me, my dear marshal; I am glad to see you. I want no explanation or
justification: I have honoured and esteemed you as the bravest of the
brave."--"Sire, the newspapers have told a heap of lies, which I wish
to confute: my conduct has ever been that of a good soldier, and a
good Frenchman."--"I know it, and accordingly never doubted your
attachment."--"You were right, Sire. Your Majesty may always depend
upon me, when my country is concerned.... _It is for my country I have
shed my blood, and for it I would still spill it to the last drop. I
love you, Sire, but my country above all! above all._"--(The Emperor
interrupting him) "It is patriotism too, that brings me to France. I
learned, that our country was unhappy, and I am come to deliver it
from the emigrants and the Bourbons. I will confer upon it all that it
expects from me."--"Your Majesty may be assured, that we will support
you: he who acts with justice, may do what he pleases with the French.
The Bourbons have ruined themselves, by having wished to act as they
thought proper, and thrown aside the army."--"Princes who never saw a
naked sword could not honour the army: its glory humbled them, and
they were jealous of it."--"Yes, Sire, they incessantly sought to
humiliate us. I am still enraged, when I think, that a marshal of
France, an old warrior like me, was obliged to kneel down before
that ... of a Duke of B..... to receive the cross of St. Louis. It
could not last; and, if you had not come to expel them, we should have
driven them out ourselves[65]."--"How are your troops disposed?"--"Very
well, Sire; I thought they would have stifled me, when I announced to
them, that they were about to march to meet your eagles."--"What
generals are with you?"--"Le Courbe and Bourmont."--"Are you sure of
them?"--"I will answer for Le Courbe, but I am not so sure of
Bourmont."--"Why are they not come hither?"--"They showed some
hesitation, and I left them."--"Are you not afraid of Bourmont's
bestirring himself, and embarrassing you?"--"No, Sire, he will keep
himself quiet: besides, he would find nobody to second him. I have
expelled from the ranks all the light infantry of Louis XIV.[66], who
had been given to us, and all the country is fired with
enthusiasm."--"No matter, I shall not leave him any possibility of
disturbing us: you will direct him and the royalist officers to be
secured till we enter Paris. I shall be there without doubt by the
20th or 25th, and sooner. If we arrive, as I hope, without any
obstacle, do you think they will defend themselves"--"I do not think
they will, Sire: you know what the Parisians are, more noise than
work."--"I have received despatches from Paris this morning: the
patriots expect me with impatience, and are on the point of rising. I
am afraid of some quarrel taking place between them and the royalists.
I would not for the world, that my return should be stained with a
single drop of blood. It is easy for you, to hold communication with
Paris: write to your friends, write to Maret, that our affairs go on
well, that I shall arrive without firing a single musket; and let them
all unite, to prevent the spilling of blood. Our triumph should be as
pure, as the cause we serve." Generals Bertrand and Labedoyere, who
were present, then mixed in the conversation; and after a few minutes
the Emperor left them, and retired into his closet.
[Footnote 65: It is indisputable, in fact, that a
general insurrection, provoked by the oppressive
and senseless conduct of the government, was ready
to burst out, at the moment when Napoleon
re-appeared.
It is known, that France, wearied, disgusted, and
discontented with the new order of things, wished
heartily for a new revolution; and people had
united and concerted measures for preparing the
crisis, and causing it to turn to the advantage of
the country.
Some of the malecontents maintained, that the first
step should be, to shake off the insupportable
yoke, under which they were groaning, and then see
what was to be done: the majority formally declared
for the immediate recall of the Emperor, and were
desirous, that emissaries should be deputed to him,
or that vessels should be sent, to take him off
from the island of Elba.
The necessity of a change was unanimously agreed
upon, and they were endeavouring to settle the
rest, when the sudden arrival of Napoleon put an
end to the discussion.
After the 20th of March, the Emperor was made
acquainted with these projects of insurrection; and
knew that certain chiefs hesitated about having any
thing to do with him. "The leaders," said he,
"wished to take the business into their own hands,
and labour for themselves; now they pretend, that
they opened the way for me to Paris: I know better;
it was the nation, the people, the soldiers, and
the sub-lieutenants, who did all. It is to these,
and to these only, that I owe every thing."]
[Footnote 66: A nickname given to the emigrant
officers.]
