CHAPTER VII.

Ver.10/04/01*END*

This etext was produced by David Widger

[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, at the end of several of the

files for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making

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MEMOIRS OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, VOLUME 14.

By LOUIS ANTOINE FAUVELET DE BOURRIENNE

His Private Secretary

Edited by R. W. Phipps

Colonel, Late Royal Artillery

1891

CONTENTS:

CHAPTER VII. to CHAPTER X. 1815

CHAPTER VII.

--[By the Editor of the 1836 edition]--

1815.

Napoleon at Paris--Political manoeuvres--The meeting of the Champ-

de-Mai--Napoleon, the Liberals, and the moderate Constitutionalists

--His love of arbitrary power as strong as ever--Paris during the

Cent Jours--Preparations for his last campaign--The Emperor leaves

Paris to join the army--State of Brussels--Proclamation of Napoleon

to the Belgians--Effective strength of the French and Allied armies

--The Emperor's proclamation to the French army.

Napoleon was scarcely reseated on his throne when he found he could not

resume that absolute power he had possessed before his abdication at

Fontainebleau. He was obliged to submit to the curb of a representative

government, but we may well believe that he only yielded, with a mental

reservation that as soon as victory should return to his standards and

his army be reorganised he would send the representatives of the people

back to their departments, and make himself as absolute as he had ever

been. His temporary submission was indeed obligatory.

The Republicans and Constitutionalists who had assisted, or not opposed

his return, with Carnot, Fouche, Benjamin Constant, and his own brother

Lucien (a lover of constitutional liberty) at their head, would support

him only on condition of his reigning as a constitutional sovereign; he

therefore proclaimed a constitution under the title of "Acte additionnel

aux Constitutions de l'Empire," which greatly resembled the charter

granted by Louis XVIII. the year before. An hereditary Chamber of Peers

was to be appointed by the Emperor, a Chamber of Representatives chosen

by the Electoral Colleges, to be renewed every five years, by which all

taxes were to be voted, ministers were to be responsible, judges

irremovable, the right of petition was acknowledged, and property was

declared inviolable. Lastly, the French nation was made to declare that

they would never recall the Bourbons.

Even before reaching Paris, and while resting on his journey from Elba at

Lyons, the second city in France, and the ancient capital of the Franks,

Napoleon arranged his ministry, and issued sundry decrees, which show how

little his mind was prepared for proceeding according to the majority of

votes in representative assemblies.

Cambaceres was named Minister of Justice, Fouche Minister of Police (a

boon to the Revolutionists), Davoust appointed Minister of War. Decrees

upon decrees were issued with a rapidity which showed how laboriously

Bonaparte had employed those studious hours at Elba which he was supposed

to have dedicated to the composition of his Memoirs. They were couched

in the name of "Napoleon, by the grace of God, Emperor of France," 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 banished anew all emigrants who had returned to

France before 1814 without proper authority, and displaced all officers

belonging to the class of emigrants introduced into the army by the King.

The third suppressed the Order of St. Louis, the white flag, cockade, and

other Royal emblems, and restored the tri-coloured banner and the

Imperial symbols of Bonaparte'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.

The fifth decree of Lyons suppressed the ancient nobility and feudal

titles, and formally confirmed proprietors of national domains in their

possessions. (This decree was very acceptable to the majority of

Frenchmen). The sixth declared sentence of exile against all emigrants

not erased by Napoleon from the list previously 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 Bourbon

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 Chamber of 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--the

Champ-de-Mai.

This National Convocation, for which Napoleon claimed a precedent in the

history of the ancient Franks, was to have two objects: first, to make

such alterations and reforms in the Constitution of the Empire as

circumstances should render advisable; secondly, to assist at the

coronation of the Empress Maria Louisa. Her presence, and that of her

son, was spoken of as something that admitted of no doubt, though

Bonaparte knew there was little hope of their return from Vienna. These

various enactments were well calculated to serve Napoleon's cause. They

flattered the army, and at the same time stimulated their resentment

against the emigrants, by insinuating that they had been sacrificed by

Louis to the interest of his followers. They held out to the Republicans

a prospect of confiscation, proscription, and, revolution of government,

while, the Imperialists were gratified with a view of ample funds for

pensions, offices, and honorary decorations. To proprietors of the

national domains security was promised, to the Parisians the grand

spectacle of the Champ-de-Mai, and to. France peace and tranquillity,

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

at hand, was taken as a pledge of the friendship of Austria.

