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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Memoirs of Napoleon--1814, v12
+#12 in our series by Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne
+#12 in our Napoleon Bonaparte series
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+Title: Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, v12
+
+Author: Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne
+
+Release Date: December, 2002  [Etext #3562]
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+Edition: 11
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Memoirs of Napoleon, by Bourrienne, v12
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+
+MEMOIRS OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, VOLUME 12.
+
+By LOUIS ANTOINE FAUVELET DE BOURRIENNE
+
+His Private Secretary
+
+Edited by R. W. Phipps
+Colonel, Late Royal Artillery
+
+1891
+
+
+
+CONTENTS:
+CHAPTER XXVIII.  to  CHAPTER XXXVI.  1813-1814
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+1813.
+
+     Riots in Hamburg and Lubeck--Attempted suicide of M. Konning--
+     Evacuation of Hamburg--Dissatisfaction at the conduct of General St.
+     Cyr--The Cabinets of Vienna and the Tuileries--First appearance of
+     the Cossacks--Colonel Tettenborn invited to occupy Hamburg--Cordial
+     reception of the Russians--Depredations--Levies of troops--
+     Testimonials of gratitude to Tettenborn--Napoleon's new army--Death
+     of General Morand--Remarks of Napoleon on Vandamme--Bonaparte and
+     Gustavus Adolphus--Junction of the corps of Davoust and Vandamme--
+     Reoccupation of Hamburg by the French--General Hogendorff appointed
+     Governor of Hamburg--Exactions and vexatious contributions levied
+     upon Hamburg and Lubeck--Hostages.
+
+A considerable time before Napoleon left Paris to join the army, the bulk
+of which was in Saxony, partial insurrections occurred in many places.
+The interior of France proper was indeed still in a state of
+tranquillity, but it was not so in the provinces annexed by force to the
+extremities of the Empire, especially in the north, and in the
+unfortunate Hanse Towns, for which, since my residence at Hamburg, I have
+always felt the greatest interest.  The intelligence I received was
+derived from such unquestionable sources that I can pledge myself for the
+truth of what I have to state respecting the events which occurred in
+those provinces at the commencement of 1813; and subsequently I obtained
+a confirmation of all the facts communicated by my correspondence when I
+was sent to Hamburg by Louis XVIII. in 1815.
+
+M. Steuve, agent from the Court of Russia, who lived at Altona apparently
+as a private individual, profited by the irritation produced by the
+measures adopted at Hamburg.  His plans were so well arranged that he was
+promptly informed of the route of the Grand Army from Moscow, and the
+approach of the Allied troops.  Aided by the knowledge and activity of
+Sieur Hanft of Hamburg, M. Steuve profited by the discontent of a people
+so tyrannically governed, and seized the opportunity for producing an
+explosion.  Between eight and nine o'clock on the morning of the 24th of
+February 1813 an occurrence in which the people were concerned was the
+signal for a revolt.  An individual returning to Hamburg by the Altona
+gate would not submit to be searched by a fiscal agent, who in
+consequence maltreated him and wounded him severely.  The populace
+instantly rose, drove away the revenue guard, and set fire to the guard-
+house.  The people also, excited by secret agents, attacked other French
+posts, where they committed the same excesses.  Surprised at this
+unexpected movement, the French authorities retired to the houses in
+which they resided.  All the respectable inhabitants who were unconnected
+with the tumult likewise returned to their homes, and no person appeared
+out of doors.
+
+General Carry St. Cyr  had the command of Hamburg after the Prince of
+Eckmuhl's departure for the Russian campaign.
+
+     --[General Carry St.  Cyr is not to be contused with the Marshal
+     Gonvion de St. Cyr; he fell into disgrace for his conduct at
+     Hamburg at this time, and was not again employed by Napoleon.  Under
+     the Restoration he became Governor of French Guiana.]--
+
+At the first news of the revolt he set about packing up his papers, and
+Comte de Chaban, M. Konning, the Prefect of Hamburg, and M. Daubignosc,
+the Director of Police, followed his example.  It was not till about four
+o'clock in the afternoon that a detachment of Danish hussars arrived at
+Hamburg, and the populace: was then speedily dispersed.  All the
+respectable citizens and men of property assembled the next morning and
+adopted means for securing internal tranquillity, so that the Danish
+troops were enabled to return to Altona.  Search was then made for the
+ringleaders of the disturbance.  Many persons were arrested, and a
+military commission, ad hoc; was appointed to try them.  The commission,
+however, condemned only one individual, who, being convicted of being one
+of the most active voters, was sentenced to be shot, and the sentence was
+carried into execution.
+
+On the 26th February a similar commotion took place at Lubeck.  Attempts
+were made to attack the French Authorities.  The respectable citizens
+instantly assembled, protected them against outrage, and escorted them in
+safety to Hamburg, where they arrived on the 27th.  The precipitate
+flight of these persons from Lubeck spread some alarm in Hamburg.  The
+danger was supposed to be greater than it was because the fugitives were
+accompanied by a formidable body of troops.
+
+But these were not the only attempts to throw off the yoke of French
+domination, which had become insupportable.  All the left bank of the
+Elbe was immediately in a state of insurrection, and all the official
+persons took refuge in Hamburg.  During these partial insurrections
+everything was neglected.  Indecision, weakness, and cupidity were
+manifested everywhere.  Instead of endeavours to soothe the minds of the
+people, which had been, long exasperated by intolerable tyranny, recourse
+was had to rigorous measures.  The prisons were crowded with a host of
+persons declared to be suspected upon the mere representations of the
+agents of the police.  On the 3d of March a special military commission
+condemned six householders of Hamburg and its neighbourhood to be shot on
+the glacis for no other offence than having been led, either by chance or
+curiosity, to a part of the town which was the scene of one of the riots.
+These executions excited equal horror and indignation, and General Carra
+St. Cyr was obliged to issue a proclamation for the dissolution of the
+military commission by whom the men had been sentenced.
+
+The intelligence of the march of the Russian and Prussian troops; who
+were descending the Elbe, increased the prevailing agitation in
+Westphalia, Hanover, Mecklenburg, and Pomerania, and all the French
+troops cantoned between Berlin and Hamburg, including those who occupied
+the coast of the Baltic, fell back upon Hamburg.  General Carra St. Cyr
+and Baron Konning, the Prefect of Hamburg, used to go every evening to
+Altona.  The latter, worn out by anxiety and his unsettled state of life,
+lost his reason; and on his way to Hamburg, on the 5th of May, he
+attempted to cut his throat with a razor.  His 'valet de chambre' saved
+his life by rushing upon him before he had time to execute his design.
+It was given out that he had broken a blood-vessel, and he was conveyed
+to Altona, where his wound was cured, and he subsequently recovered from
+his derangement.  M. Konning, who was a native of Holland, was a worthy
+man, but possessed no decision of character, and but little ability.
+
+At this juncture exaggerated reports were circulated respecting the
+approach of a Russian corps.  A retreat was immediately ordered, and it
+was executed on the 12th of March.  General Carra St. Cyr having no money
+for the troops, helped himself to 100,000 francs out of the municipal
+treasury.  He left Hamburg at the head of the troops and the enrolled men
+of the custom-house service.  He was escorted by the Burgher Guard, which
+protected him from the insults of the populace; and the good people of
+Hamburg never had any visitors of whom they were more happy to be rid.
+
+This sudden retreat excited Napoleon's indignation.  He accused General
+St. Cyr of pusillanimity, in an article inserted in the 'Moniteur', and
+afterwards copied by his order into all the journals.  In fact, had
+General St. Cyr been better informed, or less easily alarmed, he might
+have kept Hamburg, and prevented its temporary occupation by the enemy,
+to dislodge whom it was necessary to besiege the city two months
+afterwards.  St. Cyr had 3000 regular troops, and a considerable body of
+men in the custom-house service.  General Morand could have furnished him
+with 5000 men from Mecklenburg.  He might, therefore, not only have kept
+possession of Hamburg two months longer, but even to the end of the war,
+as General Lexnarrois retained possession of Magdeburg.  Had not General
+St. Cyr so hastily evacuated the Elbe he would have been promptly aided
+by the corps which General Vandamme soon brought from the Wesel, and
+afterwards by the very, corps with which Marshal Davoust recaptured
+Hamburg.
+
+The events just described occurred before Napoleon quitted Paris.  In the
+month of August all negotiation was broken off with Austria, though that
+power, still adhering to her time-serving policy, continued to protest
+fidelity to the cause of the Emperor Napoleon until the moment when her
+preparations were completed and her resolution formed.  But if there was
+duplicity at Vienna was there not folly, nay, blindness, in the Cabinet
+of the Tuileries?  Could we reasonably rely upon Austria?  She had seen
+the Russian army pass the Vistula and advance as far as the Saale without
+offering any remonstrance.  At that moment a single movement of her
+troops, a word of declaration, would have prevented everything.  As,
+therefore, she would not avert the evil when she might have done so with
+certainty and safety, there must have been singular folly and blindness
+in the Cabinet who saw this conduct and did not understand it.
+
+I now proceed to mention the further misfortunes which occurred in the
+north of Germany, and particularly at Hamburg.  At fifteen leagues east
+of Hamburg, but within its territory, is a village named Bergdorf.
+It was in that village that the Cossacks were first seen.  Twelve or
+fifteen hundred of them arrived there under the command of Colonel
+Tettenborn.  But for the retreat of the French troops, amounting to 3000,
+exclusive of men in the customhouse service, no attempt would have been
+made upon Hamburg; but the very name of the Cossacks inspired a degree of
+terror which must be fresh in the recollection of every one.  Alarm
+spread in Hamburg, which, being destitute of troops and artillery, and
+surrounded with dilapidated fortifications, could offer no defence.  The
+Senator Bartch and Doctor Know took upon themselves to proceed to
+Bergdorf to solicit Colonel Tettenborn to take possession of Hamburg,
+observing that they felt sure of his sentiments of moderation, and that
+they trusted they would grant protection to a city which had immense
+commercial relations with Russia.  Tettenborn did not place reliance on
+these propositions because he could not suppose that there had been such
+a precipitate evacuation; he thought they were merely a snare to entrap
+him, and refused to accede to them.  But a Doctor Von Hess, a Swede,
+settled.  in Hamburg some years, and known to Tettenborn as a decided
+partisan of England and Russia, persuaded the Russian Commander to comply
+with the wishes of the citizens of Hamburg.  However, Tettenborn
+consented only on the following conditions:--That the old Government
+should be instantly re-established; that a deputation of Senators in
+their old costume should invite him to take possession of Hamburg, which
+he would enter only as a free and Imperial Hanse Town; that if those
+conditions were not complied with he would regard Hamburg as a French
+town, and consequently hostile.  Notwithstanding the real satisfaction
+with which the Senators of Hamburg received those propositions they were
+restrained by the fear of a reverse of fortune.  They, however,
+determined to accept them, thinking that whatever might happen they could
+screen themselves by alleging that necessity had driven them to the step
+they took.  They therefore declared their compliance with the conditions,
+and that night and the following day were occupied in assembling the
+Senate, which had been so long dissolved, and in making the preparations
+which Tettenborn required.
+
+At four o'clock in the afternoon of the 17th of March a picket of
+Cossacks, consisting of only forty men, took possession of a town
+recently flourishing, and containing  a population of 124,000, but ruined
+and reduced to 80,000 inhabitants by the blessing of being united to the
+French Empire.  On the following day, the 18th, Colonel Tettenborn
+entered Hamburg at the head of 1000 regular and 200 irregular Cossacks.
+I have described the military situation of Hamburg when it was evacuated
+on the 12th of March, and Napoleon's displeasure may be easily conceived.
+Tettenborn was received with all the honours usually bestowed upon a
+conqueror.  Enthusiasm was almost universal.  For several nights the
+people devoted themselves to rejoicing.  The Cossacks were gorged with
+provisions and drink, and were not a little astonished at the handsome
+reception they experienced.
+
+It was not until the expiration of three or four days that the people
+began to perceive the small number of the allied troops.  Their amount
+gradually diminished.  On the day after the arrival of the Cossacks a
+detachment was sent to Lubeck, where they were received with the same
+honours as at Hamburg.  Other detachments were sent upon different
+places, and after four days' occupation there remained in Hamburg only 70
+out of the 1200 Cossacks who had entered on the 18th March.
+
+The first thing their commander did was to take possession of the post-
+office and the treasuries of the different public offices.  All the
+movable effects of the French Government and its agents were seized and
+sold.  The officers evinced a true Cossack disregard of the rights of
+private property.  Counts Huhn, Buasenitz, and Venechtern, who had joined
+Tettenborn's staff, rendered themselves conspicuous by plundering the
+property of M. Pyonnier, the Director of the Customs, and M. Gonae, the
+Postmaster, and not a bottle of wine was left in their cellars.
+Tettenborn laid hands upon a sum of money, consisting of upwards of 4000
+Louis in gold, belonging to M. Gonse, which had been lodged with M.
+Schwartz, a respectable banker in Hamburg, who filled the office of
+Prussian Consul.  M. Schwartz, with whom this money had been deposited
+for the sake of security, had also the care of some valuable jewels
+belonging to Mesdames Carry St. Cyr and Daubignoac; Tettenborn carried
+off these as well as the money.  M. Schwartz remonstrated in his
+character of Prussian Consul, Prussia being the ally of Russia, but he
+was considered merely as a banker, and could obtain no redress.
+Tettenborn, like most of the Cossack chiefs, was nothing but a man for
+blows and pillage, but the agent of Russia was M. Steuve, whose name I
+have already mentioned.
+
+Orders were speedily given for a levy of troops, both in infantry and
+cavalry, to be called Hanseatic volunteers.  A man named Hanft, who had
+formerly been a butcher, raised at his own expense a company of foot and
+one of lancers, of which he took the command.  This undertaking, which
+cost him 130,000 francs, may afford some idea of the attachment of the
+people of Hamburg to the French Government!  But money, as well as men,
+was wanting, and a heavy contribution was imposed to defray the expense
+of enrolling a number of workmen out of employment and idlers, of various
+kinds.  Voluntary donations were solicited, and enthusiasm was so general
+that even servant-maids gave their rings.  The sums thus collected were
+paid into the chest of Tettenborn's staff, and became a prey to dishonest
+appropriation.  With respect to this money a Sieur Oswald was accused of
+not having acted with the scrupulous delicacy which Madame de Stael
+attributes to his namesake in her romance of Corinne.
+
+Between 8000 and 10,000 men were levied in the Hanse Towns and their
+environs, the population of which had been so greatly reduced within two
+years.  These undisciplined troops, who had been for the most part levied
+from the lowest classes of society, committed so many outrages that they
+soon obtained the surname of the Cossacks of the Elbe; and certainly they
+well deserved it.
+
+Such was the hatred which the French Government had inspired in Hamburg
+that the occupation of Tettenborn was looked upon as a deliverance.  On
+the colonel's departure the Senate, anxious to give high a testimonial of
+gratitude, presented him with the freedom of the city, accompanied by
+5000 gold fredericks (105,000 francs), with which he was doubtless much
+more gratified than with the honour of the citizenship.
+
+The restored Senate of Hamburg did not long survive.  The people of the
+Hanse Towns learned, with no small alarm, that the Emperor was making
+immense preparations to fall upon Germany, where his lieutenants could
+not fail to take cruel revenge on those who had disavowed his authority.
+Before he quitted Paris on the 15th of April Napoleon had recalled under
+the banners of the army 180,000 men, exclusive of the guards of honour,
+and it was evident that with such a force he might venture on a great
+game, and probably win it.  Yet the month of April passed away without
+the occurrence of any event important to the Hanse Towns, the inhabitants
+of which vacillated between hope and fear.  Attacks daily took place
+between parties of Russian and French troops on the territory between
+Lunenburg and Bremen.  In one of these encounters General Morand was
+mortally wounded, and was conveyed to Lunenburg.  His brother having been
+taken prisoner in the same engagement, Tettenborn, into whose hands he
+had fallen, gave him leave on parole to visit the General; but he arrived
+in Lunenburg only in time to see him die.
+
+The French having advanced as far as Haarburg took up their position on
+the plateau of Schwartzenberg, which commands that little town and the
+considerable islands situated in that part of the river between Haarburg
+and Hamburg.  Being masters of this elevated point they began to threaten
+Hamburg and to attack Haarburg.  These attacks were directed by Vandamme,
+of all our generals the most redoubtable in conquered countries.  He was
+a native of Cassel, in Flanders, and had acquired a high reputation for
+severity.  At the very time when he was attacking Hamburg Napoleon said
+of him at Dresden, "If I were to lose Vandamme I know not what I would
+give to have him back again; but if I had two such generals I should be
+obliged to shoot one of them."  It must be confessed that one was quite
+enough.
+
+As soon as he arrived Vandamme sent to inform Tettenborn that if he did
+not immediately liberate the brother and brother-in-law of Morand, both
+of whom were his prisoners, he would burn Hamburg.  Tettenborn replied
+that if he resorted to that extremity he would hang them both on the top
+of St. Michael's Tower, where he might have a view of them.  This
+energetic answer obliged Vandamme to restrain his fury, or at least to
+direct it to other objects.
+
+Meanwhile the French forces daily augmented at Haarburg.  Vandamme,
+profiting by the negligence of the new Hanseatic troops, who had the
+defence of the great islands of the Elbe, attacked them one night in the
+month of May.  This happened to be the very night after the battle of
+Lutzsn, where both sides claimed the victory; and Te Deum was sung in the
+two hostile camps.  The advance of the French turned the balance of
+opinion in favour of Napoleon, who was in fact really the conqueror on a
+field of battle celebrated nearly two centuries before by the victory and
+death of Gustavus Adolphus.  The Cossacks of the Elbe could not sustain
+the shock of the French; Vandamme repulsed the troops who defended
+Wilhelmsburg, the largest of the two islands, and easily took possession
+of the smaller one, Fidden, of which the point nearest the right bank of
+the Elbe is not half a gunshot distant from Hamburg.  The 9th of May was
+a fatal day to the people of Hamburg; for it was then that Davoust,
+having formed his junction with Vandamme, appeared at the head of a corps
+of 40,000 men destined to reinforce Napoleon's Grand Army.  Hamburg could
+not hold out against the considerable French force now assembled in its
+neighbourhood.  Tettenborn had, it is true, received a reinforcement of
+800 Prussians and 2000, Swedes, but still what resistance could he offer
+to Davoust's 40,000 men?  Tettenborn did not deceive himself as to the
+weakness of the allies on this point, or the inutility of attempting to
+defend the city.  He yielded to the entreaties of the inhabitants, who
+represented to him that further resistance must be attended by certain
+ruin.  He accordingly evacuated Hamburg on the 29th of May, taking with
+him his Hanseatic legions, which had not held out an hour in the islands
+of the Elbe, and accompanied by the Swedish Doctor Von Hess, whose
+imprudent advice was the chief cause of all the disasters to which the
+unfortunate city lied been exposed.
+
+Davoust was at Haarburg, where he received the deputies from Hamburg with
+an appearance of moderation; and by the conditions stipulated at this
+conference on the 30th of May a strong detachment of Danish troops
+occupied Hamburg in the name of the Emperor.  The French made their
+entrance the same evening, and occupied the posts as quietly as if they
+had been merely changing guard.  The inhabitants made not a shadow of
+resistance.  Not a drop of blood was issued; not a threat nor an insult
+was interchanged.  This is the truth; but the truth did not suit
+Napoleon.  It was necessary to getup a pretext for revenge, and
+accordingly recourse was had to a bulletin, which proclaimed to France
+and Europe that Hamburg had been taken by main force, with a loss of some
+hundred men.  But for this imaginary resistance, officially announced,
+how would it have been possible to justify the spoliations and exactions
+which ensued?
+
+The Dutch General, Hogendorff, became Governor of Hamburg in lieu of
+Carra St. Cyr, who had been confined at Osnabruck since his precipitate
+retreat.  General Hogendorff had been created one of the Emperor's aides
+de camp, but he was neither a Rapp, a Lauriston, nor a Duroc.  The
+inhabitants were required to pay all the arrears of taxes due to the
+different public offices during the seventy days that the French had been
+absent; and likewise all the allowances that would have been paid to the
+troops of the garrison had they remained in Hamburg.  Payment was also
+demanded of the arrears for the quartering of troops who were fifty
+leagues off.  However, some of the heads of the government departments,
+who saw and understood the new situation of the French at Hamburg, did
+not enforce these unjust and vexatious measures.  The duties on
+registrations were reduced.  M. Pyonnier, Director of the Customs, aware
+of the peculiar difficulty of his situation in a country where the
+customs were held in abhorrence, observed great caution and moderation in
+collecting the duties: Personal examination, which is so revolting and
+indecorous, especially with respect to females, was suppressed.  But
+these modifications did not proceed from the highest quarter; they were
+due to the good sense of the subordinate agents, who plainly saw that if
+the Empire was to fall it would not be owing to little infractions in the
+laws of proscription against coffee and rhubarb.
+
+If the custom-house regulations became less vexatious to the inhabitants
+of Hamburg it was not the same with the business of the post-office.
+The old manoeuvres of that department were resumed more actively than
+ever.  Letters were opened without the least reserve, and all the old
+post-office clerks who were initiated in these scandalous proceedings
+were recalled.  With the exception of the registrations and the customs
+the inquisitorial system, which had so long oppressed the Hanse Towns,
+was renewed; and yet the delegates of the French Government were the
+first to cry out, "The people of Hamburg are traitors to Napoleon: for,
+in spite of all the blessings he has conferred upon them they do not say
+with the Latin poet, 'Deus nobis haec otia fecit."
+
+But all that passed was trifling in comparison with what was to come.
+On the 18th of June was published an Imperial decree, dated the 8th of
+the same month, by virtue of which were to be reaped the fruits of the
+official falsehood contained in the bulletin above mentioned.  To expiate
+the crime of rebellion Hamburg was required to pay an extraordinary
+contribution of 48,000,000 francs, and Lubeck a contribution of
+6,000,000.  The enormous sum levied on Hamburg was to be paid in the
+short space of a month, by six equal instalments, either in money, or
+bills on respectable houses in Paris.  In addition to this the new
+Prefect of Hamburg made a requisition of grain and provisions of every
+kind, wines, sailcloth, masts, pitch, hemp, iron, copper, steel, in
+short, everything that could be useful for the supply of the army and
+navy.
+
+But while these exactions were made on property in Hamburg, at Dresden
+the liberties of individuals and even lives were attacked.  On the 15th
+of June Napoleon, doubtless blinded by the false reports that were laid
+before him, gave orders for making out a list of the inhabitants of
+Hamburg who were absent from the city.  He allowed them only a fortnight
+to return home, an interval too short to enable some of them to come from
+the places where they had taken refuge.  They consequently remained
+absent beyond the given time.  Victims were indispensable but assuredly
+it was not Bonaparte who conceived the idea of hostages to answer for the
+men whom prudence kept absent.  Of this charge I can clear his memory.
+The hostages, were, however, taken, and were declared to be also
+responsible for the payment of the contribution of 48,000,000.  In
+Hamburg they were selected from among the most respectable and wealthy
+men in the city, some of them far advanced in age.  They were conveyed to
+the old castle of Haarburg on the left bank of the Elbe, and these men,
+who had been accustomed to all the comforts of life, were deprived even
+of necessaries, and had only straw to lie on.  The hostages from Lubeck
+were taken to, Hamburg: they were placed between decks on board an old
+ship in the port: this was a worthy imitation of the prison hulks of
+England.  On the 24th of July there was issued a decree which was
+published in the Hamburg Correspondent of the 27th.  This decree
+consisted merely of a proscription list, on which were inscribed the
+names of some of the wealthiest men in the Hanse Towns, Hanover, and
+Westphalia.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+1813.