He wrote to the Empress for the third time. This letter finished,
Napoleon turned his thoughts to the means of embarking a part of his
army, harassed by forced marches. He sent for the chief of the boat
department, required an account of the number of boats, the means of
preventing accidents, &c. He entered so minutely into particulars with
him, that the man could scarcely recover from his surprise, or
comprehend how an Emperor should know so much as a boatman. Napoleon
persisted in the speedy departure of his troops. Several times he
ordered me to go and hasten the embarkation: he was in the habit of
employing those about him for every thing that came into his head. His
genius knowing no bounds, he imagined, that we poor mortals ought
equally to know every thing, and do every thing.
The Emperor had given orders to his scouts, to bring him all the
mails; and he had appointed me, to examine their contents. I waged
implacable war with the correspondence of ministers; and if I
frequently found in it threats and abuse, of which I came in for my
share, it presented me at least with matters as important as curious.
I particularly remarked two secret instructions, the publication of
which, even now, would cover their authors with eternal disgrace. The
letters _comme il faut_ were equally revolting. Most of them, dictated
by frantic hatred, might have sanctioned the rigours of the law: but I
considered them as the offspring of brains to be pitied for their
diseased state, and contented myself with writing on them in large
letters, before I returned to the post-boy, a _Seen_; which, like the
head of Medusa, no doubt petrified more than one noble reader.
The darksome conspiracies of the enemies of Napoleon were not the only
objects, that met my indiscreet eyes. Sometimes I found myself
unintentionally initiated into gentler mysteries and my pen, by
mistake, traced the fatal _Seen_ at the bottom of epistles, which
should have charmed the sight only of the happy mortals, for whom love
had destined them.
It was from the newspapers, and the private correspondence, we
learned, that some Vendeans were set off from Paris, according to
their own account, with the design of assassinating the Emperor. A
paper, which it is unnecessary to name, even said, that these
gentlemen were disguised as soldiers, and as women, and that most
assuredly the Corsican could not escape them.
Though Napoleon did not appear to be uneasy about these criminal
plots, we were under apprehensions for him. Previously, when
travellers were desirous of telling him news, I stepped aside to enjoy
a few minutes' liberty: but from that time I never quitted him, and,
with my hand on my sword, I never for a moment lost sight of the eyes,
attitude, and gesture of the persons I admitted to his presence.
Count Bertrand, General Drouot, and the officers of his household,
equally redoubled their care and attention. But it seemed as if the
Emperor made a point of setting his murderers at defiance. That very
day he reviewed the 14th of the line in the public square, and
afterwards mixed with the people and the soldiers. In vain did we
endeavour to surround him; we were jostled with so much perseverance
and impetuosity, that it was impossible for us to remain close to him
for two minutes together. The way in which we were elbowed amused him
extremely: he laughed at our efforts, and, in order to brave us,
plunged himself still deeper amid the crowd that besieged us.
Our mistrust was nearly fatal to two of the enemy's emissaries.
One of them, a staff officer, came to offer us his services. Being
questioned, he scarcely knew what answers to make. His embarrassment
had already excited violent suspicions, when it was unfortunately
perceived, that he had on green pantaloons. This was sufficient to
convince every body, that he was one of the Artois guards in disguise.
Interrogated anew, he answered still more awkwardly; and, attainted
and convicted of being a highly suspicious person, and of wearing
green pantaloons to boot, he was on the point of being thrown out of
the window, when fortunately Count Bertrand happened to pass by, and
ordered him merely to be turned out at the door.
This officer of the new batch had not come to kill Napoleon; he had
only been sent to spy what passed at his head-quarters.
The same day witnessed another scene. A chef d'escadron of hussars,
adorned with a sabre-cut in the face, came also to join us. He met an
extraordinarily good reception, and was even invited to breakfast at
the table of the great officers of the household. In wine there is
truth; and the new comer, forgetting his part, explained himself so
clearly, that it was easy to distinguish in him a false brother. He
told us, that the national guard of Paris, and all the imperial guard,
were for the King: that every soldier, who retained his fidelity, had
a gift of a hundred francs, every officer a thousand, and was promoted
a step, &c. &c; that Napoleon had been outlawed, and that if he were
taken.... At these words Colonel ***, who sat next him, seized him by
the collar; every body was for knocking him on the head at once; I
alone was against it. "Gentlemen," said I, "the Emperor will not hear
of any blood being shed; you have sworn to give no quarter to
assassins, but this man is not one; he is no doubt a spy. We are not
afraid of them; let them go, and report what they have seen to those
who have sent them: let us all drink the health of our Emperor, Long
live the Emperor!" He was spitten upon, turned out, and we saw him no
more.
