they entered the gates of the agitated city. Cau- | cy. Talleyrand and others contended against it laincourt, leaving his companions, immediately with all their might. The Abbé de Pradt deobtained a private audience with Alexander.clared that neither Bonaparte nor his family had The Emperor, though cordial, seemed not a little embarrassed. He, however, promptly announced to Caulaincourt that the whole aspect of affairs was now changed. 66 But, Sire," said Caulaincourt, "I am the bearer of the act of abdication of the Emperor Napoleon in favor of the King of Rome. Marshals Ney and Macdonald accompany me as the plenipotentiaries of his Majesty. All the formalities are prepared. Nothing now remains but the conclusion of the treaty." Your Majesty deceives yourself," Caulaincourt replied. "The Emperor has at his command, within the circle of a few leagues, eighty thousand men who demand to be led upon Paris, who will allow themselves, in defense of the Emperor, to be cut in pieces to the last man, and whose example will electrify the capital." "My dear Duke," Alexander replied, "I am truly sorry to afflict you. But you are in complete ignorance of what is going on. The Senate has declared the forfeiture of Napoleon. The commanders of corps of the army are sending in their adherence from all parts. They disguise, under pretext of submission to the mandates of the Senate, their eagerness to absolve themselves from allegiance to a sovereign who is unfortu nate. Such are mankind. At the very moment at which we speak, Fontainebleau is uncovered, and the person of Napoleon is in our power." "What say you, Sire," cried Caulaincourt, in amazement" still fresh treasons?" "The camp of Essonne is raised," Alexander deliberately added. "Marshal Marmont has sent in his adherence and that of his division of the army. The troops which compose it are in full| march into the camp of the Allies." At this intelligence Caulaincourt was struck dumb as by a thunderbolt. After a moment's pause, he bowed his neck to the storm, and sadly said, "I have no hope but in the magnanimity of your Majesty." "As long as the Emperor Napoleon," Alexander replied, “was supported by an army, he held the councils of his adversaries in check; but now, when the marshals and generals are leading away the soldiers, the question is changed. Fontainebleau is no longer an imposing military position. All the persons of note at Fontainebleau have sent in their submissions. Now judge for yourself, what could I do?" Caulaincourt raised his hand to his burning brow, so bewildered that he was unable to utter a single word. "During your absence," Alexander continued, "a discussion arose on the subject of the regen any partisans—that all France earnestly demanded the Bourbons. The adherences of the civil and military bodies are pouring in. You thus see the impossibilities which master my good wishes." "The Emperor Napoleon," exclaimed Caulaincourt, indignantly, "is betrayed, basely abandoned, delivered to the enemy by the very men who ought to have made for him a rampart of their bodies and their swords. This, Sire, is horrible, horrible!" Alexander, with an expression of bitter disdain, placing his hand confidingly on the arm of Caulaincourt, said, And add, Duke, that he is betrayed by men who owe him every thing, every thing-their fame, their fortune. What a lesson for us sovereigns! I verily believe that if we had wished to place Kutusoff upon the throne of France, they would have cried out, Vive Kutusoff! But take courage. I will be at the council before you. We will see what can be done." He then took the act of abdication, read it, and expressed much surprise that it contained no stipulations for Napoleon personally. But I have been his friend," said Alexander, “and I will still be his advocate. I will insist that he shall retain his imperial title, with the sovereignty of Elba, or some other island." As Caulaincourt was passing out of the courtyard, exasperated by grief and despair, he met the Abbé de Pradt, who, with the basest sycophancy, was hovering around the court of the Allies. The smiling ecclesiastic, complacently rubbing his hands, advanced to meet the tall, courtly, and dignified Duke, exclaiming, "I am charmed to see you." Caulaincourt fixed his eye sternly upon him, and was proudly passing by, refusing to return his salutation, when the Abbé ventured to add, with an insulting smile, "Your affairs are not going on very prosperously, Duke.” Caulaincourt could restrain his indignation no longer. He lost all self-control. Seizing the astonished and gray-headed Abbé by the collar, he exclaimed, "You