every thing that has been done
without you is illegal. Within these five and twenty years France has
acquired new interests, new institutions, new glory, to be guarantied
only by a national government, and a dynasty born under these new
circumstances. A prince who should reign over you, who should be
seated on my throne by the power of the same armies, that have ravaged
our territories, would seek in vain to support himself by the
principles of feudal right; he could secure the honour and the rights
only of a small number of individuals, enemies to the people, who have
condemned them in all our national assemblies for five and twenty
years. Your tranquillity at home, and estimation abroad, would be lost
for ever.

Frenchmen! in my exile I heard your complaints and wishes: you called
for that government of your own choice, which alone is legitimate; you
blamed my long slumber; you reproached me with sacrificing the great
interests of the country to my own repose.

I have crossed the seas amid perils of every kind: I arrive among you
to resume my rights, which are also yours. Every thing that
individuals have done, written, or said, since the taking of Paris, I
shall consign to everlasting oblivion; it shall have no influence on
the remembrance I retain of the important services they have rendered,
for there are events of such a nature, that they are above the frame
of man.

Frenchmen! there is no nation, however small, that has not possessed
the right of withdrawing, and that has not withdrawn itself, from the
disgrace of obeying a prince imposed upon it by an enemy temporarily
victorious. When Charles VII. re-entered Paris, and overturned the
ephemeral throne of Henry VI., he acknowledged, that he held his crown
from the valour of his brave people, and not from the Prince Regent of
England.

It is to you only, and to the brave men of the army, that I make, and
shall always make it my glory, to owe every thing.

Signed, NAPOLEON.

By the Emperor.

The grand marshal, executing the functions of major-general of the
grand army.

Signed, BERTRAND.

The Emperor, while he dictated these proclamations, appeared to be
animated with the most profound indignation. He seemed to have before
his eyes, both the generals, whom he accused of having given up
France, and the enemies, who had subjugated it. He incessantly
repeated the names