Book Description

Excerpt from History of the Consulate and the Empire of France Under Napoleon, Vol. 3 But the people, and especially the monks, that cloistered portion of the people, were ex asperated. Among these last nothing could mitigate the feeling of wounded pride - neither the hope of a regeneration which they were incapable of appreciating, nor tolerance in re gard to foreigners whom they detested, neither the love of repose nor the fear of disorder. The Spanish people, the people of the streets and the fields, like those of the cloister, ardent, ia dolent, weary of quiet, so far from being fond of it, caring little about the burning of towns or country houses, in which there was nothing belonging to them, were ready to gratify that propensity to agitation, which the French peo ple had gratified in 1789, by efi'ecting a great democratic revolution. They were ready to exert, in support of the old system all the dem agogue passions which the French people had exerted for the foundation of the new one. They were about to be as violent, as tumul tuous, as sanguinary, for the throne and the altar, as their neighbours had been against both. They were about to be so in proportion to the warmth of their blood and the ferocity of their disposition. In the Spanish people, nevertheless, a noble sentiment blended with the feelings that we have just mentioned - the love of their country, of their kings, of their religion, which they amalgamated into one af fection, and under the inspiration of which they were destined to furnish splendid examples of fortitude and frequently of heroism. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.