simply for head of departments active pen pushers, mute executors,
docile and special hands, no need for honest and independent advisers.

"I should not know what to do with them," he said, "if they were not
to a certain extent mediocre in mind and character."

As to his generals, he admits himself that "he likes to award fame
only to those who cannot stand it." In any event, "he must be sole
master in making or unmaking reputations," according to his personal
requirements. Too brilliant a soldier would become too important; a
subordinate should never be tempted to be less submissive. To this
end he studies what he will omit in his bulletins, what alterations
and what changes shall be made in them.

"It is convenient to keep silent about certain victories, or to
convert the defeat of this or that marshal into a success. Sometimes
a general learns by a bulletin of an action that he was never in and
of a speech that he never made."

If he complains, he is notified to keep still, or by way of recompense
he is allowed to pillage, levy contributions, and enrich himself. On
becoming duke or hereditary prince, with half a million or a million
of revenue from his estate, he is not less held in subjection, for the
creator has taken precautions against his own creations.

"There are men,"[57] he said, "who I have made independent, but I know
well where to find them and keep them from being ungrateful."

In effect, if he has endowed them magnificently it is with domains
assigned to them in conquered countries, which insures their fortune