13. At length, at one in the morning, the Emperor appeared, and received him in the kindest manner; but gave no hopes of any modification of the resolution of the sovereigns. The utmost that he could get him to promise was, that on the day following, at the council, he would revert to the question of a regency; intimating, at the same time, that any further hope was inadmissible. At four the Emperor retired to rest; he reposed in the bed in which Napoleon formerly slept: Caulaincourt threw himself, in the antechamber, on a sofa on which that great man had in old times worked with his secretaries during the day. Unable to sleep, from the recollections with which he was distracted, he arose, and rested for some hours in an arm-chair: when daylight dawned in the morning, he found that it was the very chair on which Napoleon had usually sat, and which bore in all parts the deep indentations of his penknife [ante, Chap. LXXVIII. § 52]. The decision of the sovereigns was, at eleven, announced by Alexander in these words "Return to the Emperor Napoleon; tell him faithfully all that has passed here, and as soon as possible come back with an abdication in favour of his son. The Emperor Napoleon shall be suitably treated, I give you my word of honour." 14. Caulaincourt arrived with this intelligence at Fontainebleau late on the night of the 2d April. Napoleon at once refused, in the most peremptory terms, to abdicate in favour of his son, and treated as altogether chimerical the idea of restoring the Bourbons in France; alleging that they were obnoxious to nine-tenths of the nation. "Re-establish the Bourbons in France! The madmen! They would not be there a year: they are an object of antipathy to nine-tenths of the nation. And how would the army, whose chiefs have combated the Emigrants-how would they bear the change? No, no; my soldiers will never be theirs: it is the height of folly to think of founding an empire of such heterogeneous materials as theirs of necessity would be composed of. Can it ever be forgotten that they have lived twenty years on the charity of the stranger, at open war with the principles and interests of France? The Bourbons in France ! it is absolute madness, and will bring down on the country a host of calamities. I was a new man, free of the blood which had stained the Revolution: I had nothing to avenge, everything to reconstruct; but even I would never have ventured to seat myself on the vacant throne, had not my forehead been crowned with laurels. The French nation have raised me on their bucklers, only because I have executed great and glorious deeds for it. But the Bourbons-what have they done for France? What part can they claim in its conquests, its glory, its prosperity. Re-established by the stranger, they must yield everything to their masters; they must bend the knee to them at every turn. They may take advantage of the stupor occasioned by the occupation of the capital to proscribe me and my family; but to make the Bourbons reign in France !-never!" 15. Full of the project of resuming hostilities, he mounted on horseback early on the morning of the 3d, and traversed the advanced posts along the whole line. The soldiers, despite their disasters, were full of enthusiasm, and demanded, with loud cries, to be led back to Paris;* and the young generals, who had their fortunes to make, shared the general ardour. But it was not thus with the old generals, or those whose fortunes were made. They surrounded Caulaincourt, eagerly demanding what had been done at Paris; listened with undisguised complacency to his account of the first proceedings of the senate; and it was evident, from * "Soldiers!" said he, "the enemy has gained some marches upon us, and outstripped us at Paris. Some factious men, the emigrants whom I have pardoned, have mounted the white cockade, and surrounded the Emperor Alexander, and they would compel us to wear it. Since the Revolution, France has always been mistress of herself. in its ancient limits, but they would not acI offered peace to the Allies, leaving Franca cept it. In a few days I will attack the enemy; I will force him to quit our capital. I rely on you-am I right? (Yes, yes.) Our cockade is tricolor, before abandoning it we will all perish on the soil of France. (Hur ralı! yes, yes!)"