Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/234

Rh 222 by forced marches, was too late. The military struggle is over ; the political struggle begins. Since 1804 there had been no independent political life in France. During the Russian expedition, indeed, a certain General Malet had spread a false report of Napoleon s death^ in Russia, and had produced a forged decree of the Senate restoring the republic. His attempt had for the moment had so much success that Napoleon had painfully felt the precariousness of his dynasty, the purely provisional character of the monarchy he had founded. Again, when Napoleon had made his last ap peal for help to the Corps Legislatif, Laine&quot; of Bordeaux had conjured the emperor, while he defended the coun try, to maintain the entire execution of the laws which guarantee to the French liberty, security, and property, and to the nation the free exercise of its political rights. Napoleon had replied with an outburst of indignation. But now at last it became necessary to take an independent resolution, for in the influential classes it began to be understood that Napoleon must fall, and in particular the generals asked themselves for what rational purpose troops were still levied and battles still fought. But not even the germs were visible of any authority that could replace that of Napoleon. Should he be succeeded by another general, or by a regency for his son, or by the Bourbons? The first course might have been possible had some Moreau been at hand ; even as it was, Bernadotte, who, like Napo leon, was a Jacobin developed into a prince, made preten sions which were favoured by the czar. Such a course would have been a revival of the consulate, but it would not have satisfied the republican party, while it would have been rejected by monarchists of every shade. In favour of the regency, as against the Bourbons, there was much to be said. It would not begin with a fantastic transformation-scene, and it would have a hold on the popular imagination. The decision fell out by a sort of accident. To a regency the natural road was by an abdication which would preserve the principle of inheritance. Such an abdication Napoleon gave. On April 4th he reviewed his troops at Fontainebleau, and announced his intention of attacking the allies in Paris. They received his words with enthu siasm ; but just at this point the mainstay of his power failed him. The military aristocracy, the marshals, refused to follow him, and Napoleon perceived in a moment that Napoleon the end was come. Though in arguing with them he had abdi- said that a regency of Marie Louise, whom he called &quot; a child,&quot; was impossible, yet he now abdicated on condition that his son should succeed under the regency of the empress. Ney, Macdonald, and Caulaincourt set out for Paris to negotiate the establishment of the regency. Napoleon s power rested first on the support of the great military magnates, but secondly on the great civil digni taries, lavishly enriched by him, whose organ was the Senate. While the marshals forced him to abdicate, his reign had been brought to an end in a wholly different way by the Senate. Talleyrand, vice-president of this body, who had for some time been intriguing in favour of the Bourbons, pronounced openly in favour of them before the sovereigns when they entered Paris. &quot; The regency,&quot; he said, &quot;was an intrigue; the Bourbons alone were a prin ciple.&quot; He convoked the Senate on April 1st, and on April 2d it voted the deposition of Napoleon and his family. This decision was ratified the next day by the Corps L^gislatif. Then occurred the abdication in favour of his family, which had the support of the army. The instrument was brought to Paris by not less than three famous mar shals, Ney and Macdonald having been joined on their way from Fontainebleau by Marmont. The two solutions were thus brought together before the allied sovereigns, of cates. [1814- whom Alexander was not favourably disposed to the Bour bons, and Francis was the father of Marie Louise. For a moment the balance trembled. But Marmont had been brought in contact, during his defence of Paris, with Talleyrand, and had committed him self to him before he knew of the view of the marshals. After evacuating Paris he had been stationed on the Essonne. Here he had entered into an engagement to place his corps at the service of the new provisional Government which the Senate had constituted ; the arrangement was that on April 5th the corps should quit its position and march into Normandy. But when the marshals passing through his camp from Fontainebleau told him of their commission, he had revealed his secret with expressions of penitence ; he had countermanded his orders to the inferior officers, and had gone with the marshals to Paris. In his absence, however, General Souham, influenced by a fear that the plot had become known to Napoleon, gave orders to the troops to march on Versailles. This appearance of division in the army was fatal to Napoleon s family. It decided Alexander to declare for the Bourbons, and Caulaincourt was instructed to demand from Napoleon an abdication pure and simple. In return he was to retain the title of emperor, and to have the island of Elba in sovereignty, while Marie Louise was to have a principality in Italy. By an irony of fortune the Government founded at Brumaire, in which everything had been sacrificed to military efficiency, was the only one of the three Govern ments of France since 1789 which actually succumbed before an invader. The total result of so many con quests was that France, which, when Napoleon s name was first heard of, was in substantial possession of Bel gium, the left bank of the Rhine, Savoy, and Nice, had now lost the first two acquisitions ; and we shall see what measures he took to deprive her of the other two. His fatal power of bewildering the popular mind was already at Avork again. This last campaign, the most unpatriotic he ever fought, had seemed to redeem his faults, and had given him the name of a heroic defender of his country. This view made Avay fast, as soon as he had the restored Bourbons for a foil. In the meantime, however, all the hatred, long sup pressed, of individuals and of parties broke loose upon him. For the moment he seems to have utterly lost heart. On the night of April llth, after signing the unconditional abdication, he is said to have taken a dose of a poison which ever since the Russian campaign he had kept by him. But vomitings, AVC are told, came on and saved him. On the 20th, when he bade farewell to his soldiers, he had resolved to live in order &quot; to narrate to posterity the great deeds Ave have done together.&quot; He soon found another object for life; but a year later, after another downfall far more complete and ignominious, he clings to life, and he clings to it afterwards in captivity. The soldiers idolized him still, and his parting scene at Fontainebleau, Avhen he kissed the eagle, was pathetic ; but when he reached the south of France he met with other demonstrations of feeling. At Avignon and Orgon the crowd attacked the carriages, and Avanted to throAV the tyrant into the Rhone. He was compelled to disguise himself. At the coast he He re was met by an English frigate which landed him on May 4th at Porto Ferraio, in Elba. It seems to have been arranged among the sovereigns that his wife and child were not to rejoin him, nor did he complain of this. Marie Louise set out on April 23d, and Avas at Schonbrunn again before the end of May. About the same time Josephine died at Malmaison, in the arms of her children Eugene and Hortense. It must have occurred to Napoleon very soon after his arrival in Elba that he was not yet driven to autobio- to