THE END.
Footnote 1: Fragment of a letter from M. Fouché to the Emperor, on the 21st of March.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 2: I have since been assured, that M. Réal had warned him, by means of Madame Lacuée, his daughter, that the Emperor knew the whole affair.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 3: The greater part of the deputies were not yet named; but there was no harm in anticipating events.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 4: When the Duke of Otranto became minister to the King, and was appointed to make out lists of proscription, I was desirous of knowing, what I had to expect from his resentment; and wrote to him, to sound his intentions. He sent for me, received me with much kindness, and assured me of his friendship and protection. "You did your duty," said he to me, "and I did mine. I foresaw, that Bonaparte could not maintain his situation. He was a great man, but had grown mad. It was my duty, to do what I did, and prefer the good of France to every other consideration."
The Duke of Otranto behaved with the same generosity towards most of the persons, of whom he had any reason to complain; and, if he found himself obliged, to include some of them in the number of the proscribed, he had at least the merit of facilitating their escape from death, or the imprisonment intended for them, by assisting them with his advice, with passports, and frequently with the loan of money.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 5: This preamble, which gave the death-blow to the additional act, was, I believe, the work of M. Benjamin Constant.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 6: This table, and that mentioned in Art. 33, being of no importance, are not inserted here.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 7: Notwithstanding the charter, and the laws daily passed, it is found necessary, to recur every day to rules established by the ancient legislation of the senate.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 8: The well-known words, in which the cortes of Arragon address the kings of Spain at their coronation.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 9: The Emperor had ordered this proclamation to be burned; but I found it so excellent, that I thought it my duty to preserve it. At the moment when Napoleon set out for the army, I was not in Paris; and one of the principal clerks of the cabinet, M. Rathery, having found it among my papers, had the courage to throw it into the fire.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 10: I speak generally: I know there were departments, the electoral colleges of which, from various causes, were composed only of a small number of individuals.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 11: The following anecdote of the young Napoleon I have never seen published. When he came into the world, he was believed to be dead; he was without warmth, without motion, without respiration. M. Dubois (the accoucheur of the Empress) had made reiterated attempts, to recall him to life, when a hundred guns were discharged in succession, to celebrate his birth. The concussion and agitation produced by this firing acted so powerfully on the organs of the royal infant, that his senses were reanimated.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 12: The Emperor Alexander, at the time of the affair of Fontainebleau, had guarantied to the Duke of Vicenza, for Napoleon, the possession of the island of Elba. M. de Talleyrand and the foreign ministers remonstrated to him strongly, on the danger of leaving the Emperor on a spot so near to France and Italy; and conjured him, not to oppose their compelling him to choose another place of retreat. Alexander, faithful to his engagements, would not consent to this. When the Emperor returned, Alexander made it a point of honour, to repair the noble fault he had committed; and became, rather from duty than from animosity, the most inveterate enemy of Napoleon and of France.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 13: He had agents in Germany and in England, who informed him, with perfect accuracy, of every thing going on there. It is true, that these agents made him pay dearly for their services. In London, for instance, he had two persons, who cost him two thousand guineas a month. "If my Germans," said he on this subject, "were so dear, I must give them up."[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 14: A small county in Lower Normandy, the common focus of the rebellion.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 15: The succours, so pompously announced by the royalist emissaries, amounted only to 2400 muskets, and a few barrels of gunpowder. The chiefs of the insurrection, disappointed in their expectations, bitterly reproached M. de la Roche-jaquelin with having deceived and implicated them by false promises.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 16: The Emperor had intended this command in chief for the Duke of Rovigo, or General Corbineau: but he foresaw, that it might perhaps be necessary, to proceed to rigorous measures; and he was unwilling, that these should be conducted by an officer attached to his own person.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 17: The Emperor considered this rigorous measure as a just reprisal for the means employed by the Vendean chiefs, to recruit their army. They are the following:
When the families, that reign in la Vendée, have resolved on war, they send orders to their agents, to travel over the country, preaching up revolt, and indicating to every parish the number of men, that it must furnish. The chiefs of the insurrection in each parish then point out the peasants, who are to go; and enjoin them, to be at such an hour, on such a day, at the place appointed for assembling. If they fail, armed bands are sent in quest of them, generally composed of the men most dreaded in the country: if they resist, they are threatened with being shot, or having their houses burnt; and as this is never an empty threat, the unhappy peasants obey, and set out.