-CAPEFIGUE, X. 496. their doubts and hesitation, either that was so rapid as almost to outstrip imathey regarded the cause of the Revolu- gination. During the night of the 4th, tion as hopeless, or that they had pro- intelligence arrived of the adhesion of fited so much by its excesses that they Marmont to the provisional governwere disposed to risk nothing more in ment, and the entrance of his corps its defence. The marshals were nearly d'armée within the allied lines. At inanimous on the subject; Ney in par- this news the indignation of the Emicular was peculiarly vehement upon peror knew no bounds, and its vehethe impossibility of further maintaining mence found vent in an order of the the contest, and the absurdity of their day next morning. "The Emperor," sacrificing everything for one man.* *said he, "thanks the army for the atOrders were, nevertheless, given over tachment which it has manifested tonigat for the troops to prepare for a wards him, and chiefly because it has forvard movement; and measures were recognised the great principle that adopted for transferring the headquar- France is to be found in him, and not ters next day to Essone, on the road in the people of the capital. The solto Paris. But, during the night, news dier follows the fortune and the misarrived of the dethronement of the Em- fortune of his general; his honour is peror by the senate. It spread imme- his religion. The Duke of Ragusa has diately through the army, and produced not inspired his companions in arms a great impression, especially on the with that sentiment: he has passed marshals and older generals. The or- over to the Allies. The Emperor canders to advance to Paris were not re- not approve the condition on which he called, but it was evident that they has taken that step; he cannot accept were not to be obeyed. At noon a life and liberty from the mercy of a conference of the Emperor with Ber- subject. The senate has allowed itself thier, Ney, Lefebvre, Oudinot, Mac- to dispose of the government of France; donald, Maret, Caulaincourt, and Ber- it forgets that it owes to the Emperor trand, took place, at the close of which the power which it has now abusedNapoleon signed his abdication in fa- that it was he who saved a part of its vour of his son, and of the Empress as members from the storms of the Reregent. Macdonald and Ney were forth-volution, drew it from obscurity, and with despatched with Caulaincourt to present this conditional abdication to the allied sovereigns.+ 16. While the three plenipotentiaries of Napoleon were on their way to Paris, the march of events at Fontainebleau Moscow. protected it against the hatred of the nation. The senate founds on the articles of the constitution to overturn it, without adverting to the fact that, as the first branch of the state, it took part in those very acts. A sign from me was an order for the senate, which Ney, in an especial manner, made always did more than was desired of it. himself remarkable by the vehemence of bis expressions, as he had always done since The senate does not blush to speak of 'Are we,' said he, to sacrifice the libels the Emperor has published everything to one man? Fortune, rank, against foreign nations; it forgets that honours, life itself? It is time to think a they were drawn up by itself. As long litte of ourselves, our families, and our interists.' Caulaincourt warmly supported as fortune was faithful to their sovethe plan of a regency, thinking that it was reign, these men were faithful, and not all that could be done for Napoleon."-CAPE- a whisper was heard against the abuse t The allied powers having proclaimed that the Emperor Napoleon is the sole obstacle to the re-establishment of peace in Europe, the Emperor Napoleon, faithful to his oath, declares that he is ready to descend from the throne, to quit France, and even ife itself, for the good of the country, which is inseparable from the rights of his son, of the regency of the Empress, and of the maintenance of the laws of the empire." -Pontrinebleau, April 4, 1814; Fain, 221. FIGUE, X. 492. of power. If the Emperor despised them, as they now reproach him with having done, the world will see whether or not he had reasons for his opinion. He held his dignity from God and the nation; they alone could deprive him of it. He always considered it as a burden; and when he accepted it, it was in the conviction that he alone was able to bear its weight. The happiness of France appeared to be indissolubly bound up with the fortunes of the Emperor: now that fortune has decided against him, the will of the nation alone can persuade him to remain on the throne. If he is really the only obstacle to peace, he willingly gives himself up a sacrifice to France." themselves to the utmost in the Emperor's behalf, but it was in vain; and Alexander announced the final decision in the mournful words- "It is too late." Ney was more flexible: feeble and irresolute in political life, as much as he was bold and undaunted in the field of battle, he was easily gained over to the party of Talleyrand; and next morning his formal adhesion to the provisional government appeared in the columns of the Moniteur.