These two men were neither unfriendly nor inimical, only the lieutenant wanted to rise a step higher in rank." And this shrewd observer adds: "Such was the furious egoism then styled love of glory and which, under this title, the Emperor had communicated to the French." On this slope the slide is rapid and abject.

Each, at first, thinks of himself; the individual makes of himself a center.

The example, moreover, comes from above.

Is it for France or for himself that Napoleon works ?[3362] So many immense enterprises, the conquest of Spain, the expedition into Russia, the installation of his brothers and relations on new thrones, the constant partition and rearrangement of Europe, all those incessant and more and more distant wars, is it for the public good and common safety that he accumulates them?
What does he himself desire if not to push his fortunes still farther ?--He is too much ambitious (trop ambitionnaire), say his own soldiers;[3363] and yet they follow him to the last.

"We have always marched along with him," replied the old grenadiers,[3364] who had traversed Poland to penetrate into Russia; "we couldn't abandon him this time and leave him alone by himself."-- But others who see him nearer by, those who stand first and next to him, do as he does; and, however high these have mounted, they want to mount still higher, or, otherwise, to keep their places, or, at least, provide for themselves and hold on to something substantial.
Massena has accumulated forty millions and Talleyrand sixty;[3365] in case of a political crash the money remains.