of the wildest
excitement, with shouts of joy, gathered around Napoleon, crying _Vive
l'Empereur_!

After Waterloo and the exile to St. Helena, Labedoyere was arrested,
tried, and shot. It is said that the judges shed tears when they
condemned the noble young man to death. His young wife threw herself at
the feet of Louis XVIII., and, frantic with grief, cried out, "Pardon,
sire, pardon!" Louis replied, "My duty as a king ties my hands. I can
only pray for the soul of him whom justice has condemned."--_Abbott's
Life of Napoleon_, vol. ii. p. 110.]

"The night seemed to us very long. I spent it in writing my
proclamations, which I had not been willing to have printed in advance
for fear of some indiscretion. It was decided that we should remain in
that house until the colonel should notify me to proceed to the
barracks. We counted the hours, the minutes, the seconds. Six o'clock in
the morning was the moment indicated.

"How difficult it is to express what one experiences under such
circumstances. In a second one lives more than in ten years; for to
live is to make use of our organs, our senses, our faculties--of all the
parts of ourselves which impart the sentiment of our existence. And in
these critical moments our faculties, our organs, our senses, exalted to
the highest degree, are concentrated on one single point. It is the hour
which is to decide our entire destiny. One is strong when he can say to
himself, 'To-morrow I shall be the liberator of my country, or I shall
be dead.' One is greatly to be pitied when circumstances are such that
he can neither be one nor the other.

"Notwithstanding my precautions, the noise which a certain number of
persons meeting together can not help making, awoke the occupants of the
first story. We heard them rise and open their windows. It was five
o'clock. We redoubled our precautions, and they went to sleep again.

"At last the clock struck six. Never before did the sound of a clock
vibrate so violently in my heart. But a moment after the bugle from the
quarter of Austerlitz came to accelerate its throbbings. The great
moment was approaching. A very considerable tumult was heard in the
street. Soldiers passed shouting; horsemen rode at full gallop by our
windows. I sent an officer to ascertain the cause of the tumult. Had the
chief officer of the garrison been informed of our projects? Had we been
discovered? My messenger soon returned to say to me that the noise came
from s