MARSHAL NEY’S DILEMMA

There, meanwhile, events had been moving rapidly. The commandant of the garrison was an émigré officer, but most of the troops had been won over for Napoleon by Colonel Labédoyère, at the head of the 7th of the Line. The commandant ordered the gates to be closed, which was done; also the cannon on the ramparts to be loaded. That order was duly obeyed; “but the men rammed home the cannon-balls first, before putting in the powder, so that the guns were useless.” Labédoyère marched out with his regiment to meet Napoleon, the band playing, “and carrying the Eagle of the regiment, which had been concealed and preserved.” They met Napoleon a short distance from Grenoble and, with the 5th, led the way in, arriving after dark. “On Napoleon’s approach, the populace thronged the ramparts with torches; the gates were burst open; Napoleon was borne through the town in triumph by a wild and intermingled crowd of soldiers and workpeople.”[39]

Napoleon entered Paris on the night of March 20. The Eagles made their first appearance in the capital next day. They had been officially restored as the standards of the Army by an Imperial decree issued on March 13 from Lyons.

AT THE FIRST REVIEW IN PARIS

Paris saw them again first at the review of the garrison of the capital which Napoleon held within twenty-four hours of his arrival; on the Place du Carrousel, in front of the Tuileries. There too the Imperial Guard, reconstituted that same morning, made their public reappearance. In the midst of the brilliant scene, as Napoleon was ending the address of personal thanks for their loyalty that he made to the assembled troops in dramatic style, suddenly General Cambronne marched on to the parade at the head of the Elba Six Hundred, with drums beating and escorting the former Eagles of the Guard. Drawing up in line ceremoniously, the “Elba Guard” halted before Napoleon, saluting and dipping the Eagles forward. A frantic roar of enthusiastic cheering greeted the salute of the Eagles.

Napoleon took instant advantage of the first pause as the cheering subsided. Pointing to the veterans just arrived, and standing with the Eagles ranged in front of them, held on high at arm’s-length by their bearers, he again addressed the assembled troops. “They bring back to you the Eagles which are to serve as your rallying-point. In giving them to the Guard, I give them to the whole Army. Treason and misfortune have cast over them a veil of mourning; but they now reappear resplendent in their old glory. Swear to me, soldiers, that these Eagles shall always be found where the welfare of the nation calls them, and those who would invade our land again shall not be able to endure their glance!” “We swear it! We swear it!” was the answer that came back amid tumultuous shouts from every side.

ONCE MORE THE FIELD OF MARS

The Eagles restored by proclamation as the standards of the Army, and the regiments reconstituted by their old numbers, to the unbounded gratification of the soldiers everywhere, another Imperial proclamation announced that Napoleon would once again personally distribute new Eagles to the regiments. The ceremony of the Field of Mars of ten years before would be repeated. The Emperor, with his own hand, would present each Eagle to a regimental deputation, which would specially attend in Paris to receive it. To give the utmost possible éclat also to the proceedings on the occasion, just as the former presentation of the Eagles had been made an integral feature of the Coronation celebration, so now the forthcoming distribution would take place at the same time that Napoleon renewed his Imperial oath of fidelity to the Constitution, as reshaped by the “Acte Additionel,” which had been drafted to comply with the political exigencies of the moment.

The date provisionally fixed was towards the end of May. By that time the returns of the Plébiscite voting, to authorise the re-establishment of the Empire, would be known. The historic event takes its name of the “Champ de Mai” from the date proposed for it, although, in actual fact, the ceremony took place on June 1. The place appointed was where the former distribution of the Eagles had been made, the Field of Mars, the wide open space in front of the Military School, and the display was to be on no less grandiose scale than its predecessor.

Immense wooden stands were erected all round the Field of Mars, with tiers of benches, to seat, it was calculated, as many as two hundred thousand people. In front of the Military School was set up an Imperial throne, under a canopy of crimson silk, and elevated on a gorgeously decorated platform. Napoleon was to take his new Imperial oath from the throne, and thereupon formally attach his signature to the “Acte Additionel.” There was to be a religious service also, and for that an altar was erected at one side of the throne, raised on steps and draped in red damask, picked out with gold. The balconies and stands all round were draped and hung with tricolor flags, festooned amid gilded Eagles, and heraldic insignia, and emblematic figures meant to typify the prosperity and glory awaiting France under the returned Imperial régime. As on the previous occasion, all the celebrities of France were invited, and had their allotted places on the stands nearest the throne. As before, too, the central arena was packed with a dense array of troops; the deputations called up to receive the Eagles, the massed battalions of the Imperial Guard, and detachments of all the regiments of the garrison of Paris. It was a radiantly fine summer’s day, and the display offered a spectacle of surpassing brilliance. Says one of the officers: “The sun flashing on 50,000 bayonets seemed to make the vast space sparkle!”