Another deserter from the royal army presented himself, to reveal an
important secret, as he said, to the Emperor. The Emperor, who knew no
secret but strength, would not waste time in listening to him, and
sent him to me. He was an officer of hussars, the friend and
accomplice of Maubreuil. He did not think me worthy of his secrets,
and I introduced him to the grand Marshal. The substance of what he
said was, that he, as well as Maubreuil, had been commissioned by the
provisional government, and by very great persons, to assassinate the
Emperor, at the time of his departure for the island of Elba: that he
held in execration such an execrable crime, and would not commit it;
and that, after having once saved the life of Napoleon, he came to
place himself near his person, to make a rampart for him with his body
in case of necessity. He delivered to the grand Marshal a memorial of
Maubreuil's, and divers papers, of which the Emperor directed me to
give him an account. I examined them all with the greatest care. They
proved incontestably, that mysterious rendezvous had been given to
Maubreuil in the name of the provisional government; but they
contained no clue, that could enable any one to penetrate the object
and end of these secret conferences: the names of those illustrious
personages, whom some persons have since been desirous of implicating
in this odious plot, were not even mentioned in them. This officer
reaped no benefit from his disclosures, real or pretended, and
disappeared.
From hearing so much of plots against his life, however, a painful
impression was at length made on the Emperor. "I cannot conceive,"
said he to me, "how men liable to fall into my hands can be
incessantly urging my assassination, and setting a price upon my head.
Had I wished to get rid of them by similar means, they would long ago
have been mingled with the dust. Like them, I could have found
Georges, Brularts, and Maubreuils. Twenty times, if I had wished it,
persons would have brought them to me bound hands and feet, dead or
alive. I had always the foolish generosity, to despise their rage: I
despise it still; but wo betide them, wo to all their infernal gang,
if they dare touch one of my people! My blood boils, when I think,
that they have dared, in the face of nations, to proscribe without
trial the thousands of Frenchmen, who are marching with us: is this
known to the army?"--"Yes, sire, some persons have had the imprudence,
to spread the report, that we are all proclaimed out of the protection
of the laws, and that some of the body guards and Chouans have set out
to assassinate you: accordingly, the troops have sworn, to give them
no quarter, and already two spies have with difficulty escaped being
knocked on the head before my eyes."--"So much the worse, so much the
worse; such are not my intentions. I wish not a single drop of French
blood to be shed, not a single gun to be fired. Girard[67] must be
desired to restrain his soldiers; write: "General Girard, I am
informed, that your troops, being acquainted with the decrees of
Paris, have resolved, by way of reprisals, to kill all the Royalists
they meet: you will meet none but Frenchmen; I forbid you to fire a
single musket: calm your soldiers; contradict the reports by which
they are exasperated; tell them, that I will not enter Paris at their
head, if their weapons be stained with French blood[68].""
[Footnote 67: He had just been appointed to the
command of the advanced guard.]
[Footnote 68: Napoleon had already given similar
orders to General Cambronne. The following is his
letter, which I reproach myself with not having
quoted. "General Cambronne, to you I entrust my
noblest campaign: all the French expect me with
impatience: every where you will find none but
friends: do not fire a single musket; I will not
have my crown cost the French a drop of blood."]
Ministers of the King, guilty authors of the parricidal ordinance of
the 6th of March, read this and blush!
The moment he was quitting Auxerre, the Emperor heard, that the
Marseillese appeared to have an intention of annoying his rear. He
gave orders to the general posted in echelon on the road, and set out
without fear.
In advance of Fossard, he perceived, drawn up in order of battle, the
dragoons of the King's regiment, who had deserted their officers, to
come and join him. He alighted, saluted them with that military
gravity, which so well became him, and bestowed on them compliments
and promotions. No regiment could escape us. When the officers
demurred, the soldiers came without them. I am wrong, however: there
was one regiment, the third of hussars, that the Emperor could not
bring over to him. The brave Moncey, who commanded it, was a man of
sound understanding, and his attachment to Napoleon, his ancient
benefactor, could not be doubted: but all men do not see with the same
eyes; some made their duty consist in running to meet Napoleon, Moncey
thought himself obliged to avoid him.
