The violation of the Swiss territory was in itself indefensible; but he who had so often disdained all rules of that kind in his own person, who had seized D’Enghien, who had traversed Bareuth, could hardly hope to be listened to when he complained of Schwartzenberg’s proceeding.  The allied generals, moreover, proclaimed everywhere as they advanced, that they came as the friends not the enemies of the French nation, and that any of the peasantry who took up arms to oppose them must be content to abide the treatment of brigands.  This assuredly was a flagrant outrage against the most sacred and inalienable rights of mankind:  but Napoleon had set the fatal example himself in Lombardy, and followed it without a blush, in Egypt, in Germany, in Spain, in Portugal, and but yesterday in Russia.  Here also, therefore, his reclamations moved no feeling favourable to himself; and the time was gone by when the French people would have been ready to take fire at so lawless an aggression upon their national rights:—­these Napoleon’s tyranny had trampled down ere strangers dared to insult them.  There were some few scattered instances of resistance; but in general, the first advance of the Allies was regarded with indifference; and it was only at a later period, when the invading generals were no longer able to maintain strict discipline among their barbarous hordes of horsemen, then scattered over a wide extent of country, that the sense of individual suffering afforded even a glimpse of hope to Napoleon, and those who, like him, were eager to oppose a national insurrection to the allied march.

Meantime, nearer and nearer every day the torrent of invasion rolled on—­sweeping before it, from post to post, the various corps which had been left to watch the Rhine.  Marmont, Mortier, Victor, and Ney, commanding in all about 50,000 men, retired of necessity before the enemy.  It had been considered as certain that much time must be occupied with the besieging of the great fortresses on the Rhenish frontier.  But it was now apparent that the Allies had resolved to carry the war into the interior, without waiting for the reduction of these formidable outworks.  Their numbers were such that they could afford to mask them, and still pass on with hosts overwhelmingly superior to all those of Napoleon’s lieutenants.  These withdrew, and with them, and behind them, came crowds of the rustic population possessing any means of transport.  Carts and waggons, crammed with terrified women and children, thronged every avenue to the capital.  It was at last necessary that the Emperor should break silence to the Parisians, and re-appear in the field.

The invasion of France, however, rallied around Napoleon some persons of eminence who had long hung aloof from him.  Carnot in particular, who, ever since he opposed the assumption of the imperial title, had remained in retirement, came forward to offer his sword in what he now considered as the cause of his country.  Nor did Buonaparte fail to receive such proposals as they deserved.  He immediately sent his old enemy to command the great city and fortress of Antwerp; and similar instances of manly confidence might be mentioned to his honour.