rder of the Emperor Alexander, and conveyed to the Russian
deserts. Geneva opened its gates to the enemy in the following January.
Vesoul, Epinal, Nancy, Langres, Dijon, Chalons-sur-Saone, and
Bar-sur-Aube were occupied by the allies.

The Emperor, in proportion as the danger became more pressing, displayed
still more his energy and indefatigable activity. He urged the
organization of new levies, and in order to pay the most urgent expenses
drew thirty millions from his secret treasury in the vaults of the
pavilion Marsan. The levies of conscripts were, however, made with
difficulty; for in the course of the year 1813 alone, one million forty
thousand soldiers had been summoned to the field, and France could no
longer sustain such enormous drains. Meanwhile veterans came from all
parts to be enrolled; and General Carnot offered his services to the
Emperor, who was much touched by this proceeding, and confided to him the
defense of Antwerp. The zeal and courage with which the general
acquitted himself of this important mission is well known. Movable
columns and corps of partisans placed themselves under arms in the
departments of the east, and a few rich proprietors levied and organized
companies of volunteers, while select cavalry formed themselves into
corps, the cavaliers of which equipped themselves at their own expense.

In the midst of these preparations the Emperor received news which moved
him deeply,--the King of Naples had just joined the enemies of the
French. On a previous occasion, when his Majesty had seen the Prince
Royal of Sweden, after having been marshal and prince of the Empire,
enter into a coalition against his native country, I heard him break
forth into reproaches and exclamations of indignation, although the King
of Sweden had more than one reason to offer in his own defense, being
alone in the north, and shut in by powerful enemies against whom he was
entirely unable to struggle, even had the interests of his new country
been inseparable from those of France. By refusing to enter into the
coalition he would have drawn on Sweden the anger of her formidable
neighbors, and with the throne he would have sacrificed and fruitlessly
ruined the nation which had adopted him. It was not to the Emperor he
owed his elevation. But King Joachim, on the contrary, owed everything
to the Emperor; for it was he who had given him one of his sisters as a
wife, who had given him a throne, and had treated him as well