It has been asserted, that the Emperor had given orders, to set a price on the heads of the chiefs of the insurgents. The instructions given to the ministers at war were transcribed by me, and I have not the least recollection of any such order having been given.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 18: Fourteen millions of francs had been appropriated to the rebuilding of the houses burned down.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 19: These announced and promised to the Neapolitans the restoration of Ferdinand, their former king, to the throne.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 20: The departments of the Centre, and of the East, particularly distinguished themselves. A great number of their inhabitants gave considerable sums, and equipped at their own expense companies, battalions, whole regiments, of partisans or national guards.
A single citizen of Paris, Mr. Delorme, proprietor of the fine passage of the same name, offered his country a hundred thousand francs.
Another, one day when the national guard was reviewed, caused a roll of paper, tied with a ribbon of the legion of honour, to be delivered to the Emperor. On opening it, it was found to contain twenty-five thousand francs, in notes on the Bank, with these words: "for Napoleon, for my country." The Emperor was desirous of knowing the person, who had made this delicate and mysterious offering; and at length discovered, that it was M. Gevaudan, whose noble sentiments and patriotism had already been proved by several actions of a similar kind.[Back to Main Text.]
| Votes, | Affirmative | 1,288,357 | |
| Negative | 4,207 | ||
| Armies, | Affirmative | 222,000 | |
| Negative | 320 | ||
| Navy, | Affirmative | 22,000 | |
| Negative | 275 |
Eleven departments did not send their registers in time. A great number of soldiers, unable to write their names, did not vote; and the registers of fourteen regiments did not arrive, till the votes had been summed up.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 22: Montesquieu. Greatness and Decline of the Romans.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 23: The day on which the Act of Congress appeared.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 24: At the time of the discussion of the additional act, M. de Bassano, conversing with the Emperor on the chamber of deputies, said to him, that the muteness of the legislative body, was one of the things, that had contributed most to discredit the imperial government. "My mute legislative body," answered Napoleon, with a smile, "was never well understood. It was a grand legislative jury. If it be thought right, that twelve jurymen shall pronounce on the life and honour of their fellow citizens by a simple yes, or no; why deem it strange or tyrannical, that five hundred jurymen, selected from the most eminent men in the nation, should pronounce in a similar manner on the simple interests of society?"[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 25: He had married a Miss Beauharnais, since so celebrated for her generously risking her own life to save his.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 26: It was the Duke of Vicenza, who first conceived the idea of conferring the peerage on great land-holders, and distinguished merchants. He was not of opinion, that the peerage should be hereditary, and that the choice of peers should be left exclusively to the crown. He would have wished, that men of great landed property, manufacturers, merchants of the first rank, the men of letters, civilians, and lawyers, who had acquired a great name, should be allowed to propose a list of candidates, out of which the Emperor should be at liberty to choose a certain number of peers.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 27: Lucien Bonaparte had not been acknowledged as a prince of the imperial family by the ancient statutes. Consequently he might be considered, as not making a part of the chamber of peers by right.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 28: This opinion did not prevent the Emperor from doing justice to the courage and patriotism, which M. Lanjuinais had displayed on some trying occasions.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 29: A celebrated counsel, who defended Marshal Ney, and the three generous liberators of M. Delavalette, Wilson, Bruce, and Hutchinson.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 30: Since minister of finance to the king.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 31: MM. Dupin and Roi, who appeared to him the heads of the party of insurgents.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 32: She was attacked and taken near the island of Ischia, on the 30th of April.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 33: This is a remarkable sentence; as it expresses a sound principle: events have shown, how little the French deserve the name of a great nation. Tr.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 34: Ministers without any ostensible office, for their conduct in which they would be responsible. We have had members somewhat similar in our privy council. Tr.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 35: The members of the French chambers do not speak in their places, but from a pulpit erected for the purpose. Tr.