who have induced him to commit so many villainous actions.  Rapp has behaved extremely well; he went to the Emperor, and would not leave him till he had obtained the pardon of another of the condemned, whose name I do not recollect.  How much these Polignacs have interested me!  There will be then at least some families who will owe him gratitude!  Strive, if it be possible, to throw a veil over the past; I am sufficiently miserable in my anticipations of the future.  Rest assured, my dear Bourrienne, that I shall not fail to exert myself during our stay in Belgium in your behalf, and inform you of the result.  Adieu!”

During the festival in celebration of the 14th of July, which I have already alluded to, the Emperor before leaving the Hotel des Invalides had announced that he would go in person to distribute the decorations of the Legion of Honour to the army assembled in the camp of Boulogne.  He was not long before he fulfilled his promise.  He left St. Cloud on the 18th and travelled with such rapidity that the next morning, whilst every one was busy with preparations for his reception, he was already at that port, in the midst of the labourers, examining the works.  He seemed to multiply himself by his inconceivable activity, and one might say that he was present everywhere.

At the Emperor’s departure it was generally believed at Paris that the distribution of the crosses at the camp of Boulogne was only a pretext, and that Bonaparte had at length gone to carry into execution the project of an invasion of England, which every body supposed he contemplated.  It was, indeed, a pretext.  The Emperor wished to excite more and more the enthusiasm of the army—­to show himself to the military invested in his new dignity, to be present at some grand manoeuvres, and dispose the army to obey the first signal he might give.  How indeed, on beholding such great preparations, so many transports created, as it were, by enchantment, could any one have supposed that he did not really intend to attempt a descent on England?  People almost fancied him already in London; it was known that all the army corps echelloned on the coast from Maples to Ostend were ready to embark.  Napoleon’s arrival in the midst of his troops inspired them, if possible, with a new impulse.  The French ports on the Channel had for a long period been converted into dockyards and arsenals, where works were carried on with that inconceivable activity which Napoleon knew so well how to inspire.  An almost incredible degree of emulation prevailed amongst the commanders of the different camps, and it descended from rank to rank to the common soldiers and even to the labourers.