From Rheims we turned towards Epernay, whose garrison and inhabitants had just repulsed the enemy who had endeavored to seize the place the previous evening. While there the Emperor heard of the arrival at Troyes of the Emperor Alexander and the King of Prussia. To evince to the inhabitants of Epernay his satisfaction with their admirable conduct, His Majesty rewarded them in the person of their mayor, to whom he gave the cross of the Legion of Honor. This was M. Moët, whose reputation has become almost as European as the renown of the wines of Champagne.

Without growing lavish of crosses of honor, His Majesty distributed several, during this campaign, to those of the inhabitants who had put themselves forward to repel the enemy. Thus, for example, I remember that before quitting Rheims he gave one to a simple farmer of the village of Selles, whose name I forget. This brave man, having learned that a detachment of Prussians was approaching his commune, had placed himself at the head of the National Guards, whom he had inflamed by his words and example, and the result of his enterprise was forty-five prisoners, three of them officers, whom he brought into the city.

How many incidents like this there were, which it is impossible to recall! However it may be with the numerous fine actions destined to oblivion, the Emperor, on quitting Epernay, marched on FéreChampenoise, I will no longer say in all haste, for that is an expression one should use for all the movements of His Majesty, who fell with the swiftness of an eagle on the point where he deemed his presence most essential. However, the hostile army which had crossed the Seine at Pont and at Nogent, having learned of the reoccupation of Rheims by the Emperor and comprehended the assault he planned upon its rear, began its retreat on the 17th and tore up in succession the bridges it had built at Pont, Nogent, and Arcis-sur-Aube. On the 18th was fought the battle of Fére-Champenoise, delivered by His Majesty to clear the road which separated him from Arcis-sur-Aube, where the Emperor and the King of Prussia were. Hearing of this new success, they beat a precipitate retreat on Troyes. The known intention of His Majesty at this time was to go back as far as Bar-sur-Aube; we had already crossed the Aube at Plancy and the Seine at Méry, but we had to fall back on Plancy. This was the 19th, the very day on which the Comte d'Artois arrived at Nancy and when the Congress of Châtillon was broken off, a matter I was constrained to speak of in the foregoing chapter by the order in which my souvenirs presented themselves.

March 20, as is well known, was a day of predestination in the Emperor's life, and was to become still more obviously so a year later. On March 20, 1814, the King of Rome was completing his third year, while the Emperor was exposing himself still more than usual, if that were possible. At the battle of Arcis-sur-Aube, which took place that day, His Majesty saw that at last he was to have new enemies to contend with; the Austrians came into line, and an immense army under command of Prince Schwarzenberg stretched out in front
of him, when he thought he was to have nothing on his hands but an affair of the advance guard. Hence, and the coincidence may not seem unimportant, the Austrian did not begin to fight seriously and to attack the Emperor in person until the day after the rupture of the Congress of Châtillon. Was this the result of accident, or had the Emperor of Austria desired to remain in the background and show respect for the person of his son-in-law so long as peace seemed possible? That is a question which is not my business to decide.

The battle of Arcis-sur-Aube was terrible; it did not finish with the day. The Emperor held the city, notwithstanding the combined efforts of an army of one hundred and thirty thousand fresh troops, attacking thirty thousand harassed by fatigue. The fighting went on during the night, when the burning faubourgs lighted up our defence and the works of the besiegers. To hold out longer became impossible, and yet there was but one remaining bridge across which the army could effect its retreat. The Emperor had another constructed, and the retreat commenced, but in good order, in spite of the numerous masses which were pressing us close. This unhappy affair was the most disastrous that His Majesty had yet experienced during the campaign, since the roads to the capital were now exposed; but the prodigies of genius and valor were unavailing against numbers. One thing capable of giving an idea of the presence of mind the Emperor was able to retain in the most critical situations, is that before evacuating Arcis he sent a considerable sum of money to the Sisters of Charity, to provide for the principal needs of the wounded.

In the evening of the 21st we arrived at Sommepuis, where the Emperor passed the night. There, for the first time, I heard him mention the name of the Bourbons. His Majesty was extremely agitated, and spoke of them in an interrupted manner, which prevented me from catching other words than these, which he repeated several times: "To recall them myself! . . . To recall the Bourbons. . . . What would the enemy say? No, no, impossible ! . . . Never!" These words, which escaped the Emperor in one of those preoccupations to which he was subject when his soul was under heavy pressure, struck me with inexpressible astonishment; for it bad never once occurred to me that there could be any other government in France than that of His Majesty. Besides, it can readily be imagined that in my position I had seldom heard any one speak of the Bourbons, unless it were the Empress Josephine, and that only in the early days of the Consulate, when I was still in her service.

