It has been mentioned that Napoleon, ere he commenced his campaign, directed some fortifications to be thrown up on the side of Paris nearest to the invading armies.  His brother Joseph, however, was, as Spain had witnessed, neither an active nor a skilful soldier; and the civil government of this tempestuous capital appears to have been more than enough to employ what energies he possessed.  The outworks executed during the campaign were few and inconsiderable; and to occupy them, there were now but 8000 fresh regulars, the discomfited divisions of Marmont and Mortier, and the National Guard of the metropolis.  This last corps had 30,000 names on its roll:  but such had been the manifestations of public feeling, that the Emperor’s lieutenants had not dared to furnish more than a third of these with firearms:  the others had only pikes:  and every hour increased the doubts of the Regency-council whether any considerable portion of these men—­who were chiefly, in fact, the shopkeepers of Paris—­would consent to shed their blood in this cause.

Meanwhile the royalists within the city had been watching the progress of events with eagerness and exultation.  Talleyrand was ere now in close communication with them, and employing all the resources of his talents to prevail on them to couple their demand for the heir of the Bourbons, with such assertions of their belief that that dynasty ought never to be re-established otherwise than on a constitutional basis, as might draw over to their side the more moderate of the republicans.  Nor had these efforts been unsuccessful.  Various deputations from the royalists had found their way to the headquarters, both of Blucher and Schwartzenberg, before the middle of March, and expressed sentiments of this nature.  As yet, however, none of the Allies had ventured to encourage directly the hopes of the Bourbon party.  They persisted in asserting their resolution to let the French nation judge for themselves under what government they should live; and to take no part in their civil feuds.  Talleyrand himself was in correspondence with the Czar; but, in his letters, he, as far as is known, confined himself to urging the advance of the armies.  A billet from him was delivered to Alexander just before the final rush on Paris begun:  it was in these words—­“You venture nothing, when you may safely venture everything—­venture once more.”

De Pradt, and many other of those statesmen whom Napoleon, in latter days, had disgraced or disobliged, were, ere this time, labouring diligently in the same service.  It must be admitted that he, like the falling Persian, was

    “Deserted in his utmost need
    By those his former bounty fed;”

but he had brought himself to this extremity by his scorn of their counsels; nor even at the eleventh hour did his proud heart dream of recalling confidence, by the confession of error.