———= °° ° °° Fr. 
GOVERNOR OF ANTWERP. 99 
Prince born a Frenchman, and who knows so well the 
laws prescribed by honour.” 
After the events of Paris, after the institution of a Pro- 
visional Government, the Minister of War, Dupont, sent 
one of his aides-de-camp to Antwerp. The following is 
the letter that Carnot wrote to him on this occasion :— 
“16th April, 1814. 
“T must acknowledge, my Lord Count, that your hav- 
ing sent me an aide-de-camp with a white cockade is a 
calamity : some wished to adopt it instantly, others have 
sworn to defend Bonaparte ; a sanguinary conflict would 
have immediately resulted in Antwerp itself, if, with the 
advice of my Council, I had not determined to defer my 
adhesion, and that of all the armed force .... Is civil 
war then wished for? is it wished that the enemy should 
become master of all our strongholds? and because the 
city of Paris has been forced to accept the rule of the 
conqueror, that therefore all France shall receive it? It 
is evident that the Provisional Government is only trans- 
mitting the orders of the Emperor of Russia. Who will 
ever absolve us from having obeyed such orders? What!. 
you do not allow us even to preserve our honour; you 
yourself become an accomplice of desertion, promoter of 
the most monstrous anarchy! The lessons of 1792 and 
1793 are lost upon the new chiefs of the State. They 
first seek to catch our adhesion by surprise, by affirming 
to us that Napoleon had abdicated, and now they contra- 
dict it. After having given us a tyrant instead of anar- 
chy, they put anarchy in place of the tyrant. When 
shall we see the end of these cruel oscillations? Paris 
is enjoying only a momentary peace ; a perfidious calm 
which presages to us the most horrible tempests. Oh, 
