I wish to recommend our hotel to any people you may hear of coming to Paris—Hôtel des Estrangers, Rue du Hazard, kept by Mr. Meriel. Its situation is both quiet and convenient; it is really not five minutes' walk from the leading objects of Paris, and the people have been civil to us beyond measure.[144]
CHAPTER IV
ON THE TRACK OF NAPOLEON'S ARMY
The Ex-Imperial Guard—Anecdotes of the last days at Fontainebleau—Invalided Cossacks—"Trahison"—Ruin and desolation—Roast dog—An English soldier—A Trappist veteran—Jack boots—Polytechnic cadets—A Russian officer—Cossacks, Kalmucks, and sparrows—Prussians and British lions—Rhine Castles—Rival inscriptions—Diligence atmosphere—Brisemaison—Sociable English.
ON leaving Paris, Edward Stanley planned to follow the traces of the desperate campaign which Napoleon had fought in the early months of that year (1814) against the Allies, and in which he so nearly succeeded in saving his crown for a time.
As, however, the English travellers did not intend to return again to Paris, they reversed Napoleon's line of march and started to Fontainebleau by the road along which the Emperor rode back in hot haste on the night of March 30th, to take up the command of the force which should have been defending his capital, and where the sight of Mortier's flying troops convinced him that all hope was at an end.[145]
When they had visited Fontainebleau, where the final abdication had taken place on April 11th, they turned north-east to Melun and posted on through towns which had been the scenes of some of the most desperate fighting in that wonderful campaign, when Napoleon had seemed to be everywhere at once, dealing blows right and left against the three armies which, in the beginning of January, had advanced to threaten his Empire—Bülow in the north, Blücher on the east, and Schwarzenberg on the south.
They passed through Guignes and Meaux, by which Napoleon's army had marched after his victory over Blücher at Vauchamps on February 14th, in the rapid movement to reinforce Marshal Victor, and to drive back Schwarzenberg from the Seine.