TBI RE ^ y% Grenadiers, which represents two soldiers talking together at the last midnight before Napoleon's departure. In that sad night Napoleon was thinking of poster- ity, and he devised a way to lend a poetic interest to his departure for his parody of a kingdom at Elba, given him in exchange for the most magnificent em- pire in the world. And so well did he understand 266 THE LEAVE-TAKING AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 267 the art of striking the popular imagination, that this melancholy incident will, perhaps, make a deeper impression on future generations than all his tri- umphal entrances into the great capitals of Europe. In the early morning of April 20, all the inhabi- tants of Fontainebleau had gathered to witness the memorable scene, crowding to the railing around the Courtyard of the White Horse, where it was to take place. In this courtyard the Old Guard was drawn up. At noon the carriages had driven up to the foot of the Horseshoe Staircase, and General Bertrand had gone in to tell Napoleon that everything was ready. Napoleon came out of his room into the Gallery of Francis I. There were assembled the few surviving relics of his once brilliant court, the Duke of Bas- sano, General Belliard, Colonel de BussS, Colonel Anatole de Montesquiou, Count Turenne, General Fouler, the Baron of Mesgrigny, Colonel Gourgaud, Baron Fain, Lieutenant-Colonel Athalin, Baron de la Place, Baron Leborgne d'Ideville, General Kosa- kovski, Colonel Vonsovitch. He replied to their tears by a grasp of the hand, a glance, and with- out saying a word, passed through the gallery and vestibule, and walked down the Horseshoe Staircase with a firm, swift step. As Lamartine says : " The troops expressed a more solemn and religious feeling than cheers could express, the honor, namely, of their fidelity, even in the darkest days, and the set- ting of the glory now about to sink behind the forest trees, behind the waves of the Mediterranean. They 268 THE INVASION OF I8I4. envied those of their companions to whom fortune had accorded exile in his island with their Emperor." The Allies had permitted him to take with him but a single battalion, which was to be all he needed for conquering his throne. The men of the Old Guard had been asked how many would like to follow him, and all, without exception, offered themselves. Only four hundred were chosen. They were not in the courtyard, but were already on their way. Napoleon was at the foot of the staircase ; the drums beat a salute. Why were they not draped in mourning? This was, in truth, the funeral of the Emperor, of the Empire, of the army. Their noise alone broke the silence. The soldiers were silent and gloomy. Napoleon made a sign that he wished to speak to them. The drums stopped beating; all seemed to hold their breath. " Soldiers of the Old Guard," the Emperor began, "I say good by to you. For twenty years I have ever found you on the path to honor and to glory. In these last days, as in those of our prosperity, you have never ceased to be models of bravery and fidel- ity. With men like you our cause was not lost ; but if it had no end, the war would have been a civil one, and France would have been only more unhappy. Hence I sacrificed my interests to those of my coun- try, and I leave. Do you, my friends, continue to serve France. Its happiness will be my only thought the sole object of my prayers. Do not mqurn my lot. If I have consented to outlive myself, it is in THE LEAVE-TAKING AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 269 order yet to serve your glory. I wish to record the great deeds we have done together." Here Napo- leon's voice broke. He gave way to his emotion for a moment, and then went on : " Good by, good by, my children. I should like to press you all to my heart. Let me at least kiss your flag ! " At these words, General Petit, a man as modest as he was brave, seized the flag, and stepped forward. Napoleon embraced the General and kissed the eagle of the standard. Then nothing was to be heard for a few minutes but half-suppressed sobs, and the old grena- diers were seen wiping the tears from their weather- beaten faces. Napoleon, who was deeply affected, controlled himself by a mighty effort, raised his head, and in a firmer voice called out : " Good by, once more, good by, my old companions. Let this last kiss pass into your hearts ! " Then he tore himself away from those about him, and covering his face with his hands, sprang into his carriage, which at once started on the first stage of his exile. " What more shall I say ? " asks General de Se*gur, in his Memoirs. " The Grand Army, the Empire, the Emperor, all was over ! The Genius that had sup- ported me vanished with Napoleon. Now that I have come to this end of so much greatness, it seems to me that my literary life is over, as was our military career ; that there was no more history for the histo- rian as there was no more war for warriors. It is a bitter and grievous memory that we recall of a coun- try to be reconquered, of an affront to be avenged, 270 THE INVASION OF 1314. of all the glory with which we were still defending ourselves, when suddenly our arms fell powerless to our side, and in the prime of life our disappointed hearts had to begin a new career in strange circum- stances." No scene has more deeply impressed the world than this leave-taking at Fontainebleau. No poet ever invented a more memorable incident. This extraor- dinary man, great in either event of fortune, knew how to touch even his enemies. The four foreign com- missioners and their suite did not understand a word that the Emperor said, yet they could not conquer the emotion that seized them at the pathetic spectacle. Napoleon and his Old Guard have been sung in foreign lands as well as in France, by Lord Byron and by Heine. Byron celebrates the 20th of April, 1814, in his poem, tf To Napoleon " : " Must thou go, my glorious chief, Sever'd from the faithful few ? Who can tell thy warrior's grief, Maddening o'er that long adieu? " Woman's love and friendship's zeal, Dear as both have been to me What are they to all I feel, With a soldier's faith for thee ? " Heine's poem, " The Two Grenadiers," is well known. It has been set to music by Schumann. A Bavarian dramatist has written a play, Josephine Bonaparte, THE LEAVE-TAKING AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 271 which introduces the leave-taking at Fontainebleau. It has had great success at Munich, and when the actor who takes the part of Napoleon Bonaparte comes down the staircase and bids farewell to his old com- panions, the Germans are as much moved as the French. XXII. THE JOURNEY TO ELBA. l^TAPOLEON'S journey to Elba was full of inci- -LM dent, but it began calmly. General Drouot drove on ahead in one carriage; Napoleon followed in another with General Bertrand; then came the four commissioners of the Allied Powers. April 20, they stopped for the night at Briare; the 21st at Nevers; the 22d at Roanne. The Emperor sent for the mayor of this town, and said ( to him: "You ought to have here six thousand men of the army of Spain. If I had not been betrayed more than four- teen times a day, I should still be on the throne." So far Napoleon encountered no hostile feeling on his way. Everywhere he stopped, he talked with the officials, and he had the consolation of hearing cries of " Long live the Emperor ! " The first part of the way he had been escorted by detachments of cavalry, a useless precaution, because in the Bourbonnais the attitude of the populace was friendly; but the escort was dismissed just when it would have been of ser- vice, and Napoleon was in as great peril of his life as if he had been on the battle-field. He passed through 272 THE JOURNEY TO ELBA. 273 Lyons, April 23, at about eleven o'clock at night, without the knowledge of any one in the city. The 24th he reached Pe'age-de-Roussillon, a little village on the Rhone, and there he breakfasted. As he was pushing on towards Valence, he met Marshal Augereau, Duke of Castiglione. " Where are you going like that ? " he asked, grasping him by the arm ; " Are you going to the court ? " Augereau answered that at that moment he was on his way to Lyons. This man of the 18th Fructidor, formerly a fanatical Republican, was hastening to join the Bour- bons and to abjure the tricolor. April 16, from his headquarters at Valence, he had issued a proclamation to his soldiers, in which he said : " Soldiers, you are freed from your oaths, by the nation, in which the sovereignty resides, and still more, if more were nec- essary, by the abdication of a man who, after immo- lating millions of victims to his cruel ambition, has not known how to die as a soldier. The nation sum- mons Louis XVIII. to the throne. Born a French- man, he will be proud of your glory, and will gladly surround himself with your leaders ; a descendant of Henri IV., he will have his heart ; he will love the soldiers and the people. Let us then swear fidelity to Louis XVIII., and to the Constitution which pre- sents him to us; let us raise the