We came to a halt at the little village of Herbisse, where we spent the night in the presbytery. The curé, on seeing the Emperor arrive at his house with his marshals, aides-de-camp, orderly officers, the service of honor and the other attendants, was for a moment almost dazed. His Majesty, as he dismounted, said to him: "Monsieur le curé, we have come to ask your hospitality for one night. Don't let this visit alarm you; we will make ourselves very small so as not to crowd you." The Emperor, conducted by the good curé, who was perspiring with mingled eagerness and embarrassment, established himself in the only apartment, which served our host as kitchen, dining-room, bed-chamber, study, and parlor. In an instant His Majesty was surrounded by his maps and papers and had set to work as comfortably as in his cabinet at the Tuileries. But the members of his suite needed a little more time to install themselves. It was not an easy matter for so many people to find room in a bake-house, which, with the chamber occupied by His Majesty, comprised all there was of the presbytery of Herbisse; but these gentlemen, although there was more than one dignitary and prince of the Empire among them, were accommodating and quite inclined to make the best of matters. It was a remarkable thing, and very indicative of French character, to see the good humor of these brave warriors, in spite of the daily combats they had to sustain, and of events which at every instant took a more alarming turn.

The younger officers formed a circle around the niece of the curé, who sang them some provincial hymns. The good curé, amidst his continual goings and comings, and the pains he was taking to play worthily his part as host, was attacked on his own ground, that is to say, on his breviary, by Marshal Lefebvre, who had made some studies for the priesthood in his youth, and who said he had retained nothing from his first vocation but the coiffure, because it was the soonest combed. The worthy Marshal interlarded his Latin quotations with military expressions, of which he was by no means sparing, and he made all present roar with laughter, including the curé, who said to him: "Monseigneur, if you had continued your studies for the priesthood, you would have become a cardinal at the least." "Why not?" observed one of the officers; "if the Abbé Maury had been a sergeant-major in '89, he might possibly be a marshal of France to-day." "Or else dead," added the Duc de Dantzic, but employing a much more energetic word; "and so much the better for him; he would not see the Cossacks within twenty leagues of Paris." - "Oh! bah! Monseigneur," returned the same officer, "we shall chase them back." "Yes," muttered the Marshal between his teeth, "we shall see if they come."

At this moment arrived the canteen mule, long impatiently expected. There was no table, but one was made by laying a door across some casks; seats were improvised with boards. The principal officers sat down, the others ate standing. The curé took his place at the military table, on which he had himself set the best bottles from his cellar, and his good-natured simplicity continued to enliven the guests. The conversation happened to turn on the situation of Herbisse and the neighborhood. The curé could not recover from his astonishment on finding that his guests knew the region even in its least details. "Ah!" said he, looking at them one after another, "So you are all Champagne men?" To put an end to his surprise, these gentlemen drew plans from their pockets on which they showed him the names of the smallest localities. But then his amazement merely changed its object; he had never imagined that military science required such exact studies. "What labors!" he repeated, "what exertions! and all that to fire cannon-balls!" The supper ended, the next thing was how to sleep, and a shelter and some straw was found in neighboring barns. Nobody remained outside, and near the door of the chamber occupied by the Emperor, but the officers on duty, Roustan, and me. Each had his bundle of hay for a bed. Our worthy host, having relinquished his own to His Majesty, stayed with us and rested as we did from his fatigues of the day. He was yet in his first sleep when the headquarters left the presbytery, for the Emperor rose and departed before daybreak. The curé, on awaking, manifested much chagrin at not having been able to bid His Majesty adieu. He was handed a purse containing the sum which the Emperor, when he stopped at the houses of private persons not greatly favored by fortune, was accustomed to leave behind him as an indemnity for their expense and trouble, and we resumed our march after the Emperor, who was hastening to meet the Prussians.

The Emperor wished to arrive at Soissons before the allies; but although they had had to traverse difficult roads, they were in advance of our troops, and on entering Ferté, the Emperor saw them retire upon Soissons. He was delighted to see it. Soissons was defended by a good garrison, and might delay the enemy, while Marshals Marmont and Mortier and His Majesty in person, attacking Blücher on the rear and the two flanks, would shut them up in a trap. But again the enemy escaped the combinations of the Emperor just when he expected to seize him. Hardly had Blücher presented himself before Soissons when the gates were opened to him. General Moreau, commandant of the place, bad already delivered the city to Bülow, and thus assured to the allies the passage of the Aisne. On receiving this discouraging news, the Emperor exclaimed: "That name of Moreau has always been fatal to me!"

