REVOLUTION. 



f<u- two days after this determination and change of 

 march, Bonaparte was employed, as he hoped, in antici- 

 pating the allies, ar.d in preparing the firings m which his 

 viftims were to be caught ; but no enemy came — no intelli- 

 gence arrived : from Paris he heard nothing — from the reft. 

 of France little ; and a hoftile array of 200,000 men mult 

 be, he knew, at no great diftance from him, but he could 

 not guefs where. Over Winzingerode, who was in his 

 vicinity, near St. Dizier, with a fmall force, he obtained 

 fome, and claimed greater advantages ; but thefe fucceffes 

 left him as much in the dark as ever. 



He was convinced that this corps was but the advanced 

 guard of the Ruffians ; and when one of his generals re- 

 ported it was not fo, and that the main body of the allies 

 had fufpended their retreat, he himfelf thought the news 

 almoft too good to be believed, and calculated that the time 

 thus loft would enable him to perfect his plans for their 

 deftru&ion. 



In thefe circumftances, it was Napoleon who thought his 

 enemies undone ; and far from confidering them as having 

 refumed the offenfive, he faw in their movement of con- 

 centration only a meafure of retreat. He announced it 

 triumphantly to the emprefs in letters written with his own 

 hand : thefe letters were intercepted by the allies. They 

 were then certain of having deceived him, and they urged 

 with great precipitation their movement againfl the ca- 

 pital. 



Of the march upon Paris either he never thought, or his 

 arrogance haftily rejected the idea ; but at laft, after a lofs 

 of three days, he felt that it became abfolutely neceffary to 

 afcertain the enemy's pofition, and he accordingly haftened 

 by forced marches through Bar-fur-Aube towards Troyes. 

 A junftion was, however, formed by prince Schwartzen- 

 burg and marfhal Blucher ; and the whole allied force 

 marched upon Paris, with a rapidity that infured its fuccefs. 

 The defences which had been raifed in the neighbourhood of 

 that city were attacked late in the day of the 30th March, 

 and the enemy, under the command of Marmont, made a 

 mod determined refiltance ; but the allies were almoft every 

 where fuccefsful. 



At the moment of thefe decifive advantages, a flag of 

 truce was fent from Marmont, intimating a defire to receive 

 any propofitions that it might have been intended to make 

 to him by a flag of truce, which had previoufly been refufed 

 admittance. An armiftice was alfo propofed by him for 

 two hours ; to obtain which, he confented to abandon every 

 pofition he occupied without the barriers of Paris. 



On the 3 1 ft in the morning, the allies entered Paris. In 

 the evening, Caulincourt came from Bonaparte to the em- 

 peror of Ruffia, offering to accede to the terms of peace 

 which the allies had offered at Chatillon. The emperor 

 gave no other anfwer, than that the time was paft for treat- 

 ing with Bonaparte as fovereign of France. 



Immediately, by the defire of the emperor of Ruffia, the 

 fenate met, and chofe a provifional government, confifting 

 of Talleyrand and four other members. At their fecond 

 fitting, they declared that Bonaparte had forfeited his right 

 to the empire, and that his dynafty was at an end. They 

 alfo refolved, that the fenate and legiflative bodies fhould 

 form fundamental parts of the new conftitution. 



On the ift of April the provifional government inftalled 

 itfelf, and of this Bonaparte feems to have been aware ; and 

 on the 2d he collected at Corbcil, Fontainebleau, and the 

 neighbourhood, at leaft 20,000 men, whom he reviewed 

 and thus addreffed : " The enemy is in Paris. I do not 

 with to fpeak of the inhabitants of that city, but a horde 

 of emigrants, whom I had recalled, reftored, and laden 



with perfonal favours, have offered their fervices to the 

 emperor of Ruffia, and have hoifted the white cockade. 

 The tri-coloured cockade we won in our revolution ; we 

 have ennobled it in our empire. It has fhared too many 

 triumphs with us ever to be abandoned. If Paris is to be 

 retaken at the point of the bayonet, I will march at your 

 head. May 1 reckon upon you ? Am 1 right ? Will you 

 ever abandon this national cockade.'" "Never, never; 

 vive l'empercur ! vive Napoleon ! a Paris!" was the anfwer 

 of the whole line of troops. 



The marlhals prefent at this fcene were far from par- 

 taking or encouraging this enthufiafm : they that fame 

 night afiembled in the palace, and when admitted to Na- 

 poleon's prefence, with many references to their former fer- 

 vices, and profeffions of duty and affection, acquainted 

 him that all was loft ; that at raoft he could collect but 

 56,000 men, and that for them he h:id not two days pro- 

 vilions ; but the only means of faving any thing from this 

 great fhipwreck, was to abdicate in favour of the king of 

 Rome. 



Bonaparte, for the firft time in his exiitence, heard a re- 

 monftrance in filence, and ultimately affented to the pro- 

 pofal. On the 3d, marfhal Nev put into his hands the Paris 

 journals, in which the decheance, pronounced by the fenate 

 the day before, was publifhed ; and, in the name of his 

 brethren, on the public parade, gave him that advice fo 

 terrible to the ear of a tyrant, " Sire, il faut abdiquer ; 

 e'eft le vceu de la France et de l'armee." Napoleon, 

 thunder/truck, retired into the palace. On the 4th he 

 figned his own abdication, and addreffed an order of the day 

 to his army, in which, after contrafting forcibly and juftly 

 the former fervility and prefent tergiverfation of the fenate, 

 he intimates, that if he is the only obftacle to peace, he is 

 ready to make the laft facrifice for France ; and that he 

 has fent Ney, Caulincourt, and Macdonald to Paris, 

 " pour entamer des negociations." Thefe negociations, 

 which had for their objeft the continuance of Bonaparte's 

 power under the cloak of a regency, to be adminiftered by 

 his wife, in her own name, or that of her fon, happily 

 failed. Others then enfued, in which the difcuffions were 

 not queftions of policy, power, or government, but of 

 pounds, (hillings, and pence ; and on the nth of April was 

 figned the famous treaty, by which Bonaparte abandoned 

 for himfelf and his family the thrones of half the world, and 

 ftipulaud only for the empty titles of his better days, a 

 retreat in the obfeureft corner of his late dominions, and a 

 penfion of 2, coo, 000 of livres per annum from the civil lift 

 of Lewis XVIII. ; and, finally, on the 12th he figned the 

 formal inftrument of his abdication on the part of himfelf 

 and his dynafty. 



Such was the termination of this difaftrous revolution ; 

 and in a very few weeks after the depofition of Bonaparte, 

 Lewis XVIII. returned, and took a quiet poffeflion of the 

 throne of his fathers. Of the liability of the new govern- 

 ment we prefume to offer no conje&ures. Of the character 

 of the prefent fovereign much might be faid in applaufe ; 

 of the new conftitution, at prefent, we know but little : 

 and into what it may ultimately fettle it is difficult to 

 fpeak. Many recent occurrences in different parts of 

 Europe have mortified the friends to human happinefs ; the 

 fociety of Jefuits, always inimical to the intereits of man- 

 kind, has been re-eftabli(hed. The Inquifition, which 

 Bonaparte aboliftied, and which it was imagined could, 

 in this enlightened age, never more rear its horrid head, has 

 been revived in Spain, to the everlafting difgrace of the 

 prince who ordered its eftabliftiment, and to the people 

 who permitted it. When we read the decree, that " the 

 9 tribunal 



