LIBRARY 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 SANTA BARBARA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 ELIZABETH HARDISON
 
 cyOov-t ^Crt^
 
 Marie Louise 
 
 THE ISLAND OF ELBA, AND THE 
 HUNDRED DAYS 
 
 BY 
 
 IMBERT DE SAINT-AMAND 
 
 TRANSLATED BY 
 ELIZABETH GILBERT MARTIN 
 
 WITH PORTRAIT 
 
 NEW YORK 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 1895
 
 COPYRIGHT, I89I, 
 BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. The Return of Marie Louise to Austria 1 
 
 II. Napoleon's Arrival at the Island of Elba 11 
 
 III. Queen Marie Caroline 22 
 
 IV. Marie Louise at Aix in Savoy 31 
 
 V. Marie Louise in Switzerland „ . . . 40 
 
 VI. Marie Louise during the Congress of Vienna... 04 
 
 VII. Tin; Return from Elba 82 
 
 VIII. Marie Louise during the Hundred Days Ill 
 
 IX. Tin: Field of May V3S 
 
 X. Waterloo 155 
 
 XI. Napoleon II 172 
 
 XII. Malmaison 200 
 
 XIII. Rociiei-ort 214 
 
 XIV. The Be li.erophon 2.'!8 
 
 XV. The North lmiserla.nd 2(J0
 
 MARIE LOUISE, 
 
 THE ISLAND OF ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED 
 DAYS. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE RETUKN OF MARIE LOUISE TO AUSTRIA. 
 
 FROM the double point of view of psychology 
 and history it is a sad but curious task to study 
 the gradations by which the Empress Marie Louise 
 was, little by little, transformed from a devoted and 
 irreproachable wife into a forgetful, indifferent, and 
 faithless one. When she left the soil of France, her 
 sentiments toward her husband were still honest. If 
 she had not rejoined him at Fontainebleau, the fault 
 should be attributed to him rather than to her. To 
 the very end she had fulfilled her duties as Regent 
 with exactness and loyalty, and Napoleon rendered 
 her entire justice on this point. We believe that, 
 when she entered Switzerland, she was still minded 
 to go to Elba very soon. During the early days of 
 her sojourn at Schoenbrunn she remained more French 
 than Austrian. She greatly preferred the Duehess of 
 Montebello to any of the Viennese court ladies; she 
 showed high esteem for Madame de Montesquiou, M. 
 
 1
 
 2 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 de Bausset, and M. de Meneval, who constantly talked 
 to her of Napoleon and of France ; she retained her 
 husband's imperial coat-of-arms upon her carriages, 
 her silver, and the liveries of her attendants. Her 
 household was entirely French, and at the court of 
 her father she was reproached with always playing 
 the part of Empress. The Countess of Montesquiou, 
 who continued to fulfil her functions as governess 
 with the greatest zeal, talked unceasingly of the Em- 
 peror Napoleon to the little Bonaparte, as the unfor- 
 tunate King of Rome was styled at Vienna. She 
 taught the child to love his father and to pray for 
 him. 
 
 The Emperor Francis proceeded slowly and by 
 degrees. He was too adroit to precipitate counsels 
 or commands which at the first moment his daughter 
 might have found cynical. lie did nothing to wound 
 or shock her. He permitted her to take the waters 
 at Aix-les-Bains, which, in 1814, was still a French 
 town, and where she went out driving in open car- 
 riages bearing the imperial arms of France. 
 
 At this time the attitude of Marie Louise was still 
 absolutely correct. But the crafty Austrian policy 
 understood how to find a man who should succeed in 
 turning the wife from her husband. This man was a 
 military diplomatist, General Count Neipperg, a re- 
 lentless enemy of France and of Napoleon. Com- 
 plaisant, skilful, energetic, a thorough man of the 
 world, an accomplished courtier, an excellent musi- 
 cian, he knew how to make his way by insinuation
 
 THE RETURN TO AUSTRIA. 
 
 as well as by force. He was married to a divorced 
 woman whom lie had abducted from her husband, 
 who was still living in 1814, and by whom he had 
 several children. He had but one eye, having lost 
 the other in battle, and he wore a black bandage to 
 hide the scar. He might have been the father of 
 Marie Louise, for he was by twenty-one years her 
 senior. Who could have imagined that this man 
 would be the successor of the Emperor Napoleon? 
 General Neipperg, as husband of the Empress Marie 
 Louise, is not less astonishing than the Widow Sear- 
 ron, the spouse of the Sun-King. In history we pass 
 from one surprise to another, and find in destiny a 
 fantastic something which causes the life of peoples 
 as well as of individuals to seem like a dream. 
 
 After the abdication at Eontaiuebleau, Napoleon 
 was not yet, in appearance at least, on ill terms with 
 his father-in-law. On April 10, 1814, the Emperor 
 Francis had written him thus, from llambouillet : — 
 
 *■ Monsieur my Brother and Dear Son-in- 
 Law : The tender solicitude which I feel toward 
 the Empress, my daughter, has induced me to meet 
 her here. I arrived only a few hours ago, and I am 
 but too well convinced that her health has suffered 
 extremely since I saw her last. I have decided to 
 propose her return to the bosom of her family for 
 some months. She is in the greatest need of calm 
 and repose, and Your Majesty has given her too many 
 proofs of veritable attachment, for me to doubt that 
 you will consent to my wishes and approve my deter-
 
 4 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DATS. 
 
 mination. When she is restored to health, my daugh- 
 ter will take possession of her territory, which will 
 quite naturally bring her nearer to the abode of Your 
 Majesty. Doubtless it would be superfluous for me 
 to give Your Majesty the assurance that your son 
 will form a part of my family, and that, during his 
 residence in my dominions, I shall share the solici- 
 tude owed him by his mother. Receive, Monsieur 
 my brother, the assurance of my most distinguished 
 consideration. I am Your Imperial Majesty's at- 
 tached brother and father-in-law, FRANCIS." 
 But it was not this letter that expressed the real 
 sentiments of the Emperor of Austria ; these were 
 contained in the one he had written five days earlier 
 to Prince Metternich, in which these significant lines 
 occur : " The important thing is to get Napoleon 
 away from France ; and God grant he may be sent 
 very far ! You were right not to defer the conclusion 
 of the treaty until I should arrive in Paris, for it is 
 only by this means that an end can be put to the war. 
 I do not approve the choice of the Island of Elba as 
 a residence for Napoleon ; they take it from Tuscany ; 
 they dispose of things which properly belong to my 
 family in favor of foreigners. This must not occur 
 again. Besides, Napoleon remains too close to France 
 and to Europe. However, if the thing cannot be 
 prevented, we must try to secure that Elba revert to 
 Tuscany afte: Napoleon's death ; that I be named 
 co-guardian of the child for Parma ; and that, in case 
 of the death of my daughter and the child, the terri-
 
 THE RETURN TO AUSTRIA. 
 
 tory destined for them be not retained for the family 
 of Napoleon." 
 
 It is more than evident that the Emperor Francis, 
 even admitting that he had ever had any sympathy 
 with his son-in-law, which is doubtful, no longer re- 
 tained the slightest trace of it. He thought him a 
 danger to Europe in general, and to Austria in par- 
 ticular. Napoleon still preserved his illusions ; he 
 imagined that his father-in-law was seriously inter- 
 ested in his fate and had obtained for him the sover- 
 eignty of the Island of Elba, poor flotsam from a 
 colossal shipwreck. Napoleon deceived himself. For 
 the Island of Elba lie was indebted solely to the 
 magnanimity of the Emperor Alexander, whom he 
 had injured so deeply, and who behaved like a 
 generous enemy. The Austrian, on the contrary, 
 showed himself implacable towards the man to whom 
 he had pardoned neither Wagram nor Marengo. 
 
 On May 2, 1814, Marie Louise left France. Es- 
 corted by a detachment of Swiss cavalry, which re- 
 ceived her at the frontier, she entered Basle the same 
 day between a double row of Swiss, Austrian, and 
 Bavarian troops. Her suite and that of her son was 
 composed of the Countess of Montesquiou, who still 
 retained her post as governess to the little Prince; 
 the Duchess of Montebello, who, although not a ladv- 
 of-honor, had wished to accompany the Empress as 
 far as Vienna, in order to delay for a few days a 
 separation which was painful to them both; the 
 Countess of Brignole, who had succeeded Madame
 
 U ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 de Montebello, and who was to remain with and die 
 in the service of Marie Louise ; General Cafarelli ; 
 Baron de Saint-Aignan ; Doctor Corvisart, the surgeon 
 Lacorner, who intended to return to France in a few 
 days with the Duchess of Montebello: Baron de 
 Meneval ; Madame Hureau de Sorbec ; Baron de 
 Bausset, Madame Rabusson, and Madame Soufrlot, 
 who expected to remain for several years longer in 
 attendance on the Empress. Nothing that concerned 
 her personal service was changed. She retained the 
 same individuals, the same display, the same customs, 
 the same household arrangements, the same etiquette, 
 the same domestics, the same equipages. Her retinue 
 occupied twenty-four carriages. The expenses of the 
 journey across France amounted to fifty thousand 
 francs. Marie Louise travelled as a sovereign : and 
 yet the little King of Rome perceived a change in his 
 destiny. " Ah ! " said he, " I see very well I am no 
 longer a king, for I have no longer any pages." 
 
 At Basle, Marie Louise received a letter which 
 Napoleon had addressed to her from Frejus, on April 
 28, 1814; it revived in her heart the regret she had 
 often expressed for not having gone to meet her 
 husband at Fontainebleau. M. de Meneval also 
 received a letter, dated at Frejus, in which General 
 Bertrand said to him: " We had a sad journey, as 
 you can easily believe; good enough through nearly 
 the whole of France, where the Emperor received 
 testimonies of regret, and the respect due to his 
 position ; but in Provence we were exposed to in-
 
 THE RETURN TO AUSTRIA. 
 
 suits which, happily, have not been repeated. You 
 must be aware how greatly we desire that the Em- 
 press should divide her time between Parma and 
 the Island of Elba; we should be so happy to see 
 her now and then. She has been so kind to my wife 
 and me that I desire this more keenly than any one. 
 I beg - you to lay at her feet the homage of my 
 respectful devotion. The Emperor continues in good 
 health, notwithstanding the cruel position in which 
 he has been placed for the last month." 
 
 At this moment the ties which attached Marie 
 Louise to Napoleon were not broken. We desire 
 no other proof of it than this long letter which she 
 wrote to her father from Zurich : " At Basle I had 
 the consolation of receiving news from the Emperor, 
 lie is well, but he is very much pained by the manner 
 in which he was received in Provence. He has also 
 other anxieties about which I wish to consult }"OU. 
 You know how disagreeable it is to me to speak of 
 money. But I think it my duty, as wife and mother, 
 to explain to you the condition in which the Emperor 
 has been placed, and to beg your intervention. I do 
 not ask anything for myself, because I believe that 
 if I were in need, you would not let me want for 
 anything. The Emperor has very little money with 
 him. Ten or twelve millions, the fruit of his econo- 
 mies on the civil list for twelve years, and a great 
 number of snuff-boxes set round with brilliants, are 
 at Orleans, confiscated unlawfully by a commissary 
 of the Provisional Government. All this belongs to
 
 8 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 the Emperor and my son. They have even carried 
 off his library and other things which he used daily. 
 I entreat you to employ all possible means that he 
 may be put in possession of what is his. Things 
 which belonged to the crown — diamonds, bank de- 
 posits, and other papers — have been returned through 
 the intermediary of the directors or treasurers. The 
 Emperor has been credited on the civil list with an 
 annuity of two millions ; but the manner in which 
 the government is acting does not permit the hope 
 that it will ever be paid, unless you, my dear father, 
 whose character is so just, defend the interests of 
 your son-in-law, who is no longer your enemy. My 
 absolute confidence in your generosity and your 
 goodness induces me to make this application. I am 
 sure that my confidence will not be deceived." 
 
 While Marie Louise, still faithful to her duties, 
 thus pleaded the cause of her husband, the Austrian 
 oligarchy was seeking every possible means to make 
 their separation final. Nothing was left undone 
 which could give the return of the dethroned sover- 
 eign to her own country the appearance of a victory 
 rather than a defeat. Marie Louise was received 
 everywhere with the same eclat, the same respect, 
 the same splendor as in the palace of the Tuileries. 
 "Our journey," said Baron de Bausset, who was one 
 of her suite, " was more like a triumph than a festi- 
 val; one might justly have thought that Austria, 
 obliged for a time to part with an adored princess, 
 celebrated her return as a conquest. The sovereigns
 
 THE RETURN TO AUSTRIA. 9 
 
 of Baden, Wiirtemberg, and Bavaria, whose extreme 
 frontiers we crossed, sent deputations of the highest 
 crown oihcials to meet her ; nothing was lacking but 
 triumphal arches to make one believe that we were 
 on the faithful and submissive soil of the old Con- 
 federation of the Rhine. After having admired the 
 famous falls of the Rhine, near Schaffhausen, and 
 the beautiful lakes of Zurich and Constance, we 
 arrived at the Tyrol." There the people saluted the 
 august traveller with transports of joy and enthu- 
 siasm which verged on frenzy. 
 
 The Tyrol, which Napoleon had annexed to Bavaria 
 against the wishes of its inhabitants, still belonged 
 to that power, but in a few weeks it was to be re- 
 stored to Austria. The Tyrolese considered the pas- 
 sage of Marie Louise an occasion for displaying their 
 sentiments of affection and loyalty to the Ilapsburg 
 dynasty. At Fuessen, Reutte, Innspruck, and Salz- 
 burg the excitement was general. Snow fell in vain. 
 Nothing could chill the people's enthusiasm. These 
 brave and loyal Tyrolese, whom Alfred do Musset 
 has described as 
 
 <; a people heroic and proud, 
 Mountaineers like the eagle, and free like the air," 
 
 celebrated the arrival of the daughter of the Austrian 
 Emperor as a signal of deliverance. They unhar- 
 nessed the horses from her carriage and that of her 
 son, and drew them with their own hands. All along 
 the route fireworks were set off to the flourish of
 
 10 ELBA, AND THE HUN BRED DAYS. 
 
 trumpets, responded to by troops of singers so placed 
 that their voices sounded like distant echoes. The 
 towns were illuminated. At every chateau where the 
 wife and son of Napoleon reposed, Tyrolese in yellow 
 hats adorned with green feathers mounted guard. 
 Never did sovereign receive a warmer welcome. 
 
 After leaving Salzburg, Marie Louise journeyed 
 towards Vienna by the way of Moelk. At the abbey 
 of this name she found Prince Trautmansdorff, chief 
 equerry, who had been despatched by the Empress of 
 Austria, to inquire at what hour in the morning she 
 would leave there. Four leagues from Vienna, be- 
 tween Saint Poelten and Siegartskirchen, she met her 
 step-mother, the Empress of Austria, who had come 
 to bid her welcome, and who was accompanied by 
 Countess Lazanski, who had been grand mistress of 
 the household to Marie Louise until her marriage. 
 When the carriages came together, the Empress of 
 Austria resigned hers to the Duchess of Montebello 
 and Countess Lazanski, and entered that of her step- 
 daughter. On the same evening, May 18, 1814, Marie 
 Louise arrived at the Castle of Schoenbrunn, the end 
 of her journey. She was received there by the arch- 
 dukes, her brothers, and her uncles. Pier sisters, 
 who were waiting for her at the door of her apart- 
 ments, threw their arms about her, and felicitated her 
 on her return as if it were a happy miracle. And, 
 beholding once more the places where her infancy had 
 been spent, the former Empress of the French felt 
 all her German patriotism reawaken in her soul.
 
 II. 
 
 NAPOLEON S ARRIVAL AT THE ISLAND OF ELBA. 
 
 MARIE LOUISE crossed the frontier of France 
 for the last time, May 2, 1814. On the follow- 
 ing day Napoleon reached Elba on the English frigate 
 Undaunted. He had not been free from disquieting 
 thoughts concerning his probable reception there. 
 Would the French garrison, commanded by General 
 Dalesme, the governor of the island, deliver up to 
 him the territory they guarded? Among the island- 
 ers there were some who wished to be called English ; 
 others who desired to be free from any master. On 
 several promontories might be seen floating, almost 
 side by side, the white flag and the tricolor. 
 
 Toward nightfall on May 3 the Undaunted neared 
 Porto-Ferrajo and hove to about a quarter of a league 
 from the town. A few minutes later she put off a 
 small boat containing General Drouot, the Emperor's 
 commissary, Count Klamm, and Lieutenant Smith. 
 They were the bearers of an order from the French 
 government, directing General Dalesme to deliver 
 his command to General Drouot, together with the 
 island, the forts, and all munitions of war. The 
 
 11
 
 12 ELBA, AND TIIE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 latter, on landing, received from General Dalesme 
 the keys of the town, the forts, and three hundred 
 and twenty -five cannon. 
 
 This accomplished, General Dalesme went on board 
 the English frigate, accompanied by all the local 
 authorities, who were anxious to present themselves 
 to their new sovereign. Napoleon questioned them 
 concerning the island and its inhabitants and then 
 dismissed them, after having ordered the sub-prefect 
 to convoke the mayors and the parish priests. The 
 population of Porto-Ferrajo, convinced that the Em- 
 peror had brought great treasures with him, had 
 already assembled in the public square, and were 
 impatiently awaiting their illustrious monarch. But 
 at eleven o'clock, Napoleon, having tacked about the 
 island, caused General Dalesme to be informed that 
 his formal entry would be deferred to the afternoon 
 of May 4. 
 
 On the morning of that day the following procla- 
 mation of General Dalesme was found posted on the 
 walls of Porto-Ferrajo : — 
 
 "Inhabitants of the island of Elba: the vicissitudes 
 natural to humanity have brought the Emperor Na- 
 poleon hither; his choice has given him to you as 
 sovereign. Before entering these walls, your new 
 aid august monarch addressed to me the following 
 , rords, which I hasten to make known to you, because 
 they are the pledge of your future happiness: 'Gen- 
 eral, I have sacrificed my rights to the interests of 
 my country, reserving to myself, with the consent of
 
 NAPOLEON'S ARRIVAL AT ELBA. 13 
 
 all the Powers, the sovereignty and ownership of the 
 Island of Elba. Be so good as to make the people 
 acquainted with the new state of affairs, and the 
 choice I have made of their island for my residence ; 
 I have selected it on account of the mildness of their 
 manners and their climate. Tell them that they will 
 always be the object of my most lively interest.' — 
 Elbans! there is no need of comment on these words. 
 They fix your destiny. The Emperor has judged you 
 rightly. I owe you this justice, and I render it. 
 People of Elba, I shall soon leave you. My depart- 
 ure will pain me, for I love you sincerely; but the 
 thought of your happiness will sweeten my sorrow, and 
 in whatever place I may be I shall remain near this 
 island in spirit, through my memory of the virtues of 
 its inhabitants and the wishes I shall form for them." 
 
 By noon the troops were under arms, and the 
 authorities assembled at the wharf. The Emperor's 
 landing at three o'clock was announced by a salute 
 of twenty-one guns from the English frigate and as 
 many from the guns of the fortress. Napoleon was 
 at once harangued by the authorities of the island, 
 and he responded very nearly in these words : — • 
 
 "The mildness of your climate, and the romantic 
 scenery of your island, have decided me to choose it, 
 among all my vast domains, for the place of my abode. 
 I hope that you will know how to appreciate this 
 preference, and that you will love me like submissive 
 children; you will then find me always disposed to 
 have for you the solicitude of a father."
 
 14 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 As soon as Napoleon had finished this little speech, 
 three violinists and two violoncellists who accom- 
 panied the Elban officials began to play ; the Emperor 
 placed himself under a canopy, and was conducted in 
 procession to the church, where the Te Deum was 
 intoned. Strange irony of fate — the fallen sovereign 
 of an immense empire causing the Te Deum to be 
 chanted because he has lost all his dominions except 
 the Island of Elba ! 
 
 The ceremony ended, Napoleon went to the town 
 hall, where he was to lodge. The hall which was 
 ordinarily used for public balls had been ornamented 
 with a few little pictures and some chandeliers. In 
 the middle of it a throne had been hastily erected, 
 and decorated with gilded paper and fragments of 
 scarlet cloth. Many of the crowd that followed the 
 sovereign were allowed to enter. He urged the 
 mayors to maintain order in their communes, and 
 the pastors to preach concord among their flocks. 
 Then the new colors were hoisted, as we learn from 
 the subjoined official report: — 
 
 "To-day, May 4, 1814, His Majesty the Emperor 
 Napoleon, having taken possession of the Island of 
 Elba, General Drouot, governor of the island in the 
 name of the Emperor, raised the new flag above the 
 forts ; a white ground crossed diagonally with a red 
 band sown with three bees upon a ground of gold. 
 This standard was saluted by the batteries of the 
 coast forts, the English frigate Undaunted, and the 
 French men-of-war which were in the harbor. In
 
 NAPOLEON'S ARRIVAL AT ELBA. 15 
 
 witness whereof, we, commissioners of the Allied 
 Powers, together with General Drouot and General 
 Dalesme, have signed this report." 
 
 The next morning Napoleon went out on foot at 
 five o'clock to visit all the public institutions. He 
 did not come in until nine o'clock, having over- 
 whelmed with questions every one he met. He com- 
 manded various alterations. He would have liked to 
 transform the barracks of Saint Francis at once into a 
 palace wherein he might take up his residence. On 
 May 6, he started very early to go and see the mines 
 at Rio. He examined everything with scrupulous 
 attention, and gave great praise to the director of the 
 mines. He was occupying himself as diligently with 
 an island twenty leagues in circumference and con- 
 taining twelve thousand inhabitants, as he had done 
 with the gigantic empire which extended from Rome 
 to Dantzic. The same day, with a view to gaining 
 the affections of the Elbans, he contributed sixty 
 thousand francs toward the construction of roads long 
 contemplated, but never begun for want of funds. 
 He possessed this sum in uncoined gold, and he had 
 it minted, in order that his generosity might produce 
 a greater effect when his servants carried it in sacks 
 across the town. Nobody talked of anything but his 
 immense treasures and the prodigies he was going to 
 perform. The people were enthusiastic for their new 
 sovereign : he inflamed their southern imaginations. 
 
 On May 6, the Vicar-General Arrighi issued a 
 charge which resembles a hymn of thanksgiving : —
 
 1G ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 " To my well-beloved in the Lord, my brethren of 
 the clergy, and all the faithful of the island, health 
 and benediction. Divine Providence, which in its 
 benevolence irresistibly disposes all things, and as- 
 signs their destinies to nations, has willed that in the 
 midst of the political changes of Europe, we should 
 become for the future the subjects of Napoleon the 
 Great. The Island of Elba, already celebrated for 
 its natural productions, will hereafter become illus- 
 trious in the history of nations by the homage it 
 renders to its new Prince, whose glory is immortal. 
 The Island of Elba, in fact, takes rank among nations, 
 and its narrow territory is ennobled by the name of 
 its sovereign. Raised to so sublime an honor, it re- 
 ceives in its bosom the Anointed of the Lord, and 
 the other distinguished personages who accompany 
 him. . . . What wealth is about to inundate our 
 country ! What multitudes will hasten from all parts 
 to gaze upon the hero ! The first day that he set foot 
 upon this shore he proclaimed our destiny and our 
 happiness. l I will he a good father,'' said he; '■be 
 my beloved children.'' Dear Catholics, what words of 
 tenderness! What expressions of good-will! What 
 a pledge of your future felicity ! May these words 
 charm your thoughts delightfully and be strongly 
 imprinted in your souls; they will prove an inex- 
 haustible source of consolation ! " 
 
 Never had Napoleon been more lauded in the days 
 of his greatest splendor. May 7, he removed to the 
 building intended for the military engineers, ceding
 
 NAPOLEON'S ARRIVAL AT ELBA. 17 
 
 to its officers, until they should depart, the rooms he 
 had occupied at the town-hall. The building was 
 only one story high, with six front windows; but it 
 was isolated, had a pretty garden, and commanded 
 views of the city and the sea. From among the citi- 
 zens he chose four chamberlains, giving them salaries 
 of twelve hundred francs ; three orderlies ; and two 
 stewards of the palace. This little court of Porto- 
 Ferrajo bore small resemblance to the splendid court 
 of the Tuileries. 
 
 The Emperor announced that he would receive 
 ladies twice a week, at eight o'clock in the evening, 
 and they accepted this flattering invitation. Napoleon 
 made his appearance among them, and asked each 
 the name and profession of her husband. Most of 
 them replied that they were engaged in commerce. 
 The Emperor desired to know what branch of com- 
 merce. One was a baker; another a butcher; and 
 so on. Chateaubriand says: "Bonaparte was con- 
 tinually returning throughout his life, to the two 
 sources whence it sprang, democracy and royal power. 
 His power came to him from the masses of the people; 
 his rank from his genius. So one sees him pass 
 without effort from the public square to the throne; 
 from the kings and queens who thronged about him 
 at Erfurt, to the butchers and oil-sellers who danced 
 in his grange at Porto-Ferrajo." 
 
 From the 7th of May to the 25th, the Emperor 
 busied himself witli the repairs on his house, and in 
 fencing the approaches to it. He superintended the
 
 18 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 work himself ; by five o'clock in the morning he was 
 among the masons in buckles and silk stockings. 
 On May 25, arrived the frigate Dryade, commanded 
 by Vicomte de Moncabrie*, and the brig Inconstant, 
 commanded by Vicomte de Charrier-Moissard. The 
 frigate was to take back the French garrison from 
 the island, and the brig to remain for Napoleon. 
 
 Before the departure from Fontainebleau, General 
 Drouot had chosen for the Emperor among the Old 
 Guard, all of them ready to follow their sovereign, 
 something like six hundred grenadiers and foot-sol- 
 diers, one hundred cavalry-men, and a score or so of 
 marines; in all, seven hundred and eighty picked 
 men. Having marched from Fontainebleau to Savona, 
 these brave and faithful soldiers embarked on five 
 English transports, and landed at Porto-Ferrajo, in 
 the night of May 25-26, 1814. Their arrival caused 
 Napoleon great joy. At the sight of them he felt all 
 his ambition and military ardor rekindle. Chateau- 
 briand, in his Memoires cVoutre-tombe, has remarked : 
 " The Allied Powers felicitated themselves on having 
 left him, in derision as it were, a few hundred sol- 
 diers ; he needed no more than that to summon all 
 Europe once more to arms." To his little band the 
 Emperor added sixty Poles whom lie sent for from 
 Parma ; moreover, just as the two French battalions 
 of the 35th Light Infantry were about to take ship 
 for France, he announced that he would keep with 
 him as many as, having been released from military 
 service, would consent to enroll themselves under
 
 NAPOLEON'S AH RIVAL AT ELBA. 19 
 
 his flag. lie managed in this way to retain about 
 three hundred, nearly all Corsicans. He further 
 added some three hundred Elbans to his little army, 
 and thus found himself at the head of fifteen hundred 
 soldiers. He organized a vigilant police throughout 
 the island and made an excellent place of Porto- 
 Ferrajo. The town was no longer recognizable. 
 Workmen of all trades established themselves there. 
 Foreigners flocked in, drawn either by curiosity or 
 the hope of speculating to advantage. The price of 
 all wares doubled ; rents rose to extravagant figures. 
 General Bertrand wrote, May 27, 1814, to M. de 
 Meneval : " The Emperor is very happy here, and 
 seems to have entirely forgotten how differently he 
 was situated a short time ago. He is very busy 
 adorning and furnishing his house, and in finding a 
 site for a country-seat. We often speak of our excel- 
 lent Empress." And again, June 25: "We learn 
 from the newspapers that the Empress has arrived 
 at Vienna. The Emperor continues well. We go 
 about a good deal on horseback, as well as in boats 
 and carriages. The Emperor's dwelling is already 
 much improved, and others are being arranged in 
 various places throughout the island. We hope soon 
 to receive news from the Empress and the Prince 
 her son.'' 
 
 Napoleon was still under the delusion that his wife 
 and son would rejoin him at Elba in a few weeks, 
 and this hope delighted him. On June 2<>, the im- 
 perial guard gave an entertainment to the inhabitants.
 
 20 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 There was a ball, at which the Emperor made his 
 appearance, and walked about the room, chatting 
 with and questioning the ladies, as he had done at 
 the Tuileries. 
 
 On the whole, the time which Napoleon passed at 
 Elba was not unhappy. After so many emotions, he 
 needed some repose. A delightful climate, the sea- 
 views, the language of the people, which was his 
 mother tongue, the battalions of his Old Guard, the 
 fanatical devotion of his attendants, who were ready 
 to shed the last drop of their blood for him, — all 
 this was not without charm. He gave his little 
 island the same solicitous care that he had given his 
 immense empire. Does not a captain occupy him- 
 self with his company as fully as a commander-in- 
 chief with his army? The interest one takes in 
 things is not measured by their importance. A 
 laborer often loves his thatched hut more than a 
 sovereign does his palace. Napoleon regarded him- 
 self as sj lending the season at Elba, so to say, and 
 had a presentiment that some day or other he would 
 leave it. Moreover, he experieneed a malicious pleas- 
 ure in following attentively the mistakes the bour- 
 bons were making; and to read the French journals 
 gave him infinite joy. It was all very well for him 
 to say, as lie sometimes did, that, as a philosopher 
 weaned from human grandeur, he wished to live 
 hereafter like a justice of the peace in an English 
 shire. But one morning, when, on climbing a knoll 
 which overlooks Porto-Ferrajo, he beheld the sea
 
 NAPOLEON'S ARRIVAL AT ELBA. 21 
 
 breaking at the foot of the cliffs on every side, he 
 could not refrain from exclaiming, tk The devil ! It 
 must be owned, my island is small enough ! " 
 
 At bottom he was tired neither of war nor of glory; 
 and the ambitious sovereign of the Island of Elba, in 
 his pretended retreat, resembled neither Diocletian in 
 the gardens of Salona, nor Claries Fifth in the con- 
 vent of Saint-Just.
 
 III. 
 
 QUEEN MARIE CAROLINE. 
 
 WHILE Napoleon was getting settled on the 
 Island of Elba, Marie Louise was resuming, 
 at Schoenbrunn, the habits of her childhood and early- 
 youth. The life she led in this peaceful retreat must 
 have been agreeable after so many tumults. Her 
 mornings were devoted to her son, whose apartment 
 communicated with her own, through a dressing- 
 room. During the day, she drew, practised music, 
 and studied Italian, a language she would need at 
 Parma ; she rode ; she walked or drove in the park 
 of Schoenbrunn or its suburbs; she visited the curi- 
 osities of Vienna. Silent and respectful crowds 
 always showed themselves eager to see her ; and the 
 beauty of her son, who was the most charming child 
 in the world, excited general admiration. She took 
 great pleasure in the company of her young sisters : 
 Leopoldine, born in 1797 (future Empress of Brazil) ; 
 Marie Clementine, born in 1798 (future Princess of 
 Salerno) ; Caroline Ferdinande, born in 1801 (future 
 Princess of Saxe) ; Marie Anne, born in 1804 (future 
 Abbess of the Chapter of the Noble Ladies of Prague). 
 22
 
 QUEEN MAE IE CAROLINE. -3 
 
 She saw her brothers very often also : Ferdinand, the 
 Prince Imperial, born in 1793; and Francis Charles 
 Joseph, born in 1802. This Prince, who was the 
 father of the present Emperor of Austria, was the 
 playmate of the King of Rome, now called the Prince 
 of Parma. 
 
 The saddle and carriage horses, state carriages, 
 and wagons laden with the private property of Marie 
 Louise, which had left Rambouillet under the escort 
 of Austrian troops, readied Vienna in June. Among 
 the saddle horses was an Arabian which had been 
 Napoleon's favorite mount. Some one proposed that 
 the Emperor of Austria should use it when he made 
 ins ceremonious entry into Vienna, but he had the 
 good taste to decline this sort of triumph. 
 
 Marie Louise was awaiting her father with impa- 
 tience. She had seen him last at Rambouillet, and 
 in him were centred all her hopes. Early in the 
 morning of June 15, 1814, she left Schoenbrunn to 
 meet him. She stopped at Siegartskirchen, two leagues 
 from Vienna. Shu had been preceded by her brothers 
 and sisters and her step-mother. She received her 
 father at the station, in the same room where Napo- 
 leon, in 1805, had received the deputation which 
 brought him the keys of Vienna. The Emperor 
 Francis got into his daughter's carriage, and went 
 with her to Schoenbrunn. He left her under no 
 illusions concerning the kind of protection he meant 
 to give her. " As my daughter," he said frankly, 
 " all that I have is yours ; as a sovereign I do not
 
 24 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 know you." The next day he made his triumphal 
 entry into his capital, where he had not been since 
 the last war. He passed through all its streets 
 amidst joyful acclamations. The procession lasted 
 five hours, and ended at the cathedral of Saint Ste- 
 phen, where a Te Deum was intoned. Then the 
 Emperor returned to Schoenbrunn with Marie Louise. 
 The entire family of the former Empress of the 
 French conspired to alienate her from her husband. 
 There was but one among her relatives who sought 
 to recall her to sentiments of duty. This was her 
 grandmother, Marie Caroline, the Queen of the Two 
 Sicilies, who had but just arrived at Vienna. She 
 was the daughter of the great Empress Maria The- 
 resa, and the sister of Marie Antoinette, the unfor- 
 tunate Queen of France. Prolific, like her illustrious 
 mother, she had borne eighteen children, among 
 whom was Marie Therese, the second wife of the 
 Emperor Francis and the mother of the Empress 
 Marie Louise. The life of Queen Marie Caroline 
 had been full of vicissitudes. Courageous to hero- 
 ism, energetic to cruelty, religious to superstition, 
 autocratic to despotism, her existence was crowded 
 with revolutions, troubles, and crises of every descrip- 
 tion. Born August 8, 1752, she married, on April 
 7, 1768, Ferdinand IV., King of the Two Sicilies, 
 who began to reign in 1759. In 1800 she came to 
 Vienna, to be near her daughter and her son-in-law. 
 She remained two years, seeking witli all her might 
 to augment, if that were possible, the hatred felt
 
 QUEEN MARIE CAROLINE. 25 
 
 towards France and French ideas by the court, the 
 aristocracy, and the whole Austrian people. 
 
 When she heard of Bonaparte's victory at Marengo, 
 Marie Caroline lost consciousness, and nearly died 
 of apoplexy. She detested France as heartily as she 
 did Napoleon. The Revolution had slain her sister, 
 and the Empire had robbed her of the throne of 
 Naples. There was one man, however, for whom 
 her aversion was even greater than for Napoleon. 
 She was probably the first to perceive, in 1813, that 
 Murat was inclined to abandon France, and seek an 
 alliance with Austria. She was then reigning with 
 her husband in Sicily, under the domination of the 
 English, whom she regarded rather as tyrants than 
 as protectors. At this time she was half inclined to 
 seek a reconciliation with Napoleon, and she sent an 
 agent to Vienna to warn the French ambassador of 
 the approaching defection of Murat. 
 
 In 1814 there were, singularly enough, two queens 
 of the Two Sicilies, each of them named Caroline — 
 one the sister of Marie Antoinette, the other the sister 
 ot Napoleon; and at this epoch, the most Napoleonic 
 of the two was not Marat's wife. Nor is it less 
 strange that, when these two women were struggling 
 with equal fury for the throne of Naples, Prima; 
 Metternieh was far more favorable to Caroline the 
 sister of Napoleon, than to Caroline the Ilapsburg, 
 who had been the mother-in-law of his sovereign, the 
 Emperor of Austria. The monarch of Elba must 
 have been more than a little surprised if he learned
 
 26 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 who it was that befriended him with most energy, 
 and was alone in exhorting his wife to remain faithful 
 to her conjugal duty. 
 
 Marie Louise remembered having seen her grand- 
 mother when she was a child, and was glad to meet 
 her again. The old Queen's journey had been a 
 veritable adventure. Accompanied by a few faith- 
 ful attendants, she had stolen away from Sicily, 
 which her hatred of the British domination made 
 her consider as a prison. So fearful was she of be- 
 ing arrested by one or other of the English vessels 
 crowding the harbors of Malta and the Adriatic, that 
 she hastened through the Archipelago and never 
 stopped until she reached Constantinople. After 
 resting there a few days, she crossed the Bosphorus, 
 entered the Black Sea, and landed at Odessa after a 
 long and perilous voyage. From there she went to 
 Vienna, proposing to employ every means in her 
 power to dethrone Murat and repossess herself of 
 the Kingdom of Naples. 
 
 Queen Marie Caroline installed herself in the little 
 castle of Hetzendorf, which communicated by an 
 avenue with the park of Schoenbrunn. She saw 
 Marie Louise and the little King of Rome, her great- 
 grandchild, constantly. Not only did she show ex- 
 treme affection for them both, but she was very 
 gracious to all the French who made part of the 
 household of Marie Louise. Baron de Meneval says 
 of Marie Caroline : " This Princess, who had been 
 Napoleon's declared enemy during the time of his
 
 QUEEN MARIE CAROLINE. 27 
 
 prosperity, and whose opinion could not be suspected 
 of partiality, professed a high esteem for his great 
 qualities. Learning that I had been his secretary, 
 she sought occasions to talk with me about him. 
 She said he had formerly given her great reason to 
 complain ; that he had wounded her pride (' for I 
 was fifteen years younger, then,' she added) ; but 
 that now, since he was unfortunate, she had forgot- 
 ten all. She could not restrain her indignation at 
 the manoeuvres by which they were trying to detach 
 her grandchild from the ties which were her glory, 
 and thus deprive the Emperor of the sweetest conso- 
 lation he could receive after the immense sacrifices 
 exacted from his pride. She added that if their re- 
 union was forbidden, Marie Louise should tie her 
 sheets to the window and escape in disguise. 'That 
 is what I would do in her place,' said she; 'for when 
 one is married, it is for life.'" 
 
 After quoting these words, M. de Meneval goes on 
 to say: " But such a bold act, which would have had 
 an attraction for the daring spirit of the old Queen, 
 agreed neither with the character of Marie Louise, 
 nor with her ideas of decorum. Besides, she had 
 begun to be pleased with the thought of going pres- 
 ently to Parma, where she would be her own mis- 
 tress and free to go and come as she chose." At 
 this time, however, she was not yet under the influ- 
 ence of Count Xeipperg; and as she had not given 
 up the idea of going to visit Napoleon now and then 
 at Elba, she listened with a certain sympathy to the
 
 28 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DATS. 
 
 counsels of her grandmother concerning conjugal 
 fidelity. 
 
 Baron de Bausset observes that there was at this 
 moment a likeness between the positions of these 
 two dethroned sovereigns, one of whom was claim- 
 ing the Duchy of Parma and the other the Kingdom 
 of Naples. More vivacious and ardent than her 
 granddaughter, Marie Caroline seemed greatly irri- 
 tated by the legal obstructions put in her way by all 
 the Powers, not excepting Austria. " I do not know," 
 adds M. de Bausset, "whether to attribute the fact to 
 her vexation at the circumspect Austrian diplomacy, 
 or simply to her natural politeness and the sympathy 
 she thought it her duty to feel for the innocent victim 
 of a greater political convulsion than that of which 
 she complained and which she had, in fact, provoked. 
 In any case, it is certain that she had sufficient 
 greatness of soul to appreciate the fidelity and devo- 
 tion of those who had followed the fortunes of her 
 granddaughter. Even in speaking of Napoleon, 
 though she did so with the frankness of an enemy, 
 yet it was that of an enemy not blind to his great 
 qualities. Convinced by all the Empress said, that 
 the Emperor had always treated her with the utmost 
 kindness, and that she had been overwhelmed with 
 the most touching and tender solicitude, the Queen 
 of Sicily prevailed on her to wear again a portrait of 
 Napoleon which her timidity had caused her to hide 
 away in a jewel-case. Nor did she fail to be most 
 amiable and caressing to the young Napoleon, though
 
 QUEEN MARIE CAROLINE. 29 
 
 he was her enemy's son." M. de Bausset says very 
 justly that such conduct displayed as much intelli 
 gence as delicacy. 
 
 Marie Louise and her grandmother, Queen Marie 
 Caroline, were together only a few weeks. The 
 Empress went to Aix, in Savoy, June 29, 1814, to 
 take the baths. They were never to meet again. 
 On September 7 the old Queen went to bed, feeling 
 very well. Two hours later she was found dead, 
 with her right hand extended to the bell-rope she 
 had been unable to reach, and her mouth half-open, 
 as if she had vainly tried to call for assistance. A 
 stroke of apoplexy had put a sudden term to her 
 troubled career. 
 
 Baron de La Tour-du-Pin, then the French Minis- 
 ter at Vienna, communicated the news to Prince 
 Talleyrand in a despatch dated September 8, 1814 : 
 "I have the honor to inform you that the Queen of 
 Naples had an attack of apoplexy during the night, 
 which carried her oif instantly. The Princess had 
 never been in better health. That verv morning' 
 Count de Preville, formerly an officer of the French 
 navy, and now attached to that of the King of the 
 Two Sicilies, had arrived here from Parma. lie 
 brought news from the King which fully satisfied 
 the Queen. She approved the applications he had 
 made to the Austrian court. The Queen kept M. de 
 Preville with her all day, and chatted about Sicily 
 and all her affairs with her usual vivacity. She sent 
 him away at ten o'clock, and went to bed; at mid-
 
 30 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 night, the maid who slept near her, hearing a slight 
 movement, asked if she needed anything, and, receiv- 
 ing no answer, she rose, and found that the Queen 
 was already dead." 
 
 She was buried at Vienna, with great pomp. Baron 
 de La Tour-du-Pin wrote to Prince Talleyrand, Sep- 
 tember 14, 1814 : " The obsequies of the Queen of 
 Naples took place on the 10th; the Mass was cele- 
 brated on the 12th. The whole imperial family 
 assisted at it, with the exception of the Empress. 
 The Diplomatic Corps was not invited, as it is not 
 customary. I thought, however, that the French 
 Minister could hardly allow this circumstance to 
 interfere with his giving some more particular mark 
 of interest than was due from others, and I was 
 present at the funeral. It seemed to me that they 
 were pleased with this attention. Prince Leopold's 
 sorrow lias been most touching to everybody. On 
 the day of his mother's death he sent a messenger 
 to Madame the Duchess of Orleans [Marie Ame'lie, 
 daughter of Marie Caroline and wife of Louis Phi- 
 lippe], by whom the news was doubtless carried 
 more quickly than by the one I sent Your Highness. 1 ' 
 
 Marie Louise heard of her grandmother's death 
 with great pain. In spite of the short time they had 
 spent together, her sorrow Avas deep and keen. With 
 Marie Caroline disappeared one of the most singular 
 ligures of the century.
 
 IV. 
 
 MARIE LOUISE AT AIX IN SAVOY. 
 
 MARIE LOUISE left Schoenbrunn, June 29, 
 1814, to take the baths at Aix in Savoy. She 
 had found it somewhat difficult to obtain her father's 
 permission to undertake a journey which must have 
 appeared strange. In 1814 Savoy still belonged to 
 France, and the former Empress of the French was 
 going to live simply as a private person in a town 
 whose sovereign she had been only three months 
 before. Napoleon felt strongly the singularity of 
 this proceeding. General Bertrand wrote to M. de 
 Mdneval from Porto-Ferrajo, July 3, 1814: "If the 
 Empress has waited at Vienna for an answer to her 
 letter, the Emperor desires that she should not go 
 to Aix; if she is already there, that she should not 
 remain more than one season, and that she should 
 return as soon as may be to Tuscany, where there 
 are baths which have the same properties as those of 
 Aix. They are nearer to us and to Parma, and the 
 Empress could have her son there with her. When 
 AT. Corvisart recommended the waters of Aix, he 
 was reasoning as if the Emperor and she were still 
 
 31
 
 82 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 at Paris ; besides, he knew nothing of these Tuscan 
 baths, which have similar qualities. Her going to 
 Aix displeases the Emperor all the more because 
 there are probably no Austrian troops there now, 
 and she may be exposed to insults from adventurers. 
 Moreover, it will doubtless be disagreeable to the 
 sovereigns of the country to have her so near. There 
 would be no such inconveniences in Tuscany." 
 
 But Marie Louise had taken good care not to wait 
 for her husband's permission to start. She was deter- 
 mined to go to Aix, whose waters she deemed indis- 
 pensable to her health, and where she expected to 
 meet the Duchess of Montebello, whom she then 
 considered her dearest friend. She left her son at 
 Schoenbrunn, in charge of the Countess of Montes- 
 quiou, and started in company with the Baron of 
 Meneval and the Countess of Brignole. She travelled 
 as the Countess of Colorno, which was the name of 
 one of her chateaux in the Duchy of Parma. When 
 she passed through Munich she found Prince Eugene 
 do Beauharnais and his wife at the station, and went 
 to supper with them and the Princess Royal of Wiir- 
 temberg, destined soon to become the fourth wife of 
 the Austrian Emperor. 
 
 On the 10th of July Marie Louise reached the inn 
 of Secheron, close to Geneva. There she was met by 
 her brother-in-law, King Joseph, who lived in the 
 Villa Prangins on the shore of the lake, and who 
 gave her a hearty welcome. As she seemed to regret 
 not having ordered saddle-horses to be provided for
 
 MARIE LOUISE AT ATX IN SAVOY. 33 
 
 her while at Aix, Joseph offered one of his own which 
 was suitable, and she rode no other during her journey. 
 She made an excursion to Chamouni and the 
 environs of Geneva which lasted six days, and on 
 July IT arrived at Aix in Savoy. Just as she 
 was about to enter the town she met a man on 
 horseback and wearing the uniform of an Austrian 
 general, who bowed profoundly and then turned to 
 escort her. Doubtless, she would have been greatly 
 surprised had any one then predicted to her the 
 part this man was to play in her existence. lie 
 was forty-two — twenty years older than she. He had 
 but one eye ; a black bandage hid the deep scar of 
 the wound which had deprived him of the other. At 
 the first glance his aspect was anything rather than 
 seductive. It was General Count Xeipperg, who had 
 acted as chamberlain to Marie Louise during her stay 
 at Prague in 1812, shortly after the conference at 
 Dresden. She had not noticed him then, and had 
 never seen him since. The singular attachment she 
 was to feel for him was by no means a case of love at 
 first sight. The wily diplomatist had neither the 
 beauty, the youth, nor the prestige which conquer 
 without an effort. M. de Meneval declares that when 
 she met him before Aix she found him uncongenial. 
 "• His appearance," says he, ''gave her a disagreeable 
 impression, which she did not try to hide. Was it 
 the instinct of a heart honest but distrustful of itself 
 which revealed him as her evil genius, and secretly 
 warned her against yielding to his designs?"
 
 34 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 At this time Marie Louise had not yet broken all 
 the ties which united her to her husband. She still 
 wrote to him. Her household was composed of 
 ardent Bonapartists like M. de Bausset and M. de 
 Meneval. She had left her son under the care of a 
 Frenchwoman, the Countess of Montesquiou, whose 
 admiration for the Emperor was profound. She had 
 invited a widow of a marshal of France, the Duchess 
 of Montebello, to stay with her. Her maid of honor 
 was the Countess of Brignole, a noble lady not less 
 devoted to Napoleon than the Countess of Montes- 
 quiou. 
 
 With the exception of General Neipperg, all those 
 who approached her during her stay at Aix, — Isabey, 
 who painted her portrait ; Talma, who recited verses 
 to her ; Baron Corvisart, who was her physician ; 
 Baron de Bausset and Count de Cussy, who acted 
 by turns as chamberlain, — all were imperialists who 
 still cherished an actual veneration for Napoleon. 
 Her servants were French, both men and women. 
 Her coachmen and footmen still wore the imperial 
 livery, and the arms of France were painted on the 
 panels of her carriages and engraved upon her silver. 
 Nevertheless, the Bourbons must have believed her 
 very unlikely to aid seriously her husband's cause, 
 or her residence in a French watering-place would 
 not have troubled them so little. 
 
 And yet Marie Louise was on all sides surrounded 
 by souvenirs of the Empire. The house she lived in, 
 situated on a little Hill above Aix, was that which
 
 MARIE LOUISE AT AIX IN SAVOY. 35 
 
 Queen Horteuse had occupied. This pretty town, 
 so picturesque and poetic in its situation and the 
 beauty of its environs, has had the privilege of con- 
 soling dispossessed sovereigns. Josephine, deprived 
 of the crowns of France and Italy, and Hortense, de- 
 prived of that of Holland, appointed a meeting there 
 in 1810. When one goes there first, the sombre moun- 
 tains which rise like the citadels of God, and tower 
 above the clouds floating about their summits, awaken 
 a sentiment which is almost awe. But one soon 
 learns to love these mountains, whose air is so pure, 
 so vivifying, and that beautiful Lake Bourget, which 
 sparkles or pales according to the clouds and the time 
 of day. Marie Louise loved to go boating on it, and 
 to visit the abbey of Haute-Combe on its shore, where 
 the princes of the house of Savoy are buried. Its 
 sepulchral silence, interrupted only by the monoto- 
 nous chant of white-robed monks, is well calculated 
 to inspire Christian reflections on the nothingness 
 and inanity of worldly grandeur. 
 
 Marie Louise was very sad during the early days of 
 her stay at Aix. A real warfare had begun within her 
 soul between her two countries, Austria and France ; 
 she understood the false position she was in, and 
 suffered in silence, for her perplexities were not un- 
 mingled with remorse. Her love for Count Neipperg 
 had not yet begun. His audiences with her were 
 purely official, and she did not suspect that he would 
 one day take the place beside her which belonged to 
 the Emperor Napoleon. M. de Meneval had left
 
 30 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DATS. 
 
 her, July 19, to pay his wife a visit of several weeks ; 
 but she kept up a close correspondence with him, 
 and her letters show both the tumult in her soul and 
 the confidence she continued to repose in one of the 
 most faithful of her husband's adherents. 
 
 " I shall never succeed in persuading myself to 
 return to Vienna until the sovereigns have departed," 
 she wrote to M. de Meneval, August 9, 1814 ; " and 
 I will put off seeing my son until then. I shall 
 remain at Geneva or in Parma until the Congress; 
 for it is impossible for me to stay here after the 
 season of the baths is ended. I beg you to assist my 
 determination by your counsel. Do not fear to tell 
 me the truth. I ask advice from you as from a 
 friend, and I hope you will give it to me frankly. I 
 have just received a letter from the Emperor, dated 
 July 4. He begs me not to go to Aix, but to take 
 some baths in Tuscany. I have written to my father 
 about it. You know how much I desire to please 
 the Emperor ; but, in this case, ought I to do so if 
 his wishes do not agree with the intentions of my 
 father?" 
 
 Her letter terminated thus : " I send you a letter 
 from Porto-Ferrajo. I was greatly tempted to open 
 it ; it might have given me some details. If there 
 are any, I beg you to let me know. I thank you 
 much for those you sent; I needed them; I have 
 had none for so long. On the whole, I am in a very 
 unhappy and critical condition ; it is very essential 
 for me to be prudent in my conduct. There are
 
 MARIE LOUISE AT AIX IN SAVOY. 37 
 
 moments when everything seems so strangely un- 
 settled that I think the best thing I could do would 
 be to die. . . . My health is good enough. I am at 
 my tenth bath. They would be beneficial if my 
 mind were easy, but I cannot be contented until I 
 have erot out of this miserable state of uncertainty. 
 I rejoice to think that you will soon be here to talk 
 reasonably to me, and to quiet my poor head." In a 
 postscript the Empress added: " My son is wonder- 
 fully well, so they write me, and becomes every 
 day more charming. The days are long until I can 
 see the poor child again." 
 
