We arrived on the 18th at Görlitz, where the Emperor found the Duc de Vicenza, who was returning from Bohemia. He confirmed the news His Majesty had already received at Dresden of the determination taken by the Emperor of Austria to make common cause with the Emperor of Russia, the King of Prussia, and Sweden against the husband of his daughter, of that princess he had given him as a pledge of peace. It was also from the Duc de Vicenza that the Emperor learned that General Blücher had just entered Silesia at the head of an army of one hundred thousand men, and that, without respect for the most sacred conventions, he had seized Breslau on the day before that fixed for the rupture of the armistice; that on the same day General Jomini, a Swiss by birth, but up to then in the service of France, chief of staff to Marshal Ney, and loaded with the benefits of the Emperor, had deserted his post and repaired to the headquarters of the Emperor Alexander, who had welcomed him with every demonstration of lively satisfaction.

The Duc de Vicenza entered into some details concerning this desertion which seemed to afflict His Majesty more than all the other tidings. He said, among other things, that when General Jomini had arrived in presence of Alexander, he found that monarch surrounded by chiefs, among whom some one pointed out General Moreau; and it was then that the Emperor received the first intimation of Moreau's presence at the enemy's headquarters. The Duc de Vicenza added that the Emperor Alexander had presented General Jomini to Moreau, who gave him a cool reception, which Jomini acknowledged by a simple inclination of the head, after which he retired without saying a word, and remained sorrowful and silent all the evening in a corner of the salon opposite to that where Moreau was standing. This coolness had not escaped the notice of Alexander; hence the next morning at his levee, addressing Marshal Ney's ex-chief of staff, he said: "General Jomini, what was the reason of what happened yesterday? I should have thought it would be agreeable to you to meet General Moreau." "Anywhere else, Sire." — "How so?" "If I had been born a Frenchman, like the General, I should not be in Your Majesty's camp to-day." The Duc de Vicenza having thus terminated his report to the Emperor, His Majesty said with a bitter smile: "I am sure that miserable Jomini thought he had performed a fine action. Ah! Caulaincourt, it is the deserters who will ruin me!" Possibly Moreau, in himself greeting Jomini coldly, had thought that if he had still been serving in the French army, he would not have played false with arms in his hand; and, after all, it is not an unnatural thing to find two traitors blushing at one another, each cherishing illusions concerning his own treason, and never thinking that the sentiment he experiences is also that which he inspires.

However it may be, the news imparted by M. de Caulaincourt to the Emperor caused him to make some alterations in the plans he had formed for the campaign. His Majesty did in reality give up the idea of moving in person on Berlin as he had manifested his intention of doing.

The Emperor, recognizing the prime necessity of knowing the truth about the march of the Austrian grand army, commanded by the Prince of Schwarzenberg, penetrated into Bohemia; but learning, through the army scouts and spies, that eighty thousand Russians had been left from the opposite side with a considerable body of Austrian troops, he retraced his steps, after several engagements in which his presence decided the victory, and on the 24th we found ourselves again at Bautzen. From this residence His Majesty despatched the King of Naples to Dresden to reassure the King of Saxony and the inhabitants of that city, who knew that the enemy was at its gates. The Emperor assured them that it would not be entered by the hostile forces, since he had returned to defend its approaches, urging them, nevertheless, not to allow themselves to be intimidated by a sudden attack that might be attempted by some isolated detachments. Murat arrived just at the right time, for we afterwards learned that a universal consternation was prevailing in the city; but such was the prestige attaching to the Emperor's promises that all regained courage on learning his presence.

While the King of Naples was fulfilling this mission, Colonel Gourgaud was summoned in the morning to the Emperor's tent, where I was at the time. "To-morrow I shall be on the road to Pirna," His Majesty said to him; "but I will stop at Stolpen. Do you make haste to Dresden; go with all speed; be there to-night. When you arrive, see the King of Naples, Durosnel, the Duc de Bassano, and Marshal Gouvion; reassure them all. See the Saxon Minister de Gersdorf also; tell him that you cannot see the King because you are leaving at once, but that to-morrow I can put forty thousand men into Dresden, and that I am preparing to arrive there with all the army. At daybreak go to the quarters of the commandant of the engineer corps; examine the redoubts and the enceinte of the city; and when you have thoroughly seen them, come back to me at Stolpen as fast as you can. Report to me the real condition of things, as well as the opinion of Marshal Saint-Cyr and the Duc de Bassano. Be off." The Colonel started instantly, without having broken his fast that day.

