mmissioners, and all the persons in Napoleon's suite, were indignant at
seeing Augereau stand in the road still covered, with his hands behind
his back, and instead of bowing, merely making a contemptuous salutation
to Napoleon with his hand. It was at the Tuileries that these haughty
Republicans should have shown their airs. To have done so on the road to
Elba was a mean insult which recoiled upon themselves.

--[The following letter, taken from Captain Bingham's recently
published selections from the Correspondence of the first Napoleon,
indicates in emphatic language the Emperor's recent dissatisfaction
with Marshal Augereau when in command at Lyons daring the "death
straggle" of 1814:

To Marshal Augereau.

NOGENT, 21st February, 1814,

....What! six hours after having received the first troops coming
from Spain you were not in the field! Six hours repose was
sufficient. I won the action of Naugis with a brigade of dragoons
coming from Spain which, since it had left Bayonne, had not
unbridled its horses. The six battalions of the division of Nimes
want clothes, equipment, and drilling, say you? What poor reasons
you give me there, Augereau! I have destroyed 80,000 enemies with
conscripts having nothing but knapsacks! The National Guards, say
you, are pitiable; I have 4000 here in round hats, without
knapsacks, in wooden shoes, but with good muskets, and I get a great
deal out of them. There is no money, you continue; and where do you
hope to draw money from! You want waggons; take them wherever you
can. You have no magazines; this is too ridiculous. I order you
twelve hours after the reception of this letter to take the field.
If you are still Augereau of Castiglione, keep the command, but if
your sixty years weigh upon you hand over the command to your senior
general. The country is in danger; and can be saved by boldness and
alacrity alone....
(Signed) NAPOLEON]--

At Valence Napoleon, for the first time, saw French soldiers with the
white cockade in their caps. They belonged to Augereau's corps. At
Orange the air resounded with tines of "Vive le Roi!" Here the gaiety,
real or feigned, which Napoleon had hitherto evinced, began to forsake
him.

Had the Emperor arrived at Avignon three hours later than he did there is
no doubt that he would have been massacred.--[The Royalist mob of Avignon
massacred Ma