 The 15th of August came around to renew all the 
 sorrows of the dethroned sovereign. She must have 
 had some tender memories of both her husband and 
 her son on that day, for it was the feast of each. To 
 quote Victor Hugo: — 
 
 " All drifts and passes with the sea, 
 World-masters, kings that cradled be, 
 Bald front, fair locks of infancy, 
 
 Great and little Napoleon ; 
 All vanish and themselves efface, 
 Surge upon surge rolls hack apace, 
 Forgetting all, the billows pass, 
 
 Leviathan like Alcyon." 
 
 Marie Louise also was going to forget ; but on this 
 day she had not yet forgotten. What a difference 
 between those two dates: August 15. 1813 — August 
 15. 1814! What changes in one year! At this time 
 last year, France, exulting over the victories of
 
 38 ELBA, AND THE HUNBHEB BAYS. 
 
 Lutzen and Bautzen, was expecting a speedy and 
 glorious peace. Regent of the great Empire, Marie 
 Louise, seated on her throne in the Tuileries, the 
 imperial mantle on her shoulders, her head encircled 
 with the most brilliant of the crown diamonds, had 
 received the high officials who came to offer their 
 homage and good wishes. Afterwards, she had as- 
 sisted at a Solemn High Mass and a Te Deum in the 
 castle chapel. In the evening she had been received 
 with cries of joy and enthusiastic acclamations when 
 she made her appearance on the balcony of the Hall 
 of the Marshals, to listen to the concert given on the 
 terrace, and see the fireworks go up from the Place 
 de la Concorde. What a difference on August 15, 
 1814 ! Instead of the great illuminated capital, an 
 obscure little town ; instead of a numerous crowd of 
 courtiers, a handful of attendants ; instead of the 
 Palace of the Tuileries, a humble white house ; in- 
 stead of the title of Empress of the French and 
 Queen of Italy, that of the Duchess of Colorno ; 
 instead of the regency of a vast empire, the posses- 
 sion, or, more truly, the hope of an Italian duchy ; 
 instead of the King of Home for a son, a poor child, 
 of whom it was hardly known whether he would even 
 obtain the right to be called the Prince of Parma. 
 
 The former Empress may never have been ambi- 
 tious, but such contrasts could not fail to cast over 
 her a sombre and melancholy veil. For her the day 
 was one of sadness, not of joy. She wrote on that 
 date to M. de Medieval: "I have not yet received
 
 MARIE LOUISE AT AIX IN SAVOY. 39 
 
 an answer from my father to the letter I spoke of in 
 my last. This time of uncertainty appears to me 
 very cruel and very long. I await his reply with 
 much impatience, and I will let you know the moment 
 it arrives. A sad presentiment warns me that it will 
 contain nothing pleasant; but this is one of my 
 gloomy days. How can I be gay on this feast day, 
 when I am obliged to spend it so far from the two 
 persons who are dearest to me? Pardon these sad 
 reflections ; but the friendship you have always 
 shown me gives me courage to make them, provid- 
 ing you will tell me when I weary you. I beg you 
 to believe in my sincere friendship. Your affectionate 
 Louise.'' 
 
 In a postscript Marie Louise refers to her disap- 
 pointment in the matter of Parma. Count Mare- 
 scalchi, formerly the Italian Minister of Foreign 
 Affairs, an honorable man and well known as a 
 sympathizer with France, had at first been charged 
 with organizing the administration of the duchy, but 
 the Austrian Cabinet had revoked his appointment. 
 "M. de Marescalchi," wrote Marie Louise, "is simply 
 the Austrian Minister at my court now; my father 
 h;is appointed M. de San Yitale my grand-chamber- 
 lain, and without consulting me. This pains and 
 exasperates me. M. Magawly said at Parma that 
 my father had summoned M. de San Yitale to Vienna 
 in order to perform his functions near me, and that 
 I would be expected to go there and remain during 
 the entire Congress. What a dreary prospect! I
 
 40 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 have a mind to ask him if I may pass the winter in 
 Florence, providing that I promise not to communi- 
 cate with the Emperor except through the Grand 
 Duke, but I feel almost sure he would refuse. What 
 I am determined on is not to go to Vienna while the 
 sovereigns are there. Advise me, I pray you; I 
 assure you I am greatly to be pitied." 
 
 Throughout this entire day her mind continually 
 reverted to M. de Mdneval. In the evening she wrote 
 again, to apprise him that she had just received a 
 letter from Prince Metternich in which he enjoined 
 her, in the name of the Emperor of Austria, not to 
 go to Parma. In this epistle she deplores her fate as 
 she had done in the preceding one : " The Duchess 
 of Montebello will tell you many things I cannot 
 write about. I am sad, but resigned. To-morrow will 
 give me the most painful blow, for then I must bid 
 her adieu. But I will not complain ; I must accustom 
 myself to all sorts of trouble. What consoles me is 
 the thought that there are still some kind souls who 
 pity me, and I remember with pleasure that you are 
 among the number." 
 
 Marie Louise no longer found it agreeable to re- 
 main at Aix when the Duchess of Montebello had 
 departed. There was, in fact, no reason Avhy she 
 should prolong her stay, since her health was re-es- 
 tablished. Moreover, although her conduct had been 
 scrupulously prudent, yet the government of Louis 
 XVI II. was beginning to be uneasy about her pres- 
 ence in a French town. Prince Talleyrand had writ-
 
 MARIE LOUISE AT AIX IN SAVOY. 41 
 
 ten, August 9, 1814, to Prince Metternich: "When 
 you were in Paris last, my dear Prince, you told 
 the King you did not approve of the journey which 
 Madame the Archduchess Marie Louise had made to 
 the baths of Aix. From the moment that the waters 
 became useful to her health, the King would have 
 closed his eyes to the inconveniences of this journey 
 if he saw any. But you, my dear Prince, thought it 
 might give occasion, not to intrigues, but to a good 
 deal of gossip. You know what the tattle of a water- 
 ing-place amounts to, and what mischief these idle 
 babblers may bring about. A few rattle-pates go far 
 enough to compromise themselves, and it is just this 
 which it is necessary to avoid. Joseph Bonaparte, 
 who is near Aix, has committed follies which he would 
 not have dreamed of but for her being there. All 
 this is of very small importance, and the King attaches 
 none to it; but rumors of it have reached Paris, and 
 give occasion for random talk, to the Diplomatic Corps 
 as well as to everybody else. People fancy they dis- 
 cover grave and secret intrigues at the bottom of 
 things which are perfectly natural and simple. 1 
 fancy, my dear Prince, that since the season of the 
 baths is over for Madame the Archduchess, it may 
 suit both you and us if her stay at Aix should not 
 be further prolonged. Do not misunderstand, how- 
 ever, the motives which induce me to make this sug- 
 gestion. Adieu, my dear Prince; preserve a kindly 
 regard for me, and believe in my sincere attachment 
 for yourself/'
 
 42 ELBA, AND THE HUN DEED DATS. 
 
 Marie Louise might have wished to remain longer 
 at Aix, but she would not have been permitted to do 
 so. However, she still thought about her husband. 
 August 20, she wrote to the Baron of Me"neval : " I 
 have news from the Emperor dated August 6. He 
 is in good health, happy and tranquil, and thinks 
 much about me and his son." But the time was 
 approaching when the influence of Count Neipperg, 
 who was gradually insinuating himself into her good 
 graces, should detach her forever from Napoleon. 
 She left Aix early in September, and before return- 
 ing to Vienna she made an excursion into Switzer- 
 land, where Count Neipperg acted as her guide. 
 
 As to the sovereign of Elba, he already had fore- 
 bodings that he would never again see either wife or 
 son. A few weeks earlier he had still hoped for 
 a reunion, which he desired above all things. He 
 wrote to Count Bertrand from Porto-Ferrajo, July 27, 
 1814 : " I have decided to go to Marciana on Au- 
 gust 1. My house must be built during my absence, 
 so that when the Empress comes it shall be ready for 
 her." By August 9 his hopes had begun to weaken. 
 Doubt is to be read between the lines of the letter he 
 wrote that day to his Grand Marshal of the Palace : 
 " M. le Comte de Bertrand, Colonel Laczinski, who 
 starts to-day at two o'clock for Livorno, will go from 
 there to Aix, bearing a letter from me to the Empress. 
 Write to Mdneval that I expect the Empress by the 
 end of August; that I want her to fetch my son, 
 and think it strange to receive no word from her,
 
 MARIE LOUISE AT A1X IN SAVOY. 43 
 
 doubtless because her letters have been intercepted. 
 This absurd performance is probably the work of 
 some petty official; it cannot be that of her father. 
 In any case, no one has any rights over the Empress 
 and her son." 
 
 The people of Elba, however, believed firmly in the 
 speedy arrival of the Empress and the King of Rome. 
 Chateaubriand remarks in his Memoires d'outre- 
 tombe: "Every one expected to see Marie Louise 
 and her son very soon. In reality, a woman with a 
 child did appear. Great mystery surrounded her 
 reception, ami she went to stay in a lonely cottage 
 in the remotest part of the island. On the shore 
 of Ogygie Calypso told her love to Ulysses, who, 
 instead of listening, thought only of defending 
 himself against her advances. After two days of 
 repose the swan of the north took her flight again 
 toward the myrtles of Baia?." This mysterious wo- 
 man was the Countess Walewska, the beautiful Pole 
 win) had inspired the Emperor with such a passionate 
 admiration some years before. Her son, born March 
 4, 1810, was nearly the same age as the King of 
 Rome. 
 
 An eye-witness thus relates this singular incident 
 of Napoleon's residence at Elba: "On the 1st of Sep- 
 tember. 1814. the Emperor spent the entire day on 
 the heights of Pomonte. sweeping the sea with a small 
 telescope, as if to discover and recognize all vessels 
 which came in sight. At nightfall he re-entered the 
 Hermitnore and sent an orderlv on horseback to Porto-
 
 44 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 Ferrajo to provide a carriage and three saddle-horses, 
 which were to wait the instructions of the Grand 
 Marshal of the Palace, in the road leading to the 
 Place Saint-Jean. At about ten in the evening the 
 orderly was at the point indicated with the carriage 
 and the horses. It was a fine moonlight night and 
 he presently saw a rowboat approaching the jetty. 
 Three ladies and a child landed from it, and General 
 Bertrand, saluting them respectfully, led the w v 
 the carriage. At the cross-roads of Prochia they met 
 Napoleon riding a white horse and followed by a 
 troop of lancers and Mamelukes. The carriage 
 stopped, and the Emperor got off his horse. The 
 right-hand door of the carriage opened, and the Em- 
 peror entered it in profound silence. r "he p .. ^ 
 set off again and did not stop until it reached the 
 beach of Prochia, where, as the carri — cou 1 . ' ^ no 
 farther on account of the bad roads, the Emperor, 
 the ladies, and the child left it for the horses, which 
 had been led by the orderly. The child was carried 
 by one of the ladies, and the orderly, dismounting, 
 led her horse by the bridle. When thej w^e near 
 the Hermitage, Napoleon spurred up his horse and 
 arrived first at a tent which had been pitched under 
 a huge chestnut. A few minutes later the lady with 
 the child came up and entered the tent also. They 
 remained there two days and nights without being 
 seen by any one else. Napoleon himself came out 
 only twice to give some orders. During this time all
 
 MARIE LOUISE AT AIX IN SAVOY. 45 
 
 persons were forbidden access to the hill, even Ma- 
 dame Mere, who lodged in a neighboring village." 
 
 Thus, at the very moment when Marie Louise was 
 beginning to yield to Count Neipperg's influence, 
 Napoleon, despairing of seeing her at Elba, had be- 
 thought himself of the Countess AValewska.
 
 V. 
 
 MARIE LOUISE IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 THE last sparks of a very feeble flame are about 
 to be extinguished. In Switzerland the former 
 Empress of the French is already less attached to 
 Napoleon than she had been at Aix in Savoy. The 
 hour is near when he will be as a stranger to her. The 
 influence of MM. de Medieval and de Bausset dimin- 
 ishes as that of Count Neipperg increases. Marie 
 Louise, to whom the thought of being in Vienna at 
 the same time with the sovereigns was once so pain- 
 ful, is now accustoming herself to entertain it. Count 
 Neipperg never leaves her. If she boldly undertakes 
 so many fatiguing, not to say dangerous, excursions 
 across mountains and glaciers, it is because the se- 
 ducer is at her side. He is a musician, and when 
 she sings, he plays her accompaniments. He is an 
 assiduous, devoted, obsequious chamberlain ; perhaps 
 he is already a lover. He will presently become her 
 factotum, her indispensable attendant. He vaunts 
 his ability to solve all difficulties and smooth away 
 all obstacles which lie between her and that Duchy 
 of Parma which she thinks of as a Promised Land, 
 40
 
 MARIE LOUISE IN SWITZERLAND. 47 
 
 Agent and confidant of Prince Metternich, lie pur- 
 sues with address and perseverance the task confided 
 to him by the Austrian oligarchy. He is neither 
 vouncr nor handsome, but there is something alluring 
 in his glance, his appearance, and his conversation. 
 His uniform as general of hussars becomes him; his 
 manners are extremely polished, and they hide his 
 ardent ambition under a cloak of modest simplicity. 
 A brave soldier and a skilful diplomatist, he has the 
 good taste never to talk about himself, although he 
 both talks and writes with ease. Marie Louise no 
 longer even thinks of rejoining her husband at Elba. 
 Perhaps she would not do so even if her father ac- 
 corded his permission. Her sole ambition is to reign 
 in Parma, with the faithful Xeipperg as her minister. 
 She has forgotten France. It seems as if she had 
 said an eternal adieu to the country where she had 
 reigned, when parting from the Duchess of Monte- 
 bello, the only Frenchwoman whom she had loved. 
 
 Marie Louise appreciated the beauties of nature, 
 and she greatly enjoyed herself in Switzerland; pos- 
 sibly the proximity of Count Xeipperg, who acted as 
 guide, helped to make; her find that land so charm- 
 ing. September 0, 1814, she slept at Lausanne, at 
 Freiburg the 10th, and at Berne on the 11th. Then 
 she visited Grinwal, Lauterburn, and the Rigid, with 
 the Countess of Brignole and General Xeipperg for 
 sole attendants. k ' M. de Meneval and I," writes the 
 Baron of Bausset, '"had seen snow enough in Russia. 
 We were not particularly anxious to wander among
 
 48 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 those mountains all covered with it," So these two 
 left the field to the General, who, doubtless, was not 
 sorry. 
 
 September 20, Marie Louise came back to Berne. 
 She had just heard of the death of her grandmother, 
 Queen Marie Caroline, and she displayed great sor- 
 row. For two days she shut herself up in her apart- 
 ments, but on September 22 she made an excursion 
 to Ilofhill, two leagues from Berne. On returning, 
 she was informed of the arrival of the Princess of 
 Wales, whom she did not know, but who desired to 
 meet her. This Princess was, assuredly, one of the 
 most curious types of our. modern times. Her father 
 was Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, 
 a bitter enemy of the French Revolution, the author 
 of the celebrated manifesto of 1792, and the unsuc- 
 cessful opponent of Dumouriez and Napoleon. Caro- 
 line was born in 1768, and in 1795 was married to 
 the Prince of Wales. In the following year she 
 became the mother of the Princess Charlotte, who 
 was afterwards the wife of Leopold, King of Bel- 
 gium. Hardly had she recovered from her confine- 
 ment when her husband separated from her on the 
 plea of incompatibility of temper. Then began re- 
 criminations and scandals which resounded through- 
 out Europe, and never ceased until the death of 
 Caroline. 
 
 Her husband, the Prince of Wales, whose whole 
 youth had been turbulent, and who had many things 
 to reproach himself with, noisily accused his wife of
 
 MARIE LOUISE IN SWITZERLAND. 49 
 
 adultery; claiming, even, that she had concealed a 
 pregnancy. In 1808, her father-in-law, George III., 
 appointed a ministerial commission to examine these 
 charges. They acquitted her, so far as the latter 
 accusation was concerned, declaring, at the same 
 time, that her conduct had been imprudent. When 
 George III. went mad, in 1811, the Prince of Wales 
 became Regent. It was of him that Louis XVIII. 
 said: "After (rod, it is to the Prince-Regent that I 
 owe my restoration." 
 
 Caroline, then, was daughter of one man, and wife 
 of another, of those who were most bitterly hostile 
 to Napoleon. Nevertheless, she was anxious to see 
 Marie Louise, and even proposed to pay a visit to 
 Napoleon himself, at Elba. When she met the 
 former Empress of the French at Berne, she was 
 beginning a long journey. After passing through 
 Germany, she meant to visit Italy, Greece, Syria, and 
 the Holy Land. Caroline was witty and agreeable, 
 and she spoke French admirably. All was unusual 
 about her. — face, figure, dress, and conversation. 
 She wore a white muslin gown, and a large veil of 
 the same stuff, which covered her head, breast, and 
 shoulders. Above this was a diadem consisting of a 
 single row of diamonds. Her costume resembled that 
 of an ancient Greek priestess. 
 
 In the morning of September 23 this noble but 
 eccentric traveller had her first interview with Marie 
 Louise, to whom she showed herself extremely 
 friendlv. She crave her all manner of details con-
 
 50 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 cerning her quarrel with her husband, and the an- 
 noyances to which she had recently been subjected 
 in England. " Your Majesty will hardly believe," 
 said she, " that I was not permitted to attend the 
 Queen's drawing-room while the sovereigns of Russia 
 and Prussia were there, because my husband was 
 unwilling to meet me, either in public or in private. 
 I complained to the Queen, and I even wrote my 
 husband a beautiful letter, in which I signed myself 
 the most faithful and submissive of wives [the 
 Princess smiled maliciously while saying these last 
 words] ; but he did not deign to answer me. How- 
 ever, I did not consider myself obliged to observe 
 strict seclusion on that account. I went to every 
 public place to which I could gain admittance by 
 paying my way. Once, when the sovereigns and my 
 husband were at the opera, in a box in the dress- 
 circle, I was discovered at the back of another, on 
 the second tier, where I had gone in disguise. The 
 people showed their good will toward me by such 
 stormy applause, that these august spectators, sup- 
 posing it impossible that so much homage could be 
 addressed to any one but themselves, thought it in- 
 cumbent on them to rise and bow to the audience. I 
 was not slow in seizing this chance to avenge myself. 
 Pretending, in my turn, to consider their mistake as 
 an intentional aet of politeness toward me, I gravely 
 made them three sweeping courtesies, which excited 
 loud and ironical applause." 
 
 Caroline spoke afterwards of her daughter, the
 
 MARIE LOUISE IN SWITZERLAND. 51 
 
 Princess Charlotte. " She is as charming and clever 
 as one can possibly be ; but," she added, smiling, 
 '•after myself, I don"t know a more quarrelsome 
 person." 
 
 In the evening the Princess of Wales, accompanied 
 by a lady-of-honor, two chamberlains, and an equerry, 
 came to dine witli Marie Louise, who had returned 
 her visit during the day. The dinner was very 
 lively, and afterwards, the conversation turning on 
 music, the Empress invited the Princess to sing 
 something. '"Willingly," she replied, "providing 
 that it shall be a duet." Marie Louise wished to 
 refuse, under the plea of her timidity, which, she 
 said, made her incapable of uttering a note before 
 listeners. " For my part," responded the Princess 
 of Wales, " I have never been afraid, except on 
 account of my friends." Marie Louise finally con- 
 sented. Her voice was a soprano, as sweet and 
 pleasing as herself; Caroline's, on the contrary, was 
 a full and strongly accented contralto, which accorded 
 well with her energetic character. They sang the 
 duct Ln ci tlarem la mano, from Mozart's D<>n Juan, 
 Count Neipperg playing the accompaniment, Marie 
 Louise taking the part of Zerlina, and Caroline that 
 of Don Juan. Would not the scene be a tempting 
 one for a '/cure painter? 
 
 September 24, tin; Empress slept at Zurich. She 
 visited some glaciers in the neighborhood, as well as 
 the ruined castle of Hapsburg, the cradle of her 
 ancestors. Some one of the party found an old
 
 52 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 scrap of iron among the ruins, and Count Neipperg 
 pretended to recognize in it a fragment of Rudolph 
 of Hapsburg's lance. Marie Louise either believed, 
 or professed to believe, in this little fraud, and, later 
 on, had bits of the chimerical lance set in gold rings, 
 which she gave to various members of her circle. 
 
 She went on to Vienna b}^ way of Saint-Gall, 
 Constance, Munich, and Braunau, and passed the 
 night in the latter city. It was the place where, on 
 March 16, 1810, the house of Austria had formally 
 committed her to the house of France. That day 
 of profound emotions lay already far behind her. 
 The Empire, that majestic and colossal edifice, which 
 all men had thought indestructible, had disappeared. 
 It had lasted not much longer than the frail walls 
 of the pavilion where the young Archduchess had 
 been confided to her new country. At that time the 
 same ceremonies had been observed as had attended 
 the marriage of Marie Antoinette. Triumphal arches 
 had spanned the roads traversed by the august be- 
 trothed. To the sound of bells, the roar of artillery, 
 and the joyous flourish of trumpets, she had appeared 
 before the dazzled eyes of the people like a sort of 
 goddess, illuminated by the lustres of an apotheo- 
 sis. And now, at the end of four years and a half, 
 she was again at Braunau, alas, under what different 
 conditions ! She was travelling as a private person, 
 bearing the assumed title of Duchess of Colonic 
 Nothing but the memory of those distant splendors 
 was left to her, and it is doubtful if even that mem-
 
 MARIE LOUISE IN SWITZERLAND. 03 
 
 ory was dear. Soon it was to vanish like a dream. 
 Marie Louise returned to Schoenbrunn, October 4, 
 1814, the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, and the 
 name-day of her father. From that moment nothing 
 that was French remained longer in her Austrian 
 
 BOul.
 
 VI. 
 
 MARIE LOUISE DURING THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. 
 
 " ~T~TTTIO would believe that the lust after pa- 
 V V geants, the bursts of applause which greet 
 Moliere and Harlequin at the theatres, the hunts and 
 banquets, ballets and tournaments, cover so many 
 disquieting cares and opposing interests, such fears 
 and hopes, such ardent passions, and such serious 
 affairs?" 
 
 One is reminded of this passage from La Bruyere 
 when studying the history of that Vienna Congress, 
 of which the Prince de Eigne said: "The Congress 
 dances ; it does not walk." The sovereigns made 
 their formal entry into the Austrian capital Sep- 
 tember 20, 1814. More than a thousand volleys of 
 cannon greeted them from the ramparts. A contem- 
 porary caricature represents the Emperor Alexander 
 driving a two-seated travelling-carriage, with the 
 King of Prussia as footman, and the Emperor Napo- 
 leon running behind, and shouting to the Emperor 
 Francis, " Father-in-law ! father-in-law! they have 
 put me out." The Austrian Emperor, who occupies 
 the carriage, looks back, and answers, " And me in." 
 
 The presence of Marie Louise in a city where the 
 54
 
 DUE IN G THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. 55 
 
 sovereigns who Lad vanquished and detl ironed her 
 husband were reunited was singular enough. Five 
 days after her return to the castle of Schoenbrunn, 
 a fete was given there which all the monarchs at- 
 tended. There were drives about the gardens in 
 open carriages, theatricals, and a supper in the 
 Orangery. But the former Empress of the French 
 remained in the seclusion of her own apartments. 
 On November 9, 1814, Baron de La Tour-du-Pin, 
 French Minister at Vienna, wrote as follows to 
 Count de Jaucourt, who acted as Minister of For- 
 eign Affairs during the absence of Prince Talley- 
 rand: u The Archduchess Marie Louise is never 
 present at any of the fetes and daily reunions which 
 are brought about by circumstances. But she comes 
 every day to see her father, and often calls on the 
 sovereigns and grand duchesses who are staving at 
 the palace. She is visited in return at Schoenbrunn, 
 but not so as to attract too much attention. Her 
 toilet seems to occupy her greatly, and no week 
 passes without her receiving gowns and bonnets from 
 Paris. At the same time, melancholy speeches es- 
 cape her lips ; she plays doleful airs, and says that 
 she was made for sadness. They take pains to let 
 it be known that the little Bonaparte has remarka- 
 ble intelligence, and he is so trained as to make him 
 pleasing to the French, and especially to soldiers. 
 It appears that whenever one presents himself, or 
 when he speaks of them, he is expected to say 
 gracious and kindly things. The fetes increase in-
 
 56 ELBA, AND THE HUN DEED BAYS. 
 
 stead of diminishing. Yesterday M. de Metternich 
 gave one; day after to-morrow there will be a grand 
 dress rout, and on the 16th a tournament composed 
 of twenty-four ladies and as many cavaliers." 
 
 One might say that Marie Louise could only look 
 through the keyhole at these entertainments where 
 her presence was forbidden. In her father's apart- 
 ments at the Burg, the imperial palace of Vienna, 
 a small tribune or platform had been so placed in 
 a corner of the upper gallery surrounding the great 
 hall that one could see from it without being seen. 
 It was the same great hall in which the festivities 
 of her marriage had taken place in 1810. Hidden 
 at the back of this tribune with M. de Bausset and 
 Madame de Brignole, what reflections the dethroned 
 sovereign must have made ! She had seen at her 
 own knees the same crowd of noble lords and ladies 
 who now paid such assiduous court to the princes of 
 the Coalition. How humble and obsequious all these 
 petty potentates of the Rhine Confederation had 
 been but lately before the great Napoleon! His 
 wife might have said, with the author of the Dieu 
 des bonnes gens : — 
 
 " A conq'ror in his lofty hour of pride 
 With laws and sceptres played as trifling things ; 
 The dust from off his feet men saw 
 Imprinted on the coronets of Kings. 
 You crawled then, Kings, whom now men deify ! " 
 
 Who was the princess now disputing so bitterly 
 the possession of the duchies of Parma. Piacenza.
 
 DURING THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. j)7 
 
 and Guastalla with Marie Louise? It was she who 
 had been ereated Queen of Etruria by a caprice of 
 the First Consul. Tuscany was erected into the 
 Kingdom of Etruria by the Treaty of Luneville, and 
 given to Louis, Infant of Parma; and in May, 1801, 
 before taking possession of his states, he went to re- 
 ceive investiture, as it were, from Bonaparte. He was 
 the son of a sister of Marie Antoinette, and his wife, 
 who accompanied him, was the daughter of Charles 
 IV. of Spain. It was only seven years since Marie 
 Antoinette had lost her head on the scaffold, and her 
 nephew in going to Malmaison to pay homage to the 
 First Consul crossed the square where she was exe- 
 cuted. At the TheYitre Francois they played (Edipe 
 in his honor, and when the actor who took the part 
 of Philoctete recited the. verse, 
 
 " I have made sovereigns, and I have not willed to be one," 
 
 the audience turned toward the box where the First 
 Consul was sitting with his royal guest, and broke 
 into a frenzy of applause which shook the theatre. 
 Oil! how insignificant this kinglet had seemed be- 
 side the man of Arcole, the Pyramids, and Marengo! 
 A few days later the new King and Queen departed 
 for Etruria, where they were installed by Murat. 
 The Queen presently opened a friendly ami grateful 
 correspondence with Josephine, by whose; graciouy 
 reception of herself and her husband she had been 
 charmed. Assuredly, the all-powerful First Consul 
 would have been profoundly surprised had any seer
 
 58 ELBA, AND THE HUNDliEB DAYS. 
 
 then come to tell him : " It is this little Queen who 
 will one day seek to deprive your wife and son of 
 the only strip of land remaining to them after all 
 your conquests ! " 
 
 Marie Louise was present at the general rehearsal 
 of the tournament, which took place in the Hall of 
 the Manege. This hall is a long parallelogram, ter- 
 minating at each end in a large tribune. One of 
 these was occupied by the sovereigns, and the other 
 by the orchestra. Opposite the monarchs, in a tier 
 of boxes placed in front of the musicians, were se- 
 dately ranged the twenty-four ladies of the twenty- 
 four knights about to combat in the lists. All of 
 them beautiful and full of animation, they were clad 
 in red velvet robes against which the lustre of their 
 jewels sparkled with great effect. The gems worn 
 by Princess Paul Esterhazy, born Princess de la Tour 
 et Taxis, were valued at more than six millions of 
 francs. The fete was magnificent. The twenty-four 
 knights, in splendid costumes, and mounted on superb 
 and richly caparisoned palfreys, entered to the flourish 
 of trumpets. Riding forward, they made their rev- 
 erence to the sovereigns without dismounting; then, 
 turning, they paid a similar homage to the ladies 
 whose colors and scarfs they wore. They tilted at 
 the ring, beat down helmets which had been placed 
 upon manikins, and handled harmless javelins with 
 precision. The tourney ended, each cavalier rejoined 
 his lady and conducted her to the banqueting-hall. 
 From the feast they repaired to the ball-room, where
 
 DURING THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. 59 
 
 more than three thousand invited guests were pres- 
 ent. The quadrilles, which had been arranged before- 
 hand, were comprised of the most illustrious and 
 highly born men and women in all Germany. Con- 
 cerning the second representation of the tournament, 
 Baron de La Tour-du-Pin wrote on November 30, 
 1814, to Count de Jaucourt : "This fete has been 
 perfectly beautiful, and the splendor of the women 
 lias exceeded anything ever seen. One might more 
 truly say that they were clothed with diamonds and 
 precious stones than that they were adorned with 
 them. The ladies had given scarfs to their knights; 
 that presented by Madame de Perigord to Count de 
 Trautmansdorff, the Grand-Equerry, was sown with 
 golden flowers-de-luce, with lion's claws in the; fringe. 
 We were childish enough to feel pleased because 
 this knight carried off the honors of the day.'" 
 
 Meanwhile, serious people were beginning to think 
 there was a good deal of amusement going on at 
 Vienna. Seldom have important affairs been treated 
 with so much apparent levity. Prince de Talley- 
 rand wrote to Louis XVIII., on November 2"), 1814: 
 '•After I left Prince de Metternich, he went to the 
 Ridotto, for he spends three-quarters of his time at 
 balls and public entertainments. His head was so 
 full of the Naples business that, having met there a 
 woman of his acquaintance, he told her that he was 
 being tormented about it. but that he did not know 
 how to give his consent. lie said he respected a 
 man who bad made himself beloved in the country he
 
 60 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 governed ; and that, moreover, he loved the Queen 
 passionately, and was in constant relations with her. 
 All this, and perhaps a little more on the same head, 
 was said under the mask." In his new capacity as 
 courtier of Louis XVIII. Talleyrand could not par- 
 don Metternich for preserving his affection for Napo- 
 leon's sister, and wishing to protect in Murat a 
 prince whom the Bourbons considered an upstart and 
 usurper. 
 
 The Austrian Minister was also the object of some 
 sharp criticism at the hands of Baron de La Tour-du- 
 Pin, who wrote to Count de Jaucourt, December 7, 
 1814 : " The public generally are discontented with 
 the condition of affairs; they especially find fault 
 with the Emperor of Russia, who loses in public 
 estimation daily. Any minister but M. de Metter- 
 nich would take immense advantage of this ; but 
 what can be expected of a man who, in the gravest 
 situation that can possibly be imagined, spends the 
 greater portion of his time in follies ; who was not 
 afraid to have the Pacha de Surene played at his 
 house, and who, ever since the Congress began, has 
 spent a good many of his days in an equally futile 
 way? After this, M. le Conte, you ought not to be 
 surprised at the slow progress of affairs." 
 
 This Pacha de Surene, which Mas one of the Baron 
 de La Tonr-du-Pin's grievances, had the greatest suc- 
 cess at one of the court soirees. Etienne s charming 
 comedy was played in French by amateurs, who were 
 the Landgrave of Furstenburg, Prince Antoine Radzi-
 
 DURING THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. 61 
 
 will, Count Ferdinand de Waldstein, Countess Mnis- 
 check, Princess Theresa Esterhazy, Princess Marie de 
 Metternich, Countess Marassi, Princesses Marie and 
 Sophie de Lichtenstein, etc. After the play followed 
 tableaux in which some of the most distinguished 
 persons of the court took part. The principal one 
 was the Tent of Darius, after Lebrun's painting. 
 Count dc Schoenfeld represented Alexander the 
 Great, and the beautiful Countess Sophie Zichy, 
 Statira. Baron de Bausset writes enthusiastically in 
 his Memoirs: "-The scene was at once heroic and 
 voluptuous; all the faces, all the attitudes of the 
 figures in this living picture, wore expressions suita- 
 ble to their age. their condition, and their situation. 
 Sizygambis herself was admirable." 
 
 On December 2, 1814. a grand rout was held at 
 the imperial palace, of which an account is found in 
 a letter from Vienna published in the Moniteur 
 Universel. Three great halls were thrown into one 
 by means of galleries and staircases, thus providing 
 a space so large that ten or twelve thousand people 
 might easily move round in it. The passage con- 
 ducting from the apartments of the palace to this 
 grand hall was adorned with shrubbery and flowers, 
 and looked like fairy-land. An alley lined with 
 orange-trees led to the great hall, whence could be 
 seen, beyond a double staircase, the superb perspec- 
 tive afforded by the grounds of the riding-school. 
 The hall was decorated in white and silver, and 
 sparkled with five or six thousand candles. At ten
 
 62 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 o'clock the sovereigns entered, to the blare of the 
 trumpets and kettle-drums. The Czar and the Em- 
 press of Russia opened the march, followed by the 
 Emperor and Empress of Austria, the King of Den- 
 mark and the Archduchess Beatrix, the King of Ba- 
 varia and the Grand Duchess of Oldenburg. Having 
 passed several times through the three halls, the 
 sovereigns seated themselves on a platform in the 
 Hall of the Mandge, and watched a ballet danced 
 by masked children. The fete lasted until morning. 
 
 On that same day, December 2, the double anni- 
 versary of Napoleon's coronation and the battle of 
 Austerlitz, Marie Louise had paid a visit to the 
 Russian Empress, who was at the Burg. While the 
 former Empress of the French was with the Czarina, 
 her carriage was awaiting her upon the ramparts 
 near by. Some of the curious bystanders who 
 nocked about it observed that the carriage panels, 
 the escutcheons of the harness, and the buttons on 
 the livery of the footmen still bore the imperial arms 
 of France. This offended them, and when Marie 
 Louise re-entered her carriage they made remarks on 
 the subject which she could not fail to hear. Noth- 
 ing more was needed to induce her to have these 
 arms removed. She replaced them by her own 
 monogram. 
 
 Alas ! it was not merely the imperial arms which 
 the forgetful wife effaced; it was the memory of her 
 husband. The captive of the Coalition, she began 
 to familiarize herself with her chains and to love
 
 DURING THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. U3 
 
 Count Neipperg. Ever since her visit to Aix and 
 Switzerland she had placed confidence in this man 
 who was as much her guardian as her chamberlain. 
 Baron de la Tour-du-Pin had written to Count de 
 Jaucourt, on September 7, 1814 : " I do not know 
 whether you have been informed that Major-General 
 the Count of Neipperg has been appointed by the 
 Austrian Emperor as the guardian of his daughter. 
 I lis business is to prevent her doing anything which 
 might annoy or even displease the King ; and, espe- 
 cially, to watch her carefully in case she seems dis- 
 posed to go to her husband. Should that happen, he 
 is to advise her against doing so, and, if she persists, 
 to forbid it absolutely." 
 
 General Neipperg had acquitted himself of his 
 mission to the entire satisfaction of his government. 
 Marie Louise, who had once declared that nothing 
 could induce her to go near the sovereigns who 
 dethroned her, had ended by resigning herself with 
 a good grace, not only to live in their neighborhood, 
 but to receive their visits. Enchanted with the wily 
 Neipperg's success, the Emperor of Austria desired 
 him to act as her chamberlain throughout the Con- 
 gress, lie assumed, in fact, the duties of grand 
 equerry and official charge* d'affaires as well as those 
 of chamberlain. And in proportion as his influence 
 over the weak young woman's mind increased, she 
 repelled still further all thought of a reunion with 
 Napoleon. A widow during the lifetime of her hus- 
 band, she ceased to correspond with him. At first
 
 64 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 he protested against this silence, which he did not 
 fully comprehend. On October 10, 1814, he wrote 
 thus to an uncle of Marie Louise, Ferdinand Joseph, 
 Grand Duke of Tuscany, that Prince who had been 
 so respectful toward the Napoleonic glories, and so 
 assiduous at the court of the Tuileries when, as 
 Grand Duke of Wurzburg, he was a member of the 
 Rhine Confederation under the protectorate of the 
 new Charlemagne : — 
 
 "My Brother and Very Dear Uncle: Hav 
 ing received no news from my wife since August 10, 
 nor from my son for six months, I charge the Cheva- 
 lier Colonna with this letter. I beg Your Royal 
 Highness to let me know whether I may send you a 
 letter for the Empress every week, and if you will 
 forward me her replies and those of the Countess of 
 Montesquiou, my son's governess. I flatter myself 
 that, in spite of the events which have changed so 
 many persons, Your Roj^al Highness still preserves 
 some friendship for me." 
 
 The Grand Duke despatched this letter to Vienna. 
 Let us hear what M. de Mdneval has to tell us about 
 the way it was received. " One day," he says, " on 
 returning from her daily visit to the imperial palace, 
 Marie Louise brought back a letter from the Emperor 
 Napoleon which her father had given her. The 
 Emperor complained of her silence, and begged her 
 to write him accounts of herself and her son. The 
 letter had been delivered by a courier of the Grand 
 Duke of Tuscany, and the Austrian Emperor had
 
 DURING TIIE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. 65 
 
 had it iii his hands four days. It had been shown to 
 the sovereigns without any doubt, for it was with 
 that intention, and in order to prove his good faith 
 to the Allies, that the Emperor Francis required his 
 daughter to pass over to him all letters received from 
 her husband. The Empress did not reply to this 
 epistle, as she received no permission to do so." 
 
 At the instance of Prince Metternich, Marie Louise 
 had promised not to hold any communication with 
 her husband without the consent of her father, to 
 whom she also remitted all letters which reached her 
 from Elba. Napoleon, on learning that even his 
 private letters to his wife were not respected, and 
 that she was forbidden to reply, ceased writing to 
 her altogether. 
 
 Yet a feeble tie still bound Marie Louise to her 
 souvenirs of France. The Countess of Brignole, the 
 Baron of Bausset, and the Baron of Meneval were 
 still with her, and the Countess of Montesquieu con- 
 tinued to be the governess of the child who had 
 been the King of Rome. M. de Meneval says : 
 "The first day of 1815 reanimated in the heart of 
 the Empress those memories of France which had 
 been so violently assailed. It is kept as a holy-day 
 in France, but in Vienna no one observes it. It is 
 during the preceding week that people make presents 
 and pay compliments. The streets of Vienna are 
 crowded with carriages and pedestrians in their Sun- 
 day clothes. They seem to be burying the old year 
 with honor rather than celebrating the birth of a
 
 66 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 new one. For a moment the Empress's return to 
 French ways made us believe that all was not yet 
 forgotten at Schoenbrunn. After Mass she received 
 all her household in the gallery of the palace. She 
 was so amiable as to offer me some charming gifts, 
 products of Viennese industry, and to add to them 
 one of those little picture-cards, expressive of good 
 will, which it is a German custom to give one's 
 friends at certain seasons of the year. Even Count 
 Neipperg was cordial and attentive." 
 
 On January 6, Feast of the Three Kings, Marie 
 Louise gave a luncheon to her son, her sisters, and 
 her youngest brother, the little Archduke Francis, 
 father of the present Emperor. The King of Rome 
 found the bean in his slice of Twelfth Night cake, 
 and enjoyed the ephemeral royalty it gives — a sym- 
 bol of that which destiny had torn from him. Alas, 
 the little Bonaparte, as he was now called by those 
 who had strewn flowers and burned incense before 
 his cradle, already had enemies ! This child, not yet 
 four years old, inspired the Coalition with fear. The 
 least marks of good will shown toward him alarmed 
 the zealous adherents of Louis XVIII. On August 
 13, 1814, Baron de la Tour-du-Pin had written to 
 Talleyrand : " At present the little Bonaparte is alone 
 at Schoenbrunn. It is certain that the Emperor of 
 Austria shows him much affection. He receives the 
 honors of an archduke." On October 15 M. de 
 Talleyrand, somewhat reassured, wrote to the King: 
 " Bonaparte's son is no longer treated as he was on
 
 DURING THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. G< 
 
 his first arrival at Vienna. They dress him more 
 simply, and have replaced his broad ribbon of the 
 Legion of Honor by that of Saint Stephen." 
 
 M. de Meneval says that no real kindness was 
 shown to Marie Louise and her son except by her 
 father and her sisters. Her step-mother and her 
 brothers-in-law talked of nothing but making the 
 child a bishop. The Emperor was sometimes obliged 
 to silence them. Baron de Bausset also mentions 
 these hostile dispositions. He says : " It was the 
 general opinion in Vienna that Napoleon ought to 
 be sent to Saint Helena, because Elba was too close 
 to Italy and France. As to his son, he should be 
 educated for the priesthood, and made to hide under 
 a wretched frock that heritage of glory and grandeur 
 whose very memory they wished to extinguish." 
 
 The son of the great Emperor was already lovable 
 and attractive. To his infant graces there was added 
 a nameless and precocious melancholy. As the poet 
 Coppee has so well said, he was 
 
 " A young eaglet, vaguely feeling himself a prisoner," 
 
 and he inspired a tender sympathy in every generous 
 soul. Listen to the faithful Meneval, who speaks of 
 him with such touching and unreserved devotion: 
 "My greatest distraction was to spend a few hours 
 in the apartment of the young Prince. His pretty 
 ways, his gentleness, and the vivacity of his repartees 
 were charming; lie was then nearly four years old. 
 His fresh and rosy face was lighted by beautiful blue
 
 68 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 eyes and framed in clustering fair curls. His in- 
 telligence was precocious ; he was better instructed, 
 moreover, than many older children. Madame de 
 Montesquiou never left him, even at night, and cared 
 for him with all the solicitude of a mother. They 
 rose at seven every morning, and, as soon as prayers 
 were over, his daily lessons began. He not only read 
 fluently, but even knew a little history and geog- 
 raphy. One Abbe* Lanti, almoner of the French 
 Legation, came to talk Italian with him, and a valet 
 de chambre addressed him only in German. The 
 child could already make himself understood in both 
 languages, but he disliked extremely to speak the 
 latter, finding the pronunciation difficult and harsh." 
 Already the heart of the former King of Rome, now 
 the Prince of Parma, and awaiting the day when he 
 should be merely the Duke of Reichstadt, was con- 
 scious of a strife between France, his true fatherland, 
 and Austria, the false one they were imposing on 
 him ! Ah ! what would not Napoleon have given to 
 see his son, if only for one instant ! Marie Louise, 
 more fortunate, could behold him. But there must 
 have been moments when the sight of this child, 
 whose father she had abandoned, became a mute 
 reproach. 
 
 There was at Vienna, at the time of the Congress, 
 an amiable and celebrated old man who was the 
 courtier of Marie Louise as he had been of Marie 
 Antoinette, and who took a lively interest in the 
 great Emperor's son. This octogenarian was Prince
 
 DURING THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. 09 
 
 de Ligne, whose life had been so brilliant and who 
 still wore with elegance his field-marshal's uniform. 
 He was present at all the entertainments, and, wish- 
 ing still to play his old role of arbiter of manners 
 and good taste, he was naively astonished that he 
 produced less effect on women than he had done fifty 
 or sixty years before. " My time is over, my world 
 is dead," he would say with gentle melancholy. 
 " But after all, what merit is there in youth that 
 people should lavish such favors on it? ... It is 
 disgusting to see what a brigandage of success it has 
 in society." 
 
 The old man consoled himself by playing soldiers 
 with the little Napoleon. It was he who said, 
 " Honors, ribbons, glory itself, do they give as much 
 pleasure as the first doll, the first sailor-suit? Tlio 
 child eats four times a day; the hero often cannot 
 even take his supper." The first time he saw the 
 little Prince he was thus announced: " Monseigneur, 
 here is the Marshal Prince de Ligne." " Is he a 
 marshal?" asked the child. "Yes, Monseigneur." 
 "Is he one of those who deserted my father?" 
 
 One day when he had been much impressed by the 
 military parade at the funeral of General Delmotte, 
 the child gave his old friend an enthusiastic account 
 of the pleasure he felt at the sight of so many fine 
 troops. " I will give you a greater satisfaction than 
 that before long," answered Prince de Ligne ; " the 
 funeral of a field-marshal is the most magnificent 
 thing of the sort that can be." The old man kept
 
 70 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 his word. He died during the Congress, and, between 
 two balls, procured the sight of a splendid funeral 
 for the sovereigns. Ten thousand troops under arms 
 escorted his coffin to the Kahlenberg, the last moun- 
 tain of the immense Alpine chain. There he was 
 buried in a pavilion he had dedicated to Gaiety and 
 the Muses, not far from the chapel where John 
 Sobieski went to pray on the day when he delivered 
 Vienna. The Prince de Ligne died a Christian. It 
 was he who said apropos of some blatant professions 
 of infidelity : " All this is very fine when one does 
 not hear the bell for the dying. Really, unbelief is 
 so much a pretence, that if a man honestly had it, 
 I don't see wiry he shouldn't kill himself at the first 
 pain of mind or body. No one understands suffi- 
 ciently what human nature would be under the influ- 
 ence of positive irreligion. As to the atheists, they 
 are living under the protection of religion." 
 
 In the midst of entertainments of all sorts there 
 was even found a place for preachers. The fashion- 
 able sermons were those of the famous tragic poet, 
 Werner, once a Lutheran, but now converted to 
 Catholicity and in holy orders. The King of Prussia 
 said to him one day, " I don't like people who change 
 their religion." "That's why I don't like Luther," 
 lie responded. The Abbe" Werner was a success, 
 both as preacher and as poet. His sermons and his 
 verses gave equal pleasure. Marie Louise invited 
 him to Schoenbrunn, and lie read her his tragedy, 
 CunSyonde.
 
 DURING THE CONGBESS OF VIENNA. 71 
 
 But as to the gayer entertainments, they went on 
 without Marie Louise sharing in them. For one day, 
 January 21, 1815, they were interrupted by a mass 
 of expiation, offered as homage to the memory of 
 the martyr-king. The sovereigns, all in mourning, 
 repaired to the Cathedral of Saint Stephen for this 
 solemnity. Who was the man who took the initia- 
 tive in the matter? It was the former bishop who 
 had said mass in the Champ de Mars on the day of 
 the Fete of the Federation ; the minister of the 
 Directory who, on the 18th Fructidor, was the im- 
 placable enemy of the Royalists ; the grand chamber- 
 lain of Napoleon who, on the day of his coronation, 
 carried the casket intended to receive the Emperor's 
 mantle. 
 
 The memory of the execution of Louis XVI. did 
 not afflict the sovereigns very long. The next day 
 after this doleful anniversary there was a splendid 
 fete at Schoenbrunn. The monarchs and princes 
 came out from Vienna in sleighs which they drove 
 themselves. Superb horses drew them, decked with 
 splendid plumes and shaking silver bells. A large 
 detachment of cavalry opened the march. One im- 
 mense sleigh was filled with trumpeters and drum- 
 mers who made a prodigious noise. All the ladies 
 were wrapped in magnificent furs. The procession 
 drove through the courts and gardens of Schoen- 
 brunn : afterwards they entered the palace, and even 
 passed through the apartments of Madame de Mon- 
 tesquiou and Madame de Brignole. They respected
 
 72 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 those only of Marie Louise, who, hidden in her 
 chamber, listened to the blaring of the trumpets. 
 After a sumptuous banquet everybody repaired to 
 the theatre of the castle, where a German version of 
 Cinderella was represented. This sleigh-ride cost 
 between five and six hundred thousand francs. 
 
 It was a singular idea to place Marie Louise in the 
 midst of this whirlpool of pleasure in which she was 
 forbidden to take part. The joyous music which 
 resounded for others, but not for her, must have 
 brought ironic echoes to her ears. "To me also," 
 she might have said, "fetes have been given. I, too, 
 have been the object of public curiosity and universal 
 enjoyment. I, too, have been flattered by courtiers 
 never tired of telling me I possessed all graces and 
 all virtues." 
 
 The former Empress of the French, who was even 
 now but twenty-three, had already recovered from 
 many illusions and human vanities. Nevertheless 
 she still had one ambition : it was to be the Duchess 
 of Parma. Her whole mind was bent on this, and 
 General Neipperg was careful to cherish her fixed 
 idea. He harped upon it continually, and with a 
 zeal which made her believe him the only man 
 really interested in her fate. In spite of the formal 
 stipulations of the treaty of Fontainebleau, made on 
 April 11, 1814, the Spanish and French plenipoten- 
 tiaries wished to deprive her of the duchies of Parma, 
 Piacenza, and Guastalla, and give them to the for- 
 mer Queen of Etruria, the daughter of Charles IV.
 
 of Spain. Prince Talleyrand, contrary to all equity 
 and justice, combated bitterly the indisputable rights 
 of Napoleon's wife. On January 19, 1815, he wrote 
 to Louis XVIII.: "As to the arrangements now 
 making with reference to Italian affairs, we have 
 some reason to hope that the Archduchess Marie 
 Louise will be reduced to a considerable annual 
 pension. I must tell Your Majesty that I am deeply 
 interested in bringing this about, because by this 
 means the name of Bonaparte would certainly be 
 struck from the list of sovereigns, both now and for 
 the future. The Island of Elba is his only for his 
 lifetime, and the son of the Archduchess ought not 
 to possess an independent state.'' 
 
 The Emperor of Austria defended his daughter's 
 rights but feebly, and Prince Metternich occupied 
 himself much more with Napoleon's sister Caroline 
 than with Marie Louise, the daughter of his own 
 sovereign. The man who showed most interest in 
 her was the Czar. Alexander's chief ambition was 
 to lie thought a chivalrous prince, and he made it 
 almost a point of honor to demand the execution 
 of the treaty of Fontainebleau : he considered it a 
 proof of his magnanimity. As in 1814 he had been 
 the courtier of the Empress Josephine at Malmaison, 
 so at Schoenbrunn lie wished to be that of the Em- 
 press Marie Louise. This role of protector to Napo- 
 leon's two wives, two dethroned princesses, suited 
 his generous nature. The Bourbons gave him no 
 great pleasure. He thought them too infatuated
 
 74 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 about the antiquity of their family. Sometimes lie 
 reproached himself for not having preferred to them, 
 if not Napoleon, at least the King of Rome. He 
 made a parade of walking arm in arm with Prince 
 Eugene de Beauharnais every day. This intimacy 
 between the Czar and Napoleon's adopted son exas- 
 perated both the old French Royalists and the new 
 ones. Talleyrand either considered or pretended to 
 consider Alexander a frivolous and superficial person 
 who loved a false popularity ; a self-seeking apostle 
 of a pretended liberalism. The ex-dignitary of the 
 Empire had written to Louis XVIII. on November 
 12, 1814: "It is reported that the Emperor Alex- 
 ander, in speaking of the Austrian opposition to his 
 views, and after bitter complaints against M. de Met- 
 ternich, said : ' Austria thinks itself sure of Italy, but 
 there is a Napoleon there who could be made useful.' 
 I cannot vouch for the truth of this, but the saying 
 goes the rounds, and if it be true, it gives an exact 
 measure of him who made it." Louis XVIII. replied, 
 November 22 : "I credit the speech attributed to the 
 Emperor Alexander. It is of the highest impor- 
 tance, therefore, that Austria and England should 
 take to heart the adage, trivial if you will, but full 
 of sense, and specially applicable under existing 
 circumstances, Sublatd cansd, tolliter effectus?" 1 The 
 truth is, Talleyrand should have blushed to be the 
 accuser of Napoleon when the Czar, in spite of 
 the terrible memories of the Russian campaign, was 
 his defender. The more averse he became to Aus-
 
 DURING THE CONGRESS 0$ VIENNA. 75 
 
 tria, whose views were in opposition to his own, 
 the more sympathy did Alexander show toward 
 Marie Louise. He frequently went unannounced 
 to Schoenbrunn, and lavished marks of the sincer- 
 est esteem and most exquisite courtesy on the de- 
 throned sovereign. 
 
