Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 193 — page 28: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ge Oe Oe _ which ediscipline; every smadron dressed to a nicety, “every man with violets in bis helmet. Then the 5th regiment of the line, which had been the first to break ranks and welcome the emperor at the Bridge of Poot Haut, though “ordered to fire by their Royalist colonel. Then the La:cers of the Guard and the famous -old Grenadiers, with their tall bearskins, and around all the people, shouting like so many ‘maniacs, Truly there was no doubting the sentiment of France on the return from Elba. It was the welcome of children to a father; and all the country adored Napoleon. The next day they advanced toward Lyons, sand the garrison turned out to swell the army, while the people raved with loyalty, in true -French style. They acdvarced from Lyons to the north; «every where the Royalists skurrying off like rab- bits; the people running out to shout: “ Vive "Empereur !” Not a shot fired, and yet tons of powder ‘burned in salutes, while the rockets were going up all over the country. On the 10th of March they entered Lyons, sand on the next day moved forward. Marshal Macdonald, true to his promise to the Bourbons, refused to join the army, and posted ‘to Paris, where Louis XVIII., paralyzed with terror, was issuing orders to the marshals to “‘briog him the head of the Usurper.” On marched the little army, swelled from day to day, at a leisurely pace, through a smil- ing country, green with early vale, and on the 17th of March came the news that Ney, Duke of Elchingen, was coming to take the em — in obedience to orders from uis, ror ing And at Auxerre they met him, but not to yield to Ney. The veteran marshal’s troops were drawn up in line of battle when the black shakos of the Oid Guard came nodding down the hill toward them, and the sight was too much for Ney. He faltered and hesitated, till he saw the “well-remem.bered figure of his master, and then he broke down and sobbed out: “My emperor! my emperor |” Three days later, the army was at the old Forest of Fontainebleau: and the first man Ga- ‘briel Lenoir saw there was the Baron de Belle- ‘ville, waving. his hat and shouting like a amaniac: ‘* VirelEmpereur !” Even the old legitimist was not preof against ‘the magic of Napoleon's name. That very night the emperor, taking one of his own carriages from the stable at Fontaine- bleau, where it had lain unused for a year, posted to Paris, with only the Death’s Heads to escort him, and entered the capital, amid the thunder of cannon and the hissing of rockets, once more the master of France. For King Louis, like a true Bourbon, had pre- ferred safety in flight to peril with honor, and had taken post-horses to Calais the moment he heard the emperor was at Fontainebleau. That gy the great Napoleon, eg On the arm of the Count of Friedland, ascended the grand staircase of the Tuileries, the cheers of the people outside shaking the air, and threw himself on a sofa in the throne room, Ney was near him, and a crowd of young officers, but he looked usround as if he misse some one and sighed slightly: ‘* Ah, count,” he said in a low voice to Gabriel, “you are a happy man.” ‘I hope to be, sire, in your majesty’s ser- vice,” | ‘Yes, you are a ha PY. man. Your wife loves you, and your child is with us. Mine are away in Austria. Ah, count, I wasa fool to separate from Josephine. No one ever loved me as she did. She would not be in Vienna But srg om was dead. Napoleon’s first fall had killed her. CHAPTER XL. THE HUNDRED DAYS. AND once more Gabriel, Count of Friedland, wore the blue-and-silver of Master of the Horse, and lodged in the Tuileries, ut not for long. ‘e was an uneasy sense of impending evil in the air—the old faces of the pire were not there, and young men were to be seen about the palace instead. Of all the old marshals, Ney and Soult alone 1 had come to the side of their chief. Macdonald and Marmont held aloof. Oudinot, Davoust, Lannes, Duroc, Murat, Bessieres, Berthier, Au- ereau—not one of them was to be seen. me ead, others gone to join the Bourbons or sulking in retirement. The le were for Nupoleon, the old chiefs were afraid to join him. Ab, those Hundred Days! how they fled awa in the work of re-creating a nation, while, outside the frontiers, all Europe was gathering to crush anew the aspirations of a people and force on unhappy France the hated rule of the Bourbon. Gabriel was kept too busy to think much, and the emperor retained the same cold impassivity had always marked him in time of great — — 5 Yet it was noticed that he