+
+     Napoleon's second visit to Dresden--Battle of Bantzen--The Congress
+     at Prague--Napoleon ill advised--Battle of Vittoria--General Moreau
+     Rupture of the conferences at Prague--Defection of Jomini--Battles
+     of Dresden and Leipsic--Account of the death of Duroc--An
+     interrupted conversation resumed a year after--Particulars
+     respecting Poniatowski--His extraordinary courage and death--
+     His monument at Leipsic and tomb in the cathedral of Warsaw.
+
+On the 2d of May Napoleon won the battle of Lutzen. A week after he was
+at Dresden, not as on his departure for the Russian campaign, like the
+Sovereign of the West surrounded by his mighty vassals: he was now in the
+capital of the only one of the monarchs of his creation who remained
+faithful to the French cause, and whose good faith eventually cost him
+half his dominions.  The Emperor stayed only ten days in Dresden, and
+then went in pursuit of the Russian army, which he came up with on the
+19th, at Bautzen.  This battle, which was followed on the two succeeding
+days by the battles of Wurtchen and Oclikirchen, may be said to have
+lasted three days--a sufficient proof that it was obstinately disputed.
+It ended in favour of Napoleon, but he and France paid dearly for it:
+while General Kirschner and Duroc were talking together the former was
+killed by a cannon-ball, which mortally wounded the latter in the
+abdomen.
+
+The moment had now arrived for Austria to prove whether or not she.
+intended entirely to desert the cause of Napoleon.
+
+     --[There is a running attack in Erreurs (tome, ii. pp, 289-325) on
+     all this part of the Memoirs, but the best account of the
+     negotiations between France, Austria, and the Allies will be found
+     in Metternich, Vol. i.  pp. 171-215.  Metternich, with good
+     reason, prides himself on the skill with which he gained from
+     Napoleon the exact time, twenty days, necessary for the
+     concentration of the Austrian armies.  Whether the negotiations were
+     consistent with good faith on the part of Austria is another matter;
+     but, one thing seems clear--the Austrian marriage ruined Napoleon.
+     He found it impossible to believe that the monarch who had given him
+     his daughter would strike the decisive blow against him.  Without
+     this belief there can be no doubt that he would have attacked
+     Austria before she could have collected her forces, and Metternich
+     seems to have dreaded the result.  "It was necessary, therefore to
+     prevent Napoleon from carrying out his usual system of leaving an
+     army of observation before the Allied armies, and himself turning to
+     Bohemia to deal a great blow at us, the effect of which it would be
+     impossible to foresee in the present depressed state of the great
+     majority of our men" (Metternich, Vol.  i, p.  177).  With our
+     knowledge of how Napoleon held his own against the three armies at
+     Dresden we may safely assume that he would have crushed Austria if
+     she had not joined him or disarmed.  The conduct of Austria was
+     natural and politic, but it was only successful because Napoleon
+     believed in the good faith of the Emperor Francis, his father-in-
+     law.  It is to be noted that Austria only succeeded in getting
+     Alexander to negotiate on the implied condition that the
+     negotiations were not to end in a peace with France.  See
+     Metternich, Vol. i.  p. 181, where, in answer to the Czar's
+     question as to what would become of their cause if Napoleon accepted
+     the Austrian mediation, he says that if Napoleon declines Austria
+     will join the Allies.  If Napoleon accepts, "the negotiations will
+     most certainly show Napoleon to be neither wise nor just, and then
+     the result will be the same.  In any case we shall have gained the
+     necessary time to bring our armies into such positions that we need
+     not again fear a separate attack on any one of them, and from which
+     we may ourselves take the offensive."]--
+
+All her amicable demonstrations were limited to an offer of her
+intervention in opening negotiations with Russia.  Accordingly, on the
+4th of June, an armistice was concluded at Pleiswitz, which was to last
+till the 8th of July, and was finally prolonged to the 10th of August.
+
+The first overtures after the conclusion of the armistice of Pleiswitz
+determined the assembling of a Congress at Prague.  It was reported at
+the time that the Allies demanded the restoration of all they had lost
+since 1805; that is to say, since the campaign of Ulm.  In this demand
+Holland and the Hanse Towns, which had become French provinces, were
+comprehended.  But we should still have retained the Rhine, Belgium,
+Piedmont, Nice, and Savoy.  The battle of Vittoria,
+
+     --The news of this decisive battle increased the difficulty of the
+     French plenipotentiaries at Prague, and raised the demands of the
+     Allies.  It also shook the confidence of those who remained faithful
+     to us.--Bourrienne.]--
+
+which placed the whole of Spain at the disposal of the English, the
+retreat of Suchet upon the Ebro, the fear of seeing the army of Spin
+annihilated, were enough to alter the opinions of those counsellors who
+still recommended war.  Notwithstanding Napoleon's opposition and his
+innate disposition to acquire glory by his victories, probably he would
+not have been inaccessible to the reiterated representations of sensible
+men who loved their country, France, therefore, has to reproach his
+advisers.  At this juncture General Moreau arrived; it has been said that
+he came at the solicitation of Bernadotte.  This is neither true nor
+probable.  In the first place, there never was any intimacy between
+Bernadotte and Moreau; and, in the next, how can it be imagined that
+Bernadotte wished to see Moreau Emperor!  But this question is at once
+put at rest by the fact, that in the interview at Abo the Emperor of
+Russia hinted to Bernadotte the possibility of his succeeding Napoleon.
+It was generally reported at the time, and I have since learnt that it
+was true, that the French Princes of the House of Bourbon had made
+overtures to Moreau through the medium of General Willot, who had been
+proscribed on the 18th Fructidor; and I have since learned from an
+authentic source that General Moreau, who was then at Baltimore, refused
+to support the Bourbon cause.  Moreau yielded only to his desire of being
+revenged on Napoleon; and he found death where he could not find glory.
+
+At the end of July the proceedings of the Congress at Prague were no.
+further advanced than at the time of its assembling.  Far from cheering
+the French with the prospect of a peace, the Emperor made a journey to
+Mayence; the Empress went there to see him, and returned to Paris
+immediately after the Emperor's departure.  Napoleon went back to
+Dresden, and the armistice not being renewed, it died a natural death on
+the 17th of August, the day appointed for its expiration.  A fatal event
+immediately followed the rupture of the conferences.  On the 17th of
+August Austria, wishing to gain by war as she had before gained by
+alliances, declared that she would unite her forces with those of the
+Allies.  On the very opening of this disastrous campaign General Jomini
+went over to the enemy.  Jomini belonged to the staff of the unfortunate
+Marshal Ney, who was beginning to execute with his wonted ability, the
+orders he had received.  There was much surprise at his eagerness to
+profit by a struggle, begun under such melancholy auspices, to seek a
+fresh fortune, which promised better than what he had tried under our
+flag.  Public opinion has pronounced judgment on Jomini.
+
+     --[It was on the 11th of August, not the 17th, that Metternich
+     announced to Caulaincourt, Napoleon's plenipotentiary at Prague,
+     that Austria had joined the Allies and declared war with France;
+     At midnight on 10th August Metternich had despatched the passports
+     for the Comte Louis de Narbonne, Napoleon's Ambassador, and the war
+     manifesto of the Emperor Francis; then he had the beacons lighted
+     which had been prepared from Prague to the Silesian frontier, as a
+     sign of the breech of the negotiations, and the right (i.e. power)
+     of the Allied armies to cross the Silesian frontier (Metternich,
+     vol. i, p. 199).]--
+
+The first actions were the battle of Dresden, which took place seven days
+after the rupture of the armistice, and the battle in which Vandamme was
+defeated, and which rendered the victory of Dresden unavailing.  I have
+already mentioned that Moreau was killed at Dresden. Bavaria was no
+sooner rid of the French troops than she raised the mask and ranged
+herself among our enemies.
+
+In October the loss of the battle of Leipsic decided the fate of France.
+The Saxon army, which had long remained faithful to us, went over to the
+enemy during the battle.  Prince Poniatowski perished at the battle of
+Leipsic in an attempt to pass the Aster.
+
+I will here mention a fact which occurred before Duroc's departure for
+the campaign of 1812.  I used often to visit him at the Pavilion Marsan,
+in the Tuileries, where he lodged.  One forenoon, when I had been waiting
+for him a few minutes, he came from the Emperor's apartments, where he
+had been engaged in the usual business, He was in his court-dress.  As
+soon as he entered he pulled off his coat and hat and laid them aside.
+"I have just had a conversation with the Emperor about you," said he.
+"Say nothing to anybody.  Have patience, and you will be--" He had, no
+sooner uttered these words than a footman entered to inform him that the
+Emperor, wished to see him immediately.  "Well," said Duroc, "I must go."
+No sooner was the servant gone than Duroc stamped violently on the floor,
+and exclaimed, "That ----- ----- never leaves me a moment's rest.  If he
+finds I have five minutes to myself in the course of the morning he is
+sure to send for me."  He then put on his coat and returned to the
+Emperor, saying, "Another time you shall hear what I have to tell you."
+
+From that time I did not see Duroc until, the month of January 1813.
+He was constantly absent from Paris, and did not return until the end of
+1812.  He was much affected at the, result of the campaign, but his
+confidence in Napoleon's genius kept up his spirits.  I turned the
+conversation from this subject and reminded him of his promise to tell me
+what had passed between the Emperor and himself relative tome.  "You
+shall hear," said he.  "The Emperor and I had been playing at billiards,
+and, between ourselves, he plays very badly.  He is nothing at a game
+which depends on skill.  While negligently rolling his balls about he
+muttered these words: 'Do you ever see Bourrienne now?'--'Yes, Sire, he
+sometimes dines with me on diplomatic reception-days, and he looks so
+droll in his old-fashioned court-dress, of Lyons manufacture, that you
+would laugh if you saw him.'--'What does he say respecting the new
+regulation for the court-dresses?'--'I confess he says it is very
+ridiculous; that it will have no other result than to enable the Lyons
+manufacturers to get rid of their old-fashioned goods; that forced
+innovations on the customs of a nation are never successful.'--'Oh, that
+is always the way with Bourrienne; he is never pleased with anything.'--
+'Certainly, Sire, he is apt to grumble; but he says what he thinks.'--
+'Do you know, Duroc, he served me very well at Hamburg.  He raised a good
+deal of money for me.  He is a man who understands business.  I will not
+leave him unemployed.  Time must hang heavily on his hands.  I will see
+what I can do for him.  He has many enemies.'--`And who has not, Sire?'--
+'Many complaints against him were transmitted to me from Hamburg, but the
+letter which he wrote to me in his justification opened my eyes, and I
+begin to think that Savary had good motives for defending him.
+Endeavours are made to dissuade me from employing him, but I shall
+nevertheless do so at last.  I remember that it was he who first informed
+me of the near approach of the war which we are now engaged in.  I forget
+all that has been said against him for the last two years, and as soon as
+peace is concluded, and I am at leisure, I will think of him.'"
+
+After relating to me this conversation Duroc said, "you must, of course,
+feel assured that I said all I think of you, and I will take an
+opportunity of reminding him of you.  But we must we patient.  Adieu, my
+dear friend; we must set off speedily, and Heaven knows when we shall be
+back again!"  I wished him a successful campaign and a speedy return.
+Alas!  I was doomed to see my excellent friend only once again.
+
+Next to the death of Duroc the loss most sincerely regretted during the
+campaign of 1813 was that of Prince Poniatowski.  Joseph Poniatowaki, a
+nephew of Stanislas Augustus, King of Poland, was born at Warsaw on the
+7th of May 1763: At an early age he was remarkable for his patriotic
+spirit; but his uncle's influence gave him an apparent irresolution,
+which rendered him suspected by some of the parties in Poland.  After his
+uncle had acceded to the Confederation of Targowitz, Poniatowski left the
+service accompanied by most of his principal officers.  But when, in
+1794, the Poles endeavoured to repulse the Russians, he again repaired to
+the Polish camp and entered the army as a volunteer.  His noble conduct
+obtained for him the esteem of his countrymen.  Kosciusko gave him the
+command of a division, with which he rendered useful services during the
+two sieges of Warsaw.  Immediately after the surrender of that capital
+Poniatowski went to Vienna.  He refused the offers of Catherine and Paul
+to bear arms in the service of Russia.
+
+Poniatowaki retired to his estate year Warsaw, where he lived like a
+private gentleman until the creation of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw revived
+the hopes of the Polish patriots.  He then became War Minister.  The
+Archduke Ferdinand having come, in 1809, with Austrian troops to take
+possession of the Duchy of Warsaw, Poniatowski, who commanded the Polish
+troops, which were very inferior in numbers to the Austrian force,
+obliged the latter, rather by dint of skillful maneuvering than by
+fighting, to evacuate the Grand Duchy.  He pursued them into Galicia as
+far as Cracow.
+
+After this honourable campaign he continued to exercise his functions as
+Minister until 1812.  The war against Russia again summoned him to the
+head of the Polish army.  After taking part in all the events of that
+war, which was attended by such various chances, Poniatowaki was present
+at the battle of Leipsic.  That battle, which commenced on the 14th of
+October, the anniversary of the famous battles of Ulm and of Jena, lasted
+four days, and decided the fate of Europe.  Five hundred thousand men
+fought on a surface of three square leagues.
+
+Retreat having become indispensable, Napoleon took leave at Leipsic of
+the King of Saxony and his family, whom he had brought with him from
+Dresden.  The Emperor then exclaimed in a loud voice, "Adieu; Saxons," to
+the people who filled the market-place, where the King of Saxony resided.
+With some difficulty, and after passing through many turnings and
+windings, he gained the suburb of Runstadt and left Leipsic by the outer
+gate of that suburb which leads to the bridge of the Elster, and to
+Lindenau.  The bridge was blown up shortly after he had passed it, and
+that event utterly prevented the retreat of the part of the army which
+was on the left bank of the Easter, and which fell into the power of the
+enemy.  Napoleon was at the time accused of having ordered the
+destruction of the bridge immediately after he had himself passed it in
+order to secure his own personal retreat, as he was threatened by the
+active pursuit of the enemy.  The English journals were unanimous on this
+point, and to counteract this opinion, which was very general, an article
+was inserted in the 'Moniteur'.
+
+Before passing the bridge of the Elster Napoleon had directed
+Poniatowski, in concert with Marshal Macdonald, to cover and protect the
+retreat, and to defend that part of the suburb of Leipsic which is
+nearest to the Borne road.  For the execution of these orders he had only
+2000 Polish infantry.  He was in this desperate situation when he saw the
+French columns in full retreat and the bridge so choked up with their
+artillery and waggons that there was no possibility of passing it.  Then
+drawing his sword, and turning to the officers who were near him, he
+said, "Here we must fall with honour!" At the head of a small party of
+cuirassiers and Polish officers he rushed on the columns of the Allies.
+In this action he received a ball in his left arm: he had already been
+wounded on the 14th and 16th.  He nevertheless advanced, but he found the
+suburb filled with Allied troops.
+
+     --[The Allies were so numerous that they scarcely perceived the
+     losses they sustained.  Their masses pressed down upon us in every
+     direction, and it was impossible that victory could fail to be with
+     them.  Their success, however, would have been less decisive had it
+     not been for the defection of the Saxons.  In the midst of the
+     battle, these troops having moved towards the enemy, as if intending
+     to make an attack, turned suddenly around, and opened a heavy fire
+     of artillery and musketry on the columns by the aids of which they
+     had a few moments before been fighting.  I do not know to what page
+     of history such a transaction is recorded.  This event immediately
+     produced a great difference in our affairs, which were before in a
+     bad enough train.  I ought here mention that before the battle the
+     Emperor dismissed a Bavarian division which still remained with him.
+     He spoke to the officers in terms which will not soon be effaced
+     from their memory.  He told them, that, "according to the laws of
+     war, they were his prisoners, since their Government had taken part
+     against him; but that he could not forget the services they had
+     rendered him, and that they were therefore at liberty to return
+     home."  These troops left the army, where they were much esteemed,
+     and marched for Bavaria.]--
+
+He fought his way through them and received another wound.  He then threw
+himself into the Pleisse, which was the first river he came to.  Aided by
+his officers, he gained the opposite bank, leaving his horse in the
+river.  Though greatly exhausted he mounted another, and gained the
+Elster, by passing through  M. Reichenbach's garden, which was situated
+on the side of that river.  In spite of the steepness of the banks of the
+Elster at that part, the Prince plunged with his horse into the river:
+both man and horse were drowned, and the same fate was shared by several
+officers who followed Poniatawski's example.  Marshal Macdonald was,
+luckily, one of those who escaped.  Five days after a fisherman drew the
+body of the Prince, out of the water.  On the 26th of October it was
+temporarily interred at Leipsic, with all the honours due to the
+illustrious deceased.  A modest stone marks the spot where the body of
+the Prince was dragged from the river.  The Poles expressed a wish to.
+erect a monument to the memory of their countryman in the garden of M.
+Reichenbach, but that gentleman declared he would do it at his own
+expense, which he did.  The monument consists of a beautiful sarcophagus,
+surrounded by weeping willows.  The body of the Prince, after bring
+embalmed, was sent in the following year to Warsaw, and in 1816 it was
+deposited in the cathedral, among the remains of the Kings and great men
+of Poland.  The celebrated Thorwaldsen was commissioned to execute a
+monument for his tomb.  Prince Poniatowski left no issue but a natural
+son, born in 1790.  The royal race, therefore existed only in a
+collateral branch of King Stanislas, namely, Prince Stanislas, born in
+1754.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+1813
+
+     Amount of the Allied forces against Napoleon--Their advance towards
+     the Rhine--Levy of 280,000 men--Dreadful situation of the French at
+     Mayence--Declaration of the Allies at Frankfort--Diplomatic
+     correspondents--The Due de Bassano succeeded by the Duke of Vicenza
+     --The conditions of the Allies vaguely accepted--Caulaincourt sent to
+     the headquarters of the Allies--Manifesto of the Allied powers to
+     the French people.--Gift of 30,000,000 from the Emperor's privy
+     purse--Wish to recall M. de Talleyrand--Singular advice relative to
+     Wellington--The French army recalled from Spain--The throne resigned
+     Joseph--Absurd accusation against M. Laine--Adjournment of the
+     Legislative Body--Napoleon's Speech to the Legislative Body--Remarks
+     of Napoleon reported by Cambaceres.
+
+When the war resumed its course after the disaster of Leipsic I am
+certain that the Allied sovereigns determined to treat with Napoleon only
+in his own capital, as he, four years before, had refused to treat with
+the Emperor of Austria except at Vienna.  The latter sovereign now
+completely raised the mask, and declared to the Emperor that he would
+make common cause with Russia and Prussia against him.  In his
+declaration he made rise of the singular pretext, that the more enemies
+there were against Napoleon there would be the greater chance of speedily
+obliging him to accede to conditions which would at length restore the
+tranquillity of which Europe stood so much in need.  This declaration on
+the part of Austria was an affair of no little importance, for she had
+now raised an army of 260,000 men.  An equal force was enrolled beneath
+the Russian banners, which were advancing towards the Rhine.  Prussia had
+200,000 men; the Confederation of the Rhine 150,000: in short, including
+the Swedes and the Dutch, the English troops in Spain and in the
+Netherlands, the Danes, who had abandoned us, the Spaniards and
+Portuguese, whose courage and hopes were revived by our reverses,
+Napoleon had arrayed against him upwards of a million of armed men.
+Among them, too, were the Neapolitans, with Murat at their head!
+
+The month of November 1813 was fatal to the fortune of Napoleon.  In all
+parts the French armies were repulsed and driven back upon the Rhine,
+while-in every direction, the Allied forces advanced towards that river.
+For a considerable time I had confidently anticipated the fall of the
+Empire; not because the foreign sovereigns had vowed its destruction, but
+because I saw the impossibility of Napoleon defending himself against all
+Europe, and because I knew that, however desperate might be his fortune,
+nothing would induce him to consent to conditions which he considered
+disgraceful.  At this time every day was marked by a new defection.  Even
+the Bavarians, the natural Allies of France, they whom the Emperor had
+led to victory at the commencement of the second campaign of Vienna, they
+whom he had, as it were, adopted on the field of battle, were now against
+us, and were the bitterest of our enemies.
+
+Even before the battle of Leipsic, the consequences of which were so
+ruinous to Napoleon, he had felt the necessity of applying to France for
+a supply of troops; as if France had been inexhaustible.  He directed the
+Empress Regent to make this demand; and accordingly Maria Louisa
+proceeded to the Senate, for the first time, in great state: but the
+glories of the Empire were now on the decline.  The Empress obtained a
+levy of 280,000 troops, but they were no sooner enrolled than they were
+sacrificed.  The defection of the Bavarians considerably augmented the
+difficulties which assailed the wreck of the army that had escaped from
+Leipsic.  The Bavarians had got before us to Hanau, a town four leagues
+distant from Frankfort; there they established themselves, with the view
+of cutting off our retreat; but French valour was roused, the little town
+was speedily carried, and the Bavarians were repulsed with considerable
+loss.  The French army arrived at Mayence; if, indeed, one may give the
+name of army to a few masses of men destitute, dispirited, and exhausted
+by fatigue and privation.  On the arrival of the troops at Mayence no
+preparation had been made for receiving them: there were no provisions,
+or supplies of any kind; and, as the climax of misfortune, infectious
+epidemics broke out amongst the men.  All the accounts I received
+concurred in assuring me that their situation vas dreadful:
+
+However; without counting the wreck which escaped from the disasters of
+Leipsic, and the ravages of disease; without including the 280,000 men
+which had been raised by a 'Senatus-consulte, on the application of Maria
+Louisa, the Emperor still possessed 120,000 good troops; but they were in
+the rear, scattered along the Elbe, shut up in fortresses such as
+Dantzic, Hamburg, Torgau, and Spandau.  Such was the horror of our
+situation that if, on the one hand, we could not resolve to abandon them,
+it was at the same time impossible to aid them.  In France a universal
+cry was raised for peace, at whatever price it could be purchased.  In
+this state of things it may be said that the year 1813 was more fatal to
+Napoleon than the year 1812.  The disasters of Moscow were repaired by
+his activity and the sacrifices of France; but the disasters of Leipsic
+were irreparable.
+
+I shall shortly speak of some negotiations in which, if I had chosen, I
+might have taken a part.  After the battle of Leipsic, in which France
+lost, for the second time, a formidable army, all the powers allied
+against Napoleon declared at Frankfort, on the 9th of November, that they
+would never break the bonds which united them; that henceforth it was not
+merely a Continental peace, but a general peace, that would be demanded;
+and that any negotiation not having a general peace for its object would
+be rejected.  The Allied powers declared that France was to be confined
+within her natural limits, the Rhine, the Alps, and the Pyrenees.  This
+was all that was to remain of the vast Empire founded by Napoleon; but
+still it must be allowed it was a great deal, after the many disasters
+France had experienced, and when she was menaced with invasion by
+numerous and victorious armies.  But Napoleon could not accede to such
+proposals, for he was always ready to yield to illusion when the truth
+was not satisfactory to him.
