rule of our conduct, and we found in the chamber of peers, and of deputies, all the necessary aid to assist us in the maintenance of the national glory and prosperity; the love of our people was the sweetest reward of our labours, and the best pledge of their success. It is this love to which we confidently appeal against the enemy who defiles the French territory, and who wishes there to renew civil war. It is against him that all opinions must rally. All who sincerely love the country, all who feel the value of a paternal government and of liberty, guaranteed by laws, must have only one thought-that of destroying the oppressor, who would have neither country, nor government, nor liberty all Frenchmen, equal by the constitution, shall be so also in its defence; it is to them all we address the appeal which must save all. The moment is arrived for giving a great example: we expect it from the energy of a free and brave nation; it shall always find us ready to direct it in this enterprise, which involves the safety of France. Measures have been taken to stop the enemy between Lyons and Paris. Our means will suffice, if the nation oppose to him the invincible obstacle of devotedness and courage; France will not be vanquished in this contest of liberty against tyranny of fidelity against treason; of Louis XVIII. against Bonaparte.

Proclamation to the Armies. «Louis, by the grace of God, King of France and Navarre :

"To our brave armies, greeting!-Brave soldiers, the glory and force of our kingdom! it is in the name of honor that your king orders you to be faithful to your colours; you have sworn fidelity to him; you will not perjure yourselves. A general whom you would have defended to the latest moment, if he had not released you by a formal abdication, restored to you your legitimate sovereign. Confounded in the great family of which he is the father, and among which you will distinguish yourselves only by more illustrious services, you are become my children. You are deeply rooted in my affections. I associated myself in the glory of your triumphs, even when they were not obtained in my cause. Called to the throne of my ancestors, I congratulated myself on seeing it supported by that brave army, so worthy to defend it. Soldiers! I invoke your love,-I claim your fidelity. Your forefathers once rallied round the plume of the great Henry; it is his lineal descendant that I have placed at your head. Follow him faithfully in the path of honor and duty. Defend with him the public liberty which is attacked,-the constitutional charter which it is attempted to destroy. Defend your wives, your fathers, your children, your property, against the tyranny by which they

1815.

are menaced. Is not the enemy of the country BOOK XIV also your's? Has he not speculated on your blood, and made a traffic of your fatigues and CHAP. IV. wounds? Was it not to satisfy his insatiable ambition that he led you through a thousand dangers, to useless and bloody victories? Our fine France, not being sufficient for him, he would again exhaust its entire population to proceed to the extremities of the world to acquire new conquest at the expense of your blood. Distrust his perfidious promises; your king calls you; the country claims you. Let honour fix you invariably under your banners. It is I who undertake to recompense you; it is in your ranks,

it is among the chosen of the faithful soldiers that I will select officers. Public gratitude will repay all your services;-make one effort more and you will speedily acquire glory, and the splendid repose you will have merited.-March, then, without hesitation, brave soldiers, at the call of honor! yourselves apprehend the first traitor who may try to seduce you. If any among you have already lent an ear to the perfidious suggestions of rebels, such have still time to return to the path of duty. The door is still open to repentance; it is in this way that several squadrons of cavalry, whom a guilty chief wished to lead astray near La Fere, voluntarily forced him to withdraw himself.-Let the whole of the army profit by this example-let the great number of corps which have not been seduced, who have refused to join the rebels, close their battalions to attack and repel the traitor. Soldiers! you are Frenchmen; I am your king; it is not in vain that I confide to your courage and to your fidelity the safety of our dear country-Dated at the Thuilleries, the 12th of March, 1815, and the twentieth year of our reign.

"LOUIS."

On the 11th of March, a report was made to the chamber of peers, by the king's order, in which the whole progress of Bonaparte from his landing was frankly related. After noticing his arrival at Cannes from Elba, with 1,100 men, and his march on Digne and Gap, it thus proceeds :-

"We had no account of Bonaparte having received reinforcements. We had therefore every reason to expect that this rash enterprise would have no other effect than to confirm the legitimate authority, by releasing France from the eternal enemy of her repose and her happiness. What, then, was our astonishment, when the telegraphic dispatch of the 8th informed us that he was that evening expected at Grenoble, and when a second of the same day announced to us that Grenoble must have surrendered. This dispatch, delayed by bad weather, did not reach us till the 9th in the evening. Yesterday, the 10th, we received the dispatch from Lyons of the 8th, dated half-past