Napoleon at the same time endeavoured to make himself popular with the

common people--the, mob of the Faubourg St. Antoine and other obscure

quarters of Paris. On the first evening of his return, as he walked

round the glittering circle met to welcome him, in the State apartments

of the Tuileries, he kept repeating, "Gentlemen, it is to the poor and

disinterested mass of the people that I owe everything; it is they who

have brought me back to the capita. It is the poor subaltern officers

and common soldiers that have done all this. I owe everything to the

common people and the ranks of the army. Remember that! I owe

everything to the army and the people!" Some time after he took

occasional rides through the Faubourg St. Antoine, but the demonstrations

of the mob gave him little pleasure, and, it was easy to detect a sneer

in his addresses to them. He had some slight intercourse with the men of

the Revolution--the fierce, bloodthirsty Jacobins--but even now he could

not conceal his abhorrence of them, and, be it said to his honour, he had

as little to do with them as possible.

When Napoleon, departed for the summer campaign he took care beforehand

to leave large sums of money for the 'federes'; in the hands of the

devoted Real; under whose management the mob was placed. These sums were

to be distributed at appropriate seasons, to make the people cry in the

streets of Paris, "Napoleon or death." He also left in the hands of

Davoust a written authority for the publication of his bulletins, many

clauses of which were written long before the battles were fought that

they were to describe. He gave to the same Marshal a plan of his

campaign, which he had arranged for the defensive. This was not confided

to him without an injunction of the strictest secrecy, but it is said

that Davoust communicated the plan to Fouche. Considering Davoust's

character this is very unlikely, but if so, it is far from improbable

that Fouche communicated the plan to the Allies with whom, and more

particularly with Prince Metternich, he is well known to have been

corresponding at the time.

Shortly after the Emperor's arrival in Paris Benjamin Constant, a

moderate and candid man, was deputed by the constitutional party to

ascertain Napoleon's sentiments and intentions. Constant was a lover of

constitutional liberty, and an old opponent of Napoleon, whose headlong

career of despotism, cut out by the sword, he had vainly endeavoured to

check by the eloquence of his pen.

The interview took place at the Tuileries. The Emperor, as was his wont,

began the conversation, and kept it nearly all to himself during the rest

of the audience. He did not affect to disguise either his past actions

or present dispositions.

"The nation," he said, "has had a respite of twelve years from every kind

of political agitation, and for one year has enjoyed a respite from war.

This double repose has created a craving after activity. It requires, or

fancies it requires, a Tribune and popular assemblies. It did not always

require them. The people threw themselves at my feet when I took the

reins of government You ought to recollect this, who made a trial of

opposition. Where was your support--your strength? Nowhere. I assumed

less authority than I was invited to assume. Now all is changed. A

feeble government, opposed to the national interests, has given to these

interests the habit of standing on the defensive and evading authority.

The taste for constitutions, for debates, for harangues, appears to have

revived. Nevertheless it is but the minority that wishes all this, be

assured. The people, or if you like the phrase better; the multitude,

wish only for me. You would say so if you had only seen this multitude

pressing eagerly on my steps, rushing down from the tops of the

mountains, calling on me, seeking me out, saluting me. On my way from

Cannes hither I have not conquered--I have administered. I am not only

(as has been pretended) the Emperor of the soldiers; I am that of the

peasants of the plebeians of France. Accordingly, in spite of all that

has happened, you see the people come back to me. There is sympathy

between us. It is not as with the privileged classes. The noblesse have

been in my service; they thronged in crowds into my antechambers. There

is no place that they have not accepted or solicited. I have had the

Montmorencys, the Noailles, the Rohans, the Beauveaus, the Montemarts,

in my train. But there never was any cordiality between us. The steed

made his curvets--he was well broken in, but I felt him quiver under me.