true French flag which abolishes every emblem of a revolution now ended, and soon you will find in the gratitude of your king and of your country a just reward for your noble deeds." The Emperor, doubtless still ignorant of 274 THE INVASION OF 18 U. this proclamation, talked for about a quarter of an hour with the hero of Castiglione, and kissed him on leaving. It has been said that an hour later he said to General Roller, the Austrian commissioner: U I have just heard of Augereau's infamous proclamation ; if I had known about it when I met him, I should have combed his hair for him." Napoleon passed through Valence, which had been one of his first garrisons when an obscure officer of artillery, but he did not stop there. The soldiers of Augereau's corps, though they all wore the white cockade, shouted, "Long live the Emperor!" But after Valence there were no more cheers; he en- countered nothing but imprecations and curses. As Napoleon was passing through Orange, April 25, he was greeted with cries of, "Long live the King ! Long live Louis XVIII. ! " The same day, shortly before reaching Avignon, where he was to change horses, he encountered a number of men assembled, who shouted furiously : " Long live the King ! Hurrah for the Allies ! Down with the tyrant ! the wretch ! the beggar ! " A little further, at the village of Orgon, the popular fury was at its height. Before the inn where he was to stop there had been raised a gallows, on which swung a figure covered with blood, with an inscription on his breast : " This, sooner or later, will be the tyrant's lot ! " The infuriated crowd climbed upon Napoleon's carriage, with the most savage insults. Count Shouvaloff, the Russian commissioner, had much difficulty in calming them. THE JOURNEY TO ELBA. 275 An eye-witness, the Abbe* Ferrucci, Cardinal Gabri- elli's secretary, thus describes the terrible scene : " Orgon, April 25. A most noteworthy and unex- pected incident took place to-day, in my presence. The ex-Emperor Napoleon was passing through in- cognito, with three carriages, at eight in the morning: the other carriages had already gone through. The people, who spy out everything, gathered. Napoleon was to stop for breakfast, but he could not. All shouted : ' Death to the tyrant ! Long live the King ! ' They burned him in efhgy before his eyes, and held up before him figures stabbed and covered with blood. Some climbed up on his carriage and shook their fists in his face, crying, 'Death to the tyrant ! ' Some women, seizing stones, shouted, 1 Give me back my son ! ' It was a painful spec- tacle, inconsistent with honor, humanity, and re- ligion. For my part, I should have been glad to protect him with my own body." The peril grew greater every moment. Napoleon had good reason to believe that his wonderful career was to come to a most terrible end. Sir Walter Scott, though generally most hostile to the Emperor, does not hesitate to say : " The danger was of a new and peculiarly horrible description, and calculated to appall many to whom the terrors of a field of battle were familiar. The bravest soldier might shudder at a death like that of the De Witts." If we may believe the report of the Prussian com- missioner, Count Von Waldburg Truchsess, the ac- 276 THE INVASION OF 1814. count of which Count Shouvaloff certified to Chateau- briand, the Emperor, when a quarter of a league from Orgon, thought it necessary to disguise himself ; he put on a round hat with a white cockade, and got into a wretched blue overcoat; then he mounted a post- horse and galloped on ahead of his own carriage, in order to pass for a courier. The commissioners, who were not aware that he had changed his dress, fol- lowed at some distance. Near Saint Canat, he entered a miserable inn, on the highroad, called La Calade. " It was not till we were near Saint Canat," says the Prussian commissioner, "that we heard of the Emperor's disguise and of his arrival at this inn ; he was accompanied by but a single courier ; his whole suite, from the general to the scullion, wore white cockades, with which they seemed to have provided themselves beforehand. His valet came up to us, and begged us to make him pass for Colonel Camp- bell, the name he had given to the hostess when he arrived. We promised to comply with this request, and I went first into a sort of chamber, where I was surprised to find the former monarch of the world buried in deep thought, with his head resting in his hands. I did not recognize him at first, and went nearer. He sprang up when he heard my steps, and I saw his face wet with tears. He made me a sign not to say anything, made me sit down by him, and all the time the hostess was in the room, talked to me about indifferent things. . . . We sat down at the table ; but since the meal had not been prepared THE JOURNEY TO ELBA. 277 by his own cooks, he could not make up his mind to eat anything lest he should be poisoned. ... He talked a good deal, and was very pleasant. When we were alone, and our hostess, who waited on us, had gone away, he told us why he felt that his life was in danger; he was convinced that the French government had taken measures to have him abducted or assassinated in this region. ... To convince us that his fears were well grounded, he told us of his talk with his hostess, who had not recognized him. 4 Well,' she asked, ' have you met Bonaparte ? ' 1 No,' he replied. She went on, I wonder whether he will save himself ; I always think the people are going to murder him, and I'm sure he will deserve it ! Tell me, are they going to ship him to his island? ' 'Oh, yes.' 'They'll drown him, won't they?' 4 I hope so,' answered Napoleon. ' So you see to what danger I am exposed.' " This man in disguise, weeping in a miserable road- side inn, is he who was crowned Emperor of the French at Notre Dame, and King of Italy in the Cathedral of Milan. This was the man of destiny, the new Csesar, the modern Charlemagne, who ap- peared at Dresden two years before as the king of kings ; to such strange misery had he fallen. Napoleon naturally dreaded dying here in this wretched hole, disguised as he was, and with the white cockade in his hat. Yet escape from his perils was not easy. Napo- leon knew well these Southern people. Early in his career he had seen them at work, and they were as 278 THE INVASION OF 1814. zealous now in their fervor for Royalism as they had been for the Republic : the White Terror promised to be as pitiless as the Red Terror had been. Meanwhile, night had fallen, cold and dark, but on that account offering Napoleon a better protection than a strong escort. A violent mistral was raging, and this, with the darkness of the night, prevented the populace from gathering about this inn. Never- theless, a good many suspected that the Emperor was there, and made their way thither. The foreign commissioners in vain tried to convince them that they were mistaken; that Napoleon was not there. "We don't want to do him any harm," they said; " we only want to look at him to see what effect mis- fortune has had upon him. We shall at the most only utter a few reproaches, and tell him the truth, which he has so seldom heard." The commissioners succeeded in dissuading them and in calming them. Then some one appeared who promised to maintain order at Aix, if he could be given a letter for the mayor of that place. His offer was accepted, and the man started for Aix, returning soon with the assur- ance that the mayor had taken measures to prevent any disorder. It was midnight. The crowd that had assembled at the doors of the inn had for the most part dispersed ; only a few were left, with lan- terns. Napoleon decided to leave. But first he thought it prudent to put on a new disguise ; hence, wishing to pass for a foreign officer, he put on Gen- eral Roller's uniform, and wrapped himself up in THE JOURNEY TO ELBA. 279 General Shouvaloff's cloak. Then, half an hour after midnight, they started out into the black and blustering night, eluding the few inquisitive men who still lingered about and turned the light of their dark-lanterns on the carriages. When the Emperor tried to poison himself at Fon- tainebleau, could he have foreseen this deepest humil- iation, that he should wear a foreign uniform to escape being massacred by Frenchmen? Probably not; reality was to outdo his worst apprehensions. The Prussian commissioner, in his account, has no word of compassion for the defeated giant ; he says : " The Emperor did not regain confidence ; he stayed in the Austrian general's carriage, and bade the coachman smoke, a familiarity which would less betray his presence. He even asked General Roller to sing ; and when he said he did not know how to sing, Bonaparte told him to whistle ; and so he drove on, crouching in one of the corners of the carriage, pretending to sleep, lulled by the General's charming music, breathing the incense of the driver's pipe." Chateaubriand exclaims that such a story is odi- ous reading. " What," he asks, u the commissioners could not give better protection to the man for whom they had the honor of