These were the preludes of the revolution which was pre paring at the residence of M. de Talleyrand and in the Senate. There only wanted the official voice of the people of Paris, and that broke forth in the course of the day. The Municipal Council, that shadow of the ancient commune, carefully purified, and severely mutilated in its powers by the Emperor, nevertheless still comprised those elements of municipal representation which personified the cities. What was formerly called the Third Estate, and now the citizens, constituted the most dominant portion of the Municipal Council. Trade and commerce, arts, industry, the bar and the magistracy, were, and still are, naturally placed in this local and departmental representation, by the electors of these different professions; electors the most numerous of all in towns, because these professions are there most general. The aristocracy of the different quarters and professions sat, and always will sit, in the municipality. Opinions, like the conditions of the parties, are there moderate; intelligence quick and perspicuous, but of a local character, and circumscribed by private interests, like the instinct of the domestic hearth and the popular workshop. These bodies very seldom take the initiative in political questions; but the signal of common peril is prompt to issue from them. It is there that the murmur of public resentment originates and swells against persecutions which menace the security of private life. Heroism is mute within their walls, but social selfishness is impassioned and eloquent.

M. Bellart, until this period an enthusiast, and frequently a flatterer of the genius of Napoleon (so greatly had that genius overshadowed and given a lustre to France), was imbued all at once with the public impression of terror and deception which had seized upon Paris, since the Emperor had made of France and the capital a field of battle, and the prey of foreigners. His victories had appeared to M. Bellart as so many virtues, and his reverses as so many crimes. He qecame enraged against the man who could not conquer

Declaration of the Municipal Council against Napoleon.

destiny, and proposed to the Municipal Council to strike the first blow ever struck by a constituted body against the Emperor and the Empire. The prefect of Paris, M. de Chatrol, did not venture to approve or resist the motion. Incapable of betraying, but weary perhaps of serving, he retired and resigned his functions. The Council, thus abandoned to itself, voted and circulated the following declaration,—an explosion of justice for some-of vengeance for others-of desertion for all.

"INHABITANTS OF PARIS!

"Your magistrates would be traitors towards you and our country, if, by vile personal considerations, they any longer repressed the voice of their conscience. It cries out to them that you owe all the evils that overwhelm you to one man alone.

"It is he who, every year, by the conscription, has deci mated our families. Who amongst us has not lost a son, a brother, relations or friends? For whom have all these brave men died? For him alone, and not for the country. For what cause? They have been immolated, solely immolated o the insanity of leaving after him the memory of the most frightful oppressor that has ever harassed the human race.

"It is he who, instead of four hundred millions that France paid under our good kings for liberty, tranquil and happy, has overwhelmed us with more than fifteen hundred millions of taxes, to which he has threatened to add more.

"It is he who has shut us out from the seas of both worlds, who has dried up the sources of national industry, torn the husbandman from our fields, and the workman from our manufactories.

"To him we owe the hatred of all nations without having merited it, since, like them, we were the unfortunate victims, rather than the criminal instruments of his rage.

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Is it not he also who, violating what men hold most sacred, has kept in captivity the venerable chief of religion, and deprived of his dominions, by a detestable perfidy, a king, his ally, thus giving up to destruction the Spanish nation—our old and ever faithful friend?

Declaration of the Municipal Council against Napoleon.

"Is it not he, again, who, an enemy to his own subjects, so long deceived by him, after having just refused an honourable peace, in which our unfortunate country might, at least, have had time to respire, has finished, by giving the parricidal order to expose fruitlessly the National Guard for the impracticable defence of the capital, upon which he has thus invoked all the vengeance of the enemy?

"Is it not, finally, he, who dreading truth above all things, has outrageously dismissed our legislators, in the face of Europe, because they once ventured to tell it to him with delicacy and dignity?

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What matters it that he has sacrificed only a small number of persons to his hatred, or, more properly, to his private revenge, if he has sacrificed France-why do we say Franceall Europe, to his immeasurable ambition?

