Part 43

The publication of the convention produced an effervescence not less formidable in the camps. The generals assembled, to protest against this impious act, and oppose its accomplishment. They declared, that the Prince of Eckmuhl, in whose house they had frequently caught M. de Vitrolles, had forfeited the esteem of the army, and was no longer worthy to command it. They repaired to General Vandamme, and offered him the command. But this officer, who had made one of the council of war, which they did not know, and approved its sentiments, refused his consent to their wishes. The soldiers, who had been made to swear by the representatives of the people, that they would never suffer the enemy to penetrate into the capital, spontaneously shared the indignation of their leaders; and declared, like them, that they would never consent, to surrender Paris. Some broke their arms, others brandished them in the air with curses and threats; all swore, to die on the spot, rather than desert it. A general insurrection appeared inevitable and at hand; when the General, alarmed at the calamities it might occasion, harangued the soldiers, and at length calmed their irritation. The imperial guard, yielding to the ascendancy the brave and loyal Drouot possessed over it, gave the first example of submission, and every thing was restored to order.

The government, to justify its conduct, and prevent similar insurrections in the other armies, and in the departments, published the following proclamation, a pompous tissue of eloquent impostures, and of fallacious promises.

"The Committee of Government to the French.

"Frenchmen,

"Under the difficult circumstances, in which the reins of government were entrusted to us, it was not in our power, to master the course of events, and repel every danger: but it was our duty, to protect the interests of the people, and of the army, equally compromised in the cause of a prince, abandoned by fortune and by the national will.

"It was our duty, to preserve to our country the precious remains of those brave legions, whose courage is superior to misfortune, and who have been the victims of a devotion, which their country now claims.

"It was our duty, to save the capital from the horrors of a siege, or the chances of a battle to maintain the public tranquillity amid the tumults and agitations of war, to support the hopes of the friends of liberty, amid the fears and anxieties of a suspicious foresight. It was above all our duty, to stop the useless effusion of blood. We had to choose between a secure national existence, or run the risk of exposing our country and its citizens to a general convulsion, that would leave behind it neither hope, nor a future.

"None of the means of defence, that time and our resources permitted, nothing that the service of the camps or of the city required, have we neglected.

"While the pacification of the West was concluding, plenipotentiaries went to meet the allied powers; and all the papers relative to this negotiation have been laid before our representatives.

"The fate of the capital is regulated by a convention: its inhabitants, whose firmness, courage, and perseverance, are above all praise, will retain the guarding of it. The declarations of the sovereigns of Europe must inspire too great confidence, their promises have been too solemn, for us to entertain any fears of our liberties, and of our dearest interests, being sacrificed to victory.

"At length we shall receive guarantees, that will prevent the alternate and transient triumphs of the factions, by which we have been agitated these five and twenty years; that will terminate our revolutions, and melt down under one common protection all the parties, to which they have given rise, and all those, against which they have contended.

"Those guarantees, which have hitherto existed only in our principles and in our courage, we shall find in our laws, in our constitution, in our representative system. For whatever may be the intelligence, the virtues, the personal qualities of a monarch, these can never suffice, to render the people secure against the oppressions of power, the prejudices of pride, the injustice of courts, and the ambition of courtiers.

"Frenchmen, peace is necessary to your commerce, to your arts, to the improvement of your morals, to the development of the resources remaining to you: be united, and you are at the end of your calamities. The repose of Europe is inseparable from yours. Europe is interested in your tranquillity, and in your happiness.

"Given at Paris, July the 5th, 1815.

(Signed) "The president of the committee,

"The Duke of OTRANTO."

By the terms of the convention, the first column of the French was to commence its march on the 4th. The soldiers, still irritated, declared they would not set out, till they received their arrears of pay. The treasury was empty, credit extinguished, the government at bay. The Prince of Eckmuhl proposed, to seize the funds of the bank: but this attempt struck the committee with horror. One resource alone, one only hope, remained: this was to invoke the support of a banker, at that time celebrated for his wealth, now celebrated for his public virtues. M. Lafitte was applied to: the chances of the future did not deter him; he listened only to the interest of his country; and several millions, distributed by his assistance through the ranks of the army, disarmed the mutineers, and crushed the seeds of a civil war.