+
+According to the proposals of the Allies at Frankfort, Germany; Italy,
+and Spain were to be entirely withdrawn from the dominion of France.
+England recognised the freedom of trade and navigation, and there
+appeared no reason to doubt the sincerity of her professed willingness to
+make great sacrifices to promote the object proposed by the Allies.  But
+to these offers a fatal condition was added, namely, that the Congress
+should meet in a town, to be declared neutral, on the right bank of the
+Rhine, where the plenipotentiaries of all the belligerent powers were to
+assemble; but the course of the war was not to be impeded by these
+negotiations.
+
+     --[This, system of negotiating and advancing was a realization of
+     Metternich's idea copying Napoleon's own former procedure.  "Let us
+     hold always the sword in one head, and the olive branch in the
+     other; always ready to negotiate, but only negotiating whilst
+     advancing.  Here is Napoleon's system: may he find enemies who will
+     carry on war .  .  .  as he would carry it on himself." (Metternich
+     vol. ii.  p. 346).]--
+
+The Due de Bassano (Maret), who was still Minister for Foreign Affairs,
+replied, by order of Napoleon, to the overtures wade by the Allies for a
+general Congress; and stated that the Emperor acceded to them, and wished
+Mannheim to be chosen as the neutral town.  M. Metternich replied in a
+note, dated Frankfort, the 25th of November, stating that the Allies felt
+no difficulty in acceding to Napoleon's choice of Mannheim for the
+meeting of the Congress; but as M. de Bassano's letter contained no
+mention of the general and summary bases I have just mentioned, and which
+had been communicated to M. de St. Aignan at Frankfort, M. Metternich
+stated that the Allies wished the Emperor Napoleon to declare his
+determination respecting those bases, in order that insurmountable
+difficulties might not arrest the negotiations at their very outset.  The
+Duke of Vicenza (Caulaincourt), who had just succeeded the Due de
+Bassano, received this letter.  Trusting to the declaration of Frankfort
+he thought he would be justified in treating on those bases; he
+confidently relied on the consent of Napoleon.  But the Allies had now
+determined not to grant the limits accorded by that declaration.
+Caulaincourt was therefore obliged to apply for fresh powers, which being
+granted, he replied, on the 2d of December, that Napoleon accepted the
+fundamental and summary bases which had been communicated by M. de St.
+Aignan.  To this letter M. Metternich answered that the Emperors of
+Russia and Austria were gratified to find that the Emperor of France
+recognised the bases judged necessary by the Allies; that the two
+sovereigns would communicate without delay the official document to their
+Allies, and that they were convinced that immediately on receiving their
+reply the negotiations might be opened without any interruption of the
+war.
+
+We shall now see the reason why these first negotiations came to no
+result.  In the month of October the Allies overthrew the colossal
+edifice denominated the French Empire.  When led by victory to the banks
+of the Rhine they declared their wish to abstain from conquest, explained
+their intentions, and manifested an unalterable resolution to abide by
+them.  This determination of the Allies induced the French Government to
+evince pacific intentions.  Napoleon wished, by an apparent desire for
+peace, to justify, if I may so express myself, in the eyes of his
+subjects, the necessity of new sacrifices; which, according to his
+proclamations, he demanded only to enable him to obtain peace on as
+honourable conditions as possible.  But the truth is, he was resolved not
+even to listen to the offers made at Frankfort.  He always represented
+the limits of the Rhine as merely a compensation for the dismemberment of
+Poland and the immense aggrandisement of the English possessions in Asia.
+But he wanted to gain time, and, if possible, to keep the Allied armies
+on the right bank of the Rhine.
+
+The immense levies made in France, one after the other, had converted the
+conscription into a sort of pressgang.  Men employed in agriculture and
+manufactures were dragged from their labours; and the people began to
+express their dissatisfaction at the measures of Government more loudly
+than they had hitherto ventured to do; yet all were willing to make
+another effort, if they could have persuaded themselves that the Emperor
+would henceforth confine his thoughts to France alone.  Napoleon sent
+Caulaincourt to the headquarters of the Allies; but that was only for the
+sake of gaining time, and inducing a belief that he was favourably
+disposed to peace.
+
+The Allies having learned the immense levies of troops which Napoleon was
+making, and being well acquainted with the state of feeling in France,
+published the famous manifesto, addressed to the French people, which was
+profusely circulated, and may be referred to as a warning to subjects who
+trust to the promises of Governments.
+
+The good faith with which the promises in the manifesto were kept may be
+judged of from the Treaty of Paris.  In the meantime the manifesto did
+not a little contribute to alienate from Napoleon those who were yet
+faithful to his cause; for, by believing in the declarations of the
+Allies, they saw in him the sole obstacle to that peace which France so
+ardently desired.  On this point, too, the Allies were not wrong, and I
+confess that I did not see without great surprise that the Duc de Rovigo,
+in that part of his Memoirs where he mentions this manifesto, reproaches
+those who framed it for representing the Emperor as a madman, who replied
+to overtures of peace only by conscription levies: After all, I do not
+intend to maintain that the declaration was entirely sincere; with
+respect to the future it certainly was not.  Switzerland was already
+tampered with, and attempts were made to induce her to permit the Allied
+troops to enter France by the bridge of Bale.  Things were going on no
+better in the south of France, where the Anglo-Spanish army threatened
+our frontiers by the Pyrenees, and already occupied Pampeluna; and at the
+same time the internal affairs of the country were no less critical than
+its external position.  It was in vain to levy troops; everything
+essential to an army was wanting.  To meet the most pressing demands the
+Emperor drew out 30,000,000 from the immense treasure which he had
+accumulated in the cellars and galleries of the Pavillion Marsan, at the
+Tuileries.  These 30,000,000 were speedily swallowed up.  Nevertheless it
+was an act of generosity on the part of Napoleon, and I never could
+understand on what ground the Legislative Body complained of the outlay,
+because, as the funds did not proceed from the Budget, there needed no
+financial law to authorise their application.  Besides, why did these
+rigid legislators, who, while fortune smiled on Bonaparte, dared not
+utter a word on the subject, demand, previously to the gratuitous gift
+just mentioned, that the 350,000,000 in the Emperor's privy puree should
+be transferred to the Imperial treasury and carried to the public
+accounts?  Why did they wink at the accumulation in the Tuileries of the
+contributions and exactions levied in, conquered countries?  The answer
+is plain: because there would have been danger in opposing it.
+
+Amidst the difficulties which assailed the Emperor he cast his eyes on
+M. de Talleyrand.  But it being required, as a condition of his receiving
+the portfolio of Foreign Affairs, that he should resign his office of
+Vice-Grand-Elector, M. de Talleyrand preferred a permanent post to a
+portfolio, which the caprice of a moment might withdraw.  I have been
+informed that, in a conversation with the Emperor, M. de Talleyrand gave
+him the extraordinary advice of working upon the ambition of the English
+family of Wellesley, and to excite in the mind of Wellington, the lustre
+of whose reputation was now dawning, ambitious projects which would have
+embarrassed the coalition.  Napoleon, however, did not adopt this
+proposition, the issue of which he thought too uncertain, and above all,
+too remote, in the urgent circumstances in which it stood.  Caulaincourt
+was then made Minister for Foreign Affairs, in lieu of M. Maret, who was
+appointed Secretary of State, an office much better suited to him.
+
+Meanwhile the Emperor was wholly intent on the means of repelling the
+attack which was preparing against him.  The critical circumstances in
+which he was placed seemed to restore the energy which time had in some
+measure robbed him of.  He turned his eyes towards Spain, and resolved to
+bring the army from that country to oppose the Allies, whose movements
+indicated their intention of entering France by Switzerland.  An event
+occurred connected with this subject calculated to have a decided
+influence on the affairs of the moment, namely, the renunciation by
+Joseph, King of Spain, of all right to the crown, to be followed by the
+return; as had been agreed on; of Ferdinand to his dominions.  Joseph
+made this sacrifice at the instigation of his brother.  The treaty was
+signed, but an inconceivable delay occurred in its execution, while the
+torrent, which was advancing upon France, rushed forward so rapidly that
+the treaty could not be carried into execution.  Ferdinand, it is true,
+re-ascended his throne, but from other causes.
+
+The Emperor was deeply interested in the march of the Allies.  It was
+important to destroy the bridge of Bale, because the Rhine once crossed
+masses of the enemy would be thrown into France.  At this time I had
+close relations with a foreign diplomat whom I am forbidden by discretion
+to name.  He told me that the enemy was advancing towards the frontier,
+and that the bridge of Bale would not be destroyed, as it had been so
+agreed at Berne, where the Allies had gained the day.  This astonished
+me, because I knew, on the other hand, from a person who ought, to have
+been equally well informed,--that it was hoped the bridge would be blown
+up.  Being much interested in knowing the truth, I sent on my own
+account, an agent to Bale who on his return told me that the bridge would
+remain.
+
+On the 19th of December the Legislative Body was convoked.  It was on a
+Wednesday.  M. Laine was Vice-President under M. Regnier.  A committee
+was appointed to examine and report on the communications of the Emperor.
+The report and conclusions of the committee were not satisfactory; it was
+alleged that they betrayed a revolutionary tendency, of which M. Laine
+was absurdly accused of having been one of the promoters; but all who
+knew him must have been convinced of the falsehood of the charge.  The
+Emperor ordered the report to be seized, and then adjourned the
+Legislative Body.  Those who attentively observed the events of the time
+will recollect the stupor which prevailed in Paris on the intelligence of
+this seizure and of the adjournment of the Legislative Body.  A thousand
+conjectures were started as to what new occurrences had taken place
+abroad, but nothing satisfactory was learned.
+
+I considered this a great mistake.  Who can doubt that if the Legislative
+Body had taken the frank and noble step of declaring that France accepted
+the conditions of Frankfort they would not have been listened to by the
+Allies?  But the words, "You are dishonoured if you cede a single village
+acquired by a 'Senatus-consulte'," always, resounded in Napoleon's ears:
+they flattered his secret thoughts, and every pacific proposal was
+rejected.
+
+The members of the adjourned Legislative Body went as usual to take leave
+of the Emperor, who received them on a Sunday, and after delivering to
+them the speech, which is very well known, dismissed the rebels with
+great ill-humour, refusing to hear any explanation.  "I have suppressed
+your address," he began abruptly: "it was incendiary.  I called you round
+me to do good--you have done ill.  Eleven-twelfths of you are well-
+intentioned, the others, and above all M. Laine, are factious intriguers,
+devoted to England, to all my enemies, and corresponding through the
+channel of the advocate Deseze with the Bourbons.  Return to your
+Departments, and feel that my eye will follow you; you have endeavoured
+to humble me, you may kill me, but you shall not dishonour me.  You make
+remonstrances; is this a time, when the stranger invades our provinces,
+and 200,000 Cossacks are ready to overflow our country?  There may have
+been petty abuses; I never connived at them.  You, M. Raynouard, you said
+that.  Prince Massena robbed a man at Marseilles of his house.  You lie!
+The General took possession of a vacant house, and my Minister shall
+indemnify the proprietor.  Is it thus that you dare affront a Marshal of
+France who has bled for his country, and grown gray in victory?  Why did
+you not make your complaints in private to me?  I would have done you
+justice.  We should wash our dirty linen at home, and not drag it out
+before the world.  You, call yourselves Representatives of the Nation.
+It is not true; you are only Deputies of the Departments; a small portion
+of the State, inferior to the Senate, inferior even to the Council of
+State.  The Representatives of the People!  I am alone the Representative
+of the People.  Twice have 24,000,000 of French called me to the throne:
+which of you durst undertake such a burden?  It had already overwhelmed
+(ecrase), your Assemblies, and your Conventions, your Vergniauds and your
+Guadets, your Jacobins and your Girondins.  They are all dead!  What, who
+are you?  nothing--all authority is in the Throne; and what is the
+Throne? this wooden frame covered with velvet?--no, I am the Throne!
+You have added wrong to reproaches.  You have talked of concessions--
+concessions that even my enemies dared not ask!  I suppose if they asked
+Champaigne you would have had me give them La Brie besides; but in four
+months I will conquer peace, or I shall be dead!  You advise!  how dare
+you debate of such high matters (de si graves interets)!  You have put me
+in the front of the battle as the cause of war--it is infamous (c'est une
+atrocite).  In all your committees you have excluded the friends of
+Government--extraordinary commission--committee of finance--committee of
+the address, all, all my enemies.  M. Laine, I repeat it, is a traitor;
+he is a wicked man, the others are mere intriguers.  I do justice to the
+eleven-twelfths; but the factions I know, and will pursue.  Is it, I ask
+again, is it while the enemy is in France that you should have done this?
+But nature has gifted me with a determined courage--nothing can overcome
+me.  It cost my pride much too--I made that sacrifice; I--but I am above
+your miserable declamations--I was in need of consolation, and you would
+mortify me--but, no, my victories shall crush your clamours!  In three
+months we shall have peace, and you shall repent your folly.  I am one of
+those who triumph or die.
+
+"Go back to your Departments if any one of you dare to print your address
+I shall publish it in the Moniteur with notes of my own.  Go; France
+stands in more need of me than I do of France.  I bear the eleven-
+twelfths of you in my heart--I shall nominate the Deputies to the two
+series which are vacant, and I shall reduce the Legislative Body to the
+discharge of its proper duties.  The inhabitants of Alsace and Franche
+Comte have more spirit than you; they ask me for arms, I send them, and
+one of my aides de camp will lead them against the enemy."
+
+In after conversations he said of the Legislative Body that "its members
+never came to Paris but to obtain some favours.  They importuned the
+Ministers from morning till night, and complained if they were not
+immediately satisfied.  When invited to dinner they burn with envy at the
+splendour they see before them."  I heard this from Cambaceres, who was
+present when the Emperor made these remarks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+1813.
+
+     The flag of the army of Italy and the eagles of 1813--Entrance of
+     the Allies into Switzerland--Summons to the Minister of Police--
+     My refusal to accept a mission to Switzerland--Interviews with M. de
+     Talleyrand and the Due de Picence--Offer of a Dukedom and the Grand
+     Cordon of the Legion of Honour--Definitive refusal--The Duc de
+     Vicence's message to me in 1815--Commencement of the siege of
+     Hamburg--A bridge two leagues long--Executions at Lubeck--Scarcity
+     of provisions in Hamburg--Banishment of the inhabitants--Men
+     bastinadoed and women whipped--Hospitality of the inhabitants of
+     Altona.
+
+I am now arrived at the most critical period in Napoleon's career.  What
+reflections must he have made, if he had had leisure to reflect, in
+comparing the recollections of his rising glory with the sad picture of
+his falling fortune?  What a contrast presents itself when we compare the
+famous flag of the army of Italy, which the youthful conqueror,
+Bonaparte, carried to the Directory, with those drooping eagles who had
+now to defend the aerie whence they had so often taken flight to spread
+their triumphant wings over Europe!  Here we see the difference between
+liberty and absolute power!  Napoleon, the son of liberty, to whom he
+owed everything, had disowned his mother, and was now about to fall.
+Those glorious triumphs were now over when the people of Italy consoled
+themselves for defeat and submitted to the magical power of that liberty
+which preceded the Republican armies.  Now, on the contrary, it was to
+free themselves from a despotic yoke that the nations of Europe had in
+their turn taken up arms and were preparing to invade France.
+
+With the violation of the Swiss territory by the Allied armies, after the
+consent of the Cantons, is connected a fact of great importance in my
+life, and which, if I had chosen, might have made a great difference in
+my destiny.  On Tuesday, the 28th of December, I dined with my old
+friend, M. Pierlot, and on leaving home I was in the habit of saying
+where I might be found in case I should be wanted.  At nine o'clock at
+night an express arrived from the Minister of Police desiring me to come
+immediately to his office.  I confess, considering the circumstances of
+the times, and knowing the Emperor's prejudices against me, such a
+request coming at such an hour made me feel some uneasiness, and I
+expected nothing less then a journey to Vincennes.  The Due de Rovigo,
+by becoming responsible for me, had as yet warded off the blow, and the
+supervision to which the Emperor had subjected me--thanks to the good
+offices of Davoust--consisted in going three times a week to show myself
+to Savory.
+
+I accordingly, having first borrowed a night-cap, repaired to the hotel
+of the Minister of Police.  I was ushered into a well-lighted room, and
+when I entered I found Savary waiting for me.  He was in full costume,
+from which I concluded he had just come from the Emperor.  Advancing
+towards me with an air which showed he had no bad news to communicate, he
+thus addressed me:
+
+"Bourrienne, I have just come from the Emperor, who asked me where you
+were?  I told him you were in Paris, and that I saw you often.  'Well,'
+continued the Emperor, 'bid him come to me, I want to employ him.  It is
+three years since he has had anything to do.  I wish to send him as
+Minister to Switzerland, but he must set off directly.  He must go to the
+Allies. He understands German well. The King of Prussia expressed by
+letter satisfaction at his conduct towards the Prussians whom the war
+forced to retire to Hamburg.  He knows Prince Witgenstein, who is the
+friend of the King of Prussia, and probably is at Lorrach.  He will see
+all the Germans who are there.  I confidently rely on him, and believe
+his journey will have a good result.  Caulaincourt will give him his
+instructions."
+
+Notwithstanding my extreme surprise at this communication I replied
+without hesitation that I could not accept the mission; that it was
+offered too late.  "It perhaps is hoped;" said I, "that the bridge of
+Bale will be destroyed, and that Switzerland will preserve her
+neutrality.  But I do not believe any such thing; nay, more, I know
+positively  to the contrary.  I can only repeat the offer comes much too
+late."--"I am very sorry for this resolution," observed Savory, "but
+Caulaincourt will perhaps persuade you.  The Emperor wishes you to go the
+Duo de Vicence to-morrow at one o'clock; he will acquaint you with all
+the particulars, and give you your instructions."--"He may acquaint me
+with whatever be chooses, but I will not go to Lohraah."--"You know the
+Emperor better than I do, he wishes you to go, and he will not pardon
+your refusal."--"He may do as he pleases, but no consideration shall
+induce me to go to Switzerland."--"You are wrong: but you will reflect on
+the matter between this and tomorrow morning.  Night will bring good
+counsel, At any rate, do not fail to go to-morrow at one o'clock to
+Caulaincourt, he expects you, and directions will be given to admit you
+immediately."
+
+Next morning the first thing I did was to call on M. de Talleyrand.
+I told him what had taken place, and as he was intimately acquainted with
+Caulaincourt, I begged him to speak to that Minister in favour of my,
+resolution.  M. de Talleyrand approved of my determination not to go to
+Switzerland, and at one o'clock precisely I proceeded to M. de
+Caulaincourt's.  He told me all he had been instructed to say.  From the
+manner in which he made the communication I concluded that he himself
+considered the proposed mission a disagreeable one, and unlikely to be
+attended by any useful result.  I observed that he must have heard from
+Savory that I had already expressed my determination to decline the
+mission which the Emperor had been pleased to offer me.  The Duc de
+Vicence then, in a very friendly way, detailed the reasons which ought to
+induce me to accept the offer, and did not disguise from me that by
+persisting in my determination I ran the risk of raising Napoleon's
+doubts as to my opinions and future intentions.  I replied that, having
+lived for three years as a private individual, unconnected with public
+affairs, I should have no influence at the headquarters of the Allies,
+and that whatever little ability I might be supposed to possess, that
+would not counterbalance the difficulties of my situation, and the
+opinion that I was out of favour.  I added that I should appear at the
+headquarters without any decoration, without even that of the Cordon of
+the Legion of Honour to which the Emperor attached so much importance,
+and the want of which would almost have the appearance of disgrace; and I
+said that these trifles, however slightly valued by reasonable men, were
+not, as he well knew, without their influence on the men with whom I
+should have to treat.  "If that be all," replied.  Caulaincourt, "the
+obstacle will speedily be removed.  I am authorised by the Emperor to
+tell you that he will create you a Duke, and give you the Grand Cordon of
+the Legion of Honour."
+
+After these words I thought I was dreaming, and I was almost inclined to
+believe that Caulaincourt was jesting with me.  However, the offer was
+serious, and I will not deny that it was tempting; yet I nevertheless
+persisted in the refusal I had given.  At length, after some further
+conversation, and renewed, but useless, entreaties on the part of M. de
+Caulaincourt, he arose, which was a signal that our interview was
+terminated.  I acknowledge I remained for a moment in doubt how to act,
+for I felt we had come to no understanding.  M. de' Caulaincourt advanced
+slowly towards the door of his cabinet: If I went away without knowing
+his opinion I had done nothing; addressing him, therefore, by his
+surname, "Caulaincourt;" said I, "you have frequently assured me that you
+would never forget the services I rendered to you and your family at a
+time when I possessed some influence.  I know you, and therefore speak to
+you without disguise.  I do not now address myself to the Emperor's
+Minister, but to Caulaincourt.  You are a man of honour, and I can open
+my heart to you frankly.  Consider the embarrassing situation of France,
+which you know better than I do.  I do not ask you for your secrets, but
+I myself know enough.  I will tell you candidly that I am convinced the
+enemy will pass the Rhine in a few days.  The Emperor has been deceived:
+I should not have time to reach my destination, and I should be laughed
+at.  My correspondents in Germany have made me acquainted with every
+particular.  Now, Caulaincourt, tell me honestly, if you were in my
+place, and I in yours, and I should make this proposition to you, what
+determination would you adopt?"
+
+I observed from the expression of Caulaincourt's countenance that my
+question had made an impression on him, and affectionately pressing my
+hand he said, "I would do as you do: Enough.  I will arrange the business
+with the Emperor."  This reply seemed to remove a weight from my mind,
+and I left Caulaincourt with feelings of gratitude.  I felt fully assured
+that he would settle the business satisfactorily, and in this conjecture
+I was not deceived, for I heard no more of the matter.
+
+I must here go forward a year to relate another occurrence in which the
+Due de Vicence and I were concerned.  When, in March 1815, the King
+appointed me Prefect of Police, M. de Caulaincourt sent to me a
+confidential person to inquire whether he ran any risk in remaining in
+Paris, or whether he had better remove.  He had been told that his name
+was inscribed in a list of individuals whom I had received orders to
+arrest.  Delighted at this proof of confidence, I returned the following
+answer by the Due de Vicence's messenger: "Tell M. de Caulaincourt that I
+do not know where he lives.  He need be under no apprehension: I will
+answer for him."
+
+During the campaign of 1813 the Allies, after driving the French out of
+Saxony and obliging them to retreat towards the Rhine, besieged Hamburg,
+where Davoust was shut up with a garrison of 30,000 men, resolutely
+determined to make it a second Saragossa.  From the month of September
+every day augmented the number of the Allied troops, who were already
+making rapid progress on the left bank of the Elbe.  Davoust endeavoured
+to fortify Hamburg an so extended a scale that, in the opinion of the
+most experienced military men, it would have required a garrison of
+60,000 men to defend it in a regular and protracted siege.  At the
+commencement of the siege Davoust lost Vandamme, who was killed in a
+sortie at the head of a numerous corps which was inconsiderately
+sacrificed.
+
+It is but justice to admit that Davoust displayed great activity in the
+defence, and began by laying in large supplies.
