Military Career of Napoleon the Great Part 29

"Here is a reinforcement already!" said Napoleon to Bertrand, and after spending the balance of the evening in chatting familiarly with his Guard, the march towards Paris recommenced.

Early in the morning they pa.s.sed through the town of Gra.s.se, and halted on the height beyond it. There the whole population of the place surrounded them, some cheering and many others maintaining perfect silence; but none offered any show of opposition. The peasants blessed his return; but, on viewing his little band looked upon him with pity, and entertained no hope of his ultimate success. The roads were so bad that the pieces of cannon which they had with them were abandoned in the course of the day, but they marched full twenty leagues ere they halted for the night at Seranon. "Before arriving at this stopping place," says Thiers, "the Emperor stopped a few minutes in a hut, occupied by an old woman and some cows. Whilst he warmed himself before a brushwood fire he entered into conversation with the old country-woman, who little imagined what guests she entertained beneath her humble thatch, and was asked, 'What news from Paris?' She seemed surprised at a question to which she was little accustomed, and replied very naturally that she knew of none. 'You don't know what the King is doing then?' said Napoleon.

"'The King?' answered the old woman, still more astonished, 'the King!

You mean the Emperor--he is always _yonder_.'"

This dweller in the Alpine country was wholly ignorant that Napoleon had been hurled from his throne and replaced by Louis XVIII. All present were struck with astonishment at witnessing this extraordinary ignorance. Napoleon, who was not less surprised than the others, looked at Druot and said, "Well, Druot, of what use is it to disturb the world to fill it with one's name?"

On the 5th of March the Emperor reached Gap, where he published his first proclamations,--one to the army and another to the French people.

The former said: "Soldiers! We have not been conquered. Two men, raised from our ranks, (Marmont and Augereau) have betrayed our laurels, their country, their prince, their benefactor. In my exile I have heard your voice. I have arrived once more among you, despite all obstacles, and in all perils. We ought to forget that we have been the masters of the world; but we ought never to suffer foreign interference in our affairs.

Who dares pretend to be master over us? Take again the eagles which you followed at Ulm, at Austerlitz, at Jena, at Eylau, at Friedland, at Tudela, at Eckmuhl, at Essling, at Smolensk, at Moskowa, at Lutzen, at Wurtchen, at Montmirail. Soldiers! come and range yourselves under the banners of your old chief. Victory shall march at the charging step. The eagle, with the national colors, shall fly from steeple to steeple, till it reaches the towers of Notre Dame! In your old age, surrounded and honored by your fellow-citizens, you shall be heard with respect when you recount your high deeds. You shall then say with pride, 'I also was one of that great army which entered twice within the walls of Vienna, which took Rome, and Berlin, and Madrid and Moscow, and which delivered Paris from the stain printed on it by domestic treason, and the occupation of strangers.'"

Between Mure and Vizele, Cambronne, who commanded Napoleon's advanced guard of forty grenadiers, met suddenly a battalion sent forward from Gren.o.ble to arrest the march. The colonel refused to parley with Cambronne and either party halted until the Emperor came up. Napoleon did not hesitate for a moment but dismounted and advanced alone; some paces behind him came about a hundred of his Guard, with their arms reversed. There was perfect silence on all sides until the returned Exile was within a few yards of the men. He then halted, threw open his surtout, so as to show the star of the Legion of Honor, and exclaimed, "If there be among you a soldier who desires to kill his general--his Emperor--let him do it now. Here I am!"

The old cry of "Vive l'Empereur!" burst instantly from every lip.

Napoleon threw himself among them, and taking a veteran private, covered with scars and medals, by his beard, said, "Speak honestly, old Moustache, couldst thou have had the heart to kill thy Emperor?"

The old soldier dropped his ramrod into his piece to show that it was not loaded, and answered, "Judge if I could have done thee much harm--_all the rest are the same_!" The soldiers had now broken their ranks and were surrounding the Emperor, kissing his hands and calling him their general, their Emperor, their father. The commander of the 5th battalion, thus abandoned by his soldiers, knew not what to do, when Napoleon, freeing himself from the throng stepped forward, asked his name, his grade, his services and then added: "My friend, who made you chief of battalion?" "You, Sire," "Who made you captain?" "You, Sire,"

"And would you fire on me?" "Yes" replied the brave man, "in the performance of my duty." He then gave his sword to Napoleon, who took it, pressed his hand and in a voice that clearly indicated that the weapon would be restored at that point, said, "Meet me at Gren.o.ble."