† 18. In truth, during the four days which had elapsed since the first declaration of the Allies that they would not treat with Napoleon or any of his family, the cause of the Bourbons had been gained. The voice in their favour, which at first had emanated merely from the enthusiastic lips of a few devoted adherents, whose fidelity had survived all the storms of the Revolution, had now swelled into a mighty shout, so as to include not only the whole influential bodies, but nearly all the population of the capital. It was neither any chivalrous feeling of loyalty, nor any abstract repentance for the crimes of the Revolution, which pro 17. When Caulaincourt and Macdonald arrived at Paris, however, they found that matters had proceeded too far to render the proposition of a regency admissible. In fact, though the Emperor Alexander secretly inclined to that course, and Austria, as might have been expected, was ready to support it, yet the declaration against Napoleon, and the manifestations in favour of the Bourbons, had been so vehement and unanimous from all incorporated bodies and all classes of society, that to establish the family of Napoleon now on the throne, would appear to be doing a violence to the national will. Nor did it escape observation, that the recognition of Marie Louise as regent, and the young Napoleon as heir, would in fact be a continuation of the revolutionary regime, attended with its pas-duced this vehement desire. Selfishsions, its ambition, and its dangers; and that the exclusion of Napoleon personally would be but nominal, as long as his family sat upon the throne, and the imperial authorities continued the government.* Influenced by these considerations, the allied powers unanimously agreed that the sentence of dethronement pronounced by the senate could not be disturbed, and that they must adhere faithfully to their declaration, that they would not negotiate with Napoleon or any of his family. Caulaincourt and Macdonald exerted "A regency with the Empress and her son," said the Emperor Alexander," sounds well, I admit; but Napoleon remains-there is the difficulty. In vain will he promise to remain quiet in the retreat which will be assigned to him. You know even better than I his devouring activity, his ambition. Some fine morning he will put himself at the head of the regency, or in its place; then the war will recommence, and all Europe will be on fire. The very dread of such an occurrence will oblige the Allies to keep their armies on foot, and thus frustrate all their intentions in making peace."-THIBAUDEAU, x. 15. ness was at the bottom of the public feeling. Deliverance from evil was the feeling of the multitude-preservation of their fortunes, the passion with the great. Even on the first day of the Allies' arrival, a crowd of persons, fly. ing with characteristic vehemence frora one extreme to another, had grossly insulted the busts and monuments of Duke of Vicenza and the Duke of Tarentum, "Yesterday I came to Paris with the furnished with full powers from the Emperor Napoleon to defend the interests of his dynasty on the throne. An unforeseen event having broken off the negotiations when they promised the happiest results, I saw that, to avoid a civil war to our beloved country, no course remained but to embrace the cause of our ancient kings; and, penetrated with this sentiment, I repaired that evening to the Emperor Napofeon to declare to him the wish of the French nation. The Emperor, aware of the critical situation to which he has reluced France, and of the impossibility of his saving it himself, appeared to resign himself to his fate, and has consented to an absolute resig nation, without any restriction. LE MARECHAL NEY."-Fontainebleau, 5th April 1814, half-past eleven at night; Moniteur, April 7. monuments of the late Emperor, that Alexander, to prevent their total destruction, was obliged to issue a decree,* taking them, and in an especial manner the pillar in the Place Vendôme, under his peculiar protection. 