CHAPTER LXXXIV.

_Carnot's Memorial on Public Affairs--Fouché joins the

Jacobins--Projects of that Party; which finally joins the

Buonapartists--Active Intrigues--Congress of Vienna--Murat, alarmed

at its proceedings, opens an intercourse with Napoleon--Plans of the

Conspirators--Buonaparte's Escape from Elba--He lands at Cannes--Is

joined at Grenoble, by 3000 Troops--Halts at Lyons, appoints a

Ministry, and issues several Decrees--Dismay of the

Government--Intrigues of Fouché--Treachery of Ney--Revolt of the

Royal Army at Melun--The King leaves Paris and Buonaparte arrives

there--His Reception._

Carnot has been repeatedly mentioned in this history as having been the

associate and colleague of Robespierre during the whole Reign of Terror.

His admirers pretend, that charging himself only with the conduct of the

foreign war, he left to his brethren of the Committee of Public Safety

the sole charge of those measures, for which no human language affords

epithets of sufficient horror, through which they originally rose to

power, and by which they maintained it. According to these fond

advocates, their hero held his course through the Reign of Terror,

unsullied by a bloody spot, as Arethusa rolled her waters through the

ocean without mingling with its waves; and the faith of most readers

will swallow the ancient miracle as easily as the modern. Carnot,

however, had the independence of spirit to oppose Napoleon's seizure of

the throne, and remained in obscurity until 1814, when he employed his

talents as an engineer in defence of Antwerp. He gave in, late and

reluctantly, his adherence to the restoration, and was confirmed in his

rank of inspector-general of engineers. But this did not prevent him

from being extremely active in conspiring the downfall of the monarch to

whose allegiance he had submitted himself, and who afforded him

subsistence and rank.

[Sidenote: CARNOT'S MEMORIAL.]

Carnot gave his opinion upon public affairs in a "Memorial to his most

Christian Majesty," made public in October, 1814, which was at once an

apology for the Jacobin party, and a direct attack on the reigning

dynasty. This document we must necessarily consider at some length, as

it conveys the ostensible reasons on which the author, and many

thousands besides, having in their anxious consideration the interests

of the freedom of France, thought these interests would be best provided

for by destroying the sway of a mild and somewhat feeble monarch, whose

reign was identified with peace and tranquillity, in order to recall to

the throne an absolute sovereign, ruling on military principles only,

and whose first step under the canopy of state must necessarily be

followed by war with all Europe.

In this singular, and, as it proved, too effective production, every

fault committed by the restored family is exaggerated; and they, with

the nobles, their personal adherents, are, under a thin and contemptuous

veil of assumed respect towards the King, treated alike as fools, who

did not understand how to govern France, and as villains, who meditated

her ruin. The murder of the King is, with irony as envenomed as unjust,

stated to have been occasioned, not by the violence and cruelty of his

persecutors, but by the pusillanimity of his nobility, who first

provoked the resentment of the nation, and then fled from the kingdom,

when, if they had loved their sovereign, they should have rallied around

him.[85] This plea, in the mouth of a regicide, is as if one of a band

of robbers should impute an assassination not to their own guilty

violence, but to the cowardice of the domestics of the murdered, by whom

that violence might have been resisted.

No one also knew better than Carnot by what arts Louis XVI. was induced

by degrees to abandon all means of defence which his situation afforded

him, and to throw himself upon the sworn faith and allegiance of those

by whom he was condemned to death. As whimsical and unlogical were the

examples and arguments referred to by Carnot in support of the

condemnation of Louis. Cicero, it seems, says in his Offices, "We hate

all those we fear, and we wish for the death of those we hate." On this

comprehensive ground, Carnot vindicates the orator's approbation of the

death of Cæsar, notwithstanding the clemency of the usurper; "and Cato,

indeed" (continues the colleague of Robespierre,) "went farther, and did

not think it possible there should be a good king." Of course, not Louis

XVI. alone, but all monarchs, might be justly put to death in Carnot's

estimation; because they are naturally the objects of fear to their

subjects--because we hate those we fear--and because, according to the

kindred authority of Shylock, no man "hates the thing he would not

kill."[86] The doctrine of regicide is said to be confirmed in the Old

Testament; families were massacred--monarchs proscribed--intolerance

promulgated, by the ministers of a merciful deity: Wherefore, then,

should not the Jacobins put Louis XVI. to death? If it was alleged, that

the persons of Kings were inviolable by the laws of all civil

governments, those of usurpers certainly were not so protected; and what

means were there, said Carnot, for positively distinguishing between an

usurper and a legitimate king?--The difficulty of making such a

distinction was no doubt a sufficient vindication of the judges of Louis

XVI.

Trash like this had scarce been written since the club-room of the

Jacobins was closed. But the object of Carnot's pamphlet was not to

excuse a deed (which he would probably have rather boasted of as

laudable,) but by the exaggerations of his eloquence, and the weight of

his influence with the public, to animate the fury of the other parties

against the Bourbons and their adherents. The King was charged with

having been ungrateful to the call of the nation--(a call which

assuredly he would never have heard but for the cannon of the

allies,)--with having termed himself King by the grace of God--with

resigning Belgium when Carnot was actually governor of Antwerp--with

preferring Chouans, Vendéans, emigrants, Cossacks, or Englishmen, to the

soldiers whose victories had kept him in exile, and in consequence of

whose defeat alone he had regained the throne of his fathers. The

emigrants are represented as an exasperated, yet a contemptible faction.

The people, it is said, care little about the right of their

rulers--about their quarrels--their private life, or even their

political crimes, unless as they affect themselves. All government, of

course, has its basis in popular opinion; but, alas! in actual history,

"the people are only regarded," says M. Carnot, "as the victims of their

chiefs; we witness nothing but the contest of subjects for the private

interest of their princes--kings, who are themselves regicides and

parricides--and priests who incite mankind to mutual slaughter. The eye

can but repose on the generous efforts of some brave men who consecrate

themselves to the deliverance of their fellow-countrymen; if they

succeed, they are called heroes--if they fail, they are traitors and

demagogues." In this and other passages, the author plainly intimated

what spirits were at work, and what was the object of their

machinations. The whole pamphlet was designed as a manifesto to the

French public, darkly, yet distinctly, announcing the existence of a

formidable conspiracy, the principles on which its members proceeded,

and their grounds for expecting success.

[Sidenote: CARNOT'S MEMORIAL--FOUCHÉ.]

Carnot himself affected to say, that the Memorial was only designed for

circulation among his private connexions.[87] But it would not have

answered the intended purpose had it not been printed and dispersed with

the most uncommon assiduity. Small carts traversed the _boulevards_,

from which it was hawked about among the people, in order to avoid the

penalties which booksellers and stationers might have incurred by

dealing in an article so inflammatory. Notwithstanding these evasions,

the printers and retailers of this diatribe were prosecuted by

government; but the _Cour d'Instruction_ refused to confirm the bill of

indictment, and this failure served to encourage the Jacobin faction.

The official proceedings, by which the ministers endeavoured to suppress

the publication, irritated rather than intimidated those who took

interest in it. It argued, they said, at once a timorous and a

vindictive spirit to oppress the inferior agents in an alleged libel,

while the ministers dared not bring to trial the avowed author.[88] In

this unquestionably they argued justly; for the measures corresponded

with that paltry policy, which would rather assail the liberty of the

press, than bring to fair trial and open punishment those by whom it is

misused.

It would have been as impossible for Fouché to have lived amid such a

complicated scene of political intrigue, without mingling in it, as for

the sparks to resist flying upwards. He was, however, ill-placed for the

character he desired to act. After having lent Buonaparte his aid to

betray and dethrone the Directors, he had long meditated how to dethrone

and betray Buonaparte, and substitute in his place a regency, or some

form of government under which he might expect to act as prime minister.

In this undertaking, he more than once ran the peril of life, and was

glad to escape with an honourable exile. We have already stated that he

had missed the most favourable opportunity for availing himself of his

political knowledge, by his absence from Paris when it was taken by the

allies. Fouché endeavoured, however, to obtain the notice of the

restored monarch and his government, and to render his services

acceptable to Louis. When the celebrated Revolutionist appeared in the

antechamber on his first attendance at court, he observed a sneer on the

countenance of some Royalists who were in waiting, and took the hint to

read them a lesson, showing, that a minister of police, even when he has

lost his office, is not a person to be jested with. "You, sir," said he

to a gentleman, "seem proud of the lilies with which you are adorned. Do

you recollect the language you held respecting the Bourbon family some

time since in such a company?--And you, madam," he continued, addressing

a lady, "to whom I gave a passport to England, may perhaps wish to be

reminded of what then passed betwixt us on the subject of Louis XVIII."