being responsible ? Who were they, to put on such airs of superiority to a man like that ? Bonaparte said with truth that he might have made the journey in the company of a part of his guard. They were plainly indifferent to his fate ; they enjoyed his degradation ; they gladly gave their 280 THE INVASION OF 1814. consent to the marks of contempt which the victim required for his safety ; it is pleasant to have under one's feet the destiny of the man who used to walk on the loftiest heads, and to avenge haughtiness by insult ! So the commissioners have no word, even of philosophic reflection, on such a change of fortune, to warn man of his nothingness and of the greatness of God's judgments ! In the ranks of the Allies there had been many flatterers of Napoleon; when one has gone on his knees before force, he has no right to triumph in misfortune." It is easy to understand the impression made on the Emperor's mind by his journey through Provence. It possibly explains his indulgence to the Imperialists who turned Royalists. He must have remembered that even he, the Emperor, had been forced to cry " Long live the King ! " and to disguise, not merely his feelings, but also his person. He knew how rare was the stoicism of a Cato or a Brutus, and when he returned from Elba, he blamed no one of his minis- ters or marshals for turning their coats. He was past all possibility of surprise, and his extremes of good and evil fortune taught him at once compassion and contempt. The end of the journey was without incident after leaving Aix. April 26, they breakfasted at Saint Maximin. Napoleon still wore General Roller's uni- form. " You would not have recognized me in these clothes ? " he asked of the sub-prefect of Aix ; then he added, pointing to the commissioners : " These gen- THE JOURNEY TO ELBA. 281 tlemen induced me to put them on, deeming it neces- sary for my safety. I might have had an escort, but I refused, preferring to trust to French loyalty. I had no reason to regret this confidence from Fon- tainebleau to Avignon, but since then I have run much danger. The Provence people disgrace them- selves." Then he told them that when he was . an artillery officer he had been sent into this country to set free two Royalists who were about to be hanged for wear- ing the white cockade. " It was only with great dif- ficulty," he went on, " that I saved them from the hands of those madmen, and now they are beginning the same excesses against those who refuse to put on the white cockade. Such is the inconsistency of the French." In the evening of April 26 they reached the castle of Bouillidou, near Luc, where they found Princess Pauline Borghese, who was much moved when she saw her brother. There were Austrian troops near by, charged with escorting the Emperor and seeing to his embarkment. Without further danger, he reached Frjus, April 27, and thence he wrote to Corvisart : " I have received your letter of the 22d. I am glad to notice your good conduct when so many have conducted themselves ill. I am grateful to you, and it confirms the opinion I had already formed of your character. Give me news of Marie Louise, and never doubt my affection for you. Do not give way to melancholy thoughts ; I hope that you will long 282 THE INVASION OF 18 14. be spared to do good and to make your friends happy." The fifteenth article of the treaty of April 11, 1814, ran thus : " The Imperial Guard will furnish a detachment of from twelve to fifteen hundred men, of all arms of the service, to serve as escort to Saint Tropez, the place of sailing " : this article had not been carried out. Napoleon did not have the stipu- lated escort, and he did not sail from Saint Tropez. The sixteenth article was also unobserved; it said: " There shall be supplied an armed corvette and the transports necessary to conduct to their destination His Majesty the Emperor and his household. The corvette shall remain His Majesty's property." The French Government sent the brig, Inconstant, but Napoleon refused to sail in it. " If the government," he said, " had known what was due to itself, it would have sent me a three-decker, and not an old worthless brig, which my dignity forbids me boarding." The Emperor preferred to take the English frigate, Un- daunted, which Colonel Campbell had had prepared. April 27, Napoleon, who was to embark the next day in this frigate, in the gulf of Saint Raphael, in- vited to dinner, at F re* jus, the four foreign commis- sioners, Count Klamur, and the captain of the English ship. " There he resumed all his Imperial dignity," says the Count of Waldburg. " . . . He spoke to us with rare openness of his plans for the aggrandize- ment of France at our expense; he explained how he had meant to turn Hamburg into another Ant- THE JOURNEY TO ELBA. 283 werp, and to make the harbor of Cuxhaven like that of Cherbourg. He pointed out to us what no one had noticed, that the Elbe was as deep as the Scheldt, and that a port could be built at its mouth like the one that made Belgium powerful. He spoke with such passion and vivacity of his fleets at Toulon, Brest, and Antwerp, of his Hamburg army, and of his mortars at Hyeres, with which he could throw shells three thousand paces, that one would have thought that all still belonged to him." After dinner he took leave of the Russian and Prussian commissioners : only the English and Austrian commissioners were to accom- pany him to Elba. He took with him Generals Ber- trand and Drouot, the Pole, Major Gerzmanofsky, two quartermasters of the palace, a paymaster, a phy- sician, two secretaries, a house-steward, a valet, two cooks, and six servants. An escort of Austrian hussars accompanied him to the harbor of Saint Raphael, where he was received with military honors and a salute of twenty-four cannon. He set sail, April 28, at 9 p.m. May 3, he anchored in the road- stead of Porto Ferrajo, and on the 4th, he landed amid the cheers of the inhabitants, who were proud of their sovereign. XXIII. THE LAST DAYS OF MARIE LOUISE IN FRANCE. WHILE Napoleon was thus on his way from Fontainebleau to Elba, what had become of the Empress, Marie Louise ? We left her at Orleans, April 12, 1814, harassed and ill, weeping and won- dering what was her duty. The same day, Baron de Bausset arrived, bringing her a letter from Napoleon and one from Metternich. The Austrian Minister assured Marie Louise that she should be free to lead an independent life, with the right of succession for her son, and he indicated that the best thing for her to do would be to go to Austria with her son to await her choice between the place where the Emperor Napoleon might be and her own establishment ; he added that the Emperor Francis would have the hap- piness of helping to dry the tears which his unhappy daughter had only too many reasons for shedding ; that she could be quiet for a season and free to decide upon the future, and that she might bring with her such persons as she best trusted. Shortly after she received this letter, Prince Paul Esterhazy and Prince Wenezel-Lichtenstein reached 284 LAST DAYS OF MARIE LOUISE IN FRANCE. 285 Orleans with another letter from Metternich, telling her that the Duchies of Parma and Piacenza had been granted her, revertible to her son, and he asked her to go at once to the castle of Rambouillet to meet her father. Marie Louise, who had long desired this interview, and was very anxious to plead not only her own cause, but also that of her husband and son, readily agreed. She left Orleans, April 11, at 8 p.m., under the escort of some of the cavalry of the Imperial Guard. At Angerville, however, their place was taken by some Cossacks, who brandished their long pikes about the carriages as if they were a convoy of prisoners. In fact, from this moment Marie Louise was really a captive. When, April 13, at noon, she reached Ram- bouillet, worn out with mental suffering and bodily fatigue, she found the roadway and the interior of the castle guarded by Russian troops. She regretted her haste in leaving Orleans, for she learned that her father would not be in Paris till the next day and would not come to Rambouillet till April 16. The 12th, Marie Louise might have joined Napo- leon at Fontainebleau ; the 13th that was impossible. The foreigners, to whom she had imprudently en- trusted herself, would not have permitted it. Up to that time, that is to say, up to April 13, Napoleon, as we have said, on account of his intention to kill him- self, did not care to see again his wife and son. But as soon as he renounced his plan of suicide, he longed to press them to his heart. The 13th, he sent Gen- 286 THE INVASION OF I8I4. eral Cambronne to Orleans with two battalions of the Guard. Since he had heard that one of the reasons that prevented the Empress from going to Fontaine- bleau was the dread of being stopped on the way by the allied troops, he doubtless sent this escort to protect her. But General Cambronne arrived too late ; Marie Louise was already on her way to Rambouillet. The Empress spent the 13th, 14th, and 15th in feverish impatience to see her father. At one mo- ment she was pacing her apartment in great agita- tion ; the next she was motionless, shedding torrents of tears. The visit that Queen Hortense made brought her no consolation ; she saw that Josephine's daughter suspected her of desiring to leave Napo- leon. In the afternoon of April 16, a very plain open car- riage brought to Rambouillet the Emperor of Austria, accompanied only by Prince Metternich. Marie Louise, followed by her son and Madame de Montesquiou, went down to the foot of the palace staircase. When she saw her father, she burst into tears, and even be- fore she kissed him, she placed the King of Rome in his arms. This was a silent reproach which the Em- peror of Austria must well have understood when for the first time he pressed to his heart the grandson whom he had never seen, and now beheld in circum- stances so agonizing for the unhappy mother. Marie Louise barely took time to present to her father such members of her household as happened to be present, and hastened with him into her room. LAST DAYS OF MARIE LOUISE IN FRANCE. 