was gentler and less abrupt than he had been in the days of his ower, when Europe trembled before him. isfortune had taught him her lesson. Nota drop of blood stained his restoration, and the pera idolized him as when he came back from pt. But it was not to be for long. April fled like a shadow, and the country was settling into eace, when the news came that the English ad landed in Holland, and that Blucher’s Prus- sians were in full march to join them. France was to be invaded again, as in 1793, to force a hated king on an unwilling ne ae And then the old soldiers of Marengo, Auster- litz, Jena, Friedland and Wagram were hurry- iug to their standards, and once more France became a camp. It was one against six, and the issue could not be doubted, for Napoleon had shown the rest of Europe how to win battles, and had said himself that: ‘‘God marches always with the big bat- talions.” But the old soldiers never cared for the odds, Had they not the Great Napoleon for a leader, whose name alone was worth an army? They used to say to each other: ‘Well, the fun’s not over yet.” ** No; we've beaten all the rest Now it only remains to finish the English, and then we can have rest.” ; ‘Yes, yes, we can beat the English, and then the rest will run away.” The Death’s Head Cuirassiers remained in barracks at Versailles. them his Guard of Honor, an special favors. The veterans held themselves in the grim | fashion of the old grumblers of the army, and pretended that they did not care for the honors, but they were as proud as peacocks, , And yet, in those Hundred Days there was a strange leck of all that had made the Tuileries Bay in the old times. here were no ladies there, The Empress Marie Louise was at Vienna with her father, the Kaiser of Austria, and bad refused to come back, or was prevented from so doing. The little King of Rome was with her, and the Emperor of the French had the humiliation of knowing that his second wife despised him as a parvenu, And poor Josephine had died the year before, only a few days after the abdication at Fon- tainebleau. Napoleon’s misfortunes had killed her, and there was no one left to love the soli- tary Man of Destiny for himself alone. ay came, and with it the flowers. May ripened into June, and still the war-cloud had not burst. Then one day the emperor said to Gabriel in a quiet way; ‘* Do you remember The Man in Red?’ “IT do, sire. Has he come in?” The emperor bowed his head gravety. ‘“‘ He was here last night.” “In the Tuileries, sire?” ‘‘ Yes, in the Tuileries. Do you yet know who he is?” Gabriel hesitated. ‘*I know who he claims to be, sire.” The emperor looked at him keenly. ‘*'You once told me you did not.” ‘I told the truth, sire.” **Since when have you known?” ** Since your majesty went to Elba.” ** How did you know it?” “T met the man himself at Fontainebleau, and he told me.” ‘*Do you believe he is the man he claims to be or not?” ‘*T hesitate, sire. I am inclined to think him a! a madman or an impostor.” o his surprise the emperor shook his head und answered; “He is neither. The man is what he claims to be. 1 thought he was killed—” ‘‘Cummitted suicide, sire, you mean?” ‘No, I mean killed. Listen, count. It may not be for long that we shall have an opportu- nity of confidence. I will tell you a story. I thought once he had slain himself. Afterward I found out a different state of things.” They were in the private cabinet of the Tui- leries, not so full of busy men as of yore, for the influence of past misfortunes was Visible during the Hundred Days, The emperor was sitting by his desk, and Gabriel stood before him in respectful attitude, to listen to the confidences of his fallen chief. How different, he could not help per et from the old days, when his master confided in no one. z The iron Man of Destiny began at last to feel the need of human sympathy. “I would not perhaps tell you this story,” began the emperor, “‘ but for the fact that. you are, 9s [ have found out, a relative of this man who hates me so violently. And yet I am not to blame for his hatred. I never harmed him lingly.” . *‘ Lam sure of that, sire.” The emperor smiled on him gratefully. “Tam glad you think that. I am used to be- The emperor had made > showed them | | | ———— | ' ] ' ' ing thought a sort of monster, who delights in blood, but I never had a hand in his fate, ‘* Listen. ‘*] met him at Brienne. My first year at the college was his last. I was but eleven when J entered, and he was seventeen and the tyrant of the school. He graduated when I was twelve but he was eighteen. Several times in that last year we quarreled. Iwas a passionate