With the people it is another thing. The popular fibre responds to mine.

I have risen from the ranks of the people: my voice seta mechanically

upon them. Look at those conscripts, the sons of peasants: I never

flattered them; I treated them roughly. They did not crowd round me the

less; they did not on that account cease to cry, `Vive l'Empereur!'

It is that between them and me there is one and the same nature. They

look to me as their support, their safeguard against the nobles. I have

but to make a sign, or even to look another way, and the nobles would be

massacred in every province. So well have they managed matters in the

last ten months! but I do not desire to be the King of a mob. If there

are the means to govern by a constitution well and good. I wished for

the empire of the world, and to ensure it complete liberty of action was

necessary to me. To govern France merely it is possible that a

constitution may be better. I wished for the empire of the world, as who

would not have done in my place? The world invited me to rule over it.

Sovereigns and subjects alike emulously bowed the neck under my sceptre.

I have seldom met with opposition in France, but still I have encountered

more of it from some obscure and unarmed Frenchmen than from all these

Kings so resolute, just now, no longer to have a man of the people for

their equal! See then what appears to you possible; let me know your

ideas. Public discussion, free elections, responsible ministers, the

liberty of the press, I have no objection to all that, the liberty of the

press especially; to stifle it is absurd. I am convinced on this point.

I am the man of the people: if the people really wish for liberty let

them have it. I have acknowledged their sovereignty. It is just that I

should lend an ear to their will, nay, even to their caprices I have

never been disposed to oppress them for my pleasure. I conceived great

designs; but fate 'has been against me; I am no longer a conqueror, nor

can I be one. I know what is possible and what is not.--I have no

further object than to raise up France and bestow on her a government

suitable to her. I have no hatred to liberty, I have set it aside when

it obstructed my path, but I understand what it means; I was brought up

in its school: besides, the work of fifteen years is overturned, and it

is not possible to recommence it. It would take twenty years, and the

lives of 2,000,000 of men to be sacrificed to it. As for the rest, I

desire peace, but I can only obtain it by means of victory. I would not

inspire you with false expectations. I permit it to be said that

negotiations are going on; there are none. I foresee a hard struggle,

a long war. To support it I must be seconded by the nation, but in

return I believe they will expect liberty. They shall have it: the

circumstances are new. All I desire is to be informed of the truth.

I am getting old. A man is no longer at forty-five what he was at

thirty. The repose enjoyed by a constitutional king may suit me: it will

still more certainly be the best thing, for my son."

From this remarkable address. Benjamin Constant concluded that no

change had taken place in Bonaparte's views or feelings in matters of

government, but, being convinced that circumstances had changed, he had

made up his mind to conform to them. He says, and we cannot doubt it,

"that he listened to Napoleon with the deepest interest, that there was a

breadth and grandeur of manner as be spoke, and a calm serenity seated on

a brow covered with immortal laurels."

Whilst believing the utter incompatibility of Napoleon and constitutional

government we cannot in fairness omit mentioning that the causes which

repelled him from the altar and sanctuary of freedom were strong: the

real lovers of a rational and feasible liberty--the constitutional

monarchy men were few--the mad ultra-Liberals, the Jacobins, the refuse

of one revolution and the provokers of another, were numerous, active,

loud, and in pursuing different ends these two parties, the respectable

and the disreputable, the good and the bad, got mixed and confused with

one another.

On the 14th of May, when the 'federes' were marshalled in processional

order and treated with what was called a solemn festival, as they moved

along the boulevards to the Court of the Tuileries, they coupled the name

of Napoleon with Jacobin curses and revolutionary songs. The airs and

the words that had made Paris tremble to her very centre during the Reign

of Terror--the "Marseillaise," the "Carmagnole," the "Jour du depart,"

