J ij ??"■ 
 
FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE FRENCH COURT. 
 
 From the French of Imbert de Saint-Amand. 
 
 Each with Portrait, 12mo, $1.25. 
 Three Volumes on Marie Antoinette. 
 
 MARIE ANTOINETTE AND THE END OF THE OLD REGIME. 
 
 MARIE ANTOINETTE AT THE TUILERIES (In press). 
 
 MARIE ANTOINETTE AND THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY (in press). 
 
 Three Volumes on the Empress Josephine. 
 
 CITIZENESS BONAPARTE. 
 
 THE WIFE OF THE FIRST CONSUL. 
 
 THE COURT OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. 
 
 . Four Volumes on the Empress Marie Louise. 
 
 THE HAPPY DAYS OF MARIE LOUISE. 
 MARIE LOUISE AND THE DECADENCE OF THE EMPIRE. 
 MARIE LOUISE AND THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 MARIE LOUISE, THE RETURN FROM ELBA AND THE HUNDRED DAYS 
 
 (In press). 
 
-^^^v^-,^.^\^:^<.xx ' 
 
 QtypGiuuf^^s)^ «2-<-^-^^<^^ 
 
MARIE LOUISE 
 
 THE INVASION OF 1814 
 
 BY 
 
 IMBERT DE SAINT-AMAND 
 
 TRANSLATED BY 
 THOMAS SERGEANT PERRY 
 
 ly 
 
 % 
 
 WITH PORTRAIT 
 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 i8qi 
 
COPYRIGHT, 189I, 
 BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS. 
 
 ^<l^ 
 
 
 THE LIBRART| 
 OFCONGRCCS 
 
 IwAsmtfOToir 
 
 y 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. The Opening of the Campaign 1 
 
 II. The First Fortnight of February 11 
 
 III. The Second Fortnight of February 23 
 
 IV. The First Fortnight of March 44 
 
 V. The Chatillon Congress 57 
 
 VI. Arcis-sur-Aube 82 
 
 VII. The March to the East 90 
 
 VIII. Paris at the End of March 102 
 
 IX. The Regent's Flight 119 
 
 X. The Battle of Paris 126 
 
 XI. Napoleon at the Fountains of Juvisy 139 
 
 XII. The Regency in Flight 147 
 
 XIII. Napoleon at Fontainebleau 155 
 
 XIV. The First Abdication 170 
 
 XV. The Defection of Essonnes 180 
 
 XVI. The Second Abdication 204 
 
 XVII. The Empress's Anguish 217 
 
 XVIII. Marie Louise at Orleans 238 
 
 iii 
 
IV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGB 
 
 XIX. The Attempt at Suicide 248 
 
 XX. The Last Week at Fontainebleau 258 
 
 XXI. The Leave-taking at Fontainebleau 266 
 
 XXIL The Journey to Elba 272 
 
 XXIII. The Last Days of Marie Louise in France 284 
 
MARIE LOUISE 
 
 AND 
 
 THE INVASION OF 1814 
 
' MARIE LOUISE 
 
 AND 
 
 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 I. 
 
 THE OPENING OF THE CAMPAIGN. 
 
 THE description of Paris and of the army during 
 the invasion is gloomy and painful reading. 
 The Parisians, with few exceptions, manifested no 
 heroism. In spite of the urgent danger, all the 
 theatres remained open. The capital, with its usual 
 frivolity, showed none of the deep feeling which 
 promises obstinate resistance. The prevailing im- 
 pression was one of weariness with war. Treason 
 was everywhere latent, obviously awaiting only a 
 good opportunity for breaking out. The National 
 Guard refused to march outside of the city. The 
 officials took more thought of themselves than of 
 their country. Whether Napoleon or the foreigners 
 should be applauded depended only on the chances 
 of war. Paris, alternating between groundless hopes 
 and the blackest despair, never faced the situation 
 fairly. All those that had been expelled by the 
 police returned in the general confusion, asserting 
 
 1 
 
THE INVASION OF 18 14. 
 
 that they would have been deemed criminal if they 
 had remained in the departments occupied by the 
 enemy. People came from a distance of more than 
 thirty leagues to find safety for their family and their 
 belongings in the capital. The farmers of the neigh- 
 borhood drove in their herds and flocks to the suburbs. 
 The population suddenly increased enormously, and 
 space was lacking for the new arrivals. The most 
 disturbing rumors were everywhere current, spread- 
 ing gloom and discouragement. In drawing-rooms, 
 in shops, in the streets, there was endless discussion 
 of the impending catastrophe. As was said by the 
 Duke of Rovigo, at that time Minister of Police, 
 coercion would have hastened a revolution, and the 
 slightest consolation that could be given to the suffer- 
 ing multitude was to leave it free to indulge in lam- 
 entations ; there was no lack of grounds for numerous 
 arrests, but, in justice, the prisons would have had to 
 be doubled, to hold all those more or less deserving 
 of incarceration. 
 
 The army, inspired by a patriotism more fervent 
 than that of the Parisians, did its duty and more than 
 its duty. It fought and suffered with a heroism worthy 
 of a better fate. It is hard to say which were the 
 more admirable, the beardless youths or the gray- 
 haired veterans. Men like them would have saved 
 France, if France could have been saved ; but, in spite 
 of their tireless energy, their indomitable courage, 
 they felt that they were doomed by fate. Napoleon, 
 with all his genius, knew no more of those lucky, 
 
THE OPENING OF THE CAMPAIGN. 3 
 
 almost miraculous chances which had so often saved 
 him from apparently certain ruin at the beginning of 
 his career. The setting of the sun bore no likeness 
 to its rising, and soon there was to fall the night in 
 which the Imperial star was extinct. 
 
 Nevertheless, the opening of the campaign showed 
 no lack of brilliancy. Napoleon, who had left Paris, 
 in the morning of January 25, 1814, reached Chalons- 
 sur-Marne the same day. His generals said he must 
 have brought troops with him. " No," he answered 
 coolly ; and then when they were in consternation at 
 this confession he filled them with new hope by his 
 bold plans. "No one is ever beaten unless by his 
 own consent. Doubtless we shall have dark days, 
 when we shall have but one man against three, or 
 even four ; but we used to do that when we were 
 young, and we ought to know how to do it now that 
 we are old. . . . We have won every form of glory ; 
 we must win the last which is the crown of all ; that 
 is, to face bad luck and triumph over it." 
 
 The next day, Wednesday, January 26, at n'oon, 
 Empress Marie Louise, surrounded by the princes of 
 the Imperial family, the high dignitaries, the Minis- 
 ters, the high officers, the Grand Eagles of the 
 Legion of Honor, the ladies and officers in waiting, 
 received, in the Throne Room at the Tuileries, a 
 deputation of the National Guard of Paris. Marshal 
 Moncey, Duke of Conegliano, presented her with an 
 address : " Madame," he said, " His Majesty the Em- 
 peror and King has deigned to permit his faithful 
 
THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 subjects, the officers of the National Guard of Paris, 
 to lay before the throne the expression of their love ; 
 and fidelity. These they have endeavored to express : 
 in this way : Sire, on his departure to assume com- 
 mand of the armies, Your Majesty confides his be- 
 loved wife, his son, the nation's hope, and entrusts 
 the security, the tranquillity of the capital, to our 
 love, our fidelity, our courage. Your noble words, 
 Sire, have found an echo in our hearts. Would that 
 they had been heard as well in the remotest corners 
 of France ! . . . Depart, Sire, with confidence. Let 
 no disquiet about the fate of what you and we hold 
 most dear, trouble your great thoughts. Go with 
 our sons and brothers to drive away the assembled 
 forces of the enemy ravaging our provinces. To the 
 strength of your troops and to the power of your 
 genius, we shall add the power of public spirit, 
 aroused by our country's danger, by the might of 
 national pride, indignant at the insolent pride of the 
 foreigners, and very soon the enemy will recognize 
 the imprudence of their undertaking and the falsity 
 of their hopes. . . . On receiving the crown, Sire, 
 you received also our oaths. We lay them once more 
 before Your Majesty, before your revered wife, so 
 worthy of your love and of ours. . . . Before the 
 cradle of your august son, Madame, we beg Your 
 Majesty to convey the expression of our feelings to 
 your august spouse." 
 
 They were hastening to burn what was left of the 
 Imperial incense ; soon they were to be offering it 
 before the Royalists. 
 
THE OPENING OF THE CAMPAIGN. b 
 
 January 27, at eight in the morning, Napoleon 
 entered Saint Dizier. On seeing him, the despondent 
 populace took new courage and became more hopeful. 
 A letter from this place, dated January 28, was 
 printed in the Moiiiteur. It ran thus : " The enemy 
 were here two days ago, committing deeds of violence, 
 respecting neither age nor sex. Women and old men 
 were exposed to their insults and maltreatment. The 
 arrival yesterday of the French troops put an end to 
 our sufferings. The Emperor's entry was the occa- 
 sion of most touching scenes. The whole populace 
 gathered about him ; all our sufferings were forgotten. 
 An old colonel, M. Bouland, who is seventy years of 
 age, threw himself at his feet which he bedewed with 
 tears of joy, and gave expression both to all the grief 
 that a brave soldier must feel at seeing his native 
 land polluted by the presence of the enemy, and his 
 joy at seeing them in flight before the Imperial 
 eagles." 
 
 Napoleon, with all the ardor of his youth, ma- 
 noeuvred to prevent the junction of the army of 
 Silesia, commanded by Bliicher, with that of Bohemia, 
 commanded by Schwarzenberg. For the conflict he 
 had but fifty thousand men to oppose to the two 
 hundred and thirty thousand of the enemy ; neverthe- 
 less he was full of confidence. His plan was to throw 
 himself on the flank of the forces of the Coalition, to 
 surprise them by this attack, which should disconcert 
 and possibly destroy the enemy. That is why he 
 left the Marne, turning suddenly to the right, towards 
 
THE INVASION OF 18 U. 
 
 the Aube. His aim was Brienne, which Bliicher was 
 passing through at that moment. He made his wayl 
 through the dark forest by a straight road which 
 favored his impatience. At Maizi^res, a village 
 near Brienne, he said to the National Guards, who 
 were crowding about him : '' We fight to-day for our j 
 firesides, and must defend them well, and not let the ■ 
 Cossacks get to them. They are wretched guests,, 
 and will not leave any room for you. Let us show 
 them that every Frenchman is born a soldier, and a 
 good soldier." 
 
 The Emperor recognized the cur^ of Maizi^res as 
 one of his former regents of the College of Brienne. 
 " What ! It's you, my dear master ! " he exclaimed. 
 " So you have never left the country ? So much the 
 better ! You will be all the more competent to serve 
 the nation. I needn't ask if you know the neighbor- 
 hood." " Sire, I could find my way everywhere blind- 
 folded." " Then come -with us ; you will be our 
 guide, and we can talk." The old cur^ mounted the 
 horse of Roustan the Mameluke and became the 
 guide of the army. 
 
 January 29, was fought the battle of Brienne, be- 
 tween Napoleon and Bliicher. The town, divided 
 into four sections by two intersecting streets, was 
 lost and taken several times. One moment the Em- 
 peror thought that Bliicher had been made prisoner. 
 " We've got the old swordsman ! " he shouted ; " the 
 campaign will be a short one." But he was mistaken ; 
 the Prussian general had not been captured ; he was 
 
THE OPENi^'G OF THE CAMPAIGN. 7 
 
 retreating. The French conscripts, though the enemy 
 was two to one, finally defeated the veterans of the 
 Coalition. 
 
 January 31, 1814, Napoleon wrote from Brienne to 
 his brother Joseph : " The affair at Brienne was very 
 hot. I lost three thousand men, and the enemy four or 
 five thousand. I pursued the enemy half-way to Bar- 
 sur-Aube. I had the bridges over the Aube, which had 
 been burned, repaired. A minute more and General 
 Bliicher with his whole staff would have been cap- 
 tured. The nephew of Chancellor von Hardenberg 
 was captured by their side ; they were on foot and 
 did not know that I was with the army. Since this 
 fight, our troops have a high reputation with the 
 Allies, who had doubted of their existence. . . . This 
 battle, the position of our armies, and their reputa- 
 tion, may hasten a peace. It would be well for the 
 Paris newspapers to speak of the preparations for 
 defence and of the arrival of many troops from all 
 quarters." 
 
 After the battle, Napoleon established his head- 
 quarters in the castle of Brienne, where he spent two 
 nights. "During this stay," says Constant, his valet 
 de chambre, " I recalled that of ten years earlier at 
 this same castle, when he was on his way to Milan to 
 add the title of King of Italy to that of Emperor 
 of the French. Now, I said to myself, not only is 
 Italy lost to him, but in the middle of the French 
 Empire, only a few leagues from his capital, the Em- 
 peror is defending himself from numberless enemies. 
 
8 T3E INVASION OF ISU. 
 
 Most of those with him, accustomed to count on his 
 good fortune, still trusted to it ; yet we could not 
 deny that there had been a great change. It was very 
 plain that we were in front of a mass of foreigners 
 whom hitherto we had seen only in their own coun- 
 tries, and who now were in our country in their turn." 
 
 General de Segur also describes Napoleon returning 
 after so many distant victories to the military school 
 of Brienne, where he had spent his youth, and finding 
 it ravaged, filled with corpses, littered with ruins. 
 Then the battle-worn soldier was moved. He meditated 
 on the many evils of which he was the main cause, and 
 yearned to repair them. To console the inhabitants 
 for their losses he lavished money out of his own 
 purse. Hearing that many young and beautiful 
 women had in their terror sought refuge in the cel- 
 lars of the castle, he had them brought out, and con- 
 soled them himself, inviting them to dine at his own 
 table. He told them that he would rebuild the town, 
 that he would buy the castle and turn it into a fine 
 military establishment, or, rather, into an Imperial 
 palace. After dinner, memories of his boyhood re- 
 curred to him, and he talked for some time, ending 
 with this melancholy exclamation : " Could I have 
 imagined then that I should have to defend this town 
 against the Russians!" 
 
 At Brienne, in the severe winter of 1783, he had 
 made bastions, parapets, and trenches in the snow, 
 and divided the pupils into two camps. He made 
 himself commander-in-chief of the besieging forces 
 
THE OPENING OF THE CAMPAIGN. 9 
 
 and led them to the attack with such vigor that the 
 game had to be stopped, many of the contestants 
 having received real wounds. Alas ! how many other 
 men was he to have killed or wounded in his terrible 
 career I When he recalled the winter of 1783, did 
 he think of the winter of 1812? 
 
 " When we Avere at Malmaison," says Bourrienne, 
 " how often, when we were walking in the path lead- 
 ing to the plain of Rueil, did the village bell inter- 
 rupt our most serious conversations ! Bonaparte used to 
 stop in order not to lose any of the sound, in which he 
 delighted. It used to impress him so strongly that 
 he would say to me, with emotion : ' That recalls my 
 first years at Brienne. Then I was happy ! ' When 
 the sound was silent, he would resume his vast reve- 
 ries." Yes, then he was happy ! But when his dreams 
 had come true, when he had attained an immense, 
 unrivalled glory, and torrents of blood had been shed, 
 what did it avail him? The plain uniform of the 
 pupil was better than coronation robes ; the innocence 
 of childhood better than the conqueror's pride ! His 
 thoughts must have been bitter; his remorse, keen. 
 
 But the noise of battle soon interrupted Napoieon's 
 reveries. From the hill of Brienne he looked down 
 on the plain of Rothi^re, where, January 31, the two 
 armies confronted each other. The battle was to be 
 fought the next day, with all the chances against the 
 thirty-seven thousand Frenchmen, who had to con- 
 tend with one hundred and fifty thousand of the 
 enemy. The sky was dark ; the snow was falling 
 
10 THE INVASION OF ISU. 
 
 heavily. January was going out in gloom, and 
 the month of February was to be even more ter- 
 rible. It was with a certain satisfaction that Paris 
 had heard of the success at Brienne, but optimism 
 was not common. The disasters had been too fre- 
 quent for any confidence to be felt in Napoleon's star. 
 The newspapers in the pay of the government in vain 
 sought to arouse confidence ; confidence did not 
 come at command. The same distress filled the 
 Emperor's headquarters and the Tuileries. Even 
 Marie Louise, in spite of the atmosphere of flattery 
 in which she lived, in spite of the pains taken to 
 conceal or to lessen every painful truth, was anxious 
 and alarmed. Chamberlains, ministers, officials, try 
 as they might, could not wear the confident look of 
 earlier days. All these frightened courtiers resembled 
 a band of stray actors who do not know whether the 
 theatre they are playing in one evening will admit 
 them the next. 
 
II. 
 
 THE FIRST FORTNIGHT OF FEBRUARY. 
 
 nVTO drama is more crowded with incident and 
 -LM anguish than is the campaign of 1814, a bitter 
 struggle between despair and hope, between the force 
 of events and genius. Neither Champaubert nor 
 Montmirail, those days of miracles, were to save the 
 Empire ; yet what glory there was in the disasters 
 of this fatal and memorable war! Meissonier, the 
 artist who has at times done such great painting on 
 minute canvases, has reproduced better than any one 
 the sombre and austere poetry of this unhappy period. 
 His Napoleon on horseback, sad and solemn, in a col- 
 orless plain half covered with snow, is advancing 
 slowly, as if clogged by fate. His generals are fol- 
 lowing him in silence ; their sturdy but sad faces show 
 that only their heroism preserves them from discour- 
 agement. All the sufferings and all the deceptions 
 of France violated, invaded, mutilated, seem to be 
 united in this picture, which inspires a feeling of patri- 
 otic pity. The conqueror's faults are forgotten, his 
 contempt for human life, his grand but futile plans, 
 his haughtiness, only equalled by his genius ; the 
 
 11 
 
12 THE INVASION OF ISI4. 
 
 despot yields to the soldier; we pity his anguish 
 because it is not that of a common man, even of a 
 monarch, but that of an entire nation. The separa- 
 tion of some of the provinces from France was like 
 maiming the Emperor himself. Madame de Str/Jl, 
 his implacable foe, said: "Bonaparte's campaign 
 against the Allies, in the winter of 1814, is generally 
 recognized as yqyj fine, and even the Frenchmen 
 whom he had proscribed could not keep from wish- 
 ing that he might succeed in saving the independence 
 of their country." It was a vigorous and obstinate 
 defence that he made, one directed by a sure hand. 
 In his wrath with fickle fortune, Napoleon fought 
 with indignation and rage. The insulting proposi- 
 tions of European diplomacy aroused his wrath to 
 such a degree of fury that his energy became more 
 than human in his struggle, not merely against fate, 
 but against remorse, against his conscience, which 
 reproached him bitterly for having gone to Moscow to 
 arouse the Cossacks and to tempt them to the banks 
 of the Seine. In his petty army, tried by sublime 
 devotion and courage, were heroes, some with smooth 
 faces, others with gray beards ; there were young 
 men with the same fervor as the young men of 1792, 
 veterans whom misfortune, after so much glory, 
 found firm and indomitable. As Lacordaire said in 
 his funeral oration over General Drouot : " The hour 
 for great souls is that when everything is lost I " 
 
 February opened disastrously ; on the first day of 
 the month Napoleon lost the battle of Rothi^re: 
 
THE FIRST FOliTNIGUT OF FEBHUAUY. 13 
 
 thirty-seven thousand men could not triumph over 
 one hundred and fifty thousand. Though defeated, 
 the great general remained impassible amid a storm 
 of bullets and cannon-balls, saying to those who 
 urged his withdrawal to a place of safety, "No; 
 leave me alone; don't you know that our days are 
 numbered?" In the night it was only with difficulty 
 that he decided to beat a retreat. So great remained 
 his ascendancy over his enemies that they did not 
 pursue him ; they could not believe in their own suc- 
 cess, and when the sun rose in the morning of Feb- 
 ruary 2, it was an hour before the sight of the vast 
 empty plain convinced them of their victory. 
 
 February 3, King Joseph wrote to the Emperor: 
 " Yesterday and the day before there was too much 
 confidence ; to-day there is too little. To-day I have 
 visited the outposts on the left bank ; they will be in 
 readiness in three days. I was much pleased with 
 the aspect of the suburbs." And February 5 : " To-day 
 I found much despondency, and I had great difficulty 
 in encouraging a number of persons. I have seen 
 the Empress twice, and I left her in a calmer state 
 last evening; she had just received a letter from 
 Your Majesty in which mention was made of the 
 Congress. If Your Majesty should meet with serious 
 reverses, what form of government should be left 
 here to prevent conspirators from heading a move- 
 ment? Jerome asks me what is to be done in this 
 case. Men are coming, but we have no money for 
 their equipment." 
 
14 THE INVASION OF 18U. 
 
 Every day swelled the general alarm. Napoleon 
 wrote from Troyes, to Joseph, February 6 : " Have 
 everything valuable removed from Fontainebleau, and 
 especially everything that might figure as a trophy, 
 yet Avithout stripping the palace." The same day 
 the Emperor, hearing that the invaders were out- 
 flanking him and moving towards Paris, perceived 
 that he had to leave Troyes. Thirteen leagues of 
 territory were abandoned by this retreat. The sol- 
 diers marched in utter gloom. " When are we to 
 halt?" was the question on every one's lips. The 
 7th they reached Nogent, where, for a few hours, 
 everything seemed hopeless. Napoleon was dis- 
 traught by the necessity of thinking of the capital, 
 alive with Royalist intrigue; of the battle-fields, 
 where he was perpetually risking his own life and 
 the future of France ; of the Congress of Chatillon, 
 where negotiations were going on while the armies 
 were fighting, and whence came propositions, each 
 more humiliating than the one before. It was hard 
 for him to keep his head amid so many dangers. Bad 
 news arrived from every quarter of the Empire, like 
 birds of evil 'omen crowding to a single spot. Two 
 hundred and fifty thousand Frenchmen were scattered 
 about most needlessly, — fifty thousand on the Elbe, 
 one hundred thousand under the Pyrenees, and a 
 hundred and fifty thousand beyond the Alps. What 
 might not these two hundred and fifty thousand men 
 have accomplished if they had not been scattered in 
 this useless way ? There was still a chance for safety. 
 
THE FIRST FORTNIGHT OF FEBRUARY. 15 
 
 if Murat could unite with Prince Eugene to attack 
 the Austrian rear. But, to the general amazement, 
 Murat had become the ally of the Austrians and 
 the English. 
 
 Napoleon, betrayed on every side, wrote in utter 
 sadness : " It is my marriage that has wrought my 
 ruin ! I don't complain of the Empress, but counted 
 too much upon the Austrians ! . . . My father-in- 
 law, Metternich, their army corps which served under 
 my flag in 1812, have deceived me ! And, finally, 
 you see that every tiling, even the winter, has con- 
 spired against me. The earth, which was frozen hard 
 on the eve of my march to Brienne, turned to mud 
 the next day. Marmont remained there, and that 
 unfortunate affair at Rothi^re, which I could not 
 avoid, makes peace indispensable. My soldiers are 
 unwilling to fight any more." The Allies had in- 
 vaded Aix-la-Chapelle, Liege, Brussels, all Belgium. 
 They had again taken possession of the Marne, cap- 
 tured Vitry, and forced Chalons to surrender. As a 
 condition of peace they insisted on confining France 
 within its old boundaries, the boundaries of 1790. 
 " What ! " exclaimed Napoleon ; " ask me to sign such 
 a treaty, to trample upon my oath I Un-heard-of re- 
 verses have forced me to renounce further conquests, 
 but to abandon those of the Republic, to destroy what 
 was confided to my keeping, and after so many efforts 
 and so many victories, to leave France smaller than I 
 found it, never ! It would be treason and cowardice. 
 You fear the prolonging of the war, and I fear still 
 
16 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 more certain dangers which you do not foresee ! . . . 
 Consider ! what should I be to the French after putting 
 my signature to their humiliation? What answer 
 could I make to the Republicans of the Senate when 
 they came to ask of me once more the boundary of 
 the Rhine?" Nevertheless, the Emperor's counsel- 
 lors, deeming longer resistance hopeless, besought 
 him to yield. All night long Napoleon lay awake; 
 his heart torn by anguish, and he was heard to mutter 
 in a dull, broken voice : " Very well ; yes, you shall 
 have peace, you want it — but you will see that it is 
 a disgraceful peace ! " 
 
 At this time Paris was overwhelmed with terror. 
 Joseph wrote to Napoleon, February 7 : " The evacu- 
 ation of Chalons has thrown us all into consternation." 
 And Marie Louise wrote to Joseph the next day: 
 "The Emperor tells me not to worry. You know 
 that is impossible." Already people began to think 
 of the possibility of the Empress's departure. Feb- 
 ruary 7, at eleven in the evening, Joseph wrote to 
 Napoleon a long letter from which we make this 
 extract : " I am very desirous that the Empress shall 
 not depart. We cannot hide from ourselves that the 
 alarm and despair of the populace would have sad 
 and fatal results. I think, as do all whose opinion 
 I value, that we should make every sacrifice before 
 proceeding to this extremity. Men devoted to Your 
 Majesty's government fear lest the Empress's depart- 
 ure would drive the people of the capital to despair, 
 and hand over the capital and the Empire to the 
 
THE FIRST FORTNIGHT OF FEBRUARY. 17 
 
 Bourbons. While I thus give utterance to the terrors 
 which I read on every face, Your Majesty may be 
 assured that his orders will be executed by me with 
 the utmost fidelity as soon as I receive them." 
 
 Napoleon received this letter at Nogent, at the very 
 moment when he thought that nothing was left for 
 him but to die on the field of battle. His letter in reply 
 was published for the first time in full, by the Baron 
 Ducasse, in his interesting volume, The Royal Brothers 
 of Napoleon L Here are a few passages from this 
 letter, dated Nogent, February 8, 1814, 4 a.m., which 
 was to have such disastrous consequences before the 
 end of the following month : — 
 
 ''My Brother: I have received your letter of the 
 7th at 11 P.M. It Surprises me much. I have read 
 King Louis's letter, which is a mere rhapsody ; that 
 man has but little judgment, and he never grasps a 
 question properly. I have spoken to you about the 
 case of Paris, that you should not call the end in 
 question any more ; it concerns more people than me. 
 When that happens, I shall be no longer alive ; con- 
 sequently, I don't speak for myself. I told you, 
 about the Empress and the King of Rome, what the 
 circumstances indicate, and you have failed to under- 
 stand what I said. You may be sure that if that con- 
 tingency arrives, what I foretold to you will infallibly 
 happen. I am sure that she too has a presentiment of 
 this [an allusion to Marie Louise, who thought that 
 the Emperor would get himself killed]. King Louis 
 speaks of peace, which is giving his advice at a very 
 
18 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 
 
 improper time. Moreover, I don't understand your 
 letter at all. I thought I had explained everything to 
 you ; you never remember anything, and you always 
 agree with the first man who talks to you and im- 
 presses his views on you. I repeat it then : Paris 
 will never be occupied while I am alive ; I have the 
 right to be believed by those who hear me." 
 
 Those who reproach General Ducrot for his cele- 
 brated proclamation at the siege of Paris should 
 reflect on this broken promise. But to return to the 
 letter of February 8, 1814 : " Afterwards, if by force of 
 circumstances which I cannot now foresee, if I should 
 move towards the Loire, I should not leave the Em- 
 press and my son far from me, because, in any event, 
 it might happen that they would be captured and 
 carried to Vienna; and that would happen all the 
 sooner if I were no longer alive." 
 
 Referring to Talleyrand, Fouche, and a few others, 
 the Emperor went on : "I do not understand how, 
 during these intrigues under your very eyes, you 
 express such imprudent praise of the proposition of 
 traitors unworthy of advising any honorable course. 
 Yes, I will be frank with you ; if Talleyrand shares 
 this opinion about letting the Empress leave Paris, in 
 case the enemy should approach, it is treason. I say 
 to you once more, be on your guard against that 
 man ; that is what I have done for sixteen years. I 
 have ever been kind to him ; but he is certainly the 
 greatest enemy of our house, now that fortune has 
 for some time abandoned us. Regard the counsel I \ 
 give you ; I know more than those people. 
 
THE FIRST FORTNIGHT OF FEBRUARY. 19 
 
 " If a battle should be lost, and news of my death 
 should come, you would hear of it before any one else. 
 See that the Empress and the King of Rome leave at 
 once for Rambouillet ; give orders to the Senate, the 
 Council of State, and all the troops to assemble on 
 the Loire. Leave at Paris a prefect and an Imperial 
 Commission or some of the mayors. ... But do not let 
 the Empress and the King of Rome fall into the ene- 
 my's hands. Be sure that from that moment Austria, 
 being no longer interested, would carry her to Vienna 
 with a generous allowance, and under the pretext of 
 seeing the Empress happy, would force the French 
 to adopt whatever the Regent of England and Russia 
 might suggest. Every party would find itself thereby 
 destroyed, while, in the opposite case, the national 
 spirit of the great number of those interested in the 
 revolt would render every result incalculable. . . . 
 It is to the interest of Paris that the Empress and 
 the King of Rome do not stay there, because this 
 interest cannot be divided from their persons, and 
 because, since the foundation of the world, I have 
 never known of a monarch's being captured in an 
 unfortified town : it would be the first case. 
 
 " In the confusion of a great crisis, one does what 
 one has to do, and lets the rest go. Now, if I live, I 
 am to be obeyed ; and I have no doubt of this obedi- 
 ence. If I die, my son reigning and the Empress 
 Regent ought, for the honor of the French, not to 
 let themselves be taken, and should retreat to the 
 remotest village. Remember what the wife of Philip 
 
20 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 V. said. Indeed, what would be said of the Empress ? 
 That she abandoned the throne of her son and of 
 ourselves ; and the Allies would prefer to end every- 
 thing by carrying her a prisoner to Vienna. I am 
 surprised that you don't see that. It is evident that 
 every one's head in Paris is turned by fear." 
 
 This memorable letter ended with this fear, or, 
 more truly, this prophecy: "For my part, I had 
 rather my son should have his throat cut than that I 
 should see him brought up in Vienna as an Austrian 
 prince ; and I have a high enough opinion of the 
 Empress to be sure that she shares this opinion so 
 far as a woman and a mother can." 
 
 Suddenly, just when everything seemed absolutely 
 hopeless, after the night of February 8, in which there 
 were prepared for the Duke of Vicenza, the French 
 plenipotentiary at tlie Congress of Chatillon, de- 
 spatches pacific even to humiliation. Napoleon learned 
 that Bliicher, with perilous audacity, had entered 
 Brie, in Champagne, and was making forced marches 
 on Paris. At once the Emperor, as if arousing from 
 a disturbed sleep, breathed new hope, and resolved to 
 make the Prussians pay well for their boldness by 
 suddenly falling on their flank. With the eye of an 
 eagle about to seize his prey, he saw the very point 
 where he was to attack them. Then passing in a 
 moment from the blackest despair to boundless confi- 
 dence, his pride reviving and filled with regret for 
 the concessions he had prepared himself to make, he 
 expected to regain everything by a single stroke. He 
 
THE FIRST FORTNIGHT OF FEBRUARY. 21 
 
 I saw himself already victorious over the Coalition, 
 driving it over the frontiers, pursuing it beyond the 
 Rhine, the Elba, the Vistula. He was bending over 
 his maps, measuring distances with a compass, when 
 the Duke of Bassano entered the room with the 
 despatches prepared in the night for the Congress. 
 " Oh ! it's you ! " exclaimed Napoleon. " Well, we 
 have something very different before us now. I am 
 now preparing to beat Bliicher. He is advancing by 
 the Montmirail road; I shall leave and beat him 
 to-morrow and the next day. If this movement is as 
 successful as it ought to be, the state of affairs will 
 be entirely changed, and then we shall see." 
 
 Then followed a series of wonders, like the most 
 brilliant days of the Italian campaign. The 10th, 
 Napoleon beat the Russians at Champaubert; the 
 11th, he won the bloody victory of Montmirail over 
 the Prussians; the 12th, he pursued the fleeing foe 
 and triumphed at Chateau-Thierry; the 14th, he 
 beat Bliicher at Vauchamps. It had taken him only 
 five days to disorganize the army of Silesia, and to 
 capture twenty-eight thousand men of this army of 
 sixty thousand. This brilliant result, this series of 
 Adctories, made a great impression on Paris, without, 
 however, seriously affecting the natural alarm of the 
 populace. Yet Joseph, having heard of the victor}^ 
 of Champaubert, had written to Napoleon, February 
 11: — 
 
 " Sire : I received Your Majesty's letter at the 
 moment I was reviewing the National Guard of Paris 
 
22 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 in the courtyard of the Tuileries. I communicated 
 the good news to the officers, who were filled with 
 the utmost enthusiasm. Six thousand men of the 
 National Guard were present, well equipped and in 
 excellent spirits. The King of Rome was at his win- 
 dow, and was greeted with cries of 'Long live the 
 Emperor ! ' I also told the news to the Councillors 
 of State, and all Paris is joyous ; for in fact the 
 national honor is not extinct. The Empress, whom 
 I saw before she went out, and whom I have just 
 seen again, has ordered that cannon be fired, and that 
 the news be announced at the theatres this evening." 
 The Imperial star still shone bright just before set- 
 ting. Never had Napoleon shown himself a more 
 skilful tactician. One short, heroic week had been 
 enough for him to capture from the Allies five gen- 
 erals, sixty-eight cannons, many wagons and stores, 
 and more than twenty-eight thousand prisoners. The 
 army of Silesia which, on the 9th of February, had 
 been only twelve leagues from Paris, was driven 
 back by the 14th to forty leagues. Napoleon, de- 
 sirous that the capital should still believe in its 
 Emperor's genius and good fortune, gave orders that 
 the eighteen thousand prisoners he had captured at 
 Champaubert, Montmirail, Chateau-Thierry, and Vau- 
 champs, should be at once despatched to Paris, and 
 that there, to convince the most incredulous of the 
 great results obtained, they should march along the 
 boulevards and past the Column Vend6me. 
 
III. 
 
 THE SECOND FORTNIGHT OF FEBRUARY. 
 
 AT the beginning of the second fortnight of 
 February Napoleon was far from despairing of 
 his chances. Still, the defeat of the army of Silesia 
 was only an episode, not a final solution. He now 
 had to contend with the Austrian army commanded 
 by the Prince of Schwarzenberg, who, after having 
 forced the bridges of Nogent, Bray, and Montereau, 
 was advancing on Nangis. The Bavarians, under 
 General von Wrede, and the Russians, under General 
 Wittgenstein, formed the vanguard. The Austrian 
 corps of Bianchi was marching on Fontainebleau, 
 while Platow's Cossacks were devastating the region 
 between the Yonne and the Loire. Napoleon reached 
 Meaux February 15, and the next day moved towards 
 Guignes. The road was covered with carts, into 
 which the neighboring villagers crowded a durable 
 supply of provisions for the weary soldiers. The 
 artillery advanced in post-wagons. 
 
 The same day the Parisians read in the Moniteur: 
 " The exasperation of the inhabitants is at its height. 
 The enemy is everywhere committing the most horri- 
 
24 THE INVASION OF 18 14. 
 
 ble outrages. All the measures are taken for sur- 
 rounding them on every side at the first movement in 
 retreat. Thousands await only this moment to rise, 
 The sacred soil which the enemy have polluted wil 
 be their grave. This army of Silesia, composed oi 
 the Russian corps of Sachen and Langeron, and 
 Kleist's and York's Prussian corps, and consisting of 
 eighty thousand men, has been beaten, scattered, an- 
 nihilated, in four days." February 18 the Moniteur 
 contained this article : " The atrocities committed by 
 the Cossacks pass all conception. In their wild 
 intoxication they have offered violence to women of 
 sixty and girls of twelve. The peasants, in their 
 eagerness for vengeance, guided by invalided soldiers, 
 and armed with the guns of the enemy picked up on 
 the battle-field, have laid hands on all they have met. 
 Those armies which boasted that they had entered 
 our territory to bring peace, happiness, science, and 
 arts, will meet with destruction." 
 
 Napoleon had slept at Nangis February 17. In the 
 evening a flag of truce appeared at the outposts. It 
 was Count von Paar, who asked for an armistice in 
 the name of Prince Schwarzenberg. The next day 
 Napoleon wrote to Joseph : — 
 
 "My Brother: Prince Schwarzenberg has just 
 shown a sign of life. He has sent a flag of truce 
 to ask for a suspension of hostilities. It is not easy 
 to be so cowardly. Constantly he had refused in 
 the most insulting terms every form of the suspen- 
 sion of hostilities, of armistice, even the reception 
 
THE SECOND FORTNIGHT OF FEBRUARY. 25 
 
 of my flags of truce, after the battles of Dantzic 
 and of Dresden, — a horrible thing, almost unheard 
 of in history. These wretches fall on their knees 
 at the first reverse. Fortunately Prince Schwar- 
 zenberg's aide-de-camp was denied entrance. I have 
 only received his letter, which I shall answer at 
 my convenience. I shall grant no armistice until 
 they have evacuated my territory. From what I 
 hear, everything has altered with the Allies. The 
 Emperor of Russia, who a few days ago broke off 
 negotiations because he wished to impose on France 
 severer conditions than her old boundaries, now de- 
 sires to renew them ; and I hope soon to make a peace 
 on the Frankfort basis, which is the least that I can 
 do with honor. Before beginning operations I offered 
 to sign a treaty accepting the old boundaries, pro- 
 vided they would stop at once. This step was taken 
 by the Duke of Vicenza on the 8th. They an- 
 swered in the negative, alleging that even signing 
 the preliminaries would not put a stop to hostilities, 
 which could only happen when all the articles of 
 peace were signed. This inconceivable reply has 
 been punished ; and yesterday, the 17th, they begged 
 for an armistice ! You may imagine that, being on 
 the eve of a battle in which I was determined to con- 
 quer or to perish, and in which, if I were beaten, my 
 capital would have been taken, I agreed to anything 
 to avoid this terrible risk. I owed to my family and 
 to my people this sacrifice of my pride; but when 
 they refused it, and the risk of battle was renewed 
 
26 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 and the chances of ordinary war returned, in which 
 my capital was no longer imperilled by a single battle, 
 and everything was in my favor, I owe it to the 
 interest of the Empire and to my own glory to nego- 
 tiate a real peace. If I had signed with the old 
 boundaries, I should have renewed the war in two 
 years, telling the nation that it was not a peace that 
 I had signed, but a capitulation. In the new state 
 of affairs I should not be able to say it, since now 
 that fortune is once more favorable to me I am master 
 of the conditions." 
 
 Was this optimism sincere? Was Napoleon try- 
 ing to deceive others or to deceive himself ? How- 
 ever this may be, the end of the letter seems to show 
 great confidence in the future. " The enemy," he 
 said, "is in a very different condition from that in 
 which it was when the Frankfort conditions were 
 proposed and is convinced that but few of its troops 
 will again cover the frontiers. The cavalry is very 
 tired and dispirited ; the infantry worn out by march- 
 ing and countermarching, and thoroughly discour- 
 aged. Hence I hope to be able to make a peace 
 such as every reasonable man could desire ; and my 
 desires do not go beyond the Frankfort propositions. 
 Spread it abroad that the enemy has asked for an 
 armistice or a suspension of hostilities ; an absurd 
 request, because it would rob me of the advantages 
 I had gained by my manoeuvres ; add that this 
 shows their discouragement. Don't let it be printed, 
 but have it said everj^ where." 
 
THE SECOND FORTNIGHT OF FEBRUARY. 27 
 
 February 18, the day this letter was written, Napo- 
 leon was victorious at the battle of Montereau, one 
 of the most brilliant affairs of the campaign. Never 
 had he shown greater audacity. Recalling his train- 
 ing in the artillery, he aimed the guns himself, 
 ordered the firing, and when the men murmured at 
 the rash way in which he exposed himself, he ex- 
 claimed : " Don't worry, my friends ; the ball that 
 is going to kill me isn't yet cast." February 19, 
 he wrote to Joseph from the castle of Surville : — 
 
 " My Brother : It took us all day to get through 
 that horrible pass of Montereau. I have just had a 
 bridge thrown over the Seine, and another over the 
 Yonne. . . . The Emperor of Russia and the King of 
 Prussia were at Bray. As soon as they heard that I 
 had won the bridge of Montereau, they fled in all haste. 
 The enemy's army is terrified. The three sovereigns 
 have been for some days at Pont, at Madame' s. They 
 expected to reach Fontainebleau to-morrow, and to be 
 at Paris in a few days. Everything that has befallen 
 them seems inconceivable. To-day is cold, and snow 
 is falling. I send to the Empress something for the 
 Moniteur, but you might have put in the Momteur, 
 and small newspapers, under news from the Provinces, 
 an article about the haste in which the sovereigns left 
 Bray. The Austrians have guaranteed my palace of 
 Fontainebleau against the pillage of the Cossacks. . . . 
 I could not be more satisfied with the spirit displayed 
 by all the towns and the country, and by the feelings 
 of every one." 
 
28 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 In Paris, hope began to revive. Joseph wrote to 
 the Emperor, February 20 : '' Your Majesty has every 
 reason to believe that his wishes for an honorable 
 peace on the Frankfort condition will be granted. I 
 do not believe that there is a single Frenchman with 
 different opinions " ; and February 21 : " Every one 
 agrees that Your Majesty should not have accorded 
 a suspension of hostilities. Every one desires peace 
 with the natural boundaries. No one now wants 
 the former frontiers." 
 
 February 20, Napoleon has advanced up the Seine, 
 on the left bank, by the road from Montereau to 
 Nogent. That evening he halted in this last town, 
 which had suffered cruelly, and was but a mass of 
 burnt and battered walls. In this disaster the Sisters 
 of Saint Vincent de Paul had, as ever, performed 
 miracles of devotion and charity. The Emperor 
 thanked them in the name of the country. Mean- 
 while the retreat of the enemy after the reverse at 
 Montereau seemed to be turning into a rout. A sort 
 of panic threw disorder into their ranks. The roads 
 through the Vosges were lined with carts, drivers, 
 wounded, and fugitives, hurrying to the Rhine. A 
 hundred thousand men were fleeing before Napoleon, 
 who had but forty thousand for their pursuit. 
 
 It was then — February 21, 1814 — that he wrote 
 from Nogent to his father-in-law, the Emperor of 
 Austria, one of the most curious letters that ever 
 came from his pen. It began thus ; — 
 
THE SECOND FORTNIGHT OF FEBRUARY. 29 
 
 "My Brother and very dear Father-in-law: 
 I did my best to avoid the battle which has just taken 
 place. Fortune has favored me, and I have destroyed 
 the Russian and Prussian army commanded by Gen- 
 eral Bliicher, and later, the Prussian army commanded 
 by General Kleist. In this state of affairs, whatever 
 opinions may exist at your headquarters, my army 
 outnumbers in infantry, cavalry, and artillery Your 
 Majesty's army. And if this assurance should be 
 necessary to your decision, I shall have no difficulty 
 in proving this to any man of sound judgment, such 
 as Prince Schwarzenberg, Count Bubna, or Prince 
 Metternich. I deem it my duty to write to Your 
 Majesty, because this contest between a French army 
 and one mainly Austrian seems to me contrary to your 
 interests as well as to my own. If fortune betrays 
 my hopes, Your Majesty's situation will be only the 
 more embarrassing. If I defeat your ami}-, how will 
 it withdraw from France with the population already 
 exasperated to the highest pitch by the crimes of all 
 sorts of wdiich the Cossacks and the Russians have 
 been guilty? In this state of affairs, I propose to 
 Your Majesty to sign a peace without delay, on the 
 bases you proposed at Frankfort, which I and the 
 French nation have adopted as our ultimatum. I say 
 more : these bases can alone re-establish the European 
 equilibrium. If harder conditions had been imposed 
 on France, peace would have been of short duration. 
 . ". . There is no Frenchman who would not have 
 preferred death to the acceptance of conditions which 
 
30 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 could make us slaves of England, and strike out 
 France from the list of powers. England may well 
 desire to destroy Antwerp, and to put an obstacle in 
 the way of the re-establishment of the French navy; 
 but you, Sire, what is your interest in the annihilation 
 of the French navy? Your Majesty becomes a mari- 
 time power by the conditions you set at Frankfort. 
 Do you want your flag outraged and insulted by 
 England as it constantly has been? What interest 
 can Your Majesty have in putting Belgium under the 
 yoke of a Protestant prince, whose son will ascend 
 the English throne? All these hopes and plans lie 
 beyond the power of the Coalition. If the battle 
 against Your Majesty's army should be lost, I have 
 the means for fighting two more before it reaches 
 Paris; and even if Paris were taken, the rest of 
 France would never endure the yoke proposed in this 
 treaty, which seems to be inspired by the English 
 policy. The convulsion of the nation would aug- 
 ment its energy and its forces fourfold. I shall never 
 cede Antwerp and Belgium. ... If Your Majesty 
 persists in abandoning his proper interests for the 
 policy of England or the resentment of Russia, and 
 will only lay down arms on the frightful conditions 
 proposed at the Congress, the genius of France and 
 Providence will be on our side. The Emperor Alex- 
 ander's thirst for vengeance has no good ground. I 
 offered him peace before entering Moscow; at Mos- 
 cow, I did my best to extinguish the fire started by 
 his orders. Besides, in Paris two hundred thou- 
 
THE SECOND FORTNIGHT OF FEBRUARY. ^1 
 
 sand men are under arms ; they have learned by 
 the actions of the Russians, the emptiness of their 
 promises; they know what fate they wouki have to 
 expect. I ask Your Majesty to avoid the risks of 
 battle. I ask peace, a prompt peace, based on 
 the proclamation which Prince Schwarzenberg pub- 
 lished as the Declaration of the Allied Powers, in- 
 serted in the Frankfort Journal^ the bases that I have 
 accepted, and accept again, although the position of 
 the Allies is very different from what it was then, 
 and now any impartial man will agree that the 
 chances are on my side." 
 
 This really eloquent letter, breathing a combina- 
 tion of pain and pride, closes with a pathetic appeal 
 to the heart of the father of Marie Louise, the grand- 
 father of the King of Rome. The Emperor does not 
 mention his wife or his son by name; yet they 
 appear as if they were carrying an olive branch. It 
 was not family feeling alone that was invoked. 
 Napoleon reminded the ruler of Austria that he was 
 head of the house of Lorraine, that his blood was 
 French blood. This is the end of the letter, which 
 deeply moved Emperor Francis and nearly saved 
 France : " May I be allowed to say to Your Majesty 
 that in spite of all you have done against me since 
 the invasion of my territory, and the faint memory 
 you preserve of the ties that unite us, and of the rela- 
 tions which our states are called upon to maintain 
 for their common interest, my feelings are unchanged, 
 and I cannot observe with indifference that if you 
 
32 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 refuse peace, this refusal will bring misery to your life 
 and many evils to all, while a single word of yours can 
 put an end to everything, bring about a reconciliation, 
 and restore to the world, and especially to Europe, 
 lasting tranquillity. If I could have been cowardly 
 enough to accept the conditions of the English and 
 Russian ministers, you ought to have dissuaded me, 
 because you knew that nothing that disgraces thirty 
 millions of men can be durable. Your Majesty can 
 put an end to this war by a single word, can assure 
 the happiness of his own people and of Europe, 
 secure himself against the fickleness of fortune, and 
 terminate the evils of a nation, the prey not of 
 ordinary sufferings, but of the crimes of the Tartars 
 of the desert, who scarcely deserve to be called men. 
 I take it for granted that Your Majesty has not to ask 
 me why I write to him. I cannot address the Englisli, 
 whose policy it is to destroy my navy, or to the 
 Emperor Alexander, since passion and revenge in- 
 spire all his feelings. Hence, I can write to Your 
 Majesty alone, my recent ally, who, by the strength 
 of his army and the extent of his empire, is regarded 
 as the leading force of the Coalition ; in short, to 
 Your Majesty, who, whatever his feelings at the 
 moment, has French blood flowing in his veins." 
 
 Napoleon was untiring. His pen was as active as 
 his sword. No detail escaped his vigilance. He 
 was everywhere, seeing to everything at once. The 
 very day he wrote to the Emperor of Austria, he 
 sent this letter to Joseph : — 
 
TBE SECOND FORTNIGHT OF FEBRUARY. 33 
 
 "My Brother: You ought to have no anxiety 
 about Orleans and Montargis. The movement I am 
 making will attract the enemy very speedily, and 
 their corps will be glad to fall back promptly. I 
 think it would be well for the Regent to write to the 
 city of Orleans in some such way as this : ' I learn 
 that the city of Orleans is threatened by fifteen 
 hundred scouts of the enemy's army. What! the 
 city of Orleans, Avith forty thousand inhabitants, is 
 afraid of fifteen hundred cavalry ! Where is the 
 French energy ? Form your National Guard, organ- 
 ize a company of artillery, take from your stables the 
 necessary horses. I give orders to the Minister of War 
 to supply you with twelve cannon and five howitzers 
 for the defence of your cit}'' and property. The 
 enemy who threatens us is implacable ; he ravages 
 our countryside and sacks our cities ; he has not 
 kept a single one of his promises. To arms, then, 
 inhabitants of Orleans, and confirm by your actions 
 the opinion I have formed of you and of the French 
 nation ! ' A number of such letters, signed by the 
 Empress, would have more effect than signed by me. 
 ... I think that the Empress might write to Lille, 
 Valenciennes, Cambrai, and other large towns near 
 the northern frontier in similar terms, modifying the 
 language according to the zeal these towns have shown 
 in recent events. It would be well for the Empress 
 to write them all with her own hand. I think, too, 
 that a proclamation to Belgium, from the Empress as 
 Regent, would be of use. This proclamation might be 
 
34 THE INVASION OF ISU. 
 
 put into the form of a letter to the mayor of Brussels, 
 the mayor of Ghent, of Bruges, of Mons, etc. The 
 Empress might make mention of the successes I have 
 had, of the desire of the English to detach them from 
 France and to bring them under the yoke of a prince 
 who has always been hostile to their country and their 
 religion ; soon the enemy will be convinced that no 
 peace will be signed in which the Allies do not 
 guarantee France the integrity of its natural boun- 
 daries. These letters might be expressed differently 
 to make them seem like different proclamations." 
 
 Napoleon made superhuman exertions to arouse 
 the patriotism of the French, but he had to deal with 
 a country so exhausted and discouraged that his 
 heroism and that of the army were powerless. Joseph 
 wrote to his brother February 22 : " The feeling at 
 Toulouse and Bordeaux is very bad, and a Bourbon 
 would be received if he should present himself. . . . 
 I suppose that we are on the eve of a battle. What- 
 ever may be the result, the present state of things 
 cannot last. The administration is everywhere fall- 
 ing into decay, money is lacking, and the system of 
 making requisitions is finally deadening all zeal and 
 isolating the government. However harsh these facts 
 are, since Your Majesty cannot hear them from the 
 lips of his Ministers, I do not hesitate to assume the 
 painful task of uttering them." 
 
 As to the National Guard of Paris, it would have 
 been a great mistake to place any dependence upon 
 it. King Joseph in the same letter spoke about it in 
 
THE SECOND FORTNIGHT OF FEBRUARY. 35 
 
 this way : " The National Guard, in its present con- 
 dition, is a security against anarchy ; it means well ; 
 it has been aroused by hearing of the miracles Your 
 Majesty has wrought in a few days ; it is anxious for 
 a peace that shall bring you back to your capital, and 
 is inclined to love as well as to admiration. This 
 feeling is shared by the whole city, but to say more. 
 Sire, would be false and would mislead Your Majesty. 
 This city of Paris, so hostile to the government a 
 month ago, so touched by Your Majesty's confidence 
 as shown by your entrusting to it your wife and son, 
 so encouraged and amazed by Your Majesty's successes, 
 nevertheless is not in a state from which it is possible 
 to expect fidelity or obedience. It has admired your 
 genius ; but it can only be moved to enthusiasm by 
 the hope of a speedy peace, and is not at all dis- 
 posed to undertake any serious defence against a 
 single army corps, or to send outside of the city any 
 detachments of the National Guard. That, Sire, is 
 the exact truth. Your Majesty must not count on 
 any effort beyond what may be expected from a pop- 
 ulace thus disposed." 
 
 So far from losing heart. Napoleon became more 
 confident every day. He hoped that the general 
 uprising of the frontier provinces, the sorties of the 
 garrisons, Augereau's attack on the rear of the Aus- 
 trian army, would turn the Allies' retreat beyond the 
 Rhine into a hopeless rout. In his delight at seeing 
 them retreat before him in the direction of Troyes, 
 he felt all his pride return when in the morning of 
 
86 THE INVASION OF 18 14. 
 
 February 23, within the four bare walls of the hovel 
 of a wheelwright of the village of Chatre, where he 
 had passed the night, he received the visit of Prince 
 Wentzel Lichtenstein, an aide-de-camp of Prince 
 Schwarzenberg, who brought him propositions for an 
 armistice. 
 
 The language of the Austrian envoy was not merely 
 peaceful ; it expressed a deference and an admiration 
 which highly flattered the Emperor. Then he said to 
 the aide-de-camp of Prince Schwarzenberg : " So the 
 favorite plan of England has prevailed in the counsels 
 of the Coalition. Their war has become a personal 
 one. It was decidedly against my dynasty that it 
 was aimed." Prince Lichtenstein having protested 
 against this supposition. Napoleon spoke to him of 
 the connivance of the Allies with the intrigues of the 
 Duke of Angouleme, of the Duke of Berry, of Count 
 d'Artois, and showed some surprise at seeing the 
 Emperor of Austria working to dethrone his own 
 daughter. At this the Prince exclaimed : " Such an 
 intention would be unnatural. My august sovereign, 
 the Emperor, would never lend himself to it. As to 
 the presence of the Bourbons, it is to be regarded as 
 a means of war, to secure a peace which my mission 
 proves is desired." 
 
 This answer filled Napoleon with joy, and he prom- 
 ised that an armistice should be arranged. He fan- 
 cied that he had returned to the grand days of his 
 power and glory. After Prince Lichtenstein had gone 
 he was overheard exclaiming in an outburst of pride : 
 
THE SECOND FORTNIGHT OF FEBRUARY. 37 
 
 "The Allies will repent their insolence. They will 
 see that I am nearer their capitals than they are to 
 mine. Yes, we are nearer Munich than they are to 
 Paris." The next day, February 24, he entered 
 Troyes, which the enemy had just evacuated ; a flag 
 of truce brought him word that Lusigny, near Van- 
 doeuvres, had been chosen for the negotiation of the 
 armistice. In his talk with the messenger he said 
 loudly : "I am nearer Vienna than you are to Paris." 
 
 The Moniteur gave an account of the Emperor's 
 entrance into the capital .of Champagne : " It is im- 
 possible to form an idea of the annoyances to which 
 the inhabitants have been exposed during the seven- 
 teen days that the enemy have occupied the city. 
 It would also be hard to describe the enthusiasm and 
 eagerness they displayed over the arrival of the Em- 
 peror. A mother who sees her children saved from 
 death, slaves who see their chains broken after the 
 crudest captivity, know no keener joy than that shown 
 by the people af Troyes. Their conduct has been 
 honorable and praiseworthy. The theatre was open 
 every evening, but not a man, or a woman, of even 
 the lower classes, was willing to be present. The 
 whole populace is eager to march." 
 
 Intoxicated by his success, Napoleon wrote to 
 Joseph this letter overflowing with pride : — 
 
 "My Brother: I am at Troyes. The enemy's 
 army pursues me with flags of truce, asking for a sus- 
 pension of hostilities. ... I have had many cavalry 
 skirmishes. I have captured two thousand prisoners 
 
38 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 and cannon. I am writing to the Empress to have 
 thirty guns fired, both for these minor affairs and for 
 the deliverance of the capital of Champagne. . . . 
 If I had had twenty skiffs to cross the Seine when I 
 wanted, there would have been no Austrian army 
 left. However, there is great terror in the enemy's 
 ranks. A few days ago they thought I had no 
 army ; now there is no limit to what they imagine : 
 three or four hundred thousand men are not enough. 
 Formerly they thought I had no reserves ; now they 
 say I have massed all my veterans and face them 
 only with picked troops. That is what fear does. It 
 is important that the Paris newspapers should con- 
 firm this alarm. The Minister of the Interior is a 
 poltroon ; he has a foolish idea of men. Neither he 
 nor the Minister of Police has any more idea of 
 France than I have of China. . . . The enemy has 
 committed so many atrocities that France will be 
 indignant. Here, on the spot, the most moderate 
 cannot speak of them calmly. If the French were 
 as despicable as the Ministry of the Interior seems to 
 think, I should myself blush to be a Frenchman." 
 