Continuing nevertheless his pursuit of the Prussians, His Majesty occupied himself with preventing the passage of the Aisne. March 5, he sent General Nansouty forward, who, with his cavalry, tore up the bridge, repulsed the enemy, and made a Russian colonel prisoner. After passing the night at Béry-au-Bach, the Emperor was marching on Laon, when some one informed him that the enemy was coming to meet us. It was not the Prussians, but a Russian army corps commanded by Sacken. On advancing, we found the Russians established on the heights of Craonne, and covering the Laon road. Their position seemed unassailable. Nevertheless our vanguard, led by Marshal Ney, rushed forward and succeeded in occupying Craonne. It was enough for that day, and the night was spent on both sides in preparing for the morrow's battle. The Emperor passed that night in the village of Corbeny, but without going to bed. Inhabitants from the neighboring villages were arriving every hour with information concerning the position of the enemy and the lay of the ground. His Majesty interrogated them himself, praised or even rewarded them for their zeal, and availed himself of their services and their knowledge. Thus, for example, having recognized in the mayor of a commune in the environs of Craoune one of his former comrades in the regiment of La Fère, he made him one of his aides-de-camp, and utilized him as a guide over this ground which no one knew better than he. M. de Bussy (such was the name of this officer) had left France during the Terror, and since his return had never resumed service, but lived in retirement on his estates.

The Emperor met still another of his former companions-in-arms of the La Fère regiment that night: this was an Alsatian named Wolff, who had been an artillery sergeant, with the Emperor and M. de Bussy as his superiors. He came from Strasburg, and testified to the good dispositions of the inhabitants in all the departments he had passed through. The shock given to the allied armies by the first attacks of the Emperor had been felt as far as the frontiers, and on all the roads the peasants had risen in arms, cut off the retreat, and killed a great many of the enemy. Partisan corps had been formed in the Vosges, led by officers of tried courage and accustomed to this style of warfare. The garrisons of the cities and strongholds of the East were full of courage and determination, and it would not be by their good will if France did not become, according to the wish expressed by the Emperor, the grave of the foreign armies. The brave Wolff, after having given this information to His Majesty, repeated it in the presence of many other persons, of whom I was one. He only stayed a few hours to rest himself, and then departed; but the Emperor did not dismiss him until he had decorated him with the cross of honor in recompense of his devotion.

The battle of Craonne began, or, rather, began again, at daybreak on the 7th. The infantry was commanded by Prince de la Moskowa and the Duc de Bellune, who was wounded on that day. Generals Grouchy and Nansouty, the first commanding the army cavalry and the second the cavalry of the guard, also received serious wounds. The difficulty was to hold the heights, not to ascend them. Nevertheless the French artillery, directed by the modest and skilful General Drouot, forced that of the enemy to cede the ground, little by little ; but it was a horribly bloody struggle. The two sides of this hill were too craggy to admit of the Russians' being attacked in flank, so that their retreat was slow and murderous. They recoiled nevertheless, and abandoned the field of battle to our troops. Pursued as far as the Angel Guardian tavern, they wheeled and kept up the fight for some hours longer in that locality.

The Emperor, who in this battle, as in all others of the campaign, had fought bravely and incurred as many dangers as the most exposed soldier, transferred his imperial quarters to the hamlet of Bray. Hardly had he entered the chamber which served as his cabinet, when he called me, took his boots off while leaning on my shoulder, but without saying a word, threw his sword and hat on the table, and stretched himself on his bed with a profound sigh, or rather with one of those exclamations of which one cannot say whether they are caused by discouragement or merely by fatigue. His Majesty's countenance was sorrowful and anxious; nevertheless he slept the sleep of lassitude for several hours. I awakened him to announce the arrival of M. de Rumigny, who brought despatches from Châtillon. In the existing disposition of the Emperor's mind, he seemed ready to accept all reasonable conditions which should be offered him; hence I avow that I had hopes (and many another beside me) that at last we were on the point of obtaining the peace so ardently desired. The Emperor received M. de Rumigny without witnesses, and the tête-à-tête lasted a long while. Nothing transpired of what was said, and it seemed to me that nothing good was to be inferred from this mystery. Very early the next morning, M. de Rumigny set off again for Châtillon, where the Duc de Vicenza was awaiting him, and from some words spoken by His Majesty as he was mounting his horse to go out to the outposts, it was easy to see that he had not yet been able to resign himself to the idea of making a peace which he regarded as dishonor.