 Marie Louise, feebly defended by her father, was 
 reduced to solicit in writing the good offices of the 
 other monarchs. She addressed her petitions not 
 only to the Czar, but to the King of Prussia. Lord 
 Castlereagh presented himself at Schoenbrunn in 
 boots and carrying a riding-whip, and only withdrew 
 on being admonished that his costume was contrary 
 to etiquette. The Minister probably thought that 
 an Austrian Archduchess had forfeited her claim to 
 polite treatment by the fact of becoming the Em- 
 peror Napoleon's wife. One might have said that 
 the members of the Congress took a malicious pleas- 
 ure in heaping up obstacles to the execution of the 
 most solemn promises. The ink was hardly dry on 
 the treaty signed at Fontainebleau, April 11, 1814, 
 before its most precise stipulations were disregarded. 
 No pains were taken even to find pretexts for excus- 
 ing these violations of sworn faith. In this affair, as 
 in that of Saxony, it must be owned that the sover- 
 eigns set a by no means good example to their peo- 
 ple. It was they who undermined the bases of both 
 throne and altar. 
 
 Prince Talleyrand wrote to Louis XVIII., Febru- 
 ary 15, 1815: "As to the territorial arrangements in
 
 76 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 Italy, the commission charged with preparing the 
 plan have proposed to give Parma, Piacenza, and 
 Guastalla, to the Queen of Etruria ; the Legations 
 to the Holy See ; the Presides, Piombino, and the 
 reversion of Elba to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. 
 The Archduchess Marie' Louise would have nothing 
 but a pension paid by Tuscany and certain fiefs for- 
 merly held by the old German Empire and now by 
 the Grand Duke of Tuscany, to whom they were 
 given as the completion of his indemnity by a decree 
 of the Diet. They are situated in Bohemia, and 
 }deld an income of four hundred thousand florins. 
 This scheme was presented through our influence. 
 It has the double advantage of not merely diminish- 
 ing the number of petty sovereignties in Italy, but, 
 what is still more essential, that of sending the son 
 of the Archduchess out of the way and depriving 
 him of all expectation of ever reigning. Austria 
 hesitated for a month, but the Emperor has at last 
 decided to yield the duchies to the Queen of Etruria ; 
 he says it would not be becoming to keep either for 
 himself or any of his family a state belonging to the 
 House of Bourbon, with whom it is both his interest 
 and his duty to remain on good terms. But, know- 
 ing that his daughter is determined to have an inde 
 pendent establishment, he has proposed that she shall 
 have Lucca, and lias charged his Minister to negotiate 
 the affair with her." 
 
 Marie Louise was energetic in her refusal of this 
 scheme, and Talleyrand added these sentences to his
 
 DURING THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. 77 
 
 letter : " M. de Metternich presented this counter- 
 project and discussed it with me before going to the 
 Archduchess. His presumption and his excessive lev- 
 ity had prevented his foreseeing that it might not be 
 a complete success. But at the first word, the Arch- 
 duchess Marie Louise appeared unwilling to content 
 herself with Lucca, and even not to care at all for 
 that principality. She said it would not be agreeable 
 to go there while Napoleon is at Elba. She insists, 
 or, rather her advisers insist, on the rights secured to 
 her by the treaty of April 11. She does not demand 
 Parma, but she will have something equivalent or 
 nearly so. I see no way to satisfy her, short of giv- 
 ing her the Legations, while securing their reversion 
 to the Holy See. But the court of Rome, which 
 cannot be reconciled even to the loss of Avignon, 
 would make an outcry, and perhaps even resort to 
 means of defence compromising to itself. M. de 
 Metternich demands three days to consider his course 
 of action, and will then give me his answer." 
 
 So then Talleyrand, who continued to wear the 
 title of Prince of Benevento, stolen from the Pope, 
 would have asked nothing better than to rob Pius 
 VII. of the Legations. The obstinacy with which 
 Marie Louise asserted her right to Parma prevented 
 the success of this combination. But in order to 
 obtain this duchy so much desired, she was at last 
 wearied into a promise not to take her son there with 
 her. The Duchy of Parma was the reward of all the 
 bad actions suggested to her bv the Mephistopheles
 
 78 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 of diplomacy. " Do you want to be Duchess of Par- 
 ma ? " was said to her ; " abandon your husband for- 
 ever; swear never to write him a single line. Do 
 you want to be Duchess of Parma ? Renounce your 
 son also; you cannot enter your new dominions with 
 this child. Leave him at Vienna. You may come to 
 see him from time to time ; but Parma is as much 
 interdicted to him as France. You may be Duchess 
 of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla, but only on one 
 condition : your son shall not be your heir, but sim- 
 ply and absolutely an Austrian subject, or better, a 
 prisoner." 
 
 However, the fetes continued. The sovereigns 
 cloaked their dissensions under a pretence of amuse- 
 ment. Lent put a stop to the balls, but all other 
 dissipations went on as usual. On March 3, 1815, 
 Talleyrand wrote to Louis XVIII. : "In the embar- 
 rassment of not knowing how to pass the time when 
 dancing is given up, all sorts of games and amuse- 
 ments are resorted to. Among the most fashionable 
 are lotteries, to which each person invited contributes 
 a prize, so that there are no blanks, and every one 
 wins. Day before yesterday Princess Marie Ester- 
 hazy gave a lottery of this description, and by an 
 excess of civility which has been severely criticised, 
 she undertook to arrange matters so that the four 
 chief prizes should fall to women particularly distin- 
 guished by the Czar and the King of Prussia, both of 
 whom were present. The scheme was frustrated by 
 young Metternich, who approached the basket when
 
 DURING THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. 79 
 
 it was not his turn and drew a ticket which was 
 found to entitle him to the most magnificent lot of 
 all : it had been brought by the Emperor of Russia. 
 The latter was not able to hide his chagrin, and every 
 one present was highly amused. Your Majesty will 
 remember that the Czar does not attend M. de Met- 
 ternich's balls of late nor speak to him when they 
 meet elsewhere. The Emperor had nothing but ill- 
 luck that evening. A prize which had been brought 
 by the young Princess of Auersberg, for whom he 
 seems to have a preference, was won by an aide-de- 
 camp of the King of Prussia. The Emperor proposed 
 an exchange, but the winner refused; the Emperor 
 insisted, even to the point of claiming that it had 
 Ixien intended for him ; the aide-de-camp replied that 
 it was too precious for him to think of parting with 
 it. All this delighted everybody, and it was quite 
 enough to persuade the Emperor that the soirees at 
 Vienna by no means display the good taste which 
 marked them when he came."' 
 
 On March 5, 1815, the Austrian Empress gave 
 an evening party at which tableaux vivants were to 
 furnish the entertainment. The principal one repre- 
 sented un interview between Maximilian I. and Marie 
 i if Burgundy. The most charming women of the 
 court figured in it, and the spectators were still 
 enjoying its unusual excellence when suddenly an 
 unwelcome rumor began to circulate. Maximilian, 
 Marie of Burgundy, the bishop, the ladies, the chev- 
 aliers, the Grand Mistress, — all the personages of the
 
 80 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 tableau seemed disturbed. On some faces there was 
 anger, on others stupefaction. What news was it 
 that produced this profound impression of surprise 
 and terror? They had just learned that Napoleon 
 had quitted Elba, and every one asked himself, 
 " Where is he going ? " 
 
 No more amusements, no more feasts ! To arms ! 
 all Europe was about to cry. To arms all the troops 
 of the Coalition ! To arms a million of men against 
 a battalion from the Isle of Elba ! Napoleon breaks 
 his parole. But the Bourbons, the Allies, had not 
 they broken theirs ? Not receiving the subsidy stipu- 
 lated by the treaty of Fontainebleau, the Emperor 
 was on the verge of famine. The moment was near 
 when he would be obliged to disband his brave 
 grenadiers, the companions of his glory, his consolers 
 in misfortune. His wife and child had been torn 
 from him. He was treated like a brigand. The in- 
 tention to transport him like a vile criminal to some 
 distant island of the Atlantic was openly avowed. 
 Had not Talleyrand, the in grate Talleyrand, written 
 to Louis XVIH., on October 13, 1814: "There is a 
 fixed resolve expressed to remove Bonaparte from 
 Elba, but no one seems able to settle on a suitable 
 place for him. I propose one of the Azores. It 
 would be five hundred leagues from any country." 
 Had not Louis XVI 1 1., in his answer of October 21, 
 spoken of that " excellent idea of the Azores"? And 
 had not Talleyrand, writing again to the King, 
 December 7, 1814, said: "We must hasten to get
 
 DURING THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. 81 
 
 rid of Murat and the man of Elba"? Fatal as were 
 the consequences of this return from Elba, which led 
 to Waterloo, it must be owned that Napoleon had a 
 right to defend himself against proceedings contrary 
 to justice and morality. He was not merely a gen- 
 eral seeking to replace himself at the head of his 
 troops, a sovereign anxious to reconquer his sceptre; 
 he was a husband and father bent on regaining pos- 
 session of his wife and child.
 
 VIT. 
 
 THE RETURN FROM ELBA. 
 
 SATURDAY, February 25, 1815. The Island of 
 Elba presents its customary aspect. No one has 
 as yet the least notion of the resolution Napoleon is 
 about to take. Nothing is talked of at Porto-Fer- 
 rajo but the ball to be given in the evening by the 
 beautiful Princess Pauline Borghese, the Emperor's 
 sister. This fete is very brilliant. All the officers are 
 present, as well as the notabilities of the island and 
 some visiting foreigners. Napoleon is very gay ; his 
 easy and cheerful conversation betrays no preoccupa- 
 tion. He stays until a late hour, and then takes 
 Generals Bertrand and Drouot home with him to 
 tell them his news from Vienna and France. At 
 Vienna they have decreed his transportation to the 
 Azores. In France the entire army and the majority 
 of the people await him as a liberator. He says, 
 " We will start to-morrow ! " 
 
 Sunday, February 26. Bertrand and Drouot have 
 kept the secret faithfully. The Emperor holds his 
 levee as usual, and afterwards is present at the parade 
 and at the Mass. Up to four in the afternoon the 
 
 82
 
 THE RETURN FROM ELBA. 83 
 
 troops know nothing. The roll of the drums sum- 
 mons them to dinner ; .and when that is over they 
 are ordered to repair to the wharf with their arms 
 and baggage. At five the signal for embarkation is 
 given, and some four hundred of the Guard, with 
 their officers, go on board the brig Inconstant, which 
 carries twenty-six guns. The remainder of the troops, 
 amounting to about seven hundred, embark on the 
 schooner Caroline and live other small vessels. The 
 wharf is full of people. The inhabitants bid an affec- 
 tionate adieu to the soldiers whom they esteem and 
 love. Madame Mere and the Princess Pauline are 
 at the chateau windows. Napoleon appears and is 
 cheered, his countenance meanwhile beaming with joy 
 and confidence. He goes on board the Inconstant, 
 which is commanded by Captain Chautart with naval 
 Lieutenant Taillade as second officer. The flotilla 
 gets under sail with a south wind blowing. Night 
 falls ; by daybreak they hope to have rounded 
 Capraja and to be beyond the French and English 
 cruisers which operate from that side. But hardly 
 have they doubled the Elban cape of Saint Andre" 
 when the wind goes down and the sea becomes 
 absolutely calm. 
 
 Monday, February "27. Day breaks ; they have 
 made only six leagues, and are in full sight of the 
 cruisers, between Capraja and Elba, chained, as it 
 were, upon a moveless sea. Some of the naval officers 
 advise a return to Porto-Ferrajo. But the wind rises 
 again, and Napoleon orders the voyage to be con-
 
 84 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 tinued. At four in the afternoon they are off the 
 heights of Leghorn. One frigate is sighted five 
 leagues to leeward ; another is close to Corsica ; and 
 in the distance is seen a man-of-war approaching the 
 flotilla with the wind astern. It is the ZSpJiir, a 
 vessel of the French royal navy, commanded by Cap- 
 tain Andrieux. What is to be done ? Shall they run 
 up the tricolor and try to induce this officer to declare 
 for Napoleon. The Emperor will not risk an impru- 
 dence which may not succeed. He orders the grena- 
 diers to take off their foraging caps and hide under 
 the bridge. At six in the evening the Zephir and 
 the Incoristant are near enough to speak, and a dia- 
 logue opens between Lieutenant Taillade and Captain 
 Andrieux, who know and salute each other. The 
 former takes his speaking-trumpet : — 
 
 " Where are you bound? " 
 
 " To Leghorn. And you ? " 
 
 "To Genoa. Have you any commissions I can 
 execute there ? " 
 
 " Thanks, not any. How is the Emperor ? " 
 
 " Very well." 
 
 " So much the better." 
 
 The conversation ends ; the two vessels continue 
 their opposite routes and lose sight of each other. 
 The officer of the royal navy does not suspect that 
 Ctesar and his fortunes have just passed by. The 
 other vessels which had alarmed the imperial flotilla 
 have disappeared from the horizon. 
 
 Tuesday, February 28. During the night the wind
 
 THE RETURN FROM ELBA. 85 
 
 has continued to freshen. At dawn a vessel of sev- 
 enty-four guns is seen in the distance which appears 
 to be going to Saint-Florent or Sardinia; but it 
 soon becomes evident that it will not trouble it- 
 self about the Emperor's flotilla. They have been 
 thirty-six hours at sea, and the soldiers do not yet 
 know whither they are bound. All at once, Lieuten- 
 ant Taillade notices that Captain Chautart has turned 
 the vessel's head away from France. " Gentlemen,'' 
 he says to the officers on the bridge, "are we going 
 to Spain or to Africa?" Some one reports this to 
 Napoleon, and he summons Taillade. 
 
 •* Where are we?" he says. 
 
 ••Sire, we are headed for Africa."' 
 
 '• I don't desire to go there. Take me to France." 
 
 " Your Majesty shall be there before noon to- 
 morrow." 
 
 Then the Emperor, turning toward the soldiers of 
 the Old Guard: — 
 
 " Yes, grenadiers, we are going to France, to 
 Paris." And the soldiers break into enthusiastic 
 cries. 
 
 Napoleon makes of the deck of the Inconstant both 
 his promenade and his cabinet. While the wind blows 
 and they near the coast of France, he dictates two 
 proclamations, one to the people, the other to the 
 army. '• Frenchmen, in my exile I have heard your 
 lamentations and your prayers; I have crossed the 
 seas in the midst of perils of every kind; I arrive 
 among you to resume my rights, which are also yours.
 
 8(3 ELBA, AND TBE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 I will forget forever all that individuals may have 
 said, done, or written since the taking of Paris, be- 
 cause there are events which are too powerful for 
 human nature. Frenchmen, there is no nation, how- 
 ever insignificant, which has not had the right, and 
 has not attempted, to free itself from the dishonor of 
 obeying a prince imposed on it by a momentarily 
 victorious enemy. When Charles VII. re-entered 
 Paris and overthrew the ephemeral power of Henry 
 VI., he recognized that he owed his throne to the 
 valor of his soldiers and not to the Prince Regent of 
 England. And it is to you alone, and to the brave 
 men of the army, that I glory and will ever glory 
 in owing all." 
 
 The proclamation to the army is more ardent still : 
 "Soldiers, we have not been vanquished. Two men, 
 risen from our ranks, betrayed our laurels, their 
 country, their prince, their benefactor. Shall those 
 whom we have seen for twenty years scouring 
 Europe to make enemies for us ; those who have 
 passed their lives fighting against us in foreign 
 armies and cursing our beautiful France ; shall they 
 command and chain our eagles, they who never 
 could endure their glance ? Shall we suffer them 
 to inherit the fruit of our labors, to seize our honors 
 and our goods and calumniate our glory? Should 
 their reign endure, all would be lost, even the sou- 
 venir of our most memorable days." 
 
 Then, in a martial voice which grew more ani- 
 mated from phrase to phrase, Napoleon thus ended 
 his dictation, sonorous as the note of a clarion : —
 
 THE RETURN FROM ELBA. 87 
 
 " Come, range yourselves beneath the banners of 
 your chief. His existence is bound up with yours ; 
 his rights are yours and those of the people ; his 
 interest, his honor, his glory, are nothing but your 
 interest, your honor, your glory. Our onset and our 
 victory will march side by side ; the eagle with the 
 national colors will fly from steeple to steeple, till it 
 reaches the towers of Notre Dame. Then you can 
 show your scars with honor; then you can boast of 
 what you have done ; you will be the liberators of 
 the fatherland.*' 
 
 As soon as the dictation is finished, the subaltern 
 officers begin to transcribe it with so much zeal that 
 five hundred copies are ready before they land. 
 
 Wednesday, March 1. In the morning they behold 
 with joy the coast of France. At noon they sight 
 Antibes and the Islands of Sainte-Marguerite ; at three 
 they anchor in the Bay of Juan. The guns of the 
 Inconstant tire salvos of rejoicing, and every soldier 
 dons his tricolored cockade. The boats are let down, 
 and the landing is completed by live in the afternoon. 
 They bivouac in an olive plantation near the shore. 
 " Happy omen!" cries Napoleon; 4, the olive is the em- 
 blem of peace." He plucks some violets; then a table 
 and chair are brought, and he sits down and spreads 
 out his maps. He must choose between two roads, 
 ■ — that of lower Provence, which is easy, but where 
 he cannot rely on the favorable attitude of the people, 
 and that of Dauphiny, which bristles with rocks and 
 mountains covered with ice and snow, but where thev
 
 88 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 will encounter sympathetic sentiments. This route, 
 too, will recall the passage of the Alps at the time of 
 the Marengo campaign, and the Emperor settles on it. 
 The moon rises. At eleven he leaves the bivouac 
 and goes toward Cannes, whither he had sent Gen- 
 eral Cambronne with a vanguard to buy mules and 
 horses. He passes through Cannes at midnight, and 
 continues his route, leaving Antibes on the right. 
 
 Thursday, March 2. The Emperor has marched 
 all night. At daybreak they wind round Grasse, and 
 take up position on a plateau which overlooks the 
 town. Some of the inhabitants bring provisions, 
 which the Emperor accepts and pays for. After rest- 
 ing two hours, he sets off again in the direction of 
 Sernon. At Grasse he abandons the four field-pieces 
 which composed his artillery, because they would be 
 impediments on the almost impassable roads they are 
 about to traverse. A hundred men under Cambronne 
 form the vanguard ; the Emperor is in the centre, with 
 the battalion of the Old Guard, which escorts the 
 treasure and the ammunition and stores ; the Corsican 
 battalion form the rear-guard. The way is difficult 
 and the cold severe. They march in single file along 
 roads bordering precipices, down which several mules, 
 one of them laden with gold, plunge and cannot be 
 rescued. Napoleon, obliged to dismount in order to 
 keep warm, more than once stumbles in the snow. 
 Once he rests for a. moment in a cabin where there 
 is an old woman, and draws near her brushwood 
 fire.
 
 THE RETURN FROM ELBA. 89 
 
 " Have you any news from Paris ? " he says to 
 the old peasant. " Do you know what the King is 
 doing?" 
 
 " The King ? " answers the old woman. " You mean 
 to say the Emperor. He is always down yonder." 
 
 So the peasant has heard not a word of all that has 
 happened in the last year. () vanity of glory ! Napo- 
 leon looks pensively at General Drouot. " Well, 
 Drouot," he says, "what is the good of troubling 
 the world in order to till it with our name ? " 
 
 In the evening he arrives at Sernon, on the con- 
 fines of the Department of the Lower Alps. He and 
 his troops have marched twenty leagues that day. 
 His soldiers are worn out with fatigue, but their 
 enthusiasm revives them. 
 
 Friday, March 3. The Emperor, who passed the 
 night at Sernon, resumes his march in the morning. 
 The cold remains bitter, and the roads, covered with 
 snow, continually ascend. The Polish lancers, who 
 have not yet been able to obtain horses, carry their 
 equipments on their shoulders. Nobody complains, 
 and they cover almost as many miles as on the previ- 
 ous day. At night they sleep at Bareme, ten leagues 
 from tin; banks of the Durance. 
 
 Saturday, March 4. They make an early start, 
 and at one in the afternoon the Emperor on horse- 
 back enters Dijon, where he breakfasts. At half-past 
 three he gets into the saddle again, and departs, 
 leaving General Drouot, with four grenadiers, to look 
 after the printing of his proclamations, which until
 
 90 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 now have circulated in manuscript. At nine he 
 reaches Malijai, where he sleeps. 
 
 Sunday, March 5. They turn towards Sisteron, 
 where a great obstacle is to be dreaded. The for- 
 tress of this town is separated from the Durance by a 
 bridge. What is to be done if it is defended, or its 
 single arch blown up ? But at two in the morning, 
 General Cambronne and the advance guard reach 
 the bridge and seize it unresisted. Napoleon enters 
 Sisteron without difficulty, breakfasts, and receives 
 the sub-prefect and the mayor, who come to pay 
 their compliments, while the people give him an 
 enthusiastic welcome. As his Arabian is too tired 
 to go any further, he takes another horse, pursues 
 his route, and sleeps that night at Gap. 
 
 Monday, March 6. The Emperor spent the night 
 at Gap, with only ten cavalrymen and forty grena- 
 diers. His advance guard had started several hours 
 before him, for the purpose of exploring the danger- 
 ous defile of Saint-Bonnet, which, on leaving Gap, 
 crosses a high mountain at the pass of Saint-Guignes, 
 and connects the valley of the Durance with that of 
 the Drac, one of the affluents of the Isere. Napoleon 
 waits for the rear-guard, and leaves Gap with it at 
 two in the afternoon. The whole population of the 
 town turns out to see him go. They pass the defile 
 without difficulty. At Saint-Bonnet, the inhabitants, 
 seeing how few troops he has, tremble on his account; 
 they beg him to sound the tocsin, and summon all 
 able-bodied men in the surrounding villages for an
 
 THE RETURN FROM ELBA. 91 
 
 escort. " No," says he ; " your sentiments prove to 
 me that I did not deceive myself. They guarantee 
 the sentiments of my soldiery. Those whom I meet 
 will range themselves on my side. The more of 
 them there are, the more certainly will my success be 
 assured. Stay quietly at home." Napoleon sleeps 
 at Corps, a town on the boundary of the Department 
 of the Isere, while his advance guard march all night 
 toward the village of La Mure. 
 
 Tuesday, March 7. The solemn moment is ap- 
 proaching. As yet the Emperor has met no troops 
 to bar his passage. The white flag and the tricolor 
 have not found themselves face to face. Not a 
 soldier belonging to the armies of Louis XVIII. has 
 joined the little phalanx from the Island of Elba. 
 No one can assure the Emperor that they will not 
 fire on him. Even among the Bonapartists there are 
 a good many officers who are unwilling to violate 
 the oatli so recently taken to the King. A terrible 
 conflict goes on in their hearts between the memory 
 of past glories and the sentiment of present disci- 
 pline. If an officer orders a volley, will the soldiers 
 obey ? The whole question is there. Napoleon, 
 daring as he is. and accustomed to risk all for all, 
 has never, in his whole adventurous career, engaged 
 in a more doubtful game. A little longer, and what 
 will he be ? A triumphant Ca?sar, saluted by his 
 legionaries, or a corpse riddled with balls? (Jod 
 alone knows. 
 
 In both camps the night of March 6-7 has been
 
 92 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 full of anxiety. All the troops garrisoned in Dau- 
 phiny and the part of Savoy owned by France — that 
 is to say, the 7th and 11th of the Line, the 3d Engi- 
 neers, the 4th Artillery, and the 4th Hussars — are 
 concentrated at Grenoble in order to arrest there him 
 whom the Royalists call the Brigand of Elba. Toward 
 midnight a battalion of the 5th of the Line meets 
 the Polish lancers of the imperial advance guard at 
 La Mure. Both expect a collision ; but Lessard, the 
 head of the battalion as well as the commander of 
 the royal advance guard, orders his troops to turn 
 back to Laffrey, a little village two leagues from La 
 Mure and six from Grenoble, which it enters at five 
 in the morning. On his part, Cambronne, commander 
 of the imperial advance guard, who arrived at La 
 Mure in the night, thinks it prudent to lead his men 
 back to this side of Ponthaut, where he occupies the 
 bridge. 
 
 At dawn Commandant Lessard finds himself at 
 Laffrey, with a battalion of the 5th Lino and a num- 
 ber of engineers and artillery-men, in a position be- 
 tween lakes and mountains very easy to defend. 
 
 At nine Napoleon is at Ponthaut, preparing for his 
 onward march, with that imperturbable calm which 
 lie has never lost in the greatest crises and most for- 
 midable perils of his stormy destiny. He divides his 
 little column into three bodies. Colonel Mallet takes 
 command of the three companies forming the advance 
 guard. The Polish lancers, under Colonel Jer- 
 manwski, take the right side of the road. The
 
 THE IiETL'IiX FROM ELBA. 93 
 
 officers who are without troops take the left, under 
 Major Pacconi. Napoleon, in the midst of the ad- 
 vance guard, on horseback, wearing the famous gray 
 overcoat and the broad ribbon of the Legion of Honor, 
 and attended by Generals Bertrand, Drouot, and 
 Cambronne, goes to meet the Royalist troops, who 
 have remained in position before Laffrey, between 
 the mountains and the lakes. 
 
 About one o'clock in the afternoon some Polish 
 lancers, who had been sent ahead to sec how the 
 land lay, try to open a parley with the battalion of 
 the 5th Line. Commandant Lessard assures them 
 that if they renew the attempt he will lire on them. 
 
 Napoleon draws near. lie descends from his 
 horse. "Tell the soldiers to put their weapons under 
 their left arms, points down," said lie, to Colonel Mal- 
 let. "Sire," responds the Colonel, "is it not dan- 
 gerous to act thus in presence of troops whose 
 sentiments we do not know, and whose first lire 
 may be so fatal'?*' 
 
 The Emperor repeats: "Mallet, tell them to put 
 the weapons under their arms." The order is ex- 
 ecuted. At the sides of the road mute and attentive 
 peasants watch the scene about to take place. The 
 two battalions are not more than a pistol-shot apart. 
 The silence is absolute: profound emotion almost 
 stops the breath. 
 
 Napoleon goes forward all alone. His legendary 
 profile defines itself against the sky. " Present 
 arms ! " commands the head of the roval battalion.
 
 94 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 The guns are levelled at the man of Austerlitz, who, 
 impassible, continues slowly to advance. Arrived 
 in front of the battalion, he raises his hand to his 
 cap and salutes ; then, in a strong voice : — 
 
 " Soldiers of the 5th," he cries, " do you recognize 
 me?" 
 
 " Yes, yes," replies some one. 
 
 Then he adds : " Soldiers, behold your general ; 
 behold your Emperor. Let any one of you who 
 wishes to kill him, fire ! " 
 
 At these words the soldiers, instead of firing, throw 
 themselves down on their knees. They kiss Na- 
 poleon's hands ; they call him father ; they utter 
 frenzied acclamations. Their shakos wave from the 
 tips of their sabres and bayonets. " Everything is 
 over," said Napoleon to Bertrand and Drouot. " In 
 ten days we shall be at the Tuileries." 
 
 The soldiers trampled under foot their white 
 cockades, and put in their place the tricolored ones, 
 which they had kept at the bottom of their knap- 
 sacks. Before taking up the march again, the Em- 
 peror has them drawn up in battle array, and addresses 
 this allocution to them : " Soldiers, I come with a 
 handful of brave men because I count on the people 
 and on you. The throne of the Bourbons is illegiti- 
 mate, because it was not erected by the nation ; it is 
 contrary to the national will, since it is contrary to 
 the interest of our country, and only exists for the 
 profit of certain families. Ask your fathers ; ques- 
 tion all these people who come here from the neigh-
 
 THE RETURN FROM ELBA. 95 
 
 borhood ; you will learn the real state of affairs from 
 their lips. They are threatened with a return of the 
 tithes, the privileges and rights of feudal times, and 
 all the other abuses from which your successes had 
 delivered them." At this moment a peasant cries 
 out, " Yes, Sire ; they wish to attach us to the soil. 
 You come, like the angel of the Lord, to deliver us." 
 
 The troops, having fraternized, march on toward 
 Grenoble, the Emperor at their head. The throngs 
 of peasantry constantly grow larger, and join their 
 shouts to those of the soldiery. They reach Vizille, 
 where the enthusiasm of the inhabitants is excessive. 
 " It is we," said they, " who first dared to reclaim 
 the rights of man. This is the cradle of the Revolu- 
 tion ; and it is here that French liberty revives again 
 and France recovers her independence and her 
 honor." 
 
 Between Vizille and Grenoble they see a regiment 
 of infantry coming toward them. It is the 7th of the 
 Line, commanded by Colonel de Labedoyere. He has 
 left Grenoble to meet Napoleon. lie has had the 
 eagle of the regiment taken out of a chest, and, bran- 
 dishing his sword and erring, "Long live the Em- 
 peror!" he had said, "Soldiers! Those who love me 
 follow me!" The soldiers followed him. Napoleon 
 and the Colonel get off their horses at the same 
 moment and throw themselves into each other's arms. 
 41 Colonel," says the Emperor, "it is you who replace 
 me on the throne." 
 
 The reunited troops, amounting to nearly three
 
 96 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 thousand men, march to Grenoble escorted by several 
 thousand peasants. The Royalist authorities have 
 closed the gates of the city. The ramparts are cov- 
 ered by the 3d regiment of Engineers, consisting of 
 two thousand sappers, veterans whose bodies are fur- 
 rowed with glorious wounds ; by the 4th Artillery, of 
 which the Emperor had been made captain twenty- 
 five years before ; by two battalions of the 5th of the 
 Line ; by the 11th of the Line and the Hussars of the 
 4th. Advancing before the ramparts, Labedoyere, 
 speaking in profound darkness, says : " Soldiers, it 
 is I, Labedoyere, Colonel of the 7th. We bring you 
 Napoleon. He is yonder. It is for you to receive 
 him and to repeat with us the rallying cry of the for- 
 mer conquerors of Europe : Live the Emperor ! " The 
 troops on the ramparts respond by an immense shout. 
 Furious at finding the gates of the city closed, they 
 try to force them with axes, while, on the outside, 
 bands of peasants are busy in breaking them down. 
 Under this double strain they finally give way. It 
 is nine in the evening. Two human streams flow 
 against each other. Three thousand soldiers and 
 several thousand peasants who surround Napoleon 
 crowd upon the drawbridge at the risk of stifling 
 their sovereign in order to enter with him into the 
 city. Five thousand soldiers of the garrison and the 
 greater part of the inhabitants of Grenoble precipi- 
 tate themselves toward the same point to meet the 
 Emperor. Flambeaux and torches illuminate this 
 scene, noisy with confusion and enthusiasm. It is
 
 THE RETURy FROM ELBA. 97 
 
 with great difficulty that Napoleon forces a passage 
 throuo-h the delirious crowd and reaches an inn, the 
 Three Dauphins, where he spends the night. 
 
 Wednesday, March 8. The Emperor stays all day 
 at Grenoble. He governs there ; he reigns. After 
 receiving the city authorities he reviews the troops of 
 the garrison. He ascertains with joy that in the twin- 
 kling of an eye these ten thousand men have resumed 
 their tricolored cockades — cockades old and soiled; 
 for when they were obliged to take them off, they 
 had hidden them at the bottom of their knapsacks, 
 hoping to put them on again some day. Some of the 
 men, as they pass the Emperor, say: "This is the 
 same we wore at Austerlitz." "This," say others, 
 " we had at Marengo." 
 
 After the review Napoleon writes to Marie Louise, 
 announcing his happy arrival at Grenoble and beg- 
 ging her to rejoin him with his son at Paris, where 
 he expects soon to be. This letter is sent to Gen- 
 eral de Bubna, commander of tin; Austrian troops 
 at Turin, who is requested to transmit it to the 
 Empress. 
 
 Thursday, March 0. The Emperor, who slept at 
 Grenoble, leaves the city at noon with a small army 
 of six thousand men, and goes toward Lyons. His 
 march is a long ovation. As he is fatigued, he travels 
 slowly in an open carriage, surrounded bv a crowd of 
 peasants singing patriotic songs. "Ah!" says he, 
 " I find here the sentiments which twenty years ago 
 made me salute France as -the great nation.' Yes,
 
 98 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 you are still the great nation. You will alwaj^s be 
 so." In the evening he sleeps at Bourgoin. 
 
 Friday, March 10. At Lyons the Royalists despair 
 of arresting the Emperor's progress. The garrison, 
 composed of the 13th Dragoons, and the 20th and 
 24th of the Line, will not remain faithful to the 
 King in spite of the efforts of the Count of Artois 
 and the Duke of Orleans. They had come from 
 Paris to organize resistance, but they are obliged to 
 take to flight. Marshal Macdonald has imitated 
 them. The authorities have barricaded the bridge at 
 the suburb of the Guillotiere with pieces of wood, 
 and drawn up troops upon the wharf. But the mo- 
 ment that they learn of the arrival of the Emperor, 
 the soldiers destroy the barricade and throw the re- 
 mains of it into the Rhone. Napoleon makes a 
 triumphal entry into Lyons, where he installs himself 
 in the Archbishop's palace. 
 
 Saturday, March 11. The Emperor reviews the 
 troops in the Place Bellecour, and, directly after- 
 wards, a division commanded by General Brayer sets 
 off on its march toward Paris. Napoleon writes 
 another letter to Marie Louise, announcing that he 
 will be in his capital on March 20, the birthday of 
 the King of Rome. 
 
 Sunday, March 12. The Emperor spends the day 
 at Lyons in organizing his government. Satisfied 
 with the dispositions of its inhabitants, he thanks 
 them in these words : "Lyonnese, I love you." 
 
 Monday, March 13. He quits Lyons and sleeps at 
 Macon.
 
 THE liETURX FROM ELBA. 99 
 
 Tuesday, March 14. He continues his route and 
 goes to rest at Chalons-sur-SaGne. The same day, 
 at Lons-le-Saulnier, Marshal Xey, who was the sole 
 hope of the Royalists, and who had, they say. promised 
 Louis XVIII. to bring back Napoleon in an iron 
 cage, declares for the imperial cause and makes a 
 proclamation to his soldiers which opens thus : " The 
 cause of the Bourbons is lost forever.*' 
 
 Wednesday, March 15. The Emperor sleeps at 
 Autun. 
 
 Thursday, March 16. He rests at Avallon. On 
 the same day Louis XVIII. holds a royal seance at 
 Paris. He says to the Chambers: "I have once more 
 seen my country ; I have reconciled it with foreign 
 Powers who will, I beg you to believe it, remain 
 faithful to the treaties which have given us peace ; 
 I have labored for the welfare of my people ; I have 
 received, I receive every day, the most touching 
 proofs of their affection. At sixty years, can I more 
 worthily terminate my career than by dying in their 
 defence? I fear nothing, then, for myself, but I fear 
 for France. He who is coming to kindle among you 
 the torch of civil war, brings also the seourge of 
 foreign war; he comes to put our country once again 
 beneath his iron yoke: he comes, in fine, to destroy 
 that constitutional charter which I gave you. that 
 charter which is my noblest claim to the esteem of 
 posterity, that charter which all Frenchmen cherish, 
 and which I swear to uphold. Let us rally about it 
 then." While the King is yet speaking, a passing
 
 100 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 cloud wraps the hall in profound gloom. All eyes 
 turn toward the ceiling to discover the cause of this 
 sudden night. The emotion of the Royalists reaches 
 its height, and, weeping, they cry : " Long live the 
 King ! " 
 
 Friday, March 17. Napoleon continues his march 
 without obstacles, and passes the night at Auxerre. 
 
 Saturday, March 18. In this city he is rejoined 
 by Marshal Ney. "Embrace me, my dear Marshal," 
 he says to him. " There is no need to excuse your- 
 self. Your excuse, like mine, is the course of events 
 which have been stronger than men. Let us speak 
 no more about the past, but think only how to re- 
 trieve the future." 
 
 The infantry embarks on the Yonne in time to 
 reach Fontainebleau in the morning of March 20. 
 The Emperor enters an open carriage with Bertrand 
 and Drouot and drives thither. 
 
 Palm Sunday, March 19. At Paris Louis XVIII. 
 has not yet announced his determination to take to 
 flight. As usual, he assists at Mass in the chapel of 
 the Tuileries. During the day he reviews his military 
 household in the Champ-de-Mars. Between eleven 
 o'clock and midnight, some travelling carriages are 
 brought into the courtyard of the Tuileries and stop 
 at the foot of the stairway of the Pavilion of Flora. 
 Louis XVIII. comes down, and begins another exile. 
 The weather is horrid and the night frightful. The 
 rain falls in torrents ; the wind, blowing in gusts, ex- 
 tinguishes the lights, which look like funeral torches.
 
 THE RETURN FROM ELBA. 101 
 
 During the day Napoleon has continued his march. 
 
 Monday-in-IIoly-Week, March 20. At four in the 
 morning the Emperor arrives at Fontainebleau, where, 
 exactly eleven months before, he had taken his mem- 
 orable farewell of the Imperial Guard in the court of 
 the Cheval-Blanc. Seeing this court once more ; 
 climbing the steps of the great stone stairway he 
 had descended on April 20, 1814, without knowing 
 whether he would ever remount them; entering the 
 chamber where he had vainly sought in suieide a 
 refuge against his mental sufferings, he experienced 
 a sentiment of profound joy, and said to himself, 
 "This is my revenge." At seven in the morning he 
 receives from M. de Lavalette, who lias just resumed 
 the direction of the post-oflice at Paris, a despatch 
 announcing the departure of Louis XVIII. He re- 
 solves to spend the night at the Tuileries to celebrate 
 the birthday of the King of Rome. 
 
 What is happening at Paris? On awaking, the 
 people do not vet know that Louis XVIII. has fled. 
 From early morning crowds flock toward the Tuile- 
 ries. A detachment of the National Guard is still 
 at the palace, and the white flag is floating on the 
 dome of the Pavilion of the Ilorloge. Some liveried 
 domestics are in sight, but no body-guards. Soon 
 the news of the King's flight is bruited about, and 
 as the gratings of the palace are closed, some Bona- 
 partists try to force them, but do not succeed. 
 
 At Saint-Denis the half-pay officers, who are warm 
 partisans of the Fmperor, assemble under the orders
 
 102 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 of General Exelmans. They persuade several de- 
 tachments of infantry, a battery of artillery, and a 
 squadron of cuirassiers to join them, and putting on 
 the tricolored cockade, they march toward Paris. 
 At two in the afternoon there they are, debouching 
 into the Place of the Carrousel. At first the Na- 
 tional Guard refuse to open the Tuileries to them, 
 but they insist, and General Exelmans says that 
 since the King is in flight and the entire army has 
 declared for the Emperor, resistance will be useless. 
 The gratings are opened, and the white flag on the 
 Pavilion of the Horloge is replaced by the tricolor. 
 General Exelmans and his soldiery, masters of the 
 Palace of the Tuileries, wait there for Napoleon. 
 
 Almost at the same moment the Emperor at Fon- 
 tainebleau gets into a carriage with Caulaincourt, 
 Drouot, and Bertrand, and drives toward the capital, 
 retarded somewhat by troops coming to rejoin him, 
 and crowds of people who greet him with cries of 
 
 At Paris the day is spent in waiting. Evening 
 comes, and as the weather is bad, the crowds dimin- 
 ish. People go home to dinner. Everybody says : 
 " It is late, and the Emperor will not come until 
 to-morrow." However, the high officials of the 
 Empire and their wives have come to the Tuileries, 
 the men in uniform, and the ladies in full dress. 
 The palace is illuminated as if for a fete. The lilies 
 are torn from the tapestries and the bees reappear. 
 Queen Ilortense, King Joseph's wife, and the maids
 
 THE RETURN FROM ELBA. 103 
 
 of honor of Marie Louise are in the salons. Toward 
 nine o'clock they hear a great noise : it is the Em- 
 peror coming. Entering Paris by the Gate of Italy, 
 lie has followed the exterior boulevards as far as the 
 Invalides, crossed the Pont de la Concorde, and gone 
 along the quay to the first gate of the Tuileries. 
 Frenzied acclamations resound on all sides, as his 
 carriage, surrounded by cavalry officers, enters the 
 courtyard of the palace. Inebriated with joy, mad 
 with enthusiasm, the half-pay officers fling themselves 
 before their sovereign, tear him from his carriage and 
 bear him on their arms, a living shield; kissing his 
 hands, embracing the skirts of his gray overcoat, 
 they drag him thus, in their delirium, to the foot of 
 the great stairway. It is only then that his feet are 
 permitted to touch the ground. The shouts redouble 
 until the very roof of the palace trembles with them. 
 Men press upon, they stifle each other. Two currents 
 meet on the stairway : one that descends to meet 
 Napoleon ; one that tries to ascend the steps. The 
 Duke of Vicenza, who is behind the Emperor with 
 Bertrand and Drouot, recognizes Lavalette in the 
 crowd coming down from the first landing. "In 
 God's name,'' he cries, " get in front of him so that 
 he can proceed." Lavalette puts himself face to 
 face with Napoleon and going upstairs backward, one 
 step ahead of his master, succeeds in opening a 
 passage for him. " What ! it is you," he says, " it 
 is you! it is you at last!" The Emperor sheds 
 tears of joy. He re-enters his chamber: last night
 
 104 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 Louis XVIII. had occupied it. The prediction is 
 accomplished. In twenty days, from the Bay of 
 Juan, the imperial eagle has flown, without once 
 stopping, from steeple to steeple, even to the towers 
 of Notre Dame, even to the dome of the Palace of 
 the Tuileries. 
 
 The next day, March 21, at one in the afternoon, 
 Napoleon reviews in the Carrousel the soldiers who 
 were at Paris, and the battalion from Elba, which 
 had just accomplished a march that, for rapidity, has 
 perhaps no parallel in history. Causing the officers 
 of this battalion to approach, and showing them to 
 the troops, the Emperor exclaims : " Soldiers, behold 
 the officers who accompanied me in my misfortunes ; 
 all of them are my friends, all are dear to my heart. 
 Each time that I saw them I seemed to see the army 
 itself. Their presence recalled to me those immortal 
 days which will never be effaced from your memories 
 nor from mine. In loving them I love you. They 
 have brought back to you, untouched and forever 
 glorious, those eagles which for one moment treason 
 had covered with a funeral pall. Soldiers, I give 
 them back to you. Swear to me that you will fol- 
 low them wherever the interests of our country call 
 them.*' The soldiers answered, "We swear it." 
 On the same day, the organizer of the republican 
 armies, the famous Conventionist Carnot, is named 
 Count of the Empire and Minister of the Interior. 
 
 On March 25, Napoleon again reviews the troops 
 in the courtyard of the Tuileries. "How mad they
 
 TUE RETURN FROM ELBA. 105 
 
 were," says he to them, " and how little they knew 
 the nation, who believed that Frenchmen would ever 
 consent to receive a prince from the same hands that 
 had laid waste our territory and, aided by treachery, 
 for a moment touched our laurels! The Bourbon 
 throne is as incompatible with the new interests of 
 the French people as it is with their glory. Soldiers, 
 I wish to give, in your presence, a special testimony 
 of my satisfaction with the brave garrison of Grenoble. 
 I know well that every French regiment would have 
 done as they did. So, too, I must avow my gratitude 
 to that courageous battalion of the 5th, and that 
 company of miners who, placed in a defile, came as 
 one man to surround their Emperor who had offered 
 himself to their fire. They have merited well from 
 the French nation, and from me and you." Inter- 
 rupted by huzzas, Napoleon added only these words: 
 "Soldiers, you will lie always faithful to the great 
 cause of the people, to the honor of France and to 
 your Emperor." 
 
 The next day, which was Easter Sunday, March "20, 
 Marshal Ney gave a dinner at Lille to the generals 
 and superior ollicers of the garrison. The following 
 toasts were drunk. By the Marshal: "To the Em- 
 peror Napoleon, our august sovereign ! May this 
 name, cherished by the whole army, be forever the 
 rallying eiy of all good Frenchmen! Live the Em- 
 peror!" By General Count d'Erlon : "To Her 
 Majesty, the Empress! On her return to us may she 
 find in the vivacity of our joy, the expression of the
 
 10G ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 love borne towards her by the French, and the regrets 
 caused by her absence ! " By General Duhesrae : " To 
 the Prince Imperial ! May this august child, the 
 source of so many hopes, long flourish under the 
 guidance of his father, and inherit his great qualities 
 for the welfare and the glory of France ! " 
 
 On March 31, the Emperor visited the imperial 
 institution of Saint-Denis, devoted to the education 
 of the daughters of members of the Legion of Honor. 
 He arrived unannounced. " It was a touching spec- 
 tacle," said the Moniteur, " to see the Emperor sur- 
 rounded by five hundred young girls whose fathers 
 had either died on the field of battle or come back 
 from it with honorable wounds. One understands 
 the sentiment which made His Majesty say to the 
 superintendent, ' You did not expect me ; but you 
 might have known that my first visit would be to my 
 imperial House of Saint-Denis.' " 
 
 At Paris, on Sunday, April 2, there was a grand 
 military fete in the Champ-de-Mars, given by the 
 Imperial Guard to the Parisian National Guard and 
 the soldiers of the garrison. 
 
 About two in the afternoon nearly fifteen thousand 
 men of all equipments dined in the open air on the 
 Champ-de-Mars, the slopes of which were filled by an 
 immense crowd. The bands played and the guests 
 sang. The cry "Long live the Emperor !" broke in 
 constantly like a refrain. In the galleries and salons 
 of the Military School, the generals and other officers 
 likewise sat down to a generous banquet. The bust
 
 THE RETURN FROM ELBA. 107 
 
 of Napoleon was surrounded by emblems of victory. 
 At dessert, when all present had drunk to the health 
 of the Emperor, the Empress, and the Prince Imperial, 
 and discharges of artillery were responding to the 
 toasts, the guests, animated by a sudden and sponta- 
 neous movement, drew their swords from their scab- 
 bards, and waving them in air, renewed the oath to 
 conquer or to die for their Emperor and their country. 
 " To the column ! to the column ! " cried a voice, and 
 the heroic crowd took up the cry. In the twinkling 
 of an eye an immense procession of officers, soldiers, 
 national guards and citizens were formed, and the 
 bands of the Imperial Guard preceded them. An offi- 
 cer carried Napoleon's bust. They turned toward the 
 Tuileries, and when they reached the garden, they 
 stopped under the Emperor's cabinet windows and 
 hurrahed for him until he appeared and thanked 
 them. Then, going to the Place Vendome, they 
 hoisted the bust to the summit of the column, and 
 encircled the pedestal with a garland of lights. The 
 windows of every house in the square were at once 
 illuminated as if by enchantment. 
 
 In his book on Lucien Bonaparte, Colonel Jung 
 says: " The movement of 1815 was admirable for its 
 ardor and patriotism. There is nothing like it in the 
 history of France, except that of 1792, at the time 
 of the departure of the volunteers for the frontier/' 
 And yet, despite so many testimonies of enthusiasm, 
 Napoleon was melancholy. When the first intoxica- 
 tion of success was over, he doubted his good luck.
 
 108 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 He was ill at ease in his new role as a constitutional 
 monarch. What suited him was not liberty, but glory. 
 He was like a lion who has let his claws be cut and 
 his teeth pulled out, and to whom nothing but his 
 mane is left. In his bureau drawers he found protes- 
 tations of devotion addressed to Louis XVIII. by the 
 very men who were now most vociferous in their cries 
 of " Live the Emperor ! " 
 
 On March 8, Marshal Soult had written in an order 
 of the day : " Bonaparte misapprehends us so much 
 as to believe that we could abandon a legitimate and 
 beloved sovereign in order to share the fate of a mere 
 adventurer. He believes it, the madman! II is last 
 act of lunacy serves to make him known." And now 
 Marshal Soult was figuring in the first rank of the 
 Emperor's courtiers. 
 
 In the Debats of March 10, Benjamin Constant had 
 published an article in which these words occur: 
 "He reappears at the extremity of our frontier, this 
 man reddened with our blood and but lately followed 
 by our unanimous maledictions. . . . Parisians, I have 
 seen that liberty is possible under the monarchy; I 
 have seen the King unite himself to the nation. I will 
 not drag myself, a wretched renegade, from one power 
 to another; I will not cover infamy by sophisms, nor 
 stammer profane words in order to buy a shameful 
 life." And now Benjamin Constant has accepted an 
 appointment as Councillor of State from the Em- 
 peror. Napoleon is indulgent to all men who change 
 their opinions; he has himself been by turns a Royal-
 
 THE RETURN FROM ELBA. 109 
 
 ist. a Republican, an Imperialist, that is to say. an 
 Emperor. Recantations and apostasies may aillict 
 him, but his knowledge of the human heart is too 
 profound for him to be astonished by them. It seems 
 to him that France is an actress who, at every instant, 
 changes her costume and her part without remorse. 
 There is not time enough to tear off either the bees 
 or the lilies from the escutcheons. 
 
 The functionaries who have just been resuming the 
 tricolored coekade with so much zeal have probably 
 taken care to hide the white one in a safe place, for 
 sooner or later it is like enough to reappear. Oaths 
 are taken only from the tip of the tongue; it is ;i 
 simple formality. Napoleon knows all that : he knows 
 also that Success is the god of France, and he says 
 to himself anxiously. " Shall I succeed?" This im- 
 mense Palace of the Tuileries, where lie finds neither 
 wite nor son, has lost its prestige for him, and is 
 ••only a sad and melancholy abode." In the depths 
 of his sold he compares the 20th of March. 1815, 
 with the :10th of March. 1811. The son's cradle lias 
 not been more solid than the father's throne. The 
 child is exiled and proscribed. Xow that the Pope 
 has triumphantly re-entered the Fternal City, the title 
 nt "King nt Rome" has an ironic ring. It was an 
 inlant s toy, this royalty of a daw and behold, the toy 
 is broken. Napoleon may still be Fmperor, but what 
 has become of the crown of Italv. that iron crown, of 
 which he had said so proudly under the vaulted roof 
 of Milan cathedral : "(iod has Given it tome: woe
 
 110 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 to him who touches it ! " And the pompous title of 
 Protector of the Rhine Confederation, what has be- 
 come of that ? Where are the German vassals of him 
 who was but now a Charlemagne ? How lugubri- 
 ously they sound in the ears of a conqueror, those 
 words, " Diminution, decadence ! " Perhaps he rec- 
 ognized more fully at the Tuileries than he had done 
 at Elba, his change of fortune ; perhaps he is there 
 more saddened by the clouds which hide the shining 
 of his star.
 
