The next announcement that appeared in the papers was that Napoleon had left Paris on the 12th June, to join his army.
Napoleon always followed the road his Guard had taken; so he would pass through Villers-Cotterets.
I confess I had an intense desire to see this man, who, in making his heavy hand felt throughout France, had, in a peculiarly hard fashion, ground down a poor atom like myself, lost among thirty-two millions of human beings whom he continued to crush, while forgetting my very existence.
On the 11th we received official news of his passing; horses were commanded to be in readiness at the posting stables.
He was to set off from Paris at three o'clock in the morning; so he should pass through Villers-Cotterets about seven or eight o'clock.
At six o'clock I was waiting at the end of the rue de Largny with the most able-bodied portion of the population, namely, those who could run as fast as the imperial carriages.
But really the best way to see Napoleon would be where the relays were to be changed, and not as he drove by.
I realised this, and, as soon as I caught sight of the dust of the first horses, a quarter of a league away, I set off for the posting-house.
As I approached, I heard the rumble of wheels behind me coming nearer.
I reached the posting-house, and on turning round I saw the three carriages flying over the pavement like a turbulent stream, the horses dripping with sweat, their postilions got up in fine style, powdered and be-ribboned.