Alarm and difficulties of Marie-Louise.

Boulay (de la Meurthe) accustomed to revolutionary dramas, knew by experience the inconstancy of the people and the power of enthusiasm. He knew that the flight of this princess, proving the despair of her cause, would crumble the Empire under her feet. This heroic opinion would call up the resolution of Maria Theresa. But resolutions like that of Maria Theresa only suit those dynasties which have been rooted for years in the hearts of nations. When they do not excite the fanaticism of religious devotion in the cause of princes they become mere parodies on popular enthusiasm. The council itself was not composed of men decided on saving a dynasty, or perishing for it. After some deliberation, slow, tame, and altogether official, and which seemed intended only to shift from one to another the responsibility of a retreat, they separated at midnight, without coming to a conclusion. No one dared to adopt a resolution which might become a crime, if the Emperor should conquer once more, and call his brothers to account for the abandoning of his capital. They referred to Napoleon's letter, which forbade his wife to reside at Paris, in case of extreme peril. They foresaw the peril, but did not declare it to exist.

XVI.

Cambaceres and Joseph, desirous of laying on Marie Louise herself the responsibility of a resolution which ought to come from them, followed her, after the council, to her private apartments, where they beset her with ambiguous hints and suggestions, to obtain from her such a decision as would bear them harmless. But whether it was that she feared the anger of her husband, whether she was disposed to remain passive in her capital, where she felt herself more surrounded with respect for her sex and rank, whether she was apprehensive of becoming, in the hands of her brothers-inlaw, a wandering victim of Bonaparte's ambition, and an instrument of civil war, hurried in the midst of camps from province to province, Marie-Louise conquered her timidity She replied with firmness to Joseph and Cambaceres, that the

Preparations for the flight of the Empress and her son.

resolution belonged to them; that she would never take it upon herself; that they were her official councillors, and that she would only obey, whether she was to go or stay, an order maturely considered and signed by them. But they eluded this responsibility. The order to depart, eventually given by Napoleon in his letter, was therefore an absolute text which the Empress resolved to obey. Preparations were accordingly made for flight; the waggons were immediately laden with the treasury; the private papers of the Emperor were packed up, as also the crown diamonds, and the day of departure was fixed for the 29th of March.

XVII.

But every horse that galloped into the court of the palace might announce a courier, and bring a counter order from the Emperor. Time was therefore given for such a contingency. The Empress, surrounded by ladies, by courtiers, and by officers appointed to attend her, waited from daybreak till midday the signal for departure, which was to have been given by Joseph. This prince, mounting his horse the preceding night, had gone to visit and animate the advanced guards at the barriers and at the principal entrances to Paris. But the mass of the population was ignorant even of this last demonstration of resistance. They accused Joseph of royal effeminacy, contracted in the bosom of the voluptuous courts of the South, -on the thrones of Naples and Madrid.

Joseph, however, did not return, and said nothing further to the Empress. The officers of the National Guard, who were stationed at the palace, conjured her to remain. They were in hopes that the presence in Paris of the daughter of the Emperor of Austria would be a safeguard against the horrors of a city about to be besieged. Marie-Louise in tears by turns yielded and resisted their entreaties. It was evident that any obstacle which would obstruct her obedience of the Emperor's order to quit Paris, would have relieved her from great uncertainty, by removing the importunities of Napoleon's brothers. On the other hand, the provident men, and the

Their departure from Paris.

party of M. de Talleyrand, embarrassed by the presence of this princess in the negociations which they were already concocting, for the purpose of giving up her throne to other princes, privately pressed her departure. Clarke, the Minister of War, sent at noon to tell her that he could no longer answer for the safety of the roads, overrun as they were by bands of Cossacks, if she delayed her departure till the morrow. Twelve of the court carriages, ready for the road since morning, were waiting in the court of the palace, surrounded by a strong escort of the cavalry of the guard. Marie-Louise at length tore herself away from her palace, one of her equerries carrying in his arms the King of Rome. This beautiful child, already made proud by the adulation which outstript his age, seized upon the balustrade of the grand staircase, and refused to be exiled from the throne. "I will not go away," he cried. "When the Emperor is absent, am not I the master here?" It might be said he foresaw that, between the pomp and grandeur of the Tuileries and the funeral vaults of Schonbrunn, there remained for him but a few short years of adolescence and of melancholy. The royal carriages defiled slowly, like a funeral procession, along the quays; and only a few groups of curious persons stopped here and there to witness the departure of this convoy of a dynasty. Not a voice was raised to utter a farewell of the people to the wife and son of Napoleon, flying at hazard, and trailing after them the last vestiges of imperial splendour.

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Such was the popularity of this reign, which history painted, a few years after, as the fanaticism of the people.

XVIII

While the Empress thus slowly followed the road to the imperial chateau of Rambouillet, the drums beat to arms to summon the citizens to the defence of the capital. The National Guard took arms, less to frighten the enemy than to guard their own homes. But the students, and some of those men who are called forth by patriotism and danger, and the more so when danger is most imminent, flew to the gates and

Consternation at Paris.

to the heights of Montmartre. The faubourgs, on seeing them pass, loudly demanded arms; but every thing was wanting: the Empire had exhausted all on foreign battle fields. The news of the departure of the Empress, and the removal of the seat of government from the capital, depressed and astounded all hearts; and the last blow, under which empires crumble into nothing, was awaited in melancholy silence.

Joseph, returning to Paris after having seen at a distance the irruption of hostile armies which covered the plains and the road to the capital, avoided the populous streets; and convoking a nocturnal assemblage of the ministers and the council of regency, prepared to follow the footsteps of the Empress. with these last remains of the reign of Napoleon.

BOOK FOURTH.

Progress of Napoleon towards Paris-He passes Troyes and Sens-Arrival of the Allied Armies before Paris-Battle of Paris-Joseph orders Marmont to capitulate-Proclamation of Joseph-Flight of Joseph, of Jerome, and of the Government-Mortier offers a suspension of arms-Last resistance of Marmont-He proposes a Suspension of arms-Deputation from the Municipal Council to Marmont-Capitulation of Marmont, the 30th of March-Messrs. de Chabrol and Pasquier at the Quarter-general of the Emperor Alexander Alexander-He receives a deputation from the Parisians-Speech of Alexander-Entrance of the Allied Armies into Paris-Aspect of Paris-Petition from the Authorities of Paris to Alexander-Royalist manifestation on the entrance of the Sovereigns.

I.

WHILE Paris thus resigned itself, almost unarmed, to the innumerable forces by which it was surrounded, Napoleon was anxiously calculating the time and the stages which separated him from his capital. He had seventy leagues to travel over, with an army exhausted by marches and countermarches, but impatient to see once more the walls of Paris, and to gain there one last glorious victory. The soldiers, whose feet were torn by the roads and the snows of a winter campaign, forgot their weariness and their wounds in seeing their Emperor, sometimes mounted, sometimes on foot, marching in the midst of them. The feverish impatience of Napoleon was communicated from his eyes to theirs. The shame of seeing the capital of France threatened by a foreign enemy weighed upon their souls as the remorse of so much glory lost. They pressed forward to anticipate the vengeance of the world,-Napoleon to regain the Empire. Throwing into the canals, or burning, all the baggage that retarded their speed, they marched as far as twenty leagues a day. On arriving at Troyes, at eleven o'clock on the night of the 29th, Napoleon despatched from thence General Count de Girardin to Paris, to order a final

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