+
+     --[Vandamme fought under Grouchy in 1815, and died several years
+     afterwards.  This killing him at Hamburg is one of the curious
+     mistakes seized on by the Bonapartists to deny the authenticity of
+     these Memoirs.]--
+
+General Bertrand was directed to construct a bridge to form a
+communication between Hamburg and Haarburg by joining the islands of the
+Elbe to the Continent along a total distance of about two leagues.  This
+bridge was to be built of wood, and Davoust seized upon all the timber-
+yards to supply materials for its construction.  In the space of eighty-
+three days the bridge was finished.  It was a very magnificent structure,
+its length being 2529 toises, exclusive of the lines of junction, formed
+on the two islands.
+
+The inhabitants were dreadfully oppressed, but all the cruel measures and
+precautions of the French were ineffectual, for the Allies advanced in
+great force and occupied Westphalia, which movement obliged the Governor
+of Hamburg to recall to the town the different detachments scattered
+round Hamburg.
+
+At Lubeck the departure of the French troops was marked by blood.  Before
+they evacuated the town, an old man, and a butcher named Prahl, were
+condemned to be shot.  The butcher's crime consisted in having said, in
+speaking of the French, "Der teufel hohle sie" (the devil take them).
+The old man fortunately escaped his threatened fate, but, notwithstanding
+the entreaties and tears of the inhabitants, the sentence upon Prahl was
+carried into execution.
+
+The garrison of Hamburg was composed of French, Italian, and Dutch
+troops.  Their number at first amounted to 30,000, but sickness made
+great-havoc among them.  From sixty to eighty perished daily in the
+hospitals.  When the garrison evacuated Hamburg in May 1814 it was
+reduced to about 15,000 men.  In the month of December provisions began
+to diminish, and there was no possibility of renewing the supply.  The
+poor were first of all made to leave the town, and afterwards all persons
+who were not usefully employed.  It is no exaggeration to estimate at
+50,000 the number of persons who were thus exiled.  The colonel
+commanding the gendarmerie at Hamburg notified to the exiled inhabitants
+that those who did not leave the town within the prescribed time would
+receive fifty blows with a cane and afterwards be driven out.  But if
+penance may be commuted with priests so it may with gendarmes.
+Delinquents contrived to purchase their escape from the bastinado by a
+sum of money, and French gallantry substituted with respect to females
+the birch for the cane.  I saw an order directing all female servants to
+be examined as to their health unless they could produce certificates
+from their masters.  On the 25th of December the Government granted
+twenty-four hours longer to persons who were ordered to quit the town;
+and two days after this indulgence an ordinance was published declaring
+that those who should return to the town after once leaving it were to be
+considered as rebels and accomplices of the enemy, and as such condemned
+to death by a prevotal court.  But this was not enough.  At the end of
+December people, without distinction of sex or age, were dragged from
+their beds and conveyed out of the town on a cold night, when the
+thermometer was between sixteen or eighteen degrees; and it was affirmed
+that several old men perished in this removal.  Those who survived were
+left on the outside of the Altona gates.  At Altona they all found refuge
+and assistance.  On Christmas-day 7000 of these unfortunate persons were
+received in the house of M. Rainville,  formerly aide de camp to
+Dumouriez, and who left France together with that general.  His house,
+which was at Holstein, was usually the scene of brilliant entertainments,
+but it was converted into the abode of misery, mourning, and death.  All
+possible attention was bestowed on the unfortunate outlaws; but few
+profited by it, and what is worse, the inhabitants of Altona suffered for
+their generosity.  Many of the unfortunate persons were affected with the
+epidemic disease which was raging in Hamburg, and which in consequence
+broke out at Altona.
+
+All means of raising money in Hamburg being exhausted, a seizure was made
+of the funds of the Bank of that city, which yet contained from seven to
+eight millions of marks.  Were those who ordered this measure not aware
+that to seize on the funds of some of the citizens of Hamburg was an
+injury to all foreigners who had funds in the Bank?  Such is a brief
+statement of the vexations and cruelties which long oppressed this
+unfortunate city.  Napoleon accused Hamburg of Anglomania, and by ruining
+her he thought to ruin England.  Hamburg, feeble and bereft of her
+sources, could only complain, like Jerusalem when besieged by Titus:
+"Plorans, plorcatrit in nocte."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+1813-1814.
+
+     Prince Eugene and the affairs of Italy--The army of Italy on the
+     frontiers of Austria--Eugene's regret at the defection of the
+     Bavarians--Murat's dissimulation and perfidy--His treaty with
+     Austria--Hostilities followed by a declaration of war--Murat
+     abandoned by the French generals--Proclamation from Paris--Murat's
+     success--Gigantic scheme of Napoleon--Napoleon advised to join the
+     Jacobins--His refusal--Armament of the National Guard--The Emperor's
+     farewell to the officers--The Congress of Chatillon--Refusal of an
+     armistice--Napoleon's character displayed in his negotiations--
+     Opening of the Congress--Discussions--Rupture of the Conferences.
+
+I wars now proceed to notice the affairs of Italy and the principal
+events of the Viceroyalty of Eugene.  In order to throw together all that
+I have to say about the Viceroy I must anticipate the order of time.
+
+After the campaign of 1812, when Eugene revisited Italy, he was promptly
+informed of the more than doubtful dispositions of Austria towards
+France.  He then made preparations for raising an army capable of
+defending the country which the Emperor had committed to his safeguard.
+Napoleon was fully aware how much advantage he would derive from the
+presence on the northern frontiers of Italy of an army sufficiently
+strong to harass Austria, in case she should draw aside the transparent
+veil which still covered her policy.  Eugene did all that depended on him
+to meet the Emperor's wishes; but in spite of his efforts the army of
+Italy was, after all; only an imaginary army to those who could compare
+the number of men actually enrolled with the numbers stated in the lists.
+When, in July 1813, the Viceroy was informed of the turn taken by the
+negotiations at the shadow of a Congress assembled at Prague, he had no
+longer any doubt of the renewal of hostilities; and foreseeing an attack
+on Italy he resolved as speedily as possible to approach the frontiers of
+Austria.  He had succeeded in assembling an army composed of French and
+Italians, and amounting to 45,000 infantry and 5000 cavalry.  On the
+renewal of hostilities the Viceroy's headquarters were at Udine.  Down to
+the month of April 1814 he succeeded in maintaining a formidable
+attitude, and in defending the entrance of his kingdom by dint of that
+military talent which was to be expected in a man bred in the great
+school of Napoleon, and whom the army looked up to as one of its most
+skillful generals.
+
+During the great and unfortunate events of 1813 all eyes had been fixed
+on Germany and the Rhine; but the defection of Murat for a time diverted
+attention to Italy.  That event did not so very much surprise me, for I
+had not forgotten my conversation with the King of Naples in the Champs
+Elysees, with which I have made the reader acquainted.  At first Murat's
+defection was thought incredible by every one, and it highly excited
+Bonaparte's indignation.  Another defection which occurred about the same
+period deeply distressed Eugene, for although raised to the rank of a
+prince, and almost a sovereign, he was still a man, and an excellent man.
+He was united to the Princess Amelia of Bavaria, who was as amiable and
+as much beloved as he, and he had the deep mortification to count the
+subjects of his father-in-law among the enemies whom he would probably
+have to combat.  Fearing lest he should be harassed by the Bavarians on
+the side of the Tyrol, Eugene commenced his retrograde movement in the
+autumn of 1813.  He at first fell back on the Tagliamento, and
+successively on the Adige.  On reaching that river the army of Italy was
+considerably diminished, in spite of all Eugene's care of his troops.
+About the end of November Eugene learned that a Neapolitan corps was
+advancing upon Upper Italy, part taking the direction of Rome, and part
+that of Ancona.  The object of the King of Naples was to take advantage
+of the situation of Europe, and he was duped by the promises held out to
+him as the reward of his treason.  Murat seemed to have adopted the
+artful policy of Austria; for not only had he determined to join the
+coalition, but he was even maintaining communications with England and
+Austria, while at the same time he was making protestations of fidelity
+to his engagements with Napoleon.
+
+When first informed of Murat's treason by the Viceroy the Emperor refused
+to believe it.  "No," he exclaimed to those about him, "it cannot be!
+Murat, to whom I have given my sister!  Murat, to whom I have given a
+throne!  Eugene must be misinformed.  It is impossible that Murat has
+declared himself against me!"  It was, however, not only possible but
+true.  Gradually throwing aside the dissimulation beneath which he had
+concealed his designs, Murat seemed inclined to renew the policy of Italy
+during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when the art of deceiving
+was deemed by the Italian Governments the most sublime effort of genius.
+Without any declaration of war, Murat ordered the Neapolitan General who
+occupied Rome to assume the supreme command in the Roman States, and to
+take possession of the country.  General Miollis, who commanded the
+French troops in Rome, could only throw himself, with his handful of men,
+into the Castle of St. Angelo, the famous mole of Adrian, in which was
+long preserved the treasury of Sixtus V.  The French General soon found
+himself blockaded by the Neapolitan troops, who also blockaded Civita
+Vecchia and Ancona.
+
+
+The treaty concluded between Murat and Austria was definitively signed on
+the 11th of January 1814.  As soon as he was informed of it the Viceroy,
+certain that he should soon have to engage with the Neapolitans, was
+obliged to renounce the preservation of the line of the Adige, the
+Neapolitan army being in the rear of his right wing.  He accordingly
+ordered a retrograde movement to the other side of the Mincio, where his
+army was cantoned.  In this position Prince Eugene, on the 8th of
+February, had to engage with the Austrians, who had come up with him, and
+the victory of the Mincio arrested, for some time, the invasion of the
+Austrian army and its junction with the Neapolitan troops.
+
+It was not until eight days after that Murat officially declared war
+against the Emperor; and immediately several general and superior
+officers, and many French troops, who were in his service, abandoned him,
+and repaired to the headquarters of the Viceroy.  Murat made endeavours
+to detain them; they replied, that as he had declared war against France,
+no Frenchman who loved his country could remain in his service.  "Do you
+think," returned he, "that my heart is lees French than yours?  On the
+contrary, I am much to be pitied.  I hear of nothing but the disasters of
+the Grand Army.  I have been obliged to enter into a treaty with the
+Austrians, and an arrangement with the English, commanded by Lord
+Bentinck, in order to save my Kingdom from a threatened landing of the
+English and the Sicilians, which would infallibly have excited an
+insurrection."
+
+There could not be a more ingenuous confession of the antipathy which
+Joachim knew the Neapolitans to entertain towards his person and
+government.  His address to the French was ineffectual.  It was easy to
+foresee what would ensue.  The Viceroy soon received an official
+communication from Napoleon's War Minister, accompanied by an Imperial
+decree, recalling all the French who were in the service of Joachim, and
+declaring that all who were taken with arms in their hands should be
+tried by a courtmartial as traitors to their country.  Murat commenced by
+gaining advantages which could not be disputed.  His troops almost
+immediately took possession of Leghorn and the citadel of Ancona, and the
+French were obliged to evacuate Tuscany.
+
+The defection of Murat overthrew one of Bonaparte's gigantic conceptions.
+He had planned that Murat and Eugene with their combined forces should
+march on the rear of the Allies, while he, disputing the soil of France
+with the invaders, should multiply obstacles to their advance; the King
+of Naples and the Viceroy of Italy were to march upon Vienna and make
+Austria tremble in the heart of her capital before the timid million of
+her Allies, who measured their steps as they approached Paris, should
+desecrate by their presence the capital of France.  When informed of the
+vast project, which, however, was but the dream of a moment, I
+immediately recognised that eagle glance, that power of discovering great
+resources in great calamities, so peculiar to Bonaparte.
+
+Napoleon was yet Emperor of France; but he who had imposed on all Europe
+treaties of peace no less disastrous than the wars which had preceded
+them, could not now obtain an armistice; and Caulaincourt, who was sent
+to treat for one at the camp of the Allies, spent twenty days at
+Luneville before he could even obtain permission to pass the advanced
+posts of the invading army.  In vain did Caulaincourt entreat Napoleon to
+sacrifice, or at least resign temporarily, a portion of that glory
+acquired in so many battles, and which nothing could efface in history.
+Napoleon replied, "I will sign whatever you wish.  To obtain peace I will
+exact no condition; but I will not dictate my own humiliation."  This
+concession, of course, amounted to a determination not to sign or to
+grant anything.
+
+In the first fortnight of January 1814 one-third of France was invaded,
+and it was proposed to form a new Congress, to be held at Chatillon-sur-
+Seine.  The situation of Napoleon grew daily worse and worse.  He was
+advised to seek extraordinary resources in the interior of the Empire,
+and was reminded of the fourteen armies which rose, as if by enchantment,
+to defend France at the commencement of the Revolution.  Finally, a
+reconciliation with the Jacobins, a party who had power to call up masses
+to aid him, was recommended.  For a moment he was inclined to adopt this
+advice.  He rode on horseback through the surburbs of St. Antoine and St.
+Marceau, courted the populace, affectionately replied to their
+acclamations, and he thought he saw the possibility of turning to account
+the attachment which the people evinced for him.  On his return to the
+Palace some prudent persons ventured to represent to him that, instead of
+courting this absurd sort of popularity it would be more advisable to
+rely on the nobility and the higher classes of society.  "Gentlemen,"
+replied he, "you may say what you please, but in the situation in which I
+stand my only nobility is the rabble of the faubourgs, and I know of no
+rabble but the nobility whom I have created."  This was a strange
+compliment to all ranks, for it was only saying that they were all rabble
+together.
+
+At this time the Jacobins were disposed to exert every effort to serve
+him; but they required to have their own way, and to be allowed freely to
+excite and foster revolutionary sentiments.  The press, which groaned
+under the most odious and intolerable censorship, was to be wholly
+resigned to them.  I do not state these facts from hearsay.  I happened
+by chance to be present at two conferences in which were set forward
+projects infected with the odour of the clubs, and these projects were
+supported with the more assurance because their success was regarded as
+certain.  Though I had not seen Napoleon since my departure for Hamburg,
+yet I was sufficiently assured of his feeling towards the Jacobins to be
+convinced that he would have nothing to do with them.  I was not wrong.
+On hearing of the price they set on their services he said, "This is too
+much; I shall have a chance of deliverance in battle, but I shall have
+none with these furious blockheads.  There can be nothing in common
+between the demagogic principles of '93 and the monarchy, between clubs
+of madmen and a regular Ministry, between a Committee of Public Safety
+and an Emperor, between revolutionary tribunals and established laws.
+If fall I must, I will not bequeath France to the Revolution from which I
+have delivered her."
+
+These were golden words, and Napoleon thought of a more noble and truly
+national mode of parrying the danger which threatened him.  He ordered
+the enrolment of the National Guard of Paris, which was placed under the
+command of Marshal Moncey.  A better choice could not have been made, but
+the staff of the National Guard was a focus of hidden intrigues, in which
+the defence of Paris was less thought about than the means of taking
+advantage of Napoleon's overthrow.  I was made a captain in this Guard,
+and, like the rest of the officers, I was summoned to the Tuileries, on
+the 23d of January, when the Emperor took leave of the National Guard
+previously to his departure from Paris to join the army.
+
+Napoleon entered with the Empress.  He advanced with a dignified step,
+leading by the hand his son, who was not yet three years old.  It was
+long since I had seen him.  He had grown very corpulent, and I remarked
+on his pale countenance an expression of melancholy and irritability.
+
+The habitual movement of the muscles of his neck was more decided and
+more frequent than formerly.  I shall not attempt to describe what were
+my feelings during this ceremony, when I again saw, after a long
+separation, the friend of my youth, who had become master of Europe,
+and was now on the point of sinking beneath the efforts of his enemies.
+There was something melancholy in this solemn and impressive ceremony.
+I have rarely witnessed such profound silence in so numerous an assembly.
+At length Napoleon, in a voice as firm and sonorous as when he used to
+harangue his troops in Italy or in Egypt, but without that air of
+confidence which then beamed on his countenance, delivered to the
+assembled officers an address which was published in all the journals of
+the time.  At the commencement of this address he said, "I set out this
+night to take the command of the army.  On quitting the capital I
+confidently leave behind me my wife and my son, in whom so many hopes are
+centred."  I listened attentively to Napoleon's address, and, though he
+delivered it firmly, he either felt or feigned emotion.  Whether or not
+the emotion was sincere on his part, it was shared by many present; and
+for my own part I confess that my feelings were deeply moved when he
+uttered the words, "I leave you my wife and my son."  At that moment my
+eyes were fixed on the young Prince, and the interest with which he
+inspired me was equally unconnected with the splendour which surrounded
+and the misfortunes which threatened him.  I beheld in the interesting
+child not the King of Rome but the son of my old friend.  All day long
+afterwards I could not help feeling depressed while comparing the
+farewell scene of the morning with the day on which we took possession of
+the Tuileries.  How many centuries seemed the fourteen years which
+separated the two events.
+
+It may be worth while to remind those who are curious in comparing dates
+that Napoleon, the successor of Louis XVI., and who had become the nephew
+of that monarch by his marriage with the niece of Marie Antoinette, took
+leave of the National Guard of Paris on the anniversary of the fatal 21st
+of January, after twenty-five years of successive terror, fear, hope,
+glory, and misfortune.
+
+Meanwhile, a Congress was opened at Chatillon-sur-Seine, at which were
+assembled the Duke of Vicenza on the part of France, Lords Aderdeen and
+Cathcart and Sir Charles Stewart as the representatives of England, Count
+Razumowsky on the part of Russia, Count Stadion for Austria, and Count
+Humboldt for Prussia.  Before the opening of the Congress, the Duke of
+Vicenza, in conformity with the Emperor's orders, demanded an armistice,
+which is almost invariably granted during negotiations for peace; but it
+was now too late: the Allies had long since determined not to listen to
+any such demand.  They therefore answered the Duke of Vicenza's
+application by requiring that the propositions for peace should be
+immediately signed.  But these were not the propositions of Frankfort.
+The Allies established as their bases the limits of the old French
+monarchy.  They conceived themselves authorised in so doing by their
+success and by their situation.
+
+To estimate rightly Napoleon's conduct during the negotiations for peace
+which took place in the conferences at Chatillon it is necessary to bear
+in mind the organisation he had received from nature and the ideas with
+which that organisation had imbued him at an early period of life.  If
+the last negotiations of his expiring reign be examined with due
+attention and impartiality it will appear evident that the causes of his
+fall arose out of his character.  I cannot range myself among those
+adulators who have accused the persons about him with having dissuaded
+him from peace.  Did he not say at St.  Helena, in speaking of the
+negotiations at Chatillon, "A thunderbolt alone could have saved us: to
+treat, to conclude, was to yield foolishly to the enemy."  These words
+forcibly portray Napoleon's character.  It must also be borne in mind how
+much he was captivated by the immortality of the great names which
+history has bequeathed to our admiration, and which are perpetuated from
+generation to generation.  Napoleon was resolved that his name should re-
+echo in ages to come, from the palace to the cottage.  To live without
+fame appeared to him an anticipated death.  If, however, in this thirst
+for glory, not for notoriety, he conceived the wish to surpass Alexander
+and Caesar, he never desired the renown of Erostratus, and I will say
+again what I have said before, that if he committed actions to be
+condemned, it was because he considered them as steps which helped him to
+place himself on the summit of immortality on which he wished to place
+his name.  Witness what he wrote to his brother Jerome, "Better never, to
+have lived than to live without glory;" witness also what he wrote later
+to his brother Louis, "It is better to die as a King than to live as a
+Prince."  How often in the days of my intimacy with Bonaparte has he not
+said to me, "Who knows the names of those kings who have passed from the
+thrones on which chance or birth seated them?  They lived and died
+unnoticed.  The learned, perhaps, may find them mentioned in old
+archives, and a medal or a coin dug from the earth may reveal to
+antiquarians the existence of a sovereign of whom they had never before
+heard.  But, on the contrary, when we hear the names of Cyrus, Alexander,
+Caesar, Mahomet, Charlemagne, Henry IV., and Louis XIV., we are
+immediately among our intimate acquaintance."  I must add, that when
+Napoleon thus spoke to me in the gardens of Malmaison he only repeated
+what had often fallen from him in his youth, for his character and his
+ideas never varied; the change was in the objects to which they were
+applied.
+
+From his boyhood Napoleon was fond of reading the history of the great
+men of antiquity; and what he chiefly sought to discover was the means by
+which those men had become great.  He remarked that military glory
+secures more extended fame than the arts of peace and the noble efforts
+which contribute to the happiness of mankind.  History informs us that
+great military talent and victory often give the power, which, in its
+tern, procures the means of gratifying ambition.  Napoleon was always
+persuaded that that power was essential to him, in order to bend men to
+his will, and to stifle all discussions on his conduct.  It was his
+established principle never to sign a disadvantageous peace.  To him a
+tarnished crown was no longer a crown.  He said one day to M. de
+Caulaincourt, who was pressing him to consent to sacrifices, "Courage may
+defend a crown, but infamy never."  In all the last acts of Napoleon's
+career I can retrace the impress of his character, as I had often
+recognised in the great actions of the Emperor the execution of a thought
+conceived by the General-in-Chief of the Army of Italy.
+
+On the opening of the Congress the Duke of Vicenza, convinced that he
+could no longer count on the natural limits of France promised at
+Frankfort by the Allies, demanded new powers.  Those limits were
+doubtless the result of reasonable concessions, and they had been granted
+even after the battle of Leipsic; but it was now necessary that
+Napoleon's Minister should show himself ready to make further concessions
+if he wished to be allowed to negotiate.  The Congress was opened on the
+5th of February, and on the 7th the Plenipotentiaries of the Allied
+powers declared themselves categorically.  They inserted in the protocol
+that after the successes which had favoured their armies they insisted on
+France being restored to her old limits, such as they were during the
+monarchy before the Revolution; and that she should renounce all direct
+influence beyond her future limits.
+
+This proposition appeared so extraordinary to M. de Caulaincourt that he
+requested the sitting might be suspended, since the conditions departed
+too far from his instructions to enable him to give an immediate answer.
+The Plenipotentiaries of the Allied powers acceded to his request, and
+the continuation of the sitting was postponed till eight in the evening.
+When it was resumed the Duke of Vicenza renewed his promise to make the
+greatest sacrifices for the attainment of peace.  He added that the
+amount of the sacrifices necessarily depended on the amount of the
+compensations, and that he could not determine on any concession or
+compensation without being made acquainted with the whole.  He wished to
+have a general plan of the views of the Allies, and he requested that
+their Plenipotentiaries would explain themselves decidedly respecting the
+number and description of the sacrifices and compensations to be
+demanded.  It must be acknowledged that the Duke of Vicenza perfectly
+fulfilled the views of the Emperor in thus protracting and gaining time
+by subtle subterfuges, for all that he suggested had already been done.
+
+On the day after this sitting some advantages gained by the Allies, who
+took Chatillon-sur-Marne and Troves, induced Napoleon to direct
+Caulaincourt to declare to the Congress that if an armistice were
+immediately agreed on he was ready to consent to France being restored to
+her old limits.  By securing this armistice Napoleon hoped that happy
+chances might arise, and that intrigues might be set on foot; but the
+Allies would not listen to any such proposition.
