the emperor!
Long live our brave army!"

It is, besides, well known, that this portion of France has been warlike
from time immemorial. It is frontier ground; its inhabitants are nursed
amidst the din of arms; and arms are, consequently, held there in
honour. It was the common conversation in that quarter, that this war
would liberate Poland, so much attached to France; that the barbarians
of Asia, with whom Europe was threatened, would be driven back into
their native deserts; that Napoleon would once more return, loaded with
all the fruits of victory. Would not the eastern departments profit most
by that event? Up to that time, were they not indebted for their wealth
to war, which caused all the commerce of France with Europe to pass
through their hands? Blockaded, in fact, in every other quarter, the
empire only breathed and received its supplies through its eastern
provinces.

For ten years, their roads had been covered with travellers of all
ranks, hastening to admire the great nation, its daily embellished
metropolis, the _chefs-d'oeuvre_ of all the arts, and of all ages,
which victory had there assembled; and especially that extraordinary man
who seemed destined to carry the national glory beyond every degree of
glory hitherto known. Gratified in their interests, flattered in their
vanity, the people of the east of France owed every thing to victory.
Neither were they ungrateful; they followed the emperor with their
warmest wishes: on all sides were acclamations and triumphal arches; on
all sides the same intensity of devotion.

In Germany, there was less affection, but, perhaps, more homage.
Conquered and subjected, the Germans, either as soothing to their
vanity, or from habitual inclination for the marvellous, were tempted to
consider Napoleon as a supernatural being. Astonished, beside
themselves, and carried along by the universal impulse, these worthy
people exerted themselves to _be_, sincerely, all that it was requisite
to _seem_.

They hurried forward to line both sides of the long road by which the
emperor passed. Their princes quitted their capitals, and thronged the
towns, where the great arbiter of their destiny was to pass a few short
moments of his journey. The empress, and a numerous court, followed
Napoleon; he proceeded to confront the terrible risks of a distant and
perilous war, as if he were returning victorious and triumphant. This
was not the mode in which he was formerly accustomed to