us. When the officers
demurred, the soldiers came without them. I am wrong, however: there
was one regiment, the third of hussars, that the Emperor could not
bring over to him. The brave Moncey, who commanded it, was a man of
sound understanding, and his attachment to Napoleon, his ancient
benefactor, could not be doubted: but all men do not see with the same
eyes; some made their duty consist in running to meet Napoleon, Moncey
thought himself obliged to avoid him.

He had conjured his regiment, not to subject him to the disgrace of
being deserted. His officers and his hussars, by whom he was adored,
followed him, while they made the air ring with shouts of Long live
the Emperor! thinking thus to reconcile their respect for their
colonel with their devotion to the cause and person of Napoleon.

We were informed on the road, that two thousand of the body guards
were posted in the forest of Fontainbleau. Though this account was
improbable, it was thought necessary, not to cross the forest without
precaution. At our urgent solicitation, the Emperor took about two
hundred horse to accompany him. Hitherto his only escort had been the
carriage of General Drouot, which preceded his, and mine, which closed
the march. Colonels Germanouski and Du Champ, Captain Raoul, and three
or four Polanders, galloped by the side of them. Our horses, our
postillions, our couriers, with tricoloured ribands, gave our
peaceable party an air of festivity and happiness, that formed a
singular contrast to the proscription suspended over our heads, and to
the mourning and despair of the men who had proscribed us.

We marched almost all night, as the Emperor was desirous of reaching
Fontainbleau at break of day. I observed, that I thought it would be
imprudent in him, to alight at the castle. "You are a child," answered
he; "if any thing be to happen to me, all these precautions would be
of no avail. Our fate is written above:" and he pointed with his
finger to the sky[69].

[Footnote 69: Napoleon was a fatalist, and
superstitious; and made no secret of it. He
believed in lucky and unlucky days. We might be
astonished at this weakness, if we did not know,
that it was common to the greatest men both of
ancient and modern times.]

I had imagined, that the sight of the palace of Fontainbleau, the
place where he had so lately descende