Meanwhile the commission, composed as I have said of five senators and five members of the Corps Legislatif, devoted itself assiduously to the duty with which it was charged.  Each of these two grand bodies of the state presented to his Majesty a separate address.  The senate had received the report made by M. de Fontanes; and their address contained nothing which could displease the Emperor, but was on the contrary expressed in most proper terms.  In it a peace was indeed demanded, but a peace which his Majesty could obtain by an effort worthy of him and of the French people.  “Let that hand so many times victorious,” they said, “lay down its arms after having assured the repose of the world.”  The following passage was also noteworthy:  “No, the enemy shall not destroy this beautiful and noble France, which for fourteen hundred years has borne itself gloriously through such diverse fortunes, and which for the interest of the neighboring nations themselves should always bear considerable weight in the balance of power in Europe.  We have as pledges of this your heroic constancy and the national honor.”  Then again, “Fortune does not long fail nations which do not fail in their duty to themselves.”

This language, worthy of true Frenchmen, and which the circumstances at least required, was well pleasing to the Emperor, as is evident from the answer he made on the 29th of December to the deputation from the senate with the prince archchancellor at its head: 

“Senators,” said his Majesty, “I am deeply sensible of the sentiments you express.  You have seen by the articles which I have communicated to you what I am doing towards a peace.  The sacrifices required by the preliminary basis which the enemy had proposed to me I have accepted; and I shall make them without regret, since my life has only one object,—­the happiness of the French people.

“Meanwhile Bearn, Alsace, Franche-Comte, and Brabant have been entered, and the cries of that part of my family rend my soul.  I call the French to the aid of the French!  I call the Frenchmen of Paris, Brittany, Normandy, Champagne, Burgundy, and the other departments to the aid of their brothers.  Will they abandon them in misfortune?  Peace and the deliverance of our territory should be our rallying cry.  At the sight of this whole people in arms the foreigner will flee, or will consent to peace on the terms I have proposed to him.  The question is no longer the recovery of the conquests we have made.”

It was necessary to be in a position to thoroughly know the character of the Emperor to understand how much it must have cost him to utter these last words; but from a knowledge of his character also resulted the certainty that it would have cost him less to do what he promised than to say them.  It would seem that this was well understood in Paris; for the day on which the ‘Moniteur’ published the reply of his Majesty to the senate, stocks increased in value more than two francs, which the Emperor did not fail to remark with much satisfaction; for as is well known, the rise and decline of stocks was with him the real thermometer of public opinion.