The laughers were conscience-struck, and Fouché was introduced into the

cabinet.

The plan which Fouché recommended to the King was, as might have been

expected, astucious and artificial in a high degree. He advised the King

to assume the national cockade and three-coloured flag; to occupy the

situation of chief of the Revolution. This, he said, would be the same

sacrifice by Louis XVIII. as the attending on the mass by Henry IV.--He

might have added, it was the sacrifice actually made by Louis XVI., who

lost his life in requital.--What Fouché aimed at by this action is

evident. He desired to place the King in a situation where he must have

relied exclusively on the men of the Revolution, with whom he could not

have communicated save by the medium of the Duc d'Otranto, who thus

would become prime minister at the first step. But in every other point

of view, the following that advice must have placed the King in a mean

and hypocritical attitude, which must have disgusted even those whom it

was adopted to conciliate.

By assuming the colours of the Revolution, the King of France must

necessarily have stained himself with the variation of each of its

numerous changes. It is true that the Revolution had produced many

excellent improvements in France, affecting both the theory and the

practice of government. These the sovereign was bound carefully to

preserve for the advantage of the nation. But while we are grateful for

the advantages of increased health and fertility that may follow a

tornado, and treasure up the valuable things which an angry ocean may

cast upon the shore, none but a blinded heathen worships the tempest, or

sacrifices to the furious waves. The King, courting the murderers of his

brother, could inspire, even in them, nothing save disgust at his

hypocrisy, while it would justly have forfeited the esteem and

affection, not of the royalists alone, but of all honest men.

Further to recommend himself to the Bourbons, Fouché addressed a

singular epistle to Napoleon, in which he endeavoured to convince him,

that the title of sovereign, in the paltry islet of Elba, did not become

him who had possessed an immense empire. He remarked to Napoleon, that

the situation of the island was not suitable to his purpose of

retirement, being near so many points where his presence might produce

dangerous agitation. He observed that he might be accused, although he

was not criminal, and do evil without intending it, by spreading alarm.

He hinted that the King of France, however determined to act with

justice, yet might be instigated by the passions of others to break

through that rule. He told the Ex-Emperor of France, that the titles

which he retained were only calculated to augment his regret for the

loss of real sovereignty. Nay, that they were attended with positive

danger, since it might be thought they were retained only to keep alive

his pretensions. Lastly, he exhorted Napoleon to assume the character of

a private individual, and retire to the United States of America, the

country of Franklin, Washington, and Jefferson.[89]

Fouché could scarcely expect that this monitory epistle should have much

effect upon his once imperial master; he knew human nature and

Buonaparte too well. But as it might tell to advantage with the royal

family, he sent a copy of it to Monsieur, with a corresponding

commentary, the object of which was to point out (what, indeed,

circumstances had made evident,) that the tranquillity of the countries

and sovereigns of Europe could never be secured while Napoleon remained

in his present condition, and that his residence in the isle of Elba was

to France what Vesuvius is to Naples.[90] The practical inference to be

derived from this was, that a gentle degree of violence to remove the

person of Napoleon would have been a stroke of state policy, in case the

Ex-Emperor of France should not himself have the patriotic virtue to

remove himself to America. The honourable and generous prince, to whom

Fouché had addressed himself, had too noble a mind to adopt the hint;

and this attempt to ingratiate himself with the Bourbon family entirely

failed. But plotting was Fouché's element; and it seems to have

signified little to him whom he had for partners, providing he had a

stake in the political game. He retired to his country-house, and

engaged himself with his old friends of the Jacobin party, who were not

a little glad to avail themselves of his extensive acquaintance with all

the ramifications of political intrigue.

[Sidenote: PROJECTS OF THE JACOBINS.]

It was the policy of this party to insist upon the faults of the royal

family, and enlarge on their prejudices against the men and measures of

that period when France was successful in foreign war, against the

statesman who directed, and the soldiers who achieved her gigantic

enterprises. The King, they said, had suffered misfortune without having

learned wisdom; he was incapable of stepping beyond the circle of his

Gothic prejudices; France had received him from the hand of foreign

conquerors, surrounded by an emaciated group of mendicant nobles, whose

pretensions were as antiquated and absurd as their decorations and

manners. His government went to divide, they alleged, the French into

two classes, opposed to each other in merits as in interests;--the

emigrants, who alone were regarded by Louis as faithful and willing

subjects; and the rest of the nation, in whom the Bourbons saw, at best,

but repentant rebels. They asserted, that, too timid as yet to strike an

open blow, the King and his ministers sought every means to disqualify

and displace all who had taken any active share in the events of the

Revolution, and to evade the general promise of amnesty. Under pretext

of national economy, they were disbanding the army, and removing the

officers of government--depriving thus the military and civil servants

of France of the provision which their long services had earned. Louis,

they said, had insulted the glory of France, and humiliated her heroes,

by renouncing the colours and symbols under which twenty-five years had

seen her victorious; he had rudely refused a crown offered to him by the

people, and snatched it as his own right by inheritance, as if the

dominion of men could be transferred from father to son like the

property of a flock of sheep. The right of Frenchmen to choose their own

ruler was hereditary and imprescriptible; and the nation, they said,

must assert it, or sink to be the contempt, instead of being the pride

at once and dread of Europe.

Such was the language which nettled, while it alarmed, the idle

Parisians, who forgot at the moment that they had seen Napoleon take the

crown from the altar at Notre Dame, and place it on his own head, with

scarcely an acknowledgment to God, and not the shadow of any towards the

nation. The departments were assailed by other arts of instigation. The

chief of these was directed to excite the jealousy, so often alluded to,

concerning the security of the property of national domains. Not content

with urging everywhere that a revocation of the lands of the Church and

emigrants was impending over the present proprietors, and that the

clergy and nobles did not even deign to conceal their hopes and designs,

a singular device was in many instances practised to enforce the belief

of such assertions. Secret agents were despatched into the departments

where property was advertised for sale. These emissaries made inquiries

as if in the character of intending purchasers, and where the property

appeared to have been derived from revolutionary confiscation, instantly

objected to the security as good for nothing, and withdrew their

pretended offers;--thus impressing the proprietor, and all in the same

situation, with the unavoidable belief, that such title was considered

as invalid, owing to the expected and menaced revocation of the Bourbon

government.

It is generally believed that Buonaparte was not originally the object

designed to profit by these intrigues. He was feared and hated by the

Jacobin party, who knew what a slender chance his iron government

afforded of their again attempting to rear their fantastic fabrics,

whether of a pure republic, or a republican monarchy. It is supposed

their eyes were turned in preference towards the Duke of Orleans. They

reckoned probably on the strength of the temptation, and they thought,

that in supplanting Louis XVIII., and placing his kinsman in his room,

they would obtain, on the one hand, a king who should hold his power by

and through the Revolution, and, on the other, that they would

conciliate both foreign powers and the constitutionalists at home, by

choosing their sovereign out of the family of Bourbon. The more cautious

of those concerned in the intrigue, recommended that nothing should be

attempted during the life of the reigning monarch; others were more

impatient and less cautious; and the prince alluded to received an

intimation of their plan in an unsigned billet, containing only these

words--"We will act it without you; we will act it in spite of you; we

will act it FOR you;"[91] as if putting it in his choice to be the

leader or victim of the intended revolution.

[Sidenote: JACOBINS--BUONAPARTISTS.]

The Duke of Orleans was too upright and honourable to be involved in

this dark and mysterious scheme; he put the letter which he had received

into the hands of the King, and acted otherwise with so much prudence,

as to destroy all the hopes which the revolutionary party had founded

upon him. It was necessary to find out some other central point. Some

proposed Eugene Beauharnois as the hero of the projected movement;[92]

some projected a provisional government; and others desired that the

republican model should be once more adopted. But none of these plans

were likely to be favoured by the army. The cry of _Vive la Republique_

had become antiquated; the power once possessed by the Jacobins of

creating popular commotion was greatly diminished; and although the army

was devoted to Buonaparte, yet it was probable that in a civil commotion

in which he had no interest, they would follow the maréchals or generals

who commanded them, in opposition to any insurrection merely

revolutionary. If, on the contrary, the interests of Napoleon were put

in the van, there was no fear of securing the irresistible assistance of

the standing army. If he came back with the same principles of absolute

power which he had formerly entertained, still the Jacobins would get

rid of Louis and the charter, the two chief objects of their hatred; the

former as a King given by the law, the latter as a law given by the

King.

