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He was met near Lyons by a body of troops collected for the avowed purpose of opposing him. He no sooner discerned the dragoons at a distance, than he quitted his carriage, mounted a horse, and, attended by a single aid-de-camp, rushed forward to meet them. He advanced, and without one word of preface, ordered the regiment to break into column and follow him. The order was obeyed with as much precision and regularity as if they were on parade.

In his progress to Fontainbleau, he endeavoured to gratify his own passion for display, and to conciliate the affections of the people, by dispensing his smiles, his caresses, or his assurances of favour, and by distributing, with as much profusion as the prince regent of England has lately displayed, the crosses of the legion of honour. He was accompanied in every stage of his rout, not only by the most respectable agriculturists of the adjacent provinces, but by a motley and infuriate multitude, whose clamours of applause and enthusiasm immediately subsided, on waving his hand, or opening his lips. On the 17th of March he entered Auxerre, where the 14th regiment of the line welcomed his arrival with reiterated shouts, and trampled under foot the white cockade, which a few short months before they had sworn to revere. His demeanour to these troops evinced his usual adroitness and versatility of addressHe accosted an old soldier, who was decorated with three medals, and asked him, in a familiar tone, what was the duration of his service. The veteran replied, " Twenty-five years, sire;""Ah, I recollect," interrupted Buonaparte, "we were together at Rivoli, where we took seven pieces of cannon.""Yes, sire." "I see then," answered Napoleon," that you are a good soldier, and I will take care of you."

On the 19th, at night, he turned off the great road, to sleep at Fontainbleau, determined, as he confessed, that the palace which had witnessed his misfortunes, should first receive him in this moment of success. His army, during the hours of his repose, advanced in the direction of Melun.

The number of national guards, volunteers, and other troops, collected at Melun, to stop the march of Buonaparte, was not

less than 100,000 men. The best spirit seemed to prevail amongst them. They ap peared devoted to the cause of the king, and eager to meet and repel his antagonist. A powerful artillery strengthened their positions. Relying on their numbers, they had left the town, the rocks, and the forest of Fontainbleau, unguarded; preferring the flat plains of Melun, where the whole of their army might act at once against the comparatively small band of the invader. Ney, whose corps is stated to have amounted to 30,000 men, had previously communicated to the court the declaration, signed by the whole army under his command, both officers and privates; in which they stated, "that they respected him too much to deceive him; that they would not fight for Louis the XVIIIth, but that they would shed all their blood for Napoleon the Great." This declaration did not entirely extinguish the hopes of the Bourbons. They still relied on the good disposition and numbers of the troops at Melun; and, blinded by the addresses sent up from many garrisons and provinces, at the very moment of their defection, still thought that their cause would be espoused by the nation as her own. Early on the morning of Monday the 20th, preparations were made on both sides for the encounter which was expected to take place. The French army was drawn up en etages on three lines, the intervals and the flanks armed with batteries. armed with batteries. The centre occupied the Paris road. The ground from Fontainbleau to Melun is a continual declivity; so that, on emerging from the forest, you have a clear view of the country before you; whilst, on the other hand, those below can easily descry whatever appears on the eminence. An awful silence, broken only at times by peals of martial music, intended to confirm the loyalty of the troops, by repeating the royal airs of Vive Henri Quatre, and La Belle Gabrielle, or by the voice of their commanders, and the march of divisions to their appointed ground, pervaded the king's army. All was anxious expectation; the chiefs, conscious that a moment would decide the fate of the Bourbon dynasty; and the troops, perhaps secretly awed at the thought of meeting in hostility the man whom they

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had been accustomed to obey. On the side of Fontainbleau no sound, as of an army rushing to battle, was heard. If the enemy was advancing, his troops evidently moved in silence. Perhaps his heart had failed him, and he had retreated during the night. If so, France was saved, and Europe free. At length a light trampling of horses became audible. It approached: an open carriage, attended by a few hussars and dragoons, appeared on the skirts of the forest. It drove down the hills with the rapidity of lightning: it reached the advanced posts Long live the Emperor!" burst from the astonished soldiery. Napoleon! Napoleon the Great!" spread from rank to rank; for, bareheaded, Bertrand seated at his right, and Drouet at his left, Napoleon continued his course, now waving his hand, now opening his arms to the soldiers; whom he called "his friends, his companions in arms, whose honour, whose glories, whose country he now came to restore." All discipline was forgot ten, disobeyed, and insulted; the commanders-in-chief took to flight; thousands rushed on his passage; acclamations rent the sky. At that moment his own guard descended the hill-the imperial march was played the eagles were once more exhibited, and those whose deadly weapons were to have aimed at each other's life, embraced as brothers, and joined in universal shouts. In the midst of these acclamations Napoleon passed through the whole of the royal army, and, placing himself at its head, pursued his course to Paris.

