556 
PARIS 
every fide nothing but difficulties and obftacles. My go¬ 
vernment was liable to commit errors: perhaps it did 
commit them. There are times when the pureft inten¬ 
tions are infufficient to diredt, or fometimes they even 
miflead. 
Myfubjedts have learned, by cruel trials, that the prin¬ 
ciple of the legitimacy ofJ'over eigns is one of the fundamental 
bafes of facial order; the only one upon which, amidft a great 
nation, a wife and well ordered-liberty can he eftahlijhed. This 
doElrine has juft been proclaimed as that of all Europe. 
In thefe latter times, my fubjefts of all daffies have 
given me equal proofs of love and fidelity. I with them 
to know how fenfibly I feel them, and that it is from 
among all Frenchmen I fliall delight to choofe thofe who 
are to approach my perfon and my family. I wifh to ex¬ 
clude from my prefence none but thofe whofe celebrity 
is matter of grief to France, and of horror to Europe. In 
the plot which they hatched, I perceive many of my fub- 
jedts milled, and fome guilty. 
I promife—I who never promifed in vain (all Europe 
knows it)—to pardon to milled Frenchmen all that has 
palled fmce the day when I quitted Lifle, amidft fo many 
tears, up to the day when I re-entered Cambray, amidft 
fo many acclamations. But the blood of my people has 
flowed, in confequence of a treafon of which the annals 
of the world prefent no example. That treafon has fum- 
moned foreigners into the heart of France. Every day 
reveals to me a new difafler. I owe it, then, to the dig¬ 
nity of my crown, to the intereft of my people, to the re- 
pofe of Europe, to except from pardon the inftigators and 
authors of this horrible plot. They fliall be defignated 
to the vengeance of the laws by the two chambers, which 
I propofe forthwith to affiemble. 
Given at Cambray, this 28th of June, in the year of 
our Lord 1815, and of oxtr reign the twenty-firft. Louis. 
From Cambray the king proceeded towards the capital, 
and on the 7th of July he arrived at St. Denis, where for 
the prefent we fliall leave him. 
Meanwhile the allied armies continued to inveft Paris, 
which had been ftrongly fortified on the north fide. From 
the Seine, above the city, along the heights of Belleville, 
by Montmartre, and to St. Denis, the fortifications were 
one continued chain. To have forced them would have 
coll many valuable lives, and probably have occafioned 
the total ruin of the city. The provifional government 
neglefled no poffible means of averting the threated dan¬ 
ger ; and repeated overtures were in vain made to Wel¬ 
lington and Blucher to procure an armiftice. Davouft, 
prince of Eckmuhl, the commander-in-chief of the army, 
determined to make another effort, and accordingly he 
fent a letter to the duke of Wellington; of which the 
foliowing are the chief paffitges. 
“ My Lord, Your hoflile movements continue, although, 
according to their declarations, the motives of the war 
which the allied fovereigns make upon us no longer 
exill, fince the emperor Napoleon has abdicated. At the 
moment wdien blood is again on the point of flowing, I 
receive from Marfhal Suchet, duke of Albufera [whofe 
army was oppofed to the Auftrian general Frimont], a 
telegraphic difpatch, of which I tranfmit you a copy. 
My lord, I guarantee this armiftice on my honour. All 
the reafons you might have had to continue hoftilities are 
deftroyed, becaufe you can have no other inftruffion 
from your government than that which the Auftrian 
generals had from theirs. June 30, 1815.” 
A fimilar letter was fent to Blucher, to which he re¬ 
plied, “ That the French marflial was wrong in fuppofing 
all caufe of war removed, as the abdication of Napoleon 
was only in favour of his foil; and that he muft know the 
declaration of the allies excluded from the throne not 
only Napoleon, but all the members of his family. Ge¬ 
neral Frimont’s conduct, he laid, was no rule to guide 
theirs; that they would certainly follow up their viftory, 
which God had given them the means and the will to 
do.” He defired Davouft to beware how he brought 
ruin upon a great city ; and afked him if he wifhed to 
bring down on himfelf the curfes of Paris, as he had thofe 
of Hainburgh, They were refolved to enter Paris; and 
no armiftice could be concluded except in that place. 
