st
effort against the allies and the plan of renewing in America the
career now closed to him in Europe.

He certainly was not a prey to torpor and dumb despair. His brain
still clutched eagerly at public affairs, as if unable to realize that
they had slipped beyond his control; and his behaviour showed that he
was still _un etre politique_, with whom power was all in all. He
evinced few signs of deep emotion on bidding farewell to his devoted
followers: but whether this resulted from inner hardness, or
resentment at his fall, or a sense of dignified prudence, it is
impossible to say. When Denon, the designer of his medals, sobbed on
bidding him adieu, he remarked: _Mon cher, ne nous attendrissons pas:
il faut dans les crises comme celle-ci se conduire avec froid_. This
surely was one source of his power over an emotional people: his
feelings were the servant, not the master, of his reason.

Meanwhile the Prussians were drawing near to Paris. Early on the 29th
they were at Argenteuil, and Bluecher detached a flying column to seize
the bridge of Chatou over the Seine near Malmaison and carry off
Napoleon on the following night. But Davoust and Fouche warded off the
danger. While the Marshal had the nearest bridges of the Seine
barricaded or burnt, Fouche on the night of the 28th-29th sent an
order to Napoleon to leave at once for Rochefort and set sail with two
frigates, even though the English passports had not arrived.

He received the news calmly, and then with unusual animation requested
Becker to submit to the Government a scheme for rapidly rallying the
troops around Paris, whereupon he, _as General Bonaparte_, would
surprise first Bluecher and then Wellington--they were two days'
marches apart: then, after routing the foe, he would resume his
journey to the coast. The Commission would have none of it. The
reports showed that the French troops were so demoralized that success
was not to be hoped for.[532] And if a second Montmirail were snatched
from Bluecher, would it bring more of glory to Napoleon or of useless
bloodshed to France? Those who look on the world as an arena for the
exploits of heroes at the cost of ordinary mortals may applaud the
scheme. But could men who were responsible to France regard it as
anything but a final proof of Napoleon's perverse optimism, or a flash
of his unquenchable ambition, or a last mad bid for power? He showed
signs of anger on hearing of their refusal, but set out for Roc