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BOOK XIV. eight in the morning, and containing merely these words:" The princes depart immediately; BoCHAP. IV. naparte is expected at Lyons this evening; I go to Clermont." (It is the prefect who speaks). There was no mention of Grenoble in this letter, and we flattered ourselves that it still held out; but this hope was destroyed by a letter from Monsieur, dated the 8th, in the evening, which his majesty only received this morning by a courier, and which he has been pleased to permit me to read, in order that I might state its contents to the chamber. His royal-highness begins his letter by the recital of his journey, and the incredible activity with which, having arrived at Lyons without stopping, he had begun to collect the troops and the national guards, and to receive with their new oath of fidelity unequivocal testimonies of attachment. The prince directed their departure that night, and he was to have marched at their head to succour Grenoble; but some hours later he learned that that town had surrendered almost without resistance, and he was then solely occupied in the defence of Lyons, for which he was adopting every suitable measure. It is but too probable that these measures were fruitless, as the dispatch of yesterday announces so formally the departure of the princes, and even of the prefect, who was too devoted to have absented himself without a formal order. Here, gentlemen, our intelligence from the south concludes, and we expect further accounts hourly, but it will be difficult for any to reach us before night. Such, genlemen, is the true position in which France is now placed. Bonaparte, who landed with 1,100 men, makes rapid progress. We do not exactly know to what extent defections have increased his band; but these defections cannot be doubted, when we find Grenoble occupied, and the second city of the kingdom ready to fall, and probably already in the bands of the enemy. Numerous emissaries from Bonaparte repair to our regiments; some of them are already in our ranks. It is feared that many misled men will yield to their perfidious insinuations, and this fear alone enfeebles our means of defence."

The chancellor then mentioned the national guard as the principal object of reliance in this emergency, and referred to a decree by which bis majesty had put this force into requisition throughout the kingdom. The command of all the troops in Paris and its environs was conferred on the Duke de Berri.

On the 13th, in the chamber of deputies, a petition from the students at law was read, praying to be allowed to march in defence of their king and country—it was honorably received, and referred to the government.

The Abbé Montesquieu said, that, conformably to the orders of the king, he came to give an account of the state of his department:-"From the

first moment (said he) of the aggression of Bona parte, the national guards have shewn the firmest devotedness. The prefect of the Var gave the signal of the prudent and firm resistance which the local authorities have opposed to the usurper. The other departments of the south may have been surprised, but not subjugated. The Lyonnais has been invaded; but the citizens of Lyons shewed their wonted energy. From the Cote d'Or to the Calvados, from the Loire to the Rhine, all the departments have poured in addresses, assuring the king of their fidelity and devotion to him. If among the heroes who have borne the French glory from pole to pole, some insulated unfaithful ones are found, a small number of traitors cannot sully the purity of the French honor. All French soldiers will remain at their posts and avenge their country. A sufficient guarantee is to be found in the conduct of Marshal Mortier. Duke of Treviso; of the brave and loyal Aboville in the north, who found not a traitor in his ranks; while, in the west, Marshal Ney, Prince of Moskwa, unites the valiant legions, whom the firmness of his character binds to him. Marshal Macdonald has done prodigies at Lyons, and attempted impossibilities. Marshal Oudinot, at the head of the grenadiers of France, and the old guards so renowned in Europe, will march to the aid of their country. The marshal of Albufera (Suchet) needs only be named to inspire confidence to Frauce and its armies. Generals, officers, and soldiers, all shew the same spirit. Let us order or confirm the levy-en-masse, which is brought about by the spontaneous motion of all good Frenchmen. If the French answer the appeal of their government, the government will second their generous zeal. Let us rally round the king; let us maintain the charter and monarchy;-if France, under the tyrant, could conquer Europe, who shall withstand it when free?"-The Abbé Montesquieu then gave the tenor of the following law :—

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"Louis, &c.

Wishing to ward from our people the scourge of a foreign war, which may break out a-new at the Congress on the news of the appearance of Napoleon Bonaparte in the French soil; wishing to give the French army a mark of our satisfaction and confidence, and to our faithful subjects a new guarantee of their political and civil rights, founded on the constitutional charter: We have ordered that the projêt of the law which follows shall be presented to the chamber of deputies by our mi nister of interior :

Art. 1.-The garrison of Fere, Lille, and Cambray, have deserved well of their country, and a national reward shall be decreed them.

