at the rupture of the peace of Amiens.  They effected their escape from Verdun, and arrived at Boulogne without having been discovered on the road, notwithstanding the vigilance with which all the English were watched They remained at Boulogne for some time, destitute of money, and without being able to effect their escape.  They had no hope of getting aboard a boat, on account of the strict watch that was kept upon vessels of every kind.  These two sailors made a boat of little pieces of wood, which they put together as well as they could, having no other tools than their knives.  They covered it with a piece of sail-cloth.  It was only three or four feet wide, and not much longer, and was so light that a man could easily carry it on his shoulders,—­so powerful a passion