boy that would not submit to injustice, and he was used to lord it over the rest. I think he hated me from the moment he set eyes on me, and used to try all sorts of petty persccn ices on me in the playground. ce he ordered me, in an imperious tone, to do a nage Bs bim, and when I refused he struck me, He was nearly six feet high then, and I a small, puny_boy; yet I can remember bow I fought him. I had ut the weapons of nature, and I bit his hand deeply, while be nearly choked me to death be- fore | let go, being at the time senseless,” The emperor swept bis hand over his brow as if clearing away faded memories, It seemed strange to hear this mighty general speaking of his squabbles as a hoy at school. At last he resumed: ‘* Well, he graduated, and I forgot all about him for some years, till I was near my own time for graduating. When I reporied to my new regiment I found him acolonel of infantry, and my battery was attached to the garrison where he was. I remember that he scowled when I reported to him as the commander, and that he never said a civil word to me all the time I was on aaa there, ‘Then came the Revolution, and, as you know, Officers of talent who joined the popular party earned quick promo ion, I end 5 of bim in Holland as a general who gained battles and went up rapidly. I was only a captain at Tou- Jon, and after that fell into disgrace, and was out of the service for more than a year, till th» Reign of Terror was over. During that time he was high in favor; and yet, whenever we met, he took pains to be rude to me, I had no animosity against him. I had almost forgotten our quarrels in Brienne, ‘At last, as all the world knows, I had my chance at the Revolt of the Sections, and from thenceforward my history is that of France. When I took command of the Army of Italy, he was on the Rhine, but not in chief.command. I heard afterward that both he and Bernadotte were jealous of me for taking that army, but I can assure you, count, it was no pleasant post to lead a handful of starved, half-naked men, against three times their numbers of well-fed Austrians. Well, | beat the Austrians; he and Joubert were beaten by them. Joubert was killed and he was recalled, while Moreau saved the remnants of their army. After that I heard no more of him till after I came back from Egypt to be chosen first consul, Then I learned, to my surprise, that he, the ultra Jacobin, the fanatical Red Re ublican, had gone over to the Chouans. Why? I cannot tell; but to-day I honestly think only because he hated me, and I did not want to come under * orders.” , he emperor sat silent awhile, as if musing, and at last went on: ‘‘ You remember the Infernal Machine Plot? T am not certain to-day whether he was in it or not, but it is certain he was disguised in Paris and was captured, at the time Cadondal and the Duke D’ Enghien were arrested. Even Moreau was into that plot, I intended to have them tried ony: I wished to save my old schoolmate. I wished to make a friend of him, I knew he had talent, and I could have utilized it. Then one morning, like a thunderclap came the news that he had been fuund dea in prison, ae I sent for Fouche, and he told me that it was a suicide. I believed it, and it was not till rumors came from English papers, that I suspected otherwise. You see, count, even the first consul had not exact infor- mation about the doings of some of his own subordinates. That Fouche was a devil, Thank heaven, hejis not here now, Well, I sent for him, taxed him with the murder, and he bad the effrontery to tell me—what think you?” » “T cannot tell, sire.” ‘That he did it in my interest, because he knew that the general was a dangerous rival to me, and that he could not send Both him and Moreau to Cayenne together.” a7, ‘‘T wonder your majesty kept bim in the ser- vice after such interference.” ‘*T should not have done so, but Fouche was a useful man, I had no man like him for the police. Well, I thought no more of the matter tiJl the night before my Coronation. Then, for the first time, he came to me as The Man in Red. I have an impression now that he and Fouche must have been in secret league all the time. Ah, one never knows whom to trust, count. In the hight of my power I was sur- rounded by spies. He came to me, and I had no idea who it was. I thought him a madman, in his fantastic dress, He continued to visit me, each time on the day before some impor- tant event, when he would utter his lugubrious Qe and escape before he could be se’zed, have since found out that he was always a skillful conjuror, and had all sorts of illusions “Ss (E(0) 0)(0)(6) GOMNG eee a 2