are a villain, sir!" and after almost shaking his breath out of his body, twirled him around upon his heels like a top. Then, ashamed of such an instinctive ebullition of fury toward one so helpless, he contemptuously left him and went on his way. The Abbé never forgave or forgot this rude pirouette. The Bourbons administered to his wounded pride the balm of many honors. Caulaincourt immediately sought his companions, Macdonald and Ney, and proceeded to the council. But he had no heart to reveal to them the awful defection of Marmont. They found the council-chamber filled with the highest dignitaries of the various kingdoms allied against France. The Emperor of Russia was earnestly talking with the King of Prussia in the embrasure of a window. In other parts of the room were groups of English, Russian, Prussian, Aus-ings, followed this declaration, as the Allies pertrian, and Swedish diplomatists, engaged in very animated conversation. The entrance of the French commissioners interrupted the colloquy. The Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia approached a long table covered with green cloth, in the centre of the room, and sat down. Each person then took his seat at the table. The Emperor of Austria, perhaps from motives of delicacy, was not present. Lord Castlereagh, the English plenipotentiary, had not yet arrived. Caulaincourt presented, in the name of Napoleon, the act of abdication in favor of the King of Rome and of the regency of Maria Louisa. For a moment there was profound silence. Then Frederick William, the King of Prussia, remarked, "Events no longer permit the Powers to treat with the Emperor Napoleon. The wishes of France for the return of her ancient sovereigns are manifest on all sides." ceived that Macdonald was unaware how entirely Napoleon's position was uncovered. Just at that moment Marmont entered the room with his head erect and a smile upon his features. He was received with shaking of hands and congratulations. The discussion was again resumed. Pozzo di Borgo, the aid of Bernadotte, inveighed loudly against the regency. He foolishly hoped to gain for his traitorous master the throne of France.* "As long," said he, "as the name of Napoleon weighs from the throne upon the imagination of Europe, Europe will not consider itself satisfied or delivered. It will always see in the government of the son the threatening soul of the father. If he is present, nothing will restrain his genius, impatient of action and of adventures. The allied armies will have no sooner returned into their respective countries than ambition will inflame the mind of this man. Again he will Macdonald replied, "The Emperor holds the *Pozzo di Borgo was a Corsican. He was a strong crown from the French nation. He resigns it partisan of the Bourbons, and joined the English in their for the purpose of obtaining general peace. The attack upon his native island. As Napoleon adopted the Allied Sovereigns having declared that he is the emy. He took refuge in London, and joined with intense cause of popular rights, Borgo became his implacable enonly obstacle to peace, he does not hesitate to zeal those who were conspiring against the popular govsacrifice himself when the interests of his coun- ernment of France. Though a man of dissolute habits, try are concerned. But if they deny him the his elegant manners and his zeal for royalty secured for right of abdicating in favor of his son, great mis-him the familiarity and esteem of the English and Contifortunes may result therefrom. The army, entirely devoted to its chief, is still ready to shed the last drop of its blood in support of the rights of its sovereign." A smile of disdain, accompanied with whisper nental aristocracy. Entering the Russian service, he had been employed by Alexander at the court of Bernadotte. "He knew," says Lamartine, "that he flattered, in secret, the inclinations of his master, the intrigues of M. de Talleyrand, the vengeance of the court of London, and the resentment of the aristocracy of Vienna, in speak ing against the half measure of the regency." than any other, soften the bitterness of this news. For my part, I have no courage but in the presence of an enemy. I can never, never go and say coldly to him-" His voice choked with emotion, and he could say no more. There was a moment of profound silence, during which neither of the three could utter one word. Macdonald then taking the hand of Caulaincourt pressed it with affection, and said, "It is a sorrowful, a most sorrowful mission; but you alone can fulfill it to the Emperor, for you possess his entire confidence." summon