the execrable ditty, the burden of which is, "And with the entrails of

the last of the priests let us strangle the last of the kings," were all

roared out in fearful chorus by a drunken, filthy, and furious mob. Many

a day had elapsed since they had dared to sing these blasphemous and

antisocial songs in public. Napoleon himself as soon as he had power

enough suppressed them, and he was as proud of this feat and his triumph

over the dregs of the Jacobins as he was of any of his victories; and in

this he was right, in this he proved himself the friend of humanity. As

the tumultuous mass approached the triumphal arch and the grand entrance

to the Palace he could not conceal his abhorrence. His Guards were drawn

up under arms, and numerous pieces of artillery, already loaded were

turned out on the Place du Carrousel. He hastily dismissed these

dangerous partisans with some praise, some money, and some drink. On

coming into close contact with such a mob he did not feel his fibre

respond to that of the populace! Like Frankenstein, he loathed and was

afraid of the mighty monster he had put together.

But it was not merely the mob that checked the liberalism or constitution

of Napoleon, a delicate and doubtful plant in itself, that required the

most cautious treatment to make it really take root and grow up in such a

soil: Some of his councillors, who called themselves "philosophical

statesmen," advised him to lay aside the style of Emperor, and assume

that of High President or Lord General of the Republic! Annoyed with

such puerilities while the enemy was every day drawing nearer the

frontiers he withdrew from the Tuileries to the comparatively small and

retired palace of the Elysee, where he escaped these talking-dreamers,

and felt himself again a sovereign: Shut up with Benjamin Constant and a

few other reasonable politicians, he drew up the sketch of a new

constitution, which was neither much better nor much worse than the royal

charter of Louis XVIII. We give an epitome of its main features.

The Emperor was to have executive power, and to exercise legislative

power in concurrence with the two Chambers. The Chamber of Peers was to

be hereditary, and nominated by the Emperor, and its number was

unlimited. The Second Chamber was to be elected by the people, and to

consist of 629 members; none to be under the age of twenty-five. The

President was to be appointed by the members, but approved of by the

Emperor. Members were to be paid at the rate settled by the Constituent

Assembly, which was to be renewed every five years. The Emperor might

prorogue, adjourn, or dissolve the House of Representatives, whose

sittings were to be public. The Electoral Colleges were maintained.

Land tax and direct taxes were to be voted only for a year, indirect

taxes might be imposed for several years. No levy of men for the army

nor any exchange of territory was to be made but by a law. Taxes were to

be proposed by the Chamber of Representatives. Ministers to be

responsible. Judges to be irremovable. Juries to be established. Right

of petition, freedom of worship, inviolability of property, were

recognised. Liberty of the press was given under legal responsibility,

and press offences were to be judged with a jury. No place or part of

the territory could be placed in a state of siege except in case of

foreign invasion or civil troubles. Finally, the French people declared

that in the delegation it thus made of its powers it was not to be taken

as giving the right to propose the re-establishment of the Bourbons, or

of any Prince of that family on the throne, even in case of the

extinction of the imperial dynasty. Any such proposal was formally

interdicted to the Chambers or to the citizens, as well as any of the

following measures,.viz. the re-establishment of the former, feudal

nobility, of the feudal and seignorial rights, of tithes, of any

privileged and dominant religion, as well as of the power of making any

attack on the irrevocability of the sale of the national goods.

Shortly after the return of Napoleon from Elba, believing it to be

impossible to make the Emperor of Austria consent to his wife's rejoining

him (and Maria Louisa had no inclination to a renewal of conjugal

intercourse), Napoleon had not been many days in Paris when he concocted

a plan for carrying off from Vienna both his wife and his son: In this

project force was no less necessary than stratagem. A number of French

of both sexes much devoted to the Emperor, who, had given them rank and

fortune, had accompanied Maria Louisa in 1814 from Paris to Blois and

thence to Vienna. A correspondence was opened with these persons, who

embarked heart and soul in the plot; they forged passports, procured-

relays, of horses; and altogether arranged matters so well that but a for

a single individual--one who revealed the whole project a few days

previously to that fixed upon for carrying it into effect--there is

little room to doubt that the plan would have succeeded, and that the

daughter of Austria and the titular King of home would have given such,

prestige as their presence could give at the Tuileries and he Champs-de-

Mai. No sooner had the Emperor of Austria discovered this plot, which,

had it been successful, would have placed him in a very awkward

predicament, than he dismissed all the French people about his daughter,

compelled her to lay aside the armorial bearings and liveries of

Napoleon, and even to relinquish the title of Empress of the French: No

force, no art, no police could conceal these things from the people of

Paris; who, moreover, and at nearly the same time; were made very uneasy

by the failure of Murat's attempt in Italy, which greatly increased the

power and political influence of Austria. Murat being disposed of, the

Emperor Francis was enabled to concentrate all his forces in Italy, and

to hold them in readiness for the re-invasion of France.