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 36: These were schools intended for finishing public education.—Tr.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 37: The Duke of Otranto excelled in the art of bending facts to his own liking. He exaggerated or extenuated them with so much skill, grasped them with so much address, and deduced consequences from them so naturally, that he was often able, to fascinate Napoleon. More securely to deceive and seduce him, he loaded him in his reports with protestations of attachment and fidelity; and he took care to contrive occasions of adding marginal notes with his own hand, in which he adroitly displayed in a distinguished manner his devotion, discernment, and activity. All his reports in general bore the same stamp: with much of cunning, and much of talent, they offered to the eye a rare and valuable assemblage of quickness and judgment, of moderation and firmness: at every word you might discover the able minister, the profound politician, the consummate statesman: in short, M. Fouché would have wanted nothing, to place him in the rank of great ministers, had he been what I shall call an honest statesman (un ministre honnête homme.)[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 38: The 5th corps became the army of the Rhine, and the 6th, which at first was only a corps of reserve, took its place, without changing its number.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 39: Surely the army of the Alps must have been on its right, and that of the Rhine on its left, unless it was stationed with its rear to the enemy.—Tr.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 40: The ascendancy he possessed over the minds and courage of the soldiers was truly incomprehensible. A word, a gesture, was sufficient, to inspire them with enthusiasm, and make them face with joyful blindness the most terrible dangers. If he ordered them mal-à-propos, to rush to such a point, to attack such another, the inconsistency or temerity of the manœuvre at first struck the good sense of the soldiers: but immediately they thought, that their general would not have given such an order, without a motive for it, and would not have exposed them wantonly. "He knows what he is about," they would say, and immediately rush on death, with shouts of "Long live the Emperor!"[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 41: These agents, paid by the king, went and came from Ghent to Paris, and from Paris to Ghent. The Duke of Otranto, who, no doubt, had good reasons for knowing them, offered the Emperor, to procure him news of what passed beyond the frontiers; and it was by their means the Emperor knew in great part the position of the enemies' armies. Thus the Duke of Otranto, if we may credit appearances, with one hand betrayed to the enemy the secrets of France, and with the other to Napoleon the secrets of the Bourbons and the foreign powers.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 42: The Emperor, before he quitted Paris, had conceived the design of rendering the plains of Fleurus witnesses to new battles. He had sent for Marshal Jourdan, and had obtained from him a great deal of very important strategical information.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 43: The Duke of Treviso, to whom Napoleon had entrusted the command of the young guard, was attacked at Beaumont with a sciatica, that obliged him to take to his bed.[Back to Main Text.]
| LEFT. | |
| Under Marshal Ney. | |
| 1st Corps. | |
| Infantry | 16,500 |
| Cavalry | 1,500 |
| 2d Corps. | |
| Infantry | 21,000 |
| Cavalry | 1,500 |
| Cavalry of Desnouettes | 2,100 |
| Cuirassiers of Kellerman | 2,600 |
| ——— | |
| 45,200 | |
| Artillery, horse and foot | 2,400 |
| And 116 pieces of ordnance. | |
| RIGHT. | |
| Under Marshal Grouchy. | |
| 3d Corps. | |
| Infantry | 13,000 |
| Cavalry | 1,500 |
| 4th Corps. | |
| Infantry | 12,000 |
| Cavalry | 1,500 |
| Cavalry of Pajol | 2,500 |
| ——— | |
| 30,500 | |
| Cavalry of Excelmans | 2,600 |
| Cuirassiers of Milhaud | 2,600 |
| 35,700 | |
| Artillery, horse and foot | 2,250 |
| And 112 pieces of ordnance. | |
| CENTRE AND RESERVE. | |
| Under the Emperor. | |
| 6th Corps. | |
| Infantry | 11,000 |
| Old guard | 5,000 |
| Middle guard | 5,000 |
| Middle guard | 5,000 |
| Young guard | 4,000 |
| Horse grenadiers | 1,200 |
| Dragoons | 1,200 |
| 27,400 | |
| Artillery, horse and foot | 2,700 |
| And 134 pieces of ordnance. | |
| Recapitulation. | |
| Infantry | 87,500 |
| Cavalry | 20,800 |
| Artillery, horse and foot | 7,350 |
| Engineers | 2,200 |
| Total | 111,850 |
| Pieces of ordnance 362[Back to Main Text.] | |
Footnote 45: General Blucher had not had time to collect the whole of his forces.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 46: This conjecture was well founded: but Blucher, who had escaped Grouchy, had formed a communication with Wellington through Ohaim, and promised him to make a diversion on our right. Thus Wellington, who had prepared to retreat, was induced to remain.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 47: I have heard, that the officer, who carried this order, instead of taking the direct road, thought proper to take an immense circuit, in order to avoid the enemy.[Back to Main Text.]
