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
The same day witnessed another scene. A chef d'escadron of hussars,
adorned with a sabre-cut in the face, came also to join us. He met an
extraordinarily good reception, and was even invited to breakfast at
the table of the great officers of the household. In wine there is
truth; and the new comer, forgetting his part, explained himself so
clearly, that it was easy to distinguish in him a false brother. He
told us, that the national guard of Paris, and all the imperial guard,
were for the King: that every soldier, who retained his fidelity, had
a gift of a hundred francs, every officer a thousand, and was promoted
a step, &c. &c; that Napoleon had been outlawed, and that if he were
taken.... At these words Colonel ***, who sat next him, seized him by
the collar; every body was for knocking him on the head at once; I
alone was against it. "Gentlemen," said I, "the Emperor will not hear
of any blood being shed; you have sworn to give no quarter to
assassins, but this man is not one; he is no doubt a spy. We are not
afraid of them; let them go, and report what they have seen to those
who have sent them: let us all drink the health of our Emperor, Long
live the Emperor!" He was spitten upon, turned out, and we saw him no
more.
Another deserter from the royal army presented himself, to reveal an
important secret, as he said, to the Emperor. The Emperor, who knew no
secret but strength, would not waste time in listening to him, and
sent him to me. He was an officer of hussars, the friend and
accomplice of Maubreuil. He did not think me worthy of his secrets,
and I introduced him to the grand Marshal. The substance of what he
said was, that he, as well as Maubreuil, had been commissioned by the
provisional government, and by very great persons, to assassinate the
Emperor, at the time of his departure for the island of Elba: that he
held in execration such an execrable crime, and would not commit it;
and that, after having once saved the life of Napoleon, he came to
place himself near his person, to make a rampart for him with his body
in case of necessity. He delivered to the grand Marshal a memorial of
Maubreuil's, and divers papers, of which the Emperor directed me to
give him an account. I examined them all with the greatest care. They
proved incontestably, that mysterious rendezvous had been given to
Maubreuil in the name of the provisional government; but they
contained no clue, that could enable any one to penetrate the object
and end of these secret conferences: the names of those illustrious
personages, whom some persons have since been desirous of implicating
in this odious plot, were not even mentioned in them. This officer
reaped no benefit from his disclosures, real or pretended, and
disappeared.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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