erconfident throughout the day--which
was the 5th of March: "The troops," he said, "were loyal to a man. They
were coming in fast from Chambery and Vienne; the garrison would and
could repulse that band of pirates, and take upon itself to fulfil the
promise which Ney had made to the King--namely to bring the ogre to His
Majesty bound and gagged in an iron cage."

But the following day, which was the 6th, many things occurred to shake
the Commandant's confidence: Napoleon's proclamation was not only posted
up all over the town, but the citizens were distributing the printed
leaflets among themselves: one of the officers on the staff pointed out
to General Marchand that the 4th regiment of artillery quartered in
Grenoble was the one in which Bonaparte had served as a lieutenant
during the Revolution--the men, it was argued, would never turn their
arms against one whom they had never ceased to idolize: it would not be
safe to march out into the open with men whose loyalty was so very
doubtful.

There was a rumour current in the town that when the men of the 5th
regiment of engineers and the 4th of artillery were told that Napoleon
had only eleven hundred men with him, they all murmured with one accord:
"And what about us?"

Therefore General Marchand, taking all these facts into consideration,
made up his mind to await the ogre inside the walls of Grenoble. Here at
any rate defections and desertions would be less likely to occur than in
the field. He set to work to organise the city into a state of defence;
forty-seven guns were put in position upon the ramparts which dominate
the road to the south, and he sent a company of engineers and a
battalion of infantry to blow up the bridge of Ponthaut at La Mure.

The royalists in the city, who were beginning to feel very anxious, had
assembled in force to cheer these troops as they marched out of the
city. But the attitude of the sapeurs created a very unpleasant
impression: they marched out in disorder, some of them tore the white
cockade from their shakos, and one or two cries of "Vive l'Empereur!"
were distinctly heard in their ranks.

At La Mure, M. le Maire argued very strongly against the destruction of
the bridge of Ponthaut: "It would be absurd," he said, "to blow up a
valuable bridge, since not one kilometre away there was an excellent
ford across which Napoleon could march his troops with perfect ease."
The sapeurs murmured an assent, and their officer, Colonel De