These considerations speedily determined the Jacobin party on a union

with the Buonapartists. The former were in the condition of a band of

housebreakers, who, unable to force an entrance into the house which

they have the purpose to break into, renew their undertaking, and place

at their head a brother of the same profession, because he has the

advantage of having a crow-bar in his hand. When and how this league

was formed--what sanction the Jacobin party obtained that Buonaparte,

dethroned as a military despot, was to resume his dignity under

constitutional restrictions, we have no opportunity of knowing. But so

soon as the coalition was formed, his praises were sung forth on all

sides, especially by many who had been, as Jacobins, his most decided

enemies; and a great part of the French public were disposed to think of

Buonaparte at Elba more favourably than Napoleon in the Tuileries.

Gradually, even from the novelty and peculiarity of his situation, he

began to excite a very different interest from that which attached to

the despot who levied so many conscriptions, and sacrificed to his

ambition so many millions of victims. Every instance of his activity,

within the little circle of his dominions, was contrasted by his

admirers with the constitutional inertness of the restored monarch.

Excelling as much in the arts of peace as in those of war, it wanted but

(they said) the fostering hand and unwearied eye of Napoleon to have

rendered France the envy of the universe, had his military affairs

permitted the leisure and opportunity which the Bourbons now enjoyed.

These allegations, secretly insinuated, and at length loudly murmured,

had their usual effects upon the fickle temper of the public; and, as

the temporary enthusiasm in favour of the Bourbons faded into

indifference and aversion, the general horror of Buonaparte's ambitious

and tyrannical disposition began to give way to the recollection of his

active, energetic, and enterprising qualities.

This change must soon have been known to him who was its object. An

expression is said to have escaped from him during his passage to Elba,

which marked at least a secret feeling that he might one day recover the

high dignity from which he had fallen. "If Marius," he observed, "had

slain himself in the marshes of Minturnæ, he would never have enjoyed

his seventh consulate." What was perhaps originally but the vague

aspirations of an ardent spirit striving against adversity, became, from

the circumstances of France, a plausible and well-grounded hope. It

required but to establish communications among his numerous and zealous

partisans, with instructions to hold out such hopes as might lure the

Jacobins to his standard, and to profit by and inflame the growing

discontents and divisions of France; and a conspiracy was almost ready

formed, with little exertion on the part of him who soon became its

object and its centre.

Various affiliations and points of rendezvous were now arranged to

recruit for partisans. The ladies of the Ex-Emperor's court, who found

themselves humiliated at that of the King by the preference assigned to

noble birth, were zealous agents in these political intrigues, for

offended pride hesitates at no measures for obtaining vengeance. The

purses of their husbands and lovers were of course open to these fair

intriguers, and many of them devoted their jewels to forward the cause

of Revolution. The chief of these female conspirators was Hortensia

Beauharnois, wife of Louis Buonaparte, but now separated from her

husband, and bearing the title of the Duchess of Saint Leu. She was a

person of considerable talents, and of great activity and address. At

Nanterre, Neuilly, and Saint Leu, meetings of the conspirators were

held, and Madame Hamelin, the confidant of the duchess, is said to have

assisted in concealing some of the principal agents.

The Duchess of Bassano, and the Duchess of Montebello (widow of Maréchal

Lannes,) were warmly engaged in the same cause. At the meetings held in

the houses of these intriguing females, the whole artillery of

conspiracy was forged and put in order, from the political lie, which

does its work if believed but for an hour, to the political song or

squib, which, like the fire-work from which it derives its name,

expresses love of frolic or of mischief, according to the nature of the

materials amongst which it is thrown. From these places of rendezvous

the agents of the plot sallied out upon their respective rounds,

furnished with every lure that could rouse the suspicious landholder,

attract the idle Parisian, seduce the _Ideologue_, who longed to try the

experiments of his Utopian theories upon real government, and above all,

secure the military--from the officer, before whose eyes truncheons,

coronets, and even crowns, were disposed in ideal prospect, to the

grenadier, whose hopes only aimed at blood, brandy, and free quarters.

[Sidenote: RICHARD LE NOIR.]

The lower orders of the populace, particularly those inhabiting the two

great suburbs of Saint Marceau and Saint Antoine, were disposed to the

cause from their natural restlessness and desire of change; from the

apprehension that the King would discontinue the expensive buildings in

which Buonaparte was wont to employ them; from a Jacobinical dislike to

the lawful title of Louis, joined to some tender aspirations after the

happy days of liberty and equality; and lastly, from the disposition

which the lees of society every where manifest to get rid of the law,

their natural curb and enemy. The influence of Richard le Noir was

particularly useful to the conspirators. He was a wealthy

cotton-manufacturer, who combined and disciplined no less than three

thousand workmen in his employment, so as to be ready at the first

signal of the conspirators. Le Noir was called by the Royalists Santerre

the Second; being said to aspire, like that celebrated suburban brewer,

to become a general of Sans Culottes. He was bound to Buonaparte's

interest by his daughter having married General Lefebvre Desnouettes,

who was not the less the favourite of Napoleon that he had broken his

parole, and fled from England when a prisoner of war. Thus agitated like

a lake by a subterranean earthquake, revolutionary movements began to

show themselves amongst the populace. At times, under pretence of

scarcity of bread or employment, tumultuous groups assembled on the

terrace of the Tuileries, with clamours which reminded the Duchess

D'Angoulême of those that preceded the imprisonment and death of her

parents. The police dispersed them for the moment; but if any arrests

were made, it was only of such wretches as shouted when they heard

others shout, and no efforts were made to ascertain the real cause of

symptoms so alarming.

The police of Paris was at this time under the direction of M. D'André,

formerly a financier. His loyalty does not seem to have been doubted,

but his prudence and activity are very questionable; nor does he seem

ever to have been completely master either of the duties of his office,

or the tools by which it was to be performed. These tools, in other

words, the subordinate agents and officers and clerks, the whole

machinery as it were of the police, had remained unchanged since that

dreadful power was administered by Savary, Buonaparte's head spy and

confidential minister. This body, as well as the army, felt that their

honourable occupation was declined in emolument and importance since the

fall of Buonaparte, and looked back with regret to the days when they

were employed in agencies, dark, secret, and well-recompensed, unknown

to a peaceful and constitutional administration. Like evil spirits

employed by the spells of a benevolent enchanter, these police officers

seem to have served the King grudgingly and unwillingly; to have

neglected their duty, when that could be done with impunity; and to have

shown that they had lost their activity and omniscience, so soon as

embarked in the service of legitimate monarchy.

Under the connivance, therefore, if not with the approbation of the

police, conspiracy assumed a more open and daring aspect. Several houses

of dubious fame, but especially the Café Montaussier, in the Palais

Royal, were chosen as places of rendezvous for the subordinate

satellites of the cause, where the toasts given, the songs sung, the

tunes performed, and the language held, all bore allusion to

Buonaparte's glories, his regretted absence, and his desired return. To

express their hopes that this event would take place in the spring, the

conspirators adopted for their symbol the violet; and afterwards applied

to Buonaparte himself the name of Corporal Violet. The flower and the

colour were publicly worn as a party distinction, before it would seem

the court had taken the least alarm; and the health of Buonaparte, under

the name of Corporal Violet, or Jean d'Epée, was pledged by many a

Royalist without suspicion of the concealed meaning.

Paris was the centre of the conspiracy; but its ramifications extended

through France. Clubs were formed in the chief provincial towns. Regular

correspondences were established between them and the capital--an

intercourse much favoured, it has been asserted, by Lavalette, who,

having been long director-general of the posts under Buonaparte,

retained considerable influence over the subordinate agents of that

department, none of whom had been displaced upon the King's return. It

appears from the evidence of M. Ferrand, director-general under the

King, that the couriers, who, like the soldiers and police officers, had

found more advantage under the imperial than under the royal government,

were several of them in the interest of their old master. And it is

averred, that the correspondence relating to the conspiracy was carried

on through the royal post-office, contained in letters sealed with the

King's seal, and despatched by public messengers wearing his livery.