287 Her father was no less moved than she was. The lit- tle boy, whose fate was already so pathetic, won his ad- miration ; he gazed at him tenderly, and promised to look after him, as if to atone for not having defended him more warmly. Henceforth, Marie Louise and the King of Rome lived only under the protection of Austria. Two battalions of Austrian infantry and two squadrons of Austrian cavalry took the place of the Russian troops on guard at Rambouillet. The Emperor Francis spent the night there, and left the next morning at nine, having persuaded his daughter to go to Vienna. He took good care not to tell her that he condemned her never to see her husband again, and he led her to suppose that after she had rested awhile in the bosom of her family, she' should be free to divide her time between the Duchy of Parma and the island of Elba. But these promises did not satisfy Marie Louise. Her interview with her father, so far from allaying her anxiety, only redoubled it. With her elbows on her knees, and her head in her hands, she meditated and wept. April 19, Marie Louise received at Rambouillet a visit which was extremely painful to her, but her father insisted on it, namely, from the Emperor Alex- ander. As the Duke of Rovigo says in his Memoirs : " The Czar must have seen from her face, which had been bathed with tears for twenty days, what effect he^ produced on her. Doubtless he did not know that the Empress had been informed in detail of every- 288 THE INVASION OF 1814. thing that had taken place in Paris before and during his reception of the deputation of marshals. But she knew all the plans framed against her husband, and she would have had to possess great self-control to keep her face calm before the instigator of the griefs by which she was tormented." Alexander apologized for the liberty he took in presenting himself before the Empress without first securing her permission. He added that he came with the consent of the Emperor of Austria, and warmly assured her of his sympathy and devotion. "He was so amiable, so easy," says the Baron de Bausset, "that we were almost tempted to believe that nothing serious had happened in Paris. After breakfast he asked the Empress if he might see her son. Then turning towards me, for I had the honor of meeting him at the Erfurt Congress, he asked me if I would kindly take him to ' the little King ' : those are his own words. I preceded him, after sending word to Madame de Montesquiou. When he saw the boy, the Emperor kissed him, played with him, and looked at him attentively." Marie Louise treated the Czar politely, but coldly. As soon as he heard that the Empress was at Ram- bouillet, Napoleon gave up all thought of asking her to join him. He knew that there the Emperor of Austria would not let her come to him, and that Marie Louise was no longer free. Nevertheless, April 19, the day before he left Fontainebleau, he dictated to Baron Fain a letter for the Baron de LAST BAYS OF MARIE LOUISE IN FRANCE. 289 Me'neval, in which he said : " Inasmuch as the Em- press has made many inquiries of M, de La Place about the island of Elba, I send you the report of an officer of engineers who has just come from there: it is fuller than anything we have. You may show it to the Empress, if you think it will interest her." Those last words are not without sadness, " if you think it will interest her." It seems as if he foresaw that desertion which throws such a cloud on the fame of Marie Louise. The letter closed thus : " The Emperor was not able to leave to-day, because the preparations could not be completed ; he will leave to-morrow, to pass through Nevers, Moulins, Lyons, Avignon, Aix, to Saint Tropez. Letters must be directed to Leghorn and Genoa, to the care of the Viceroy and of the King of Naples." That same evening, April 19, there came another letter from Fontainebleau : " The Emperor starts at 9 a.m. to-morrow. He wrote to you this morning the road he means to take to Lyons through the Bourbonnais, to Saint Tropez, through Avignon and Aix. The Emperor would like to receive news from the Empress to-morrow evening at Briare, where he means to pass the night; he hopes also to find letters at Saint Tropez. In a word, His Majesty begs of you to write to him at every oppor- tunity." April 22, Marie Louise received at Rambouillet another visit even more disagreeable than that of the Emperor Alexander; that, namely, of the King of 290 THE INVASION OF 1814. Prussia. After spending an hour with the Empress, this monarch asked the Baron de Bausset, as the Czar had done, to take him to "the little King." The King was less affectionate, less demonstrative, than the Emperor Alexander; but, like him, he kissed " the little King." The same day the Austrian general, Count Kinski, accompanied by several officers, arrived at Rambouil- let. He was to accompany Marie Louise to Vienna, and came to see about the preparations for the journey. Marie Louise started from Rambouillet April 23, stopping a day at Grosbois, the castle of Berthier, Prince of Wagram, where she saw her father, who left on the 25th to dine in Paris with the Count d'Artois. Then she pushed on with her son, not stopping again. The Empress was accompanied by the Duchess of Montebello, the Countess of Brignoli, General CafTarelli, MM. de Saint Aignan, de Baus- set, and de Meneval ; the King of Rome by his gov- erness, the Countess of Montesquiou, and by Madame Soufflot. The Duke of Rovigo says : " She travelled under the escort of her father's troops, and took the road by which the Allies had marched from Basle to Paris. She passed through the departments of a country which, four years before, had raised tri- umphal arches to greet her, had scattered., flowers before her feet. It saw her leave as the last victim of the enemies who had rava'ged its cities, and carrying with her the tie which, shortly before, had seemed to LAST DA YS OF MARIE LOUISE IN FRANCE. 291 unite her more firmly with the French. Her heart was rent with anguish in this sad journey : everything was full of bitterness. She carried with her the regrets of all who had enjoyed the happiness of approaching her, and left behind her the memory of her virtues." The Empress spent the night of April 25 at Pro- vins, whence she wrote to Napoleon. The country presented a most doleful appearance : the ravages of war had left hideous traces. The harvests had been trampled beneath the feet of cavalry horses ; every- where were to be seen houses destroyed, villages in ashes. The night of the 26th, she stopped at Troyes, in the house of M. de Mesgrigny, father of one of the Emperor's equerries; the 27th, at Chatillon, famous for its fruitless congress. The 28th, she reached Dijon, where the Austrian troops were drawn up to receive her as their Emperor's daughter. They had. wanted to welcome her with a salute and to illuminate the city, but she declined. That night she slept at Dijon ; the next at Gray ; the 30th at Vesoul ; May 1st at Belfort; and May 2d, she crossed the Rhine between Huningue and Basle, leaving French soil. Marie Louise had spent but four years in France, and they had left a more painful than happy mem- ory. Her happiness had not lasted more than two years, but had been darkened by many a cloud. The days of her prosperity came to an end with the Dres- den interview. The Russian campaign was the begin- 292 THE INVASION OF 1814. ning of a series of anxieties which ended in complete miser}'. When Marie Louise recalled her eventful career, those four perturbed years must have seemed like a distressing nightmare. Her elevation and her fall were equally astounding. A single consolation was left her, the thought that she had done her duty. In 1814 she could make herself no serious reproach. A good wife, a good mother, a good Regent, she had always obeyed Napoleon's orders, and he never once complained of her. All parties respected her and amid all the insults poured out on her husband, no voice was raised to denounce or even to criticise her. In their