 General de Segur, the historian of this drama of 
 the invasion, in which he took a part, says that at 
 this moment fortune hung on a single thread ; a little 
 more and the Coalition would have fallen by its own 
 weight, and France would have been saved. Na- 
 poleon's frequent blows upon the Marne, his reappear- 
 ance on the banks of the Seine, the massing of an 
 army at Lyons, seemed to make the enemy lose their 
 
THE SECOND FORTNIGHT OF FEBRUARY. 39 
 
 head. General de S^gur adds: " Pozzo di Borgo, 
 the bitterest of Napoleon's personal enemies, the 
 Corsican who turned Russian, whose hate had most 
 encouraged the Allies to push on the war to the end, 
 has often affirmed this to us. How often has he 
 described to us all the invective which succeeded 
 the high consideration he had acquired by the suc- 
 cess of his advice ! With the exception of the Prus- 
 sians, the enemy's staffs, in their alarm at finding 
 themselves so far in France, imagined that they were 
 caught in a snare. This minister had become the 
 object of universal reprobation. Emperor Alexander 
 told him that they had done enough ; that a victori- 
 ous march from Moscow to the banks of the Seine 
 was sufficient; that they should not expose their 
 advantages to a second day of Marengo; that evi- 
 dently Napoleon was growing stronger with the aid 
 of France. Were they not finding in him once more 
 the general of the Army of Italy?" The alarm- 
 ists in the allied camp said that their retreat would 
 be a repetition of the retreat from Russia, and all 
 that Napoleon heard about their panic filled him 
 with one of the greatest joys he had ever known. 
 
 In Paris, Sunday, February 27, the flags which 
 had recently been captured by the Emperor, were 
 formally presented to the Empress Regent. They 
 were borne by two officers of the Imperial Guard, 
 four officers of troops of the line, and four officers of 
 the National Guard, who started from the Ministry 
 of War and proceeded with the Ministers to the 
 
40 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 
 
 
 Tuileries, with a band in front and an escort follow- 
 ing. The Minister of War said to Marie Louise; 
 " Madame : When the Saracens were defeated by) 
 Charles Martel in the plains of Tours and Poitiers,; 
 the capital was decked Avith the spoils of but a single 
 nation. To-day, when dangers no less serious than 
 those then threatening France have produced more 
 important and more difficult successes, your august 
 spouse presents to you these banners captured from 
 the three great powers of Europe. Since a blind 
 hate has stirred up against us so many nations, even 
 those to whom France had restored their indepen- 
 dence, for which she has made great sacrifices, may 
 it not be said that these flags are captured from all 
 Europe ? . . . These pledges of French valor are for 
 us the tokens of new and still greater successes, if 
 the enemy's obstinacy prolongs the war. This noble 
 hope fills the heart of every Frenchman. You share 
 it, Madame, you who, ever trusting in your august 
 husband's genius, in the love and energy of the nation, 
 have continued to show, in all the circumstances of 
 this war, a firmness of soul and virtues worthy of the 
 admiration of Europe and of posterity." 
 
 Marie Louise replied: "Duke of Feltre, Minister 
 of War : It is with keen emotion that I see these 
 trophies which you present to me in obedience to 
 the orders of the Emperor, my august spouse. To 
 my eyes they are the pledges of the safety of the 
 country. At the sight of them may all the French 
 rise in arms I May they throng about their monarch 
 
THE JSECOiYU FORTJSIGHT OF FEBRUARY. 41 
 
 and their father ! Their courage, led by his genius, 
 will soon have accomplished the deliverance of our 
 territory." 
 
 At the end of the audience, the fourteen flags — 
 one Austrian, four Prussian, and nine Russian — were 
 carried with great pomp to the Invalides. Cavalry 
 rode at the head and at the end of the procession. 
 
 At this moment Marie Louise felt hope revive. 
 She could not imagine that she would be abandoned 
 by her father, and fancied that her anxieties would 
 soon be over. The evening before, she had written 
 to Emperor Francis a really touching letter from 
 which she expected the best results. In it she said : 
 "It is not good policy to force a disgraceful peace upon 
 us, for it cannot last. Imagine, dear father, in what 
 a state I am. For me it would be a blow I could not 
 survive. Hence I beseech you, dear father, to re- 
 member me and my son. You know how much I 
 love you, and how much I flatter myself that I enjoy 
 your fatherly affection." The Empress went on to 
 sa^ that the condition of affairs and her husband's 
 absence were affecting her health. " It depends on 
 you," she closed, "to put an end to my anxiety. 
 You will do this, won't you ? " 
 
 Marie Louise saw about her less gloomy faces than 
 a few days before. The courtiers, who had kept aloof, 
 began to r^eappear, and to speak with enthusiasm of 
 the Emperor's genius. They said that the dynasty 
 was unattackable, and that it would have been a dis- 
 grace to accept the boundaries of 1792 ; that they were 
 
42 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 going to have the natural boundaries, that the request 
 for armistice was a sign of an early peace, which 
 would be as honorable for France as for its glorious 
 ruler. The Empress gladly listened to these flatter- 
 ing words, and at the end of February there prevailed 
 at the Tuileries a feeling of tranquillity which was, 
 alas ! to be of but brief duration. 
 
 Bliicher, that obstinate and implacable enemy, was 
 about to change the face of things. While the bulk 
 of the French army was massed about Troyes, think- 
 ing of the armistice and the peace, the Prussian 
 troops were rapidly advancing on both banks of the 
 Marne in the direction of Paris. Napoleon received 
 word of this in the night of February 26. The morn- 
 ing of the 27th he suddenly started from Troyes to 
 pursue the Prussian army through Arcis-sur-Aube 
 and Sezanne. The evening of that day he t6ok up 
 his quarters at Herbisse, in the house of a simple 
 country priest. The officers spent the night on 
 chairs, tables, or straw. In spite of the serious con- 
 dition of things they preserved all their jollity, in the 
 hope that this new march on the flank of the Prussian 
 army would be as fruitful as the other. 
 
 The situation, however, at once complicated itself 
 most seriously. The Austrians had suddenly resumed 
 the offensive at the very moment when Napoleon left 
 Troyes. It was expected that they would be pur- 
 sued to the Rhine, and they were rallying between 
 Langres and Bar. Marshal Augereau could no longer 
 make the diversion on the Sa6ne. Bliicher's army. 
 
THE SECOND FORTNIGHT OF FEBRUARY. 43 
 
 threatening Paris, was already at the gates of Meaux, 
 and in front of it there were only the insufficient 
 forces of Marmont and Mortier. Nevertheless, the 
 Emperor was not disturbed; at first he had hopes of 
 ridding himself of Bldcher after he had made a junc- 
 tion with the two marshals, then to return on the 
 Seine soon enough to stop the Austrians and save 
 Troyes. His troops, exhausted by fatigue, but yet 
 full of ardor, advanced by forced marches on Ferte- 
 sous-Jouarre. It was the end of February. Events 
 were crowding on one another ; every one felt that the 
 end of the drama was not far off. 
 
IV. 
 
 THE FIRST FORTNIGHT OF MARCH. 
 
 THE first fortnight of March was for Napoleon a 
 period of anguish even more terrible than the 
 previous weeks. After profiting so long by what he 
 called his star, he found himself face to face with an 
 evil fate which paralyzed every effort of his genius. 
 An absolutely unexpected accident — the capitula- 
 tion of Soissons — suddenly overthrew his profound- 
 est combinations and swept all his pieces from the 
 board. Nevertheless, hoping against hope, he contin- 
 ued the struggle, facing misfortune with an energy 
 hardly equalled in history. His pride, far from dimin- 
 ishing, only became greater. The darker fortune 
 became, the more he yearned to control it. He tried 
 to inspire, not pity, but fear. He wrote to his minis- 
 ters and spoke to his generals in the old imperious 
 tone which had marked the days of his greatest 
 power. In his presence no one dared to utter a 
 murmur, for his personal ascendancy was still irresisti- 
 ble ; but behind his back there was much denuncia- 
 tion of his boundless ambition, the main cause of the 
 woes of France. The feeling of the army continued 
 44 
 
THE FIliST FORTNIGHT OF MARCH. 45 
 
 admirable, but in Paris the discouragement was pro- 
 found. There anything seemed preferable to war, 
 and even in official circles nothing was demanded but 
 an immediate cessation of hostilities, even with the 
 loss of the natural frontiers, the glorious conquest of 
 the Republic. The great nation, always accustomed 
 to attacking, could not reconcile itself to the idea of 
 defence. It was timidly whispered that in spite of 
 all the optimistic announcements and the many bul- 
 letins of victories, the enemy was only a few leagues 
 from the capital, and the great majority of Parisians 
 felt none of the ardor and fanaticism of the defenders 
 of Saragossa or of those who burned Moscow. Marie 
 Louise felt isolated, shorn of support, deprived of 
 counsellors, and more like a victim than a sovereign. 
 King Joseph appeared more terrified than ever; no 
 one in the Empress's court spoke a word of encour- 
 agement. The faint gleam of hope which for a 
 moment lit up the situation vanished at once. The 
 courtiers, who had worn a cheerful face for two or 
 three days, were again plunged in gloom, and every 
 one at the Tuileries was oppressed by a presentiment 
 of the impending catastrophe. 
 
 Nevertheless, at the beginning of March Napoleon 
 was still full of hope. In the night of the 2d his 
 troops, full of ardor, effected the crossing of the 
 Marne. Bliicher's soldiers, with the Aisne before 
 them, the Marne in their rear, threatened on the 
 left by the troops of the Duke of Treviso and the 
 Duke of Ragusa, on the right by Napoleon's army, 
 
46 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 
 
 imagined that all was lost, but at the very moment 
 when they were about to be driven back on Soissons 
 and doubtless compelled to lay down their arms 
 under the walls of this city, an unexpected piece of 
 good fortune saved them. Soissons, which, although 
 occupied by a garrison of but one thousand men, 
 could have held out twenty-four hours longer and so 
 have given Napoleon time to arrive, was surrendered 
 March 3 by its commander. General Moreau, who 
 was in no Avay related to the other great general of 
 the same name. Biilow and Wintzengerode, coming, 
 one from Belgium, the other from Luxembourg, joined 
 Bliicher, raising his army from fifty thousand to a 
 hundred and ten thousand men, and Soissons, instead 
 of being his ruin, was his salvation. 
 
 Napoleon was at Fismes, March 4, when he heard 
 the fatal news. He exclaimed in anguish: "I had 
 that madman of a Bliicher in the arms of the Aisne, 
 and now they have surrendered Soissons and given 
 him the bridge without blowing it up ! It's that 
 wretched Moreau who has ruined us I That name 
 is fatal to France." Hubert, one of the Emperor's 
 valets, said : " From that day my master's face con- 
 tinually wore a look of melancholy, even of unhappi- 
 ness. I looked in vain for that kind and amiable 
 smile which formerly lent his often terrible expres- 
 sion a touching grace, which one remembered as if it 
 were a kindness or a most pleasing reward. From 
 that time his smile was forced and painful ; his voice, 
 his every action, was marked with sadness." 
 
THE FIRST FORTNIGHT OF MARCH. 47 
 
 The day that the Emperor learned of the surrender 
 of Soissons, which upset all his plans, Marie Louise 
 was presiding at the Tuileries over an extraordinary 
 council charged with the examination of the condi- 
 tions of peace proposed by the Allies at the Congress 
 of Chatillon. These conditions comprised the resto- 
 ration of the old boundaries to France, and, with one 
 exception, all the members of the council agreed to, 
 accept them. '' Rigorous as the treaty was," says the 
 Duke of Rovigo, " it preserved in France the estab= 
 lished government, and maintained the existence of 
 the Emperor and his family. England recognized the 
 new dynasty, — an advantage which none of the pre- 
 vious negotiations had accorded to Napoleon. There 
 was no question of the Bourbons, who appeared to 
 have been abandoned. This was a great thing for 
 the Emperor, who thereby found himself better treated 
 than even France." 
 
 What the Ministers and high dignitaries most 
 desired w^as to preserve their own places ; hence all 
 agreed in condemning a resistance Avhich seemed 
 hopeless. The very day when this council was held 
 with the Empress presiding, Joseph wrote to his 
 brother : " It is generally agreed that it is better to 
 accept the boundaries as they were in 1792, than to 
 expose the capital. The occupation of the capital, it 
 is thought, would be the end of the existing order, 
 and the beginning of great misfortunes. Allied 
 Europe washes to reduce France to what it was in 
 1792 ; this may well be the basis of a treaty com- 
 
48 THE INVASION OF 18 14. 
 
 manded by circumstances, but let the territoiy be 
 evacuated at once. In short, a speedy peace, of any 
 sort, is indispensable. It will be a two or three years' 
 truce, but, good or bad, we must have peace. . . . 
 The natural boundaries would be a real beneht for 
 France and for Europe ; they would give hope of a 
 long peace, but no one is held by an impossibility. 
 ... So make a truce in petto, since the injustice of 
 the enemy does not allow a just peace, and the state 
 of feeling and of affairs permits no hope that France 
 will make efforts proportionate to the object to be 
 aimed at. Your letter to the Emperor of Austria is 
 thought to be noble and reasonable. You will stay 
 in France ; France will remain what she was when it 
 astounded Europe ; and you who saved it once will 
 save it again, by signing this peace, and save yourself 
 as well. Be recognized by England ; deliver France 
 from the Cossacks and the Prussians, and some day 
 France will make up to you in blessings what super- 
 ficial people will imagine that you have lost in glory." 
 Napoleon, above all things a warrior, had a horror 
 of a peace which seemed to him disgraceful. Even 
 after the surrender of Soissons, he hoped to possess 
 the natural frontiers of France. The enormous 
 numerical superiority of Bliicher's forces did not 
 prevent his pursuing the Prussians and the Rus- 
 sians beyond the Aisne, and March 7 he fought the 
 bloody battle of Craonne. Here the French had to 
 take by assault a lofty plateau, defended by fifty 
 thousand men and a full supply of artillery, while 
 
THE FIRST FORTNIGHT OF MARCH. 49 
 
 the attacking force consisted of but thirty thousand, 
 with insufficient artillery. The enemy withdrew in 
 good order towards Laon and prepared for a second 
 battle. Napoleon followed them. To the hundred 
 thousand experienced troops of his adversary he 
 could oppose only thirty thousand, young, sick, and 
 ill-equipped. These boys, these creatures of a day, 
 as General de S^gur called them, who had joined one 
 evening to be sacrificed on the morrow, could scarcely 
 be styled soldiers. One day General Drouot, seeing 
 them so young, so frail, half-clad, ill-trained, fighting 
 one against four, said emphatically, that it was "a 
 repetition of the slaughter of the innocents." 
 
 Nevertheless, Napoleon continued the struggle 
 with a sort of fury. At Laon he fought a second 
 and terrible battle, which continued for two days, 
 the 9th and 10th of March, but in spite of his heroic 
 exertions, he was compelled to retreat on Soissons, 
 which he entered on the 12th in profound dejection. 
 
 Joseph had written to him, March 9 : " After the 
 new victory you have gained [that of Craonne] you 
 can sign with glory peace with the former boun- 
 daries. This peace will restore France to itself after 
 the long conflict which begun in 1792, and will con- 
 tain nothing to its dishonor, since it will have lost 
 none of its old territory, and will have made the 
 interior changes it desired. As for you. Sire, so often 
 victorious, I am convinced that you have within you 
 all that is necessary to make the French forget, or 
 rather to remember, what was best in the govern- 
 
50 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 ment of Louis XII., Henri IV., and Louis XIV., if 
 you make a firm peace with Europe, and follow 
 the natural instincts of your kind character, renounc- 
 ing what is factitious and consenting to live as a 
 great king after flourishing as a great man. When 
 you have saved France from anarchy and from the 
 coalition of all Europe, you will become the father 
 of your people, and will be adored as much as Louis 
 XII., after having been more adored than Henri IV. 
 and Louis XIV.; and to secure so many kinds of 
 glory, you have only to wish your own happiness and 
 that of France." 
 
 Joseph's wise and fraternal counsel appeared to 
 Napoleon like satirical reprimand. Having always 
 chosen to inspire fear rather than love, he hated to 
 think that after having been the greatest of conquer- 
 ors, he could henceforth be^ only a kindly monarch, 
 a simple father of his people. He distrusted his 
 brother, as he did every one, and regarded him as a 
 petty creature void of courage, — indeed, he doubted 
 the disinterestedness of his advice. There had been 
 imprudent talk in the suite of the former King of 
 Spain. Men who had never seen a battle-field said 
 of the Emperor : " He is a madman ; he will have us 
 all killed." It was even insinuated that a new 
 regency would have to be formed, with Joseph at the 
 head, because he was a pacific and moderate Prince 
 with whom Euro23e would treat more willingly than 
 with Napoleon. The echo of many of their words 
 reached Napoleon's ears, and the wounded but always 
 
THE FIRST FORTNIGHT OF MARCH 51 
 
 terrible lion rose in his might. This Jupiter Tonans 
 was, perhaps, haughtier even than at the time when 
 his slightest frown sent a shudder through the Olym- 
 pus of emperors and kings. 
 
 He would not even admit the idea that he might 
 have need of his wife to escape from the dangers 
 against which he was struggling. He wrote to 
 Joseph from Soissons, March 12, 1814: "I am 
 sorry to see that you have been talking to my 
 wife about the Bourbons and the opposition the 
 Emperor of Austria might make to them. I beg 
 of you to avoid these conversations. I do not wish 
 to be protected by my wife ; this idea would spoil 
 her, and divide us. What is the use of such talk ? 
 Let her lead her own life ; speak to her only about 
 what she must know in order to affix her signature ; 
 and above all, avoid everything that could make her 
 think I desire to be protected by her or her father. 
 Not once for four years has the word Bourbon or 
 Austria crossed my lips. Besides, all that can only 
 disturb her and injure her excellent character. 
 
 " You always write as if peace depended on me ; 
 but I sent you all the documents. If the Parisians 
 want to see the Cossacks, they will repent it; but, 
 once more, must the truth out ? I have never sought 
 the applause of the Parisians. I am not a performer 
 in an opera. Besides, you would need to be much 
 more practical than you are to understand the feeling 
 of that city, which has nothing in common with the 
 passions of the three or four thousand people who 
 
52 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 make so mucli noise. It is perfectly simple, and 
 much quicker, to say that it is impossible to make a 
 levy of men than to try to make one. The Emperor 
 of Austria is powerless, because he is weak, and is 
 led by Metternich, who is in the pay of England : 
 that's the whole secret." 
 
 The evening before, Joseph had written a letter 
 which added to the Emperor's irritation. It con- 
 tained the following passages: "The upshot of all 
 that has been said to me by the Ministers, the officers 
 of the National Guard, of all that I know of the per- 
 sons attached to the existing order, is that peace is 
 forced upon us by the nature of things. There is 
 not a man who would not loudly crave it, were it 
 not for fear of displeasing you ; and in fact, it is only 
 your enemies who would dissuade you from accepting 
 peace with the former frontiers. . . . Disturbing 
 rumors are beginning to make their way through the 
 capital, which tend to cast discredit on Your Majesty. 
 For example, they speak of the recall of the Duke of 
 Conegliano, who is much loved. . . . March is pass- 
 ing, and the fields are not sown. But it is unneces- 
 sary to go into details. Your Majesty must feel that 
 there is no remedy but peace, and a speedy peace. 
 Every day lost does us personally much harm ; pri- 
 vate misery is very great, and there is no doubt that 
 whenever the conviction is established that Your 
 Majesty prefers the continuance of the war to a 
 peace (however disgraceful), weariness will turn 
 men's minds in the contrary direction. If Toulouse 
 
THE FIRST FORTNIGHT OF MARCH. 53 
 
 and Bordeaux protect a Bourbon, you will have civil 
 war, and the vast population of Paris will favor the 
 one who will secure the earlier peace." 
 
 Napoleon answered this letter as follows ; " Soissons, 
 March 12, 1814 : Everywhere I hear the complaints 
 of the people against their mayors and the middle 
 classes who prevent their defending themselves : I 
 see the same thing in Paris. The people have 
 energy and honor. I am very much afraid that 
 there are certain leaders who do not wish to fight 
 and who will be much disturbed, after all is over, by 
 what will have happened to them." 
 
 The untiring soldier would not confess himself 
 beaten by fate. His inconceivable audacity had so 
 impressed Bliicher that the obstinate Prussian kept 
 his troops motionless for a week. Napoleon took 
 advantage of this respite to reorganize his feeble 
 army, to put garrisons in Compigne in a condition to 
 defend themselves, and to retake Rheims, after a battle 
 in which there fell General de Saint Priest, a French 
 Emigre who had a position in the Russian army. 
 March 14, the Emperor wrote to Joseph : — 
 
 " My Brother : Yesterday I reached Rheims, 
 which General de Saint Priest had occupied with three 
 Russian divisions and a new Prussian division which 
 had come from the blockade of Stettin. I beat them, 
 recapturing the city, twenty cannon, and many stores. 
 General de Saint Priest was mortally wounded ; his 
 leg was amputated at the thigh. What is strange is, 
 that Saint Priest was wounded by the same artillery- 
 
54 THE INVASION OF 18 14. 
 
 man that killed General Moreau. One must say, 
 
 Providence ! O Providence ! " ■ 
 Napoleon at Rlieims, in the shadow of the, great 
 
 cathedral in which the kings of France were formerly 
 crowned, still proudly enjoyed his position as sover- 
 eign. He could not listen to a word of criticism or 
 of advice, and, March 14, he wrote to Joseph this 
 letter which shows all the haughtiness of his char- 
 acter : — 
 
 " My Brother : I am sorry you have told the 
 Duke of Conegliano what I wrote to you. I don't 
 like this gossiping. If it suited my views to order 
 the Duke of Conegliano elsewhere, the chatter of 
 Paris would not move me. The National Guard 
 of Paris forms part of the French people, and so long 
 as I live I shall be master everywhere in France. 
 Your character and mine are very different. You 
 like to coax people and to follow their ideas, while 
 
 1 require to be pleased and to have people obey mine. 
 To-day, as at Austerlitz, I am master. Don't let any- 
 one wheedle the National Guard, or let Regnaud or 
 any one else become their tribune. I suppose, how- 
 ever, that they perceive the difference between the 
 time of La Fayette, when the people were sovereign, 
 and now, when I am. I have prepared a decree to 
 raise twelve battalions by a general levy. The exe- 
 cution of this measure is not to be impeded in any 
 way whatsoever. If the people perceive that instead 
 of doing what is necessary, there is any effort to 
 please them, it will be natural for them to think 
 
THE FIRST FORTNIGHT IN MARCH. 55 
 
 themselves sovereign and to form a poor idea of those 
 who ofovern them." 
 
 The same day Napoleon wrote to the Duke of 
 Rovigo, Minister of Police, this still more imperious 
 letter : " You tell me nothing of what is going on 
 in Paris. They are talking about an address, the 
 Regency, and a thousand intrigues as silly as they 
 are absurd, which can only be devised by a simpleton 
 like Miot. These people seem not to know that I 
 cut the gordian knot like Alexander. They must 
 know that I am to-day the same man I was at Wag- 
 ram and Austerlitz, that I desire no intrigue in the 
 country, that there is no authority there but mine, and 
 that in case of confusion the Regent alone possesses 
 my confidence. King Joseph is weak ; he busies 
 himself with intrigues which might be fatal to the 
 state, and certainly to himself and to his counsel, if 
 he does not speedily return to the right path. I am 
 displeased to learn all this from another source than 
 yourself. Understand that if there had been made an 
 address contrary to the constituted authorit}^ I should 
 have had the King, my Ministers, and all who signed 
 it, arrested. The National Guard is spoiled, Paris is 
 spoiled, by weakness and ignorance of the country. 
 I Avish no tribune of the people. Remember it is I 
 who am the grand tribune ; then the people will 
 always do what suits its real interests, which are the 
 object of all my thoughts." 
 
 During the three days which the Emperor spent 
 at Rheims, the 14th, 15th, and 16th of March, 1814, 
 
56 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 
 
 he was much more a monarch than a general, and he 
 busied himself with the internal affairs of the Empire 
 as carefully as if it had been at peace. Very striking 
 is the authoritative tone which marked all his words 
 and letters to the very end of the campaign, even to 
 his abdication. Nothing had discouraged him. It 
 was in vain that the forces of the Coalition grew 
 while his own dwindled ; in vain that he received 
 from Paris the most alarming news ; in vain that he 
 saw treachery encompassing him on every side like a 
 rising tide ; he looked at danger with a fearless eye, 
 and still braved fortune, which had so long been the 
 humblest of his slaves. 
 
V. 
 
 THE CHATILLON CONGRESS. 
 
 THE Congress of Ch^tillon was drawing to an 
 end, and the plenipotentiaries of France, Eng- 
 land, Austria, Prussia, and Russia were about to sep- 
 arate without having been able to accomplish any- 
 tliing in the way of peace. Before we go on with 
 the study of the military events, let us take a glance 
 at this fruitless effort of diplomacy. All its phases 
 we have studied in the archives of the Ministry of 
 Foreign Affairs, and most of the documents that we 
 shall cite have never been printed. 
 
 It is our impression that if Napoleon could have 
 contented himself with the frontiers of 1792, he 
 would have saved his crown ; but he desired the nat- 
 ural boundaries of France, and the Allies were abso- 
 lutely determined to refuse them. Consequently the 
 negotiations moved in a vicious circle, and all the 
 arguments of the plenipotentiaries were but a futile 
 war of words. At times Napoleon seemed disposed 
 to yield, but as soon as he achieved any success in 
 the field, he tossed his head and rejected with scorn 
 what he regarded as insulting propositions. At the 
 
 57 
 
68 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 
 
 beginning, tlie efforts of diplomacy had filled loyal 
 Frenchmen with hope, and the traitors with fear, for 
 the traitors would have preferred the ruin of Napo- 
 leon to the safety of France ; soon, however, it be- 
 came clear that the voice of the plenipotentiaries was 
 drowned by the roar of cannon and that the tremen- 
 dous conflict of France with Europe was to be ended, 
 not by the pen, but by the sword. The Congress 
 which had met at Chatillon-sur-Seine, in the depart- 
 ment of C6te-d'0r, close to the scene of war, seemed 
 an irony of fate. Surprise was felt that fighting and 
 negotiation should be going on simultaneously, and 
 the diplomatists, who were treating one another with 
 perfect courtesy, while their fellow-countrymen were 
 slaughtering one another, produced a singular effect 
 in this terrible drama. 
 
 France had but one plenipotentiary to contend 
 alone with Count Stadion, the Austrian representa- 
 tive, Count Rasumovski, the Russian ; von Hum- 
 boldt, the Prussian ; and the three English plenipo- 
 tentiaries. Lord Cathcart, Sir Charles Stuart, and 
 Lord Aberdeen. This sole representative of France 
 was General de Caulaincourt, Duke of Vicenza, a 
 brave soldier, a man of honor, a sturdy patriot. It is 
 easy to imagine what he must have suffered in main- 
 taining his most difficult position. This brave officer, 
 always bold and dashing on the battle-field, had become 
 distinctly moderate because he was convinced that 
 the only hope of safety for France and for the Em- 
 peror lay in peace. He argued his cause before 
 
THE CHATILLON CONGRESS. 59 
 
 Napoleon with admirable frankness, and we are safe 
 in saying that if his prudent counsels had been fol- 
 lowed, the Empire would have been saved. Among 
 the Allies, especially the English and the Austrian, 
 we believe that there was no ill-will towards the 
 Emperor ; only, they had decided not to grant better 
 conditions than those which had been accorded the 
 Bourbons. That is what Napoleon could never com- 
 prehend. To the last he imagined that his marriage 
 would bring him sooner or later the sympathies of 
 Austria, and he let himself be deluded by this expec- 
 tation, which the Duke of Vicenza, more clear-sighted 
 than his master, never shared for a moment. 
 
 It was a melancholy situation for this man who 
 had filled the highest diplomatic posts at a period 
 when France had been feared and admired, and now 
 was forced to carry on negotiations grievous and 
 humiliating. He had a hard position between the 
 cruel demands of the Allies and the Emperor's ob- 
 stinacy which rendered argument impossible. Cau- 
 laincourt was able to perform his difficult duties with 
 nobility and dignity, and the study of the negotia- 
 tions, which were thus made so laborious that no one 
 else could have handled them at all, does the greatest 
 honor to his intelligence and to his character. His- 
 tory, we are sure, will render justice to this excellent 
 man. 
 
 The Allies showed so little eagerness for negoti- 
 ating that the Duke of Vicenza waited for a month 
 at the outposts for the conference to begin. It did 
 
60 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 
 
 not open till February 4, 1814, at Cliatillon. The 
 day before he had written to Marshal Berthier this 
 letter : " I write to Your Highness as the most 
 devoted of the Emperor's servants. There has been 
 another battle [that of Rothiere] and the enemy have 
 won another victory. Will not this stand in the way 
 of our negotiations, make every question more diffi- 
 cult, and lead them to add to their demands ? The 
 evil genius that for three years has marred the happy 
 destiny of the Emperor still haunts him. Has he 
 not yet brought him sufficient misery ? Tell the true 
 state of things to His Majesty. Show him how seri- 
 ous matters are ; that the slightest delay may imperil 
 everything without bringing any advantage. Tell 
 me plainly, Prince, have you an army? Can we 
 discuss the conditions for a fortnight, or must we 
 accept everything at once ? If no one has the cour- 
 age to tell me our real condition, I have no surer 
 ground than the vague statements in M. de Bassano's 
 gazette. It is with tales of that sort that we have 
 lost all our conquests ; and they will not help to save 
 France. It is not my fault, for I am continually 
 begging the Emperor to give me his orders, rather 
 with a view of serving and satisfying him than of 
 seeking to shun responsibility. In the name of our 
 master, in the name of all you hold most dear, speak 
 to him. Prince ; write to me, and let us save the 
 throne and the country ! " 
 
 The Emperor, who was then in a most critical posi- 
 tion, made no explanation. He simply left the Duke 
 
THE CHATILLON CONGRESS. 61 
 
 of Vicenza free to act as he pleased, reserving the 
 right to disavow him if he desired. Hence the Duke 
 of Bassano wrote from Troyes to the French plenipo- 
 tentiary, February 5, 1814: "I have sent you a 
 messenger with a letter of His Majesty and the 
 renewal of the full powers which you asked for. 
 When His Majesty was leaving this city, he charged 
 me to send 3^ou this, and to tell you in so many 
 words that His Majesty gives you carte blanche to 
 conduct the negotiations to a happy end, to save the 
 capital, and prevent a battle on which the last hopes 
 of the nation shall depend." 
 
 On the receipt of this unexpected authorization, 
 Caulaincourt wrote to the Emperor, February 6 : " I 
 had started with my hands tied, and I receive un- 
 limited powers. I was restrained, and now I am 
 urged on. Yet I am not informed of the reasons for 
 this change. In my ignorance of the real state of 
 affairs, I cannot judge what it requires and what it 
 permits : whether it is such that I ought to consent 
 blindly to everything — and there is no room for 
 discussion or delay — or whether to discuss at least 
 the most essential points I have several days before 
 me or only one, or whether I have not even a 
 moment." 
 
 February 7, the plenipotentiaries of the Allies 
 showed a rough draft of the demands of the Powers, 
 demanding that France should return to the boun- 
 daries of 1792, and should have nothing to say about 
 the fate of the countries to be ceded. What should 
 
62 THE INVASION OF 18 14. 
 
 be done with Poland, Saxony, Westphalia, Belgium, 
 Italy, how Bavaria, Wiirtemberg, Switzerland, were 
 to be treated, was not to concern France. Finally, 
 an answer, yes or no, was demanded, before the con- 
 ference should begin. As Thiers says, " Certainly 
 Napoleon had misused victory; but even in the 
 intoxication of Rivoli, of Austerlitz, of Jena, of 
 Friedland, he had never treated the vanquished in 
 that way." Nevertheless, the Duke of Vicenza 
 appeared inclined to accept these harsh terms, but 
 on one condition : that he should be at least assured 
 that by accepting them, he could at once stop the 
 enemy, and thus save Paris and the Imperial throne. 
 It was answered that there would be a suspension of 
 hostilities only in case of their immediate unreserved 
 acceptance, and only after the ratification of the 
 treaty. The next day, February 8, it was announced 
 that the conference was suspended. 
 
 Then the French plenipotentiary, in the deepest 
 despair, wrote to Prince Metternich, who was with 
 the Emperor of Austria, the following letter : '' Cha- 
 tillon, February 8, 1814. You have given me leave, 
 Prince, to express myself to you without reserve. I 
 have already done so, and I shall continue to do so ; 
 it is a consolation which I should find it hard to deny 
 myself. I regret more every day that it is not with 
 you that I have to treat. If I could have foreseen 
 this, I should not have accepted the appointment, I 
 should not have been here. I should be with the 
 army ; and I could at least find in battle a death 
 
THE CIIATILLON CONGRESS. 63 
 
 which I should count as a blessing, if I cannot serve 
 here my sovereign and my country. . . . Do the 
 Allies wish to get time to reach Paris ? I will not 
 ask you, Prince, to think of the consequences to the 
 Empress of such an event. Should she be compelled 
 to flee before her father's troops, when her august 
 husband is ready to sign a peace? But I will tell 
 you that all France is not in Paris ; that with the 
 capital occupied, the French may think that the time 
 for sacrifices is past ; that feelings, now repressed for 
 several reasons, may awaken, and that the arrival of 
 the Allies at Paris may be the beginning of a series 
 of events which Austria may not be the last to regret 
 having overlooked. Now, ought we to end by being 
 overwhelmed? Is it to the interest of Austria that 
 we should be? What profit, what glory, can she 
 expect if we succumb under the assaults of all Eu- 
 rope? You, my Prince, you have a chance to win 
 vast glory, but on one condition, that you remain in 
 control of affairs; and your only way of securing 
 your hold is by stopping their course by a speedy 
 peace. We refuse no reasonable sacrifice. We only 
 wish to know all that are asked of us, for whose 
 advantage we are to make them, and whether, by 
 making them, we can have the certainty of putting 
 an end to the horrors of war. See to it. Prince, that 
 all these questions are put in perfect sincerity. I 
 shall not delay my answer. You are assuredly too 
 wise not to perceive that our demand is as just as our 
 disposition is moderate. Cannot Your Excellency 
 
64 THE INVASION OF 1S14-. 
 
 come with M. de Nesselrode and spend three hours 
 here with Lord Castlereagh ? It would well accord 
 with the character of the Emperor of Austria, with 
 the heart of the Empress's father, to consent to an 
 expedition which might in a single morning terminate 
 a struggle now without an object, and one that costs 
 humanity so many tears ! " 
 
 After a week's interruptions, the meetings of the 
 Congress were resumed, and Prince Metternich thus 
 answered the letter of the Duke of Vicenza : " Troyes, 
 February 15, 1814. We have just started the nego- 
 tiations again, my dear Duke, and I can assure Your 
 Excellency that it is not an easy thing to be the min- 
 ister of the Coalition. All your kind words of regret 
 at not seeing me at Chatillon can only spring from 
 your personal feelings of which you have given me so 
 many proofs. I have already recommended to you 
 Count Stadion. Take my word for it, Lord Castle- 
 reagh is also a man of the best sort, upright, loyal, 
 without passion, and so without prejudice. It needs 
 a combination of men like the English ministers of 
 the present time to render possible the great task at 
 which you are working, and which, I flatter myself, 
 will be crowned with success. Your Excellency has 
 no reason to regret accepting your position. It is a 
 great one only in difficult times. I enclose a let- 
 ter from the Mesgrigny family to their brothers, 
 sons, etc. Be good enough to forward it to them. 
 They are excellent people who have the good for- 
 tune to have me in their house, — a real piece of good 
 
THE CTIATILLON CONGRESS. (j5 
 
 fortune, for I don't eat them. War, dear Duke, is a 
 horrible thing, especially when it is waged with fifty 
 thousand Cossacks and Baskirs " Certainly diploma- 
 tists have their own ways of writing, and this lively 
 style was in marked contrast to the gravity of the 
 events ! 
 
 Meanwhile, Napoleon, who for a moment had 
 thought that all Avas lost, had won the battles of 
 Champaubert, Montmirail, and Vauchamps, and 
 intoxicated by his success, had imagined himself 
 nearer to Munich and Vienna than were the Allies 
 to jParis. Then he wrote to Caulaincourt this let- 
 ter: "Nangis, February 18. I. gave you carte blanche 
 to save Paris and avoid a battle, which was the 
 nation's last hope. The battle has been fought; 
 Providence has favored our side. I have made 
 thirty or forty thousand prisoners, have captured 
 two hundred cannon, a great number of generals, 
 and destro,yed several armies almost without striking 
 a blow. Yesterday I routed the arui}^ of Prince 
 Schwarzenberg, which I hope to destroy before it has 
 recrossed our frontier. Your attitude must remain 
 the same ; you must do everything to secure peace ; 
 but I desire that you sign nothing without my order, 
 because I alone know how I stand. No, General, I 
 want only a solid and honorable peace, and that can 
 only be on the bases proposed at Frankfort [the 
 natural frontiers]. If the Allies had accepted your 
 propositions on the 9th, there would have been no 
 battle ; I should not have run the risk at a moment 
 
6Q THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 when the slightest ill-success would have ruined 
 France ; in short, I should not have known the secret 
 of their weakness. It is proper that I should have in 
 return the advantages of the chances which have 
 turned in my favor. I desire peace, but that would 
 not be a peace which should impose on France more 
 humiliating conditions than the Frankfort proposi- 
 tions. My position is certainly more favorable than 
 when the Allies were at Frankfort ; they were able to 
 defy me, I had obtained no advantage over them, 
 and they were far from my territory. To-day it is 
 very different ; I have won many victories over them, 
 victories unequalled in a somewhat illustrious career 
 of twenty years. I am ready to cease hostilities and 
 to let the enemy withdraw unmolested if they will 
 sign the preliminaries based on the Frankfort propo- 
 sitions." 
 
 Napoleon believed the Coalition much more shaken 
 than it really was. At the meeting of February 17, 
 the plenipotentiaries of the Allies presented a series 
 of preliminary articles even more insulting than the 
 previous drafts. It was simply stated that Germany 
 would form a federation ; that Holland would be en- 
 larged by the addition of Belgium, and be made a 
 kingdom ; that Italy was to be independent of France ; 
 that Austria would have possessions there ; and that 
 France would return to the boundaries of 1792. 
 
 When Napoleon, who believed that he had scattered 
 terror among his enemies, heard of their propositions, 
 he was filled with wrath. He wrote from Surville to 
 
THE CHATILLON CONGRESS. 67 
 
 the Duke of Vicenza, February 19 : "I am so deeply 
 moved by the infamous proposition which you send 
 to me, that I feel dishonored by the mere fact that it 
 was made to you. . . . Everything they tell you is 
 false. The Austrians are beaten in Italy, and far 
 from being at Meaux, I shall soon be at Chatillon. . . . 
 I shall send you word of my intentions from Troyes 
 or Chatillon ; but I think I should have done better 
 to lose Paris than to see such propositions made to 
 the French people. You are always talking about 
 the Bourbons. I had rather see the Bourbons in 
 France, under reasonable conditions, than the infa- 
 mous propositions which you send to me." 
 
 The same day, February 19, 1814, Caulaincourt, 
 who was far from taking the same optimistic view of 
 things, wrote to the Duke of Bassano : " Thanks to 
 your good news, I am full of hope. But let us not, 
 from lack of proper moderation, lose the chance to 
 make a peace which will be ever honorable, if it is 
 truly reasonable. Delays or claims made now, when 
 Europe is in such a state of exasperation with us, 
 may ruin everything in a moment. . . . Plead the 
 cause of peace, Duke ; it is that of the Emperor's real 
 glory and of the real interest of France." 
 
 Caulaincourt did not yet wholly despair of a happy 
 outcome of the negotiations ; Lord Castlereagh, who, 
 as the head of the English Cabinet, had come to Ch^ 
 tillon, though he took no part in the meetings of the 
 Congress, while exercising a preponderant influence, 
 had not yet displayed a systematic hostility to Napo- 
 
68 THE INVASION OF I8I4. 
 
 leon personally. Hence the Duke of Vicenza wrote 
 to the Duke of Bassano, February 21 : " In general, 
 the way the English express themselves, their tone, 
 and the moderation of Lord Castlereagh's opinions, 
 the very proper way in which they speak of the 
 Emperor and of France, have been really remarkable. 
 I owe it to the truth to render them this justice." 
 
 The plenipotentiaries of the Allies, while polite in 
 externals, were pitiless in fact. February 28, they 
 informed the Duke of Vicenza that they granted 
 him a delay of ten days for his answer to their propo- 
 sition of February 17 ; that they were ready to dis- 
 cuss any modifications that France might suggest, 
 but that- they would absolutely refuse any which 
 should depart in the least from the essential points 
 of the proposition. It was agreed that if this delay 
 of ten days, expiring March 10, should pass without 
 their coming to an understanding, the Congress 
 should be at once dissolved. 
 
 At the same time. Lord Castlereagh was the pro- 
 moter of the famous agreement which was the germ 
 of the Holy Alliance. March 1, 1814, England, 
 Austria, Prussia, and Russia agreed, by the treaty of 
 Chaumont, to furnish each a permanent contingent 
 of one hundred and fifty thousand men until the war 
 should be ended. England offered in addition an 
 annual subsidy of one hundred and fifty million 
 francs, to be divided equally between Russia, Prussia, 
 and Austria. Lord Castlereagh did not stop there. 
 He bound the four Powers for twenty years from the 
 
THE CHATILLON CONGRESS. 69 
 
 next peace. They were each, when the war was over, 
 to maintain sixty thousand men for twenty years, 
 for the use of that one of them which France might 
 try to attack, if, after peace was once made, she 
 should renew her assaults against her neighbors. 
 
 Caulaincourt was not informed of the treaty of 
 Chaumont, but he perceived that the Allies were 
 forming serious resolutions, and, March 3, he wrote 
 a private letter to the Emperor, expressing his uneasi- 
 ness ; it ran as follows : — 
 
 " Sire : The details which I have to report to Your 
 Majesty seeming to me alarming, I make them the 
 subject of a private letter. May this report be re- 
 ceived with less bitterness than those I usually have 
 the honor of sending to Your Majesty, and prove to 
 him that his plenipotentiary has the most thorough 
 conviction of the dangers of the throne when he 
 ventures to recur to questions and sacrifices which he 
 knows are equally painful. . . . Your Majesty has not 
 been ignorant that the princes of the house of Bour- 
 bon who have left England were established on our 
 frontiers, and that the Count d'Artois, who was just 
 now in Switzerland, has settled at Vesoul. To-day 
 he is said to be even nearer the enemy's headquarters. 
 This Prince was able to come to Switzerland without 
 the consent of all the Allies, but he could not come 
 into France or stay on the line mainly occupied by 
 the Austrian forces save with the consent of Your 
 Majesty's father-in-law. Hence his presence is more 
 than a Russian and English menace. . . . Your 
 
70 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 Majesty is more competent than any one to draw all 
 the consequences from this apparition under such a 
 flag. It is, I shall be told, a mere bugbear, an empty 
 threat. The present generation has no knowledge 
 of the Bourbons, and consequently takes no interest 
 in them ; old people have forgotten them, and the 
 people of La Vendee, if they remember their coura- 
 geous efforts in behalf of these princes, have not lost 
 the memory of their abandonment and of their stay 
 at lie Dieu. I know and think of all that. Sire ; I 
 know too that the inhabitants of La Vendee owe to 
 you the reconstruction of their manors and the pres- 
 ent prosperity of their country. Hence I should not 
 ascribe excessive importance to this resurrection if I 
 did not infer that Austria, being void of shame for 
 such conduct, is ready to disown us. In this state of 
 affairs it is the duty of the man placed by Your 
 Majesty as his first political sentinel to call all your 
 attention to the consequence of this appearance. 
 You should believe me when I return to this grave 
 matter ; for you know that no interest, no passion, 
 moves me against the Bourbons, since, the Revolu- 
 tion having made me its victim and then a soldier, it 
 is not it, but my own sword and my Emperor, that 
 have made me what I am. You know too that the 
 memories of my infancy and my respect for misfor- 
 tune do not make me dream of these princes, since, 
 in my opinion, the interest and the glory of my coun- 
 try oppose them now, as well as our oath to our 
 Emperor. I hope, then, that these reflections will 
 
THE CHATILLON CONGRESS. 71 
 
 give weight to my urgency, which comes from my 
 profound conviction." 
 
 In the same letter the Duke of Vicenza reported an 
 important conversation which he had just had with 
 an intimate friend of Prince Metternich: "Prince 
 Esterhazy, whose relations with Prince Metternich 
 are well known to Your Majesty, and who has been 
 with him since the beginning of the campaign, has 
 just passed a few moments here. . . . These are the 
 remarks of his to which I paid particular attention : 
 ' It is the personal opinion of Emperor Francis and 
 of Metternich that peace is more and more imper- 
 atively necessary for France. If it is delayed, it is 
 impossible to foresee how far things will go, for 
 defeats would add to the exasperation of the Allies as 
 much as would success. . . . Your vast ambition and 
 a thousand circumstances have produced the present 
 crisis and summoned all Europe to arms. In the 
 present state of Europe, millions of men will march 
 if the eight hundred thousand now blocking every 
 road to Paris are not enough. ... It is too clear 
 that your sovereign, deceiving himself with the vain 
 hope of restoring his condition by gaining a battle, 
 stakes on this single card not only the existence of 
 France, but his throne, and even his life. . . . Why 
 push things to the bitter end, when we cannot conceal 
 the fact that every one has more than one insult to 
 avenge? Had it not been for Austria, the Allies 
 would already have lost some of the regard for 
 France, which cannot last long if we postpone the 
 
72 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 signing of a peace ; for in the present war Austria 
 alone is without passion. Emperor Francis loves his 
 daughter and takes a real interest in his son-in-law ; 
 why reject his good advice? Before long his good 
 intentions and those of Prince Metternich will be 
 unable further to control passions inflamed by the 
 prolongation of the struggle. ... Is there then no 
 way of enlightening the Emperor Napoleon about his 
 position and of saving him, if he insists on ruining 
 himself; and has he absolutely placed his own fate, 
 that of his son, your own, on his last cannon? 
 Would you rather have France pillaged and the Rus- 
 sians in Paris than treat for peace? Will all your 
 audacity and the courage of despair prevent your 
 being overwhelmed by the multitude that threatens 
 you? Believe me, make peace. We are enemies — 
 you know it better than any one, for your sovereign 
 has confided to you the conditions of peace — only 
 because the Emperor Napoleon has made us such.' " 
 
 After thus recording the words of Prince Ester- 
 hazy, the Duke of Vicenza closed his letter with 
 these words : " Your Majesty can no longer hide from 
 himself that what was possible at Frankfort is im- 
 possible at Chatillon. The enemy have tested the 
 national and patriotic resistance which they feared, 
 and they are, besides, in force at the gates of Paris. 
 Doubtless these are not consoling reflections, and it 
 is hard for me to address such language to Your 
 Majesty; but I owe to you absolute truthfulness. 
 Austria and Prussia, when conquered by you, gave 
 
THE CHATILLON CONGRESS. 73 
 
 you for saving themselves more than one example of 
 resignation ; this virtue has been of service to those 
 cabinets, since now they speak as conquerors. Imi- 
 tate them, Sire, while your capital is still uninvadecl 
 and victory has not yet deserted you. Your Majesty 
 can no longer deceive yourself. You see that our 
 ranks are too empty to triumph over so many foes. 
 You have learned that your fortune has been able to 
 save nothing but our laurels. Hence you have had it 
 proved that we must await from the future what the 
 present denies us, and that only on this condition 
 can the hour of a noble and glorious vengeance ever 
 strike." 
 
 The Duke of Yicenza, fully appreciating the re- 
 marks of Prince Esterhazy, went on : " Does Prince 
 Esterhazy's conduct have any connection with the 
 appearance of the Bourbons ? He said nothing to me 
 bearing upon them, and in speaking of them I took 
 care not to admit that Your Majesty could have any 
 uneasiness in this regard. Does it have any connec- 
 tion with other circumstances or with arrangements 
 now unknown to us ? Time alone can tell. We 
 may presume everything when we have everything 
 to fear. By what he called ' regard for France,' etc., 
 may he not have understood a plan to admit the 
 Bourbons in the case the war is prolonged? Every- 
 thing that occurs, everything said, everything that 
 threatens us, shows that our foes regard all means as 
 lawful. . . . Despite this state of affairs, I, like Your 
 Majesty, would take counsel only of my courage, if I 
 
74 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 
 
 knew that you had in your hands one hundred and 
 twenty thousand men to face the storm ; but if, as I 
 fear, you have less than eighty thousand, but one 
 thing is left to do, — to yield at this moment to united 
 Europe ; for peace, I repeat, has become the desire and 
 necessity of the French; there is no safety but in 
 peace. Our dangers are too real, and the hours left 
 us are, it is clear, counted by our relentless enemies. 
 Possibly Your Majesty will charge these reflections 
 with weakness ; I think, however, and it cannot escape 
 you, that courage is required to make them. How- 
 ever, I am convinced that the time is come when no 
 consideration should stop me." 
 
 It is almost impossible to tell the truth to sover- 
 eigns in the days of their prosperity ; it is not easy 
 to make them listen to it when adversity has given 
 them lessons by which they should profit. This frank 
 and loyal letter of Caulaincourt's displeased the Em- 
 peror. On hearing of this unreasonable displeasure, 
 the faithful servant wrote to Napoleon this admirable 
 letter : — 
 
 "Chatillon, March 5, 1814. Sire: I must state 
 clearly to Your Majesty how much I am pained by 
 finding my devotion misunderstood. You are dissat- 
 isfied with me ; you show this, and you charged M. 
 de Rumigny to tell me. My frankness has displeased 
 you ; and you call it rudeness and harshness. You 
 reproach me with seeing the Bourbons everywhere, 
 and yet, perhaps wrongly, I scarcely mentioned 
 them. Your Majesty forgets that it is you who 
 
THE CHATILLON CONGEESS. 75 
 
 first spoke of them in letters written or dictated to 
 me. To foresee, like 3^011, the chances that may be 
 offered to them by the passions of some of the Allies, 
 those that might be produced by an unhappy contin- 
 gency, and by the interest with which their sufferings 
 might inspire this country, if the presence of a Prince 
 and a party should arouse this old memory at a criti- 
 cal moment, would not be so unreasonable, if things 
 were pushed to an extreme. In the present condition 
 of men's minds, in this feverish state of Europe, when 
 France is so anxious and fatigued, every possibility 
 should be faced ; wisdom commands this. I well un- 
 derstand that Your Majesty should desire to commu- 
 nicate the force of his nature, the fire of his great 
 character to all who serve him, and to inspire every one 
 with his energy. But your minister. Sire, does not need 
 this spur. Adversity arouses his courage instead of 
 casting it down. . . . No one would more readily 
 than I console Your Majesty, soften all the pain that 
 the circumstances and the necessary sacrifices inflict 
 upon you, but the interest of France, that of your 
 dynasty, command me to be above all things cautious 
 and honest. ... Is it my fault if I am the only one 
 to use this language of devotion to Your Majesty, if 
 those who are with you and agree with me dread to 
 displease you, and, desirous of sparing you amid so 
 many trials, dare not say what it is my duty to tell 
 you?" 
 
 The conclusion of this letter is both noble and 
 touching. It is easy to see all the anguish that rent 
 
76 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 Caulaincourt's heart when he wrote these Hnes. 
 " What glory, what advantage, could there be for me 
 in signing this same peace, if it should ever be made ? 
 Will not this peace, or rather these sacrifices, ever be 
 for Your Majesty a source of lasting dissatisfaction 
 with your plenipotentiary ? Will not many French- 
 men who now feel its necessity blame me for it six 
 months after it shall have saved your throne? . . . 
 Since I am no blinder about my position than I am 
 about Your Majesty's, you ought to believe me. I 
 see things as they are. Fear has united all the sov- 
 ereigns, discontent has collected all the Germans; 
 the bond is too strong for us to break. In accepting 
 the ministry as I did, in undertaking thig negotiation, 
 I devoted myself to your service, to save my country. 
 I had no other aim, and that would seem to me high 
 and noble enough to be above all sacrifices. In my 
 position I could not do otherwise, and that is what 
 decided me. Your Majesty may say of me all the ill 
 you please ; you cannot think it in your heart, and you 
 will be forced always to do me the justice of regard- 
 ing me as one of your most faithful subjects and 
 one of the best citizens of this France which I 
 cannot be suspected of wishing to degrade, since I 
 would give my life to save one of its villages." 
 
 Meanwhile, the fatal limit set by the plenipoten- 
 tiaries of the Coalition, the 10th of March, had come. 
 On that day the Duke of Vicenza handed in a state- 
 ment referring to the protocol, and recalling what 
 the different states had gained since 1792. He 
 
THE CIIATILLON CONGRESS. 77 
 
 expressed himself as follows : " After demanding so 
 many sacrifices of France, but one was left to claim, 
 — that of its honor. The proposal tends to deprive 
 her of the right of intervening in favor of one of 
 her former unhappy allies. The plenipotentiary of 
 France having asked whether the King of Saxony 
 was to be put again in possession of his states, could 
 not get an answer. From France are demanded 
 cessions and renunciations, and it is desired that she 
 should make these cessions without knowing to 
 whom, by what title, and in what proportions, will 
 belong what she shall have ceded. It is intended 
 that she shall not know who will be her nearest 
 neighbors. It is desired to arrange, without her, 
 the fate of countries she shall have renounced, and 
 the way of living of those with which her sovereign 
 was bound by close ties. It is desired without her, to 
 make arrangements determining the general system 
 of European equilibrium. It is desired that she 
 should have no part in the arrangement of a whole 
 of which she forms a considerable and necessary part. 
 It is, moreover, desired that by subscribing to these 
 conditions she should be in some sort excluded from 
 European society. . . . Attacked at once by all the 
 Powers united against her, the French nation, more 
 than any other, needs peace, and desires it more than 
 any other; but every people, like every generous man, 
 sets honor even above life." 
 
 After hearing this statement, the plenipotentiaries 
 broke out into the most violent abuse. Where, they 
 
78 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 
 
 asked, is the counter-project which has been expected 
 for a month and had been solemnly promised for 
 March 10 ? The Duke of Vicenza succeeded only 
 with great difficulty in calming them and in obtain- 
 ing a few days' respite. At last, March 15, he handed 
 in the counter-project, which was Napoleon's own 
 work. Therein the Emperor agreed to cede the 
 Dutch Brabant and various parcels of territory on 
 the right bank of the Rhine, but he demanded a sum 
 of money for Prince Eugene, another for Princess 
 Elisa, and kept the Rhine, and the Alps, Antwerp, 
 Cologne, Mayence, Chamb^ry, Nice. The allied 
 plenipotentiaries regarded this counter-project as an 
 insulting defiance. 
 
 Then Prince Metternich wrote to the Duke of 
 Vicenza a final private letter, in which he said : " If 
 the conditions of the counter-project are the Emperor 
 Napoleon's ultimatum, peace is impossible, and the 
 fate of France and of Europe will be decided by arms. 
 It would be hard, Duke, to describe to you all the 
 painful emotions of the Emperor, my master. He 
 loves his daughter, and he sees her exposed to new 
 anxieties which can only increase. The more com- 
 plicated the political questions, the more personal 
 they become. The Emperor Napoleon has not sec- 
 onded the favorable intentions which the Emperor 
 Francis has always manifested. Possibly we are 
 nearer peace by the breaking off of these futile nego- 
 tiations. That is the sole object of our prayers." 
 
