as at Compiegne; that the
committee, apprehensive for his safety, dispensed with his waiting for
the safeconducts, and requested him to depart incognito. The Emperor
promised to depart: but, when he heard at a distance the first report
of a cannon, his whole body thrilled, and he lamented in a tone of
despair, that he was condemned to remain far from the field of battle.
He ordered General Beker to be called: "The enemy is at Compiegne; at
Senlis!" said he to him: "to-morrow he will be at the gates of Paris.
I cannot conceive the blindness of the government. A man must be mad,
or a traitor to his country, to question the bad faith of the foreign
powers. These people understand nothing of affairs." General Beker
made a motion with his head, which Napoleon took for a sign of
approbation, and he went on: "All is lost: is it not so? In this case,
let them make me general; I will command the array; I will immediately
demand this (_speaking in an authoritative tone_): General, you shall
carry my letter; set off immediately a carriage is ready for you.
Explain to them, that it is not my intention, to seize again the
sovereign power: that I will fight the enemy, beat them, and compel
them by victory, to give a favourable turn to the negotiations: that
afterward, this great point obtained, I will pursue my journey. Go,
general, I depend on you; you shall quit me no more."

[Footnote 73: His court, formerly so numerous, was now
customarily composed only of the Duke of Bassano, Count
Lavalette, General Flahaut, and the persons who were to
go with him, as the following orderly officers, General
Gourgaud, Counts Montholon and de Lascases, and the Duke
of Rovigo. The attachment, that induced the latter to
attend Napoleon, was so much the more to his honour, as
Napoleon, when he returned from the island of Elba,
reproached him very harshly with having neglected him.
He passes however in the opinion of the public, though
very erroneously, for being one of the contrivers of the
20th of March: but he had always to complain of the
public opinion. It imputes to him a number of wicked
actions, in which he had really no share, and which he
frequently indeed had endeavoured to prevent. The
Emperor employed him on all occas