atches should reach
the Emperor's house, the advanced vedettes should capture the little
party at Holitsch. At no period of his career was Napoleon more incensed
against the adherents of the Bourbons; and if De Beauvais should fall
into his hands, I was well aware that nothing could save him. The
Emperor always connected in his mind--and with good reason, too--the
machinations of the Royalists with the plans of the English Government.
He knew that the land which afforded the asylum to their king was
the refuge of the others also; and many of the heaviest denunciations
against the "perfide Albion" had no other source than the dread, of
which he could never divest himself, that the legitimate monarch would
one day be restored to France.

While such were Napoleon's feelings, the death of the Duc d'Enghien had
heightened the hatred of the Bourbonists to a pitch little short of
madness. My own unhappy experience made me more than ever fearful of
being in any way implicated with the members of this party, and I
rode on as though life itself depended on my reaching the imperial
headquarters some few minutes earlier.

As I approached the camp, I was overjoyed to find that no movement
was in contemplation. The men were engaged in cleaning their arms
and accoutrements, restoring the broken wagons and gun-carriages, and
repairing, as far as might be, the disorders of the day of battle. The
officers stood in groups here and there, chatting at their ease; while
the only men under arms were the new conscript? just arrived from
France,--a force of some thousands,--brought by forced marches from the
banks of the Rhine.

The crowd of officers near the headquarters of the Emperor pressed
closely about me as I descended from my horse, eager to learn what
information I brought from Holitsch; for they were not aware that I had
been stationed nearly half-way on the road.

"Well, Burke," said General d'Auvergne, as he drew his arm within mine,
"your coming has been anxiously looked for this morning. I trust the
despatches you carry may, if not Contradict, at least explain what has
occurred."

"Is this the officer from Holitsch?" said the aide-decamp of the
Emperor, coming hurriedly forward. "The despatch, sir!" cried he; and
the next moment hastened to the little hut which Napoleon occupied as
his bivouac.

The only other person in the open space where I stood was an officer of
the lancers, whose splashed and travel-stained dress seem