 March 18, the plenipotentiaries of the Allies read 
 
THE CHATILLON CONGRESS. 79 
 
 a formal note in which they stated that, France hav- 
 ing exactly reproduced all the conditions recognized 
 as inacceptable by Europe, the conferences were defi- 
 nitely broken off. Yet a final note was exchanged 
 the next day, March 19 ; it was about the Pope. It 
 ran thus : " The undersigned, the plenipotentiaries of 
 the allied courts, seeing with a deep and profound 
 regret the fruitlessness of the negotiation undertaken 
 at Chatillon for the tranquillity of Europe, cannot dis- 
 pense with occupying themselves before their depart- 
 ure, by means of the present note to His Excellency, 
 the French Plenipotentiary, with a subject which is 
 foreign to political dissensions, and which should 
 always have remained so. In insisting on the inde- 
 pendence of Italy, the allied Powers had intended to 
 replace the Holy Father in his former capital. The 
 French government has shown the same disposition in 
 the counter-project presented by its plenipotentiary. 
 It would be unfortunate if so just and natural a design, 
 agreed to by the two parties, were to remain without 
 effect through reasons in no way concerning the 
 functions which the Head of the Catholic Church is 
 religiously bound to perform. The religion professed 
 by a great part of the nations now at war — justice 
 and general equity, humanity ; in a word — are equally 
 interested in setting His Holiness at liberty, and the 
 undersigned are convinced that they have only to ex- 
 press this wish, and in the name of the courts to ask 
 this act of justice of the French government, to 
 engage it to put the Holy Father in a condition to 
 
80 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 
 
 satisfy the needs of the Catholic Church, by the 
 enjoyment of perfect liberty. The undersigned avail 
 themselves of this opportunity to reassure His Excel- 
 lency, the French Plenipotentiary, of their high 
 consideration. [Signed.] Count Stadion, Count 
 Rasumowski, Cathcart, Humboldt, Charles Stuart, 
 Aberdeen." 
 
 The Duke of Vicenza answered this note thus : 
 " The undersigned. Plenipotentiary of France, will 
 be the more glad to transmit to his court the note, 
 dated to-day, of Their Excellencies, the allied plenipo- 
 tentiaries, since the Emperor, his master, in the coun- 
 ter-project which he was charged with presenting on 
 the 15th, has fu'st shown the interest he took in the 
 Holy Father." 
 
 Thus ended the Congress of Ch^tillon. Of the 
 four allied Powers, only one, Austria, is Roman Cath- 
 olic ; and at the last moment when the negotiations 
 on all other points are broken off, they occupy them- 
 selves with the Holy See. And the French plenipo- 
 tentiary pays homage to Napoleon's prisoner. That 
 was the last word of the Congress, which failed so 
 disastrously for the Empire ! In a few days the 
 Emperor, at the end of his resources, exhausted, be- 
 trayed by fortune, was to reappear at Fontainebleau 
 in the apartment next to the one that served as the 
 prison of Pius VII. Nothing is more impressive 
 than these unexpected changes in history. In this 
 curious interweaving of events, outdoing human cal- 
 culations, we see new proof of the maxim : " Man 
 proposes; God disposes." 
 
THE CHATILLON CONGBiJSS. 81 
 
 March 19, the Duke of Vicenza withdrew from the 
 other plenipotentiaries, and, on the 20th, all the lega- 
 tions left Chatillon to return to the headquarters of the 
 different armies. These useless protocols, these vain 
 diplomatic debates, as they are recorded in the vol- 
 umes in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, entitled 
 *' The Chatillon Congress," are melancholy reading. 
 Let us turn to the military operations where we left 
 off at the beginning of the second fortnight of March, 
 1814. 
 
VI. 
 
 ABCIS-SUR-AUBE. 
 
 AT the beginning of the second fortnight of 
 March, 1814, Napoleon did not yet despair. 
 On reaching Rheims on the 14th, he found that war- 
 like and patriotic city illuminated and echoing with 
 cries of " Long live the Emperor ! " He stayed there 
 three days, directing the complicated affairs of his 
 Empire with imperturbable calm and untiring activity. 
 Meanwhile Bliicher, at the head of the army of Sile- 
 sia, was resting quietly on the hill of Laon, and 
 Schwarzenberg, although victorious over the Duke of 
 Reggio, seemed chained to Troyes. Napoleon, ever 
 confident in his fortune, in spite of so many disasters, 
 awaited some misstep on the part of his adversaries, 
 to fall upon them with the swiftness of lightning. 
 For him it was of the utmost importance to prevent 
 the junction of the armies of Silesia and of Bohemia, 
 and to strike a strong blow upon Schwarzenberg's 
 forces while the two armies were still separate. 
 
 The Emperor determined to attack the enemy 
 in spite of their numerical superiority. He ordered 
 Marmont and Mortier, with their eighteen thousand 
 82 
 
ARCIS-S UR-A UBE. 83 
 
 men, to oppose Bliiclier's march to Paris with a hun- 
 dred and twenty thousand men, and he himself, with 
 about seventeen thousand, advanced against Schwarz- 
 enberg's one hundred thousand. Thus a handful of 
 soldiers, recruits wasted by suffering, or scanty vete- 
 rans in the empty and disorganized ranks, were about 
 to hurl themselves with the courage of heroes against 
 the formidable army of Bohemia. 
 
 This fearless attacking column, led by Napoleon, 
 started from Rheims, March 17, and reached Epernay 
 the same day ; then the Emperor received bad news ; 
 namely, that the English had entered Bordeaux by 
 the invitation of the mayor. March 19, the army 
 advanced over the bridge of Plancy, by the ford of 
 Charny, over the two arms of the Aube, through 
 the space between the Aube and the Seine, and 
 crossed the Seine itself. The highway between 
 Troyes and Paris was in their hands, and the enemy 
 knew a moment of terror. The tidings of Napo- 
 leon's return to the Seine disconcerted the leaders 
 of the Coalition. The main headquarters of the 
 Allies were withdrawn to Troyes, and the heavy bag- 
 gage was sent still further back; and a retreat to 
 Bar was proposed. The Emperor Alexander was so 
 anxious that he himself said that half of his hair 
 would turn gray. This alarm, however, was of but 
 brief duration. The Czar decided that instead of re- 
 treating, the armies of Silesia and of Bohemia ought to 
 unite in the plains of Chalons. Consequently Bliicher 
 drew near to the banks of the Marne, and Schwarz- 
 
84 THE INVASION OF ISI4. 
 
 enberg moved on Arcis ; there it was that Napoleon, 
 under the impression that he had to face an isolated 
 army corps, was about to meet the whole army of 
 Bohemia. 
 
 The battle of Arcis-sur-Aube, which was fought 
 March 20, 1814, and continued the next day, was the 
 last battle but one that Napoleon fought; the very 
 last being Waterloo. Never was the Emperor in 
 greater peril. For the first time, perhaps, since that 
 terrible campaign had begun, he was overwhelmed by 
 despair and anxious to die. When the enemy were 
 on the point of surrounding him, he tried to draw 
 his sword, but it had rusted in its scabbard, and it 
 required the strength of his two equerries, Foulers 
 and Saint Aignan, to get it out. At the same moment, 
 a shell fell before a battalion of conscripts, who were 
 not yet used to the sight, and Napoleon rode his 
 horse over the shell to teach them to despise danger, 
 and doubtless, too, to die the death of a hero. Ex- 
 celmans tried to stop him. " Let him go," shouted 
 Sebastiani ; '^ you see he does it on purpose : he wants 
 to end it all." Napoleon wanted death, but death 
 did not want him. The shell exploded, and for a 
 moment he was lost to sight in a cloud of flame and 
 smoke, but he came forth safe and sound : only his 
 horse had been hit. The young soldiers, amazed at 
 the Emperor's boldness, applauded him, and broke 
 into cheers when he got on another horse. His dan- 
 ger, however, only grew greater instead of less ; a 
 band of Russian and Bavarian cavalry renewed their 
 
ARCIS-S UR-A UBE. 85 
 
 charge. It seemed certain that Napoleon, who Avas 
 defended by a niei'e handful of men, would be taken 
 prisoner. General Drouot saved him : he saw a bat- 
 tery abandoned in the rout, rallied the artillerymen, 
 aimed the pieces himself, and firing into the mingled 
 mass of the French and the enemy, finally cleared 
 the ground : then the Emperor charged at the head 
 of the four squadrons of his body-guard, and drove 
 away their threatening assailants. 
 
 In this way was the third birthday of the King of 
 Rome celebrated. How vast the difference between 
 the Tuileries of 1811 and this battle-field of 1814, 
 between the salvos of artillery announcing the birth 
 of an heir to this immense Empire and roar of cannon 
 in this last battle but one, when the desperate war- 
 rior vainly sought death I Napoleon was often to 
 regret that he had been spared by shell and bullet at 
 Arcis-sur-Aube, and remembered this when, a few 
 weeks later, at Fontainebleau, after his abdication, he 
 vainly attempted to poison himself. 
 
 The battle of Arcis forms an heroic page in the 
 Emperor's history : twenty thousand Frenchmen had 
 held their ground against a body which was enlarged 
 from forty thousand to ninety thousand men. When 
 night came, the French army gathered under the 
 walls of the houses in the suburbs, and the artillery 
 duel continued. The castle of M. de la Briffe, the 
 Emperor's headquarters, was thoroughly riddled by 
 the cannon-balls. The next morning Napoleon was 
 averse to retreating, and refused to believe in the 
 
1 
 
 86 THE INVASION OF 18 14. 
 
 great numerical superiority of the enemy ; when he 
 was convinced by the evidence, after lashing the 
 ground with his riding-whip, which he always did in 
 moments of great excitement, he sacrificed his pride 
 and commanded a retreat. There being but one 
 bridge over the Aube, he had another built, and after 
 keeping his troops deployed in front of Arcis while 
 the second bridge was building, he suddenly with- 
 drew them through the streets of the town, and fol- 
 lowing them across the Aube, had both bridges de- 
 stroyed. Prince Schwarzenberg, furious at seeing 
 his prey escape, tried in vain to cross the river. This 
 was on the part of the French a retreat, though an 
 heroic retreat. Twice in ten days had the great 
 general, so long invincible, been compelled to retreat : 
 at Laon, before the army of Silesia ; at Arcis, before 
 the army of Bohemia. His prestige was lost ; what 
 more could he do ? It was no longer possible to fight 
 against either one of the two armies ; how would it 
 be when they had combined? Would he have to 
 bow his head and humbly beg for the frontier of 
 1792 ? The untiring hero never fancied for a moment 
 that the time had come to yield. He devised a new 
 plan, and determined to march towards the east, in 
 the hope of uniting the garrisons in the fortresses 
 and the armed peasants in the outlying departments, 
 of cutting the communications of the Allies, and thus 
 compelling them to suspend their march on Paris. 
 
 Napoleon did not delay the execution of this new 
 plan, which was bolder than anything he had yet 
 
ARCIS-S UR-A UBE. 87 
 
 done. March 21, he had just abandoned Arc is and 
 crossed the Aube ; Avhen he had got out of the pass, 
 beyond Ormes, accompanied only by his equerry, 
 Baron de Saint Aignan, he stopped and asked for his 
 field-glass ; this he rested on the equerry's shoulder, 
 while he examined the enemy's army. Then he re- 
 mounted his horse and rode slowly and silently along 
 the highroad. " His revery became so profound," 
 says General de S^gur, " that his hands dropped the 
 reins and hung motionless by his side. He happened 
 at the time to be ascending a steep path alongside 
 of a precipice, down which the least misstep might 
 have thrown him. Saint Aignan, not stopping to 
 choose his words in his eagerness, warned him that 
 there was no railing: he barely heard him; doubt- 
 less at that moment he was deciding on one of those 
 important steps which are great or foolish, according 
 to the event." 
 
 Meanwhile, Marie Louise still deceived herself 
 about the condition of France, and refused to believe 
 that diplomatic negotiations were permanently broken 
 off. Under this impression, she wrote to her father, 
 March 22, a letter, in which she said : "The nation is 
 full of courage and energy, the peasants are particu- 
 larly aroused by the bad treatment they have received. 
 Your troops may very probably be beaten. The Em- 
 peror's armies are finer and stronger than ever. It is 
 for your interest as well as ours to propose anew the 
 Frankfort conditions. Otherwise you may be com- 
 pelled to make a less favorable peace in a few 
 
88 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 
 
 months." The letter ended with these entreaties- 
 " In the name of all you hold most sacred, I beg of 
 you, do not let yourself be carried away by the greed ; 
 of the English, by the ambition and hatred of Count ' 
 Stadion. If you do, you will sacrifice the interest of I 
 your Empire, the happiness of your family, and your 
 own peace of mind. The humiliating peace proposed 
 to us it is impossible to accept. You may be sure 
 that I know the Emperor and that he will never 
 agree to it. You ought to return to the Frankfort 
 conditions, the only ones advantageous to France and 
 Austria." 
 
 This appeal was made to deaf ears. The Allies, 
 fired by their last victories, determined on destroying 
 Napoleon. While Schwarzenberg, at the head of the 
 army of Bohemia, forced the passage of the Aube at 
 Arcis, Bliicher, with the army of Silesia, reached the 
 banks of the Marne by way of Rheims. He had 
 driven back towards Chateau Thierry the corps of 
 the Duke of Ragusa and the Duke of Treviso. 
 March 23, the scouts of the army of Silesia and of 
 the army of Bohemia met at Poivre. A great cry of 
 joy arose when these two great invading armies came 
 in sight of each other. Never, since the time of At- 
 tila had more soldiers been assembled on the vast plain 
 between Chalons and Arcis-sur-Aube. Two hundred 
 thousand allies, in a compact body, separated the 
 thirty-six or forty thousand worn-out soldiers of 
 Napoleon, on his way to Lorraine, from the twenty- 
 thousand men of Marmont, Mortier, and Pacthod, 
 
ARCIS-SUE-A UBE. 
 
 scattered between Vertus and Suzanne. The evening 
 of March 23, the Allies issued a proclamation 
 announcing to France the breaking off of the negoti- 
 ations of Chatillon. The last scene of the military 
 drama was approaching. 
 
VII. 
 
 THE MARCH TO THE EAST. 
 
 WITH such vast forces facing him, Napoleon 
 was unable to move in the direction of his 
 capital; hence he conceived another, bolder plan, 
 which might have been successful if there had been 
 no traitors in France. He resolved to march east- 
 ward, and cut the base of the enemy's operations. In 
 three days he could be at Metz, and there he could 
 unite the garrisons of that city, of Mayence, Luxem- 
 bourg, Thionville, Verdun, Strassburg, amounting to 
 thirty thousand men, await a re-enforcement of fifteen 
 thousand from the Low Countries, and thus soon be 
 at the head of an army of one hundred thousand 
 combatants. He hoped, moreover, that Marshal 
 Suchet, who had been sent to take Augereau's place 
 in command of the army of Lyons, would be able to 
 move to BesauQon with forty thousand men, and that 
 thus the face of things would be entirely changed. 
 But while fearless youths and courageous veterans did 
 prodigies of valor to save the glory of France, there 
 were men who did not blush to become the auxiliaries 
 and accomplices of the foreigners. They were not 
 90 
 
THE MAliCH TO THE EAST. 91 
 
 the men of whom Napoleon had asked the greatest 
 sacrifices without paying them with promotion, with 
 office, or with money, and who had shown their devo- 
 tion by tireless effort. No ; they were the men whom 
 he loaded with gold, with titles, with rewards of 
 every sort, and who addressed him with the rankest 
 flattery, and had times without number taken oaths 
 of eternal fidelity. In the brilliant mansions which 
 they owed to his generosity they formed their 
 treacherous plans. 
 
 France, if it had not been divided against itself, 
 might have triumphed over all its enemies ; but 
 it was divided into two hostile camps, — the Royalist 
 and the Imperialist. There were men hastening to 
 join the white flag of the Bourbons with the foreign 
 flags, and eager to welcome the Cossacks on the boule- 
 vards as liberators. In the presence of such senti- 
 ments Napoleon's plans necessarily fell to the ground. 
 It is easy to conceive the thoughts of the patriotic 
 soldiers who had struggled so bravely against un- 
 heard of difficulties. When they saw a handful of 
 traitors overthrowing the whole glorious edifice, and 
 that they were the victims of their fellow-country- 
 men rather than of the foreigners, that all their heroic 
 efforts and generous bloodshed had been thrown 
 away, they exclaimed, " We have not been con- 
 quered ; we have been betrayed ! " Their cry of 
 grief and wrath will echo from one age to another as 
 the sublime protest of lionor and loyalty ! 
 
 The enemy hesitated on hearing of Napoleon's east- 
 
92 THE INVASION OF 181 4. 
 
 ward march. " They were not ignorant," says M. de 
 Beauchamp, in his History of the Campaign of 1814, 
 " that secret and full instructions had reached the 
 garrison of the frontiers on the Rhine and the Mo- 
 selle, to march forth at a given signal, and to join 
 the army to be sent into Lorraine. . . . But what 
 required the most serious attention was the disposi- 
 tion shown by a great many of the peasants of Lor- 
 raine, Champagne, Alsace, Franche-Comte, and Bur- 
 gundy, who it appeared . . . were ready to rise at 
 the slightest defeat, to cut the bridges and destroy 
 the roads, to burn the supplies, to annoy and starve 
 out the enemy ; in a word, to change the war into a 
 national uprising, in answer to Napoleon's efforts." 
 
 An eye-witness who is above suspicion is Mr. Rob- 
 ert Wilson, an Englishman, from whom we quote : 
 "The Allies," he says, speaking of the campaign of 
 1814, "were in a vicious circle, from which their 
 only escape was the treachery of some of the French. 
 They could not keep open the line of retreat, and 
 yet retreat seemed unavoidable. This treachery that 
 favored them, and had been carefully prepared, came 
 into effect at the very moment Avhen Napoleon's suc- 
 cess seemed assured; and his movement towards 
 Saint Dizier, which should have secured the safety 
 of his Empire, lost him his crown." 
 
 Who were the Frenchmen whose treachery thus 
 aided the foreigners ? Let us listen to one of them, 
 the Abbe de Pradt, Archbishop ' of Mechlin, one of 
 Napoleon's most prominent courtiers, a man whom he 
 
THE MARCH TO THE EAtiT. 93 
 
 had loaded with benefits. In his account of the Res- 
 toration, he sajs: " The Allies, thus occupying a new 
 position amid unfamiliar surroundings, were anxious 
 to depend on the information of people whom they 
 supposed more familiar with the internal condi- 
 tion of France. M. de Talleyrand and M. de Dal- 
 berg had especially attracted their attention. . . . 
 Though I had but few claims to this honor, it had 
 yet been accorded me. Even our future had been 
 provided for, in case it had been compromised by 
 events. . . . Our meetings with the persons men- 
 tioned above continued: sometimes they were fre- 
 quent in one day. The Chatillon Congress was our 
 bane. Not a day passed without our undermining 
 and destroying the Emperor's power, without our 
 hastening the day of his fall. The French armies lay 
 between Paris and the Allies, and it was with the 
 greatest difficulty that we maintained communication 
 with them. The first one to triumph over the obstacles 
 was M. de Vitrolles, and it was through him that the 
 ministers of the great Powers began to receive posi- 
 tive information about the condition of internal 
 affairs, of which they had been in utter ignorance." 
 M. de Vitrolles was a baron of the Empire, an 
 Imperial official, a postal agent. M. de Lavalette, 
 his superior, did not in the least suspect him, 
 and entrusted him with the arrangement of regular 
 communications with Italy, by passage through 
 Switzerland and the rear of the enemy's army. M. 
 de Vitrolles pretended to accept this mission, but 
 
94 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 really went to the headquarters of the Allies, and 
 then to the Count d'Artois. 
 
 As for M. de Talleyrand, whom the Emperor had 
 made Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prince of Bene- 
 vento, a high dignitary of the Empire, who to all 
 appearance was the humble servant and attentive 
 courtier of the Regent, he too conspired, but very 
 prudently; for he desired to overthrow the Empire 
 without himself running the slightest risk. While 
 he was secretly weaving his Royalist plots, he made 
 a great show of friendship for the Duke of Rovigo, 
 the Minister of Police, and pretended to be very 
 zealous in informing him of the plots and intrigues 
 of the Count d'Artois. The Duke of Rovigo sus- 
 pected double dealing, but he did not feel sure. " I 
 was riding," he says in his Memoirs, "when it 
 occurred to me to pass by the house of Prince 
 Talleyrand. I saw the carriage of the Archbishop of 
 Mechlin at his door. I fancied that they were in 
 conference. Being anxious to make sure, instead of 
 riding into the courtyard, I alighted in the street, 
 and entered swiftly on foot. The janitor knew me 
 and did not dare to stop me. I hastily ascended the 
 staircase and reached M. de Talleyrand's private 
 room without meeting any one ; he was alone with 
 the Archbishop. My sudden entrance startled them 
 as much as if I had come in through the window. 
 The conversation, which had been animated, stopped 
 short; they were both struck dumb. The face of 
 the Archbishop especially expressed great agitation. 
 
THE MARCH TO THE EAST. 95 
 
 Their confusion suggested to me the subject of their 
 talk, and I coukl not keep from saying : ' This time 
 you won't deny it ; I have caught you conspiring.' 
 I had guessed right. They began to Li-ugh and tried 
 to make some reply ; but it was in vain that I asked 
 them to resume their conversation : they could not. 
 I withdrew, convinced that they were weaving some 
 plot, but what it was I did not know." 
 
 In the Memorial of Saint Helena we read : " When 
 about to leave the Tuileries, Napoleon, who already 
 expected treason, determined to seize the man who 
 in fact turned out to be the soul of the conspiracy 
 that overthrew him. He was only prevented by the 
 assurances, and we might almost say the almost 
 personal guarantee, of some of the ministers, who 
 proved to him that the one suspected was the very 
 man whom the Bourbons most feared." These, min- 
 isters were mistaken. As Thiers has said : •'' Some 
 insinuations of persons in relation with the Bourbons 
 had informed M. de Talleyrand, what in fact he 
 already knew, that the services of a married bishop 
 would be very well received by the most pious prinCes, 
 for there is nothing which is not forgotten in the face 
 of services not rendered, but to be rendered. Parties 
 have memories only for what they please ; according 
 to their necessities, they forget everything or remem- 
 ber everything." There is much truth in this last 
 statement of the historian. 
 
 When the treason was once organized, secret emis- 
 saries were despatched to the enemy's camp. " You 
 
96 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 have the game in your hands, and yet hold back ; be 
 bold ! " They added : " Paris detests its tyrant, and 
 only your presence is needed for proclamation to be 
 made of his deposition and for the Bourbons to be 
 summoned." Still the Allies hesitated, when, in the 
 night of March 23, Emperor Alexander and Prince 
 Schwarzenberg, who were staying at the castle of 
 Dampierre, received information of two letters that 
 had been intercepted, one from Marie Louise, the 
 other from the Duke of Rovigo, both addressed to 
 Napoleon. These two letters proved the existence in 
 Paris of a party in league with the foreigners. When 
 he had read these letters, the Czar decided that the 
 march on Paris should begin at sunrise the next 
 morning. He left Dampierre early the next day, the 
 24th, and met the King of Prussia and Bliicher at 
 Sompuis. The allied armies then started, the army 
 of Silesia on the right, that of Bohemia on the left, 
 for F^re-Champenoise, moving towards the capital 
 between the Marne and the Seine. The Emperor of 
 Russia and the King of Prussia marched with their 
 troops. As for the Emperor of Austria, who was 
 less eager than his allies, he was then at Bar-sur-Aube, 
 and he was advised not to join the invading column, 
 lest he should fall into the hands of his son-in-law ; 
 and he was persuaded to return to Dijon, that he 
 might be spared the dethronement of his own 
 daughter. 
 
 Meanwhile, Napoleon was continuing his march 
 eastward. March 21, he had spent the night at 
 
THE MARCH TO THE EAST. 97 
 
 Sompuis ; the 22d, he crossed the Marne at the ford 
 of Frignicourt; the 23d, he slept at Saint Dizier, where 
 he was met by the Duke of Vicenza returning from 
 the Chatillon Congress. '' You did well to return," 
 the Emperor said to him ; " f or I will tell you frankly, 
 if you had accepted the ultimatum of the Allies, I 
 should have disavowed you. . . . This time it shall 
 not be said that I am fighting for my ambition, for it 
 would be easy to save my throne; but my throne, 
 with France humiliated, is not what I want. . . . 
 You are going to see some great things. I am going 
 to march on the fortified towns, and assemble thirty 
 or forty thousand men in a few days. Evidently the 
 enemy are following me. There is no other explan- 
 ation of the mass of cavalry surrounding us. My 
 sudden appearance on their rear has brought Schwarz- 
 enberg back, and he will not dare to move on Paris 
 while I am threatening his communications. Soon I 
 shall have a hundred thousand men ; then I shall fall 
 on whichever is nearer, Bliicher or Schwarzenberg. 
 I shall crush him, and the peasants of Burgundy will 
 finish him. The Coalition is nearer its own ruin than 
 mine ; and if I triumph, we shall tear up those abom- 
 inable treaties. If I am mistaken, well, we shall die ; 
 we shall do what so many of our old companions in 
 arms do every day ; but we shall at least die with our 
 honor untainted." 
 
 Napoleon was full of enthusiasm, and had genuine 
 confidence in the success of the bold plan he had 
 formed. His generals, however, did not have the 
 
98 THE INVASION OF ISI4. 
 
 same faith. In the next room they were muttermg : 
 "Where are we going? What will become of us? 
 If he falls, shall we fall with him? " As soon as the 
 Emperor appeared, every one ke^^t a respectful silence. 
 " Yet," says General de S%ur, " he felt very clearly 
 that the bravest were astonished, that human strength 
 could do no more, that everything was exhausted. 
 But his grandeur held itself aloof from these mur- 
 murs ; he was still beyond their reach ; such was the 
 habit of command on his side, of obedience on theirs. 
 Yet they respected his misfortune, and respected 
 themselves in his presence ; and whatever their 
 despondency behind his back, they concealed it from 
 him." 
 
 March 24, Napoleon marched to Joinville ; the 
 25th, he pushed on his light cavalry to Chaumont. 
 He fancied that he was pursued by the whole of 
 Schwarzenberg's army, while in fact he had behind 
 him only a few thousand of Witzingerode's cavalry ; 
 and he imagined Paris relieved at the very moment 
 it was about to fall. 
 
 Mortier and Marmont had been attacked on the 
 Aisne, the moment the Emperor left them, and had 
 been forced to evacuate Rheims, in order to cover the 
 capital. But at Fere-Champenoise, March 25, they 
 fell in with the whole army of Bohemia, and fought 
 most bravely, though outnumbered ten to one. They 
 were only saved from annihilation by Pacthod's divi- 
 sion, which had been marching for four days to join 
 them. This division, which liad been made immortal 
 
THE MARCH TO THE EAST. 99 
 
 by its courage, consisted entirely of National Guards. 
 Its general exclaimed : '' There is no surrender in the 
 open field. Military law, and, above all, honor, for- 
 bids it. Besides, when the country is lost, who 
 wishes to survive it ? Let us then swear to die for 
 it ! " and they all swore it. 
 
 March 27, Napoleon heard of the disaster of F^re- 
 Champenoise by a bulletin found on a prisoner. 
 When he heard that the troops of Marmont and 
 Mortier were routed, and that the Allies were mov- 
 ing on Paris, flushed with victory, he was most sorely 
 perplexed. Macdonald urged him to pursue his 
 movement eastward without concerning himself 
 about Paris. " Let me consider," said the Emperor. 
 " I must be alone." His thoughts were most bitter. 
 He, the most audacious of men, for the first time in 
 his life was outdone in audacity by his adversaries. 
 What was to become of Paris ? Was not a revolu- 
 tion there imminent ? And if Louis XVIII. were pro- 
 claimed in the capital, what would he. Napoleon, be 
 in the departments of the east? The commander of 
 an Imperial Vendue, a sort of adventurer or leader of 
 a band. The whole night of the 27th he spent at 
 Saint Dizier, poring over his maps, eagerly measur- 
 ing the distances. Which was the shortest road to 
 Paris ? That of Cezanne to Coulommiers. But that 
 road led to the Marne, and all the passages were 
 guarded by the enemy. It would be better to take 
 the road through Troyes, although it was far from 
 straight. Napoleon hesitated no longer; Paris be- 
 
100 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 came his sole objective point. But would he arrive 
 in time ? Would he not find the capital in posses- 
 sion of the Royalists and the Allies ? With feverish 
 impatience the Emperor gave the preparatory orders, 
 and March 28, he set his troops in motion, starting 
 from Saint Dizier ; he spent that night at Doulevent. 
 There he received a messenger from M. de Lavalette, 
 the bearer of a letter running thus ; '' The friends 
 of the foreigners, encouraged by what is going on at 
 Bordeaux, are raising their heads ; they are aided 
 by secret plots. The presence of Napoleon is neces- 
 sary if he wishes to prevent the surrender of the capi- 
 tal to the enemy. Not a moment must be lost." 
 
 March 29, the Emperor was again on horseback 
 before day. Tow^ards two in the afternoon he 
 reached at the bridge of Doulancourt, the highroad 
 of Troyes, whence he could advance either on Paris 
 or on Lorraine. He hesitated for a moment. The 
 wisest of liis officers wanted to continue the march 
 to the east, and their despair was great when they 
 saw Napoleon, abandoning this plan, cross the Aube 
 and take the road to Troyes, commanding his troops 
 to follow him toward Paris, at double quick, night 
 and day. 
 
 We read in the Memorial of Saint IIele7ia : " The 
 Emperor much regretted that at Saint Dizier and at 
 Doulevent he had yielded to the many arguments that 
 urged him against his will to return to Paris. ' I lacked 
 firmness,' he said. ' I ought steadily to have carried 
 out my plan of advancing to the Rhine, strengthen- 
 
THE MARCH TO THE EAST. 101 
 
 ing myself with all my garrisons, putting myself at 
 the head of the insurgent populace : I should have 
 had an immense army. Murat would have returned 
 to me at once ; he and the Viceroy would have given 
 me Vienna if the Allies had dared to take Paris. But 
 no ; the enemy would have shuddered at the dangers 
 they were in, and the Allied sovereigns would have 
 regarded as a favor the chance to retreat.' " 
 
 The die was cast, and Napoleon had chosen the 
 other course. He commanded General Dejean to 
 leave at full speed to announce to the Parisians his 
 return. The troops marched with wonderful celer- 
 ity. The Imperial Guard and the baggage-train 
 made fifteen leagues in a single day. March 29, 
 Napoleon slept at Troyes. He was off again the 
 morning of the 30th, and advanced as far as Vil- 
 leneuve-l'Archeveque, where he stopped for a few 
 moments alone with Ney in a little cabin. '' Well, 
 Ney," he said, " what do you think of this hut and 
 of our situation? Don't you think we should be 
 lucky if we could be sure of such a retreat for our 
 old age ? " From Villeneuve-l' Archeveque, the march 
 lost its military aspect. Being sure of the safety of 
 the road, he went on ahead of his troops, jumped into 
 a wagon with Caulaincourt and Berthier, and drove 
 swiftly through Moret and Fontainebleau, urging the 
 postilions to full speed. At last, at six in the even- 
 ing, he reached Fromenteau, but five leagues distant 
 from his capital. He was too late ! 
 
 What had happened in Paris ? 
 
VIII. 
 
 PARIS AT THE END OF MARCH. 
 
 IN the last days of March Paris was filled with the 
 keenest anxiety. No news was received from 
 the Emperor ; it was uncertain whether the enemy 
 was retreating or marching on the capital. The 
 Ministers had no more information than the public, 
 and gloomy forebodings announced the approaching 
 disasters. 
 
 One evening the Empress, as was her habit, received 
 a few persons at the Tuileries. Calm and self-con- 
 trolled, she gave no sign of her distress. She had 
 invited the Duke of Rovigo, but when she had sat 
 down at the card-table she would not let the cards 
 be taken from their case : she n o longer cared to play. 
 A few minutes later she took the Duke aside and 
 asked him if he had received any letters from the 
 Emperor. He answered, "No." "Well," she then 
 said, " I will give you news about him ; I heard from 
 him this morning." And when Savary expressed sur- 
 prise, saying that no courier had arrived, the Regent 
 added : " That is true ; no courier has arrived ; and 
 I shall surprise you still more when I tell you that 
 102 
 
PABIS AT THE END OF MARCH. 103 
 
 Marshal Bliicher has sent me a letter from the 
 Emperor, which, he says, was found with many others 
 on a courier who was captured by the enemy. To 
 tell you the truth, I am very anxious, for I have 
 thought of what may result from this accident. The 
 Emperor, ever since his departure, has written to 
 me in cipher; all these letters have reached me 
 safely; this one, not in cipher, is the only one in 
 which he speaks to me about his plan, and that 
 must be the one to fall into the enemy's hands. 
 There is a fatality about that which makes me very 
 sad." 
 
 In this letter Napoleon announced his march to 
 the east, tried to reassure her about the consequences 
 of this movement, and bade her not to be surprised 
 if she should not hear from him for some days. When 
 Marshal Bliicher had captured the bearer of this let- 
 ter, he forwarded the letter to the outposts under a 
 flag of truce, that it might reach the Empress after 
 it had been read by him. It ended with these words : 
 '' This step saves me or ruins me." 
 
 Marie Louise perfectly understood the extreme 
 gravity of the situation. Without a single adviser 
 capable of reassuring her by his energy, she felt that 
 everything about her was crumbling. She had no 
 confidence in her brothers-in-law ; she had seen Napo- 
 leon quarrel with them all. She knew how hard he 
 had found it to become reconciled with Joseph, whom 
 she suspected of jealousy of her and of secret in- 
 trigue against the Emperor. She knew, also, how 
 
104 THE INVASION OF 18 14. 
 
 annoyed the Emperor had been when, January 1, 
 1814, Louis had come to Paris without permission 
 and had stayed with his mother. Then an order had 
 been conveyed to him to move to a distance of forty 
 leagues from the capital, but he refused to obey. " No 
 one," he said, " has any right to prevent my staying 
 at my own house." It was not till January 10, that, 
 thanks to the Empress's intervention, he was able to 
 get admission to the Emperor. The interview was a 
 cold one ; the two brothers did not kiss. " I should 
 prefer that Holland return to the power of the house 
 of Orange rather than to that of my brother." The 
 pacific counsels and wise warnings that he received 
 from Louis during the campaign irritated him ex- 
 tremely. He never pardoned him for a letter, written 
 March 16, which was simply prophetic, and in which 
 the former King of Holland wrote thus : " If Your 
 Majesty does not sign peace, you may be sure that 
 your government will not last more than three weeks. 
 It needs only a little coolness and common sense to 
 judge the state of affairs." 
 
 As for Jerome, Napoleon, before leaving for the 
 field, had refused to receive him at the Tuileries, and, 
 February 4, 1814, the Empress had been forced to 
 write to Joseph : — 
 
 " My dear Brother : I have this moment received 
 a letter from the Emperor on the 2d, in which, in 
 answer to mine, he forbids my receiving on any pre- 
 text the King and Queen of Westphalia, in public or 
 incognito. Hence I beg of you, my dear brother, to 
 
PA BIS uiT THE END OF MARCH. 105 
 
 express to them all the regret I feel at not being 
 able to see them to-morrow, and to believe in the 
 sincere friendship with which I am, my dear brother, 
 your affectionate sister." 
 
 February 21, Napoleon was somewhat better dis- 
 posed towards Jerome. That day he wrote from 
 Nogent-sur-Seine to Joseph : — 
 
 " My Brother : These are my wishes about the 
 King of Westphalia: I authorize him to wear the 
 coat of a grenadier of my guard, the permission I 
 grant to all the French Princes : you will inform 
 King Louis of this. It is absurd for him to wear a 
 Dutch uniform. King Jerome will at once get rid of 
 his Westphalian household. . . . Immediately after- 
 wards, the King and Queen will be presented to the 
 Empress, and I authorize the King to occupy the 
 house of Cardinal Fesch, since it appears to belong to 
 him, and to establish his household there. The King 
 and Queen will continue to bear the title of King 
 and Queen of Westphalia, but they will have no 
 Westphalian in their suite. When that is done, the 
 King will come to my headquarters, when I intend 
 to send him to Lyons, to take command of that city, 
 of the department and the army, if he Avill promise to 
 be always at the outposts, and to have no royal reti- 
 nue, no extravagance, not more than fifteen horses, 
 to bivouac with his soldiers, and not to let a gun be 
 fired without being at the front." This plan fell 
 through. Like Joseph and Louis, Jerome stayed in 
 Paris until after the Empress had left. Since they 
 
106 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 
 
 inspired no confidence in the Emperor, how could 
 they in her ? 
 
 Meanwhile, alarm was spreading everywhere, and 
 Paris was in the wildest confusion. With the excep- 
 tion of a few traitors who actually rejoiced in the 
 public misfortunes, the populace was panic-stricken. 
 They were afraid that the city would be sacked, and 
 had but little doubt that it would be burned, like 
 Moscow. When news came that the Emperor Alex- 
 ander and the King of Prussia had slept at Coulom- 
 miers, only fourteen leagues from Paris, and the 
 country people began to drive their herds before 
 them and to throng into the city with such of their 
 belongings as they could load on their carts, the 
 terror was complete. 
 
 Idle and discontented patriots wandered through 
 the suburbs and along the boulevards, demanding 
 arms and denouncing the indifference of the govern- 
 ment. The disseminators of bad news thronged the 
 cafes, the theatres, — for the theatres, oddly enough, 
 were not closed, — the streets, and public places, 
 spreading abroad the wildest rumors. There was no 
 one to stop them ; there was no police, no govern- 
 ment. National resistance, a great popular uprising, 
 was something impossible. On the battle-field of 
 Arcis-sur-Aube Napoleon had said to General Sebas- 
 tian!, who asked him why he did not summon the 
 nation to rise : " That's a wild dream based on mem- 
 ories of Spain and the French Revolution. It is use- 
 less to call upon a nation in which the Revolution 
 
PAIilS AT THE END OF MARCH. 107 
 
 has destroyed the priests and the nobles, and in which 
 I have myself destroyed the Revolution ! " 
 
 Napoleon was right. To defend Paris against two 
 hundred thousand Allies, to protect the city with 
 barricades, to have the tocsin sounded, to determine 
 to conquer or die, required patriotism and religious 
 sentiment. It demanded monks like those of Sara- 
 gossa, to set the Holy Sacrament before the attacking 
 hordes, and a band of fanatics, like the men who 
 burned Moscow, who chose rather to see the city in 
 flames than in the hands of foreigners. Paris was 
 moved by a very different feeling, — a yearning for 
 safety. A few heroes swore that they would die be- 
 fore they saw the great capital polluted by the pres- 
 ence of the foreigners; but most of the inhabitants 
 said that Paris could not, should not, and would not 
 be sacrificed merely to prolong the tottering power of 
 the Emperor. The National Guard did not represent 
 the people; it was drawn solely from the middle 
 classes, and even for its scanty members — only about 
 twelve thousand men — there were not more than three 
 thousand muskets. Either through improvidence, or 
 the desire not to alarm the populace, no serious prep- 
 arations for defence had been made. There were mag- 
 nificent fortifications, rich arsenals, abundant troops at 
 Dantzic, Hamburg, Flushing, Palma Nuova, Venice, 
 Alessandria — but in Paris, actually nothing! — no 
 armament, no muskets, no cannon, no fortifications, 
 with the exception of a few wretched palisades in the 
 suburbs. To oppose the two hundred thousand well- 
 
108 THE INVASION OF 18 14. 
 
 trained and fully-equipped invaders there were only 
 about twenty-five thousand men, including the troops 
 of Marshals Marmont and Mortier, who had just 
 reached Charenton, those of General Compans, a few 
 battalions hastily formed from the guards of the 
 public buildings, and finally the twelve thousand 
 National Guardsmen, most of whom were armed only 
 with pikes. 
 
 Meanwhile the enemy was advancing ; the cannon 
 could heard in the neighborhood of the capital. What 
 was Marie Louise to do? Should she leave Paris 
 or remain? This question was to be discussed at 
 a council held at the Tuileries in the evening of 
 March 28. 
 
 It was one of the most pathetic deliberations re- 
 corded in history; and although it resulted in the 
 fall of the Imperial power, the Emperor was unable 
 to blame his councillors, for their determination was 
 in strict accordance with his orders. The Empress 
 Regent presided over the meeting, at which were 
 present King Joseph; Talleyrand, Prince of Bene- 
 vento. Vice Grand Elector ; Cambacer^s, Prince of 
 Parma, Archchancellor ; Lebrun, Duke of Piacenza, 
 Archtreasurer ; M. de Mol^, Chief of Justice ; M. de 
 Montalivet, Minister of the Interior ; Clarke, Duke 
 of Feltre, Minister of War ; M. Bigot de Pr^ameneu, 
 Minister of Worship ; M. de Sussy, Minister of Com- 
 merce ; Champagny, Duke of Cadore, Secretary of 
 State.: Gaudin, Duke of Gaeta, Minister of Fi- 
 nance; M. Mollien, Minister of the Public Treasury ; 
 
PARIS AT THE END OF MARCH. 109 
 
 M. Daru, Minister of the Administration of War; 
 Savary, Duke of Rovigo, Minister of Police ; Duke 
 Decrds, Minister of the Navy; M. de Lac^x^ede, 
 President of the Senate ; Regnier, Duke of Massa, 
 President of the Legislative Body; Messrs. Reg- 
 nault de Saint Jean d'Ang^ly, Boulay (of Meurthe), 
 Merlin (of Douai), Muraire, Cessac, and Fermont, 
 Ministers of State. The meeting began at half-past 
 eight P.M. 
 
 The Minister of War, Clarke, Duke of Feltre, was 
 the first to speak. "Listening to the Minister of 
 War," says the Duke of Rovigo, " it was hard to 
 escape from evil forebodings ; his speech was a com- 
 bination of loyalty, prudence, adulation, and indepen- 
 dence, out of which nothing could be made. He 
 seemed to wish to say : ' I have given you full warn- 
 ing ; I wash my hands of everything else.' " Clarke 
 spoke at length of the dangers threatening the cap- 
 ital, on the petty number of its defenders, of the 
 impossibility of the Emperor's arriving in time to 
 save it ; and after accompanying this dreary statement 
 with numerous protestations, of untiring devotion, 
 he urged the immediate departure of the Empress 
 and of the King of Rome, who, in his opinion, should 
 be sent at once to the Loire, out of reach of the 
 enemy. 
 
 M. Boulay opposed the views of the Minister of 
 War, with great energy. He said that if the capital 
 was left to the influence of the foreigners and the 
 intrigues of the Royalists, all was lost; that flight 
 
110 THE INVASION OF I8I4. 
 
 would be to set an example for surrender, and would 
 discourage and depress brave men who had sworn to 
 Napoleon to defend his wife and his son ; that Paris, 
 without the Empress, would be like a corpse ; and 
 that her departure would be in fact a dissolution of 
 the Regency, and the abdication of the Empire. He 
 added that the Empress, so far from following this 
 pusillanimous advice, should take her son in her arms 
 and show herself to the people, pass through the 
 streets, boulevard, and suburbs, and go to the H6tel 
 de Ville, to give an example of heroic resolution. 
 The populace would applaud her, and in this solemn 
 moment would repeat what the Hungarians had cried 
 out to her ancestress, Maria Theresa ; " Moriamur pro 
 rege nostro ! " 
 
 These eloquent words greatly moved the Council. 
 The Dukes of Rovigo, of Massa, of Cadore, were 
 especially conspicuous for the ardor with which they 
 expressed their approval. King Joseph and Cam- 
 bac^r^s said not a word. The Empress, anxious and 
 silent, closely scanned her councillors. 
 
 Then Prince Talleyrand spoke. Every one suspected 
 his fidelity to the Empire, and there was general 
 curiosity to know what this able but dangerous man 
 would advise. He was grave and calm, and spoke 
 with that imposing authority, that dignified self-pos- 
 session, that slowness which never forsook him, and 
 was astute enough to tell the truth, while preparing 
 for any contingency. He said plainly that the depart- 
 ure of Marie Louise would throw Paris into the hands 
 
PAEU^i AT THE END OF 21 ARCH. Ill 
 
 of the Royalists and would leave the field open for 
 the Coalition to establish a change of dynasty. 
 
 The Duke of Rovigo expressed himself in similar 
 terms. "In support of my opinion," he says in his 
 Memoirs, " I spoke of the excellent spirit of that por- 
 tion of the populace which is the least taken into 
 account though it is untiring in its sacrifices." Then 
 there were a few moments of silence. The Arch- 
 chancellor called for a vote, and it was found that 
 there was almost unanimous opposition to the depart- 
 ure of the Empress and of the King of Rome. 
 
 However, fuller consideration having been thought 
 advisable, the Duke of Feltre arose, and after a long 
 introduction in which he enumerated some instances 
 from history of fidelity and devotion to sovereigns 
 driven from their capital by war, he went on to say 
 that it was a mistake to regard Paris as the only 
 centre of the Imperial power; that the Emperor's 
 power followed him wherever he might be; that so 
 long as a village was left in which he or his son was 
 recognized, there all Frenchmen should rally, for that 
 was the real capital. It was the duty of the Empress 
 and of the King of Rome to go to the uninvaded 
 provinces, there to summon all good men to their 
 banner, and with them to die in defence of the coun- 
 try and the throne. For his part, he could not under- 
 stand how men who had long professed devotion to 
 the Emperor could advise that his son should be 
 exposed to the chance of falling into the enemy's 
 hands. This was the only bond that united them to 
 
112 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 
 
 Austria, and that they would be helpless if they 
 should follow the perfidious counsel of surrendering 
 Hector's son to the Greeks. 
 
 " The Duke of Feltre," says the Duke of Rovigo, 
 " was much excited ; he evidently chose his words to 
 express before the Empress his devotion to the Em- 
 peror, and he showed no fear of opposing the whole 
 Council. Moreover, his speech was answered very 
 fully by different councillors, and when the vote was 
 taken again, it was found that no man had changed 
 his opinion that the Empress would do better to stay 
 in Paris." 
 
 King Joseph alone had not voted, and up to that 
 moment he kept silence. Then he took the floor and 
 read two letters from Napoleon. One, written after 
 the battle of Rothi^re, was dated Nogent, Februaiy 8, 
 1814 ; the other, written after the battles of Craonne 
 and Laon, was dated Rheims, March 16. We have 
 already quoted the first, which ended thus ; " With 
 the Empress and the King of Rome in Vienna, or in 
 the enemy's hands, you and all who tried to defend 
 themselves would be rebels. For my part I had 
 rather my son should have his throat cut than that I 
 should see him brought up in Vienna as an Austrian 
 prince, and I have a high enough opinion of the 
 Empress to be sure that she shares this opinion so far 
 as a woman and a mother can. I have never seen 
 Andromaque played without pitying the fate of 
 Astyanax who survives his family, and without 
 thinking it would have been better for him not to 
 
PARIS AT THE END OF MARCH. 118 
 
 survive his father. You do not know the French peo- 
 ple. The results of what would happen in those 
 great events lie beyond calculation." 
 
 The reading of this first letter produced a deep 
 impression of discouragement and surprise. The sec- 
 ond letter, that of March 16, was even more explicit. 
 Like the other, it was from Napoleon to Joseph; 
 it ran as follows : " In conformity with the oral in- 
 structions that I gave you, and with the tendency of 
 all my letters, you must not, in any case, let the Em- 
 press and the King of Rome fall into the enemy's 
 hands. I am about to move in such a way that you 
 may possibly be several days without news of me. If 
 the enemy should advance on Paris in such force that 
 resistance would be impossible, despatch towards the 
 Loire the Regent, my son, the high dignitaries, the 
 Ministers, the officers of the Senate, the Presidents of 
 the Council of State, the high officers of the Crown, 
 the Baron de la Bouillerie, and the Treasury. Do 
 not abandon my son, and remember that I had rather 
 know him in the Seine than in the hands of the ene- 
 mies of France; the fate of Astyanax, a prisoner 
 among the Greeks, has always seemed to me the 
 most melancholy in all history." 
 
 When Joseph had finished reading this second let- 
 ter, the members of the Council gazed at one another 
 in stupefaction. Why had they been summoned if 
 the Emperor's orders were formal? Why ask their 
 opinion if it had been determined already not to follow 
 it? Was this only one of the mockeries of debate 
 
114 THE INVASION OF ISI4. 
 
 of the pretended deliberations of wliicli the Imperial 
 Government had given so many examples ? In that 
 case it was easy to understand the Duke of Feltre, 
 who doubtless was already familiar with the two let- 
 ters, when he so strongly urged the departure of 
 Marie Louise and her son. Nevertheless, the mem- 
 bers of the Council who were opposed to their leaving 
 still tried to prevent it. M. de Talleyrand repeated 
 what he had already said. Their efforts were vain. 
 King Joseph declared that it was impossible with- 
 out being guilty of rebellion by disobedience of his 
 brother's precise orders. A third and last vote was 
 taken, and the departure was determined; the Em- 
 press, who wished to remain, announced that she and 
 her son could leave at eight the next morning for 
 Rambouillet. 
 
 This decision once taken, each minister asked for 
 definite instructions. It was decided that King 
 Joseph should remain in the capital, to superintend 
 the defence, and that he should not leave till it be- 
 came impossible to save the city from the enemy; that 
 Archchancellor Cambacer^s and the President of the 
 Senate should accompany the Empress and the King 
 of Rome ; that the other dignitaries, with the Minis- 
 ters, should remain in Paris until King Joseph should 
 order them to leave, and that this order, to prevent 
 all mistake, should come to them through the Chief 
 Justice, M. de Mole ; and finally, that the President 
 of the Senate should write to each member of that 
 body, to avoid obeying any illegal summons. Then 
 
PARIS AT THE END OF MARCH. 
 
 at two o'clock ill the morning tlie meeting broke 
 up. 
 
 Before leaving the Tuileries, the members of the 
 Council, of whom Marie Louise had just taken leave, 
 stopped in a room next to the one where they had 
 been in session, and some of them came up to Savaiy 
 and whispered in his ear : '' If I were the Minister of 
 Police, like you, Paris would be in insurrection to- 
 morrow, and the Empress would not leave." The 
 Duke of Rovigo replied : " Which one of you would 
 consent to take the responsibility for what might be 
 the result of such a course, especially when you have 
 just decided that the Emperor's orders must be 
 obeyed ? You advise me to take on myself what you 
 have thought you could not do. But do I know the 
 Emperor's plans ? Am I even sure that this move- 
 ment would not thwart them? And if I failed, 
 what good would come from the murders, the pillage, 
 and all the disorders that would follow an appeal to 
 the multitude?" 
 
 The memory of the Revolution was still fresh, and 
 doubtless Savary had in mind the Jacobins, — the 
 men armed with pikes, — the September massacres, 
 when he wrote : " Is it sure, is it even likely, that 
 the monarch who refused to cover his defeat by 
 burning Leipsic would care to reign at the price of 
 the misfortunes which such a plan would entail upon 
 the capital ? How could I reply to his reproaches ? 
 What could I say in answer to the reproaches of a 
 hundred thousand families, one calling for its head. 
 
116 THE INVASION OF I8I4. 
 
 the other for its home, its fortune, all lost through 
 me? There would be too many victims, too many 
 tears : I cannot undertake to throw the whole pop- 
 ulation of Paris into an abyss. Besides, even if I 
 were strong enough, the spirit of my instructions for- 
 bids. So far from wishing me to compromise the 
 populace, the Emperor orders me to leave Paris if 
 the Allies enter. I can easily prevent the Empress's 
 departure ; but only a madman would imagine that 
 he could control the results of this violent action. 
 In my zeal to serve the Emperor I may destroy the 
 few chances left him, and transfer what hopes he has 
 to the profit of a party. It might be thought of, if I 
 had no orders ; but everything has been provided for, 
 and I have only to obey the orders I have received. 
 Like every one else, I regret the decision just taken ; 
 but I don't wish to be responsible alone for what you 
 all together have not dared to do." 
 
 The members of the Council, seeing that all was 
 over, that the Empire was lost, went down the grand 
 staircase of the Tuileries in the profoundest gloom. 
 At this last moment M. de Talleyrand went up to 
 Savary, and said to him, with mingled irony and mel- 
 ancholy, something like this : " Well, so this is the end 
 of it all, don't you think ? Upon my word, we have 
 lost the game with all the cards in our hands. Just 
 see what comes from the stupidity of a few ignorant 
 men who use their influence day in, day out. Really, 
 the Emperor is to be pitied ; yet no one will pity him, 
 because his obstinacy in retaining his advisers has no 
 
PARIS AT THE END OF MARCH. 117 
 
 reasonable ground ; it is only a weakness which is 
 incomprehensible in a man like him. Just consider 
 what a fall it is ! To be known as the hero of such 
 adventures instead of being the hero of the age ! I 
 groan to think of it. What are we to do now? 
 There is no need for every one to be crushed under 
 the ruins of this edifice. Well, we shall see what 
 will happen. Instead of denouncing me, the Emperor 
 would have done better to judge those who inspired 
 those prejudices; he would have seen that such 
 friends are more dangerous than enemies. What 
 would he say of any one else who had got into this 
 trouble ? " 
 
 Most of the members of the Council had left the 
 palace; King Joseph, the Archchancellor, and the 
 Minister of War still lingered for a moment. They 
 accompanied the Empress to her private rooms and said 
 a few words to her about the probable melancholy 
 consequences of her leaving Paris. Baron de Mene- 
 val, who was present, records that they ventured to 
 say that the Regent alone could determine just what 
 course was to be followed in this serious state of 
 affairs. " You are my lawful councillors," answered 
 Marie Louise ; " I shall not take it upon myself to 
 issue an order opposed to that of the Emperor, and 
 to the determination of the Privy Council, without 
 receiving your opinion in due form and signed." 
 They refused to take upon themselves such a respon- 
 sibility. M. de Meneval says in his Memoirs: "Now 
 when we can coolly judge the past, can we blame 
 
118 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 
 
 their conduct? If honor and fidelity are not mere 
 words, were they free to sacrifice the man who had 
 trusted to their faith, and to treat with the enemy 
 about him, in his absence? If they had consented 
 to the Emperor's dethronement (for by disobeying his 
 order, they would have committed themselves to 
 that), doubtless the Empress would have secured 
 her son's gratitude, Joseph would have become the 
 lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and the Arch- 
 chancellor would have retained his dignities, but at 
 what a price ? " 
 
 As she was leaving her councillors, Marie Louise 
 uttered these last words: "Even if I were to fall 
 into the Seine, as the Emperor said, I should not hesi- 
 tate a moment about leaving. A wish which he has 
 formally expressed is for me an order." In spite of 
 everything, faint hopes still lingered. Possibly, it 
 was thought, the danger was not so great as it seemed. 
 Perhaps the time for obeying Napoleon's commands 
 had not yet come. Before taking their leave of the 
 Empress, King Joseph and the Minister of War told 
 her that at daybreak the next morning they would 
 both make a military examination outside of Paris, 
 and would send her a last word as to whether she 
 was to go or to stay. 
 
IX. 
 
 THE KEGENT's flight. 
 
 THE night of March 28 was one of gloom; all 
 sleep in Paris was broken by anxiety and alarm. 
 Belated passers crossing the courtyard of the Carrou- 
 sel saw in the windows of the Tuileries moving lights, 
 which betrayed the preparation for departure. These 
 preparations were made with eager haste. The bul- 
 lion in the Treasury and the most precious objects 
 were packed on wagons which were to. follow those 
 of the Empress. The morning breeze extinguished 
 the dying lights, when at dawn the early risers 
 noticed with sad surprise the crowd of horses, car- 
 riages, and servants. The ladies of Marie Louise 
 wandered distractedly from one room to another. 
 Some old retainers were in tears. 
 
 At eight everything was ready for the departure. 
 The travelling-carriages drew up before the Pavilion 
 of Flora, and the rumor quickly spread abroad that 
 the Empress was about to leave. A crowd gathered, 
 and the Place of the Carrousel was soon filled with 
 a multitude of men and women who asked nothing 
 better than to cut the harness, send back the carriages, 
 
 119 
 
120 THE INVASION OF ISU. 
 
 and to see the Regent share with the Parisians the 
 last chances of fortune. Yet, as the Duke of Rovigo 
 says in his Memoirs, so great was still the respect 
 felt for the Empress and for her wishes, that in the 
 whole vast throng all eager to retain her, not one 
 person ventured to express the wish. Yet every one 
 was thinking : " The departure of Marie Louise is 
 our ruin. Her presence would have guaranteed us 
 against the barbarism of the foreigners. They would 
 never think of sacking, or burning, or bombarding a 
 city in which were the daughter and the son of the 
 Emperor of Austria." 
 
