The general aspect of France at that moment was singularly warlike. It was that of a whole nation buckling on its armour; over the entire country armed bodies were to be seen in motion towards their several points of destination: every where the new levies for the Line, and the newly enrolled National Guards were in an unremitting course of drill and organisation: the greatest activity was maintained, day and night, in all the arsenals, and in all the manufactories of clothing and articles of equipment: crowds of workmen were constantly employed in the repair of the numerous Fortresses, and in the erection of entrenched works. Every where appeared a continued transport of artillery, waggons, arms, ammunition, and all the material of war; whilst upon every road forming an approach to any of the main points of assembly in the vicinity of the frontiers, might be seen those well-formed veteran bands, NAPOLEON's followers through many a bloody field, moving forth with all the order, and with all the elasticity of spirit, inspired by the full confidence of a renewed career of victory--rejoicing in the display of those Standards which so proudly recalled the most glorious Fields that France had ever won, and testifying by their acclamations, their enthusiastic devotion to the cause of the Emperor, which was ever cherished by them as identified with that of their country. The sentiments which so generally animated the troops of the Line, must not, however, be understood as having been equally imbibed by the remaining portion of the Army, or indeed by the major part of the nation. There was one predominant cause, which, though its influence acted as an additional stimulus to the Army, was, to a very considerable extent, the sole incentive to exertion with the civil portion of the community. It was the general prevalence of that unconquerable aversion and undisguised contempt entertained by the French for the mass of their foreign invaders, whose former humiliation and subjection, the result of an almost uninterrupted course of victory and triumph to which the history of France presented no parallel, had served to flatter and to gratify the national vanity. It was this feeling, combined with a dread of that retributive justice which would inevitably follow in the train of a successful invasion, that operated so powerfully upon the mass of the nation, with whom the cry of "_Vive l'Empereur!_" merged into that of "_Vive la France!_"