| 2d Corps. | |||
| Infantry | 16,500 | 18,000 | |
| Cavalry | 1,500 | ||
| 1st Corps. | |||
| Infantry | 12,500 | 13,700 | |
| Cavalry | 1,200 | ||
| 6th Corps. | |||
| Infantry | 7,000 | {4,000 had been joined to Grouchy} | 7,000 |
| Division of Domont and Suberwick | 2,500 | ||
| Cuirassiers | 4,800 | ||
| Foot guards | 2,500 | 16,600 | |
| Light cavalry | 2,100 | ||
| Grenadiers and dragoons | 2,000 | ||
| Artillery | 4,500 | ||
| ——— | |||
| 67,100 | |||
| Gérard's division 3000 men.[Back to Main Text.] | |||
Footnote 49: This corps had joined the Prussian array since the battle of Ligny.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 50: The enemy themselves confess, that at this moment they thought the battle lost. "The ranks of the English," says Blucher, "were thrown into disorder; the loss had been considerable; the reserves had been advanced into the line; the situation of the Duke was extremely critical, the fire of musketry continued along the front, the artillery had retired to the second line."
I will add, that still greater disorder prevailed in the rear of the English army: the roads of the forest of Soignes were encumbered with waggons, artillery, and baggage, deserted by the drivers; and numerous bands of fugitives had spread confusion and affright through Brussels and the neighbouring roads.
Had not our successes been interrupted by the march of Bulow; or had Marshal Grouchy, as the Emperor had reason to hope, followed at the heels of the Prussians; never would a more glorious victory have been obtained by the French. Not a single man of the Duke of Wellington's army would have escaped.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 51: It was afterwards known, that it was General Ziethen, who, on his arrival in line, had taken the troops commanded by the Prince of Saxe Weimar for Frenchmen, and compelled them, after a brisk fire, to abandon a little village, which they were appointed to defend.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 52: They had at their head Generals Petit and Pelet de Morvan.[Back to Main Text.]
| Men. | |
| The general loss of the army of the Duke of Wellington, in killed and wounded, was about | 25,000 |
| And that of Prince Blucher | 35,000 |
| ——— | |
| 60,000 | |
| ——— | |
| That of the French may be estimated as follows: | |
| The 15th and 16th, killed and wounded | 11,000 |
| The 18th, killed and wounded | 18,000 |
| Prisoners | 8,000 |
| ——— | |
| 37,000 |
The loss of the French would have been greater, had it not been for the generous care taken of them by the inhabitants of Belgium. After the victory of Fleurus and of Ligny, they hastened to the field of battle, to console the wounded, and give them every assistance. Nothing could be more affecting, than the sight of a number of women and girls endeavouring to revive, by cordial liquors, the extinguished lives (la vie éteinte) of our unfortunate soldiers, while their husbands and brothers supported our wounded in their arms, stanched their blood, and closed their wounds.
The precipitancy of our march had not allowed us, to prepare conveyances and field hospitals, to receive our wounded. The good and feeling inhabitants of Belgium supplied the deficiency with eagerness. They carried our poor Frenchmen from the field of battle, and offered them an asylum, and all the attention necessary.
At the time of our retreat, they lavished on us proofs of their regard not less affecting, and not less valuable. Braving the rage of the ferocious Prussians, they quitted their houses, to show us the paths, that would favour our escape, and guide our course through the enemy's columns. When they parted from us, they still followed us with their eyes, and expressed from a distance how happy they were at having been able to save us.