"Napoleon," says Lavallette, "had undoubtedly expected that the Empress

and his son would be restored to him; he had published his wishes as a

certainty, and to prevent it was, in fact, the worst injury the Emperor

of Austria could have done, him. His hope was, however, soon destroyed.

"One evening I was summoned to the palace. I found the Emperor in a

dimly-lighted closet, warming himself in a corner of the fireplace, and

appearing to suffer already from the complaint which never afterwards

left him. 'Here is a letter,' he said, 'which the courier from Vienna

says is meant for you--read it.' On first casting my eyes on the letter

I thought I knew the handwriting, but as it was long I read it slowly,

and came at last to the principal object. The writer said that we ought

not to reckon upon the Empress, as she did not even attempt to conceal

her dislike of the Emperor, and was disposed to approve all the measures

that could be taken against him; that her return was not to be thought

of, as she herself would raise the greatest obstacles in the way of it;

in case it should be proposed; finally, that it was not possible for him

to dissemble his indignation that the Empress, wholly enamoured of ----,

did not even take pains to hide her ridiculous partiality for him. The

handwriting of the letter was disguised, yet not so much but that I was

able to discover whose it was. I found; however, in the manner in which

the secret was expressed a warmth of zeal and a picturesque style that

did not belong to the author of the letter. While reading it, I all of a

sudden suspected it was a counterfeit, and intended to mislead the

Emperor. I communicated ms idea to him, and the danger I perceived in

this fraud. As I grew more and more animated I found plausible reasons

enough to throw the Emperor himself into some uncertainty. 'How is it

possible,' I said, 'that ----- should have been imprudent enough to write

such things to me, who am not his friend, and who have had so little

connection with him? How can one suppose that the Empress should forget

herself, in such circumstances, so far as to manifest aversion to you,

and, still more, to cast herself away upon a man who undoubtedly still

possesses some power to please, but who is no longer young, whose face is

disfigured, and whose person, altogether, has nothing agreeable in it?'

'But,' answered the Emperor, ----- is attached to me; and though he is

not your friend, the postscript sufficiently explains the motive of the

confidence he places in you.' The following words were, in fact, written

at the bottom of the letter: 'I do not think you ought to mention the

truth to the Emperor, but make whatever use of it you think proper.'

I persisted, however, in maintaining that the letter was a counterfeit;

and the Emperor then said to me, 'Go to Caulaincourt. He possesses a

great many others in the same handwriting. Let the comparison decide

between your opinion and mine.'

"I went to Caulaincourt, who said eagerly to me, 'I am sure the letter is

from -----, and I have not the least doubt of the truth of the

particulars it contains. The best thing the Emperor can do is to be

comforted; there is no help to be expected from that side.'

"So sad a discovery was very painful to the Emperor, for he was sincerely

attached to the Empress, and still hoped again to see his son, whom he

loved most tenderly.'

"Fouche had been far from wishing the return of the Emperor. He was long

tired of obeying, and had, besides, undertaken another plan, which

Napoleon's arrival had broken off. The Emperor, however, put him again

at the head of the police, because Savary was worn out in that

employment, and a skillful man was wanted there. Fouche accepted the

office, but without giving up his plan of deposing the Emperor, to put in

his place either his son or a Republic under a President. He had never

ceased to correspond with Prince Metternich, and, if he is to be

believed, he tried to persuade the Emperor to abdicate in favour of his

son. That was also my opinion; but; coming from such a quarter, the

advice was not without danger for the person to whom it was given.