The different divisions of the French army and the masses of the enemy were at this time so serried against each other, that the latter immediately occupied the points we were obliged to abandon; thus on the 22d the allies took possession of Epernay, and to punish that faithful city for the defence it had previously made, it was given over to pillage. Pillage! The Emperor called that the crime of war; many a time have I heard him emphatically express the horror with which it inspired him; hence he would never authorize it during the long series of his triumphs. Pillage! And yet every proclamation of our devastators impudently declared that they were making war on the Emperor alone, and people had the audacity to repeat it, and were stupid enough to believe it! On that point, I saw too thoroughly what I saw, ever to have believed in those ideal magnanimities so highly vaunted since.

The 23d we were at Saint-Dizier, where the Emperor had recurred to his first plan of attack on the rear of the enemy. The next day, as His Majesty was mounting his horse to march on Doulevent, an Austrian general officer was brought to him whose presence caused quite a sensation at headquarters, because it delayed for some minutes the departure of the Emperor. I soon learned that it was Baron Weissemberg, Austrian ambassador at London, who was returning from England. The Emperor invited him to follow him to Doulevent, where he gave him a verbal message for the Emperor of Austria, while Colonel Galbois was commissioned to carry a letter to that monarch which the Emperor had had written to him by the Duc de Vicenza. But in consequence of a movement of the French army on Chaumont and the Langres road, the Emperor of Austria, having been separated from the Emperor Alexander, had been obliged to retreat as far as Dijon. I remember that, on arriving at Doulevent, His Majesty received a secret notification from his faithful postmaster-general, M. de La Valette. This notice, whose contents I did not know, seemed to affect the Emperor keenly; but presently he seemed to resume his accustomed severity; for some time I had seen plainly that it was only an appearance. I have since learned that M. de La Valette had informed the Emperor that there was not an instant to lose if the capital were to be saved. Such a warning, coming from such a man, could not be other than the expression of the most exact truth; and it was that very conviction which increased the anxieties of the Emperor. Until then the news from Paris had been favorable; people were speaking there of the zeal and devotion of the National Guard, which never flagged. Patriotic pieces had been performed in various theatres, and notably at the Opéra the Oriflamme, 1 circumstances apparently very trifling, but which nevertheless produce an effect on enthusiastic minds which is not to be despised. In a word, all the news we had represented Paris as entirely devoted to His Majesty, and ready to defend itself against an attack. Assuredly, it was not lying news; the fine conduct of the National Guard under the orders of Marshal Moncey, the enthusiasm of the colleges, the bravery of the pupils of the Polytechnic School soon gave abundant proof of this; but events were stronger than men.

Meanwhile time was advancing; we were approaching the fatal dénouement; each day, each hour, beheld the immense masses hastening from all the extremities of Europe to straiten Paris, to crush it with their myriads of arms, and during those last days one might say that the fighting was continual. On the 26th again, the Emperor, summoned by the noise of rather heavy firing, had marched on Saint-Dizier. Attacked by much superior forces, his rearguard had been forced to evacuate that city; but General Milhaud and General Sébastiani repulsed the enemy across the Marne, at the ford of Valcourt; the presence of the Emperor produced its usual effect, we re-entered Saint-Dizier, and the enemy dispersed in the greatest disorder over the road of Vitry-le-Français and that of Bar-sur-Ornain. The Emperor moved on the latter city, thinking that it was Prince Schwarzenberg he had against him; as he was on the point of arriving, he learned that it was no longer the Austrian generalissimo whom he had fought, but only one of his lieutenants, Count Witzingerode. Schwarzenberg had tricked him; he had effected his junction with Blücher as early as the 23d, and these two generals-in-chief of the coalition were urging their multitudes of soldiers on the capital.

Disastrous as the tidings might be which were brought to headquarters, the Emperor wished to verify their accuracy in person. On returning from Saint-Dizier he rode toward Vitry, to make sure that the allies were marching on Paris. He saw them; all his doubts were dispelled. Would Paris hold out long enough to let him crush the enemy beneath its walls? Henceforward that was his sole, his only thought. At once he was at the head of his army, and we were marching toward Paris by the road of Troyes. At Doulencourt he received a courier from King Joseph, which announced the march of the allies on Paris. That very instant he sent General Dejean to his brother, to advise him of his near arrival. Let them defend themselves two days, two days only, and the allied armies would have caught sight of the walls of Paris only to find their grave there. In what anxiety the Emperor was then! He set out with his attendant squadrons; I accompanied him; and he left me for the first time at Troyes, in the morning of the 30th, as will be seen in the succeeding chapter.