Perplexity of the Provisional Government.

time for negociation, have secured the inheritance for his son and conditions for France. "I expected better things from the Chambers and from France," said the Emperor in his own exoneration; "but I soon discovered that all were exhausted and demoralised!" Becker assumed the command of the Emperor's residence.

On the following day he conversed again with Napoleon, whose thoughts had undergone a change in the night, and who now spoke of nothing but his departure. He sent Savary to the government to hasten the preparation of the two frigates. Fouché told him they were ready, but that he would not allow them to sail until the safe-conducts had arrived; not wishing, he said, to dishonour his memory by an act of imprudence, which would be called a snare and a treason should the frigates be taken with Napoleon on board, when leaving port. Carnot himself became impatient at these alternate solicitations and refusals of the Emperor. 'Nobody wishes," he said with ill-humour to Savary, "to throw any obstacle in the way of his departure On the contrary, we wish to take measures never to see him here again!" Caulaincourt, on his side, entreated Savary to persuade the Emperor to depart without further delay. "Tell him," he added, "that I supplicate him to do so, and that he cannot go too soon."

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XVII

On the evening of the 27th, Fouché and his colleagues, overwhelmed by the double responsibility occasioned by the presence of Napoleon, fatal to the country if he escaped, and equally fatal to their fame if made prisoner by the enemy, ordered the minister of marine to go to Malmaison and to declare to the Emperor that the frigates placed at his disposal were ready, and that they begged him to embark even before the arrival of the safe-conducts. One hour later, this order of the government to the minister of marine was revoked. In consequence of the progress of the allies around Paris and Malmaison, and the presence of English cruisers on the

Napoleon's remaining adherents.

coasts, Fouché ordered the minister of war, Davoust, to send troops and gendarmes to General Becker to guard the approaches of Napoleon's residence, and to prevent his flight. In consequence of these new orders which rendered the captivity of the Emperor closer, Becker was authorised alone to escort him, without losing sight of him, to the Isle of Aix, where he was either to embark, or to remain under surveillance until the sea was open for him, or that the sureties demanded of England for his departure should be granted. Fouché, Davoust, and the government at the same time recalled from Malmaison, under various pretexts of civil or military service, the officers of the Emperor's household who might assist him in his designs of resisting his exile, and foment in his breast, or amongst the neighbouring troops, ideas of revolt against the abdication.

His court thus decimated, as much by the measures of government as by that natural void which creates itself around hopeless misfortune, no longer consisted of any but men irremediably compromised in his return from the Isle of Elba: Maret, Lavalette, Flahaut, Gourgaud, Bertrand, Montholon, Savary, and Las Cases. The last of these, an old emi grant of aristocratical family, was only a simple chamberlain, admitted into the superior household of the palace, and subsequently into the council of state after his return from emigration. He had no complicity in the new attempt at empire. More inclined from his birth and connexions to the Bourbons than to the new reign, he was a volunteer in the imperial downfall. A man of study, and familiar with history, he knew that even the most obscure fidelity receives from the great men to whom it attaches itself under great calamities, a reflex of greatness and immortality. He medi tated being one day the historian of that exile upon whom the eyes of the world and of posterity were to be for ever fixed. With this idea he sued for a place in the adversity of Napoleon, as others, and he himself, would have sued for one in his prosperity A noble flatterer who had caressed the Empire through ambition, and who was going to flatter exile through the vanity of devoted attachment! He was only

His unwillingness to depart.

acquainted with the Emperor by sight, and the Emperor only knew him by name.

XVIII

General Becker acknowledged to the Emperor the rigorous orders he had received. But being repugnant to the office of gaoler which these orders inflicted upon him, he went to Paris to receive an explanation, or a modification of them from the members of government He again received an order to accelerate the departure of Napoleon, and to accompany him to the Isle of Aix in the roadstead of Rochefort. He received a passport in which Napoleon was designated as secretary to this general; for they apprehended some commotions of the troops or the people, either for or against him, on the route It is not known whether Becker was furnished with private instructions in such an event; but in the accomplishment of duties so delicate and complicated this officer displayed a fidelity and propriety which happily combined the character of a soldier obeying the orders of his country, and that of a man of feeling respecting alike his own dignity and the dignity of misfortune. On his return to Malmaison he com municated the order for departure, and the passport, to the Emperor. Behold me then your secretary!" said the pri soner, in a tone of resignation. "Yes, Sire," replied Becker with emotion, "but to me you are ever my sovereign!"

