Memoirs of the Private Life, Return, and Reign of Napoleon in 1815, Vol. I | Page 4

Pierre Antoine Edouard Fleury de Chaboulon
of hateful aggressions;
the war, as an unjustifiable act of violence. Disaffection increased.
Napoleon was assailed by the anger of his subjects, and, for the first
time, they upbraided him with having spilt their blood, and wasted their
riches, in gratifying his vain and culpable ambition.
At this juncture the public mind became absorbed in the contemplation
of the invasion of Russia, and the general discontent was withdrawn

from the events which had taken place in the peninsula.
Our arms were crowned with good fortune and glory at the
commencement of the Russian war; but that conflict was ended by a
catastrophe which has no parallel in the annals of the world.
The Emperor, who escaped almost alone from the perils of the
campaign, returned to the capital. His countenance was that of a hero
who defies adversity. But his firmness was deemed to be the result of
heartless insensibility. Instead of inspiring the people with hope, it
embittered their feelings. Louder murmurs broke forth; their
indignation expressed itself with greater emphasis. Yet such was the
enthusiasm which was even then inspired by the proud recollections of
the triumphs of Napoleon, that France, blushing for her disgrace,
implored him to win new victories. Armies formed themselves as if by
enchantment, and Napoleon stood again in the midst of Germany, more
terrible than ever.
After we had conquered at Lutzen, at Bautzen, and at Dresden, the
battle of Leipsic was fought[1]. Never before that day had we been
doomed to witness our national armies flying before the enemy. The
scattered wrecks of our battalions, which had been created by the last
hope, by the last effort of our country, at length reached our frontiers.
But our soldiers were no longer the vigorous and resolute warriors of
France; they were bowed down by want, toil, and humiliation. Soon
afterwards they were followed by wandering trains of military carriages,
loaded with diseased and wounded wretches, who festered beneath the
corpses amongst which they were heaped, and who at once absorbed
and diffused the germs of pestilence and contagion. Even the firmest
minds now yielded to despair; and the grief occasioned by the havoc
now made amongst our defenders renewed the sorrows of the mothers
and the wives of those who erewhile had perished in Russia and in
Spain. Curses upon Napoleon, the author of all these evils, resounded
from side to side of the empire.
[Footnote 1: The misfortunes of that eventful day, and of the remainder
of the campaign, were caused by the treachery of the Saxons and the
defection of the Princes of the Confederation of the Rhine.]

As long as good fortune waited upon Napoleon, his most ambitious
attempts commanded the applauses of the nation. We boasted of his
profound political wisdom, we extolled his genius, we worshipped his
courage. When his fortune changed, then his political wisdom was
called treachery, his genius, ambition, and his courage, fool-hardiness
and infatuation.
Napoleon was not to be depressed by ingratitude or misfortune. He
re-assembled the feeble fragments of his armies, and proclaimed aloud
that he would conquer or die at the head of his soldiery. This resolution
only produced a momentary impression. The French, who so lately
believed that the happiness and salvation of France depended only upon
the life of Napoleon, now coolly considered that his death, the fate
which he was prepared to encounter, afforded the only means of putting
an end to the calamities of war, for peace otherwise appeared
unattainable.
Napoleon departed. He achieved prodigies, but to no effect. National
spirit no longer existed, and the nation had gradually sunk into that
state of insensibility so fatal to sovereigns, when the public mind has
no perception of their dangers, and abandons them to their destiny.
France was thus affected when Napoleon consented to divest himself of
his crown[2]. The apathy of the nation drove him to this extremity; for
it deprived him of the means either of carrying on the war, or of making
peace.
[Footnote 2: Napoleon, according to the common report, was
frequently heard to repeat, after his abdication, "I have been ruined by
liberal ideas." I do not think that he ever expressed himself in this
manner. I do not intend to doubt the irresistible force which liberal
ideas have now acquired; but I do not think, that they contributed to
effect the first downfal of the imperial throne. Nobody thought about
liberal ideas at that period. France had been trained to the government
of Napoleon, and his despotism gave rise to no complaints. She was not
free in the manner according to which the nation now wishes to enjoy
liberty. But the liberty which France then possessed was enough for the
French. Napoleon would often exercise unlimited authority, but the

country had only one master, and he
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