Turning to Bertrand and Druot the Emperor then said: "All is decided: within ten days we shall be in the Tuileries!"

Napoleon now gave the word, and the old adherents and the new began the march together towards Gren.o.ble. Ere they reached that town Colonel Labedoyere, an officer of n.o.ble family, and who had been promoted by Louis XVIII., appeared on the road before them at the head of his regiment, the seventh of the line. These men and the Emperor's little column, on coming within view of each other, rushed simultaneously from their ranks and embraced with mutual shouts of, "Live Napoleon! Live the Guard! Live the Seventh!"

Labedoyere now produced an eagle, which he had kept concealed about his person, and broke open a drum which was found to be filled with tri-colored c.o.c.kades. As these ancient ensigns were exhibited by the first officer of superior rank who voluntarily espoused the side of the returned Exile, renewed enthusiasm was apparent on all sides. Napoleon then questioned young Labedoyere concerning the state of Paris, and France in general. That gallant officer answered with much frankness: "Sire, the French will do everything for your Majesty; but your Majesty must do everything in return for them; no more ambition, no more despotism; we are determined to be free and happy. It is necessary, Sire, to renounce that system of conquest and power which occasioned the misfortune of France and yourself."

[Ill.u.s.tration: From a Drawing by L. Marin

DEPARTURE OF NAPOLEON FOR PARIS]

Napoleon replied, "I know that. I return to revive the glory of France, to establish the principles of the Revolution and to secure to the nation a degree of liberty which, though difficult at the commencement of my reign, is now become not only possible but necessary."

This act of Labedoyere was most decisive, for in spite of all the efforts of General Marchand, commandant at Gren.o.ble, the whole of that garrison, when he approached the walls, shouted "Vive l'Empereur!"

Though welcoming Napoleon with their voices and shaking hands with his followers through the wicket below, they would not so far disobey the governor as to throw open the gates. Neither could any argument prevail upon them to open fire on the advancing party and in the very teeth of all their batteries Napoleon calmly planted a howitzer or two and blew the gates open. Then, as if the spell of discipline was at once dissolved, the garrison broke from their lines and dragging the Emperor from his horse, bore him aloft on their shoulders towards the princ.i.p.al inn of the place, amidst the clamors of enthusiastic and delirious joy.

The inhabitants of Gren.o.ble, being unable to bring him the keys of the city, brought him with acclamations, the shattered gates instead, exclaiming: "For want of the keys of the good city of Gren.o.ble, here are the gates for you!" Next morning he reviewed his troops, now amounting to about 7,000, and on the 9th recommenced his march.

On the 10th of March Napoleon came within sight of Lyons and was informed that Marshal Macdonald had arrived to take the command, had barricaded the bridge of Guillotierre, and posted himself at the head of a large force to dispute the entrance of the town. Nothing daunted with this intelligence, the column moved on, and at the bridge of Lyons, as at the gates of Gren.o.ble, all opposition vanished when the person of the Emperor was recognized by the soldiery. Macdonald was forced to retire and Napoleon entered the second city of France in triumph. Macdonald would have been taken prisoner by his own troops, had not some of them, more honorable than the rest, insisted on his escape being un.o.bstructed.

He thereupon returned to Paris where he once more hoped to make a stand.

A guard of mounted citizens who had been formed to attend on the person of Count d'Artois, the heir of the Empire, and who had accompanied Macdonald, were the foremost to offer their services to the Emperor after he reached the hotel; but he rejected their a.s.sistance and dismissed them with contempt. Finding that one of their number had followed the Prince until his person was out of all danger, Napoleon immediately sent to that individual the cross of the Legion of Honor.