to the field his country, speedily restored from its disasters, and once more it will be necessary to repeat over him those victories, so dearly purchased by the treasures and the blood of the human race. If banished far from France, his counsels will cross the sea, and his lieutenants and his ministers will seize upon the regency. To allow the Empire to survive the Emperor, this is not to extinguish the incendiary fire of Europe, but to cover it with treacherous ashes, under which will smoulder a new conflagration. Victory made Napoleon. Victory unmade him. Let the Empire fall with the man who made it." These sentiments were too obviously true to be denied. The government of Napoleon was the government of popular rights. The Allies were deluging Europe in blood to sustain aristocratic privilege. These two hostile principles of government could not live side by side. Even the genius of Napoleon, tasked to its utmost, could not reconcile them. He has drawn upon himself insane abuse, even from the sincere lovers of lib-ture? I revolted at the misery of my destiny, erty, for his humane endeavor, by a compromise, to rescue Europe from those bloody wars with which combined despots assailed the dreaded spirit of republicanism. "There are," said Talleyrand, "but two principles now at issue in the world-legitimacy and chance." By chance, he meant the suffrages of the people-popular rights. But it was not prudent to call things by their right names. 46 Legitimacy," he continued, "is a recovered right. If Europe wishes to escape revolution, she should attach herself to legitimacy. There are but two things possible in this case; either Napoleon or Louis XVIII. The Emperor Napoleon can have no other successor than a legitimate king. He is the first of soldiers. After him, there is not one man in France, or in the world, who could make ten men march in his cause. Every thing that is not Napoleon or Louis XVIII. is an intrigue." Thus contemptuously was the name of Bernadotte flung aside. Caulaincourt departed. He was so entirely absorbed in painful thought that he became quite unconscious of the lapse of time, and was struck with astonishment when the carriage entered the court-yard of Fontainebleau. For a time he was so transfixed with grief and despair, that he could not leave his seat. "Was I, then," says Caulaincourt, "destined only to approach the Emperor to give him tor which forced upon me the office of inflicting pain on him whom with my blood I would have ransomed from suffering. I sprang from the carriage, and reached the cabinet of the Emperor almost running. I know not how it happened that there was no one there to announce me. I opened the door. Sire, it is Caulaincourt,' said I, and I entered." Napoleon was seated at a window looking out upon the gardens. His pallid countenance and disordered dress indicated that he had passed the night without seeking any repose. Caulaincourt hesitated to commence his dreadful message. The Emperor broke the silence, by saying, with an evident effort to be calm, "The defection of Essonne has served as an excuse for new pretensions; is it not so? Now that I am abandoned, openly betrayed, there are other conditions. What do they now demand?" Caulaincourt deliberately narrated the scenes through which he had passed, and the demand of The defection of the camp at Essonne, which the Allies for an unconditional abdication. The was the advance-guard of the army at Fontaine-indignation of Napoleon was now roused to the bleau, placed Napoleon entirely at the mercy of highest pitch. All the gigantic force and energy the Allies. A corps of the Russian army had al- of his lofty nature burst forth like a volcano. His ready been echeloned from Paris to Essonne, and eyes flashed fire. His face glowed with an almost covered all that bank of the Seine. Napoleon was superhuman expression of intellect and of denow apparently helpless, and the Allies triumph- termination. antly demanded absolute and unconditional abdication. It was clear that Napoleon was ruined, and, even while the discussion was going on, many, anxious to escape from a falling cause, were sending in their adherence to the Allies. 