hed to speak of politics, when suddenly Aunt Gredel herself asked if
there was anything new. Mr. Goulden then said that the Emperor desired
peace, and that he wished to put himself in a condition of defence, in
order to warn our enemies that we were not afraid. He said that in any
case, in spite of the ill-feeling of the allies they would not dare to
attack us, that the Emperor Francis, though he had not much heart,
would not wish to overthrow his son-in-law and his own daughter and
grandson a second time, that it would be contrary to nature, and
besides that, the nation would rise _en masse_, that they would declare
the country to be in danger, and that it would not be a war of soldiers
alone, but of all Frenchmen against those who wished to oppress them,
that this would make the allied sovereigns reflect, etc., etc.

He said many other things which I do not recall. Aunt Gredel listened
without saying a word. She rose at last, and went to a closet and took
a piece of paper from a porringer, and, giving it to Mr. Goulden, said,
"Read this; such papers are all around the country; this came to me
from the Vicar Diemer. You will see whether peace is so certain."

As Mr. Goulden had left his spectacles at home, I read the paper. I
put all those old papers aside years and years ago, they have grown
yellow and no one thinks of them or speaks of them, and still it is
well to read them. How do we know what will happen? Those old kings
and emperors died after doing us all the harm possible, but their sons
and grandsons still live, and do not wish us overmuch good, and that
which they said then they may say again now, and those who lent their
aid to the fathers might incline to help their sons. Here is the paper.

"The Allied Powers which signed the treaty of Paris, assembled in
Congress at Vienna, having been informed of the escape of Napoleon
Bonaparte, and of his entrance into France with arms in his hands, owe
it to their dignity and to the interest of social order to make a
solemn declaration of the sentiments which this event has excited. In
violating the terms of the convention which placed him at Elba,
Bonaparte destroyed his only legal title to life; and in reappearing in
France with projects for disturbing the public peace, he has deprived
himself of the protection of the laws, and made it manifest to the
universe that there can be neither truce nor peace with him."

And so they continued through two lon