Gloomily arose the morning of the 20th of March to the royalists of Paris. It was known that Louis had left his capital at midnight, in consequence of the most urgent persuasions, and with extreme reluctance. He wished to have awaited till the last moment, or rather to have awaited the coming of the invader; and he often repeated the noble and affecting language which he had used at the meeting of the deputies, "Can I better terminate my career of sixty years, than by ending my life in defence of my people." No heart was unmoved at the affecting detail of his departure. The national guard at the Thuilleries melted into tears at the sight of their unfortunate mo

narch, as he descended the steps of the chateau. They knelt as he passed through their ranks, pressed to their lips his hands, kissed the flaps of his coat, and, conjuring him not to depart, declared that they were ready to sacrifice their lives in his defence. The king. endeavoured to calm their emotion, by expressing his belief that he should again return to the palace of his fathers; while the count d'Artois, deeply dejected, mingled his tears with those of these faithful citizens. Had this intrepid band of loyal and virtuous individuals been stationed at Melun, instead of the troops of the line, the enterprise of Napoleon might have been defeated, without the expense of blood and treasure, and the exhaustion of national resources that has since attended his discomfiture, and his se cond exile. The household troops testified the sincerity of their zeal by accompanying their monarch in his flight.

The agitation of Louis previous to his departure was so unworthy of his station, and of the difficulties which surrounded him, that his port-folio, containing his correspondence for many years with the duchess of Angouleme, was found in his apartment; his drawers contained the letters of Louis the XVI. and many important documents, calculated to endanger the safety of many individuals. Nor were his humanity and benevolence less conspicuous than his indiscretion. The duchess of Lerment was the favourite of Maria Antoinette, and governess of the duchess d'Angouleme. Age, sickness, and sorrow, had conspired to enfeeble her body and her mind. She had lately lost her only daughter, who was burned to death, and was now reduced to a state of mental imbecility. With a magnanimity, and spirit of grateful tenderness, which in former kings would have conferred upon its possessor the attributes of a saint and a hero, he offended the pride, and sacrificed the friendship, of a favourite general, by insisting that she should be accommodated with his place in the sovereign's private carriage.

During the preceding day, the people of Paris had been agitated by doubt, fear, hope, and anxiety; but the fatal certainty had not reached them. Their king was a fugitive, and the invader was hastening to fill the va

cant throne. All the authorities were withdrawn, yet the most perfect and mournful tranquillity for a while prevailed. The bank continued its payments as usual, and business was conducted in its customary channels. At the decline of day the city assumed a different aspect, and tumultuous crowds assembled to support the opposite pretensions of Louis and Napoleon by acts of violence. The national guard, to prevent the effusion of blood, and brobably resenting the departure of their sovereign, assumed the tricoloured cockade. Early the next morning the shopkeepers were busily employed in changing their signs. Every where the crested lilly disappeared, and the victorious eagle again stretched over the portals his terrific wings.

The violet, that lovely and earliest flower of spring, the symbol of timid beauty, and the soft harbinger of summer, had been transferred into the badge of a military conspiracy. The army, who were initiated into the secret of Buonaparte's intended return in spring, had applied to him the appellation of "Our father Violet." Rings of a violet colour were worn by his party, and the name of the violet was pronounced, with other words of mysterious import, and veiled, like the modest flower itself, from general observation. But on the morning of 21st of March the triumphant violet appeared glaring in the button-hole of every Buonapartist's coat, or placed in his hat with all the ostentation of an order, or a cockade.

At two o'clock general Excelmans arrived at the Thuilleries, and relieving the national guard, tore down the flag of the Bourbons, and hoisted that of the invader. This was the signal for greater tumult. The cries of "the King for ever" were no longer heard, but crowds of the lower classes filled the squares,_ vociferating "The Emperor for ever." The more respectable classes of citizens wese silent spectators, and the national guard preserved a melancholy silence. The inhabitants of the suburbs of St. Marceau and St. Antoine, assembled in the Carousal, and endeavoured to break open the gates which separate that square from the courts of the palace, resolving to level the late resi dence of Louis with the ground. Their at

tempt was baffled by the firmness and intrepidity of the national guard.