+
+At the sitting of the 10th of March the Duke of Vicenza inserted in the
+protocol that the last courier he had received had been arrested and
+detained a considerable time by several Russian general officers, who had
+obliged him to deliver up his despatches, which had not been returned to
+him till thirty-six hours after at Chaumont.  Caulaincourt justly
+complained of this infraction of the law of nations and established
+usage, which, he said, was the sole cause of the delay in bringing the
+negotiations to a conclusion.  After this complaint he communicated to
+the Congress the ostensible instructions of Napoleon, in which he
+authorised his Minister to accede to the demands of the Allies.  But in
+making this communication M. de Caulaincourt took care not to explain the
+private and secret instructions he had also received.  The Allies
+rejected the armistice because it would have checked their victorious
+advance; but they consented to sign the definitive peace, which of all
+things was what the Emperor did not wish.
+
+Napoleon at length determined to make sacrifices, and the Duke of Vicenza
+submitted new propositions to the Congress.  The Allies replied, in the
+same sitting, that these propositions contained no distinct and explicit
+declaration on the project presented by them on the 17th of February;
+that, having on the 28th of the same month, demanded a decisive answer
+within the term of ton days, they were about to break up the negotiations
+Caulaincourt then declared verbally:
+
+1st.  That the Emperor Napoleon was ready to renounce all pretension or
+influence whatever in countries beyond the boundaries of France.
+
+2d.  To recognise the independence of Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany,
+and Holland, and that as to England, France would make such concessions
+as might be deemed necessary in consideration of a reasonable equivalent.
+
+Upon this the sitting was immediately broken up without a reply.  It must
+be remarked that this singular declaration was verbal, and consequently
+not binding, and that the limits of France were mentioned without being
+specified.  It cannot be doubted that Napoleon meant the limits conceded
+at Frankfort, to which he was well convinced the Allies would not
+consent, for circumstances were now changed.  Besides, what could be
+meant by the reasonable equivalent from England?  Is it astonishing that
+this obscurity and vagueness should have banished all confidence on the
+part of the Plenipotentiaries of the Allied powers?  Three days after the
+sitting of the 10th of March they declared they could not even enter into
+a discussion of the verbal protocol of the French Minister.  They
+requested that M. de Caulaincourt would declare whether he would accept
+or reject the project of a treaty presented by the Allied Sovereigns, or
+offer a counter-project.
+
+The Duke of Vicenza, who was still prohibited, by secret instructions
+from coming to any conclusion on the proposed basis, inserted in the
+protocol of the sitting of the 13th of March a very ambiguous note.  The
+Plenipotentiaries of the Allies; in their reply, insisted upon receiving
+another declaration from the French Plenipotentiary, which should contain
+an acceptance or refusal of their project of a treaty presented in the
+conference of the 7th of February, or a counter-project.  After much
+discussion Caulaincourt agreed to draw up a counter-project, which he
+presented on the 15th, under the following title: "Project of a
+definitive Treaty between France and the Allies."  In this extraordinary
+project, presented after so much delay, M. de Caulaincourt, to the great
+astonishment of the Allies, departed in no respect from the declarations
+of the 10th of March.  He replied again to the ultimatum of the Allies,
+or what be wished to regard as such, by defending a multitude of petty
+interests, which were of no importance in so great a contest; but in
+general the conditions seemed rather those of a conqueror dictating to
+his enemies than of a man overwhelmed by misfortune: As may readily be
+imagined, they were, for the most part, received with derision by the
+Allies.
+
+Everything tends to prove that the French Plenipotentiary had received no
+positive instructions from the 5th of February, and that, after all the
+delay which Napoleon constantly created, Caulaincourt never had it in his
+power to answer, categorically, the propositions of the Allies.  Napoleon
+never intended to make peace at Chatillon on the terms proposed.  He
+always hoped that some fortunate event would enable him to obtain more
+favourable conditions.
+
+On the 18th of March, that is to say, three days after the presentation
+of this project of a treaty, the Plenipotentiaries of the Allies recorded
+in the protocol their reasons for rejecting the extraordinary project of
+the French Minister.  For my part, I was convinced, for the reasons I
+have mentioned, that the Emperor would never agree to sign the conditions
+proposed in the ultimatum of the Allies, dated the 13th of March, and I
+remember having expressed that opinion to M. de Talleyrand.  I saw him on
+the 14th, and found him engaged in perusing some intelligence he had just
+received from the Duke of Vicenza, announcing, as beyond all doubt, the
+early signature of peace.  Caulaincourt had received orders to come to a
+conclusion.  Napoleon, he said, had given him a carte blanche to save the
+capital, and avoid a battle, by which the last resources of the nation
+would be endangered.  This seemed pretty positive, to be sure; but even
+this assurance did not, for a moment, alter my opinion.  The better to
+convince me, M. de Talleyrand gave me Caulaincourt's letter to read.
+After reading it I confidently said, "He will never sign the conditions."
+M. de Talleyrand could not help thinking me very obstinate in my opinion,
+for he judged of what the Emperor would do by his situation, while I
+judged by his character.  I told M. de Talleyrand that Caulaincourt might
+have received written orders to sign; for the sake of showing them to the
+Plenipotentiaries of the Allies, but that I had no doubt he had been
+instructed to postpone coming to a conclusion, and to wait for final
+orders.  I added, that I saw no reason to change my opinion, and that I
+continued to regard the breaking up of the Congress as nearer than
+appearances seemed to indicate.  Accordingly, three days afterwards, the
+Allies grew tired of the delay and the conferences were broken up.  Thus
+Napoleon sacrificed everything rather than his glory.  He fell from a
+great height, but he never, by his signature, consented to any
+dismemberment of France.
+
+The Plenipotentiaries of the Allies, convinced that these renewed
+difficulties and demands had no other object but to gain time, stated
+that the Allied powers, faithful to their principles, and in conformity
+with their previous declarations, regarded the negotiations at Chatillon
+as terminated by the French Government.  This rupture of the conferences
+took place on the 19th of March, six days after the presentation of the
+ultimatum of the Allied powers.  The issue of these long discussions was
+thus left to be decided by the chances of war, which were not very
+favourable to the man who boldly contended against armed Europe.  The
+successes of the Allies during the conferences at Chatillon had opened to
+their view the road to Paris,  while Napoleon shrunk from the necessity
+of signing his own disgrace.  In these circumstances was to be found the
+sole cause of his ruin, and he might have said, "Tout est perdu, fors la
+gloire."  His glory is immortal.
+
+     --[The conviviality and harmony that reigned between the Ministers
+     made the society and Intercourse at Chatillon most agreeable.  The
+     diplomatists dined alternately with each other; M. de Caulaincourt
+     liberally passing for all the Ministers, through the French advanced
+     posts, convoys of all the good cheer in epicurean wises, etc., that
+     Paris could afford; nor was female society wanting to complete the
+     charm and banish ennui from the Chatillon Congress, which I am sure
+     will be long recollected with sensations of pleasure by all the
+     Plenipotentiaries there engaged (Memoirs of Lord Burghersh).]--
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+1814
+
+     Curious conversation between General Reynier and the Emperor
+     Alexander--Napoleon repulses the Prussians--The Russians at
+     Fontainebleau--Battle of Brienne--Sketch of the campaign of France--
+     Supper after the battle of Champ Aubert--Intelligence of the arrival
+     of tho Duc d'Angouleme and the Comte d'Artois in France--The battle
+     of the ravens and the eagle--Battle of Craonne--Departure of the
+     Pope and the Spanish Princes--Capture of a convoy--Macdonald at the
+     Emperor's headquarters--The inverted cipher.
+
+I was always persuaded, and everything I have since seen has confirmed my
+opinion, that the Allies entering France had no design of restoring the
+House of Bourbon, or of imposing any Government whatever on the French
+people.  They came to destroy and not to found.  That which they wished
+to destroy from the commencement of their success was Napoleon's
+supremacy, in order to prevent the future invasions with which they
+believed Europe would still be constantly threatened.  If, indeed, I had
+entertained any doubt on this subject it would have been banished by the
+account I heard of General Reynier's conversation with the Emperor
+Alexander.  That General, who was made prisoner at Leipsic, was
+exchanged, and returned to France.  In the beginning of February 1814 he
+passed through Troves, where the Emperor Alexander then was.  Reynier
+expressed a desire to be allowed to pay his respects to the Emperor, and
+to thank him for having restored him to liberty.  He was received with
+that affability of manner which was sometimes affected by the Russian
+monarch.
+
+On his arrival at Paris General Reynier called at the Duc de Rovigo's,
+where I had dined that day, and where he still was when I arrived.  He
+related in my hearing the conversation to which I have alluded, and
+stated that it had all the appearance of sincerity on the Emperor's part.
+Having asked Alexander whether he had any instructions for Napoleon, as
+the latter, on learning that he had seen his Majesty would not fail to
+ask him many questions, he replied that he had nothing particular to
+communicate to him.  Alexander added that he was Napoleon's friend, but
+that he had, personally, much reason--to complain of his conduct; that
+the Allies would have nothing more to do with him; that they had no
+intention of forcing any Sovereign upon France; but that they would no
+longer acknowledge Napoleon as Emperor of the French.  "For my part,"
+said Alexander, "I can no longer place any confidence in him.  He has
+deceived me too often."  In reply to this Reynier made some remarks
+dictated by his attachment and fidelity to Bonaparte.  He observed that
+Napoleon was acknowledged as Sovereign of France by every treaty.  "But,"
+added Reynier, "if you should persist in forcing him to resign the
+supreme power, whom will you put in his place?"--"Did you not choose him;
+why then can you not choose some one else to govern you?  I repeat that
+we do not intend to force any one upon you but we will have no more to do
+with Napoleon."
+
+Several Generals were then named; and after Reynier had explained the
+great difficulties which would oppose any such choice, Alexander
+interrupted him saying, "But, General, there is Bernadotte.' Has he not
+been voluntarily chosen Prince Royal of Sweden; may he not also be raised
+to the same rank in France?  He is your countryman; surely then you may
+choose him, since the Swedes took him, though a foreigner."  General
+Reynier, who was a man of firm character, started some objections, which
+I thought at the time well founded; and Alexander put an end to the
+conversation by saving, rather in a tone of dissatisfaction, "Well,
+General, the fate of arms will decide."
+
+The campaign of France forced Napoleon to adopt a kind of operations
+quite new to him.  He had been accustomed to attack; but he was now
+obliged to stand on his defence, so that, instead of having to execute a
+previously conceived plan, as when, in the Cabinet of the Tuileries, he
+traced out to me the field of Marengo, he had now to determine his
+movements according to those of his numerous enemies.  When the Emperor
+arrived at Chalons-sur-Marne the Prussian army was advancing by the road
+of Lorraine.  He drove it back beyond St. Dizier.  Meanwhile the Grand
+Austro-Russian army passed the Seine and the Yonne at Montereau, and even
+sent forward a corps which advanced as far as Fontainebleau.  Napoleon
+then made a movement to the right in order to drive back the troops which
+threatened to march on Paris, and by a curious chance he came up with the
+troops in the very place where he passed the boyish years in which he
+cherished what then seemed wild and fabulous dreams of his future fate.
+What thoughts and recollections must have crowded on his mind when he
+found himself an Emperor and a King, at the head of a yet powerful army,
+in the chateau of the Comte de Brienne, to whom he had so often paid his
+homage!  It was at Brienne that he had said to me, thirty-four years
+before, "I will do these Frenchman all the harm I can."  Since then he
+had certainly changed his mind; but it might be said that fate persisted
+in forcing the man to realise the design of the boy in spite of himself.
+No sooner had Napoleon revisited Brienne as a conqueror than he was
+repulsed and hurried to his fall, which became every moment more
+certain.'
+
+I shall not enter into any details of the campaign of France, because the
+description of battles forms no part of my plan.  Still, I think it
+indispensable briefly to describe Napoleon's miraculous activity from the
+time of his leaving Paris to the entrance of the Allies into the capital.
+Few successful campaigns have enabled our Generals and the French army to
+reap so much glory as they gained during this great reverse of fortune.
+For it is possible to triumph without honour, and to fall with glory.
+The chances of the war were not doubtful, but certainly the numerous
+hosts of the Allies could never have anticipated so long and brilliant a
+resistance.  The theatre of the military operations soon approached so
+near to Paris that the general eagerness for news from the army was
+speedily satisfied, and when any advantage was gained by the Emperor his
+partisans saw the enemy already repulsed from the French territory.
+I was not for a moment deceived by these illusions, as I well knew the
+determination and the resources of the Allied sovereigns.  Besides,
+events were so rapid and various in this war of extermination that the
+guns of the Invalides announcing a victory were sometimes immediately
+followed by the distant rolling of artillery, denoting the enemy's near
+approach to the capital.
+
+The Emperor left Paris on the 25th of January, at which time the Emperors
+of Russia and Austria and the King of Prussia were assembled at Langres.
+Napoleon rejoined his Guard at Vitry-le-Francais.  On the second day
+after his departure he drove before him the Prussian army, which he had
+forced to evacuate St. Dizier.  Two days after this the battle of Brienne
+was fought, and on the 1st of February between 70,000 and 80,000 French
+and Allied troops stood face to face.  On this occasion the commanders on
+both sides were exposed to personal danger, for Napoleon had a horse
+killed under him, and a Cossack fell dead by the side of Marshal Blucher.
+
+A few days after this battle Napoleon entered Troves, where he stayed but
+a short time, and then advanced to Champaubert.  At the latter place was
+fought the battle which bears its name.  The Russians were defeated,
+General Alsufieff was made prisoner, and 2000 men and 30 guns fell into
+the hands of the French.  After this battle the Emperor was under such a
+delusion as to his situation that while supping with Berthier, Marmont,
+and his prisoner, General Alsufieff, the Emperor said, "Another such
+victory as this, gentlemen, and I shall be on the Vistula."
+
+Finding that no one replied, and reading in the countenances of his
+Marshals that they did not share his hopes, "I see how it is," he added,
+"every one is growing tired of war; there is no more enthusiasm.  The
+sacred fire is extinct."  Then rising from the table, and stepping up to
+General Drouot, with the marked intention of paying him a compliment
+which should at the same time convey a censure on the Marshals,
+"General," said he, patting him on the shoulder, "we only want a hundred
+men like you, and we should succeed."  Drouot replied, with great
+presence of mind and modesty, "Rather say a hundred thousand, Sire."
+This anecdote was related to me by the two principal persons who were
+present on the occasion.
+
+Napoleon soon began to have other subjects of disquietude besides the
+fate of battles.  He was aware that since the beginning of February the
+Duc d'Angouleme had arrived at St. Jean de Luz, whence he had addressed s
+proclamation to the French armies in the name of his uncle, Louis XVIII.;
+and he speedily heard of the Comte d'Artois' arrival at Yesoul, on the
+21st of February, which place he did not leave until the 16th of March
+following.
+
+Meanwhile hostilities were maintained with increased vigor over a vast
+line of operations.  How much useless glory did not our soldiers gain in
+these conflicts!  In spite of prodigies of valour the enemy's masses
+advanced, and gradually concentrated, so that this war might be compared
+to the battles of the ravens and the eagle in the Alps.  The eagle slays
+hundreds of his assailants--every blow of his beak is the death of an
+enemy, but still the vultures return to the charge, and press upon the
+eagle until they destroy him.
+
+As the month of February drew to its close the Allies were in retreat on
+several points, but their retreat was not a rout.  After experiencing
+reverses they fell back without disorder, and retired behind the Aube,
+where they rallied and obtained numerous reinforcements, which daily
+arrived, and which soon enabled them to resume the offensive.
+
+Still Napoleon continued astonishing Europe, leagued as it was against
+him.  At Craonne, on the 7th of March, he destroyed Blucher's corps in a
+severe action, but the victory was attended by great loss to the
+conqueror.  Marshal Victor was seriously wounded, as well as Generals
+Grouchy and La Ferriere.
+
+While Napoleon was resisting the numerous enemies assembled to destroy
+him it might be said that he was also his own enemy, either from false
+calculation or from negligence with respect to his illustrious prisoners,
+who, on his departure from Paris, had not yet been sent to their States.
+The Pope was then at Fontainebleau, and the Princes of Spain at Valencay.
+The Pope, however, was the first to be allowed to depart.  Surely
+Bonaparte could never have thought of the service which the Pope might
+have rendered him at Rome, into which Murat's troops would never have
+dared to march had his Holiness been present there.  With regard to the
+Spanish Princes Napoleon must have been greatly blinded by confidence in
+his fortune to have so long believed it possible to retain in France
+those useless trophies of defeated pretensions.  It was, besides, so easy
+to get rid of the exiles of Valencay by sending them back to the place
+from whence they had been brought!  It was so natural to recall with all
+speed the troops from the south when our armies in Germany began to be
+repulsed on the Rhine and even driven into France!  With the aid of these
+veteran troops Napoleon and his genius might have again turned the scale
+of fortune.  But Napoleon reckoned on the nation, and he was wrong, for
+the nation was tired of him.  His cause had ceased to be the cause of
+France.
+
+The latter days of March were filled up by a series of calamities to
+Napoleon.  On the 23d the rear-guard of the French army suffered
+considerable loss.  To hear of attacks on his rear-guard must indeed have
+been mortifying to Napoleon, whose advanced guards had been so long
+accustomed to open the path of victory!  Prince Schwartzenberg soon
+passed the Aube and marched upon Vitry and Chalons.  Napoleon, counting
+on the possibility of defending Paris, threw himself, with the velocity
+of the eagle, on Schwartzenberg's rear by passing by Doulevant and Bar-
+sur-Aube.  He pushed forward his advanced guards to Chaumont, and there
+saw the Austrian army make a movement which he took to be a retreat; but
+it was no such thing.  The movement was directed on Paris, while Blucher,
+who had re-occupied Chalons-sur-Maine, marched to meet Prince
+Schwartzenberg, and Napoleon, thinking to cut off their retreat, was
+himself cut off from the possibility of returning to Paris.  Everything
+then depended on the defence of Paris, or, to speak more correctly, it
+seemed possible, by sacrificing the capital, to prolong for a few days
+the existence of the phantom of the Empire which was rapidly vanishing.
+On the 26th was fought the battle of Fere Champenoise, where, valour
+yielding to numbers, Marshals Marmont and Mortier were obliged to retire
+upon Sezanne after sustaining considerable loss.
+
+It was on the 26th of March, and I beg the reader to bear this date in
+mind, that Napoleon suffered a loss which, in the circumstances in which
+he stood, was irreparable.  At the battle of Fere Champenoise the Allies
+captured a convoy consisting of nearly all the remaining ammunition and
+stores of the army, a vast quantity of arms, caissons, and equipage of
+all kinds.  The whole became the prey of the Allies, who published a
+bulletin announcing this important capture.  A copy of this order of the
+day fell into the hands of Marshal Macdonald, who thought that such news
+ought immediately to be communicated to the Emperor.  He therefore
+repaired himself to the headquarters of Napoleon, who was then preparing
+to recover Vitre-le-Francais, which was occupied by the Prussians.  The
+Marshal, with the view of dissuading the Emperor from what he considered
+a vain attempt, presented him with the bulletin.
+
+This was on the morning of the 27th: Napoleon would not believe the news.
+"No!" said he to the Marshal, "you are deceived, this cannot be true."
+Then perusing the bulletin with more attention.  "Here," said he, "look
+yourself.  This is the 27th, and the bulletin is dated the 29th.  You see
+the thing is impossible.  The bulletin is forged!"  The Marshal, who had
+paid more attention to the news than to its date, was astounded.  But
+having afterwards shown the bulletin to Drouot, that General said, "Alas!
+Marshal, the news is but too true.  The error of the date is merely a
+misprint, the 9 is a 6 inverted!" On what trifles sometimes depend the
+most important events.  An inverted cipher sufficed to flatter
+Bonaparte's illusion, or at least the illusions which he wished to
+maintain among his most distinguished lieutenants, and to delay the
+moment when they should discover that the loss they deplored was too
+certain.  On that very day the Empress left Paris.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+1814.
+
+     The men of the Revolution and the men of the Empire--The Council of
+     Regency--Departure of the Empress from Paris--Marmont and Mortier--
+     Joseph's flight--Meeting at Marmont's hotel--Capitulation of Paris--
+     Marmont's interview with the Emperor at Fontainebleau--Colonels
+     Fabvier and Denys--The Royalist cavalcade--Meeting at the hotel of
+     the Comte de Morfontaine--M. de Chateaubriand and his pamphlet--
+     Deputation to the Emperor Alexander--Entrance of the Allied
+     sovereigns into Paris--Alexander lodged in M. Talleyrand's hotel--
+     Meetings held there--The Emperor Alexander's declaration--
+     My appointment as Postmaster-General--Composition of the Provisional
+     Government--Mistake respecting the conduct of the Emperor of
+     Austria--Caulaincourt's mission from Napoleon--His interview with
+     the Emperor Alexander--Alexander's address to the deputation of the
+     Senate--M. de Caulaincourt ordered to quit the capital.
+
+The grandees of the Empire and the first subjects of Napoleon were
+divided into two classes totally distinct from each other.  Among these
+patronised men were many who had been the first patrons of Bonaparte and
+had favoured his accession to Consular power.  This class was composed of
+his old friends and former companions-in-arms.  The others, who may be
+called the children of the Empire, did not carry back their thoughts to a
+period which they had not seen.  They had never known anything but
+Napoleon and the Empire, beyond which the sphere of their ideas did not
+extend, while among Napoleon's old brothers-in-arms it was still
+remembered that there was once a country, a France, before they had
+helped to give it a master.  To this class of men France was not confined
+to the narrow circle of the Imperial headquarters, but extended to the
+Rhine, the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the two oceans.
+
+On the other hand, numbers of ardent and adventurous young men, full of
+enthusiasm for Bonaparte, had passed from the school to the camp.  They
+were entirely opposed to Napoleon's downfall, because with his power
+would vanish those dreams of glory and fortune which had captivated their
+imaginations.  These young men, who belonged to the class which I have
+denominated children of the Empire, were prepared to risk and commit
+everything to prolong the political life of their Emperor.
+
+The distinction I have drawn between what may be called the men of France
+and the men of the Empire was not confined to the army, but was equally
+marked among the high civil functionaries of the State.  The old
+Republicans could not possibly regard Napoleon with the same eyes as
+those whose elevation dated only from Napoleon; and the members of
+assemblies anterior to the 18th Brumaire could not entertain the same
+ideas as those whose notions of national franchises and public rights
+were derived from their seats as auditors in the Council of State.  I
+know not whether this distinction between the men of two different
+periods has been before pointed out, but it serves to explain the conduct
+of many persons of elevated rank during the events of 1814.  With regard
+to myself, convinced as I was of the certainty of Napoleon's fall, I
+conceived that the first duty of every citizen was claimed by his
+country; and although I may incur censure, I candidly avow that
+Napoleon's treatment of me during the last four years of his power was
+not without some influence on my prompt submission to the Government
+which succeeded his.  I, however, declare that this consideration was not
+the sole nor the most powerful motive of my conduct.  Only those who were
+in Paris at the period of the capitulation can form an idea of the
+violence of party feeling which prevailed there both for and against
+Napoleon, but without the name of the Bourbons ever being pronounced.
+They were almost unknown to the new generation, forgotten by many of the
+old, and feared by the conventionalists; at that time they possessed only
+the frail support of the coteries of the Faubourg St. Germain, and some
+remains of the emigration.  But as it is certain that the emigrants could
+offer only vain demonstrations and wishes in support of the old family of
+our Kings, they did little to assist the restoration of the Bourbons.
+Another thing equally certain is, that they alone, by their follies and
+absurd pretensions, brought about the return of Bonaparte and the second
+exile of Louis XVIII. in the following year.
