on had taken, that there had been
no previous connexion between the Duke of Otranto and M. de
Metternich; convinced, that the life of the Emperor, and the safety of
the state, were not threatened; I changed my style, and proceeded
straight to the end, which I had principally in view; that of
endeavouring to establish, if not a reconciliation, at least
conferences between France and Austria.

"Do the allies then imagine," resumed I, "that it would be easy for M.
Fouche to stir France against Napoleon? There was a time, it is true,
when the Emperor was not liked; but the Bourbons have treated the
nation so ill, that they succeeded in rendering him regretted, so that
his enemies are become his partisans."

"What you tell me," answered M. Werner with astonishment, "is
completely the reverse of the reports, that reach us from Paris."

"I can assure you," continued I, "that they have deceived you. The
acclamations and good wishes, that accompanied Napoleon from the gulf
of Juan to Paris, ought however to have informed you, that he had in
his favour the unanimous suffrages of the army, and of the
nation."--"Say of the army."--"No: I persist in saying of the nation,
and of the army. From the moment when Napoleon re-appeared on French
ground, he was received with enthusiasm, not only by his soldiers,
but by the citizens also. If he had the suffrages of only a few
regiments in a state of insubordination, would he have traversed
France without any obstacle? Would he have received on his journey
that unanimous testimony of love and devotion, which the whole
population of Dauphiny, the Lyonese, and Burgundy, emulated each other
in displaying?"--"It is possible, that Bonaparte may have been well
received in some places; but a few solitary acclamations do not
express the wishes of a whole nation; and, had it not been for the
army, he would never have re-entered the Tuileries."--"It is certain,
that, if Napoleon had had the army against him, he could never have
dethroned Louis XVIII. with eight hundred men: but we must not
conclude, that, because the army declared for him, it was the army
alone, that re-established him on the throne. When he took Lyons, he
had with him only two thousand men; he had but eight thousand, when he
marched for Paris; and he had only eight hundred with him, when he
entered the capital. Had not the nation entertained the same
sentiments as the army, could he, with such a contemptible force, have
given the