The army began its march. Amid the despair, into which it had been plunged by the capitulation, it had frequently called on Napoleon! The committee, apprehensive that the Emperor, having no longer any measures to keep, would come and put himself in a state of desperation at the head of the patriots and soldiers, sent orders by a courier to General Beker, "to effect the arrival of Napoleon at Rochefort without delay; and, without departing from the respect due to him, to employ all the means necessary, to get him embarked; as his stay in France compromised the safety of the state, and was detrimental to the negotiations."

The retreat of the army, the occupation of Paris by the foreigners, and the presence of the King at Arnouville, unveiled the future; and those men who were not blinded by incurable illusions, prepared to fall again under the sway of the Bourbons.

Their partisans, their emissaries, their known agents (M. de Vitrolles and others) had asserted, that the King, ascribing the revolution of the 20th of March to the faults of his ministry, would shut his eyes to all that had passed; and that a general absolution would be the pledge of his return, and of his reconciliation with the French. This consolatory assertion had already surmounted the repugnance of many; when the proclamations of the 25th and 28th of June, issued at Cambray, made their appearance. These in fact acknowledged, that the ministers of the King had committed faults; but, far from promising a complete oblivion of those committed by his subjects, one of them, the work of the Duke of Feltre, on the contrary announced, "that the King, whose potent allies had cleared the way for him to his dominions, by dispersing the satellites of the tyrant, was hastening to return to them, to carry the existing laws into execution against the guilty."

Information was soon brought by the commissioners, returned from the head quarters of the allies, and confirmed by the reports of MM. Tromeling and Macirone, that Blucher and Wellington, already taking advantage of our weakness, openly declared, that the authority of the chambers and of the committee was illegal; and that the best thing they could do would be, to give in their resignations, and proclaim Louis XVIII.

All the good effected by the cajolery of M. Fouché, and the hope of a happy reconciliation, now disappeared. Consternation seized the weak-minded; indignation, men of a generous spirit. The committee, disappointed of the hope of obtaining Napoleon II., or the Duke of Orleans; who, according to the expression of the Duke of Wellington, would have been only an usurper of a good family; could no longer disguise from itself, that it was the intention of the foreign powers, to restore Louis XVIII. to the throne; but it had imagined, that his re-establishment would be the subject of an agreement between the nation, the allied monarchs, and Louis.

When it was acquainted with the language held by the enemy's generals, it foresaw, that the independence of the powers of the state, stipulated by the convention, would not be respected; and it deliberated, whether it would not be proper for it and the chambers, to retire behind the Loire with the army. This measure, worthy of the firmness of M. Carnot, who proposed it, was strongly combated by the Duke of Otranto. He declared, that this step would ruin France; "that the greater part of the generals would not assent to it, and that he himself would be the first, to refuse to quit Paris. That it was at Paris the whole must be decided: and that it was the duty of the committee to remain there, to protect the high interests confided to it, and contend for them to the last extremity."

The committee gave up the idea; not out of deference to the observations of M. Fouché, for he had lost all his empire over it; but because it was convinced on reflection, that things had gone too far, for any benefit to be expected from this desperate step. It would probably have rekindled the foreign war, and a civil war; and, though the soldiers might be depended on, their leaders could no longer be so, with the same security. Some, as General Sénéchal, had been stopped at the advanced posts, when going over to the Bourbons. Others had openly declared themselves in favour of Louis. The greater number appeared inflexible: but this difference of opinion had brought on distrust and dissensions; and in political wars all is lost, when there is a divergency of wills and opinions. Besides it would have been necessary, since the committee persisted in rejecting Napoleon, to place at the head of the army some other chief, whose name, sacred to glory, might serve as a stay and rallying point: and on whom could the choice of the committee fall?

Marshal Ney had been the first, to give the alarm, and despair of the safety of the country.

Marshal Soult had relinquished his command.

Marshal Massena, worn out by victories, had no longer the bodily strength, that circumstances required.

Marshal Macdonald, deaf to the shout of war raised by his old companions in arms, had suffered his sword, to remain peaceably in its scabbard.