"The French government has just decreed a new levy of three hundred thousand conscripts; the motives of the Senate decree contain a provocation to the allied powers. They find themselves once more called upon to promulgate to the world the views which guide them in the present war, the principles which are the basis of their conduct, their wishes, and their determinations. The allied powers are not making war on France, but on that openly proclaimed preponderance which, for the unhappiness of Europe and of France, the Emperor Napoleon has too long exerted beyond the limits of his Empire.

"Victory has conducted the allied armies across the Rhine. The first use made of victory by Their Imperial and Royal Majesties was to offer peace to His Majesty the Emperor of the French. An attitude reinforced by the accession of all the sovereigns and princes of Germany has had no influence upon the conditions of peace. Those conditions are based upon the independence of the other states of Europe. The views of the powers are just in their object, generous and liberal in their application, reassuring to all, honorable to each.

"The sovereign allies desire that France shall be great, strong, and happy, because its great and strong power is one of the fundamental bases of the social structure. They desire that France may be happy, that French commerce may revive, that the arts, those benefits of peace, may flourish anew, because a great people cannot be tranquil except when it is happy. The powers confirm to the French Empire an extent of territory never possessed by France under its kings, because a generous nation does not decline when it has experienced reverses in a stubborn and bloody struggle in which it has combated with its customary audacity.

"But the powers also wish to be happy and tranquil. They desire a condition of peace which, by a prudent distribution of forces and a just equilibrium, shall henceforward preserve their peoples from the calamities without number which for twenty years have oppressed Europe.

"The allied powers will not lay down arms without having attained this great and beneficent result, the noble object of their efforts. They will not lay down arms until the political status of Europe shall be confirmed anew, until immovable principles shall have resumed their rights over novel pretensions, until the sanctity of treaties shall at last have assured a real peace to Europe."

Nothing but good sense is required to see whether the allied powers were in good faith in this declaration, the evident intention of which was to alienate from the Emperor the attachment of the French people by pointing him out as an obstacle to peace, and separating his cause from that of France; and here I am fortunate in being able to support my opinion by that of M. de Bourrienne, who surely will not be accused of partiality in favor of His Majesty. Several passages of his Memoirs, those especially in which he condemns the Emperor, have often pained me, and I am unable to conceal it; but in this circumstance he does not hesitate to recognize the bad faith of the allies, and that, according to my feeble judgment, is of great importance.

M. de Bourrienne was then in Paris, under the special surveillance of the Duc de Rovigo. I heard this minister speak of him to the Emperor several times, and always favorably; but either the enemies of the former secretary of the First Consul must have been very powerful, or His Majesty's prejudices very strong, for M. de Bourrienne never returned to favor. The Emperor, who, as I have said, sometimes deigned to converse familiarly with me, never mentioned M. de Bourrienne on such occasions, and I never saw him after he ceased to see the Emperor. I perceived him for the first time among the officers of the National Guard on the day when those gentlemen, as will be seen hereafter, were received at the palace, and I have never seen him since; but as we all liked him very much, on account of the excellent way in which he treated us, he was often the subject of our conversation, and I may say of our regrets. Besides, I was ignorant for a long time that at the epoch of which I am speaking, His Majesty had offered him a mission to Switzerland, because I only learned that circumstance by reading his Memoirs. I cannot dissemble that this reading affected me painfully, because I would greatly have desired that M. de Bourrienne should by that time have abjured his resentment against His Majesty, who, at bottom, truly loved him.

However that may be, if it is plainly evident now to every one that the aim of the Frankfort declaration was to cause a rupture between the Emperor and the French people, what events have since explained was not even then a secret to the genius of the Emperor, and, unhappily, it was not long before the enemies partially achieved their object. Not only did people express themselves in an unseemly manner about His Majesty in private society, but dissensions broke out in the midst of the Legislative Body.

