Napoleon's military operations were now urged with unremitting energy. New conscriptions were called for, and granted; every arsenal sounded with the fabrication of arms. The press was thoroughly aroused and with its mighty voice warned the allies against an invasion of the sacred soil of France. The French Senate was somewhat reluctant, however; they ventured to hint to the Emperor that ancient France would remain to him, even if he accepted the proposals of the allies. "Shame on you," cried the Emperor, "Wellington has entered the south, the Russians menace the northern frontier, the Prussians, Austrians, and Bavarians the eastern. Shame! Wellington is in France and we have not risen en masse to drive him back! All my allies have deserted—the Bavarian has betrayed me. No peace until we have burned Munich! I demand a levy of 300,000 men—with this and what I already have, I shall see a million in arms. I will form a camp of 100,000 at Bordeaux; another at Mentz; a third at Lyons. But I must have grown men: these boys only serve to incumber the hospitals and the road-sides. Abandon Holland! Sooner yield it back to the sea! Senators, an impulse must be given—all must march—you are fathers of families—the head of the nation—you must set the example. Peace! I hear of nothing but peace when all around should echo to the cry of war!"
The Senate drew up and presented a report which renewed the Emperor's wrath. He reproached them openly with designing to purchase inglorious ease for themselves, at the expense of his honor. "In your address" he said, "you seek to separate the sovereign from the nation. I alone am the representative of the people. And which of you could charge himself with a like burden? The throne is but of wood, decked with velvet. If I believed you, I should yield the enemy more than he demands; in three months you shall have peace, or I will perish. It is against me that our enemies are more embittered than against France, but on that ground alone am I to be suffered to dismember the State? Do not sacrifice my pride and my dignity to obtain peace. Yes, I am proud because I am courageous; I am proud because I have done great things for France. * * * You wished to bespatter me with mud, but I am one of those men who may be killed yet not dishonored.
"Return to your homes * * * even supposing me to have been in the wrong, there was no occasion to reproach me publicly; dirty linen should be washed at home. For the rest; France has more need of me, than I have of France."
Having uttered these words the Emperor repaired to his council of state and there denounced the Legislative Senate as one composed of one part of traitors and eleven of dupes. "In place of assisting," he said, "they impede me. Our attitude alone could have repelled the enemy—they invite him. We should have presented a front of brass—they lay open wounds to his view. I will not suffer their report to be printed. They have not done their duty, but I will do mine—I dissolve the Legislative Senate!"
The Pope was now released from his confinement and returned to Rome which he found in the hands of Murat, who had ere then concluded his treaty with Francis and was advancing into the north of Italy, with the view of co-operating in the campaign against Beauharnais, with the Austrians on one side and on the other with an English force recently landed at Leghorn, under Lord William Bentinck. Ferdinand also returned to Spain, after five years of captivity, amid universal acclamations. "When first informed of Murat's treason, by the Viceroy (Eugene)," says Bourrienne "the Emperor refused to believe it. 'No!' he exclaimed to those about him, 'It cannot be! Murat—to whom I have given my sister! Eugene must be misinformed. It is impossible that Murat has declared himself against me.' It was, however, not only possible but true." As St. Amand well says, in speaking of Murat's desertion: "He might have united his forces with those of Prince Eugene and have attacked the invasion in the rear; he would have saved the Empire of France; he would have died on the throne, covered with glory, instead of being shot!"
For a time the inhabitants of the French provinces on the frontier believed it impossible that any foreign army would dare to invade their soil, and it was not until Schwartzenberg had crossed the Rhine between Basle and Schaffhausen on the 20th of December, that they were willing to believe in the sincerity of the Allies and their determination to carry the war into France itself. Disregarding the claim of the Swiss to preserve neutrality, Schwartzenberg advanced through that territory with his grand army, unopposed—an indefensible act in itself, and began to show himself in Franche-Compté, in Burgundy, even to the gates of Dijon.
On the 1st of January, 1814, the Silesian army, under Blucher, crossed the river at various points between Rastadt, and Coblentz; and shortly after, the army of the north, commanded by Witzingerode and Bulow, began to penetrate the frontier of the Netherlands.
The Pyrenees had been crossed by Wellington and the Rhine by three mighty hosts, amounting altogether to 300,000 men and including every tongue and tribe from the Germans of Westphalia to the wildest barbarians of Tartary. "Seven hundred thousand men," says Dumas, "trained by their very defeats in the great school of Napoleonic war, were advancing into the heart of France, passing by all fortified places and responding, the one to the other, by the single cry, 'Paris! Paris!'"