The Emperor's departure for Châlons.

XXXII.

Seventy thousand troops constituted the only army with which Napoleon had to manœuvre, and combat a million of men in the heart of France. Victory itself could do nothing for so small a number: it could only waste them less rapidly than defeat. Did he depend on impossibilities; or was he only desirous of illustrating his last struggle? No one knows what was passing in that soul, maddened for so many years by illusions. The most likely solution is, that he calculated on some brilliant but passing success, which might have served as a pretext for the Emperor of Austria to negociate with him. He never thought that a father would dishonour his son-in-law, or that kings would dethrone the conqueror of the revolution But, at all events, he did not doubt that, even if conquered and deprived of the throne, the empire would be transmitted to his son.

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He arrived at Châlons on the 25th of January, ruminating on thoughts like the above. Cries of Vive l'Empereur! à bas les droits réunis !" met him everywhere on the road. The people, excited and discontented at the same time, evinced, in the same breath, their enthusiasm for the warrior and their weariness of tyranny

BOOK SECOND.

Campaign of 1814-Plan of Napoleon-March of the Emperor on St. Dizier, to meet the Allies-Napoleon falls back on Brienne-Combat of Brienne-Junction of Blucher and Schwartzenburg-Battle of La Rothierre-Combat of Marmont at Rosnay-Napoleon goes to Troyes-His residence and hesitation at Troyes-Congress of Chatillon-Caulaincourt-Ultimatum of the Allied Sovereigns on the 8th of January-Correspondence of the Emperor and Joseph-Blucher falls back on Châlons, and marches on Paris-Napoleon marches to Champ Aubert to stop Blucher-Combat of Champ Aubert-Battle of Montmirail-Battle of Vauchamp-Napoleon withdraws from Caulaincourt the authority to sign a Peace-Schwartzenburg threatens Paris, and advances by the valley of the Seine-Napoleon flies to meet him-Battle of Montereau-Napoleon re-enters Troyes the 23d January-Royalist manifestation-Execution of the Chevalier Gouault.

I.

OUR generals, left without sufficient force on the banks of the Rhine, had, at first, tried to close, at least, the passes of the Vosges and of Alsace, those avenues to our plains. Turned and compromised, they had fallen back slowly to the reverse side of those mountains which look down on France. They were closely followed by 400,000 men, Russians, Prussians, and Austrians, daily augmented by fresh columns from the Rhine. These 400,000 men formed two armies, the one under the orders of Schwartzenburg, the other under the command of Blucher. After having overrun the basin of the Rhine, Alsace, Franche-Compté, the valleys of the Vosges, and Lorraine, they directed their steps slowly towards each other, to re-unite, like the armies of Attila, at Troyes, the capital of Champagne. The Emperor, in imitation of himself, as it often happens with exhausted genius, had resolved to throw himself boldly between these two armies, give battle separately to each of his enemies with his handful of desperate combatants, and to remove them from each other as much as possible,—the one to the left towards

Operations of the armies.

his strong places in the north, the other to the right towards Lyons, and to profit against each of these armies, thus thrown into the interior, by the chances of victory, the panics of defeat, and the enthusiasm of the national insurrections round the footsteps of the strangers. This plan, though inferior to that of concentration, to which nations as well as individuals are prompted by a defensive struggle, might be understood, if the Emperor had an army equal in number to one half or one quarter of either of the armies marching upon him. But on the day he arrived at Châlons the allies numbered already 400,000 soldiers in France;-500,000, more were descending in rear of this advance guard from the Alps, from the Pyrenees, from the Vosges, and from the Jura. A campaign thus projected was, therefore, nothing but a kind of heroic adventure. He was about to squander the remaining blood of his brave companions, in order to render his fall illustrious, and annihilate a nation. Napoleon had made Châlons the pivot of all that remained to him of his guard, and of his new levies

II.