 Yet the departure which had been set for eight in 
 the morning did not take place. Marie Louise still 
 hoped she would not have to leave. She was waiting 
 in her room, dressed for the journey, with her son 
 and her ladies, eluding the questions of the little 
 King of Rome, who was much disturbed by the un- 
 usual bustle. She expected every moment the report 
 she was to receive from King Joseph, but it did not 
 come. Every sudden noise, a horseman's entrance 
 into the courtyard, the opening of a door, set all 
 hearts throbbing. King Joseph, or one of his mes- 
 sengers, was expected every moment, but no one 
 appeared. 
 
 Suddenly the officers of the National Guard, on 
 duty at the Tuileries, and a few other officers — for 
 etiquette could not control the general emotions — 
 burst into the room where was Marie Louise and 
 besought her to remain, promising to defend her 
 
THE REGENT'S FLIGHT, 121 
 
 and her son to their last breath. Their devotion 
 and earnestness deeply touched the Empress. She 
 felt that they were right in urging her to stay at the 
 Tuileries ; she had a foreboding that if she were once 
 to leave the palace she would never enter it again. 
 Her intelligence and common sense told her that 
 this fatal departure was the greatest and most irrepa- 
 rable of faults, and that the fall of the dynasty would 
 be the immediate result. All that she knew, but how 
 could she withstand the Emperor's formal orders, and 
 the insistence of the Minister of War, who sent her 
 word that there was not a moment to lose. Marie 
 Louise thanked the officers of the National Guard, 
 but was obliged to decline their patriotic offers. 
 
 Meanwhile, she was waiting most anxiously, fearing 
 both to stay and to go, hoping for another order 
 from the Emperor, a few words from Joseph that the 
 danger was not imminent, and that she might remain 
 a few hours. But nothing came, except a message 
 from the Minister of War saying that she must leave 
 at once; for if there were any delay, she might fall 
 into the hands of the Cossacks. 
 
 Eleven struck, and Marie Louise hesitated no 
 longer, but descended the stairs. There her son 
 resisted, and the child of three clung to the doors 
 and banisters, shouting in boyish wrath : " I don't 
 want to leave this house ; I don't want to go away ; 
 now that papa is away, I'm master here." The 
 equerry in waiting, M. de Canisy, took him in his 
 arms. He kept struggling and crying: "I don't 
 
122 THE INVASION OF I8I4. 
 
 want to go to Rambouillet ; it's an ugly castle; 
 I want to stay here ! " And M. de Canisy was 
 obliged to help Madame de Montesquiou to carry 
 him to the carriage in which he was to travel to the 
 first halting-place in his long exile. What is stranger 
 than this child's instinctive repugnance to this journey 
 which was in fact his political death ? 
 
 The fugitive Empress was accompanied by a 
 numerous suite, comprising the Duchess of Monte- 
 bello, Madame de Castiglione, Madame de Brignole, 
 and Madame de Montalivet, Count Claude de Beau- 
 harnais, Messrs. de Gontaut and d'Haussonville, 
 Prince Aldobrandini, Messrs. d'H^ricy and de Lam- 
 bertye, de Cussy and de Bausset, de Guerehy, Drs. 
 Corvisart, Bourdier, Lacourner, and Royer. The 
 King of Rome was attended by the Countess of 
 Montesquieu, his governess, Madame de Boubers, 
 and Madame de Mesgrigny, M. de Canisy, and Dr. 
 Auvity. The Archchancellor Cambac^res and the 
 President of the Senate followed the Empress. About 
 twelve hundred men, from the reserves of the grena- 
 diers, chasseurs, dragoons, and lancers of the Imperial 
 Guard and of the gendarmes formed the escort. They 
 got into their carriages, and the procession started 
 slowly, going out through the gateway near the Pont 
 Royal. 
 
 It seemed like the funeral of the Empire ! Ten 
 heavy coaches, adorned with the Imperial arms, led 
 the procession, followed by the state coaches, among 
 which was the coronation coach ; and then came carts 
 
THE REGENT'S FLIGHT. 123 
 
 containing rich furniture, records, bullion, silverware, 
 and the crown diamonds. The crowd, which had 
 been dense in the morning, had scattered under the 
 impression that the departure was postponed, and 
 only a few curious idlers lingered near the Tuileries 
 in gloomy silence. When they saw the mounted 
 guards escorting the carriages, they said those men 
 would have been of use in defending the capital, so 
 meagrely garrisoned. The Regent's departure was 
 looked upon as a crime, as a sort of abdication, 
 although it could not properly be blamed, because 
 it was in obedience to orders. But there was no 
 cheering, no expression of sympathy, devotion, or 
 sorrow, as the young and unfortunate Empress was 
 leaving. 
 
 Issuing from the gateway by the Pont Royal, the 
 procession followed the qua}^ of the Tuileries. Marie 
 Louise cast a farewell glance at this palace which 
 had proved so fatal ; at the Place Louis XV., recall- 
 ing the scaffold of her aunt, Marie Antoinette ; at 
 the Champs Elys^es, by which she had entered Paris, 
 four years less four days before, amid pomp and 
 splendor and applause. The Arc de I'Etoile, with 
 its inscriptions and boundless flattery ; the speech of 
 the Prefect of the Seine, in which he said : '' In order 
 to admire you, w^e no longer need to trust to report, 
 and already have those words of your immortal hus- 
 band come true that, loved first for his sake, you 
 would soon be loved for 5^our own " ; the young girls 
 dressed in white, offering baskets of flowers; the 
 
124 THE INVASION OF ISI4. 
 
 dense crowd in the Champs Elys^es ; the coronation 
 coach with Marshals of France on horseback by its 
 side; the clanging church bells; the rolling drums; the 
 salutes; applause; the music, — all those things were 
 very remote I One recalls Dante's lines : — 
 
 " Nessun maggior dolore, 
 Che ricordarsi del tempo felice 
 Nella miseria." 
 
 The procession advanced along the quay of 
 Chaillot, leaving the capitol at Passy to go to Ram- 
 bouillet. This departure, or rather disastrous flight, 
 made a most melancholy impression on the public, 
 revealing as it did the full extent of the danger 
 threatening Paris ; and the gloom was even greater, 
 because hitherto the government bulletins with more 
 cunning than truth, had spoken only of victories over 
 the armies of the Coalition. A few hours before the 
 final crash, the machinery of government was working 
 with apparent regularity. Two days before there 
 had been a grand review in the courtyard of the 
 Tuileries and in the Place of the Carrousel. For four 
 hours Joseph had watched the parade of the troops of 
 the National Guard, as well as of a numerous force 
 of infantry, cavalry, and artillery, and the Empress 
 and the King of Rome had been cheered when they 
 appeared at a window. In spite of the cloud over- 
 hanging the Empire, the theatres remained open. 
 March 29, the day of the Empress's flight, Iphigeneia 
 in Aulis and Paul and Virgina were given at the 
 
THE REGENT'S FLIGHT. 125 
 
 opera; Manlius and The Revenge at the Fran^ais; 
 the Mefiant and J^ai perdu mon prods at the Od^on ; 
 Le Forgeron de Bassora and Richard Coeur-de-Lion 
 at the Opdra Comique. The smaller theatres were 
 also open. That morning the Parisians had read in 
 the 31oniteur this military bulletin : " March 26, His 
 Majesty, the Emperor, defeated General Witzenge- 
 rode at Saint Dizier, taking two thousand prisoners, 
 many cannon and baggage wagons. The enemy was 
 pursued some distance." 
 
 From that time forth the Moniteur was silent, say- 
 ing nothing about the war, about the Empress's 
 flight, or the end of the drama. The number for 
 March 30 was absolutely empty; that of the 31st, 
 purely literary, containing actually nothing of the 
 slightest value, unless we except a " Fragment of a 
 Journey in Italy, in prose and verse. Pilgrimage to 
 the Festival of the Pardon." April 2, the paper 
 opened with a proclamation of the Emperor Alex- 
 ander. There is nothing more edifying than the 
 number of the Moniteur at a change of rule. In an 
 instant the whole tone of the paper is changed. Be- 
 tween one day and the next a century seems to have 
 passed. The reader wonders what has become of the 
 government yesterday so proud, but now vanished 
 like a burst bubble. All rulers ought occasionally to 
 turn over the bound volumes of the Moniteur Univer- 
 sel ; but no one ever profits by the experience of 
 another. 
 
THE BATTLE OF PAEIS. 
 
 AT the same time that Marie Louise was fleeing 
 from the capital, the troops commanded by 
 Marmont and Mortier were hastily crossing the 
 Marne by the bridge of Charenton. In the opposite 
 direction there could be descried from the heights 
 of Montmartre and Belleville, the vanguard of the 
 allied armies, issuing from the woods of Bondy. 
 " From the top of the towers of Notre Dame," says 
 Chateaubriand, an eyewitness of this great sorrow, 
 " could be seen the head of the Russian columns, like 
 the first ripple of the sea upon the shore. I felt what 
 a Roman must have suffered when from the capital 
 he saw the soldiers of Alaric and the old Latin city 
 at his feet, when I looked upon the Russian soldiers 
 and at the old city of the Gauls below me. For cen- 
 turies Paris had not seen the smoke of an enemy's 
 camp. . . . Paris was the point from which Bona- 
 parte had set forth to wander over the earth ; he was 
 returning to it, leaving behind him the enormous 
 flame of his profitless conquests." 
 
 March 29, the day of the Empress's flight, at 
 126 
 
THE BATTLE OF PABIS. 127 
 
 three in the afternoon, the leading columns of the 
 army of Bohemia, under command of Prince Schwarz- 
 enberg, occupied Rosny, as well as the lower part of 
 the plateau of Romainville, and halted there under 
 the very erroneous impression that they were con- 
 fronted by serious obstacles. 
 
 The Russian Emperor and the King of Prussia 
 spent the night of March 29 at the castle of Bondy, 
 while the troops of Marmont and Mortier, worn out 
 by incessant fighting and forced marches, took a few 
 hours' rest at Saint Mande and Charenton before the 
 fierce fight of the next day. Such was the careless- 
 ness of the administration that they had nothing to 
 eat, and were obliged to depend on the generosity 
 of the inhabitants. Joseph, who as the Emperor's 
 lieutenant-general was at the head of affairs after 
 the Empress's departure, gave instructions to the two 
 Marshals : Marmont was intrusted with the defence 
 of the capital to and including the heights of Belle- 
 ville and Menilmontant ; Mortier was to defend the 
 line extending from the foot of these heights to the 
 Seine. 
 
 Only a small part of the circumference of Paris 
 is fitted by nature for defence; but this could be 
 utilized, especially since the enemy was advancing 
 in this direction. From the junction of the Marne 
 with the Seine at Charenton, as far as Passy, a chain 
 of hills, at times spreading into plateaus, as at 
 Romainville, at times separate, as at Montmartre, en- 
 closes the city. These heights ought to have been 
 
128 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 covered with redoubts and artillery ; but in fact the 
 preparations were most insignificant, consisting only 
 of a few cannon at Montmartre, Saint Chaumont, and 
 Charonne, and of a few palisades before the gates. 
 No one had thought of raising barricades within the 
 city, of arming the populace with shot-guns, if noth- 
 ing better was to be had, and of organizing a defence 
 from street to street. As Thiers says, " Paris should 
 have been defended as General Bourmont, a few days 
 before, had defended Nogent; as General Alix had 
 defended Sens; as the Spaniards had defended their 
 cities ; as the Parisians have themselves too often 
 defended Paris against their own governments, with 
 the suburbs barricaded ; and the populace behind the 
 barricades and the army of the line in reserve to move 
 on such points as the enemy might have taken." But 
 it must be confessed that, with a few honorable excep- 
 tions, the heroic feeling required for the defence of 
 the capital existed only among the poorer inhabitants. 
 The habit of relying on the strength of the govern- 
 ment had weakened all individual initiative. The 
 yearning for security deadened national pride. Sud- 
 denly, after being for twenty-two years forgotten, the 
 Bourbons were remembered, and many were asking 
 of what use were the torrents of blood that had been 
 shed since their fall. What some called treachery, 
 others called fidelity. France, in its sore need for 
 harmony in its struggle with the foreigner, was 
 divided against itself. Instead of one flag, under 
 which it might have found safety, it was to have two. 
 
THE BATTLE OF PARIS. 129 
 
 The final resistance was to be in the form of a bat- 
 tle fought under the walls of Paris, which, as Thiers 
 says, was the most foolish plan possible; for, that 
 battle lost, everything was lost, — the battle, Paris, 
 the government, France. To oppose the two hun- 
 dred thousand excellent troops of the Coalition, they 
 had only twenty-eight or twenty-nine thousand men, 
 among whom were four thousand conscripts, six thou- 
 sand National Guards, a few hundred invalides and 
 young men of the schools. The Sixth Corps, under 
 Marmont, which was to bear the brunt of the attack, 
 consisted of but four thousand seven hundred and 
 thirty-one men, of whom fourteen hundred and twenty- 
 one were mounted. They were mere fragments, shad- 
 ows of regiments ready to die in defence of their flag. 
 This was the sixty-seventh engagement of the Sixth 
 Corps, since January 1, that is to say, in ninety days ; 
 and its commander, Marmont, Duke of Ragusa, had 
 worn his arm in a sling throughout the whole cam- 
 paign, in consequence of a wound he had received in 
 Spain ; two fingers of his other hand were wounded, 
 so that he had to hold his sword with but three 
 fingers. 
 
 March 30, an hour before day, General Marmont 
 left Charenton to form in line of battle. At six 
 o'clock a Russian cannon announced the last battle 
 of the Empire. At that moment the Parisians were 
 reading this proclamation of King Joseph, which had 
 been posted everywhere : " King Joseph, Lieutenant- 
 General of the Emperor, Commander-in-chief of the 
 
130 THE INVASION OF 1814^ 
 
 National Guard, to the citizens of Paris : A column 
 of the enemy is moving on Meaux, advancing by the 
 road to Germany, but the Emperor is following it 
 closely at the head of a victorious army. The Coun- 
 cil of the Regency has provided for the safety of the 
 Empress and of the King of Rome. Let us arm in 
 defence of our city, of its monuments, of its treasures, 
 of our wives, of our children, of all that we hold dear. 
 This vast city should become for a brief space a camp, 
 and the enemy must suffer humiliation beneath the 
 walls which he hopes to overthrow in triumph ! The 
 Emperor is marching to our aid ; help him by a brief 
 and vigorous resistance, and let us maintain the 
 honor of France." At six in the morning Joseph 
 and his brother Jerome had ridden to Montmartre 
 to watch the movements of the enemy. 
 
 Meanwhile, Marmont's troops had taken position 
 on the heights of Belleville and M^nilmontant. The 
 enemy in front of Romainville were so hotly attacked 
 that they thought that Napoleon must have arrived, 
 and they cautiously remained on the defensive. The 
 French line was formed with the left at the mill of 
 Romainville, holding all the little wood, and with the 
 right at the passes on the top of Bagnolet and at the 
 mill of Malassise. The battle raged hotly for some 
 hours, and until eleven neither side gained any sub- 
 stantial advantage ; at that hour, however, the Allies 
 attacked in great numbers, and the French line was 
 forced. Marmont and his troops were obliged to 
 withdraw a little more than half a mile, to the village 
 
THE BATTLE OF PARIS. 131 
 
 of Belleville, with the right at M^nilmontant, and 
 the left by the meadows of Saint Gervais. The roads 
 to Paris were blocked with a number of wounded 
 Frenchmen. From all sides arose a call for aid, but 
 Marmont still held firm. 
 
 It was nearly noon. Joseph, when he found that 
 nearly all the armies of the Coalition were engaged, 
 and that Napoleon was not coming, thought the case 
 hopeless. Montmartre, where he was with his escort, 
 was soon to be attacked. With fifty pieces of artil- 
 lery it could have been defended ; but as it was, there 
 were but seven cannon and a handful of the National 
 Guard. 
 
 Fearing to be taken as a hostage and possibly com- 
 pelled to bring about the Emperor's dethronement, 
 Joseph, in spite of the proclamation he had issued 
 that morning, thought of but one thing, — of leav- 
 ing the capital and rejoining Marie Louise with a 
 shadow of a government. Hence he wrote to Count 
 Mole, the Chief Justice : " Count, I think you 
 should notify the Ministers that it is proper for them 
 to follow in the steps of the Empress. Inform the 
 Senators and the Councillors of State, etc." And he 
 wrote to the Duke of Piacenza : " Sir : I think it is 
 proper for the high dignitaries to withdraAV from 
 Paris, in the steps of the Empress, on the road to 
 Chartres. Be good enougfli to inform the diofnitaries." 
 
 At quarter-past twelve Joseph sent by his aide. 
 General Stroltz, to Marshal Marmont and then to 
 Marshal Mortier, permission to treat with the enemy, 
 
132 THE INVASION OF I8I4, 
 
 in these words: "If the Marshal, the Duke of 
 Ragusa, and the Duke of Treviso are no longer able 
 to hold their positions, they are authorized to treat 
 with Prince Schwarzenberg and the Emperor of Rus- 
 sia, who are before them. They will retreat on the 
 Loire." When Marmont received this paper, he bade 
 one of his aides go to tell Joseph that if the rest of 
 the line was in no worse state than where he was, he 
 did not think the time had come for capitulation, aaid 
 that he still hoped to hold out till night, when per- 
 haps there might be a change. Although his valiant 
 corps was nearly wiped out by six hours' fighting, 
 Marmont would not give up. " He was," says Gen- 
 eral de Segur, " one of the oldest companions of the 
 great captain ; this was the last battle of the remnants 
 of the Grand Army, the last moment of the indepen- 
 dence of the capital and of the great nation ; he knew 
 that all these grandeurs could not fall like so many 
 others, that there was need of other sacrifices, of 
 bloodier funeral rites, and he dedicated himself to 
 them. He did more ; he made all who were with him 
 unite in this heroic devotion ; for not a man left him. 
 Yet far on the right another army, under the Prince 
 of Wiirtemberg, was turning his position, while 
 Bliicher was pressing his left. Already, in spite of 
 the desperate defence made by a few hundred con- 
 scripts and the pupils of the Veterinary School of 
 Alfort, Saint Maur and Charenton had been turned 
 and taken ; Percy was captured ; the Wiirtembergers 
 had already got by Vincennes, and before the Barriere 
 
THE BATTLE OF PARIS. 133 
 
 du Tr6ne, the reserve artillery and the pupils of the 
 Polytechnic School had been turned back. Twenty- 
 one of these pupils had just paid with their blood for 
 the fame that their devotion added to the renown of 
 this school." 
 
 Mortier was defending himself boldly at Villette, 
 and Marmont at Belleville. Six times had the latter's 
 troops lost and six times retaken important points in 
 their front line, among others, the little towns flanking 
 the walls of the Park of Bruyeres. The brave mar- 
 shal fought like a lion. His clothes were torn by 
 bullets, and his horse had been shot under him. With 
 but a handful of brave men, he was fighting desper- 
 ately in the main street of Belleville. Never had 
 soldiers fought more obstinately, but a prolongation 
 of the struggle was impossible. The enemy learned 
 from the prisoners by how small a force they were 
 opposed, and at length perceived that they could ad- 
 vance without danger ; consequently, immense bodies 
 began to move forward. From the heights of Belle- 
 ville could be seen huge columns of fresh troops 
 advancing from all sides — from the Barriere du Tr6ne 
 to Villette, while other troops were" crossing the canal 
 of the Ourcq and moving on Montmartre. It was 
 half-past three o'clock. 
 
 Marmont saw that if Paris was to be saved from 
 the horrors of assault, the time for negotiating had 
 come. A little before four he sent a first flag of truce, 
 preceded by a trumpeter, to propose a suspension of 
 hostilities. Colonel de La Bedoyere, who had been 
 
134 THE INVASION OF I8I4. 
 
 entrusted with this perilous mission, soon returned ; 
 he had not been able to advance ; his horse and that 
 of the trumpeter had been killed. The combat was 
 too hot at that point for a flag of truce to have any 
 success. Then Marmont sent an aide-de-camp to 
 General Compans, who had a new place for entering 
 into communication with the enemy, being in the 
 front line, at the foot of the hills of la Villette, at 
 the entrance of the highroad, and he ordered him to 
 try to open negotiatons. 
 
 At the same moment a horseman appeared among 
 the troops of the Duke of Treviso, who was stoutly 
 defending la Villette. It was an aide-de-camp of the 
 Emperor, General Dejean, who had come to say that 
 Napoleon was moving on Paris at full speed, and that 
 it was only necessary to hold out two days more when 
 he would appear at the head of a considerable force ; 
 that hence every effort should be made to prolong the 
 defence, and if this could not be done by arms, the 
 enemy was to be delayed by discussions, and was to 
 be told that the Emperor had written to his father-in- 
 law to ask for a reopening of negotiations. When 
 Mortier's troops saw General Dejean, they thought 
 that Napoleon had arrived. A loud cry of " Long 
 live the Emperor ! " arose, and the soldiers fought 
 with fresh fury. Meanwhile, the bearer of the first 
 flag of truce sent by General Compans, in accordance 
 with Marmont's orders, had been killed, and the sec- 
 ond severely wounded. The third, M. de Quelen, 
 had been able to reach Prince Schwarzenberg, who at 
 
THE BATTLE OF PARIS. . 135 
 
 once consented to an immediate conference about a 
 suspension of hostilities. This conference, in which 
 took part Marmont and Mortier, and the representa- 
 tives of the Allies, Messrs. de Nesselrode, Orloff, and 
 Paar, was held in the second house on the left of the 
 gate of la Villette. It was a restaurant called aic 
 Petit Jardinet. 
 
 During the conference the battle raged as hotly as 
 ever. Life in Paris was not modified by these dread- 
 ful events. From the moment the battle began, the 
 boulevards had been crowded by men standing and 
 sitting, who discussed what was going on. In the 
 wealthy quarters patriotism was much less prominent 
 than it was in the suburbs, and there were abundant 
 indications of the indifference which was to prevail 
 the next day. Montmartre, which was defended only 
 by General Belliard's cavalry and two hundred and 
 forty firemen, had just been carried by one of Bliicher's 
 army corps, comxmanded by a Frenchman, General 
 Langeron ; and when they had secured this important 
 position, the Allies at once turned their guns on the 
 capital. At about half-past four shells and cannon- 
 balls began to fall in what is now the Quarter of the 
 Chaussde d' An tin, and a general bombardment seemed 
 imminent. 
 
 Chateaubriand says of their last hour: " The crowd 
 hurried to the Jardin des Plantes, which the fortified 
 abbey of Saint Victor might have protected; the little 
 home of the swans and the banana- trees, to which 
 our power had promised eternal peace, was disturbed. 
 
136 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 From the top of the labyrinth, above the great cedar, 
 above the storehouses which Bonaparte had not had 
 time to finish, beyond the site of the Bastille and of 
 the dungeon of Vincennes (places full of historical 
 memories), the multitude watched the combat of 
 Belleville. Montmartre was carried, and bullets 
 reached the boulevard du Temple. A few companies 
 of the National Guard sallied forth and lost three 
 hundred men in the fields about the tombs of the 
 martyrs. Never did the military spirit of France 
 shine in a brighter light in defeat; the last heroes 
 were five hundred young men of the Polytechnic 
 School, who were directing the artillery in the Vin- 
 cennes redoubts. Though surrounded by the enemy, 
 they refused to yield : they had to be dragged away 
 from their guns. The Russian Grenadiers seized 
 them blackened with powder and covered with 
 wounds; while they struggled in their arms there 
 rose cries of victory and admiration for the young 
 French heroes, who were handed, covered with blood, 
 to their mothers." 
 
 Alas ! this glorious resistance was at an end. Every- 
 thing has its limits, even heroism. Twenty-two years 
 of unprecedented triumph ended in this chivalrous 
 and mournful way. The death-roll attests the obsti- 
 nate rally of the defenders of Paris ; of twenty-four 
 thousand killed and wounded, there were six thou- 
 sand French soldiers, nine hundred National Guards, 
 and more than seventeen thousand of the foreigners. 
 
 At five in the evening^ the conference about the 
 
THE BATTLE OF PARIS. 137 
 
 suspension of hostilities was drawing to a close. To 
 an insulting request to lay clown their arms, the two 
 marshals answered by a gesture of indignant scorn ; 
 when it was proposed that they leave Paris and take 
 the road to Brittany, they answered that they would 
 go where they pleased. The sole condition they ac- 
 cepted was to evacuate Paris in the night and to sur- 
 render the gates in the morning. It was agreed that 
 the officers would meet in the evening to settle the 
 details of the evacuation, and shortly after five the 
 suspension of hostilities was determined. 
 
 Still all was not over. While the discussion was 
 going on, the Allies, who were masters of Montmartre, 
 advanced as far as the Clichy gate. There they 
 found a brave veteran, a man of sixty. Marshal 
 Moncey, Duke of Conegliano, Major-General of the 
 National Guard of Paris. About him were grouped 
 citizen-soldiers as brave and devoted as the Spartans 
 of Leonidas at Thermopylae. Old men and young, 
 invaUdes, students, were serving the artillery outside 
 of the gate. The armistice had just been concluded, 
 but the Allies, doubtless ignorant of the fact, attacked 
 the little phalanx. The National Guard defended 
 themselves like lions. The rue de Clichy was cov- 
 ered with barricades. Then the suspension of hos- 
 tilities was announced ; but the Russians made what 
 seemed an offensive movement, and the National 
 Guard reopened their fire, which Langeron and 
 Moncey hastened to stop. 
 
 Those who admire this noble end of so many glo- 
 
138 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 ries will recall the monument raised in commemo- 
 ration of this proud memory. On a huge stone 
 pedestal stands the bronze statue of Marshal Moncey, 
 bareheaded, sword in hand. Above him stands the 
 city of Paris, represented by a beautiful woman, 
 whose head is adorned by a mural crown ; she holds 
 in her hand a standard decorated with an eagle ; at 
 her feet a dead National Guardsman lies stretched 
 over a cannon with broken wheels. On one side of 
 the pedestal is this inscription: "In the reign of 
 Napoleon III., in memory of the defence of Paris 
 by Marshal Moncey, Major-General of the National 
 Guard, March 30, 1814, at the Clichy gate, this 
 monument has been erected by the city of Paris in 
 1869." On the other side of the pedestal is repro- 
 duced in stone the famous picture of Horace Vernet, 
 — that impressive, heroic picture, of which the Resto- 
 ration was as much afraid as of B Granger's songs. 
 
XI. 
 
 NAPOLEON AT THE FOUNTAINS OF JUVISY. 
 
 MARCH 30, 1814, at about ten in the evening, 
 post-horses galloped into the village of Fro- 
 menteaii, five leagues from the capital, near the Foun- 
 tains of Juvisy, drawing a modest carriage. In this 
 carriage sat a man who, with feverish anxiety, Avas 
 counting the minutes, the seconds, and continually 
 urging on the postilion. This man w^as Napoleon, 
 who was accompanied by Caulaincourt and Berthier. 
 He had pushed on ahead of his troops, hoping to 
 reach Paris in season. When he stopped to change 
 horses at Fromenteau he knew nothing of what had 
 taken place that day and the day before, — nothing 
 of the flight of his wife and son, nothing of the battle 
 of Paris and of the capitulation. All was lost, and 
 he was still hoping that all could be saved. He Avas 
 expecting news in the most painful anxiety, when 
 suddenly, in the dim light, he descried uniforms. 
 To his great surprise he saw before him General 
 Belliard. "What! you, Belliard?" he exclaimed. 
 "What does this mean? You here with your cav- 
 alry? Where is the enemy?" — "At the gates of 
 
 139 
 
140 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 Paris, Sire." — "And the army?" — "It is folio Aving 
 me." — " And who are guarding the capital ? " — " The 
 National Guard, Sire." — "And my son, my wife, my 
 government — where are they?" — "On the Loire." 
 " The Loire ! . . . How could they make such a 
 decision?" — "But, Sire, it was said to be done by 
 your orders." — " And Joseph, Clarke, Marmont, Mor- 
 tier, — what has become of them ? What have they 
 done?" 
 
 Then General Belliard described everything that 
 had happened that day and the day before, — the 
 departure of Marie Louise and the King of Rome, 
 that of Joseph and the Ministers, the bloody battle 
 of Paris, the terrible struggle of la Villette and 
 Belleville, the suspension of hostilities determined at 
 five o'clock the previous evening, the capitulation, 
 the clause of which at that very moment Marmont 
 was about drawing up. Then Napoleon understood 
 why General Belliard happened to be at the Foun- 
 tains of Juvisy. Belliard was in command of the 
 cavalry of Mortier's army corps, and had been fight- 
 ing bravely all day. After the signing of the 
 armistice Marmont and Mortier ordered that the 
 troops who were compelled to evacuate the city 
 should move towards Fontainebleau. Ever since the 
 two marshals had joined forces Marmont had con- 
 tinually been in front in advancing on the enemy 
 and at the rear in retreating, up to the suppression of 
 hostilities. Mortier's corps had set out first on the 
 road to Fontainebleau, while Marmont's bivouacked 
 
NAPOLEON AT THE FOUNTAINS OF JUVISY. 141 
 
 that night in the Champs Elys^es, to start at seven 
 the next morning. At last Napoleon grasped the 
 full extent of the catastrophe. General Belliard set 
 before him the excellent conduct of the troops, the 
 really heroic obstinacy with which they had defended 
 the hills commanding Paris. He said that even 
 Montmartre had been defended, although he had 
 only his cavalry, a few firemen, and seven cannon, 
 and that the enemy had advanced a column along 
 the road of the R^ volte to turn Montmartre, thereby 
 exposing itself to being driven into the Seine. " O 
 Sire ! " he exclaimed, " if we had only had a reserve 
 of ten thousand men, we should have driven the 
 Allies into the Seine, have saved Paris, and had a 
 noble revenge." "Doubtless, if I had been there, 
 but I couldn't be everywhere ! . . . My two hun- 
 dred cannon at Vincennes, what was done with 
 them? and my brave Parisians, why were they not 
 made use of?" — "We don't know. Sire. We were 
 alone, and we did our best. The enemy lost at least 
 twelve thousand men." "It's what I might have 
 expected. Joseph lost me Spain, and is losing me 
 France ! . . . But there is no need of complaining ; 
 we must make good the harm; there is still time. 
 Caulaincourt, my carriage ! " 
 
 The carriage did not come, and Napoleon was 
 greatly agitated, pacing up and down with long 
 strides, followed by General Belliard. "Well," he 
 said, " you hear what I say. I mean to go to Paris." 
 " But, Sire, you will not find a French soldier there." 
 
142 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 ! & 
 
 " That makes no difference ; I shall find the National 
 Guard there. To-morrow, or next day, my army will 
 join me, and I shall set things straight." And in 
 even greater agitation the Emperor continued to pace 
 up and down. Belliard tried to convince him that 
 this was an idle dream ; that an insurmountable diffi- 
 culty stood in his way, — the absence of his army. 
 The troops who had defended Paris were bound by 
 the agreement made the previous evening not to leave 
 a single soldier within its gates, so Napoleon would 
 be alone. "What difference does that make?" he 
 shouted angrily. "I mean to go to Paris, and to 
 Paris I go. My carriage ! Bring my carriage ! " 
 Belliard respectfully suggested that since he had 
 left Paris under the terms of the convention, he 
 could not return thither without infringing them. 
 Besides, the Emperor would find the enemy at the 
 gates of the capital, and they would prevent his 
 entering. The Emperor's arrival would be the signal 
 of a bombardment. "Let us be off," repeated the 
 furious monarch ; " I mean to go to Paris. When I 
 am away, everything is muddled." 
 
 Napoleon continued to call for his carriage, and as 
 he paced to and fro broke out in lamentations and the 
 severest recriminations. Why had not a general levy 
 been made in Paris ? Why had they not built forti- 
 fications, palisades, earthworks, furnished them with 
 artillery, and entrusted them to the National Guard, 
 which would have defended them bravely? Mean- 
 while the troops of the line might have fought before 
 
NAPOLEON AT THE FOUNTAINS OF JUVISY. 143 
 
 the city, on the heights, and in the plain. What! 
 only a few wretched palisades at the gates ? Only 
 seven guns on Montmartre? What had become of 
 the artillery? There ought to be provisions for a 
 month in Paris, and more than two hundred heavy 
 guns for its defence. Belliard told the Emperor that 
 he had seen only field-pieces, and these were so ineffi- 
 cient that at two o'clock they could only be fired 
 seldom lest they should burst. Then Napoleon raised 
 his eyes to heaven and denounced his brother. 
 
 Might he not have blamed himself as well? Might 
 it not have been said to him, " Why didn't you your- 
 self have those defences made, under your own eyes, 
 when the invasion began? Why did you refuse to 
 admit that the capital might some day be attacked ? 
 Why did you leave so few of the National Guard? 
 Why didn't you have fifty thousand muskets to dis- 
 tribute among the Parisians ? Why did you add to 
 the danger instead of diminishing it? You fancied 
 Paris impregnable, and now it is taken." 
 
 Troops were seen advancing; not cavalry, but the 
 infantiy of Mortier's corps. The Emperor, still 
 pacing the road, recognized General Curial, and plied 
 him with questions. This officer corroborated all 
 that Belliard had said. Marshal Mortier, as well as 
 Marmont, was still in Paris, and neither the infantry 
 nor the cavalry could return thither. Napoleon 
 found himself without a single soldier ; this cavalry 
 and this infantry were of no use to him. Convinced 
 by the evidence, he stopped at the two fountains near 
 
144 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 
 
 Juvisy, sat down, and for a few moments sadly and 
 silently held his head in his hands. '-'• Where is the 
 nearest shelter ? " he then asked. He was told it 
 was at the post-station of Fromenteau, where his 
 carriage had stopped. He returned to the house and 
 went in ; then, by the dim light of a wretched lamp, 
 he opened his map and began to study it. He said, 
 "If I had my army here, all could be made good. 
 Alexander will show himself to the Parisians. He 
 is not bad ; he doesn't want to burn Paris. He will 
 hold a review to-morrow, and will have half of his 
 soldiers on the right bank of the Seine, and the other 
 half on the left ; there Avill be some in Paris, some 
 outside ; and in this position, if I only had my army, 
 I could crush them all." Some one said that the 
 army would not arrive for four days. " Four days ! " 
 he went on ; " oh ! in two days, and in Paris, how 
 much disloyalty ! The Empress herself ! . . . Yes, 
 I wanted her to go, for Heaven knows what her inex- 
 perience might not have led her to do 1 " Then he 
 began to pore over the map again, and in a few 
 moments again raised his head, his face afire with 
 sudden inspiration, and cried out : " I've got them ! 
 I've got them ! God has placed them in my hands. 
 But I must have four days. Caulaincourt, you can 
 gain me these four days by negotiating. You will 
 go to the Emperor Alexander." " Sire," replied 
 Caulaincourt, "would it not be well to negotiate 
 seriously, to yield to circumstances, if not to men, 
 and to accept the Ch^tillon proposals, at least the 
 
NAPOLEON AT THE FOUNTAINS OF JUVISY. 145 
 
 main ones ? " " No, no ! " answered the Emperor. 
 " No further humiliations ! no shameful peace ! This 
 concerns the greatness of France, its honor. This 
 can only be finally settled by the sword. I only want 
 four days. You alone can get them from Alexander 
 in face of all the intrigues that will beset me. So 
 go at once. As for me, I am going to Fontainebleau 
 to wait for you and the army, and to prepare to 
 avenge this momentary humiliation of France." 
 
 Caulaincourt started for Paris, carrying the follow- 
 ing paper, signed by Napoleon : " We command the 
 Duke of Vicenza, our Master of the Horse and Min- 
 ister of Foreign Affairs, to visit the allied sovereigns 
 and the commander-in-chief of their armies, to recom- 
 mend to them our faithful subjects of the capital. 
 By these presents we invest him with all power to 
 negotiate and conclude peace, promising to ratify 
 whatever he may do for the good of our service. In 
 case of need, we also invest him with military powers, 
 to be the governor and commissioner of this good 
 city together with the commander-in-chief of the 
 Allies, Accordingly we order ever^^ official to recog- 
 nize the Duke of Vicenza in the said position, and to 
 aid him in all that he shall do for the benefit of our 
 service and of our people." At the same time Napo- 
 leon despatched a messenger to the Emperors. Then, 
 utterly exhausted, — for he had travelled for sixty 
 leagues on horseback and by post, without stopping, — 
 he fell asleep in a wretched chair. At about four in 
 the morning he was awakened by a bearer of de- 
 
146 THE INVASION OF I8I4, 
 
 spatches from Paris, who brought him word that 
 Marmont had finally concluded the capitulation two 
 hours before. This paper was signed by four colonels ; 
 Colonel Orloff, an aide-de-camp of the Emperor of 
 Russia ; Colonel Paar, Prince Schwarzenberg's aide ; 
 Colonel Fabvier, of the staff of the Duke of Ragusa ; 
 and Colonel Denys, this marshal's first aide-de-camp. 
 It was agreed that the French troops should evacuate 
 Paris at seven in the morning, that hostilities should 
 not be renewed till two hours later, that is to say, 
 March 31, at 9 a.m. ; that the National Guard should 
 be maintained, disarmed, or disbanded, as the Allies 
 might determine ; that the wounded men or strag- 
 glers who remained in Paris after 7 a.m. should be 
 prisoners of war ; finally, the city was entrusted to 
 the generosity of the Powers. 
 
 Illusions were no longer possible. The Emperor 
 perceived that it was useless for him to think of 
 leaving for Paris. The Allies, coming down from 
 the heights of Vincennes, had forced the bridge of 
 Charenton and occupied the plain of Villeneuve Saint 
 George; their bivouac fires lit up the hills on the 
 right bank, while the other side, on Avhich was Napo- 
 leon, was dark. Hence he decided to start at four, in 
 his carriage, not for Paris, but for Fontainebleau. 
 
XII. 
 
 THE REGENCY IN FLIGHT. 
 
 MEANWHILE, what had become of Marie 
 Louise? Possessing a mere shadow of gov- 
 ernment, she bore more likeness to a fugitive than to 
 a sovereign. She was uncertain where she should 
 stop, at Blois, at Orleans, or at Tours. Everything 
 was dark and vague before her. As we said, she left 
 Paris, March 29, at eleven in the morning, and 
 reached the castle of Rambouillet the same day ; 
 there she passed the night. An eye-witness, the 
 Baron de Bausset, who accompanied the Empress as 
 her Prefect of the Palace, says in his Memoirs: 
 " Certainly nothing was less like a court journey 
 than this tumultuous retreat of people and luggage. 
 However, when they were once assembled in the 
 castle of Rambouillet, every one tried to hide the 
 depression which was inspired by the critical state of 
 affairs which threatened the ruin of the government 
 and of the court. This flight was certainly remark- 
 able in many ways. Every one was at his post, in 
 full dress, and there was no modification of the usual 
 formality. The minutest rules of etiquette were 
 
 147 
 
148 THE INVASION OF I8I4. 
 
 observed with scrupulous care, as if this could delay 
 their overthrow. The last thing talked about was 
 the events of the day and. what might happen on the 
 morrow. Nothing betrayed the secret thoughts and 
 feelings of the company." It seems as if courtiers, 
 in adversity as well as in prosperity, regarded it as a 
 professional duty to hide the truth from princes. 
 
 "Yet," M. de Bausset goes on, "there was one 
 good trait in this side of the manners of the court, 
 and that was the care taken to keep from the Em- 
 press all knowledge of the desertions of former 
 friends, of the bad results of her flight, and of the 
 successive blows received by the Imperial power. 
 The ranks closed, and thus formed about the Empress 
 and her son, a band of persons full of the most 
 honorable and most disinterested devotion." How- 
 ever disinterested the devotion may appear, it is not 
 to be forgotten that, March 29, 1814, the cause of 
 Marie Louise and of the King of Rome did not yet 
 seem hopeless. Nothing was more uncertain than 
 the return of the Bourbons, and many who thought 
 it impossible that Napoleon should longer reign, 
 regarded the accession of his son, with Marie Louise 
 as Regent, as a not merely possible, but very prob- 
 able contingency. Possibly this last illusion in- 
 spired some of the obsequious zeal of these courtiers 
 of the fleeing Empress. 
 
 March 30, she left Rambouillet and spent the night 
 at Chartres, without any news of the battle of Paris 
 or of the Emperor. King Joseph, who had left the 
 
THE REGENCY IN FLIGHT. 149 
 
 capital at four in the afternoon, shortly before the 
 battle ended, reached Chartres that night, and re- 
 ceived the next day a letter which Napoleon had 
 written just before leaving Fromenteau. The same 
 day at five in the afternoon Joseph wrote to his 
 brother : — 
 
 '' Sire : I sent you this morning a letter by a dis- 
 guised messenger. This evening I receive Your 
 Majesty's letter of this morning. I forward to the 
 Empress the one addressed to her. I shall leave 
 to-night to join her. She ought to have gone first to 
 Tours. In accordance with Your Majesty's com- 
 mands, she will go, with the government, to Blois. 
 That is also the opinion of the Ministers who are 
 here, and leave this evening. The Empress and the 
 King of Rome are very well ; I saw them this morn- 
 ing. This evening they will be at Chateaudun. The 
 Ministers of War, of the Administration of the War, 
 of Finance, of the Treasury, of the Interior, of the 
 Navy, are here. Your Majesty must have heard from 
 the marshals everything that has happened, and by 
 what I said to M. Dejean, Your Majesty's aide-de- 
 camp. The enemy's force was very great. The 
 Dukes of Treviso and of Ragusa could not resist it." 
 
 March 31, Marie Louise slept at Chateaudun, and 
 reached Vend6me April 1. The next morning she 
 left this place for Blois. From Vend6me, April 2, 
 at 11 A.M., Joseph wrote to Napoleon : — 
 
 " Sire : The Empress has just left for Blois, where 
 she means to stop to-morrow to let her escort and the 
 
150 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 
 
 horses rest. She exhibits a calmness and a courage 
 exceptional in her sex and her age. I am waiting 
 for horses and my family before leaving. The Min- 
 isters of the Interior and of War are writing to Your 
 Majesty. The state of the departments is such that 
 I do not doubt that Your Majesty will do anything 
 to make peace. The Ministers and courtiers whom 
 I see exhibit firmness and devotion. I have received 
 only two letters in cipher. Since neither M. Campi 
 nor M. d'Hauterive has arrived, I have been unable 
 to read them. The Archchancellor left shortly 
 before the Empress. After your letter of the 21st, 
 I did not receive any till that of the 31st. The 
 Archchancellor has received a letter from M. de 
 Bassano, in accordance with which he means to 
 assemble the Ministers. He has read it to the Em- 
 press as well as to me. It will be hard for all the 
 Ministers to meet at Blois to-morrow evening. So 
 far only those of War and of Interior have arrived ; 
 none have any decided opinions ; their information is 
 too meagre, and they seem to desire that Your Maj- 
 esty should in his wisdom appoint the most suitable 
 resting-place, which can only be determined by the 
 military conditions. I enclose a package from the 
 Minister of the Interior, with despatches from the 
 Viceroy." 
 
 The same day, April 2, Joseph wrote likewise from 
 Vend6me, to Marshal Berthier, who was at Fontaine- 
 bleau with Napoleon : " I have your letter of March 
 31, from Fontainebleau. We shall be at Blois this 
 
THE REGENCY IN FLIGHT. 151 
 
 evening. The Ministers of the Interior and of War 
 are replying to Your Highness. The lack of arms 
 still prevails. The other Ministers will not reach 
 Blois before to-morrow. The Empress has left to get 
 there this evening. I hope at Blois to hear from 
 Your Highness and to learn the Emperor's positive 
 decision about the destination of the court and the 
 government. I beg Your Highness to have confi- 
 dence in my old and lasting friendship. In one 
 word: everything here indicates the need of peace. 
 If it is possible to treat, it must be done at any price. 
 The Royalists are beginning to show themselves ; 
 peace of any sort will destroy a party that a con- 
 tinuation of the war will make dangerous." 
 
 Marie Louise had a wretched journey from Ven- 
 d6me to Blois. It rained in torrents ; the roads were 
 bad, and the carriages were out of repair. In the 
 morning of Saturday, April 2, the first detachments 
 of cavalry began to arrive at Blois, soon followed by 
 the baggage- wagons and by the fifteen wagons with 
 the contents of the Treasury. At about three in the 
 afternoon the Prefect of the Department set forth to 
 meet the Empress and the King of Rome. The 
 National Guard and the governors were under arms* 
 on each side of the road. At five o'clock, Marie 
 Louise and her son entered the city amid an immense 
 multitude, which remained perfectly silent. The 
 leading citizens and the officials, especially those who 
 lived nearest the prefecture, had been invited to pre- 
 pare lodging for Madame Bonaparte, Napoleon's 
 
152 THE INVASION OF I8I4. 
 
 mother, for Kings Joseph, Louis, and Jerome ; for the 
 Archchancellor, the Ministers, the principal officials 
 and finally, for eighteen hundred soldiers. The citj 
 of Blois rises in the form of an amphitheatre, on the 
 left bank of the Loire. The prefecture crowns one 
 of the ends of this amphitheatre, and is reached only 
 by very steep streets, or by flights of more than a 
 hundred steps. The Ministers, who lived in the 
 lower part of the city, had to climb these steps. 
 Cambaceres, who lived half-way up, took a sedan- 
 chair to go to the prefecture. 
 
 Then Marie Louise saw herself surrounded by a 
 whole government, or rather the image of a govern- 
 ment, composed of her three brothers-in-law, the 
 wives of Joseph and of Jerome, and of the Ministers. 
 Archchancellor Cambacdres preserved all the custom- 
 ary rigidity of etiquette. Arrayed in his uniform, 
 and wearing his orders, he gravely gave formal audi- 
 ences. " The Empress," says the Baron de Bausset, 
 " presided over the councils of the Regency with an 
 exactitude all the more meritorious because they led 
 to nothing : there was no hope of safety there. The 
 palace Avas like a sort of headquarters ; the Ministers, 
 booted and spurred, went thither in undress uniform, 
 without a portfolio, as if they only awaited a word to 
 mount their horses to put the orders they should 
 receive into execution. Nevertheless, since diplo- 
 matic forms never relax their rigidity, even in the 
 most distressing circumstances, nothing came from 
 the discussions that took place, probably, too, be- 
 
THE REGENCY IN FLIGHT. 153 
 
 cause in such a state of affairs there was nothing 
 to say." 
 
 April 2, Napoleon wrote from Fontainebleau to 
 Joseph : " I have sent you word by the Grand Mar- 
 shal not to fill up Blois. Let the King of Wiirtem- 
 berg go into Brittany or towards Bourges. I think it 
 would be well for my mother to join her daughter at 
 Nice, and for Queen Julia and her children to go to 
 Marseilles. The Princess of Neufch^tel and the 
 wives of the Marshals ought to go to their estates. 
 It is natural that King Louis, who always likes to 
 live in hot countries, should go to Montpelier. It is 
 important to have as few people as possible on the 
 Loire, and that every one should get settled without 
 making any disturbance. Every large colony always 
 upsets the inhabitants more or less. The road to 
 Provence is open, but may be closed any day. In 
 the memorandum of the Ministers you say nothing 
 of the Minister of Police. Has he come? I don't 
 know whether the Minister of War has his cipher. 
 I have none with you, and in the lack of it cannot 
 write on matters of importance. Urge on all the 
 most rigid economy." 
 
 Joseph, April 3, thus replied : — 
 
 " Sire : I have yours of the 2d. Mamma and 
 Louis are ready to follow your wishes. She will 
 need money ; her pension is six months in arrears. 
 Jerome, too, has no money. My wife has no one at 
 Marseilles. Expenses are much swollen by the fine 
 carriages of the court. I have received no letter 
 
154 THE INVASION OF ISI4. 
 
 from the Grand Marshal on that subject or on any 
 other. The Minister of Police has arrived here on 
 his way back from Tours. To-day's council wasi 
 unanimous in its opinion and wishes. We await 
 Your Majesty's decision about the place of residence. 
 May the fears spread abroad by the news of the Duke 1 
 of Vicenza prove groundless ! The Minister of War 
 has no cipher with Your Majesty, neither have I. 
 The Minister of the Treasury and of Finance do not 
 know how to use theirs. M. de la Bouillerie would 
 like to have orders about the safety of his charge. 
 One of the wagons containing two millions, which 
 had been left in Paris when the Empress started, 
 has reached Orleans. Might not Jerome be sent to 
 command the army of Lyons ? " 
 
 As for King Louis, he kept himself in obscurity, 
 appearing interested in nothing but the performance 
 of the religious duties of Holy Week, which was just 
 beginning. Palm Sunday, April 3, Marie Louise 
 heard mass, which was said by Abbe Gallois, priest 
 of the parish of Saint Louis ; for there was no almoner, 
 chaplain, or clerk of the Imperial chapel in her suite. 
 Poor woman ! she needed all her prayers to support 
 the misfortunes now encompassing her. 
 
XIIL 
 
 NAPOLEON AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 
 
 ONE who visits Fontainebleau for the first time 
 is sure to be filled with admiration and sur- 
 prise. Especially is this true if the weather is fine 
 and the palace is lit up by the sun. Then one is 
 tempted to say : Happy are those who live in this 
 beautiful spot ! But afterwards, as one grows familiar 
 with the place, this first impression gives way to one 
 of sadness ; one recalls melancholy memories of the 
 famous personages who have dwelt here, and is filled 
 with pity for what they have suffered in these sumptu- 
 ous halls, and this loveliest of French palaces inspires 
 a profound melancholy. This was certainly our im- 
 pression on the occasion of our last visit, which took 
 place on the 14th of July, the anniversary of the 
 taking of the Bastille. That evening, the lanterns 
 lit the Horseshoe Staircase, down which Napoleon 
 came to press the eagle of the standard to his heart, 
 and to take his memorable farewell of the grenadiers 
 of his guard. 
 
 This Courtyard of the White Horse is certainly 
 not the most beautiful of the castle. It has far less 
 
 155 
 
156 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 architectural beauty than the Courtyard of the Foun- 
 tain or the Oval Courtyard. Its facade, composed of 
 five three-storied pavilions with pointed roofs, lacks 
 majesty. The great staircase, called from its shape 
 the Horseshoe Staircase, is too heavy for the meagre 
 pavilion on which it rests. The two wings, one of 
 four stories, the other of but one, are very dissimilar, 
 and that on the right, built by the architects of Louis 
 XV., with no artistic feeling, is more like a barrack 
 than a palace. Yet why is this courtyard always 
 so impressive? Because one always recalls Horace 
 Vernet's famous picture, and thinks of Napoleon 
 coming down this staircase, pressing General Petit 
 to his breast, kissing the eagle of the banner, and 
 uttering that speech of which the echo will resound 
 forever. 
 
 As you enter the gateway you come into the vast 
 Courtyard of the White Horse, so called from a 
 plaster horse, moulded by Catharine de' Medici after 
 the statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome, which stood 
 in the middle of the courtyard till 1626. To the 
 right is the new wing built by Louis XV. ; on the left 
 is the wing of the ministers. At the end of this large 
 court, which measures five hundred feet by a little 
 over two hundred, the faQade comes into view with 
 its five pavilions ; before the middle one is the Horse- 
 shoe Staircase, built in the reign of Louis XIII. Pass- 
 ing beneath this staircase you enter a vestibule on 
 the ground floor, opening, on the left, into the chapel 
 of the Holy Trinity built by Francis I. on the site of 
 
NAPOLEON AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 157 
 
 the oratory of Saint Louis. This is the best place 
 for beginning the inspection of the palace. 
 
 On leaving the chapel you are once more in the 
 vestibule, and a flight of stairs takes you to the apart- 
 ments of Napoleon I., all the rooms of which open on 
 the Garden of Diana. First is the ante-chamber of the 
 ushers, with three windows; then the room of the 
 Emperor's secretaries, with two ; then two small rooms, 
 each with one window; a drawing-room with two 
 windows, which is decorated with red hangings : this 
 is called the drawing-room of the abdication. In the 
 middle of the room stands a little mahogany table ; 
 if you tip it a little, you will see that there has been 
 set in it a copper plate bearing this inscription, which 
 is said to have been composed by Louis XVIII. : 
 " April 5, 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte signed his abdi- 
 cation on this table, in the King's workroom, the 
 second from the bedchamber at Fontainebleau." 
 
 Louis XVIII. took a sort of satisfaction in affirm- 
 ing that the man whom he had always regarded as a 
 usurper had signed his abdication in the royal work- 
 room. In this same room Louis Philippe had placed 
 on a bracket a fac-simile of the abdication. This was 
 suppressed during the Second Empire, but it now 
 stands in a glass case at the end of the Gallery of 
 Diana. Next to this room is the Emperor's study, 
 connected by a narrow staircase with his private li- 
 brary, on the ground-floor next to his bedroom. 
 
 This room has two windows ; the fireplace is in the 
 style of the time of Louis XVI. ; the furniture is cov- 
 
158 THE INVASION OF ISI4. 
 
 ered with Lyons velvet, with everywhere a gold N. ; 
 the candelabra represent winged Victories; on the 
 walls Loves are painted; the doors are carved and 
 covered Avith gilt ; the clock is of marble with cameos 
 inserted, a gift of Pius VII. : the whole appearance 
 of the room is very impressive. It recalls, too, the 
 sufferings of the great man who occupied it, his 
 sleepless nights in which he endured anguish only 
 equalled by his previous successes, his agony when 
 he had tried to kill himself in despair. The room 
 looks out on the Garden of Diana, called also the 
 Garden of the Orange House, which lies between the 
 palace and a high wall that intercepts the view of 
 the distance. It is called the Garden of Diana after 
 a statue of that goddess which stands there above a 
 bronze fountain. This fountain was built in the 
 First Empire, but its marble basin had been already 
 hollowed by Henri IV. The garden is somewhat 
 gloomy ; on the right stands the Chapel of the Holy 
 Trinity, on the left is the old Gallery of the Stags, 
 a melancholy construction, Avhich seems haunted by 
 the ghost of the unhappy Marquis Monalderchini, 
 who was so tragically put to death here by Queen 
 Christine of Sweden. 
 
 On the other side. Napoleon's rooms open into the 
 gallery of Francis I. This magnificent gallery, whicli 
 is as long as the Courtyard of the Fountain is broad, 
 is to the Palace of Fontainebleau what the Gallery 
 of the ]\Iirrors is to that of Versailles. There it was 
 that, in the first twenty days of April, 1814, his faith- 
 
NAPOLEON AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 159 
 
 ful officers and his last courtiers used to gather. 
 This is the gallery which Napoleon passed through 
 before going down the Horseshoe Staircase to bid 
 farewell to his guard. It opens on a terrace with 
 eight windows, where he often walked, seeing, on his 
 right, the rooms of the Pope, so long his prisoner, 
 where he uttered the words we shall soon cite. From 
 there, too, he could see tlie sheet of water at the end 
 of the Courtyard of the Fountain, bounded on one 
 side by the walk of Madame de Maintenon, on the 
 other by the English garden. 
 
 Starting again from the Emperor's bedroom, we 
 pass into the Council Hall with its charming pictures 
 by Boucher and Van Loo. Next is the Throne Room, 
 the former royal bedchamber, with its magnificent 
 chandelier of rock crystal, the Imperial throne of red 
 velvet, ascended by three steps, above which hangs a 
 canopy supported by gold columns. Beyond is the 
 boudoir of Marie Antoinette, with a picture of Aurora 
 adorning the ceiling, and the Muses above the doors, 
 and its mahogany floor into which is set the Queen's 
 monogram ; and next to that her bedroom, called the 
 Chamber of the Five Marys, from its having been 
 occupied by Maria de' Medici, Maria Theresa, the 
 wife of Louis XIV., Marie Antoinette, Marie 
 Louise, and Marie Amelie (it was also the chamber 
 of the Empress Eugenie) ; then comes the Music 
 Room, which used to be the Queen's Cardroom in 
 the time of Marie Antoinette ; and finally the Gal- 
 lery of Diana. All these rooms, like those of Napo- 
 
160 THE INVASION OF I8I4. 
 
 leon's apartment, open on the Garden of Diana. On 
 the ground-floor, beneath the Emperor's quarters, are 
 the rooms in which used to live his mother and his 
 sister Pauline, and the one used as his private library. 
 As we have said, a narrow staircase, in which there 
 is not space for two people to pass, connects this 
 room with the Emperor's study above. It is in this 
 library, crowded with books, that Napoleon spent 
 most of his time after his abdication, searching in 
 histories for sufferings that rivalled his own. 
 
