chwarzenberg, with a reply from the
Emperor of Austria to the confidential letter which his Majesty had
written two days before to his father-in-law. We had left Mery in
flames; and in the little hammock of Chatres, where headquarters had been
established, there could no shelter be found for his Majesty except in
the shop of a wheelwright; and the Emperor passed the night there,
working, or lying on the bed all dressed, without sleeping. It was there
also he received the Austrian envoy, the Prince of Lichtenstein. The
prince long remained in conversation with his Majesty; and though nothing
was known of the subject of their conversation, no one doubted that it
related to peace. After the departure of the prince, the Emperor was in
extraordinarily high spirits, which affected all those around him.

Our army had taken from the enemy thousands of prisoners; Paris had just
received the Russian and Prussian banners taken at Nangis and Montereau;
the Emperor had put to flight the foreign sovereigns, who even feared for
a time that they might not be able to regain the frontiers; and the
effect of so much success had been to restore to his Majesty his former
confidence in his good fortune, though this was unfortunately only a
dangerous illusion.

The Prince of Lichtenstein had hardly left headquarters when M. de
Saint-Aignan, the brother-in-law of the Duke of Vicenza, and equerry
of the Emperor, arrived. M. de Saint-Aignan went, I think, to his
brother-in-law, who was at the Congress of Chatillon, or at least had
been; for the sessions of this congress had been suspended for several
days. It seems that before leaving Paris M. de Saint-Aignan held an
interview with the Duke of Rovigo and another, minister, and they had
given him a verbal message to the Emperor. This mission was both
delicate and difficult. He would have much preferred that these
gentlemen should have sent in writing the communications which they
insisted he should bear to his Majesty, but they refused; and as a
faithful servant M. de Saint-Aignan performed his duty, and prepared to
speak the whole truth, whatever danger he might incur by so doing.

When he arrived at the wheelwright's shop at Chatres, the Emperor, as we
have just seen, was abandoning himself to most brilliant dreams; which
circumstance was most unfortunate for M. de Saint-Aignan, since he was
the bearer of disagreeable news. He came, as we have learned since, to
announce to his Majesty that he