The Twin Lieutenants | Page 3

to all capitals? Beside, a deputation from the city of Madrid awaits you, and comes before you to ask the pardon you would accord. Now, ascend upon the platform of the Escurial. and listen; you will hear nothing more than echoes of victory !
Stay, here comes a wind from the east, bearing the sound of the actions of Cardeden Clinas, Slobregat, San Felice, and Molino-del-Rey; five new names to write in the journals, and five the more enemies in Catalonia.
Hold, here is the west wind, in its turn, which wafts gently to your ear the tidings that Soult has beaten Moore's rear guard and has made a Spanish division lay down its arms: then, better still, your lieutenant has passed over the body of the Spaniards; he has reached the English, who have thrown themselves into their vessels, which have opened their sails and disappeared, leaving upon the field of battle the general-in-chief and two generals slain,
Here comes the north wind which, all charged with flames, bears you the news of the taking of Saragossa. They fought twenty-eight days before entering the place, sire! and, twenty-eight days more after entering, where they cut their way from house to house, as at Sagonte, Numance and Calahorra! Men have resisted, women have struggled, children have fought, priests have encouraged! The French are masters of Saragossa, that is to say of what was a city and what is now but a ruin!
Here is the south wind bringing you the news of the taking of Oporto. The insurrection is smothered, or else extinguished in Spain; Portugal is overrun, that is reconquered; you have kept your word, sire! your eagles are planted upon the towers of Lisbon.
But where are you, O vanquisher! and why, as you have come, have you departed with a bound?
Ah! yes, your old enemy, England, has seduced Austria; she tells her that you are seven hundred leagues from Vienna, that you have need of all your forces around you, and that the moment is good to retake from you, whom Pope Pius the Seventh is going to excommunicate, like Henry IV. of Germany and Philip Augustus of France, the land of Italy and to drive you from Germany. Austria, the presumptuous, has believed it ! she has formed together five hundred thousand men, she has put them in the hands of her three Archdukes Charles, Louis and John, and has said to them: "Go, my black eagles! I give to your talons the red eagle of France."
On the 17th of January, Napoleon set off for Valladolid; the 18th, at midnight, he struck at the door of the Tuileries, saying "Open, it is the future conqueror of Eckmuhl and Wagram!"
The future conqueror of Eckmuhl and Wagram, however, returned to Paris in very bad humor.
The Spanish war, which he had believed useful, was one he had no sympathy for; but once engaged, it had had, at least this advantage, the drawing the English to the continent.
Like the Libyan giant, it was when he touched the earth that Napoleon felt really strong. If he had been Themistocles, he would have awaited the Persians at Athens, and not have detached Athens to transport it to the gulf of Salamis.
Fortune, that mistress who had always been so faithful to him, whom he had forced to accompany him from the Adige to the Nile, or to follow him from Niemen to Mancanarez, Fortune had betrayed him at Aboukir and at Trafalgar.
And it was at the moment when he had gained three victories over the English, killing two of their generals, wounding a third, and repulsing them into the sea as Hector had done to the Greeks in the absence of Achilles, that he had been forced to quit the Peninsula, upon the announcement of what was passing in Austria and also in France.
So, arriving at the Tuileries and entering his apartments, scarce throwing a glance upon the bed although it was two o'clock in the morning, and passing from his bed-chamber into his cabinet, he said:
"Let some one go and awaken the Archchancellor, and warn the Minister of Police and the Grand Elector that I await them, the first at four o'clock, the second at five."
"Ought her Majesty the Empress to be told of your Majesty's return?" inquired the usher to whom this order had been given.
The Emperor reflected a moment.
"No," said he; "I wish first to see the Minister of Police--only take care that I am not disturbed until his coming; I wish to sleep."
The usher went out and Napoleon remained alone.
Then turning his eyes to the clock he said:
"Quarter past two; at half after I shall awake."
And throwing himself upon an arm-chair, he extended his left hand upon the arm of the seat, passed his right band between his waistcoat and shirt, leaned his head