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A Narrative of the Events Which Have Taken Place in France
A Narrative of the Events Which Have Taken Place in France Author:Helen Maria Williams Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: LETTER III. April, 1815. The discovery of a conspiracy before it be consummated is generally considered as the destruction of the enterprise for which it h... more »as been formed; but the present plot extended too far to be endangered by the failure of any single ramification. Bonaparte's triumphant march ceased to be marvellous, when it became known that the army was entirely devoted to him; that he had upon his arrival issued his imperial orders to the French troops in all the various stations in the kingdom ; that everywhere the military obeyed him with alacrity; and that this army, like a snowball, augmented as it rolled on. The most considerable part of the French army, and particularly the imperial guard, had never joined in the execrations with which their chief had been loaded by the French nation. His name though proscribed, as well as the imperial eagle, were bound to their minds with indissoluble affection ; and as they attributed to themselves a sharein his military glory, so they had continued to sympathize in his disgrace. Such were the honourable feelings of a great number; but the most considerable part, who felt not this sort of elevation, remembered, like the Israelites in the Wilderness, the flesh-pots of Egypt, and looked back with regret on those halcyon days when German burgomasters and substantial and well-prepared repasts awaited their arrival at a town or a village after the march or combat of the day; and rapine and riot, at the expense of the invaded countries, filled up the intervals of what they styled the career of glory. A numerous class of the French army, under the influence of those immoral habits, felt that Bonaparte's banishment had been the death-blow to their hopes and their enjoyments. With fond regret those heroes of the eagle looked back...« less