The heads of columns of the Russian and Prussian armies, commanded by Blucher, were approaching St. Dizier. The advance guard of the Austrian army, under Schwartzenburg, was arriving at Langres. The Emperor only occupied with the French army the space between these two cities, with the plains of Paris in his rear. The old troops and his young soldiers received him with an enthusiasm to which the misfortunes of their general seemed to add what the heart confers on glory,— the despairing tenderness of devotion. Their acclamations braved adversity, and bade defiance to death. Napoleon profited by that burst of enthusiasm which his presence always created in his camp. He threw himself with this handful of men before the Prussian army, to cut it off from the road to Langres, and arrive before it on the banks of the Marne, which it had to cross on its way to Troyes. It was too late. One half of the Prussian army had already passed the Marne, and was advancing in force towards the capital of Champagne. The

Military enthusiasm in the Emperor's favour.

other half was about to cross the river, when Napoleon arrived there. He had now to choose at a single glance between the two chances offered him by fortune: either to cut in two the army of Blucher, and separate its fragments to the right and left; or else to throw himself by forced marches in front of the first column of that army which was advancing before him to Troyes, to attack it, break it, enter Troyes before Schwartzenburg, and thus place himself as an impregnable barrier at the point of junction assigned for the two armies. The necessity of preceding the Emperors at Troyes decided him promptly to the latter course. The timidity of their march-the indecision of their first columns in venturing into the heart of Francemight afford him an opportunity of conquering. A victory, even incomplete, over the corps d'armée, with which were the allied sovereigns, might strike them with astonishment, and induce them to open negociations. The general and the statesman both urged him to fly to the solution of his destiny. This was Troyes.

III

The rigours of the season seemed to increase the fatigues of the campaign. A long continuance of cold rains had cut up the roads. A mantle of snow and hoar frost covered and concealed the beaten tracks and quagmires, where the feet of the soldiers, and of the horses, and the wheels of the cannons frequently stuck in the mud. The army was fortunately in light marching order; for, united in feeling with the inhabitants, they found bread and forage everywhere. The humblest cabins gave up their little stores, with cordial hospitality, to warm and nourish these last defenders of the soil of France. Very few stragglers remained upon the road; enthusiasm rallied all, and hurried them forward after the Emperor. The magic spell of his numerous victories seemed to have lodged itself in the mind of his guard, and of the battalions of reserve. This guard looked upon itself as jointly responsible with the Emperor, and bound in honour to devote itself, even to the last man, for the deliverance of the native soil. The shame of having permitted the

Napoleon's advance on Brienne.

enemy to touch it, and the ardent desire of expelling them, weighed heavily on the rough visages of these brave Pretorians. They marched, with downcast eyes and knitted brows, in a silence more sinister and warlike than their soldierly gaiety of other days. They felt that it was no longer victory alone but the vengeance of their country that marched invisible before them. Moreover, the great majority of these soldiers,-hardened by the sands of Egypt, by the sun of Spain, by the snows of Poland and Russia,—were veterans inured to marches, and undismayed by the cannon's roar,-true animated machines of war, who seemed no longer to participate in the weakness and the wants of humanity. Confidence in themselves, contempt of superior numbers, and indifference under fire, multiplied them in their own eyes.

'Twas in the midst of a column of these troops that Napoleon marched, sometimes on foot, sometimes on horseback, never entering his carriage, and only retiring on the halt into the first mechanic's or peasant's cottage that opened at his name, to spread out his maps, trace his route, dictate orders to his officers, or snatch a moment's sleep by the fire of the bivouac or the cottage hearth.

IV

Napoleon accordingly recalled his advance-guard, which had already passed St. Dizier, and directed his columns on Brienne. Blucher having timely notice of the approach of the French army, had placed the first half of the Russian and Prussian army in this town and castle. Napoleon thus, in the last period of his military career, found himself, like a stag at bay, exactly at his starting point. It was at the school of Brienne that he had received his first lesson in the art of war. His obscure infancy re-appeared to him at the decline of his power and of his glory. An abyss of events lay between these two points of his life. It seemed as if he was going to fight in the presence of his youthful reminiscences. This thought, say his confidants, renewed his faith in the smiles of fortune; he recognised his battle field by the