 We will not speak of the sumptuous apartments 
 that surrounded the Oval Courtyard, of the large 
 reception-rooms of the last of the Valois, of the won- 
 derful gallery of Henri II., decorated by Primatic- 
 cio, for they have nothing to do with the abdication 
 and the leave-taking. The time for pompous cere- 
 monies, for banquets, balls, and concerts had passed. 
 Doubtless Napoleon recalled his former splendor, and 
 his brilliant stay at Fontainebleau after the campaign 
 of Wagram, when, as Cambaceres put it, he seemed 
 to walk about in glory. He might have said to him- 
 self : " Here I inflicted pain on my tender and devoted 
 Josephine ; here I dealt harshly with the Pope, that 
 venerable man, who came to Paris from Rome for my 
 coronation. I am punished for my sins. I recognize 
 the hand of God in my chastisement. Had I not 
 repudiated Josephine, she would now be by my side. 
 I did wrong to imprison the Pope. He, not I, is free, 
 and who knows if I may not soon be a prisoner ? " 
 
 At first Napoleon did not give way to gloomy 
 
NAPOLEON AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 161 
 
 thoughts. When he reached Fontainebleau, at six 
 o'clock in the morning of March 31, 1814, and walked 
 in the gardens, he could not yet measure the depth 
 of the abj^s that opened before him. He had no 
 suspicion of what threatened him. He never for a 
 moment thought that his best officers — Berthier 
 himself — would desert him; that henceforth Marie 
 Louise would be only an Austrian ; that he should 
 never more see wife or son; that before the end of 
 the month he should be obliged to disguise him- 
 self in an Austrian uniform to escape assassination at 
 the hands of his own subjects ! 
 
 From the time of Napoleon's arrival at Fontaine- 
 bleau until his farewell to his guard, — that is to 
 say, from the morning of March 31, 1814, until the 
 afternoon of April 20, — he knew a , succession of 
 agonies which only a Shakespeare could describe. 
 The outlook grew darker from hour to hour; from 
 hour to hour he was summoned to make ever cruder 
 sacrifices. At first, with no thought of abdicating, 
 the Emperor hoped by a grand victory to drive the 
 foreigners from Paris. Then his marshals, opposing 
 him for the first time, refused to obey him, and com- 
 pelled him to abdicate. He still thought to save his 
 dynasty, and abdicated in favor of his son. It was 
 an illusion ! He was compelled to abdicate again, 
 and this abdication included not only himself, but also 
 his descendants. He — the Emperor — had to sign 
 away with his own hands the rights of the King of 
 Rome. He had one consolation at least, — that he did 
 
162 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 
 
 not set his signature opposite the clauses which he 
 regarded as disgraceful. " I abdicate," he exclaimed, 
 " I abdicate ; but I yield nothing ! " Yet even this sad 
 consolation was not left him. He was asked to sign 
 a lamentable treaty granting his family and himself 
 sums of money, — a treaty by which the Bonapartes 
 received alms from their conquerors. This time 
 the measure was full. The vanquished Titan could 
 not endure this last humiliation ; he abandoned the 
 struggle and tried to escape from fate by taking 
 poison. But here again he was disappointed ; Death 
 would have none of him ; it required that he should 
 live to bring it fresh harvests, to make one final heca- 
 tomb, — Waterloo ! The tragedy which seemed ended 
 still had terrible scenes before the curtain fell. 
 
 To return ^o the day of the Emperor's arrival at 
 Fontainebleau, March 31 : when he saw once more his 
 palace, rich with memories of his happiness, where he 
 had always been obeyed and respected, he really be- 
 lieved that his fortune had revived. That evening 
 and the next morning soldiers began to arrive through 
 Sens from Champagne, and through Essonnes appeared 
 the vanguard of the troops who had left Paris. They 
 formed around Fontainebleau, now become the Impe- 
 rial headquarters. 
 
 All the way along, the soldiers were thinking of 
 nothing but their Emperor. They said as they 
 marched: "We fought for him till night. Let him 
 show himself. If he is alive, let him tell us what he 
 wants ; we are ready to go on fighting ! Let him 
 
NAPOLEON AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 168 
 
 lead us back to Paris ! If he is dead, let us know it, 
 and we will have vengeance ! " Moncey, who com- 
 manded the National Guard of Paris ; Lefebvre, who 
 made the campaign, in spite of his sixty years ; Ney, 
 Macdonald, Oudinot, Bertliier, wdio had just arrived 
 from Troyes; Marmont and Mortier, who had left 
 Paris, all reported at the Emperor's headquarters. 
 Marmont established his own headquarters at Es- 
 sonnes ; Mortier, at Mennecy. The troops arriving 
 from Paris assembled behind this line ; those coming 
 from Champagne took up an intermediate position 
 towards Fontainebleau. The stores and the great 
 artillery park moved towards Orleans. 
 
 The evening of April 1, Napoleon had, at different 
 points, twenty-five or thirty thousand men. If his 
 marshals, his generals, who had grown old in harness, 
 felt weary, the privates, non-commissioned officers, and 
 line officers were still full of ardor : the old ones set 
 an example of intrepidity ; the young ones, like their 
 elders, thought of nothing but battles and glory. 
 They felt like saying to their superiors who were 
 spoiled by fortune and luxury, *' You are tired ; but 
 we are not." 
 
 Could Napoleon despair, when hope still inspired 
 so many of his men ? With such soldiers under him, 
 he could not endure to think that he was no longer 
 the arbiter of Europe and the master of France. 
 The thought of his wife and son in flight, of his capi- 
 tal in the hands of foreigners, of the Bourbons ruling 
 in his place, seemed like a hideous nightmare. Pie 
 
164 ' THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 was convinced that he was soon to enter the Tuileries 
 in triumph ; and as he looked upon his faithful men, 
 he thought : With such soldiers, nothing is impossi- 
 ble. To-day I am unlucky, but I shall have my 
 revenge to-morrow. 
 
 He studied his maps and the reports of his troops 
 with all the ardor of his youth, saying : " While I am 
 here, the enemy is more fatigued than I. His gen- 
 erals, convinced of their safety, are scattered in the 
 different hotels. The soldiers are wandering through 
 the labyrinth of the streets of Paris. A sudden 
 attack on the capital might have the best results. 
 Why should I not try it? This is one of those crises, 
 when the right and wrong use of minutes may save 
 or lose a crown. In Paris they are weaving plans 
 against me. My way of meeting them is by a great 
 military blow, a thunderbolt. The Allies have lost, 
 in killed and wounded, about twelve thousand men, 
 under the walls of Paris. They have now, I know, 
 more than a hundred and eighty thousand men; I 
 shall soon have seventy thousand. With an army 
 like that, devoted to me, I can do anything. Already 
 it calls upon me to advance ; why should I hesitate ? 
 My luck has turned ; the Allies have made blunders 
 for which they will pay dear; they have been rash 
 enough to divide into three bodies, one of eighty 
 thousand men on the left bank of the Seine, between 
 the Essonnes and Paris, another inside of the capital, 
 a third outside of the city, on the other side of the 
 Seine. Their position is fatal for them if I know 
 
NAPOLEON AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 165 
 
 how to take advantage of it, and I do. I shall beat 
 their three corps in turn. I am going to cross the 
 Essonnes suddenly, and drive Schwarzenberg's eighty 
 thousand men back into Paris, and make one last 
 appeal to the patriotic heroism of the inhabitants of 
 the city, and the tricolor will float in triumph over 
 the Tuileries, on the Pavilion of the Clock; the 
 traitors will return to their burrows ; the jDcasants of 
 Burgundy, Champagne, and Lorraine will complete 
 my work by driving the Coalition across the Rhine." 
 Such were the plans that Napoleon was weaving 
 at Fontainebleau, and it would be hard to say that 
 they were mere illusions. Thiers did not think so : 
 " The opposing forces were very uneven, but the zeal 
 of the army, — that, at least, in the ranks, — Napo- 
 leon's genius, and local conditions, might w^ell have 
 outweighed the numerical inferiority, and everything 
 promised a fearful blow to either the capital or the 
 Coalition. When we think of the prize of success, if 
 Napoleon had triumphed, of France restored to its 
 greatness, — and its true dimensions, not the mad ones, 
 the Rhine frontier, not that of the Elbe, — we do not 
 hesitate to say that the possible advantage justified the 
 risk, even had all the splendor of Paris perished in 
 the bloody struggle. The frontier of the Rhine was 
 well worth all that might have been lost in the capi- 
 tal, and we could not approve those who, after follow- 
 ing Napoleon to Moscow, would not have followed 
 him this time to Paris." And the great historian 
 adds : " If he was mistaken, it seems to us that it 
 
166 THE INVASION OF I8I4. 
 
 was better to be mistaken with him that day than to 
 be mistaken with him at Wihia in 1812, at Dresden 
 in 1813. Moreover, by overlooking the dangers of 
 Paris, he reasoned about that city as the Russians 
 reasoned about Moscow; and he thought no price too 
 high to pay for the extermination of the enemy after 
 they had penetrated to the heart of France." 
 
 Meanwhile time was pressing. A review was held 
 before the Courtyard of the White Horse, April 1 and 
 2. Yet Napoleon did not advance ; he was waiting 
 for re-enforcements, and was averse to taking any 
 decisive steps before he had seen the Duke of Vi- 
 cenza, whom he had sent to Paris to try to treat with 
 the Allies. Caulaincourt reported at Fontairiebleau in 
 the night of April 2, but he brought bad news. At 
 noon, March 31, the Emperor of Russia and the King 
 of Prussia had entered Paris, and cries in favor of the 
 Bourbons had been heard as they rode along. White 
 cockades had made their appearance. The Czar had 
 taken up his quarters in the rue Saint Florentin, at 
 the house of Talleyrand, which was the centre of 
 Royalist intrigues. The Senate had met April 1 
 with Talleyrand as President, and had appointed a 
 provisional government composed of Talleyrand, 
 Beurnonville, Jaucourt, Dalberg, and the Abbe de 
 Montesquiou. Caulaincourt still thought that if 
 Napoleon would abdicate without delay, there was 
 a chance for the King of Rome. Alexander had 
 received him as courteously as he had done when he 
 represented at the Russian court the hero of Auster- 
 
NAPOLEON AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 167 
 
 litz and Friedland, and liad given him some ground 
 for this hope. The question of the Bourbons was 
 not absolutely decided. "Go back," the Czar had 
 said; "make your master abdicate, and we will see. 
 Everything proper and honorable will be done. I 
 have not forgotten what is due a man so great and 
 so unfortunate." 
 
 When the Duke of Vicenza reached Fontaine- 
 bleau, he reported all this to the Emperor, and 
 besought him to abdicate in favor of the King of 
 Rome. " You must not think," answered Napoleon, 
 "that fortune has definitely decided. If I had my 
 army, I should have attacked already, and all would 
 have been over in two hours ; for the enemy is in a 
 most precarious position. What a glorious thing it 
 would be to drive them out ! What a glorious thing 
 for the Parisians to repel the Cossacks and to give 
 them over to the peasants of Burgundy and Lorraine, 
 who would finish them! But it is only postponed; 
 day after to-morrow I shall have the corps of Mac- 
 donald, Oudinot, and Gerard, and if they follow me, 
 I shall change the state of affairs. The commanders 
 are tired, but the men will march. My old guard will 
 set the example, and not a soldier will hesitate to 
 follow them. In a few hours, my dear Caulaincourt, 
 all may be changed." And he added: "No, all is 
 not over yet. They try to get rid of me, because 
 they know that I alone can alter our fortune. I do 
 not care for the throne; of that you may be sure. 
 I can become a citizen once more. You know my 
 
168 THE INVASION OF I8I4. 
 
 tastes. What do I ask for? A little bread, if I 
 live; six feet of earth, if I die. It is true, I have 
 loved and I still love glory, but mine is beyond the 
 reach of human hands. If I want to command for a 
 few days more, it is to restore our fortunes, to save 
 France from her implacable enemies." This inter- 
 view, which took place in the Emperor's bedroom, 
 lasted well into the night. At last Napoleon sent 
 the Duke of Vicenza off to rest, and soon he was 
 himself sleeping soundly. 
 
 The morning of April 3 he woke up still bent on 
 fighting. So far from preparing to abdicate he was 
 anxious to arouse the warlike ardor of his troops by 
 a speech. In the course of the day he assembled his 
 old guard in the Courtyard of ^the White Horse and 
 addressed them thus : " Officers, non-commissioned 
 officers, and soldiers, the enemy have stolen three 
 marches on us. They have entered Paris. I have 
 offered the Emperor Alexander a peace bought by 
 great sacrifices, — France with its old boundaries, thus 
 renouncing our conquests, and losing all we have 
 won since the Revolution. Not only has he refused ; 
 he has done more : yielding to the perfidious sug- 
 gestions of the ^migr^s whose life I spared, whom I 
 loaded with benefits, he has authorized them to wear 
 the white cockade, which soon he will substitute for 
 that of the nation. In a few days I shall attack 
 Paris. I count on you." 
 
 Here the Emperor, who had been listened to in 
 religious silence, stopped for a moment. Then re- 
 
NAPOLEON AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 169 
 
 suming, still amid profound silence, he asked, " Am 
 I right ? " At once there was an enthusiastic cry of 
 " Long live the Emperor ! To Paris ! To Paris ! " 
 Encouraged by their ardor, Napoleon went on ; " We 
 shall prove to them that the French nation rules in 
 its own home ; that if we have long been the masters 
 abroad, we shall always be masters here, and that we 
 are capable of defending our colors, our independ- 
 ence, and the integrity of our territory. Communi- 
 cate these sentiments to the soldiers." When the 
 Emperor had finished, wild applause greeted him. 
 The foot-soldiers waved their guns, the cavalry bran- 
 dished their sabres, tears of rage and patriotism filled 
 every eye. It was not mere enthusiasm, but a de- 
 lirious fury that seized them. Patriotic joy lit up 
 Napoleon's face, a moment before so gloomy ; yet the 
 very next day he was to abdicate I 
 
XIV. 
 
 THE FIRST ABDICATION. 
 
 lyrAPOLEON'S soldiers were, like himself, still 
 -LM full of ardor. The troops whom he reviewed 
 in the Courtyard of the White Horse, April 3, passed 
 before him at double-quick, shouting more ener- 
 getically than ever : " Long live the Emperor ! " An 
 eye-witness has described the march of these valiant 
 soldiers through the forest of Fontainebleau after 
 the review; he says: "At nightfall the serried and 
 silent column moved towards Paris, marching with 
 firm and resolute step through the Imperial forest. 
 The venerable oaks, the mighty trees under which 
 the veterans advanced towards almost certain death, 
 the moonlight magnifying almost every object, lent 
 a certain majestic solemnity to this warlike march. 
 A sullen and threatening silence prevailed in the 
 ranks. Nothing was heard but the dull rolling of 
 the cannon, the regular footfall of the men, the 
 clatter of sabres and bayonets. The thoughts of 
 these men who had escaped from so many battles 
 were full of gloom. Occasionally they turned their 
 eyes sadly on the batteries of howitzers that accom- 
 170 
 
 I 
 
THE FIRST ABDICATION. 171 
 
 panied them. It was plain that they were deeply 
 impressed by the oath they had just taken, and were 
 solemnly preparing themselves either to die or to 
 avenge the Emperor and the Empire, and to fall 
 under the walls or beneath the blood-stained ruins of 
 the capital." 
 
 While the men and non-commissioned officers and 
 the line officers were manifesting this heroism, it was 
 far otherwise with the principal leaders, who made 
 no effort to hide their desire for peace. In the 
 immediate neighborhood of the Emperor's bedroom, 
 in the gallery of Francis L, they uttered their mur- 
 murs and lamentations. Whither does the Emperor 
 design to take us ? they asked. What can he hope 
 for now? There is a limit to everything. Human 
 force is not eternal. We have done enough; we 
 must have peace. Have we not made enough sacri- 
 fices ? Must Paris be burned like Moscow ? Oh ! 
 that is too much. We must venture to tell the 
 Emperor the truth. We must persuade him to abdi- 
 cate in favor of his son. 
 
 What followed? By what process was the un- 
 happy monarch compelled to abdicate at the very 
 moment when he hoped to regain his fortune ; when 
 he was about to order the Imperial headquarters to 
 be moved to a point between Ponthiery and Es- 
 sonnes ; when he had just reviewed his faithful 
 soldiers, and had uttered a most warlike speech to 
 them ; when he was planning a terrible revenge, to 
 crush the Allies under the walls of Paris, to drive 
 
172 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 
 
 them into the Seine, and to scatter them beyond 
 the Rhin3? 
 
 Thiers and General de S^gur do not agree about 
 the details of the scene which resulted in the Em- 
 peror's decision to abdicate. Thiers says it took 
 place in the morning of April 4 ; the General says it 
 was in the evening of the 3d. We are inclined to 
 think that the story of General de S^gur is the more 
 accurate. His account runs thus : " These facts, which 
 I have received from eye-witnesses, explain why the 
 Emperor, after his proclamation and the departure 
 of his guard, so suddenly and completely altered 
 his plan. They are, however, so important, that 
 after writing them down, I read them several times 
 to these witnesses in order to make sure of their com- 
 plete and thorough accuracy. I should have preferred 
 to say nothing about them, but that would have been 
 an injustice not merely to the cause of truth, but also 
 to Napoleon ; it would have been adding to his mis- 
 fortune the unjust accusation of an unseemly betrayal 
 of himself and of our cause ; of a faint-heartedness 
 which history, in the absence of our revelations, 
 would judge unfavorably, and which would unjustly 
 stain his memory." In a foot-note, he says : " Among 
 other witnesses, I will cite Saint Aignan, Fain, and 
 Marshal Moncey, who have often assured me of the 
 exact truth of my account, which has also been con- 
 firmed by others. As for the part which Marshal 
 Macdonald took in this abdication, it is from his own 
 dictation that I have recorded all the particulars. I 
 
 I 
 
THE FIRST ABDICATION. 173 
 
 have read them over to him, and he has pronounced 
 them absolutely exact." Let us then follow General 
 de S^gur's account, which bears every mark of accu- 
 racy. 
 
 April 3, towards six in the evening, the officers 
 met near the Emperor's apartment in the palace of 
 Fontainebleau, to give utterance to their complaints 
 and their wrath. Excited by all the violent remarks, 
 which were like the beginning of those seditious 
 military outbreaks of which the history of the Roman 
 Empire is full, the violent and irascible Marshal Ney 
 undertook to persuade the Emperor to abdicate. He 
 suddenly burst into the room of the monarch who 
 was to reign but a few hours more. " Sire," he broke 
 forth, " it is time to stop. Your position is that of a 
 man on his deathbed. You must make your will and 
 abdicate in favor of the King of Rome." — " But we 
 can still fight. We can recover our fortune." '' No ! 
 that is impossible. The army will not follow you ; you 
 have lost its confidence." — " The army will be suffi- 
 ciently obedient to punish you for your revolt." 
 " What ! if you had the power, should I be here 
 now?" The Marshal grew excited by his own 
 words; his voice and gestures became threatening. 
 Seeing that he had gone too far, he stopped, and 
 added, more gently : " Don't be afraid ; we haven't 
 come here to act a Saint Petersburg scene before you." 
 And in a few moments he withdrew in anything but 
 a respectful attitude. 
 
 Napoleon knew that he was ruined. What ! one 
 
174 THE INVASION OF 18U. 
 
 of his lieutenants, a marshal, had dared to use such 
 language to Am, the Emperor ! When men the day 
 before so humble, so docile, presumed so far, all, he 
 saw, must be in ruins, the last gleam of hope must 
 have vanished. Illusion was impossible. Napoleon 
 saw his fate before him. He knew that the next day 
 he should be forced to abdicate. Then he wrote to 
 the Baron de Meneval a letter in which he ordered 
 him to urge Marie Louise to appeal to her father and 
 Metternich to establish her right to the Regency, 
 adding this sinister prophecy — that even this might 
 fail, in which case everything, even death, would be 
 possible, and there would then be nothing left for the 
 Empress but to throw herself and her son into the 
 arms of the Emperor of Austria. 
 
 The next day, April 4, at about eleven in the 
 morning, Ney, Berthier, Caulaincourt, Moncey, Le- 
 febvre, and the Duke of Bassano met in the Emperor's 
 dining-room, and waited for him there. Soon he 
 appeared. " Stay ! " he said to them, without another 
 word; he breakfasted hurriedly, and returned to his 
 drawing-room, bidding them follow. They gathered 
 about him in silence. After meditating for a few 
 moments, he looked at Caulaincourt, and exclaimed : 
 " Well, since they refuse to treat with me, since my 
 resistance would be the signal for civil war, I am 
 willing to sacrifice myself for the happiness of France. 
 I will abdicate." At these words. Marshal Moncey 
 seized the Emperor's hand, and kissing it respectfully, 
 said : " Sire, you save France. Receive my tribute 
 
THE FIRST ABDICATION. 175 
 
 of admiration and gratitude." Then, as Napoleon 
 looked at him with some surprise, he added: ''Do 
 not misunderstand me, that is my feeling. Sire ; but 
 give the command, and I shall follow you wherever 
 you please." Then the Emperor called his secretary. 
 Baron Fain, and asked him to bring the draft of the 
 abdication. At Caulaincourt's suggestion, he made 
 two changes with his own hand. "There it is," he 
 said at last to Caulaincourt, " and so it shall stand. I 
 shall make no further alterations." 
 
 Caulaincourt read the paper aloud ; it ran thus : 
 " The Allied Powers having declared that the Em- 
 peror Napoleon was the sole obstacle to the re-estab- 
 iishment of peace in Europe, the Emperor Napoleon, 
 faithful to his oath, declares that he is ready to 
 descend from the throne, to leave France, even to 
 die, for the good of his country, inseparable from the 
 rights of his son, from those of the Empress's Regency, 
 and the maintenance of the laws of the Empire. Done 
 at Fontainebleau, April 4, 1814." 
 
 When the reading was over. Marshal Oudinot, the 
 Duke of Reggio, and Marshal Macdonald, Duke of 
 Taranto, were announced. They had come from 
 Champagne, a few hours in advance of their troops, 
 who had made the campaign with the Emperor, fol- 
 lowing him in his march to the east and returning 
 towards Paris, though in spite of every effort they 
 had not been able to reach him in time to save the 
 capital. At last the three corps of Oudinot, Mac- 
 donald, and Gerard were near Fontainebleau, — those 
 
176 THE INVASION OF I8I4. 
 
 three army corps which the Emperor longed for so 
 ardently when he reached the Fountains of Juvisy, 
 alone, the night of March 30, at the very moment 
 when the capitulation of Paris was about to be signed ! 
 They were approaching, and if they were favorably 
 disposed, and shared the feelings of the troops the 
 Emperor had reviewed the previous day, the abdica- 
 tion just read might be a dead letter. 
 
 When he saw Macdonald, Napoleon asked him how 
 he was. "Very well, Sire," answered the Marshal, 
 ''but cruelly distressed and very unhappy because 
 the fortune of arms has denied us the last honor of 
 fighting before Paris and of dying in defending our 
 capital from this great affront." " Where are the 
 troops ? " — " They are arriving. Sire, but determined 
 not to march against Paris. I come in their name to 
 say this to you ; I come to tell you that, however the 
 capital may decide, not one of us will draw his 
 sword against it, not one of us will moisten it with 
 the blood of his compatriots." "But I have never 
 thought of such a thing. How could you think it ? " 
 — "Sire, that is what is said everywhere, and the 
 army is united against it. They say there has been 
 enough misery ; they refuse to make Paris another 
 Moscow." "But what an odious supposition! what 
 an absurdity ! Do you forget my care and con- 
 stant love for the capital? Do you forget all I 
 have done for it?" — "But, Sire, does Your Majesty 
 know all that is going on there?" "Yes, I know 
 that the Allies refuse to treat with me." — "That 
 
 I 
 
THE FIRST ABDICATION. 177 
 
 is not all; unfortunately this letter will tell you 
 more." 
 
 Thereupon the Marshal showed the Emperor a 
 letter which he received from Beurnonville, one of the 
 members of the Provisional Government. Instead of 
 bearing the address: "Marshal Macdonald, Duke of 
 Taranto," it bore this : " To Marshal Macdonald, 
 Duke of Ragusa." Macdonald had been given Mar- 
 mont's title. Perhaps it was not an accidental mis- 
 take ; possibly the writer had wanted both the Marshals 
 to read the letter. At any rate, that is what happened. 
 Marmont received the letter first ; he opened it and 
 then forwarded it to his colleague. It announced 
 the dethronement of the Emperor and his family, 
 the recall of the Bourbons, the hope of the English 
 constitution for France, the confirming of all the 
 officers of the French army in their position. The 
 Emperor took the letter, read it calmly, and then 
 handing it to the Duke of Bassano, bade him read it 
 aloud. This done. Napoleon exclaimed: "I sought 
 the glory and happiness of France, but I have failed. 
 I abdicate and withdraw." " Oh, Sire ! " answered 
 Marshal Macdonald, " what a blow ! I came to urge 
 peace, not abdication." " Yes," resumed the Em- 
 peror, "I decide to abdicate. But do you agree to 
 receive my son as my successor, and to accept the 
 Regency of the Empress?" They all expressed their 
 assent by word and gesture. 
 
 Who were the plenipotentiaries to carry to the 
 Allies this abdication, and to try a final effort to save, 
 
178 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 if not Napoleon, at least his dynasty ? This is what 
 Baron Fain says : " The Duke of Vicenza was pre- 
 paring to carry the paper to Paris, and Napoleon 
 appointed the Prince of Moskowa as his colleague : 
 he wanted to add the Duke of Ragusa, the oldest of 
 his fellow-soldiers surviving, feeling that in an affair 
 of such vital importance for his family he needed 
 such support as his old aide would give. This ap- 
 pointment was about to be made out when some one 
 suggested to Napoleon that in a negotiation in which 
 the army was concerned it would be well to employ 
 a man like the Duke of Taranto, who would have 
 more influence because he was less intimate with 
 Napoleon. The Duke of Bassano, when Napoleon 
 asked his opinion, thought that whatever Marshal 
 Macdonald's opinions might be, he was too honorable 
 a man to act otherwise than with scrupulous recti- 
 tude in a matter of this sort. Napoleon at once 
 appointed the Duke of Taranto his third plenipo- 
 tentiary. But he still wanted the plenipotentiaries, 
 as they passed through Essonnes, to tell the Duke of 
 Ragusa what had happened, but to leave him free 
 to decide whether he might not be of more use in 
 staying in command of his corps; if, however, he 
 cared to take part in this mission to which he was 
 appointed through Napoleon's special confidence in 
 him, he would at once receive full power." 
 
 Macdonald prepared to leave at once for Paris, 
 with Ney and Caulaincourt, and with Messrs. Ray- 
 neval and Rumigny, their secretaries, and he took 
 
THE FIBST ABDICATION. 179 
 
 leave of the Emperor; as he had his hand on the 
 half-opened door, Napoleon exclaimed : " Come now, 
 let us march to-morrow morning, and we will beat 
 them again." The Marshal pretended not to hear, 
 and bustled down the Horseshoe Staircase, where he 
 joined his companions, and drove off for Paris, to 
 open the negotiations, the last and the only hope of 
 the dynasty of the Bonapartes. 
 
XV. 
 
 THE DEFECTION OF ESSONNES. 
 
 "IVTEY, Macdonald, and Caulaincourt, invested with 
 -Li full power by the Emperor, left Fontaine- 
 bleau, April 4, 1814, to go to Paris to plead the cause 
 of Marie Louise and of the King of Rome. They 
 were to stop at Essonnes the same day to see Marshal 
 Marmont and to ask the Prince of Wiirtemberg, the 
 commander of the outposts of the Allies, for the safe- 
 conduct they required for crossing the enemy's lines 
 and entering the capital. 
 
 Essonnes, a village in the department of Seine-et- 
 Oise, four and a half miles from Corbeil, was the 
 headquarters of Marshal Marmont, Duke of Ragusa, 
 and of the Sixth Corps,, which had been under his 
 orders since the beginning of the campaign. The 
 river issuing from the forest of Orleans, and falling 
 into the Seine at Corbeil, is also named the Essonnes. 
 This river separated Marmont's troops from those of 
 the Allies, and Prince Schwarzenberg had his head- 
 quarters at the castle of Petit Bourg, a little village 
 two and a half miles from Corbeil. 
 
 The three plenipotentiaries reached Essonnes at 
 180 
 
THE DEFECTION OF ESSONNES. 181 
 
 about five in the evening, full of delight at the pros- 
 pect of meeting Marmont, who had covered himself 
 with glory during the whole campaign of France, 
 and especially in the heroic battle of Paris. Mar- 
 mont, the companion of Napoleon's boyhood, his 
 fellow-student, the friend of his youth, the eye- 
 witness of his first exploits, who seemed the most 
 enthusiastic partisan and most ardent and chivalrous 
 defender of the wife and son of his benefactor, sur- 
 prised Ney, Macdonald, and Caulaincourt by his 
 gloomy face and embarrassed air. What was the 
 mystery? What had happened? Naturally, Mar- 
 mont had hesitated a little before confessing the 
 truth. Something had happened which was to bring 
 ruin to the Imperial dynasty : Marmont had betrayed 
 the Empire. 
 
 The Duke of Ragusa himself, in his Memoirs, 
 recounts the circumstances that led to this act so out 
 of harmony with his character and glorious antece- 
 dents. The first suggestion of the step was made to 
 him at an interview held in Paris at his house in the 
 rue du Paradis Poissonni^re, in the evening of March 
 30, 1814, a few hours after the battle, when he was 
 preparing to arrange the clauses of the capitulation 
 imposed upon the capital. "I must describe," he 
 says, " a conversation which took place at my house 
 in the course of the evening ; for it fairly represents 
 my opinions at that time. A number of my friends 
 had met there, and talk turned to the state of affairs 
 and the way it might be bettered. The feeling 
 
182 THE INVASION OF ISI4. 
 
 seemed to be general that the fall of Napoleon was 
 the only condition of safety. Then we talked about 
 the Bourbons ; their most earnest defender, the man 
 who made the deepest impression on me, was M. 
 Laffitte. He openly declared himself their supporter, 
 and when I repeated the arguments addressed some 
 time before to my brother-in-law, he replied : ' Well, 
 Marshal, with written guarantees, with a political 
 order that shall establish our rights, what is to be 
 feared ? ' When I heard a man of the middle classes, 
 a plain banker, express such an opinion, I thought 
 that I heard the voice of the whole city of Paris." 
 
 The members of the Provisional Government had 
 at once thought that they could do something with 
 the Duke of Ragusa. " Yet," says Thiers, " Mar- 
 mont had not a traitor's soul — far from it. But he 
 was vain, ambitious, weak, and unfortunately these 
 qualities, in time of confusion, often lead to acts 
 which posterity blames." A M. de Montessny, who 
 had been his aide-de-camp for many years, had left 
 the army to go into business, and had come out 
 warmly for the Bourbons. The members of the Pro- 
 visional Government thought he would be an excel- 
 lent emissary to attempt to bring over the Marshal, 
 and they sent him to Essonnes, where he arrived 
 April 3, at about five in the afternoon. He was 
 the bearer of a letter from Prince Schwarzenberg, 
 which ran thus : — 
 
 " Marshal : I have the honor of transmitting to 
 Your Excellency, by a trusty person, all the papers 
 
THE DEFECTION OF ESSONNES. 183 
 
 and documents necessary to give Your Excellency 
 information about what has occurred since Your 
 Excellency left the capital, as well as an invitation 
 from the members of the Provisional Government to 
 enlist under the banners of the good French cause. I 
 urge you, in the name of your country and of human- 
 ity, to consider these propositions which will put a 
 stop to the shedding of the blood of the brave men 
 you command." 
 
 Marmont speaks of his feelings on receiving from 
 the hands of his former aide-de-camp Prince Schwarz- 
 enberg's message, the decree of the Senate pronounc- 
 ing the dethronement of the Emperor, and many 
 letters from important persons urging him to accept 
 it. " It would be hard," he says, " to describe the 
 various feelings this news produced and the reflections 
 it aroused. The deep agitation was the forerunner 
 of the feelings that the memory of those great events 
 never ceases to call forth. Having been so long 
 devoted to Napoleon, the misfortunes overwhelming 
 him awoke in me that old and warm affection which 
 in other days had outweighed every other feeling, 
 and yet my devotion to my country and the possibil- 
 ity of helping its condition and its fate, inspired me 
 with a longing to save it from complete ruin. It is 
 easy for a man of honor to do his duty when it lies 
 clear before him, but it is hard to live at a time when 
 one can and must ask. What is my duty? Such times 
 I have seen in my own life. Thrice in my life have 
 I had to face this problem. Happy are those who 
 
184 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 
 
 I 
 
 live under a regular government, and in such obscur- 
 ity that they escape such trials ! Let them not blame 
 what they are too inexperienced to judge properly 1 " 
 
 The unfortunate Marshal goes on : " However 
 great my interest in Napoleon, I could not fail to see 
 what harm he had done to France. He alone had 
 dug the abyss into which we were falling. What 
 efforts we had made, and I especially, to avoid plung- 
 ing into it ! The conviction of having done more 
 than my duty in the campaign confirmed my opinion. 
 I had worked harder than any of my colleagues, and 
 displayed unremitting constancy and perseverance. 
 Might not these great efforts, which had been contin- 
 ued so long as there was any chance of their doing 
 good, make my score with Napoleon clean, and had 
 I not fully paid what I owed him ? Ought not the 
 country to have its turn ? " 
 
 After M. de Montessny had gone, the Marshal told 
 Colonel Fabvier, the second officer of his staff, the 
 message he had received from the Provisional Gov- 
 ernment, and asked him what answer he thought 
 should be made to the proposition it contained. Fab- 
 vier, who at the moment happened to be standing 
 beside a large exotic tree, answered, pointing at one 
 of the strongest of its branches : " It seems to me 
 that under other circumstances the answer ought to 
 be that. However, it would be necessary to inform 
 the Emperor of this melancholy attempt." " That is 
 what I shall do," answered Marmont, and then they 
 sat down to the table. 
 
THE DEFECTION OF ES SON NFS. 185 
 
 In the evening the Marshal dreAV up his reply to 
 the letter of Prince Schwarzenberg ; it ran thus : — 
 
 "Marshal: I have received the letter which Your 
 Highness has done me the honor of writing to me, as 
 well as all the papers enclosed. Public opinion has 
 always been the rule of my conduct. The army and 
 the people, being freed from their oath of fidelity to 
 the Emperor Napoleon by the decree of the Senate, I 
 am disposed to assist a union between the people and 
 the army, which shall prevent all chance of civil war, 
 and the effusion of French blood. Hence I am ready 
 to leave, with my troops, the army of the Emperor 
 Napoleon, on the following conditions, for which I 
 desire a written guarantee : — 
 
 " Article I. I, Prince Schwarzenberg, Marshal and 
 Commander-in-chief of the Allied Armies, do hereby 
 guarantee to all the French troops, who in accordance 
 with the decree of the Senate of April 2, shall leave 
 the standard of Napoleon Bonaparte, that they shall 
 be able freely to withdraw to Normandy, with arms, 
 baggage, and supplies, and with all the military hon- 
 ors accorded to the Allied troops. 
 
 " Article II. That if, in consequence of this move- 
 ment, the events of war should throw into the hands 
 of the Allied Powers the person of Napoleon Bona- 
 parte, his life and liberty shall be guaranteed him 
 within some narrow territory in some limited region, 
 to be chosen by the Allied Powers and the French 
 Government." 
 
 The next day, April 4, Marmont summoned all his 
 
1 
 
 186 THE INVASION OF 18 U, 
 
 generals except General Chastel, to his room, and 
 there drew a picture of the condition of things in 
 connection with his plan. He said that the Emperor, 
 after committing fault after fault, and having by his 
 tactical blunders, let the Allies enter Paris, now enter- 
 tained the mad idea of attacking them in Paris itself, 
 with fifty thousand men against two hundred thou- 
 sand, thus exposing the few soldiers left him to 
 almost certain destruction beneath the ruins of the 
 capital and of France. He then urged them to hand 
 in their adhesion to the Provisional Government. 
 Then he read to them his answer to Prince Schwarz- 
 enberg's letter, of which they approved both the 
 matter and the manner, and Marmont at once sent it 
 to the Commander-in-chief. 
 
 A few moments later he thought of explaining 
 himself to the Emperor, for his conscience was begin- 
 ning to trouble him. That same day, April 4, he 
 wrote the following letter which, however, he did 
 not send, for before night he became aware of the 
 magnitude of the fault he had committed, and aban- 
 doned, though too late, his fatal decision : — fl 
 
 "Essonnes, April 4, 1814. Sire: I have served 
 you with devotion for more than twenty years, and 
 my zeal has only been redoubled with your misfor- 
 tunes. Sustained by the opinion of my country, my 
 efforts would have had no limit, for adversity has 
 never had terrors for me. But, Sire, it is against 
 the opinion of France, and soon against Frenchmen 
 themselves, that we turn our arms. The excitement 
 
 I 
 
THE DEFECTION OF ESSONNES. 187 
 
 prevailing in Paris, Lyons, Bordeaux, Marseilles,- the 
 unanimous feeling expressed witli so much warmth, 
 the decree of the Senate, indicate the true public opin- 
 ion, and this should be the law for a good Frenchman, 
 for a citizen. Moreover, Sire, in what a terrible posi- 
 tion we are placed ! Either fortune will temporarily 
 crown your efforts, and then the sacking of Paris 
 and the flight of its inhabitants are the result ; or it 
 is unfavorable, and then. Sire, with your immediate 
 ruin is bound up the ruin of the rest of the militia, 
 perhaps too soon necessary for the safety of the 
 country, who, fighting for it supported by opinion, 
 will be able to save it. It is then out of devotion to 
 France that I do what my heart condemns, but what 
 is commanded by my country's welfare. I ought to 
 ^vithdraw from your ranks the day that the nation 
 reproves you; but, after saving the country, I am 
 ready to ^^lace my head at your disposal, if you desire 
 it. I have not tampered with the generals or the 
 troops of whom you have given me the command. 
 They all agree with me that the will of the nation 
 should be a law to them, and that now nothing makes 
 this doubtful." 
 
 Marmont was already anxious, as his letter shows. 
 His heart was beginning to condemn the resolution 
 he had formed. Continually the grand figure of 
 Napoleon haunted him, inspiring remorse which tor- 
 tured his inmost soul all the rest of his life. Four 
 days before he had visited Napoleon at Fontainebleau, 
 and had been most cordially received by the Emperor. 
 
188 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 " Our noble defence," he himself says, " had received 
 his praise. He ordered me to make out a list of 
 rewards for those brave soldiers who, up to the last, 
 had with untiring devotion and courage maintained 
 an unequal conflict." And now, four days after this 
 cordial interview with his master, his old fellow- 
 soldier, his friend and benefactor, his sovereign, 
 Marmont was abandoning him and making him over 
 to his enemies. 
 
 Meanwhile Prince Schwarzenberg had hastened to 
 send his answer to Essonnes. "Marshal," he said, 
 "I cannot give fitting expression to the satisfaction 
 I feel on learning how readily you respond to the 
 invitation of the Provisional Government to place 
 yourself, in accordance with this month's decree, 
 under the banners of the French cause. The distin- 
 guished services you have rendered your country are 
 everywhere recognized, but you crown them all by 
 restoring to their country the few who have escaped 
 from the ambition of a single man. I beg of you to 
 believe that I have especially appreciated the delicacy 
 of the arrangement which you propose, and which I 
 accept, concerning the person of Napoleon. Nothing 
 better characterizes the noble generosity of the French, 
 which especially distinguishes Your Excellency." 
 
 Matters were in this state when, April 4, towards 
 five in the afternoon, Marmont found himself in pres- 
 ence of Ney, Macdonald, and Caulaincourt. As soon 
 as they had informed him of the Emperor's abdication 
 and of their mission, the scales fell from his eyes ; he 
 
 1 
 
THE DEFECTION OF ESSONNES. 189 
 
 saw the full extent of his fault. *' This event," he 
 says, speaking of the arrival of the three plenipoten- 
 tiaries at Essonnes, " changed the face of things. In 
 my isolation, I had not been able to consult the other 
 leaders of the army. I had sacrificed my affections 
 for the good of my country, but a greater sacrifice 
 than mine, that which Napoleon had made, had sanc- 
 tioned it. Therewith, my design was carried out, and 
 I had no longer need to immolate myself. My duty 
 commanded me to join with my comrades. I should 
 have been guilty if I had continued to act alone. 
 Consequently, I informed the plenipotentiaries of my 
 conferences with Schwarzenberg, adding that I at 
 once broke off all personal negotiation, and should 
 never separate from them. These gentlemen asked 
 me to accompany them to Paris. Reflecting that, 
 after what had happened, my joining them might 
 have great weight, I eagerly consented. Before leav- 
 ing Essonnes, I explained to the generals I left in 
 command, among others to the oldest. General Sou- 
 ham, and to Generals Campons and BordessouUe, the 
 reasons for my absence, and announced to them my 
 speedy return. I ordered them, in the presence of 
 the plenipotentiaries, in no circumstances to make the 
 slightest movement before my return." 
 
 Night had fallen when the three plenipotentiaries, 
 accompanied by Marmont reached Petit Bourg, Prince 
 Schwarzenberg's headquarters, to ask for the safe- 
 conduct necessary for the continuation of their jour- 
 ney. At this moment Marmont felt extremely em- 
 
190 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 
 
 barrassed; he wondered how he could explain his 
 conduct to the man with whom he had made an 
 agreement that morning. His fellow-travellers took 
 pity on him, and after they had got out of their car- 
 riage, they covered him with their cloaks to prevent 
 his being seen ; then they entered the castle of Petit 
 Bourg. There they met first, the Prince of Wiirtem- 
 berg, who spoke of Napoleon in the bitterest terms. 
 Ney had formerly had this German Prince under his 
 orders and had never spared him. He said to him : '' If 
 there is a house in Europe that has no right to accuse 
 the Emperor Napoleon of ambition, it is assuredly 
 the house of Wiirtemberg." In fact, it was to the 
 Emperor that the sovereign of this country owed his 
 title of King, and it was to Napoleon's brother that 
 he had given his daughter in marriage. Then Prince 
 Schwarzenberg made his appearance, and while he 
 treated the three plenipotentiaries most courteously, 
 he manifested no interest in the regency of Marie 
 Louise. When he heard that Marshal Marmont was 
 in the carriage below, he desired to have a private 
 talk with him.' " In this interview," says the Mar- 
 shal, " I released myself from the arrangements we 
 had made, explaining my motives to Prince Schwarz- 
 enberg. The change in the general position of af- 
 fairs would naturally make one in my conduct. My 
 acts had been inspired by a desire to save my country, 
 and since a measure undertaken in common with my 
 comrades, and in concert with Napoleon, promised to 
 attain this end, I could not hold myself aloof from it. 
 
THE DEFECTION OF ESSONNES. 191 
 
 He understood me perfectly, and gave complete ap- 
 proval to my plan." 
 
 Then Marmont joined his colleagues, and they all 
 pushed on, with their safe-conduct, and reaching 
 Paris, April 5, at about 2 a.m., at once went to the 
 residence of Talleyrand, in the rue Saint Florentin, 
 where the Emperor Alexander was staying. All 
 four, Ney, Macdonald, Caulaincourt, and Marmont, 
 were immediately received by the Czar, who greeted 
 them most courteously, saying that he had wanted 
 to express to them the esteem and the admiration he 
 felt for the bravery of the French army and for the 
 skill of its commanders. He gave utterance to the 
 most friendly feelings for France. " I desire," he 
 added, "its happiness and security. It must be pow- 
 erful and remain great." 
 
 Then the plenipotentiaries pleaded with conviction, 
 eloquence, and energy the cause of Marie Louise and 
 of the King of Rome. Marmont, who the day before 
 had been a Royalist, became once more a Bona- 
 partist, and added his voice to theirs. "I was not," 
 he says in his Memoirs, " the least ardent in defend- 
 ing the rights of the son of Napoleon and of the 
 Regent." The discussion was long and hot. The 
 Emperor ended it by saying that he could not settle 
 this important question alone, but had to refer it to 
 his allies, and that he could give no answer before 
 the morning. The plenipotentiaries preserved some 
 hopes when they took leave of the Czar; and the 
 Royalists, who feared nothing so much as the main- 
 
192 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 tenance of the Imperial dynasty, 6ould not conceal 
 their anxiety. 
 
 A fatal incident — a result of Marmont's conduct, 
 though one for which he was not directly respon- 
 sible — had just destroyed the last chances of the 
 King of Rome, and made the restoration of the 
 Bourbons inevitable. Marmont had merely planned 
 the defection of Essonnes ; his generals had just 
 carried it out. 
 
 Scarcely had Marmont left Essonnes with the 
 plenipotentiaries than an aide-de-camp of the Em- 
 peror, Colonel Gourgaud, arrived there in great 
 haste. This officer had been ordered by Napoleon 
 to go first to the headquarters of the Duke of 
 Ragusa, at Essonnes, and then to the headquarters 
 of the Duke of Treviso, at Mennecy, to tell the two 
 marshals that the Emperor summoned them to 
 Fontainebleau to receive instructions. Doubtless 
 Napoleon, who had abdicated only conditionally, — 
 that is to say, in case the allied sovereigns should 
 recognize his son's rights, and who, moreover, knew 
 that they had declared, on the 31st of March, that 
 they would not treat with him or with any member 
 of his family, — attached but little importance to the 
 mission undertaken by the Prince of Moskowa and 
 the Dukes of Taranto and Vicenza. He believed 
 that this mission had but few chances of being suc- 
 cessful ; and if, as was probable, it failed, he still 
 hoped to march on Paris with his guard, and the 
 army corps of the Dukes of Ragusa and Treviso, to 
 
THE DEFECTION OF ESSONNES. 193 
 
 make one last effort. Probably when he summoned 
 the two Marshals, it was to arrange with them his 
 plans. Moreover, anticipating Marmont's possible 
 departure to Paris with the three plenipotentiaries, 
 he had sent word that if the Marshal had left Es- 
 sonnes, the senior general of the Sixth Corps, General 
 Souham, should report in his place at Fontainebleau. 
 
 When Colonel Gourgaud reached Essonnes with 
 the Emperor's order, he expressed with some warmth 
 his surprise at not finding Marmont. This made 
 General Souham think that all was lost. He fancied 
 that the Emperor had got wind of the negotiations 
 that had taken place that morning between the 
 Marshal and the enemy ; he recalled his warm adhe- 
 sion to the proposed defection, and felt sure that 
 Napoleon meant to punish him, possibly to have him 
 shot. As a former officer of the army of the Rhine, 
 and a friend of Moreau, General Souham had never 
 loved the Emperor, and he feared him beyond all 
 measure. It was this fear — most ungrounded; for 
 Napoleon, who knew nothing of the events of the 
 morning, had no cause for ill-feeling towards the 
 general — that was the cause of the defection of 
 Essonnes, and of the overthrow of the Empire. 
 
 When Colonel Gourgaud had pushed on to find 
 Marshal Mortier at Mennecy, General Souham, in- 
 stead of going to Fontainebleau, as he had been 
 ordered to do, expressed his terrors to the other 
 generals, inspired them with the same alarm, and 
 persuaded them not to wait for M^-rmont's return 
 
194 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 before carrying out the agreement made with Prince 
 Schwarzenberg, to cross the Essonnes and to place 
 themselves and their troops under the orders of the 
 Provisional Government. It was in vain that Colonel 
 Fabvier entreated General Souham not to form such 
 a plan ; the only answer he got was : " It is better to 
 kill the devil than to let him kill us." The generals 
 called out their men, and sent word to the enemy 
 lest they should be attacked on the way. The 
 unhappy soldiers were ignorant of the reasons for 
 this movement. All the previous negotiations about 
 the defection had been carefully kept concealed from 
 them. They imagined that their generals and the 
 Marshal himself were still faithful to the Emperor, 
 and when in the middle of the night they left 
 Essonnes in pitchy darkness, and moved towards 
 Paris, they felt sure that they formed the vanguard 
 of the Imperial army and were about to fight once 
 more. Colonel Fabvier was not with them. Indig- 
 nant with the conduct of his superiors, whom he had 
 in vain tried to recall to their duty, he had just 
 galloped away to find Marshal Marmont and tell him 
 what was going on. 
 
 Meanwhile the soldiers began to form some notion 
 of the part they were thus forced to play, and their 
 suspicions grew at every step. When they saw the 
 allied troops peaceably lining the road, letting them 
 pass by without firing a shot, they were almost cer- 
 tain that some treachery was on foot. The scouts, 
 who were Poles, exclaimed : " We are deceived ; we 
 
THE DEFECTION OF ESSONNES. 195 
 
 are surrendered to the enemy. We will not betray the 
 Emperor," and they refused to go. The rear-guard, 
 commanded by General Chastel, had not reached the 
 enemy's lines at sunrise. On seeing them, it sud- 
 denly turned back to Essonnes, and set about putting 
 the bridge into a state of defence. General Lucotte's 
 division, which was occupying Corbeil, had received 
 orders to follow the movement of the Sixth Corps, 
 but it did not stir : the general, in an order of the 
 day, said that having been ordered to occupy Corbeil, 
 he should remain at his post with his men. These, 
 with the rear-guard commanded by General Chastel, 
 were the only troops of the Sixth Corps who kept 
 their position. The ill-fated movement went on. 
 Some officers, who favored the defection, invented a 
 number of pretexts to deceive the men and to allay 
 their suspicions, but there Avere murmurs throughout 
 the column ; already they had begun to speak of 
 treason. When they reached Belle Epine, the troops 
 left the road to Paris, to take that to Versailles, and 
 it was plain that they would soon be in open revolt 
 against their chiefs. 
 
 What was Marshal Marmont doing while his sol- 
 diers were thus deceived by their generals? After 
 leaving Talleyrand's house in the middle of the night, 
 he had gone to his own, in the rue du Paradis Pois- 
 sonniere, to take a little rest before rejoining his 
 colleagues in the morning at the house of the Prince 
 of Moskowa, to return with them to the Emperor 
 Alexander, before whom they were once more to 
 
196 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 plead the cause of Marie Louise and of the King of 
 Rome. His conscience had been relieved of a heavy 
 burden. This defection, he said to himself, had been 
 only a plan not put into execution, and he would do 
 his duty to tlie end, vying in loyalty with Ney, 
 Macdonald, and Caulaincourt, to save, if not Napo- 
 leon, at least the Imperial dynasty. Calm had at 
 length taken possession of him, and he was sitting, 
 buried in thought, before the fire, a mirror in front 
 of him, his elbows on his knees, his head between his 
 hands, when a door was suddenly opened. Then, 
 raising his head, he saw in the glass the face of 
 Colonel Fabvier, who was coming into the room. 
 "What, you, Fabvier?" exclaimed the Marshal. 
 "Ah! I am lost." "And disgraced too," replied the 
 Colonel. "What is to be done?" asked the Duke 
 of Ragusa. " Hasten to your divisions, and stop the 
 defection. Perhaps you still have time." "Yes, 
 yes, but first I have promised to go back to see the 
 Emperor Alexander ; come here in an hour with my 
 horses and wait for me. I shall leave soon, and we 
 will go together." 
 
 Marmont went at once to Marshal Ney's, finding 
 there his colleagues about to leave for Talleyrand's 
 residence, where the Czar had promised to receive 
 them at nine o'clock. The Duke of Ragusa told them 
 what his generals had done. " Oh ! " he said, " I 
 would give my arm, if only this news were not true I " 
 " Say your head," answered Marshal Ney, " and it 
 would not be enough ! " 
 
THE DEFECTION OF ESSONNES. 197 
 
 When they reached Talleyrand's house, Marmont 
 and his colleagues saw the enthusiastic delight of the 
 Royalists, who regarded the defection of the Sixth 
 Corps as the sure token of the restoration of the 
 Bourbons. They knew that it would destroy the last 
 scruples of the Emperor Alexander, and that now the 
 chances of the King of Rome were irrevocably gone. 
 They greeted Marmont as a benefactor and covered 
 him with praise; they swore to him that Louis 
 XVIII. would express his gratitude by magnificent 
 rewards ; they were rapturous with delight. But 
 suddenly their great joy was troubled: word came 
 that at Versailles the Sixth Corps, convinced of the 
 treachery of its commanders, was in open revolt. 
 The Royalists were in consternation. The Emperor 
 Alexander, who was but a cool supporter of the Bour- 
 bons, might perhaps say that the army remained faith- 
 ful to Napoleon ; the Royal ship might yet founder 
 just outside of its port. Hence they surrounded 
 Marmont and tried everything — prayers, promises, 
 flattery — to decide him to put a stop to this out- 
 break, which filled them with terror and threatened 
 to undo everything. Marmont let himself be per- 
 suaded, and started for Versailles. Just as he was 
 leaving Talleyrand's house, he saw Colonel Fab- 
 vier, who had been waiting for him at the door 
 more than an hour. The Marshal was much upset 
 by all he had been through, and he tried in vain 
 to collect himself. His lips wore a pained smile. 
 " Thank you," he stammered to the Colonel ; " I 
 
198 THE INVASION OF 18U. 
 
 have no need of you. It is all arranged; there is 
 nothing more to do." 
 
 Meanwhile, the troops of the Sixth Corps had been 
 in open revolt since reaching Versailles. Their gen- 
 erals, whom they denounced as traitors, had been 
 compelled to flee for their lives. The colonels, after 
 a brief deliberation, had thrown in their lot with the 
 soldiers, and had determined to lead the troops to 
 Rambouillet and thence to Fontainebleau, to place 
 them once more under Napoleon's orders. 
 
 " I went to Versailles," Marmont said in his Me- 
 moirs, " to review my troops and to explain to them 
 the new state of affairs ; but hardly had I started, 
 when news came of this revolt. The soldiers cried 
 out that they were betrayed. The generals had fled, 
 and the troops were preparing to return to Napoleon. 
 They could not have marched two leagues without 
 encountering an overwhelming force. I deemed it 
 my duty to bring them back to discipline and obedi- 
 ence ; in a word, to save them. I pushed on, and at 
 every quarter of a league received most alarming 
 messages. At last I reached the gate of Versailles 
 and found all the generals assembled, but the army 
 was on its march towards Rambouillet. When I had 
 announced to the generals my intention of joining 
 the troops, they did their best to prevent me. Gen- 
 eral Compans said to me : ' Don't do it. Marshal ; 
 the men will fire at you.' ' You may stay, gentle- 
 men,' I said, 'if you care to do so. As for me, I am 
 decided ; either I am a dead man in an hour, or I shall 
 
THE DEFECTION OF ESSONNES. 199 
 
 have made my authority recognized.' Thereupon I 
 followed the column at a certain distance. There 
 were a great many drunken soldiers, and they had to 
 be given time to recover their reason." 
 
 Then the Marshal sent an aide to look at the 
 troops. He reported on his return that they were no 
 longer shouting, but marching in silence. Another 
 •officer was sent on to announce the Marshal's speedy 
 arrival. This filled the men with a false joy. They 
 thought Marmont was still faithful to the Emperor, 
 and when they saw him they imagined that he was 
 coming to help 'them out of the plight into which 
 their generals had brought them. They felt sure 
 that the man hastening towards them was a friend 
 of Napoleon. 
 
 A third aide carried orders from the Marshal to 
 his soldiers, commanding them to halt, and to the 
 officers to assemble in detachments on the left of 
 the corps. " The order was obeyed," says Marmont, 
 " and I arrived. I dismounted, and formed a circle 
 of the officers of the first group I came to. I asked 
 them how long they had been authorized to distrust 
 me. I asked them if in times of privation I had not 
 been the first to suffer, and in danger and peril the 
 first to expose myself. I reminded them of what I 
 had done for them, and of the many proofs of attach- 
 ment I had given them. I spoke Avith emotion, with 
 warmth, with feeling. It was said that an attempt 
 had been made to surrender them, to get possession 
 of their arms ; but were not their honor and their 
 
200 THE INVASION OF 18U. 
 
 safety as clear to me as my own honor and my own 
 life ? Were they not my dearly loved family ? The 
 hearts of these old comrades melted, and I saw many 
 of these weather-beaten, scarred faces bedewed with 
 tears. I was myself deeply moved." 
 