Memoirs the most ardent partisans of the Emperor, Me*neval, Bausset, Savary, have only most flattering words for her. No Legitimist, no Repub- lican, has attacked her. When she left France, every one paid homage to her virtue and her character. Every one felt sure that she would go to join her husband at Elba. She thought so herself; she had not yet felt the influence of the Count of Neipperg. The bonds uniting her to Napoleon were stretched, but not yet broken, and at first after her return in Germany, she had not ceased to be a Frenchwoman. Time was needed to turn the dethroned Empress into an Austrian princess; the transformation only took place gradually. Drawn in opposite directions, the prey of contradictory influences, hesitating be- tween two countries, as between her father and her husband, she at first experienced painful scruples LAST DAYS OF MARIE LOUISE IN FRANCE. ' 293 and doubts. It was a difficult position for a young woman of twenty-two. Ambushes beset this victim of politics on all sides, and all possible plans were devised to prevent her going to Elba, whither her duty called her. Accustomed from infancy, as daughter and subject, to follow her father's wishes, she at last blindly accepted a yoke which relieved her of many responsibilities. Being of a passive, submissive nature, she entrusted herself and her son to her father's care : it is he rather than she who deserves the blame of posterity. In any other time, she would have been a faithful wife, an excellent mother, an honored sovereign, but she had not enough energy to play a proper part in such troublous days. For four years she had been a true Frenchwoman; but when she had returned to Ger- many, all the ideas, the prejudices, the passions of her girlhood reappeared, and she forgot her second county in her attachment for the land of her birth. Thus happened to her what often happens to women who marry foreigners : they do not really change their nationality, but remain devoted daughters of their native land. Social conventions, even religious ties, are often powerless to destroy the work of nature, and marriage, sacred as it is, cannot uproot the mem- ory of one's country. The Archduchess of Austria, the Duchess of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla suc- ceeded to the Empress of the French, the Queen of Italy. As for her son, not only did he cease to be the King of Rome, the Prince Imperial of France, he 294 THE INVASION OF 18 U. never was even Hereditary Prince of Parma. He was never to obtain the promised right of succes- sion. The time was drawing near when he was to be robbed of the name of Bonaparte, the name of Napo- leon, and was to be known only as Francis, Duke of Reichstadt. INDEX. Abdication of Napoleon, the first, General de Segur's account of, L72 : the draft of, 175 ; despatched to Paris, 178. Abdication, the second, form of, 215; signed by Xapoleon, 210. Alexander I. disposed to withdraw from the alliance, 39 ; on account of intercepted letters to Napoleon decides to march on Paris, 90; noble language of, as to Napo- leon's abdication and exile, 210; interview of, with Marie Louise " at Rambouillet, 287. Allies, the, determined to refuse the natural boundaries of France, .*)'.; propositions of, offensive to Prance, 00; grant a delay of ten days, 08; determined on destroy- ing Napoleon, 88; informed by traitors of Napoleon's plans, 92 ; disposed to withhold everything from Napoleon, 209. Aicis-sur-Aube, battle of, 84; an heroic page in the Emperor's history, 85. Augereau, General, meets Napoleon on his way to Elba, 273; procla- mation of, to his soldiers, 27.;. Batsano, Duke of, writes to the I >uke of Vicenza, giving him from Xapoleon carte blanche to con- duct negotiations, 01; devotion of, to Napoleon, 201. BatNMt, M. de, assures the Em- press of the fidelity of her guard, 234; sent to Francis II. with a letter from Marie Louise, 23G; brings a letter from Marie Louise to Napoleon, 249. Beranger, " Les Deux Grenadiers " of, 200. Berthier, General, leaves Napoleon, 259. Bertrand, General, faithful to Napo- leon, 201. Belliard, General, informs Napo- leon at Juvisy of the fate of Paris, 140 ; urges him not to go to Paris, 142. Blois, court and government at, 151 ; condition of, at the end of the Regency, 225. Bliicher, General, at Brienne, 0; defeated by Napoleon at Mont- mirail and elsewhere, 17; ad- vances on Paris, 42; is saved by the capitulation of Soissons, 40; sends Marie Louise an intercepted letter of Napoleon, 103. Bonaparte, Jerome, his relations with Napoleon, 104. Bonaparte, Joseph, letter of, to Napoleon, February 3, 1814, 13; urges Napoleon not to let the Em- press leave Paris, 10 ; his letter to Napoleon of February 11, 1814, 21 ; writes to Napoleon concerning the exhaustion of the country and the fidelity of the National Guard, 34; writes to Napoleon respecting peace, 47 ; reads Napo- leon's letters in the Council, 112; proclamation of, to the citizens of Paris, 129; directs the minis- ters and dignitaries to leave Paris, and authorizes capitula- 295 296 INDEX. tion, 131 ; letters of, at Blois, to Napoleon at Fontainebleau, 149 et seq.; plans of, to change the seat of the Regency, 222; letter of, to Napoleon, 222. Bonaparte, Louis, gives offence to Napoleon by his frankness, 104. Borghese, Princess Pauline, meets Napoleon on his way to Elba, 281. Borgo Pozzo di, declaration of, con- cerning the Coalition, 39. Boulay, M., opposes the Duke of Feltre, and urges Marie Louise to remain in Paris, 109. Bourrienne, describes Napoleon's feelings for Brienne, 9 ; describes the reception of Marmont by the Royalists, 252. Brienne, the battle of, 6. Byron's poem " To Napoleon," 270. Castlereagh, Lord, exercises pre- ponderant influence at Chatillon, 67 ; promotes the agreement which resulted in the Holy Al- liance, 68. Champaubert, battle of, 21, 65. Chastrel, General, keeps his forces at their post, 195. Chatillon, Congress of, conditions of peace proposed by the Allies at, 47; its fruitless efforts, 57; the demands of the Powers at, 61 ; propositions of, on February 17, 66 ; end of the Congress of, 80. Chateaubriand, quoted, 135; re- cords the baseness of the Senate and Provisional Government, 231 ; quoted, 279. Constant, Napoleon's valet, remi- niscence of, 7. Craonne, battle of, 48. Dalberg, M. de, reported to be in the pay of the Allies, 93. Dejean, General, brings word to the defenders of Paris that Na- poleon is at hand, 134. Drouot, General, devotion of, to Napoleon, 261; Lacordaire's eu- logy of, 262; governor of Elba, 262. Elba, proposed as the place of Napoleon's exile by Alexander I., 210 ; Napoleon lands at, 283. Essonnes, the defection of, carried out by Marmont's generals, 192. Esterhazy, Prince, conversation of, with the Duke of Vicenza, 71. Fabvier, Colonel, informed by Mar- shal Marmont of Prince Schwar- zenberg's proposal, 184; refuses to join the other officers in their defection, 194 ; informs Mar- mont of the defection, 196; dis- missed by Marmont, 197. Fain, Baron, quoted, 178 ; describes the general exhaustion at the end of the campaign, 210. Feltre, Duke of, urges the depar- ture of Marie Louise, 109, 111. Ferrucci, Abbe', describes the in- sults to Napoleon on his way to Elba, 275. Fontainebleau, palace of, 155 et seq.; Napoleon's rooms in, 158; his departure from, 270. Francis II. meets Marie Louise at Rambouillet, 286. Galbois, Colonel, carries to Marie Louise a message from Napoleon announcing his abdication, 227. Gourgaud, Colonel, sent by Na- poleon to summon Marmont and Mortier, 192. Haussonville, d', Count, arouses the enthusiasm of the officers of the Guard for Marie Louise, 233. Heine's "The Two Grenadiers," 270. Hubert, Napoleon's valet, witnesses his attempt at suicide, 254. Lamartine describes Napoleon's leave-taking, 267. INDEX. 