'Do these arrogant conquerors suppose," he exclaimed, "that they are masters of France because treason has opened to them the gates of Paris? If a handful of vile conspirators have planned my destruction, the nation has not ratified the infamous deed. I will summon my peo The French commissioners, having received this peremptory demand for the unconditional ab-ple around me. Fools! they can not conceive dication of Napoleon, now retired in consternation to watch over the personal security of the Emperor, for he was in imminent danger of being taken captive. that a man like me only ceases to be formidable when he is laid in the tomb. To-morrow, in one hour, I will shake off the fetters with which they have bound me, and rise, more terrible than ever, at the head of one hundred and thirty thousand warriors. "Attend to my calculation, Caulaincourt. I have here around me 25,000 men of my guards. Those giants, the terror of the legions of the en emy, shall form a nucleus round which I will rally the army of Lyons, 30,000 strong. These, with Grenier's corps of 18,000, just arrived from Italy, Suchet's 15,000, and the 40,000 scattered under the command of Soult, make altogether an army of 130,000 men. I am master of all the strong places in France and Italy, though I know not, as yet, whether they contain aught but felons and traitors. I am again upon my feet," said he, raising his head proudly, "assisted by this same sword which has opened to me every capital in Europe. I am still the chief of the bravest army in the whole world-of those French battalions of which no portion has suffered a defeat. I will exhort them to the defense of their country by the principles and in the name of liberty. Above my eagles shall be inscribed, Independence and our country!' and my eagles will again be terrible. If the chiefs of the army, who owe their splendor to my conquests, wish for repose, let them retire. I will find among those who now wear worsted epaulets men fit to be generals and marshals. A road that is closed against couriers will soon open before 50,000 men." As the Emperor uttered these vehement words he strode rapidly up and down the apartment. Suddenly he stopped, and, turning to Caulaincourt, said, "Write to Ney and Macdonald to return directly. I renounce all negotiation. The Allies have rejected the personal sacrifice which I imposed upon myself for the sake of purchasing the peace and the repose of France. They have insolently refused my abdication, and I retract it. I will prepare for the conflict. My place is marked out above or below the surface of a field of battle. May the French blood which is again about to flow fall upon the wretches who wish the ruin of their country!" Caulaincourt, contemplating with pain the intense excitement into which the Emperor was plunged, and conscious of the inutility, at that moment, of attempting a calm and dispassionate discussion, bowed to the Emperor, and asked leave to retire. "We are one, Caulaincourt," said the Emperor, kindly. "Our misfortunes are great. Go and take some repose. There is, henceforth, none for me. The night will perhaps enlighten me." people were all in his favor, and they dreaded one of those bold movements which more than once had astonished Europe. Foreign troops now occupied all the avenues around Fontainebleau. Napoleon was inclosed in a vast net. At one signal two hundred thousand men could spring upon the little band which still guarded him. But the formidable name of the Emperor still kept the Allies at a respectful distance. The next day Caulaincourt again saw the Emperor, and informed him of the fearful peril in which he was placed. He endeavored to dissuade him from any attempt to extricate himself by force, representing the extreme danger of such a step to the country, the army, and himself. "Dangers!" exclaimed the Emperor; "I do not fear them! A useless life is a heavy burden. I can not long support it. But before involving others I wish to question them as to their opinion respecting this desperate resolve. If my cause, if the cause of my family, is no longer the cause of France, then I can decide. Call around me the marshals and generals who still remain. I will be guided by their opinion." The generals and the marshals, dejected and embarrassed, were soon assembled. "I have offered my abdication," said Napoleon, "but the Allies now impose upon me the abdication of my family. They wish me to depose my wife, my son, and all who belong to my family. Will you allow it? I have the means of cutting my way through the lines that surround me. I can traverse and arouse the whole of France. I can repair to the Alps, rejoin Augereau, rally Soult, recall Suchet, and, reaching Eugene in Lombardy, pass into Italy, and there found, with you, a new empire, a new throne, and new fortunes for my companions, until the voice of France shall recall us to our country. Will you follow me?" But "I listened," says Caulaincourt, "to the Emperor's noble and dignified appeal to the hearts, to the honor of his ancient lieutenants. those hearts