 In his Memoirs Marmont speaks of this incident 
 as a great personal triumph. He says enthusias- 
 tically : " Oh, what power belongs to a chief worthy 
 of his soldiers, after he has endured with them all the 
 varying chances of war, and how clumsy he must be 
 to lose it ! I repeated my discourse before each group 
 of officers, and told them to carry my words to the 
 soldiers. The whole corps seized their arms, and, 
 with shouts of ' Long live the Marshal ! Long live 
 the Duke of Ragusa ! ' started for the quarters I had 
 assigned them near Mantes. It would be hard for 
 me to express all the satisfaction I felt at this com- 
 plete success. It was my own work, the result of 
 the ascendancy which I had well earned over troops 
 whose toils I had so long shared." 
 
 These jDoor, brave soldiers were deceived to the 
 last. They were convinced that peace had been 
 made, and that they were longer free to shed their 
 blood in behalf of their Emperor. This, moreover, 
 was made impossible. The Allies had just placed 
 an impassable obstacle between the Sixth Corps and 
 Fontainebleau. All was over. 
 
 Posterity has not shared the approbation which 
 the Duke of Ragusa has expressed for himself in this 
 matter. Thiers says : " It is not to be forgotten that 
 
THE DEFECTION OF ESSONNES. 201 
 
 Marmont was the recipient of Napoleon's personal 
 confidence ; that he was under arms, and held at 
 Essonnes a post of very great importance. Now to 
 abandon this position, with his whole army corps, 
 in accordance with a secret convention with Prince 
 Schwarzenberg, was not the choice of a free citizen 
 between two forms of government; it was conduct 
 like that of a soldier who deserts to the enemy. 
 Marmont has pretended that he was guilty of only a 
 part of this ; and it is true that, after designing and 
 beginning it, he stopped half-way in alarm. His 
 generals, led by a groundless terror, took up the 
 interrupted action, and finished it on their own 
 account ; but Marmont, by accepting what they had 
 done, assumed the whole responsibility, and in the 
 eyes of posterity must bear this burden." 
 
 General de S^gur, in his Memoirs, speaks thus of 
 the affair : "A melancholy ending of a justly famous 
 warrior ! For Marmont possessed every quality, — a 
 military bearing, nobility of soul, of manner, of face, 
 a varied education, much intelligence, and an ardent 
 imagination. Being always eager for glory, he hero- 
 ically risked all that it brings, with the same con- 
 tempt for danger that he showed twenty- two years 
 earlier, when he had it all to earn with his sword. 
 But pride, which was greater than his glory, proved 
 his ruin. His fall was all the greater because he fell 
 after the most heroic action of his life, possibly of 
 the whole war." 
 
 When Marmont returned to Talleyrand's house, 
 
202 THE INVASION OF 181 4. 
 
 after allaying the insurrection, he became aware of 
 what he had done by simply seeing who they were 
 who congratulated him: they were all the bitterest 
 personal enemies of the Emperor. Bourrifenne thus 
 describes the ovation that welcomed the Marshal: 
 " Fifteen years have passed, yet the scene is distinct 
 before me. All had finished dinner ; he sat down at 
 a little round table in the middle of the hall, and 
 there he was served. Every one of us went up to 
 talk Avith him and compliment him. He was the 
 hero of the day." 
 
 Alas, he paid dearly for his appearance as a hero ! 
 All these things were, in his words, "the source of 
 keen anguish." Remorse tormented him as long as 
 he lived. In vain did the Restoration heap honors 
 on him. At the last moment he was the evil genius 
 of the Bourbons, as he had been in 1814 of the 
 Emperor. The days of July were no less lamentable 
 than the defection of Essonnes. July 28, 1830, he 
 saw once more the banker Laffitte, who had done 
 him so much harm in the night of March 30, 1814 ; 
 and Laffitte, under the pretext of stopping bloodshed, 
 was to debauch the soldiers. And Marmont ruined 
 the legitimist monarchy as he had ruined the Empire. 
 Then, beaten by the Parisian insurrection, he arrived 
 at Saint Cloud, and said to the unfortunate Charles 
 X. : "Sire, the battle is lost. A ball, fired at me, 
 killed the horse of one of my officers at my side. I - 
 am sorry it did not go through my head. Death 
 would be preferable to what I have just seen." And 
 
THE DEFECTION OF ESSONNES. 2{)'6 
 
 from the Duke of Angouleme he received bitterer 
 reproaches than from Napoleon. He ended his stormy 
 career in exile, and in the castle of Schonbrunn he 
 gave lessons in strategy to another exile, a young 
 man as ill-starred as himself, who had been the King 
 of Rome, and later was merely the Duke of Reich- 
 stadt. 
 
XVI. 
 
 THE SECOND ABDICATION. 
 
 WE left Napoleon at Fontainebleau, April 4, 
 1814, just when Ney, Macdonald, and Cau- 
 laincourt were leaving to take to Paris his condi- 
 tional abdication. The Emperor, at that moment, 
 seemed depressed and discouraged, but a night's good 
 rest restored him, and when he awoke he was far 
 from thinking that his career was finished. He 
 hoped either that the plenipotentiaries would induce 
 the Allies to accept his son's reigning, with Marie 
 Louise as Regent, which would be at least a con- 
 solation, or that the Allies, by declining it, would 
 thereby render his abdication null and void. In this 
 second case, which was, perhaps, what he preferred, 
 he expected to be able to resume the conflict. Imag- 
 ining himself still covered by the line of the Essonnes, 
 and by the army corps of Marmont and Mortier, and 
 still counting on the devotion of those of Macdonald, 
 Oudinot, and Gerard, he hoped to have time to 
 receive the very desirable re-enforcements due from 
 the armies of Lyons, of Italy, and of Spain. 
 
 It was in this state of mind that, in the morning 
 204 
 
 I 
 
THE SECOND ABDICATION. 205 
 
 of April 5, he was still forming plans of revenge. 
 Hence it is easy to conceive of his grief and surprise 
 when he got woi'cl of the defection of the Sixth 
 Corps. All his plans were at once overthrown. 
 General Chastel, when he drew back to the bridge 
 of Essonnes, sent an officer to inform him of the dis- 
 astrous decision of the other generals of Marmont's 
 corps. At almost the same moment Napoleon re- 
 ceived a draft of the agreement which this Marshal 
 had concluded with Prince Schwarzenberg, and the 
 Allies had speedily published. At first the Emperor 
 refused to believe it. Marmont, the friend of his 
 boyhood, his fellow-student, his aide-de-camp in the 
 first Italian campaign, should have been the man to 
 remain to the last faithful to his sovereign, to his 
 friend ! When at last he was obliged to yield to the 
 evidence. Napoleon said only, '•^ Ungrateful man ; he 
 will be unhappier than I ! " 
 
 A clause of the agreement concluded between 
 Marmont and Schwarzenberg spoke of confining the 
 Emperor, if he should be captured, within certain 
 limits, in a territory chosen by the Allies and the 
 French government. This condition, the work of 
 the plotter of the defection of Essonnes, insulted the 
 Emperor both as commander-in-chief and as sover- 
 eign. The acceptance of such a favor from the hands 
 of a man who had betrayed him, seemed the deepest 
 of humiliations. This last drop filled the cup of 
 bitterness to overflowing. 
 
 Napoleon had just read the resolutions of the Pro- 
 
206 THE INVASION OF ISI4. 
 
 visional Government and of the Senate ; he was 
 aware of the invectives, the denunciations, which dis- 
 honored not him, but those who uttered them, and 
 his heart was full. Abandoned by fortune, the hero 
 of so many battles gathered himself together, and in 
 an order of the day, addressed to his army, thus 
 expressed his grief. 
 
 This paper, so full of dignified sorrow, begins with 
 a calm reference to Marmont's conduct : " Fontaine- 
 bleau, April 5, 1814. The Emperor thanks the army 
 for the devotion it exhibits to him, and especially for 
 recognizing that France is in him, and not in the 
 people of the capital. The soldier follows the good 
 or evil fortune of his general ; his honor is his relig- 
 ion. The Duke of Ragusa has not inspired his fel- 
 low-soldiers with this feeling; he has gone over to 
 the Allies. The Emperor cannot approve of the con- 
 ditions under which he has taken this step ; he can- 
 not accept life and liberty from the mercy of a 
 subject." 
 
 Napoleon went on to speak of the Senate, which 
 had just voted his dethronement. Even Chateau- 
 briand, the most eloquent of Royalists, has expressed 
 his disgust with their cynical recantations : " Can 
 one imagine the Emperor reading the official docu- 
 ment at Fontainebleau ? What must he have thought 
 of what he had done, and of the men he had made his 
 accomplices in the oppression of our liberties ? When 
 I published my pamphlet, Bonaparte and the Bour- 
 bons, could I have expected to see it expanded and 
 
THE SECOND ABDWATION. 207 
 
 turned into a decree of dethronement by the Senate ? 
 What prevented those legishitors, in the days of pros- 
 perity, from detecting the evils of which they charged 
 Napoleon Avith being the author, from seeing that the 
 Constitution was violated ? What zeal was suddenly 
 seizing these mutes for the liberty of the press? 
 How could those who had loaded Napoleon with 
 honors on his return from the wars, now find that he 
 had waged them only 'in the interest of his unbounded 
 ambition ' ? How could those who had ever supplied 
 him with conscripts, now suddenly be moved by the 
 fate of wounded soldiers, ' without aid, or nursing, or 
 food ' ? When I ask what Napoleon at Fontainebleau 
 thought of those resolutions of the Senate, his answer 
 is already made." And this answer is contained in 
 the order of the day of April 5, 1814, of which we 
 have quoted the beginning. 
 
 "The Senate," Napoleon says, "has presumed to 
 dispose of the government of France, forgetting that 
 it owes to the Emperor the power it now abuses ; 
 that it is the Emperor who saved some of its mem- 
 bers from the storms of the Revolution, and raised 
 the rest from obscurity and protected them from the 
 hatred of the nation. The Senate relies upon the 
 articles of the Constitution to overthrow the Consti- 
 tution itself ; it does not blush to denounce the Em- 
 peror, without noticing that as the first body of the 
 State, it has taken part in everything that has hap- 
 pened. It has gone so far as to dare to accuse the 
 Emperor of altering its resolutions in their publi- 
 
208 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 cation. Every one knows that he had no need of 
 such devices. A sign was a command for the Senate, 
 which always did more than was asked of it. The 
 Emperor has always been open to remonstrances of 
 his Ministers, and in this circumstance expected of 
 them the most unlimited justification of the measures 
 he had taken. If enthusiasm has found expression 
 in the public addresses and speeches, the Emperor 
 has been deceived. But those who have used this 
 language ought to blame themselves for the con- 
 sequences of their flatteries. The Senate is not 
 ashamed to speak of the libels published against 
 foreign government, it forgets that they were pre- 
 pared in its halls ! So long as fortune smiled on 
 their sovereign, these men were faithful, and no 
 complaint was heard about the abuse of power." 
 
 After these calm, dignified words to the Senate, 
 Napoleon thus closed the order of the day : " If the 
 Emperor had despised men, as he has been charged 
 with doing, the world would acknowledge that he 
 has had good grounds for his contempt. He held 
 position from God and the nation ; they alone could 
 deprive him of it ; he has always looked upon it as a 
 burden ; and when he accepted it, it was under the 
 conviction that he alone was able to carry it worthily. 
 The happiness of France appeared to be bound up 
 with the Emperor's destiny ; now that fortune has 
 abandoned him, nothing but the will of the nation 
 could persuade him to remain longer on the throne. 
 If he must regard hinioelf as the last obstacle to 
 
THE SECOND ABDICATION. 209 
 
 peace, he gladly makes this last sacrifice to France. 
 He has consequently sent the Prince of Moskowa 
 and the Dukes of Vicenza and Taranto to Paris to 
 open negotiations. The army may be sure that the 
 Emperor's honor will never be in conflict with the 
 happiness of France." 
 
 Meanwhile, the efforts of the three plenipotenti- 
 aries had come to nothing. After the defection of 
 Essonnes, the allied sovereigns no longer felt obliged 
 to be gentle towards Napoleon. So long as he had 
 been at the head of fifty thousand men within one 
 day's march of Paris, military considerations had out- 
 weighed many intrigues. Now that Fontainebleau 
 was no longer a military position, on account of 
 Marmont's conduct, the aspect of affairs was changed ; 
 the time for softness had passed ; abdication in favor 
 of the Regent and her son was no longer enough for 
 a confident enemy, and the plenipotentiaries were 
 told that Napoleon ought to renounce the throne, not 
 merely for himself, but also for his dynasty. 
 
 Alexander clothed this declaration in noble and 
 courteous language. When the plenipotentiaries 
 told him that their instructions commanded them to 
 treat only of the affairs of France and not of those 
 concerning Napoleon personally, he exclaimed, "I 
 esteem him all the more for that." Then he added 
 that he had forgotten all his grievances ; that his 
 former friendship had revived at the sight of so 
 much misfortune ; that he deplored the necessity of 
 sacrificing to the peace of Europe such heroism as 
 
210 THE INVASION OF ISU. 
 
 Napoleon's, of reducing such greatness to impotence. 
 He promised that Napoleon should preserve the title 
 of Emperor and the honors due his rank. He men- 
 tioned the island of Elba, indicating the possibility of 
 Napoleon's securing the sovereignty of that island. 
 All this thoroughly disposed of the reign of Napo- 
 leon II., and of the regency of Marie Louise. The 
 plenipotentiaries had to return to Fontainebleau for 
 further instructions, and they had to lose no time, 
 for from one hour to another Napoleon's situation 
 was growing darker, while that of the Bourbons was 
 growing lighter; and any consolations that there 
 was still a chance of his obtaining grew more uncer- 
 tain every moment. 
 
 In every quarter began to appear signs of deser- 
 tion. As Baron Fain, the Emperor's devoted secre- 
 tary says in his Manuscript of 1814 : " The struggle 
 has been too long ; our energy is exhausted ; every 
 one says openly. We have had enough. The only 
 thought is to save what is left of our belongings after 
 so many disasters. ... It is not weariness alone 
 that has broken men's spirits. Every leader of im- 
 portance has received from Paris conciliatory mes- 
 sages and separate promises of peace. The new rev- 
 olution is looked upon as an amalgamation of all 
 French interests, to which but one interest — that of 
 Napoleon — will be sacrificed. Every one, conse- 
 quently, is hastening to Paris, where the new govern- 
 ment welcomes all who abandon the old. Yet every 
 one is reluctant to be the first to desert Napoleon. 
 
TUE SECOND ABDICATION. 211 
 
 But, they ask, why does he delay so long to leave his 
 adherents free ? There is much complaint about his 
 delays, his indecision, and the desperate plans he is 
 still forming. 
 
 *' Since Napoleon's fortune changed," Baron Fain 
 continues, " he is thought to commit nothing but 
 blunders, and already new-fledged strategists are sur- 
 prised that they have so long taken him for their 
 master. Finally, little by little, every one has chosen 
 his party. One goes to Paris because he is summoned 
 thither; another, because he must look after the 
 interests of his branch of the service or of his corps ; 
 another, to get some money; still another, because 
 his wife is ill. There is no lack of good reasons, and 
 every man of the least importance who is not in Paris 
 has some one there to represent him." Soon the 
 Palace of Fontainebleau was to be a mere solitude ; 
 the setting sun was at Fontainebleau, the rising sun 
 at Paris. 
 
 When Ney, Macdonald, and Caulaincourt arrived in 
 the evening of April 5 to inform the Emperor of the 
 failure of their mission, they found him calm and dig- 
 nified, blaming neither men nor things, nor yet con- 
 fessing to despair. When they told him that the 
 principal cause of the trouble was the conduct of the 
 generals of the Sixth Corps, he answered calmly: 
 "Doubtless, I decided them. I summoned Marmont; 
 they imagined themselves discovered, and in their 
 remorse, terror did the rest." When he heard that 
 that the allied sovereigns proposed to give Corsica or 
 
212 THE INVASION OF I8I4. 
 
 something else, he exclaimed : " Oh, Corsica, without 
 doubt. They must have been afraid of the nickname, 
 which they do not dare to pronounce, they have so long 
 used it as an insult." Their talk was brief. The 
 Emperor asked if he should find in Elba an inhabi- 
 table house, and ordered competent officers sent out 
 to find out about the island. Then he dismissed the 
 two marshals, promising to inform them the next 
 morning of his decision. 
 
 Marshal Ney, on leaving the Emperor, hastened to 
 write to Talleyrand this letter, which was published 
 in the Moyiiteur : — 
 
 '' Fontainebleau, April 5, 11.30 p.m. My Lord: 
 I went yesterday to Paris with the Marshal, the 
 Duke of Taranto, and the Duke of Vicenza, in- 
 vested with full powers to defend before His 
 Majesty the Emperor the interests of the dynasty 
 of the Emperor Napoleon. An unforeseen event 
 having broken off the negotiations, which seemed 
 to promise the happiest result, I saw that to save 
 our beloved country from the awful evils of civil 
 war, nothing was left to Frenchmen but to embrace 
 fully the cause of our former king. Possessed 
 by this feeling, I visited Napoleon this evening to 
 express to him the wishes of the nation. The Em- 
 peror, convinced of the critical position in which he 
 has placed France, of the impossibility of his saving 
 it, appeared to be resigned and to consent to com- 
 plete, unrestricted abdication. I am in hope that' 
 to-morrow morning he will hand me the formal and 
 
THE SECOND ABDICATION. 213 
 
 authentic document to this effect. I shall at once 
 have the honor of calling on Your Most Serene High- 
 ness." 
 
 Napoleon spent the night of the 5th in reflection. 
 He weighed from a military point of view the last 
 chances that yet remained. He thought of Marshal 
 Soult's fifty thousand men under the walls of Tou- 
 louse, of the fifteen thousand whom Marshal Suchet 
 was bringing back from Catalonia, of the thirty 
 thousand under Prince Eugene, of the fifteen thou- 
 sand of Augereau's army thrown back on the Ce- 
 vennes by the loss of Lyons, of the numerous gar- 
 risons on the frontier, of General Maison's army. 
 He counted over what was left of the troops near 
 Fontainebleau — the army corps of Mortier, Oudi- 
 not, Macdonald, Gerard — and his faithful Imperial 
 Guard, still devoted, heroic, and ardent. If all the 
 marshals, all the generals, all the officers, shared 
 the feelings of the guard, everything might be saved. 
 But were there not germs of defection? Had not, 
 too, the Allies established a sort of blockade about 
 Fontainebleau, which was closing in every hour? 
 Their troops were crowding every road. A Russian 
 army lay between Essonnes and Paris, another lay on 
 the right bank of the Seine from Melun to Monte- 
 reau. Other corps were marching towards Orleans 
 and Chartres ; still others were spreading out by the 
 roads of Champagne and Burgundy, between the 
 Yonne and the Loire. It was barely possible to 
 withdraw to that river and there to organize a line 
 
214 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 of defence ; but would not that be a signal for civil 
 war ? Would not France be divided into two camps 
 under two flags ? Would not the great Emperor be 
 merely the head of a party? In spite of all these 
 objections, he listened only to his own inclinations, 
 to his warlike ardor, and wished to continue the 
 struggle ; but would he be followed? 
 
 All these thoughts tormented Napoleon through- 
 out the night. When morning came, he summoned 
 his marshals, and tried in vain to inspire them with 
 his own energy. He spoke of retiring on the Loire. 
 They argued that this would mean civil war. " Well," 
 he answered, "since I must abandon the defence of 
 France, does not Italy offer me a worthy retreat? 
 Will you follow me there? Let us march to the 
 Alps ! " This proposition was greeted with perfect 
 silence. As Baron Fain, an eye-witness, says: "Oh! 
 if Napoleon had only dashed from that room into the 
 hall crowded with lower officers, he would have 
 found young men eager to follow him ! a few steps 
 further, and he would have been received at the foot 
 of the staircase by the cheers of his soldiers ! Their 
 enthusiasm would have restored his hopes ! But 
 Napoleon succumbed to the habits of his reign ; he 
 fancied that he would be lowering himself if he were 
 to march without the high officers given him by the 
 crown ; it seemed to him that General Bonaparte 
 could not begin his career anew without the band of 
 his old lieutenants ; and he had just observed their 
 silence." 
 
THE SECOND ABDICATION. 215 
 
 At the Palace of Fontainebleau, in the Abdication 
 Room, with its two windows looking out on the mel- 
 ancholy Garden of Diana, stands a little mahogany 
 table which attracts more attention than all the 
 sumptuous furniture around it. Imagine Napoleon 
 seated before it, unable to make up his mind to sign 
 the fatal paper without a final, heart-breaking effort. 
 With one touch of the pen to sweep away the colos- 
 sal edifice of power and majesty ! to wipe out the 
 results of so many heroic sacrifices! Thus to finish 
 the splendid drama ! What ! no more eagles, no tri- 
 colored flag, no Empire, no Empress, no King of 
 Rome ! Nothing, actually nothing, left ! It is easy 
 to understan'd why, merely in writing the lines, his 
 hand trembled as if palsied. Napoleon wrote merely 
 the draft, of which Baron Fain made a copy, and this 
 he signed. The original draft is in existence ; it is 
 barely legible, and looks as if written in cabalistic 
 characters. There are two insertions ; one consists 
 of these words: "for himself and for his children," 
 words that cost the unhappy father much anguish ; 
 the other : " faithful to his oath." 
 
 The document runs thus : " The Allied Powers hav- 
 ing proclaimed that the Emperor was the sole obstacle 
 to the re-establishment of peace in Europe, the Em- 
 peror, faithful to his oath, declares that he renounces 
 for himself and for his children, the thrones of France 
 and Italy, and that there is no sacrifice, even that of 
 his life, which he is not ready to make for the inter- 
 ests of France." 
 
216 THE INVASION OF 1814, 
 
 What an agony it was for the unhappy sovereign 
 to face those men, the sight of whom was a mute 
 reproach ; to stand before the honest Caulaincourt, 
 whose excellent counsels he had not been wise 
 enough to listen to ; the marshals, who would remain 
 in command of French army corps, while he, the 
 Emperor, would perhaps no longer have a battalion 
 under his orders ! What a torture for him whose 
 slightest whim had been like the irrevocable decrees 
 of Fate, to have to obey their repeated, almost inso- 
 lent demands ! and then to sign his own dethrone- 
 ment, in the palace where he had once been so splen- 
 didly powerful, within two steps from the throne ! 
 Napoleon stood up, cast one last glance at his lieu- 
 tenants, and said : " You want repose ; take it ! Alas ! 
 you do not know what griefs and perils await you on 
 your beds of down. A few years of this peace for 
 which you pay so dear will do away with more of 
 you than would the most desperate war.'* Then sit- 
 ting down again, he seized his pen and wrote his 
 signature. 
 
XVII. 
 
 THE empress's ANGUISH. 
 
 WHILE Napoleon was abdicating at Fontaine- 
 bleau, Marie Louise was at Blois, where she 
 had been since April 2, though the government she 
 had established there was but a mere phantom of 
 power. Palm Sunday, April 3, the Empress received 
 the authorities of the city, after mass ; there were no 
 speeches in view of the state of affairs, but the Em- 
 press, accompanied by her son, walked from one to 
 another, with a few words to each, beginning with 
 the clergy. Her face was sad, although as one of the 
 ladies present, the widow of General Durand, records, 
 she was still in ignorance of all that had happened 
 in Paris ; the decision of the Provisional Government, 
 the decree of the Senate, had not yet come to her 
 ears ; newspapers were kept from her ; the Bourbons 
 were never mentioned before her ; hence she foresaw 
 nothing worse than that Napoleon would be forced to 
 make peace on such conditions as might be imposed 
 upon him. She was very far from imagining that 
 the Emperor of Austria desired to dethrone his son- 
 in-law, and to deprive his grandson of a throne which 
 seemed to await him. 
 
 217 
 
218 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 The next day, the Empress had gloomier forebod- 
 ings. We have said that in the evening of April 3, 
 Napoleon, after the sort of altercation that he had 
 had with Marshal Ney, which was one of the main 
 causes of his abdicating the next day, had charged 
 the Baron de Meneval, by a letter in cipher, to pre- 
 pare Marie Louise to make use of her father and 
 Metternich to confirm her rights to the Regency, 
 adding that even this might fail ; that in that case, 
 anything, even his own death, might be possible, and 
 that then there would be no other course left open to 
 the Empress than to go with her son to throw herself 
 into the arms of the Emperor of Austria. 
 
 This letter filled the faithful official with the keen- 
 est anxiety. Napoleon's allusion to his possible death 
 seemed to foretell suicide, and matters must indeed 
 be in a terrible state when a man of iron, like the 
 Emperor, could use such language. M. de Meneval, 
 without informing Marie Louise of all his fears, urged 
 her to write a letter of entreaty to her father, and 
 the Empress at once followed his advice. Von Hel- 
 fert, in his admirable book about Marie Louise, prints 
 this letter in German. It runs thus : — 
 
 " Blois, April 4, 1814. My deab Father : I send 
 the Duke of Cadore to you to describe our wretched 
 plight. I beg of you to be good enough to receive 
 him. I have confided everything to him, and he can 
 tell you better by word of mouth than I can write. 
 Our position is so gloomy and alarming that my son 
 and I have no other refuge than with you. I am 
 
THE EMPRESS'S ANGUISH. 219 
 
 sure that at this moment you alone can aid us. I am 
 convinced that you will listen to my prayer and will 
 refuse to sacrifice to England and Russia my peace 
 and the interests of your grandson. I know that 
 the Duke of Vicenza went to Paris in order to nego- 
 tiate, and that the Emperor Alexander refused to re- 
 ceive him." The Empress was mistaken, for the Czar 
 had never refused to receive the Duke of Vicenza. 
 
 She went on : "I am sure that in this critical 
 position, the Emperor will make every sacrifice to 
 give his people peace and rest. Paris would have 
 been defended more seriously if it had not been 
 thought that it was attacked by you and that you 
 would not abandon your daughter and your grandson. 
 Hence I entrust myself to your hand, dear father ; I 
 am sure that you will save us from this terrible situ- 
 ation. I send the Duke of Cadore from my present 
 refuge. My health suffers from all these trials; it 
 becomes worse every day, and I am sure you would 
 not wish me to live long in this cruel anxiety. Once 
 more, take pity on me. I entrust to you the safety 
 of what I hold dearest in the world, a son too young 
 to know sorrow and grief. I hope soon to have to 
 thank you for the happiness and peace w4iich we shall 
 owe to you. I kiss your hand and am your obedient 
 daughter." 
 
 The Duke of Cadore started from Blois with this 
 letter, April 4, and in his absence the post of Secre- 
 tary to the Regency was filled by the Count of Mon- 
 talivet. The Duke of Cadore, a former ambassador 
 
220 THE INVASION OF I8I4. 
 
 from France at Vienna, had been treated there with 
 great kindness by the Emperor Francis, who had 
 consented to be godfather to one of his children, and 
 Marie Louise had thought that no one could better 
 plead the cause of the King of Rome. 
 
 The unhappy Empress was a prey to the liveliest 
 anguish. The Baron de Meneval, an eye-witness of 
 her grief, thus describes her distress : " Marie Louise 
 at times expressed her regret at having left Paris, 
 and spoke of her desire to join the Emperor. The 
 opposing obstacles, the conflicting opinions of her 
 suite, caused her to postpone the meeting, which was 
 ever in her thoughts. Her anxiety was intense ; the 
 violent emotions that had tormented her, her never- 
 ending tears, her sleeplessness, had made her extremely 
 nervous. She could form no notion of the passions 
 agitating France. She continually recalled her fa- 
 ther's assurances, and could not persuade herself that 
 the Emperor of Austria would sacrifice her with her 
 husband and her son. Meanwhile, what was happen- 
 ing at Paris was about to shatter her illusion ; she 
 was in despair, but she clutched, like a drowning man, 
 at her father's love as the only means of safety. 
 When she heard that the Emperor of Austria was 
 not in Paris, she hoped that he would never give 
 his consent to what had been done in his absence, 
 and that his voice would be listened to." 
 
 At that time the Empress's attitude was above all 
 blame. The Duke of Rovigo, the Minister of Police, 
 who happened to be at Blois with her, thus unre- 
 
THE EMPBESS'S ANGUISH. 221 
 
 servedly eulogizes her in his Memoirs : " The Empress 
 was in the greatest distress. She was in tears during 
 the whole week she spent at Blois ; she had formed 
 a wholly different opinion of the French. The 
 malevolence of those who cast her from the throne 
 has imputed to her lack of character, some of the 
 misfortunes for which she was in no way to blame. 
 If the Empress, instead of being a young woman un- 
 der twenty-two, had been of an age at which confi- 
 dence is reached by experience, and she had consented 
 to listen to the advice of those in Avhom she trusted, 
 things would probably have turned out very differ- 
 ently ; but this was not the case : the Emperor had 
 composed her suite, and she set the example of sub- 
 mission. At home as in public she never neglected 
 any of the rigorous rules imposed upon her j^outh, 
 which made it impossible for her to have a private 
 talk with any one except her appointed counsellors. 
 I had the honor of seeing her very often at this 
 painful moment, and became convinced of her devo- 
 tion to the Emperor. She said to me one day: 
 'Those who thought I should have stayed in Paris 
 were right ; my father's soldiers perhaps would not 
 have driven me away. What must I think when I 
 see him allowingr' all that? ' " 
 
 April 4, at 3 a.m., Joseph and Jerome, with the 
 Duke of Feltre, Minister of War, left Blois, taking 
 the road to Orleans, in order to ascertain whether it 
 might not be well to establish the Regency there, 
 where there would be easier communication with 
 
222 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 the Emperor. Joseph also meant to go to Fontame- 
 bleau, to receive his brother's direct instructions, but 
 the fear of capture by the enemies' troops caused 
 him to abandon this project. A high officer of the 
 Commissariat, Avho had been trying to rejoin Napo- 
 leon, had been prevented by the arrival of a corps of 
 the enemy, and on his way back had stopped at 
 Orleans, at the hotel where happened to be the 
 Minister of War. This functionary invited him to 
 call on him, and in the presence of a third person, 
 who was no other than King Jerome, asked him the 
 most minute questions, to ascertain if it was possible 
 to make his way to Fontainebleau. The manifest 
 danger caused Joseph to abandon the plan, so he 
 returned to Blois with Jerome, and wrote to the 
 Emperor this letter : — 
 
 ''Blois, April 6, 1814. Sire: I went to Orleans 
 day before yesterday in order to see Your Majesty 
 for a few moments. I could get no further, on 
 account of the arrival of a hostile corps which cut 
 off all communication. M. de Cadore continued his 
 journey. . . . We have had no letter since the 3d. 
 A messenger announces a suspension of hostilities. 
 I hope it will be followed by peace." 
 
 Joseph and Jerome did not seem wholly discour- 
 aged. They had sent before them to Blois the 
 papers of the Ministry of War, and forty clerks with 
 orders to work night and day at recruiting. Com- 
 munication with many divisions was still open. New 
 levies were talked about, as well as organizing unat- 
 
THE EMPRESS'S ANGUISH. 223 
 
 tached corps in the departments occupied by the 
 Allies. The Regency had sent to the prefects a 
 circular in which recent events were thus described : — 
 
 "The Emperor, who had transferred his head- 
 quarters to Troyes, March 29, moved in forced 
 marches through Sens towards his capital. His 
 Majesty was at Fontainebleau, March 31 ; then he 
 learned that the enemy, who had arrived twenty-four 
 hours before the French army, occupied Paris, after 
 a hot and bloody defence. The corps of the Dukes of 
 Treviso and of Ragusa, and that of General Compans, 
 which hastened to the defence of the capital, are 
 united between Essonnes and Paris, where His Ma- 
 jesty has taken up his position with the whole army 
 arriving from Troyes. The enemy's occupation of 
 the capital is a sore grief to His Majesty's heart, but 
 it is no cause for alarm ; the presence of the Emperor 
 with his army at the gates of Paris will restrain the 
 enemy from their accustomed excesses, in so populous 
 a city which it can only hold with great risk." 
 
 This optimistic proclamation was not published in 
 Blois ; for it was doubtless thought that it would not 
 be received with favor in a town so near the scene of 
 events. It was reserved for the remoter departments, 
 and the prefects to whom it was sent were instructed 
 to publish it with such comments as circumstances 
 might make most suitable. These, for example, were 
 the comments of the prefect of the dejDartment of 
 Maine-et-Loire : "The Emperor is in good health, 
 and watching over the safety of all. Her Majesty 
 
224 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 the Empress and the King of Rome are in safety. 
 The Emperor's brothers, the high dignitaries, the 
 Ministers, the Senate, and the Council of State are 
 on the banks of the Loire, where the seat of the gov- 
 ernment is temporarily established. Hence the power 
 of the government will not be paralyzed ; good citi- 
 zens, true Frenchmen, may be afflicted by the occu- 
 pation of the capital, but they ought not to be 
 alarmed; they should entrust to the Emperor's 
 activity and to his genius the task of freeing us ! 
 They should understand that in such a momentous 
 occasion the national honor and a wise view of our 
 interests command us to rally around our sovereign ! 
 Let us aid his efforts and spare no sacrifice to put an 
 end to this terrible struggle against enemies who, not 
 content with fighting our armies, have struck a dead- 
 lier blow at what every citizen holds most dear, and 
 are ravaging this fair country, whose glory and pros- 
 perity have always been the object of their jealous 
 hatred. In spite of the successes obtained by the 
 Army of the Coalition, which it will not long enjoy, 
 the scene of war is still remote from you ; but if any 
 marauders, led by hope of pillage, dare to appear in 
 your territory, they will find you armed to defend 
 your wives, your children, your property ! " 
 
 At Blois this patriotic language would have pro- 
 duced but little impression, because every one there 
 was discouraged. Wednesday, April 6, arrived the 
 Polytechnic School, the School of Saint Cyr, and 
 that of Charenton, and the pages. A pamphlet 
 
THE EMPRESS'S ANGUISH. 225 
 
 that appeared in 1814, entitled The Regency at 
 Blois, or the Last Moments of the Imperial Govern- 
 ment^ contains this passage : " The city of Blois was 
 alread}^ full ; every inhabitant had shared his house, 
 his room, or even given up his bed to his ncAv guests. 
 These were polite, but there was dread of unpleasant 
 ones, when it w\as proposed to establish two camps 
 near Blois, and this news kept men's minds divided 
 between the spectacle of the present and dread of 
 the future, between surprise at the picture of the 
 mutability of human affairs, as shown by this fugitive 
 court, and the fear of an army which might be sum- 
 moned to defend Blois, and might pay for its hospi- 
 tality with all the horrors of war." 
 
 Meanwhile, Marie Louise, at the head of her dim 
 shadow of a government, kept up, until April 7, a 
 faint hope. She had been persuaded to sign a proc- 
 lamation Avhich was posted in Blois on the morning 
 of that day ; it ran thus : " Frenchmen, the course of 
 the war has put the capital in the hands of foreigners. 
 The Emperor, who hastened to defend it, is at the 
 head of his so often victorious armies. It is from 
 the residence I have chosen and from the Emperor's 
 Ministers that will be issued the only orders which 
 you may obey. Every city in the enemy's power 
 ceases to be free ; every order issuing thence is the 
 language of the foreigners, or of one whom it suits 
 their views to spread abroad. You will remain 
 faithful to your vows ; you will listen to the voice 
 of a princess entrusted to your fidelity, who glories 
 
22^' THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 in being a Frenchwoman, and in sharing the des- 
 tinies of the sovereign whom you have yourselves 
 chosen. My son was less sure of your hearts in the 
 days of our prosperity. His rights and his person 
 are under your protection. [Signed] Marie Louise. 
 [Countersigned] Montalivet, Secretary 2^^o tempore 
 of the Regency." 
 
 As the Baron de Meneval remarks, this proclama- 
 tion, which was sent into every department which it 
 could reach, and was the last official paper of the Re- 
 gency, passed almost unnoticed. Since no one could 
 foresee what might happen in twenty-four hours, the 
 Ministers used to come to the palace in travelling- 
 dress. 
 
 That day, April 7, Marie Louise, from whom her 
 suite, moved either by pity or the habit of flattery, 
 concealed the bad news, was still ignorant of every- 
 thing that had happened since her departure. One 
 of her ladies, the widow of General Durand, who 
 had remained in Paris, secured a passport and left 
 on the 6th, reaching Blois on the 7th. She gave the 
 Empress not only the documents entrusted to her, 
 but also the resolutions of the Provisional Govern- 
 ment, and all the newspapers. '' The Empress," she 
 says in her Memoirs, "had been kept in such com- 
 plete ignorance that she could scarcely believe what 
 she read. . . . She was urged and entreated to 
 return to Paris before a prince of the house of Bour- 
 bon should arrive ; she was assured of the Regency 
 for herself, and of the throne for her son, if she 
 
THE empress's ANGUISH. '' 227 
 
 would consent; and her return would have been 
 easy ; for the lady who brought the despatches had 
 travelled alone in a post-chaise, with but one servant, 
 and had not been called upon once to show her pass- 
 port." For a moment Marie Louise thought of 
 following Madame Durand's advice, but her suite dis- 
 suaded her from a decision which the Emperor had 
 not commanded, and which doubtless Avould have 
 been taken too late to be of any service. 
 
 The same da}^, April 7, Colonel Galbois, whom the 
 Emperor had sent the day before from Fontainebleau, 
 after making his way with great difficulty through 
 the allied troops, presented himself before the Em- 
 press. He thus describes his mission : " I reached 
 Blois early ; the Empress received me at once. The 
 Emperor's abdication surprised her greatly. She 
 could not believe that the allied sovereigns had the 
 intention of dethroning the Emperor Napoleon. ' My 
 father,' she said, ' would not allow it ; he told me 
 twenty times, when he placed me on the French 
 throne, that he would always maintain me there, and 
 my father is an honest man.' The Empress asked to 
 be left alone to meditate on the Emperor's letter. 
 Then I saw the King of Spain and the King of 
 Westphalia. Joseph was deeply afflicted. Jerome 
 was very violent against Napoleon. Marie Louise 
 asked for me, and told me she wished to go to the 
 Emperor. I told her this was impossible. Then Her 
 Majesty asked me with some vivacity, ' Why so, 
 Colonel ? You can do it ! My place is at the Em- 
 
228 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 peror's side when he is so unhappy. I desire to go to 
 him, and I shall be happy anywhere provided I am 
 with him.' I told the Empress what difficulty I had 
 had in getting to Blois, and how much harder it 
 would be to make my way back. Indeed, it was a 
 very perilous journey. It was only Avith difficulty 
 that the Empress was induced to change her mind ; 
 but at last she decided to write. 
 
 " I was able to reach the Emperor without being 
 stopped. He read Marie Louise's letter with the 
 utmost eagerness, and seemed much touched by 
 the interest she showed. The Empress spoke of 
 the possibility of collecting a hundred and fifty 
 thousand men. The Emperor read the passage 
 aloud, and said to me : ' Yes ; doubtless I could 
 prolong the campaign, and possibly succeed ; but I 
 should start civil war in France, and that I will not 
 do. . . . Besides, I have signed my abdication, and 
 I will not retract what I have done.' " 
 
 It is certain that at this moment Marie Louise had 
 no thought of abandoning Napoleon, but that she 
 sincerely desired to join him. General de Segur 
 blames her for not doing this at once ; and in his 
 Memoirs expresses himself on this delicate subject : 
 " Madame de Lugay, my mother-in-law, a lady of the 
 bedchamber to Marie Louise, was a model of conjugal 
 affection. Twice in the Terror she had saved her 
 husband's life by imperilling her own, with the most 
 devoted and most intelligent courage. Being en- 
 dowed with the amiable and attractive virtues, as 
 
THE EMPRESS'S ANGUISH. 229 
 
 well as with the notions of honor that distinguished 
 the higher classes at the end of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, she had just secretly persuaded the Empress to 
 go from Blois to Fontainebleau. Unfortunately, 
 absolute secrecy was indispensable. Already the 
 carriage that had been ordered was waiting for her 
 at the foot of the staircase, when another person Avas 
 announced, who had long had a most pernicious 
 influence on Marie Louise's weak nature. The Em- 
 press, who was much upset by this unexpected visit, 
 sent her lady of the bedchamber into the next room, 
 and from there my mother-in-law could hear only too 
 w^ell with what perfidious art the generous and noble 
 plan the Empress had just formed was changed into 
 the saddest of desertions." 
 
 Our own impression is that the Empress's conduct 
 at this moment deserves no blame. Not only Napo- 
 leon had not summoned her to his side ; he was not 
 anxious to see her. It would have pained him to 
 have her see him at Fontainebleau, already almost 
 deserted, with but a mockery of a court and a phan- 
 tom of power left. Early in the year, in spite of his 
 disasters, he was still a monarch at the Tuileries ; he 
 Avas the ruler of all France, and of France with 
 natural frontiers. Now he was not even King of 
 Fontainebleau ; his Empire did not extend beyond 
 the palace gate. He would have suffered at seeing 
 the little King of Rome shorn of his magnificent 
 heritacfe, and more for his wife and son than for him- 
 self. He could appear in his humiliation before his 
 
230 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 generals, but to appear before the daughter of the 
 German Caesars, the woman who so recently shared 
 with him the proudest throne in the Avorld, who had 
 made so imposing an entry into the Tuileries only 
 four years before, and there had lived amid unheard-of 
 pomp and splendor, — that thought wrung his heart. 
 Moreover, he was now contemplating suicide, which 
 the presence of his wife w^ould have made impossible. 
 His secretary. Baron Fain, confesses this : " Napo- 
 leon, who dreaded this interview, wished to remain 
 free for the plan he was considering." 
 
 Meanwhile, Marie Louise's anxiety was telling on 
 her health. She could not decide on what she ought 
 to do. At one moment she felt sure that, in spite of 
 all obstacles and arguments, it was her duty to go 
 to her husband, even though he did not invite her; 
 at the next, she imagined that it was better, not 
 merely for her, but for her son, that she should go 
 to her father, to plead, with all the eloquence she 
 could command, the cause of what was left of the 
 Empire. She ceased to expect anything from her 
 brothers-in-law, who cared for nothing but saving the 
 fragments of their fortune ; or from her councillors, 
 most of whom had left her, while the others gave her 
 uncertain and timid advice ; or from the nation, 
 whose defection filled her with wrath. She remem- 
 bered the heroic cry of the Hungarians : Moriamur 
 pro rege nostro ! she had seen Austria loyal when its 
 sovereign was unfortunate ; she did not forget the 
 attitude of her father's subjects after Wagram ; the 
 
THE EMPRESS'S ANGUISH. 231 
 
 obsequious flattery of Napoleon in the days of his 
 success was still fresh in her ears, and she was indig- 
 nant with what she heard of Paris, and with the 
 insults and the selfishness of the Senate, of whose 
 members Chateaubriand said, " The sordid effrontery 
 of those Senators Avho, during the invasion of their 
 country, never ceased to think of themselves, was 
 striking, even when so important events were happen- 
 ing. . . . The Provisional Government proscribed 
 all the marks and emblems of Imperialism ; if the Arc 
 de Triomphe had been in existence, it would have 
 been destroyed; Mailhes, who was the first to vote 
 for the death of Louis XVI., and Cambaceres, who 
 first greeted Napoleon with the title of Emperor, 
 hastened to express their allegiance to the Provisional 
 Government." All these apostasies plunged the Em- 
 press into despair. 
 
 While Marie Louise still possessed the means, and 
 was yet uncertain of what she might afterwards be 
 able to do, she desired to reward the fidelity of her 
 household, and of the troops who had loved her. She 
 distributed among them sums amounting to two hun- 
 dred and ninety-eight thousand francs. Soon after- 
 wards every one left her to seek their fortunes else- 
 where, and thus, as M. de Meneval says, was dis- 
 persed in a few hours the Imperial household, which 
 had been admired as an admirable organization. 
 
 April 8, Good Friday, between eight and nine in 
 the morning, Joseph and Jerome suddenly appeared 
 before the Empress and told her that Blois was no 
 
232 THE INVASION OF ISI4. 
 
 longer safe, that the allied troops were near, that at 
 any moment she and her son might fall into their 
 hands, and that consequently it was of the utmost 
 importance to retreat from the Loire and establish 
 the seat of government elsewhere. The carriages 
 were ready, and they asked Marie Louise to take 
 them at once with the King of Rome. 
 
 The Empress, still trusting in her father, from 
 whom she expected a speedy reply to her letters, was 
 anxious to place herself under his protection, hence 
 she declined this invitation. When they insisted, she 
 summoned M. de Bausset, to whom she said, " Of all 
 the officers of the Emperor's household here, you are 
 my oldest acquaintance, for I knew you at Braunau 
 at the time of my marriage. ... I count on your 
 devotion, and will tell you what is going on here. . . . 
 My two brothers and their archchancellor are there, 
 in that room. They have just told me that I must 
 leave Blois at once, and that if I resist, they will have 
 me put into the carriage with my son." " May I ask 
 Your Majesty," he replied, '' what is your wish ? " — 
 " I wish to remain here and to await the Emperor's 
 instructions." "If such is your desire, Madame, I 
 venture to assure Your Majesty that all the officers 
 of your household and of your guard will agree with 
 me that we have to receive orders from you alone. 
 I beg Your Majesty's permission to go and announce 
 your intentions." — " Go, please, and then report to 
 me." 
 
 The Empress, says the Baron de M^neval, was 
 
THE EMPRESS'S ANGUISU. 233 
 
 firm in her resolution not to leave Blois. Was her 
 resistance due to her mistrust of her advisers, or to 
 one thought which, in her agitation, completely con- 
 trolled her ? All that she had been through of late 
 had completely upset her, and she could not bear to 
 think of moving again and of facing the perils of a 
 flight to which she could see no end. 
 
 Meanwhile, the first persons whom M. de Bausset 
 met on leaving the Empress's room, were the Count 
 d'Haussonville, Chamberlain, and General Caffarelli, 
 the Emperor's aide-de-camp, the military commander 
 of the palace. "Still affected by what I had just 
 heard," he says in his Memoirs, " I hastened to repeat 
 it to them. 'That cannot be tolerated,' said the 
 Couit d'Haussonville, impetuously. With those 
 words he hastened to the portico of the palace, where 
 he fell aown ; but that did not prevent his shouting 
 to all the officers of the guard who happened to be 
 strolling and chatting in the courtyard while waiting 
 for breakfast. They were at once aroused, and all 
 agreed with us, and expressed a very warm desire to 
 assure the Empress of their fidelity and devotion. I 
 asked them for a few moments to inform the Empress 
 of their wishes, and went into the inner rooms, ask- 
 ing Her Majesty to see me for an instant, and she 
 kindly came at once. I told her what was going on, 
 and prepared her for the reception of this mani- 
 festation. The Empress asked me to go back with 
 lier into the drawing-room, and I complied with 
 her request. 'M. de Bausset,' she said, 'repeat to 
 
234 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 
 
 the Princes what you have just said to me.' I had 
 the honor to tell the Empress that the officers of her 
 household and those of her guard, having heard that 
 it was intended to force her to leave Blois against 
 her will, had declared that they would resist this, 
 since they took their orders from her alone. ' Repeat 
 the words they used,' King Joseph said to me. ' We 
 must know just what their feeling is.' ' Their words 
 would not be agreeable,' I replied; 'besides, the 
 uproar in the next room will better convey them to 
 Your Majesty.' 
 
 " The words were hardly out of my mouth when the 
 drawing-room doors were noisily burst open, and all 
 the officers expressed simultaneously and enthusiasti- 
 cally the feelings I had just announced in their name. 
 
 " ' You must stay, Madame,' said Joseph, with great 
 gentleness, turning towards the Empress. ' My propo- 
 sition to Your Majesty seemed to me for your inter- 
 est, but since you decide otherwise, I repeat, you 
 must stay.' Everything resumed its usual tranquil- 
 lity, and nothing more was said about her departure." 
 
 M. de Bausset adds these reflections: "Various 
 motives have been ascribed to the Princes, who per- 
 haps hoped to prolong an unequal contest or to 
 secure more favorable conditions. It is at least cer- 
 tain that no one of us had approved the departure 
 from Paris, and that we dreaded the consequences of 
 a second flight. We were surrounded on all sides. 
 Whither should we go? . . . Capture was inevi- 
 table, hence it seemed best to succumb with dignity. 
 
THE EMPBESS'S ANGUISH. 235 
 
 111 this circumstance the Empress acted alone, with- 
 out consulting the Council, and according to her own 
 feelings." 
 
 The drama was drawing to the end desired by 
 some, feared by others. The same day, Good Friday, 
 April 8,1814, the Russian General Shouvaloff reached 
 Blois at 2 P.M., and took up his quarters at the 
 inn, la Galere. This officer, an aide of the Emperor 
 of Russia, was accompanied by the Baron de Saint 
 Aignan, Napoleon's Master of the Horse, and brother- 
 in-law of the Duke of Vicenza. General Shouvaloff 's 
 arrival Avas the signal for the departure of the princi- 
 pal personages who had followed the Empress to 
 Blois. He announced the reason of his coming, 
 which was to conduct Marie Louise and her son to 
 Orleans. 
 
 Every one went to the mayor's office for passports, 
 which then had to be signed by the Russian General. 
 The inn at which he was staying was crowded all 
 day long. It was too small to hold the applicants, for 
 every one wanted to leave, and without delay. Those 
 who could secure them, carried to the General letters 
 of introduction ; he said when he received them that 
 lie was full of regard for those who brought them ; 
 but, his time being so short, he begged them to wait 
 or to come again. " Most of the Ministers and Coun- 
 cillors of State," says the Baron de Meneval, "left 
 for Paris. I saw the Minister of War, who, with his 
 usual smile, told me that he had just bidden farewell 
 to his former colleague (he had been the secretary 
 
236 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 of the Cabinet), and had given him a letter for the 
 Emperor, in which he took leave of him : he added 
 that when one left people, it should be done politely ; 
 that he had to give an account of the state of the war 
 archives, of the store of maps, etc. ; ' that he didn't 
 want to pass for a thief.' " 
 
 The same day before dinner, the Empress sum- 
 moned M. de Bausset, and said to him: "Do you 
 want to do me another favor ? " — " Command me, 
 Madame ; I am at your service." " Well, you will 
 start for Paris this evening. You will doubtless find 
 my father there, and you will give him a letter I am 
 going to write. I hope to go there too, for I ought 
 and I wish to be with him. Make your preparations 
 and come back at eight this evening for my de- 
 spatches." 
 
 M. de Bausset goes on : "I punctually observed 
 the Empress's commands, and she gave me two let- 
 ters. Then I went to Count Shouvaloff, whom I had 
 known very well at Erfurt during the intervicAV of 
 1808. I found his rooms filled with people waiting 
 to get their passports signed for their return to Paris. 
 It must be said the higher officials regarded their 
 task as completed as soon as the Commissioner of the 
 Allied Powers arrived, and thought themselves free 
 to look after their private interests. Count Shouva- 
 loff recognized me, and came up to me in a most 
 friendly way. We chatted together, and I told him 
 the commands I had just received, asking him for a 
 passport for Paris and thence to Fontainebleau, where 
 
THE EMPRESS'S ANGUISH. 237 
 
 I should await the Empress. The Count then said 
 to me in a low tone, that the Empress was not going 
 there, and that it was decided that she should go to 
 Rambouillet when she left Orl(ians. I was about to 
 withdraw, but I became myself a person of impor- 
 tance. Count Shouvaloff's amiability towards me 
 made me the object of the warmest attention on the 
 part of those who were most eager to leave." 
 
 The night of April 8 was spent by the Empress and 
 her suite in preparing for the departure the next day. 
 Early the next morning M. de Meneval called upon 
 her and found her very uneasy about the journey. 
 She had the crown diamonds brought to her, but she 
 did not know what to do with them. She was aware 
 that she would encounter bodies of Cossacks and 
 feared that her carriages would be plundered, and was 
 inclined to wear her jewels, being confident that her 
 person would be respected. There remained the Im- 
 perial sword, in which the famous Regent diamond 
 had been set ; the blade was in the way and M. de 
 Meneval tried to break it off. Since he had no con- 
 venient tool, he broke it off on one of the andirons, 
 hid the handle under his clothes and went back to 
 his carriage, trembling for the safety of his precious 
 burden. It was ten in the morning. Marie Louise, 
 in company with her son. Kings Joseph and Jerome 
 and their wives, as well as Madame Bonaparte, left 
 Blois and took the road to Orleans. There she found 
 a double row of spectators lining the way, who gazed 
 at her in sullen silence. 
 
XVIIL 
 
 MARIE LOUISE AT ORLEANS. 
 
 WHEN Marie Louise left Blois for Orleans, she 
 was still escorted by cavalry of the Imperial 
 Guard. The only disturbance on the way was in the 
 outskirts of Beaugency, where the appearance of three 
 hundred Cossacks caused some confusion. They 
 plundered the last carriages, but the intervention of 
 one of General Shouvaloff's aides-de-camp put a stop 
 to the disorder, and everything that had been taken 
 was returned. 
 
 On her arrival at Orleans, the Empress was still 
 treated as a sovereign. She entered that city, Saturday, 
 April 9, at 6 p.m., and was met by the civil and military 
 authorities. The National Guard and the troops of 
 the garrison lined both sides of the way from the 
 city gate to the bishop's palace, where she lodged. 
 She was greeted with cries of " Long live the Empe- 
 ror and Empress ! " "I was filled with sadness," 
 says the Duke of Rovigo, "when T saw the city of 
 Orleans filled with troops ; we had left still more at 
 Blois, whither the supplies had been withdrawn from 
 Versailles and Chartres. . . . Why had not all 
 238 
 
MARIE LOUISE AT ORLEANS. 239 
 
 these been added to the corps of Marshals Mortier 
 and Marmont when they were defending Paris ? No 
 other reason can be g-iven than that no one wished 
 to do it ; yet there were certainly more than twenty 
 thousand men. Add to this number the arsenal of 
 Paris, and it is plain that there was a lack of either 
 head or heart, and that the Emperor was ill-served in 
 this respect." 
 
 The city of Orleans was in a strange condition. 
 After its gates were barricaded, its bridge manned, its 
 walls equipped with artillery, it was suddenly crowded 
 with the remains of the court, of the government, 
 and of the army, with troops of every branch of the 
 service who arrived without officers, and with officers 
 who arrived without troops. The proclamation of 
 the Empress Regent, signed at Blois, was still on the 
 walls, but the Empire had vanished while the Mon- 
 archy had not yet come. There was a sort of inter- 
 regnum which threw a cloud over the next day, 
 Easter Sunday, April 10. The Domine Salvum fac 
 impe7'atorem was not sung, but neither was the Bomine 
 Salvum fac regem. 
 
 After mass, the Empress received the Duke of Ca- 
 dore, who, as we have said, had left Blois April 4, 
 with a letter from Marie Louise for the Emperor of 
 Austria, and who was on his way back. The Duke 
 of Cadore had been able to find Emperor Francis at 
 Chanceaux, near Dijon, whither he had been led by 
 Napoleon's movement on Saint Dizier; he had not 
 entered Paris with the Emperor of Russia and the 
 
240 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 
 
 King of Prussia. His daughter's hope that he could 
 and would defend her and her son against the hos- 
 tility of the two sovereigns of the north was vain, 
 and the answer brought by the Duke of Cadore left 
 her but little hope. The Emperor Francis, while he 
 asserted his good will and his paternal love, expressed 
 the fear that his allies would not share his zeal for the 
 rights and interests of his daughter. 
 
 Marie Louise was then still devoted to her hus- 
 band. As she was crossing a terrace which separated 
 her rooms from those of the King of Rome, she sud- 
 denly went in and flung herself into the arms of 
 Madame de Montesquiou, that clever and affectionate 
 woman who was still the devoted governess of the 
 Prince Imperial, and was all the more attached to the 
 Empire because it was in distress. Marie Louise 
 knew that this woman would give only generous and 
 noble advice. She encouraged her in her desire to 
 join Napoleon at Fontainebleau as soon as possible, 
 but urged her to await the arrival of M. de Bausset, 
 who had gone on with letters for her husband and 
 her father. 
 
 Then there occurred at Orleans an incident as 
 painful for the Empress as it was disgraceful for the 
 Provisional Government. When Marie Louise left 
 Paris, she took with her what was left of Napoleon's 
 personal treasury, consisting of eighteen million 
 francs, and gold and silver ware. There were, 
 besides, the crown diamonds. Of these eighteen 
 millions, what was left of the Emperor's personal sav- 
 
MARIE LOUISE AT ORLEA^'S. 241 
 
 ings, some millions had been sent to Fontainobleau 
 to pay the troops or for the expenses of headquarters, 
 and, by Napoleon's orders, Marie Louise had about 
 two millions in her carriages, for her own use. There 
 remained about ten millions in the wagons of the 
 fleeing court. The Provisional Government was in 
 need of money, and it conceived the notion of taking 
 possession of these treasures, under the pretext that 
 they were the property of the state, which was abso- 
 lutely not the case. For making this seizure there 
 was chosen a personal enemy of the Emperor, M. 
 Dudon, whom Napoleon had been obliged to expel 
 from the Council of State. 
 