Early in the morning of the 20th the following proclamation was found placarded on the walls of Paris :

"Louis, by the grace of God, king of France and Navarre, to our trusty and well-beloved the peers of France, and the deputies of the departments :

"Divine Providence, who recalled us to the throne of our fathers, now permits that this throne should be shaken by the defection of a part of the armed force who had sworn to defend it. We might avail ourselves of the faithful and patriotic dispositions of the immense majority of the inhabitants of Paris, to dispute the entrance of the rebels into it: but we shudder at the calamities of every description which a combat within its walls would bring upon the citizens.

"We retire with a few brave men whom intrigue and perfidy will not succeed in detaching from their duties; and since we cannot defend our capital, we will proceed to some distance to collect forces, and to seek at another point of the kingdom, not for subjects more loving and faithful than our good Parisians, but for Frenchmen more advantageously situated to declare themselves in favour of the good cause.

"The existing crisis will subside into a calm. We have the soothing presentiment, that those deluded soldiers, whose defection exposes our subjects to so many dangers, will soon discover their error, and will find in our indulgence, and in our affection, the recompence of their return to their duty.

"We will soon return into the midst of this good people, to whom we shall once more bring peace and happiness.

"For these causes we declare and ordain as follows:

"Art. 1. In virtue of the 30th article of the constitutional charter, and the 4th article of the second title of the law of the 14th of August, 1814, the session of the chamber of peers, and that of the deputies, for 1814, are declared at an end. The peers and the deputies shall forthwith separate.

"2. We convoke a new session of the chamber of peers, and the session for 1815

of the deputies. The peers and the deputies of the departments shall meet at the soonest possible period, in the place which we shall point out as the provisional seat of our government. Any assembly of either chamber held elsewhere, without our authority, is from this moment declared null and illegal. "3. Our chancellor and ministers are each, in what concerns him, charged with the execution of the present proclamation, which shall be communicated to both chambers, published and posted up in Paris, and in the departments, and forwarded to all the prefects, sub-prefects, courts, and tribunals of the kingdom.

"Given at Paris, the 19th of March, in the year of our Lord 1815, and the twen tieth of our reign.”

• It must be observed, that Louis XVIII. dates his accession from the death of the Dauphin.

On perusing the journals of the 20th and 21st of March, we seem to read the history of two different nations. In the former 30,000 national guards, 3000 volunteers, and 10,000 students of all classes, join in uttering cries of rage and hatred towards the invader; in the latter they all rejoice at his appearance. The very individuals who, two days before, had professed to Louis the most fervent attachment, and unalterable fidelity, hastened from Paris to meet the emperor, to congratulate him on his arrival, and to form his escort. He declined their services with politeness, and continued his journey in the same vehicle, and with the same attendants, as had accompanied his route from Lyons. The day closed, and Napoleon had not yet appeared. He had lingered on the road to avoid the pressure and the familiarity of the multitude. At nine o'clock he entered the city in his travelling carriage, attended by an escort of twenty men, and was not recognized till he had reached the Thuilleries, where he was received by the populace with their accustomed enthusiasm. His companions forced a passage through the crowd, and bore him to the state apartments, where his sisters Julia and Hortensia, the officers of his household, and other adherents, were assembled to receive him. In the morning the

VOL. III.

newspapers, which on the preceding day had strenuously advocated the cause of Louis, were printed with the stamp of the eagle, and proclaimed in the most pompous style the entry of Napoleon into his capital. Tumult and disorder prevailed in the streets, which were soon filled with newly arrived troops, and the soldiers and populace were alike decorated with a bunch of violets.