When they knew, that a great number of Frenchmen remained prisoners with the conqueror, they were eager to offer, and to lavish on them, consolation and assistance. The Prince of Orange himself, as formidable in the heat of battle, as magnanimous after victory, became the protector of a number of brave fellows, who, having learned how to esteem him on the field of battle, had nobly invoked his support.
In fine, completely to acquit the debt of gratitude, at that period so painful to remember, when persecution, exile, death, compelled so many Frenchmen to flee their native land, the inhabitants of Belgium, always tender-hearted, always benevolent, opened their hospitable doors to our unfortunate proscribed countrymen, and more than one brave man, already preserved by them from the vengeance of foreigners, was a second time saved by their generous hands from the fury of enemies still more implacable.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 54: I say fifty thousand men, for more than ten thousand of the guard took no share in the action.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 55: This circumstance was told to me, but the following I witnessed myself. A cuirassier, in the heat of the battle, had both his arms disabled with sabre wounds: "I will go and get myself dressed," said he, foaming with rage: "if I cannot use my arms, I'll use my teeth—I'll eat them."[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 56: Among these letters printed was one of mine, written from Bâle to the Emperor on the subject of M. Werner.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 57: M. de Flahaut saw truly, for it appears certain, that Marshal Grouchy had held parleys with the allies, and that an arrangement on the plan of the Duke of Ragusa was about to be signed, when General Excelmans arrested the Prussian colonel, who was sent to the marshal, to conclude the treaty already agreed upon.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 58: This information was false.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 59: This shows how unjustly Napoleon has been reproached with having falsified the truth, and calumniated the army, in that bulletin.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 60: The general name of that part of the country, which borders the coast.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 61: This affair, and the death of La Roche-jaquelin, took place on the 11th of June, and were not known at Paris till the 19th.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 62: These resolutions were sent to the chamber of peers also: but this chamber, knowing, that it had no right, to send for the Ministers, contented itself, considering the present circumstances, with giving its approbation to the first three articles.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 63: In fact, the Duke of Otranto did write to M. Manuel.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 64: This answer was cut short by the president: I give it here entire.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 65: The title of Emperor had not been given him in this deliberation. He had been called merely Napoleon Bonaparte.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 66: The chamber of peers was of course thus annihilated, and excluded from any share in the government.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 67: Conformably to the orders given him, Marshal Grouchy had confined himself on the 17th, to observing the Prussians: but this he had not done with the ardour and sagacity, that might have been expected of such a consummate general of horse. The timidity, with which he followed them, no doubt inspired them with the idea, that they might fall on the Emperor's rear with impunity.
On the 18th, at nine in the morning only, he quitted his cantonments to march to Wavres: when he reached Walhain, he heard the cannonading at Mont St. Jean. Its continually increasing briskness left no doubt, that it was an extremely serious affair. General Excelmans proposed, to march to the guns by the right bank of the Dyle. "Do you not feel," said he to the marshal, "that the firing makes the ground tremble under our feet? let us march straight to the spot where they are fighting." This advice, had it been followed up, would have saved the army: but it was not. The marshal slowly continued his movements: at two o'clock he arrived before Wavres. The corps of General Vandamme and that of Gérard endeavoured to open a passage, and wasted time and men to no purpose. At seven o'clock he received, according to his own declaration, the order from the major-general, to march to St. Lambert and attack Bulow; which step ought to have been suggested to him before that time by the tremendous cannonading at Waterloo, and by the order given in the first despatch received in the morning, to draw near to the grand army, and place himself in a situation to co-operate with it. He did so then. He crossed the Dyle at the bridge of Limale, and made himself master of the heights, without meeting any resistance; but night being come, he halted.
At three in the morning General Thielman attempted, to drive our troops back across the Dyle: but he was victoriously repulsed. The division of Teste, the cavalry of General Pajol, obliged him to evacuate Bielge and Wavres. The whole of the corps of Vandamme crossed the Dyle, took Rosieren, and became master of the road from Wavres to Brussels.
