[23] The passage is curious, whether we regard it as really emanating from Fouché, or placed in the mouth of that active revolutionist by some one who well understood the genius of the party. "Had I been at Paris at that time," (the period of the siege, namely,) "the weight of my influence, doubtless, and my perfect acquaintance with the secrets of every party, would have enabled me to give these extraordinary events a very different direction. My preponderance, and the promptness of my decision, would have predominated over the more slow and mysterious influence of Talleyrand. That elevated personage could not have made his way unless we had been harnessed to the same car. I would have revealed to him the ramifications of my political plan, and, in spite of the odious policy of Savary, the ridiculous government of Cambacérès, the lieutenancy of the puppet Joseph, and the base spirit of the Senate, we would have breathed new life into the carcase of the Revolution, and these degraded patricians would not have thought of acting exclusively for their own interests. By our united impulse, we would have pronounced before the interference of any foreign influence, the dethronement of Napoleon, and proclaimed the Regency, of which I had already traced the basis. This conclusion was the only one which could have preserved the Revolution and its principles."--_Mémoires_, tom. ii., p. 229. [24] Las Cases, tom. ii., p. 251. [25] London Gazette, April 5.--"Early in the morning of the 31st March, before the barriers, were open, the soldiers of the allied army climbed up the pallisades of the barrier Rochechouard to look into Paris. They threw this proclamation over the wall, and through the iron gates."--_Memorable Events_, p. 124. [26] London Gazette Extraordinary, April 9. [27] "This magnificent pageant far surpassed any idea I had formed of military pomp. The cavalry were fifteen abreast, the artillery five, and the infantry thirty. All the men were remarkably clean, healthy, and well clothed. The bands of music were very fine. The people, astonished at the prodigious number of troops, repeatedly exclaimed, 'Oh! how we have been deceived.'"--_Memorable Events_, p. 106. CHAPTER LXXVIII. _Fears of the Parisians--Proceedings of Napoleon--Operations of the French Cavalry in rear of the Allies--Capture of Weissemberg--The Emperor Francis is nearly surprised--Napoleon reaches Troyes on the night of the 29th March--Opinion of Macdonald as to the possibility of relieving Paris--Napoleon leaves Troyes, on the 30th, and meets Belliard, a few miles from Paris, in full retreat--Conversation betwixt them--He determines to proceed to Paris, but is at length dissuaded--and despatches Caulaincourt to receive terms from the Allied Sovereigns--He himself returns to Fontainbleau._ [Sidenote: FEARS OF THE PARISIANS.]