e Emperor to accept
them. They announced to him that--while he had been driving the
Austrians up the Seine--the _Army of the North_, the third great force
of the Allies, had at length effected their juncture with Blucher; who
was now, therefore, at the head of a much greater army than he had as
yet commanded, and was manifestly resolved to descend directly on Paris
from Chalons. Napoleon was urged anew by those about his person, to send
to Chatillon and accept the basis to which Caulaincourt had agreed. He
answered that he had sworn at his coronation to preserve the territory
of the Republic entire, and that he could not sign this treaty without
violating _his oath_!--and dismissed his counsellors, saying haughtily,
"If I am to be scourged, let the whip at least come on me of necessity,
and not through any voluntary stooping of my own."

Instead, therefore, of sending messengers of peace to Chatillon,
Napoleon now thought only of the means of at once holding Schwartzenberg
in check on the Seine, and returning once more to confront Blucher on
the Marne. He pushed on, however, as far as Troyes, in the expectation
of still terrifying the allied princes into some compromise. In this
city he found that certain gentlemen had openly assumed the white
cockade, the mark of the Bourbonists, during its occupation by the
enemy, though without any countenance from the sovereigns. One of these
gentlemen was so unfortunate as to fall into his hands, and was
immediately executed.

The Emperor in vain expected new proposals from Chatillon; none such
reached him at Troyes--and he recurred to his scheme of a second
"Expedition of the Marne." He desired Oudinot and Macdonald, with their
divisions, to manoeuvre in the direction of Schwartzenberg: and these
generals commanded their troops to shout "vive l'Empereur" whenever they
were within hearing of the enemy, which for a little time kept up the
notion that Napoleon himself was still advancing on the road to Bar.
Meanwhile he was once more marching rapidly across the country to
Sezanne; at which point he received intelligence that Mortier and
Marmont had been driven from Ferte-sous-Jouarre by Blucher, and were in
full retreat to Meaux. Meaux he considered as almost a suburb of Paris,
and quickened his speed accordingly. Hurrying on, at Ferte-Goucher, he
was at once met and overtaken by evil tidings. Schwartzenberg, having
discovered the Emperor's absence, had immediately resumed the offen