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Ch. XVI.]
the Emperor Napoleon.
181

their headlong rashness may be made the instrument of their ruin, and the stern hand of death arrest them before they have tasted of that earthly glory for which they toiled; their deeds, however, still live, and become often benefits to mankind, though springing from an evil source.

The emperor, after a long silence, commented on the beautiful management of the vessel. "The English are kings upon the sea," he said, and then, smiling somewhat sarcastically, added, "I wonder what they think of our beautiful island; they cannot be much elated by the sight of my gigantic prison walls!" His natural prejudice against th island rendered him blind to the many beauties with which it abounded; he beheld all with a jaundiced eye: thus ever do our views of life take their colouring from our feelings and the nature of the circumstances in which we are placed. "Our eyes see all around in gloom with hues of their own, fresh

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