by Eugène Sue
CHAPTER X.
DEPOSITION.
Although it was mid-June, the day touched its close towards eighto'clock in the evening. The shadows of night were already mingling withthe thick shade of the Elysian Garden, where Napoleon dismounted on hisreturn from Waterloo. A compact mass of people filled Marigny Alley, oneof whose sides was formed by the terrace of the palace, on which treesand verdure grew in profusion.
The throng was composed almost to a man of artisans or federated troopsof the suburbs. From time to time the buzzing of the vast multitude wasdominated by the cry from thousands of throats--"Down with theBourbons!"--"Down with the foreigners!"--"Down with thetraitors!"--"Arms!"--"To the front!"--"Long live the Emperor!"
As the evening wore on, however, that last cry of "Long live theEmperor," became more and more infrequent. The people understood at lastthat Napoleon, whose return they had acclaimed with such hopefulness,preferred rather to abandon France to the woes which hung over her thanto make an appeal to the spirit of Revolution. The Corsican ceased to bethe idol of the people. Cursed be the name of Napoleon!
At his post, gun on shoulder, John Lebrenn paced up and down the lengthof the terrace of the Elysian Garden. He heard the cries of thecrowd--"Down with the traitors"--"Down with the Bourbons"--"The Emperor,the Emperor!"--"War to the knife against the invaders!"
At that moment Napoleon, in a round hat and plain citizen's cloak,turned out of the alley which abutted on the terrace. The dethronedEmperor was walking, in a revery, his hands crossed behind his back. Inthe dark, and under the trees, he did not notice the sentry until closeupon him. When he did, he stopped short, and, falling into his usualhabit of questioning those whom he met, he said to Lebrenn, whopresented arms:
"Have you been in the service?"
"Yes, Sire," replied John. The thought flashed through his mind that hehad in the same words answered Louis Capet in his prison in the Temple;now he was calling Napoleon "Sire" on the day of his deposition.
"What campaigns were you in? Answer," commanded Napoleon.
"The campaign of 1794, in the Army of the Rhine and Moselle."
"Under the Republic! Have you served since?"
"No, Sire; I was married. I served the Republic."
"What is your profession?"
"I am a cloth merchant."
"In what quarter?"
"St. Denis Street."
"What say they of the Emperor among the merchants of St. Denis Street?Answer me without hunting for phrases."
At that moment a new cry burst from the throng below and reached theears of Napoleon:
"Down with the Bourbons!"
"Down with the traitors!"
"Arms! Arms! To the frontiers!"
"The Emperor, long live the Emperor!"
"Again?" said Napoleon, shrugging his shoulders; and then to Lebrenn,"Well, what do they say of me in St. Denis Street?"
"The most of the burghers look with repugnance upon a new Restoration;but for the commercial bourgeoisie, the Restoration, if it will onlyassure peace, means a renewal of business," replied Lebrenn.
"Always the same, these bourgeois," muttered Napoleon; "peace, business.Their mouths can shape no other words. Among them never the shadow ofnational sentiment! And what is the attitude of the people, theworkingmen of your quarter?"
"Some are astonished at your inaction, Sire; others are more severe;they arraign your general policies."
"Have I not always had my hands tied by the Chamber of Deputies, bybabblers, lawyers, and rainbow-chasers! They think only of orating, ofoverwhelming me with their reproaches, instead of aiding me to save thecountry. They balanced opinions like the Greeks in the lower world,while here the barbarians were at the gates of Paris. They are thewretches!"
"I was at St. Cloud in the days of Brumaire, Sire, when with yourgrenadiers you drove the Representatives of the people from their seats.Now, when the safety of the fatherland is at stake, why do you notemploy the same measures against the deputies who prevent your savingFrance?"
"The Five Hundred were Terrorists, malcontents, seditionists,assassins," said Napoleon quickly; "they merited death."
"I arrived shortly after the session of the Five Hundred. You ran nodanger. No poniard was raised against you. The Five Hundred were nomalcontents; they defended the law and the Constitution."
"You are a Jacobin."
"Yes, Sire; ever since '93; and I believe that to-day, as in '93, theRepublic single-handed could cope with coalized Europe--especially hadthe Republic your sword!"
Napoleon's face changed, and he smiled with that inscrutability mingledwith grace and good-fellowship which gave him, more than anything else,such influence over the simple-minded. "Ah, ah, Sir Jacobin," he said,"well for you it is that I find out so late what you are. You have nodoubt some influence in your quarter; I would have sent you to rot inVincennes, my new prison of state, at the bottom of a pit!"
Anew the cries from below broke out: "Down with the Bourbons!" "Arms!""To the frontiers!" "Long live the Emperor--War to the death against theforeigners!"
"Brave people!" said Napoleon. "They would let themselves still be hewedto pieces for me; and still they bear the weight of imposts, ofmunitions of war, while my Marshals and all the military chiefs whom Icovered with riches betray me. My role is played out. I shall go toAmerica and turn planter, and philosophize on the emptiness of humanevents! I shall write my campaigns, like Caesar."
"Sire, you forget France. Place your sword at her service; become againGeneral Bonaparte, as you were in the glorious days of Arcola andLodi--"
"Sir," broke in the Emperor impatiently and with emphasis, "when one hasbeen Emperor of the French, he does not step down. To fall, smitten bythe thunderbolt, is not debasement. Never shall I consent to becomeagain a simple general."
An aide-de-camp came up and joined the General. "Sire," he said,"Colonel Gourgaud awaits your Majesty's commands."
"Let him harness the six-horse coach and make his way out through thelarge gate of the Elysian Garden, to draw the attention of the mob aboutthe palace. I shall take the single-horse carriage and leave by theequerries' gate. Hold, I have another order for you."
Napoleon grasped the aide by the arm, addressed him in a low voice, andwalked off with him. Soon they both disappeared around the corner of thealley. The night was now black as pitch. Below, the cries of the peopleascended again:
"Arms! Arms!"
"To the frontiers!"
"The Emperor, the Emperor! War to the bitter end against the invaders!"
"Your Emperor, O people! is fleeing from you by night," soliloquizedJohn Lebrenn as he paced his weary round on the terrace. "He flees theduties to which your voice would call him. He might have enshrined hisname in a new glory, that would have been pure and bright forever. Butfate drives him on to terrible retribution--captivity, perhaps death.And thus will be avenged the coup d'etat of Brumaire, thus his attemptsagainst the liberty of the people. May the same fate fall upon all themonarchs of the world!"
EPILOGUE.
