erests of his new country
been inseparable from those of France. By refusing to enter into the
coalition he would have drawn on Sweden the anger of her formidable
neighbors, and with the throne he would have sacrificed and fruitlessly
ruined the nation which had adopted him. It was not to the Emperor he
owed his elevation. But King Joachim, on the contrary, owed everything
to the Emperor; for it was he who had given him one of his sisters as a
wife, who had given him a throne, and had treated him as well as, and
even better than, if he had been a brother. It was consequently the duty
of the King of Naples as well as his interest not to separate his cause
from that of France; for if the Emperor fell, how could the kings of his
own family, whom he had made, hope to stand? Both King Joseph and Jerome
had well understood this, and also the brave and loyal Prince Eugene, who
supported courageously in Italy the cause of his adopted father. If the
King of Naples had united with him they could together have marched on
Vienna, and this audacious but at the same time perfectly practicable
movement would have infallibly saved France.

These are some of the reflections I heard the Emperor make in speaking of
the treachery of the King of Naples, though in the first moments,
however, he did not reason so calmly. His anger was extreme, and with it
was mingled grief and emotions near akin to pity: "Murat!" cried he,
"Murat betray me! Murat sell himself to the English! The poor creature!
He imagines that if the allies succeed in overthrowing me they would
leave him the throne on which I have seated him. Poor fool! The worst
fate that can befall him is that his treachery should succeed; for he
would have less pity to expect from his new allies than from me."

The evening before his departure for the army, the Emperor received the
corps of officers of the National Parisian Guard, and the reception was
held in the great hall of the Tuileries. This ceremony was sad and
imposing. His Majesty presented himself before the assembly with her
Majesty the Empress, who held by the hand the King of Rome, aged three
years lacking two months. Although his speech on this occasion is
doubtless already well known, I repeat it here, as I do not wish that
these beautiful and solemn words of my former master should be wanting in
my Memoirs:

"GENTLEMEN, Officers of the National Guard,--It is with much
pleasure I see you assembled around me. I leave