Thus was accomplished a great and extraordinary revolution, which more resembled a theatrical illusion than the actual occurrence of real events. The journey of Buonaparte from Cannes to Paris is without parallel in history, and much beyond the limits of probable fiction. Every soldier sent against him joined his forces. Where resistance seemed for a moment to be threatened, it was disarmed by the sound of his voice. The ascendancy of a victorious leader over soldiers, the talent of moving armed multitudes by a word, the inextinguishable attachment of an army to him in whom its glory is concentrated and embodied, were never before so brilliantly and tremendously exemplified. Civilized society was never before so terribly warned of the force of the military virtues, which are the greatest civil vices. In twenty days he found himself quietly seated on the throne of France, without having spilled a drop of blood. The change had no resemblance to a revolution in other European countries, where great bodies of men are interested in the preservation of authority, and where every such body takes some interest for or against political changes. It was a bloodless and orderly military sedition. In the levity with which authority was transferred it bore some resemblance to an oriental revolution, but the total absence of those great characteristic features, the murder and imprisonment of princes, destroyed the likeness. It was, in fact, an event of which the scene could have been laid, even by the most fanciful romance writer, in no other time and country than France, at the commencement of the year 1815.

After arranging their respective shares in the partition of Europe, the confederate monarchs had declared their intention to depart from Vienna, and their time was intended to be passed, during the remainder of their re

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sidence, in superb entertainments and luxurious festivities. The capital of Austria reminded the spectator of a Venetian carnival, and the sovereigns, the ministers, and the plenipotentiaries, appeared to derive so much satisfaction from the result of the congress, that the usual reserve and austerity of diplomatic intercourse gave place to gaiety of manners and licentiousness of enjoyment.. In the midst of their exultation and self-complacency they were at once awakened to a sense of the injustice they had committed, and the danger they had incurred, by the unexpected and appalling information that Buonaparte had landed in France, on his way to Paris. The Persian monarch when, in the moment of convivial luxury, he beheld the writing on the wall, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin," was not affected by more acute emotions of alarm, astonishment, and perplexity, than marked the demeanour of the allied sovereigns on receiving this intelligence. All the forms and ceremonials of diplomacy were immediately re-assumed; Vienna presented, for the second time, the aspect of one large post-office, from which couriers, messengers, and confidential agents, were hourly dispatched; and the amusements and frivolities of the ball-room yielded to more serious objects of royal and ministerial attention. Their first declaration of hostility against Buonaparte indicated, by its early appearance, and by the tenor of its language, how deeply they felt the probability of danger, and how closely they were united by their common fears. The principle upon which this document was framed cannot, however, be disputed. Napoleon had broken the treaty of Fontainbleau, which they had pledged themselves to guarantee: at the head of an armed force he was seeking to regain the throne which they had compelled him to abdicate, and they had reason to fear that, successful in this enterprise, he would disregard the treaties by which Louis was bound, which had rendered France no longer an object of terror and suspicion, and that the result of all their deliberations would be endangered or destroyed. They were as yet unacquainted with his professions of regard to liberty, and his concessions to the people: he might have been corrected by adversity,

but it was still more probable that he had not; it was not for them to balance the scale of possible contingencies, when the danger was evident and immediate; and when the decision of their conduct' was the only security for its success.

In conformity with these impressions, they published on the 13th of March, two days after they had been informed of his landing at Frejus, the following declaration :

"The powers who have signed the treaty of Paris, assembled at the congress of Vienna, being informed of the escape of Napoleon Buonaparte, and of his entrance into France with an armed force, owe it to their own dignity, and the interest of social order, to make a solemn declaration of the sentiments which this event has excited in them.

"By thus breaking the convention which had established him in the island of Elba, Buonaparte destroys the only legal title on which his existence depended; and, by appearing again in France, with projects of confusion and disorder, he has deprived himself of the protection of the law, and has manifested to the universe that there can be neither peace nor truce with him.

"The powers consequently declare, That Napoleon Buonaparte has placed himself without the pale of civil and social relations. and that, as an enemy and disturber of the tranquillity of the world, he has rendered himself liable to public vengeance.

"They declare at the same time, that, firmly resolved to maintain entire the treaty of Paris, of the 30th of May, 1814, and the dispositions sanctioned by that treaty, and those which they have resolved on, or shall hereafter resolve on, to complete and to consolidate it, they will employ all their means, and will unite all their efforts, that the geneal peace, the object of the wishes of Europe, and the constant purpose of their labours, may not again be troubled; and to provide against every attempt which shall threaten to replunge the world into the disorders and miseries of revolutions.

"And although entirely persuaded that all France, rallying round its legitimate sovereign, will immediately annihilate this last attempt of a criminal and impotent delirium,

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