Marshal Grouchy, though the Emperor had recommended to him, to keep open the communications, and to send him frequent accounts of himself, had given himself no concern about what was passing at Mont St. Jean; and was preparing blindly to pursue his own movements, when an aide-de camp of General Gressot came to announce to him (this was at noon) the disasters of the preceding day. The marshal was then sensible, but too late, of the horrible fault he had committed in remaining unconcerned on the right bank of the Dyle. He effected his retreat, in two columns, by Temploux and Namur.
On the 20th in the morning, his rear-guard was attacked, and thrown into disorder. The division of Teste, the cavalry of Excelmans, extricated it from its confusion. The 20th of dragoons, and its worthy colonel, the young Briqueville, retook from the enemy two pieces of artillery, which they had captured. General Clary and his hussars cut down the horse; and the army reached Namur in tranquillity. The indefatigable division of General Teste was appointed to defend this town; and it maintained its post gloriously, till our wounded and baggage had evacuated it, and our troops were in safety on the heights of Dinan and Bouvine.
On the 22d the whole of the army was assembled at Rocroi. On the 24th it formed a junction with the wreck of Mont St, Jean, which the Emperor had ordered, to bend its course towards Rheims. On the 25th it marched for the capital. During its retreat, it was exposed to the exasperated attacks of the Prussians. It repulsed them all with firmness and vigour. The noble desire of repairing the involuntary evil, that it had done us at Mont St. Jean, inflamed the minds of the soldiers with the most spirited ardour; and perhaps this army of brave fellows would have changed the fate of France under the walls of Paris, had not the inspirations of its patriotism, and generous despair, been repressed or betrayed.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 68: That of forcing Napoleon to abdicate.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 69: Most of the peers held commands in the army.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 70: These are the literal terms of General Beker's commission.[Back to Main Text.]
With air majestic, and with brow serene,
As, master of his fire, amid the fray,
He coolly urges, or restrains the sword.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 72: I am eager here to pay the general the homage he merits. He knew perfectly well, how to reconcile his duty with the attentions and respect, that were due to Napoleon, and to his misfortune.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 73: His court, formerly so numerous, was now customarily composed only of the Duke of Bassano, Count Lavalette, General Flahaut, and the persons who were to go with him, as the following orderly officers, General Gourgaud, Counts Montholon and de Lascases, and the Duke of Rovigo. The attachment, that induced the latter to attend Napoleon, was so much the more to his honour, as Napoleon, when he returned from the island of Elba, reproached him very harshly with having neglected him. He passes however in the opinion of the public, though very erroneously, for being one of the contrivers of the 20th of March: but he had always to complain of the public opinion. It imputes to him a number of wicked actions, in which he had really no share, and which he frequently indeed had endeavoured to prevent. The Emperor employed him on all occasions; because he found him possessed of a bold and clear judgment, an acute understanding, and great skill in perceiving the consequences of a thing, and acting with spirit. Unfavourable suspicions have been thrown on the motives, that induced Napoleon, to entrust to him the administrations of the police: but he was called to this important office solely because the Emperor had experience of the infidelity of the Duke of Otranto, who deserted him on all occasions of difficulty; and wished to supply his place by a man of tried attachment, a man who, unconnected with the revolution, and having no party to keep terms with, could serve him alone, and do his duty without tergiversation.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 74: This epithet was not an insult in the mouth of Napoleon. He even applied it commonly to his ministers, when they showed any irresolution.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 75: The uneasiness given her by the terrors of 1815 conducted her to the grave. I hope the reader will pardon me these particulars, and this note.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 76: From accounts communicated to me.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 77: That is, be marked out the enemy's positions with pins.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 78: The Emperor, informed of the manœuvres of M. Fouché, said: "He is ever the same; always ready to thrust his foot into every one's slipper."[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 79: These resolutions consisted in sending General Beker to Malmaison, to watch Napoleon.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 80: On the 2d of July the chamber voted an address to the French.
