From hearing so much of plots against his life, however, a painful impression was at length made on the Emperor. "I cannot conceive," said he to me, "how men liable to fall into my hands can be incessantly urging my assassination, and setting a price upon my head. Had I wished to get rid of them by similar means, they would long ago have been mingled with the dust. Like them, I could have found Georges, Brularts, and Maubreuils. Twenty times, if I had wished it, persons would have brought them to me bound hands and feet, dead or alive. I had always the foolish generosity, to despise their rage: I despise it still; but wo betide them, wo to all their infernal gang, if they dare touch one of my people! My blood boils, when I think, that they have dared, in the face of nations, to proscribe without trial the thousands of Frenchmen, who are marching with us: is this known to the army?"--"Yes, sire, some persons have had the imprudence, to spread the report, that we are all proclaimed out of the protection of the laws, and that some of the body guards and Chouans have set out to assassinate you: accordingly, the troops have sworn, to give them no quarter, and already two spies have with difficulty escaped being knocked on the head before my eyes."--"So much the worse, so much the worse; such are not my intentions. I wish not a single drop of French blood to be shed, not a single gun to be fired. Girard[67] must be desired to restrain his soldiers; write: "General Girard, I am informed, that your troops, being acquainted with the decrees of Paris, have resolved, by way of reprisals, to kill all the Royalists they meet: you will meet none but Frenchmen; I forbid you to fire a single musket: calm your soldiers; contradict the reports by which they are exasperated; tell them, that I will not enter Paris at their head, if their weapons be stained with French blood[68]."" [Footnote 67: He had just been appointed to the command of the advanced guard.] [Footnote 68: Napoleon had already given similar orders to General Cambronne. The following is his letter, which I reproach myself with not having quoted. "General Cambronne, to you I entrust my noblest campaign: all the French expect me with impatience: every where you will find none but friends: do not fire a single musket; I will not have my crown cost the French a drop of blood."] Ministers of the King, guilty authors of the parricidal ordinance of the 6th of March, read this and blush! The moment he was quitting Auxerre, the Emperor heard, that the Marseillese appeared to have an intention of annoying his rear. He gave orders to the general posted in echelon on the road, and set out without fear.