297 Lichtenstein, Prince, carries propo- sitions for an armistice to Napo- leon, 36. Macdonald, Marshal, urges Napo- leon not to concern himself about Paris, 99 ; furnished the account of Napoleon's first abdication to General de Segur, 172 ; announces to Napoleon he will not march on Paris, 176 ; receives a Turkish sabre as a present from Napo- leon, 258. Maizieres, the cure of, guides the army, 6. Marie Louise, receives a deputa- tion of the National Guard, 3; receives the flags captured by Napoleon from the Coalition, 40; her letter to her father urging him to end the war, 41, 87 ; tells the Duke of Rovigo of Napo- leon's letter to her intercepted by Bliicher, 102; her situation grave and embarrassing, 103; presides over a council at the Tuileries to decide whether she is to stay or to leave Paris, 108 ; decides to leave, 114; her resolu- tion to obey Napoleon's orders, 118 ; her departure, 120 et seq. , her suite, 122; at Rambouillet, 147; tact and devotion of her suite, 148; at Blois with the court and government, 151 et seq. , ignorant of the state of affairs, 217 ; letter of, to her father, en- treating him not to abandon her, 219; her distress, 220; keeps up hope, 225; her proclamation of April 7 the last official paper of the Regency, 226; receives news of the Emperor's abdication, 227 ; wishes to join him, but is dis- suaded, 229; distributes presents among her people, 231 ; dispersal of her household, 231; advised by Joseph to quit Blois, 21V2; re- solves not to leave, 233; leaves for Orleans with General Shouva- loff , 237 ; greeted as Empress at Orleans, 238; receives the reply of her father to her appeal, 240 ; her property plundered by the Provisional Government, 241 ; re- ceives messages from Napoleon, 243 et seq.; considers herself abandoned by her father, 246; assured of the succession of her son to the Duchies of Parma and Piacenza, 285; goes to Ram- bouillet to meet her father, 285 ; her interview with him, 287 ; re- ceives a visit from Alexander I., 287 ; receives the King of Prussia, 290; starts for Vienna, 290; her career as Empress of France, 291 et seq. Marmont and Mortier, the forces of, routed at Fere-Champenoise, 98 ; enter Paris, 126. Marmont, General (Duke of Ra- gusa), takes command at Charen- ton, 129; refuses to capitulate, 132; sends a flag of truce to Prince Schwarzenberg, 134 ; his defection, 181; observations of Thiers upon him, 182; describes his feelings, 182 et seq. ; his reply to Prince Schwarzenberg, 185; announces to his generals his course and urges them to join the Provisional Government, 186; letter of, to Napoleon, announcing his decision, 186; is informed of Napoleon's abdication, 189; has an interview with Prince Schwar- zenberg and recalls his decision, 190; goes to Talleyrand with the other plenipotentiaries of Napo- leon, 191 ; informed by Colonel Fabvier of the defection of his officers, 196; ajrain won over by the Royalists, 197 ; his account of the revolt of the soldiers and of his action, 198 et seq.; his re- morse and last days, 202. 298 INDEX. Mechlin, Archbishop of, his treach- ery to Napoleon, 92 ; his con- spiracy with Talleyrand, 94. Meissonier's picture of Napoleon in 1814, 11. Meneval, Baron de, charged by Napoleon to prepare the Empress for the end, 218; describes the distress of Marie Louise, 220; quoted, 235, 237, 244. Metternich, Prince, reply of, to the Duke of Vicenza on the situation, 64; writes the Duke of Vicenza in relation to Napoleon's counter- project, 78. Moucey, Marshal, statue to, in honor of his heroic defence at the Clichy gate, 138 ; testifies his admiration and gratitude to' Na- poleon at the abdication, 175. Moniteur, the, describes Napoleon's reception at Saint Dizier, 5 ; de- scribes the atrocities of the Cos- sacks, 24; gives an account of Napoleon's entrance into Cham- pagne, 37; silence of, after the flight of Marie Louise, 125. Montholon, Colonel de, reports to Napoleon after the abdication, 263. Mortier and Marmont routed at Fere-Champenoise, 98. Napoleon leaves Paris, January 25, 1814, 3; his reception at Saint Dizier reported in the Moniteur, 5 ; manoeuvres to prevent the junc- tion of Blucher and Schwarzen- berg, 5 ; fights the battle of Bri- enne, 6 ; his letter to Joseph, Jan- uary 31, 1814, 7 ; his school days at Brienne, 8 ; loses the battle of Rothiere, 12; sends directions to Joseph from Troyes, 14 ; his re- treat and despondency, 15; his letter to Joseph regarding the occupation of Paris, and the de- parture of the Empress and King of Rome, 17 et seq. ; defeats Blucher and the Russians, 21; letter of, to Joseph respecting Schwarzenberg's flag of truce and the treaty, 24 ; his confidence in the future, 26 ; gains the battle of Montereau, 27 ; writes to Joseph respecting the situation, 27; his letter to Francis II. from Nogent, 28 et seq.; his letter to Joseph directing affairs at Paris, 33; grants an armistice at the re- quest of Schwarzenberg, 36; his letter to Joseph from Troyes, 37 ; his energy and hopefulness in ad- verse fortune, 44 et seq. ; his an- guish at the surrender of Soissons, 46 ; gains the battle of Craonne, 48 ; retreats on Soissons, 49; Joseph urges him to make peace, 49, 52; his imperious replies, 51 et seq. ; wins the battle of Champaubert and others, 65 ; directs the Duke of Vicenza to do everything to secure peace, 65 ; angry with the proposition of the Coalition, 66; displeased with the Duke of Vicenza's frankness, 74 ; his coun- ter-project to the Allies' ultima- tum, 78; determines to attack, and returns to the Seine, 83; fights the battle of Arcis-sur- Aube, 84; his peril and escape, 85; retreats across the Aube and destroys his bridges, 86; deter- mines to unite the garrisons in the East, 86 ; resolves to cut the enemy's base, 90; met by the Duke of Vicenza at Saint Dizier, 97 ; full of enthusiasm and con- fidence, 97; decides to go to Paris, 99; his letter to the Em- press intercepted by Blucher, 103 ; his relations with Jerome and Louis, 104; scouts the idea of a national uprising, 106; met by General Belli ard at the Foun- tains of Juvisy, 139 ; is informed of the fate of Paris, 140; deter- mined to go to Paris, 142; com- INDEX. 299 missions the Duke of Vicenza to negotiate, and gives him full powen, 14J ; hears of the capitu- lation and goes to Fontainebleau, 14(5, 161 ; letter of, to Joseph at Blois, 153 ; his tragic fate at Fon- tainebleau, 101 ; bent on fighting, 104 ; the Duke of Vicenza reports to him the state of affairs in Paris, 167 ; still bent on fighting, 1(>8; addresses the Old Guard, 108; his first abdication, 172 et seq. ; Ney attempts to persuade him to abdicate, 173; writes to Baron de Meneval to urge the Empress to appeal to her father, 174 ; declares his decision to ab- dicate, 174 ; stipulates that his son shall be his successor, 177 ; appoints the Duke of Vicenza and others his plenipotentiaries to carry his abdication to the Allies, 178 ; still hopes to be able to resume the conflict, 204 ; re- ceives word of the defection of the Sixth Corps and of Marmont's agreement, 205; addresses the army referring to Marmont's conduct and the Senate's denun- ciations, 200 et seq. ; is informed of the failure of his overtures to the Allies, 211; tries to inspire his marshals with warlike energy, 214; signs the second abdication, 210; hints at suicide, 218; not anxious to see Marie Louise, 229 ; repeats his abdication , 248 ; medi- i.itrs suicide, 249; talks with Baron de Bausset about Elba, 250; regrets Marie Louise's de- parture from Paris, 251: the treaty of the Allies is brought to him, 282; takes poison, 254; his offerings, 255; recovers, and abandons the idea of suicide, 258; signs the treaty, 25!); de- votion of the soldiers to him. 200; his faithful adherents, 261 ; offers money to General Drouot, 263; letters of, to Marie Louise, 204; resembles a hero of antiq- uity, 2(i0 ; the personages of his court remaining, 207 ; takes leave of his people, 207 ; his fare- well address to the Old Guard, 208 ; his departure for Elba, 272 ; meets Marshal Augereau at Val- ence, 273 ; meets with insults at Orange, 274; is in peril at Orgon, 275 ; disguises himself, 276 ; passes for Colonel Camp- bell, 276; relates an anecdote of his early life at Aix, 281 ; meets Pauline, 281 ; articles of treaty not observed with regard to his escort, 282; invites the commis- sioners to dine with him at Fre- jus, and unfolds his plans, 282; sails in the English frigate the " Undaunted, " and lands in Elba, 283 ; an escort sent by, for Marie Louise arrives too late, 286 ; gives up all idea of having Marie Louise join him, 288; sends her an account of Elba and of his journey, 289. National Guard pledges its fidelity to Napoleon, 3 et seq. ; officers of, beseech the Empress to remain, 120. Ney, Marshal, letter of, to Talley- rand, announcing Napoleon's con- sent to complete abdication, 212; attempts to persuade Napoleon to abdicate, 173. Orleans, condition of, 239. Paris and the Parisians during the Invasion, 1 et seq. ; absence of pa- triotism and religious sentiment in, 107; defenceless condition of, on the arrival of the Allies. 127 : lack of heroic feeling in, 128; weakness of the defence, 129; bombarded, 135; capitulation of, 146. Polytechnic School, heroic spirit of the young men of, 136. 