To avoid increasing the complication of interests daily becoming more entangled, the Emperor had already thought of sending Ferdinand VII. back to Spain; I am even certain that His Majesty had had some overtures made to him on the subject during his last sojourn in Paris, but it was the Spanish prince who was unwilling, and who was, on the contrary, incessantly requesting the Emperor's support. His chief desire was to become the ally of His Majesty, and everybody knows that in his letters to His Majesty he was always asking him for a wife. The Emperor had thought seriously of marrying him to the eldest daughter of King Joseph, which seemed to be a means of conciliating the rights of Prince Joseph and those of Ferdinand VII. King Joseph would have asked nothing better than such an arrangement, and from the manner in which be had trifled with his royalty from the commencement of his reign, it is permissible to think that His Majesty did not greatly cling to it. Prince Ferdinand had agreed to this alliance, which seemed to please him very much; but just at the close of 1813 he asked for time, and in the end, events numbered this affair among those which are never more than projects. Prince Ferdinand finally quitted Valençay, but not until after the time when the Emperor authorized him to do so; for his presence had long been simply an additional embarrassment. For the rest, the Emperor had not to complain of his conduct toward him until after the events of Fontainebleau.

However, in the existing condition of affairs, what concerned the Prince of Spain was merely an accidental matter, like that of the sojourn of the Pope at Fontainebleau; the grand object, the object which took precedence of all others, was to defend the soil of France, which the first days of January beheld invaded at several points. That was His Majesty's great thought, although it did not prevent him from entering as usual into all the details of his administration, and we shall presently see what measures he took for the re-establishment of the National Guard at Paris. On this topic I have had positive documents and little known details from a person whom I am not permitted to name, but whose position enabled him to see all the machinery of its formation. These tasks required His Majesty's presence in Paris for nearly a month longer, and he remained there until January 25; but what gloomy tidings reached him during those twenty-five days!

In the first place, the Emperor learned that the Russians, as unscrupulous as the Austrians about observing the usually sacred conditions of a capitulation, had just trampled under foot the stipulations of that of Dantzic. In the name of the Emperor Alexander, the Prince of Würtemberg, who commanded the siege, had recognized and guaranteed to General Rapp and the troops under him the right of returning to France; these stipulations were no better respected than those agreed upon some months before with Marshal Saint-Cyr by Prince Schwarzenberg; hence the garrison of Dantzic were made prisoners of war with the same bad faith as the garrison of Dresden had been. This news, which arrived almost simultaneously with that of the surrender of Torgau, afflicted His Majesty all the more because it concurred in proving to him that the hostile powers were unwilling to treat of peace except for form's sake, and with the resolution of always recoiling from a definitive conclusion.

At the same epoch the news from Lyons was by no means reassuring; Marshal Augereau had been put in command there, and he was accused of lacking the energy to prevent or arrest the invasion of the south of France. However, I will not linger over this matter here, as I propose, in the next chapter, to bring together such of my souvenirs as have the greatest bearing on the beginning of the French campaign, and certain circumstances which preceded it. At present I shall limit myself to recalling, so far as my memory will permit, what relates to the last days which the Emperor spent in Paris.

On January 4, although His Majesty had no hope of inducing the foreigners to conclude a peace of which all parties stood in so much need, he gave the Due de Vicenza his instructions and sent him to the headquarters of the allies; but he had to wait a long time for his passports. At the same time special orders were despatched to the prefects of the departments whose territory had been invaded, to guide their conduct under such difficult circumstances. Thinking, moreover, that it was necessary to make an example in order to reanimate the courage of the timid, the Emperor instituted a commission of inquiry charged with examining the conduct of Baron Capelle, prefect of the department of the Leman, at the time when the enemies entered Geneva; finally a decree mobilized one hundred and twenty battalions of the National Guards of the Empire, and regulated the levy in mass in the eastern departments of all who were able to bear arms. Excellent measures, doubtless, but vain precautions! Destiny was stronger than the genius of a great man.

On January 3, however, the decree appeared which placed thirty thousand men of the National Guard of Paris on the active list; on the same day, by a dismal and singular coincidence, the King of Naples signed a treaty of alliance with Great Britain. The Emperor reserved to himself the command in chief of the Parisian National Guard, and regulated the composition of the staff in the following manner: A major-general second in command; four assistant major-generals, four adjutant commanders, and eight assistant captains. The legions were formed by arrondissements, and each legion was divided into four battalions subdivided into five companies. Afterwards the Emperor made the following appointments to the superior grades:
Marshal de Moncey, Duc de Conegliano, major-general second in command. Assistant major-generals: General of division Comte Hallin; Comte Bertrand, grand marshal of the palace; Comte de Montesquiou, grand chamberlain; Comte de Montmorency, chamberlain of the Emperor. Adjutant commanders: Baron Laborde, adjutant commander of Paris; Comte Albert de Brancas, chamberlain of the Emperor; Comte Germain, chamberlain of the Emperor; M. Tourbon. Assistant captains: Comte Lariboissière; Chevalier Adolphe de Maussion; MM. Jules de Montbreton, son of the equerry of the Princess Borghese; Collin junior; Lecordier junior; Lemoine junior; Cardon junior; Mallet junior. Chiefs of the twelve legions: First legion, Comte de Gontaut senior; second legion, Comte Regnault de Saint-Jean d'Angèly; third legion, Baron Hottinguer, banker; fourth legion, Comte Jaubert, governor of the bank of France; fifth legion, M. Dauberjon de Murinais; sixth legion, M. Lepileur de Brevannes; eighth legion, M. Richard Lenoir; ninth legion, M. Devins de Gaville; tenth legion, Duc de Cadore; eleventh legion, Comte de Choiseul-Praslin, chamberlain of the Emperor; twelfth legion, M. Salleron.