"Ambition or vengeance—the cause is nothing. Whatever may be this cause, look at the effect. Look at the vast continent of Europe, covered everywhere with the mingled bones of the French, and of people who had nothing to demand from one another, who bore no hatred to each other, between whom distance prevented quarrels, and whom he has plunged into war merely to fill the earth with the terror of his name!

"Why are we told of his past victories? What good have these fatal victories done us? The hatred of nations, the tears of our families, the forced celibacy of our daughters, the ruin of all fortunes, the premature widowhood of our women, the despair of fathers and mothers, to whom, of a numerous posterity, there no longer remains a filial hand to close their eyes. Behold the fruits of his boasted victories! It is they that have now brought, even to our walls, hitherto undefiled under the paternal administration of our kings, those strangers, whose generous protection demands our gratitude, when it would have been sweeter to us to offer them a disinterested alliance.

"There is not one amongst them who, in his secret heart, does not detest him as a public enemy-not one who, in his most confidential intercourse, has not formed the wish to see a termination of so many cruelties.

"If we delayed any longer in giving expression to this wish

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Their declaration in favour of the Bourbons.

of our hearts and of yours, we should be deserters from the public cause.

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Europe in arms demands it of us; it implores it as a benefit to humanity, as the guarantee of a peace durable and universal.

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Parisians! Europe in arms would not obtain it from your magistrates if it was not in conformity with their duty.

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But it is in the name of these duties, and of the most sacred of all, that we abjure all obedience to the usurper, to return to our legitimate masters.

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If there be danger in following this movement of the heart and the conscience, we accept it. History and the gratitude of the French people will preserve our names, and bequeath them to the esteem of posterity.

"In consequence, the Council-general of the department of the Seine, the Municipal Council of Paris, spontaneously assembled, declares unanimously, by all the members present :

"That it formally renounces all obedience to Napoleon Bonaparte ;-expresses the most ardent wish that the monarchical government should be re-established, in the person of Louis XVIII., and of his legitimate successors;—and decrees that the present declaration, and the proclamation which explains it, shall be printed, distributed, and posted in Paris, notified to all the authorities remaining in Paris and in the provinces, and transmitted to all the councils-general of departments."

BOOK SEVENTH.

Sitting of the Senate the 2nd of April-Declaration of forfeiture-Sitting of the Senate the 3rd of April-Text of the Decree of ForfeitureAdhesion of the Legislative Body-Manifestation of Paris against the Emperor-The Ministry- Progress of opinion-Adhesion of the other Constituted Bodies-Manifesto of the Provisional GovernmentSituation of the Emperor and of the Allies-Napoleon at Fontainecau-Return of Caulaincourt to Fontainebleau in the night of the 2nd of April-Proclamation of Napoleon to his Guard, the 3d of April-Order of the day for the march of the army on ParisOpposition of the Marshals-Interview of Napoleon and MarmontAdhesion of Marmont to the forfeiture of the Emperor-Letter of Marmont to Prince Schwartzenburg-The Prince's answer.

I.

THIS imprecation of the municipal body of Paris against him who was already called the public enemy, gave a decided impetus to public opinion, still mute in Paris and the departments. When Paris spoke so loudly who could be silent? Its voice was echoed throughout all France. Indignation and insult rose now as high as servility and adulation had done before. Rome, in the time of the sudden elevations and falls of its emperors, did not offer a worse example, or more scandalous outrages after the prostration. Minds that had most rebelled against the Napoleon tyranny-nay, the most generous, because they had been the most firm-rejoiced at this vengeance of liberty, but blushed at this shameless apostacy of a people.

M. de Talleyrand wished for this explosion, but he wished for it slower and later. He complained to his confidants of an outbreak which might enable the allied powers to do without him and the Senate. He stipulated with Louis XVIII. and with Alexander in the name of public opinion; but public opinion, in speaking so loudly, had outstript him. It revealed to the allies and to the Bourbons a general spirit of