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pression was this; "Quelque chose qui arrive, je n'avancerai pas la destinée d'une heure."*

I take also this occasion of stating my firm opinion, founded on the best authority, that after his abdication he had no intention of recovering his power, and that whatever plot existed (if any did exist) to replace him, was concerted independently of him.

10. The name of General Bourmont is mentioned in page 329. To what is said of his evidence against Ney, I beg to add the following anecdote. General Bourmont having quitted Marshal Ney at Lons le Saulnier, came to Paris and asked for employment: the answer given him by Marshal Davoust, then minister at war, was, "General, you must perform quarantine." Bourmont left the marshal, not much pleased with his reception; but went to Count Labédovère, who took him to the Tuilleries, answered for him to the Emperor, and obtained for him an audience, from which he departed with a thousand protestations of his unshaken fidelity to the imperial cause.

was my

In page 316, and the following pages, I have recorded what notion of Fouché's conduct, and have mentioned also the diversity of opinion on that subject. I regret that I have left it to this place to record a singular fact respecting that minister. A personal friend and general of Napoleon's was, one day, a little before the departure of the Emperor for the army, talking to him in private, and undertook the defence of Fouché. Napoleon replied, "that he was a traitor, and that he would deprive him of his place, and arrest him." His defender took up the cause warmly on every ground, both as to the difficulty of finding a successor (for Savary would terrify even the aide-decamps), and as far as respected the outcries of the partisans of that minister, who would exclaim against Napoleon for dismissing a man who would not sign his ambitious decrees. If you are victorious," said the general, "Fouché will serve you wellif you are beaten, you must not expect that any minister of police will be of any service to your cause." Napoleon desisted from his project of dismissing Fouché-but his adviser has since changed his opinion, and one day said to me, "I am now convinced that Fouché was a traitor, from the moment he found the war inevitable. His conduct in every event subsequent upon the abdication was always double. I know not whether it was possible to save the national cause, but of this I am sure, that Fouché and Davoust thought only of saving Fouché and Davoust."

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* "Whatever event may happen, I will not promote my destiny one hour."

APPENDIX.

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APPENDIX.

NO. I.

Napoleon's Speech to the National Guard.

Soldats de la Garde Nationale de Paris!

JE suis bien-aise de vous voir. Je vous ai formés il y a quinze mois pour le maintien de la tranquillité publique dans la capitale, et pour sa sûreté. Vous avez rempli mon attente. Vous avez versé votre sang pour la défence de Paris; et si des troupes ennemis sont rentrées dans vos murs, la faute n'en est pas à vous, mais à la trahison, et surtout à la fatalité qui s'est attachée nos affaires dans ces malheureu

ses circonstances.

Le trône royale ne convenait pas à la France. Il ne donnait aucune sûreté au peuple sur ses intérêts les plus précieuses. Il nous avait été imposé par l'étranger. S'il eût existé, il eût été un monument de honte et de malheur. Je suis arrivé armé de toute la force du peuple et de l'armée, pour faire disparaître cette tache, et rendre tout leur éclat à l'honneur et à la gloire de la France.

Soldats de la Garde Nationale! Ce matin même le télégraphe de Lyon m'a appris que le drapeau tricoloré flotte à Antibes et à Marseille. Cent coups de canon, tirés sur toutes nos frontières, apprendront à l'étranger que nos dissentions civiles sont terminées; je dis les étrangers, parceque nous ne connaissons pas encore d'ennemis. S'ils rassemblent leurs troupes, nous rassemblerons les nôtres. Nos armées sont toutes composées de braves qui se sont signalés dans plusieurs batailles, et qui présenteront à l'étranger une frontière de fer; tandis que de nombreux bataillons de grenadiers et de chasseurs des gardes nationales garantiront nos frontières. Je ne me mêlerai point des affaires des autres nations: malheur aux nations qui se mêleraient des nôtres! Des revers ont retrempés le caractère du peuple Français; il a repris cette jeunesse, cette vigueur qui, il y a vingt ans, étonnait l'Europe.

Soldats! vous avez été forcés d'arborer des couleurs proscrites par la nation. Mais les couleurs nationales étaient dans vos cœurs. Vous jurez de les prendre toujours pour signe de ralliement et de défendre ce trône imperiale seule et naturelle garantie de nos droits. Vous jurez de ne jamais souffrir que des étrangers, chez lesquels nous avons paru plusieurs fois en maîtres, se mêlent de nos constitutions et de nôtre gouvernement. Vous jurez enfin de tout sacrifier à l'honneur et à l'independance de la France.

NO. II.

The following Portrait of the Bourbon Family, traced by one of the Imperial Ministry, is inserted to show what was the persuasion of a certain portion of Frenchmen, during the last reign of Napoleon. It appeared in the Independent and the Journal de l'Empire of the 23d of May; and the Reader is warned to bear in mind, not only by whom it was composed, but that it was said of a Dynasty dethroned; and was not when written, nor is now meant to be applied to the Royal family of France under the present circumstances.

LOUIS XVIII is undoubtedly superior to his brother and nephews, but this prince possesses more learning than wisdom. He is perfectly acquainted with Horace and Juvenal, though he knows nothing of administration; he is familiar with the Greeks and Romans, but an utter stranger to men of his own age. By a long residence in England, he has acquired some just notions of a representative government, without the least knowledge of the art of governing.

Louis XVIII will write an able paragraph for a Journal, the success of which in Paris will give him at his levee the greatest pleasure; but at the same time, he will allow his ministers to present, in his name, to the chamber of deputies, a report, by which the government will lose a hundred votes in one day, and which will do him serious injury in the public opinion. He will draw up a diplomatic declaration with precision and elegance, while he is incapable of obtaining or preserving any influence in foreign courts. His moderate policy, couched in well rounded periods, shall meet with every encomium, and kingdoms be disposed of without the slightest attention to his paternal remonstrances, or the smallest regard for his interests: in short, Louis XVIII such as we have seen him, might, I think, be very suitably ranked in the third class of the Institute. I perceive him to be an erudite man, a good academician, but I look in vain for the king.

Besides labouring under the incorrigible weakness of the present Bourbons, Louis XVIII is excessively headstrong on certain points; and the consequence of these two united defects in the conduct of this prince, is a fault which has been that of his whole life since the emigration; a fault which, after having exposed him among strangers, has raised him a great number of enemies in France, even among his most faithful adherents. For these last twenty-five years Louis XVIII has constantly had an avowed favourite, and this favourite he has always preferred to his friends, and even to his relations. Without being acquainted with this personage no hopes can be entertained of access to the king. An obstinate and jealous woman is not more assiduous to please her husband than this minion is to ingratiate himself with his master; which latter finds it impossible to admit any person, receive any address, or open any letter, without the presence or interposition of his chamber or cabinet minister: for a more dignified appellation cannot be given to those inferior characters to whom the king abandons himself without reserve.

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