ontinual posting, always condescended to
receive me immediately. I gave him an account of every thing, that
could be interesting to him. I did not omit to inform him, that the
enemy was already master of part of the environs of Paris; and that it
was important for him, to be on his guard. "I shall have no fear of
them to-morrow," said he to me; "I have promised Decres to set out,
and I will be gone to-night. I am tired of myself, of Paris, of
France. Make your preparations, and do not be out of the
way."--"Sire," answered I, "when I promised yesterday, to attend your
Majesty, I consulted only my attachment; but when I imparted this
resolution to my mother, she conjured me by her gray hairs, not to
desert her. Sire, she is seventy-four years old[75]: she is blind; my
brothers have perished in the field of honour; she has only me, me
alone in the world, to protect her: and I confess to your Majesty,
that I had not the heart to refuse her."--"You have done well," said
Napoleon to me, "you owe yourself to your mother: remain with her. If
at some future time you should be master of your own actions, come to
me: you will always be well received."--"Your Majesty is resolved,
then," I replied, "to depart?"--"What would you have me do here
now?"--"Your Majesty is right: but...."--"But what? would you have me
remain?"--"Sire, I confess to your Majesty, I cannot look on your
departure without alarm."--"In fact the path is difficult; but fortune
and a fair wind...."--"Ah, Sire! fortune is no longer in our favour:
besides, whither will your Majesty go?"--"I will go to the United
States. They will give me land, or I will buy some, and we will
cultivate it. I will end, where mankind began: I will live on the
produce of my fields and my flock."--"That will be very well, Sire:
but do you think, that the English will suffer you, to cultivate your
fields in peace?"--"Why not? what harm could I do them?"--"What harm,
Sire! Has your Majesty then forgotten, that you have made England
tremble? As long as you are alive, Sire, or at least at liberty, she
will dread the effects of your hatred and your genius. You were
perhaps less dangerous to her on the degraded throne of Louis XVIII.,
than you would be in the United States. The Americans love and admire
you: you have a great influence over them; and you would perhaps
excite them to enterprises fatal to England."--"What enterprises? The
English well know, that the Americans would lose their live