+
+On the 28th of March was convoked an extraordinary Council of Regency,
+at which Maria Louisa presided.  The question discussed was, whether the
+Empress should remain in Paris or proceed to Blois.  Joseph Bonaparte
+strongly urged her departure, because a letter from the Emperor had
+directed that in case of Paris being threatened the Empress-Regent and
+all the Council of Regency should retire to Blois.  The Arch-Chancellor
+and the majority of the Council were of the same opinion, but one of the
+most influential members of the Council observed to Joseph that the
+letter referred to had been written under circumstances very different
+from those then existing, and that it was important the Empress should
+remain in Paris, where she would, of course, obtain from the Emperor her
+father and the Allied sovereigns, more advantageous conditions than if
+she were fifty leagues from Paris.  The adoption of this opinion would
+only have retarded for a few days a change which had become inevitable;
+nevertheless it might have given rise to great difficulties.  It must be
+admitted that for the interests of Napoleon it was the wisest counsel
+that could be suggested.  However, it was overruled by Joseph's advice.
+
+M. de Talleyrand, as a member of the Council of Regency, also received
+the order to quit Paris on the 30th of March.  At this period I was at
+his house every day.  When I went to him that day I was told he had
+started.  However I went up, and remained some time in his hotel with
+several of his friends who had met there.  We soon saw him return, and
+for my part I heard with satisfaction that they had not allowed him to
+pass the barriers.  It was said then, and it has been repeated since,
+that M. de Talleyrand was not a stranger to the gentle violence used
+towards him.  The same day of this visit to M. de Talleyrand I also went
+to see the Duc de Rovigo (Savary), with the friendly object of getting
+him to remain, and to profit by his position to prevent disturbances.
+He refused without hesitating, as he only thought of the Emperor.
+I found him by his fireside, where there was a large file, in which he
+was burning all the papers which might have compromised every one who had
+served his ministry (Police).  I congratulated him sincerely on this
+loyal occupation: fire alone could purify the mass of filth and
+denunciations which encumbered the police archives.
+
+On the departure of the Empress many persons expected a popular movement
+in favour of a change of Government, but the capital remained tranquil.
+Many of the inhabitants, indeed, thought of defence, not for the sake of
+preserving Napoleon's government, but merely from that ardour of feeling
+which belongs to our national character.  Strong indignation was excited
+by the thought of seeing foreigners masters of Paris--a circumstance of
+which there had been no example since the reign of Charles VII.
+Meanwhile the critical moment approached.  On the 29th of March Marshals
+Marmont and Mortier fell back to defend the approaches to Paris.  During
+the night the barriers were consigned to the care of the National Guard,
+and not a foreigner, not even one of their agents, was allowed to enter
+the capital.
+
+At daybreak on the 30th of March the whole population of Paris was
+awakened by the report of cannon, and the plain of St. Denis was soon
+covered with Allied troops, who were debouching upon it from all points.
+The heroic valour of our troops was unavailing against such a numerical
+superiority.  But the Allies paid dearly for their entrance into the
+French capital.  The National Guard, under the command of Marshal Moncey,
+and the pupils of the Polytechnic School transformed into artillery men,
+behaved in a manner worthy of veteran troops.  The conduct of Marmont on
+that day alone would suffice to immortalise him.  The corps he commanded
+was reduced to between 7000 and 8000 infantry and 800 cavalry, with whom,
+for the space of twelve hours he maintained his ground against an army of
+55,000 men, of whom it is said 14,000 were killed, wounded, and taken.
+Marshal Marmont put himself so forward in the heat of the battle that a
+dozen of men were killed by the bayonet at his side, and his hat was
+perforated by a ball.  But what was to be done against overwhelming
+numbers!
+
+In this state of things the Duke of Ragusa made known his situation to
+Joseph Bonaparte, who authorised him to negotiate.
+
+Joseph's answer is so important in reference to the events which
+succeeded that I will transcribe it here.
+
+     If the Dukes of Ragusa and Treviso can no longer hold out, they are
+     authorised to negotiate with Prince Schwartzenberg and the Emperor
+     of Russia, who are before them.
+
+     They will fall back on the Loire.
+                                   (Signed)   JOSEPH
+
+     Montmartre, 30th March 1814, 12 oclock
+
+
+It was not until a considerable time after the receipt of this formal
+authority that Marmont and Mortier ceased to make a vigorous resistance
+against the Allied army, for the suspension of arms was not agreed upon
+until four in the afternoon.  It was not waited for by Joseph; at a
+quarter past twelve--that is to say, immediately after he had addressed
+to Marmont the authority just alluded to Joseph repaired to the Bois de
+Boulogne to regain the Versailles road, and from thence to proceed to
+Rambouillet.  The precipitate flight of Joseph astonished only those who
+did not know him.  I know for a fact that several officers attached to
+his staff were much dissatisfied at his alacrity on this occasion.
+
+In these circumstances what was to be done but to save Paris, which there
+was no possibility of defending two hours longer.  Methinks I still see
+Marmont when, on the evening of the 30th of March, he returned from the
+field of battle to his hotel in the Rue de Paradis, where I was waiting
+for him, together with about twenty other persons, among whom were MM.
+Perregaua and Lafitte.  When he entered he was scarcely recognisable: he
+had a beard of eight days' growth; the greatcoat which covered his
+uniform was in tatters, and he was blackened with powder from head to
+foot.  We considered what was best to be done, and all insisted on the
+necessity of signing a capitulation.  The Marshal must recollect that the
+exclamation of every one about him was, "France must be saved."
+MM. Perregaus and Lafitte delivered their opinions in a very decided way,
+and it will readily be conceived how great was the influence of two men
+who were at the head of the financial world.  They alleged that the
+general wish of the Parisians, which nobody had a better opportunity of
+knowing than themselves, was decidedly averse to a protracted conflict,
+and that France was tired of the yoke of Bonaparte.  This last
+declaration gave a wider range to the business under consideration.
+The question was no longer confined to the capitulation of Paris, but a
+change in the government was thought of, and the name of the Bourbons was
+pronounced for the first time.  I do not recollect which of us it was
+who, on hearing mention made of the possible recall of the old dynasty,
+remarked how difficult it would be to bring about a restoration without
+retrograding to the past.  But I think I am perfectly correct in stating
+that M. Lafitte said, "Gentlemen, we shall have nothing to fear if we
+have a good constitution which will guarantee the rights of all."  The
+majority of the meeting concurred in this wise opinion, which was not
+without its influence on Marshal Marmont.
+
+During this painful meeting an unexpected incident occurred.  One of the
+Emperor's aides de camp arrived at Marmont's.  Napoleon, being informed
+of the advance of the Allies on Paris, had marched with the utmost speed
+from the banks of the Marne on the road of Fontainebleau.  In the evening
+he was in person at Froidmanteau, whence he despatched his envoy to
+Marshal Marmont.  From the language of the aide de camp it was easy to
+perceive that the state of opinion at the Imperial headquarters was very
+different from that which prevailed among the population of Paris.  The
+officer expressed indignation at the very idea of capitulating, and he
+announced with inconceivable confidence the approaching arrival of
+Napoleon in Paris, which he yet hoped to save from the occupation of the
+enemy.  The officer informed us that Napoleon trusted to the people
+rising in spite of the capitulation, and that they would unpave the
+streets to stone the Allies on their entrance.  I ventured to dissent
+from this absurd idea of defence, and I observed that it was madness to
+suppose that Paris could resist the numerous troops who were ready to
+enter on the following day; that the suspension of arms had been
+consented to by the Allies only to afford time for drawing up a more
+regular capitulation, and that the armistice could not be broken without
+trampling on all the laws of honour.  I added that the thoughts of the
+people were directed towards a better future; that the French were tired
+of a despotic Government and of the distress to which continual war had
+reduced trade and industry; "for," said I, "when a nation is sunk to such
+a state of misery its hopes can only be directed towards the future; it
+is natural they should be so directed, even without reflection."  Most of
+the individuals present concurred in my opinion, and the decision of the
+meeting was unanimous.  Marshal Marmont has since said to me, "I have
+been blamed, my dear Bourrienne: but you were with me on the 30th of
+March.  You were a witness to the wishes expressed by a portion of the
+principal inhabitants of Paris.  I acted as I was urged to do only
+because I considered the meeting to be composed of men entirely
+disinterested, and who had nothing to expect from the return of the
+Bourbons."
+
+Such is a correct statement of the facts which some persons have
+perverted with the view of enhancing Napoleon's glory.  With respect to
+those versions which differ from mine I have only one comment to offer,
+which is, that I saw and heard what I describe.
+
+The day after the capitulation of Paris--Marmont went in the evening to
+see the Emperor at Fontainebleau.  He supped with him.  Napoleon praised
+his defence of Paris..  After supper the Marshal rejoined his corps at
+Essonne, and six hours after the Emperor arrived there to visit the
+lines.  On leaving Paris Marmont had left Colonels Fabvier and Dent's to
+direct the execution of the capitulation.  These officers joined the
+Emperor and the Marshal as they were proceeding up the banks of the river
+at Essonne.  They did not disguise the effect which the entrance of the
+Allies had produced in Paris.  At this intelligence the Emperor was
+deeply mortified, and he returned immediately to Fontainebleau, leaving
+the Marshal at Essonne.
+
+At daybreak on the 31st of March Paris presented a novel and curious
+spectacle.  No sooner had the French troops evacuated the capital than
+the principal streets resounded with cries of "Down with Bonaparte!"--
+"No conscription!"--"No consolidated duties (droits reunis)!"  With these
+cries were mingled that of "The Bourbons for ever!" but this latter cry
+was not repeated so frequently as the others: in general I remarked that
+the people gaped and listened with a sort of indifference.  As I had
+taken a very active part in all that had happened during some preceding
+days I was particularly curious to study what might be called the
+physiognomy of Paris.  This was the second opportunity which had offered
+itself for such a study, and I now saw the people applaud the fall of the
+man whom they had received with enthusiasm after the 18th Brumaire.  The
+reason was, that liberty was then hoped for, as it was hoped for in 1814.
+I went out early in the morning to see the numerous groups of people who
+had assembled in the streets.  I saw women tearing their handkerchiefs
+and distributing the fragments as the emblems of the revived lily.  That
+same morning I met on the Boulevards, and some hours afterwards on the
+Place Louis XV., a party of gentlemen who paraded the streets of the
+capital proclaiming the restoration of the Bourbons and shouting, "Vive
+le Roi!" and "Vive Louis XVIII!"  At their head I recognised
+MM. Sosthenes de la Rochefoucauld, Comte de Froissard, the Duc de
+Luxembourg, the Duc de Crussol, Seymour, etc.  The cavalcade distributed
+white cockades in passing along, and was speedily joined by a numerous
+crowd, who repaired to the Place Vendome.  The scene that was acted there
+is well known, and the enthusiasm of popular joy could scarcely excuse
+the fury that was directed against the effigy of the man whose
+misfortunes, whether merited or not, should have protected him from such
+outrages.  These excesses served, perhaps more than is generally
+supposed, to favour the plans of the leaders of the Royalist party, to
+whom M. Nesselrode had declared that before he would pledge himself to
+further their views he must have proofs that they were seconded by the
+population of Paris.
+
+I was afterwards informed by an eye-witness of what took place on the
+evening of the 31st of March in one of the principal meetings of the
+Royalists, which was held in the hotel of the Comte de Morfontaine, who
+acted as president on the occasion.  Amidst a chaos of abortive
+propositions and contradictory motions M. Sosthenes de la Rochefoucauld
+proposed that a deputation should be immediately sent to the Emperor
+Alexander to express to him the wish of the meeting.  This motion was
+immediately approved, and the mover was chosen to head the deputation.
+On leaving the hotel the deputation met M. de Chateaubriand, who had that
+very day been, as it were, the precursor of the restoration, by
+publishing his admirable manifesto, entitled "Bonaparte and the
+Bourbons."  He was invited to join the deputation; but nothing could
+overcome his diffidence and induce him to speak.  On arriving at the
+hotel in the Rue St. Florentin the deputation was introduced to Count
+Nesselrode, to whom M. Sosthenes de la Rochefoucauld briefly explained
+its object; he spoke of the wishes of the meeting and of the manifest
+desire of Paris and of France.  He represented the restoration of the
+Bourbons as the only means of securing the peace of Europe; and observed,
+in conclusion, that as the exertions of the day must have been very
+fatiguing to the Emperor, the deputation would not solicit the favour of
+being introduced to him, but would confidently rely on the good faith of
+his Imperial Majesty.  "I have just left the Emperor," replied M.
+Nesselrode, "and can pledge myself for his intentions.  Return to the
+meeting and announce to the French people that in compliance with their
+wishes his Imperial Majesty will use all his influence to restore the
+crown to the legitimate monarch: his Majesty Louis XVIII. shall reascend
+the throne of France."  With this gratifying intelligence the deputation
+returned to the meeting in the Rue d'Anjou.
+
+There is no question that great enthusiasm was displayed on the entrance
+of the Allies into Paris.  It may be praised or blamed, but the fact
+cannot be denied.  I closely watched all that was passing, and I observed
+the expression of a sentiment which I had long anticipated when, after
+his alliance with the daughter of the Caesars, the ambition of Bonaparte
+increased in proportion as it was gratified: I clearly foresaw Napoleon's
+fall.  Whoever watched the course of events during the last four years of
+the Empire must have observed, as I did, that from the date of Napoleon's
+marriage with Maria Louisa the form of the French Government became daily
+more and more tyrannical and oppressive.  The intolerable height which
+this evil had attained is evident from the circumstance that at the end
+of 1813 the Legislative Body, throwing aside the mute character which it
+had hitherto maintained, presumed to give a lecture to him who had never
+before received a lecture from any one.  On the 31st of March it was
+recollected what had been the conduct of Bonaparte on the occasion
+alluded to, and those of the deputies who remained in Paris related how
+the gendarmes had opposed their entrance into the hall of the Assembly.
+All this contributed wonderfully to irritate the public mind against
+Napoleon.  He had become master of France by the sword, and the sword
+being sheathed, his power was at an end, for no popular institution
+identified with the nation the new dynasty which he hoped to found.
+The nation admired but did not love Napoleon, for it is impossible to
+love what is feared, and he had done nothing to claim the affections of
+France.
+
+I was present at all the meetings and conferences which were held at M de
+Talleyrand's hotel, where the Emperor Alexander had taken up his
+residence.  Of all the persons present at these meetings M. de Talleyrand
+was most disposed to retain Napoleon at the head of the Government, with
+restrictions on the exercise of his power.  In the existing state of
+things it was only possible to choose one of three courses: first, to
+make peace with Napoleon, with the adoption of proper securities against
+him; second, to establish a Regency; and third, to recall the Bourbons.
+
+On the 13th of March I witnessed the entrance of the Allied sovereigns
+into Paris, and after the procession had passed the new street of the
+Luxembourg I repaired straight to M. de Talleyrand's hotel, which I
+reached before the Emperor Alexander, who arrived at a quarter-past one.
+When his Imperial Majesty entered M. de Talleyrand's drawing-room most of
+the persons assembled, and particularly the Abbe de Pradt, the Abbe de
+Montesquieu, and General Dessolles, urgently demanded the restoration of
+the Bourbons.  The Emperor did not come to any immediate decision.
+Drawing me into the embrasure of a window, which looked upon the street,
+he made some observations which enabled me to guess what would be his
+determination.  "M. de Bourrienne," said he, "you have been the friend of
+Napoleon, and so have I.  I was his sincere friend; but there is no
+possibility of remaining at peace with a man of such bad faith."  These
+last words opened my eyes; and when the different propositions which were
+made came under discussion I saw plainly that Bonaparte, in making
+himself Emperor, had made up the bed for the Bourbons.
+
+A discussion ensued on the three possible measures which I have above
+mentioned, and which were proposed by the Emperor Alexander himself.  I
+thought, if I may so express myself, that his Majesty was playing a part,
+when, pretending to doubt the possibility of recalling the Bourbons,
+which he wished above all things, he asked M. de Talleyrand what means he
+proposed to employ for the attainment of that object?  Besides the
+French, there were present at this meeting the Emperor Alexander, the
+King of Prussia, Prince Schwartzenberg, M. Nesselrode, M. Pozzo-di-Borgo,
+and Prince Liechtenstein.  During the discussion Alexander walked about
+with some appearance of agitation.  "Gentlemen," said, he, addressing us
+in an elevated tone of voice, "you know that it was not I who commenced
+the war; you know that Napoleon came to attack me in my dominions.  But
+we are not drawn here by the thirst of conquest or the desire of revenge.
+You have seen the precautions I have taken to preserve your capital, the
+wonder of the arts, from the horrors of pillage, to which the chances of
+war would have consigned it.  Neither my Allies nor myself are engaged in
+a war of reprisals; and I should be inconsolable if any violence were
+committed on your magnificent city.  We are not waging war against
+France, but against Napoleon, and the enemies of French liberty.
+William, and you, Prince" (here the Emperor turned towards the King of
+Prussia and Prince Schwartzenberg, who represented the Emperor of
+Austria), "you can both bear testimony that the sentiments I express are
+yours."  Both bowed assent to this observation of Alexander, which his
+Majesty several times repeated in different words.  He insisted that
+France should be perfectly free; and declared that as soon as the wishes
+of the country were understood, he and his Allies would support them,
+without seeking to favour any particular government.
+
+The Abbe de Pradt then declared, in a tone of conviction, that we were
+all Royalists, and that the sentiments of France concurred with ours.
+The Emperor Alexander, adverting to the different governments which might
+be suitable to France, spoke of the maintenance of Bonaparte on the
+throne, the establishment of a Regency, the choice of Bernadotte, and the
+recall of the Bourbons.  M. de Talleyrand next spoke, and I well remember
+his saying to the Emperor of Russia, " Sire, only one of two things is
+possible.  We must either have Bonaparte or Louis XVIII.  Bonaparte, if
+you can support him; but you cannot, for you are not alone....  We will
+not have another soldier in his stead.  If we want a soldier, we will
+keep the one we have; he is the first in the world.  After him any other
+who may be proposed would not have ten men to support him.  I say again,
+Sire, either Bonaparte or Louis XVIII.  Anything else is an intrigue."
+These remarkable words of the Prince de Benevento produced on the mind of
+Alexander all the effect we could hope for.  Thus the question was
+simplified, being reduced now to only two alternatives; and as it was
+evident that Alexander would have nothing to do with either Napoleon or
+his family, it was reduced to the single proposition of the restoration
+of the Bourbons.
+
+On being pressed by us all, with the exception of M. de Talleyrand, who
+still wished to leave the question undecided between Bonaparte and Louis
+XVIII.,  Alexander at length declared that he would no longer treat with
+Napoleon.  When it was represented to him that that declaration referred
+only to Napoleon personally, and did not extend to his family, he added,
+"Nor with any member of his family."  Thus as early as the 31st of March
+the restoration of the Bourbons might be considered as decided.
+
+I cannot omit mentioning the hurry with which Laborie, whom M. de
+Talleyrand appointed Secretary to the Provisional Government, rushed out
+of the apartment as soon as he got possession of the Emperor Alexander's
+declaration.  He got it printed with such expedition that in the space of
+an hour it was posted on all the walls in Paris; and it certainly
+produced an extraordinary effect.  As yet nothing warranted a doubt that
+Alexander would not abide by his word.  The treaty of Paris could not be
+anticipated; and there was reason to believe that France, with a new
+Government, would obtain more advantageous conditions than if the Allies
+had, treated with Napoleon.  But this illusion speedily vanished.
+
+On the evening of the 31st of March I returned to M. de Talleyrand's.
+I again saw the Emperor Alexander, who, stepping up to me, said, "M. de
+Bourrienne you must take the superintendence of the Post-office
+department."  I could not decline this precise invitation on the part of
+the Czar; and besides, Lavalette having departed on the preceding day,
+the business would have been for a time suspended; a circumstance which
+would have been extremely prejudicial to the restoration which we wished
+to favour.
+
+I went at once to the hotel in the Rue J. J. Rousseau, where, indeed, I
+found that not only was there no order to send out the post next day, but
+that it had been even countermanded.  I went that night to the
+administrators, who yielded to my requests and, seconded by them, next
+morning I got all the clerks to be at their post.  I reorganised the
+service, and the post went out on the 1st of April as usual.  Such are my
+remembrances of the 31st of March.
+
+A Provisional Government was established, of which M. de Talleyrand was
+appointed President.  The other members were General Beurnonville, Comte
+Francois de Jaucourt, the Due Dalberg, who had married one of Maria
+Louisa's ladies of honour, and the Abby de Montesquieu.  The place of
+Chancellor of the Legion of Honour was given to the Abbe de Pradt.  Thus
+there were two abbes among the members of the Provisional Government, and
+by a singular chance they happened to be the same who had officiated at
+the mass which was performed in the Champ de Mars on the day of the first
+federation.
+
+Those who were dissatisfied with the events of the 31st of March now saw
+no hope but in the possibility that the Emperor of Austria would separate
+from his Allies, or at least not make common cause with them in favour of
+the re-establishment of the Bourbons.  But that monarch had been brought
+up in the old policy of his family, and was imbued with the traditional
+principles of his Cabinet.  I know for a fact that the sentiments and
+intentions of the Emperor of Austria perfectly coincided with those of
+his Allies.  Anxious to ascertain the truth on this subject, I ventured,
+when in conversation with the Emperor Alexander, to hint at the reports
+I had heard relative to the cause of the Emperor of Austria's absence.
+I do not recollect the precise words of his Majesty's answer, but it
+enabled me to infer with certainty that Francis II.  was in no way averse
+to the overthrow of his son-in-law, and that his absence from the scene
+of the discussions was only occasioned by a feeling of delicacy natural
+enough in his situation.
+
+Caulaincourt, who was sent by Napoleon to the headquarters of the Emperor
+Alexander, arrived there on the night of the 30th of March.  He, however,
+did not obtain an interview with the Czar until after his Majesty had
+received the Municipal Council of Paris, at the head of which was M. de
+Chabrol.  At first Alexander appeared somewhat surprised to see the
+Municipal Council, which he did not receive exactly in the way that was
+expected; but this coldness was merely momentary, and he afterwards
+addressed the Council in a very gracious way, though he dropped no hint
+of his ulterior intentions.
+
+Alexander, who entertained a personal regard for Caulaincourt, received
+him kindly in his own character, but not as the envoy of Napoleon.
+"You have come too late," said the Czar.  "It is all over.  I can say
+nothing to you at present.  Go to Paris, and I will see you there."
+These words perfectly enlightened Caulaincourt as to the result of his
+mission.  His next interview with the Emperor Alexander at M. de
+Talleyrand's did not take place until after the declaration noticed in my
+last chapter.  The conversation they had together remained a secret, for
+neither Alexander nor the Duke of Vicenza mentioned it; but there was
+reason to infer, from some words which fell from the Emperor Alexander,
+that he had received Caulaincourt rather as a private individual than as
+the ambassador of Napoleon, whose power, indeed, he could not recognise
+after his declaration.  The Provisional Government was not entirely
+pleased with Caulaincourt's presence in Paris, and a representation was
+made to the Russian Emperor on the subject.  Alexander concurred in the
+opinion of the Provisional Government, which was expressed through the
+medium of the Abbe de Pradt.  M. de Caulaincourt, therefore, at the wish
+of the Czar, returned to the Emperor, then at Fontainebleau.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER, XXXV.