Besides, that advice having been rejected, it: was the duty of the

Minister either to think no more of his plan or to resign his office.

Fouche, however, remained in the Cabinet; and continued his

correspondence. The Emperor, who placed but little confidence in him;

kept a careful eye upon him. One evening the Emperor: had a great deal

of company at the Elysee, he told me not to go home, because he wished to

speak to me. When everybody was gone the Emperor stopped with Fouche in

the apartment next to the one I was in. The door remained half open.

They walked up and down together talking very calmly. I was therefore

greatly astonished when, after a quarter of, an hour, I heard the Emperor

say to him' gravely, 'You are a traitor! Why do you remain Minister of

the Police if you wish to betray me? It rests with me to have you

hanged, and everybody would rejoice at your death!' I did not hear

Fouche's reply, but the conversation lasted above half an hour longer,

the parties all the time walking up and down. When Fouche went away he

bade me cheerfully, good-night, and said that the Emperor had gone back

to his apartments.

"The next day the Emperor spoke to me of the previous night's

conversation. 'I suspected,' he said, 'that the wretch was in

correspondence with Vienna. I have had a banker's clerk arrested on his

return from that city. He has acknowledged that he brought a letter for

Fouche from Metternich, and that the answer was to be sent at a fixed

time to Bale, where a man was to wait for the bearer on the bridge: I

sent for Fouche a few days ago, and kept him three hours long in my

garden, hoping that in the course of a friendly conversation he would

mention that letter to me, but he said nothing. At last, yesterday

evening, I myself opened the subject.' (Here the Emperor repeated to me

the words I had heard the night before, 'You are a traitor,' etc.) He

acknowledged, in fact, continued the Emperor, 'that he had received such

a letter, but that it was not signed and that he had looked upon it as a

mystification. He showed it me. Now that letter was evidently an

answer, in which the writer again declared that he would listen to

nothing more concerning the Emperor, but that, his person excepted, it

would be easy to agree to all the rest. I expected that the Emperor

would conclude his narrative by expressing his anger against Fouche, but

our conversation turned on some other subject, and he talked no more of

him.

"Two days afterwards I went to Fouche to solicit the return to Paris of

an officer of musqueteers who had been banished far from his family. I

found him at breakfast, and sat down next to him. Facing him sat a

stranger. 'Do you see this man?' he said to me; pointing with his spoon

to the stranger; 'he is an aristocrat, a Bourbonist, a Chouan; it is the

Abbe -----, one of the editors of the Journal des Debats--a sworn enemy

to Napoleon, a fanatic partisan of the Bourbons; he is one of our men.

I looked, at him. At every fresh epithet of the Minister the Abbe bowed

his head down to his plate with a smile of cheerfulness and self-

complacency, and with a sort of leer. I never saw a more ignoble

countenance. Fouche explained to me, on leaving the breakfast table,

in what manner all these valets of literature were men of his, and while

I acknowledged to myself that the system might be necessary, I scarcely

knew who were really more despicable--the wretches who thus sold

themselves to the highest bidder, or the minister who boasted of having

bought them, as if their acquisition were a glorious conquest. Judging

that the Emperor had spoken to me of the scene I have described above,

Fouche said to me, 'The Emperor's temper is soured by the resistance he

finds, and he thinks it is my fault. He does not know that I have no

power but by public opinion. To morrow I might hang before my door

twenty persons obnoxious to public opinion, though I should not be able

to imprison for four-and-twenty hours any individual favoured by it.

As I am never in a hurry to speak I remained silent, but reflecting on

what the Emperor had said concerning Fouche I found the comparison of

their two speeches remarkable. The master could have his minister hanged

with public applause, and the minister could hang--whom? Perhaps the

master himself, and with the same approbation. What a singular

situation!--and I believe they were both in the right; so far public

opinion, equitable in regard to Fouche, had swerved concerning the

Emperor."

The wrath of Napoleon was confined to the Lower House, the Peers, from

the nature of their composition, being complacent and passive enough.