Meanwhile, during the week that the Emperor had continued his march Parisward without opposition, the newspapers of the capital were silent, and none ventured to make any allusion whatever to his successes. There then appeared a royal decree, proclaiming Napoleon Bonaparte "an outlaw," and convoking, on the instant, the two Chambers. Next day the "Moniteur" announced that, surrounded on all hands by faithful garrisons and a loyal population, this "outlaw and invader" was already stripped of most of his followers, was wandering in despair among the hills, and certain to be a prisoner within two or three days at the utmost! Louis received many addresses full of loyalty and devotion from the public bodies of Paris, from towns and departments, and, above all, from the marshals, generals and regiments who happened to be near the capital. The partisans of Napoleon at Paris, however, were far more active than the royalists. They gave out everywhere that, as the proclamation addressed "To the French people" from Gap had stated, Napoleon came back thoroughly cured of that ambition which had armed Europe against his throne; that he considered his act of abdication void, because the Bourbons had not accepted the crown on the terms which it was offered, and had used their authority in a spirit, and for purposes at variance with the feelings and the interests of the French people; that he was come to be no longer the dictator of a military despotism, but the first citizen of a nation which he had resolved to make the freest of the free; that the royal government wished to extinguish by degrees all memory of the Revolution; that he was returning to consecrate once more the principles of liberty and equality, ever hateful to the eyes of the old n.o.bility of France, and to secure the proprietors of forfeited estates against all machinations of that dominant faction;--in a word, that he was fully sensible of the extent of his past errors, both of domestic administration and of military ambition, and desirous of nothing but the opportunity of devoting, to the true welfare of peaceful France, those unrivalled talents and energies which he had been rash enough to abuse in former days.

Napoleon's friends declared, too, and with much show of authority, that the army was, high and low, on the side of the Emperor; that every detachment sent to intercept him would but swell his force so that nothing could prevent him from taking possession of the Tuileries ere a fortnight more had pa.s.sed over the head of the Bourbon King.

Napoleon remained at Lyons from the 10th to the 13th of March. Here he formally resumed the functions of civil government, published various decrees, one of which commanded that justice be administered everywhere in his name after the 15th, another abolis.h.i.+ng the Chambers of the Peers and the Deputies and summoning all the electoral colleges to meet in Paris to witness the coronation of Marie Louise and her son, and settle definitively the const.i.tution of the State; a third, ordering into banishment all those whose names had not been erased from the list of emigrants prior to the abdication of Fontainebleau; a fourth, depriving all strangers and emigrants of their commissions in the army; a fifth, abolis.h.i.+ng the order of St. Louis, and bestowing all its revenues on the Legion of Honor; and a sixth restoring to their authority all magistrates who had been displaced by the Bourbon government.

These publications soon reached Paris and caused much alarm among the adherents of the King.

Marshal Ney now received orders from the Minister of War to take command of a large body of troops whose fidelity was considered sure, and who were about to be sent to Lons-le-Saunier, to intercept and arrest the returning Exile before he could make further progress. Ney immediately rode to Paris from his retired country-seat and there, for the first time, learned of the disembarkation of Napoleon from Elba. He is even said to have declared that he would bring his former chief to Paris in a cage, like a wild beast, in the course of a week. On reaching Lons-le-Saunier he received a letter from Napoleon reminding him of their former campaigns and summoning him to join his standard as the "bravest of the brave." Ney had a secret interview with a courier who brought this letter, with one from Bertrand. Generals Lecourbe and Bourmont, by whom the marshal was attended, advised him not to oppose a torrent which was too powerful for any resistance he could bring against it. While in this state of doubt and indecision, sorely perplexed as to his exact duty, he received intelligence that his vanguard, posted at Bourg, had gone over to Napoleon, and that the inhabitants of Chalons-sur-Saone had seized the park of artillery. All this confirming what Ney had just been told by the courier, he exclaimed, "It is impossible for me to stop the incoming water of the ocean with the palm of my hand!" Accordingly, on the following morning, he published an order of the day, declaring that "the cause of the Bourbons was lost forever, and that the legitimate dynasty which the French nation had adopted was about to reascend the throne." This order was read to the troops and was received by them with rapture; some of the officers, however, remonstrated and left their command. One, before he went away, broke his sword in two, and threw the pieces at Ney's feet, saying, "It is easier for a man of honor to break iron than to infringe his word."

Ney put his soldiery in motion forthwith, and joined the march of the Emperor on the 17th of March at Auxerre, being received by Napoleon with open arms. Ney avowed later that he had chosen the part of Napoleon long ere he pledged his oath to Louis, adding that the greater number of the marshals were, like himself, original members of the Elban conspiracy to again place him on the throne.

In and about the capital there still remained troops sufficient in numbers to overwhelm the advancing column, and Louis intrusted the command of these battalions to Marshal Macdonald, who proceeded to establish himself at Melun with the King's army, in the hopes of being supported by his soldiers in the discharge of his commission.