remained cold. They opposed the interests of France; a useless civil war; and the country ravaged by invasion. But they found no word of sympathy for the frightful misfortune which fell upon the benefactor, the sovereign who during twenty years had been the glory of France." Caulaincourt, unable to repress his emotions, was about to leave the apartment. As he rose, the Emperor caught his eye and understood the movement. "Stop, Caulaincourt," said he; then, taking his seat at the table, he rapidly wrote, In unutterable anguish Caulaincourt retired to his room and threw himself upon his bed. He knew that though the Emperor might prolong the bloody struggle his situation was desperate. Already armies containing six hundred thousand foreigners covered the soil of France. Reserves which would more than double the number were "April 6, 1814. collected on the frontiers, waiting but the signal "The Allied Sovereigns having declared that to pour themselves into the doomed republican the Emperor Napoleon is the sole obstacle to the empire. Rebellion was in the heart of France. | re-establishment of a general peace in Europe, The new government welcomed all who would the Emperor Napoleon, faithful to his oath, deabandon Napoleon and give in their adhesion. clares that he renounces, for himself and his heirs, There was now a general rush of the high func- the throne of France and Italy; and that there tionaries to Paris to obtain situations under the is no personal sacrifice, not even that of life itnew dynasty. Still the Allies stood in terror of self, which he is not willing to make for the inNapoleon. They knew that the masses of the terests of France." Having placed this important paper in the | This is hideous. Now all is consummated. Leave hands of Caulaincourt, as the basis of new ne- me, my friend.” gotiations, he calmly and proudly turned to his generals, and said, "Gentlemen, I wish to be alone." When all had left but Caulaincourt, he added, "These men have neither heart nor conscience I am less conquered by fortune than by the egotism and ingratitude of my brothers in arms. Les puissances alliées ayant proclamé que l'Empereur Napoleon était le seul obstacle au retablissement de la paix en Europe, l'Empereur, fidéle à son serment, declare qu'il renonce pour lui et ses enfans, aux trónes de France et d'Italie, et qu'il n'est aucun sacrifice, même celui de la vie, qu'il ne soit prêt à faire aux intérêts de la France. 6 Avril, 1814. "I shall never," says Caulaincourt, "forget these scenes at Fontainebleau. There is nothing in history to be compared with these last convulsions of the French empire, to the torture of its chief, to the agony of its hours, its days. Never did the Emperor appear to me so truly great." The tortures of suspense being now removed, the heart of Napoleon seemed relieved of an enormous load. Allowing himself to indulge in no useless repinings, with dignity and gracefulness he submitted to his destiny. He had sufficient self-command at least to assume the aspect of cheerfulness and contentment. No reproaches escaped his lips, and he addressed all around him only in tones of benignity and kindness. The noble and dignified resignation he displayed surprised all, and won their admiration. He conversed familiarly, and as a private citizen, respecting the events of the Revolution and of the Empire, as if they had been matters of a past century, having no reference to himself. But it was not enough for the Allies that they had driven Napoleon from the throne. He was still enthroned in the hearts of the French people. It was essential to the final success of the cause of the Allies that the reputation of Napoleon should be destroyed, and that the people of France should look upon him as a selfish and merciless monster The Allies had now the control of the press of all Europe. They could deluge the nations with libels to which Napoleon could make no possible reply. The pen of Chateaubriand was dipped in mingled venom and gall for the aecomplishment of this crime. His world-renowned pamphlet on "Bonaparte and the Bourbons," was the most cold, merciless, infamous assassination of character history has recorded. There is no historian who assails Napoleon with more acrimony than Lamartine; and yet even he speaks of this atrocious work in the following fraue terms: "M. Chateaubriand, the first writer of the day, did not preserve either his genius or his conscience from the outpouring of insults and calumnies upon a great but a fallen name. He had written a severe pamphlet against the Emperor and in favor of the restoration of the VOL. IX.-No. 50.-N |