Napoleon must now have certain clear conceptions. Except Mortier,
Drouot, and Gerard, his great officers were disaffected; but the
ambitious minor generals were still his devoted slaves. The army was
thoroughly imperialist, partly because they represented the nation as
a whole, partly because they were under the Emperor's spell. Of such
troops he appeared to have at hand sixty thousand, distributed as
follows: Marmont, twelve thousand five hundred; Mortier, six thousand;
Macdonald, two thousand seven hundred; Oudinot, five thousand five
hundred; Gerard, three thousand; Ney, two thousand three hundred;
Drouot, nine thousand; and about eleven thousand six hundred guard and
other cavalry. Besides these, there were sixteen hundred Poles, two
thousand two hundred and fifty recruits, and fifteen hundred men in
the garrisons of Fontainebleau and Melun. Farther away were
considerable forces in Sens, Tours, Blois, and Orleans, eight thousand
in all; and still farther the armies of Soult, Suchet, Augereau, and
Maison. Although the allies had lost nine thousand men before Paris,
they had quickly called up reinforcements, and had about a hundred and
forty thousand men in readiness to fight. This situation may not have
been entirely discouraging to the devotee of a dark destiny, to which
as a hapless worshiper he had lately commenced to give the name of
Providence. Be that as it may, when Macdonald arrived on the morning
of the fourth the dispositions for battle had been carefully studied
and arranged; every corps was ordered to its station. As usual,
Napoleon appeared about noon for the ceremony of guard-mounting, and
the troops acclaimed him as usual. But a few paces distant from him
stood the marshals and higher generals in a little knot, their heads
close bunched, their tongues running, their glances averted. From out
of this group rang the thunderous voice of Ney: "Nothing but the
abdication can draw us out of this." Napoleon started, regained his
self-control, pretended not to hear the crushing menace, and withdrew
to his work-room.