After the opening of the session, the Emperor having decreed that a commission composed of five senators and five members of the legislature should be appointed, these two bodies assembled for that purpose. The object of the commission, as may be seen from His Majesty's speech, was to take cognizance of the documents relating to the negotiations entered into between France and the allied powers. Count Regnault de Saint-Jean d'Angély communicated the decree to the legislature, and supported it with his usual persuasive eloquence; he reminded them of the victories of France and the glory of the Emperor; but the result of the voting was to elect five members to the commission who were thought to be more attached to the principles of liberty than to the glory of the Emperor. They were MM. Raynouard, Lainé, Gallois, Flaugergues, and Maine de Biran. The Emperor seemed dissatisfied with this choice from the first, although he did not think that the commission would prove hostile, as it presently did. I remember very well that in my presence His Majesty said to Prince de Neufchâtel, with a touch of ill-humor, but no anger, "They have elected five lawyers!"

However, the Emperor gave no public evidence of his dissatisfaction. No sooner had he officially received the list of commissioners than he addressed the following letter, dated December 23, to the president of the legislature:

"Monsieur the Duc de Massa, president of the legislature, we address you the following sealed letter to acquaint you that it is our intention that you should present yourself at noon to-morrow, the 24th instant, at the residence of our cousin, the prince archchancellor, with the commission appointed yesterday by the legislature, in execution of our decree of the 20th instant, and composed of MM. Raynouard, Lainé, Gallois, Flaugergues, and Maine de Biran, and this for the purpose of taking cognizance of the documents pertaining to the negotiation, as well as of the declaration of the coalized powers, which will be communicated by Count Regnault, minister of State, and Count d'Hauterive, councillor of State, attached to the office of foreign relations, who will be the bearer of the said documents and declaration.

"It is also our intention that our said cousin shall be chairman of the commission.

"Whereupon, etc., etc."

The senators designated to form part of the commission were M. de Fontanes, Prince de Bénévent, M. de Saint Marsan, M. de Barbé-Marbois, and M. do Beurnonville. With the exception of one of these gentlemen, whose disgrace and opposition were publicly known, the others were supposed to be sincerely attached to the Empire; and whatever the subsequent opinion and conduct of all of them may have been, they had not at this time to incur on the part of the Emperor the same reproaches as the commissioners from the Legislative Body. No act of opposition, no sign of discontent, emanated from the conservative Senate.

At this epoch the Duc de Rovigo came very frequently, or rather every day, to see the Emperor. His Majesty liked him much, and that alone would suffice to prove that he was not afraid of hearing the truth, for after he became minister, the Duc de Rovigo did not spare him, which I can affirm because I witnessed it several times. In Paris, however, there was a universal outcry against him. Still I can cite a fact not mentioned by the Duc de Rovigo in his Memoirs, and of which I guarantee the authenticity. It can be seen from this anecdote whether or not the minister of police sought to augment the number of persons who daily compromised themselves by prating against the Emperor.

Among the employees of the treasury there was a former receiver of finances, who for twenty years had lived in a modest way, contented with a rather slender salary. He was, however, an enthusiastic man and very intelligent. His passion for the Emperor bordered on delirium, and he never spoke of him but in almost idolatrous terms. This employee was accustomed to spend his evenings in a club which met in the rue Vivienne. The habitués of the place, on which the police naturally kept an eye, did not all share the opinions of the man of whom I am speaking. They began to criticise the acts of the government with a certain freedom; the opponents gave vent to their dissatisfaction, and His Majesty's faithful adorer became all the more prodigal of admiring exclamations as his antagonists waxed lavish of reproaches. The Duc de Rovigo was informed of these discussions, which were daily growing sharper and more animated. One fine day, on going home, our worthy employee found a stamped letter from the office of the general ministry of police. He could not believe his eyes. What could the chief of police want with him, a good, simple, modest man, living remote from all grandeurs and devoted to the government? He opened the letter: the minister summoned him to his cabinet the next morning. He went there, as may be believed, with all imaginable punctuality; and then a dialogue very nearly like the following took place between these gentlemen:

"It seems, sir," said the Duc de Rovigo, "that you love the Emperor very much?"