 VIII. 
 
 MARIE LOUISE DURING THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 WHILE Napoleon, greeted by enthusiastic accla- 
 mations, was marching as a victor from Gre- 
 noble to the Tuileries, the cries of fury which 
 resounded against him in Vienna and throughout 
 all Germany never ceased to strike the ears of his 
 unfaithful spouse. It was not with pleasure that 
 Marie Louise learned that the Emperor had quitted 
 Elba, but with fear. Apprised of the news on coming 
 in from a walk, she seemed at first to ignore it. At 
 Schoenbrunn everything went on that evening just 
 as usual, — dinner, music, billiards. But the next 
 day, when the great event became known to the 
 French members of her household, it awakened 
 emotions so keen that one of the officials thought it 
 his duty to issue an order of the day prohibiting 
 all remarks upon the burning subject. Marie Louise 
 herself broke the silence. Her words betrayed the 
 trouble of her mind. She said the dangers which 
 the Emperor was incurring disquieted her extremely ; 
 she wa f j sure he would not succeed; her own situation 
 
 m
 
 112 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 would become still more painful. Her uncle, the 
 Archduke John, Viceroy of Italy, is credited with 
 saying to her, " My poor Louise, I pity you ; what 
 I should like for you and for us, too, is that your 
 husband should break his neck." 
 
 Nevertheless, the prisoner of the Coalition had 
 for a short time some inclination to better senti- 
 ments. When the Austrian Emperor was certain that 
 Napoleon had gone to France, and not to Italy, as 
 was at first believed, his anger moderated, and he told 
 his daughter that if, contrary to all expectation, her 
 husband should succeed, perhaps she would be per- 
 mitted to rejoin him in case a pacific polic}^ should 
 prevail. Then began an internal struggle in her 
 breast. According to M. de Meneval, the confidant 
 of her inward anxieties and fluctuations, she would 
 declare one day that she would never return to 
 France because she could see no hope of repose for 
 that country; on the next she would say that if her 
 husband renounced all projects of conquest and would 
 reign peacefully, she was convinced that no obstacle 
 would be interposed to her return, and she would 
 herself have no repugnance against it, because she 
 had always felt a liking for the French. 
 
 Napoleon's canst', then, was not absolutely despe- 
 rate at Vienna, at least during the early days of 
 March. But in making his calculations he had for- 
 gotten a Frenchman more pitiless toward him than 
 the most ruthless of the foreigners resolved on his 
 destruction. This was the man whom he had cov-
 
 MARIE LOUISE DURING THE HUNDRED DA VS. 113 
 
 ered — nay, overwhelmed — with benefits; the ruined, 
 unfrocked priest of whom he had made a minister, 
 a prince, a great dignitary of the Empire. The same 
 Talleyrand who had longed to exile his former sov- 
 ereign to the Azores, bound up once more the 
 fagot of the Coalition and reconstructed the Holy 
 Alliance, despite the antagonism existing between 
 the Cabinets of Vienna and Saint Petersburg. On 
 March 13, 1815, the same day on which Napoleon, 
 greeted with joy by the army and the people, left 
 Lyons to continue his triumphant march to the Tui- 
 leries, his former Minister of Foreign Affairs had suc- 
 ceeded in obtaining the signatures of the Powers to 
 the declaration of March 13 — that diatribe wherein 
 lie said, in most undiplomatic language, a medley 
 of hate and terror :" In breaking the agreement by 
 which he had been established at the Island of Elba, 
 Bonaparte destroyed bis sole legal title to existence. 
 P>v reappearing in France, bent on projects of con- 
 vulsion and dissension, he has proved, in the face of 
 the universe, that there can be neither peace nor 
 truce with him. The Powers declare, in conse- 
 quence, that Napoleon Bonaparte is placed outside 
 of all relations, both civil and social, and that, as an 
 enemv and disturber of the peace of the world, he is 
 handed over to public vengeance." The day after, 
 Talleyrand wrote thus to M. de Jaucourt concerning 
 this savage document, a soil of encouragement to 
 assassination, whose violence the Powers themselves 
 speedily regretted: -My dear friend, I send the King
 
 114 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 the declaration of which I spoke yesterday. It is 
 very strong ; no document of such force and impor- 
 tance has ever been signed by all the sovereigns of 
 Europe." 
 
 On the same day, March 14, Talleyrand addressed 
 the following paper to Louis XVIII. It was printed 
 at Vienna, and spread broadcast throughout Germany, 
 under the title, Warning to the Nations : — 
 
 " Bonaparte no longer desires to reign save for the 
 welfare of the Jacobins. He contents himself with 
 the actual boundaries of France, and proposes to live 
 in peace with the rest of Europe. As surety he 
 offers : 1st. The grapeshot wherewith he destroyed 
 the Sections of Paris. 2d. The poisoning of the hos- 
 pitals in Egypt. 3d. The assassination of Pichegru. 
 4th. The murder of the Duke of Enghien. 5th. The 
 oaths tnken to the French Republic. 6th. His re- 
 peated assaults upon all the governments of Europe. 
 7th. The spoliation of churches in Russia and Spain. 
 8th. His escape from Elba. 9th. The organization 
 of three thousand battalions of the National Guard to 
 replace the conscription. 10th. The violation of every 
 treaty he has signed, including that of Fontainebleau. 
 11th. The abolition of collective rights in favor of 
 public enthusiasm." 
 
 At this very time there was circulating in Ger- 
 many a work by Maurice Arndt, entitled a Catechism 
 for German Soldiers and Military Men, in which 
 instructions were given concerning the duties of a 
 Christian warrior. Its sixth chapter ran thus: —
 
 MARIE LOUISE DURING THE HUNDRED DAYS. 115 
 
 " Concerning the Great Tyrant. 
 
 " And the abyss is open, saith the Lord, and hell 
 has vomited its poison and set free its venomous 
 serpents. 
 
 " And a monster is born, an abomination soiled 
 with blood has risen up. 
 
 " And his name is Napoleon Bonaparte, a name of 
 desolation, a name of woe, a name of malediction for 
 widows and orphans, a name which will resound at 
 the day of judgment amid outcries of despair. 
 
 " And yet man)' have adored him, and made him 
 the idol of their soul ; they have named him the 
 Saviour, the Liberator, the Man who comes in the 
 name of the Lord to redeem the world. 
 
 "And yet I know him not, saith God; I have 
 reproved him and I will reprove him, and there 
 shall be in him neither felicity, nor salvation, nor 
 liberty. 
 
 "But he has become powerful by lying; he has 
 built up his throne by murder and by treachery; and 
 it is a sign of the times, and the mark of the sins of 
 the children of men, and it proves how far they have 
 wandered from the way of justice, that they have 
 called it deliverance from oppression. 
 
 " Arise, ye peoples! Slay him, for I have cursed 
 him ; destroy him, for he is the destroyer of liberty 
 and law." 
 
 This appeal to murder proves to what a pitch of 
 hatred German wrath had risen against the man 
 returned from Elba. Marie Louise heard nothing
 
 11G ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 but imprecations against her husband, and the Ger- 
 manic sentiments of her childhood and early youth 
 awakened anew, and, perhaps, in her own despite, in 
 the depths of her soul. On March 12, the eve of the 
 declaration of the Powers, she caused General Neip- 
 perg, who constantly grew more influential with her, 
 to write to Prince Metternich that she had no part 
 in Napoleon's projects, and placed herself under the 
 protection of the Allies. From that moment she 
 decided irrevocably never to return to France. 
 
 Napoleon, on the other hand, was striving with all 
 his might to regain possession of his wife and son, 
 whom be was awaiting at Paris with extreme im- 
 patience. The Duke of Vicenza, his Minister of 
 Foreign Affairs, tried in vain to renew relations with 
 the Powers, and especially with Austria. General 
 Baron de Vincent, who represented Vienna at the 
 Court of Louis XVIII., demanded his passport on 
 March 22. Nevertheless, he consented to have a 
 secret and private interview with the Duke of 
 Vicenza at tin; house of Madame de Souza before 
 leaving Paris. The Duke tried in vain to plead 
 his master's cause. All he could obtain was that one 
 of the secretaries of the Austrian Embassy, M. de 
 Rechtembourg, who was going to Vienna, should 
 carry thither two letters from Napoleon, — one to 
 bis wife, and the other to bis father-in-law, — also a 
 letter for Prince Metternich. These letters reached 
 their destination. But, being submitted to the Con- 
 gress, they were as barren of results as had been
 
 MARIE LOUISE DURING THE HUNDRED DAYS. 117 
 
 those addressed to Marie Louise from Grenoble and 
 Lyons by her husband. 
 
 Meanwhile an unceasingly annoying vigilance was 
 exercised over the lew French attendants who re- 
 mained near the former Empress. All communica- 
 tion with France was rigorously interdicted; not 
 even a French newspaper reached Vienna. The iron 
 ring tightened daily about Marie Louise- — for that 
 matter, she had become the accomplice of her jailers. 
 
 On March 20, 1815, the very day on which Napo- 
 leon re-entered the Tuileries to celebrate there the 
 birthday of the King of Rome, the child was torn 
 from the arms of his governess, the virtuous and 
 devoted Countess of Montesquiou, who had never 
 quitted him since the hour when he came into the 
 world, and who had always given him the care and 
 affection of a mother. Talleyrand wrote thus to 
 Louis XVIII. on that date: — 
 
 "Sire: The Emperor Francis has just ordered 
 Madame de Montesquiou to deliver up to him the 
 child whom she has had in charge. Her language 
 under existing circumstances has been so opposed 
 to tin 1 resolutions taken by Austria and the other 
 Powers, that the Emperor is unwilling to permit 
 her to remain any longer near his grandson. To- 
 morrow she should receive the order to return to 
 France. The child will live in the palace at Vienna, 
 where he will be guarded from the abduction which 
 certain circumstances have made it seem probable 
 will be attempted."
 
 118 ELBA, AND THE HUN DEED DAYS. 
 
 Madame de Montesquiou's crime in the eyes of 
 the implacable Coalition was to have remained faith- 
 ful to her benefactor ; to have continued to speak 
 of the great Napoleon before the little one ; to have 
 said to the child, morning and evening, " Monseign- 
 eur, pray for your father." The despair of Mamma 
 Quiou, as the King of Rome called her, was very 
 great. She obliged her persecutors themselves to 
 give proofs of their esteem for her. In protesting 
 against the violence which deprived her of the func- 
 tions she had fulfilled with so much zeal, she obtained 
 a written order from the Emperor Francis, and a 
 medical certificate attesting that she left her pupil in 
 perfect health. But she demanded in vain that the 
 Vienna Gazette should publish a formal denial of the 
 pretended plot for carrying off the young Prince, 
 which had been attributed to her son, Colonel Ana- 
 tole de Montesquiou. 
 
 At this moment there was a person of whom Marie 
 Louise was thinking much more than of her husband 
 or her son. It was General Neipperg, who was pre- 
 paring to go to war witli Murat, who had once more 
 become the ally of France and Napoleon. Furious 
 at having been juggled with by Austria, which, after 
 guaranteeing him his throne, had declared for a res- 
 toration of the Bourbons, lie had sincerely repented 
 of his conduct. On December 7, 1814, his represen- 
 tative at Vienna, the Duke of Campo-Chiaro, had 
 remitted to Prince Talleyrand a note in these terms: 
 "The King of Naples was a party to the Coalition
 
 MARIE LOUISE DURING THE HUNDRED DAYS. 119 
 
 whose efforts and success have placed Louis XVIII. 
 on the throne of France ; his adhesion to this Coali- 
 tion was not without utility to the common cause. 
 The King of Naples has the right, therefore, to 
 expect amicable relations with the house of Bourbon 
 for which lie finds that he has contended. Austria 
 stipulated not only for itself, but for the Allies in 
 the treaty concluded May 30, 1814, and the King of 
 Naples had a solemn treaty with Austria which was 
 known to all Europe.'' 
 
 Murat very soon understood that he had made a 
 mistake in abandoning his brother-in-law and the 
 French, companions of his exploits. The Princess 
 Pauline Borghese, arriving at Naples from the Island 
 of Elba, reconciled him with Napoleon, and ever 
 since November, 1814, he had said of the eleven 
 hundred soldiers the Emperor had with him there, 
 " They are the nucleus of five hundred thousand." 
 On March 24, 1815, he wrote to Napoleon : " I learn 
 with inexpressible joy that Your Majesty has landed 
 on the shores of the Empire. I should have been 
 glad to have received some instruction concerning 
 the co-operation of my movements in Italy with yours 
 in France. . . . Sire, I have never ceased to be your 
 friend. I simply waited for a favorable occasion. It 
 has come, and now I am going to prove that I was 
 always faithful, and to justify in your eyes and in 
 those of all Europe, the opinion you conceived of 
 me. On any other occasion, I should have sacrificed 
 mvself in vain."'
 
 120 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 When General Neipperg left Vienna, on April 1, 
 1815, to begin the war with Murat, Napoleon's ally, 
 Marie Louise, whose sympathies were no longer 
 French, certainly desired the success of Austria, and 
 especially of the Austrian general. He wrote volu- 
 minous letters to her who had ceased all correspond- 
 ence with her husband. The Machiavelian policy of 
 the Coalition had borne its fruits. Neipperg was the 
 counsellor, the confidant, the future minister, the 
 future morganatic husband of the former Empress of 
 the French. She was going to be — admitting that 
 she was not so already — enthralled, body and soul, 
 by this man, who, everywhere and always, from Swe- 
 den to Naples, had figured among the most persever- 
 ing and most relentless of Napoleon's enemies. 
 
 However, Napoleon did not yet despair of recall- 
 ing his wife to better sentiments. A few days after 
 General Neipperg's departure, a mysterious envoy 
 from Paris arrived at Vienna to make a supreme 
 effort. One of the chief familiars of Prince Talley- 
 rand had been a M. de Montrond, a man of the 
 world, subtle, charming rather than serious, and more 
 accustomed to the society of drawing-rooms than to 
 politics. As he was both shrewd and witty, his oppo- 
 sition and bis sarcasms incurred the Emperor's anger, 
 and he had imprisoned him in the fortress of Ham. 
 lie made his escape, however, and found a, refuge in 
 exile, whence lie returned to France at the same 
 time with the Bourbons. After the return from 
 Elba lu; made advances to Fouchd, Napoleon's Minis-
 
 MARIE LOUISE DURING THE II UN Lit ED DAYS. 121 
 
 terof Police, who resolved to employ him in the hope 
 of thus continuing relations with Prince Talleyrand. 
 Who could have believed that M. de Montrond was 
 to he the man whom the Emperor would charge with 
 the most delicate and important secret mission. But 
 as Napoleon desired at any price to see once more his 
 wife and son, he would have accepted the services of 
 any one whatever who seemed likely to aid him in 
 realizing this dearest of his wishes. 
 
 M. de Montrond entered Vienna with a passport 
 describing him as an Italian abbe ; preserving a strict 
 incognito, he had secret interviews with Talleyrand 
 (whom he found more deeply pledged to the Bourbon 
 cause than he had supposed), and afterwards with M. 
 de Mdneval. To the latter he delivered a letter for 
 Marie Louise from Napoleon, and others written by 
 the Duke of Yieenza to Madame de Montesquieu 
 and to M. de Meneval himself. " lie told me, laugh- 
 ing," says Meneval, " that he was authorized to ab- 
 duct the Empress, disguising her in men's clothes if 
 necessary, and not to mind her roguish ways. lie 
 made several other remarks in the same vein of witty 
 raillery which is characteristic of him, and which 
 proved to me what I was quite disposed to believe, 
 that this abduction scheme was a jesting notion of his 
 own rather than the object of his mission. He was 
 surprised at the unexpected confidence placed in him 
 at Paris, whence he had been hunted and exiled. I 
 was surprised myself, for it seemed to me much more 
 likely that he came to work for M. de Talleyrand
 
 122 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 than for the Emperor ; as a matter of fact he had a 
 secret mission from the Duke of Otranto for that 
 minister. He stayed at the palace of the French 
 Embassy." 
 
 To this strange envoy M. de Meneval gave several 
 meetings, sometimes at Vienna, sometimes at Schoen- 
 brunn. There Fouche's agent, strolling through gar- 
 dens and greenhouses, passed as an amateur in bot- 
 any, in order to put off their guard the many spies 
 surrounding the residence of Marie Louise. 
 
 In a letter addressed to Louis XVIIL, on April 13, 
 1815, Talleyrand thus expressed himself concerning 
 M. de Montrond's secret mission : — 
 
 " All that reaches me from France proves that Bo- 
 naparte is greatly embarrassed there. I am still more 
 convinced of it by the emissaries whom he sends 
 here. One of these, M. de Montrond, has reached 
 Vienna through the intervention of the Abbe" Altien, 
 an attache of the Austrian legation at Paris. He has 
 neither a despatch nor any ostensible mission, and 
 possibly was sent by those who serve Bonaparte rather 
 than by Bonaparte himself. This is what I incline 
 to believe. He brought verbal messages to M. de 
 Metternich, M. de Nesselrode, and me. I lis business 
 was to ascertain whether the foreign Powers were' 
 seriously determined not to recognize Bonaparte and 
 meant to make war against him. He had also a 
 letter for Prince Eugene. What lie was told to ask 
 me was, whether I eould really intend to excite war 
 against France. Read the declaration by which I
 
 MARIE LOUISE DURING THE HUNDRED DAYS. 123 
 
 answered him. It does not contain a word contrary 
 to my opinion. Moreover, it is not a war against 
 France which is in question, but simply one against 
 the man of the Island of Elba. Of M. de Metternich 
 he inquired whether the Austrian government had 
 totally lost sight of the ideas it held in March, 1814. 
 ' The regency ? We don't want that,' answered M. 
 de Metternich. Finally he endeavored to find out 
 the intentions of the Emperor Alexander through M. 
 de Xesselrocle. ' Bonaparte's destruction and that of 
 his family,' said the latter. And there things rest. 
 M. de Montrond has been made acquainted with the 
 condition of the forces to be immediately employed, 
 and also with the treaty of the 25th of March last. 
 He has gone back to Paris with this information and 
 these responses, which ought to give those who are 
 at present attached to Bonaparte's fortunes a good 
 deal to think about.'' 
 
 M. de Montrond took back to Paris a letter to the 
 Duke of Vicenza from M. de Meneval, dated April 
 7, 1815. Among other items of news, M. de Mene- 
 val gave Napoleon's Minister of Foreign Affairs some 
 painful and singular details concerning the senti- 
 ments of Marie Louise : " I do not know when the 
 Fmpress will go to France," said the faithful servi- 
 tor. "At present the Cabinet is far from being 
 inclined to permit it. The mind of the Empress is 
 so disturbed that the prospect of returning thither 
 tills her with terror ; for six months every possible 
 means has been employed to detach her from the
 
 124 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 Emperor. . . . When by accident I have been able 
 to get a word with her, I have implored her to re- 
 main neutral and to sign nothing. But she has been 
 induced to take several occasions to declare her igno- 
 rance of the Emperor's plans and her wish to place 
 herself under the protection of her father and his 
 allies." 
 
 In the same letter M. de Meneval gives an account 
 of a conversation he has just had with the forgetful 
 Princess : " Last Sunday, dining alone with the Em- 
 press, Her Majesty said to me, after dinner, that the 
 Congress had just signed an act assuring- the Duchy 
 of Parma to her, but leaving for the present the ad- 
 ministration of it to Austria which should make it 
 pay her one hundred thousand francs a month. She 
 said she had not been able to obtain the inheritance 
 of the duchy for her son ; her heir must be the sou 
 of the Queen of Etruria ; but that she will obtain 
 the Bohemian fiefs of the Archduke Ferdinand, 
 which yield a revenue of about six hundred thousand 
 francs ; also, that she had taken an irrevocable de- 
 termination never to be reunited to the Emperor. 
 Pressed concerning tin; motive of this singular reso- 
 lution, alter several reasons which 1 undertook to 
 set aside, she avowed that as she had not shared his 
 disgrace, siie could not share a prosperity she had 
 done nothing to bring about. . . . While waiting 
 for this tangle to get smoothed out, I went on talk- 
 ing to her about the happiness which had been caused 
 in France by the Emperor's return, the impatience
 
 MARIE LOUISE DURING THE HUNDRED DAYS. 125 
 
 with which she is expected there, and the desire the 
 Emperor has to see her ; but I spoke soberly, for the 
 subject annoys her. All must be left to time and the 
 Emperor's moderation. No matter how prudently I 
 act, I am subjected to the basest espionage. A swarm 
 of ignoble spies prowl about me and comment on every 
 gesture, movement, and expression of countenance. 
 I fear I shall not be retained here much longer: 
 I need to breathe a different air and to see you 
 all ; my health is impaired. No one but the Empress 
 and her son enjoy brilliant health. The Empress 
 lias grown much stouter; the Prince Imperial is an 
 angel of beauty, strength, and sweetness. Madame 
 de Montcsquiou sheds tears about him every day." 
 
 In a postscript dated April 8, M. de Meneval added: 
 ' w I have written you hastily and without order. I 
 have; a thousand other things to tell you which it 
 would take too long to write. What I presume to 
 recommend you to be most circumspect about is that 
 which relates to the person of the Empress. This 
 Princess is really good-hearted, but at present she is 
 dominated by foreign influences." 
 
 Napoleon insisted on seeing the original of this 
 letter. It is easy to understand how f; -eatly it must 
 have pained him. 
 
 Marie Louise was all the more culpable because, 
 bad she acted in conformity with her duties as wife 
 and mother, as Frenchwoman and Empress, she 
 might have secured, if not the reconciliation of her 
 husband with the Powers, at least the accession of
 
 126 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 her son. Even the bitterest enemies of her husband, 
 as, for example, Benjamin Constant, had rallied to 
 him. Many people considered the cause of the Bour- 
 bons as forever lost. At Ghent, French emigration 
 was frequently discouraged. On March 27, M. de 
 Jaucourt wrote to Talleyrand : " I am no longer good 
 for anything ; do not give me any mission ; I want 
 none. A little intrigue is all anybody is going to 
 have to do outside the Congress, if that continues, 
 and we are already assuming an appearance of emi- 
 gration which I find odious." And again on April 
 11 : " Nothing is so easy as to ruin and devastate 
 France and bring about a revolution in its govern- 
 ment ; nothing is so difficult as to save it, to put it 
 back where it was on the morrow of the royal meet- 
 ing. Great God ! what a road we have passed since 
 that time." 
 
 Hostilities had not yet begun. Notwithstanding 
 the declaration of March 18, the violence of which 
 was already regretted, Europe felt a certain hesitation 
 to reopen strife. Tn England a strong opposition had 
 declared itself against the warlike attitude of the 
 Ministry toward France, and the Cabinet was obliged 
 to conceal from Parliament, the treaty of March 25, 
 by which the Powers had renewed their treaty of 
 Chanmont. In spite of what Talleyrand had written 
 to Louis NYIII., neither Austria nor even Russia 
 would have absolutely repelled the idea of a regency 
 under Marie Louise. If this Princess had cordially 
 pleaded the cause of her husband and her son, if she
 
 MARIE LOUISE DURING THE HUNDRED DAYS. 127 
 
 had made an ardent appeal to the chivalrous senti- 
 ments of the Czar, the Bourbons would probably 
 never have remounted the throne. 
 
 Alexander had been very indignant when he 
 learned that a secret treaty against him had been 
 signed during the Congress by England, Austria, and 
 France. He considered it an act of monstrous ingrat- 
 itude on the part of Louis XVIII., for it was he who 
 had given him the crown of France some months 
 before; there would have been needed but a word to 
 make him proclaim Napoleon II., under the regency 
 of Marie Louise. It was Madame de Krudener, in 
 her rage at having been disdained by Napoleon not 
 long before, who decided the Emperor Alexander, 
 the white angel, as she styled him, to declare against 
 the man whom she called the Hack angel. Jacob, the 
 bibliophile, in his curious book on the Czar's Egeria, 
 says : " It cannot be denied that Madame de Krudener 
 had a most fatal influence upon the destiny of the Em- 
 peror Napoleon. It was she who first proclaimed the 
 decadence of Buonaparte, as she affected to name 
 him : it was she who, as if speaking in the name of 
 God, boldly declared that Napoleon had ceased to 
 reign ami was about to be placed under the ban of 
 the nations: it was she, in tine. who. bringing all her 
 influence to bear on the hesitating Alexander, caused 
 the negotiations of Fontainebleau to be broken off 
 and decided the re-establishment of the Bourbons. 
 Sin.' publicly announced, in her Biblical phraseologv, 
 that men would presently see the' Revolution, war,
 
 128 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 and every woe, proceeding from the Island of Elba 
 with the black angel, who would unloose all these 
 scourges upon Europe." 
 
 Nevertheless, the Emperor Alexander, opposed by 
 France and Austria in his designs on Poland, and 
 not less irritated against Talleyrand than against 
 Metternich, may have more than once regretted 
 having followed the advice of Madame de Krudener. 
 When proclaimed by an unfrocked bishop, who had 
 been a minister both of the Directory and the French 
 Empire, the dogma of legitimacy produced no effect 
 on the mind of Alexander. The Czar made no secret 
 of his opinion that the suppression of the tricolored 
 flag was a mistake. He approved the principles of 
 the Parisian liberals. He accepted the idea of a 
 monarchy under the Duke of Orleans almost as if he 
 foresaw the Revolution of 1830, to which his succes- 
 sor, the Emperor Nicholas, was, nevertheless, to be so 
 hostile : Guinguende wrote to him, apropos of the 
 return from Elba: "The execution of the plan has 
 been marvellous. It was accomplished as much by the 
 absence of , resistance as by the calm yet swift audacity 
 of the attack. Oppressed, humiliated, dishonored by 
 the Bourbons, France has received Napoleon as a 
 liberator. He alone can rescue it from the abyss. 
 What other name is there to take the place of his? 
 Let those of the Allies who are most capable of reflec- 
 tion, reflect on this, and try in good faith to answer 
 the question." 
 
 The Czar experienced a secret antipathy towards
 
 MARIE LOUISE DURING THE HUNDRED DAYS. 129 
 
 the Bourbons of the elder branch. We desire no 
 better proof of this than a curious letter from Talley- 
 rand to Louis XVIII., which bears date April 28, 
 1815, and may be found in the interesting collection 
 published by M. Pallain. In it Talleyrand thus 
 enumerates the Czar's grievances against the King: 
 " For some time past I have had occasion to remark 
 that if the Emperor of Russia often opposes what 
 Your Majesty wishes, it is not always solely in view 
 of some end which he is aiming at himself ; but still 
 more, in certain circumstances, because he feels 
 wounded: First, because Your Majesty did not offer 
 him the blue ribbon, as well as the Prince Regent; 
 second, on account of the futility of his intercession 
 for the Duke of Vicenza, in whom he was warmly 
 interested, and who was excluded from the Chamber 
 of Peers ; third, on account of the firmness with 
 which Your Majesty, on the question of marriage, 
 refused to yield to his wishes on the religious point; 
 fourth, because the constitutional charter differs on 
 many points from the views he expressed in Paris on 
 the subject, and which his attachment to liberal ideas 
 made him consider very useful and very important." 
 In the same letter Talleyrand reports a conversa- 
 tion which had just taken place between the Emperor 
 Alexander and Lord Clancarty: "Our first duties," 
 said the Czar, "are towards Europe and ourselves. 
 Even were the re-establishment of the King's govern- 
 ment easy, yet, so long as there can be no certainty of 
 its future stability, what should we do in re-establish-
 
 130 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 ing it except to prepare new afflictions for France 
 and Europe ? If what has happened once should 
 happen again, should we be as united as we are 
 to-day? Should we have nearly a million of men 
 under arms? Should we be ready at the moment 
 when danger impended? And what probability is 
 there, the elements of disorder remaining the same, 
 that the government of the King' would be more 
 stable than it has been ? In a word, whatever opin- 
 ion one may have about it, since the re-establish- 
 ment of the King, which we all desire, and which 
 I desire particularly, may meet with insurmountable 
 obstacles, therefore, this case being possible, it is good 
 to look ahead and agree beforehand what should then 
 be done." 
 
 The Emperor of Russia added, when speaking of 
 a possible imperial regency, this significant remark, 
 which greatly increases the responsibility of Marie 
 Louise for the fall of the Napoleonic dynasty : " Last 
 year the regency might have been established; but 
 the Archduchess Marie Louise, to whom I spoke about 
 it, will not at any price whatever return to France. 
 Her son is to have an establishment in Austria, and 
 she desires nothing further for him. I am certain, 
 moreover, that Austria, on its part, no longer dreams 
 of a regency or wishes for it. Last year it seemed to 
 me as if that might have conciliated the different 
 interests, hut the situation is no longer the same. So 
 that is a thing which need not be considered. I see 
 nobody more likely to conciliate all than the Duke
 
 MARIE LOUISE DURING THE HUNDRED DAYS, lol 
 
 of Orleans. He is a Frenchman, he is a Bourbon, 
 and the husband of a Bourbon; he has sons; when 
 he was young" he served the Constitutional Cause; 
 he has worn the tricolored cockade which, as I often 
 said at Paris, ought never to have been given up." 
 
 In the same letter Talleyrand was not afraid to 
 write to Louis XVI J L: "The Emperor Alexander 
 said in ordinary conversation, that he could readily 
 believe that Your Majesty, if you were alone, might 
 suit France and be loved and respected there ; but, 
 as you cannot lie separated from those surrounding 
 you, he fears that you will never be able to consoli- 
 date your throne." 
 
 From this letter it clearly appears that the Em- 
 peror Alexander declined to be the defender of Marie 
 Louise against her own wishes, and returned reluc- 
 tantly to the elder branch of the Bourbons. They 
 had shown him little gratitude, and yet, as is ineon- 
 testably known, they could never have reaseended 
 the throne if it had pleased him to oppose his veto 
 to their restoration. But Fatality weighed thence- 
 forward on the man whom Fortune had once covered 
 with her favors. His wife, instead of serving him, 
 was prejudicial to him. The former Empress, the 
 former Regent, had disappeared to give place to the 
 Duchess of Parma. The marvellous return from 
 Elba had left her indifferent, and even hostile. One 
 would have said she was ashamed to appear again in 
 the great drama wherein she had played a leading 
 part.
 
 132 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 The last ties, so feeble in any case, which might 
 still have attached Marie Louise to France, were 
 weakening every day. Her little French court was 
 almost dispersed. Her lady of honor, Madame de 
 Brignole, who had been so devoted to Napoleon, died 
 on April 2. When the Emperor formed the house- 
 hold of Marie Louise, in 1810, lie appointed as one 
 of the ladies of the palace the Marquise of Brignole- 
 Sale, then called the Countess of Brignole, as the 
 title of Marquis had been abolished by the Emperor. 
 A member of one of the most illustrious Genoese 
 families, the nobility of her character, and her up- 
 right and distinguished mind placed her among the 
 very small number of women with whom the Em- 
 peror willingly conversed on serious matters, and 
 even on questions of policy. When the allied troops 
 entered Paris, she used every effort to induce the 
 liegent not to leave the capital ; and, despite her 
 chagrin at seeing her advice rejected, she followed 
 Marie Louise to Vienna. When she fell ill there, 
 the Empress gave her the most assiduous care, and 
 wept for her as if she had been her mother. On her 
 death-bed Madame de Brignole once more implored 
 Marie Louise to rejoin Napoleon. 
 
 The Countess of Montesquiou, after having been 
 violently separated from her pupil, was confined in a 
 small apartment of two rooms at Vienna, and neither 
 she nor her son, Colonel Anatole de Montesquiou, 
 were permitted to return to Paris. On the other 
 hand, M. Balkouhey, the intendant of the household,
 
 MARIE LOUISE DURING THE HUNDRED DAYS. 133 
 
 was authorized to do so. Baron de Bausset was con- 
 fined to his bed with gout. Baron de Meneval alone 
 remained near Marie Louise, and he for a short time 
 only, and against his inclination. lie longed to ter- 
 minate his stay at Schoenbrunn, where all his efforts 
 in behalf of a husband and father had been so fruit- 
 less. The type of honor and iidelity, this loyal ad- 
 herent had neglected no means to recall Marie Louise 
 to sentiments of duty. The journal which he kept at 
 Schoenbrunn in 1814 and 1815 has been shown to me 
 by his son. It is a very curious document. It con- 
 tains nothing but facts without reflections, like the 
 journal of Dangeau ; but if it is read with attention, 
 it gives a thorough knowledge of the attitude of 
 Marie Louise and her mode of life. The name of 
 General Neipperg recurs constantly in this journal. 
 Every day the same tilings are recorded of the Em- 
 press: she rides with the General ; she dines with the 
 General : she plays or sings with the General. The 
 word factotum comes in like a refrain. The seducer 
 is perhaps still more influential when absent than 
 when present. On April 1, 1815, occurs this entry : 
 "General Neipperg left this morning at six. The 
 Empress, who rose and dressed very early learned 
 his departure from a long letter which he left for 
 lier.*" On April '21: "The Empress received a letter 
 from General Neipperg, dated at Modena, on the 
 14th. The Parmesan body-guards, having been un- 
 willing to march against the Neapolitans, and several 
 of them having cried ' Long live the Emperor ! ' this
 
 134 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 company was disbanded. At Parma the Empress 
 herself will reward those who remained faithful." So 
 what Marie Louise most desired was that the soldiers 
 of her duchy should oppose her husband. And when, 
 on May 2, the unfortunate Murat, who, as Napoleon 
 remarked, twice ruined France — once by abandoning 
 her, and again by returning to her too soon — was 
 completely beaten by the Austrians at the battle of 
 Tolentino, the Empress Marie Louise was the person 
 who rejoiced most over General Neipperg's success. 
 During his absence she had heard a piece of news 
 which apparently did not afflict her : it announced 
 the death of the General's wife. On this subject M. 
 de Mdneval says : " The death of the Countess Neip- 
 perg passed unnoticed except at Schoenbrunn, where 
 it excited keen interest. This lady had remained 
 at Wiirtemberg, where General Neipperg originated 
 when he came to Vienna to seek employment for his 
 talents. She died in April, after two days' illness, 
 leaving four boys. They say she was very pretty, 
 but not very intelligent. Count Neipperg had ab- 
 ducted her from her husband, who was still living- a 
 few months before his wife's death. The manner in 
 which the Empress Marie Louise announced this 
 death one morning at table was not indicative of 
 much regret." 
 
 The strange affection felt by Napoleon's wife for 
 General Neipperg overpowered every other senti- 
 ment. She had so absolutely disowned France and 
 her husband, that when the processions for the sue-
 
 MARIE LOUISE DURING THE II UNBRED DA YS. 135 
 
 cess of the war began in Vienna on April 16, her 
 step-mother, the Austrian Empress, had no scruples 
 about asking her to take part in them. It is true 
 that she refused compliance with an invitation so 
 humiliating that even her father and her uncles saw 
 the impropriety of it. In mentioning the fact, M. de 
 Meneval adds this sorrowful reflection: u The Em- 
 press Marie Louise manifested sentiments appropriate 
 to her position ; but it costs me much to admit that 
 she seemed to act in this way chiefly to preserve her 
 right to persevere in her refusal to go back to France." 
 r I ne faithful and loyal Meneval had lost all hope 
 of winning back Marie Louise to better sentiments. 
 The last interview he had with her on this painful 
 subject robbed him of all illusions. She would not 
 return to France for any consideration whatever, 
 even if the Allies and her father should grant her 
 their permission. u Some words," he says, "were 
 exchanged between us on the painful subject of her 
 refusal to rejoin the Emperor. She replied with 
 some vivacity, but yet with her usual sweetness, 
 that her resolution was irrevocable. When I objected 
 that there was no such thing as an irrevocable resolu- 
 tion, and that some circumstance might occur which 
 would render her return to France obligatory, she was 
 in haste to reply that her father himself would have 
 no right to force her. The remark escaped me that 
 the sentiments that she was expressing were unjust 
 and out of keeping with her character; that if the 
 French nation were made aware of this repugnance,
 
 130 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 they would be wounded by it, as they were ex- 
 tremely sensitive when their attachment was dis- 
 dained, and would then reject her, although they had 
 desired her presence as a pledge of peace. This con- 
 versation was the last I had with her on this matter." 
 
 Even to have abandoned her husband was not 
 enough for Marie Louise. She allowed her son to 
 be taken from her. She and the little Prince no 
 longer lived under the same roof. She remained 
 at Schoenbrunn, while the child was at Vienna, in 
 his grandfather's palace. She knew that when she 
 should go to reign in Parma, that duchy which was 
 to be hers for life only, she would have no right to 
 take the little Prince there with her. And yet the 
 Duchy of Parma was like the Promised Land to her, 
 because she was certain that her favorite would be at 
 her side. This man's love outweighed all things else. 
 
 3VI. do Mdneval comprehended that his presence at 
 Schoenbrunn had become worse than useless. He 
 requested his passports for France on April 9, and 
 had been waiting for them nearly a month. Before 
 taking his departure he went to the imperial palace 
 at Vienna to bid adieu to the Prince, and was struck 
 by the child's serious and melancholy air. His 
 charming gaiety and graceful loquacity had given 
 place to constraint, embarrassment, and timidity. He 
 cast uneasy glances about him. His precocious sad- 
 ness — lie was a little more than four years old — 
 almost persuaded one that he had already a presenti- 
 ment of bis sorrowful destiny. " Monseigneur," M.
 
 MARIE LOUISE DURING THE HUNDRED DAYS. 137 
 
 tic Meneval said to him, " 1 am going to see your 
 father again. Have you any messages for him?'' 
 The child, as if lie felt himself surrounded by evil- 
 disposed persons, remained silent ; withdrawing his 
 hand from that of his father's faithful servant, he 
 went without speaking to the embrasure of the far- 
 thest window. Then he beckoned Meneval to ap- 
 proach, and said in a whisper, " Monsieur Mev<i, tell 
 him that I always love him well."' 
 
 On May 0, at ten in the evening, M. de Mene- 
 val took leave of the Empress Marie Louise. This 
 woman, ordinarily so unmoved, could not avoid 
 yielding to a brief emotion. Possibly a_ secret re- 
 morse agitated the depths of her soul. After saying 
 a few courteous words to this high-principled man, 
 whose noble counsels had been, alas ! of so little 
 avail, she expressed herself nearly in these words: 
 " I feel that all relations between me and France are 
 about to cease, lint I shall always preserve the 
 memory of that adopted land. Assure the Emperor 
 of my good wishes. I hope that he will comprehend 
 mv unhappy position. I will never consent to a 
 divorce: but I flatter myself that he will agree to 
 a friendly separation and will not conceive any re- 
 sentment on that account. Such a separation ha; 
 become indispensable. It will not alter the senti- 
 ments of esteem and gratitude which I preserve." 
 Then she gave M. de Meneval a snuff-box, orna- 
 mented with her monogram in diamonds, and retired 
 to conceal her emotion, which was beginning to 
 overcome her self-control.
 
 IX. 
 
 THE FIELD OF MAY. 
 
 ON arriving at Paris, M. de Meneval waited at 
 once on Napoleon to give him the news so long 
 expected with impatience. The Emperor was over- 
 whelmed with sadness. On April 17, he had left the 
 Tuileries, a dismal abode, full of gloomy souvenirs, 
 and installed himself at the Elyse'e. There he could 
 sometimes interrupt his immense labors by walks 
 under beautiful trees, whose shadows cooled his 
 fevered temples. He felt that, in spite of all his 
 genius, the earth was failing beneath his feet. From 
 afar he heard the tramp of innumerable battalions 
 advancing upon France, and understood that, sooner 
 or later, heroism must succumb to numbers. A pro- 
 found melancholy took possession of his soul. He 
 cast on men and tilings a glance that was discerning 
 but discouraged. If his son had been there, if he 
 could have rested his eyes upon the blond head of his 
 sweet and amiable child, he might have had some 
 moments of repose. But the King of Rome was far 
 away. The prisoner of the Coalition, he had the 
 destiny of Astyanax, — that fatal destiny which bis 
 father had foreboded. 
 188
 
 THE FIELD OF MAY. 139 
 
 M. de Meneval found the Emperor sitting on a 
 tete-a-tete, his head resting on his hand, plunged 
 apparently in a sombre reverie. Having received 
 his faithful servant with great cordiality, Napoleon 
 took him into the garden, where he plied him with 
 questions. The least details about his son were in the 
 highest degree interesting to his paternal heart. All 
 that he said of the Empress was full of deference and 
 consideration. He deplored the trials to which she 
 had been exposed, and while recognizing that her 
 sentiments toward France and himself had been vio- 
 lated, he was ready to go even further than M. de 
 Meneval to find excuses for her. 
 
 When they came to political topics, the Emperor 
 said that it was the Duke of Orleans, and not Louis 
 XVIII., whom he had dethroned by returning from 
 Elba, for the latter would not have been able to reign 
 in France six months longer. He regretted it, be- 
 cause the Duke was the only Frenchman of his family. 
 •• Napoleon was touched by the patriotic sentiments 
 displayed by the Duke of Orleans two months before, 
 in going to assume command of the Army of the 
 North, placed under the orders of Marshal Mortier; 
 also with the letter he had written to this Marshal on 
 returning in the retreat; and, above all. by the words 
 reported by Captain Athelin, one of his aides-de- 
 camp, whom the Duke of Orleans had authorized to 
 resume his post as an orderly officer of the Emperor. 
 The Prince said to him that the first thing necessary 
 was to prevent another foreign invasion of France,
 
 140 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 and that he esteemed him fortunate in being able to 
 resume colors which he had himself abandoned with 
 regret." 
 
 Afterwards Napoleon spoke with tranquillity con- 
 cerning the sovereigns, his pitiless enemies. What 
 had occurred did not surprise him. He had compre- 
 hended, when attempting his enterprise, that he could 
 count on nothing but the courage of the nation and 
 his own sword. " For the rest," he said with a melan- 
 choly smile, " God is great and merciful." 
 
 After relating this conversation, pathetic in its 
 simplicity, M. de Meneval adds: "All his language 
 was marked by a calm sadness and resignation which 
 made a vivid impression on me. I no longer found 
 him animated by that certainty of success which had 
 formerly rendered him so confident ; it seemed as if 
 that faith in Fortune which had emboldened him to 
 form the hardy enterprise of coming back from Elba, 
 and sustained in his march through France, had 
 abandoned him at his entry into Paris. He felt that 
 he was not seconded with the ardent and devoted 
 zeal to which he had been accustomed, and that his 
 movements, hampered by the trammels he had sub- 
 mitted to, had no longer the same freedom."' 
 
 The unhappy Emperor could no longer entertain 
 any illusions, either concerning the ingratitude of his 
 wife, the hostility of his father-in-law, or the hatred 
 of the kings who were once his vassals. Treated like 
 a pariali by his enemies, he was put under the ban of 
 Europe, and held up to public vengeance as the vilest
 
 THE FIELD OF MAY. 141 
 
 of criminals. And yet he did not complain. His 
 voice, once so haughty and so terrible, softened 
 almost to prayer. He desired to be moderate, just, 
 pacific. He invoked with sincerity those great moral 
 laws which of old he had so frequently forgotten. 
 Ah! if he could but apply his powerful intelligence 
 to works of civilization, if he could be the benefactor 
 of France and of Europe, if he could at last appear 
 in the character of a gentle and beneficent monarch, 
 could administer justice beneath an oak, like Saint 
 Louis, and merit, like Louis XII.. the name of the 
 father of the people! But a mysterious voice said to 
 him, "It is too late." Warlike in his own despite, 
 he was condemned to war by fatality — and what a 
 war ! In meditating on the final struggle in which he 
 was about to engage, he sometimes said that perhaps, 
 like Louis XIV.. he should gain a victory of Denain ; 
 for the next battle, the decisive battle, he would give 
 himself, and, as a general, he certainly was not inferior 
 to Villars. Alas ! the France of 1815 did not resem- 
 ble the France of 1712. That France was ruined, 
 enfeebled, harassed, but it was united, and even the 
 peasants who browsed on herbs like cattle, still cried, 
 " Long live the King!"' But this France, though less 
 exhausted, lacked unity and concord. In Vendue 
 there had been a rising against the tricolored Hag. 
 In every department of the Empire the Royalists made 
 no secret of their desire for the foreigner's success. 
 The saving of the Gospel was about to be realized. 
 "Every house divided against itself shall perish."
 
 142 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 One might have said that the same country contained 
 two different nations. In spite of the absolute cen- 
 tralization which the Revolution thought it had estab- 
 lished, there was no unity in France, and the two 
 flags symbolized the bitter dissensions which divided 
 its citizens from one another. 
 
 It was in vain that Napoleon made a loyal trial 
 of liberty. Nobody believed in the sincerity of his 
 intentions. The enemies of the Empire continued 
 to repeat that the Additional Act was only a decoy. 
 The journals used the freedom accorded to them 
 merely to paralyze the national defence by their criti- 
 cisms and their alarms. Napoleon recalled his brother 
 Lucien, whom public opinion approved for having 
 more than once refused a crown. The time was long 
 past when it was an unpardonable crime for a brother 
 of the new Charlemagne to have married a private 
 person. Napoleon put around Lucien's neck the 
 broad ribbon of the Legion of Honor which he had 
 worn himself when coming from Elba to Paris. " It 
 is too disgraceful to me that you should not have it," 
 he said to him. 
 
 Lucien installed himself in the Palais Royal and 
 made up his household. He retained in his service 
 all the domestics of the Orleans family who were 
 willing to remain. lie found Napoleon sad and 
 weary. " He has a great propensity to sleep," said 
 Lucien; "it is an effect of his malady. He is sur- 
 prised himself that, with this habitual drowsiness, he 
 should have had the energy to return from Elba.
 
 THE FIELD OF MAY. 143 
 
 He is projecting a Field of May," adds Lucien, 
 " -where I proposed to him to abdicate. It seemed to 
 me that he was not very unwilling. A few days 
 later, instead of the abdication, he communicated to 
 me his Additional Articles. I dared to contradict 
 him. ' A million of souls missing at the least,' 
 said I to him. He treated me like a driveller. He 
 got into a rage, just as he used to. I bore it in 
 silence ; the situation is so different ! Inwardly I 
 said, 4 Alas ! he is unchanged.' He declared that 
 he would not permit me to have a seat in the legisla- 
 tive body. He suspects me of a secret ambition to 
 be elected president of it, with the idea of making a 
 new 18th Brumaire against him. I was angry and 
 went away. Joseph reconciled us. The costumes 
 were decided on for the ceremony of the Field of 
 May- I said I would not wear white, but simply the 
 uniform of the National Guard. The Emperor said 
 with a disagreeable smile, ' Yes ; so that you as a 
 National Guard may produce more effect than I as 
 Emperor — is that it? ' I decided to wear white." 
 
 While the preparations were in progress for the 
 Field of May, Napoleon heard something winch 
 afflicted him all the more because he saw in it a 
 sinister presage for himself. In vain had Murat, his 
 sole ally, essayed to rouse Italy against Austria, and 
 dreamed of the part which Victor Emmanuel played 
 successfully later on. At Rimini, on March 31, he 
 had issued this proclamation : " Italians, you were 
 once masters of the world, and you have expiated
 
 144 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED BAYS. 
 
 your glory by twenty centuries of oppression. Make 
 it to-day your ambition to have no more masters. 
 Seas and inaccessible mountains, these are your 
 boundaries. The question is whether Italy shall be 
 free, or whether you will submit to foreign domina- 
 tion. I call to my side all the heroes of Italy." This 
 first germ of Italian unity was stifled. The cries of 
 " Long live Joachim the Italian ! " remained almost 
 unechoed. The daring sovereign was completely 
 beaten at Tolentino by two Austrian generals, Bian- 
 chi and Neipperg — Neipperg, the man fatal to Napo- 
 leon. On May 19, Murat, a fugitive and obliged to 
 hide himself, reached Naples in the night. " Ma- 
 dame," he said to his wife, when talking with her 
 for the last time, " do not be surprised to see me 
 living ; I have done all that I could to die." Then 
 he left Naples as he had entered it and took refuge 
 at Ischia, whence a merchant vessel brought him to 
 Toulon. A few hours later his wife negotiated the 
 surrender of Naples with the English and the Aus- 
 trians, and embarked for Trieste. On May 20, exactly 
 two months to a day after the tricolored liag had 
 been raised upon the dome of the Tuileries, the 
 Bourbon standard was run up on the walls of the 
 eapitol of the Two Sicilies. Napoleon, dreading the 
 contagion of misfortune, would not permit Murat 
 to come to Paris, lie exiled him to Provence. It 
 seemed to him that his own fate was foreshadowed 
 in that of his brother-in-law. One might call Tolen- 
 tino the prologue of Waterloo. The vanquished, ill-
 
 THE FIELD OF MAY. 145 
 
 omened man was not to appear on the Field of May — 
 and yet he would be so useful to head the French cav- 
 alry at the time of the final struggle in which the 
 Emperor is preparing to engage ! 
 
 The ceremony of the Field of May had at first 
 been intended to celebrate the inauguration of the 
 liberal Empire and the coronation of Marie Louise 
 and the King of Rome. But this second part of the 
 original programme had to be abandoned, since the 
 implacable Coalition had deprived Napoleon forever 
 of his wife and child. A proclamation of the votes 
 on the Additional Act, and a distribution of flags 
 was all that remained. The votes were as follows : 
 Affirmative, 1,300,000; negative, 420G. The affirm- 
 ative votes for the Consulate for life had been 
 3,577,-59, and for the institution of the Empire, 
 3,572,329. This diminution shows how much ground 
 the Empire had lost. As to the Chamber of Repre- 
 sentatives, hardly one hundred thousand electors 
 made their appearance in the electoral colleges. 
 Real enthusiasm no longer reigned anywhere except 
 in the army, and it alone gave prestige to the last 
 fete of the Empire. As usual, the account of it in 
 the Moniteur was a dithyramb. " Never was there 
 a fete more national," said the official journal, ''never 
 did a spectacle more imposing and more affecting 
 meet the eyes of the French people. All that takes 
 possession of and elevates the soul, the prayers of 
 religion, the pact of a great people with its monarch, 
 France represented by the elite of its citizens, culti-
 
 146 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 vators, merchants, magistrates, warriors, assembled 
 around the throne, an immense population covering 
 the Champ-de-Mars and uniting itself in spirit to the 
 great objects of this magnificent ceremony, excited 
 as ardent enthusiasm as any of which the most mem- 
 orable epochs have left a souvenir." A good deal 
 must be subtracted from this lyricism. Sadness un- 
 derlay all the solemnities, and sombre presentiments 
 took possession of men's souls. 
 
 In the Champ-de-Mars, the theatre of the Federa- 
 tion of July 14, 1790, there had been erected in haste 
 some decorations as ephemeral as everything else 
 was in those days. The imperial throne was placed 
 in front of the Military School, in the centre of a vast 
 semicircular enclosure with double tiers of seats to 
 right and left, forming an amphitheatre capable of 
 seating fifteen thousand spectators. A third tier, 
 facing the throne, was open, and an altar was set up 
 in the middle of it. About six hundred feet beyond 
 the altar rose another solitary throne which domi- 
 nated the entire Champ-de-Mars. Troops to the num- 
 ber of fifty thousand, twenty-seven thousand of them 
 being National Guards, passed in review before the 
 Emperor. An immense crowd covered all the rising 
 grounds of the Champ-de-Mars even to the Seine. 
 