On the 19th Napoleon slept once more in the chateau of Fontainebleau, and on the morning of the 20th he advanced through the forest, alone, and with the full knowledge of Macdonald's arrangements. About noon the marshal's troops, who had been for some time under arms on an eminence beyond the wood, perceived suddenly a single open carriage coming at full speed towards them from among the trees. A handful of Polish hors.e.m.e.n, with their lances reversed, followed the equipage. The little flat c.o.c.ked hat; the gray surtout; then the person of Napoleon was recognized. In an instant the men burst from their ranks, surrounded him with the cries of "Vive l'Empereur!" and trampled their white c.o.c.kades in the dust. Macdonald escaped to Paris but Louis had not awaited his last stand. He had set off from the Tuileries in the middle of the preceding night, amidst the tears and lamentations of several courtiers, taking the road to Lisle. McDonald soon overtook and accompanied him to the frontier of the Netherlands, which he reached in safety.

Napoleon once more entered Paris on the evening of the 20th of March. He came preceded and followed by the soldiery on horseback, and on whom alone he had relied. At the Tuileries he was received with every possible demonstration of joy and was almost stifled by the pressure of those enthusiastic adherents who, the moment he stopped in the court-yard of the palace, mounted him on their shoulders and carried him in triumph up the great staircase of the palace. The Emperor, during this dramatic proceeding, continued to exclaim, "Be steady my good children; be steady I entreat you." A piece of his coat being either purposely or by accident torn off, was instantly divided into hundreds of sc.r.a.ps, for the procurement of each remnant of which, by way of relic, there was as much struggling as if the effort had been made to become possessed of so many ingots of gold. He found in the apartments, which the King had but lately vacated, a brilliant a.s.semblage of those who had in former times filled the most prominent places in his own councils and court.

"Gentlemen," said Napoleon, as he walked round the circle, "it is disinterested people who have brought me back to my capital. It is the subalterns and the soldiers that have done it all. I owe everything to the people and the army."

All night long the cannon of Marengo and Austerlitz pealed forth their joyous sounds, the city was brilliantly illuminated, and all except the Bourbons, who, as Thiers happily says, "during twenty-five years had neither learned or forgotten anything," were rejoicing at the return of the Exile. Napoleon had now proved that he was not only Emperor of the army but of the citizens, the people, the peasantry, and the ma.s.ses.

With a handful of men he had marched from one end of the kingdom to the other, entered the capital and taken possession of the throne, and that without shedding even one drop of blood!

He a.s.signed, among other reasons for leaving Elba, that in addition to the violation of the treaty of Fontainebleau in failing to pay his pension, that his wife and child had been seized, detained, and never permitted to join him; that the pensions to his mother and brothers were alike refused, and that a.s.sa.s.sins had been sent over to Elba, for the express purpose of murdering him. This last charge has also been made by Savary with much positiveness. "Last year," said Napoleon, "it was said that I recalled the Bourbons; this year they recall me; so we are equal!"

Previous to the morning of the 20th of March the nights had been rainy and the days sombre and cloudy; but on this morning, the anniversary of the birth of the young King of Rome, the day was ushered in by a brilliant sun and which produced a strong effect on the populace who again referred in their acclamations to the "sun of Napoleon" as they had that of Austerlitz, ten years before. On the following day the whole population of the capital directed their steps towards the Tuileries and repeated anon and anon their pleasure at the return of the Emperor who had, between the 1st and the 20th of March, fulfilled that strange prophecy in which he said, victory would march at the charging step, and that the imperial eagle would fly, without pause, from steeple to steeple, to the towers of Notre Dame, even to the dome of the Palace of the Tuileries!

XVI

THE HUNDRED DAYS. WATERLOO.

The instant that news of Napoleon's daring movement reached Vienna, the Congress, although on the point of dissolution, published a proclamation in which it was said: "By breaking the Convention which had established him in Elba, Bonaparte destroyed the only legal t.i.tle 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 laws, and has manifested to the universe that there can be neither peace or truce with him. The powers consequently declare, that Napoleon Bonaparte has placed himself without the pale of civil and social relations, and that as an enemy and disturber of the tranquility of the world, he has rendered himself liable to public vengeance."