This address, which perished in the birth, related to the political situation of France with respect to the allies. It appeared to me not very interesting, and I thought I might dispense with a particular account of it. It gave rise, however, to a remarkable incident. M. Manuel, who had the principal hand in drawing it up, had not thought proper, to speak of the Emperor's successor in it; and the chamber decided, to add in the address, that Napoleon II. had been called to the empire.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 81: The reader will be aware, that I reason here, as well as every where else, on the principles of the mandate given to the committee.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 82: As these despatches are now uninteresting, I have not inserted them.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 83: If we may believe the declaration of M. Macirone, confirmed by the testimony of two other secret agents, MM. Maréchal and St. Jul***, the Duke of Otranto wrote to Lord Wellington, by a letter of which M. Macirone was the bearer, and which he concealed in his stockings, that the enthusiasm of the federates and Bonapartists was at the height; and that it would be impossible, to restrain them any longer, if the Duke of Wellington did not hasten, to come and put an end to their fury by the occupation of Paris.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 84: It was just at this moment, that the Emperor declared to the government, that he was certain of crushing the enemy, if they would entrust him with the command of the army.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 85: From this passage it appears unquestionable, that Wellington had communicated M. Fouché's letter to Prince Blucher.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 86: It was the performance of the Duke of Otranto.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 87: They were published by order of the chamber.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 88: Events have justified the prudence of the marshals; but I am not judging of events, I am relating them.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 89: On the 23d of June, M. Carnot, after having delivered to the chamber of peers Napoleon's act of abdication, entered into some details of the state of the army. Marshal Ney rose, and said ... "What you have just heard is false, entirely false; Marshal Grouchy and the Duke of Dalmatia cannot assemble sixty thousand men.... Marshal Grouchy has been unable to rally more than seven or eight thousand; Marshal Soult could not maintain his post at Rocroy; you have no longer any means of saving the country, but by negotiations." M. Carnot and General Flahaut immediately refuted this imprudent negation. General Drouot completely refuted the marshal in the following sitting.... "I have heard with regret," said he, "what had been said to diminish the glory of our armies, exaggerate our disasters, or depreciate our resources. I will say what I think, what I fear, and what I hope. On my frankness you may depend. My attachment to the Emperor cannot be doubted: but before all things, and above all things, I love my country." The general then gave a true and authenticated account of the battles of Ligny and Mont St. Jean; and, after having justified the Emperor from the faults, indirectly attempted to be imputed to him, continued: "Such are the particulars of this fatal day. It ought to have crowned the glory of the French army, destroyed all the vain hopes of the enemy, and perhaps soon given a peace to France.... But heaven decided otherwise.... Though our losses are considerable, still our situation is not desperate: the resources yet left us are great, if we will employ them with energy ... such a catastrophe should not discourage a nation great and noble like ours.... After the battle of Cannæ, the Roman senate voted thanks to their vanquished general, because he had not despaired of the safety of the republic; and laboured incessantly, to furnish him with the means of repairing the disasters of which he had been the cause.... On an occasion less critical, would the representatives of the nation suffer themselves to be depressed? Or would they forget the dangers of their country, and waste their hours in ill-timed debates, instead of having recourse to a remedy, that should ensure the safety of France?"[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 90: The plenipotentiaries, who set out from Laon on the 26th of June, arrived on the 1st of July at Hagueneau, the head-quarters of the allied sovereigns.
The sovereigns did not think fit, to give them an audience; and Count Walmoden was appointed on the part of Austria, Count Capo d'Istria on that of Russia, General Knesbeck on that of Prussia, to hear their proposals. The English ambassador, Lord Stewart, having no powers ad hoc, was simply invited, to be present at the conferences.
Lord Stewart did not fail, as was foreseen in the instructions given to the plenipotentiaries, to dispute the legality of the existence of the chambers and of the committee; and asked the French deputies, by what right the nation pretended to expel their King, and choose another sovereign. By the same right, answered M. de la Fayette, as Great Britain had to depose James, and crown William.
This answer stopped the mouth of the English minister.