 Napoleon made his appearance in the carriage 
 used at his coronation, drawn by eight horses ; he 
 wore the silk habit, the plumed hat, and the imperial 
 mantle. Nothing was lacking to his cortege, neither 
 great officers of the crown, chamberlains, pages, nor
 
 THE FIELD OF MAY. 147 
 
 heralds-at-arms. The marshals rode on horseback 
 beside his carriage. His brothers, Lucien, Joseph, 
 and Jerome, wore mantles of white taffeta embroi- 
 dered with gold, and the Arch-Chancellor Cambaceres 
 one of blue velvet sown with bees. 
 
 Let the Emperor enjoy for the last time the joys 
 of sovereignty ! Let him meditate on these theatri- 
 cal pomps whose inanity he must by this time com- 
 prehend ! These daises, this tinsel, these plumes, 
 this gilding, — how much longer will they last ? At 
 the bottom of the censers but a few grains of incense 
 now remain. What has become of the time when 
 the great nation believed itself invincible ? How 
 different from the present solemnity was that of the 
 distribution of the eagles on the morrow of the 
 coronation! How sad they look, this King of Spain, 
 this King of Westphalia, for whom so much blood 
 has been shed in vain ! And the Empress, the King 
 of Home, who were to be crowned on this Field of 
 May, what has Providence done with them? There 
 is no concord in the fete. The Royalists secretly de- 
 sire the coming of the foreigners. The Republicans 
 regret to see the Emperor displaying those pomps of 
 monarchy which appear to them anachronistic. The 
 sceptics make many reflections when they behold, on 
 the steps of the throne, Carnot, once a member of the 
 Committee of Public Safety, now a Count of the 
 Empire ; and beyond him Barrere, the Anacreon of 
 the guillotine. The ceremonies, splendid as they are, 
 are like the reproduction of an obsolete play. People
 
 148 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 scarcely listen to the Mass, which is said by the 
 Archbishop of Tours, assisted by the Archbishop of 
 Bourges and two other prelates. The official world 
 turn their backs to the altar. The drums beat, 
 and the Emperor rises to make his speech. Every- 
 body pays attention ; so many conjectures have been 
 made concerning this discourse ! Some imagine that 
 he is about to announce the speedy arrival of his 
 wife and son ; others, that he will abdicate either in 
 favor of the King of Rome, or to proclaim the Re- 
 public. Others still, and these are his most ardent 
 partisans, think he is going to declare the country in 
 danger, and name himself Dictator. All these pre- 
 visions are incorrect. The Emperor announces noth- 
 ing new in his discourse, and he ends it thus : 
 " Frenchmen, my will is that of the people ; my 
 rights are theirs ; my honor, my glory, my happiness, 
 cannot be other than the honor, the glory, and the hap- 
 piness of France." Then he swears allegiance to the 
 Constitution, with Ids hand on the book of the Gos- 
 pels, presented to him by the Archbishop of Bourges. 
 Then rise shouts of "Long live the Emperor!" with 
 which some cries of " Long live the Empress ! " min- 
 gle, and awake at first a sentiment of surprise. Does 
 Marie Louise merit to be thus acclaimed? But the 
 soldiers, the heroic soldiers, still desire to believe 
 in her; and after a moment's silence, the military 
 deputations brandish their swords and cry: "Long 
 live the Empress ! Long live the King of Rome ! 
 We will fetch them hither ! "
 
 THE FIELD OF MAY. 149 
 
 Then the Emperor descended from the throne, and 
 throwing off his mantle, he places himself on the first 
 step of the pyramidal platform which stands in the 
 middle of the Champ-de-Mars. " Soldiers of the 
 National Guard of the Empire," he says, " Soldiers 
 of the army and navy, I confide to you the imperial 
 eagle of the national colors. Swear to defend it with 
 your blood against the enemies of the fatherland. 
 Swear to die rather than suffer strangers to make 
 laws for the fatherland." A formidable cry arises: 
 " We swear it ! " Deputations from the different 
 departments commence tiling past. To those from the 
 Vosges, Napoleon says: ''You are my old compan- 
 ions"; to those from the Rhine: "You have been the 
 first, the most courageous, and the most unfortunate 
 in our disasters"; to the departments of the Rhone: 
 k * I was brought up among you " ; and to others : 
 '•Your phalanxes were at Rivoli, at Arcole, at Ma- 
 rengo, at Austerlitz." The ceremony becomes really 
 grand, for the army has retained all its prestige. Here 
 is the Imperial Guard marching by. "Soldiers of the 
 Old Guard!" cries Napoleon, "swear to surpass your- 
 selves in the coming campaign. Swear, all of you, to 
 perish rather than suffer the foreigner to dictate laws 
 to our country." In a time of apostasies and perju- 
 ries, these men will keep their oath. They will not 
 conquer; they will die. 
 
 The solemnity is over. It has been more like a 
 funeral than a fete. The bands have been as noisy 
 as ever, but there has been nothing joyous in their
 
 150 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 music. The drums should have been muffled in crape. 
 Every one feels vaguely that the duel in which France 
 is about to engage with Europe is unequal, and that 
 sooner or later it must succumb. Napoleon no longer 
 places confidence in his star. He feels himself already 
 condemned by fate, and the splendid display of the 
 Field of May has not for an instant distracted him 
 from his sombre thoughts. 
 
 Four days afterward, — Sunday, June 4, 1815, — 
 the Emperor appeared at the Tuileries for the last 
 time but one. Seated on his throne, he saw defile 
 before him the electoral college, and deputations 
 from the army and navy. Afterwards he assisted at 
 Mass, and then went with his attendants to the great 
 gallery of the Louvre, adorned with the masterpieces 
 of painting, and there he conversed with everybody 
 in an affable and easy way. At eight in the evening, 
 a magnificent illumination irradiated the facade of 
 the Tuileries. An immense crowd, returning from 
 the Champs-Elyse"es, where public games had been 
 going on all day, had stopped before the Pavilion of 
 the Ilorloge to listen to a grand concert. At nine, 
 Napoleon, surrounded by his household, came out on 
 the balcony and gave the signal for the fireworks to 
 be set off in the Place de la Concorde. 
 
 Bitter derision of Fortune ! This fete preceded by 
 only fifteen days the greatest disaster of our history. 
 Ah ! it was not illuminating lanterns which should 
 have been lighted, but funeral torches ; and since 
 there was to be a concert at the Tuileries, they should
 
 THE FIELD OF MAY. 151 
 
 have chanted lamentations and canticles of death. 
 This throne, surrounded for the last time with so 
 much splendor, cracks already, and is about to fall to 
 pieces. One would say that France was singing to 
 deafen its own ears. As he looks down at the lights 
 with which the garden sparkles, the Emperor thinks 
 of the coming flashes of the bursting shells. Perhaps 
 a sinister vision rises before him. In a few days, the 
 Tuileries will be again illuminated, but this time it 
 will be to honor the re-entrance of Louis XVIII. 
 The gaiety of the people is forced. Doubt pierces 
 through enthusiasm, and though the Moniteur keeps 
 up its lyrical attitude as heretofore, yet Mene, Mene, 
 Tekel, Upharsin, flame on the palace walls. In return- 
 ing to the Elysde, the Emperor asked himself this 
 question, full of anguish, " Will there be any more 
 fetes for me at the Tuileries?"' and a mysterious 
 voice answered, "Xo." Adieu majesty of the throne; 
 adieu great retinues ; adieu resounding acclamations 
 of the crowd ; adieu triumphant appearances on the 
 iron balcony of the Ilorlocre Pavilion! Let the em- 
 peror give place now to the general, for war approaches 
 — war without its intoxications, without its trophies, 
 but with all it has of gloom, and anguish, and fatal- 
 ity ; war with discouragement, panic, defeat, massacre, 
 and the order to retreat : war with all its horrors, 
 and not one of its dazzling illusions ; war such as it 
 appears to philosophers by whom it is cursed, and to 
 mothers who detest it ! 
 
 On June 7 took place the opening of the Cham-
 
 152 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 bers at the palace of the Legislative Body. Napo- 
 leon thus linished his discourse : " It is possible that 
 the first duty of a prince may soon call me to lead 
 the children of the nation in order to fight for the 
 fatherland. The army and I will do our duty. As 
 for you, peers and representatives, set the nation an 
 example of confidence, energy, and patriotism; and, 
 like the Senate of the great people of antiquity, 
 resolve to die rather than survive the dishonor and 
 degradation of France. The sacred cause of the 
 fatherland will triumph." 
 
 No, the sacred cause of the fatherland will not 
 triumph. For that, other dispositions would be 
 necessary than those of the Assembly which, even 
 while affecting devotion to the Emperor, was work- 
 ing clandestinely against him. During his speech 
 some of the representatives seemed to be studying 
 the efforts he was making to soften his voice, his 
 gestures, and the expression of his face, and to assume 
 the unaccustomed manners of a constitutional sov- 
 ereign. Lafayette, who was vice-president of the 
 Chamber, wrote to a relative : " You will be satisfied 
 with Napoleon's speech ; but I was not so with his 
 face, which seemed to me like that of an old despot 
 irritated by the part which his position forces him 
 to play. Flaugergues and I were near him for a 
 long time while people were getting into their car- 
 riages. k You are looking younger,' he said to me : 
 ' country air has done you good.' ' It has done me 
 a great deal of good,' I answered. I could not re-
 
 THE FIE LB OF MAY. 153 
 
 turn the compliment, for I found him greatly altered, 
 and with a very extraordinary contraction of the 
 muscles. As neither of us was willing to lower his 
 eyes, each of us read the other's thoughts." 
 
 The address to the Chamber of Peers contained 
 this remark : " If our success equals the justice of 
 our cause, France cannot but reap peace. Our insti- 
 tutions guarantee to Europe that the French gov- 
 ernment cannot be carried away by the seductions 
 of victory." And in his address to the Chamber 
 of Representatives he said : " Xo ambitious design 
 enters the thoughts of the French people ; even the 
 will of its victorious prince would be powerless to 
 draw the nation beyond the limits of its own de- 
 fence." Alas ! these precautions against victory were 
 most inopportune, most superfluous. Napoleon could 
 not refrain from saying sadly to a deputation from 
 the two Chambers when he appeared for the last 
 time at the Tuileries, Sunday, June 11: "The strug- 
 gle in which we are engaged is serious. The seduc- 
 tion of success is not the danger which threatens us 
 to-day. The foreigners want to make us pass under 
 the yoke of the Caudine Forks." And he ended 
 thus his prophetic speech : "The Constitution is our 
 rallying-point ; it should be our polar star in these 
 stormv moments. All political discussion which 
 should tend to diminish, either directly or indirectly, 
 the confidence people ought to place in its provisions 
 wotdd be a misfortune to the State. We should find 
 ourselves in the midst of reefs without a compass
 
 154 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 and without a pilot. The crisis in which we are is 
 very great. Let us not imitate the example of the 
 Lower Empire, which, pressed on all sides by the 
 barbarians, made itself a laughing stock to poster- 
 ity by wrangling over abstract questions at the very 
 moment when the battering-ram was breaking down 
 the city walls." 
 
 On Monday, June 12, 1815, at half-past three in 
 the morning, and after bidding adieu to his ministers 
 and embracing Queen Hortense, Napoleon left the 
 Tuileries to take command of the army which, six 
 days later, was to fight at Waterloo. Catching sight 
 of General Bertrand's wife just as he was about get- 
 ting into his carriage, he took her hand, and said, as 
 if he had already a presentiment of Saint Helena, 
 "Let us hope, Madame Bertrand, that we may not 
 soon have to regret the Island of Elba."
 
 X. 
 
 WATERLOO. 
 
 " Waterloo ! Waterloo ! Waterloo ! O plain of sorrow ! 
 Like a wave that boils in an urn too narrow, 
 In thy circle of wood, and hill, and plain, 
 Pale Death commingled the ranks of slain. 
 There 'twas France against all Europe — impact gory ! 
 There 'twas God betrayed the hero's hope of glory. 
 Thou hadst deserted, Victory, and Fate was worn. 
 O Waterloo ! I weep, then cease to mourn ; 
 For these last soldiers of our latest war 
 Were grand ; the whole earth they had crushed before, 
 Chased twenty kings, crossed Alps and crossed the Rhine, 
 In brazen clarions sang their spirit fine ! " 
 
 IT is thus that Victor Hugo, that Napoleon of 
 poets, has had the force to celebrate Waterloo! 
 But what a hymn of mourning! what a sombre and 
 lugubrious harmony ! Never has the French lyre 
 given forth more doleful sounds. 
 
 Beranger, on his part, was unwilling that the 
 fatal name of Waterloo should be pronounced in 
 any song of his : — 
 
 " In Athens, who with Cha?ronea's name, 
 Ever united sounds harmonious? 
 Dethroned by Fate. Athens cursed Philip's fame, 
 And doubted gods once held victorious. 
 
 155
 
 156 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 And such a day beheld our Empire fall, 
 Beheld the stranger bringing in his chains, 
 
 Beheld even Frenchmen basely smile in thrall. 
 Its name shall make no discord in my strains." 
 
 We find again the same sentiment which inspired 
 the song-writer, at the close of the Memoirs of Gen- 
 eral de Segur, who has traced the glories of the 
 imperial epopee in prose, which at times assumes an 
 epic turn. " Let others," he cries, " recite the heroic 
 and marvellous details of Napoleon's return from 
 Elba, his attempts, at first, to conciliate the Coali- 
 tion, and then to prepare himself for the combat ; 
 in fine, his secret and sorrowful presentiments from 
 the morrow of his arrival, his lost faith in his star, 
 and the disastrous result of that third and last 
 effort of an incomparable genius against his destiny, 
 which had willed that the greatness of his eleva- 
 tion should equal that of his downfall. However 
 worthy of memory on this subject may be the rela- 
 tions given me by eyewitnesses such as M. Mollien, 
 my father, Benjamin Constant, Marshal Reille, Mont- 
 yon, Turenne, Prince d'Eckmiihl, and others, I own 
 that courage fails me to recount so many bitterly 
 painful details." 
 
 Alas ! we cannot pass over this fatal day in silence. 
 It is the denouement of the terrible drama whose 
 vicissitudes we have essayed to trace. For a long 
 time we hesitated; the pen dropped from our hand. 
 This battle, more sombre than Cressy, or Poitiers, 
 or Agincourt; this defeat, which has no more been
 
 WATERLOO. 157 
 
 avenged by France than Zama was by Carthage, this 
 great national catastrophe, must be related. 
 
 Napoleon had only about one hundred and twenty 
 thousand men to oppose to the two hundred and 
 thirty thousand composing the armies of Wellington 
 and Bliicher. However, he did not despair of suc- 
 cess, and he counted on renewing the tactics which 
 had proved efficacious so many times already. To 
 attack the two armies separately, to surprise the 
 Prussians, and then to fall upon the English before 
 they should have time to rally their different corps, — 
 such was his plan of campaign. During the night of 
 June 14-15 an ill-omened event occurred : General 
 de Bourmont, followed by live officers, who, like him- 
 self, were Bourbon partisans, went over to the enemy. 
 " Their names,'' the Emperor said, later on, " will be 
 held in execration so long as the French people form 
 a nation. This desertion increased the anxiety of the 
 soldiers." On June 15, the French army crossed the 
 Sambre, and, in a fiery proclamation. Napoleon re- 
 minded his troops that this day was the anniversary 
 of Marengo and Friedland. A success of the advance 
 guard encouraged them. The English were defend- 
 ing Quatre-Bras as a rallying-point, and the Prussians, 
 Fleurus and Sombref. On June lt», while Marshal 
 Ney failed at Quatre-Bras, the Emperor gained the 
 sanguinary battle of Ligny against the Prussians. 
 The struggle became ferocious by dint of being stub- 
 born. It seemed as if each man recognized his mor- 
 tal enemy, and rejoiced because the moment of ven-
 
 158 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 geance had come. Quarter was neither asked nor 
 given. Bliicher, who had had a horse killed under 
 him, in dismay ordered a retreat. But the untir- 
 ing septuagenarian's repulse had not been an utter 
 overthrow. The Prussians, who still numbered more 
 than ninety thousand combatants, retreated in good 
 order, and Marshal Grouchy, whom the Emperor 
 ordered to pursue them, had only thirty-two thou- 
 sand. Napoleon turning back on the English army 
 at Quatre-Bras, Wellington evacuated the position 
 and retired to Mont-Saint-Jean, near Waterloo. The 
 forest of Soignes extends behind Mont-Saint-Jean. 
 The English general drew up against it. The hilly 
 character of the ground, which nature has fortified, 
 permitted him to maintain a formidable defence. The 
 troops on both sides were worn out with fatigue. 
 The temperature betokened a storm, and the air was 
 heavy, with thirty degrees of heat. In the afternoon 
 of June 1 7, the sky, which had been covered by thick 
 clouds, discharged them in torrents of water. At the 
 end of a few minutes the whole region was changed 
 into a hopeless marsh. The rain kept on all day, 
 all night, all the next morning. A solemn and terri- 
 ble night was that of June 17-18, which has been 
 called " The Vigil of Waterloo." The two armies 
 face eacli other in that feverish expectation which 
 precedes decisive battles. No shelter against the 
 drenching rain. They stick fast in mud above their 
 knees. No moon, no stars. The darkness is pro- 
 found, impenetrable. The men lose themselves in
 
 WATERLOO. 159 
 
 quickset hedges. They stumble against each other 
 and fall head over heels down ravines. Curses min- 
 gle with the roaring of the wind. The French army 
 believed itself already betrayed. 
 
 What must be passing in Napoleon's heart ? What 
 is he going to risk, this great gamester, on his final 
 throw ? More than his life ; his crown and his lib- 
 erty : more than his crown and his liberty ; the 
 fortune of France. All these men who will see 
 but one more sun, will die for him, for him alone. 
 The horizon is all aflame with bivouac fires, as it 
 was on the eve of Austerlitz. But they are not 
 now omens of good fortune as they were in 1805. 
 These lights resemble a conflagration more than 
 an apotheosis. Napoleon does not sleep. He had 
 been eighteen hours in the saddle on June 15, and 
 had slept but three hours before the battle of Ligny. 
 On the 16th, he was again for eighteen hours on 
 horseback. On the 17th, he rose at five in the 
 morning. On the night of the 17th and 18th, it is he 
 who makes the reconnoissance, his feet in the mud, 
 his head under the bridle-bits. In vain he seeks to 
 remind himself of all his victories, to take his former 
 attitudes, to make effective speeches as of old. At 
 heart he is troubled. To his physical fatigue a moral 
 one is added. Once too greedy of emotions, he is 
 now sated witli them. His officers, his soldiers, are 
 not less perplexed than he is. Their devotion is 
 boundless, but it assumes the character of rage, 
 of frenzv. The chiefs feel themselves still more
 
 160 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 threatened by the balls of a French reaction than by 
 those of foreigners. An indescribable moral malady 
 torments these men of bronze. The night seems 
 long to them. They are in haste to precipitate them- 
 selves, heads lowered, into the tempest of fire, to seek 
 there a refuge against the torment of their thoughts. 
 But all these anxieties, these sufferings, these ago- 
 nies, seem to concentrate themselves in a single soul, 
 the soul of Napoleon. His eagle eye measures the 
 profundity of the abyss. He knows what his defeat 
 will be if he is vanquished. And yet his countenance 
 betrays no anxiety. He seeks to convey to the minds 
 of others a confidence which he does not feel, and, as 
 in all great critical moments, he affects serenity and 
 imperturbable calm. 
 
 Day is about to break. A few rays of pallid sun- 
 light light up the fatal plain. Battle must be given 
 at once, before the Prussians have time to come up. 
 But the ground is so wet that neither the artillery, 
 nor even the cavalry, can take a step. They will 
 wait; and this waiting will be the ruin of the French 
 army, whose sole chance would be to crush the Eng- 
 lish before the Prussians come. Alas ! how often 
 are the desires of man imprudent ! What Napoleon 
 desires above all is that Wellington shall not beat 
 a retreat. The unfortunate Emperor longs ardently 
 for the battle, and the battle will be Waterloo. 
 
 The rain has ceased. In a few hours the ground 
 will lie practicable again. Napoleon still has illu- 
 sions. Having seventy-two thousand men to oppose
 
 WATERLOO. 161 
 
 to seventy-six thousand seven hundred, he relies on 
 Ins genius to conquer. He would have conquered, 
 in fact, if he had been joined by Grouchy instead of 
 being outflanked by Blucher. All depends on that. 
 If the English and Prussians make their junction on 
 the field, the French army will be destroyed. The 
 Emperor will not even admit that such a contingency 
 is possible. At half-past eight, when breakfasting, 
 he says to the generals surrounding him, "There are 
 ninety chances for us to ten against us."' 
 
 The Imperial army moves forward in eleven col- 
 umns, and descends from the high grounds it had 
 occupied to take up its positions for lighting. These 
 eleven columns, which an English historian has com- 
 pared to enormous serpents, their scales shining in 
 the sunlight, march slowly to the sound of trumpets 
 and the beating of drums. The military bands play 
 the Chant du depart, and the famous air, Veillons au 
 saint de V Empire. It is half-past ten. Xapoleon 
 passes in front of the troops, who are drunk with 
 enthusiasm, and utter frenzied acclamations. 
 
 At half-past eleven, the Emperor gives the signal: 
 the cannonading begins. The French take the wood 
 of Goumont. The ground has dried up. It will be 
 soaked again, not with water, but with blood. 
 
 A few leagues distant, near Ghent, a man who is 
 taking a solitary walk through peaceful fields, and 
 reading Cn-sar's Commentaries as lie goes, stops to 
 listen to some vague, far-off rumbling noise. He 
 asks himself whether it is not the rolling of distant
 
 162 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 thunder, and seeing that the sky is still full of clouds, 
 he deliberates whether to continue his walk or return 
 before the storm breaks. Again he listens. No 
 more noise, unless it be the cry of a waterfowl in the 
 rushes, or the striking of a village clock. He goes 
 on his way. The rumbling recommences. Is it the 
 sound of a battle ? he asks himself. A south wind, 
 rising, brings distinctly the distant echo of the detona- 
 tion of artillery. Now no more doubt. It is a battle. 
 What a striking contrast : here, calm unalterable ; 
 a few women weeding among the beans : down yon- 
 der the unchaining of a hell, the rain of fire, the hur- 
 ricane of howitzers and shells. 
 
 This solitary stroller is a Frenchman, the bitter 
 enemy of Napoleon, the author of the brochure, 
 JBuonaparte et les Bourbons, — Chateaubriand. " Silent 
 auditor of the formidable decrees of the Fates," he 
 says to us, " I would have been less moved had I 
 been in the midst of the melee. The peril, the firing, 
 the pressure of death, would have given me no time 
 to meditate ; but alone, under a tree in the fields of 
 Ghent, as if I were the shepherd of the flocks brows- 
 ing around me, the burden of my reflections over- 
 powered me." And lie adds these noble words in 
 which the partisan is silenced by the patriot : 4k Al- 
 though Napoleon's success would mean to me an 
 eternal exile, my country at this moment seized pos- 
 session of my heart. My wishes were all for the 
 oppressor of France, if, in saving our honor lie could 
 wrest us from foreign domination. Would Welling-
 
 WATERLOO. 163 
 
 ton triumph? Then legitimacy would re-enter Paris 
 behind these red uniforms which had just re dyed 
 their purple in French blood. As the chariots of its 
 consecration, royalty should then have ambulance 
 wagons tilled with our mutilated grenadiers. What 
 would a restoration be, accomplished under such 
 auspices ? I recount but a very small fraction of 
 the ideas which tormented me. Every discharge of 
 cannon gave me a shock and redoubled the beating 
 of my heart." 
 
 At this same moment, Xapoleon is experiencing a 
 still more violent emotion. Looking constantly in the 
 direction whence he hoped to see Grouchy coming, he 
 sees on the horizon, near the chapel of Saint Lambert, 
 something' indeterminate and vague which excites 
 first his curiosity and then his fear. " What do you 
 see towards Saint Lambert ? " he said to Marshal 
 Soult. The Major-General answered : " I think I see 
 five or six thousand men. It is probably one of 
 Grouchy's detachments." All the glasses of the 
 staff arc at once levelled on this point. Some think 
 they arc not troops, but trees : some that they are 
 columns in position : others that they are troops on 
 the march. If so, is it Grouchy or Bliicher? On 
 the answer to this question will Jiang the fate of the 
 day. At such a distance it is impossible to distin- 
 guish the French uniform from the Prussian, as both 
 of them are blue. 
 
 Then the Emperor calls my grandfather, General 
 Domon, formerly captain of Murat's Guards, and
 
 164 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 orders him to make a reconnoissance with his division 
 of light artillery, accompanied by that of General 
 Subervic. If the troops are French, he will join 
 them ; if they are Prussians, he will keep them back. 
 At the same time — it is an hour past noon — Napo- 
 leon sends a despatch to Grouchy ordering him to 
 come up. But will the order reach him in time ? 
 And where is Grouchy ? No one knows. At the same 
 moment Marshal Ney attacks La Haye Sainte in an 
 attempt to pierce the English centre. A furious 
 struggle ensues, but produces no result. At half-past 
 two, both armies, as if by a tacit understanding, 
 accord each other a momentary truce, like two 
 athletes who take time to breathe. The first act of 
 the battle is over. They are already a long way off 
 from those ninety chances against ten of which the 
 Emperor spoke this morning. 
 
 A terrible piece of news reaches Napoleon : Gene- 
 ral Domon sends word that there is no longer any 
 room for doubt: the troops debouching in the direc- 
 tion of Saint Lambert are Prussians ; and Grouch}', 
 instead of marching to Waterloo, is going toward 
 Wavres. Perhaps this would be the moment to hurl 
 all the troops upon the English army, before the 
 Prussians arrive. But the great gamester hesitates 
 to risk his last stake, lie would like to preserve that 
 marvellous Imperial Guard which has been so faithful 
 to him, which is his pride, his glory. The thought 
 that this army of Waterloo is his only one, while the 
 military resources of the Coalition are inexhaustible,
 
 WATERLOO. 165 
 
 paralyzes his audacity. With his last army destroyed, 
 what will then be left him. And, even granting a 
 victory over the English and Prussians, with what 
 shall he resist the innumerable troops of Austria and 
 Russia ? 
 
 It is three o'clock. The second act of the battle 
 commences. The Emperor sends a brigade of cuiras- 
 siers as a reinforcement to Marshal Ney, who is still 
 nniking heroic efforts to penetrate the English centre. 
 And behold, without orders, and carried away by an 
 instinctive movement, as if by the attraction of I 
 know not what irresistible magnet, the whole cuiras- 
 sier corps follows this brigade. The chasseurs and 
 lancers of the Guard move in the same direction. In 
 vain the Emperor cries, "It is too soon." The cav- 
 alry once started, nothing can arrest its rush. It is a 
 torrent which carries everything away. Then begins 
 an epic struggle, unexampled perhaps in the military 
 annals of any people, a formidable duel of cavalry 
 against a whole army, infantry and artillery, aided, 
 too, by cavalry equal in numbers to the assailants. 
 The Duke of Wellington will say, some years later, 
 " I have never seen anything more admirable in war 
 than the ten or twelve reiterated charge, of the 
 French cuirassiers upon troops of all arms." Ney 
 has never been more intrepid. It is a miracle that 
 this hero of heroes still lives. "Be sure, my friend," 
 he says to General Erlon, "that for you and me, if 
 we do not die here under the English balls, nothing 
 remains but to fall miserably under those of the e*mi-
 
 166 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DATS. 
 
 greW Wellington is not less heroic. His tenacity 
 is unshakable. To an officer who asks for instruc- 
 tions in case he should be slain, he answers : " I have 
 no instructions to give ; there is only one thing to 
 be clone — to fight to the last man and the last 
 moment." 
 
 It is five in the evening. In spite of its furious 
 charges, in spite of its gigantic efforts, the French 
 cavalry cannot accomplish the impossible. It de- 
 mands the infantry of the Guard, it demands the Em- 
 peror. Napoleon still hesitates. Physical sufferings 
 come to add to his perplexities. He can hardly sit 
 upon his horse. Instead of multiplying himself, as 
 he had been used to on battle-fields where his presence 
 diffused emulation and enthusiasm, he remains mo- 
 tionless, suffering so much that he falls at times into 
 a sort of lethargy. What a gradation in the senti- 
 ments, which ever since morning have taken posses- 
 sion of his soul ! At first, confidence, illusion, the 
 intoxication of battle ; then, suddenly, doubt, fear, 
 augmenting from hour to hour, from minute to 
 minute, the face which grows troubled, which at one 
 moment becomes paler than a corpse ; then the fright- 
 ful truth appearing in its full proportions, the last 
 hope crumbling, then cataclysm, overthrow, annihu 
 lation. 
 
 Grouchy does not arrive. Is he guilty? No. His 
 instructions were obscure. The officer sent to meet 
 him did not join him soon enough. In marching 
 toward Wavres, the unfortunate Marshal thought he
 
 WATERLOO. 167 
 
 was acting in accordance with the mind as well as 
 with the formal orders of the Emperor. He may 
 have been mistaken, but he was so in good faith ; and 
 history, if it is just, will incriminate his loyalty no 
 more than his courage. His highest ambition would 
 have been the fate of Desaix. But, alas! the star of 
 Marengo no longer shone. 
 
 Ah ! what tortures, what anguish in the heart of 
 Napoleon, that Titan thunder-stricken ! The fatal 
 moment has come when lie must throw his last 
 card upon the gaming-table, the card which means 
 despair. Sixty-five thousand Prussians inundate the 
 battle-field. They come to act in concert with fifty- 
 five thousand Anglo-Germans. There remain only 
 fifty thousand Frenchmen able to combat these one 
 hundred and twenty thousand enemies. The infantry 
 of the Guard are fromo- to charge. The last act of 
 the battle opens. 
 
 " All, those of Friedland and those of Rivoli, 
 Knowing that on this holiday they were about to die, 
 Saluted their divinity, erect amid the storm, 
 One cry, 'Long live the Emperor!' the last their pale lips form. 
 Then, with the music on ahead, all passioidess and slow, 
 And smiling at the English guns black yawning there below. 
 The Imperial Guard went forward into the furnace flame." 
 
 Calm, silent, not firing a single gun. they cross the 
 plateau, and march against the English lines. They 
 are wiped out by cannon and musketry: out of the 
 two thousand nine hundred heroes who offered this 
 supreme attack, hardly eight hundred are left stand-
 
 168 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 ing. It is nearly eight o'clock. All is over. The 
 Emperor has lost the battle. 
 
 "They went, all armed, front high, grave, stoical. 
 Not one shrank back. Sleep, dead heroical ! 
 Their waiting comrades, wavering in their place, 
 Beheld the Old Guard perish. — Then, with face 
 All pale and scared, Disaster raised her voice 
 Despairing — giant she, with moments choice 
 To fright battalions haughty, and to change 
 Their flags to tatters — spectre made of smoke 
 Who as she rises grows — Disaster broke 
 On every soldier's gaze, to every man, 
 Wringing her hands and crying, ' 'Scape who can ! ' " * 
 
 Marshal Ney, hatless, his sword broken in his 
 hand, his clothes ragged with bullet-holes, — takes a 
 handful of men with him, and flings himself once 
 more into the melde. " Come on, my friends," he 
 cries; "see how a marshal of France dies." Alas! 
 the hero will not die upon the battle-field. 
 
 Napoleon, owning himself vanquished, has just 
 given the signal to retreat. It was to render that 
 possible, and to avert the utter extermination of 
 what had been the French army, that the veterans 
 of the Guard had given themselves to death like the 
 Spartans at Thermopyke. The four or five squares 
 of this heroic infantry in the midst of one hundred 
 and twenty thousand enemies, resemble, as the nat- 
 ional historian has said, the summits of a rock which 
 the furious ocean is covering with foam. The Guard 
 dies, and does not surrender! 
 
 1 Victor Hu£o, Les Chatiments.
 
 WATERLOO. 109 
 
 A patriotic painter, Hippolyte Bellange', whose 
 radiant canvas, La Revue au Carrousel, has so well 
 represented the joyous and triumphant army, has 
 depicted the death agony of the Imperial Guard in 
 one of the most striking pictures that exist. This 
 painting, lugubrious and doleful, makes one shudder. 
 The sky is sombre, gloomy — one of Gericault's skies. 
 Behind a rampart of English corpses, in red uniforms, 
 three grenadiers of the Guard still stand erect. One 
 of them is firing his last shot. Another, making a 
 furious gesture, shakes his clinched hand at the 
 enemy. The third lifts his arms to heaven and cries 
 once more, " Long live the Emperor ! " The pen 
 would essay in vain to describe what there is of 
 ferocious energy, grandiose wrath, and heroic despair 
 in the haughty attitudes and contracted features of 
 these three veterans, dying as they had lived. Ill, 
 and already himself taken possession of by the shad- 
 ows of death, Hippolyte Bellange' collected all his 
 forces to create this canvas, the testament, as it were, 
 of his talent, so military and so French. 
 
 Honor to the grenadiers of the Guard, to the 
 soldiers, men of the people, who have pushed further 
 back the boundaries of devotion, courage, and the 
 spirit of sacrifice ! Their blood will be fruitful. In 
 the eyes of posterity they will have elevated a defeat 
 to the level of the most famous victories. Like the 
 martyrs of religion, these martyrs of glory will have 
 triumphed even unto death. Gloria viotis ! 
 
 And Napoleon, where is he? The shadows of twi-
 
 170 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 light have overspread the plain. He is no longer 
 seen. Some say that he is wounded, others that he 
 is slain. The soldiers, no longer feeling themselves 
 protected by his genius, break their ranks. There 
 are some who blow out their brains, unwilling to 
 survive defeat. Later on he will say, " Waterloo ! 
 Waterloo ! It is there I should have died." Like 
 Ney, he has not succeeded in getting killed. Sur- 
 rounded by a square of grenadiers of the Guard, 
 under command of Major Martenot, he is marching 
 pell-mell with a crowd of wounded in the midst of 
 a handful of veterans who make a rampart for him 
 of their bodies. A few days later Wellington will 
 write : " I cannot express with what regret and 
 sadness I look around me. The dear-bought glory 
 which follows such actions does not console. ... In 
 truth, the losses I have experienced have so beaten 
 and broken me down, that I have not courage to 
 rejoice over the advantages we have obtained." If 
 the victor speaks thus, what must the vanquished 
 say, when the vanquished is Napoleon ? To the 
 joyous music played by the bands this morning must 
 succeed the De profundis, the Dies tree, the lamenta- 
 tions of Jeremiah. What reflections must not lie who 
 had been the victor of Austerlitz have made at this 
 moment on the pitifulness of ambition, the caprices 
 of fortune, the immense share which is left to chance 
 in earthly things, on the slender thread on which 
 hang the occurrences of this world ! A secret voice, 
 more eloquent than that of any of the sermonizers
 
 WATERLOO. 171 
 
 who have exhorted against pride, was whispering in 
 the fugitive's soul. The saying of the Gospel veri- 
 fied itself, " For all they who take the sword shall 
 perish by the sword." They say that the man of 
 bronze wept. To deplore such a catastrophe, would 
 an ocean of tears suffice ')
 
 XI 
 
 NAPOLEON II. 
 
 THE battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday, 
 June 18, 1815. On that clay the Parisians were 
 reading in the Moniteur the proclamation of June 14, 
 in which the Emperor had said to his army : " Sol- 
 diers, to-day is the anniversary of Marengo and of 
 Friedland, which twice decided the destiny of Eu- 
 rope. Then, as after Austerlitz and Wagram, we 
 were too generous ; we believed the protestations 
 and oaths of the Princes whom we left on their 
 thrones. To-day, however, having combined among 
 themselves, they seek to attack the independence of 
 France and her most sacred rights. They have be- 
 gun the most unjust aggressions. Let us go to meet 
 them! Neither they nor we are any longer the same 
 men!" 
 
 On Monday, June 19, — O irony of fate!— a hun- 
 dred discharges of cannon from the Invalides an- 
 nounced a victory to the Parisians, — alas! a victory 
 already old, — that of Ligny. The same day the 
 Ghent Moniteur published the following: "The 18th 
 ended, in the happiest manner, for the Allies, the 
 172
 
 NAPOLEON II. 17< 
 
 sanguinary and bitterly contested struggle which 
 had lasted since the loth. Bonaparte's army, French 
 in name only, since it is the terror and scourge of 
 the country, has been vanquished and almost utterly 
 destroyed." 
 
 The immediate consequences of the battle of 
 Waterloo were no less disastrous than the battle it- 
 self, liven nightfall did not interrupt the carnage. 
 While the English arm}', worn out with fatigue, 
 betook themselves to rest, the Prussian cavalry pur- 
 sued relentlessly the Hying French troops. The ris- 
 ing of the moon facilitated this man-hunt. At Ligny 
 the Imperial Guard had cried " No quarter ! " and 
 now the same cry came back upon them like the 
 penalty of retaliation. Cannons, military wagons, 
 baggage, obstacles of all sorts, made their road diffi- 
 cult. The confusion, disorder, and terror were in- 
 expressible. History offers few examples of such an 
 overwhelming disaster. At Charleroy the Emperor 
 left his brother Jerome, whose conduct at Waterloo 
 had been heroic, in command of the remnants of the 
 army, and posted to Paris, where he knew that the 
 Royalists, believing his sword broken, would like to 
 break also his crown and sceptre. 
 
 The joyful salvos of artillery, fired by the cannon 
 of the Invalides on June 1!*, had not reassured the 
 Parisian population. Vague presentiments oppressed 
 all minds. Towards six in the evening of June 20, 
 an aide-de-camp of Marshal Davout, Colonel Michel, 
 who had been sent by him for tidings, and had been
 
 174 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 present at the end of the battle of Waterloo, arrived 
 in Paris at full speed, and announced the disaster to 
 the Marshal. " I would have you shot for bringing 
 me such news if I did not know you," cried the 
 defender of Hamburg, roughly. And the Colonel 
 answered, " Please God you might have me shot, if 
 that would alter the case." 
 
 In the morning of June 21, Napoleon re-entered 
 the Elysee, whence he had departed on the 12th. 
 How much had happened in those nine days ! Ah ! 
 how much reason he had had for the fear he ex- 
 pressed to General Bertrand's wife, at the moment of 
 departure, lest he might come to regret the Island of 
 Elba. What a difference between the return from 
 Waterloo and the return from Marengo, Austerlitz, 
 Jena, and Wagram ! When he stopped at the flight 
 of steps leading to the Elysde, General Drouot, who 
 had just left the carriage with him, could not refrain 
 from exclaiming, " All is lost ! " Napoleon answered 
 quickly, " Except honor." It was the first time he 
 had spoken since quitting Laon. Leaning on the 
 arm of Caulaincourt, who had hastened to meet him, 
 he slowly ascended the staircase. " I need two 
 hours' rest," he said, " in order to be able to think of 
 my affairs. I am stifling ! a bath ! let them bring me 
 a bath ! " 
 
 At the Palais-Bourbon, although the Chamber of 
 Deputies did not begin its session until noon, the 
 greater part of the members had been on hand since 
 morning, to receive news and talk about the situa-
 
 NAPOLEOX II. 175 
 
 tion. Fouch<S had said of the Emperor, "This un- 
 bridled gamester no longer knows even how to win a 
 game ; and what is to be done now with a player 
 who can only lose ? " Napoleon was going to be 
 betrayed by men as he had been by fortune. The 
 consequences of Waterloo were to make it resemble 
 the battle of Zama, not that of Cannae. 
 
 Here begins the death agony of the Empire. It 
 will not be less lamentable than the agony of Roy- 
 alty. Napoleon, this genius so haughty, so resolute, 
 so pre-eminently the man of action, the former arbiter 
 of destiny, the Emperor of the eagle glance, the soul 
 of fire and the will of iron, is about to show himself 
 as undecided, as feeble, as timid, as the martyr-king. 
 M. Alfred Nettement has made the same remark in his 
 excellent ffistoire de la lieHtauration : "Here is a 
 man," he says, " who had led the world by a glance, a 
 nod ; who had kneaded Europe with his hands ; before 
 whom France had slain itself for years. But, the cir- 
 cumstances changing, the talisman of victory having 
 been broken abroad by Providence in the hands of 
 the conqueror, and the force of opinion which had 
 rendered all things easy and possible altering toward 
 him at home, the same man is feebleness itself; : he 
 can do nothing against any one, and everything can 
 l>e done against him. Fouchd lords it over him ; 
 Manuel braves him; Lafayette imperiously demands 
 his abdication ; the Chamber of the Hundred Days, 
 which certainly had nothing in common with the 
 Convention, threatens to depose him, and gives him
 
 17G ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 but an hour to make his abdication. Louis XVI. 
 was not more helpless, more inert, more inactive 
 against his enemies. Let no one answer that Louis 
 XVI. bad not lost the battle of Waterloo; he had 
 lost the battle of the seventeenth century against the 
 eighteenth, of the monarchy against revolution, of 
 religion against unbelief." 
 
 What a lesson for human pride is this impotence 
 of Napoleon ! And how Providence makes us as it 
 were touch with our hands the nothingness of those 
 things which men proudly call genius and glory, and 
 which count for so little before the decrees of the 
 Eternal ! The Emperor in the Elyse"e is not less 
 humiliated than the King in the Temple, and he is 
 more to be pitied ; for, in his misfortune lie does not 
 look toward the Crucifix ! 
 
 After taking a few moments of repose, Napoleon 
 held a council on that very morning of June 21. "If 
 the nation rises," said he, " the enemy will be de- 
 stroyed. If, instead of such a rising and a resort to 
 extraordinary measures, we begin disputing, all is 
 lost. The enemy is in France ; in order to save the 
 country I need great powers — a temporary dictator- 
 ship. I could seize it in the interest of the country, 
 but it will be more useful and more national to have 
 it given me by the Chambers." Alas! the Emperor 
 will not be treated by the Chambers as the Consul 
 Varro was by the Roman Senate. Carnot alone sup- 
 ported the idea of a dictatorship. The former C071- 
 ventionist bethought himself of the fourteen armies
 
 NAPOLEON II. 177 
 
 of the French Republic. But he obtained no follow- 
 ers. The flame of 17U2 was burnt out, Paris had 
 no desire to imitate Saragossa. The unfortunate 
 Emperor saw the traces of absolute discouragement 
 upon the faces of his ministers. Regnault de Saint- 
 Jean d'Angely, one of his most faithful adherents, 
 suggested, in respectful terms, an abdication in favor 
 of the King of Rome. But listen to Lucien Bona- 
 parte, a member of the Council : " The assembly was 
 very disorderly. An abdication in favor of the King 
 of Rome was proposed as delicately as possible. — 
 'The Bourbons would be preferable to my son,' said 
 Napoleon ; ' the} are French, to say the least.' I am 
 not one of those who find this reply admirable," adds 
 Lucien. " At that moment nothing was more French 
 than his son." 
 
 But, no matter what Lucien may say, Napoleon 
 was not deceived. He knew that his son was the 
 prisoner of the Coalition, and that the Coalition would 
 not loose its prey. As to Marie Louise, lie Avas only 
 too certain that he had nothing to expect from her. 
 "They tell yon," he exclaimed, "that the King of 
 Rome, under the regency of his mother, would be 
 admissible. It is a perfidious fable, invented at 
 Vienna and circulated in Paris so as to bring about 
 our ruin. I know what is going on at Vienna, and 
 that my wife and son would not be accepted at any 
 price. They want the Bourbons and nothing but the 
 Bourbons, and it is entirely natural. When I am got 
 rid of, they will march on Paris, re-enter it, and pro-
 
 178 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 claim the Bourbons. Do you want them ? For my 
 part, I don't know that they are not preferable to 
 anything else I see." In vain the Emperor developed, 
 in glowing terms, the resources he could still draw 
 from the soil of France ; in vain he described the 
 prodigies which might be accomplished by union and 
 perseverance. He convinced no one. They would 
 decide on nothing. They would await events. 
 
 What was going on at the same time in the Cham- 
 ber of Deputies? After a silence which had lasted 
 twenty-three years, Lafa} T ette, the friend of Wash- 
 ington, the leader of 1789, the prisoner of Olmutz, 
 ascended the tribune. " When for the first time, 
 after so many years," said he, " I lift a voice which 
 the old friends of liberty will recognize again, I feel 
 myself called to speak to you of the dangers of the 
 country, which you alone have now the power to 
 save. Sinister rumors have been circulated ; unfortu- 
 nately, they are confirmed. Now is the moment for 
 us to rally around the old tricolored standard — that 
 of '89, of liberty, equality, and public order. It is 
 that alone which we have to defend against foreign 
 pretensions and internal attempts. Permit, gentle- 
 man, a veteran of this sacred cause, who was always 
 a stranger to party -spirit, to submit to you some pre- 
 liminary resolutions whose necessity I hope you will 
 approve." 
 
 Then he demanded that the Chamber should de- 
 clan; itself permanently constituted, and consider any 
 attempt to dissolve it a crime of higli treason ; also,
 
 NAPOLEON II. 179 
 
 that the Ministers of War, the Interior, and Police 
 should be requested to report at once to the As- 
 sembly. 
 
 " The anachronism of this discourse," Chateau- 
 briand has said, "caused a momentary illusion. It 
 seemed as though the Revolution, personified in La- 
 fayette, had issued from the tomb and presented 
 itself, pallid and wrinkled, on the platform." And 
 yet this revolutionary motion, essentially unconstitu- 
 tional because it deprived the sovereign of one of the 
 chief prerogatives of the crown, the right of disso- 
 lution, was accepted without a contest by the Cham- 
 ber, already faithless to the oaths taken but a few 
 days before. 
 
 What will the Emperor do when he learns of 
 this resolution which is equivalent to a deposition? 
 Napoleon wavers; his soul is troubled with uncer- 
 tainties, fluctuations, contradictions. Now he is 
 elated, now east down ; to anger, recriminations, 
 invectives, and menaces, succeeds silence; to the 
 over-excitement of a man who, remembering his glory, 
 perhaps believes himself still capable of miracles, the 
 anguish of a condemned wretch who feels the earth 
 failing beneath his feet and sees the abyss open. He 
 knows that if he gives orders they will not be obeyed. 
 His voice, which once made the universe tremble, 
 now intimidates no one. The giant of battles has 
 become as inoffensive as a child. lie has less in- 
 fluence than Fouche, the Conventionist, the regicide. 
 He counts for nothing any more. He can hardly 
 believe his eyes and ears.
 
 180 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 At Elba he was still adored. At the Elysee he is 
 but a phantom. He reminds one of Bossuet's ser- 
 mon against ambition, a sermon which is like a 
 prophecy : " Behold a man so fortunate that a cen- 
 tury sees not many like him ; and then behold his ruin 
 and his fall. Because he has risen up so arrogantly, 
 and lifted his head even to the clouds, and because 
 his heart is inflated with pride, for that reason, saith 
 the Lord, I will cut him down by the roots ; I will 
 prostrate him with a great blow and level him to 
 earth ; he shall become a disgrace and be no longer 
 able to sustain himself ; he shall fall with a mighty 
 overthrow. All those who reposed beneath his shadow 
 shall leave him in fear of being crushed beneath his 
 ruins. And yet they shall see him lying at full 
 length upon the mountain, a useless burden to the 
 earth.'" Fatal hour for the conqueror ! It is him- 
 self who no longer believes in the first Napoleon — 
 who does not even believe in the second Napoleon. 
 It is for form's sake only that he consents to defend 
 his son's cause. He knows that it is as irrevocably 
 lost as his own. lie smiles bitterly at the last illu- 
 sions concerning the dynasty, still entertained by two 
 or three faithful adherents, who are trying to cling 
 to the floating wreckage of a sunken ship. Death 
 would be a refuge for him ; but ho had already tried 
 to kill himself at Fontainebleau, in 1814, and with- 
 out succeeding. A second attempt at suicide would 
 be only a clumsy imitation. He must live to suffer, 
 live to expiate. His destiny weighs on him like a
 
 NAPOLEON II. 181 
 
 cloak of lead. This man, once so full of his all-power- 
 ful personality, would like to flee from himself, to 
 lose, if possible, the consciousness of his identity. 
 He is about to let himself drift, like a drowning man 
 who, after having swum with all his might, and 
 reached the limit of his strength, contends no longer 
 with the waves, but abandons himself to them. The 
 athlete, once indefatigable, feels himself at last van- 
 quished by that supreme power which atheists call 
 the force of things, and which the faithful call Provi- 
 dence. 
 
 His brother Lucien vainly counselled him to resist 
 the insolent resolution of the Chamber of Deputies. 
 The following dialogue took place between them: — 
 
 Lucien. "Where is your firmness ? Overcome this 
 irresolution. You know what it will cost you not to 
 dare. 1 ' 
 
 Napoleon. "I have dared only too much." 
 
 " Too much or too little. Dare for the last time." 
 
 " An Eighteenth Brumaire?" 
 
 "Not at all. A thoroughly constitutional decree. 
 The Constitution gives you that right." 
 
 "The}' will not respect the Constitution, and they 
 will oppose the decree." 
 
 " Better still ; in that case they are rebels, and you 
 dissolve them." 
 
 " The National Guard will come to their aid." 
 
 '•The National Guard lias only a resisting force ; 
 when it comes to action, the shopkeepers will think 
 of their wives and their shops."
 
 182 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 " An Eighteenth Brumaire which should not suc- 
 ceed might lead to a Thirteenth Vendemiare." 
 
 "You are deliberating when you ought to act. 
 They act and don't deliberate." 
 
 " What can they do? They are talkers." 
 " Opinion is on their side. They will pronounce 
 your deposition." 
 
 " My deposition ? Would they dare ? " 
 " They will dare everything if you dare nothing." 
 While the two brothers were talking thus, the 
 neighborhood of the Elysee was filling up with an 
 immense crowd of patriots, unwilling to despair, and 
 who, perceiving the Emperor, greeted him with fren- 
 zied acclamations. The Avenue Marigny was thronged 
 with common people and former soldiers, in whom 
 the national chord was vibrating. They implored 
 Napoleon to lead them against the enemy. They 
 received him with as much enthusiasm as in the days 
 of his greatest triumphs. And he, greatly moved, 
 could not refrain from saying: "What do these peo- 
 ple owe me? I found them poor and have left them 
 so." 
 
 Away with you, ungrateful courtiers ! Away, men 
 of the old regime whom Napoleon has endowed, en- 
 riched, overwhelmed with favors! Away, chamber- 
 lains who grimace and call your former master, 
 Buonaparte ! It is in the cabins of the people that 
 patriotism and honor will take refuge. 
 
 The common people who have suffered so much 
 from Napoleon and for him ; the poor women who
 
 NAPOLEON II. 183 
 
 have given him the lives of their sons ; the veterans 
 whose bodies are covered with wounds on his account ; 
 the poor peasants who have been ruined by the in- 
 vasion; yes, all those who have suffered, all who 
 have wept, not only pardon their Emperor, but still 
 console and glorify him in his misfortunes. The 
 nobles, on the other hand, with a few honorable ex- 
 ceptions, deny him even before the cock has crowed ! 
 
