BOOK EIGHTH.

Abdication of Napoleon-He sends Caulaincourt and Macdonald as Plenipotentiaries to Paris-Council of the Marshals and the Allied Sovereigns on the 4th of April-Rejection of the Regency-Defection of Marmont's Troops-Nocturnal Supper of the Generals and Officers-March of the 6th Corps into the enemy's lines-Its revolt on its arrival at Versailles-Its march towards Rambouillet-Marmont, hastening to Versailles, stops and appeases the 6th corpsOration of Marmont, on his return, at the hotel of M. de TalleyrandOrder of the day of Napoleon on the 5th of April-Return of the Plenipotentiaries to Fontainebleau-Napoleon wishes to commence the war-He renounces the idea-Departure of Caulaincourt for Paris.

1.

THE Emperor, on entering his apartments, with a determined voice ordered the head-quarters to advance to Ponthierry, on the road to Essonne. This he thought would be a tacit order to his marshals also to follow him with their main divisions. He did not expect that his companions in arms would abandon him in the last struggle; for though he had no longer any confidence in their devotion he still believed in their honour.

The marshals, however, who had followed him to the very last position to which he appeared desirous of retreating, formed before him a group of enigmatical faces. Undecided between habitual respect and the audacity of an unwonted resolution, their features revealed the ambiguity of the part they played. Ready to bow respectfully if the Emperor would comprehend their significant gestures and silent importunity, but ready to enforce their object, if he persisted in not understanding them. The long silence which thus ensued between the Emperor and his lieutenants was the most solemn dialogue of the scene. Napoleon consulted by his looks the eyes of his officers, who also consulted his in a like manner, each appearing to wait for the other to develope their intentions. This, however, Napo

Determined spirit evinced by the Marshals.

leon did not yet dream of doing, while his lieutenants trembled at the prospect of being forced to open the conference. The mortification of waiting in vain, increased by the settled intention of effecting their object, excited the rage and impatience of the military chiefs, till at length, despairing to convince but determined to achieve, they were about to declare themselves.

II.

"I rely upon you, gentlemen," said Napoleon at length, hastening to anticipate them by a word to which they had so often responded, and which required some sign of acquiescence. The marshals, however, instead of retiring respectfully, as usual on such occasions, to execute the orders they received, drew close together, and firmly fixing their feet on the floor, showed, by this attitude, their resolution to remain. Napoleon was agitated, but restrained his feelings, till Marshai Ney, whose numerous exploits had given him the right of expressing himself with more freedom than the others, exclaimed, “That not a single sword should leave the scabbard to effect the useless and insane crime of a desperate ambition against the country." Napoleon regarded him with reproachful astonishment. This was the first truth he had heard during ten years of service; and coming from the soul of one of his most heroic companions, it had the accent of a revolt and the bitterness of an abandonment. He was thunderstruck and disconcerted, as he had been on the 18th Brumaire, by the voices and gestures of the representatives at Saint Cloud. Napoleon, in fact, required an army between himself and the truth. He could not combat audacity hand to hand.

III.

His lieutenants, Ney, Oudinot, Lefebvre, supported, with all the energy of abrupt speech and indomitable will, the declaration of the marshal. The faces, the tone, the imperatively extended arms and pointed fingers of the officers, the low murmurs, the threatening looks, the broken words scarcely checked on the lips, the stamping of feet and the clatter of sabres on

They submit to the Emperor the necessity of abdicating.

the floor, seemed to indicate to Napoleon, that matters were fast verging to extremities, and that the terror he had so long inspired was at length recoiling upon himself. He, neverthe less, again tried his inoral power: he raised his brow, which had bent beneath the keenest reproaches, and again dismissing his lieutenants by a gesture, "The army at least-will that follow me?" he said with a bitter smile. "The army," replied the marshals, in a more vehement tone," will obey its generals." This was turning against his own heart the sword he had placed in their hands. Napoleon felt himself disarmed. It only remained for him to set at defiance his companions in glory, in the most insulting manner, by clearing a passage through the group that pressed around him, and by rushing out on the terrace of the court to call upon his grenadiers to avenge their Emperor. But here, as at Saint Cloud, his foot, his heart, his voice failed him. He crossed his arms on his breast, bent down his head, appeared to reflect a long time in silence, then composed his features to hide his humiliation; and in the tone of a man who voluntarily seeks counsel of his friends, instead of submitting himself to their will through force: "Well," he said to them, "what ought I to do in your opinion ?"

