OPPOSITION.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXI, Issue V, 30 July 1898, Page 159

OPPOSITION.

There is a natural desire on the part of some great and powerful men to be opposed or crossed occasionally. Ordinarily men of this sort insist upon having their own way, but instances are not lacking in which persons who have opposed them with some violence have seemed to excite their admiration and win their gratitude. Two cases of this sort, one occurring in the career of the great Napoleon, and one an incident of a recent voyage of a living monarch, are interesting: The memoirs of General Muirbot upon the first French Empire, recently published, relate that, on the occasion of a very formal distribution of rewards made by Napoleon before llatisbon, an old grenadier came forward and demanded somewhat sharply, to the astonishment of all, a cross of file Legion of Honour.

"But what have you done?’ saiil Napoleon.

‘Why, sire," said the soldier, ‘it was 1 who, in the desert of Jaffa, when it was terribly hot, and you were parched with thirst, brought you a- watermelon.’

‘Thank you.’ said Napoleon, ‘but a watermelon for a general is not worth a cross of the Legion of Honour.'

The grenadier flew into a violent rage.

‘Well, then,' he shouted, ‘1 sup|>ose that, the seven wounds that I got at Arcola and at Lodi and at Austerlitz and at Friedland go for nothing, eh? My eleven campaigns in Italy, in Egypt, in Austria, in Prussia, mid in Poland you don’t count, I suppose?'

‘Tut, tut, tut!' exclaimed the Emperor. How you do get excited when you come to the essential point of the whole matter! 1 make you now a chevalier of the Legion for your wounds and your campaigns; but don't tell me any more about your watermelon!’

A similar outburst from a general would have won dismissal ami disgrace, but the Einjieror was pleased with it when it came from <i simple soldier.

The young Emperor of Germany is the hero of the other incident. The German papers relate that, during his visit to Heligoland, the Emperor, wishing to study the fortifications of the island, expressed an intention to make an ascent in a balloon which is kept for the purpose.

Against, this project the Emperor’s brother and other oflieers protested, alleging that the Euqieror should not risk his personal safety’ in a balloon—even a captive one.

The Emperor piv'msted, when General von Hahnke placed himself bodily in his sovereign's way. blocking the path, and at the same time declaring that a law of Prussia forbade the King to risk his person unnecessarily or to ‘travel outside of Europe’ without the permission of the upper branch of the Prussian Legislature. The Emperor would violate this law. he declared, if he ascended in the balloon.

The Emperor, who has the reputation of being a very headstrong mini, stood still a moment, while the officers about looked on in wonder at the spectacle of a subject opjiosing physical force to the monarch’s will.

Then the Emperor embraced General von Hahnke. assured him that he was entirely right, and afterward presented him with the grand cross of the Order of the House of Hohenzollern.