On the 22nd of January the first official news of the invasion appeared; the Moniteur announced that Schwartzenberg had entered Switzerland on the 20th of December, and that Blucher also had crossed the Rhine on the first day of the year; thus confessing openly the deliberate deceit of its previous silence.  The next morning, being Sunday, the officers of the National Guard were summoned to the Tuileries.  They lined the Saloon of the Marshals, to the number of 900, altogether ignorant of the purpose for which they had been convoked.  The Emperor took his station in the centre of the hall; and immediately afterwards the Empress with the King of Rome (carried in the arms of Countess Montesquiou), appeared at his side.  “Gentlemen,” said Napoleon, “France is invaded; I go to put myself at the head of my troops, and, with God’s help and their valour, I hope soon to drive the enemy beyond the frontier.”  Here he took Maria Louisa in one hand and her son in the other, and continued—­“But if they should approach the capital, I confide to the National Guard the Empress and the King of Rome”—­then correcting himself, he said in a tone of strong emotion—­“my wife and my child.”  Several officers stepped from their places and approached him; and tears were visible on the cheeks even of those who were known to be no worshippers of the Emperor, or hearty supporters of his cause.

A Frenchman can rarely resist a scene:  and such this was considered, and laughed at accordingly, ere next morning.  It is, nevertheless, difficult to refuse sympathy to the chief actor.  Buonaparte was sincerely attached to Maria Louisa, though he treated her rather with a parental tenderness than like a lover; and his affection for his son was the warmest passion in his heart, unless, indeed, we must except his pride and his ambition, both of which may be well supposed to have merged for a moment in the feeling which shook his voice.

[Footnote 65:  Now Lord Lynedoch.]

CHAPTER XXXV

     The Campaign of France—­Battles of Brienne and La
     Rothiere—­Expedition of the Marne—­Battles of Nangis and
     Montereau—­Schwartzenberg Retreats—­Napoleon again marches against
     Blucher—­Attacks Soissons and is Repulsed—­Battles of Craonne and
     Laon—­Napoleon at Rheims—­His Perplexities—­He Marches to St.
     Dizier.

Napoleon spent part of the 24th of January in reviewing troops in the courtyard of the Tuileries, in the midst of a fall of snow, which must have called up ominous recollections, and at three in the morning of the 25th, once more left his capital.  He had again appointed Maria Louisa Regent, placed his brother Joseph at the head of her council, and given orders for raising military defences around Paris, and for converting many public buildings into hospitals.  He set off in visible dejection; but recovered all his energy on reaching once more the congenial atmosphere of arms.