The plenipotentiaries, warned by this question of the disposition of the allies, exerted themselves less for obtaining Napoleon II., than for rejecting Louis XVIII. They declared, I am told, that France had an insuperable aversion to this sovereign and his family; and that there was no prince, it would not consent to adopt, rather than return under their sway. In fine, they hinted, that the nation might agree to take the Duke of Orleans, or the King of Saxony, if it were impossible for it to retain the throne for the son of Maria Louisa.
The foreign ministers, after some insignificant discourse, politely put an end to the conference; and in the evening the French plenipotentiaries received their dismissal by the following note:
Hagueneau, July the 1st.
"According to the stipulation of the treaty of alliance, which says, that none of the contracting parties shall treat of peace or an armistice, but by common consent, the three courts, that find themselves together, Austria, Russia, and Prussia, declare, that they cannot at present enter into any negotiation. The cabinets will assemble together, as soon as possible.
"The three powers consider it as an essential condition of peace, and of real tranquillity, that Napoleon Bonaparte shall be incapable of disturbing the repose of France, and of Europe, for the future: and in consequence of the events, that occurred in the month of March last, the powers must insist, that Napoleon Bonaparte be placed in their custody.
| (Signed) | Walmoden. |
| Capo d'Istria. | |
| Knesbeck."[Back to Main Text.] |
Footnote 91: This constitution, founded on the additional act, differed from it only in abolishing hereditary mobility. M. Manuel, however, who displayed talents of the first order in this discussion, was of opinion, that the order of nobility should not be suppressed, being essentially necessary in a monarchy. Had I to draw up an eulogy of the additional act, or a charge against those who hold it in contempt, I would only refer them to his constitution.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 92: This chamber, after the abdication of Napoleon, was merely a superfetation. The departure of those peers, who formed part of the army, completed its reduction to an absolute nullity. Without patriotism, without energy, it confined itself to sanctioning with an ill grace the measures adopted by the representatives. M. Thibaudeau, M. de Ségur, M. de Bassano, and a few others, alone raised themselves to a level with the state of affairs. M. Thibaudeau in particular distinguished himself, on the 28th of June and the 2d of July, by two speeches on our political situation; which were considered then, as they long will be, as noble specimens of courage, patriotism, and eloquence.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 93: I repeat here a preceding observation, that I confine myself to a relation of facts, without deciding upon them.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 94: On the 8th of July M. de Vitrolles caused the following official article to be inserted in the Moniteur.
"Paris, July the 7th.—The committee of government made known to the King, by the mouth of its president, that it had just dissolved itself."
This article, written with the intention, to make France and Europe believe, that the committee had voluntarily deposited its authority in the hands of the King, called forth strong remonstrances from the Duke of Vicenza. Incapable of paltering with his duty, or with the truth, he went immediately to the King's minister, the Duke of Otranto; reproached him severely with having compromised the committee and declared, that he would not quit his house, till he had obtained a formal disavowal of it. The minister protested, that the article was not written by him; and consented to disavow it.
Count Carnot, Baron Quinette, and General Grenier, having joined the Duke of Vicenza, the latter wrote, in the Duke of Otranto's closet, the letter subjoined; the boldness and firmness of which, I trust, it is unnecessary to remark.
"Monsieur le Duc.—As the committee of government, on its retiring, neither ought nor could charge your excellency with any mission, we desire you, to cause the article inserted in the Moniteur of this day, the 8th of July, to be disavowed; and to procure the insertion of our last message to the two chambers.
| (Signed) | Caulincourt. |
| Carnot. | |
| Quinette. | |
| Grenier." |
The Duke of Otranto answered this letter by the following declaration:
"Gentlemen.—The committee of government having dissolved itself on the 7th of July, every act emanating from it posterior to its message to the chambers is null, and ought to be considered as not having taken place.
"Your remonstrance against the article inserted in the Moniteur of the 8th of July is just. I disavow it, as totally unfounded, and published without my authority.
(Signed) The Duke of Otranto."[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 95: The words recorded by M. de Lascases.[Back to Main Text.]
Footnote 96: At the same moment Louis XVIII. entered Paris. It was another remarkable singularity, that the King entered the capital the first time on the same day, on which the Emperor went on board the brig, that conveyed him to Porto Ferrajo.[Back to Main Text.]