But nature has gifted me with a determined courage—­nothing can overcome me.  It cost my pride much too—­I made that sacrifice; I—­but I am above your miserable declamations—­I was in need of consolation, and you would mortify me—­but, no, my victories shall crush your clamours!  In three months we shall have peace, and you shall repent your folly.  I am one of those who triumph or die.

“Go back to your Departments if any one of you dare to print your address I shall publish it in the Moniteur with notes of my own.  Go; France stands in more need of me than I do of France.  I bear the eleven-twelfths of you in my heart—­I shall nominate the Deputies to the two series which are vacant, and I shall reduce the Legislative Body to the discharge of its proper duties.  The inhabitants of Alsace and Franche Comte have more spirit than you; they ask me for arms, I send them, and one of my aides de camp will lead them against the enemy.”

In after conversations he said of the Legislative Body that “its members never came to Paris but to obtain some favours.  They importuned the Ministers from morning till night, and complained if they were not immediately satisfied.  When invited to dinner they burn with envy at the splendour they see before them.”  I heard this from Cambaceres, who was present when the Emperor made these remarks.

CHAPTER XXXI.

1813.

The flag of the army of Italy and the eagles of 1813—­Entrance of the Allies into Switzerland—­Summons to the Minister of Police—­ My refusal to accept a mission to Switzerland—­Interviews with M. de Talleyrand and the Due de Picence—­Offer of a Dukedom and the Grand Cordon of the Legion of Honour—­Definitive refusal—­The Duc de Vicence’s message to me in 1815—­Commencement of the siege of Hamburg—­A bridge two leagues long—­Executions at Lubeck—­Scarcity of provisions in Hamburg—­Banishment of the inhabitants—­Men bastinadoed and women whipped—­Hospitality of the inhabitants of Altona.

I am now arrived at the most critical period in Napoleon’s career.  What reflections must he have made, if he had had leisure to reflect, in comparing the recollections of his rising glory with the sad picture of his falling fortune?  What a contrast presents itself when we compare the famous flag of the army of Italy, which the youthful conqueror, Bonaparte, carried to the Directory, with those drooping eagles who had now to defend the aerie whence they had so often taken flight to spread their triumphant wings over Europe!  Here we see the difference between liberty and absolute power!  Napoleon, the son of liberty, to whom he owed everything, had disowned his mother, and was now about to fall.  Those glorious triumphs were now over when the people of Italy consoled themselves for defeat and submitted to the magical power of that liberty which preceded the Republican armies.  Now, on the contrary, it was to free themselves from a despotic yoke that the nations of Europe had in their turn taken up arms and were preparing to invade France.