+
+1814.
+
+     Situation of Bonaparte during the events of the 30th and 31st of
+     March--His arrival at Fontainebleau--Plan of attacking Paris--
+     Arrival of troops at Fontainebleau--The Emperor's address to the
+     Guard--Forfeiture pronounced by the Senate--Letters to Marmont--
+     Correspondence between Marmont and Schwartzenberg--Macdonald
+     informed of the occupation of Paris--Conversation between the
+     Emperor and Macdonald at Fontainebleau--Beurnonville's letter--
+     Abdication on condition of a Regency--Napoleon's wish to retract his
+     act of abdication--Macdonald Ney, and Caulaincourt sent to Paris--
+     Marmont released from his promise by Prince Schwartzenberg.
+
+On the morning of the 30th of March, while the battle before the walls of
+Paris was at its height, Bonaparte was still at Troyes.  He quitted that
+town at ten o'clock, accompanied only by Bertrand, Caulaincourt, two
+aides de camp, and two orderly officers.  He was not more than two hours
+in traveling the first ten leagues, and he and his slender escort
+performed the journey without changing horses, and without even
+alighting.  They arrived at Sens at one o'clock in the afternoon.
+Everything was in such confusion that it was impossible to prepare a
+suitable mode of conveyance for the Emperor.  He was therefore obliged to
+content himself with a wretched cariole, and in this equipage, about four
+in the morning, he reached Froidmanteau, about four leagues from Paris.
+It was there that the Emperor received from General Belliard, who arrived
+at the head of a column of artillery, the first intelligence of the
+battle of Paris.  He heard the news with an air of composure, which was
+probably affected to avoid discouraging those about him.  He walked for
+about a quarter of an hour on the high road, and it was after that
+promenade that he sent Caulaincourt to Paris.  Napoleon afterwards went
+to the house of the postmaster, where he ordered his maps to be brought
+to him, and, according to custom, marked the different positions of the
+enemy's troops with pine, the heads of which were touched with wax of
+different colours.  After this description of work, which Napoleon did
+every day, or sometimes several times a day, he repaired to
+Fontainebleau, where he arrived at six in the morning.  He did not order
+the great apartments of the castle to be opened, but went up to his
+favourite little apartment, where he shut himself up, and remained alone
+during the whole of the 31st of March.
+
+In the evening the Emperor sent for the Duke of Ragusa, who had just
+arrived at Essonne with his troops.  The Duke reached Fontainebleau
+between three and four o'clock on the morning of the 1st of April.
+Napoleon then received a detailed account of the events of the 30th from
+Marmont, on whose gallant conduct before Paris he bestowed much praise.
+
+All was gloom and melancholy at Fontainebleau, yet the Emperor still
+retained his authority, and I have been informed that he deliberated for
+some time as to whether he should retire behind the Loire, or immediately
+hazard a bold stroke upon Paris, which would have been much more to his
+taste than to resign himself to the chances which an uncertain
+temporising might bring about.  This latter thought pleased him; and he
+was seriously considering his plan of attack when the news of the 31st,
+and the unsuccessful issue of Caulaincourt's mission, gave him to
+understand that his situation was more desperate than he had hitherto
+imagined.
+
+Meanwhile the heads of his columns, which the Emperor had left at Troves,
+arrived on the 1st of April at Fontainebleau, the troops having marched
+fifty leagues in less than three days, one of the most rapid marches ever
+performed.  On the 2d of April Napoleon communicated the events of Paris
+to the Generals who were about him, recommending them to conceal the news
+lest it should dispirit the troops, upon whom he yet relied.  That day,
+during an inspection of the troops, which took place in the court of the
+Palace, Bonaparte assembled the officers of his Guard, and harangued them
+as follows:
+
+     Soldiers! the enemy has stolen three marches upon us, and has made
+     himself master of Paris.  We must drive him thence.  Frenchmen,
+     unworthy of the name, emigrants whom we have pardoned, have mounted
+     the white cockade, and joined the enemy.  The wretches shall receive
+     the reward due to this new crime.  Let us swear to conquer or die,
+     and to enforce respect to the tri-coloured cockade, which has for
+     twenty years accompanied us on the path of glory and honour.
+
+He also endeavoured to induce the Generals to second his mad designs upon
+Paris, by making them believe that he had made sincere efforts to
+conclude peace.  He assured them that he had expressed to the Emperor
+Alexander his willingness to purchase it by sacrifices; that he had
+consented to resign even the conquests made during the Revolution, and to
+confine himself within the old limits of France.  "Alexander," added
+Napoleon, "refused; and, not content with that refusal, he has leagued
+himself with a party of emigrants, whom, perhaps, I was wrong in
+pardoning for having borne arms against France.  Through their perfidious
+insinuations Alexander has permitted the white cockade to be mounted on
+the capital.  We will maintain ours, and in a few days we will march upon
+Paris.  I rely on you."
+
+When the boundless attachment of the Guards to the Emperor is considered
+it cannot appear surprising that these last words, uttered in an
+impressive tone, should have produced a feeling of enthusiasm, almost
+electrical, in all to whom they were addressed.  The old companions of
+the glory of their chief exclaimed with one voice, "Paris!  Paris!"  But,
+fortunately, during the night, the Generals having deliberated with each
+other saw the frightful abyss into which they were about to precipitate
+France.  They therefore resolved to intimate in discreet terms to the
+Emperor that they would not expose Paris to destruction, so that on the
+3d of April, prudent ideas succeeded the inconsiderate enthusiasm of the
+preceding day.
+
+The wreck of the army assembled at Fontainebleau, which was the remnant
+of 1,000,000 of troops levied during fifteen months, consisted only of
+the corps of the Duke of Reggio (Oudinot), Ney, Macdonald, and General
+Gerard, which 'altogether did not amount to 25,000 men, and which, joined
+to the remaining 7000 of the Guard, did not leave the Emperor a
+disposable force of more than 32,000 men.  Nothing but madness or despair
+could have suggested the thought of subduing, with such scanty resources,
+the foreign masses which occupied and surrounded Paris.
+
+On the 2d of April the Senate published a 'Senatus-consulte', declaring
+that Napoleon had forfeited the throne, and abolishing the right of
+succession, which had been established in favour of his family.
+Furnished with this set, and without awaiting the concurrence of the
+Legislative Body, which was given next day, the Provisional Government
+published an address to the French armies.  In this address the troops
+were informed that they were no longer the soldiers of Napoleon, and that
+the Senate released them from their oaths.  These documents were widely
+circulated at the time, and inserted in all the public journals.
+
+The address of the Senate was sent round to the Marshals, and was of
+course first delivered to those who were nearest the capital; of this
+latter number was Marmont, whose allegiance to the Emperor, as we have
+already seen, yielded only to the sacred interests of his country.
+Montessuis was directed by the Provisional Government to convey the
+address to Marmont, and to use such arguments as were calculated to
+strengthen those sentiments which had triumphed over his dearest personal
+affections.  I gave Montessuis a letter to Marmont, in which I said:
+
+     "MY DEAR FRIEND--An old acquaintance of mine will convey to you the
+     remembrances of our friendship.  He will, I trust, influence your
+     resolution: a single word will suffice to induce you to sacrifice
+     all for the happiness of your country.  To secure that object you,
+     who are so good a Frenchman and so loyal a knight, will not fear
+     either dangers or obstacles.  Your friends expect you, long for you,
+     and I trust will soon embrace you."
+
+Montessuis also took one from General Dessolles, whom the Provisional
+Government had appointed Governor of the National Guard in the room of
+Marshal Moncey, who had left Paris on the occupation of the Allies.
+General Dessolles and I did not communicate to each other our
+correspondence, but when I afterwards saw the letter of Deasolles I could
+not help remarking the coincidence of our appeal to Marmont's patriotism.
+Prince Schwartzenberg also wrote to Marmont to induce him to espouse a
+clause which had now become the cause of France.  To the Prince's letter
+Marmont replied, that he was disposed to concur in the union of the army
+and the people, which would avert all chance of civil war, and stop the
+effusion of French blood; and that he was ready with his troops to quit
+the army of the Emperor Napoleon on the condition that his troops might
+retire with the honours of war, and that the safety and liberty of the
+Emperor were guaranteed by the Allies.
+
+After Prince Schwartzenberg acceded to these conditions Marmont was
+placed in circumstances which obliged him to request that he might be
+released from his promise.
+
+I happened to learn the manner in which Marshal Macdonald was informed of
+the taking of Paris.  He had been two days without any intelligence from
+the Emperor, when he received an order in the handwriting of Berthier,
+couched in the following terms: "The Emperor desires that you halt
+wherever you may receive this order."  After Berthier's signature the
+following words were added as a postscript: "You, of course, know that
+the enemy is in possession of Paris."  When the Emperor thus announced,
+with apparent negligence, an event which totally changed the face of
+affairs, I am convinced his object was to make the Marshal believe that
+he looked upon, that event as less important than it really was.
+However, this object was not attained, for I recollect having heard
+Macdonald say that Berthier's singular postscript, and the tone of
+indifference in which it was expressed, filled him with mingled surprise
+and alarm.  Marshal Macdonald then commanded the rear-guard of the army
+which occupied the environs of Montereau.  Six hours after the receipt of
+the order here referred to Macdonald received a second order directing
+him to put his troops in motion, and he learned the Emperor's intention
+of marching on Paris with all his remaining force.
+
+On receiving the Emperor's second order Macdonald left his corps at
+Montereau and repaired in haste to Fontainebleau.  When he arrived there
+the Emperor had already intimated to the Generals commanding divisions in
+the corps assembled at Fontainebleau his design of marching on Paris.
+Alarmed at this determination the Generals, most of whom had left in the
+capital their wives, children, and friends, requested that Macdonald
+would go with them to wait upon Napoleon and endeavour to dissuade him
+from his intention.  "Gentlemen," said the Marshal, "in the Emperor's
+present situation such a proceeding may displease him.  It must be
+managed cautiously.  Leave it to me, gentlemen, I will go to the
+chateau."
+
+Marshal Macdonald accordingly went to the Palace of Fontainebleau, where
+the following conversation ensued between him and the Emperor, and I beg
+the reader to bear in mind that it was related to me by the Marshal
+himself.  As soon as he entered the apartment in which Napoleon was the
+latter stepped up to him and said, "Well, how are things going on?"--
+"Very badly, Sire."--"How?  .  .  .  badly!  .  .  .  What then are the
+feelings of your army?"--"My army, Sire, is entirely discouraged .  .  .
+appalled by the fate of Paris."--"Will not your troops join me in an
+advance on Paris?"--"Sire, do not think of such a thing.  If I were to
+give such an order to my troops I should run the risk of being
+disobeyed."--"But what is to be done?  I cannot remain as I am; I have
+yet resources and partisans.  It is said that the Allies will no longer
+treat with me.  Well!  no matter.  I will march on Paris.  I will be
+revenged on the inconstancy of the Parisians and the baseness of the
+Senate.  Woe to the members of the Government they have patched up for
+the return of their Bourbons; that is what they are looking forward to.
+But to-morrow I shall place myself at the head of my Guards, and to-
+morrow we shall be in the Tuileries."
+
+The Marshal listened in silence, and when at length Napoleon became
+somewhat calm he observed, "Sire, it appears, then, that you are not
+aware of what has taken place in Paris--of the establishment of a
+Provisional Government, and--"--"I know it all: and what then?"--"Sire,"
+added the Marshal, presenting a paper to Napoleon, "here is something
+which will tell you more than I can."  Macdonald then presented to him a
+letter from General Beurnonville, announcing the forfeiture of the
+Emperor pronounced by the Senate, and the determination of the Allied
+powers not to treat with Napoleon, or any member of his family.
+"Marshal," said the Emperor, before he opened the letter, "may this be
+read aloud?"--"Certainly, Sire."  The letter was then handed to Barre,
+who read it.  An individual who was present on the occasion described to
+me the impression which the reading of the letter produced on Napoleon.
+His countenance exhibited that violent contraction of the features which
+I have often remarked when his mind was disturbed.  However, he did not
+lose his self-command, which indeed never forsook him when policy or
+vanity required that he should retain it; and when the reading of
+Beurnonville's letter was ended he affected to persist in his intention
+of marching on Paris.  "Sire," exclaimed Macdonald, "that plan must be
+renounced.  Not a sword would be unsheathed to second you in such an
+enterprise."  After this conversation between the Emperor and Macdonald
+the question of the abdication began to be seriously thought of.
+Caulaincourt had already hinted to Napoleon that in case of his
+abdicating personally there was a possibility of inducing the Allies to
+agree to a Council of Regency.  Napoleon then determined to sign the act
+of abdication, which he himself drew up in the following terms:--
+
+     The Allied powers having declared that the Emperor Napoleon is the
+     only obstacle to the re-establishment of peace in Europe, the
+     Emperor Napoleon, faithful to his oath, declares that he is ready to
+     descend from the throne, to leave France, and even to lay down his
+     life for the welfare of the country, which is inseparable from the
+     rights of his son, those of the Regency of the Empress, and the
+     maintenance of the laws of the Empire.  Given at our Palace of
+     Fontainebleau, 2d April 1814.
+                                        (Signed) NAPOLEON.
+
+
+After having written this act the Emperor presented it to the Marshals,
+saying, "Here, gentlemen! are you satisfied?"
+
+This abdication of Napoleon was certainly very useless, but in case of
+anything occurring to render it a matter of importance the act might have
+proved entirely illusory.  Its meaning might appear unequivocal to the
+generality of people, but not to me, who was so well initiated in the
+cunning to which Napoleon could resort when it suited his purpose.  It is
+necessary to observe that Napoleon does not say that "he descends from
+the throne," but that "he is ready to descend from the throne."  This was
+a subterfuge, by the aid of which he intended to open new negotiations
+respecting the form and conditions of the Regency of his son, in case of
+the Allied sovereigns acceding to that proposition.  This would have
+afforded the means of gaining time.
+
+He had not yet resigned all hope, and therefore he joyfully received a
+piece of intelligence communicated to him by General Allix.  The General
+informed the Emperor that he had met an Austrian officer who was sent by
+Francis II. to Prince Schwartzenberg, and who positively assured him that
+all which had taken place in Paris was contrary to the wish of the
+Emperor of Austria.  That this may have been the opinion of the officer
+is possible, and even probable.  But it is certain from the issue of a
+mission of the Duc de Cadore (Champagny), of which I shall presently
+speak, that the officer expressed merely his own personal opinion.
+However, as soon as General Allix had communicated this good news, as he
+termed it, to Napoleon, the latter exclaimed to the persons who were
+about him, "I told you so, gentlemen.  Francis II. cannot carry his
+enmity so far as to dethrone his daughter.  Vicenza, go and desire the
+Marshals to return my act of abdication.  I will send a courier to the
+Emperor of Austria."
+
+Thus Bonaparte in his shipwreck looked round for a saving plank, and
+tried to nurse himself in illusions.  The Duke of Vicenza went to
+Marshals Ney and Macdonald, whom he found just stepping into a carriage
+to proceed to Paris.  Both positively refused to return the act to
+Caulaincourt, saying, "We are sure of the concurrence of the Emperor of
+Austria, and we take everything upon ourselves."  The result proved that
+they were better informed than General Allix.
+
+During the conversation with Marshal Macdonald which has just been
+described the Emperor was seated.  When he came to the resolution of
+signing the abdication he arose and walked once or twice up and down his
+cabinet.  After he had written and signed the act he said, "Gentlemen,
+the interests of my son, the interests of the army, and above all, the
+interests of France, must be defended.  I therefore appoint as my
+commissioners to the Allied powers the Duke of Vicenza, the Prince of the
+Moskowa, and the Duke of Ragusa .  .  .  .  Are you satisfied?" added he,
+after a pause.  "I think these interests are consigned to good hands."
+All present answered, as with one voice.  "Yes, Sire."  But no sooner was
+this answer pronounced than the Emperor threw himself upon a small yellow
+sofa, which stood near the window, and striking his thigh with his hand
+with a sort of convulsive motion, he exclaimed, "No, gentlemen: I will
+have no Regency!  With my Guards and Marmont's corps I shall be in Paris
+to-morrow."  Ney and Macdonald vainly endeavoured to undeceive him
+respecting this impracticable design.  He rose with marked ill-humour,
+and rubbing his head, as he was in the habit of doing when agitated, he
+said in a loud and authoritative tone, "Retire."
+
+The Marshals withdrew, and Napoleon was left alone with Caulaincourt.  He
+told the latter that what had most displeased him in the proceedings
+which had just taken place was the reading of Beurnonville's letter.
+"Sire," observed the Duke of Vicenza, "it was by your order that the
+letter was read."--"That is true .  .  .  .  But why was it not addressed
+directly to me by Macdonald?"--"Sire, the letter was at first addressed
+to Marshal  Macdonald, but the aide de camp who was the bearer of it had
+orders to communicate its contents to Marmont on passing through Essonne,
+because Beurnonville did not precisely know where Macdonald would be
+found."  After this brief explanation the Emperor appeared satisfied, and
+he said to Caulaincourt, "Vicenza, call back Macdonald."
+
+The Duke of Vicenza hastened after the Marshal, whom he found at the end
+of the gallery of the Palace, and he brought him back to the Emperor.
+When Macdonald returned to the cabinet the Emperor's warmth had entirely
+subsided, and he said to him with great composure, "Well, Duke of
+Tarantum, do you think that the Regency is the only possible thing?"--
+"Yes, Sire."--"Then I wish you to go with Ney to the Emperor Alexander,
+instead of Marmont; it is better that he should remain with his corps, to
+which his presence is indispensable.  You will therefore go with Ney.  I
+rely on you.  I hope you have entirely forgotten all that has separated
+us for so long a time."--"Yes, Sire, I have not thought of it since
+1809."--"I am glad of it, Marshal, and I must acknowledge to you that I
+was in the wrong."  While speaking to the Marshal the Emperor manifested
+unusual emotion.  He approached him and pressed his hand in the most
+affectionate way.
+
+The Emperor's three Commissioners--that is to say, Marshals Macdonald and
+Ney and the Duke of Vicenza had informed Marmont that they would dine
+with him as they passed through Essonne, and would acquaint him with all
+that had happened at Fontainebleau.  On their arrival at Essonne the
+three Imperial Commissioners explained to the Due of Ragusa the object of
+their mission, and persuaded him to accompany them to the Emperor
+Alexander.  This obliged the Marshal to inform them how he was situated.
+The negotiations which Marmont had opened and almost concluded with
+Prince Schwartzenberg were rendered void by the mission which he had
+joined, and which it was necessary he should himself explain to the
+Commander of the Austrian army.  The three Marshals and the Duke of
+Vicenza repaired to Petit Bourg, the headquarters of Prince
+Schwartzenberg, and there the Prince released Marmont from the promise he
+had given.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+1814.
+
+     Unexpected receipts in the Post-office Department--Arrival of
+     Napoleon's Commissioners at M. de Talleyrand's--Conference of the
+     Marshals with Alexander--Alarming news from Essonne--Marmont's
+     courage--The white cockade and the tri-coloured cockade--
+     A successful stratagem--Three Governments in France--The Duc de
+     Cadore sent by Maria Louisa to the Emperor of Austria--Maria
+     Louisa's proclamation to the French people--Interview between the
+     Emperor of Austria and the Duc de Cadore--The Emperor's protestation
+     of friendship for Napoleon--M. Metternich and M. Stadion--Maria
+     Louisa's departure for Orleans--Blucher's visit to me--Audience of
+     the King of Prussia--His Majesty's reception of Berthier, Clarke,
+     and myself--Bernadotte in Paris--Cross of the Polar Star presented
+     to me by Bernadotte.
+
+After my nomination as Director-General of the Post office the business
+of that department proceeded as regularly as before.  Having learned that
+a great many intercepted letters had been thrown aside I sent, on the 4th
+of April, an advertisement to the 'Moniteur', stating that the letters to
+and from England or other foreign countries which had been lying at the
+Post-office for more than three years would be forwarded to their
+respective addresses.  This produced to the Post-office a receipt of
+nearly 300,000 francs, a fact which may afford an idea of the enormous
+number of intercepted letters.
+
+On the night after the publication of the advertisement I was awakened by
+an express from the Provisional Government, by which I was requested to
+proceed with all possible haste to M. de Talleyrand's hotel.  I rose, and
+I set off immediately, and I got there some minutes before the arrival of
+the Emperor's Commissioners.  I went up to the salon on the first floor,
+which was one of the suite of apartments occupied by the Emperor
+Alexander.  The Marshals retired to confer with the monarch, and it would
+be difficult to describe the anxiety--or, I may rather say,
+consternation--which, during their absence, prevailed among some of the
+members of the Provisional Government and other persons assembled in the
+salon where I was.
+
+While the Marshals were with Alexander, I learned that they had
+previously conversed with M. de Talleyrand, who observed to them, "If you
+succeed in your designs you will compromise all who have met in this
+hotel since the 1st of April, and the number is not small.  For my part,
+take no account of me, I am willing to be compromised."  I had passed the
+evening of this day with M. de Talleyrand, who then observed to the
+Emperor Alexander in my presence, "Will you support Bonaparte?  No, you
+neither can nor will.  I have already had the honour to tell your Majesty
+that we can have no choice but between Bonaparte and Louis XVIII.;
+anything else would be an intrigue, and no intrigue can have power to
+support him who may be its object.  Bernadotte, Eugene, the Regency, all
+those propositions result from intrigues.  In present circumstances
+nothing but a new principle is sufficiently strong to establish the new
+order of things which must be adopted.  Louis XVIII. is a principle."
+
+None of the members of the Provisional Government were present at this
+conference, for no one was willing to appear to influence in any way the
+determination of the chief of the coalition upon the subject of this
+important mission.  General Dessolles alone, in quality of commander of
+the National Guard of Paris, was requested to be present.  At length the
+Marshals entered the salon where we were, and their appearance created a
+sensation which it is impossible to describe; but the expression of
+dissatisfaction which we thought we remarked in their countenances
+restored the hopes of those who for some hours had been a prey to
+apprehensions.  Macdonald, with his head elevated, and evidently under
+the influence of strong irritation, approached Beurnonville, and thus
+addressed him, in answer to a question which the latter had put to him.
+"Speak not to me, sir; I have nothing to say to you.  You have made me
+forget a friendship of thirty years!" Then turning to Dupont, "As for
+you, sir," he continued in the same tone, "your conduct towards the
+Emperor is not generous.  I confess that he has treated you with
+severity, perhaps he may even have been unjust to you with respect to the
+affair of Baylen, but how long has it been the practice to avenge a
+personal wrong at the expense of one's country?"
+
+These remarks were made with such warmth, and in so elevated a tone of
+voice, that Caulaincourt thought it necessary to interfere, and said,
+"Do not forget, gentlemen, that this is the residence of the Emperor of
+Russia."  At this moment M. de Talleyrand returned from the interview
+with the Emperor which he had had after the departure of the Marshals,
+and approaching the group formed round Macdonald, "Gentlemen," said he,
+"if you wish to dispute and discuss, step down to my apartments."--
+"That would be useless," replied Macdonald; "my comrades and I do not
+acknowledge the Provisional Government."  The three Marshals, Ney,
+Macdonald, and Marmont, then immediately retired with Caulaincourt, and
+went to Ney's hotel, there to await the answer which the Emperor
+Alexander had promised to give them after consulting the King of Prussia.