The vast majority of them were in fact mere shadows gathered round the

solid persons of Joseph, Lucien, Louis, and Jerome Bonaparte, and Sieyes,

Carnot, and the military men of the Revolution. As a political body

Napoleon despised them himself, and yet he wanted the nation to respect

them. But respect was impossible, and the volatile Parisians made the

Peers a constant object of their witticisms. The punsters of Paris made

the following somewhat ingenious play upon words. Lallemand, Labedogure,

Drouot, and Ney they called Las Quatre Pairs fides (perfides), which in

pronunciation may equally mean the four faithful peers or the four

perfidious men. The infamous Vandamme and another were called Pair-

siffles, the biased peers, or the biased pair, or (persiffles) men made

objects of derision. It was thus the lower orders behaved while the,

existence of France was at stake.

By this time the thunder-cloud of war had gathered and was ready to

burst. Short as the time at his disposal was Napoleon prepared to meet

it with his accustomed energy. Firearms formed one of the most important

objects of attention. There were sufficient sabres, but muskets were

wanting. The Imperial factories could, in ordinary times, furnish

monthly 20,000 stands of new arms; by the extraordinary activity and

inducements offered this number was doubled. Workmen were also employed

in repairing the old muskets. There was displayed at this momentous

period the same activity in the capital as in 1793, and better directed,

though without the same ultimate success. The clothing of the army was

another difficulty, and this was got over by advancing large sums of

money to the cloth manufacturers beforehand. The contractors delivered

20,000 cavalry horses before the 1st of June, 10,000 trained horses had

been furnished by the dismounted gendarmerie. Twelve thousand artillery

horses were also delivered by the 1st of June, in addition to 6000 which

the army already had.

The facility with which the Ministers of Finance and of the Treasury

provided for all these expenses astonished everybody, as it was necessary

to pay for everything in ready money. The system of public works was at

the same time resumed throughout France. "It is easy to see," said the

workmen, "that 'the great contractor' is returned; all was dead, now

everything revives."

"We have just learnt," says a writer who was at Brussels at this time,

"that Napoleon had left the capital of France on the 12th; on the 15th

the frequent arrival of couriers excited extreme anxiety, and towards

evening General Muffing presented himself at the hotel of the Duke of

Wellington with despatches from Blucher. We were all aware that the

enemy was in movement, and the ignorant could not solve the enigma of the

Duke going tranquilly to the ball at the Duke of Richmond's--his coolness

was above their comprehension. Had he remained at his own hotel a panic

would have probably ensued amongst the inhabitants, which would have

embarrassed the intended movement of the British division of the army.

"I returned home late, and we were still talking over our uneasiness when

we heard the trumpets sound. Before the sun had risen in full splendour

I heard martial music approaching, and soon beheld from my windows the

5th reserve of the British army passing; the Highland brigade were the

first in advance, led by their noble thanes, the bagpipes playing their

several pibrochs; they were succeeded by the 28th, their bugles' note

falling more blithely upon the ear. Each regiment passed in succession

with its band playing."

The gallant Duke of Brunswick was at a ball at the assembly-rooms in the

Rue Ducale on the night of the 15th of June when the French guns, which

he was one of the first to hear, were clearly distinguished at Brussels.

"Upon receiving the information that a powerful French force was

advancing in the direction of Charleroi. 'Then it is high time for me to

be off,' he exclaimed, and immediately quitted, the ball-room."

"At four the whole disposable force under the Duke off Wellington was

collected together, but in such haste that many of the officers had no

time to change their silk stockings and dancing-shoes; and some, quite

overcome by drowsiness, were seen lying asleep about the ramparts, still

holding, however, with a firm hand, the reins of their horses, which were

grazing by their sides.

"About five o'clock the word march' was heard in ail directions, and

instantly the whole mass appeared to move simultaneously. I conversed

with several of the officers previous to their departure, and not one

appeared to have the slightest idea of an approaching engagement.

"The Duke of Wellington and his staff did not quit Brussels till past

eleven o'clock, and it was not till some time after they were gone that

it was generally known the whole French army, including a strong corps of

cavalry, was within a few miles of Quatre Bras."