 M. Dudon, bearing an order from the Provisional 
 Government dated April 9, went to Orleans and 
 seized the treasures. Nothing was respected, neither 
 the plate which was the Emperor's personal property, 
 nor the snuff-boxes and diamond rings intended for 
 presents. Napoleon's clothing and linen, even his 
 pocket handkerchiefs marked Avith N and a crown, 
 were taken. The emissary of the Provisional Govern- 
 ment did not stop there ; he seized the scanty silver- 
 ware intended for the service of the Empress and of 
 the King of Rome, not leaving one silver dish; so 
 that it Avas necessary to borrow dishes and even china 
 from the bishop in whose house the Empress was 
 staying, for the two days she spent in the city. Gen- 
 eral Shouvaloff's aide, whose interference was solic- 
 ited in vain, did not oppose the execution of the 
 order. 
 
242 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 The crown diamonds were given up with scrupu- 
 lous exactness according to the inventory. " There 
 was lacking," said the Duke of Rovigo, "only the 
 Regent^ which was generally kept separate on account 
 of its great value, and the ease with which it could 
 be taken. No one knew that the Empress was carry- 
 ing in a workbag the handle of one of the Emperor's 
 swords in which the precious jewel was set. When 
 she was told what was going on, she at once took out 
 the Regent^ and gave it up. Her own private dia- 
 monds were with the others ; she did not even ask 
 whether they had been taken." 
 
 Easter Monday, April 11, the Empress again heard 
 mass. Then she bade farewell to most of her suite, 
 who were about to leave her forever. The parting 
 was very sad. Marie Louise received each one in 
 turn, and gave them presents of rings and jewelry, 
 begging of them in touching language not to forget 
 her. Her face was bathed with tears. A moment 
 afterwards, all those who had left her came back 
 into the room. They had heard that the Empress 
 had been called to the throne of Parma, and they 
 wanted to congratulate her ! A final irony of fate I 
 
 The next day, Marie Louise was almost alone at 
 Orleans. The bishop's residence bore no longer any 
 likeness to a palace ; only two or three ladies were 
 left with her and the King of Rome. Cambac^res 
 had not got so far as Orleans ; at Blois he had taken 
 the road to Paris, and without this customary adviser, 
 the dethroned Empress was wholly under the iiiflu- 
 
MARIE LOUISE AT ORLEANS. 243 
 
 ence of her maid of honor, the Duchess of Monte- 
 bello, who desired nothing but tranquillity. Marie 
 Louise's anxieties were boundless. The report that 
 the Emperor wanted to kill himself came to her ears. 
 M. Anatole de Montesquiou came to the palace on 
 his way from Fontainebleau. " Well," asked Madame 
 de Montebello, "is it over? Is he dead?" — "Who, 
 Madame? Of whose death are you speaking?" 
 " Why, of the Emperor's ; it was said that he had 
 killed himself." — " No, Madame, he is not dead ; he 
 is in the best of health ; could you believe the reports 
 spread by his enemies ? Here is a letter he has charged 
 me to hand to the Empress." 
 
 An active correspondence had sprung up between 
 the Baron de Meneval, who was at Orleans with 
 Marie Louise, and Baron Fain, who was at Fontaine- 
 bleau with Napoleon. M. Fain had sent word that 
 every letter from him was dictated by Napoleon, from 
 the first word to the last. A letter of April 10 said 
 that according to letters received by the Emperor, 
 Marie Louise seemed determined to go to see her 
 father. " But," it went on, " does the Empress know 
 where her father is ? Yesterday it was said that he 
 was to be at Brie-Comte-Robert, and was to reach 
 Paris to-day ; all these statements are very vague. 
 If you have more definite information, communicate 
 it to us. The Emperor expects the Duke of Vicenza 
 to-night, with a definite decision about his affairs. 
 The Emperor desires you to ascertain tiie Empress's 
 real wishes, and wants to know whether she prefers 
 
244 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 to follow tlie Emperor in all the vicissitudes of his 
 evil fortune, or to retire, either into some state that 
 shall be given her, or to her father with her son." 
 
 M. de Meneval replied that there was ground for 
 fearing that the Empress was no longer free to go to 
 the Emperor ; this was her personal desire, he added, 
 but she still trusted in her father's affection, who, she 
 said, would never consent to her separation from her 
 husband and son ; she felt authorized by the Empe- 
 ror's express desire to wait the result of her proposals 
 to the Emperor of Austria. M. de Meneval said 
 that the dread of being stopped on the way might 
 put the Empress back, and that the idea of flight 
 was repugnant to her. 
 
 In a letter dated April 11, 4 A.M., Baron Fain said: 
 " M. de Metternich has arrived in Paris, but he seems 
 no more favorably disposed than M. de Schwarzen- 
 berg. The Empress's plan to go to see her father 
 seems consequently suitable to the Emperor ; mean- 
 while, it is not known in Paris where the Emperor of 
 Austria is. If the Empress knows, the Emperor 
 wants her to tell him before she starts." 
 
 In another letter, dated noon, the same day, the 
 Emperor made Baron Fain say ; " It appears that 
 arrangements were signed last night by the Duke of 
 Vicenza and the Ministers of Russia, Austria, and 
 England ; the island of Elba is given to the Emperor ; 
 Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla to the Empress and 
 the King of Rome. It would still be well for the 
 Empress to continue to urge her father to let her 
 
MARIE LOUISE AT ORLEANS. 245 
 
 have Tuscany, or, if that is impossible, to add to 
 Parma and Piacenza, the territories of Lucca, Piom- 
 bino, Massa di Carrare, and what is enclosed in Pon- 
 tremoli ; in this way the Empress would be in com- 
 munication with Elba. The Emperor's plan would 
 be, when affairs are once settled, to go to Briare, 
 where the Empress might join him, and from there 
 they might continue their journey by Nevers, Moulins, 
 and Mt. Cenis to Parma. The Empress and the King 
 of Rome could rest at Parma, while the Emperor 
 should go to Elba to make what preparations were 
 necessary for the Empress's arrival. It is stipulated 
 in the treaty that every Frenchman who shall follow 
 shall preserve his rights as a Frenchman and his 
 property, and shall be free to return. 
 
 " The Emperor thinks the Empress should write 
 to Madame de Bombers to find out whether she can 
 come to look after the education of the King of 
 Rome, since it appears that Madame de Montesquiou 
 desires to return to Paris." This statement was in- 
 exact : M. de M^neval told the Emperor that Madame 
 de Montesquiou had never expressed any intention 
 of returning to Paris, and that, whatever happened, 
 she was determined never to leave her charge, unless 
 he should be forcibly torn from her arms. 
 
 The letter went on : " The Empress will form her 
 household anew at Parma and Piacenza, where there 
 are many ladies of noble family. Since the Grand 
 Marshal goes with the Emperor, Countess Bertrand 
 will accompany the Empress. No one knows where 
 
246 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 the Emperor of Austria is ; perhaps he will arrange 
 to meet his daughter on her way. By following the 
 route mentioned above, there will be no large cities 
 to pass through except Lyons and Turin. In them 
 she might sleep, and the Empress would soon be in 
 her own territory. . . . The Emperor is very well, 
 and, as I have already told you, his health is not 
 affected by his moral sufferings ; he hopes to hear 
 that the Empress is becoming consoled, and that she 
 expects to be happy in the humble condition to which 
 she is brought. Tlie Emperor is glad that the Em- 
 press is to have Parma and Piacenza, because her 
 independence is thereby assured, and she will have 
 the most beautiful country in the world to live in, if 
 she grows tired of the rocks of Elba, while Elba is 4 
 a retreat that can suit the Emperor alone, wjio no 
 longer wishes to rule anywhere." 
 
 Affectionate as these letters were, they brought 
 Marie Louise no consolation. The unhappy Princess 
 said to the Duke of Rovigo : " I am really to be 
 pitied ! Some advise me to go ; others, to stay. I 
 write to the Emperor, and he does not ansv/er my 
 questions. He tells me to write to my father; but 
 what will my father say after he has let me be treated 
 with such contumely ? I am abandoned, and I com- 
 mit myself to Providence. It advised me wisely 
 when it counselled me to become a canoness. I 
 should have done better not to come to this country." 
 Then she went on, her voice broken by sobs : " Go to 
 the Emperor? . . . But I can't go without my son. 
 
MARIE LOUISE AT ORLEANS. 247 
 
 who is onl}^ safe with me. . . . On the other luiud, 
 if the Emperor fears any attack on his life, wliich is 
 very probable, and has to take to flight, the embar- 
 rassment I should cause him might make him fall 
 into the hands of the enemy, who, I have no doubt, 
 desire his death. I don't know Avhat to do ; I am 
 broken-hearted." Her face was covered with tears. 
 Then she spoke of her father, whose abandonment 
 of her was a cruel blow, and she said, with touching 
 modesty : " I can understand that the people should 
 hate me in this country. Yet I am not to blame. 
 Why did my father marry me, if he nourished the 
 plans he is carrying out?" Marie Louise's com- 
 plaints were well grounded. Twice had her father 
 sacrificed her to political exigencies : once in placing 
 her on the throne, again in driving her from it. The 
 gentle, peaceful young Empress was not born to face 
 such tempests, and her character, so well adapted for 
 tranquillity, lacked the energy and firmness necessary 
 for supporting, without trembling, the burden of such 
 a destiny. 
 
XIX. 
 
 THE ATTEMPT AT SUICIDE. 
 
 WHAT had become of Napoleon since, on the 
 5th of April, 1814, he had signed his abdica- 
 tion, not merely for himself, but for his heirs ? Re- 
 maining at Fontainebleau, he had fallen a prey to the 
 deepest gloom. Being no longer either Emperor or 
 commander-in-chief, he had had the bitter grief of 
 handing over the command to Marshal Berthier, who 
 gave in his allegiance to the Provisional Government. 
 Like Charles V., he took part while alive in his own 
 funeral rites, without having, like him, the satisfac- 
 tion of seeing his own son reigning and his country 
 victorious. Passing suddenly from feverish activity 
 to absolute quiet, this untiring man, to whom rest' 
 was torture, felt as if he were buried alive. His im- 
 agination was ever active ; he already repented sign- 
 ing his abdication and wanted to withdraw it. False 
 information led him to suppose that the Emperor of 
 Austria regretted the haste with which the other 
 sovereigns condemned Marie Louise and the King of 
 Rome in favor of the Bourbons, and he still nourished 
 a faint hope of some relief from the projected inter- 
 248 
 
THE ATTEMPT AT SUICIDE, 249 
 
 view between the Empress and her father. He 
 thought the abdication at least premature, and he 
 blamed himself for it as for an act of weakness. The 
 diplomatic negotiations he had entrusted to his pleni- 
 potentiaries seemed to him humiliating and useless. 
 Ought he, after enjoying such greatness, to live like 
 a private person, and should the great sacrifice he had 
 made for the world's peace be mixed up with pecun- 
 iary arrangements ? " Of what use is a treaty," he 
 asked himself, " when no one will settle with me the 
 interests of France ? The moment there is no longer 
 any question about me, there is no need of a treaty. 
 I am conquered ; I yield to the force of arms. Only 
 I ask not to be a prisoner of war, and to grant this, 
 only a simple cartel is required." 
 
 The Emperor's face, once so glowing with genius 
 and confidence in his good fortune, grew darker every 
 hour. When for the first time in his life he was seen 
 to be absolutely discouraged, it began to be wondered 
 whether he might not be thinking of suicide in his 
 despair. His pistols had been removed and unloaded 
 by the Count of Turenne ; and when the next day he 
 asked for them impatiently, and complained that 
 they were empty, it became clear that he had been 
 wild enough to think of using them. 
 
 Napoleon appeared to have abandoned all thoughts 
 of suicide when, in the morning of April 11, the 
 Baron de Bausset arrived at Fontainebleau with a 
 letter from Marie Louise. As has been said, this 
 prefect of the palace had been sent by the Em- 
 
250 THE INVASION OF 18U. 
 
 press, first to Paris to see the Emperor of Austria, 
 and thence to Fontainebleau to give Napoleon the 
 news. At Paris, M. de Bausset, not finding the Em- 
 peror Francis, had been compelled to see Prince 
 Metternich in his stead, and he had been informed 
 that Napoleon was to have the island of Elba, and 
 Marie Louise the Duchy of Parma. As soon as he 
 had heard this, M. de Bausset started for Fontaine- 
 bleau and gave the Emperor Marie Louise's letter. 
 
 " Dear Louise I " said the Emperor, after he had 
 read it. Then he inquired about the health of his 
 wife and son. " I found the Emperor calm, tranquil, 
 and decided," says the Baron, in his Memoirs. " He 
 had a well-tempered soul. Never, perhaps, did he 
 seem greater. I spoke to him about the island of 
 Elba. He knew beforehand that he was to be given 
 this petty sovereignty. He even pointed out to me 
 a little geography with statistics giving him all the 
 information he desired on this place. ' The air is 
 healthy,' he said, ' and the people are kindly. I shall 
 not be too badly off there, and I hope that Marie 
 Louise will find it comfortable.' He knew all the 
 obstacles in the way of their meeting at Fontainebleau, 
 but he hoped that once in possession of the Duchy of 
 Parma, the Empress would be permitted to go with 
 her son to live with him on the island of Elba. . . . 
 He was deceived! . . . Never again was he to see 
 these objects of his affection." 
 
 At about two that afternoon, Napoleon was walk- 
 ing on the terrace by the side of the Gallery of 
 
TUE ATTEMPT AT SUICIDE. 251 
 
 Francis I., at the end of the Courtyard of the Foun- 
 tain, when he sent for M. de Bausset and began to 
 talk with him about recent events. He was far from 
 approving of the way the Empress had been per- 
 suaded to leave Paris, when the Baron reminded him 
 of his letter to King Joseph. " Circumstances had 
 altered, and required to be met differently. The 
 mere presence of Louise in Paris would have been 
 enough to prevent the treachery and defection of 
 some of my troops. I should still be at the head of 
 a formidable army, with which I should have com- 
 pelled the enemy to leave Paris and to sign an 
 honorable peace." 
 
 Baron de Bausset then ventured to say that he 
 regretted that the Emperor had not been willing to 
 sign this peace at Chatillon. "I never believed in 
 the enemy's good faith," replied Napoleon. " Every 
 day there were new demands, new conditions; they 
 did not want peace, and then I had told France that 
 I should never consent to any condition which I 
 thought humiliating, even with the enemy on the 
 heights of Montmartre." When the Baron respect- 
 fully suggested that France, even shorn as it was, 
 yet was one of the finest kingdoms of the world, 
 Napoleon said proudly: "I abdicate and cede noth- 
 ing." Then he added : "See what fate is I At the 
 battle of Arcis-sur-Aube, I did all I could to meet a 
 glorious death, disputing the soil of my country inch 
 by inch. I exposed myself incessantly. The bullets 
 rained about me ; my clothes were torn by them, and 
 
252 THE INVASION OF I8I4. 
 
 not one could touch me. For me to die by my own 
 hands would be cowardice. Suicide does not agree 
 with my principles or the rank I hold on the world's 
 stage. I am a man condemned to live." 
 
 Then Napoleon, still followed by the Baron de 
 Bausset, walked up and down the terrace several 
 times, in a deep, gloomy silence ; this he broke by 
 saying with a bitter -smile, " Between ourselves, they 
 say that a living gudgeon is better than a dead 
 Emperor." Then he returned to his room alone. 
 M. de Bausset was never to see him again. 
 
 The next day, April 12, Macdonald, Caulaincourt, 
 and Shouvaloff, an aide-de-camp of the Emperor 
 Alexander, arrived at Fontainebleau with the treaty 
 which had been concluded and signed the day before. 
 "Are you bringing me back my abdication at last?" 
 asked Napoleon when he saw Caulaincourt, who 
 replied that the fundamental basis of the treaty had 
 naturally been the abdication, and that had already 
 been officially published. " What do I care for this 
 treaty? " resumed Napoleon. '' I don't want to recog- 
 nize it; I don't want to sign it; I shall not sign it." 
 Caulaincourt carefully abstained from any discussion 
 with the fallen Emperor, and let him sleep upon it. 
 
 The first article of the treaty contained the abdica- 
 tion; the second granted to Napoleon and Marie 
 Louise the titles of Emperor and Empress ; the third 
 confided to Napoleon sovereignty over the island of 
 Elba; and the fifth that of the Duchies of Parma, 
 Vicenza, and Guastalla to Marie Louise with the 
 
THE ATTEMPT AT SUICIDE. 253 
 
 right of succession to her son. There were, besides, 
 many pecuniary stipulations : an annual payment of 
 two million francs to Napoleon ; one million to Jose- 
 phine ; three hundred thousand to his mother ; five 
 hundred thousand to King Joseph; two hundred 
 thousand to Louis ; four hundred thousand to Queen 
 Hortense and her children ; three hundred thousand 
 to Princess Pauline. Two millions were placed at 
 the Emperor's disposal for gifts, a sort of legacy to 
 be granted during the testator's lifetime. The treaty 
 also permitted Napoleon to take with him and to 
 keep as his guard four hundred volunteers, officers, 
 non-commissioned officers, and men. 
 
 This treaty of April 11, wdiich the Allies regarded 
 as the height of generosity, seemed to Napoleon the 
 lowest depth of humiliation. After signing the 
 treaties of Campo Formio, of Lun^ville, of Vienna, 
 of Tilsit, of Presburg, to have to put his name to this 
 miserable paper ; after possessing an empire vaster 
 than Charlemagne, to have to content himself with 
 the ridiculous sovereignty of Elba ; after leading the 
 largest armies in the world, to command a petty bat- 
 talion of four hundred ; to have to accept alms from 
 his conquerors for himself and his people, was a bit- 
 ter and torturing disgrace. Then to leave France 
 smaller than he had found it; to lose not only all 
 the conquests of the Empire, but also those of the 
 Republic ; to have even the tricolored flag abolished, 
 — all these things were cruel I And then to have 
 to sign such a treaty at the very moment when the 
 
254 THE INVASION OF 18 14. 
 
 Count d'Artois, the brother of Louis XVL, was 
 entering the Tuileries in triumph ! 
 
 Napoleon thought that death, that suicide, was 
 preferable to the shame of signing so terrible and so 
 disgraceful a treaty. At about six in the afternoon, 
 in his talk, he brought up some of the memorable 
 deaths, by their own hands, of the great men of antiq- 
 uity in similar circumstances, and thus aroused the 
 apprehensions of those who heard him. However, 
 he went to bed quietly at about ten o'clock, and fell 
 asleep. About midnight he called Hubert, his valet, 
 who used to sleep in front of his door. " Come, 
 Hubert," he said gently, " let us have a little fire," 
 and the two men built it up again. Then Napo- 
 leon bade his valet to go to rest. Then, after 
 writing a few words on a piece of paper, which he 
 crumpled, tore up, and threw in the fire, he went to 
 the bureau and opened a dressing-case, in which was 
 a little black bag. 
 
 Napoleon had worn that bag during the retreat 
 from Russia after the battle of Malo Jaroslavitz. 
 When the sudden attack of the Cossacks took place, 
 in which he narrowly escaped being taken prisoner, 
 he determined always to carry poison about him, that 
 he might not fall into the enemy's hands alive. 
 Hence he had ordered Yvan, his surgeon, to put into 
 the bag a poison formerly mentioned by Cabanis, the 
 same which Condorcet had killed himself with. This 
 poison the Emperor took, to escape his troubles, in 
 the night of April 12, when in the deepest despair. 
 
THE ATTEMPT AT SUICIDE. 255 
 
 Hubert, who was watching him through the crack of 
 the door, saw his master put something into a glass 
 of water, drink it, and go back to bed. Since, how- 
 ever, he knew nothing about the existence of any 
 poison, he fancied that Napoleon was drinking noth- 
 ing but a glass of sugar and water. Still, he felt 
 anxious, and listened for nearly half an hour. 
 
 Napoleon was surprised to be still living. Instead 
 of dying at once, as he expected, he was seized with 
 spasms, and suffered frightfully. He sent for Dr. 
 Yvan, doubtless to ask for another dose to hasten the 
 death he longed for. Then Hubert, still more un- 
 easy, heard a violent quarrel between the Emperor 
 and his surgeon. Yvan firmly and indignantly re- 
 fused to be an accomplice to the suicide. "You 
 would," he cried, "make me seem a poisoner, an 
 assassin, in the pay of your enemies. No ! I will not 
 do it ! " The Emperor, who had caused the death of 
 so many men, could not compass his own. Yvan 
 gave him emetics, and then, still afraid that his 
 patient might die, and distracted by the thought that 
 he might himself be charged with murder, he lost his 
 head, rushed from the room, ran down the stairs to 
 the courtyard; there he found a horse fastened to 
 the gate ; he sprang on its back and galloped away. 
 
 Meanwhile, the silence of the long corridors of 
 the palace was broken by much coming and going ; 
 servants swarmed on the staircases ; candles were lit. 
 Grand Marshal Bertrand, the Duke of Vicenza, the 
 Duke of Bassano, were aroused, and they hastened 
 
256 THE INVASION OF 18 14. 
 
 to the Emperor's bedroom. "Everything has be- 
 trayed me," he said to them; "I am condemned to 
 go on living." Then he fell into a stupor which 
 lasted several hours. 
 
 " God did not permit Napoleon to triumph," says 
 M. Veuillot ; " he deigned to punish him. God did 
 not wish that he should satiate himself with success, 
 like those men from whom an avenging prosperity 
 expels any thought of remorse. He punished him, 
 making him descend, perhaps I should better say 
 rise, to the human conditions ; he woke him from the 
 intoxication of fortune, from forge tfulness of the last 
 hour, and gave him time for the final battle, in which 
 every man meets face to face the only enemy by 
 whom it is important not to be definitely conquered." 
 
 To have died before the expiation of Saint Helena 
 would have been for Napoleon the renunciation of 
 the noblest crown, — that of martyrdom. The great 
 man needed the purification of long sufferings. For 
 his soul, so long the slave of passions, to become 
 free, his body had to be captive. If we look at things 
 from the Christian's standpoint, thinking of eternity, 
 it was his jailors who were to be his liberators. At 
 Fontainebleau he had not been defeated enough. He 
 had not drunk the bitter chalice to the dregs. He 
 needed one more final defeat, — that of Waterloo. 
 He needed meditation and remorse on the wave- 
 beaten rocks. He needed the dialogue between his 
 stormy thought and the murmur of the ocean. There 
 it was that he at last was to attain real greatness, 
 
THE ATTEMPT AT SUICIDE. 257 
 
 where he was to deserve a glance from the God of 
 pity; there that, after enduring nobly one of the 
 most pathetic and grand expiations known to history, 
 he was to utter those ever-memorable words : " Not 
 every one who wishes can be an atheist." 
 
XX. 
 
 THE LAST WEEK AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 
 
 "XTAPOLEON became reconciled to living. When 
 -i_M he awoke in the morning of April 13, he was 
 ashamed of having wished to kill himself, and bade 
 his people maintain an absolute silence about the 
 attempt. A violent perspiration, and some hours of 
 sleep, had carried him through the crisis, but he was 
 still weak and dejected. At ten in the morning, 
 when Macdonald called to pay his respects, he was 
 seated by the fire, with his head sunk in his hands, 
 which wholly covered his face. He remained in that 
 position, without speaking or moving, for half an 
 hour ; at last he noticed that the Marshal was there. 
 " I am grateful to you," he said, " for the trouble you 
 have taken about my last interests, and I am sorry 
 that I can express my gratitude by words alone." 
 " In no case," answered Macdonald, " should I have 
 accepted any other reward. Trouble of that sort is 
 its own reward." " Well," said the Emperor, " I am 
 going to offer you a proof of my gratitude which 
 even your delicacy will not refuse." Then he had a 
 Turkish sabre brought, which he gave to the Marshal, 
 258 
 
THE LAST WEEK AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 259 
 
 saying, " This is Murad Bey's sabre. I won it at the 
 battle of Mount Tabor. It shall be a souvenir from 
 me to you." 
 
 Napoleon's face, which in the morning had been of 
 a ghastly pallor, regained color during the day. He 
 grew completely calm, and affixed his signature to 
 the treaty which, the night before, had filled him with 
 such mortal anguish. " God does not want me to 
 die," he said, and complete resignation succeeded to 
 his previous agitation. Possibly a ray of hope arose 
 within him ; possibly he thought that the Allies were 
 very imprudent in giving him a residence so near his 
 former Empire ; possibly he foresaw the blunders of 
 the Bourbons, and his own triumphal return to the 
 Tuileries. 
 
 However, in April, 1814, such a dream would have 
 seemed most improbable. Never was a fallen sov- 
 ereign pursued with bitterer insults and curses than 
 Napoleon. With a few noble exceptions, all his old 
 servitors left him. Berthier, on whom he had heaped 
 so many favors ; Berthier, his Major-General, his 
 intimate, with whom he shared his tent, left Fon- 
 taine bleau promising to be back the next day^ " He 
 won't come back," the Emperor said coldly to the 
 Duke of Bassano. " What, Sire, this is Berthier's 
 farewell? " — " Yes ; I tell you he won't come back." 
 Every moment there was a new departure ; one left 
 on account of his health ; another, for some family 
 reason ; every one promised to return, but no one 
 appeared again. Fontainebleau had become a waste, 
 
260 • THE INVASION OF I8I4. 
 
 a city of the dead ; and Napoleon, gloomy, silent, and 
 solitary, bore more likeness to a monk in a cloister 
 than to a sovereign in a palace. 
 
 " Napoleon already is nothing but a common man," 
 says Baron Fain, who witnessed his hours of de- 
 spondency. " He lives retired in a corner of the 
 palace. If he leaves his room for a few minutes, it is 
 to walk in the little garden (the Garden of Diana). 
 Whenever he hears a carriage drive into the court- 
 yard, he asks if it is not Berthier coming back, or 
 one of his former ministers come to take leave. He 
 expects to see Mol^, Fontanes, and the many others 
 who owe him a last expression of devotion ; but no 
 one comes." 
 
 When he went back to his room. Napoleon used to 
 read all the Paris newspapers, which were full of 
 venomous hatred. Their frantic attacks, the storm 
 of insult and abuse, did not move him ; and when 
 their inventions became absurd, he would only smile. 
 
 The devotion of the brave soldiers who remained 
 faithful consoled him for the many apostasies. They 
 used to walk about the walls and gardens of the 
 palace trying to see through the railings the man 
 whom they still idolized. When he was strolling in 
 the Garden of Diana, they at every moment brought 
 up non-commissioned officers and men of the Imperial 
 Guard who begged to be allowed to join his battalion ; 
 and they who had never asked for reward or promo- 
 tion now asked for exile. Lamartine says : " Great 
 affections come from the masses, because they come 
 
THE LAST WEEK AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 20 1 
 
 from nature. Nature is magnanimous ; courts are 
 selfish ; favor corrupts." 
 
 There were in the higher ranks some noble exam- 
 ples of disinterested attachment. There was the 
 Duke of Vicenza, who, with his usual energy, was 
 making all the preparations for departure as if he 
 were still Grand Master of the Horse ; and the Duke 
 of Bassano, of whom Baron Fain says : " He never 
 leaves Napoleon for a moment. The Emperor, when 
 he opens his heart to this Minister, in whom he has 
 the utmost confidence, shows the same inward seren- 
 ity that used to appear on his face in his happiest 
 days. To see this Minister's manners, one would 
 never believe that those days are gone ; there is the 
 same simplicity in his attentions and consideration. 
 Duty and love are manifest in them ; and if they 
 sometimes become touching and almost formal, it is 
 because they come from a brave and sympathetic 
 nature." Napoleon was always touched by the 
 zealous affections of this loyal servant. " Bassano," 
 he said to him, " they say you prevented my making 
 peace. What do you say to that? This charge 
 ought to make you smile, like those they bring 
 against me nowadays." 
 
 General Bertrand, who was to discharge the duties 
 of Grand Marshal of the Palace, not merely at Elba, 
 but also at Saint Helena, stands forth as a living 
 image of fidelit}^ As for General Drouot, the Sage 
 of the Grand Army, as Napoleon used to call him, he 
 was to immortalize himself by his devotion to his un- 
 
262 THE INVASION OF 1814, 
 
 happy sovereign. Lacordaire, in his funeral oration 
 on this eminently virtuous man, said: ''The fall of 
 the Empire, by setting General Drouot face to face 
 with misfortune, has left him famous in a rare way. 
 He loved the Empire and the Emperor with a chival- 
 rous affection : the Empire, because he thought it the 
 highest pitch of greatness which France had attained 
 since Charlemagne ; the Emperor, because he spent 
 with him two years of suffering and defeat, and had 
 perceived the man's heart under the monarch's trap- 
 pings and the conqueror's pride. The fall of those 
 two giants, the Emperor and the Empire, was for 
 him a blow which we can scarcely comprehend, so 
 remote are we from the events, and acquainted with 
 them only through reading the pallid story on the 
 cold, and often heartless, page. But those who put 
 into that magnificent work twenty years of their toil 
 and of their hearts' blood, those who grew old on 
 the battle-field between glory and death, ever present 
 and ever mingling, and who, in raising France, be- 
 lieved that they served a patriotic and just cause, 
 they must have known, when their work crumbled, 
 an anguish which we can neither describe nor feel." 
 
 General Drouot was to be the governor of this 
 island of Elba. At Fontainebleau, a few days before 
 they started thither. Napoleon asked the General 
 how rich he was, and when he answered, that he had 
 about two thousand five hundred francs a year, 
 Napoleon said, " That is too little ; no one knows 
 what may happen. I don't want you to come to 
 
THE LAST WEEK AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 263 
 
 want after my time ; I am going to give you two 
 hundred thousand francs." Drouot declined them; 
 but seeing that the Emperor was pained, he said: 
 " If Your Majesty were to give me the money now, 
 people would say that the Emperor Napoleon, in 
 adversity, had only friends whom he bought, and 
 that I followed Your Majesty because I was paid for 
 so doing." Drouot reminds us of Shakespeare's 
 
 words : — 
 
 " Yet he that can endure 
 To follow with allegiance a fall'n lord 
 Does conquer him that did his master conquer." 
 
 (Antony and Cleopatra, Act III., sc. xiii.) 
 
 Napoleon was more and more touched by the marks 
 of devotion he received from so many officers and 
 men. 
 
 He received Colonel de Montholon, who had just 
 been making a reconnoissance on the upper Loire, and 
 who told him that he could count on the people of 
 the South and collect their troops. " It is too late," 
 answered Napoleon ; " that now would mean civil 
 w^ar, and nothing could ever persuade me to try 
 that." April 18, the four foreign commissioners who 
 were to accompany Napoleon on his journey and 
 be responsible for his safety, met at the Palace of 
 Fontainebleau. They were the Russian General 
 Shouvaloff, the Austrian General Roller, the English 
 Colonel Campbell, and the Prussian General Turch- 
 sess. The 20th was fixed upon for the start. 
 
 Napoleon had not then begun to doubt Marie 
 
264 THE INVASION OF ISU. 
 
 Louise, whom he regarded as a victim, not an accom- 
 plice of the Coalition. He knew that she had just 
 seen her father at Rambouillet, and felt sure that she 
 had expressed only the noblest feelings. He still 
 hoped to see her soon, and so far from uttering any 
 reproaches, he wrote to her affectionate letters like 
 the following, which is without date, though presum- 
 ably written April 19 : — 
 
 "My dear Louise: I have received your letter, 
 and I learn all your sufferings, which add to my own. 
 I am glad to hear that Corvisart encourages you ; I 
 am most grateful to him; he confirms the good 
 opinion I have always had of him ; tell him so from 
 me. Let him send me frequent word how you are. 
 Try to go at once to Aix, as I hear Corvisart advises. 
 
 Keep well for and for your son, who needs your 
 
 care. I am about starting for Elba, and will write 
 to you from there. I shall make every preparation 
 for receiving you. Write often ; direct your letters 
 to the Viceroy and to your uncle, if, as I hear, he 
 has been made Grand Duke of Tuscany. Good by, 
 my dear Louise Marie." 
 
 The very day he started from Fontainebleau for 
 Elba, April 20, 1814, he wrote this letter to his 
 wife : — 
 
 " My Dear : I am leaving to rest to-night at Briare. 
 To-morrow morning I shall push on to Saint Tropez. 
 Bausset, who will hand you this letter, will bring me 
 news of you, and will tell you I am well. I hope 
 that 3^ou will get better and be able to join me. 
 
THE LAST WEEK AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 265 
 
 Moiitesquiou, who left at 2 a.m., ought to be with 
 you. I tlid not hear from you yesterday, but I hope 
 that the Prefect of the Palace will join me this 
 evening and will give me news of you. Good by, 
 my dear Louise. You can always count on the 
 courage, the calmness, and the friendship of your 
 husband. Napoleon. A kiss to the little King." 
 
 These two letters make it clear he was still far from 
 suspecting Marie Louise of ungrateful desertion. 
 They show that when leaving Fontainebleau he still 
 thought of his wife, whom then he had no reason for 
 blaming ; that he looked upon her as a model of 
 gentleness and kindness, of religion and virtue, and 
 that in good or evil fortune he was still proud of 
 being her husband. 
 
XXI. 
 
 THE LEAVE-TAKING AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 
 
 HISTORY and legend mingle around Napoleon. 
 Events of which people still living were eye- 
 witnesses appear to us in such epic proportions, in 
 such grandeur, that they seem to carry us back to dis- 
 tant ages. Napoleon has the air of a hero of anti- 
 quity, and the veterans of his Imperial Guard seem 
 as remote as Ceesar's soldiers or the knights of 
 Charlemagne. The leave-taking at Fontaine bleau, the 
 Courtyard of the White Horse, the Emperor, the 
 grenadiers of the Old Guard, form a wonderful drama, 
 set in a wonderful stage, and with what brilliant 
 characters ! This dramatic scene was taken by Be- 
 ranger for the subject of one of his most famous 
 songs, — Les Deux Grenadiers^ — which represents 
 two soldiers talking together at the last midnight 
 before Napoleon's departure. 
 
 In that sad night Napoleon was thinking of poster- 
 ity, and he devised a way to lend a poetic interest to 
 his departure for his parody of a kingdom at Elba, 
 given him in exchange for the most magnificent em- 
 pire in the world. And so well did he understand 
 
 266 
 
THE LEAVE-TAKISG AT FONTAiyEBLEAU. 2GT 
 
 the art of striking the popiUar imagination, that this 
 mehincholj incident will, perhaps, make a deeper 
 impression on futui-e generations than all his tri- 
 umphal entrances into the great capitals of Europe. 
 
 In the early morning of April 20, all the inhabi- 
 tants of Fontainebleau had gathered to witneso the 
 memorable scene, crowding to the railing around the 
 Courtyard of the White Horse, where it was to take 
 place. In this courtyard the Old Guard was drawA 
 up. At noon the carriages had driven up to the foot 
 of the Horseshoe Staircase, and General Bertrand had 
 gone in to tell Napoleon that everything was ready. 
 Napoleon came out of his room into the Gallery of 
 Francis I. There were assembled the few sur^dving 
 relics of his once brilliant court, — the Duke of Bas- 
 sano, General Belliard, Colonel de Busse, Colonel 
 Anatole de Montesquiou, Count Turenne, General 
 Fouler, the Baron of Meso-riQ-nv, Colonel Gouro-aud, 
 Baron Fain, Lieutenant-Colonel Athalin, Baron de 
 la Place, Baron Leborgne d'Ideville, General Kosa- 
 kovski. Colonel Vonsovitch. He replied to their 
 teal's by a grasp of the hand, a glance, and with- 
 out saying a word, passed through the gallery and 
 vestibule, and walked down the Hoi-seshoe Staircase 
 Avith a firm, swift step. As Lamartine says : '* The 
 troops expressed a more solemn and religious feeling 
 than cheers could express, — the honor, namely, of 
 their fidelity, even in the darkest days, and the set- 
 ting of the glory now about to sink behind the forest 
 trees, beliind the waves of the Mediterranean. Thev 
 
268 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 envied those of their companions to whom fortune 
 had accorded exile in his island with their Emperor." 
 The Allies had permitted him to take with him but a 
 single battalion, which was to be all he needed for 
 conquering his throne. The men of the Old Guard 
 had been asked how many would like to follow him, 
 and all, without exception, offered themselves. Only 
 four hundred were chosen. They were not in the 
 courtyard, but were already on their way. Napoleon 
 was at the foot of the staircase ; the drums beat a 
 salute. Why were they not draped in mourning? 
 This was, in truth, the funeral of the Emperor, of 
 the Empire, of the army. Their noise alone broke 
 the silence. The soldiers were silent and gloomy. 
 Napoleon made a sign that he wished to speak to 
 them. The drums stopped beating; all seemed to 
 hold their breath. 
 
 " Soldiers of the Old Guard," the Emperor began, 
 "I say good by to you. For twenty years I have 
 ever found you on the path to honor and to glory. 
 In these last days, as in those of our prosperity, you 
 have never ceased to be models of bravery and fidel- 
 ity. With men like you our cause was not lost ; but 
 if it had no end, the war would have been a civil 
 one, and France would have been only more unhappy. 
 Hence I sacrificed my interests to those of my coun- 
 try, and I leave. Do you, my friends, continue to 
 serve France. Its happiness will be my only thought 
 — the sole object of my prayers. Do not mourn my 
 lot. If I have consented to outlive myself, it is in 
 
TBE LEAVE-TAKING AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 2G9 
 
 order yet to serve your glory. I wish to record the 
 great deeds we have done together." Here Napo- 
 leon's voice broke. He gave way to his emotion for 
 a moment, and then went on : " Good by, good by, my 
 children. I should like to press you all to my heart. 
 Let me at least kiss your flag ! " At these words. 
 General Petit, a man as modest as he was brave, 
 seized the flag, and stepped forward. Napoleon 
 embraced the General and kissed the eagle of the 
 standard. Then nothing was to be heard for a few 
 minutes but half-suppressed sobs, and the old grena- 
 diers were seen wiping the tears from their weather- 
 beaten faces. Napoleon, who was dee^Dly affected, 
 controlled himself by a mighty effort, raised his head, 
 and in a firmer voice called out : " Good by, once 
 more, good by, my old companions. Let this last 
 kiss pass into your hearts ! " Then he tore himself 
 away from those about him, and covering his face 
 with his hands, sprang into his carriage, which at 
 once started on the first stage of his exile. 
 
 D 
 
 " What more shall I say ? " asks General de S^gur, 
 in his Memoirs. " The Grand Army, the Empire, the 
 Emperor, all was over ! The Genius that had sup- 
 ported me vanished with Napoleon. Now that I 
 have come to this end of so much greatness, it seems 
 to me that my literary life is over, as was our military 
 career ; that there was no more history for the histo- 
 rian as there was no more war for warriors. It is a 
 bitter and grievous memory that we recall of a coun- 
 try to be reconquered, of an affront to be avenged, 
 
270 THJE^ INVASION OF" ISU. 
 
 of all the glory with which we were still defending 
 ourselves, when suddenly our arms fell powerless to 
 our side, and in the prime of life our disappointed 
 hearts had to begin a new career in strange circum- 
 stances." 
 
 No scene has more deeply impressed the world 
 than this leave-taking at Fontainebleau. No poet ever 
 invented a more memorable incident. This extraor- 
 dinary man, great in either event of fortune, knew 
 how to touch even his enemies. The four foreign com- 
 missioners and their suite did not understand a word 
 that the Emperor said, yet they could not conquer 
 the emotion that seized them at the pathetic spectacle. 
 Napoleon and his Old Guard have been sung in 
 foreign lands as well as in France, by Lord Byron 
 and by Heine. 
 
 Byron celebrates the 20th of April, 1814, in his 
 poem, ^ To Napoleon " : — 
 
 " Must thou go, my glorious chief, 
 Sever'd from the faithful few ? 
 Who can tell thy warrior's grief, 
 Maddening o'er that long adieu ? 
 
 " Woman's love and friendship's zeal, 
 Dear as both have been to me — 
 What are they to all I feel, 
 
 With a soldier's faith for thee ? " 
 
 Heine's poem, " The Two Grenadiers," is well known. 
 It has been set to music by Schumann. A Bavarian 
 dramatist has written a play, Josephine Bonaparte, 
 
THE LEAVE-TAKING AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 271 
 
 which introduces the leave-taking at Fontainebleau. 
 It has had great success at Munich, and when the 
 actor who takes the part of Napoleon Bonaparte comes 
 down the staircase and bids farewell to his old com- 
 panions, the Germans are as much moved as the 
 French. 
 
XXII. 
 
 THE JOURNEY TO ELBA. 
 
 nVTAPOLEON'S journey to Elba was full of inci- 
 -1-M dent, but it began calmly. General Drouot 
 drove on ahead in one carriage; Napoleon followed 
 in another with General Bertrand; then came the 
 four commissioners of the Allied Powers. April 20, 
 they stopped for the night at Briare; the 21st at 
 Nevers; the 22d at Roanne. The Emperor sent 
 for the mayor of this town, and said to him : " Yon 
 ought to have here six thousand men of the army of 
 Spain. If I had not been betrayed more than four- 
 teen times a day, I should still be on the throne." 
 So far Napoleon encountered no hostile feeling on 
 his way. Everywhere he stopped, he talked with the 
 officials, and he had the consolation of hearing cries 
 of " Long live the Emperor 1 " The first part of the 
 way he had been escorted by detachments of cavalry, — 
 a useless precaution, because in the Bourbonnais the 
 attitude of the populace was friendly ; but the escort 
 was dismissed just when it would have been of ser- 
 vice, and Napoleon was in as great peril of his life as 
 if he had been on the battle-field. He passed through 
 
 272 
 
THE JOURNEY TO ELBA. 273 
 
 Lyons, April 23, at ajbout eleven o'clock at niglit, 
 without the knowledge of any one in the city. The 
 24th he reached Peage-de-Roussillon, a little village 
 on the Rhone, and there he breakfasted. 
 
 As he was pushing on towards Valence, he met 
 Marshal Augereau, Duke of Castiglione. " Where 
 are you going like that ? " he asked, grasping him by 
 the arm ; " Are you going to the court? " Augereau 
 answered that at that moment he was on his way to 
 Lyons. This man of the 18th Fructidor, formerly a 
 fanatical Republican, was hastening to join the Bour- 
 bons and to abjure the tricolor. April 16, from his 
 headquarters at Valence, he had issued a proclamation 
 to his soldiers, in which he said : " Soldiers, you are 
 freed from your oaths, by the nation, in which the 
 sovereignty resides, and still more, if more were nec- 
 essary, by the abdication of a man who, after immo- 
 lating millions of victims to his cruel ambition, has 
 not known how to die as a soldier. The nation sum- 
 mons Louis XVIII. to the throne. Born a French- 
 man, he will be proud of your glory, and will gladly 
 surround himself with your leaders ; a descendant of 
 Henri IV., he will have his heart ; he wdll love the 
 soldiers and the people. Let us then swear fidelity 
 to Louis XVIII., and to the Constitution which pre- 
 sents him to us; let us raise the true French flag 
 which abolishes every emblem of a revolution now 
 ended, and soon you will find in the gratitude of your 
 king and of your country a just reward for your noble 
 deeds." The Emperor, doubtless still ignorant of 
 
274 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 
 
 this proclamation, talked for about a quarter of an 
 hour with the hero of Castiglione, and kissed him on 
 leaving. It has been said that an hour later he said 
 to General KoUer, the Austrian commissioner: "I 
 have just heard of Augereau's infamous proclamation ; 
 if I had known about it when I met him, I should 
 have combed his hair for him." 
 
 Napoleon passed through Valence, which had been 
 one of his first garrisons when an obscure officer of 
 artillery, but he did not stop there. The soldiers 
 of Augereau's corps, though they all wore the white 
 cockade, shouted, " Long live the Emperor ! " But 
 after Valence there were no more cheers ; he en- 
 countered nothing but imprecations and curses. 
 
 As Napoleon was passing through Orange, April 
 25, he was greeted with cries of,- "Long live the 
 King ! Long live Louis XVIII. ! " The same day, 
 shortly before reaching Avignon, where he was to 
 change horses, he encountered a number of men 
 assembled, who shouted furiously : " Long live the 
 King ! Hurrah for the Allies ! Down with the 
 tyrant ! the wretch ! the beggar ! " A little further, 
 at the village of Orgon, the popular fury was at its 
 height. Before the inn where he was to stop there 
 had been raised a gallows, on which swung a figure 
 covered with blood, with an inscription on his breast : 
 " This, sooner or later, will be the tyrant's lot ! " The 
 infuriated crowd climbed upon Napoleon's carriage, 
 with the most savage insults. Count Shouvaloff, 
 the Russian commissioner, had nxuch difficulty in 
 calming them. 
 
THE JOUUNEY TO ELBA. 27o 
 
 An eye-witness, the Abbd Ferrucci, Cardinal Gabri- 
 elli's secretary, thus describes the terrible scene : 
 " Or^on, April 25. A most noteworthy and unex- 
 pected incident took place to-day, in my presence. 
 The ex-Emperor Napoleon was passing through m- 
 cognito, with three carriages, at eight in the morning: 
 the other carriages had already gone through. The 
 people, who spy out everything, gathered. Napoleon 
 was to stop for breakfast, but he could not. All 
 shouted : ' Death to the tyrant I Long live the 
 King ! ' They burned him in ef^gy before his eyes, 
 and held up before him figures stabbed and covered 
 with blood. Some climbed up on his carriage and 
 shook their fists in his face, crying, ' Death to the 
 tyrant ! ' Some women, seizing stones, shouted, 
 ' Give me back my son ! ' It was a painful spec- 
 tacle, inconsistent with honor, humanity, and re- 
 ligion. For my part, I should have been glad to 
 protect him with my own body." 
 
 The peril grew greater every moment. Napoleon 
 had good reason to believe that his wonderful career 
 was to come to a most terrible end. Sir Walter 
 Scott, though generally most hostile to the Emperor, 
 does not hesitate to say : " The danger was of a new 
 and peculiarly horrible description, and calculated to 
 appall many to whom the terrors of a field of battle 
 were familiar. The bravest soldier might shudder 
 at a death like that of the De Witts." 
 
 If we may believe the report of the Prussian com- 
 missioner, Count Von Waldburg Truchsess, the ac- 
 
276 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 count of which Count Shouvaloff certified to Chateau- 
 briand, the Emperor, when a quarter of a league from 
 Orgon, thought it necessary to disguise himself ; he 
 put on a round hat with a white cockade, and got into 
 a wretched blue overcoat; then he mounted a post- 
 horse and galloped on ahead of his own carriage, in 
 order to pass for a courier. The commissioners, who 
 were not aware that he had changed his dress, fol- 
 lowed at some distance. Near Saint Canat, he entered 
 a miserable inn, on the highroad, called La Calade. 
 
 " It was not till we were near Saint Canat," says 
 the Prussian commissioner, "that we heard of the 
 Emperor's disguise and of his arrival at this inn ; he 
 was accompanied by but a single courier ; his whole 
 suite, from the general to the scullion, wore white 
 cockades, with which they seemed to have provided 
 themselves beforehand. His valet came up to us, 
 and begged us to make liim pass for Colonel Camp- 
 bell, the name he had given to the hostess when he 
 arrived. We promised to comply with this request, 
 and I went first into a sort of chamber, Avhere I was 
 surprised to find the former monarch of the world 
 buried in deep thought, with his head resting in his 
 hands. I did not recognize him at first, and went 
 nearer. He sprang up when he heard my steps, and 
 I saw his face wet with tears. He made me a sign 
 not to say anything, made me sit down by him, and 
 all the time the hostess was in the room, talked to 
 me about indifferent things. . . . We sat down at 
 the table ; but since the meal had not been prepared 
 
THE JOURNEY TO ELBA. 277 
 
 by his own cooks, he could not make up his mind to 
 eat anything lest he should be poisoned. . . . He 
 talked a good deal, and was very pleasant. When 
 Ave were alone, and our hostess, who waited on us, 
 had gone away, he told us why he felt that his life 
 was in danger; he was convinced that the French 
 government had taken measures to have him abducted 
 or assassinated in this region. ... To convince us 
 that his fears were well grounded, he told us of his 
 talk wdth his hostess, who had not recognized him. 
 * Well,' she asked, ' have you met Bonaparte ? ' 
 ' No,' he replied. She went on, ' I wonder whether 
 he will save himself ; I always think the people are 
 going to murder him, and I'm sure he will deserve 
 it ! Tell me, are they going to ship him to his island? ' 
 'Oh, yes.' 'They'll drown him, won't they?' 'I 
 hope so,' answered Napoleon. ' So you see to what 
 danger I am exposed.' " 
 
 This man in disguise, weeping in a miserable road- 
 side inn, is he who was crowned Emperor of the 
 French at Notre Dame, and King of Italy in the 
 Cathedral of Milan. This was the man of destiny, 
 the new Cgesar, the modern Charlemagne, who ap- 
 peared at Dresden two years before as the king of 
 kings ; to such strange misery had he fallen. Napoleon 
 naturally dreaded dying here in this wretched hole, 
 disguised as he was, and with the white cockade in his 
 hat. Yet escape from his perils was not easy. Napo- 
 leon knew well these Southern people. Early in his 
 career he had seen them at work, and they were as 
 
278 THE INVASION OF 18 U. 
 
 zealous now in their fervor for Rojalism as they had 
 been for the Republic : the White Terror promised to 
 be as pitiless as the Red Terror had been. 
 
 Meanwhile, night had fallen, cold and dark, but 
 on that account offering Napoleon a better protection 
 than a strong escort. A violent mistral was raging, 
 and this, with the darkness of the night, prevented 
 the populace from gathering about this inn. Never- 
 theless, a good many suspected that the Emperor was 
 there, and made their way thither. The foreign 
 commissioners in vain tried to convince them that 
 they were mistaken; that Napoleon was not there. 
 "We don't want to do him any harm," they said; 
 " we only want to look at him to see what effect mis- 
 fortune has had upon him. We shall at the most 
 only utter a few reproaches, and tell him the truth, 
 which he has so seldom heard." The commissioners 
 succeeded in dissuading them and in calming them. 
 Then some one appeared who promised to maintain 
 order at Aix, if he could be given a letter for the 
 mayor of that place. His offer was accepted, and the 
 man started for Aix, returning soon with the assur- 
 ance that the mayor had taken measures to prevent 
 any disorder. It was midnight. The crowd that 
 had assembled at the doors of the inn had for the 
 most part dispersed; only a few were left, with lan- 
 terns. Napoleon decided to leave. But first he 
 thought it prudent to put on a new disguise ; hence, 
 wishing to pass for a foreign officer, he put on Gen- 
 eral Roller's uniform, and wrapped himself up in 
 
THE JOURNEY TO ELBA. 279 
 
 General Shouvaloff's cloak. Then, half an liour 
 after midnight, they started out into the black and 
 blustering night, eluding the few inquisitive men 
 who still lingered about and turned the light of their 
 dark-lanterns on the carriages. 
 
 When the Emperor tried to poison himself at Fon- 
 tainebleau, could he have foreseen this deepest humil- 
 iation, — that he should wear a foreign uniform to 
 escape being massacred by Frenchmen? Probably 
 not; reality was to outdo his worst apprehensions. 
 The Prussian commissioner, in his account, has no 
 word of compassion for the defeated giant ; he says : 
 " The Emperor did not regain confidence ; he stayed 
 in the Austrian general's carriage, and bade the 
 coachman smoke, — a familiarity which would less 
 betray his presence. He even asked General Roller 
 to sing ; and when he said he did not know how to 
 sing, Bonaparte told him to whistle ; and so he drove 
 on, crouching in one of the corners of the carriage, 
 pretending to sleep, lulled by the General's charming 
 music, breathing the incense of the driver's pipe." 
 
 Chateaubriand exclaims that such a story is odi- 
 ous reading. " What," he asks, " the commissioners 
 could not give better protection to the man for Avhom 
 they had the honor of being responsible ? Who were 
 they, to put on such airs of superiorit}^ to a man like 
 that ? Bonaparte said with truth that he might have 
 made the journey in the company of a part of his 
 guard. They were plainly indifferent to his fate ; 
 they enjoyed his degradation ; they gladly gave their 
 
280 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 consent to the marks of contempt which the victim 
 required for his safety ; it is pleasant to have under 
 one's feet the destiny of the man who used to walk 
 on the loftiest heads, and to avenge haughtiness by 
 insult ! So the commissioners have no word, even of 
 philosophic reflection, on such a change of fortune, to 
 warn man of his nothingness and of the greatness of 
 God's judgments ! In the ranks of the Allies there 
 had been many flatterers of Napoleon; when one 
 has gone on his knees before force, he has no right to 
 triumpb in misfortune." 
 
 It is easy to understand the impression made on 
 the Emperor's mind by his journey through Provence. 
 It possibly explains his indulgence to the Imperialists 
 who turned Royalists. He must have remembered 
 that even he, the Emperor, had been forced to cry 
 " Long live the King ! " and to disguise, not merely 
 his feelings, but also his person. He knew how rare 
 was the stoicism of a Cato or a Brutus, and when he 
 returned from Elba, he blamed no one of his minis- 
 ters or marshals for turning their coats. He was 
 past all possibility of surprise, and his extremes of 
 good and evil fortune taught him at once compassion 
 and contempt. 
 
 The end of the journey was without incident after 
 leaving Aix. April 26, they breakfasted at Saint 
 Maximin. Napoleon still wore General Roller's uni- 
 form. " You would not have recognized me in these 
 ' clothes ? " he asked of the sub-prefect of Aix ; then 
 he added, pointing to the commissioners : " These gen- 
 
TUE JOURNEY TO ELBA. 281 
 
 tlemen induced me to put them on, deeming it neces- 
 sary for my safety. I might have had an escort, but 
 I refused, preferring to trust to French loyalty. I 
 had no reason to regret this confidence from Fon- 
 tainebleau to Avignon, but since then I have run 
 much danger. The Provence people disgrace them- 
 selves." 
 
 Then he told them that when he was an artillery 
 officer he had been sent into this country to set free 
 two Royalists who were about to be hanged 'for wear- 
 ing the white cockade. " It was only with great dif- 
 ficulty," he went on, " that I saved them from the 
 hands of those madmen, and now they are beginning 
 the same excesses against those who refuse to put on 
 the white cockade. Such is the inconsistency of the 
 French." 
 
 In the evening of April 26 they reached the castle 
 of Bouillidou, near Luc, where they found Princess 
 Pauline Borghese, who was much moved when she 
 saw her brother. There were Austrian troops near 
 by, charged with escorting the Emperor and seeing 
 to his embarkment. Without further danger, he 
 reached Fr^jus, April 27, and thence he wrote to 
 Corvisart : " I have received your letter of the 22d. 
 I am glad to notice your good conduct when so many 
 have conducted themselves ill. I am grateful to you, 
 and it confirms the opinion I had already formed of 
 your character. Give me news of Marie Louise, and 
 never doubt my affection for you. Do not give way 
 to melancholy thoughts ; I hope that you will long 
 
282 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 be spared to do good and to make your friends 
 happy." 
 
 The fifteenth article of the treaty of April 11, 
 1814, ran thus : " The Imperial Guard will furnish a 
 detachment of from twelve to fifteen hundred men, 
 of all arms of the service, to serve as escort to Saint 
 Tropez, the place of sailing " : this article had not 
 been carried out. Napoleon did not have the stipu- 
 lated escort, and he did not sail from Saint Tropez. 
 The sixteenth article was also unobserved; it said: 
 " There shall be supplied an armed corvette and the 
 transports necessary to conduct to their destination 
 His Majesty the Emperor and his household. The 
 corvette shall remain His Majesty's property." The 
 French Government sent the brig, Inconstayit., but 
 Napoleon refused to sail in it. " If the government," 
 he said, " had known what was due to itself, it would 
 have sent me a three-decker, and not an old worthless 
 brig, which my dignity forbids me boarding." The 
 Emperor preferred to take the English frigate, Un- 
 daunted, which Colonel Campbell had had prepared. 
 
