Certainly a truer and fuller light is cast by these volumes, upon the colossal figure which will always remain one of the most interesting studies in all human history.

The translator.

INTRODUCTION.

By Constant.

The career of a man compelled to make his own way, who is not an artisan or in some trade, does not usually begin till he is about twenty years of age.  Till then he vegetates, uncertain of his future, neither having, nor being able to have, any well-defined purpose.  It is only when he has arrived at the full development of his powers, and his character and bent of mind are shown, that he can determine his profession or calling.  Not till then does he know himself, and see his way open before him.  In fact, it is only then that he begins to live.

Reasoning in this manner, my life from my twentieth year has been thirty years, which can be divided into equal parts, so far as days and months are counted, but very unequal parts, considering the events which transpired in each of those two periods of my life.

Attached to the person of the Emperor Napoleon for fifteen years, I have seen all the men, and witnessed all the important events, which centered around him.  I have seen far more than that; for I have had under my eyes all the circumstances of his life, the least as well as the greatest, the most secret as well as those which are known to history,—­I have had, I repeat, incessantly under my eyes the man whose name, solitary and alone, fills the most glorious pages of our history.  Fifteen years I followed him in his travels and his campaigns, was at his court, and saw him in the privacy of his family.  Whatever step he wished to take, whatever order he gave, it was necessarily very difficult for the Emperor not to admit me, even though involuntarily, into his confidence; so that without desiring it, I have more than once found myself in the possession of secrets I should have preferred not to know.  What wonderful things happened during those fifteen years!  Those near the Emperor lived as if in the center of a whirlwind; and so quick was the succession of overwhelming events, that one felt dazed, as it were, and if he wished to pause and fix his attention for a moment, there instantly came, like another flood, a succession of events which carried him along with them without giving him time to fix his thoughts.

Succeeding these times of activity which made one’s brain whirl, there came to me the most absolute repose in an isolated retreat where I passed another interval of fifteen years after leaving the Emperor.  But what a contrast!  To those who have lived, like myself, amid the conquests and wonders of the Empire, what is left to-day?  If the strength of our manhood was passed amid the bustle of years so short, yet so fully occupied, our careers were sufficiently long and fruitful, and it is time to give ourselves up to repose.  We can withdraw from the world, and close our eyes.  Can it be possible to see anything equal to what we have seen?  Such scenes do not come twice in the lifetime of any man; and having seen them, they suffice to occupy his memory through all his remaining years, and in retirement he can find nothing better to occupy his leisure moments than the recollections of what he has witnessed.