The courtiers regretted that there was not sufficient danger in this mad and audacious enterprise, to give at least some value to their attachment.
The emigrants looked at it with pity, turned it into ridicule; and, if they had wanted nothing more than jests, abuse, and swaggering, to beat Napoleon, there could have been no doubt of their victory.
The government itself participated in their boasting and security.
Fresh despatches soon made known the progress of Napoleon.
The Count d'Artois, the Duke of Orléans, and Marshal Macdonald, set off hastily for Lyons.
The royalists were uneasy, the government removed their fears.
The Count d'Artois, they said, at the head of fifteen thousand national guards, and ten thousand of the troops of the line, must stop him before Lyons.
General Marchand, General Duverney, the Prince of Essling, and the Duke d'Angoulême, were getting into his rear, and would cut off his retreat.
General Le Courbe was manœuvring on his flanks.
Marshal Oudinot was arriving with his faithful royal grenadiers.