Such open demonstrations of treasonable practices did not escape the

observation of the Royalists, and they appear to have been communicated

to the ministers from different quarters. Nay, it has been confidently

stated, that letters, containing information of Napoleon's intended

escape, were actually found in the bureau of one minister, unopened and

unread. Indeed, each of these official personages seems scrupulously to

have intrenched himself within the routine of his own particular

department, so that what was only of general import to the whole, was

not considered as the business of any one in particular. Thus, when the

stunning catastrophe had happened, each endeavoured to shift the blame

from himself, like the domestics in a large and ill-regulated family;

and although all acknowledged that gross negligence had existed

elsewhere, no one admitted that the fault lay with himself. This general

infatuation surprises us upon retrospect; but Heaven, who frequently

punishes mankind by the indulgence of their own foolish or wicked

desires, had decreed that peace was to be restored to Europe, by the

extermination of that army to whom peace was a state so odious; and for

that purpose it was necessary that they should be successful in their

desperate attempt to dethrone their peaceful and constitutional

sovereign, and to reinstate the despotic leader, who was soon to lead

them to the completion of their destiny, and of his own.

While the royal government in France was thus gradually undermined and

prepared for an explosion, the rest of Europe resembled an ocean in the

act of settling after a mighty storm, when the partial wrecks are

visible, heaving on the subsiding swell, which threatens yet farther

damage ere it be entirely lulled to rest.

[Sidenote: CONGRESS OF VIENNA.]

The Congress of representatives of the principal states of Europe had

met at Vienna, in order to arrange the confused and complicated

interests which had arisen out of so prolonged a period of war and

alteration. The lapse of twenty-five years of constant war and general

change had made so total an alteration, not merely in the social

relations and relative powers of the states of Europe, but in the

habits, sentiments, and principles of the inhabitants, that it appeared

altogether impossible to restore the original system as it existed

before 1792. The continent resembled the wrecks of the city of London

after the great conflagration in 1666, when the boundaries of individual

property were so completely obliterated and confounded, that the king

found himself obliged, by the urgency of the occasion, to make new, and

in some degree arbitrary, distributions of the ground, in order to

rebuild the streets upon a plan more regular, and better fitted to the

improved condition of the age. That which proved ultimately an advantage

to London, may perhaps produce similar good consequences to the

civilized world, and a better and more permanent order of things may be

expected to arise out of that which has been destroyed. In that case,

the next generation may reap the advantages of the storms with which

their fathers had to contend. We are, however, far from approving of

some of the unceremonious appropriations of territory which were made

upon this occasion, which, did our limits admit of entering into the

discussion, carried, we think, the use of superior force to a much

greater extent than could be justified on the principles upon which the

allies acted.

Amid the labours of the Congress, their attention was turned on the

condition of the kingdom of Naples; and it was urged by Talleyrand, in

particular, that allowing the existence of the sovereignty of Murat in

that beautiful kingdom, was preserving, at the risk of future danger to

Europe, an empire, founded on Napoleon's principles, and governed by his

brother-in-law. It was answered truly, that it was too late to challenge

the foundation of Murat's right of sovereignty, after having gladly

accepted and availed themselves of his assistance, in the war against

Buonaparte. Talleyrand, by exhibiting to the Duke of Wellington a train

of correspondence[93] between Buonaparte, his sister Caroline, and

Murat, endeavoured to show that the latter was insincere, when seeming

to act in concert with the allies. The Duke was of opinion, that the

letters did not prove treachery, though they indicated what was to be

expected, that Murat took part against his brother-in-law and

benefactor, with considerable reluctance. The matter was now in

agitation before the Congress; and Murat, conceiving his power in

danger, seems to have adopted the rash expedient of changing sides once

more, and again to have renewed his intercourse with Napoleon. The

contiguity of Elba to Naples rendered this a matter of little

difficulty; and they had, besides, the active assistance of Pauline, who

went and came between Italy and her brother's little court. Napoleon,

however, at all times resolutely denied that he had any precise share or

knowledge of the enterprise which Murat meditated.

The King of France, in the meanwhile, recalled by proclamation all

Frenchmen who were in the Neapolitan service, and directed the title of

King Joachim to be omitted in the royal almanack.

Murat, alarmed at this indication of hostile intentions, carried on a

secret correspondence with France, in the course of which a letter was

intercepted, directed to the King of Naples, from General Excelsman,

professing, in his own name and that of others, devoted attachment, and

assuring him that thousands of officers, formed in his school and under

his eye, would have been ready at his call, had not matters taken a

satisfactory turn. In consequence of this letter, Excelsman was in the

first place put on half-pay and sent from Paris, which order he refused

to obey. Next he was tried before a court-martial, and triumphantly

acquitted. He was admitted to kiss the king's hand, and swear to him

fidelity _à toutes épreuves_. How he kept his word will presently

appear. In the meantime the King had need of faithful adherents, for the

nets of conspiracy were closing fast around him.

[Sidenote: ESCAPE FROM ELBA.]

The plot formed against Louis XVIII. comprehended two enterprises. The

first was to be achieved by the landing of Napoleon from Elba, when the

universal good-will of the soldiers, the awe inspired by his name and

character, and the suspicions and insinuations spread widely against the

Bourbons, together with the hope of recovering what the nation

considered as the lost glory of France, were certain to insure him a

general good reception. A second, or subordinate branch of the

conspiracy, concerned the insurrection of a body of troops under General

L'Allemand, who were quartered in the north-east of France, and to whom

was committed the charge of intercepting the retreat of the King and

royal family from Paris, and, seizing them, to detain them as hostages

at the restored Emperor's pleasure.

It is impossible to know at what particular period of his residence in

Elba, Napoleon gave an express consent to what was proposed, and

disposed himself to assume the part destined for him in the

extraordinary drama. We should suppose, however, his resolution was

adopted about that time when his manner changed completely towards the

British envoy residing at his little court, and when he assumed the airs

of inaccessible and imperial state, to keep at a distance, as an

inconvenient observer, Sir Niel Campbell, to whom he had before seemed

rather partial. His motions after that time have been described, so far

as we have access to know them. It was on Sunday, 26th February, that

Napoleon embarked with his guards on board the flotilla, consisting of

the Inconstant brig, and six other small vessels, upon one of the most

extraordinary and adventurous expeditions that was ever attempted.[94]

The force, with which he was once more to change the fortunes of France,

amounted but to about a thousand men. To keep the undertaking secret,

his sister Pauline gave a ball on the night of his departure, and the

officers were unexpectedly summoned, after leaving the entertainment, to

go on board the little squadron.

In his passage Napoleon encountered two great risks. The first was from

meeting a royal French frigate,[95] who hailed the Inconstant. The

guards were ordered to put off their caps, and go down below, or lie

upon the deck, while the captain of the Inconstant exchanged some

civilities[96] with the commander of the frigate, with whom he chanced

to be acquainted; and being well known in these seas, was permitted to

pass on without farther inquiry. The second danger was caused by the

pursuit of Sir Niel Campbell, in the Partridge sloop of war, who,

following from Elba, where he had learned Napoleon's escape, with the

determination to capture or sink the flotilla, could but obtain a

distant view of the vessels as they landed their passengers.[97]

This was on the first of March, when Napoleon, causing his followers

once more to assume the three-coloured cockade, disembarked at Cannes, a

small seaport in the gulf of Saint Juan, not far from Frejus, which had

seen him land, a single individual, returned from Egypt, to conquer a

mighty empire; had beheld him set sail, a terrified exile, to occupy the

place of his banishment; and now again witnessed his return, a daring

adventurer, to throw the dice once more for a throne or a grave. A small

party of his guard presented themselves before Antibes, but were made

prisoners by General Corsin the governor of the place.

Undismayed by a circumstance so unfavourable, Napoleon instantly began

his march at the head of scarce a thousand men, towards the centre of a

kingdom from which he had been expelled with execrations, and where his

rival now occupied in peace an hereditary throne. For some time the

inhabitants gazed on them with doubtful and astonished eyes, as if

uncertain whether to assist them as friends, or to oppose them as

invaders. A few peasants cried _Vive l'Empereur!_ but the adventurers

received neither countenance nor opposition from those of the higher

ranks. On the evening of 2d March, a day and a half after landing, the

little band of invaders reached Ceremin, having left behind them their

small train of artillery, in order to enable them to make forced

marches. As Napoleon approached Dauphiné, called the cradle of the

Revolution, the peasants greeted him with more general welcome, but

still no proprietors appeared, no clergy, no public functionaries. But

they were now near to those by whom the success or ruin of the

expedition must be decided.