"Do I love him? I would give my blood, my life!"

"Do you admire him much?"

"Do I admire him? The Emperor has never been so great! Never was his glory . . ."

"Very good, sir, and those are sentiments which do you honor and which I share; but I advise you to keep them to yourself; for otherwise, though I should doubtless greatly regret it, you would put me under the necessity of having you arrested."

"Me! Monseigneur! Arrest me!"

"Eh! certainly . . . not a doubt about it."

"How so?"

"Don't you see that you provoke the expression of opinions which but for your enthusiasm would remain concealed, and that you in a manner force a good many worthy people to compromise themselves who will return to us when they see things better? Come, sir, let us continue to love, serve, and admire the Emperor; but at such a time as this let us not proclaim our good sentiments so loudly, lest we render men culpable who have merely gone astray."

The employee of the treasury thereupon left the office of the minister, after thanking him for his advice and promising to hold his tongue. I would not venture to guarantee that he scrupulously kept his word; but I can affirm anew that what has just been read is absolutely true; and I am sure that if this passage of my Memoirs falls under the notice of the Duc de Rovigo, it will remind him of a fact he may have forgotten, but the accuracy of which he will not fail to recognize.

Meanwhile the commission, composed, as I have said, of five senators and five members of the legislature, applied itself assiduously to the examination imposed upon it. Each of these great bodies of the State presented His Majesty with a separate address. The Senate had listened to the report made to it by M. de Fontanes, and its address contained nothing which could shock the Emperor; on the contrary, it was expressed in the most measured terms. Peace was asked for, but a peace which His Majesty should attain by an effort worthy of himself and the French people. "May your hand, so many times victorious," said the address, "let fall its weapons after having assured the repose of the world." The following passage was also remarked: "No, the enemy will not rend this fair and noble France which during fourteen hundred years has maintained itself with glory amid such varying fortunes, and which, even in the interest of neighboring peoples, is always able to put a considerable weight in the balance of Europe. As pledges of this, we have your heroic constancy and the national honor." And this other: "Fortune is not long wanting to nations which are not wanting to themselves."

This thoroughly French language, which was at least made imperative by the circumstances, pleased the Emperor, as may be inferred from the response he made, December 29, to the deputation from the Senate, presided over by the prince archchancellor of the Empire:

"Senators," said His Majesty, "I am affected by the sentiments you express to me. You have seen, from the documents I have had communicated to you, what I am doing for peace. The sacrifices implied in the preliminary bases proposed to me by the enemies, I have accepted; I shall make them without regret: my life has but one aim, - the welfare of the French people.

"Meanwhile Béarn, Alsace, Franche-Comté, Brabant, are encroached upon. The cries of this part of my family pierce my soul. I call the French to the succor of the French! I call the French of Paris, of Brittany, Normandy, Champagne, Burgundy, and the other departments to the relief of their brethren! Shall we forsake them in misfortune? Peace and deliverance of our territory ought to be our rallying cry. At the aspect of all this people in arms, the foreigner will fly or will sign the peace on the terms he has himself proposed. It is no longer a question of regaining the conquests we had made."

One must have been in a position to know the character of the Emperor in order to understand what these last words must have cost him; but from that knowledge would also result the certitude that it would have cost him less to keep his promise than to make it. It would even seem as if this were understood in Paris; for on the day when the Moniteur published His Majesty's reply to the Senate stocks went up more than two francs, a fact which the Emperor did not fail to remark with satisfaction, for it is known that the price of stocks was to him the true thermometer of public opinion.