 April 27, Napoleon, who was to embark the next 
 day in this frigate, in the gulf of Saint Raphael, in- 
 vited to dinner, at Fr^jus, the four foreign commis- 
 sioners, Count Klamur, and the captain of the English 
 ship. " There he resumed all his Imperial dignity," 
 says the Count of Waldburg. "... He spoke to 
 us with rare openness of his plans for the aggrandize- 
 ment of France at our expense ; he explained how 
 he had meant to turn Hamburg into another Ant- 
 
THE JOURNEY TO ELBA. 283 
 
 werp, and to make the harbor of Cuxhaven like that 
 of Cherbourg. He pointed out to us what no one 
 had noticed, that the Elbe was as deep as the Scheldt, 
 and that a port could be built at its mouth like the 
 one that made Belgium powerful. He spoke with 
 such passion and vivacity of his fleets at Toulon, 
 Brest, and Antwerp, of his Hamburg army, and of his 
 mortars at Hyeres, with which he could throw shells 
 three thousand paces, that one would have thought that 
 all still belonged to him." After dinner he took leave 
 of the Russian and Prussian commissioners : only the 
 English and Austrian commissioners were to accom- 
 pany him to Elba. He took with him Generals Ber- 
 trand and Drouot, the Pole, Major Gerzmanofsky, 
 two quartermasters of the palace, a paymaster, a phy- 
 sician, two secretaries, a house-steward, a valet, two 
 cooks, and six servants. An escort of Austrian 
 hussars accompanied him to the harbor of Saint 
 Raphael, where he was received with military honors 
 and a salute of twenty-four cannon. He set sail, 
 April 28, at 9 p.ini. May 3, he anchored in the road^ 
 stead of Porto Ferrajo, and on the 4th, he landed 
 amid the cheers of the inhabitants, who were proud 
 of their sovereign. 
 
XXIII. 
 
 THE LAST DAYS OF MARIE LOUISE IN FRANCE. 
 
 WHILE Napoleon was thus on his way from 
 Fontainebleau to Elba, what had become of 
 the Empress, Marie Louise ? We left her at Orleans, 
 April 12, 1814, harassed and ill, weeping and won- 
 'dering what was her duty. The same day, Baron de 
 Bausset arrived, bringing her a letter from Napoleon 
 and one from Metternich. The Austrian Minister 
 assured Marie Louise that she should be free to lead 
 an independent life, with the right of succession for 
 her son, and he indicated that the best thing for her 
 to do would be to go to Austria with her son to await 
 her choice between the place where the Emperor 
 Napoleon might be and her own establishment ; he 
 added that the Emperor Francis would have the hap- 
 piness of helping to dry the tears which his unhappy 
 daughter had only too many reasons for shedding ; 
 that she could be quiet for a season and free to decide 
 upon the future, and that she might bring with her 
 such persons as she best trusted. 
 
 Shortly after she received this letter. Prince Paul 
 Esterhazy and Prince Wenezel-Lichtenstein reached 
 284 
 
LAST DAYS OF MARIE LOUISE IN FRANCE. 285 
 
 Orleans with another letter from Metternich, telling 
 her that the Ducliies of Parma and Piacenza had been 
 granted her, revertible to her son, and he asked her 
 to go at once to the castle of Rambouillet to meet her 
 father. 
 
 Marie Louise, who had long desired this interview, 
 and Avas very anxious to plead not only her own cause, 
 but also that of her husband and son, readily agreed. 
 She left Orleans, April 11, at 8 p.m., under the escort 
 of some of the cavalry of the Imperial Guard. At 
 Angerville, however, their place was taken by some 
 Cossacks, who brandished their long pikes about the 
 carriages as if they were a convoy of prisoners. In 
 fact, from this moment Marie Louise was really a 
 captive. When, April 13, at noon, she reached Ram- 
 bouillet, worn out with mental suffering and bodily 
 fatigue, she found the roadway and the interior of the 
 castle guarded b}^ Russian troops. She regretted her 
 haste in leaving Orleans, for she learned that her 
 father would not be in Paris till the next day and 
 would not come to Rambouillet till April 16. 
 
 The 12th, Marie Louise might have joined Napo- 
 leon at Fontainebleau ; the 13th that was impossible. 
 The foreigners, to whom she had imprudently en- 
 trusted herself, would not have permitted it. Up to 
 that time, that is to say, up to April 13, Napoleon, as 
 we have said, on account of his intention to kill him- 
 self, did not care to see again his wife and son. But 
 as soon as he renounced his plan of suicide, he longed 
 to press them to his heart. The 13th, he sent Gen- 
 
286 THE INVASION OF 18U. 
 
 eral Cambronne to Orleans with two battalions of the 
 Guard. Since he had heard that one of the reasons 
 that prevented the Empress from going to Fontaine- 
 bleau was the dread of being stopped on the way by the 
 allied troops, he doubtless sent this escort to protect 
 her. But General Cambronne arrived too late ; Marie 
 Louise was already on her way to Rambouillet. 
 
 The Empress spent the 13th, 14th, and 15th in 
 feverish impatience to see her father. At one mo- 
 ment she was pacing her apartment in great agita- 
 tion ; the next she was motionless, shedding torrents 
 of tears. The visit that Queen Hortense made 
 brought her no consolation ; she saw that Josephine's 
 daughter suspected her of desiring to leave Napo- 
 leon. 
 
 In the afternoon of April 16, a very plain open car- 
 riage brought to Rambouillet the Emperor of Austria, 
 accompanied only by Prince Metternich. Marie Louise, 
 followed by her son and Madame de Montesquiou, 
 went down to the foot of the palace staircase. When 
 she saw her father, she burst into tears, and even be- 
 fore she kissed him, she placed the King of Rome in 
 his arms. This was a silent reproach which the Em- 
 peror of Anuria must well have understood when for 
 the first time he pressed to his heart the grandson 
 whom he had never seen, and now beheld in circum- 
 stances so agonizing for the unhappy mother. 
 
 Marie Louise barely took time to present to her 
 father such members of her household as happened 
 to be present, and hastened with him into her room. 
 
LAST DAYS OF MAMIE LOUISE IN FRANCE, 287 
 
 Her father was no less moved than she was. The lit- 
 tle boy, whose fate was already so pathetic, won his ad- 
 miration ; he gazed at him tenderly, and promised to 
 look after him, as if to atone for not having defended 
 him more warmly. Henceforth, Marie Louise and 
 the King of Rome lived only under the protection of 
 Austria. Two Ijattalions of Austrian infantry and 
 two squadrons of Austrian cavalry took the place of 
 the Russian troops on guard at Rambouillet. The 
 Emperor Francis spent the night there, and left 
 the next morning at nine, having persuaded his 
 daughter to go to Vienna. He took good care not 
 to tell her that he condemned her never to see her 
 husband again, and he led her to suppose that after 
 she had rested awhile in the bosom of her family, 
 she should be free to divide her time between the 
 Duchy of Parma and the island of Elba. But 
 these promises did not satisfy Marie Louise. Her 
 interview with her father, so far from allaying her 
 anxiety, only redoubled it. With her elbows on her 
 knees, and her head in her hands, she meditated 
 and wept. 
 
 April 19, Marie Louise received at Rambouillet a 
 visit which was extremely painful to her, but her 
 father insisted on it, namely, from the Emperor Alex- 
 ander. As the Duke of Rovigo says in his Memoirs : 
 " The Czar must have seen from her face, which had 
 been bathed with tears for twenty days, what effect he 
 produced on her. Doubtless he did not know that 
 the Empress had been informed in detail of every- 
 
288 THE INVASION OF 18 14. 
 
 thing that had taken place in Paris before and during 
 his reception of the deputation of marshals. But she 
 knew all the plans framed against her husband, and 
 she would have had to possess great self-control to 
 keep her face calm before the instigator of the griefs 
 by which she was tormented." 
 
 Alexander apologized for the liberty he took in 
 presenting himself before the Empress without first 
 securing her permission. He added that he came 
 with the consent of the Emperor of Austria, and 
 warmly assured her of his sympathy and devotion. 
 "He was so amiable, so easy," says the Baron de 
 Bausset, "that we were almost tempted to believe 
 that nothing serious had happened in Paris. After 
 breakfast he asked the Empress if he might see her 
 son. Then turning towards me, — for I had the honor 
 of meeting him at the Erfurt Congress, — he asked 
 me if I would kindly take him to ' the little King ' : 
 those are his own words. I preceded him, after sending 
 word to Madame de Montesquiou. When he saw the 
 boy, the Emperor kissed him, played with him, and 
 looked at him attentively." Marie Louise treated the 
 Czar politely, but coldly. 
 
 As soon as he heard that the Empress was at Ram- 
 bouillet. Napoleon gave up all thought of asking her 
 to join him. He knew that there the Emperor of 
 Austria would not let her come to him, and that 
 Marie Louise was no longer free. Nevertheless, 
 April 19, the day before he left Fontainebleau, he 
 dictated to Baron Fain a letter for the Baron de 
 
X.4-Sr DAYS OF MARIE LOUISE IN FRANCE. 289 
 
 M^neval, in which he said : " Inasmuch as the Em- 
 press has made many inquiries of M. de La Phice about 
 the ishmd of Elba, I send you the report of an officer 
 of engineers who has just come from there : it is 
 fuller than anything we have. You may show it 
 to the Empress, if you think it will interest her." 
 Those last words are not without sadness, — " if you 
 think it will interest her." It seems as if he foresaw 
 that desertion which throws such a cloud on the fame 
 of Marie Louise. 
 
 The letter closed thus : " The Emperor was not 
 able to leave to-day, because the preparations could 
 not be completed ; he will leave to-morrow, to pass 
 through Nevers, Moulins, Lyons, Avignon, Aix, to 
 Saint Tropez. Letters must be directed to Leghorn 
 and Genoa, to the care of the Viceroy and of the 
 King of Naples." That same evening, April 19, 
 there came another letter from Fontainebleau : '' The 
 Emperor starts at 9 A.M. to-morrow. He wrote to 
 you this morning the road he means to take to L3^ons 
 through the Bourbonnais, to Saint Tropez, through 
 Avignon and Aix. The Emperor would like to 
 receive news from the Empress to-morrow evening at 
 Briare, where he means to pass the night ; he hopes 
 also to find letters at Saint Tropez. In a word. His 
 Majesty begs of you to write to him at every oppor- 
 tunity." 
 
 April 22, Marie Louise received at Rambouillet 
 another visit even more disagreeable than that of the 
 Emperor Alexander ; that, namely, of the King of 
 
290 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 Prussia. After spending an hour with the Empress, 
 this monarch asked the Baron de Bausset, as the Czar 
 had done, to take him to " the little King." The 
 King was less affectionate, less demonstrative, than 
 the Emperor Alexander; but, like him, he kissed 
 " the little King." 
 
 The same day the Austrian general. Count Kinski, 
 accompanied by several officers, arrived at Rambouil- 
 let. He was to accompany Marie Louise to Vienna, 
 and came to see about the preparations for the 
 journey. 
 
 Marie Louise started from Rambouillet April 23, 
 stopping a day at Grosbois, the castle of Berthier, 
 Prince of Wagram, where she saw her father, who 
 left on the 25th to dine in Paris with the Count 
 d'Artois. Then she pushed on with her son, not 
 stopping again. The Empress was accompanied by 
 the Duchess of Montebello, the Countess of Brignoli, 
 General Caffarelli, MM. de Saint Aignan, de Baus- 
 set, and de Meneval ; the King of Rome by his gov- 
 erness, the Countess of Montesquieu, and by Madame 
 Soufflot. The Duke of Rovigo says : " She travelled 
 under the escort of her father's troops, and took the 
 road by which the Allies had marched from Basle to 
 Paris. She passed through the departments of a 
 country which, four years before, had raised tri- 
 umphal arches to greet her, had scattered flowers 
 before her feet. It saw her leave as the last victim 
 of the enemies who had ravaged its cities, and carrying 
 with her the tie which, shortly before, had seemed to 
 
LAST DAYS OF MARIE LOUISE IN FEANCE. t^Ul 
 
 unite her more firmly witli the French. Her heart 
 was rent with anguish in this sad journey : everything 
 was full of bitterness. She carried with her the 
 regrets of all who had enjoyed the happiness of 
 approaching her, and left behind her the memory of 
 her virtues." 
 
 The Empress spent the night of April 25 at Pro- 
 vins, whence she wrote to Napoleon. The country 
 presented a most doleful appearance : the ravages of 
 war had left hideous traces. The harvests had been 
 trampled beneath the feet of cavalry horses ; every- 
 where were to be seen houses destroyed, villages in 
 ashes. The night of the 26th, she stopped at Troyes, 
 in the house of M. de Mesgrigny, father of one 
 of the Emperor's equerries; the 27th, at Chatillon, 
 famous for its fruitless congress. The 28th, she 
 reached Dijon, where the Austrian troops were drawn 
 up to receive her as their Emperor's daughter. They 
 had wanted to welcome her with a salute and to 
 illuminate the city, but she declined. That night she 
 slept at Dijon ; the next at Gray ; the 30th at Vesoul ; 
 May 1st at Belfort; and May 2d, she crossed the 
 Rhine between Huningue and Basle, leaving Frencli 
 soil. 
 
 Marie Louise had spent but four years in France, 
 and they had left a more painful than happy mem- 
 ory. Her happiness had not lasted more than two 
 years, but had been darkened by many a cloud. The 
 days of her prosperity came to an end with the Dres- 
 den interview. The Russian campaign was the begin- 
 
292 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 ning of a series of anxieties which ended in complete 
 iniser}^ 
 
 When Marie Louise recalled her eventful career, 
 those four perturbed years must have seemed like a 
 distressing nightmare. Her elevation and her fall 
 were equally astounding. A single consolation was 
 left her, — the thought that she had done her duty. 
 In 1814 she could make herself no serious reproach. 
 A good wife, a good mother, a good Regent, she had 
 always obeyed Napoleon's orders, and he never once 
 complained of her. All parties respected her and 
 amid all the insults poured out on her husband, no 
 voice was raised to denounce or even to criticise her. 
 In their Memoirs the most ardent partisans of the 
 Emperor, Meneval, Bausset, Savary, have only most 
 flattering words for her. No Legitimist, no Repub- 
 lican, has attacked her. When she left France, every 
 one paid homage to her virtue and her character. 
 Every one felt sure that she would go to join her 
 husband at Elba. She thought so herself; she had 
 not yet felt the influence of the Count of Neipperg. 
 The bonds uniting her to Napoleon were stretched, 
 but not yet broken, and at first after her return in 
 Germany, she had not ceased to be a Frenchwoman. 
 
 Time was needed to turn the dethroned Empress 
 into an Austrian princess ; the transformation only 
 took place gradually. Drawn in opposite directions, 
 the prey of contradictory influences, hesitating be- 
 tween two countries, as between her father and 
 her husband, she at first experienced painful scruples 
 
LAST BAYS OF MARIE LOUISE IN FRANCE. 293 
 
 and doubts. It was a difficult position for a young 
 woman of twenty-two. Ambushes beset this victim 
 of politics on all sides, and all possible plans 
 were devised to prevent her going to Elba, whither 
 her duty called her. Accustomed from infancy, 
 as daughter and subject, to follow her father's 
 wishes, she at last blindly accepted a yoke which 
 relieved her of many responsibilities. Being of a 
 passive, submissive nature, she entrusted herself and 
 her son to her father's care : it is he rather than 
 she who deserves the blame of posterity. In any 
 other time, she would have been a faithful wife, an 
 excellent mother, an honored sovereign, but she had 
 not enough energy to play a proper part in such 
 troublous days. For four years she had been a true 
 Frenchwoman; but when she had returned to Ger- 
 many, all the ideas, the prejudices, the passions of 
 her girlhood reappeared, and she forgot her second 
 countr}^ in her attachment for the land of her birth. 
 Thus happened to her what often happens to women 
 who marry foreigners : they do no! really change 
 their nationality, but remain devoted daughters of 
 their native land. Social conventions, even religious 
 ties, are often powerless to destroy the work of nature, 
 and marriage, sacred as it is, cannot uproot the mem- 
 ory of one's country. The Archduchess of Austria, 
 the Duchess of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla suc- 
 ceeded to the Empress of the French, the Queen of 
 Italy. As for her son, not only did he cease to be 
 the King of Rome, the Prince Imperial of France, he 
 
294 THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 never was even Hereditary Prince of Parma. He 
 was never to obtain the promised right of succes- 
 sion. The time was drawing near when he was to be 
 robbed of the name of Bonaparte, the name of Napo- 
 leon, and was to be known only as Francis, Duke 
 of Reichstadt. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Abdication of Napoleon, the first, 
 (General de Segur's account of, 
 172 ; the draft of, 175 ; despatched 
 to Paris, 178. 
 
 Abdication, the second, form of, 
 215 ; signed by Xapoleon, 21(J. 
 
 Alexander I. disposed to withdraw 
 from the alliance, 39 ; on account 
 of intercepted letters to Napoleon 
 decides to march on Paris, 90; 
 noble language of, as to Napo- 
 leon's abdication and exile, 210; 
 interview of, with Marie Louise 
 ii t Rambouillet, 287. 
 
 Allies, the, determined to refuse 
 the natural boundaries of France, 
 59; propositions of, offensive to 
 France, 60 ; grant a delay of ten 
 days, 08; determined on destroy- > 
 iug Napoleon, 88; Informed by 
 traitors of Napoleon's plans, 02 ; 
 disposed to withhold everything 
 from Napoleon, 209, 
 
 Areis-sur-Aube, battle of, 84; an 
 heroic page in the Emperor's 
 liistory, 85. 
 
 Augereau, General, meets Napoleon 
 on his way to Elba, 273; procla- 
 mation of, to his soldiers, 273. 
 
 li.usauo, Duke of, writes to the 
 I )iike of Vicenza, giving him from 
 Xapoleon carte blanche to con- 
 duct negotiations, 01; devotion 
 of, to Napoleon, 201. 
 
 Bausset, M. de, assures the Em- 
 press of the fidelity of her guard, 
 234; sent to Francis II. with a 
 letter from Marie Louise, 236; 
 
 brings a letter from Marie Louise 
 to Napoleon, 249. 
 
 Berangef-, " Les Deux Grenadiers " 
 of, 2()6. 
 
 Berthier, General, leaves Napoleon, 
 259. 
 
 Bertrand, General, faithful to Napo- 
 leon, 201. 
 
 Belliard, General, informs Napo- 
 leon at Juvisy of the fate of Paris, 
 140 ; urges him not to go to Paris, 
 142. 
 
 Blois, court and government at, 
 151 ; condition of, at the end of 
 the Regency, 225. 
 
 Bliicher, General, at Brienne, 0; 
 defeated by Napoleon at Mont- 
 mirail and elsewhere, 17; ad- 
 vances on Paris, 42; is saved by 
 ihe capitulation of Soissons, 40 ; 
 sends Marie Louise an intercepted 
 letter of Napoleon, 103. 
 
 Bonaparte, Jerome, his relations 
 with Napoleon, 104. 
 
 Bonaparte, Joseph, letter of, to 
 Napoleon, February 3, 1814, 13; 
 urges Napoleon not to let the Em- 
 press leave Paris, 10 ; his letter to 
 Napoleon of February 11, 1814, 21 ; 
 writes to Napoleon concerning 
 the exhaustion of the country 
 and the fidelity of the National 
 Guard, 34; writes to Napoleon 
 respecting peace, 47 ; reads Napo- 
 leon's letters in the Council, 112: 
 proclamation of, to the citizens 
 of Paris, 129; directs the minis- 
 ters and dignitaries to leave 
 Paris, and authorizes capitula- 
 295 
 
296 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 tiou, 131 ; letters of, at Blois, to 
 Napoleon at Fontainebleau, 149 
 et seq.; plans of, to change the 
 seat of the Regency, 222; letter 
 of, to Napoleon, 222. 
 
 Bonaparte, Louis, gives offence to 
 Napoleon by his frankness, 104. 
 
 Borghese, Princess Pauline, meets 
 Napoleon on his way to Elba, 281. 
 
 Borgo Pozzo di, declaration of, con- 
 cerning the Coalition, 39. 
 
 Boulay, M., opposes tlie Duke of 
 Feltre, and urges Marie Louise 
 to remain in Paris, 109. 
 
 Bourrienne, describes Napoleon's 
 feelings for Brienne, 9 ; describes 
 the reception of Marmont by the 
 Royalists, 252. 
 
 Brienne, the battle of, G. 
 
 Byron's poem " To Napoleon," 270. 
 
 Castlereagh, Lord, exercises pre- 
 ponderant influence at Chatillon, 
 67 ; promotes the agreement 
 which resulted in the Holy Al- 
 liance, 68. 
 
 Champaubert, battle of, 21, 65. 
 
 Chastrel, General, keeps his forces 
 at their post, 195. 
 
 Chatillon, Congress of, conditions 
 of peace proposed by the Allies 
 at, 47 ; its fruitless efforts, 57 ; 
 the demands of the Powers at, 
 61 ; propositions of, on February 
 17, 66 ; end of the Congress of, 80. 
 
 Chateaubriand, quoted, 135; re- 
 cords the baseness of the Senate 
 and Provisional Government, 
 231 ; quoted, 279. 
 
 Constant, Napoleon's valet, remi- 
 niscence of, 7. 
 
 Craonne, battle of, 48. 
 
 Dalberg, M. de, reported to be in 
 the pay of the Allies, 93. 
 
 Dejean, General, brings word to 
 the defenders of Paris that Na- 
 poleon is at hand, 134. 
 
 Drouot, General, devotion of, to 
 
 Napoleon, 261; Lacordaire's eu- 
 logy of, 262; governor of Elba, 
 262. 
 
 Elba, proposed as the place of 
 Napoleon's exile by Alexander I., 
 210 ; Napoleon lands at, 283. 
 
 Essonnes, the defection of, carried 
 out by Marmont's generals, 192. 
 
 Esterhazy, Prince, conversation of, 
 with the Duke of Vicenza, 71. 
 
 Fabvier, Colonel, informed by Mar- 
 shal Marmont of Prince Schwar- 
 zenberg's proposal, 184; refuses 
 to join the other officers in their 
 defection, 194 ; informs Mar- 
 mont of the defection, 196; dis- 
 missed by Marmont, 197. 
 
 Fain, Baron, quoted, 178 ; describes 
 the general exhaustion at the end 
 of the campaign, 210. 
 
 Feltre, Duke of, urges the depar- 
 ture of Marie Louise, 109, 111. 
 
 Ferrucci, Abbe', describes the in- 
 sults to Napoleon on his way to 
 Elba, 275. 
 
 Fontainebleau, palace of, 155 et 
 seq.; Napoleon's rooms in, 158; 
 his departure from, 270. 
 
 Francis IL meets Marie Louise 
 at Rambouillet, 286. 
 
 Galbois, Colonel, carries to Marie 
 Louise a message from NajDoleon 
 announcing his abdication, 227. 
 
 Gourgaud, Colonel, sent by Na- 
 poleon to summon Marmont and 
 Mortier, 192. 
 
 Haussonville, d', Coiint, arouses the 
 enthusiasm of the officers of the 
 Guard for Marie Louise, 233. 
 
 Heine's "The Two Grenadiers," 
 270. 
 
 Hubert, Napoleon's valet, witnesses 
 his attempt at suicide, 254. 
 
 Lamartine describes Napoleon's 
 leave-taking, 267. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 297 
 
 Lichtenstein, Prince, carries propo- 
 sitions for an armistice to Napo- 
 leon, 3(). 
 
 Macdonald, Marshal, urges Napo- 
 leon not to concern himself about 
 Paris, *.)9 ; furnished the account 
 of Napoleon's first abdication to 
 General de Segur, 112 ; announces 
 to Napoleon he will not march 
 on Paris, 176 ; receives a Turkish 
 sabre as a present from Napo- 
 leon, 258. 
 
 Maizicres, the cure of, guides the 
 armjs G. 
 
 Marie Louise, receives a deputa- 
 tion of the National Guard, 3; 
 receives the flags captured by 
 Napoleon from the Coalition, 40; 
 her letter to her father urging 
 him to end the war, 41, 87 ; tells 
 the Duke of Rovigo of Napo- 
 leon's letter to her intercepted 
 by Bliicher, 102; her situation 
 grave and embarrassing, 103; 
 presides over a council at the 
 Tuileries to decide whether she 
 is to stay or to leave Paris, 108 ; 
 decides to leave, 114; her resolu- 
 tion to obey Napoleon's orders, 
 118 ; her departure, 120 ct seq. ; 
 her suite, 122; at Rambouillet, 
 147; tact and devotion of her 
 suite, 148; at Blois with the 
 court and government, 151 et seq. , 
 ignorant of the state of affairs, 
 217 ; letter of, to her father, en- 
 treating him not to abandon her, 
 219; her distress, 220; keeps up 
 hope, 225; her proclamation of 
 April 7 the last official paper of 
 the Regency, 220; receives news 
 of the Emperor's abdication, 227 ; 
 wishes to join him, but is dis- 
 suaded, 229; distributes presents 
 among her people, 231 ; dispersal 
 of her household, 231; advised 
 by Joseph to quit Blois, 232; re- 
 solves not to leave, 233; leaves 
 
 for Orleans with General Shouva- 
 loff , 237 ; greeted as Empress at 
 Orleans, 238; receives the reply 
 of her father to her appeal, 240; 
 her property plundered by the 
 Provisional Government, 241 ; re- 
 ceives messages from Napoleon, 
 243 et seq. ; considers herself 
 abandoned by her father, 246; 
 assured of the succession of her 
 sou to the Duchies of Parma and 
 Piacenza, 285; goes to Ram- 
 bouillet to meet her father, 285; 
 her interview with him, 287 ; re- 
 ceives a visit from Alexander I., 
 287 ; receives the King of Prussia, 
 290; starts for Vienna, 290; her 
 career as Empress of France, 
 291 et seq. 
 
 Marmont and Mortier, the forces 
 of, routed at Fere-Champenoise, 
 98 ; enter Paris, 126. 
 
 Marmont, General (Duke of Ra- 
 gusa), takes command at Charen- 
 ton, 129; refuses to capitulate, 
 132; sends a flag of truce to 
 Prince Schwarzenberg, 134; his 
 defection, 181 ; observations of 
 Thiers upon him, 182; describes 
 his feelings, 182 et seq. ■ his reply 
 to Prince Schwarzenberg, 185 ; 
 announces to his generals his 
 course and urges them to join 
 the Provisional Government, 186; 
 letter of, to Napoleon, announcing 
 his decision, 186; is informed of 
 Napoleon's abdication, 189; has 
 an interview with Prince Schwar- 
 zenberg and recalls his decision, 
 190; goes to Talleyrand with tli(^ 
 other plenipotentiaries of Napo- 
 leon, 191; informed by Colonel 
 Fabvier of the defection of his 
 officers, IIM); again won over by 
 the Royalists, 197 ; his account of 
 the revolt of the soldiers and of 
 his action, 198 et seq.; his re- 
 morse and last days, 202. 
 
298 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Mechlin, Archbishop of, his treach- 
 ery to Napoleon, 92 ; his con- 
 spiracy with Talleyrand, 94. 
 
 Meissonier's picture of Napoleon 
 in 1814, 11. 
 
 Meneval, Baron de, charged by 
 Napoleon to prepare' the Empress 
 for the end, 218; describes the 
 distress of Marie Louise, 220; 
 quoted, 235, 237, 244. 
 
 Metternich, Prince, reply of, to the 
 Duke of Vicenza on the situation, 
 64; writes the Duke of Vicenza 
 in relation to Napoleon's counter- 
 project, 78. 
 
 Moncey, Marshal, statue to, in 
 honor of his heroic defence- at 
 the Clichy gate, 138 ; testifies his 
 admiration and gratitude to Na- 
 poleon at the abdication, 175. 
 
 Monit<iui\ the, describes Napoleon's 
 reception at Saint Dizier, 5 ; de- 
 scribes the atrocities of the Cos- 
 sacks, 24; gives an account of 
 Napoleon's entrance into Cham- 
 pagne, 37; silence of, after the 
 flight of Marie Louise, 125. 
 
 Montholon, Colonel de, reports to 
 Napoleon after the abdication, 
 263. 
 
 Mortier and Marmont routed at 
 Fere-Champenoise, 98. 
 
 Napoleon leaves Paris, January 25, 
 1814, 3; his reception at Saint 
 Dizier reported in the Moniteur, 
 5 ; manoeuvres to prevent the junc- 
 tion of Bliicher and Schwarzen- 
 berg, 5 ; fights the battle of Bri- 
 enne, 6 ; his letter to Joseph, Jan- 
 uary 31, 1814, 7 ; his school days 
 at Brienne, 8 ; loses the battle of 
 Rothiere, 12 ; sends directions to 
 Joseph from Troyes, 14; his re- 
 treat and despondency, 15 ; his 
 letter to Joseph regarding the 
 occupation of Paris, and the de- 
 parture of the Empress and King 
 of Rome, 17 et seq. ; defeats 
 
 Bliicher and the Russians, 21; 
 letter of, to Joseph respecting 
 Schwarzenberg's flag of truce and 
 the treaty, 24 ; his confidence in 
 the future, 26 ; gains the battle of 
 Montereau, 27 ; writes to Joseph 
 respecting the situation, 27; his 
 letter to Francis II. from Nogent, 
 28 et seq.; his letter to Joseph 
 directing affairs at Paris, 33; 
 grants an armistice at the re- 
 quest of Schwarzenberg, 36; his 
 letter to Joseph from Troyes, 37 ; 
 his energy and hopefulness in ad- 
 verse fortune, 44 et seq. ; his an- 
 guish at the surrender of Soissons, 
 46 ; gains the battle of Craonne, 48 ; 
 retreats on Soissons, 49; Joseph 
 urges him to make peace, 49, 52; 
 his imperious replies, 51 et seq. ; 
 wins the battle of Champaubert 
 and others, 65 ; directs the Duke 
 of Vicenza to do everything to 
 secure peace, 65 ; angry with the 
 proposition of the Coalition, 66; 
 displeased with the Duke of 
 Vicenza's frankness, 74; his coun- 
 ter-project to the Allies' ultima- 
 tum, 78; determines to attack, 
 and returns to the Seine, 83; 
 fights the battle of Arcis-sur- 
 Aube, 84; his peril and escape, 
 85 ; retreats across the Aube and 
 destroys his bridges, 86; deter- 
 mines to unite the garrisons in 
 the East, 86 ; resolves to cut the 
 enemy's base, 90; met by the 
 Duke of Vicenza at Saint Dizier, 
 97; full of enthusiasm and con- 
 fidence, 97; decides to go to 
 Paris, 99; his letter to the Em- 
 press intercepted by Bliicher, 
 103 ; his relations with Jerome 
 and Louis, 104 ; scouts the idea 
 of a national uprising, 106; met 
 by General Belliard at the Foun- 
 tains of Juvisy, 139; is informed 
 of the fate of Paris, 140; deter- 
 mined to go to Paris, 142; com- 
 
INDEX. 
 
 299 
 
 missions the Duke of Vicenza to 
 negotiate, and gives him full 
 powers, 145 ; hears of the capitu- 
 lation and goes to Foutainebleau, 
 14G, 101; letter of, to Joseph at 
 Blois, 153 ; his tragic fate at Fou- 
 tainebleau, 101 ; bent on fighting, 
 104 ; the Duke of Vicenza reports 
 to him the state of affairs in 
 Paris, 107 ; still bent on fighting, 
 108; addresses the Old Guard, 
 108; his first abdication, 172 et 
 seq. ; Ney attempts to persuade 
 him to abdicate, 173; writes to 
 Baron de Meneval to urge the 
 Empress to appeal to her father, 
 174; declares his decision to ab- 
 dicate, 174; stipulates that his 
 son shall be his successor, 177 ; 
 appoints the Duke of Vicenza 
 and others his plenipotentiaries 
 to carry his abdication to the 
 Allies, 178 ; still hopes to be able 
 to resume the conflict, 204; re- 
 ceives word of the defection of 
 the Sixth Corps and of Marmont's 
 agreement, 205; addresses the 
 army referring to Marmont's 
 conduct and the Senate's denun- 
 ciations, 200 et seq. ; is informed 
 of the failure of his overtures to 
 the Allies, 211 ; tries to inspire 
 his marshals with warlike energy, 
 214; signs the second abdication, 
 210; hints at suicide, 218; not 
 anxious to see Marie Louise, 229; 
 repents his abdication, 248 ; medi- 
 tates suicide, 249; talks with 
 Baron de Bausset about Elba, 
 250; regrets Marie Louise's de- 
 parture from Paris, 251 ; the 
 treaty of the Allies is brought to 
 him, 252; takes poison, 254; his 
 sufferings, 255; recovers, and 
 abandons the idea of suicide, 
 258; signs the treaty, 259; de- 
 votion of the soldiers to him, 
 200; his faithful adherents, 201 ; 
 offers money to General Drouot, 
 
 203; letters of, to Marie Louise, 
 204; resembles a hero of antiq- 
 uity, 200; the personages of his 
 court remaining, 207; takes 
 leave of his people, 207 ; his fare- 
 well address to the Old Guard, 
 208 ; his departure for Elba, 272 ; 
 meets Marshal Augereau at Val- 
 ence, 273 ; meets with insults at 
 Orange, 274; is in peril at 
 Orgon, 275 ; disguises himself, 
 270 ; passes for Colonel Camp- 
 bell, 270; relates an anecdote of 
 his early life at Aix, 281 ; meets 
 Pauline, 281 ; articles of treaty 
 not observed with regard to his 
 escort, 282; invites the commis- 
 sioners to dine with him at Fre- 
 jus, and unfolds his plans, 282; 
 sails in the English frigate the 
 " Undaunted," and lands in Elba, 
 283 ; an escort sent by, for Marie 
 Louise arrives too late, 280 ; gives 
 up all idea of having Marie 
 Louise join him, 288; sends her 
 an account of Elba and of his 
 journey, 289. 
 
 National Guard pledges its fidelity 
 to Napoleon, 3 et seq. ; officers of, 
 beseech the Empress to remain, 
 120. 
 
 Ney, Marshal, letter of, to Talley- 
 rand, announcing Napoleon's con- 
 sent to complete abdication, 212; 
 attempts to persuade Napoleon to 
 abdicate, 173. 
 
 Orleans, condition of, 239. 
 
 Paris and the Parisians during the 
 invasion, 1 et seq. ; absence of pa- 
 triotism and religious sentiment 
 in, 107 ; defenceless condition of, 
 on the arrival of the Allies, 127 ; 
 lack of heroic feeling in, 128; 
 weakness of the defence, 129; 
 bombarded, 135; capitulation of, 
 140. 
 
 Polytechnic School, heroic spirit of 
 the young men of, 136. 
 
300 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Pope, the, final note concerning, be- 
 tween the Allies and Vicenza, 79. 
 
 Prussia, King of, visits Marie Louise 
 at Rambouillet, 289. 
 
 Regency, proclamation of, to the 
 prefects, 223. 
 
 " Rer/ent," the, the crown diamond, 
 anecdote of, 242. 
 
 Rome, the King of, his reluctance 
 to leave the Tuileries, 121 ; under 
 Marshal Marmont's instructions, 
 203; becomes Francis Duke of 
 Reichstadt, 294. 
 
 Rothiere, battle of, 9 et seq. 
 
 Rovigo, Duke of, refuses to rouse 
 Paris in the Emperor's behalf, 
 115; eulogizes Marie Louise, 221. 
 
 Russian columns in sight of Paris, 
 126. 
 
 Saint Dizier, Napoleon's reception 
 at, 5. 
 
 Schwarzenberg, Prince, asks for an 
 armistice, 24, 36 ; proposal of, to 
 Marshal Marmout, 182 ; replies 
 to Marmont's letter, 188 ; has an 
 interview with Marmont, 190 ; 
 gives Napoleon's plenipotentia- 
 ries a safe conduct, 191. 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter, quoted, 275. 
 
 Sebastiani, General, asks Naj)oleon 
 why he does not summon the 
 nation to rise, 106. 
 
 Segur, General de, describes Napo- 
 leon's stay at Brienne, 7; says 
 that the Coalition really fell at 
 the time of the armistice, 38 ; 
 gives an incident of Napoleon's 
 retreat from Arcis-sur-Aube, 87 ; 
 his account of Napoleon's abdi- 
 cation, l72; estimate of Mar- 
 mont, 201. 
 
 Senate, the resolutions of, attack- 
 ing Napoleon, his answer, 206. 
 
 Shouvaloff, General, sent to Blois 
 to conduct Marie Louise to 
 Orleans, 235. 
 
 Sixth Corps, the soldiers, faithful 
 
 to Napoleon, revolt against their 
 
 officers, 195. 
 Soissons, capitulation of, 44. 
 Souham, General, terror-stricken 
 
 at Napoleon's summons, urges 
 
 the other generals to cross the 
 
 Essonnes, 194. 
 Stael, Madame de, on Napoleon's 
 
 campaign of 1814, 12. 
 
 Talleyrand, M. de, reported to be 
 in communication with the Allies, 
 93 ; suspected by the Duke of 
 Rovigo, 94 ; escapes being seized 
 by Napoleon, 95 ; says that the 
 departure of Marie Louise would 
 throw Paris into the hands of the 
 Royalists, 111 ; his remarks to the 
 Duke of Rovigo, 116; appointed 
 President of the Senate under the 
 Provisional Government, 166. 
 
 Thiers, comment of, on the demands 
 of the powers, 62; opinion of the 
 plan of a last struggle, 165 ; says 
 Napoleon's abdication was on the 
 4th of April, 172 ; remarks of, upon 
 Marshal Marmont, 182, 200. 
 
 Treaty of the Allies brought to 
 Napoleon, 252; its terms, 253. 
 
 Truchsess, Count von Waldburg, his 
 report of Napoleon's disguise and 
 peril on his way to Elba, 276. 
 
 Vicenza, Duke of (General Caulaiu- 
 court), the sole plenipotentiary 
 of France at the Congress of 
 Chatillon, 58; his frank and 
 prudent counsels, 59; letter of 
 to Marshal Berthier on the situa- 
 tion, 60; left by Napoleon in 
 ignorance of the real state of 
 affairs, 61 ; letter of, to Metter- 
 nich ui-ging a speedy peace, 63; 
 letter of, to Napoleon on the 
 gravity of the situation and the 
 necessity for peace, 69 et seq.; 
 reports Prince Esterhazy's con- 
 versation to Napoleon, 71 ; depre- 
 cates Napoleon's displeasure, 74 ; 
 
INDEX. 
 
 :)01 
 
 hands in a statement in reply to 
 the Allies' ultimatum, 7(); hauds 
 in Napoleon's counter-project, 
 78; given full powers by Napo- 
 leon to make peace, 145 ; reports 
 to Napoleon the state of affairs 
 in Paris, 1(57 ; urges him to abdi- 
 cate, 107 ; reads the draft of the 
 abdication to the Emperor and 
 marshals, 175 ; faithful to Napo- 
 leon, 261. 
 
 Vitrolles, M. de, betrays the con- 
 dition of France to the Allies, 93. 
 
 Wilson, Mr. Robert, on the position 
 of the Allies and the French 
 treachery that lost Napoleon his 
 crown, 92. 
 
 Yvan, Napoleon's surgeon, refuses 
 to give him poison, 255. 
 
 Typography by J. S. Gushing & Co., Boston. 
 Presswork by Berwick & Smith, Boston. 
 
FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE 
 FRENCH COURT. 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, PUBLISHERS. 
 
 WITHIN the past few years M. Imbert de Saint- Amand 
 has written a series of volumes which have made 
 him one of the most popular authors of France. Each has 
 for its nucleus some portion of the life of one of the eminent 
 women who have presided over or figured at the French 
 court, either at Versailles or the Tuileries. But though thus 
 largely biographical and possessing the interest inseparable 
 from personality, the volumes are equally pictures of the 
 times they describe. He is himself saturated with the litera- 
 ture and history of the period, and what mainly distinguishes 
 his books is the fact that they are in considerable part made 
 up of contemporary letters and memoirs, so that the reader 
 hears the characters themselves speak, and is brought into 
 the closest imaginary contact with them. Moreover, the 
 complexion of the mosaic thus cleverly mortised is familiar 
 rather than heroic. The historian is not above gossip in 
 its good sense, and the way in which the life of the time 
 and of its distinguished personages is depicted is extremely 
 intimate as well as vivid and truthful. 
 
 The ten volumes now issued and in press relate to Marie 
 Antoinette, Josephine and Marie Louise. They give a vivid 
 representation of the momentous times immediately before, 
 during and after the epoch of the Revolution. Probably no 
 times in any country were ever so picturesque, so crowded 
 with events, and so peopled with striking characters. The 
 characteristics of the old regime and the events of the early 
 
FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE FRENCH COURT, 
 
 years of the Revolution are grouped effectively around the 
 sympathetic figure of Louis Sixteenth's queen. In the first 
 two books in which she figures, Josephine is taken as the 
 center of the new society that issued from the disorganization 
 wrought by the Revolution, and the third describes the 
 beginning of the Imperial epoch. In "The Happy Days 
 of the Empress Marie Louise," we are led behind the 
 scenes, and shown the domestic life as well as the splendid 
 court pomp of the world's Conqueror at the acme of his 
 career — a most dramatic contrast with the picture drawn 
 in the concluding three volumes, which describe the " De- 
 cadence of the Empire " owing to the Russian campaign, 
 the "Invasion of 1814 "and the "Return from Elba and 
 the Hundred Days." 
 
 FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE FRENCH COURT. 
 
 From the French of Imbert de Saint-Amand. 
 
 Each with. Portrait, 1 2mo, ■$i.2S- 
 
 Three Volumes on Marie Antoinette, 
 marie antoinette and the end of the old regime. 
 
 MARIE ANTOINETTE AT THE TUILERIES (In press). 
 
 MARIE ANTOINETTE AND THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY (In press). 
 
 Three Volumes on the Empress Josephine. 
 
 citizeness bonaparte. 
 
 the wife of the first consul. 
 
 the court of the empress josephine. 
 
 Four Volumes on the Empress Marie Louise. 
 
 THE happy days OF MARIE LOUISE. 
 
 MARIE LOUISE AND THE DECADENCE OF THE EMPIRE. 
 
 MARIE LOUISE AND THE INVASION OF 1814. 
 
 MARIE LOUISE, THE RETURN FROM ELBA AND THE HUNDRED DAYS 
 
 (In press). 
 
FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE FRENCH COURT. 
 
 ' ' In these translations of this interesting series of sketches, we have 
 found an unexpected amount of pleasure and profit. The author cites 
 for us passages from forgotten diaries, hitherto unearthed letters, extracts 
 from public proceedings, and the like, and contrives to combine and arrange 
 his material so as to ??take a great many very vivid and pleasing pictures. 
 N^or is this all. The material he lays before us is of real value, and 
 much, if not most of it, must be unknown save to the special students of 
 the period. We can, therefore, cordially commend these books to the 
 attention of our readers. They will find them attractive in their arrange- 
 ment, never dull, with much 'variety of scene and incident, and admir- 
 ably translated." — The Nation, of December jc), i8go. 
 
 Marie Antoinette and the End of the Old Regime. 
 
 The years immediately preceding the outbreak of the Revolution 
 comprise the epoch treated under this title, which aptly characterizes the 
 passing away of the old order, before the tremendous social as well as 
 political upheaval of the Revolution. 
 
 Marie Antoinette at the Tuileries. 
 
 The vicissitudes of the Royal Family, and incidentally the political 
 history of the time, from the forcible removal from Versailles in 1789 to 
 the end of 1791, including the unfortunate attempt at flight and the 
 arrest at Varennes are the subject of this book. 
 
 Mane Antoinette and the Downfall of Royalty, 
 
 Continuing the story of the preceding volume, the author here nar- 
 rates the turbulent and terrible scenes of the beginning of the Terror 
 and closes with the abolition of royalty, the declaration of the Republic 
 and the confinement of the Royal Family in the Temple. 
 
 Citizeness Bonaparte, 
 
 The period during which Josephine was called "Citizeness Bona- 
 parte " is the romantic anrl eventful one beginning with her marriage, 
 comprising the first Italian campaign and the Egyptian Expedition, and 
 ending with the coup d'etat of Brumaire. 
 
FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE FRENCH COURT, 
 
 The Wife of the First Consul, 
 
 As wife of the First Consul, Josephine presided over the brilliant 
 society which issued from the social chaos of the Revolution and which, 
 together with striking portraits of its principal figures, is here vividly 
 described. 
 
 The Court of the Empress Josephine. 
 
 The events which took place between the assumption by Napoleon 
 of the imperial title and the end of 1807, including the magnificent 
 coronation ceremonies at Paris and at Milan and the wonderful campaign 
 of Austerlitz are here described, as well as the daily life and surroundings 
 of Josephine at the summit of her career. 
 
 The Happy Days of the Empress Marie Louise. 
 
 The happiest part of Marie Louise's career as Empress of the 
 French, dating from her marriage, the festivities of which were cele- 
 brated with unexampled splendor, to the departure of the Grand Army 
 for the disastrous Russian campaign, is the subject of this book. 
 
 Marie Louise and the Decadence of the Empire. 
 
 The period covered in this volume is the intensely dramatic decline 
 of the French empire from the Russian campaign, when Marie Louise 
 "had the world at her feet," to the desperate campaign of 1814 which 
 concluded her brief but brilliant reign. 
 
 Marie Louise and the Invasion of 1814. 
 
 This volume takes the reader from the beginning of 1814 to 
 Napoleon's second abdication and departure for Elba, In a military 
 point of view this campaign, his first fought on French soil and resulting 
 in his downfall and that of his dynasty, ranks, nevertheless, among his 
 ablest, and the narrative of it is, perhaps, the most intensely interesting, 
 the variations of fortune being so rapid and so momentous. 
 
 Marie Louise, the Return from Elba and the Hundred Days. 
 
 The final scenes of the Napoleonic drama are here unfolded — the 
 imprisoned conqueror's life at Elba, his romantic escape and return to 
 France, his almost miraculous resumption of power, the preparations for 
 the last struggle and the climax of Waterloo and the definite restoration 
 of Louis XVIII, closing the era begun in 1789. 
 
FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE FRENCH COURT. 
 
 CRITICAL NOTICES. 
 
 " A delightfully gossippy series." — Philadelphia Press. 
 
 " This volume [' Marie Louise and the Decadence of the Empire'] 
 is as fascinating as any in the series, and the whole can be read with 
 great profit and enjoyment." — Hartford Couratit. 
 
 " Readers of the author's preceding volumes will not need to be 
 told that the present one is full of charai and interest, brilliant descrip- 
 tion, and strong and clear historical sketches." — N'e7ii York Tribune. 
 
 "The volumes are even more pictures of the times than of the 
 unhappy occupants of the French throne. The style is clear and familiar, 
 and the smaller courts of the period, the gossip of the oourt and the 
 course of history, give interest other than biographical to the work." — 
 Baliitfiore Stm. 
 
 " M. de Saint-Amand makes the great personages of whom he writes 
 very human. In this last volume he has brought to light much new 
 material regarding the diplomatic relations between Napoleon and the 
 Austrian court, and throughout the series he presents, with a wealth of 
 detail, the ceremonious and private life of the courts." — San Francisco 
 Argonaut. 
 
 "The sketches, like the times to which they relate, are immensely 
 dramatic. M. Saint-Amand writes with a vivid pen. He has filled 
 himself with the history and the life of the times, and possesses the art 
 of making them live in his pages. His books are capital reading, and 
 remain as vivacious as idiomatic, and as pointed in the translation as in 
 the original French." — The Indepeitdent. 
 
 "The last volume of the highly interesting series is characterized 
 by all that remarkable attractiveness of description, historical and per- 
 sonal, that has made the former volumes of the series so popular. 
 M. de Saint-Amand's pictures of court life and of the brilliant men and 
 women that composed it, make the whole read with a freshness that is as 
 fascinating as it is instructive." — Boston Home Journal. 
 
FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE FRENCH COURT, 
 
 " M. de Saint-Amand's volumes are inspired with such brightness, 
 knowledge, and appreciation, that their value as studies in a great 
 historical epoch requires acknowledgement. Though written mainly to 
 entertain in a wholesome way, they also instruct the reader and give 
 him larger views. That they have not before been translated for publi- 
 cation here is a little singular. Now, that their time has come, people 
 should receive them gratefully while they read them with the attention 
 they invite and deserve." — N. V. Times. 
 
 "These volumes give animated pictures, romantic in coloring, 
 intimate in detail, and entertaining from beginning to end. To the 
 student of history they furnish the more charming details of gossip and 
 court life which he hai; not found in his musty tomes ; while in the novice 
 they must be the lode-stone leading to more minute research. The series 
 is of more than transient value in that it teaches the facts of history 
 through the medium of anecdote, description, and pen portraits ; this 
 treatment having none of the dryness of history per se, but rather the 
 brilliancy of romance." — Boston Times. 
 
 *' The central figure of the lovely Josephine attracts sympathy and 
 admiration as does hardly one other historical character. We have 
 abundance of gossip of the less harmful kind, spirited portraits of men 
 and women of note, glimpses here and there of the under-current of 
 ambition and*anxiety that lay beneath the brilliant court life, anecdotes 
 in abundance, and altogether a bustling, animated, splendidly shifting 
 panorama of life in the First Empire. No such revelation of the private 
 life of Napoleon and Josephine has hitherto been given to the world as 
 in 'The Court of the Empress Josephine.' It is the autho"-'<s master- 
 piece." — Christian Union. 
 
 For saU by all booksellers, or sent ^ postpaid on receipt of price, by 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 
 743-745 Broadway, New York. 
 
The First /American Edition 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 NAPOLEON BONAPARTE 
 
 By LOUIS ANTOINE FAUVELET DE BOURRIENNE 
 
 His Pri^'aie Secretay-y 
 "With 34 Full-page Portraits and Other Illustrations 
 
 Edited by Col. R. W. PHIPPS. New and Revised Edition 
 
 The Set, 4 Vols., 12mo, Cloth, in a Box, $5.00 
 
 Characteristic bindings in Half Morocco and Half Calf, specially designed 
 
 for this work, can now be supplied 
 The Set, 4 Vols., in a box, Half Morocco, gilt top, . . . $8.00 
 
 " " " Half Calf, " ... 10.00 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, Publishers 
 NEW YORK 
 
 FOR sixty years Bourrienne's "Memoirs of Napoleon" 
 has been a standard authority to which every one 
 has turned for a graphic, entertaining picture of 
 the man as he appeared to his intimate friend and Secre- 
 tary. Bourrienne, who had been the friend and com- 
 panion of Napoleon at school, became his Secretary in 
 1797 and remained in this confidential position till 1802. 
 His "Memoirs" has heretofore been accessible only in 
 the English editions. It is now proposed to publish 
 immediately in a popular Library Edition, in four i2mo 
 volumes, an exact reprint of the latest English edition. 
 This American edition will cohtain the thirty-four por- 
 traits and ocher illustrations of the original, together with 
 all the other features that give distinction to the work — 
 the chronology of Napoleon's life, the prefaces to the 
 
BOURRIENNE'S ''NAPOLEON: 
 
 several editions, the author's introduction, and the addi- 
 tional matter which supplements Bourrienne's work, an 
 account of the important events of the Hundred Days, 
 of Napoleon's surrender to the English, and of his resi- 
 dence and death at St. Helena, with anecdotes and illus- 
 trative extracts from contemporary Memoirs. The per- 
 sonality of one of the greatest figures in history is placed 
 before the reader with remarkable fidelity and dramatic 
 power by one who was the Emperor's confidant and the 
 sharer of his thoughts and fortunes. The picture of the 
 man Napoleon is of fascinating interest. Besides this, 
 the book is full of the most interesting anecdotes, hon 
 mots, character sketches, dramatic incidents, and the 
 gossip of court and camp at one of the most stirring 
 epochs of history, taken from contemporary Memoirs and 
 incorporated in the work by the editors of the different 
 editions. 
 
 List of Portraits, Etc, 
 
 NAPOLEON I. 
 LETITIA RAMOLINO 
 THE EMPRESS JOSEPH- 
 INE 
 EUGENE BEAUHARNAIS 
 GENERAL KL^BER 
 MARSHAL LANNES 
 TALLEYRAND 
 GENERAL DUROC 
 MURAT, KING OF NAPLES 
 GENERAL DESAIX 
 GENERAL MOREAU 
 HORTENSE BEAUHAR- 
 NAIS 
 THE EMPRESS JOSEPH- 
 INE 
 NAPOLEON I. 
 
 THE DUG D'ENGHIEN 
 
 GENERAL PICHEGRU 
 
 MARSHAL NEY 
 
 CAULAINCOURT, DUKE 
 OF VICENZA 
 
 MARSHAL DAVOUST 
 
 CHARGE OF THE CUIR- 
 ASSIERS AT EYLAU 
 
 GENERAL JUNOT 
 
 MARSHAL SOULT 
 
 THE EMPRESS MARIA 
 LOUISA 
 
 GENERAL LASALLE 
 
 COLORED MAP SHOW- 
 ING NAPOLEON'S DO- 
 MINION 
 
 THE EMPRESS MARIA 
 LOUISA 
 
 MARSHAL MASSENA 
 MARSHAL MACDONALD 
 FAC-SIMILE OF THE EM- 
 PEROR'S ABDICATION 
 IN 1814 
 NAPOLEON I. 
 MARSHAL SOUCHET 
 THE DUKE OF WELLING- 
 TON 
 PLANS OF BATTLE OF 
 
 WATERLOO 
 MARSHAL BLUCHER 
 MARSHAL GOUVION ST. 
 
 CYR 
 MARSHAL NEY 
 THE KING OF ROME 
 GENERAL BESSIERES 
 
B o urrikxnf: s * ' .v^i p ol e on 
 
 '^ If you want sometJmig to read, both interesting and 
 amusing, get the Mi^moires de Bourrienne. These are the o?ily 
 authentic Memoirs of Napoleon which have yet appeared. The 
 style is not brilliant, but that only makes the?n the 7nore trust- 
 worthy'' — Prince Metternich. 
 
 **The writer was a man of uncommon penetration, 
 and he enjoyed opportunities for intimate knowledge of 
 Napoleon's life and character such as no other person 
 possessed ; and the liveliness of his style renders the 
 Memoirs interesting reading from the first page to the 
 last. The volumes are enriched with a large number of 
 excellent portraits." — The Academy. 
 
 "It is a brilliant picture of Napoleon as he appeared 
 in his daily life to one who held the unique position of 
 friend, Minister and Secretary, depicting the personality 
 of the Emperor with extraordinary vividness and truth- 
 fulness. It is impossible not to recognize the great 
 value of these Memoirs." — New York Times. 
 
 " Af. de Bourrienne shows us the hero of Marengo and 
 Austerlitz i?t his night-gown and slippers — with a trait de 
 plume he, in a hundred instances, places the real man before 
 us, with all of his personal habits and peculiarities of fnanner. 
 temper and conversation.'' — From the Preface. 
 
 THE SET, 4 VOLS., 12M0, IN A BOX, $5.00. 
 
M 82? 
 
 ^v' 
 
illiiii 
 iiiii ■ 
 
 
 Ill 
 
 !! 
 
 mmm 
 
 \m'-' 
 
 iii-!l!!!llil!i;i 
 
 iK! 
 
 
 
 m^ 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 Ji 
 
 l!li!Hl 
 
 [ * ' ! I t ' ' i V 
 
 ItlJi 
 
 Mil 
 
 iliiiO: 
 
 ! 
 
 filiil! 
 
 
 ii!' 
 
 i 
 w 
 
 if *!? 
 
 i ^n 
 
 IM 
 
 liii! 
 
 IH 
 
 (i H » 
 
 iill ;lili!|i; 1 
 
 I 
 
 iiilil 
 
 iiilliilli 
 
 ■r')U\ 
 
 %fm 
 
 m\ 
 
 mmi 
 
 ipillilil 
 
 r 
 
 5H!0 
 
 IpII 
 
 ^i< 
 
 Hii' 
 
 •iiiil 
 
 in 
 
 
 'Hi 
 
 !:.( 
 
 I'if 
 
 I ill 
 
 lit! 
 
 !iih 
 
 
 i 
 
 iiiijii. 
 
 iU 
 
 mmi 
 
 mw 
 
 U\lU^■t(^^'l 
 
 klHtiiiiilidlil 
 
 i 
 
 nm 
 
 u 
 
 
 Ul 
 
 
 1'