[Sidenote: GRENOBLE.]

Soult, the minister at war, had ordered some large bodies of troops to

be moved into the country betwixt Lyons and Chamberri, to support, as

he afterwards alleged, the high language which Talleyrand had been of

late holding at the Congress, by showing that France was in readiness

for war. If the maréchal acted with good faith in this measure, he was

at least most unfortunate; for, as he himself admits, even in his

attempt at exculpation, the troops were so placed as if they had been

purposely thrown in Buonaparte's way, and proved unhappily to consist of

corps peculiarly devoted to the Ex-Emperor's person.[98] On the 7th of

March, the seventh regiment of the line, commanded by Colonel

Labédoyère, arrived at Grenoble. He was young, nobly born, handsome, and

distinguished as a military man. His marriage having connected him with

the noble and loyal family of Damas, he procured preferment and active

employment from Louis XVIII. through their interest, and they were

induced even to pledge themselves for his fidelity. Yet Labédoyère had

been engaged by Cambrone deep in the conspiracy of Elba, and used the

command thus obtained for the destruction of the monarch by whom he was

trusted.

As Napoleon approached Grenoble, he came into contact with the outposts

of the garrison, who drew out, but seemed irresolute. Buonaparte halted

his own little party, and advanced almost alone, exposing his breast, as

he exclaimed, "He who will kill his Emperor, let him now work his

pleasure." The appeal was irresistible--the soldiers threw down their

arms, crowded round the general who had so often led them to victory,

and shouted _Vive l'Empereur!_ In the meanwhile, Labédoyère, at the head

of two battalions, was sallying from the gates of Grenoble. As they

advanced he displayed an eagle, which, like that of Marius, worshipped

by the Roman conspirator, had been carefully preserved to be the type of

civil war; at the same time he distributed among the soldiers the

three-coloured cockades, which he had concealed in the hollow of a drum.

They were received with enthusiasm. It was in this moment that Maréchal

de Camp Des Villiers, the superior officer of Labédoyère, arrived on the

spot, alarmed at what was taking place, and expostulated with the young

military fanatic and the soldiers. He was compelled to retire. General

Marchand, the loyal commandant of Grenoble, had as little influence on

the troops remaining in the place: they made him prisoner, and delivered

up the city to Buonaparte. Napoleon was thus at the head of nearly three

thousand soldiers, with a suitable train of artillery, and a

corresponding quantity of ammunition. He acted with a moderation which

his success could well afford, and dismissed General Marchand uninjured.

When the first news of Napoleon's arrival reached Paris, it excited

surprise rather than alarm;[99] but when he was found to traverse the

country without opposition, some strange and combined treason began to

be generally apprehended. That the Bourbons might not be wanting to

their own cause, Monsieur, with the Duke of Orleans, set out for Lyons,

and the Duke D'Angoulême repaired to Nismes. The Legislative Bodies, and

most of the better classes, declared for the royal cause. The residents

of the various powers hastened to assure Louis of the support of their

sovereigns. Corps of volunteers were raised both among the Royalists and

the Constitutional or moderate party. The most animating proclamations

called the people to arms. An address by the celebrated Benjamin

Constant, one of the most distinguished of the moderate party, was

remarkable for its eloquence. It placed in the most striking light the

contrast between the lawful government of a constitutional monarch, and

the usurpation of an Attila, or Genghis, who governed only by the sword

of his Mamelukes. It reminded France of the general detestation with

which Buonaparte had been expelled from the kingdom, and proclaimed

Frenchmen to be the scorn of Europe, should they again stretch their

hands voluntarily to the shackles which they had burst and hurled from

them. All were summoned to arms, more especially those to whom liberty

was dear; for in the triumph of Buonaparte, it must find its grave for

ever.--"With Louis," said the address, "was peace and happiness; with

Buonaparte, war, misery, and desolation." Even a more animating appeal

to popular feeling was made by a female on the staircase of the

Tuileries, who exclaimed, "If Louis has not men enough to fight for him,

let him call on the widows and childless mothers who have been rendered

such by Napoleon."

[Sidenote: MELUN--LYONS.]

Notwithstanding all these demonstrations of zeal, the public mind had

been much influenced by the causes of discontent which had been so

artfully enlarged upon for many months past. The decided Royalists were

few, the Constitutionalists lukewarm. It became every moment more likely

that not the voice of the people, but the sword of the army, must

determine the controversy. Soult, whose conduct had given much cause for

suspicion,[100] which was augmented by his proposal to call out the

officers who since the restoration had been placed on half-pay, resigned

his office, and was succeeded by Clarke, Duke of Feltre, less renowned

as a soldier, but more trustworthy as a subject. A camp was established

at Melun--troops were assembled there--and as much care as possible was

used in selecting the troops to whom the royal cause was to be

intrusted.

In the meantime, Fortune had not entirely abandoned the Bourbons. That

part of the Buonapartist conspiracy which was to have been executed in

the north was discovered and disconcerted. Lefebvre Desnouettes,

discreditably known in England by his breach of parole, with the two

Generals Lallemand, were the agents in this plot. On the 10th March,

Lefebvre marched forward his regiment to join Buonaparte; but the

officers having discovered his purpose, he was obliged to make his

escape from the arrest with which he was threatened. The two Lallemands

put the garrison of Lisle, to the number of 6000 men, in motion, by

means of forged orders, declaring there was an insurrection in Paris.

But Maréchal Mortier, meeting the troops on the march, detected and

defeated the conspiracy, by which, had it taken effect, the King and

Royal Family must have been made prisoners. The Lallemands were taken,

and to have executed them on the spot as traitors, might have struck a

wholesome terror into such officers as still hesitated; but the

ministers of the King did not possess energy enough for such a

crisis.[101]

The progress of Buonaparte, in the meantime, was uninterrupted. It was

in vain that, at Lyons, Monsieur and the Duke of Orleans, with the

assistance of the advice and influence of Maréchal Macdonald,

endeavoured to retain the troops in their duty, and the inhabitants in

their allegiance to the King. The latter, chiefly manufacturers, afraid

of being undersold by those of England in their own market, shouted

openly, "_Vive l'Empereur!_" The troops of the line remained silent and

gloomy. "How will your soldiers behave?" said Monsieur to the colonel of

the 13th Dragoons. The colonel referred him to the men themselves. They

answered candidly, that they would fight for Napoleon alone. Monsieur

dismounted, and addressed the soldiers individually. To one veteran,

covered with scars, and decorated with medals, the prince said, "A brave

soldier like you, at least, will cry, _Vive le Roi!_"--"You deceive

yourself," answered the soldier. "No one here will fight against his

father--I will cry, _Vive Napoleon!_" The efforts of Macdonald were

equally vain. He endeavoured to move two battalions to oppose the entry

of Buonaparte's advanced guard. So soon as the troops came in presence

of each other, they broke their ranks, and mingled together in the

general cry of "_Vive l'Empereur!_" Macdonald would have been made

prisoner, but the forces whom he had just commanded would not permit

this consummation of revolt. Monsieur was obliged to escape from Lyons,

almost alone. The guard of honour formed by the citizens, to attend the

person of the second of the Bourbon family, offered their services to

Napoleon; but he refused them with contempt, while he sent a cross of

honour to a single dragoon, who had the loyalty and devotion to attend

Monsieur in his retreat.

Buonaparte, now master of the ancient capital of the Gauls, and at the

head of 7000 men, was acknowledged by Maçon, Chalons, Dijon, and almost

all Burgundy. Marseilles, on the contrary, and all Provence, declared

against the invader, and the former city set a price upon his head.

Napoleon found it necessary to halt at Lyons for the refreshment of his

forces; and, being joined by some of the civilians of his party, he

needed time also to organise his government and administration.

Hitherto, the addresses which he had published had been of a military

character, abounding with the Oriental imagery which Buonaparte regarded

as essential to eloquence, promising that victory should move at the

charging step, and that the eagle should fly with the national colours

from steeple to steeple, till she perched on the towers of Notre Dame.