2.-[The same declaration and provision as to the garrison of Antibes.]

3.-Marshal Mortier, Duke of Treviso, and

Marshal Macdonald, Duke of Tarentum, have deserved well of their country, and shall have a national reward.

4.-Pensions shall be given to soldiers wounded, and the families of those killed fighting against Napoleon Bonaparte.

5.-The two chambers shall provide, without delay, for filling up the vacant places in the chamber of deputies.

The chamber referred the communication to be deliberated on immediately.

The Duke of Feltre (General Clarke):-" Four and twenty hours of ministry leaves me no time (said he) to prepare what I have to say. (The Duke was interrupted by loud applauses, mixed with the cries of Vive le Roi!) I am invested with the confidence of the king, and I would deserve it as well as that of the nation. I have betrayed no one. There was a defection of the troops in some points. A conspiracy long plotted, and of which the nest was in the north, preceded the appearance of the enemy of regular government in the French territory. The traitor Lefebvre Desnouettes, alone, or nearly so, meditated this base revolt, which he wished to render general in the garrisons of Picardy and Flanders; but chance, or rather the hand of God, placed at Lille, Marshal Mortier, the Duke of Treviso, to defeat these plots. To the last moment the garrison of Cambray was ignorant of the end to which the traitor Desnouettes conducted them. Till the events of Fere, they suspected no treason; in general, the troops of the north have shewn a good spirit; in general, I say, for it is too much to speak with certainty of every individual; but, I repeat it, we are sure of the mass. In the south, there was treason at Grenoble, impotence of resistance else where. At Lyons, want of troops, but not of courage. The princes shewed energy." The duke here paid a tribute to the conduct of Marshal Macdonald, and stated, that the impossibility of defending the bridge at Lyons arose from the want of guns, &c. He did justice to the national-guards and urbon cohorts, and added a multitude of curious details, among others, the report of General Lions.

The duke's communication was referred to the bureaux.

M. D. CHORME proposed to add, as an amend ment to the projêt submitted to the chamber, "the constitutional charter is confided to the courage of the army, the national-guards, and all the eitizens."

The Abbé Montesquieu approved the amend ment on the part of the government. It was referred to the bureaux.

Monsieur returned to Paris, and reported his unsuccessful mission. The king was now confirmed in the apprehensions which he had enter. tained from the beginning. His majesty was urged

CHAP. IV.

by many to retire to the northern departments, BOOK XIV. or to Belgium; but the virtuous monarch determined not to quit his capital while the smallest chance remained of arresting the progress of the invader, or recalling his deluded subjects to their allegiance. We have already mentioned, that it was in opposition to the advice of the princes of his family that he had convened the two chambers.

An expression in the speech of M. Lainé, the president of the chamber of deputies, at the opening of the session, gave the princes much offence. "Whatever may be the faults which have been com◄ mitted, this is not the time to examine them. We ought all to unite against the common enemy, and endeavour to render this crisis profitable to the security of the throne and of public liberty." When the warmest friend of the royal cause, the implacable enemy of Bonaparte, and the organ of the chamber of representatives, dared thus openly to allude to the errors at which the princes aud courtiers had connived, and of which, perhaps, they were the secret instigators, they were offended and alarmed.

They strenuously but vainly opposed the advice of the king's most enlightened friends, that it was not enough to have convened the chambers, but that it was absolutely necessary for Louis to attend at one of the sittings, surrounded by the princes of his blood, and in the most public, solemn, and unequivocal manner, repeat his acceptance of the constitutional charter, and his determination to respect the property and the rights of all his subjects. It was justly and unanswerably argued, that as the most sanguine hopes of the invader were founded on the suspicions and fears which unfortunately prevailed, his defeat could only be insured by the prompt removal of those fears.

On the 16th of March the king went in great state to the hall of the deputies. The chamber of peers had been invited to assist at the sitting. Louis was received with the most lively testimonies of affection and respect. He placed himself on the throne, and thus addressed the assembly.

"Gentlemen! In this momentous crisis, when the public enemy has penetrated into a part of the kingdom, and threatens the liberty of the remainder, I come in the midst of you to draw. closer those ties which unite us together, and which constitute the strength of the state. I come, in addressing myself to you, to declare to all France my sentiments and my wishes.

