_As related by De Bausset_.
On the evening of April 8, 1814, De Bausset left Blois, commissioned by
Josephine to deliver at Paris, a letter to the Emperor of Austria, and
afterwards another at Fontainbleau to her husband. Having executed the
first part of this commission, he set out at two in the morning of the
11th of April for Fontainbleau, and arrived at the palace about nine
o'clock. He was introduced to Napoleon immediately, and gave him the
letter from the empress. "Good Louise!" exclaimed Napoleon, after having
read it, and then asked numerous questions as to her health and that of
his son. De Bausset expressed his wish to carry back an answer to the
empress, and Napoleon promised to give him a letter in the afternoon. He
was calm and decided; but his tones were milder, and his manners mere
gentle than was his wont. He began talking about Elba, and showed to De
B. the maps and books of geography which he had been consulting on the
subject of his future little empire. "The air is good," said he, "and the
inhabitants well-disposed: I shall not be very ill off there, and I hope
Marie-Louise will put up with it as well as I shall." He knew that for
the present they were not to meet, but his hope was that when she was
once in the possession of the duchy of Parma, she and his son would be
allowed to reside with him in the island. But he never saw either again.
The prince of Neufchâtel, Berthier, entered the room to demand permission
to go to Paris on his private affairs; he would return the next day.
After he had left the room, Napoleon said with a melancholy
tone:--"Never! he will never return hither!" "What, sire!" replied Maret,
who was present, "can that be the farewell of your Berthier?" "Yes! I
tell you; he will not return." He did not. At two o'clock in the
afternoon Napoleon sent again for De Bausset. He was walking on the
terrace under the gallery of Francis I. He questioned De B. as to all he
had seen or heard during the late events; he found great fault with the
measure adopted by the council in leaving Paris; the letter to his
brother, upon which they acted, had been written under very different
circumstances; the presence of Louise at Paris would have prevented the
treason and defection of many of his soldiers, and he should still have
been at the head of a formidable army, with which he could have forced
his enemies to quit France and sign an honourable peace. De B. expressed
his regret that peace had not been made at Châtillon. "I never could put
any confidence," said Napoleon, "in the good faith of our enemies. Every
day they made fresh demands, imposed fresh conditions; they did not wish
to have peace--and then--I had declared publicly to all France that I
would not submit to humiliating terms, although the enemy were on the
heights of Montmartre." De B. remarked that France within the Rhine would
be one of the finest kingdoms in the world; on which Napoleon, after a
pause, said--"I abdicate; but I yield nothing." He ran rapidly over the
characters of his principal officers, but dwelt on that of Macdonald.
"Macdonald," said he, "is a brave and faithful soldier; it is only during
these late events that I have fully appreciated his Worth; his connexion
with Moreau prejudiced me against him: but I did him injustice, and I
regret much that I did not know him better." Napoleon paused; then after
a minute's silence--"See," said he, "what our life is! In the action at
Arcis-sur-Aube I fought with desperation, and asked nothing but to die
for my country. My clothes were torn to pieces by musket balls--but alas!
not one could touch my person! A death which I should owe to an act of
despair would be cowardly; suicide does not suit my principles nor the
rank I have holden in the world. I am a man condemned to live." He sighed
almost to sobbing;--then, after several minutes' silence, he said with a
bitter smile--"After all they say, a living camp-boy is worth more than a
dead emperor,"--and immediately retired into the palace. It was the last
time De Bausset ever saw his master.
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