At Nogent, six weeks earlier, Ney and Oudinot had endeavored to bully
Napoleon in a similar way; then they were easily cowed. But now
Napoleon's manner was conciliatory and his speech argumentative. Long
and eloquently he set forth his situation. Enumerating all the forces
immediately and remotely at his disposal, describing minutely the plan
of attack which Macdonald had stamped with his approval, explaining
the folly of the course pursued by the allies, contrasting the perils
of their situation with the advantages of his own, he sought to
justify his assurance of victory. The eloquence of a Napoleon, calm,
collected, clear, but pleading for the power which was dearer to him
than life, can only be imagined. But his arguments fell on deaf ears;
not one of his audience gave any sign of emotion. Macdonald was the
only one present not openly committed, and he too was sullen; during
the last twenty-four hours he had received, through Marmont, a letter
from Beurnonville, the contents of which, though read to Napoleon
then and there, have not been transmitted to posterity. What happened
or what was said thereafter is far from certain, so conflicting and so
biased are the accounts of those present. Contemporaries thought that
in this crisis, when Ney declared the army would obey its officers and
would not march to Paris in obedience to the Emperor, there were
menacing gestures which betrayed a more or less complete purpose of
assassination on the part of some. If so, Napoleon was never greater;
for, commanding a calm by his dignified self-restraint, he dismissed
the faithless officers one and all. They went, and he was left alone
with Caulaincourt to draw up the form of his abdication.
CHAPTER XI
NAPOLEON'S FIRST ABDICATION[13]
[Footnote 13: References: Campbell, Sir Neil, Napoleon at
Fontainebleau and Elba, being a journal of occurrences in
1814-1815, with notes of conversations. Laborde, Napoleon et
sa garde, ou relation du voyage de Fontainebleau a l'ile
d'Elbe en 1814, etc. Ussher, A narrative of events connected
with the first abdication of Napoleon, his embarkation at
Frejus and voyage to Elba on board his majesty's ship
_Undaunted_; his embarkation at Elba on board the Elbese brig
of war _l'Inconstant_; and a journal of his extraordinary
march to Paris, narrated by Colonel Laborde, who accompanied
the Emperor on that occasion. Waldburg, L. F. Graf Truchsess
von, Napoleon Bonaparte's Reise von Fontainebleau nach Frejus
vom 17-29 April, 1814.]