The present decrees were of a different character, and related to the

internal arrangement of his projected administration.

[Sidenote: DECREES--AUXERRE.]

Cambacérès was named his minister of justice; Fouché, that of police (a

boon to the revolutionists;) Davoust was made minister of war. Decrees

upon decrees issued forth, with a rapidity which showed how Buonaparte

had employed those studious hours at Elba, which he was supposed to have

dedicated to the composition of his Memoirs. They ran in the name of

Napoleon, by the grace of God, Emperor of the French, and were dated on

the 13th of March, although not promulgated until the 21st of that

month. The first of these decrees abrogated all changes in the courts of

justice and tribunals which had taken place during the absence of

Napoleon. The second displaced all officers belonging to the class of

emigrants, and introduced into the army by the King. The third

suppressed the order of St. Louis, the white flag and cockade, and other

royal emblems, and restored the three-coloured banner and the imperial

symbols of Buonaparte's authority. The same decree abolished the Swiss

Guard, and the household troops of the King. The fourth sequestered the

effects of the Bourbons. A similar ordinance sequestered the restored

property of emigrant families, and was so artfully worded as to

represent great changes of property having taken place in this manner.

The fifth decree of Lyons suppressed the ancient nobility and feudal

titles, and formally confirmed proprietors of national domains in their

possessions. The sixth, declared sentence of banishment against all

emigrants not erased from the list previous to the accession of the

Bourbons, to which was added confiscation of their property. The seventh

restored the Legion of Honour, in every respect as it had existed under

the Emperor, uniting to its funds the confiscated revenues of the order

of St. Louis. The eighth and last decree was the most important of all.

Under pretence that emigrants who had borne arms against France, had

been introduced into the body of the Peers, and that the Chamber of

Deputies had already sat for the legal time, it dissolved both Chambers,

and convoked the Electoral Colleges of the empire, in order that they

might hold, in the ensuing month of May, an extraordinary assembly of

the _Champ-de-Mai_. This convocation, for which the inventor found a

name in the history of the ancient Franks, was to have two objects:

_First_, to make such alterations and reformations in the constitution

of the empire as circumstances should render advisable; _secondly_, to

assist at the coronation of the Empress and of the King of Rome.

We cannot pause to criticise these various enactments. In general,

however, it may be remarked, that they were admirably calculated to

serve Napoleon's cause. They flattered the army, and at the same time

heated their resentment against the emigrants, by insinuating that they

had been sacrificed by Louis to the interest of these his followers.

They held out to the Republicans a speedy prospect of confiscations,

proscriptions, and revolutions of government; while the Imperialists

were gratified with a view of ample funds for pensions, offices, and

honorary decorations. To the proprietors of national domains was

promised security; to the Parisians, the spectacle of the

_Champ-de-Mai_; and to all France, peace and tranquillity, since the

arrival of the Empress and her son, so confidently asserted to be at

hand, must be considered as a pledge of the friendship of Austria.

Russia was also said to be friendly to Napoleon, and the conduct of

Alexander toward the members of Buonaparte's family, was boldly appealed

to as evidence of the fact. England, it was averred, befriended him,

else how could he have escaped from an isle surrounded by her naval

force? Prussia, therefore, alone, might be hostile and unappeased; but,

unsupported by the other belligerent powers, Prussia must remain

passive, or would soon be reduced to reason. The very pleasure in

mortifying one, at least, of the late victors of Paris, gave a zest and

poignancy to the revolution, which the concurrence of the other great

states would, according to Buonaparte, render easy and peaceful. Such

news were carefully disseminated through France by Napoleon's adherents.

They preceded his march, and prepared the minds of men to receive him as

their destined master.

On the 13th, Buonaparte recommenced his journey, and, advancing through

Maçon, Chalons, and Dijon, he reached Auxerre on the 17th March. His own

mode of travelling rather resembled that of a prince, who, weary of the

fatigue of state, wishes to extricate himself, as much as possible, from

its trammels, than that of an adventurer coming at the head of an army

of insurgents, to snatch a crown from the head of the lawful monarch who

wore it. He travelled several hours in advance of his army, often

without any guard, or, at most, attended only by a few Polish lancers.

The country through which he journeyed was favourable to his

pretensions. It had been severely treated by the allies during the

military manœuvres of the last campaign, and the dislike of the

suffering inhabitants extended itself to the family who had mounted the

throne by the influence of these strangers. When, therefore, they saw

the late Emperor among them alone, without guards, inquiring, with his

usual appearance of active interest, into the extent of their losses,

and making liberal promises to repair them, it is no wonder that they

should rather remember the battles he had fought in their behalf against

the foreigners, than think on the probability that his presence among

them might be the precursor of a second invasion.

The revolutionary fever preceded Buonaparte like an epidemic disorder.

The 14th regiment of lancers, quartered at Auxerre, trampled under foot

the white cockade at the first signal; the sixth regiment of lancers

declared also for Napoleon, and without waiting for orders, drove a few

soldiers of the household troops from Montereau, and secured that

important post, which commands the passage of the Seine.

The dismay of the royal government at the revolt of Lyons, was much

increased by false tidings which had been previously circulated, giving

an account of a pretended victory obtained by the Royalist party in

front of that town. The conspiracy was laid so deep, and extended so

widely through every branch of the government, that those concerned

contrived to send this false report to Paris in a demi-official form, by

means of the telegraph. It had the expected effect, first, in suspending

the preparations of the loyal party, and afterwards in deepening the

anxiety which overwhelmed them, when Monsieur, returning almost

unattended, brought the news of his bad success.

[Sidenote: FOUCHÉ--NEY.]

At this moment of all but desperation, Fouché offered his assistance to

the almost defenceless King. It is probable, that the more he reflected

on the character of his old master, Napoleon, the deeper became his

conviction, that they knew each other too well ever to resume an

attitude of mutual confidence. Nothing deterred, therefore, by the

communications which he had opened with the Imperialists, he now

demanded a secret audience of the King. It was refused, but his

communications were received through the medium of two confidential

persons deputed by Louis. Fouché's language to them was that of a bold

empiric, to whom patients have recourse in a moment of despair, and who

confidently undertake the most utterly hopeless cases. Like such, he

exacted absolute reliance on his skill--the most scrupulous attention to

his injunctions--the most ample reward for his promised services; and as

such, too, he spoke with the utmost confidence in the certainty of his

remedy, whilst observing a vague yet studious mystery about the

ingredients of which it was composed, and the mode in which it would

operate. He required of Louis XVIII. that he should surrender all the

executive authority to the Duke of Orleans, and all the ministerial

Offices to himself and those whom he should appoint; which two

conditions being granted, he undertook to put a period to Buonaparte's

expedition. The Memoirs of this bold intriguer affirm, that he meant to

assemble all that remained of the revolutionary party, and oppose the

doctrines of Liberty and Equality to those of the glory of France, in

the sense understood by Buonaparte.[102] What were the means that such

politicians, so united, had to oppose to the army of France, Fouché has

not informed us;[103] but it is probable, that, to stop the advance of

10,000 armed men, against whom the revolutionists could now scarce even

array the mob of the suburbs, the ex-minister of police must have

meditated the short sharp remedy of Napoleon's assassination, for

accomplishing which, he, if any man, could have found trusty agents.

The King having refused proposals, which went to preserve his sceptre by

taking it out of his hands, and by further unexplained means, the

morality of which was liable to just suspicion, Fouché saw himself

obliged to carry his intrigues to the service of his old master. He

became, in consequence, so much an object of suspicion to the Royalists,

that an order was issued for his arrest.[104] To the police agents, his

own old dependents, who came to execute the order, he objected against

the informality of their warrant, and stepping into his closet, as if to

draw a protest, he descended by a secret stair into his garden, of which

he scaled the wall. His next neighbour, into whose garden he escaped,

was the Duchess de St. Leu; so that the fugitive arrived, as if by a

trick of the stage, in the very midst of a circle of chosen

Buonapartists, who received him with triumph, and considered the mode of

his coming among them as a full warrant for his fidelity.[105]

Louis XVIII. in his distress, had recourse to the assistance of another

man of the Revolution, who, without possessing the abilities of Fouché,

was perhaps, had he been disposed to do so, better qualified than he to

have served the King's cause. Maréchal Ney was called forth to take the

command of an army destined to attack Napoleon in the flank and rear as

he marched towards Paris, while the forces at Melun opposed him in

front. He had an audience of the King on the 9th of March, when he

accepted his appointment with expressions of the most devoted faith to

the King, and declared his resolution to bring Buonaparte to Paris like

a wild beast in an iron cage. The maréchal went to Besançon, where, on

the 11th of March, he learned that Buonaparte was in possession of

Lyons. But he continued to make preparations for resistance, and

collected all the troops he could from the adjoining garrisons. To those

who objected to the bad disposition of the soldiers, and remarked that

he would have difficulty in inducing them to fight, Ney answered

determinedly, "They _shall_ fight; I will take a musket from a grenadier

and begin the action myself;--I will run my sword to the hilt in the

first who hesitates to follow my example." To the minister at war he

wrote, that all were dazzled by the activity and rapid progress of the

invader; that Napoleon was favoured by the common people and the

soldiers; but that the officers and civil authorities were loyal, and he

still hoped "to see a fortunate close of this mad enterprise."