300 INDEX. Pope, the, final note concerning, be- tween the Allies and Vicenza, 79. Prussia, King of, visits Marie Louise at Rambouillet, 289. Regency, proclamation of, to the prefects, 223. " Regent" the, the crown diamond, anecdote of, 242. Rome, the King of, his reluctance to leave the Tuileries, 121 ; under Marshal Marmont's instructions, 203; becomes Francis Duke of Reichstadt, 294. Rothiere, battle of, 9 et seq. Rovigo, Duke of, refuses to rouse Paris in the Emperor's behalf, 115 ; eulogizes Marie Louise, 221. Russian columns in sight of Paris, 126. Saint Dizier, Napoleon's reception at, 5. Schwarzenberg, Prince, asks for an armistice, 24, 36 ; proposal of, to Marshal Marmont, 182; replies to Marmont's letter, 188 ; has an interview with Marmont, 190 ; gives Napoleon's plenipotentia- ries a safe conduct, 191. Scott, Sir Walter, quoted, 275. Sebastiani, General, asks Napoleon why he does not summon the nation to rise, 106. Segur, General de, describes Napo- leon's stay at Brienne, 7; says that the Coalition really fell at the time of the armistice, 38; gives an incident of Napoleon's retreat from Arcis-sur-Aube, 87 ; his account of Napoleon's abdi- cation, 172; estimate of Mar- mont, 201. Senate, the resolutions of, attack- ing Napoleon, his answer, 206. Shouvaloff, General, sent to Blois to conduct Marie Louise to Orleans, 235. Sixth Corps, the soldiers, faithful to Napoleon, revolt against their officers, 195. Soissons, capitulation of, 44. Souham, General, terror-stricken at Napoleon's summons, urges the other generals to cross the Essonnes, 194. Stael, Madame de, on Napoleon's campaign of 1814, 12. Talleyrand, M. de, reported to be in communication with the Allies, 93 ; suspected by the Duke of Rovigo, 94 ; escapes being seized by Napoleon, 95 ; says that the departure of Marie Louise would throw Paris into the hands of the Royalists, 111 ; his remarks to the Duke of Rovigo, 116; appointed President of the Senate under the Provisional Government, 166. Thiers, comment of, on the demands of the powers, 62 ; opinion of the plan of a last struggle, 165 ; says Napoleon's abdication was on the 4th of April, 172 ; remarks of, upon Marshal Marmont, 182, 200. Treaty of the Allies brought to Napoleon, 252; its terms, 253. Truchsess, Count von Waldburg, his report of Napoleon's disguise and peril on his way to Elba, 276. Vicenza, Duke of (General Caulain- court), the sole plenipotentiary of France at the Congress of Chatillon, 58; his frank and prudent counsels, 59; letter of to Marshal Berthier on the situa- tion, 60; left by Napoleon in ignorance of the real state of affairs, 61 ; letter of, to Metter- nich urging a speedy peace, 63; letter of, to Napoleon on the gravity of the situation and the necessity for peace, 69 et seq.; reports Prince Esterhazy's con- versation to Napoleon, 71 ; depre- cates Napoleon's displeasure, 74 ; INDEX. 301 hands in a statement in reply to the Allies' ultimatum, 76; hands in Napoleon's counter-project, 78; given full powers by Napo- leon to make peace, 145 ; reports to Napoleon the state of affairs in Paris, 167 ; urges him to abdi- cate, 167 ; reads the draft of the abdication to the Emperor and marshals, 175 ; faithful to Napo- leon, 261. Vitrolles, M. de, betrays the con- dition of France to the Allies, 93. Wilson, Mr. Robert, on the position of the Allies and the French treachery that lost Napoleon his crown, 92. Yvan, Napoleon's surgeon, refuses to give him poison, 255. Typography by J. S. Cushing & Co., Boston. Presswork by Berwick & Smith, Boston. FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE FRENCH COURT. CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, PUBLISHERS. WITHIN the past few years M. Imbert de Saint- Amand has written a series of volumes which have made him one of the most popular authors of France. Each has for its nucleus some portion of the life of one of the eminent women who have presided over or figured at the French court, either at Versailles or the Tuileries. But though thus largely biographical and possessing the interest inseparable from personality, the volumes are equally pictures of the times they describe. He is himself saturated with the litera- ture and history of the period, and what mainly distinguishes his books is the fact that they are in considerable part made up of contemporary letters and memoirs, so that the reader hears the characters themselves speak, and is brought into the closest imaginary contact with them. Moreover, the complexion of the mosaic thus cleverly mortised is familiar rather than heroic. The historian is not above gossip in its good sense, and the way in which the life of the time and of its distinguished personages is depicted is extremely intimate as well as vivid and truthful. The ten volumes now issued and in press relate to Marie Antoinette, Josephine and Marie Louise. They give a vivid representation of the momentous times immediately before, during and after the epoch of the Revolution. Probably no times in any country were ever so picturesque, so crowded with events, and so peopled with striking characters. The characteristics of the old regime and the events of the early FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE FRENCH COURT. years of the Revolution are grouped effectively around the sympathetic figure of Louis Sixteenth's queen. In the first two books in which she figures, Josephine is taken as the center of the new society that issued from the disorganization wrought by the Revolution, and the third describes the beginning of the Imperial epoch. In "The Happy Days of the Empress Marie Louise," we are led behind the scenes, and shown the domestic life as well as the splendid court pomp of the world's Conqueror at the acme of his career a most dramatic contrast with the picture drawn in the concluding three volumes, which describe the " De- cadence of the Empire " owing to the Russian campaign, the " Invasion of 1814" and the "Return from Elba and the Hundred Days." FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE FRENCH COURT. From the French of Imbert de Saint-Amand. Each -with Portrait, 12 mo, $1.23. Three Volumes on Marie Antoinette. MARIE ANTOINETTE AND THE END OF THE OLD REGIME. MARIE ANTOINETTE AT THE TUILERIES (In press). MARIE ANTOINETTE AND THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY (In press). Three Volumes on the Empress Josephine, citizeness bonaparte, the wife of the first consul, the court of the empress josephine. Four Volumes on the Empress Marie Louise, the happy days of marie louise, marie louise and the decadence of the empire. marie louise and the invasion of 1814. marie louise, the return from elba and the hundred days (In press). FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE FRENCH COURT. "In these translations of this interesting series of sketches, we have found an unexpected amount of pleasure and profit. The author cites for us passages from forgotten diaries, hitherto unearthed letters, extracts from public proceedings, and the like, and contrives to combine and arrange his material so as to make a great many very vivid and pleasing pictures. Nor is this all. The material he lays before us is of real value, and much, if not most of it, must be unknown save to the special students of the period. We can, therefore, cordially commend these books to the attention of our readers. They will find them attractive in their arrange- ment, never dull, with much variety of scene and incident, and admir- ably translated." The Nation, of December ig, 1890. Marie Antoinette and the End of the Old Regime. The years immediately preceding the outbreak of the Revolution comprise the epoch treated under this title, which aptly characterizes the passing away of the old order, before the tremendous social as well as political upheaval of the Revolution. Marie Antoinette at the Tuileries. The vicissitudes of the Royal Family, and incidentally the political history of the time, from the forcible removal from Versailles in 1789 to the end of 179J, including the unfortunate attempt at flight and the arrest at Varennes are the subject of this book. Marie Antoinette and the Downfall of Royalty. Continuing the story of the preceding volume, the author here nar- rates the turbulent and terrible scenes of the beginning of the Terror and closes with the abolition of royalty, the declaration of the Republic and the confinement of the Royal Family in the Temple. Citizeness Bonaparte. The period during which Josephine was called "Citizeness Bona- parte " is the romantic and eventful one beginning with her marriage, comprising the first Italian campaign and the Egyptian Expedition, and ending with the coup d'etat of Brumaire. FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE FRENCH COURT. The Wife of the First Consul. As wife of the First Consul, Josephine presided over the brilliant society which issued from the social chaos of the Revolution and which, together with striking portraits of its principal figures, is here vividly described. The Court of the Empress Josephine. The events which took place between the assumption by Napoleon of the imperial title and the end of 1807, including the magnificent coronation ceremonies at Paris and at Milan and the wonderful campaign of Austerlitz are here described, as well as the daily life and surroundings of Josephine at the summit of her career. The Happy Days of the Empress Marie Louise. The happiest part of Marie Louise's career as Empress of the French, dating from her marriage, the festivities of which were cele- brated with unexampled splendor, to the departure of the Grand Army for the disastrous Russian campaign, is the subject of this book. Marie Louise and the Decadence of the Empire. The period covered in this volume is the intensely dramatic decline of the French empire from the Russian campaign, when Marie Louise "had the world at her feet," to the desperate campaign of 1814 which concluded her brief but brilliant reign. Marie Louise and the Invasion of 1814. This volume takes the reader from the beginning of 1814 to Napoleon's second abdication and departure for Elba. In a military point of view this campaign, his first fought on French soil and resulting in his downfall and that of his dynasty, ranks, nevertheless, among his ablest, and the narrative of it is, perhaps, the most intensely interesting, the variations of fortune being so rapid and so momentous. Marie Louise, the Return from Elba and the Hundred Days. The final scenes of the Napoleonic drama are here unfolded the imprisoned conqueror's life at Elba, his romantic escape and return to France, his almost miraculous resumption of power, the preparations for the last struggle and the climax of Waterloo and the definite restoration of Louis XVIII, closing the era begun in 1789. FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE FRENCH COURT. CRITICAL NOTICES. " A delightfully gossippy series." Philadelphia Press. " This volume [' Marie Louise and the Decadence of the Empire'] is as fascinating as any in the series, and the whole can be read with great profit and enjoyment." Hartford Courant. 