Marshal Soult had relinquished his command.
Marshal Massena, worn out by victories, had no longer the bodily strength, that circumstances required.
Marshal Macdonald, deaf to the shout of war raised by his old companions in arms, had suffered his sword, to remain peaceably in its scabbard.
Marshal Jourdan was on the Rhine.
Marshal Mortier had been seized with the gout at Beaumont.
Marshal Suchet had displayed irresolution and repugnance from the beginning.
In fine, Marshals Davoust and Grouchy no longer possessed the confidence of the army.
The committee, therefore, it is grating to the pride of a Frenchman to confess it, would not have known to whose hands the fate of France might be entrusted; and the part it took, that of waiting the issue of events in the capital, if not the most dignified, was at least the wisest and most prudent.
The representatives of the people, on their part, far from showing themselves docile to the advice of Wellington and of Blucher, displayed with more energy than ever the principles and sentiments that animated them. They collected round the tri-coloured flag; and, though the army had laid down its weapons, they were still resolved to contend in defence of liberty, and the independence of the nation.
On the very day when the convention of Paris was notified to them by the government, they exposed, in a new bill of rights, the fundamental principles of a constitution, which alone, in their opinion, could satisfy the wishes of the public: and declared, that the prince called to reign over them should not ascend the throne, till he had given his sanction to this bill and taken an oath to observe it, and cause it to be observed.