While the Duc de Vicenza was at Châtillon or Lusigny to treat of peace, the Emperor's orders required him to delay or to press the conclusion of the treaty according to his successes or his disadvantages. At every gleam of hope he demanded more than they were willing to grant, and in this he imitated the example given him by the sovereign allies, whose requirements, ever since the armistice of Dresden, had gone on increasing as they came nearer France. When at last all was broken off, the Duc de Vicenza rejoined His Majesty at Saint-Dizier. I was in a little salon so close to the sleeping chamber that I could not avoid overhearing their conversation. As the Duc de Vicenza was continually returning to the charge and combating the Emperor's aversion to a positive decision, His Majesty exclaimed with great vehemence: "You are a Russian, Caulaincourt!" "No, Sire," the Duke responded quickly, ,no, I am a Frenchman! I think I prove it by urging Your Majesty to make peace."

The discussion was kept up with warmth, in terms which, unfortunately, I cannot recall. What I know well is that every time that the Duc de Vicenza insisted, and tried to make His Majesty appreciate the reasons which to him seemed to make peace indispensable, the Emperor would reply: "If I gain a battle, as I am sure to do, I shall be master and can exact better conditions. . . . The tomb of the Russians is marked out under the walls of Paris! My measures are all taken and victory cannot fail me."

After this interview, which lasted more than an hour, and in which the Duc de Vicenza could obtain nothing, I saw him leave the chamber of His Majesty. He rapidly crossed the salon in which I was. Nevertheless I had time enough to notice that his face was extremely animated, and that, yielding to his deep emotion, great tears were falling from his eyes. Doubtless he had been acutely wounded by what the Emperor had said of his fondness for the Russians. However that might be, I never saw the Duc de Vicenza again until at Fontainebleau.

Meanwhile the Emperor marched with the vanguard and wished to reach Laon by the evening of the 8th; but to gain that city it was necessary to pass over marshy grounds by means of a narrow embankment. The enemy held this road and opposed our passage. After several discharges of cannon had been exchanged, the Emperor put off until the next day the attack to force the passage, and came back, not to go to bed (for at this critical time he seldom went to bed), but to pass the night in the hamlet of Chavignon. In the middle of that night, General Flahaut came to announce to the Emperor that the commissioners of the allied powers had just broken off the conferences of Lusigny. The army was not informed of this, although the news would probably have surprised nobody. Before day, General Gourgaud set off at the head of a troop picked from among the bravest soldiers of the army, and following a cross-road to the left, in the middle of the marshes, fell unexpectedly upon the enemy, killed many of them under favor of the darkness, and drew the attention of the allied generals in his direction, while Marshal Ney, still at the head of the vanguard, took advantage of this audacious manœuvre to force the passage of the embankment. The whole army hastened to follow his movement, and in the evening of the 9th it was in sight of Laon and in battle array before the enemy, who occupied the city and the heights. The army corps of the Duc de Raguse had arrived by another road, and was also in line before the Russian and Prussian army. His Majesty passed the night in expediting his orders and preparing everything for the grand attack which was to take place at daybreak the next morning.

The appointed hour having arrived, I had hastily completed the Emperor's short toilet, and he had already put his foot in the stirrup, when some cavaliers belonging to the army corps of the Duc de Raguse were seen running up, on foot and breathless. His Majesty had them brought before him and demanded in an angry tone the cause of this disorder. They said that their bivouacs had been unexpectedly attacked by the enemy, that they and their comrades had offered every possible resistance to overwhelming forces, although they had barely time enough to seize their weapons; but that they had at last been obliged to give way to numbers, and that it was only by a miracle that they had escaped the massacre. "Yes," replied the Emperor, contracting his eyebrows, "by a miracle of agility: we shall see about that presently. What has become of the Marshal?" One of the soldiers said that he had seen the Duc de Raguse fall dead; another that he had been made prisoner. His Majesty sent his aidesde-camp and orderly officers to reconnoitre, and the report of the cavaliers turned out to be only too true. The enemy had not waited to be attacked; it had fallen on the army corps of the Duc de Raguse, surrounded it, and taken part of its artillery. The Marshal, however, had neither been wounded nor taken prisoner; he was on the road to Rheims, trying to arrest and bring back the remnant of his army corps.

