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at Malmaison, or seems to think it a question of importance to ask. On Saturday last, Count M-saw him there: he was tranquil, but quite lost. His friends now pretend that since his return from Elba he has never been the man he used to be Certain it is, that he was employed for fifteen hours a day at an average, during his three months reign; and that he owned to one of his aid-de-camps, an acquaintance of mine, who observed him several times fall asleep in his carriage when on the road to the army, that he was exhausted by continual application. There is only one opinion here as to his quitting the army, and his return to Paris; a plan which I know he was implored with tears not to follow, and which alone has been the immediate cause of his fall. It may appear presumptuous to state his real motive for such a fatal proceeding; but the one assigned by his friends is, that he wished to be himself the messenger of the ill news, and to prevent, by his presence, any strong measures which the chambers might feel inclined to take against his crown. He is known to have said, after the disasters of the Russian campaign, that he would confound the Parisians by his presence, and fall amongst them like a thunderbolt. But alas, the times are changed! there are things which succeed only because they have never been

done before, and for that reason can never be done again. However, the effect of this fifth retreat from his armies, although an act in itself of but little importance, is an entire abandonment of him and his cause, by all those who could have forgiven him a misfortune, but required that he should be the first to recover from the blow. Even in the army he has lost his best partisans; and although his name may be made the rallying word of some future discontent, he cannot be pardoned by the brave men who have seen themselves deserted at their first disaster by him. It cannot be concealed there is in the flight of Napoleon a precipitancy which nothing can excuse; and we must sigh, as Montesquieu did over the suicide of Brutus, to see the cause of liberty so easily abandoned. Had the chambers dethroned him upon receiving the news of his defeat, the despair would have been theirs, and their decree might have not been ratified by the nation in arms; but by his return he has saved them from that disgrace and danger, and has preserved their characters, whatever injury he may have done to his own. It was not to be expected that any future sacrifices should be made in the behalf of one whose conduct in this decisive instance has shown him unwilling to appreciate the value of their exertions. I am not, therefore,

surprised to be informed of that which does not appear exactly on the face of the transactions, that Napoleon was compelled to abdicate by what may be called force-that force which enabled the Chamberlain Mons to depose Christiern, by telling him that he must resign his

crown.

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I should wish to let you know what, perhaps, you may not gather from the public papers, now that all communication will necessarily be interrupted between France and England for a short time. I have seen and called on all such of my Parisian friends as are visible in this great distress, as well as on one or two English who remained at Paris during the campaign of a week. As to the first, I must say, that the families, especially the females attached to the new system, I will not call them the Napoleonists, behave with a resignation and firmness which make them in their misfortune more respectable to an English eye, than those who partake in the indecent triumph of the royalists of St. Germain and the Exchange. For the spirits of the old nobles and the funds are rising with the general depression of the glory and the hopes of the nation, although both the one and the other are somewhat kept down by the alarms of a general insurrection in the suburbs. That

the executive has need of every energy and address, you will allow, from a survey of the circumstances which have occurred since the battle.

On the arrival of the news, that the French had gained a decisive victory at Ligny sous Fleurus, although that news was conveyed in a manner which could scarcely be called official in its details, the Parisians delivered themselves to the most extravagant rejoicings; and on the 19th, Sunday, 101 cannon were fired to announce the glorious intelligence. However, no bulletin arrived on that day, a circumstance which was almost overlooked in the general joy; but which, when none appeared the following day, gave rise to a thousand surmises, and an agitation that became visible in all the places of public resort. On the morning of the 21st, it was found that no news had reached the capital during the night; but, about an hour before mid-day, an arrival at the Elysée Bourbon gave rise to a report which changed the general alarm into exultation. It was said the Empress had returned. An English lady told me, that, on receiving the news, she paid a visit to General Ornano, Napoleon's cousin, then laid up with a -wound received in a duel, and asked him if he had heard the good news. "The good news?" replied the general.. Yes, the Empress is come

VOL. II.

"back." "The Empress!" returned the other, shaking his head, and holding up a note he had just received from the palace," the Emperor, you

"mean. All is over!" In an hour the return of Napoleon had spread over the whole capital. It was known to every member of the two chambers, which assembled; the peers at half past one, and the representatives at a quarter past twelve; and after hearing the procès verbal of the former sitting, proceeded at once to the consideration of the immediate necessities of the country. After the first tumult of meeting, and of listening to the tales which every one told, had subsided, General Lafayette mounted the tribune, and delivered himself in these words.

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"Gentlemen, when, for the first time since many years, I raise a voice which the ancient "friends of liberty will even yet recognise, I "feel myself called upon to speak to you of the

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danger of our country, which you alone, at this "juncture, have the power to save. Sinister

rumours have gone abroad: unfortunately they "are all confirmed. Now, then, is the time to

rally round the old tricoloured standard, the "standard of eighty-nine; the standard of liberty, "of equality, of public order; the standard which "alone we have to defend against foreign pre"tensions, and internal treason. Permit, gentle men, a veteran in this sacred cause, who has

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