He concluded his anfwer by faying, “according to the 
ufual forms of eftablifhed civility, I have the honour to 
call myfelf, M. Marflial, your fervant, Blucher.” 
The fame day Davouft, Pajol, d’Erlon, Freffinet, Van- 
damme, and about twelve other generals, commanding 
the troops in the lines before Paris, addreffed a letter to 
the lioufe of reprefentatives, which we- fhall fubjoin. 
“ Reprefentatives of the People ; We are in prefence of 
our enemies; we fwear before you and the world to de¬ 
fend, to our lalt breath, the caufe of our independence 
and the national honour. It is wifhed to impofe the 
Bourbons upon us, and thefe princes are rejected by the 
immenfe majority of Frenchmen. There are in war, es¬ 
pecially when it has been long conduced, fucceffes and re¬ 
veries. In our fucceffes we have been feen great and ge¬ 
nerous; in our reverfes, if it is wifhed to humiliate us, 
we fliall know how to die. The Bourbons prefent no 
guarantee to the nation. We received them with Senti¬ 
ments of the moft generous confidence ; we forgot all 
the calamities they had caufed us, in wifhing to deprive 
us of our moft facred rights. What reply did they make 
to this confidence? they treated us as rebels and van- 
quifhed. Reprefentatives, thefe refleftions are terrible, 
becaufe they are true. Inexorable hiftory will one day 
relate what the Bourbons did to replace themfelves on 
the throne of France; it will alfo tell the conduct of the 
army, of that army effentially national, and pofterity will 
judge which beft deferved the efteem of the world.” The 
livelieft applaufes fucceeded to the reading of the above 
letter, which was ordered to be printed and fent to the 
armies. 
But Wellington and Blucher continued their opera¬ 
tions ; and oh the very fame day had recourfe to a move¬ 
ment which proved decifive of the fate of Paris. Marfhal 
Blucher, having taken the village of Aubervilliers, made 
a movement to the right, and, crofting the Seine at St. 
Germain, below the capital, threw his whole force upon 
the fouth fide of the city, where no preparations had been 
made to receive an enemy. On the morning of the 2d of 
July he had his right at Plieffie Pique, and his left at 
Meudon, with his referve at Verfailles. Carnot blames 
Bonaparte for not fortifying Paris on that fide, and fays 
he forewarned him of the danger. The French were 
thus obliged to abandon the works they had conltrufted 
for the defence of the capital, and crofs the Seine to meet 
Blucher. The conteft was obftinate; but the Pruffians 
finally furmounted all difficulties, and fucceeded in efta- 
blifhing themfelves firmly upon the heights of Meudon 
and in the village of Illy. The French lofs, on this day, 
was eftimated at 3000 men. Next morning, by three 
o’clock, the Pruffians were attacked in their pofitions 
already mentioned, but the French were rep tilled with 
much lofs. 
In the mean time the allied army, under Wellington, 
had advanced to Gonafl'e. The right immediately threw 
a bridge over the Seine at Argenteuil, crofted that river, 
and opened the communication with Blucher, while 
another part of the army advanced upon the city, from 
the. eaft, by Neuilly. All further refiftance, it w>as now 
obvious, would prove unavailing. Paris lay at the mercy 
of the allies. In this ftate of things, a fpecial commiffion 
was direfted to proceed to the Englilh and Pruffian gene¬ 
rals, and treat for the furrender of the city. Com- 
miffioners having been appointed by Wellington and. 
Blucher, both parties met at St. Cloud. The conference 
was carried on in the palace of Bonaparte, and in the 
chamber in which he held his councils of ftate. The re- 
fult was the following Convention, for the furrender of 
Paris, and a fufpenfion of arms. 
“This day, the 3d of July, 1815, the commiffioners 
r ' named 