+
+Such was this night-scene; which possessed more dramatic effect than many
+which are performed on the stage.  In it all was real: on its denouement
+depended the political state of France, and the existence of all those
+who had already declared themselves in favour of the Bourbons.  It is a
+remarkable fact, and one which affords a striking lesson to men who are
+tempted to sacrifice themselves for any political cause, that most of
+those who then demanded the restoration of the Bourbons at the peril of
+their lives have successively fallen into disgrace.
+
+When the Marshals and Caulaincourt had retired we were all anxious to
+know what had passed between them and the Emperor of Russia.  I learned
+from Dessolles, who, as I have stated, was present at the conference in
+his rank of commander of the National Guard of Paris, that the Marshals
+were unanimous in urging Alexander to accede to a Regency.  Macdonald
+especially supported that proposition with much warmth; and among the
+observations he made I recollect Dessolles mentioned the following:--
+"I am not authorised to treat in any way for the fate reserved for the
+Emperor.  We have full powers to treat for the Regency, the army, and
+France; but the Emperor has positively forbidden us to specify anything
+personally regarding himself."  Alexander merely replied, "That does not
+astonish me."  The Marshals then, resuming the conversation, dwelt much
+on the respect which was due to the military glory of France.  They
+strongly manifested their disinclination to abandon the family of a man
+who had so often led them to victory; and lastly, they reminded the
+Emperor Alexander of his own declaration, in which he proclaimed, in his
+own name as well as on the part of his Allies, that it was not their
+intention to impose on France any government whatever.
+
+Dessolles, who had all along declared himself in favour of the Bourbons,
+in his turn entered into the discussion with as much warmth as the
+partisans of the Regency.  He represented to Alexander how many persons
+would be compromised for merely having acted or declared their opinions
+behind the shield of his promises.  He repeated what Alexander had
+already been told, that the Regency would, in fact, be nothing but
+Bonaparte in disguise.  However, Dessolles acknowledged that such was the
+effect of Marshal Macdonald's powerful and persuasive eloquence that
+Alexander seemed to waver; and, unwilling to give the Marshals a positive
+refusal, he had recourse to a subterfuge, by which he would be enabled to
+execute the design he had irrevocably formed without seeming to take on
+himself alone the responsibility of a change of government.  Dessolles
+accordingly informed us that Alexander at last gave the following answer
+to the Marshals: "Gentlemen, I am not alone; in an affair of such
+importance I must consult the King of Prussia, for I have promised to do
+nothing without consulting him.  In a few hours you shall know my
+decision."  It was this decision which the Marshals went to wait for at
+Ney's.
+
+Most of the members of the Provisional Government attributed the evasive
+reply of the Emperor Alexander to the influence of the speech of
+Dessolles.  For my part, while I do justice to the manner in which he
+declared himself on this important occasion, I do not ascribe to his
+eloquence the power of fixing Alexander's resolution, for I well know by
+experience how easy it is to make princes appear to adopt the advice of
+any one when the counsel given is precisely that which they wish to
+follow.  From the sentiments of Alexander at this time I had not the
+slightest doubt as to the course he would finally pursue, and I
+considered what he said about consulting the King of Prussia to be merely
+a polite excuse, by which he avoided the disagreeable task of giving the
+Marshals a direct refusal.
+
+I therefore returned home quite satisfied as to the result of the Emperor
+Alexander's visit to the King of Prussia.  I knew, from the persons about
+the Czar, that he cherished a hatred, which was but too well justified,
+towards Bonaparte.  Frederick William is of too firm a character to have
+yielded to any of the considerations which might on this subject have
+been pressed on him as they had been on the Emperor of Russia.  But,
+besides that the King of Prussia had legitimate reasons for disliking
+Napoleon, policy would at that time have required that he should appear
+to be his enemy, for to do so was to render himself popular with his
+subjects.  But the King of Prussia did not need to act under the dictates
+of policy; he followed his own opinion in rejecting the propositions of
+the Marshals, which he did without hesitation, and with much energy.
+
+While the Marshals had gone to Paris Bonaparte was anxious to ascertain
+whether his Commissioners had passed the advanced posts of the foreign
+armies, and in case of resistance he determined to march on Paris, for he
+could not believe that he had lost every chance.  He sent an aide de camp
+to desire Marmont to come immediately to Fontainebleau: such was
+Napoleon's impatience that instead of waiting for the return of his aide
+de camp he sent off a second and then a third officer on the same errand.
+This rapid succession of envoys from the Emperor alarmed the general who
+commanded the different divisions of Marmont's corps at Essonne.  They
+feared that the Emperor was aware of the Convention concluded that
+morning with Prince Schwartzenberg, and that he had sent for Marmont with
+the view of reprimanding him.  The fact was, Napoleon knew nothing of the
+matter, for Marmont, on departing for Paris with Macdonald and Ney, had
+left orders that it should be said that he had gone to inspect his lines.
+Souham; Lebrun des Essarts, and Bordessoulle, who had given their assent
+to the Convention with Prince Schwartzenberg, deliberated in the absence
+of Marmont, and, perhaps being ignorant that he was released from his
+promise, and fearing the vengeance of Napoleon, they determined to march
+upon Versailles.  On arriving there the troops not finding the Marshal at
+their head thought themselves betrayed, and a spirit of insurrection
+broke out among them.  One of Marmont's aides de camp, whom he had left
+at Essonne, exerted every endeavour to prevent the departure of his
+general's corps, but, finding all his efforts unavailing, he hastened to
+Paris to inform the Marshal of what had happened.  'When Marmont received
+this news he was breakfasting at Ney's with Macdonald and Caulaincourt:
+they were waiting for the answer which the Emperor Alexander had promised
+to send them.  The march of his corps on Versailles threw Marmont into
+despair.  He said to the Marshals, "I must be off to join my corps and
+quell this mutiny;" and without losing a moment he ordered his carriage
+and directed the coachman to drive with the utmost speed.  He sent
+forward one of his aides de camp to inform the troops of his approach.
+
+Having arrived within a hundred paces of the place where his troops were
+assembled he found the generals who were under his orders advancing to
+meet him.  They urged him not to go farther, as the men were in open
+insurrection.  "I will go into the midst of them," said Marmont.  "In a
+moment they shall either kill me or acknowledge me as their chief:" He
+sent off another aide de camp to range the troops in the order of battle.
+Then, alighting from the carriage and mounting a horse, he advanced
+alone, and thus harangued his troops: "How!  Is there treason here?  Is
+it possible that you disown me?  Am I not your comrade?  Have I not been
+wounded twenty times among you?  .  .  .  Have I not shared your fatigues
+and privations?  And am I not ready to do so again?" Here Marmont was
+interrupted by a general shout of "Vive le Marechal!  Vive le Marechal!"
+
+The alarm caused among the members of the Provisional Government by the
+mission of the Marshals was increased by the news of the mutiny of
+Marmont's troops.  During the whole of the day we were in a state of
+tormenting anxiety.  It was feared that the insurrectionary spirit might
+spread among other corps of the army, and the cause of France again be
+endangered.  But the courage of Marmont saved everything: It would be
+impossible to convey any idea of the manner in which he was received by
+us at Talleyrand's when he related the particulars of what had occurred
+at Versailles.
+
+On the evening of the day on which Marmont had acted so nobly it was
+proposed that the army should adopt the white cockade.  In reply to this
+proposition the Marshal said, "Gentlemen, I have made my troops
+understand the necessity of serving France before all things.  They have,
+consequently, returned to order, and I can now answer for them.  But what
+I cannot answer for is to induce them to abandon the colours which have
+led them to victory for the last twenty years.  Therefore do not count
+upon me for a thing which I consider to be totally hostile to the
+interests of France.  I will speak to the Emperor Alexander on the
+subject."  Such were Marmont's words.  Every one appeared to concur in
+his opinion, and the discussion terminated.  For my own part, I find by
+my notes that I declared myself strongly in favour of Marmont's
+proposition.
+
+The Marshal's opinion having been adopted, at least provisionally, an
+article was prepared for the Moniteur in nearly the following terms:
+
+     The white cockade has been, during the last four days, a badge for
+     the manifestation of public opinion in favour of the overthrow of an
+     oppressive Government: it has been the only means of distinguishing
+     the partisans of the restoration of the old dynasty, to which at
+     length we are to be indebted for repose.  But as the late Government
+     is at an end, all colours differing from our national colours are
+     useless: let us, therefore, resume those which have so often led us
+     to victory.
+
+Such was the spirit of the article, though possibly the above copy may
+differ in a few words.  It met with the unqualified approbation of every
+one present.  I was therefore extremely surprised, on looking at the
+'Moniteur' next day, to find that the article was not inserted.  I knew
+not what courtly interference prevented the appearance of the article,
+but I remember that Marmont was very ill pleased at its omission.  He
+complained on the subject to the Emperor Alexander, who promised to
+write, and in fact did write, to the Provisional Government to get the
+article inserted.  However, it did not appear, and in a few days we
+obtained a solution of the enigma, as we might perhaps have done before
+if we had tried.  The Emperor Alexander also promised to write to the
+Comte d'Artois, and to inform him that the opinion of France was in
+favour of the preservation of the three colours, but I do not know
+whether the letter was written, or, if it was, what answer it received.
+
+Marshal Jourdan, who was then at Rouen, received a letter, written
+without the knowledge of Marmont, informing him that the latter had
+mounted the white cockade in his corps.  Jourdan thought he could not do
+otherwise than follow Marmont's example, and he announced to the
+Provisional Government that in consequence of the resolution of the Duke
+of Ragusa he had just ordered his corps to wear the white cockade.
+Marmont could now be boldly faced, and when he complained to the
+Provisional Government of the non-insertion of the article in the
+Moniteur the reply was, "It cannot now appear.  You see Marshal Jourdan
+has mounted the white cockade: you would not give the army two sets of
+colours!"
+
+Marmont could make no answer to so positive a fact.  It was not till some
+time after that I learned Jourdan had determined to unfurl the white flag
+only on the positive assurance that Marmont had already done so.  Thus we
+lost the colours which had been worn by Louis XVI., which Louis XVIII.,
+when a Prince, had adopted, and in which the Comte d'Artois showed
+himself on his return to the Parisians, for he entered the capital in the
+uniform of the National Guard.  The fraud played off by some members of
+the Provisional Government was attended by fatal consequences; many evils
+might have been spared to France had Marmont's advice been adopted.
+
+At the period of the dissolution of the Empire there might be said to be
+three Governments in France, viz.  the Provisional Government in Paris,
+Napoleon's at Fontainebleau, and the doubtful and ambulatory Regency of
+"Maria Louisa."  Doubtful and ambulatory the Regency might well be called,
+for there was so little decision as to the course to be adopted by the
+Empress that it was at first proposed to conduct her to Orleans, then to
+Tours, and she went finally to Blois.  The uncertainty which prevailed
+respecting the destiny of Maria Louisa is proved by a document which I
+have in my possession, and of which there cannot be many copies in
+existence.  It is a circular addressed to the prefects by M. de
+Montalivet, the Minister of the Interior, who accompanied the Empress.
+In it a blank is left for the seat of the Government, to which the
+prefects are desired to send their communications.  In the copy I possess
+the blank is filled up with the word "Blois" in manuscript.
+
+As soon as Maria Louisa was made acquainted with the events that had
+taken place around Paris she sent for the Duc de Cadore, and gave him a
+letter addressed to the Emperor of Austria, saying, "Take this to my
+father, who must be at Dijon.  I rely on you for defending the interests
+of France, those of the Emperor, and above all those of my son."
+Certainly Maria Louisa's confidence could not be better placed, and those
+great interests would have been defended by the Duc de Cadore 'si defendi
+possent.'
+
+After the departure of the Due de Cadore Maria Louisa published the
+following proclamation, addressed to the French people:
+
+                          BY THE EMPRESS REGENT.
+
+                              A Proclamation
+
+     The events of the war have placed the capital in the power of
+     foreigners.  The Emperor has marched to defend it at the head of his
+     armies, so often victorious.  They are face to face with the enemy
+     before the walls of Paris.  From the residence which I have chosen,
+     and from the Ministers of the Emperor, will emanate the only orders
+     which you can acknowledge.  Every town in the power of foreigners
+     ceases to be free, and every order which may proceed from them is
+     the language of the enemy, or that which it suits his hostile views
+     to propagate.  You will be faithful to your oaths.  You will listen
+     to the voice of a Princess who was consigned to your good faith, and
+     whose highest pride consists in being s Frenchwoman, and in being
+     united to the destiny of the sovereign whom you have freely chosen.
+     My son was less sure of your affections in the time of our
+     prosperity; his rights and his person are under your safeguard.
+
+     (By order) MONTALIVET.             (Signed) MARIA LOUISA
+     BLOIS, 3d April 1814.
+
+
+It is to be inferred that the Regency had within three days adopted the
+resolution of not quitting Blois, for the above document presents no
+blanks, nor words filled up in writing.  The Empress' proclamation,
+though a powerful appeal to the feelings of the French people, produced
+no effect.  Maria Louisa's proclamation was dated the 4th of April, on
+the evening of which day Napoleon signed the conditional abdication, with
+the fate of which the reader has already been made acquainted.  M. de
+Montalivet transmitted the Empress' proclamation, accompanied by another
+circular, to the prefects, of whom very few received it.
+
+M. de Champagny, having left Blois with the letter he had received from
+the Empress, proceeded to the headquarters of the Emperor of Austria,
+carefully avoiding those roads which were occupied by Cossack troops.
+He arrived, not without considerable difficulty, at Chanseaux, where
+Frances II.  was expected.  When the Emperor arrived the Duc de Cadore
+was announced, and immediately introduced to his Majesty.  The Duke
+remained some hours with Francis II., without being able to obtain from
+him anything but fair protestations.  The Emperor always took refuge
+behind the promise he had given to his Allies to approve whatever
+measures they might adopt.  The Duke was not to leave the Emperor's
+headquarters that evening, and, in the hope that his Majesty might yet
+reflect on the critical situation of his daughter, he asked permission to
+take leave next morning.  He accordingly presented himself to the
+Emperor's levee, when he renewed his efforts in support of the claims of
+Maria Louisa.  "I have a great affection for my daughter, and also for my
+son-in law," said the Emperor.  "I bear them both in my heart, and would
+shed my blood for them"--"Ah, Sire!" exclaimed M. de Champagny, "such a
+sacrifice is not necessary."--"Yes, Duke, I say again I would shed my
+blood, I would resign my life for them, but I have given my Allies a
+promise not to treat without them, and to approve all that they may do.
+Besides," added the Emperor, "my Minister, M. de Metternich, has gone to
+their headquarters, and I will ratify whatever he may sign."
+
+When the Duc de Cadore related to me the particulars of his mission, in
+which zeal could not work an impossibility, I remarked that he regarded
+as a circumstance fatal to Napoleon the absence of M. de Metternich and
+the presence of M. Stadion at the headquarters of the Emperor of Austria.
+Though in all probability nothing could have arrested the course of
+events, yet it is certain that the personal sentiments of the two
+Austrian Ministers towards Napoleon were widely different.  I am not
+going too far when I affirm that, policy apart, M. de Metternich was much
+attached to Napoleon. In support of this assertion I may quote a fact of
+which I can guarantee the authenticity:
+
+When M. de Metternich was complimented on the occasion of Maria Louisa's
+marriage he replied, "To have contributed to a measure which has received
+the approbation of 80,000,000 men is indeed a just subject of
+congratulation."  Such a remark openly made by the intelligent Minister
+of the Cabinet of Vienna was well calculated to gratify the ears of
+Napoleon, from whom, however, M. de Metternich in his personal relations
+did not conceal the truth.  I recollect a reply which was made by M. de
+Metternich at Dresden after a little hesitation.  "As to you," said the
+Emperor, "you will not go to war with me.  It is impossible that you can
+declare yourself against me.  That can never be."--" Sire, we are not now
+quite allies, and some time hence we may become enemies."  This hint was
+the last which Napoleon received from Metternich, and Napoleon must have
+been blind indeed not to have profited by it.  As to M. Stadion, he
+entertained a profound dislike of the Emperor.  That Minister knew and
+could not forget that his preceding exclusion from the Cabinet of Vienna
+had been due to the all-powerful influence of Napoleon.
+
+Whether or not the absence of Metternich influenced the resolution of
+Francis II., it is certain that that monarch yielded nothing to the
+urgent solicitations of a Minister who conscientiously fulfilled the
+delicate mission consigned to him.  M. de Champagny rejoined the Empress
+at Orleans, whither she had repaired on leaving Blois.  He found Maria
+Louisa almost deserted, all the Grand Dignitaries of the Empire having
+successively returned to Paris after sending in their submissions to the
+Provisional Government.
+
+I had scarcely entered upon the exercise of my functions as Postmaster-
+General when, on the morning of the 2d of April, I was surprised to see a
+Prussian general officer enter my cabinet.  I immediately recognised him
+as General Blucher.  He had commanded the Prussian army in the battle
+which took place at the gates of Paris.  "Sir," said he, "I consider it
+one of my first duties on entering Paris to thank you for the attention I
+received from you in Hamburg.  I am sorry that I was not sooner aware of
+your being in Pains.  I assure you that had I been sooner informed of
+this circumstance the capitulation should have been made without a blow
+being struck.  How much blood might then have been spared!"--"General,"
+said I, "on what do you ground this assurance?"--"If I had known that you
+were in Paris I would have given you a letter to the King of Prussia.
+That monarch, who knows the resources and intentions of the Allies,
+would, I am sure, have authorised you to decide a suspension of arms
+before the neighbourhood of Paris became the theatre of the war."--
+"But," resumed I, "in spite of the good intentions of the Allies, it
+would have been very difficult to prevent resistance.  French pride,
+irritated as it was by reverses, would have opposed insurmountable
+obstacles to such a measure."--"But, good heavens!  you would have seen
+that resistance could be of no avail against such immense masses."--
+"You are right, General; but French honour would have been defended to
+the last."--"I am fully aware of that; but surely you have earned glory
+enough!"--"Yet our French susceptibility would have made us look upon
+that glory as tarnished if Paris had been occupied without defence ...
+But under present circumstances I am well pleased that you were satisfied
+with my conduct in Hamburg, for it induces me to hope that you will
+observe the same moderation in Paris that I exercised there.  The days
+are past when it could be said, Woe to the conquered."--" You are right;
+yet," added he, smiling, "you know we are called the northern
+barbarians."--" Then, General," returned I, "you have a fair opportunity
+of showing that that designation is a libel."
+
+Some days after Blucher's visit I had the honour of being admitted to a
+private audience of the King of Prussia.  Clarke and Berthier were also
+received in this audience, which took place at the hotel of Prince
+Eugene, where the King of Prussia resided in Paris.  We waited for some
+minutes in the salon, and when Frederick William entered from his cabinet
+I remarked on his countenance an air of embarrassment and austerity which
+convinced me that he had been studying his part, as great personages are
+in the habit of doing on similar occasions.  The King on entering the
+salon first noticed Berthier, whom he addressed with much kindness,
+bestowing praises on the French troops, and complimenting the Marshal on
+his conduct during the war in Germany.  Berthier returned thanks for
+these well-merited praises, for though he was not remarkable for strength
+of understanding or energy of mind, yet he was not a bad man, and I have
+known many proofs of his good conduct in conquered countries.
+
+After saluting Berthier the King of Prussia turned towards Clarke, and
+his countenance immediately assumed an expression of dissatisfaction.
+He had evidently not forgotten Clarke's conduct in Berlin.  He reminded
+him that he had rendered the Continental system more odious than it was
+in itself, and that he had shown no moderation in the execution of his
+orders.  "In short," said his Majesty, "if I have any advice to give you,
+it is that you never again return to Prussia."  The King pronounced these
+words in so loud and decided a tone that Clarke was perfectly confounded.
+He uttered some unintelligible observations, which, however, Frederick
+William did not notice, for suddenly turning towards me he said, with an
+air of affability, "Ah!  M. de Bourrienne, I am glad to see you, and I
+take this opportunity of repeating what I wrote to you from Gonigsberg.
+You always extended protection to the Germans, and did all you could to
+alleviate their condition.  I learned with great satisfaction what you
+did for the Prussians whom the fate of war drove into Hamburg; and I feel
+pleasure in telling you, in the presence of these two gentlemen, that if
+all the French agents had acted as you did we should not, probably, be
+here."  I expressed, by a profound bow, how much I was gratified by this
+complimentary address, and the king, after saluting us, retired.
+
+About the middle of April Bernadotte arrived in Paris.  His situation had
+become equivocal, since circumstances had banished the hopes he might
+have conceived in his interview with the Emperor Alexander at Abo.
+Besides, he had been represented in some official pamphlets as a traitor
+to France, and among certain worshippers of our injured glory there
+prevailed a feeling of irritation, and which was unjustly directed
+towards Bernadotte.
+
+I even remember that Napoleon, before he had fallen from his power, had a
+sort of national protest made by the police against the Prince Royal of
+Sweden.  This Prince had reserved an hotel in the Rue d'Anjou, and the
+words, "Down with the traitor!  down with the perjurer," were shouted
+there; but this had no result, as it was only considered an outrage
+caused by a spirit of petty vengeance.
+
+While Bernadotte was in Paris I saw him every day.  He but faintly
+disguised from me the hope he had entertained of ruling France; and in
+the numerous conversations to which our respective occupations led I
+ascertained, though Bernadotte did not formally tell me so, that he once
+had strong expectations of succeeding Napoleon.
+
+Pressed at last into his final intrenchments he broke through all reserve
+and confirmed all I knew of the interview of Abo.
+
+I asked Bernadotte what he thought of the projects which were attributed
+to Moreau; whether it was true that he had in him a competitor, and
+whether Moreau had aspired to the dangerous honour of governing France:
+"Those reports," replied the Prince Royal of Sweden, "are devoid of
+foundation: at least I can assure you that in the conversations I have
+had with the Emperor Alexander, that sovereign never said anything which
+could warrant such a supposition.  I know that the Emperor of Russia
+wished to avail himself of the military talents of Moreau in the great
+struggle that had commenced, and to enable the exiled general to return
+to his country, in the hope that, should the war prove fortunate, he
+would enjoy the honours and privileges due to his past services."
+
+Bernadotte expressed to me astonishment at the recall of the Bourbons,
+and assured me that he had not expected the French people would so
+readily have consented to the Restoration.  I confess I was surprised
+that Bernadotte, with the intelligence I knew him to possess, should
+imagine that the will of subjects has any influence in changes of
+government!
+
+During his stay in Paris Bernadotte evinced for me the same sentiments of
+friendship which he had shown me at Hamburg.  One day I received from him
+a letter, dated Paris, with which he transmitted to me one of the crosses
+of the Polar Star, which the King of Sweden had left at his disposal.
+Bernadotte was not very well satisfied with his residence in Paris, in
+spite of the friendship which the Emperor Alexander constantly manifested
+towards him.  After a few days he set out for Sweden, having first taken
+leave of the Comte d'Artois.  I did not see him after his farewell visit
+to the Count, so that I know not what was the nature of the conversation
+which passed between the two Princes.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Treaties of peace no less disastrous than the wars
+Yield to illusion when the truth was not satisfactory
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Memoirs of Napoleon--1814, v12
+by Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne
+
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