4 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



10, 1814, and- received, two days later, the cross of the Legion 

 of Honour. 



At the battle of Arcis-sur-Aube (March 21) the Leval division 

 had again to stand against 50,000 men Russians, Austrians, 

 Bavarians, and Wurtembergers. Pasteur's battalion, the 1st 

 of the 3rd Kegiment, came back to St. Dizier and went on by 

 forced marches to Fontainebleau, where Napoleon had con- 

 centrated all his forces, arriving on April 4. The battalion was 

 now reduced to eight officers and 276 men. The next day, at 

 twelve o'clock, the Leval division and the remnant of the 7th 

 corps were gathered in the yard of the Cheval Blanc Inn and 

 were reviewed by Napoleon. The attitude of these soldiers, 

 who had heroically fought in Spain and in France, and who 

 were still offering their passionate devotion, gave him a few 

 moments' illusion. Their enthusiasm and acclamations con- 

 trasted with the coldness, the reserve, the almost insubordina- 

 tions of Generals like Ney, Lefebvre, Oudinot and MacDonald, 

 who had just declared that to march on Paris would be folly. 



Marmont's defection hastened events ; the Emperor, seeing 

 himself forsaken, abdicated. Jean Joseph Pasteur had not, like 

 Captain Coignet, the sad privilege of witnessing the Emperor's 

 farewell, his battalion having been sent into the department of 

 Eure on April 9. On April 23 the white cockade replaced the 

 tricolour. 



On May 12, 1814, a royal order gave to the 3rd line Regiment 

 the name of " Regiment Dauphin " ; it was reorganized at 

 Douai, where Sergeant-major Pasteur received his discharge 

 from the service. He returned to Besancon with grief and 

 anger in his heart : for him, as for many others risen from the 

 people, Napoleon was a demi-god. Lists of victories, principles 

 of equality, new ideas scattered throughout the nations, had 

 followed each other in dazzling visions. It was a cruel trial 

 for half -pay officers, old sergeants, grenadiers, peasant soldiers, 

 to come down from this imperial epic to every-day monotony, 

 police supervision, and the anxieties of poverty ; their wounded 

 patriotism was embittered by feelings of personal humiliation. 

 Jean Joseph resigned himself to his fate and went back to his 

 former trade. The return from Elba was a ray of joy and hope 

 in his obscure life, only to be followed by renewed darkness. 



He was living in the Faubourg Champtave a solitary life in 

 accordance with his tastes and character when this solitude 

 was interrupted for an instant. The Mayor of Salins, a knight 