19. Such was the impulse communi. the Emperor, and a rope was slung up | to his statue on the pillar in the Place Vendôme, with which they strove to pull it down. But the solidity of the fabric resisted all their efforts. When they could not succeed in throwing it down, the mob next covered the statue with a white sheet, so as to with-cated to the public funds by the prodraw it from the view. "They did spect of a termination of the war, that well," said Napoleon, "to conceal from the five per cents, which on the 30th me the sight of their baseness." The March were at forty-five, had risen in Royalists were too few to effect any- the next five days twenty-five per cent, thing in the work of demolition; it so as to be quoted on the 5th April at was the constituted authorities, all the seventy. Universal transports, similar creatures of Napoleon, who succeeded to those which prevailed in England at at last by the aid of scaffolding in get- the Restoration, seized upon the public ting it down. By a decree of the mind; it was like the joy of a shipsenate on 5th April, all the emblems wrecked mariner when he first beholds and initials belonging to the im- a friendly sail in the desolate main. perial dynasty were ordered to be ef- In the midst of the general rapture, faced from the public edifices and Chateaubriand's celebrated pamphlet, monuments in Paris; workmen were "De Buonaparte et des Bourbons," immediately engaged to carry this de-appeared; and contributed, in the most cree into execution, and their ingenuity powerful manner, to give a practical generally contrived to turn the N into direction to general feeling, by pointan H, for Henri IV., as quickly as the ing out with fervent, though exagger nation turned from the imperial to the ated eloquence, the origin of the public royal dynasty. So great was the vio- evils, and the only mode of escape which lence of public feeling against the yet remained open from these. Whatwith Malesherbes, shortly before the fall of Robespierre. Obliged now to fly to England, he lived for some years in London, in extreme want, sometimes unable to procure even a single meal a-day. It was there he wrote his first and least creditable work, the Essai Historique, which is strongly tinctured with the revolutionary principles in religion and politics then so prevalent in France. Tired of such an obscure and monotonous life, he set out for America in 1798, with the Quixotic design of discovering by land the north-west passage. He failed in that attempt, for which indeed he had not any adequate means; but he dined with Washington, and in the solitude of the Far West imbibed several of the noblest ideas, and found the subjects of many of the finest descriptions which have since adorned his works. Finding that there was nothing to be done in the way of discovery in America, he returned to England; from whence, on the amnesty proclaimed by Napoleon in 1800, he went over to Paris. He there composed his greatest works, Atala et Réné, and the Génie du Christianisme, which soon gained for him a colossal reputation, and attracted the notice of Napoleon, who gave him a diplomatic situation first at Rome, and afterwards in the Republic of the Valais. ⚫ "The monument on the Place Vendôme is under the especial safeguard of the magnanimity of the Emperor Alexander and his allies. The statue on its summit will not remain there; it will immediately be taken down and give place to one of Peace."-Prodamation, 7th April 1814; Moniteur. François René de Chateaubriand was born on the 4th September 1768, the same year as Napoleon, in an old melancholy chateau on the coast of Brittany, washed by the waves of the Atlantic Ocean. His mother, like that of almost all other remarkable men recorded in history, was a very remarkable woman, gifted with a prodigious memory and an ardent imagination; qualities which she transmitted in a very high degree to her son. His family was very ancient, going back to the year 1000; but till illustrated by François René, who has rendered it immortal, the Chateaubriands lived in unobtrusive privacy on their paternal acres. After receiving the elements of education at home, he was sent at the age of seventeen into the army: but the Revolution having soon after broken out, and his regiment revolted, he resigned his commission and came to Paris, where he witnessed the storming of the Tuileries on the 10th August 1792, and the massacres in the prisons on the 2d September. Many of his nearest relations, in particular his sister-in-law, Madame de Chateaubriand, and sister, Madame de Rozambeau, were executed, along The murder of the Duke d'Enghien in 1804, however, so deeply affected Chateaubriand, that he instantly threw up his appointment to the Valais: a courageous and ever might be said of the violence of | let, the production of a liberal writer, was sung and rapturously encored, which savoured rather of the servility of Oriental despotism than of a nation which had so strenuously contended for liberty and equality.