Memoirs of Napoleon, vol 13 | Page 8

Emperor
Alexander had wished that on that day the one Frenchman more should
be surrounded only by Frenchmen, and that to prove that the presence
of the Bourbons was the signal of reconciliation his Majesty had
ordered 20,000 of the Allied troops to quit Paris. I know not to what the
presence of the Cossacks is to be attributed, but it was an awkward
circumstance at the time, and one which malevolence did not fail to
seize upon.
Two days only intervened between Monsieur's entrance into Paris and
the arrival of the Emperor of Austria. That monarch was not popular
among the Parisians. The line of conduct he had adopted was almost
generally condemned, for, even among those who lead most ardently
wished for the dethronement of his daughter, through their aversion to
the Bonaparte family, there were many who blamed the Emperor of
Austria's behaviour to Maria Louisa: they would have wished that, for
the honour of Francis II., he had unsuccessfully opposed the downfall
of the dynasty, whose alliance he considered as a safeguard in 1809.
This was the opinion which the mass of the people instinctively formed,
for they judged of the Emperor of Austria in his character of a father
and not in his character of a monarch; and as the rights of misfortune

are always sacred in France, more interest was felt for Maria Louisa
when she was known to be forsaken than when she was in the height of
her splendour. Francis II. had not seen his daughter since the day when
she left Vienna to unite her destiny with that of the master of half of
Europe, and I have already stated how he received the mission with
which Maria Louisa entrusted the Duc de Cadore.
I was then too intent on what was passing in Paris and at Fontainebleau
to observe with equal interest all the circumstances connected with the
fate of Maria Louisa, but I will present to the reader all the information
I was able to collect respecting that Princess during the period
immediately preceding her departure from France. She constantly
assured the persons about her that she could rely on her father. The
following words, which were faithfully reported to me, were addressed
by her to an officer who was at Blois during the mission of M. de
Champagny. "Even though it should be the intention of the Allied
sovereigns to dethrone the Emperor Napoleon, my father will not suffer
it. When he placed me on the throne of France he repeated to me
twenty times his determination to uphold me on it; and my father is an
honest man." I also know that the Empress, both at Blois and at Orleans,
expressed her regret at not having followed the advice of the members
of the Regency, who wished her to stay in Paris.
On leaving Orleans Maria Louisa proceeded to Rambouillet; and it was
not one of the least extraordinary circumstances of that eventful period
to see the sovereigns of Europe, the dethroned sovereigns of France,
and those who had come to resume the sceptre, all crowded together
within a circle of fifteen leagues round the capital. There was a
Bourbon at the Tuileries, Bonaparte at Fontainebleau, his wife and son
at Rambouillet, the repudiated Empress at Malmaison three leagues
distant, and the Emperors of Russia and Austria and the King of Prussia
in Paris.
When all her hopes had vanished Maria Louisa left Rambouillet to
return to Austria with her son. She did not obtain permission to see
Napoleon before her departure, though she had frequently expressed a
wish to that effect. Napoleon himself was aware of the embarrassment

which might have attended such a farewell, or otherwise he would no
doubt have made a parting interview with Maria Louisa one of the
clauses of the treaty of Paris and Fontainebleau, and of his definitive
act of abdication. I was informed at the time that the reason which
prevented Maria Louisa's wish from being acceded to was the fear that,
by one of those sudden impulses common to women, she might have
determined to unite herself to Napoleon's fallen fortune, and
accompany him to Elba; and the Emperor of Austria wished to have his
daughter back again.
Things had arrived at this point, and there was no possibility of
retracting from any of the decisions which had been formed when the
Emperor of Austria went to see his daughter at Rambouillet. I recollect
it was thought extraordinary at the time that the Emperor Alexander
should accompany him on this visit; and, indeed, the sight of the
sovereign, who was regarded as the head and arbiter of the coalition,
could not be agreeable to the dethroned Empress.
--[ Meneval (tome ii. p. 112), then with Maria Louisa as Secretary, who