He had conjured his regiment, not to subject him to the disgrace of
being deserted. His officers and his hussars, by whom he was adored,
followed him, while they made the air ring with shouts of Long live
the Emperor! thinking thus to reconcile their respect for their
colonel with their devotion to the cause and person of Napoleon.
We were informed on the road, that two thousand of the body guards
were posted in the forest of Fontainbleau. Though this account was
improbable, it was thought necessary, not to cross the forest without
precaution. At our urgent solicitation, the Emperor took about two
hundred horse to accompany him. Hitherto his only escort had been the
carriage of General Drouot, which preceded his, and mine, which closed
the march. Colonels Germanouski and Du Champ, Captain Raoul, and three
or four Polanders, galloped by the side of them. Our horses, our
postillions, our couriers, with tricoloured ribands, gave our
peaceable party an air of festivity and happiness, that formed a
singular contrast to the proscription suspended over our heads, and to
the mourning and despair of the men who had proscribed us.
We marched almost all night, as the Emperor was desirous of reaching
Fontainbleau at break of day. I observed, that I thought it would be
imprudent in him, to alight at the castle. "You are a child," answered
he; "if any thing be to happen to me, all these precautions would be
of no avail. Our fate is written above:" and he pointed with his
finger to the sky[69].
[Footnote 69: Napoleon was a fatalist, and
superstitious; and made no secret of it. He
believed in lucky and unlucky days. We might be
astonished at this weakness, if we did not know,
that it was common to the greatest men both of
ancient and modern times.]
I had imagined, that the sight of the palace of Fontainbleau, the
place where he had so lately descended from the throne, and where he
now re-appeared as conqueror and sovereign, would make some impression
on him, and impel him to think of the fragility of human grandeur. I
watched him attentively; but he did not appear to me, to experience
any emotion. Immediately on his arrival, he rambled over the gardens
and the palace with as much pleasure and curiosity, as if he came to
take possession of them for the first time. Napoleon occupied the
little apartments, and complaisantly made me notice their extreme
elegance. He then led me to his library, and in going up, said with an
air of satisfaction, "We shall be very well here."--"Yes, sire,"
answered I, "people are always well at home." He smiled, and I believe
was pleased with my well-timed compliment.
At eleven o'clock he dictated to me the orders of the day; and these
orders announced, that we should sleep at Essonne. It was not till
noon, that the news of the King's departure was brought at once by a
courier from M. de Lavalette, by a letter from Madame Hamalin, and by
M. de Seg.... He sent for me immediately. "You will set out first," he
said, "to get every thing ready."--"It is to Essonne, I presume, your
Majesty orders me to repair?"--"No, to Paris. The King and the Princes
have fled. I shall be at the Tuileries this evening." He gave me some
secret directions, and I quitted Fontainbleau with a heart full of
happiness and joy. I had never doubted Napoleon's triumph; but from
hope to reality how great the distance!
In fact the King had quitted Paris.
The aspect of affairs had never changed since the royal session of the
17th of March. The minister, persevering in his system of falsehood
and dissimulation, still distorted the truth with the same impudence,
and did not cease to predict the approaching destruction of Napoleon
and his adherents. At length, after a thousand subterfuges, it became
necessary to confess, that Napoleon was within a few leagues of Paris.
The King, whom the minister had not been afraid to deceive, had
scarcely time to think of retreating. In this painful situation, he
displayed a strength of mind above all praise. His courage was not
that of a warlike prince, who defends his capital inch by inch, and
trembles with rage and despair when forced to quit it; but that of a
good father, who separates himself with regret from his children, and
from the roof under which they were born. The Bonapartists themselves,
who made a great distinction between the king and his family, were not
insensible to the tears of that august and unfortunate monarch, and
sincerely prayed, that his flight might be exempted from danger and
trouble.
It was supposed, that Napoleon would make a triumphal entry into his
capital. His old grenadiers, who had marched in seventeen days a
distance that would commonly require five-and-forty, seemed, as they
approached their object, to acquire fresh strength at every step. On
the road you might see them in agitation, pressing upon and
encouraging one another. They would have marched twenty leagues in an
hour, if necessary, not to be deprived of the honour of entering Paris
by the side of Napoleon. Their hopes were disappointed: the Emperor,
who had witnessed their fatigues, ordered them to take a day's rest
at Fontainbleau.
At two o'clock on the 20th of March, Napoleon set out for Paris.
