Memoirs of the Private Life, Return, and Reign of Napoleon in 1815, Vol. IFleury de Chaboulon, Pierre Alexandre Édouard, baron
History
Memoirs of the Private Life, Return, and Reign of Napoleon in 1815, Vol. I
Fleury de Chaboulon, Pierre Alexandre Édouard, baron
Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821 -- Elba and the Hundred Days, 1814-1815
On the 8th the Moniteur and other newspapers announced, that Bonaparte
had landed with eleven hundred men, most of whom had already deserted
him; that he was wandering in the mountains, accompanied only by a few
individuals; that he had been refused provision, was in want of every
thing, and, pursued and on the point of being surrounded by the troops
sent against him from Toulon, Marseilles, Valence, and Grenoble, he
must speedily expiate his rash and criminal enterprise.
This news struck all parties with astonishment, and made different
impressions on them, according to their different sentiments and
opinions.
The discontented had no doubt of the success of the Emperor, and the
ruin of the Bourbons.
The courtiers regretted that there was not sufficient danger in this
mad and audacious enterprise, to give at least some value to their
attachment.
The emigrants looked at it with pity, turned it into ridicule; and, if
they had wanted nothing more than jests, abuse, and swaggering, to
beat Napoleon, there could have been no doubt of their victory.
The government itself participated in their boasting and security.
Fresh despatches soon made known the progress of Napoleon.
The Count d'Artois, the Duke of Orleans, and Marshal Macdonald, set
off hastily for Lyons.
The royalists were uneasy, the government removed their fears.
The Count d'Artois, they said, at the head of fifteen thousand
national guards, and ten thousand of the troops of the line, must stop
him before Lyons.
General Marchand, General Duverney, the Prince of Essling, and the
Duke d'Angouleme, were getting into his rear, and would cut off his
retreat.
General Le Courbe was manoeuvring on his flanks.
Marshal Oudinot was arriving with his faithful royal grenadiers.
The national guards of Marseilles, and the whole population of the
south, were marching from all quarters in pursuit of him; and it was
impossible for him to escape.
This was the 10th of March.
The next day an officer of the King's household appeared in the
balcony of the Tuileries, and, waving his hat, announced, that the
King had just received an official account of the Duke of Orleans, at
the head of twenty thousand men of the national guard of Lyons, having
attacked Bonaparte on the side towards Bourgoing, and completely
beaten him.
The same day information was given, that Generals d'Erlon, Lefevre
Desnouettes, and Lallemand, who had attempted to seduce the troops
under their orders, had completely failed, and taken flight[48].
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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