All Europe was now prepared once more for war. A formal treaty was entered into by which the four great powers, England, Austria, Russia and Prussia, bound themselves to maintain, each of them, at least 150,000 troops in arms until Napoleon should either be dethroned, or reduced so low as no longer to endanger the peace of Europe. The other states of the Continent were to be invited to join the alliance, furnis.h.i.+ng contingents adequate to their respective resources.

It was stipulated that in case England should not furnish all the men agreed upon she would compensate by paying at the rate of $150 per annum for every cavalry soldier, and $100 for every foot soldier under the full number.

On the day following his return from Elba, Napoleon reviewed all the troops in Paris, and addressed them in one of those stirring and eloquent speeches which had never failed to excite their enthusiasm. In beginning his address, he said: "Soldiers, I am returned to France with twelve hundred men, because I relied upon the love of the people, and the remembrance of me with the veteran troops. I have not been deceived in my expectations; I thank you, soldiers. The glory of all that is achieved is due to the people and yourselves. My only merit consists in having justly appreciated you."

Cries of "Vive l'Empereur!" filled the air and were redoubled when General Cambronne entered at the head of the officers of the battalion of the Guard, which had accompanied him to and from Elba, and carrying the imperial eagles. On observing the ancient emblems, Napoleon exclaimed, "Behold the officers of the battalion who accompanied me in the hour of misfortune! They are all my friends; they are dear to my heart; whenever I beheld them, they presented to my view the different regiments composing the army; for, in the number of these six hundred brave men, there are individuals of every corps. In loving them, it is all of you, soldiers of the whole army, that I loved. They come to restore you those eagles; let them prove to you the rallying point!

Swear that they shall be found everywhere, when the interests of the country shall require them; that the traitors, and those who would subjugate our territory, may never be able to support their view." "We swear!" came the vociferous replies of the soldiers to the strains of the band playing: "Let us watch over the safety of the Empire."

Among the peals that rent the air, those of the working cla.s.s were particularly audible, their incessant cries being couched in these terms: "The Great Contractor is returned; we shall now eat bread!"

Napoleon was hardly reseated on his throne ere he learned that he must in all likelihood defend himself against 225,000 Russians, 300,000 Austrians, 236,000 Prussians, an army of 150,000 men furnished by the minor States of Germany, 50,000 contributed by the government of the Netherlands, and 50,000 English, commanded by the Duke of Wellington; in all 1,100,000 soldiers! From the moment he re-established himself in the Tuileries, he began that period of his government, which has been designated the "Hundred Days," in order to meet this gigantic confederation. Carnot became once more Minister of War, and showed the same energy he had manifested during the Consulate. Napoleon had the nation with him at that moment, notwithstanding the proclamations of Louis XVIII.,--which had found their way into the capital,--announced the speedy arrival of a million foreign soldiers under the walls of Paris to replace him on his throne and drive away the "usurper."

The d.u.c.h.ess d'Angouleme was the last of the royal family who remained in France. She had thrown herself into Bordeaux, trusting to the friendly feeling of the mayor and citizens. She made strong efforts to maintain the Bourbon cause, and behaved with so much spirit as to make Napoleon pa.s.s an eulogium on her as "the only man of her family." But her efforts failed.

The effective force of the army in France, when Napoleon landed at Cannes, consisted of but about 93,000 men. The cavalry had been greatly reduced, and the disasters of 1812, 1813 and 1814 were still visible in the deficiency of military stores, and arms,--especially of artillery.

By almost incredible exertions, although now unable to adopt the old method of conscription, by the middle of May the Emperor had over 375,000 men in arms,--including an Imperial Guard of 40,000 chosen veterans,--all in a splendid state of equipment and discipline; a large and brilliant force of cavalry, and a train of artillery of proportional extent and excellence. He had labored unremittingly to raise the military strength of France to a height sufficient once more to repel the attack of all Europe, and was employed fifteen or sixteen hours a day during the whole of this period. Men, clothing, arms, horses, and discipline were wanting.

All the veterans were now recalled to the ranks. They came in crowds, leaving the employments to which they had applied themselves to the number of one hundred thousand men. All the officers on half pay were also summoned to action.

Napoleon made several attempts to open a negotiation with the Allies, and urged three arguments in defense of his "breach of the Convention"

by which he had become sovereign of Elba: 1st, the detention of his wife and son by the Court of Austria: 2d, the non-payment of his pension, and 3d, the voice of the French nation which he had heard and obeyed, as evidenced by the fact that by the end of March the tri-colored flag was displayed on every tower in France.