11 Readers of the author's preceding volumes will not need to be told that the present one is full of charm and interest, brilliant descrip- tion, and strong and clear historical sketches." New York Tribune. "The volumes are even more pictures of the times than of the unhappy occupants of the French throne. The style is clear and familiar, and the smaller courts of the period, the gossip of the court and the course of history, give interest other than biographical to the work." Baltimore Sun. " M. de Saint-Amand makes the great personages of whom he writes very human. In this last volume he has brought to light much new material regarding the diplomatic relations between Napoleon and the Austrian court, and throughout the series he presents, with a wealth of detail, the ceremonious and private life of the courts." San Francisco Argonaut. "The sketches, like the times to which they relate, are immensely dramatic. M. Saint-Amand writes with a vivid pen. He has filled himself with the history and the life of the times, and possesses the art of making them live in his pages. His books are capital reading, and remain as vivacious as idiomatic, and as pointed in the translation as in the original French." The Independent. " The last volume of the highly interesting series is characterized by all that remarkable attractiveness of description, historical and per- sonal, that has made the former volumes of the series so popular. M. de Saint-Amand's pictures of court life and of the brilliant men and women that composed it, make the whole read with a freshness that is as fascinating as it is instructive." Boston Home Journal. FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE FRENCH COURT. " M. de Saint-Amand's volumes are inspired with such brightness, knowledge, and appreciation, that their value as studies in a great historical epoch requires acknowledgement. Though written mainly to entertain in a wholesome way, they also instruct the reader and give him larger views. That they have not before been translated for publi- cation here is a little singular. Now, that their time has come, people should receive them gratefully while they read them with the attention they invite and deserve." N, Y. Times. "These volumes give animated pictures, romantic in coloring, intimate in detail, and entertaining from beginning to end. To the student of history they furnish the more charming details of gossip and court life which he has not found in his musty tomes ; while in the novice they must be the lode-stone leading to more minute research. The series is of more than transient value in that it teaches the facts of history through the medium of anecdote, description, and pen portraits ; this treatment having none of the dryness of history per se, but rather the brilliancy of romance." Boston Times. " The central figure of the lovely Josephine attracts sympathy and admiration as does hardly one other historical character. We have abundance of gossip of the less harmful kind, spirited portraits of men and women of note, glimpses here and there of the under-current of ambition and anxiety that lay beneath the brilliant court life, anecdotes in abundance, and altogether a bustling, animated, splendidly shifting panorama of life in the First Empire. No such revelation of the private life of Napoleon and Josephine has hitherto been given to the world as in ' The Court of the Empress Josephine.' It is the authors master- piece." Christian Union. For sale by all booksellers, or sent, postpaid on receipt of price, by CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 743-745 Broadway, - - - - New York. The First American Edition MEMOIRS OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE By LOUIS ANTOINE FAUVELET DE BOURRIENNE His Private Secretary With 34 Full-page Portraits and Other Illustrations Edited by Col. R. W. PHIPPS. New and Revised Edition The Set, 4 Vols., 12mo, Cloth, -in a Box, $5.00 Characteristic bindings in Half Morocco and Half Calf, specially designed for this work, can now be supplied The Set, 4 Vols., in a box, Half Morocco, gilt top, . . . $8.00 11 ,l " Half Calf, " ... 10.00 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, Publishers NEW YORK FOR sixty years Bourrienne's "Memoirs of Napoleon" has been a standard authority to which every one has turned for a graphic, entertaining picture of the man as he appeared to his intimate friend and Secre- tary. Bourrienne, who had been the friend and com- panion of Napoleon at school, became his Secretary in 1797 and remained in this confidential position till 1802. His "Memoirs" has heretofore been accessible only in the English editions. It is now proposed to publish immediately in a popular Library Edition, in four i2mo volumes, an exact reprint of the latest English edition. This American edition will contain the thirty-four por- traits and ocher illustrations of the original, together with all the other features that give distinction to the work the chronology of Napoleon's life, the prefaces to the BOURRIENNE'S "NATOLEON: several editions, the author's introduction, and the addi- tional matter which supplements Bourrienne's work, an account of the important events of the Hundred Days, of Napoleon's surrender to the English, and of his resi- dence and death at St. Helena, with anecdotes and illus- trative extracts from contemporary Memoirs. The per- sonality of one of the greatest figures in history is placed before the reader with remarkable fidelity and dramatic power by one who was the Emperor's confidant and the sharer of his thoughts and fortunes. The picture of the man Napoleon is of fascinating interest. Besides this, the book is full of the most interesting anecdotes, bon mots, character sketches, dramatic incidents, and the gossip of court and camp at one of the most stirring epochs of history, taken from contemporary Memoirs and incorporated in the work by the editors of the different editions. List of Portraits, Etc. NAPOLEON I. LETITIA RAMOLINO THE EMPRESS JOSEPH- INE EUGENE BEAUHARNAIS GENERAL KL^BER MARSHAL LANNES TALLEYRAND GENERAL DUROC MURAT, KING OF NAPLES GENERAL DESAIX GZNERAL MOREAU HORTENSE BEAUHAR- NAIS THE EMPRESS JOSEPH- INE NAPOLEON I. THE DUC D'ENGHIEN GENERAL PICHEGRU MARSHAL NEY CAULAINCOURT, DUKE OF VICENZA MARSHAL DAVOUST CHARGE OF THE CUIR- ASSIERS AT EYLAU GENERAL JUNOT MARSHAL SOULT THE EMPRESS MARIA LOUISA GENERAL LASALLE COLORED MAP SHOW- ING NAPOLEON'S DO- MINION THE EMPRESS MARIA LOUISA MARSHAL MASSENA MARSHAL MACDONALD FAC-SIMILE OF THE EM- PEROk'S ABDICATION IN 1814 NAPOLEON I. MARSHAL SOUCHET THE DUKE OF WELLING- TON PLANS OF BATTLE OF WATERLOO MARSHAL BLUCHER MARSHAL GOUVION ST. CYR MARSHAL NEY THE KING OF ROME GENERAL BESSIERES BOURRIRNMVS " NATOLEOX. "If y u want something to read, both interesting and amusing, get the Me'moires de Bourrienne. These are the only authentic Metnoirs of Napoleon which have yet appeared. The style is not brilliant, but that only makes them the more trust- worthy" Prince Metternich. "The writer was a man of uncommon penetration, and he enjoyed opportunities for intimate knowledge of Napoleon's life and character such as no other person possessed ; and the liveliness of his style renders the Memoirs interesting reading from the first page to the last. The volumes are enriched with a large number of excellent portraits." The Academy, "It is a brilliant picture of Napoleon as he appeared in his daily life to one who held the unique position of friend, Minister and Secretary, depicting the personality of the Emperor with extraordinary vividness and truth- fulness. It is impossible not to recognize the great value of these Memoirs." New York Times. " M. de Bourrienne shows us the hero of Marengo and Austerlitz in his night-gown and slippers with a trait de plume he, in a hundred instances, places the real man before us, with all of his personal habits and peculiarities of manner, temper and conversation." From the Preface. THE SET, 4 VOLS., 12M0, IN A BOX, $5.00. 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. MAR 2 1967 1 5 HAY2 2"67-WAM ftsa *- y LD 21A-60w-7,'66 T7 . General Library (G4427sl0)476B University of California Berkeley Ytf SttAOJ / 4-^T