By eleven o'clock the next evening Colonel Gourgaud was back with the Emperor, after having executed all his commissions. Meanwhile, the allied army had come down into the plain of Dresden, and several attacks had already been made on the outposts. It appeared from the information given by the Colonel, that on the arrival of the King of Naples the city was in the greatest consternation, and had no hope but in the Emperor. Hordes of Cossacks were, in fact, already in sight of the faubourgs which they menaced, and their appearance had compelled the inhabitants of these faubourgs to seek shelter inside the city. "As I came away," said Colonel Gourgaud, "I saw a village in flames within half a league from the grand gardens, and Marshal Gouvion Saint-Cyr was preparing to evacuate that position." — "But after all," said the Emperor, sharply, "what is the opinion of the Duc de Bassano" "Sire, the Duc de Bassano thinks they will not be able to hold out for twenty-four hours longer." — "And you?" "I, Sire? . . . I think Dresden will be taken tomorrow, if Your Majesty is not there." — "Can I rely on what you tell me?" "Sire, I will answer for it with any head."

Thereupon His Majesty sent for General Haxo, and said to him, his finger on the map: "Vandamme is advancing by way of Pirna beyond the Elbe. The eagerness of the enemy to penetrate as far as Dresden has been extreme. Vandamme is going to find them on his rear. It had been my intention to sustain his movement with the whole army; but the fate of Dresden disturbs me, and I will not sacrifice that city. I can be there in a few hours, and I am going to do it, although it costs me much to abandon a plan which; if well executed, might enable me to be done with the allies once for all. Luckily, Vandamme is still in sufficient force to supplement the general movement by partial attacks which will harass the enemy. Tell him, therefore, that he is to advance from Pirna upon Ghiesubel, to gain the defiles of Peterswalde, and then, intrenched in this impregnable position, to await the result of what is about to take place under the walls of Dresden. It is to him that I reserve the task of picking up the sword of the vanquished. But he will need to keep cool and pay no attention to the uproar made by the fugitives. Explain thoroughly to General Vandamme what I expect from him. He will never have a finer chance to win the marshal's baton."

General Haxo set off that very moment; the Emperor called Colonel Gourgaud in again and told him to mount a fresh horse and go back to Dresden faster than he came, in order to announce his arrival. "The old guard will precede me," said the Emperor. "I hope they will not be afraid when they see them."

The morning of the 26th, the Emperor was on the Dresden bridge on horseback, and commencing amidst shouts of joy from the young and the old guard the preparations for that terrible battle which lasted three days.

It was ten o'clock in the morning when the inhabitants of Dresden, reduced to despair and talking loudly of capitulating, saw His Majesty arrive. The scene changed in an instant. To the most complete discouragement succeeded the strongest confidence, above all when the haughty cuirassiers of Latour-Maubourg defiled upon the bridge, heads up and eyes fixed on the neighboring acclivities surmounted by the enemy. The Emperor alighted at once at the palace, where the King was preparing to seek an asylum in the new city. The arrival of the great man altered his arrangements. This interview was extremely touching.

