The courtiers regretted that there was not sufficient danger in this mad and audacious enterprise, to give at least some value to their attachment.
The emigrants looked at it with pity, turned it into ridicule; and, if they had wanted nothing more than jests, abuse, and swaggering, to beat Napoleon, there could have been no doubt of their victory.
The government itself partic.i.p.ated in their boasting and security.
Fresh despatches soon made known the progress of Napoleon.
The Count d"Artois, the Duke of Orleans, and Marshal Macdonald, set off hastily for Lyons.
The royalists were uneasy, the government removed their fears.
The Count d"Artois, they said, at the head of fifteen thousand national guards, and ten thousand of the troops of the line, must stop him before Lyons.
General Marchand, General Duverney, the Prince of Essling, and the Duke d"Angouleme, were getting into his rear, and would cut off his retreat.
General Le Courbe was manuvring on his flanks.
Marshal Oudinot was arriving with his faithful royal grenadiers.
The national guards of Ma.r.s.eilles, and the whole population of the south, were marching from all quarters in pursuit of him; and it was impossible for him to escape.
This was the 10th of March.
The next day an officer of the King"s household appeared in the balcony of the Tuileries, and, waving his hat, announced, that the King had just received an official account of the Duke of Orleans, at the head of twenty thousand men of the national guard of Lyons, having attacked Bonaparte on the side towards Bourgoing, and completely beaten him.
The same day information was given, that Generals d"Erlon, Lefevre Desnouettes, and Lallemand, who had attempted to seduce the troops under their orders, had completely failed, and taken flight[48].
The malecontents were in doubt: the royalists were intoxicated.
On the 12th, the victory of the Duke of Orleans was contradicted. The official paper announced, that Bonaparte must have slept at Bourgoing; that he was expected to enter Lyons on the evening of the 10th of March; and that it appeared certain, that Gren.o.ble had not yet opened its gates to him.
The Count d"Artois soon arrived, and confirmed by his return the taking of Lyons, and the inutility of his efforts.
The alarm was renewed.
The King, whose countenance was at the same time dignified and affecting, invoked by eloquent proclamations the attachment of the French, and the courage and fidelity of the army.
The army maintained silence. The judicial bodies, the civil authorities, the order of advocates, and a number of individual citizens, answered the King"s appeal by addresses testifying their love and fidelity.
The two chambers equally laid at the foot of the throne the expression of their sentiments: but their language differed.
"Sire," said the Chamber of Peers, "hitherto paternal goodness has marked all the acts of your government[49]. If it be necessary that the laws should be rendered more severe, you would no doubt lament it; but the two chambers, animated with the same spirit, would be eager to concur in every measure that the importance of circ.u.mstances, and the safety of the people, may require."
"Whatever faults may have been committed," said the Chamber of Deputies, "the present is not the moment for inquiring into them. It is the duty of all of us, to unite against the common enemy, and afterwards endeavour, to render this crisis beneficial to the security of the throne and its public liberty."
The King did not stop at empty proclamations. He decreed,
That a new army should be a.s.sembled in front of Paris, under the orders of the Duke of Berri and the command of Marshal Macdonald:
That all the soldiers on furlough, or conditionally discharged, should rejoin their corps:
That all the half-pay officers should be called out:
That the three millions of national guards of the kingdom should take up arms, in order to check the factious and disperse their meetings, while the army took the field:
That the young national guards, who were desirous of forming a part of the acting army, should be armed and accoutred, and sent to the parts that were threatened.
That to render useful the services of those brave Frenchmen, who on all sides were demanding to be led against the enemy, battalions of royal volunteers should be formed, and make a part of the army of the Duke of Berri.
Marshal Ney, whose popularity and influence were well known, was appointed to take the command of the troops of the east.
The Duke de Feltre took the place of Marshal Soult.
In short, the King omitted nothing, that could concur in protecting his throne from the dangers, with which it was threatened.
Such measures, sufficient to stop an army of three hundred thousand men, could only attest the success of Napoleon; and yet the ministry daily caused the most encouraging reports to be spread among the people, and confirmed by the newspapers.
M. de Montesquiou, faithful to the system of deception he had adopted, continued to mislead the deputies, cheating them by false intelligence, and lulling them with hopes, which he himself no longer entertained. He knew the intoxication, which was excited in every place by the approach and pa.s.sage of Napoleon. He knew, that he was master of Gren.o.ble and Lyons; that the troops attempted to be opposed to him had joined his with enthusiasm: and nevertheless he announced to the chamber, "that the population of all the departments invaded by the adventurer of the island of Elba loudly manifested their indignation against this audacious robber; that they may have been surprised, but not subjugated; that all his summonses of places, and the orders he had attempted to issue to the local authorities, had been rejected with firmness; that the Lyonese had displayed the attachment, that was to be expected from their n.o.ble character; that the departments of Burgundy, Franche Comte, Lorraine, Champagne, Picardy, &c. &c. rivalled each other in their attachment and energy; that the good disposition of the troops was answerable to that of the citizens; and that all together, generals, officers, soldiers, and citizens, concurred in the defence of their country and of their King."
These political juggleries were not without effect. They satisfied some credulous men, and inflamed the courage and imaginations of a few youths. The enrolments of volunteers were more numerous: a certain number of pupils of the schools of law and physic offered their services, and traversed the streets of Paris, shouting "Long live the King! Down with the Corsican! Down with the tyrant! &c."
This effervescent movement could not be durable; and whatever pains were taken to deceive the metropolis, the truths announced by travellers and private letters opposed these ministerial falsehoods.
The defection of Marshal Ney soon came to tear off the veil, and spread affright and consternation among the ministers and their partisans.
The King repaired to the Chamber of Deputies, in the hope of confirming their attachment, and of dissipating by a solemn oath those doubts of his adherence to the charter, and of his intention to maintain it, which his ministers occasioned. Never was a more imposing and pathetic spectacle exhibited. What heart could steel itself against the sorrows of that august and aged man, against the sound of his mournful voice? Those prophetic words, "I fear nothing for myself, but I fear for France: at sixty years of age can I better close my career, than by dying in defence of the state?" These words of the King excited the most lively emotion, and tears in abundance fell from every eye.
The oath p.r.o.nounced by the King, to maintain the charter, was immediately repeated by the Count d"Artois, who had hitherto refrained from it. "We swear," said he, "on our honour, I and my family, to live and die faithful to our King, and to the const.i.tutional charter, which a.s.sures the happiness of France." But these tardy protestations could not repair the mischief, that the disloyal conduct of the government had done to the Bourbons and their cause.
In vain did the words country, liberty, and const.i.tution, recur in every discourse, and in every proclamation.
In vain was it solemnly promised, that France, as soon as it was delivered, should receive all the securities claimed by the public voice, and that the press should recover perfect freedom.
In vain was the l.u.s.tre and the prerogative, of which the legion of honour had been despoiled, offered to be restored to it.
In vain were pompous eulogies and brilliant promises lavished on the army.
The time was past.
The minister had robbed the King of confidence, which is the prime agent of the ascendancy of princes over the people; and of strength, which can alone supply the place of confidence, and command fear and obedience.
The approach of Napoleon;
The desertion of Marshal Ney;
The declaration made by those generals, who still retained their fidelity, that the troops would not fight against the Emperor, left the government no doubt of the fate that awaited it.
From that moment there was no longer harmony in their designs, or concert in the means of executing them.