"Your majesty has no army. Treason has infected your marshals."
"What do you mean? Ah. it is true, you come alone! Where are the marshals? Where is Ney? Where is Macdonald?"
"Sire, they have remained in Paris."
"Ah, I understand," exclaimed Napoleon, with a scornful laugh; "they are waiting there for King Louis XVIII., in order to offer him their services. But where is Marmont? You know well that I am greatly attached to Marmont, and I long to see him. Why does he not come?"
"Sire, Marshal Marmont has passed over to the allies with a corps of ten thousand men."
"Marmont!" cried Napoleon, almost with a scream—"Marmont a traitor!
That is false—that is impossible! Marmont cannot have betrayed me!"
"Sire, he did betray you. He marched the troops, notwithstanding their undisguised reluctance, to Versailles, in order there to join the allies, after receiving from them the solemn promise that the French soldiers should be treated as friends."
"Marmont has betrayed me!" murmured Napoleon. "Marment, whom I loved as a son—who owes me all—who—" His voice faltered; his heart was rent, and, sinking on a chair, he buried his quivering face in his hands.