them and their own
resources, and at the same time relieving and rallying around him all
the garrisons of the great fortresses of the Rhine? Would not such
conduct be considered as entirely out of the question by superstitious
adherents to the ancient technicalities of war? Would not Schwartzenberg
at least abandon the advance and turn to follow him, who still fancied
that no one could dream of conquering France without having ruined
Napoleon? But--even supposing that the allied powers should resist all
these suggestions and proceed upon the capital--would not that great
city, with Marmont and Mortier, and the national guard, be able to hold
the enemy at bay for some considerable space; and, during that space,
could the Emperor fail to release his garrisons on the Rhine, and so
place himself once more at the head of an army capable, under his
unrivalled guidance, of relieving France and ruining her invaders, by a
great battle under the walls of Paris?

It must be added, in reference to Napoleon's choice among these
difficulties, that ere now the continuance of the warfare had much
exacerbated the feelings of the peasantry, who, for the most part,
regarded its commencement with indifference. The perpetual marches and
counter-marches of the armies, the assaults and burnings of towns and
villages, the fierce demeanour of the justly embittered Prussians, and
the native barbarism of the Russians, had spread devastation and horror
through some of the fairest provinces of France. The desolation was such
that wolves and other beasts of prey appeared, in numbers which recalled
the ages of the unbroken forest, amidst the vineyards and gardens of
Champagne. All who could command the means of flight had escaped; of
those that remained there were few who had not, during three months,
suffered painful privations, seen their cottages occupied by savage
strangers, and their streams running red with the blood of their
countrymen. The consequence was that the peasantry on the theatre of the
war, and behind it, were now in a state of high excitement. Might not
the Emperor, by throwing himself and his sorely diminished, but still
formidable, band of veterans among them, give the finishing impulse, and
realise at length his fond hope of a national insurrection?

While Napoleon was thus tossed in anxiety by what means to avert, if it
were yet possible, from Paris, the visitation of those mighty armies,
against whom energies, such as he alo