In these dispositions, Ney advanced to Lons-le-Saulnier. Here, on the

night betwixt the 13th and 14th March, he received a letter from

Napoleon, summoning him to join his standard, as "bravest of the brave,"

a name which could not but awake a thousand remembrances. He had already

sounded both his officers and soldiers, and discovered their unalterable

determination to join Buonaparte. He therefore had it only in his choice

to retain his command by passing over to the Emperor, or else to return

to the King without executing any thing which might seem even an effort

at realizing his boast, and also without the army over which he had

asserted his possession of such influence.

Maréchal Ney was a man of mean birth, who, by the most desperate valour,

had risen to the highest ranks in the army. His early education had not

endowed him with a delicate sense of honour or a high feeling of

principle, and he had not learned either as he advanced in life. He

appears to have been a weak man, with more vanity than pride, and who,

therefore, was likely to feel the loss of power more than the loss of

character. He accordingly resolved upon adhering to Napoleon. Sensible

of the incongruity of changing his side so suddenly, he affected to be a

deliberate knave, rather than he would content himself with being viewed

in his real character, of a volatile, light-principled, and

inconsiderate fool. He pretended that the expedition of Napoleon had

been long arranged between himself and the other maréchals. But we are

willing rather to suppose that this was matter of mere invention, than

to think that the protestations poured out at the Tuileries, only five

days before, were, on the part of this unfortunate man, the effusions of

premeditated treachery.

The maréchal now published an order of the day, declaring that the cause

of the Bourbons was lost for ever. It was received by the soldiers with

rapture, and Buonaparte's standard and colours were instantly

displayed. Many of the officers, however, remonstrated, and left their

commands. One, before he went away, broke his sword in two, and threw

the pieces at Ney's feet, saying, "It is easier for a man of honour to

break iron than to infringe his word."

[Sidenote: TREASON OF NEY--MELUN.]

Ney was received by Napoleon with open arms.[106] His defection did

incalculable damage to the King's cause, tending to show that the spirit

of treason which possessed the common soldiers, had ascended to and

affected the officers of the highest rank in the army.

The King, in the meanwhile, notwithstanding these unpromising

circumstances, used every exertion to induce his subjects to continue in

their allegiance. He attended in person the sitting of the Chamber of

Deputies, and was received with such enthusiastic marks of applause,

that one would have thought the most active exertions must have

followed. Louis next reviewed the national guards, about 25,000 men, who

made a similar display of loyalty. He also inspected the troops of the

line, 6000 in number, but his reception was equivocal. They placed their

caps on their bayonets in token of respect, but they raised no shout.

Some of those about Louis's person continued to believe that these men

were still attached to the King, or that at any rate, they ought to be

sent to the camp at Melun, which was the last remaining point upon which

the royal party could hope to make a stand.

As a last resource, Louis convoked a general council at the Tuileries on

the 18th March. The generals present declared there could be no

effectual opposition offered to Buonaparte. The royalist nobles

contradicted them, and, after some expressions of violence had been

uttered, much misbecoming the royal presence, Louis was obliged to break

up the meeting, and prepare himself to abandon a capital, which the

prevalence of his enemies, and the disunion of his friends, left him no

longer any chance of defending.

Meantime, the two armies approached each other at Melun; that of the

King was commanded by the faithful Macdonald. On the 20th, his troops

were drawn up in three lines to receive the invaders, who were said to

be advancing from Fontainbleau. There was a long pause of suspense, of a

nature which seldom fails to render men more accessible to strong and

sudden emotion. The glades of the forest, and the acclivity which

ascends to it, were full in view of the royal army, but presented the

appearance of a deep solitude. All was silence, except when the

regimental bands of music, at the command of the officers, who remained

generally faithful, played the airs of _Vive Henri Quatre_--_O,

Richard_--_La Belle Gabrielle_, and other tunes connected with the cause

and family of the Bourbons. The sounds excited no corresponding

sentiments among the soldiers. At length, about noon, the galloping of

horse was heard. An open carriage appeared, surrounded by a few hussars,

and drawn by four horses. It came on at full speed; and Napoleon,

jumping from the vehicle, was in the midst of the ranks which had been

formed to oppose him. His escort threw themselves from their horses,

mingled with their ancient comrades, and the effect of their

exhortations was instantaneous on men, whose minds were already half

made up to the purpose which they now accomplished. There was a general

shout of _Vive Napoleon!_--The last army of the Bourbons passed from

their side, and no farther obstruction existed betwixt Napoleon and the

capital, which he was once more--but for a brief space--to inhabit as a

sovereign.

Louis XVIII. had anticipated too surely the defection which took place,

to await the consequence of its actual arrival. The King departed from

Paris, escorted by his household, at one in the morning of the 20th

March. Even at that untimely hour, the palace was surrounded by the

national guards, and many citizens, who wept and entreated him to

remain, offering to spend the last drop of their blood for him. But

Louis wisely declined accepting of sacrifices, which could now have

availed nothing. Escorted by his household troops, he took the way to

Lisle. Maréchal Macdonald, returning from the fatal position of Melun,

assumed the command of this small body, which was indeed augmented by

many volunteers, but such as considered their zealous wishes, rather

than their power of rendering assistance. The King's condition was,

however, pitied and respected, and he passed through Abbeville, and

other garrison towns, where the soldiers received him with sullen

respect; and though indicating that they intended to join his rival,

would neither violate his person nor insult his misfortunes. At Lisle he

had hoped to make a stand, but Maréchal Mortier, insisting upon the

dissatisfied and tumultuary state of the garrison, urged him to proceed,

for the safety of his life; and, compelled to a second exile, he

departed to Ostend, and from thence to Ghent, where he established his

exiled court. Maréchal Macdonald took leave of his Majesty on the

frontiers, conscious that by emigrating he must lose every prospect of

serving in future either France or her monarch. The household troops,

about two hundred excepted, were also disbanded on the frontiers. They

had been harassed in their march thither by some light horse, and in

their attempt to regain their homes in a state of dispersion, some were

slain, and almost all were plundered and insulted.

In the meanwhile, the Revolution took full effect at Paris. Lavalette,

one of Buonaparte's most decided adherents, hastened from a place of

concealment to assume the management of the post-office in the name of

Napoleon, an office which he had enjoyed during his former reign. He was

thus enabled to intercept the royal proclamations, and to announce to

every department officially the restoration of the Emperor. Excelsman,

the oath of fealty to the king, _à toutes épreuves_, scarce dry upon his

lips, took down the white flag, which floated on the Tuileries, and

replaced the three-coloured banner.

[Sidenote: RE-ENTERS PARIS.]

It was late in the evening ere Napoleon arrived in the same open

carriage, which he had used since his landing. There was a singular

contrast betwixt his entry and the departure of the King. The latter was

accompanied by the sobs, tears, and kind wishes of those citizens who

desired peace and tranquillity, by the wailing of the defenceless, and

the anxious fears of the wise and prudent. The former entered amid the

shouts of armed columns, who, existing by war and desolation, welcomed

with military acclamations the chief who was to restore them to their

element. The inhabitants of the suburbs cheered in expectation of

employment and gratuities, or by instigation of their ringleaders, who

were chiefly under the management of the police, and well prepared for

the event. But among the immense crowds of the citizens of Paris, who

turned out to see this extraordinary spectacle, few or none joined in

the gratulation. The soldiers of the guard resented their silence,

commanded the spectators to shout, struck with the flat of their swords,

and pointed their pistols at the multitude, but could not, even by these

military means, extort the expected cry of Liberty and Napoleon, though

making it plain by their demeanour, that the last, if not the first, was

returned to the Parisians. In the court of the Carousel, and before the

Tuileries, all the adherents of the old Imperial government, and those

who, having deserted Napoleon, were eager to expiate their fault, by now

being first to acknowledge him, were assembled to give voice to their

welcome, which atoned in some degree for the silence of the streets.

