432 JOSEPH FOURIER. 
which I am about to describe,) he knocks with his snuff- 
box! “Who is there?” cried the officer of the guard. 
“Tt is the Emperor! Open!”—* Sire, my duty forbids 
me.”—“ Open—lI tell you; I have no time to lose.”— 
“ But, sire, even though I should open to you, 1 could 
not. The keys are in the possession of General Mar- 
chand.”—*“ Go, then, and fetch them.”—“I am certain 
that he will refuse them to me.”——“ If the General refuse 
them, tell him that I will dismiss him.” 
These words petrified the soldiers. During the pre- 
vious two days, hundreds of proclamations designated 
Bonaparte as a wild beast which it was necessary to 
seize without scruple; they ordered everybody to run 
away from him, and yet this man threatened the general 
with deprivation of his command! The single word 
dismissal, effaced the faint line of demarcation which 
separated for an instant the old soldiers from the young 
recruits ; one word established the whole garrison in the 
interest of the emperor. 
The circumstances of the capture of Grenoble were 
not yet known when Fourier arrived at Lyons. He 
brought thither the news of the rapid advance of Napo- 
leon; that of the revolt of two companies of sappers, of 
a regiment of infantry, and of the regiment commanded 
by Labédoyere. Moreover, he was a witness of the 
lively sympathy which the country people along the 
whole route displayed in favour of the proscribed exile 
of Elba. 
The Count d’Artois gave a very cold reception to the 
Prefect and his communications. He declared that the 
arrival of Napoleon at Grenoble was impossible ; that 
no alarm need be apprehended respecting the disposition 
of the country people. “As regards the facts,” said he 