* this production, of which thirty thousand copies were sold in a few days, no reproach could be cast upon the consistency of the author; for he had refused office under Napoleon on the death of the Duke d'Enghien, and braved his resentment in the plenitude of his power [ante, Chap. XXXVIII. 25]. When Alexander and the King of Prussia appeared at the opera, on the 3d April, thunders of applause shook that splendid edifice. Every allusion to passing events was seized with avidity and encored with rapture. The Buonapartists, from the senate downwards, were foremost in adulation of the foreigners, and flattery of the exiled princes; they fêted them in their palaces, applauded them at the theatres, and exhausted all the flowers of rhetoric in their praise, in the press. The splendid melodrama, the "Triumph of Trajan," was brought forth with unequalled magnificence, and had a run of unprecedented success; and a couphighly honourable step, which for some days exposed his life to the most imminent danger. Having happily escaped without being shot, he travelled to the East, and visited Athens, Constantinople, Jerusalem, and Egypt. These travels furnished subjects for two very charming works, the Itinéraire à Jerusalem, and Les Martyrs, the scene of which latter romance is laid on the banks of the Nile. He afterwards returned to France, but did not reappear in public life till the approach of the Allies to Paris, when he composed in a few days, and published his celebrated pamphlet, De Buonaparte et des Bourbons, which had a powerful effect in bringing about the Restoration. That event opened to him the career of political life, and in a great degree closed his literary career. The usual jealousies of courts, however, at real genius, long prevented him from being placed in the situations for which he was fitted. He was first appointed ambassador at Stockholm, to which, however, he never went, in consequence of the return of Napoleon, and flight of Louis to Ghent, whither he was accompanied by Chateaubriand, who obtained the situation of Minister of the Interior; in which, during the exile of the royal family, he rendered very important services to the royal cause. So great had his ascendancy now become, that it was only from the overpowering influence of Talleyrand and Fouché, and the phalanx of baseness with which the fugitive monarch was surrounded on his second restoration, that he was prevented from making him prime min He retired from the ministry on their appointment in July 1815, and was sent as ister 20. When the plenipotentiaries of Napoleon returned to Fontainebleau with this decided refusal, he burst out into a violent explosion of passion; declared that it was too much; that he would put himself at the head of his armies, and rather run the hazard of any calamities than submit to a humiliation worse than them all. He called for his generals and maps, talked of retiring to the Loire, and spoke of the resources which still remained to him in the armies of Soult and Suchet. "I have," said he to Caulaincourt, "twenty-five thousand of the Guards and cuirassiers at Fontainebleau— those giants who are the terror of all Europe: on them I will rally thirty thousand men from Lyons, eighteen thousand under Grenier from Italy, ambassador to Berlin, and afterwards in the same capacity to London in 1822. He afterwards was one of the plenipotentiaries of France at the Congress of Verona, and had the entire merit of the successful expedition of the Duke d'Angoulême into Spain in 1823. Jealousy, however, again led to his overthrow; he was dismissed from the ministry which he had so ably and successfully served, and was not again restored to power. He was too liberal a man to be employed by Charles X.; but he exhibited an honourable constancy to misfortune on the Revolution of the Barricades in June 1830. Pressed by Louis Philippe to accept the portfolio of foreign affairs, he refused the offer, and retired to Rome, from whence he returned and was imprisoned for a short time by the government of Paris on occasion of one of the disturbances in Paris in 1832. The remainder of his life was passed in retirement, engaged in literary pursuits, and in the composition of the interesting memoirs of his eventful life, which have been published since his death in ten volumes. During this period, also, he wrote his Etudes Historiques in four volumes. He died in July 1848, in his eightieth year.See Mémoires d'Outre Tombe, par M. DE CHATEAUBRIAND. 10 vols. Paris: 1849-50. *The following couplets were added to the air of Henry IV., and sung at all the theatres amidst unbounded applause :- "Vive Alexandre. Vive le Roi des Rois; Et ses guerriers vaillants; Il sauve les enfants, Et nous donne la paix ; Par ses nombreus bienfaite. |