hazardous enterprise. I reply that a secret voice constrained me; and
that nothing in the world could have induced me to postpone to another
period an attempt which seemed to me to present so many chances of
success.

"And the most painful thought for me at this moment is--now that reality
has come to take the place of suppositions, and that, instead of
imagining, I have seen--that I am firm in the belief that if I had
followed the plan which I had marked out for myself, instead of being
now under the Equator, I should be in my own country. Of what importance
to me are those vulgar ones which call me insensate because I have not
succeeded, and which would have exaggerated my merit had I triumphed? I
take upon myself all the responsibility of the movement, for I have
acted from conviction, and not from the influence of others. Alas! if I
were the only victim I should have nothing to deplore. I have found in
my friends boundless devotion, and I have no reproaches to make against
any one whatever.

"On the 27th I arrived at Lahr, a small town of the Grand-duchy of
Baden, where I awaited intelligence. Near that place the axle of my
carriage broke, and I was compelled to remain there for a day. On the
morning of the 28th I left Lahr, and, retracing my steps, passed through
Fribourg, Neubrisach, and Colmar, and arrived, at eleven o'clock in the
evening, at Strasburg without the least embarrassment. My carriage was
taken to the _Hotel de la Fleur_, while I went to lodge in a small
chamber, which had been engaged for me, in the _Rue de la Fontaine_.

"There I saw, on the 29th, Colonel Vaudrey, and submitted to him the
plan of operations which I had drawn up. But the colonel, whose noble
and generous sentiments merited a better fate, said to me:

"'There is no occasion here for a conflict with arms. Your cause is too
French and too pure to be soiled in shedding French blood. There is but
one mode of procedure which is worthy of you, because it will avoid all
collision. When you are at the head of my regiment we will march
together to General Voirol's.[K] An old soldier will not resist the
sight of you and of the imperial eagle when he knows that the garrison
follows you.'

[Footnote K: The commanding officer of the garrison.]

"I approved his reasons, and all things were arranged for the next
morning. A house had been engaged in a street in the neighborhood of the
quarter of Austerlitz, whence we all were to proceed to th