"I have revisited my country, and reconciled her to all foreign nations, who will doubt. less maintain, with the utmost fidelity, those treaties which had restored to us peace. I have laboured for the benefit of my people. I have received, and still continue daily to receive, the most striking proofs of their love. Can I, then, at sixty years of age, better terminate my career

1815.

CHAP. IV.

1815.

BOOK XIV. than by dying in their defence? I fear nothing for myself, but I fear for France. He who comes to light again amongst us the torch of civil war brings with him also the scourge of foreign war. He comes to reduce our country under his iron yoke. He comes, in short, to destroy that constitutional charter which I have given you, that charter, my brightest title to the estimation of posterity, that charter which all Frenchmen cherish, and which I here swear to maintain.—Let us rally, therefore, around it! let it be our sacred standard! The descendants of Henry the Fourth will be the first to range themselves under it. They will be followed by all good Frenchmen. In short, gentlemen, let the concurrence of the two chambers give to authority all the force that is necessary; and this war, truly national, will prove by its happy termination what a great nation, united in its love to its king and to its laws, can effect."

This noble speech was frequently interrupted by an enthusiasm which respect and veneration could not restrain. The firm, yet impassioned tone of voice, the serene, yet touching expression of countenance, inspired every heart with confidence, admiration, and love.

At the close of this address the whole assembly rose, and extending their hands towards the throne, exclaimed with one voice, "The king for ever!--We will die for the king.-The king in life and in death!"

It was long ere order could be restored; when a motion of Monsieur to approach the king, commanded the most profound silence. He advanced to the foot of the throne, and spoke to the following effect.

"Sire!-I know that, I depart from ordinary rules in here addressing your majesty; but I beg you will excuse me, and permit me, in my own name, and in that of my family, to say how much we participate to the bottom of our hearts in the sentiments and principles which animate your majesty."

The prince, on turning again towards the assembly, added, raising his hand, "We swear on our honor to live and die faithful to our king, and to the constitutional charter, which secures the happiness of the French!"

While the whole assembly replied to this address by new acclamations, the king, profoundly moved, presented his hand to Monsieur, which his royal highness seized, and kissed with transport. Louis was no longer able to suppress his feelings, and pressed Monsieur to his breast.

At this touching spectacle, every heart was melted; every eye moistened with tears; every faculty appeared absorbed, and not one voice dared to interrupt the sublimity of the scene. At length, by one simultaneous impulse, all hands vere again stretched towards the throne, and the

hall rung with the most rapturous acclamations. "In one day," says a spectator, "the destinies of France would have been for ever assured; the king, the country, our dearest rights would have been for ever safe, if all France, could have been present at this scene."

Happy would it have been for the monarch, if the imprudent zeal and arbitrary principles of his family and courtiers bad not given rise to suspi cions which this patriotic and affecting appeal to his subjects removed too late.

In the present crisis, scenes like these tended rather to the injury than the benefit of the royal cause. They generated a sort of loquacious pa triotism, when it was far more necessary to act than to harangue, After the tribune had vomited forth some energetic and eloquent philippics against Napoleon, both the orator and his hearers fondly imagined that the invader was crushed, and the decisive measures that actually bid the fairest to crush him were neglected.

On the departure of the king, the chambers voted an affectionate and respectful address to him, expressing their gratitude for the explicit avowal which he had made, their unshaken f ity to him, and their readiness to sacrifice their fortunes and their lives in his defence. Some expressions in this address are very remarkabie, and throw great light on the actual state of the pubi feeling, and the foolish measures that had hastened or produced this dreadful crisis.

66

But, sire! these protestations of our hearts will not suffice; and we entreat your majesty to permit us to propose to your gracious consideration the means which we deem proper to restore more and more the public hopes. While the chambers will lend to the government, to which the salvation of France is confided, the entire strength of the nation, your faithful subjects are convinced that the government will confile, for the public weal, in men at once energetic and moderate, whose names alone are a guarantee for all interests, and an answer to all inquietude. In men who, having been at various perio is the defenders of the principles of justice and liberry, with which the heart of your majesty is penated, and which form the patrimony of the ation, are equally the pillar of the stability of the throne, and of the principles which the public enemy would annihilate."

On the following day, General Angier pro nounced a discourse, in which he declared offici ally, that, "the inconsiderate acts of the ministry would not be repeated."

