Produced by Al Haines [Frontispiece: AS THEY CLIMBED UP THEY WERE CLUBBED WITH MUSKETS] HISTORICAL ROMANCES OF FRANCE THE INVASION OF FRANCE IN 1814 TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF ERCKMANN-CHATRIAN ILLUSTRATED CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS NEW YORK::::::::::::::::::::::1911 COPYRIGHT, 1889, 1898 BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS ILLUSTRATIONS _As they climbed up they were clubbed with muskets . . . Frontispiece_ _There was a general shout of_ "_Long live France!_" _Big Dubreuil; the friend of the allies_ _Yégof saluted each phantom with sparkling eyes_ "_Let us overwhelm them, as at Blutfeld!_" INTRODUCTORY NOTE The invasion of France by the allied armies after the battle of Leipsic had proved the German campaign even more disastrous than that of Russia the year before, was not only essentially the death-blow to the power of Napoleon, but was the first real taste France had had for many years of an experience she had so often previously meted out to her neighbors. In spite of all she had suffered from the conscription and from exhaustion of men and treasure in offensive war--or at least war waged outside her own territory--the great Invasion meant for her something far more terrible than any reverses she had yet undergone. Napoleon was not only not invincible, it appeared, he was not even able to defend the frontiers he had found firmly established on his accession to power. The allies had announced that they were warring not against France but against the French Emperor--"against the preponderance that Napoleon had too long exercised beyond the limits of his empire." Everywhere in France except in the official world of Paris, the once enchanted name of Napoleon had become recognized as a synonym of national disaster.