From the preceding names may be estimated the incredible tact with which the Emperor collected from among the é1ite of all classes those whose position rendered them most respectable and influential. At the side of names which had acquired greatness under the eyes of the Emperor and by assisting him in his glorious tasks, were seen those whose celebrity was of more ancient date, and, finally, those of the chief industrial leaders of the capital. His Majesty took much pleasure in these amalgamations; he must, in fact, have considered them of great political moment, for the idea preoccupied him to such a point that I have often heard him say: "I wish to blend all classes, all epochs, all glories; I desire that no title shall be more glorious than that of Frenchman." Why did fate will that the Emperor should lack time to accomplish his immense projects, of which he spoke so often, for the glory and welfare of France?

The staff of the National Guard and the chiefs of the twelve legions appointed, the Emperor left the nomination of the other officers, as well as the formation of the legions, in the province of M. de Chabrol, prefect of the Seine. This worthy magistrate, whom the Emperor greatly liked, displayed the greatest zeal and activity on this occasion, and in a short time the National Guard presented an imposing appearance. They vied with each other in arms, equipments, and uniforms; and this almost general alacrity was in these last days one of the consolations that affected the Emperor most deeply. He saw in it a proof of the attachment of the Parisians to his person, and a ground of security for the tranquillity of the capital during his approaching absence. However that might be, the bureaux of the National Guard were soon formed and established in the house occupied by Marshal Moncey, rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, near Place Beauveau. A master of requests and two auditors of the Council of State were attached to them, and the master of requests, Chevalier Allent, superior officer of engineers, soon became the soul of the entire administration of the National Guard, no one being more capable than he of giving a strong impulsion to an organization which demanded extreme promptitude. The person from whom I received some of the information which I am combining with my personal recollections, has assured me that in the sequel, that is to say, after our departure for Châlons-sur-Marne, M. Allent became still more influential in the National Guard, of which he was the real chief. In fact, when King Joseph had received the title of lieutenant-general of the Emperor, which was conferred on him by His Majesty for the time of his absence, M. Allent found himself attached on one side to King Joseph's staff, as officer of engineers, and on the other side to the major-general second in command, as master of requests; whence it followed that he was the intermediary and counsellor of all the relations which must necessarily be established between the lieutenant-general of the Emperor and Marshal Moncey. The greatest benefits resulted from this on account of the rapidity of the decisions. That good and brave Marshal! he wrote his signature in full: Le Maréchal Duc de Conegliano, and so slowly that M. Allent had almost time enough to write the correspondence while the Marshal was signing it.

The functions of the two auditors of the Council of State were null, or nearly so; but they were not nonentities such as, it has been claimed, were some of those who slipped into the council, since the first condition required was to prove an income of at least six thousand francs. They were M. Ducancel, the dean of the auditors, and M. Robert de Sainte-Croix. The leg of the latter had been broken by a shell, on the return from Moscow; and this brave young man, a captain of cavalry, had come back astride of a cannon from the banks of the Beresina as far as Wilna. Having little bodily strength, but gifted with a firm soul, M. Robert de Sainte-Croix must have owed it to his moral courage that he did not succumb. After undergoing the amputation of his leg, he abandoned the sword for the pen, and thus it happened that he became an auditor of the Council of State. 1

Eight days after the Parisian National Guard was put into active service, the chiefs of the twelve legions and the staff were admitted to take the oath of fidelity between the hands of the Emperor. Everything was already organized in the legions; but the lack of arms was becoming evident; many citizens could obtain nothing but lances, and those who could not procure muskets found their ardor to equip themselves somewhat cooled by that fact. However, this citizen guard was not slow in assembling to the desired number of thirty thousand men; gradually it occupied the different posts of the capital; and while fathers of families and citizens devoted to domestic labors were enrolling themselves without hesitation, those who had already paid their debt to their country on fields of battle were also asking for a chance to shed for it the remainder of their blood; even the invalids at last entreated leave to resume their service; several hundreds of those heroes forgot their sufferings, and, covered with noble scars, went to brave the enemy anew. Alas! very few of those who then left the Hôtel des Invalides were so fortunate as to return there.

Meanwhile the moment for the Emperor's departure was drawing near. Before departing he bade a touching farewell to the National Guard, as will be seen in the succeeding chapter, and confided the regency to the Empress, as he had done during the campaign of Dresden. Alas! this time it was not necessary for His Majesty to take a long journey in order to put himself at the head of his armies.