The news of this disaster still further increased the chagrin of His Majesty. However, the enemy was beaten back as far as the gates of Laon ; but the retaking of this city had become impossible. After several fruitless attempts, or, rather, after several feigned attacks the object of which was to conceal his retreat from the enemy, the Emperor came back to Chavignon, where we passed the night. The next day, the 11th, we quitted this village and fell back on Soissons. His Majesty dismounted at the bishop's house, and at once summoned Marshal Mortier and the principal officers of the place, to consider with them the means of putting the city in a state of defence. For two days the Emperor shut himself up to work in his cabinet, never leaving it but to go and examine the ground, visit the fortifications, give his orders everywhere and superintend their execution! Amidst these preparations for defence, His Majesty learned that the city of Rheims had been taken by the Russian general Saint-Priest, in spite of the vigorous resistance of General Corbineau, whose fate was unknown, but who was believed to be dead or fallen into the hands of the Russians. His Majesty confided the defence of Soissons to the Marshal Duc de Trévise, and went himself toward Rheims by forced marches. We arrived that very evening at the gates of the city. The Russians were not expecting His Majesty there. Our soldiers began the battle without having taken any repose, and fought with the determinatiom which the presence and example of the Emperor never failed to inspire. The combat lasted all the evening and was even prolonged far into the night; but General Saint-Priest having been grievously wounded, the resistance of his troops began to weaken, and they abandoned the city about two o'clock in the morning. The Emperor and his army entered by one gate while the Russians were departing by another. The inhabitants crowded around His Majesty, who, before descending from his horse, inquired what damage the enemy was supposed to have inflicted. He was told that the city had suffered no damage except what must inevitably result from a sanguinary nocturnal fight, and that for the rest, the hostile general had maintained rigorous discipline among his troops during their stay and up to the moment of his retreat. Among the persons surrounding His Majesty at this time was the brave General Corbineau; he was in citizen's dress and had remained concealed and in disguise in a private house of the city. The next morning he again presented himself before His Majesty, who received him very well and complimented him on the courage he had displayed in circumstances so difficult. The Duc de Raguse had rejoined the Emperor under the walls of Rheims, and his army corps had assisted in the taking of the city. When he made his appearance before the Emperor, the latter had broken out into sharp and severe reproaches on the subject of the affair at Laon; but his anger was not of long duration. His Majesty soon resumed with the Marshal the friendly tone with which he habitually honored him. They had a long conference together, and the Duc de Raguse stayed to dinner with the Emperor.

His Majesty spent three days at Rheims, in order to give his troops time to rest and recruit themselves before continuing this rude campaign. They needed it; for old soldiers would have found it hard work to endure continual forced marches that always ended in a sanguinary battle; and yet the majority of the heroes who obeyed the orders of the Emperor with such indefatigable ardor were conscripts levied in all haste and sent to fight against troops inured to war and the best disciplined in Europe. Most of them had not even had time to learn how to drill, and took their first lesson in front of the enemy. Brave youth, which sacrificed itself without a murmur and to whom the Emperor never but once failed to do justice, in a matter which I have previously described, and in which M. Larrey played so fine a rôle! It is perfectly true, in fact, that the terrible campaign of 1814 was for the most part made with new recruits.

During the stay of three days which we made at Rheims, the Emperor beheld, with a lively joy that he did not try to conceal, the arrival of an army corps of six thousand men, brought to him by the faithful General Janssens. This reinforcement of experienced troops could not have come at a more timely moment. While our soldiers were regaining breath for the renewal of a desperate struggle, His Majesty was applying himself to the most varied tasks with his accustomed ardor. Even amidst the cares and dangers of war, the Emperor neglected not a single affair of the Empire; every day he worked for several hours with the Duc de Bassano, received couriers from Paris, dictated his responses, and fatigued his secretaries almost as much as he did his generals and soldiers. As for himself, he remained always indefatigable.