and remained
for several hours, in a state of collapse, without being able to collect
a thought or utter a word.

Some Royalists who rejoined him, and who had witnessed the execution,
surrounded the Abbe Edgeworth and reminded him of the adieu he had
addressed to the King: "Son of St. Louis, ascend to heaven!" These
words, however, memorable though they were, had left no trace on the
mind of him who had uttered them. "We heard them," said the witnesses of
the catastrophe, still moved and thrilled. "It is possible," he replied,
"but I do not remember having said such a thing."

Abbe Edgeworth lived a long life without ever being able to remember
whether he really did pronounce these words.

Mme. de Lezardiere, who had been seriously ill for more than a month,
was unable to support the shock of the death of Louis XVI. She died on
the very night of January 21.

II. ARRIVAL OF NAPOLEON IN PARIS. March 20, 1815.

History and contemporaneous memoirs have truncated, or badly related, or
even omitted altogether, certain details of the arrival of the Emperor
in Paris on March 20, 1815. But living witnesses are to be met with who
saw them and who rectify or complete them.

During the night of the 19th, the Emperor left Sens. He arrived at three
o'clock in the morning at Fontainebleau. Towards five o'clock, as day
was breaking, he reviewed the few troops he had taken with him and
those who had rallied to him at Fontainebleau itself. They were of every
corps, of every regiment, of all arms, a little of the Grand Army, a
little of the Guard. At six o'clock, the review being over, one hundred
and twenty lancers mounted their horses and went on ahead to wait for
him at Essonnes. These lancers were commanded by Colonel Galbois,
now lieutenant general, and who has recently distinguished himself at
Constantine.

They had been at Essonnes scarcely three-quarters of an hour, resting
their horses, when the carriage of the Emperor arrived. The escort of
lancers were in their saddles in the twinkling of an eye and surrounded
the carriage, which immediately started off again without having changed
horses. The Emperor stopped on the way at the large villages to receive
petitions from the inhabitants and the submission of the authorities,
and sometimes to listen to harangues. He was on the rear seat of the
carriage, with General Bertrand in full uniform seated on his left.
Colonel Galbois galloped beside the door on the Emperor