They crowded around him so closely, that he was compelled to

exclaim--"My friends, you stifle me!" and his adjutants were obliged to

support him in their arms up the grand staircase, and thence into the

royal apartments, where he received the all-hail of the principal

devisers and abettors of this singular undertaking.

Never, in his bloodiest and most triumphant field of battle, had the

terrible ascendency of Napoleon's genius appeared half so predominant as

during his march, or rather his journey, from Cannes to Paris. He who

left the same coast disguised like a slave, and weeping like a woman,

for fear of assassination, reappeared in grandeur like that of the

returning wave, which, the farther it has retreated, is rolled back on

the shore with the more terrific and overwhelming violence. His looks

seemed to possess the pretended power of northern magicians, and blunted

swords and spears. The Bravest of the Brave, who came determined to

oppose him as he would a wild beast, recognised his superiority when

confronted with him, and sunk again into his satellite. Yet the lustre

with which Napoleon shone was not that of a planet duly moving in its

regular sphere, but that of a comet, inspiring forebodings of pestilence

and death, and

"with fear of change,

Perplexing nations."

The result of his expedition was thus summed by one of the most eloquent

and best-informed British statesmen.[107]

"Was it," said the accomplished orator, "in the power of language to

describe the evil? Wars which had raged for twenty-five years throughout

Europe; which had spread blood and desolation from Cadiz to Moscow, and

from Naples to Copenhagen; which had wasted the means of human

enjoyment, and destroyed the instruments of social improvement; which

threatened to diffuse among the European nations the dissolute and

ferocious habits of a predatory soldiery--at length by one of those

vicissitudes which bid defiance to the foresight of man, had been

brought to a close, upon the whole happy beyond all reasonable

expectation, with no violent shock to national independence, with some

tolerable compromise between the opinions of the age and the reverence

due to ancient institutions; with no too signal or mortifying triumph

over the legitimate interests or avowable feelings of any numerous body

of men, and, above all, without those retaliations against nations or

parties which beget new convulsions, often as horrible as those which

they close, and perpetuate revenge and hatred and blood from age to age.

Europe seemed to breathe after her sufferings. In the midst of this fair

prospect, and of these consolatory hopes, Napoleon Buonaparte escaped

from Elba; three small vessels reached the coast of Provence; their

hopes are instantly dispelled; the work of our toil and fortitude is

undone; the blood of Europe is spilt in vain--

"Ibi omnis effusus labor!"

FOOTNOTES:

[85] "Did you not abandon him in the most cowardly manner, when you saw

him in that danger into which you had precipitated him? Was it not your

duty to form a rampart round him with your bodies? Was it the business

of Republicans to defend with their tongues him whom you had not the

courage to defend with your swords?"--_Memorial_, pp. 11-14.

[86] Merchant of Venice, act iv., scene i.

[87] The following letter appeared in the Journal des Débats of the 7th

October:--"SIR, I have been for more than a month in the country, eleven

leagues from Paris. On my return to the capital, I learn that there has

been circulated, in my name, a pamphlet, entitled, 'Memorial addressed

to the King,' &c. I declare, that the Memorial has become printed

without my consent, and contrary to my intention.--CARNOT." This

statement is gravely repeated in the Edinburgh Review, vol. xxiv., p.

187.

[88] Journal des Débats, Oct. 11.

[89] Fouché, tom. ii., p. 232.

[90] Fouché, tom. ii., p. 235.

[91] "Nous le ferons sans vous; nous le ferons malgré vous; nous le

ferons pour vous."--S.

[92] "A military party made me a proposal of offering the dictatorship

to Eugene Beauharnois. I wrote to him, under the impression that the

matter had already assumed a substantial form; but I only received a

vague answer. In the interim, all the interests of the Revolution

congregated round myself and Carnot, whose memorial to the King had

produced a general sensation."--FOUCHÉ, tom. i., p. 244.

[93] See Parliamentary Debates, vol. xxxi., 1815.

[94] "At this time there was a very pretty cunning little French actress

at Elba. Napoleon pretended to be very angry with her, saying she was a

spy of the Bourbons, and ordered her out of the island in twenty-four

hours. Captain Adye took her in his vessel to Leghorn: Sir Niel Campbell

went at the same time; and during this absence, on Sunday the 26th

February, a signal gun was fired at four in the afternoon, the drums

beat to arms, the officers tumbled what they could of their effects into

flour sacks, the men arranged their knapsacks, the embarkation began,

and at eight in the evening they were under weigh."--_Memorable Events_,

p. 271.

[95] The Zephyr, Captain Andrieu.

[96] "He asked how the Emperor did. Napoleon replied through the

speaking trumpet, 'Il se porte à merveille.'"--_Memorable Events_, p.

271.

[97] Lord Castlereagh stated, in the House of Commons, 7th April, 1815,

that Napoleon was not considered as a prisoner at Elba, and that if he

should leave it the allies had no right to arrest him.--_Parl. Deb._,

vol. xxx., p. 426.

[98] "Soult did not betray Louis, nor was he privy to my return and

landing in France. For some days, he thought that I was _mad_, and that

I must certainly be lost. Notwithstanding this, appearances were so much

against him, and without intending it, his acts turned out to be so

favourable to my projects, that, were I on his jury, and ignorant of

what I know, I should condemn him for having betrayed Louis. But he

really was not privy to it."--NAPOLEON, _Las Cases_, tom. i., p. 343;

_O'Meara_, vol. i., p. 386.

[99] "The Royalists made a mockery of this terror: it was strange to

hear them say that this event was the most fortunate thing possible,

because we should be relieved from Buonaparte; for the two Chambers

would feel the necessity of giving the king absolute power--as if

absolute power was a thing to be given."--MAD. DE STAËL, tom. iii., p.

138. "Yesterday the King received the diplomatic corps. His majesty said

to the ambassadors, 'write to your respective courts that I am well, and

that the foolish enterprise of _that man_ shall as little disturb the

tranquillity of Europe, as it has disturbed mine.'"--_Moniteur_, March 8.

[100] "I am persuaded that the suspicion of his acting a treacherous

part is groundless."--MAD. DE STAËL, tom. iii., p. 87.

[101] "General Lallemand would have been infallibly shot, had not

Napoleon reached Paris with such extraordinary rapidity."--SAVARY, tom.

iv., p. 256.

[102] Fouché, tom. ii., p. 249.

[103] "When the king's ministers desired to know what were the means

which I proposed to employ, in order to prevent Napoleon from reaching

Paris, I refused to communicate them, being determined to disclose them

to no person but the King himself; but I protested that I was sure of

success."--FOUCHÉ, p. 250.

[104] In the Memoirs of Fouché, it is avowed, that this order of arrest

was upon no political ground, but arose from the envy of Savary, who,

foreseeing that Fouché would be restored to the situation of minister of

police, which he himself desired, on account of the large sums which

were placed at the disposal of that functionary, hoped, in this manner,

to put his rival out of his road.--S.

[105] "Hortense received me with open arms; and as in a wonderful

Arabian tale, I suddenly found myself in the midst of the _élite_ of the

Buonapartists, in the headquarters of the party, where I found mirth,

and where my presence caused an intoxication of joy."--FOUCHÉ, p. 253.

[106] "It is impossible not to condemn Ney's conduct. It behoved him to

imitate Macdonald and to withdraw. It ought, however, to be added, that

Generals Lecourbe and Bourmont were with him when he consented to be led

astray. But, after committing this error, he fell into a still greater

one. He wrote to Napoleon to acquaint him with what he had done,

announcing to him at the same time, that he was about to proceed to

Auxerre, where he expected the honour of seeing him."--SAVARY, tom. iv.,

p. 252.

[107] Sir James Mackintosh. See Debate on Mr. Abercrombie's Motion

respecting Buonaparte's Escape from Elba.--_Parl. Deb._, vol. xxx., p.

738.