strength of character. Did I not
'decorate' you on the field of battle?"--"Yes, Sire."--Napoleon, with
greater warmth and confidence, "_Eh bien!_ how are they all treated in
France by the Bourbons?"--"Sire, the Bourbons have not realized the
expectations of the French, and the number of malcontents increases
every day."--Napoleon, sharply; "So much the worse, so much the worse:
but how, has not X. sent me any letters?"--"No, Sire; he was afraid
lest they might be taken from me; and as he thought that your Majesty,
being now compelled to be vigilant, and to distrust all the world,
might distrust me also, he has revealed several circumstances to me,
which are only known to your Majesty and to himself; thus enabling me
to give a proof that I am worthy of your Majesty's confidence."--"Let
us hear them." I began my detail, but he exclaimed, without allowing
me to finish, "that's enough; why did you not begin by telling me all
that? there is half an hour that we have lost." This storm[36]
disconcerted me. He perceived my confusion, and resumed his discourse
with mildness.--"Come, make yourself easy, and repeat to me, with the
greatest minuteness, all that has passed between you and X****." I
then related the circumstances which had induced me to have an
interview with Monsieur X****. I repeated our conversation word for
word. I gave him a complete account of all the faults and excesses of
the royal government; and I was going to draw the inferences which had
occurred to Monsieur X**** and me. But the Emperor, who, when he was
affected, was incapable of listening to any recital without
interrupting it, and making his comments at every moment, stopped my
mouth. "I thought so, too," said he, "when I abdicated, that the
Bourbons, instructed and disciplined by adversity, would not fall
again into the errors which ruined them in 1789. I thought that the
King would govern you '_en bon homme_.' This was the only way by which
he could obtain a pardon from you, for having been put upon you by
foreigners. But since they have stepped into France, they have done
nothing but acts of madness. Their treaty of the twenty-third of
April," (raising his voice,) "has made me deeply indignant: with one
stroke of the pen they have robbed France of Belgium, and of all the
territory acquired since the revolution. They have deprived the nation
of its docks, its arsenals, its fleets, its artillery, and the immense
_materiel_ which I had collected in th