Retarded by the crowd, that accumulated on his way, and by the
felicitations of the troops and the generals, who had run to meet him,
he could not reach it till nine in the evening. As soon as he
alighted, the people rushed on him; a thousand arms lifted him up, and
carried him along in triumph. Nothing could be more affecting than the
confused assembly of the crowd of officers and generals, who had
pressed into the apartments of the Tuileries at the heels of Napoleon.
Happy to see themselves once more triumphant, after so many
vicissitudes, humiliations, and disgusts, they forgot the majesty of
the place, to give themselves up without constraint to the desire of
expressing their happiness and joy. They ran to one another, and
hugged each other again and again. The halls of the palace seemed
metamorphosed into a field of battle, where friends, brothers,
unexpectedly escaped from death, found and embraced one another after
victory.
We had been so spoiled on the road, however, that the Emperor's
reception by the Parisians did not answer our expectations.
Multiplied shouts of "Long live the Emperor!" saluted him on his way;
but they wanted those characters of unanimity and frenzy, which were
displayed by the acclamations, that had accompanied him from the gulf
of Juan to the gates of Paris. It would be a mistake, however, to
infer, that the Parisians did not behold the return of Napoleon with
pleasure. We must only conclude, therefore, that the Emperor missed
the proper time for his entrance.
The people of great cities are eager for sights: to move their hearts,
you must astonish their eyes. If Napoleon, instead of traversing Paris
in the evening, and without being announced or expected, had put it
off till the next day, and allowed the disquietudes inseparable from
such a crisis time to be allayed; if he had given his entrance the
pomp and splendour it ought to have had; if he had caused the troops
and half-pay officers, who had hastened to his call, to march before
him; if he had presented himself at the head of his grenadiers of the
island of Elba, with all their decorations; if he had been surrounded
by Generals Bertrand, Drouot, Cambronne, and the faithful companions
of his exile; this grand and affecting train would have produced the
most lively sensation, and the whole population of Paris would have
applauded the return and the triumph of Napoleon. Instead of those
unanimous transports, he received only the applauses of the populous
part of the capital, that he had occasion to traverse; and his
detractors did not fail, to compare this reception with that of Louis
XVIII., and to publish, that he was obliged to enter Paris by night,
in order to escape the maledictions and vengeance of the public.
Napoleon, who had just travelled two hundred and fifty leagues amid
the acclamations of two millions of Frenchmen, could not be agitated
by any such fears; but it is well known with what confidence, what
intoxication, he was inspired by the anniversary of a victory or happy
event; and as the 20th of March was the birthday of his son, he
determined at all events to enter the capital under such fortunate
auspices.
The very evening of his arrival, Napoleon had a long conversation with
the Duke of Otranto, and the other dignitaries of the state, on the
situation of France. They all appeared intoxicated with happiness and
hope. The Emperor himself could not disguise his rapture: never did
I see him so madly gay, or so prodigal of boxes on the ear.[70] His
conversation savoured of the agitation of his heart: the same words
incessantly recurred to his tongue; and, it must be confessed, they
were not very flattering to the crowd of courtiers and great
personages, who already besieged him: he was continually saying: "It
was the disinterested persons, who brought me back to Paris; the
sub-lieutenants and soldiers did every thing; I owe all to the people
and the army."
[Footnote 70: This was Napoleon's favourite
compliment. The fonder he was of a person, the more
he gave him, and the harder he struck.]
That night and the following morning the Emperor was busied in the
choice and nomination of his ministers.
At their head Prince Cambaceres found himself placed. The system of
defamation directed against him had not altered the high
consideration, which he had acquired by his great wisdom, and constant
moderation. The Emperor offered him the port-folio of the minister of
justice, and was obliged to command him to accept it. His sagacity and
foresight, no doubt, presaged the fatal issue of the new reign of
Napoleon.
The Prince of Eckmuhl was named minister of war. By the harshness of
his manners, by acts of severity almost barbarous, he had formerly
drawn upon himself universal animadversions; his fidelity to the
Emperor, and his defence of Hamburgh, had subsequently conciliated
public opinion. The feebleness and versatility of his character indeed
excited some apprehensions; but it was hoped, that the Emperor would
know how to master him, and that the army would derive happy
advantages from his indefatigable zeal, and his strict probity.
The Duke of Vicenza[71] was placed at the helm of foreign affairs.
The rectitude of his principles, the firmness, nobleness, and
independence of his character, had justly acquired him the esteem of
France and of Europe; and his appointment was considered as a pledge
of the loyal and pacific intentions of Napoleon.