erywhere intersected. The palace is a large
irregular building, composed of many squares, and fitted up in the
inside with the utmost splendour of imperial magnificence. We were there
shewn the apartments in which Napoleon dwelt during his stay in the
palace, after the capture of Paris by the allied troops; and the desk at
which he always wrote, and where his abdication was signed. It was
covered with white leather, scratched over in every direction, and
marked with innumerable wipings of the pen, among which we perceived his
own name, Napoleon, frequently written as in a very hurried and
irregular hand; and one sentence which began, Que Dieu, Napoleon,
Napoleon. The servants in the palace agreed in stating, that the
Emperor's gaiety and fortitude of mind never deserted him during the
ruin of his fortune; that he was engaged in his writing-chamber during
the greater part of the day, and walked for two hours on the terrace, in
close conversation with Marshal Ney. Several officers of the imperial
guard repeated the speech which he made to his troops on leaving them
after his abdication of the throne, which was precisely what appeared
in the English newspapers. So great was the enthusiasm produced by this
speech among the soldiers present, that it was received with shouts and
cries of Vive l'Empereur, A Paris, A Paris! and when he departed under
the custody of the allied Commissioners, the whole army wept; there was
not a dry eye in the multitude who were assembled to witness his
departure. Even the imperial guard, who had been trained in scenes of
suffering from their first entry into the service--who had been inured
for a long course of years to the daily sight of human misery, and had
constantly made a sport of all the afflictions which are fitted to move
the human heart, shared in the general grief; they seemed to forget the
degradation in which their commander was involved, the hardships to
which they had been exposed, and the destruction which he had brought
upon their brethren in arms; they remembered him when he stood
victorious on the field of Austerlitz, or passed in triumph through the
gates of Moscow; and shed over the fall of their Emperor those tears of
genuine sorrow which they denied to the deepest scenes of private
suffering, or the most aggravated instances of individual distress. It
is impossible not to regret that feelings so exalting to human nature
should have been awakened by one who shared so little i