 The shouts redoubled. " Well ! " cried Lucien. 
 "Do you hear these people? It is the same thing 
 all over France. . . . Will you abandon them to fac- 
 tions?" Xapoleon, pausing, replied by a gesture of 
 the hand to the enthusiasm of the crowd. " Am I 
 more than man," said he, "that I should be able to 
 bring back a thousand misguided deputies to the 
 unity which alone can save us? Or am I a miserable 
 partisan chief, willing to kindle unavailing civil war? 
 No; never. In Brumaire it was our duty to draw 
 the sword for the welfare of France ; to-day we should 
 throw the sword away. Go and try to pacify the 
 Chambers; I can do everything with them; I could 
 do a great deal without them in my own behalf, but T 
 could not save the country. Go; but I forbid you, 
 above all, in going out, to harangue these people who 
 are asking me to arm them. I will attempt every- 
 thing for France, but nothing for myself." 
 
 Lucien. in company with the Ministers, started for 
 the Chamber of Deputies, passing in silence through 
 the tumultuous sea of people. At the Palais Bourbon 
 he ascended the tribune. "Do not let us enter the trap
 
 184 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 which the foreigners have spread for our credulity," 
 he cried. " Their aim is to disunite us so as to con- 
 quer." He added that the French nation had always 
 been accused of lacking perseverance, and that the 
 moment had now arrived either to refute or to justify 
 this reproach ; if they did not imitate the conduct of 
 Spain, Russia, and Germany toward their sovereigns, 
 history would rank them inferior to the Spaniards, 
 the Germans, and the Russians. 
 
 Lafayette, rising in his seat, replied : " The accu- 
 sation just made is calumnious. By what right does 
 the last speaker dare to accuse the nation of levity, 
 and of lacking in perseverance toward the Emperor 
 Napoleon? It has followed him through the sands 
 of Egypt and the deserts of Russia ; through lifty 
 battle-fields ; in successes and in reverses, and it is 
 for having followed him that we have to regret the 
 blood of three millions of Frenchmen." 
 
 Manuel insisted on the necessity of distinguishing 
 the cause of the country from that of a man. Another 
 deputy, M. Jay, demanded an abdication. The Cham- 
 ber nominated a committee to devise measures for 
 the public safety; in reality, to assume executive 
 powers. It Av r as composed of five members : Lanjni- 
 nais, General Grenier, Lafayette, Flaugergues, and 
 Dupont de l'Eure, to whom five others, chosen by 
 the Chamber of Peers, were to bo added. The 
 latter assembly selected three generals, — Andre*ossy, 
 Drouot, and Dejean ; and two former Conventionists, 
 • — Boissy-d' Anglas and Thibaudeau.
 
 NAPOLEON II. 185 
 
 Lucien and the Ministers were no better received 
 by the Chamber of Peers than they had been by the 
 Chamber of Deputies. Everybody felt that an abdi- 
 cation, or, failing that, a deposition, was imminent. 
 And yet it was but a few days since the Chamber of 
 Peers had said in its address to Napoleon : "The in- 
 terests of France are inseparable from yours. If suc- 
 cess does not attend your efforts, reverses, Sire, will 
 not lessen our constancy, and will redouble our at- 
 tachment to you.'" And at the same time the Cham- 
 ber of Deputies had said: "Resuming to-day the 
 exercise of her rights, and rallying around the hero 
 to whom she confides anew the government of the 
 State, France cannot admit the distinctions by which 
 the Allied Powers seek to veil their aggression. To 
 attack the monarchy of its choice is to attack the 
 independence of the nation." What did all these 
 promises, all these fine speeches, amount to? They 
 were empty phrases and nothing more. 
 
 Returning to the Flysee, Lucien bluntly told his 
 brother that no alternative was possible except a coup 
 d'ehit or an abdication. Napoleon hesitated. Silent 
 and motionless, lie was awaiting the decree of fate in 
 a sort of torpor. During the night the Committee of 
 Ten appointed by the two Chambers assembled. They 
 decided to send to the camp of the Coalition a com- 
 mittee of negotiators, who should present themselves, 
 not in the nana; of the Emperor, but in that of the 
 Chambers. It amounted, in fact, to a deposition ; it 
 was the thing if not tin; word. Napoleon no longer 
 either reigned or governed.
 
 186 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS, 
 
 The next morning, Thursday, June 22, 1815, every- 
 body waked with the instinctive conviction that the 
 end was near. The agony was almost over ; the death 
 bell was about to toll. And still Napoleon had a 
 faint glimmer of hope. He had learned that the 
 troops under Marshal Grouchy, — thirty thousand 
 men, — who were believed to have perished, were safe, 
 and that the survivors of Waterloo were gathering at 
 Laon. For a moment the man of battles thought of 
 drawing his sword from its scabbard. It was too 
 late. The Empire was to have its Tenth of August 
 — and a Tenth of August when even its defenders 
 would not fight. 
 
 The Chamber of Deputies had been in session 
 since morning. Wavering and impatient, they com- 
 plained because the unhappy Emperor had not yet 
 signed his abdication. They were afraid of an Eigh- 
 teenth Brumaire. The comparatively favorable news 
 from the army disturbed instead of rejoicing them. 
 They noisily demanded his abdication; they must 
 absolutely have it at once, without any reservation or 
 condition whatsoever. Lafayette instructed Regnault 
 de Saint-Jean-d'Angely to go and tell Napoleon that 
 lie would be given an hour in which to abdicate, and 
 that if he had not done so by that time, he would be 
 deposed. The session was suspended. Even Lucien 
 no longer counselled his brother to resist. It was fin- 
 ished. Consummatum est. 
 
 For a moment the man who was about to cease to 
 be Emperor revolted against the insolent impatience
 
 NAPOLEON II. 187 
 
 of the Chamber. " They want me to abdicate," he 
 exclaimed bitterly. " To-morrow there will be no 
 army. If they had rejected me when I landed at 
 Cannes, I could have understood it. To have thrown 
 me aside fifteen days ago might have been courage, 
 but to-day it is cowardice." For an instant the blood 
 rose to his face. '"No," said he, k, I will not abdicate. 
 The Chamber is composed of Jacobins, hot-headed 
 pretenders who want places and hope to profit by dis- 
 order. I ought to denounce them to the country and 
 turn them out neck and heels. The time lost may 
 be repaired." But this brief instant of anger and ex- 
 altation gave place to utter dejection. Napoleon 
 quieted down. The urgency of his advisers re- 
 doubled: "It was never my intention to refuse to 
 abdicate," he said with a calm sadness. "I have been 
 a soldier, and I will again become one. But I want 
 to be let alone to think it over quietly in the interest 
 of I*" ranee and of my son. Tell these gentlemen to 
 wait." Alas! this was the final throe of his agony. 
 The Chambers would not grant even another moment 
 to their sovereign. What torture! To abdicate like 
 this; in abdicate, not before a formidable Assembly 
 like the Convention, able to gather fourteen armies, 
 and make all the sovereigns tremble, but before a 
 mean and miserable Assembly, a moribund Assembly 
 which has itself but a few remaining hours of life! 
 And yet it must be done. Overpowered by destiny, 
 Napoleon bowed his head, and at the moment when 
 he took the pen with which he was to sign the fatal
 
 188 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 act, he felt so discouraged that he did not even think 
 of mentioning his son's name. 
 
 Listen to Lucien's revelations concerning this : " It 
 was so little a question of his personal interest, and 
 that of his family, that at first he dictated his abdica- 
 tion without speaking of his son ; and when Carnot 
 and I reminded him that, at least, lie ought not to 
 abdicate except in favor of Napoleon II., in order to 
 eliminate the Bourbons, he replied, ' The Bourbons ! 
 What of it? At least they would not be under the 
 Austrian ferule.' Such a sentiment from such a man 
 needs no commentary ; he smiled at the importance 
 we attached to his appointing his son. ' The enemies 
 are there,' said he, ' and the Bourbons with them. 
 We must either repulse the first or submit to the 
 second. United, we might still be able to save our- 
 selves ; divided, there is no resource except the Bour- 
 bons. As to me, my fate concerns nobody ; I know 
 adversity.' Nevertheless, we induced him to abdi- 
 cate in his son's favor, but he did it without sharing 
 our illusions, and as a thing of very slight impor- 
 tance." 
 
 The abdication so much desired by the Assembly, 
 and which was to be its own abdication as well as 
 that of Napoleon, was signed between midday and 
 one o'clock. It is in these words: " Frenchmen, in 
 beginning a war to uphold our national independ- 
 ence, I counted on the union of all efforts and all 
 wills, and on the support of all the national authori- 
 ties. I was justified in hoping for success, and I
 
 NAPOLEON II. 189 
 
 braved all the declarations of the Powers against me. 
 The circumstances appear to me to have changed. I 
 offer myself in sacrifice to the hatred of the enemies 
 of France. May it be that their declarations are sin- 
 cere, and that they bear ill will to me only ! My 
 political life is ended, and I proclaim my son, under 
 the title of Napoleon II., Emperor of the French. 
 The Ministers will form provisionally the Council of 
 the Government. The interest I take in my son 
 obliges me to request the Chambers to pass at once a 
 law organizing the Regency. Let all unite for the 
 public safety and in order to remain an independent 
 nation. June 22. [Signed] Napoleon." 
 
 It was nearly one o'clock when the abdication was 
 carried by Carnot to the Chamber of Peers, and by 
 Fouche" to the Chamber of Deputies. In this latter 
 Assembly, the reading of this act, so impatiently 
 desired, moved even the Emperor's enemies. The 
 Chamber decided that "a deputation, composed of its 
 president and other officers, should wait on Napoleon 
 Bonaparte, and express to him the gratitude and 
 respect with which they accept the noble sacrifice he 
 lias made to the independence and happiness of the 
 French people." It is easy to understand what the 
 Emperor must have suffered in receiving this deputa- 
 tion, whose action resembled irony more than defer- 
 ence. In his Memoirs. Lafayette, while rendering 
 homage to the dignified attitude of Napoleon, insists 
 on the so-called majesty of this deputation of which 
 he was a member : " It was an imposing spectacle,"
 
 190 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 he says, " this arrival of nine representatives of the 
 people, strong in the respect due to a National 
 Assembly, and coming to announce to him, who, 
 after having mastered all the sovereigns of the con- 
 tinent, still commanded the French army, his Guard, 
 and a great party in the faubourgs, that he was no 
 longer Emperor, and that the nation resumed the 
 government." 
 
 A legitimist historian has laid stress upon the pue- 
 rility of this unseasonable outburst of parliamentary 
 pride : " Human vanity, even in noble hearts," says 
 M. Alfred Nettement, "is subject to strange illusions. 
 Otherwise, General Lafayette would have compre- 
 hended that these nine representatives of an Assem- 
 bly full of the remnants of '93, elected by several 
 millions of voters formerly picked out by Napoleon, 
 and this time inspired by Fouche whose influence 
 had been supreme in the half-deserted electoral col- 
 leges, represented nothing but that Assembly, its 
 petty passions, pretensions, and vanities, and cut a 
 very poor figure before this Emperor who had aban- 
 doned himself after having been abandoned by for- 
 tune. ... It is difficulty, it is clanger, which make 
 an action grand, and in the action just performed by 
 the Chamber there was neither difficulty nor danger." 
 
 Napoleon received the deputation from the Assem- 
 bly with calm and dignified indifference. "I thank 
 y<m," said he; "I desire that my abdication may 
 assure the welfare of France, but I do not hope it." 
 He terminated thus his brief allocution: "There is
 
 NAPOLEOy II. 191 
 
 no question of me, but only of my son and France. 
 Believe me, be united." Then he bowed to the mem- 
 bers of the deputation, who retired in profound emo- 
 tion. Shortly after their departure he learned that 
 the Chamber of Representatives, instead of proclaim- 
 ing Napoleon IT. and instituting the Regency, had 
 appointed an executive committee without saying a 
 word about the Empire and imperial institutions. 
 Then he exclaimed : " I did not abdicate in favor of 
 a new Directory ; I abdicated in favor of my son ; if 
 they do not proclaim him, my abdication is null and 
 void. It is not by crawling on the "•round before the 
 Allies that the Chambers can force them to recognize 
 the national independence.'' 
 
 Meantime, scenes really tragical were passing in the 
 Chamber of Peers. The man who uttered the most 
 gloomy, most despairing words was the incomparable 
 hero of the retreat from Russia, Marshal Ney, who, 
 only four days before, had fought like a lion at Water- 
 loo. Carnot had just read from the tribune a report 
 exaggerating the military resources yet remaining to 
 France. Ney arose. "The report is false,'' he cried; 
 ''false in every way. Grouchy cannot at most have 
 more than twenty-live thousand men under his com- 
 mand. There is no longer a soldier of the Guard 
 to rally: I commanded them; I saw them all mas- 
 sacred before I left the field of battle. The enemy 
 is at Nivelle with eighty thousand men; they can 
 reach Paris in six days: there is no way to save the 
 country except by opening negotiations. I owe the
 
 192 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DATS. 
 
 truth to my country. I am not one of those who con- 
 sult their private interest alone. What can I gain 
 by the return of Louis XVJII. ? To be shot." Alas ! 
 this hero of heroes knew not how truly he spoke. 
 
 Lucien ascended the tribune. Treating a popular 
 monarchy just as if it were a monarchy by divine 
 right, he recalled the ancient formula, " The King 
 is dead. Live the King ! " " The Emperor abdi- 
 cates. Live the Emperor ! " he cried. But his voice 
 found little or no echo. He took his oath to Napo- 
 leon II. No one imitated his example. Later, he 
 avowed himself that the imperial cause was lost. 
 "At the time," he writes, "the abdication seemed 
 disastrous to me, and I used all my feeble efforts to 
 avert it; I thought and said then what many French- 
 men still think and say ; to me, at least, it appeared 
 an act of weakness. But now, being calmer, and 
 having long and thoroughly studied the man and 
 the act, I have greatly changed my opinion. . . . 
 That which was honorable, chivalrous, royal, for 
 Louis XVI II., would have been cruel, infamous, 
 sacrilegious for Napoleon ; he was bound to abdicate 
 the throne by the very sentiment which made him 
 accept it. He would have been culpable if, for the 
 sake of defending his throne or that of his son, he 
 had braved civil war; and since, rightly or wrongly, 
 he did not think himself able to save France without 
 the Chambers, it was his duty to yield to the Cham- 
 bers which, by a word, lie could have overthrown." 
 
 General Labddoyere, however, seeing that the
 
 NAPOLEON II. 193 
 
 rights of Napoleon II. were not recognized, cried 
 out in violent anger : " I heard voices salute the 
 successful sovereign ; but now when he is in trouble 
 they are far away. There are some who are unwill- 
 ing to recognize Napoleon II. because they want to 
 submit to the rule of foreigners to whom they give 
 the name of Allies. Napoleon's abdication is indivis- 
 ible. If his son is not recognized, he should grasp 
 the sword, surrounded by Frenchmen who have shed 
 their blood for him and who are still covered with 
 wounds. lie will be abandoned by certain vile gen- 
 erals who have already betrayed him. But if it is 
 proclaimed that every Frenchman who deserts his 
 flag shall be covered with infamy, his house torn 
 down, and his family proscribed, there will be no 
 more traitors, no more of the manoeuvres which 
 caused the last catastrophe, and some of whose au- 
 thors are probably sitting here." At these inflamed 
 words the Peers grew pale with rage. "Order! 
 order!" was shouted on all sides. "Young man, 
 you forget yourself," said Marshal Massena. " You 
 think you are still in the guard-house," said Lameth. 
 In all this there is, as Chateaubriand lias remarked, 
 a nameless something which recalls those terrible 
 revolutionary scenes during the great days of our 
 adversities, when the poniard went round the tri- 
 bunal in the hands of the victims. lie writes: 
 " Some warriors whose fatal fascination has brought 
 on the ruin of France by determining the second for- 
 eign invasion, were disputing together on the thresh-
 
 194 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 old of the palace. Their prophetic despair, their 
 gestures, their words from beyond the tomb, seemed 
 to announce a triple death, — death to themselves, 
 death to the man whom they had blessed, death to 
 the race they had proscribed." 
 
 Nothing will discourage the legionaries of the 
 vanquished, dethroned, and imprisoned Ctesar. The 
 white flag will reappear, but the common soldiers 
 will hide their bitterness and their hopes beneath 
 their thatched roofs, and proud of their glorious 
 wounds, will recite to listening peasants the exploits 
 of the tricolor. In the evenings they will sing the 
 refrain of the popular song, " The Old Flag " : — 
 
 " Here 'tis hidden 'neath the straw, 
 
 Flag that flew from field to field, 
 
 Sure to conquer, not to yield. 
 Twenty years all Europe saw 
 How it floated gloriously, 
 
 Crowned witJi laurels and with flowers. 
 
 When will come the happy hours 
 When from dust I shake it free? 
 
 " For a moment cast off fears — 
 
 Here, beside my arms it lies; 
 
 Come, my flag, my hope, my prize! 
 'Tis for thee to dry my tears. 
 When the warrior's tears they see, 
 
 They will list, the heavenly Fow'rs: 
 
 Yes, they'll come, the happy hours, 
 When from dust I'll shake thee free!" 
 
 The 22d of June passed without Napoleon II. 
 having been proclaimed. Instead of a regency, the
 
 NAPOLEON II. 195 
 
 Chambers invested a committee of five of its mem- 
 bers with sovereign powers. 
 
 The Bonapartists, however, were to make one last 
 effort in favor of Napoleon II. This four-year-old 
 child, the prisoner of Austria, was proclaimed Em- 
 peror of the French on Friday, June 23, 1815. But 
 what a derisory proclamation ! It was not the Chamber 
 of Peers, every member of which had been appointed 
 by Napoleon and overwhelmed by his benefits, but 
 the Chamber of Representatives that set up this 
 empire of a day, this purely nominal empire. 
 
 "Have we not a constitutional monarchy?" ex- 
 claimed Boulay de la Meurthe. " The Emperor dead, 
 the Emperor lives. Napoleon I. has sent us his abdi- 
 cation, and we have accepted it. By that fact alone, 
 by the force of things, by an inevitable consequence, 
 Napoleon II. is Emperor of the French. You cannot 
 even deliberate about the matter. Our fundamental 
 law decides the question. . . . The Emperor's abdi- 
 cation is indivisible. . . . We are surrounded by 
 intriguers and factious partisans who would like to 
 have the throne declared vacant. ... I will go 
 further still ; I will put my finger on the plague spot. 
 There is an Orleans faction. It is useless to inter- 
 rupt me. My information is explicit. I know that this 
 faction is altogether Royalist. I know that its secret 
 aim is to keep informed with regard to the patriots. 
 However, it is not certain that the Duke of Orleans 
 would accept the crown ; but, if he did, it would 
 doubtless be in order to relinquish it to Louis XVIII."
 
 196 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 The Assembly was wavering and undecided. Be- 
 ing neither Republican, Royalist, nor Imperialist, it 
 vaguely felt the falsity of its position. Manuel extri- 
 cated it from this embarrassment by a speech which 
 showed rare address. He proclaimed Napoleon II., but 
 in a way which left a door of escape open to all parties. 
 His harangue would not have been so cordially 
 applauded had it been a real declaration of principles 
 instead of a mere expedient. He began by saying 
 that, " in proposing to proclaim Napoleon II. an inop- 
 portune and imprudent question was raised ; but, 
 since it has been brought up, to evade it would be 
 impossible. The constitutional right being incontes- 
 table it must be affirmed." Rut how? Will the name 
 of Marie Louise be pronounced ? Will they establish a 
 regency ? By no means. The order of the day which 
 Manuel succeeded in getting passed, alleges : First, 
 that " Napoleon II. became Emperor by the fact of 
 the abdication of Napoleon I., and in virtue of the 
 Constitutions of the Empire " ; second, that " the two 
 Chambers, in naming a governmental committee, 
 willed and intended to assure the nation of the needed 
 guaranties for its liberty and repose in the present 
 extraordinary circumstances." The nominal sover- 
 eign was to be Napoleon II., but the real sovereign 
 would be Eouchd, the President of the Executive Com- 
 mission. But the Assembly appeared to take its vote 
 as serious, and, as if wishing to put itself on good 
 terms with its conscience, broke up with hypocritical 
 cries of " Long live the Emperor ! "
 
 NAPOLEON 11. 197 
 
 The reign of Napoleon II. was to be only a phan- 
 tom, a vanishing dream. His Empire was no more 
 real than his Kingdom of Rome. His two sceptres 
 were broken like rattles, one after another. But will 
 not his mother, at least, speak for him ? It does not 
 even occur to her to do so. The forgetful and un- 
 faithful wife would not consent to leave her gilded 
 prison, even though her jailers should open the doors. 
 She does not wish her child to be anything but an 
 Austrian prince. Nothing will remain of this title 
 of Napoleon II. but the vote of an inconsistent As- 
 sembly and the immortal ode of a poet. 
 
 On that very evening of June 23, Fouche said to 
 his intimates: '"Everything is all right; we have 
 confronted the old regime with the Constitutions of 
 the Empire. I hope to see both pleaders back to back 
 before long.'' And the next day lie had the nominal 
 accession of Napoleon II. placed on the minutes, but 
 in his proclamation of the Provisional Government, 
 he announced that all public acts would be performed 
 solely in the name of the French people. He who 
 had been Emperor two days before wanted to protest 
 against this anomaly, but found no one willing to 
 carry his protest to the Chamber. 
 
 The news of the abdication reached Laon, where 
 the survivors of the army were assembled, on June 
 24, and caused inexpressible wrath and indignation. 
 "Why should we fight any longer,'" said the sol- 
 diers, "since there is no longer an Emperor?" 
 These indefatigable heroes, who did not despair of
 
 198 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 avenging Waterloo, declared themselves betrayed, 
 and yielded to a very delirium of sorrow. At Paris, 
 the old soldiers, the federates, the patriots who 
 crowded the Avenue Marigny, were animated by the 
 same sentiments. Fouchd's government began to be 
 afraid. It could not be easy while Napoleon was 
 there ; and in case he had not consented to go, they 
 would probably have forced him. Marshal Davoust 
 was sent to the Elyse'e to urge his old master to 
 depart. Napoleon did not resist; he left Paris the 
 next day. 
 
 At noon on Sunday, June 25, 1815, — the battle of 
 Waterloo had been fought just a week before, — Na- 
 
 s 
 
 poleon left the Elyse'e Palace in a simple carriage 
 and went to Malmaison. He drove through the 
 avenue where, as if by r a sarcasm of destiny, rose the 
 colossal foundations of what was to be the Arc de 
 Triomphe de l'Etoile. This avenue, once for him the 
 route of ovations and of triumphs, must have occa- 
 sioned him some bitter thoughts. It must have 
 recalled the radiant morning of April 2, 1810, that 
 day of incomparable splendor when he made his sol- 
 emn entry into Paris with the young Empress Marie 
 Louise. Where is that departed magnificence? The 
 halt before the gorgeous decoration which simulated 
 the present Arch of Triumph; the carriage drawn by- 
 eight horses, its gilded roof supported by four eagles 
 with outspread wings ; the Marshals of France on 
 horseback at the sides of the imperial carriage ; the 
 applause of the crowd; the ringing of bells; the salvos
 
 NAPOLEON II. 199 
 
 of artillery, the beating of drums, the blare of the 
 trumpets, — what is left of all that glorious pomp ? 
 And the woman whom a delirious people saluted 
 with joyous homage ; the woman to whom young girls 
 dressed in white offered gifts and flowers ; the woman 
 whose arrival seemed the pledge of perpetual pros- 
 perity and peace ; the young Empress of the French, 
 where is she at this hour when her husband begins 
 the stations of his Calvary? She is in the midst 
 of the enemies of France ; she watches, unmoved, 
 the outbursts of their joy. It is even on this very 
 day, June 25, 1815, that at Baden, near Schoen- 
 brunn, where she is occupying the same house with 
 her step-mother, Napoleon's bitter enemy, she learns 
 the tidings of Waterloo. Under the windows of this 
 house, common to both sovereigns, bands are playing 
 serenades to celebrate the victory of the Coalition. 
 What a Shakespearean contrast ! On the same day, 
 Napoleon deposed, quitting his capital never to re- 
 turn ; Napoleon proscribed, drinking to the dregs the 
 cup of bitterness as General and as Emperor, as hus- 
 band and as father; and the Austrian musicians 
 playing triumphant music under the windows of 
 Marie Louise ! Have the trumpets of Fortinbras at 
 the denouement of Hamlet a stranger sound?
 
 XII. 
 
 MALMAISON. 
 
 THE most picturesque of historians, — he who has 
 adopted as his programme that magical saying, 
 " History is the resurrection of the dead," — Miche- 
 let, has said in one of his lectures : " Gentlemen, the 
 greatest man of the world was a man. Now, he had 
 a wife, and one day he wanted to change her for an- 
 other. Great anguish, tears, lamentations. He said, 
 ' It is only a woman ! ' You were not living during 
 the Empire, gentlemen, but I was. I was a child 
 then. I tell you, it was a time when nobody talked. 
 The Emperor had done everything, you know ; he 
 had changed Europe and suppressed nations, and 
 thrown the Republic out of the window. Nobody 
 said a word: profound silence. One morning he 
 wanted to send away his wife; all the world talked. 
 Discussions began in every family. I heard this dis- 
 pute between a man and his wife. The man said: 
 'She has given him no children. She has committed 
 more than one fault. He might have divorced her 
 when he came back from Egypt.' ' But he didn't,' 
 said the woman. ' Why not now, then ? The Em- 
 
 200
 
 MALM A I SON. 20i 
 
 peror is all alone. Ought he not to surround himself 
 with powerful families ? His isolation is also that of 
 France.' To which the woman, without arguing, sim- 
 ply answered: 'No matter; it won't bring him good 
 luck.' ' And why not ? ' ' It wont bring him good 
 lurk!'" 
 
 On that Sunday of June 25, 1815, when the van- 
 quished of Waterloo found himself once more at 
 Malmaison, that poetic residence, all filled with souve- 
 nirs of Josephine, in the depths of his soul he com- 
 pared his second wife to his first one, and recognized 
 — too late, alas! — how fatal to him the divorce had 
 been. Evidently, feminine sentiment and popular 
 instinct were not at fault : It had not brought hint 
 good luck. In re-entering Malmaison he forgot every- 
 thing but Josephine : Josephine, whose sad and grace- 
 ful phantom appeared to him in each apartment of 
 the castle, and at the turn of every garden-path. 
 Madame Caffarelli, an eyewitness, says that "lie 
 made no allusion to his situation, but talked about 
 tin; domestic scenes in which he had participated 
 here. At every door, at every window, he recalled 
 either some remark of Josephine's, some jest of by- 
 gone days, or some amusement of their domestic life." 
 Concerning the present and the future lie said not a 
 word. But the entire past revived again. 
 
 When the Emperor arrived at Malmaison, no one 
 had dared to ask him any questions about his destina- 
 tion. They had left him to his reveries. It was a 
 brief moment of repose on this Calvary whose sta-
 
 202 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 tions might be called Malmaison, Rochefort, the Bel- 
 lerophon, the Northumberland, Saint Helena. Napo- 
 leon reflected on worldly things as if they concerned 
 him no longer. The inactivity of this man, once so 
 pre-eminently active, had something terrifying in it. 
 The next day, Monday, June 26, 1815, those about 
 him broke the silence, and discussed before him the 
 part he ought to take. The Duke of Bassano assured 
 him that the people and the army were on his side, 
 and that, if he chose, he could seize anew the reins 
 of government, make himself obeyed by the troops, 
 and dissolve the Chambers. When the Duke had 
 gone out, Napoleon said with a melancholy smile, 
 " Maret is always just the same, always ready to flat- 
 ter me and himself, always ready to see and believe 
 whatever he pleases." 
 
 On that day the Countess de Las Cases went to Mal- 
 maison to meet her husband. " ' My dear,' he said to 
 her, ' in doing my duty I have the consolation of not 
 compromising your interests. If Napoleon IT. is to 
 rule us, I am leaving you great claims upon him. If 
 Heaven ordains otherwise, I shall have secured for 
 you a glorious refuge and a name worthy of esteem. 
 In any ease, we shall meet again, even if it is only in 
 a better world.' After tears and even reproaches, 
 which could not but be sweet to me," goes on the 
 author of the Memoirs, "she yielded and promised to 
 rejoin me soon ; and from that moment I found noth- 
 ing in her but elevated enthusiasm, and the courage 
 which might have failed me if I had needed it."
 
 MALMAISON. 203 
 
 The day passed, however, without the Emperor's 
 having spoken of the future. He listened to all, and 
 made remarks on what was said, but he manifested 
 no resolve. 
 
 Tuesday, June 27. What is to become of the great 
 Emperor, the proscribed man ? Where shall he go? To 
 America or to England? Will he be free? Will he be 
 a prisoner? If he leaves Malmaison, this asylum of a 
 few hours, who will protect him against such outrages 
 as those which overwhelmed him a year ago, on his 
 way to Elba? Is he not in danger of becoming a trophy 
 of Bliicher, or of falling under the blows of Royalist 
 assassins? If he Avishes to go to America, how is he 
 to get to a port of embarkation ? And, once at sea, 
 how can he escape the English cruisers? Every one 
 about Napoleon is asking such questions, but he him- 
 self seems to dread approaching them. In the midst 
 of his distress there still remains I know not what 
 vague hope of regaining his position. He expects 
 unconsciously some miraculous event. lie delays 
 his departure from Malmaison as, in 1812, he delayed 
 it from the Kremlin. Out; might say that a secret 
 force retained him in this residence of his happy days, 
 this gracious temple of his youth and glory. But 
 time presses. The Prussians are coming. Whether 
 he will or no, he must depart. 
 
 On the preceding day, June 2»>, the Provisional 
 Government had issued a decree thus worded: — 
 
 "Article 1. The Minister of the Navy shall give 
 orders that two frigates of the port of Rochefort be
 
 204 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 armed for the transportation of Napoleon Bonaparte 
 to the United States. 
 
 " Art. 2. He shall be provided to the place of 
 embarkation, if he desires it, with a sufficient escort, 
 under command of General Beker, who is charged to 
 provide for his safety. 
 
 " Art. 3. The Postmaster-General, on his part, 
 shall give orders relative to the necessary changes of 
 horses. 
 
 " Art. 4. The Minister of the Navy shall issue 
 the necessary orders to assure the immediate return 
 of the frigates after disembarkation. 
 
 " Art. 5. The frigates shall not leave the road- 
 stead of Rochefort until the requisite passports have 
 arrived." 
 
 It is from England, from Wellington, that the Pro- 
 visional Government pretends to obtain these pass- 
 ports ; Wellington will refuse to give them. From 
 hour to hour the situation becomes more difficult. 
 
 Presently General Beker, a member of the Cham- 
 ber of Deputies, arrives at Malmaison. lie comes to 
 announce to the Emperor that lie has been sent by 
 the Minister of War to take command of the troops 
 committed to him and to be responsible for the Em- 
 peror's person to the Provisional Government. At 
 Malmaison there is a battalion of infantry and a hun- 
 dred dragoons of the Imperial Guard. 
 
 While General Beker is taking command and being 
 acknowledged by the officers, Napoleon, walking in 
 the garden with the Duke of Rovigo, says to him;
 
 MALMAISON. 205 
 
 '• This smacks of a revolutionary committee rather 
 than a generous government. I do not understand 
 why the Minister of War did not communicate with 
 me. Perhaps lie saw nothing wrong in that, but at 
 all events, the choice of Beker reassures me. Sieyes 
 was right in saving they would abandon me. Still, 
 I cannot go without vessels and passports ; otherwise, 
 the first village mayor could arrest me. All that 
 would be necessary would be to tell him that I am 
 carrying off treasure ; he would write to Paris, the 
 Provisional Government would not answer, matters 
 would be precipitated, and that is how one would 
 come to ruin." 
 
 General Beker Mas neither a jailer nor a traitor. 
 He was an honorable man, a brave soldier, and the 
 brother-in-law of General Desaix. According to 
 Count de Las Cases, '* Fouche knew that Beker had 
 personal reasons to complain of the Emperor, and he 
 expected to find him bitter and disposed to ven- 
 geance ; he could not have deceived himself more 
 grossly. This General constantly displayed a respect 
 and devotion most honorable to his character." Of 
 tried loyalty, he was incapable of remembering that 
 he luul been disgraced in 1800. When he saw the 
 emotion depicted on the General's strong countenance, 
 Napoleon recognized at once that he had to do with 
 a man of feeling. lie gave him a friendly recep- 
 tion. To the very end he found in him a respectful 
 servant and a friend in misfortune. But he distrusted 
 the Provisional Government as thoroughly as he con-
 
 206 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 fided in General Beker. " Would they be capable," 
 he asked, "of leaving me no alternative except that 
 of giving myself up to my enemies ? " 
 
 The same day the Minister of the Navy, Duke 
 Decr£s, arrived at Malmaison and communicated to 
 Napoleon the following despatch from Fouche* : — 
 
 " Paris, June 27, morning. To the Minister of the 
 Navy. M. le Due, it is urgent that the Emperor 
 should depart. The enemy is advancing, and may 
 be already at Compiegne. The Committee desire 
 that you should repair at once to Malmaison to in- 
 duce the Emperor to leave, because we cannot be 
 responsible for what may happen. As to that pro- 
 vision of Article 5, of yesterday's decree, which re- 
 lates to the passports, the Committee authorize you 
 to consider it null and void. All the other pro- 
 visions remain in force. 
 
 " [Signed] The Duke of Otranto. 
 
 "P.S. It is important that the Emperor should 
 go in disguise." 
 
 The Minister of the Navy had hardly left Mal- 
 maison when the Emperor was informed of new con- 
 tradictory instructions from Fondie", in which he 
 said: "According to the despatches just received, 
 the Emperor cannot leave our ports without safe- 
 conducts. He must await them on the road. Con- 
 sequently, the decree of yesterday remains in full 
 force, and the letter written this morning to annul 
 Article 5, is superseded. Guide yourself by the text 
 of yesterday's decree."
 
 31ALMAIS0N. 207 
 
 It is impossible to mistake the intent of all these 
 incertitudes and contradictory measures. As "Walter 
 Scott has said: "The members of the Provisional 
 Government, like skilful fishermen, had gradually 
 cast their nets about Napoleon, and they thought it 
 was time to draw him to land.*' Let us render Duke 
 Decres the justice to admit that he made every effort 
 to save the Emperor from captivity. The day be- 
 fore, June 26, he had written to him : " You will 
 notice, Sire, on the list of American vessels, one 
 which is now at Havre. The captain is in my ante- 
 chamber. His post-chaise is at the door. I answer 
 for him. To-morrow you will be out of reach of 
 your enemies."' Napoleon had refused this offer. 
 To save himself clandestinely on a merchant vessel 
 seemed to him unworthy of his glory ; and when he 
 saw around him a handful of young military heroes 
 still dreaming of battles and adventures, and believ- 
 ing even at this moment in the possibility of aveng- 
 ing Waterloo, he did not wholly despair of drawing 
 the sword once more. 
 
 Wednesday. June 28. The situation, however, was 
 1 >cc< lining more and more; disquieting. It was to be 
 feared, from hour to hour, that Malmaison might be 
 sei/.ed by the enemy. Their cannon could lie heard 
 already on the plain of Saint-Denis: it was the sec- 
 ond time in fifteen months that this disastrous sound 
 had stupefied and afllicted patriotic souls. The 
 bridges of Neuilly, Saint-Cloud, and Sevres had been 
 barricaded, and those of Saint-Denis, Bezons, Chatou,
 
 208 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 and Pecq destroyed. But these precautions could 
 not protect Malmaison from a surprise. The Prus- 
 sian fires could be seen on the other side of the Seine. 
 The little garrison, comprising a battalion of in- 
 fantry and a hundred dragoons of the Guard, under 
 Generals de Flahault, Gourgaud, de Labedoyere, 
 Bertrand, and Savary, made preparations for a vig- 
 orous resistance. Near the Emperor, however, all 
 remained calm, and no one knew what decision he 
 had reached when he summoned all his friends. " I 
 have done all that you wished," said he. " Here are 
 my letters to the Provisional Government and niy 
 correspondence with the Minister of the Navy. The 
 difficulties they have put in the way of giving me 
 two armed frigates have delayed me until now. It 
 is their fault that I did not go sooner, but I am about 
 to go." 
 
 Yet, even while making these preparations for de- 
 parture, Napoleon still preserved a lingering hope. 
 As Walter Scott has expressed it, he listened to the 
 cannonading in the distance as a war-horse listens to 
 the sound of the trumpet. Some officers from the 
 army arrived at Malmaison, their uniforms covered 
 with blood and dust, and besought their General, 
 their ICmperor, to place himself once more at their 
 head. They informed him that the enemy had com- 
 mitted the imprudence of advancing in two bodies of 
 sixty thousand each, which left them so far apart 
 that Bliicher might be overpowered before Welling- 
 ton could reach him. Grouchy, having dexterously
 
 MALMAISON. 209 
 
 escaped from pursuit, was coming with fresh troops 
 in excellent order: his advance columns were already 
 approaching Paris by all the eastern routes, and 
 there would be sixty thousand men to engage the 
 sixty thousand Prussians, and to turn afterwards 
 against the English. Napoleon thanked the officers 
 for their news, and during the night of June 28-29, 
 he ruminated the project of resuming command of 
 the troops. 
 
 Concerning this project Walter Scott has said: 
 " At a moment when the capital was about to be sur- 
 rounded anew by foreign armies, an honorable senti- 
 ment, united to political considerations, might have 
 made Napoleon hope that the representatives, in 
 order to make use of his extraordinary talents, and 
 his influence over the troops and the federates, who 
 alone could defend Paris, would be disposed to lay 
 aside personal animosities and permit him to resume 
 his sword for the protection of the capital. But dis- 
 cord had made too much progress in the interior." 
 In the night of June 28-29, at the very moment 
 when Napoleon was beginning to cherish a last hope, 
 Duke Decres and M. Boulay de la Meurthe came to 
 Malmaison to notify him of the definitive instructions 
 of the Provisional Government. They were in this 
 wise : — 
 
 " Long delays having elapsed since passports were 
 demanded for Napoleon, and the existing circum- 
 stances arousing fears for his personal safety, we 
 have decided to regard Article 5 of our decree of
 
 210 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 June 26, as null and void. Consequently, the frigates 
 are placed at Napoleon's disposal. No obstacle to his 
 departure now remains. The interests of the State, 
 as well as his own, demand imperiously that he shall 
 start at once after you have notified him of our deter- 
 mination." 
 
 The Emperor replied that he was ready to go, but 
 would first despatch a message to the Provisional 
 Government. 
 
 Thursday, June 29. At daybreak, Napoleon or- 
 dered his saddle-horses to be got ready, put on his 
 uniform, and summoned General Beker. He said to 
 him, in very nearly these words, " The enemy has 
 just made a great blunder, — one that might easily 
 have been anticipated, for that matter, from the char- 
 acter of the two allied generals. They have advanced 
 in two masses of sixty thousand men each, which has 
 left so considerable a distance between them that one 
 could be overpowered before the other would have 
 time to come up. We have here a unique occasion, 
 arranged for us by Providence, which it would be 
 both guilty and foolish in us to neglect. You know, 
 General, that at present all is lost ; there is no hope. 
 Very well ! let them give me back the command of 
 the army, and I promise to conquer at its head. Go 
 and present my request to the Executive Committee. 
 Explain to them thoroughly that I do not dream of 
 resuming power ; I want only to fight the enemy, 
 crush them before Paris, shelter you all by a victory, 
 and constrain the chiefs of the Coalition to desire
 
 MALMAISON, '211 
 
 peace. That done, I will continue my route toward 
 exile. ... I give them my word of honor, my word 
 as general, soldier, and citizen, not to keep command 
 an hour after the certain and brilliant victory which 
 I promise to gain, not for myself, but for France. . . . 
 Go, General ; I confide myself to you. Aid me in 
 this, and you shall never leave me again." 
 
 General Beker started immediately to Paris with 
 this message, of which these are the concluding 
 words : " The hurried march of the enemies upon 
 the capital leaves no room to doubt their bad faith. 
 In these grave circumstances, gentlemen, I ask to 
 serve France for the last time, and I swear to save 
 it." 
 
 On arriving at the Tuileries, General Beker deliv- 
 ered Napoleon's message to the five members of the 
 Provisional Government. "What do you think of 
 that?" said Fouche" to his colleagues. "I think lie 
 is laughing at us. Come! this is going too far!" 
 Then, turning toward the General: "Why did you 
 bring such a message as that ? Don't you know the 
 situation? For Napoleon to appear again in command 
 of the army would be equivalent to another disaster, 
 and the ruin of Paris. Let him leave at once, for 
 they are demanding his person, and we cannot answer 
 for his safety more than a few hours." The General 
 was instructed to carry back to Malmaison this 
 laconic response of the five members of the Provis- 
 ional Government : " The duties of the Committee 
 toward the country do not permit it to accept the
 
 212 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 proposition and the active assistance of the Emperor 
 Napoleon." 
 
 General Beker returned in all haste to Malmaison. 
 He found the Emperor in uniform, either believing 
 or feigning to believe that he might have received a 
 favorable reply from Fouche*. After reading the 
 missive of the Provisional Government, Napoleon con- 
 tented himself with saying : " These men are inca- 
 pable of energy. Since that is the case, let us go into 
 exile." He had his horses unsaddled, and replaced 
 his uniform by a citizen's dress. A young merchant 
 came hurriedly to warn him that in the plain of Saint- 
 Denis he had seen three corps of Prussian cavalry 
 which were following the course of the Seine and 
 seemed to be approaching Malmaison. The Emperor 
 thanked him for the information, and ordered the car- 
 riages to be brought up. His suite was divided into 
 two parts. The first was composed of several car- 
 riages intended to contain M. and Madame de Mon- 
 tholon and their child, M. de Las Gases, his son, 
 and several orderlies. They were to gain the Or- 
 leans road, pass through Chateauroux, and reach 
 Kochefort on a certain day. The other division com- 
 prised only a single light calash, which Napoleon, 
 General Bertrand, and the Duke of Itovigo were to 
 occupy. The Emperor's valet was on the coachman's 
 seat. A courier went ahead to order the carriages at 
 the different post-stations. 
 
 The carriages destined for the first division drew 
 up in the principal courtyard, in front of the vestibule
 
 MALMAISON. , 213 
 
 of the chateau, while the Emperor's calash waited for 
 him in the small court separating the house from the 
 kitchens. Napoleon went to it through the winding 
 alleys of the garden. He said farewell to his mother, 
 his brothers, and his faithful servants. Queen Hor- 
 tense begged him to accept a diamond necklace, so 
 that he might have resources at hand which it would 
 be easy to conceal. He refused at first. Hortense 
 insisted : she wept. He yielded, took the necklace, 
 put it in his coat pocket, and gave a last glance at 
 the trees which had sheltered beneath their foliage so 
 many joys and so much glory. Then he quickly en- 
 tered the carriage, and seeing him depart, all the 
 spectators melted into tears.
 
 XIII. 
 
 EOCHEFOET. 
 
 THE heat was stifling when the carriage contain- 
 ing the Emperor and Generals Bertrand, Beker, 
 and Savary quitted Malmaison. Napoleon did not 
 speak a word, and his companions, as melancholy as 
 himself, respected his silence. The carriage, which 
 resembled a funeral coach, went through the woods 
 of Butart to Rocquencourt, and without passing 
 through Versailles, which was on the left, it went by 
 Saint-Cyr to take the Chartres road. They reached 
 Rambouillet at nightfall. The Emperor slept at the 
 chateau. It was the last imperial residence in which 
 he lodged. The same thing had happened to Marie 
 Louise. She had stayed there with her son from 
 April 13 to April 23 the previous year. It was there 
 she became the prisoner of Austria ; there she had an 
 interview with her father ; from there she started for 
 Vienna. Rambouillet, therefore, afforded Napoleon 
 a subject for some bitter reflections. As sovereign, 
 as husband, and as father, he must have yielded to 
 sorrowful meditations. 
 
 Friday, June 30, 1815. At a very early hour the 
 214
 
 EOCIIEFOHT. 216 
 
 carriage containing the Emperor and the three gen- 
 erals left the chateau of Rambouillet by the path con- 
 ducting to the park gate, which opens on the Chartres 
 road beyond the town. 
 
 At the Chateaudun station the post-mistress came 
 with a frightened face to the carriage door to inquire 
 if the travellers came from Paris, and if it were true 
 that Napoleon had met with misfortune. Hardly 
 had she asked the question when she recognized the 
 Emperor. Without another word she lifted her eyes 
 to heaven and went back weeping into her house. 
 
 The travellers went on by Vendome to Tours, 
 which they passed through by night. The carriage 
 stopped on the Poitiers road, just after leaving the 
 city. The Emperor wished to see the prefect, and 
 Savary going to fetch him, he talked for a quarter 
 of an hour with this official. Then he resumed his 
 journey, preserving the strictest incognito. 
 
 Saturday, July 1. They passed through Poitiers 
 in the daytime. The heat was excessive. They 
 stopped for a short time at the post-house, which was 
 outside the town, and took some brief repose without 
 being recognized. 
 
 At Saint-Maixent they found a crowd assembled 
 in the square in front of the town hall. The National 
 Guard were on the alert since the troubles had begun 
 again in La Vendue. They stopped the carriage and 
 demanded passports. General Beker showed his, and 
 also the orders of the Provisional Government. No 
 mention was made of the Emperor, and he was not
 
 216 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 recognized. The General's firmness succeeded in 
 overcoming all difficulties, and they were allowed to 
 go on. At nightfall they reached Niort, where they 
 remained nearly two days. Napoleon still enter- 
 tained a vague hope that some unforeseen event 
 might recall him, if not to the throne, at least to the 
 command of the troops, and not having abandoned 
 the thought of going back, lie travelled with inten- 
 tional slowness. 
 
 Sunday, July 2. The sentiments testified by the 
 people of Niort fed the last illusions of the Emperor. 
 There were troops in the town intended to repress 
 the rising in La Vendue. They gave Napoleon a 
 very warm reception. As soon as his arrival became 
 known, soldiers, citizens, and people of the lower 
 classes crowded under his windows, demanding to see 
 him. He appeared, and was greeted with cheers. 
 The prefect begged him to stay at the prefecture, and 
 he accepted the invitation. The day passed in pro- 
 found emotion, shared alike by him and the popula- 
 tion. 
 
 Monday, July ?>. General Beker, always respectful 
 toward the Emperor, told him in the morning that it 
 might be dangerous to delay in this manner, as there 
 was reason to fear the arrival of an English fleet 
 before Rochefort, which would render his departure 
 for the United States impossible. Napoleon allowed 
 himself to be convinced, and left Niort, but not with- 
 out regret. A detachment of light cavalry escorted 
 him. Before evening they entered Rochefort. In
 
 ROC HE FORT. 217 
 
 the town and its environs were a regiment of naval 
 artillery, fifteen hundred National Guards, and nearly 
 three thousand gens d'armes, all of them well disposed 
 toward the Emperor. They protested their devotion 
 to him. They begged to follow him. He stayed at 
 the Maritime Prefecture, and the people gave him 
 just such a welcome as he had received at Niort. 
 There was not a soldier within ten leagues who was 
 not anxious to see him. " The people," says the 
 Duke of Rovigo, an eyewitness, " never went from 
 under the Emperor's windows ; lie was obliged to 
 show himself at times to satisfy their impatience. 
 Every time he did so he was received with the same 
 respect as if he had triumphed over all his enemies. 
 Roche fort is one of the towns on whose sanitation 
 Napoleon had expended most money. For many 
 years he had continued the works for drying up the 
 marshes that surround it, and had also done much 
 toward embellishing the town itself. All these under- 
 takings had been crowned with success; the inhabi- 
 tants of Kochefort were grateful on that account, and 
 not afraid to show it." 
 
 Tuenday, July 4. Napoleon was soon to be forced 
 to a decision. Up to June 29 there had been few Eng- 
 lish cruisers in sight, and those far away. But since 
 that day they were approaching the two channels, 
 the Brittany channel and that of Antioche, by which 
 Rochefort communicates with the sea. In the road- 
 stead lay two French men-of-war, the Saale and the 
 Meduse, which the Provisional Government had put
 
 218 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 at the disposal of the Emperor to land him wherever 
 he chose except on any part of the French coast, but 
 they were now blockaded by English cruisers. 
 
 The situation constantly becoming more critical, 
 Napoleon called a naval council in the morning of 
 July 4, to consider it on all sides. Admiral Martin and 
 Baron Bonnefoux, the maritime prefect, were present. 
 
 It was said at this council that, notwithstanding 
 the approach of the English vessels, the two French 
 frigates had the reputation of being such good sailers 
 that, once outside the channels, they could elude all 
 pursuit. Still, favorable winds would be required, 
 and at present, unfortunately, they were contrary. 
 Napoleon, who greatly dreaded leaving France, did 
 not complain much at this delay. More occupied, 
 probably, with what was passing at Paris than with 
 events at Rochefort, he followed the confused accounts 
 in the journals, in the hope of drawing from them 
 some conclusion favorable to himself, or, at least, 
 favorable to his son. 
 
 The maritime prefect wrote the following letter on 
 July 4, to the Minister of the Navy : " Monseigneur, I 
 have the honor to inform Your Excellency that Napo- 
 leon arrived at Rochefort yesterday, at nine in the 
 morning, with his suite. The frigates were ready, 
 but the English fleet stationed here, consisting of 
 two ships, two frigates, two corvettes, and a small 
 vessel, blockade the port, and every kind of transport 
 from the Gironde to La Rochelle, so completely that 
 there is neither hope of getting past them unper-
 
 ROCHEFORT. 219 
 
 ceived nor of forcing a way between them. The 
 august personage whom the French nation has taken 
 under its protection has made all his arrangements 
 fur departure. The intentions of the commission and 
 the orders of Your Excellency will be executed in 
 every point which concerns me. His Majesty is and 
 will be treated with attention and respect due to his 
 situation and to the crown which he has worn." 
 
 On the same day, the carriages which had left 
 Malmaison when the Emperor did, and which carried 
 Madame Bertrand, M. and Madame de Montholon, 
 M. de Las Cases, and their children, as well as several 
 orderly officers, arrived at Rochefort. In the evening 
 King Joseph made his appearance. 
 
 Wednesday, July 5, to Friday, July 7. Listen to 
 Count de Las Cases, an eyewitness : " At Rochefort 
 the Emperor no longer wore a uniform. He lodged 
 at the prefecture, and a great many people were con- 
 stantly grouped about the house. From time to time 
 cheers broke out; twice or thrice the Emperor made 
 his appearance in the balcony. Many propositions 
 were made to him by generals who came in per- 
 son or sent special emissaries. For the rest, during 
 his entire stay at Rochefort, the Emperor was pre- 
 cisely as he had been in the Tuileries ; we did not 
 approach him more freely ; he received hardly any 
 one except Bertrand and Savary, and we were re- 
 duced to rumors and conjectures concerning him. 
 Always, it seems as if the Emperor, in the midst of 
 whatever agitation of men and things, remains calm
 
 220 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DATS. 
 
 and impassible, shows himself very indifferent, and, 
 above all, very little harassed." 
 