At the very time that Louis, the princes, and the ministers were making these frauk and solemn declarations, and the government orafors had declared that the monarch disilained to adopt a system of artifice; that nothing would be exaggerated and nothing concealed, the official bul

letins declared that desertion bad thinned the ranks of Napoleon; that he possessed not more than three or four hundred men; that, by a movement from Grenoble, his retreat was cut off; that he was flying in despair, and that his escape was impossible: though they possessed certain information of the defection of the army, the contagious delirium of the people, and the unopposed and resistless progress of the invader. This strange dissimulation might produce a temporary good effect on the populace, but it paralysed the energy, and weakened the confidence of the best and most powerful friends of the royal cause.

This short session was distinguished by some propositions honorable to the chambers, and illustrative of the real causes of the present danger.

M. Sartelon demanded a law ❝ relative to the recruiting and organization of the army, conformably to the twelfth article of the constitutional charter, which declared that every officer should retain his rank and pay."-This was a tacit acknowledgment, that the army had, or supposed that it had, some cause for complaint. That be rank of sub-lientenant should be granted to all the subaltern offices."-It cannot be dissembled, that the rank which may be attained by court favor irritated and humiliated those who had merited promotion by their services. The emigran's and the Chouans had formed too great a proportion of the names recorded in the lists of promotion. "Thato officer should be removed or cashiere, but by the forms of law."-It had been said that the arbitrary maudate of the minister had removed more than one deserving officer who had given offence to the court favorites. These were undubtedry most prudent and excellent regulations for the future management of the army, but they were now mere confessions of erroneous ineasures, and little calculated to avert the threatening danger.

Field-marshal Angier proposed "that the war should be declared national,-that the whole population should be called to arms,-that national recompences should be granted to all who combated for their country, their king, and their liberties-that those who had been deluded by the invader should be restored to their rank, and receive a free and absolute pardon, if within four days they returned to their duty, and renewed their oath of fidelity,-and that those should be punished as traitors, who, by their actions, language, or writing, endeavoured to excite a civil war, or attacked the irrevocability of the national domains, or proposed the re-establishment of tithes or feudal rights."

These propositions were carried by acclamation, and the last of them is decisive as to the error, if not the criminal intention of the court, and the reasonableness of the public apprehensions.

1815.

On his return from the assembly, Monsieur BOOK XIV. reviewed the national guard of Paris. Fifty battalions filed in close order in the inner court CHAP. IV. of the Thuilleries, amounting to nearly 25,000 men. As each battalion entered the square, the cries of "The king for ever!" resounded from every soldier. Unfortunately, at the moment when the columns were commencing their march by the balcony in which Louis was seated, he was seized with so excruciating a paroxysm of gout, that his attendants were forced to carry him away in their arms; and the national guard, after shewing the spirit which animated them by one full shout of "The king for ever!" were dismissed to their respective quarters.

In about an hour the pain abated, and Louis expressed his determination to review the troops of the line, consisting of 6,000 men, who were drawn up in the Place du Carousal. After the shameful defection of so many regiments, these were regarded with the most anxious solicitude. On them depended the fate of the Bourbon dynasty.

As they approached the gates Louis trembled. He was not long kept in suspense. The grenadiers of the first regiinent hoisted their caps on the points of their bayonets, which action was immediately followed by all the troops: but they uttered no shout. Louis was evidently and profoundly affected. He attempted to address them, but he could not utter a word: he could only press his hand on his heart, and thus silently, but forcibly, appeal to them. The silence of the troops was regarded by every reflecting man as ominous of their approaching treachery: but those who surrounded the monarch thought differently. The fears of the courtiers were dissipated, and they predicted the speedy fall of Bonaparte, hisfollowers, his principles, and his cause. Many of them, in the intoxication of their joy, congratulated each other that the enterprise of Bonaparte had been attempted. It exhibited, said they, the true character of the public feeling. It drew a useful line of demarcation between the good and the bad. They blessed the occasion which unmasked the one, and proved the fidelity of the other. A few days shewed the folly of this conduct, and afforded a mournful and almost incredible proof of the levity of the French character, and the weakness of human nature.

Taking advantage of the enthusiasm with which the national guards appeared to be inspired, some of them were ordered to march to Melun with the regular troops, where the last stand was to be made against the invader. Twenty-eight thousand men were assembled at this point, while the invader could reckon only 16,000 followers, and the rapidity of his progress had separated the different corps.

Had the army assembled at Melun consisted en