I do not pretend to enter into the details of those memorable days when the Emperor covered himself with glory and exposed himself to greater risks than he had ever before incurred. Pages, equerries, aides-de-camp, fell dead around him, balls pierced the body of his horses, but nothing could touch him; the soldiers beheld him and renewed their ardor in renewing their confidence and admiration. I will merely say that on the first day the Emperor did not re-enter the château until midnight, and spent all the hours until day in dictating orders while striding up and down, that at daybreak he remounted his horse, the weather being frightful, with a heavy rain that lasted all day. In the evening the enemy was completely routed; then the Emperor turned back toward the palace in a fearful condition. He had been on horseback since six o'clock, and the rain had not ceased for an instant; hence he was so wet that one could say without exaggeration that his boots took water by the collar of his coat: they were entirely filled with it. His hat of very fine beaver was so deformed that it was flapping on his shoulders; his leather belt was completely soaked with water; in a word, a man who has just been pulled out of the river is not wetter than the Emperor was. The King of Saxony, who was waiting for him, saw him in this condition and embraced him like a beloved son who has just escaped from a great danger; this excellent prince had tears in his eyes as he pressed the savior of his capital to his heart. After a few reassuring and affectionate words, the Emperor entered his apartment, leaving everywhere behind him traces of the water which was dripping from all parts of his clothing. I had great difficulty in undressing him. Knowing that the Emperor liked a bath after a fatiguing day, I had prepared one; but experiencing an extraordinary fatigue, accompanied by a very characteristic chill, His Majesty preferred to go to his bed, which I warmed with all speed. Hardly had the Emperor lain down when he summoned Baron Fain, one of his secretaries, to have him read his back correspondence, which was very voluminous.

He did not take his bath till afterwards; he had been in it but a few minutes when he was seized with an extraordinary distress, soon followed by fits of vomiting, which obliged him to go back to bed. Then His Majesty said to me: "My dear Constant, a little repose is indispensable to me; see that no one wakes me up unless for matters of the very greatest importance; say so to Fain." I obeyed the orders of the Emperor, after which I remained in the salon leading to his bedroom, watching with the rigor of a sentinel that no one should awaken him or even go near his apartment. The Emperor rang for me at a rather early hour the next morning, and I went in immediately, being anxious to know how he had passed the night. I found the Emperor almost entirely recovered and very cheerful; he told me, however, that he had had a rather high fever; I ought to add that to my knowledge this was the only time the Emperor had a fever, for, during all the time I was with him, I never saw him ill enough to keep his bed for twenty-four hours. He rose at his usual time. When he came down, the Emperor experienced a very lively satisfaction, occasioned by the good appearance of the battalion on duty. These brave grenadiers, who had served as his escort the day before, had re-entered Dresden with him in the most pitiable condition; but in the morning we saw them drawn up in the court of the château in splendid style and with their weapons as polished as on a parade day on the Place du Carrousel. These brave fellows had spent the night in cleaning and drying themselves around the great fires they had kindled for that purpose, thus preferring to sleep and the repose they must have needed so much, the satisfaction of presenting themselves in good condition before the Emperor. A word of approbation repaid them for their fatigues, and one may say that no military leader has ever been so beloved by his soldiers as was His Majesty.

The last courier who had arrived from Paris at Dresden, and whose despatches were read to the Emperor as I have said, was the bearer of several letters for me, from my family and two or three of my friends; and all those who have followed His Majesty on his campaigns, in any capacity whatever, know how precious is the news he receives from his own people. They wrote me, I remember, about a famous suit then in progress before the Court of Assizes between Michel the banker and Reynier. This scandalous affair made so much noise in the capital that it almost divided with the army news the interest and attention of the public. They wrote me, also, about the journey which the Empress was about to make to Cherbourg, to be present at the rupture of the dikes and the invasion of the harbor by the sea. This journey, as may be imagined, had been advised by the Emperor, who sought every occasion to bring the Empress before the public and make her perform acts of sovereignty as regent of the Empire. She convoked and presided over the council of ministers, and I have more than once beheld the Emperor felicitating himself, after the Austrian declaration of war, because his Louise, as he called her, was entirely devoted to the interests of France, and had nothing Austrian about her but her birth. Hence he left to her the satisfaction of publishing herself, and in her own name, all the official news from the army; no bulletins were drawn up any longer; the news was transmitted to her all written out; and there is no doubt that the object of this attention on the part of His Majesty was to render the Empress-regent more popular by making her the intermediary of governmental communications to the public. Moreover, it is strictly true that we, who were on the spot, though we were immediately informed of the winning of a battle or an unlucky reverse, were very often ignorant of the ensemble of the operations of the various corps manœuvring over an immense line, except through the means of the Parisian newspapers; it may be fancied, then, how eager we were to read them.