That same day at seven o'clock we reached Roly. The hussars occupied the town already, and we were obliged to bivouac in a deep road along the side of the hill. We had hardly stacked our arms when several general officers arrived. The Commandant Gemeau, who had just dismounted, sprang upon his horse and hurried to meet them. They conversed a moment together and came down into our road. Everybody looked on and said, "Something has happened." One of the officers, General Pechaux, whom we knew afterward, ordered the drums to beat, and shouted, "Form a circle." The road was too narrow, and some of the soldiers went up on the slope each side of the road, while the others remained on the road. All the battalion looked on while the general unrolled a paper, and said, "Proclamation from the Emperor." When he had said that, the silence was so profound that you would have thought yourself alone in the midst of these great fields. Every one, from the last conscript to the Commandant Gemeau, listened, and, even to-day, when I think of it, after fifty years, it moves my heart; it was grand and terrible. This is what the general read: "Soldiers! To-day is the anniversary of Marengo and of Friedland, which twice decided the fate of Europe! Then, as after Austerlitz and after Wagram, we were too generous, we believed the protestations and the oaths of princes, whom we left on their thrones. They have combined to attack the independence and even the most sacred rights of France. They have commenced the most unjust aggressions, let us meet them! They and we,--are we no longer of the same race?" The whole battalion shouted, "_Vive l'Empereur_." The general raised his hand, and all were silent. "Soldiers! at Jena, we were as one to three against these Prussians who are so arrogant to-day; at Montmirail we were as one against six! Let those among you who have been prisoners of the English tell the tale of their frightful sufferings in their prison ships. The Saxons, the Belgians, the Hanoverians, the soldiers of the Confederation of the Rhine, complain that they are compelled to lend their arms to princes who are enemies of justice and of the rights of all nations. They know that this coalition is insatiable. After having devoured twelve millions of Poles, twelve millions of Italians, one million of Saxons, six millions of Belgians, it will devour all the states of the second order in Germany. Madmen! a moment of prosperity has blinded them; the oppression and humiliation of the French people is beyond their power. If they enter France they will find their graves there. Soldiers, we have forced marches to make, battles to wage, and perils to encounter, but, if we are constant, victory will be ours. The rights of man and the happiness of our country will be reconquered. For all Frenchmen, who have hearts, the time has come to conquer or to perish.--NAPOLEON."