Note Back to Main Text — MEMOIRS, &c. &c. (continued 5)

At the moment when this prince re-entered the Tuileries, Napoleon was busied at Rochefort on the means of quitting France. His presence excited such enthusiasm among the people, the mariners, and the soldiers, that the shore uninterruptedly resounded with shouts of "Long live the Emperor!" and these shouts, repeated from mouth to mouth, could not but teach those, who had flattered themselves with having mastered the will of Napoleon, how easy it would be for him, to shake off his chains, and laugh at their vain precautions. But faithful to his determination, he firmly resisted the impulse of circumstances; and the continual solicitations made him, to put himself at the head of the patriots and the army. "It is too late," he incessantly repeated: "the evil is now without remedy: it is no longer in my power, to save the country. A civil war now would answer no end, would be of no utility. To myself alone it might prove advantageous, by affording me the means of procuring personally more favourable conditions: but these I must purchase by the inevitable destruction of all that France possesses of most generous and most magnanimous and such a result inspires me with horror[95]."