 In reality, Napoleon did not wish to depart until 
 he knew the result of the political crisis which, at 
 Paris, was reaching its height. He had still a linger- 
 ing hope, so long as the army clung to the tricolor 
 and Louis XVIII. had not re-entered the Tuileries. 
 The Provisional Government and the two Chambers 
 were in their agony. On July 3, a capitulation had 
 been signed, in virtue of which the French army 
 evacuated Paris, and retired across the Loire. The 
 soldiers had in vain broken their weapons and ex- 
 claimed against this treason. On July 5, the enemy 
 entered the capital as if it were a conquered city. 
 
 King Joseph, on his way to Rochefort, had seen 
 the French columns marching towards the Loire. 
 He had heard generals, officers, and soldiers ardently 
 longing for the presence of the Emperor. This news 
 agitated Napoleon greatly. On learning that the 
 Army of the Loire would be raised to eighty thou- 
 sand men, he recalled the miracles he had so often 
 wrought with many less, both in the first Italian 
 campaign and in that of 1814. Saying to himself 
 that his abdication might be considered null, since 
 no account had been made of his son's rights, he ex- 
 perienced a violent temptation to place himself once 
 more at the head of the troops. But reflection 
 showed him that France was weary of fighting; that 
 all Europe would rise in arms against him, if he 
 attempted to reappear upon the scene, and that he,
 
 ROQUEFORT. 221 
 
 the great Emperor, could not without loss descend to 
 the part of a mere part)- chief. But what was he 
 to do ? Where would he find a refuge ? How 
 should he escape the English cruisers? How reach 
 the United States? 
 
 Propositions, each more dangerous than the others, 
 were constantly being made to the unfortunate Em- 
 peror. A French seaman, M. Besson, commanding 
 a Danish merchant vessel, guaranteed to conceal him 
 perfectly, and offered to start at once for the United 
 States. . He demanded nothing but a small sum, 
 sufficient to idemnify the owners. A contract was 
 signed, but Napoleon refused to hide himself in 
 the hold of a neutral vessel. Such a lurking-place 
 seemed to him unworthy of his glory. 
 
 Another proposition, suggested by Admiral Mar- 
 tin, was for him to go up the Seudre in a small boat, 
 cross on horseback the tongue of land separating the 
 Charente from the Gironde, and embark at Royan on 
 a French corvette, commanded by Captain Baudin, 
 a daring and distinguished seaman, who died an 
 admiral of France. But it was feared that the cor- 
 vette could not escape the British fleet. 
 
 Finally a small coasting-vessel was suggested. It 
 was all ready to sail, and was to be manned by mid- 
 shipmen wlio hoped to outwit the vigilance of the 
 cruisers. But once at sea. this coaster would be sus- 
 pected, and it was more than doubtful whether it 
 was substantial enough to make a voyage like that 
 from Rochefort to the United States.
 
 222 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 Moreover, time was pressing. Louis XVIII. was 
 about to reascend the throne, and his instructions 
 against Napoleon would certainly be more rigorous 
 than those of the Provisional Government. It was 
 plain that Napoleon would not be permitted to profit 
 by the French frigates, and would be in danger of 
 becoming the King's prisoner. 
 
 Saturday, July 8. In the morning, General Beker 
 observed respectfully to the Emperor that the time 
 for delay was over. Napoleon decided, therefore, to 
 leave Rochefort for the roadstead of the Island of 
 Aix, where he could go on board the Saale, one of 
 the two French frigates, and there await a favorable 
 wind. That evening he started in a carriage for 
 Fouras, which is at the mouth of the Charente, in 
 the roadstead of Aix. The people, hearing of his 
 departure, hastened to attend him on his journey. 
 There was a considerable crowd when he alighted 
 from the carriage at Fouras. All wore sad faces, 
 and the whisper went round, " Is it possible that 
 such a great man should be abandoned like this?" 
 
 The Emperor bade adieu to each one of the detach- 
 ment of cavalry who had accompanied him, and got 
 into the SaaWs yawl, which had been waiting for 
 him before the chateau of Fouras. The officers of 
 his suite followed in the boats of the MSduse. It 
 was late when he went aboard the Saale, the wind 
 being contrary and very strong. He spent the night 
 of July 8-9 on the ship. 
 
 Sunday. July 9. In the morning, as the winds
 
 ROCHEFORT. 223 
 
 still remained contrary, the Emperor and his suite 
 went to the Island of Aix. He visited the fortifica- 
 tions and reviewed the regiment of marines, who 
 shouted, "'Long live the Emperor! To the Army of 
 Loire ! " He went back to the Saale for breakfast. 
 During the day the winds became more favorable, 
 but the English fleet seemed to be watching the 
 French frigates. In the evening Napoleon, feeling 
 inclined to return to Rochefort, embarked in a small 
 boat. so as to be less noticed; but as the shore seemed 
 guarded, he went back to the Island of Aix. He 
 was blockaded on this island, without means of 
 egress either toward the continent or the sea. Pro- 
 posals for a clandestine flight were again renewed; 
 but he continued to reject the idea of embarking on 
 a coasting-vessel. Among other reasons he assigned 
 that of the necessity of revictualling on the coast of 
 Spain or Portugal, which would expose him to fall 
 into the hands of a powerful enemy. The Danish 
 corvette was also suggested. As it was certain that 
 she would be searched by the English as soon as she 
 quitted the port, the Emperor was assured that a 
 hiding-place could be contrived for him. It was a 
 cask to be stowed among the ballast, and provided 
 with tubes for introducing air. But the extreme 
 rigor with which the search would doubtless be 
 made, and the corpulence of Napoleon, which would 
 not permit of his remaining any length of time 
 closely confined in such an uncomfortable position, 
 caused this expedient to be rejected: besides, the 
 Emperor refused it as undignified.
 
 224 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 The danger continued to increase. The white flag 
 was about to be raised at Rochefort. Already the 
 commandant of the place had caused Napoleon to be 
 notified, as respectfully as possible, that he must 
 think seriously of departing. The Provisional Gov- 
 ernment was no longer in existence. The hall of 
 the Chamber of Deputies had been clc-sed by the 
 Prussians. On July 8, Louis XVIIL, e^orted by 
 the Marshal Dukes of Tarento, Ragusa, Feifre, Reg- 
 gio, and Belluno, had triumphantly re-entered the 
 Tuileries. Napoleon could foresee that he would 
 not be protected by the batteries of the Island of Aix 
 much longer. He could no longer expect any con- 
 sideration on the part of France. And then it was 
 that the idea came to him of confiding himself to the 
 generosity of England. 
 
 Monday, July 10. In the night of July 9-10, Na- 
 poleon sent the Duke of Rovigo and Count de Las 
 Cases to the commander of the English fleet, Captain 
 Maitland, who was on board the man-of-war Beller- 
 opJwn. The two messengers of the Emperor left 
 the Sadie in a small schooner, availing themselves 
 of the outgoing tide, which carried them beyond 
 Point Chassiron, at the extremity of the Island of 
 Oleron, where the English vessel was cruising about 
 in company with the corvette Myrmidon. 
 
 The two envoys went on board the Bcllcroplion 
 about eight in the morning. M. de Las Cases ap- 
 prised Captain Maitland of some news of which he 
 Mas still in ignorance, namely : that in consequence
 
 ROCUEFOBT. 225 
 
 of the events which had followed the battle of 
 Waterloo, the Emperor had abdicated and come to 
 Kochefort with the intention of sailing for America ; 
 that the Provisional Government had demanded 
 passports for him from Wellington, who had referred 
 the request to London ; and that it was thought they 
 might have been forwarded to the English fleet, sta- 
 tioned near Rochefort. Captain Maitland replied 
 that he had received nothing. M. de Las Cases 
 returned that the Emperor, having completely ter- 
 minated his political career, desired to go away peace- 
 ably : and that if he was anxious for passports, it 
 was because he desired to prevent an engagement 
 between the two French frigates and such Britannic 
 vessels as they might meet. 
 
 " I was entirely ignorant of the details you have 
 given me," replied Captain Maitland. " I had heard 
 of nothing but the victory at Waterloo. Conse- 
 quently, I cannot answer the request which is the 
 subject of your message. But if you will wait a few 
 moments, I shall probably know more about it, for 
 I see a corvette trying to come up to us. She sig- 
 nals that she comes from England and has letters 
 for me. I shall handle the vessel so as to make her 
 approach easier, and meantime we will go to break- 
 fast." The corvette was the Falmouth, which did, 
 in fact, come from England, and had passed through 
 the Bay of Quiberon, whence it brought despatches 
 from Admiral Hotham. 
 
 Savary and Las Cases were eating breakfast with
 
 226 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 Captain Maitland when the captain of the Falmouth 
 reached the Bellerophon. After learning the con- 
 tents of Admiral Hotham's despatches, Maitland 
 said : " There is not a word concerning what you 
 have just told me ; I know, even, that when the 
 Falmouth sailed they knew nothing about it in Eng- 
 land." 
 
 The conversation was very courteous on both sides- 
 Captain Maitland spoke French well. He was an 
 honorable seaman, and a man of good breeding, who 
 seemed to respect Napoleon's misfortunes. 
 
 He ended by saying to his two interlocutors : " I 
 should like to be able to satisfy you, but you see I 
 cannot. I am going to notify my Admiral, who is in 
 the Bay of Quiberon, of your coming on board. At 
 the same time I will send him the letter you brought 
 me from General Bertrand, and let you know his 
 answer as soon as I receive it." 
 
 Las Cases replied : " The Emperor does not want 
 to steal away clandestinely. Personalty, he has no 
 motive for doing so, as the application we have just 
 made on his behalf sufficiently proves. But if, before 
 your response arrives, the wind should become favor- 
 able, and, desiring to profit by it, he goes out on the 
 French frigates, what will you do ? What will you 
 do if, instead of the French frigates, he goes in a 
 French merchant vessel ? In fine, if instead of doin<r 
 either, he should sail In a neutral vessel, an American 
 ship for instance, what will you do ? " 
 
 Captain Maitland responded : " If the Emperor
 
 ROCHEFORT. 227 
 
 goes on the French frigates, I will attack them and 
 take them if I can : in that case the Emperor will bo 
 a prisoner. If he goes in a French merchant vessel, 
 as we are at war, I will take the vessel, and again the 
 Emperor will be a prisoner. If he goes in a neutral 
 vessel, and I search it, I could not take it on me to 
 let him pass. I should hold on to him and refer the 
 matter to my Admiral, who would decide it." 
 
 These responses once made, the conversation be- 
 tween Napoleon's two envoys and the English sailor 
 went on with great politeness. " The Emperor," said 
 the latter, "did rightly in asking for passports, in 
 order to escape the disagreeable encounters which 
 would be constantly renewed at sea ; bat I do not 
 believe our government would let him go to Amer- 
 ica." " Where do they propose that he should go, 
 then?" asked Savary. "I cannot guess," replied 
 Maitland ; " but I am almost certain of what I just 
 told you. What repugnance would he have against 
 coming to England? All difficulties could be obvi- 
 ated in that way." 
 
 To the objections made by the two envoys in view 
 of the English climate and the national ill-will toward 
 Napoleon, Captain Maitland replied nearly in these 
 terms: "It is a mistake to think the English climate 
 is bad and damp. There are counties where it is as 
 mild as that of France ; Kent, for instance. As to the 
 charms of social life, they are incomparably superior 
 in England to anything the Emperor could find in 
 America. And as to the ill-feeling which he might
 
 228 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 fear, to come to England would be the very way to 
 extinguish it. Living in the midst of the nation and 
 under the protection of the laws, he would be defended 
 from everybody and would render the efforts of his 
 enemies powerless. Even if the Ministry wished to 
 annoy him, which I do not believe, they could not, 
 because our government is not arbitrary ; it is sub- 
 jected to the laws. I am persuaded that the govern- 
 ment would take the proper measures to assure the 
 Emperor's tranquillity and that of the place where he 
 should reside ; such, for example, as were taken with 
 regard to his brother Lucien. But I cannot conceive 
 it possible that it could go beyond that ; for, as I have 
 told you, the Ministers would have no right, and the 
 nation would not allow it." 
 
 Las Cases replied : " I am not empowered to treat 
 that question with you. But I shall remember all 
 you have said, and will report it to the Emperor. In 
 case he should adopt the idea of going to England, — 
 and I will do all in my power to persuade him, — may 
 he count on being taken on board your vessel with 
 all those who accompany him, this supposition debar- 
 ring him from taking passage on the French frigates? " 
 
 Captain Maitland answered: "I will ask instruc- 
 tions from my Admiral. But if, before they reach 
 me. the Emperor comes and asks a passage on board 
 my ship, T will receive him. Moreover, I am going 
 into the roadstead of the Basques, where I shall be 
 nearer you, and where you can communicate with me 
 whenever you please."
 
 HOVHEFORT. 229 
 
 Las Cases and Savary, satisfied with Captain Mait- 
 land's courteous treatment, but not building many- 
 hopes on British generosity, took their leave, and, 
 going on board the schooner which brought them, 
 returned to the Emperor. He had remained on board 
 the Saale in the roadstead of the Island of Aix. He 
 meditated all the evening on the report they brought 
 him. 
 
 Tuesday, July 11. In the night of July 10-11, 
 Napoleon ordered Savary to go and tell Captain 
 Philibert, commander of the Saale, to sail at once. 
 The latter replied that he had secret orders: he was 
 forbidden to accomplish his mission, "if the frigates 
 ran into any danger." "So then," exclaimed Savary, 
 " all this was a mere deception ; the only aim of the 
 Provisional Government was to place the Emperor 
 under the necessity of delivering himself to the 
 enemy!" "I do not know," replied Captain Phili- 
 bert, " but I have orders not to sail." Savary, in 
 consternation, brought this answer to Napoleon. 
 "My presentiments warned me of it," said the Em- 
 peror, sadly, "and yet I was unwilling to believe it." 
 
 Then Captain Ponee, who commanded the other 
 French frigate, the JfeJuse, made a heroic proposi- 
 tion. He offered to weigh anchor at sunset, when 
 there was usually a favorable breeze, and attack the 
 Bellerophon, remaining attached to her side, until, 
 even at the sacrifice of the Meduse, he should have 
 made it impossible for her to move. Meantime, the 
 Saale, with the Emperor on board, could gain the
 
 230 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 open sea. Napoleon, profoundly moved by such 
 devotion, declined this offer, which the dispositions 
 of Captain Philibert made impracticable in any case. 
 He had no longer anything to hope for from the 
 two French frigates, the Meduse and the Saale. 
 
 Wednesday, July 12. Napoleon received a visit 
 from his brother Joseph, and letters announcing the 
 events at Paris. There was more to be feared from 
 the victorious emigre's than from the English them- 
 selves. Departure had become indispensable. Of 
 all solutions, that of falling alive into the hands of 
 the Royalists would be the worst. They would not 
 pardon the Emperor the fright they had experienced 
 during the Hundred Days. The moment that he 
 could hope nothing farther from the two French 
 frigates, Napoleon left the Saale, and had himself 
 put ashore on the Island of Aix, where a regiment 
 of naval infantry were constantly in garrison. He 
 was received there with enthusiasm. Still, it was 
 necessary to decide on something. To go up the 
 Seuclre in a boat, and cross the tongue of land sepa- 
 rating the Charcnte from the Gironde on horseback, 
 in order to embark on an American vessel at the 
 mouth of the latter stream, was no longer practica- 
 ble ; for, since the last news from Paris, the white 
 flag was floating everywhere, and the Royalist popu- 
 lation would prevent his embarkation. Besides, the 
 winds were still unfavorable. 
 
 Thursday, July 13. Despairing of his cause, Na- 
 poleon, who at bottom had no confidence in British
 
 ROCIIEFORT. 231 
 
 generosity, was tempted to accept the offer of two 
 coasting-vessels. The intrepid midshipmen said to 
 him : " Sire, we are resolute men ; confide yourself 
 to us. By oars or by sail we will take the boats 
 beyond the channels ; after that Ave will trust our- 
 selves to the winds. They may bring us into the 
 way of some merchant vessel which we will seize, 
 and which we will oblige to transport Your Majesty 
 to the United States. Under cover of the night, 
 and with our oars, we can slip out unperceived." 
 Napoleon was going to allow himself to be persuaded. 
 In the evening of July 13, the two coasters were 
 brought to the anchorage of Aix. Already several 
 of the Emperor's attendants had entered it, when 
 suddenly those who were about to start, and still 
 more those who were to be left behind, broke into an 
 indescribable explosion of grief. The women sobbed. 
 Napoleon could not endure this spectacle. " Well ! " 
 he cried, "let us be done with it and give ourselves 
 up to the English, since after all Ave cannot in any 
 way escape them/' And he thanked the brave young 
 men. whose devotion and enthusiasm had profoundly 
 touched him. 
 
 Friday, July 11. So this man. of whom one could 
 have said that the Avhole world Avas not enough for 
 him (JKstuat hifdir angusto in careers mundi), this 
 conqueror who had not treated with Europe to pre- 
 serve the Hanseatic Towns, the modern Ca-sar, the 
 new Charlemagne, the Emperor of the French, the 
 Kinjr of Italy, the mediator of the Swiss Confedera
 
 232 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 tion, the protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, 
 now banned, proscribed, tracked like a wild beast, 
 chased from the earth and from the sea, had no 
 longer a stone on which to lay his head ! 
 
 In the morning of July 14, the Emperor once more 
 sent Count de Las Cases on board the Bellerophon, 
 accompanied this time by General Lallemand. The 
 two envoys asked Captain Maitland if he had re- 
 ceived yet any response from his superior, Admiral 
 Hotham, chief of the naval station. He replied in 
 the negative, but declared that he was, nevertheless, 
 ready to receive the Emperor on the Bellerophon, 
 and take him to England. " It is my private opin- 
 ion," added he, " that Napoleon Avill find there all 
 the respect and good treatment which he can desire. 
 It is a country where the Prince and the Ministers do 
 not exercise arbitrary authority. The English peo- 
 ple have a generosity of sentiment and a liberality of 
 opinion which are superior to sovereignty itself." 
 Captain Maitland, however, spoke for himself only, 
 and made no engagement on behalf of the British 
 government, whose official intentions he did not 
 know. At this time the Bellerophon was rejoined by 
 the English corvette, the Slany, commanded by Cap- 
 tain Sertorius. 
 
 Las Cases and General Lallemand returned the 
 same day to the Island of Aix, and repeated to the 
 Emperor what Captain Maitland had said. Evi- 
 dently there was only one of two things for him to 
 do : to deliver himself up to the English, or to at-
 
 ROCIIEFORT. 233 
 
 tempt to rejoin the Army of the Loire in order to 
 begin a civil war, without the least chance of success. 
 Napoleon caused all those who had accompanied him 
 to be summoned, and asked their opinion. They 
 were almost unanimous in saying that he ought to 
 confide himself to England. Then the Emperor 
 said : " If it were a question of marching to the con- 
 quest of an empire, or of saving one, I might attempt 
 a return to the Island of Elba : but I desire nothing 
 but repose. And if I were again the cause of even a 
 single discharge of cannon, spite would proiit by the 
 circumstance to destroy me. I am offered repose in 
 England. I do not know the Prince llegent, but 
 from what I have been told, I cannot distrust the 
 loyalty of his character. My decision is made. I 
 am going to write to him ; and to-morrow, at day- 
 break, we will go on board the English vessel." 
 
 All retired to make their preparations for de- 
 parture. It was then Napoleon wrote to the Prince 
 llegent of England the letter which will be famous 
 for all time : — 
 
 "IlOYAL Highness: Exposed to the factions 
 which divide my country, and to the enmity of the 
 greatest European Powers, I have ended my political 
 career, and am going, like Themistocles, to sit down 
 beside the hearths of the British people. I place my- 
 self under the protection of their laws, which I claim 
 from Your Royal Highness, as the most powerful, 
 the most constant, and the most generous of my 
 enemies."
 
 234 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 General Gourgaud was charged with carrying the 
 memorable letter to the Prince Regent, and received 
 the following instructions : — 
 
 " My aide-de-camp Gourgaud will present himself 
 on board the English squadron with Count de Las 
 Cases. According to the instructions he receives 
 from the commander of this squadron, he will go 
 either to the admiral or to London. He will try to 
 obtain an audience of the Prince Regent, and deliver 
 my letter to him. If there is no inconvenience in 
 giving me passports to the United States of America, 
 that is what I desire ; but I do not want them to go 
 to any colony. If America is impossible, I prefer 
 England to any other country. I will assume the 
 title of Colonel Muiron or Duroc. If I am to go to 
 England, I would like to live in a country house, ten 
 or twelve leagues from London, where I am anxious 
 to arrive in the strictest possible disguise. The 
 house should be large enough to accommodate all 
 my servants. I am desirous to avoid London, and in 
 this the government would doubtless agree with me. 
 If the Ministry desire to place a commissary near 
 me, Gourgaud will take care that this shall carry 
 with it no appearance of captivity, and that he shall 
 be a man whose rank and character cannot possibly 
 give occasion for evil thoughts. If Gourgaud is to 
 go to the admiral, it would be better for the captain 
 to keep him on board until he can be sent in a cor- 
 vette, so as to be sure to reach London before us. 
 
 " Napoleon. 
 
 "island of Aix, July 14, 1815."
 
 ROCHEFORT. 235 
 
 Las Cases, accompanied by General Gourgaud, 
 started about four o'clock in the afternoon for the 
 Bellerophon. His mission was to announce that the 
 Emperor would come on board the next morning, 
 and to give Captain Maitland a copy of Napoleon's 
 letter to the Prince Regent. This letter, worthy of 
 one of Plutarch's heroes, was greatly admired by 
 the English seaman, who allowed two other captains 
 to take copies of it, under the seal of privacy until 
 it should be made public. He despatched General 
 Gourgaud at once to London on the corvette Slany. 
 But hardly had this vessel started, when Maitland, 
 his face and voice greatly altered, exclaimed : 
 " Count de Las Cases, I have been tricked. When 
 I am treating with you, when I am depriving myself 
 of a corvette, I am told that Napoleon has just es- 
 caped. That will put me in a frightful predicament 
 with my government." 
 
 Las Cases gave a start. What would he not have 
 given that the news were true ! But it was not. 
 ki At what hour is it pretended that the Emperor got 
 off ? " he asked Captain Maitland. " At noon.'' 
 " Reassure yourself ; I left the Emperor at the Island 
 of Aix this afternoon, at four o'clock."' " You posi- 
 tivelv declare that to me ? " " I give you mv word." 
 
 Turning to some officers near by, Captain Mait- 
 land said to them in English : " The news must be 
 false. Count de Las Cases is too calm. He looks 
 too honest, and besides, he has just given me his 
 word of honor."
 
 236 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 Nothing further was said except in relation to the 
 next day. " Would you like me to send my boats 
 for the Emperor ? " asked Maitland. " No," returned 
 Las Cases. " The separation is already too painful to 
 the French seamen. We must leave them the satisfac- 
 tion of guarding the Emperor up to the last minute." 
 
 Saturday, July 15. In the morning, Napoleon was 
 beginning to dress when General Beker hurried in to 
 announce that an emissary had just arrived at Roche- 
 fort commissioned to arrest him. There was not a 
 single minute to lose. At daybreak, Napoleon, at last 
 making up his mind to go, went down to the shore, 
 and after receiving the sad farewells of a pitying 
 throng, embarked with his companions in the vessels 
 which took them to the brig Epervier, whence they 
 were to go on board the Seller ophon. 
 
 Before entering the Epervier the Emperor bade 
 adieu to General Beker, for whom he had only words 
 of praise, and who wept. " General," said he, " I thank 
 you for your noble and delicate conduct. Why did 
 I know you so late ? You ought never to have left 
 my person. Be happy, and transmit to France the 
 expression of my good wishes." The General begged 
 to be allowed to go with him as far as the Bellerophon. 
 "No," replied the Emperor. "I do not know what 
 the English have in store for me; but if they betray 
 my confidence, it will be said that you delivered me 
 to my enemies." 
 
 Profiting by the low tide to get out of the road- 
 stead of Aix and into that of the Basques, where the
 
 ROCHEFORT. 
 
 Bellerophon lay at anchor, Napoleon reached the ship 
 with difficulty, because the weather was too calm. 
 Captain Maitland, full of impatience, was sweeping 
 the horizon with his glass to see whether the illus- 
 trious captive was approaching. He sent a yawl to 
 meet him, and the Emperor got into it from the brig 
 JEJpervier. From that moment he ceased to be a free 
 man ; he became the prisoner of his most implacable 
 enemies. On board the Epervier there was a pro- 
 longed groaning, broken by cries of "Long live the 
 Emperor ! " All the sailors wept, and kept their 
 eyes fixed on the great man who was boarding the 
 Bellerophon.
 
 XIV. 
 
 THE BELLEKOPHON. 
 
 WHEN the Emperor came aboard the Bellero- 
 phon, Las Cases, who was at the ladder, pre- 
 sented Captain Maitland. Napoleon, raising his hat, 
 said in a firm voice, " I come on board your ship to 
 put myself under the protection of the laws of Eng- 
 land." Captain Maitland, after having introduced his 
 officers, conducted the Emperor to his cabin, of which 
 he put him in possession. The Emperor was accom- 
 panied by Generals Bertrand, Savary, Lallemand, and 
 Montholon, Count de Las Cases and his son, and the 
 Countesses Bertrand and Montholon. The first of 
 these ladies had three children with her ; the second 
 had one. To these must be added nine officers of 
 inferior rank and thirty-nine domestics. The princi- 
 pal personages Avere received on the Bellerophon, the 
 others on the corvette Myrmidon, commanded by 
 Captain Gambier. 
 
 Toward three in the afternoon the Superb, a 
 
 seventy-four-gun ship, commanded by Admiral Ho- 
 
 tham, entered the anchorage. It had come from the 
 
 roadstead of Quiberon into that of the Basques. 
 
 238
 
 THE BELLEROPHON. 239 
 
 The Admiral visited the Emperor on board the Bel- 
 lerophon, and begged that he would honor him by 
 breakfasting on the Superb the following day with all 
 his suite. Napoleon accepted. 
 
 Sunday, July 16, 1815. Let us leave the account 
 to Las Cases : " As he started, in the morning, to 
 go on board Admiral Hotham's ship, the Emperor 
 stopped short on the bridge of the Bellerophon before 
 the soldiers drawn up in his honor. Tie made them 
 go through their drill several times, and as their 
 manner of charging bayonets was not precisely like 
 that of the French, he went quickly into the midst of 
 the soldiers, pushing aside their bayonets with his 
 two hands, and seized a musket from one in the rear 
 rank, with which he performed the evolution himself 
 in our fashion. A sudden change of expression 
 appeared on the faces of the soldiers, the officers, and 
 all the spectators : it expressed their astonishment at 
 seeing the Emperor place himself thus in the midst 
 of English bayonets, some of which touched his 
 breast. This circumstance made a vivid impression." 
 Napoleon drilling English soldiers on board the Bel- 
 lerophon — would not that be a good subject for a 
 military picture? 
 
 Afterwards, the Emperor went on board the Superb. 
 The ship was in full dress. The bridge was covered 
 with a richly decorated tent canopied witli the Eng- 
 lish standard. Ordinary labors on the vessel were 
 intermitted. A fine band was playing on the poop. 
 The sailors in uniform were on the yards. Admiral
 
 '240 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 Hotham presented each of his officers by name to the 
 Emperor. This ceremony over, he showed him the 
 batteries and then offered him an extremely well- 
 served breakfast. Afterwards he proposed to him to 
 remain on the Superb, which was larger and more 
 commodious than the Bellerophon. Napoleon refused 
 this offer out of good feeling, not wishing to pain 
 Captain Maitland, whose kindness he appreciated : he 
 returned the same day to the Bellerophon. 
 
 Monday, July 17. The Bellerophon and the cor- 
 vette Myrmidon weighed anchor and made sail for 
 England. The winds were poor, and they did not 
 lose sight of land. 
 
 Tuesday, July 18, to Saturday, July 22. The 
 voyage was slow. It was with difficulty that they 
 got into the English Channel in going up the French 
 coast. Napoleon appeared gentle and affable. His 
 calmness and the equability of his temper gained 
 the approbation of everybody. He used to stay on 
 deck for the greater part of the day, conversing at 
 length with Captain Maitland, seizing occasions to 
 say agreeable things, and talking of the English navy, 
 whose skill lie admired, and the English army, whose 
 rare steadfastness he praised. He spoke also, and 
 with great affection, of his wife and son, complaining 
 of his separation from them ; he showed their por- 
 traits to Captain Maitland, with tears in his eyes. 
 His health was good, but he was subject to drowsi- 
 ness. Captain, officers, and crew had all speedily 
 adopted toward him the same manners that were
 
 THE BELLEROPHON. 241 
 
 observed by his suite ; the same deference, the same 
 language, the same respect. The Captain always ad- 
 dressed him as Sire or Majesty. Whenever he came 
 on the bridge, every one removed his hat. No one 
 was admitted to his table except at his invitation. 
 
 Sunday, July 23. Toward four in the morning 
 they sighted Ushant, which had been passed during 
 the night. More than once the Emperor glanced 
 sadly toward the coast of France, but he did not say 
 a word. As they approached the Channel, English 
 vessels were seen coming and going in all directions. 
 By night England was in sight. 
 
 Monday, July 24. Toward eight in the morning 
 they weighed anchor in the roadstead of Torbay. 
 Alas ! it was not thus that, in the time when he 
 camped at Boulogne, Napoleon had hoped to descend 
 on the English coast ! From the poop of the Bel- 
 Irrophon he looked at the shore and the anchorage of 
 the vessel. On entering the roadstead, which is very 
 picturesque, "This reminds me," said he, "of Porto- 
 Ferrajo and the Island of Elba." Very soon after- 
 wards. General Gourgaud presented himself. He 
 had left Aix on the corvette Slany, to carry a letter 
 to the Prince Regent, but had not been able to dis- 
 charge the commission: he had been obliged to give 
 up the letter, and was not even permitted to land. 
 This was a bad omen. 
 
 Napoleon did not go ashore. He remained on 
 board the Bellerophon in the road of Torbay. The 
 ship had scarcely cast anchor when Captain Maitland
 
 242 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 received despatches from Lord Keith, Admiral of the 
 Channel fleet, and shortly after from the Board of 
 Admiralty, which enjoined him not to permit any one, 
 no matter of what rank or station, to be on board the 
 Bellerophon, excepting the officers and sailors com- 
 posing its crew. As soon as the Emperor's presence 
 in the bay was made known, a crowd of small boats 
 filled with curious people began to make their appear- 
 ance. 
 
 Tuesday, July 25. Napoleon was struck with the 
 multitude of persons in boats crowding about the ship 
 in the hope of getting sight of him. He looked at 
 them from his cabin, and sometimes went out on the 
 bridge. No one suspected, as yet, the sorrowful fate 
 which awaited the great man. Captain Maitland 
 received a letter from Lord Keith, in which the fol- 
 lowing passage occurs : " Say to the Emperor that I 
 should be glad if he would let me know what would 
 be agreeable to him ; I would willingly attend to it. 
 Thank him on my behalf for the generous attentions 
 he himself gave to my nephew, who was taken to him 
 a prisoner after being wounded at Waterloo." 
 
 Wednesday, July 26. During the night of July 
 25-26, the Bellerophon received orders to leave Tor- 
 bay for Plymouth. Having weighed anchor very 
 early, they arrived in the roadstead of that city at 
 about four in the afternoon. Sinister presentiments 
 began to circulate. Armed boats surrounded the 
 ship, which was not visited by Admiral Keith, al- 
 though he was in the bay. At the moment when
 
 THE BELLEliOPHON. 243 
 
 two English frigates cast anchor, one on either side 
 of the Bdleroplion, some one said in a whisper to 
 Las Cases : " You see these frigates ? In the night 
 they will carry off the Emperor and you, and sail 
 for Saint Helena." 
 
 Listen to this faithful courtier of misfortune : 
 " No, never," he exclaims, " can I render the effect 
 of these terrible words ! A cold sweat broke out on 
 my body ; it was an unexpected sentence of death. 
 Pitiless executioners had seized me for the torture ; 
 I was to be torn violently from all that attached me 
 to life ; sadly I extended my arms to all I held dear; 
 it was in vain ; perish I must. This thought and an 
 unruly crowd of others raised a veritable tempest in 
 me : it was the laceration of a soul seeking to free 
 itself from its terrestrial alloy ! It whitened my 
 hair. . . . Happily the crisis was brief, and my soul 
 came out victorious, — so entirely victorious that, 
 from that moment, I felt myself superior to all that 
 men could do. I felt that thereafter I could defy 
 injustice, ill-treatment, torture. I swore, above all, 
 that no one should ever hear from me either com- 
 plaints or petitions. But let not those among us, to 
 whom I must have seemed tranquil in these fatal 
 circumstances, accuse me of a want of feeling ! 
 Their agony was prolonged and in detail; mine came 
 all at once." 
 
 As usual, the Emperor made his appearance on 
 the bridge. His face betrayed neither emotion nor 
 uneasiness.
 
 244 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 Thursday, July 27. Again we leave the word to 
 Las Cases : " It would be difficult to describe," he 
 says, " our anxieties and torments : the greater num- 
 ber of us seemed hardly to be living ; the least cir- 
 cumstance from land, the most commonplace opinion 
 of any one on board, the least authentic article, sup- 
 plied us with subjects for the gravest arguments and 
 caused continual oscillations between hope and fear. 
 We sought to get favorable versions and deceitful 
 anticipations from any one whatever, so little do the 
 expansion and mobility of our national character 
 incline us to that stoical resignation and impassible 
 concentration which flow only from settled ideas and 
 positive doctrine imbibed in childhood. 
 
 " The public journals, the ministerial ones espe- 
 cially, were let loose against us ; it was the halloo of 
 the ministers preparing for the blow they meant to 
 strike. It would not be easy to get an idea of the 
 horrors, the lies, the imprecations, which piled up 
 against us ; and it is well known that such things 
 make an impression on the multitude, no matter how 
 well disposed they may be. Hence the manners of 
 those around us began to stiffen, their politeness 
 seemed embarrassed, and their faces dubious." 
 
 The Emperor maintained an imperturbable tran- 
 quillity. His presence in the I J ay of Plymouth pro- 
 duced a prodigious effect. lie was going to excite 
 throughout all England i sentiment of curiosity 
 which amounted to frenzy. People came in crowds, 
 as if on a pilgrimage, in the hope of seeing for an
 
 THE UELLEROPHOy. 245 
 
 instant the features of the legendary man. There 
 were not horses enough on the road, between London 
 and Plymouth, so great was the throng of travellers 
 who wanted to be able to say one day to their chil- 
 dren : " I have seen Xapoleon ! " 
 
 Friday, July 28. As he beheld the innumerable 
 boats which pressed around the Belleroplion, the Em- 
 peror, in the very midst of his misfortunes, had an 
 intuition of his future glory. He perceived that his 
 adversity, like his former power, would assume epic 
 proportions, and that all poets would celebrate him. 
 
 Listen to a Frenchman, Count de Las Cases, and 
 to an Englishman, Walter Scott, who both describe 
 this eager thronging of the English people about the 
 glorious captive. 
 
 '•It was known,'' says Las Cases, "that the Em- 
 peror always came out on the bridge toward five 
 o'clock. Some time beforehand the boats began to 
 close in beside each other. There were thousands of 
 them, and so close together that not a glimpse could 
 be caught of the sea: one might rather have believed 
 that this crowd of spectators had assembled in some 
 public square. On the appearance of the Emperor, 
 the noises, the movements, the gestures, of so many 
 people presented a singular spectacle. At the same 
 time it was easy to see that there was nothing hostile 
 in all this; if curiosity had brought them, interest 
 would accompany them home. One could even see 
 that this sentiment visibly increased. At first they 
 were content to look; afterwards they saluted; some
 
 246 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 kept their hats off; and sometimes they cheered. 
 Even our emblems began to make their appearance : 
 women and young men would arrive adorned with 
 carnations." 
 
 And now hear Walter Scott : " That popular curi- 
 osity, bordering on fury, which prevails in all free 
 states, but which seems carried to the greatest excess 
 by the English nation, caused the sea around the 
 Bellerophon to be covered with such a multitude of 
 barks that in spite of the peremptory orders of the 
 Admiralty and the efforts of the coast-guard vessels, 
 it was almost impossible to keep them at the pre- 
 scribed distance from the vessel, which was a cable's 
 length. The persons on these boats ran the risk of 
 sinking and of being killed (at least they might fear 
 it, for several shots were fired to intimidate them) : 
 they exposed themselves, in a word, to all the dan- 
 gers of a naval combat, rather than lose the oppor- 
 tunity of seeing the Emperor, of whom they had so 
 often heard. When lie appeared, he was received 
 with acclamations, to which he responded by salutes ; 
 but he could not avoid displaying his surprise at the 
 excess of a curiosity which he had never seen mani- 
 fest itself with so much vivacity." 
 
 Saturday, July 29. The crowd of curious specta- 
 tors was even greater than on the previous day. 
 Thousands of small crafts surrounded the Bellerophon 
 and passed hours in the roadstead, running against 
 each other and exposed to grave dangers. 
 
 Sunday, July 30. One of the under-secretaries of
 
 THE BELLEEOPHON. 247 
 
 State, Sir Henry Bunbury, arrived from London. 
 He brought the definite resolutions of the English 
 government. 
 
 Monday, July 31. Lord Keith and Sir Henry 
 Bunbury came on board the Bellerophon, and, in the 
 name of the English Ministry, acquainted Napoleon 
 with the following communication : — 
 
 "As it may be agreeable to General Buonaparte 
 to learn, without further delay, the intentions of 
 the British Government in his case, Your Lordship 
 will communicate the subjoined information to him: 
 It would be little in conformity with our duties 
 towards our country and the Allied Powers, for us 
 to leave General Buonaparte the means or the oppor- 
 tunity to trouble again the peace of Europe. This is 
 why it becomes absolutely necessary that he should 
 be restrained in his personal liberty, so far as this 
 first and important object may require. The Island 
 of Saint Helena has been selected for his future 
 residence. Its climate is healthy, and its situation 
 will permit of his being treated with more indulgence 
 than could be shown elsewhere, in view of the in- 
 dispensable precaution which would be necessary to 
 secure his person. General Buonaparte is permitted 
 to choose among those who accompanied him to Eng- 
 land, with the exception of Generals Savary and 
 Lallemand, three officers who, together with his sur- 
 geon, will be permitted to accompany him to Saint 
 Helena, and cannot leave the island without the sanc- 
 tion of the British Government. Rear-Admiral Sir
 
 248 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 George Cockburn, who is named commander-in-chief 
 of the Cape of Good Hope and the adjacent seas, 
 will conduct General Buonaparte and his suite to 
 Saint Helena, and will receive detailed instructions 
 concerning the execution of the service. Sir George 
 Cockburn will probably be ready to start in a few 
 days ; for this reason it is desirable that General 
 Buonaparte should, without delay, make choice of 
 the persons who are to accompany him." 
 
 This painful document was read aloud in French 
 by Sir Henry Bunbury. Napoleon listened to it 
 without any sign of emotion or impatience. When 
 it was ended, he was asked, like a condemned man 
 to whom his sentence has just been read, whether 
 he had any observations to make. Then he began 
 to speak quietly, declaring, with great coolness, 
 that he protested solemnly against the orders just 
 read; that the English Ministry had no right to 
 dispose in this way of his person ; that he appealed 
 to the nation and the laws, and asked to what tri- 
 bunal he should carry this appeal. "I came," said 
 he, "to confide myself voluntarily to the hospitality 
 of your nation. I am not a prisoner of war; and 
 even if I were, I should have a right to be treated 
 according to the law of nations. I came as a passen- 
 ger on one of your vessels, after preliminary negoti- 
 ations with its commander. If he had told me I 
 would be made a prisoner, I should not have come. 
 I asked him if he would receive me on board and 
 carry me to England. He answered yes, having re-
 
 THE JSELLEROPHON. 249 
 
 ceived, or pretending to have received, precise orders 
 from his government. Was it then a trap you were 
 laying for me? I went aboard an English vessel as 
 I would have entered an English town : a vessel, a 
 village, it is all the same thing. As to Saint Helena, 
 it would be my death sentence. ... I could not 
 live there three months. I am accustomed to walk 
 twenty miles a day. What would become of me on 
 that little rock at the end of the world? No; Botany 
 Bay is [(referable to Saint Helena. And what good 
 would my death do you ? I am no longer a sover- 
 eign. What danger could arise from my living as 
 a private person in the interior of England, subject 
 to sucli restrictions as the government should deem 
 suitable?" 
 
 Lord Keith and Sir Henry Bunbury made no re- 
 mark, save to call the Emperor's attention to the fact 
 that their mission was solely to communicate to him 
 the document to which he had just listened. 
 
 Napoleon proceeded without interruption, insisting 
 on his preference for England and his desire to in- 
 trust himself to it rather than to any other nation. 
 "Otherwise," said he, "why should I not have gone 
 to my father-in-law, or to the Emperor Alexander, 
 who is my personal friend? We fell out because he 
 wanted to annex Poland, and my popularity with the 
 Poles embarrassed him. But in other respects he was 
 my friend, and lie would not have treated me in this 
 fashion. If your government acts in this way, it will 
 disgrace you in the eyes of Europe. Your people
 
 250 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 themselves will blame it. You do not know, more- 
 over, what a sensation my death would cause, both in 
 France and Italy. At present they have a high opin- 
 ion of England in both those countries. If you kill 
 me, that opinion will be destroyed, and many English 
 lives will pay for mine. Who could have forced me 
 to the step I took ? The tricolor was still floating at 
 Bordeaux, Nantes, and Rochefort. The army has 
 not even yet made its submission. Very well ; if I 
 had preferred to remain in France, who could have 
 prevented me from remaining concealed there for 
 years in the midst of a people so attached to me ? " 
 
 Then, recalling his glory and past splendors : 
 " Remember," said he, " what I have been and what 
 place I have taken among European sovereigns. 
 This one solicited my protection ; that one gave me 
 his daughter ; all sought for my friendship. I was 
 recognized as Emperor by all the Powers of Europe, 
 England excepted, and that recognized me as First 
 Consul. Your government has no right to style me 
 General Buonaparte. I am either Prince or Consul. 
 I should be treated as such, and not otherwise. 
 When I was at Elba, I was as much a sovereign in 
 that island as Louis XVIII. was in France. We had 
 our respective flags, our vessels, and our troops. 
 Mine were less numerous, it is true. I had six 
 hundred men, and lie had two hundred thousand. 
 Finally, I made war on him. I was defeated and 
 dethroned. That affords no excuse for depriving me 
 of my rank as a European sovereign."
 
 THE BELLEROPIION. 251 
 
 Napoleon concluded by saying : " No ! no ! I will 
 not go to Saint Helena. I am not a Hercules, but 
 you will not take me there. I prefer death here, 
 even. You found me free ; send me back, replace 
 me in the same condition, or let me go to America." 
 
 A legitimist historian, M. Alfred Nettement, thus 
 appreciates Napoleon's remarks : " Several things are 
 to be considered in these words of the Emperor. In 
 the first place, the discernment, the calculation, with 
 which he prepares the role he wishes to play in his- 
 tory. His letter, graven in marble by that character 
 of antique grandeur which he knew how to give his 
 style, is written for posterity, who will read it over 
 the Regent's shoulder. In reality, the Emperor made 
 use in an inevitable action (for he had been the pris- 
 oner of England from the time he went to the Island 
 of Aix) of that supreme art which, in the days of his 
 power, he knew how to impress on all he did; like 
 the antique gladiator, he draped himself when fall- 
 ing. Nor is this all. At the moment when he loses 
 his sword in his implacable duel with England, he 
 recommences by speech that duel which he will con- 
 tinue with the pen on the rock of Saint Helena, in 
 dedicating England to the execration of posterity. 
 The anathema, to which he will add each day a 
 malediction and an accusing groan, begins on the 
 Bcllcroplwn. Rut what is most instructive and finest 
 in his words is that tardy appeal to law, to justice, 
 and to equity, an appeal full of lessons in the mouth 
 of the man of force and absolute power."
 
 252 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 After his interview with Lord Keith and Sir Henry 
 Bunbury, Napoleon showed himself as usual on the 
 bridge. He was absolutely calm. But despair over- 
 came his unfortunate companions. Generals Savary 
 and Lallemand, excluded from the amnesty by the 
 government of Louis XVIIL, who reserved them for 
 punishment like Ney and Labedoyere, interpreted in 
 the most sinister way the refusal to allow them to 
 accompany the Emperor to Saint Helena. They 
 were persuaded that England would deliver them to 
 the French Royalists, who would destroy them. 
 
 Tuesday, August 1. The crowd of boats which fol- 
 lowed each other continually into the bay, and which 
 never numbered less than a thousand at a time, were 
 held with difficulty at the prescribed distance from 
 the Bellerophon, by the vessels ordered to prevent 
 them, by force if necessary, from coming nearer. 
 This multitude alarmed the English naval authori- 
 ties, especially since Napoleon had declared lie would 
 not go to Saint Helena: they were afraid he might 
 try to escape. Two frigates were sent to watch and 
 protect the Bellerophon. The sentinels were doubled 
 and tripled by day and night. 
 
 The members of the Emperor's suite observed the 
 same etiquette with him as in the Tuileries. Grand 
 Marshal Bertrand and General Savary, Duke of Ro- 
 vigo, alone saw him habitually. There were some 
 who had hardly approached him since they left Paris, 
 nor spoken to him more frequently than if he were 
 still living in an imperial palace.
 
 THE BELLEROPHON. 253 
 
 In t*he evening, M. de Las Cases was translating 
 the English newspapers to Napoleon when General 
 Bertrand's wife, without having been summoned, and 
 without having herself announced, suddenly rushed 
 into the Emperor's cabin. She was beside herself. 
 "Sire," she cried, "do not go to Saint Helena. Do 
 not take away my husband." Napoleon's calmness 
 troubled her still more. She went out as precipi- 
 tately as she had entered. A few moments later 
 great cries were heard and a movement of the crew, 
 who were running noisily toward the stern of the 
 ship. Madame Bertrand had tried to throw herself 
 overboard. 
 
 Wednesday, August 2. M. de Las Cases learned 
 that Napoleon had chosen him as one of his compan- 
 ions to Saint Helena. The Duke of Rovigo repeated 
 to him Napoleon's kindly words. Las Cases says: 
 "Savary loved the Emperor sincerely: I knew his 
 heart, his soul, his uprightness: lie seemed to me 
 capable of true friendship. We should, doubtless, 
 have been intimately united. May he never under- 
 stand the sentiments and the regrets he has bequeathed 
 me." 
 
 Thursday. August 3. In the evening the Emperor 
 caused Las ( !ases to be summoned. " What good conld 
 Saint Helena be?" said he. "Would it be possible 
 to support life there? After all, is it certain that 1 
 shall go? Is a man dependent on other men when 
 he chooses not to be so? . . . My dear fellow, some- 
 times I long to leave you. and it would not be diffi-
 
 254 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 cult. All that would be necessary would be to get a 
 little excited and I should soon escape. All would 
 be over, and you could quietly rejoin your families." 
 
 Doubtless Napoleon forgot at this moment that 
 order of the day of Flore*al 22, Year X., in which he 
 had said, apropos of the suicide of a soldier of the 
 Consular Guard : — 
 
 " The First Consul decrees that it shall be put on 
 the regulations of the Guard that a soldier ought to 
 know how to subdue the suffering and the melancholy 
 of the passions ; and that there is as much true cour- 
 age in enduring with constancy the pains of the soul 
 as remaining steadfast on the ramparts of a fortress. 
 To abandon one's self to chagrin without resistance, 
 to kill one's self in order to get rid of it, is to quit 
 the field of battle before having conquered." 
 
 Las Cases vigorously combated the idea of suicide 
 which seemed to tempt the Emperor. He developed 
 in eloquent language the noblest considerations. 
 Poets and philosophers had declared that to see a 
 man struggling with misfortune is a spectacle worthy 
 of the gods. Reverses and steadfastness have alike 
 their glory ; a character so noble and grand as that of 
 Napoleon could not lower itself to the level of the 
 most vulgar souls ; he who had governed with so 
 much splendor, who had been admired by the world 
 and controlled its destinies, must not end like a 
 despairing gamester or a deceived lover. What 
 would become in that case of those who believed and 
 hoped in him? Was not the extreme longing dis-
 
 THE BELLEltOPlION. 255 
 
 played by such persons a sufficient motive for endur- 
 ance ? Moreover, who could penetrate into the secrets 
 of time ? Who would dare affirm anything about 
 the future ? 
 
 Napoleon replied : " Some things you say are inter- 
 esting. But what could we do at Saint Helena, that 
 desolate spot?"' " Sire, we would live in the past; 
 there is enough in it to satisfy us. Do we not enjoy 
 the lines of Caesar and Alexander? We shall have 
 something better still : you will re-peruse your career, 
 Sire." " Well, yes ; you are right ; we will write our 
 memoirs. Yes, we must get to work : work also is 
 the scythe of time. After all, we must fulfil our 
 destiny : that is my great doctrine." And regaining 
 from that moment an easy and even cheerful aspect, 
 the Emperor turned the conversation to matters 
 entirely unconnected with his existing situation. 
 
 Friday, August 4. In the night of August 3-4, 
 the captain of the Bellerophon received orders to sail 
 early the next morning. They got under way and 
 sailed eastward up the Channel. The BelleropJion 
 was too old a ship for such a voyage as that to 
 Saint Helena, and besides she lacked the necessary 
 stores. They were to rejoin another vessel. 
 
 During the day the Emperor wrote the following 
 protest : " I solemnly protest here, before Heaven and 
 men, against the violation of my most sacred rights 
 and the use of force in disposing of my person. 
 I came, freely on board the Bellerophon ; I am not 
 the prisoner, but the guest, of England. I came at
 
 256 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 the instigation of the captain, who said he had orders 
 to receive me on board and take me to England if 
 that were agreeable to me. I presented myself in 
 good faith. Seated on the deck of the Bellerophon, 
 I was at the fireside of the British people. If, in 
 giving the captain of the Bellerophon orders to receive 
 me and my suite, the government intended to lay an 
 ambush for me, it has forfeited its honor and tar- 
 nished its flag. This act once consummated, it will 
 be in vain for the English to boast hereafter of 
 their loyalty, their laws, and their liberty. British 
 faith will have perished in the hospitality of the 
 Bellerophon. I appeal from it to history ; she will 
 say that an enemy who had fought the English 
 people for twenty years went of his own accord, 
 when in misfortune, to seek asylum under the pro- 
 tection of their laws. What more striking proof 
 could he have given of his esteem and confidence ? 
 But how did the English respond to such magna- 
 nimity? They pretended to extend a hospitable hand 
 to this enemy ; and when he had taken it in good 
 faith, they immolated him. Napoleon. 
 
 " On board the Bellerophon. At sea." 
 What struck Chateaubriand most in this protest 
 was the date and the signature. " On board the 
 Bellerophon, at sea. Napoleon." "These are the 
 harmonies of immensity," says the prose-poet. 
 
 In going out of Plymouth the Bellerophon had first 
 steered east with a stern breeze. Presently it drew 
 closer to the wind, hugging the shore and cruising
 
 THE BELLEROPHON. 251 
 
 about. The passengers did not understand the object 
 of these manoeuvres. 
 
 Saturday, August 5. This day went by in the 
 same manner as the previous one. 
 