"Abdicate!" exclaimed, in a rough and unanimous voice, the marshals nearest to him.

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Yes, there remains for you, for us, for our country, no other course, no other means of safety than your abdication,” exclaimed the others.

"And see what you have gained by not following the advice of your friends, when they wished you to make peace," said Marshal Lefebvre.

A general murmur of approbation revealed to Napoleon that he had no further hope or even pity to expect in all these hearts. He heard, though he feigned not to hear, words which revealed the long hidden depths of his soul. He saw that the resentment of the nation overflowed even from the lips of its last preservers. No commiseration concealed from him their ingratitude. Defection assumed the accent of patriotism. Vulgar minds, that have cringed the lowest before prosperity, conduct themselves with the utmost insolence before misfortune.

He writes and signs his abdication.

Military bluntness is then dignified by the name of frankness; yet this tardy frankness is often but the revenge of long servility. It was not spared to Napoleon. In a few moments he was overwhelmed with those voices which had been so long smothered with forced adulation. He merited this punishment from that public opinion which he himself had so much abused. But was it the recipients of his own favours that should have inflicted it?

IV.

Napoleon submitted himself, not to their counsels, but to destiny, which had disarmed him. "I will present to you my

abdication,-leave me for a moment to write it," he said. The marshals withdrew towards the door of the narrow closet, without losing sight of the Emperor. He sat down before a small table covered with green cloth. He took a pen, reflected a moment, and then weighing the words in his mind he wrote deliberately, and with a trembling hand, his abdication in the following words :

"The allied powers having proclaimed that the Emperor Napoleon was the sole obstacle to the re-establishment of peace, the Emperor Napoleon, faithful to his oath, declares that he is ready to descend from the throne, to quit France, and even life itself, for the good of the country; without prejudice, however, to the rights of his son, to those of the regency of the Empress, and to the maintenance of the laws of the Empire. Given at our Palace of Fontainebleau, the 4th April, 1814. NAPOLEON."

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V.

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"There, gentlemen," said he, addressing the marshals who advanced towards him; are you satisfied?"

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The lieutenants received the abdication from his hands, read it, and bowed in satisfaction. This abdication was their ransom for the country, and their personal treaty with Europe. They troubled themselves little about the conditions that the Emperor seemed to attach to it. Without a sword or a crown negociation is at an end. They held their oaths and their

His desperate resolves and agony of mind.

liberty in their hands, and they were fully determined never again to confide them to him.

VI.

As to Napoleon, although the scene which had just passed left him no further illusion on the attachment of ambition to power, he feigned still to entertain it, either to flatter himself or his marshals, or rather, perhaps, to cover with an appearance of dignity and independance the violence he had suffered, and which he would not even confess to himself. Gentlemen," said he to them, in a voice which he strove to render confident and martial, “you must now go to Paris to defend the interests of my son, the interests of the army-those of France. I name as my commissioners the Duke of Vicenza (Caulaincourt), the Marshal Prince of Moskowa, and the Marshal Duke of Ragusa. Are you satisfied with the names ?-do these interests appear to you in good hands?"

The generals signified their assent.

VII.

Napoleon, who had remained standing in a state of nervous agitation from the moment he had tendered the act of abdication to his companions in arms, could no longer resist the exhaustion which often follows a violent shock of the mind. He sank exhausted on a sofa, and waited a moment to recover his breath. Then placing his hands on his forehead, he seemed to be absorbed in the deepest anxiety. Nothing was heard through the silence of the closet (illumed by the sun's rays), but the sound of his difficult breathing. The marshals felt pained by this agony of an expiring ambition; but they believed him at length conquered. They were mistaken. This phrenzy of Napoleon's disguised a last stratagem of his passion for empire. He started up, as if seized with a sudden repentance, and darting towards his generals, as if to re-possess and tear up his written resignation: “No, no!" he cried, "there shall be no regency. With my guard alone, and the army of Marmont, I shall be in Paris to-morrow!"