Evil in a Mask Read Online Free PDF Page B

‘Ministry of All the Talents’ consisted almost entirely of weak, incompetent men who lacked a firm policy, and spent their time quarrelling amongst themselves.
    If Napoleon’s Continental System proved a really serious threat to Britain’s trade, industrial interests might force the present futile gang to agree a humiliating peace. Again, should Napoleon succeed in defeating the Russians, he would have no enemy left but England; and would march the
Grande Armée
back to Boulogne. For the time being Trafalgar had rendered invasion out of the question; but, with every dockyard in Europe at his disposal, the Emperor could, in a year or two, build a fleet strong enough to challenge again the British Navy. The great Nelson was dead. Would his successor succeed in defeating a French Armada; or, awful thought, would Lasalle’s Hussars and Oudinot’s Grenadiers yet ravage and burn the peaceful farmsteads of Kent and Sussex?
    As the falling snow formed a blanket over Roger’s hunched body, he knew that the issue was, for him, academic; but he tried to cheer himself by looking on the brighter side.
    There was another possibility. During this past year the Emperor had succumbed to
folie de grandeur
. He had absolute confidence in his ‘star’ and considered himself a superman whose decisions could never be wrong. Hence his abrupt dismissal of Talleyrand’s far-sighted policies. But it is said that ‘pride goeth before a fall’. It was not only the rulers and the armies of Austria and Prussia that had been humbled by defeat. The peoples of those countries, countless thousands of whom had casually been made citizens of foreign states, resented most bitterly the fate that Napoleon had brought upon them.
    At least there was a chance that they might be seized with a patriotic fervour and rise in their wrath against this oppressor. Between ’92 and ’96 it had been the
people
of France who had not only overthrown the Monarchy, but defied and defeated the trained armies of Austria, Prussia, Piedmont and Spain. If Napoleon had his back turned—for example beingoccupied with the invasion of England—might not the Germans and Austrians combine to massacre the French garrisons left in their cities, and regain their freedom?
    The fanaticism that had imbued the early armies of the Republic with the courage to achieve their amazing victories turned Roger’s thoughts to France as it was now, under the benign but iron hand of the Emperor. In ’799, when he had become First Consul, the country had been in a state of anarchy. There was no justice in the land. Every Municipality was a law unto itself, flagrantly robbing such citizens of any means who had not escaped abroad, yet neglecting the roads in its district until they became almost impassable. The country had swarmed with bands of deserters who pillaged and murdered at will. In the cities the Churches had been turned into gaming hells and brothels, half the houses had become rat-infested tenements, and the streets were half-choked with the accumulated filth of years.
    Within a year, in one great spate of inexhaustible energy, overriding every obstacle, the First Consul had cleaned the country up. The venal Municipalities had been replaced by Prefects, answerable only to him. The roads were repaired, the diligences again ran on time, the inns were made habitable and their staffs were no longer surly and offensive. The cities were cleansed, thousands of new schools opened, justice restored and the finances put in order. That one man could have achieved so much in so short a time was miraculous and, as an administrator, Napoleon had Roger’s whole-hearted admiration. But a price had had to be paid for his services. The French people had lost their, hard-won liberty. By a series of swift, crafty changes in the Constitution, Bonaparte had made himself a dictator whose will no man could question. Yet, because he had brought