 Sunday, August 6. Toward noon the Bellerophon 
 anchored in the roadstead of Start Point, where it 
 was not in safety, whereas in that of Torbay, which 
 was very near, it would have been excellently placed. 
 It was very soon evident why it did not go to Torbay. 
 At Start Point they were about to be joined by the 
 Northumberland, which was to convey Napoleon to 
 Saint Helena. A few instants later this vessel ap- 
 peared, and also two frigates crowded with troops 
 destined to garrison the island. The ship Thunderer 
 also came up, on which was floating the ensign of 
 Lord Keith, the ehief admiral of the naval station. 
 During the day Lord Keith and Sir George Cockburn 
 came aboard the Bellcrophon and remitted to the 
 Emperor a copy of the instructions they had received. 
 These enjoined that on the following day Napoleon 
 and the members of his suite should be disarmed, their 
 baggage searched, and their money seized and held 
 in trust. 
 
 The Emperor had only three hundred and fifty 
 thousand francs in gold, and the diamond necklace 
 which Queen Hortense had forced him to accept 
 when lie left Malmaison. The necklace was in- 
 trusted to Las Cases, who concealed it about his 
 person. As to the gold, it was divided among the 
 domestics, who hid it in their clothing, with the ex-
 
 258 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 ception of eighty thousand francs, which sum was 
 all that was seized on by the custom house agent. 
 Napoleon selected Bertrand, Las Cases, and Mon- 
 tholon to accompany him. Gourgaud, in despair at 
 being left behind, negotiated and succeeded. The 
 instructions of the Admiralty did not permit the 
 Emperor to take more than three officers. It was 
 agreed to consider Las Cases a civilian, and, thanks 
 to this interpretation, Gourgaud was admitted as a 
 fourth person. As to his sword, Napoleon swore to 
 himself that if they wished to take it from him, they 
 would have to tear it away by force. 
 
 Monday, August 7. The moment for quitting the 
 JBellerophon arrived. Toward eleven in the morning 
 Lord Keith came in his long-boat. At one o'clock 
 Napoleon made known that he was ready ; Lord 
 Keith's long-boat, which was to take him aboard the 
 Northumberland, was waiting for him. He embraced 
 the Duke of Rovigo, who, all in tears, threw himself 
 at his feet and kissed his hands. He embraced Gen- 
 eral Lallemand also: "Be happy, my friends," he 
 said to them. " We shall never see each other again, 
 but my thoughts will never leave you nor any of 
 those who have served me. Tell France that I pray 
 for her." When he crossed the quarter-deck of the 
 Bellerophon, the soldiers presented arms during three 
 rolls of the drum. His step was firm and measured. 
 He bade a polite and even friendly farewell to Cap- 
 tain Maitland, who was as greatly moved as if he 
 had been French. " People may be astonished," said
 
 THE BELLER0P1I0N. 259 
 
 this brave seaman afterwards, "that there still re- 
 mained an English officer prepossessed in favor of a 
 man who had wrought so much harm to England. 
 But Napoleon possessed the art of pleasing in such 
 a high degree, that there are very few persons who, 
 if, like me, they had been seated at his table almost 
 a month, would not have experienced a sentiment of 
 pity, and even of regret, in beholding a man endowed 
 with such alluring qualities, and who had occupied 
 such an elevated station in the world, reduced to the 
 condition in which I saw him." 
 
 Calm, and full of dignity, the Emperor, on his 
 way to the boat which was to take him to the 
 Northumberland, bowed graciously to all who sur- 
 rounded him. Those among the French who had 
 obtained leave to follow him to Saint Helena seemed 
 proud and happy ; the others melted into tears. 
 Las Cases said at this moment to Lord Keith: " You 
 will observe, my Lord, that those who weep are those 
 who are left behind."
 
 XV. 
 
 THE NORTHUMBERLAND. 
 
 AT the moment when the Emperor was about to 
 leave the Bellerophon for the Northumberland, 
 Admiral Keith said to him, with sorrowful respect, 
 " General, England orders me to demand your 
 sword." To this demand Napoleon responded by a 
 glance so haughty that the Admiral dared not insist. 
 The giant of battles kept his glorious sword. He 
 was received on the Northumberland with the same 
 honors as had been paid him on quitting the Beller- 
 ophon. The following day, August 8, 1815, the day 
 of his departure for Saint Helena, he embraced once 
 more those of his companions in misfortune who had 
 not obtained authorization to follow him into cap- 
 tivity, but who were permitted to come and pay him 
 their last homage on board the Nortliumberland. 
 Among the number was Savary. The Emperor spe- 
 cially charged him to say to Captain Maitland that 
 he had desired to give him some token of remem- 
 brance, and regretted having been rendered unable 
 to do so; for the rest, he felt no resentment toward 
 him on account of what had occurred, because that 
 
 200
 
 THE NORTHUMBERLAND. 2Q\ 
 
 was a matter which lay beyond his power. " I do 
 not believe," he added, " that the Captain knowingly 
 deceived me. On the contrary, I have seen in him 
 so many evidences of honorable feeling as to per- 
 suade me that he is particularly grieved that the 
 confidence I placed in his Hag became the snare of 
 my ill-fortune, and that he was made the instrument 
 of a most shameful infraction of honor and morality 
 and every law respected by the least uncivilized 
 nations." 
 
 Shortly afterwards, while the Bellerophon and the 
 Thunderer sailed for Plymouth, the Northumberland 
 got under way for Saint Helena, which it was not to 
 reach until October 15. When the vessel passed the 
 heights of the Cape of La Ilogue, Napoleon recog- 
 nized the coasts of France. lie saluted them, ex- 
 tending his hands toward the shore, and crying, with 
 a voice full of emotion: "Adieu, land of heroes! 
 Adieu, dear France! A few less traitors, and you 
 would lie the mistress of the world! " 
 
 The English were about to put the captive upon a 
 gigantic pedestal. Without knowing it, and in spite 
 of themselves, those who tortured him were to be- 
 come the courtiers of his glory. The rock of Saint 
 Helena, as serviceable to his memory as the prison of 
 the Conciergerie was to that of .Marie Antoinette, 
 was far preferable to the hospitality he might have 
 received in this or that English palace. The author 
 of the Genie du Chrixtianisme had reason for saving: 
 " What role could the fugitive, perhaps also feted, have
 
 262 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 played beside the Thames, in sight of France invaded, 
 and Wellington dictator in the Louvre ? The high 
 destiny of Napoleon served him better. The English, 
 in allowing themselves to be carried away by a nar- 
 row and bitter policy, failed of their final triumph. 
 Instead of ruining their suppliant by throwing open 
 to him their prisons or their banquets, they made the 
 crown they had torn away more brilliant than ever in 
 the eyes of posterity. He grew greater in his captiv- 
 ity on account of the immense terror of the Powers. 
 In vain did the ocean enchain him ; armed Europe 
 encamped upon the shore, its eyes fastened on the 
 sea." 
 
 Is it not remarkable to see Chateaubriand, the 
 author of Buonaparte et les Bourbons, that brochure 
 which was worth more than an army to Louis 
 XVIII., thus making admiration succeed to anger, 
 and coming back at various times to the same reflec- 
 tion ? "The Emperor," he says again, "made a mis- 
 take in the interests of his memory when he desired 
 to remain in Europe. There he could have been 
 nothing but a prisoner, vulgar or dishonored. His 
 old part was played out ; but, that part ended, a new 
 position prepared for him a new renown. No man 
 who has made a universal fame has had an end equal 
 to that of Napoleon. He cannot be called, as he was 
 after his first downfall, the autocrat of certain iron 
 ai id marble quarries, of which these might furnish 
 him a statue and those a sword. An eagle, they gave 
 him a rock, on whose point he stood, sunbeaten, until
 
 THE NORTHUMBERLAND. 263 
 
 his death, and from whence he was seen by all the 
 
 earth." 
 
 During the voyage the Emperor was calm, resigned, 
 and showed the most exquisite politeness to all his 
 attendants and to the English. The latter refused 
 him the titles of Sire, Emperor, or Majesty. They 
 addressed him as General or Your Excellency. 
 
 Las Cases thus describes the interior of the ship : 
 " The space behind the mizzen mast contained two 
 common and two private cabins. The first of the two 
 former was the dining-room, about ten feet wide, and 
 the whole width of the vessel in length ; it was 
 lighted by a porthole at each end and a large sky- 
 light. The saloon occupied all the room remaining 
 after two cabins, exactly similar to each other, had 
 been cut off from it to left and right. Each of these 
 had one door into the dining-room and another into 
 the saloon. The Emperor occupied the left-hand one, 
 where his campaign bed had been set up ; the Admi- 
 ral had the other. It had been strictly provided that 
 the saloon should be common and not given to the 
 Emperor for his private use: the Ministers were 
 anxiously afraid of even so trifling a deference." 
 
 And here is the description of the dining-table, 
 which followed the shape of the cabin : " The Empe- 
 ror sat with his back to the saloon, facing toward the 
 bow of the vessel ; on his left was Madame Bertrand, 
 on his right the Admiral ; on the right of the Admiral 
 sat Madame de Montholon. The table turned at this 
 point. On the short side the commander of the ves-
 
 264 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 sel, Captain Ross, was seated, and opposite to him, 
 on the corresponding side, M. de Montholon beside 
 Madame Bertrand ; then came the purser. The side 
 opposite the Emperor, beginning at the captain of the 
 ship, was occupied by the Grand Marshal, the General, 
 the Colonel of the 53d, myself, and Baron Gourgaud. 
 Every day the Admiral invited one or two officers, 
 who sat between us. I was almost opposite the 
 Emperor. The band of the 53d, which had been but 
 recently recruited, played during the whole dinner 
 time, much to our annoyance." 
 
 The English have the habit of sitting a long time 
 at table, after dessert, to drink and chat. The Em- 
 peror, who detested long meals, could not conform to 
 this custom. From the first day, he rose at once 
 after the coffee and went out on the bridge. As Sir 
 George Cockburn appeared to be somewhat aston- 
 ished at this, Madame Bertrand said to him, " Do not 
 forget, Admiral, that you are dealing with one who 
 has been master of the world, and to whose table 
 kings begged the honor of being admitted." " That 
 is true," returned the Admiral, who was a courteous 
 and well-bred man. After that he abridged the 
 length of the courses, and caused coffee to be served 
 before the usual time to the Emperor and those who 
 went out with him. Napoleon left the table as soon 
 as he finished eating. The English rose and re- 
 mained standing until he left the dining-saloon, and 
 then sat down again to chat and drink for another 
 hour.
 
 THE NORTHUMBERLAND. 265 
 
 The Emperor walked on the bridge until nightfall ; 
 afterwards he re-entered the saloon, where he played 
 cards for half an hour, and then retired. 
 
 " Napoleon's fete, which was also his birthday, 
 came round during the voyage," says Walter Scott. 
 " It was the fifteenth of August, a day for which the 
 Pope had expressly canonized a Saint Napoleon to 
 be the Emperor's patron. And now, strange revolu- 
 tion ! he was celebrating his fete on board an English 
 man-of-war, which was conveying him to the place of 
 his exile, which was also to be the place of his tomb. 
 Yet Napoleon appeared gay and contented through- 
 out the voyage, and saw with pleasure that he was 
 successful at cards, which seemed to him a good 
 omen." In the morning all his companions in mis- 
 fortune, having asked permission to enter his cabin, 
 came in together. " The Emperor could not guess 
 the reason," says Las Cases. "It was his fete, but 
 he had not thought of it. We had been accustomed 
 on this anniversary to see him in larger places, re- 
 plenished with the tokens of his power: but we had 
 never brought him more sincere good wishes, nor 
 hearts more full of him." 
 
 The next day, August 10, they doubled Cape 
 Finisterre; on the 18th, Cape Saint Vincent; on the 
 llUh. they passi'd across the Straits of Gibraltar. On 
 tlu 1 succeeding days they sailed along the coast of 
 Africa towards Madeira. On the 27th, they passed 
 tne Canaries, and on the 20th, crossed the tropic. On 
 September 1, they passed the Islands of Cajje Verde.
 
 266 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 The days followed one another, sad and monoto- 
 nous. The heat was oppressive, and the sea often 
 rough. Napoleon slept badly. He rose often in the 
 night, seeking a refuge from insomnia and grief in 
 reading. Shut up in his cabin, he spent his morn- 
 ings in reading or writing, and his evenings in walk- 
 ing on the bridge. He used often to go and lean 
 against the next to last cannon on the left side of the 
 vessel, near the gangway. Presently the whole crew 
 were calling it the Emperor's cannon. Chatting 
 with this or that one of his attendants in misfortune, 
 he passed in review the places of his existence, at once 
 bizarre and grandiose, which had in it something of 
 legend, romance, and tragedy. Frequently his com- 
 panions, transported by the eloquence of these re- 
 citals, which, like his soul, were full of fire, begged 
 him to dictate what he had told so well. " No, no," 
 he responded, as if sick of his own story ; " let his- 
 tory manage as best it can ! It may search out the 
 truth if it wants to know it. The archives of State 
 are full of it. France will find there the monuments 
 of her glory, and, if she prizes them, let her busy her- 
 self in preserving them from oblivion." Then, re- 
 membering his most famous victories : " They are 
 granite," said he. " The tooth of envy can do nothing 
 with them." Las Cases, by calling his attention to 
 the monotony of the hours, and the necessity of whil- 
 ing away their dulness by work, at last induced him, 
 on September 9, to dictate something about the siege 
 of Toulon. Afterwards he dictated his recollections 
 of the first Ttnlian campaign.
 
 THE XORTIIUMBERLAND. 267 
 
 On September 23, they crossed the Line, by zero of 
 latitude, zero of longitude, and zero of declination ; 
 "a circumstance," says Las Cases, "which chance 
 might not renew in a century, since it is necessary 
 to arrive precisely at the first meridian toward noon, 
 to pass the Line at the same hour, and to arrive 
 there at the same time as the sun. This was a day of 
 great mirth and much disorder for the whole crew ; 
 it was the ceremony which our sailors call the baptism, 
 and the English, the big shaving day. The sailors, 
 arrayed in the most ridiculous costumes, conduct, 
 with great ceremony, all those.' who have never crossed 
 the Line to the feet of one of their number who 
 personates Neptune. There one's beard is drenched 
 with bilge water and shaved off with an immense 
 razor. Pails of water thrown over you from all 
 sides, and the rude laughter with which the crew 
 accompany your flight, complete your initiation into 
 the grand mysteries. Nobody escapes ; even the 
 officers are in some ways more badly used than the 
 least of the sailors. We alone, by a perfect courtesy 
 on the part of the Admiral, who, until then, had 
 amused himself by making us dread this terrible 
 ceremony, escaped its inconveniences and its ridicule. 
 We were conducted, with every attention and respect, 
 to the feet of the clumsy god, from whom each of us 
 received a characteristic compliment: this was the 
 extent of our trials. The Emperor was scrupulously 
 respected throughout this saturnalia, which usually 
 respects nothing and nobody. Having been apprised
 
 2G8 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 of the ordinary custom and the deference displayed 
 towards him, he ordered a hundred napoleons to be 
 distributed to the grotesque Neptune and his attend- 
 ants, but this the Admiral refused to concede, as 
 much out of prudence as politeness." 
 
 Apropos of this journey, Chateaubriand has said in 
 his Memoir -es cV outre-tombc : " The sea which Napo- 
 leon crossed was not that friendly sea which had 
 borne him from the harbors of Corsica, the sands of 
 Aboukir, and the rocks of Elba to the shores of 
 Provence : it was that inimical oce.an which, having 
 hemmed him in in Germany, France, Portugal, and 
 Spain, never opened before save to close in upon 
 him from behind. It is probable that in feeling 
 the waves impel his vessel, and the trade winds with 
 their constant breathing blow him further on, he did 
 not make the same reflections on his catastrophe 
 which it inspires in me. Every man feels his life 
 in his own way ; he who gives the world a grand 
 spectacle is less touched and instructed by it than 
 the spectator. Occupied with the past as if it might 
 revive again, hoping still in the midst of his recollec- 
 tions, Bonaparte hardly noticed that he was crossing 
 the Line : he did not ask what hand had traced the 
 circles in which the spheres are constrained to im- 
 prison their eternal march." 
 
 However, the end of the voyage was approaching. 
 Since the Emperor had begun to spend his mornings 
 in dictation, of which lie daily grew more fond, the 
 hours had been less heavy to him. According to
 
 THE NORTHUMBERLAND. 269 
 
 Las Cases, he would begin by seeming to distrust 
 himself, saying that he would never be able to accom- 
 plish anything. Then lie would ponder for some 
 minutes ; then, rising and walking back and forth, 
 he would begin to dictate. From that moment he 
 was another man. Everything flowed straight from 
 the source; he spoke as if by inspiration: expres- 
 sions, places, dates, nothing retarded him. 
 
 At last, on Sunday, October 15, seventy days after 
 leaving England, and one hundred and ten after 
 leaving Paris, Napoleon perceived the Island of Saint 
 Helena, which was to be his grave. He thought then 
 of Corsica, which had been his cradle. Victor Hugo 
 has said : — 
 
 " These isles, where the surges pound 
 Between the naked reefs, 
 Are like two vessels of prey 
 Chained to an eternal anchor. 
 The' hand that fixed the savage sites 
 Of these black shores, 
 And willed to cover them with dread, 
 Made them so terrible, perhaps, 
 That Bonaparte might, there be born, 
 And here Napoleon might die." 
 
 But listen to Chateaubriand: — 
 
 >w ()m October 15, the Northumberland had reached 
 the height of Saint Helena. The passenger went on 
 the bridge; it was with difficulty that he descried 
 an almost imperceptible black spot in the azure 
 immensity; he took a spyglass; he observed this 
 grain of earth as he had in other days observed a
 
 270 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 fortress in the middle of a lake. He saw the village 
 of Saint James, closed in by precipitous rocks ; not 
 a wrinkle in that sterile face in which a cannon was 
 not hanging. It seemed as if the captive were to be 
 received according to his own genius." 
 
 The anchor was lowered toward midday. It 
 touched bottom. In contemplating this island, the 
 result of a volcanic eruption, which cast it into the 
 middle of the ocean, with its inaccessible coasts and 
 arid rocks, lifting their black crests to heaven, and 
 dominated by the peak of Diana, which overlooks 
 them all, Napoleon remained impassible. No one 
 could surprise upon his countenance even the faintest 
 trace of expression. Perhaps he understood that 
 such a prison was worthy of a Titan thunder-stricken. 
 In reality, he was not a subject for self-pity. As M. 
 Veuillot has said : " Five years were to be accorded 
 him to behold himself in the past and in the future, 
 to justify or explain himself before men, to humble 
 himself before God. During five years he remains 
 upright on the threshold of the tomb; he descends 
 into it step by step, surrounded by admiration, love, 
 and pity, consecrated by expiation as he had been by 
 glory." 
 
 We lost sight long ago of the heroine of this study, 
 Marie Louise. Was it not the fault of the faithless 
 Empress, who, in this grandiose and terrible drama 
 of the Hundred Days, and the second death-struggle 
 of the Empire, never once lifted her voice to plead 
 the cause of her husband and her son ? Not a letter ;
 
 NAPOLEON AT Sf HELENA
 
 THE NORTHUMBERLAND. 271 
 
 not a line ; not a phrase to console the vanquished of 
 Waterloo, the captive of the Belleroplion. The Eng- 
 lish themselves were moved to pity. Marie Louise 
 remained cold. Not a tear ; not a movement of com- 
 passion; well-being preferred to duty ; mean calcula- 
 tions repelling magnanimous inspirations ; not one of 
 those generous accents which from century to century 
 would have re-echoed in the ears of posterity ! 
 
 One is still more inclined to severity toward the 
 former Regent of the Empire, the wife of Napoleon, 
 and the mother of the King of Rome, when reading 
 these two letters addressed to her by Prince Met- 
 ternich : — 
 
 '•Paris, July 18, 1815. Madame: I promised, be- 
 fore my departure from Vienna, to inform Your 
 Imperial Majesty directly of whatever related to 
 Napoleon's fate. You will see by the inclosed ex- 
 tract from the Moniteur that he has surrendered 
 himself to the English vessel, the Belleroplion, after 
 having vainly attempted to escape the vigilance of 
 the cruisers in front of Rochefort. According to an 
 arrangement made between the Powers, he will be 
 imprisoned at Fort Saint George, in the north of 
 Scotland, under the surveillance of Austrian, Prus- 
 sian, French, and Russian commissioners. lie will 
 be very well treated, and given all the liberty com- 
 patible with the completest certainty that he cannot 
 escape." 
 
 "August 13. 181."). Madame: Napoleon is on 
 board the Northumberland, on his way to Saint
 
 272 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DA VS. 
 
 Helena. The only news we have of his departure 
 from Torbay comes by telegraph ; but we know that 
 it was out at sea that he left one vessel for the other. 
 He was sent away on the Bellerojihon because the 
 crowd of sightseers increased so greatly about the 
 vessel, that there was no certainty that there Would 
 not be a scandal." 
 
 What dryness in these letters ! Not a word of 
 pity for such a memorable misfortune ! Metternich 
 still addresses Marie Louise as Imperial Majesty, 
 while he calls the Emperor simply Napoleon. At 
 least he might have said, "your husband," to the 
 former Empress. Assuredly the astute Minister, the 
 most skilful of courtiers, must have been very certain 
 of her forgetfulness when he spoke to her of her 
 husband in terms so laconic, so disdainful! The 
 Austrian statesman knew very well that instead of 
 desiring to be the companion of a captive, she had 
 but one thought, — that of reigning at Parma, with 
 General Neipperg as a morganatic prince-consort. 
 The letters of the Minister of the Emperor Francis, 
 coming after Napoleon's departure for Saint Helena, 
 suggest painful reflections. It was here, then, that 
 tin; marriage so much celebrated, so much exalted, 
 which it was supposed would procure the happiness 
 of Napoleon, the glory of France, and the repose and 
 prosperity of the world, was to end ! 
 
 Marie Louise did not even suspect the interest she 
 ^till inspired in the last faithful adherents of the 
 Napoleonic cause. Baron de Bausset, formerly pre-
 
 THE NORTHUMBERLAND. 273 
 
 feet of the imperial palace, the only Frenchman who 
 still remained near her, repeats the conversations he 
 had at this time with a Polish count who had fought 
 under Napoleon's standard, and who never spoke of 
 the former Empress but as % * my general's widow." 
 She was a widow, in fact ; a widow during her hus- 
 band's lifetime ! '"So many confused ideas take pos- 
 session of me," said the brave officer, "when I see 
 her alone and pensive on her balcony, that I am 
 tempted to weep, I have at once so much pleasure 
 and so much pain in looking at her. There are days 
 when, unable to resist my desire to see her son, I 
 have myself driven out to Schoenbrunn. I have had 
 the happiness of seeing him walking with his gov- 
 ernor in the gardens of the palace, attended by a 
 single footman. What beautiful fair hair! ... I 
 looked at him well. . . . His eyes seem bluer than 
 his father's. In the upper part of his face he has the 
 features and the forehead of Napoleon; the others 
 recall his mother. Alas! I said to myself in looking 
 at him, if that fatal Russian campaign had not been 
 undertaken, what a brilliant destiny would have been 
 reserved for this young child who now, separated 
 from his father, is obliged to grow up in a strange 
 
 land \nd we Poles, so frankly devoted and 
 
 loyal to France, would not have been divided between 
 three rival crowns, between whom and ourselves 
 there exists no tie of habit or manners." 
 
 To this recital Baron de Bausset adds: "I have no 
 longer any answer to make to the Polish count: but
 
 274 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 he overwhelmed me, nevertheless, with a multitude 
 of questions. Only, when he asked me what impres- 
 sion the latest tidings had made upon the heart of 
 Marie Louise, I replied that the story of so many 
 misfortunes had been told her by the Austrian Em- 
 press, who seemed reserved for this sort of communi- 
 cations. This princess had come eagerly to Marie 
 Louise. Their private interview lasted until it was 
 time to sit down at table. The mother-in-law had 
 a very marked appearance of satisfaction. On the 
 features of Marie Louise I perceived an emotion she 
 was trying to subdue. I sat opposite their Majesties, 
 and lost not an expression of their faces." 
 
 This emotion which Marie Louise sought vainly to 
 conceal, is the attenuating circumstance we plead in 
 her favor. Were not the politicians who surrounded 
 the poor young wife with so many snares, and labored 
 so systematically to turn her from her duties and cor- 
 rupt her, the real criminals? Left to herself, — let 
 us render her this justice, — she would have played a 
 wholly different part. They abused her youth, her 
 feebleness. That is why, less severe than posterity, 
 her husband pardoned her. On the rock of Saint 
 Helena lie had not a single word of bitterness, a 
 single word of reproach for the faithless one. And, 
 at the beginning of his testament he thus invokes 
 those three great souvenirs, — Religion, Country, and 
 Marie Louise : — 
 
 "April 15, 1821. At Longwood, Island of Saint 
 Helena. 1. I die in the Apostolic and Roman relig-
 
 THE NORTHUMBERLAND. 275 
 
 ion, in whose bosom I was born more than fifty years 
 ago ; 2. I desire that my ashes may repose beside the 
 Seine, in the midst of that French people I have so 
 much loved ; 3. I have always been satisfied with my 
 dearest wife, Marie Louise ; I have preserved to the 
 last moment the tenderest sentiments toward her; I 
 pray her to be careful to secure my son from the 
 snares which still surround his childhood." 
 
 Alas ! why was not Marie Louise more worthy of 
 this eulogy of the prisoner? Why had he not the 
 right to say of her what he had said of his brother 
 Jerome's wife : " The Princess Catherine of Wiirtem- 
 berg has written her name in history with her own 
 hands." There was a devoted, disinterested, cour- 
 ageous spouse, the true model of wives and mothers ! 
 When, in 1814, every inducement, every possible 
 effort, was made to divorce her, so as to marry her to 
 some rich and powerful prince, some sovereign possi- 
 bly, she wrote to her father, the King of Wiirtem- 
 berg: "Forced by political reasons to espouse the 
 King, my husband, fate willed that I should find my- 
 self the happiest woman in existence. I bear towards 
 my husband all sentiments united — love, tenderness, 
 esteem. In this painful moment, would the best of 
 fathers destroy my internal happiness, the sole happi- 
 ness, indeed, which remains to me?" And the noble 
 Princess loved exile and poverty with her husband 
 better than native land and wealth without him. 
 
 This difference between the conduct of Catherine 
 of Wiirtemberg and that of Marie Louise is easily
 
 276 ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 explained. It must be admitted, women never push 
 devotion and charity to heroism except when they 
 have love for a motive — love human or divine, the 
 love of the lover for her well-beloved, of the wife for 
 her husband, of the mother for her child, of the 
 Christian for her God. Then the feeble sex becomes 
 strong. Then are realized those grand words of the 
 Imitation of Jesus Christ : " Love is capable of all ; 
 it accomplishes many things which exhaust those 
 who do not love. Love watches always, and even in 
 slumber does not sleep. No fatigue wearies it; no 
 fear troubles it ; but, like a living and ardent flame, 
 it always ascends on high and opens a sure passage 
 through every obstacle." Why was one of these 
 princesses sublime, and the other vulgar? For a 
 very simple reason : Catherine of Wiirtemberg was 
 in love with Jerome ; Marie Louise was not in love 
 with Napoleon.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Aix in Savoy, Marie Louise takes 
 
 the baths at, 31 et seq. 
 Alexander I. ; magnanimity of, to 
 
 Napoleon, 5: caricature of, 54; 
 
 interest of, in Marie Louise, 73; 
 
 intimacy of, with Eugene de 
 
 loyalty, 205 ; takes Napoleon's 
 
 proposal to attack the Allies, to 
 
 the Provisional Government, 211. 
 
 Bellange, Hippolyte, his painting 
 
 of the agony of the Guard, 1G9. 
 Bellcrophon, the, takes Napoleon to 
 Beauharnais, 74; his sympathy; England, 241 ; goes to Plymouth, 
 with Marie Louise, 75; his ill 242: transfers Napoleon to the 
 luck at the Princess Esterha/.y's ] Northumberland at Start Point, 
 lottery, 7'.'; indignation of. at, 257. 
 
 the secret treaty against him, ' Bertrand, General, describes Napo- 
 127; under the spell of Madame Icon's journey to Elba, 0. 
 de Krudeiier, 127; opposes the Bertrand, Madame, tries to throw 
 suppression of the tricolored Mag, herself overboard, 253. 
 128; his antipathy to the Bour-' Bonaparte, Joseph, meets Marie 
 lions. 12!t; conversation of, on Louise at Se'eheron, 32. 
 the situation of France, 130; will- Bonaparte, Lucien, recalled by 
 ing to establish .Marie Louise as Napoleon, 142; describes the 
 Regent, 130; favors the Duke of conduct, of the Assembly after 
 
 Orleans, 131. 
 Arndt, Maurice, his Catechism f<>r 
 fin-man Soldiers and Military 
 Men, 114 et acq. 
 
 Waterloo, 177: dialogue of, with 
 Napoleon, 181 ; addresses the 
 ('handlers, 183 ft seq. ," on the ab- 
 dication, 188; takes the oath to 
 
 Arrighi, Vicar-General of Elba, Napoleon II., 192 ; avows the loss 
 
 issues his charge respecting Na- of tins imperial cause, 192. 
 
 poleon. Hi. Bounnont, General de, and other 
 
 Azores, Talleyrand proposes to re- ollicers go over to the enemy 
 
 move Napoleon to, 80, 82. before Waterloo, 157. 
 
 I Brignole, Countess of, lady of honor 
 Bassano. Duke of, urges Napoleon ! to Marie Louise, 5; implores 
 
 to seize the reins of government, Marie Louise to rejoin Napoleon, 
 
 202. P!2. 
 
 Bausset, Baron de, interview of, Buiibury, Sir Henry, reads to Na- 
 
 with a Polish count, 293. polcon the decision of the British 
 
 Beauharnais, Eugene de, intimacy Government as to his exile, 248. 
 
 of. with Alexander L, 71. 
 Beker, General, sent by the Minis- Caffarelli, Madame, her recollec- 
 
 ter of War to take charge of t ions of Napoleon at Malmaison, 
 
 Napoleon, 204 ; his magnanimous! 201.
 
 278 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Carnot, named by Napoleon Min- 
 ister of the Interior, 104; sup- 
 ports the idea of a dictatorship 
 for Napoleon after Waterloo, 176. 
 
 Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples, 
 25. 
 
 Caroline, Princess of Wales, char- 
 acter of, 48; has an interview 
 witli Marie Louise, 49. 
 
 Castlereagh, Lord, rudeness of, to 
 Marie Louise, 75. 
 
 Chateaubriand, reflections of, on 
 hearing the cannonading of 
 Waterloo, 1G2; quoted, 193, 256, 
 261, 262, 268, 269. 
 
 Constant, Benjamin, tergiversation 
 of, 108. 
 
 Dalesme, General, delivers the com- 
 mand of Elba to Napoleon, 12; 
 proclamation of, to the Elbans, 12. 
 
 Declaration of March 13, a medley 
 of hate and terror, 113. 
 
 Decres, Duke, makes every effort 
 to save Napoleon from captivity, 
 207. 
 
 Domon, General, sent by Napoleon 
 to make a reconnoissance, 163 ; 
 reports that Bliicher is coming 
 up instead of Grouchy, 164. 
 
 Drouot, General, receives from 
 General Dalesme the command 
 of Elba, 12. 
 
 Elba, Francis I. objects to, as a 
 place of exile for Napoleon, 4 ; 
 Napoleon takes possession of, 
 14; Napoleon's return from, an- 
 nounced in Vienna, 79; the em- 
 barkation, etc., 82. 
 
 England, opposition in, to the atti- 
 tude of the Ministry towards 
 France, 126; Napoleon seeks an 
 asylum in, 224. 
 
 Esterhazy, Princess Paul, gems 
 worn by, 58; lottery at the house 
 of, 79. 
 
 Etruria, the King of. at Paris, 57; 
 the Queen of, disputes the pos- 
 
 session of Parma with Marie 
 Louise, 57. 
 Exelmans, General, declares resist- 
 ance useless and the Tuileries 
 is opened to Napoleon, 102. 
 
 " Field of May," the ceremony of, 
 143, 145. 
 
 Fouche, his contradictory orders as 
 to Napoleon's departure, 206. 
 
 Francis II., his adroit alienation of 
 his daughter from Napoleon, 2; 
 letter of, to Napoleon, concerning 
 Marie Louise, 3; to Metternich, 
 respecting Napoleon's place of 
 exile, 4; has no longer sympathy 
 for him, 5; refuses to recognize 
 his daughter as a sovereign, 23. 
 
 Gourgaud, General, permitted to 
 accompany Napoleon, 258. 
 
 Grenoble, gates of. forced by Napo- 
 leon's soldiers, 96. 
 
 Grouchy goes to Wavres instead of 
 to Waterloo, 164 ; fails to arrive, 
 166 ; safe at Laon, 186. 
 
 Guard, Old, Napoleon's, lands at 
 Elba, 18; detachment of, at Elba, 
 accompanies Napoleon on his re- 
 turn, 85; charges at Waterloo 
 and covers the retreat, 167. 
 
 Hortense, Queen, insists on Napo- 
 leon's accepting her diamond 
 necklace, 213. 
 
 Hotham, Admiral, visits Napoleon 
 on the Bellerophoii, 238. 
 
 Inconstant, the, Napoleon's returu 
 from Elba in, 83. 
 
 Jaucourt, M. de, letter of, to Talley- 
 rand, on the situation of France, 
 120. 
 
 Josephine, Napoleon recalls his life 
 with, at Mahnaison, 201. 
 
 Jung, Colonel, quoted, 107. 
 
 Keith, Admiral, demands Napo- 
 leon's sword, 260.
 
 1XDEX. 
 
 279 
 
 Krudener. Madame de, her fatal I 
 influence over Alexander I., 127. 
 
 Labedoyere, General de, carries his 
 regiment over to Napoleon, 95; 
 speaks hotly against those who ■ 
 refuse to recognize Napoleon II., 
 193 ; excluded by the government 
 of Louis XVIII. from amnesty, 
 
 La Bruyere, quotation from, 54. 
 
 Lafayette, describes Napoleon's ap- 
 pearance, 152; discourse of, in 
 the Chamber after Waterloo, 178; 
 sends word to Napoleon that he 
 must abdicate at once or be de- 
 posed, ISO. 
 
 Laou, the news of Napoleon's abdi- 
 cation reaches the soldiers at. 
 198. 
 
 Las Cases, fount de, quoted, 219: 
 agitation of, on hearing that 
 Napoleon was to be sent to 
 Saint Helena, 243; describes the 
 thronging of the people to view 
 Napoleon at Plymouth, 245; 
 chosen by Napoleon to accom- 
 pany him to Saint Helena, 253; 
 describes the interior of the 
 Northumberland, 2(13. 
 
 Las Cases, Countess de, meets her 
 husband ot Malmaison. 202. 
 
 La Tour-du-Pin, Baron de, bis ac- 
 count of the death and funeral of 
 Queen Marie Caroline, 29: letters 
 of, concerning .Marie Louise at the 
 Vienna Congress, 55; concerning 
 the tournament, 59, GO; concern- 
 ing Count Neippcrg, l>3; regard- 
 ing the " Litt le Bonaparte," <><>. 
 
 Lavalette makes a way for Napo- 
 leon to enter the Tuileries, 103. 
 
 Ligne, Prince de, interest of in 
 Napoleon's son, l>9. 
 
 Ligny, battle of, gained by Napo- 
 leon, 157. 
 
 Louis XVI., mass of expiation 
 offered for at Vienna, 71. 
 
 Louis XVIIL. address of, to the 
 
 Chambers before his flight, 99; 
 takes flight, 100. 
 
 Mai t land, Captain, receives Napo- 
 leon's envoys, 224: his courtesy 
 to the French officers sent by 
 Napoleon, 22(i; declares his in- 
 tentions with regard to the 
 French frigates, 227; advises Na- 
 poleon's taking refuge in Eng- 
 land, 228. 232; emotion of, tit 
 Napoleon's departure from the 
 Bcllerophun, 258. 
 
 Manuel, proclaims Napoleon II. as 
 nominal sovereign, 196. 
 
 Marie Caroline, Queen of the Two 
 Sicilies, her history and traits, 
 24 et seq. : her adventurous jour- 
 ney to Vienna, 26; urges Marie 
 Louise to rejoin Napoleon, 27; 
 death of, 29. 
 
 Marie Louise, her gradual transfor- 
 mation, 1; leaves France, 5, 11; 
 her suite and journey, 5 ct seq.; 
 expenses of, ti ; her regret at not 
 having met her husband at Fon- 
 tainebleau, f>; her solicitude for 
 Napoleon, 7; her final separation 
 from him decided by the Aus- 
 trian Government, 8; arrives at 
 Schoenbrunn. 10; her life there, 
 22; her sisters, 22; visited by 
 Queen Marie Caroline, 27: goes 
 to Aix in Savoy, as the Countess 
 of Colerno, 32: met anil escorted 
 by General Count Neipperg, :;:i; 
 surrounded by Imperialists and 
 still true to Napoleon, 34; her 
 correspondence with Meneval, 
 35; the French Government un- 
 easy about her. 40: in Switzer- 
 land with Neipperg, 42. 4(i: at 
 Braunau, 52 : not present at the 
 fetes of the Vienna Congress. 55; 
 attends the rehearsal of the tour- 
 nament, 58; visits the Russian 
 Empress, t>2 : removes the French 
 imperial arms from her liveries, 
 H2; begins to love Count Neip-
 
 280 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 perg, 63 ; holds no communica- 
 tion with Napoleon without her 
 father's consent, 65 ; her ambi- 
 tion to be Duchess of Parma, 72 ; 
 sympathy of Alexander I. with, 
 75; the stipulations of the Fon- 
 tainebleau treaty with respect to 
 her, disregarded, 75; refuses to 
 he content with Lucca, 77 ; con- 
 sents not to take her son there, 
 77; hears of Napoleon's quitting 
 Elba, 111 ; her struggle with 
 regard to joining Napoleon, 112; 
 causes Count Neipperg to write 
 to Metternich that she had no 
 part in Napoleon's projects, 116; 
 enthralled by General Neipperg, 
 120 ; declares to Meneval that she 
 will not return to France, 124; 
 the results of her decision, 125 ; 
 Alexander I. willing to establish 
 her as Regent, 130; her indiffer- 
 ence to Napoleon, 131; her con- 
 stant intimacy with General 
 Neipperg, 133; her lack of regret 
 for the death of General Neip- 
 perg's wife, 134; her strange af- 
 fection for him, 134; persists in 
 her refusal to go to France. 135; 
 gives up her son, 136 ; bids Mene- 
 val adieu, and declares a separa- 
 tion from Napoleon a necessity, 
 137; letters of Metternich to, on 
 Napoleon's fate, 271; her senti- 
 ments towards Napoleon devoid 
 of love, 276. 
 Meneval, Baron de, in the suite of 
 Marie Louise, 6; letter of, con- 
 cerning Marie Louise at Vienna, 
 66; on the hostility at Vienna to 
 Marie Louise and her son, 67: 
 conversation of, with Marie 
 Louise, concerning her course, 
 124; his journal kept at Schoen- 
 brunn, 133; his last, interview 
 with Marie Louise, 135, 137 ; 
 takes leave of Napoleon's son, 
 136; gives Napoleon news of 
 his wife's decision and of his son, 
 
 138; describes his demeanor, 
 140. 
 
 Meurthe, Boulay de la, asserts that 
 by Napoleon's abdication, his 
 son reigns in due course, 195. 
 
 Michel, Colonel, brings to Paris the 
 news of Waterloo, 174. 
 
 Michelet, quoted, 200. 
 
 Military fete given in the Champ- 
 de-Mars by the Imperial Guard, 
 106. 
 
 Moniteur Universel, account in, of 
 a grand rout in Vienna during 
 the Congress, 61 ; the proclama- 
 tion of Napoleon in, before Water- 
 loo, 172. 
 
 Montebello, Countess of, in the 
 suite of Marie Louise, 5. 
 
 Montesquiou, Countess of, gov- 
 erness of the King of Rome, 2, 5, 
 65; deprived of the care of Napo- 
 leon's son, 117; not allowed to 
 return to France, 132. 
 
 Montrond, M. de, sent to Vienna to 
 endeavor to recall Marie Louise 
 to her husband, 120; his interview 
 with Talleyrand and others, 121 
 ct seq. ; brings to Napoleon let- 
 ters and the details of his mis- 
 sion, 123. 
 
 Murat, reconciled to Napoleon by 
 the Princess Borghese, 110; 
 beaten at Tolentino. 134, 144 ; 
 proclamation of, at Rimini, 143; 
 exiled to Provence, 144. 
 
 Musset, Alfred de, quoted, 9. 
 
 Naples surrendered to the English 
 and Austrians by Madame Murat, 
 144. 
 
 Xapoleon supposes Francis I. is in- 
 terested in his fate, 5 ; arrives at 
 Elba, 11 ; ceremony of embarka- 
 tion, 13; official report, of his 
 taking possession of the island, 
 14; visits the public institutions, 
 15; forms his court and receives 
 his subjects, 17; his army, IS; 
 happy at Elba, 20; unwilling to
 
 INDEX. 
 
 281 
 
 have Marie Louise go to Aix, 
 31 ; visited by the Countess Wa- 
 lewska, 43 ; letter of, to the Grand 
 I Hike of Tuscany, enclosing one 
 for Marie Louise, 64 ; the return 
 of, from Elba, announced in 
 Vienna, 79 : the embarkation, 83 ; 
 incidents of the voyage, S3 et 
 t>eq.; his proclamations to the 
 French people and the army, 85 
 et si 7. ; lands in the Bay of Juan, 
 87; takes his route for Paris, 88 
 et seq. ; meets the Royalist Guard 
 and receives their allegiance, 94 
 >t seq.; at Grenoble, 97; writes 
 to Marie Louise asking her to 
 rejoin him, 97; enters Lyons 
 in triumph, 98; meets Ney at 
 Auxerre, 100; arrives at Fon- 
 tainebleau, 101; enters the Tui- 
 leries, 103; reviews the soldiers! 
 and names Carnot Minister of 
 the Interior, 104; visits Saint! 
 Denis, 100; grand fete in his 
 honor in the Champ-de-Mars, ! 
 lOtj; finds the evidences of gen- 
 eral tergiversation, 108; strives 
 to regain possession of his wife 
 and son, llii; sends letters to 
 Vienna to this end. llti: sends de 
 Montroml to Vienna to recall 
 Marie Louise to him, 120; re- 
 ceives from Meneval the intelli- 
 gence of his wife's decision and j 
 of the fate of his son. 139; no 
 longer entertains any illusions, 
 Mo; recalls Lueien, 142; his pro-! 
 pensity to sleep. 112: refuses to 
 abdicate, 143; exiles Murat. 144: 
 celebrates the inauguration of 
 the liberal Empire in the "Field 
 of May." 145; bis speech, 148; 
 addresses the National Guard, 
 149: at the Tuileries for the last 
 time. 150; his iliscourse at the 
 opening of the ('handlers. 152; 
 and to the Chamber of Peers. 
 153; his plans at Waterloo, 157; 
 gains the battle of Liguy, 157 ; 
 
 physically and mentally fatigued, 
 159; fears that Wellington will 
 retreat, 100 ; still has illusions, 
 hid; gives the signal for battle to 
 begin, 101 ; in doubt about the 
 arrival of Grouchy, 1(33; sends 
 re-enforcements to Ney, 105; hes- 
 itatesaud becomes perplexed, ltki, 
 sends the Guard to the attack, 
 107; gives the signal to retreat, 
 108 : his own retreat, 170: in Paris 
 again, 174 : undecided and power- 
 less, 175 ; asks for a temporary 
 dictatorship from the Chambers, 
 170; wavers and feels himself 
 vanquished, 179; dialogue of, 
 with Lueien Bonaparte, 181; the 
 common people and soldiers re- 
 ceive him with enthusiasm, 182; 
 informed by Lueien that a coup 
 d'etat or an abdication are the 
 only alternatives, 185; receives 
 word from Lafayette that he 
 must abdicate at once or be de- 
 posed. ISO; abdicates in favor of 
 his son. 188; his address to the 
 deputation from the Assembly, 
 190; goes to Malmaison, 198; 
 recalls his life there with Jose- 
 phine, 201; delays his departure, 
 203; decree of the Provisional 
 Government for the transporta- 
 tion of, to America, 204: misgiv- 
 ings of, as to the intentions of 
 the Provisional Government, 205; 
 I'miehe urges that he should de- 
 part in disguise, 200; contradic- 
 tory instructions from Fouche, 
 200: refuses to escape on a mer- 
 chant vessel, 2<>7: prepares to 
 depart, but cherishes a lingering 
 hope, 208; French frigates placed 
 at his disposal, 210; proposes 
 to General Beker to take com- 
 mand of the army again. 210; 
 sends him to the Provisional Gov- 
 ernment with the proposal. 211; 
 which is rejected. 211: leaves 
 Malniaison with his attendants,
 
 282 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 212 ; accepts a diamond necklace 
 from Queen Hortense, 213; at 
 Kambouillet, 214; still cherishes 
 illusions, 216; is welcomed at 
 Rochef ort by the National Guards, 
 209; detained there by unfavor- 
 able winds and the English ships, 
 217 ; propositions made for his 
 flight, 221 ; goes on board the 
 baale, 222; decides to confide 
 himself to the generosity of Eng- 
 land, 224; sends envoys to Cap- 
 tain Maitland of the Bellerophon, 
 224 ; orders the Saale to sail at 
 once, 229; receives a visit from 
 Joseph Bonaparte, 230; letter of, 
 to the Prince Regent, 233; his 
 instructions to General Gour- 
 gaud, 234; goes on board the 
 Bellerophon, 237; his suite, 238; 
 drills the soldiers on the Bellero- 
 phon, 239; breakfasts on the Su- 
 perb with Admiral Ilotham, 240; 
 incidents of the voyage to Eng- 
 land, 240; arrives at Torbay, 
 241 ; the Bellerophon ordered to 
 Plymouth, 242; curiosity excited 
 by his presence, 244; made ac- 
 quainted with the decision to 
 send him to Saint Helena, 247; 
 his speech in reply, 248 et seq. ; 
 etiquette observed with, on the 
 Bellerophon, 252 ; Las Cases com- 
 bats the idea of suicide which he 
 inclined to, 254; his written pro- 
 test, 255 ; conceals his money and 
 diamonds, 257; does not sur- 
 render his sword to Admiral 
 Keith, 2fi0; is transferred to the 
 Northumberland, 260; his habits 
 on shipboard, 264 et seq. ; spends 
 his mornings in dictation, 268; 
 in sight of Saint Helena, 209; 
 testament of, at Longwood, 274. 
 Napoleon II., Napoleon abdicates 
 in his favor, 188; proclaimed Em- 
 peror by the Chamber of Depu- 
 ties, 195: his reign a phantasm, 
 197 ; see Kim,' of Rome. 
 
 Neipperg, General Count, his char- 
 acter and career, 2 ; escorts Marie 
 Louise into Aix, 33; closely at- 
 tendant upon Marie Louise, 46; 
 his success as the chamberlain of 
 Marie Louise, 63; begins the war 
 with Murat, 118, 120; his influ- 
 ence over Marie Louise, 133 ; de- 
 feats Murat, 134; death of his 
 wife, 134. 
 
 Nettemeut, M. Alfred, quoted, 190, 
 251. 
 
 Ney, Marshal, declares for Napo- 
 leon, 99; meets him at Auxerre, 
 100; gives a banquet to the offi- 
 cers at Lille, 105; unsuccessful 
 at Quatre-Bras, 157; attacks La 
 Haye Sainte, 164 ; his intrepidity, 
 165 ; tries to meet death on the 
 battle-field, 168; his despairing 
 words before the Chamber of 
 Peers, 191. 
 
 Northumberland, the, Napoleon 
 transferred to, 2(50; description 
 of, 263; crossing the line, 267. 
 
 Orleans, Duke of, Alexander I., in 
 favor of a monarchy under, 128, 
 131. 
 
 Pacha dc Sxirene, comedy played 
 at the Vienna Congress, 60. 
 
 Philibert, Captain, of the Saale re- 
 fuses to sail at Napoleon's orders, 
 229. 
 
 Ponce, Captain, of the Medusc, he- 
 roic proposition of, 229. 
 
 Provisional Government, decree of, 
 as to Napoleon, 203; rejects Na- 
 poleon's proposal to attack the 
 Allies, 211. 
 
 Roehefort, affection for Napoleon 
 at, 217; port of, blockaded by 
 English ships, 218. 
 
 Rome, King of, instructed to love 
 and pray for his father, 2; no 
 longer a king, 6; his melancholy 
 and precocious ways, and iustruc-
 
 IXDEX. 
 
 283 
 
 tion, (58; removed from the care 
 of the Countess of Montesquiou, 
 117; see Napoleon II. 
 Royalists, the, in France, desire the 
 success of the foreigner, 141. 
 
 Savary, General, excluded from 
 amnesty by the government of 
 Louis XVIII., 252. 
 
 Segur, General de, will not recount 
 the details of Napoleon's down- 
 fall, 15<i. 
 
 Schoenbrunn. fete at, 71. 
 
 Scott. Sir Walter, quoted. 207, 208; I 
 describes the concourse at Ply- 
 mouth to view Napoleon, 246. 
 
 Soult, Marshal, his tergiversation, 
 108. 
 
 Talleyrand, Prince, letter to Metter- 
 
 nich about Marie Louise's stay at 
 Aix, 41 : letter of, to Louis XVIII. 
 upon the levity of Metternich, 
 5'.*: desires to withhold Parma 
 from Marie Louise, 73; letter of. 
 respecting Alexander I., 74, 7'i 
 ctsrq.; describes the Lenten 
 dissipations at Vienna, 7<S; ob- 
 tains the signatures of the Pow- 
 ers to the declaration of March 
 13, 113; sends Louis XVIII. the 
 Warning to tin Xati'ms, 114; 
 writes to Louis XVIII. respecting 
 de Montrond. 122; writes to Louis 
 XVIII. explaining the hostility of 
 Alexander I. to him, 121); reports 
 
 a conversation of Alexander I. 
 with Lord Clancarty, 129. 
 
 Tolentino, battle of, 134, 144; the 
 "prologue to Waterloo,'' 144. 
 
 Torbay. the Bellerophon with Na- 
 poleon at, 241 ; commotion in the 
 harbor of, 242. 
 
 Tournament during the Vienna 
 Congress, 58. 
 
 Tyrol, the, restored to Austria, 0. 
 
 Vicenza, the Duke of, pleads Na- 
 poleon's cause for regaining 
 possession of his wife and son, 
 
 no. 
 
 Victor Hugo, verses of, on Water- 
 loo, 155. 
 
 Vienna Congress, entry of the 
 sovereigns, 54 ; festivities of, 50. 
 
 " Vigil of Waterloo, The," 158. 
 
 Walewska, Countess, visits Napo- 
 leon at Elba. 43. 
 
 Warning to the Xations. the, 114. 
 
 Waterloo, Napoleon's plans before, 
 157; battle of, 1(51 et seq.; car- 
 nage after. 173. 
 
 Wellington's admiration of the 
 charges of the French cuirassiers, 
 H>5; his sadness after Waterloo, 
 170. 
 
 Werner, fashionable preacher at 
 Vienna, 70. 
 
 Wiirtemberg, Princess Cathariue 
 of, her fidelity to her husband, 
 275.
 
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