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XIX

Preparations were now ostensibly made for departure, but everything around Napoleon still indicated that these preparations and this resignation were only a feint, and that a pretext was still looked for to revolt against necessity. The Emperor had been willing to relax as far as Malmaison the links which attached him to the Empire, but he could not resolve on severing them altogether by a departure. He waited for chances, he hoped impossibilities. The first corps of Grouchy's army were approaching nearer and nearer to him, driven back by the Prussians and the English. A brave and enterprising general

Proposition of General Excelmans.

of cavalry, who only recognised the camp as his country, and the Emperor as its government, meditated the abduction of his former general, to replace him at the head of his squadrons, to collect around him the 80,000 scattered men, the remnants of the campaign, and to confide once more to his genius, behind the Loire, the death-struggle with the foreign invaders. This was Excelmans, whose breach of discipline, arrest by Soult, and popular disgrace, we have seen under the first restoration.

Excelmans sent one of his colonels, named Sencier, to Mal maison, to tempt Napoleon to this noble act of despair. "The army of the north," said the colonel in the name of his general, "is unbroken, and full of enthusiasm still for you. It is easy to rally round this nucleus of troops everything that remains of patriotism and military spirit in France. Nothing is to be despaired of with such troops under such a chief." The Em peror reflected, and, as had been constantly the case for the last four months, he scarcely saw the prospect of realizing his hopes when he abandoned them for others, and eventually fell back upon obstacles and resignation. "Thank your general for me," he said to Excelmans' envoy, "but tell him I cannot accept his proposition. I should require the whole support of France; but everything is unsettled, and nobody cares any more about the matter! What could I do alone with a handful of soldiers against all Europe?" Thus he confessed with the sincerity of the soldier what he incessantly denied in the official language of the politician, in the face of the government, the Chambers, and the people. To these he affirmed that be alone could save all, and restore all; to Excelmans he acknowledged that he could do nothing more for the country, for the army, or for himself. He had already adopted two modes of expression; one confidential, the other for the public. He wished to appear the victim of general desertion, when he was only the sport of necessity He deceived history, but no longer deceived himself.

XX.

Meanwhile the enemy was surrounding him, and was already encamped at Compiègne, from which a detachment of cavalry

Napoleon sends Becker to Paris.

He could hear the This noise appeared

might cross the Seine and carry him off. cannon from the midst of his gardens. to reanimate him; he called for his horses and his arms, as if the resolution of dying with those who were dying in his cause so near him had at length conquered in his breast the lethargy in which he had languished for so many days. He summoned General Becker into his cabinet, and, excited by the fever which the sound of the cannon produces in the soldier's breast, he exclaimed in an accent of despair, "The enemy is at Compiègne, at Senlis! To-morrow he will be at the gates of Paris! I cannot understand the blindness of the government. He must be either a lunatic or a traitor to his country who doubts for a moment the bad faith of the foreigner. Those persons," he added, speaking of the Chambers and of the government, “know nothing of their business."

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He expected some sign of approval from General Becker, who held his tongue, however, neither wishing to accuse the Emperor of these disasters, nor to encourage him in thoughts which might still further aggravate them. The Emperor affecting to take this silence for an acquiescence in his ideas," Everything is lost—is it not?" said he to Becker. "Well, then, in this case, let them make me general: I will command the army: I will apply for the command." Then taking the first step as it were, and suddenly assuming that tone of command which forbids objection by the authority of the tone : General," said he, "you shall take my letter to the government. Depart at once-a carriage awaits you. Explain to them that my intention is not to repossess myself of power; that I only wish to fight the enemy, to crush him, to force him by a victory to grant better conditions; and that when this result is obtained, 1 shall pursue my route. Go, general; I reckon upon you" Then, as if desirous of holding out a lure to the infidelity of Becker by the perspective of high favour, the reward of his complaisance, he added as he dismissed him. any more."

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You shall not quit me