As to the conduct of the legislature, I heard it appreciated by a man of real merit who had always been imbued with republican opinions. He said one day in my presence some words which impressed me: "The legislature did then what it ought always to have done except on that occasion." From the language of the speaker of this commission, it was too easy to see that he believed the lying promises of the Frankfort declaration. According to him, or, rather, according to the commission, of which he was, after all, merely the organ, it was not the intention of the foreigners to humiliate France; they simply wished to confine us within our own limits and repress the vehemence of an ambitious activity which for twenty years had been so fatal to all the peoples of Europe. "The propositions of the coalized powers," said the commission, "appear to us honorable to the nation, since they prove that the foreigner fears and respects us." And finally the orator, continuing to read, and having arrived at a passage in which he alluded to the Empire of the lilies, added in so many words that the Rhine, the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the two seas enclosed a vast territory, several provinces of which had not belonged to ancient France, and yet the royal crown of France was brilliant with glory and majesty among all crowns.

At these words, the Duc de Massa interrupted the orator by exclaiming: "What you are saying there is unconstitutional." To which the speaker briskly replied: "I see nothing unconstitutional here except your presence." Then he went on with the reading of his report. The Emperor was informed every evening of what had taken place at the legislative session, and I remember that on the evening when this report was read to him, he seemed somewhat anxious. Before going to bed he walked up and down his room for some time with marked emotion, like one who is trying to form a resolution. Finally he decided not to allow the address of the legislature to pass; it had been communicated to him conformably to usage. Time pressed; the next day would have been too late; the address would be circulated throughout all Paris, where the public mind was already much excited. An order was given therefore to the minister of police to seize the copy of the report and the address at the printer's, and to break up the forms already composed. In addition, orders were given to close the doors of the legislative hall, which was done, and thus the legislature found itself adjourned.

I heard a great many persons express keen regrets at this time that the Emperor should have adopted these measures, and especially that, having done so, he should not have stopped there. They said that since the legislature was dissolved by force, it would have been better, no matter what might have been the result, to convoke another chamber, but that the Emperor ought not to have received the members of the one which was dismissed. His Majesty thought otherwise, and gave the deputies a parting audience. They came to the Tuileries, and there his too just resentment found expression in these terms:

"I have suppressed your address; it was incendiary. Eleven-twelfths of the Legislative Body are composed of good citizens; I know them; I shall know how to esteem them; but another twelfth contains the factions, the men who are devoted to England. Your commission and its reporter, M. Lainé, are of this number; he corresponds with the Prince-regent through the intermediation of the advocate Desèze: I know it, I have the proof of it; the four others belong to the factious party. . . . If there are any abuses, is this the moment to come and make remonstrances, when two hundred thousand Cossacks are crossing our frontiers? Is this the moment to come and dispute over individual liberties and sureties when political liberty and national independence are in danger? We must resist the enemy; we must follow the example of Alsace, the Vosges, and Franche-Comté, who wish to march against him and are asking me for arms. . . . You are seeking, in your address, to separate the sovereign from the nation. . . . It is I who represent the people here, for it has given me four millions of suffrages. If I chose to believe you, I would cede to the enemy more than he asks for. . . . You will have peace in three months, or I shall perish. . . . Your address was unworthy of me and of the Legislative Body."

Although the journals were forbidden to reproduce the details of this scene, the rumor of it spread through Paris with the rapidity of lightning. The Emperor's words were reported and discussed; and the dismissed deputies very soon re-echoed them in the departments. I remember having seen the prince archchancellor come and ask audience of His Majesty next day; he wished to speak in favor of M. Desèze, whose protector he then was. In spite of His Majesty's menacing words, he found him disinclined to take severe measures; for his anger had cooled down, as was always the case with the Emperor when he had been unable to restrain a fit of passion. Nevertheless, the fatal misunderstanding provoked by the legislative commission between that body and the Emperor produced the most unpleasant results in every way. It is easy to conceive that it must have delighted the enemies, who were promptly informed of it by their numerous agents in France. Under these gloomy auspices the year 1813 ended. In the sequel we shall see the consequences, and finally the history, until now unknown, of the Emperor's chamber at Fontainebleau; that is to say, of the most painful period of my life.