Page:Napoleon's Addresses.djvu/130

126 winter laid the weight of a terrible calamity upon my army. In a few nights every thing changed. I met with great losses. My soul would have been crushed beneath their weight had I been accessible to any other feelings than the interest, the glory, and the future of my people.

"At sight of the evils that beset us, England's joy was great. Her hopes knew no bounds. She offered our finest provinces as a reward for treachery. As a condition of peace she proposed the extinction of this beautiful empire; which was in other terms a proclamation of perpetual war.

"The energy shown by my people under such grave circumstances, their devotion to the integrity of the empire, the love they have shown me, have dissipated all these chimeras and have brought our enemies to a more just appreciation of affairs.

"The misfortunes occasioned by the severity of the frosts demonstrated to their full extent the grandeur and solidity of this empire, founded upon the exertions and love of fifty million citizens, and upon the territorial resources of the most beautiful countries in the world."