. In the footsteps of Napoleon, his life and its famous scenes. e visitor as he enters the palace gate. Hesees it walking down the Horseshoe Stairs on the way to theElban exile and pausing to bestow a parting kiss on the im-perial eagle. He hears the echoed accents of the eloquentfarewell to the Old Guard, which have been treasured thesehundred years by the grey walls of the Court of the WhiteHorse, or the Court of the Adieu, as it is sentimentally called. As the pilgrim passes into the chateau itself, he is led firstof all up a flight of stairs and through the haunted apart-ments of Napoleon
. In the footsteps of Napoleon, his life and its famous scenes. e visitor as he enters the palace gate. Hesees it walking down the Horseshoe Stairs on the way to theElban exile and pausing to bestow a parting kiss on the im-perial eagle. He hears the echoed accents of the eloquentfarewell to the Old Guard, which have been treasured thesehundred years by the grey walls of the Court of the WhiteHorse, or the Court of the Adieu, as it is sentimentally called. As the pilgrim passes into the chateau itself, he is led firstof all up a flight of stairs and through the haunted apart-ments of Napoleon in a corner of the vast pile, where, like atenant in a second story flat, the Emperor occupied only ahalf-dozen rooms in a row. The one other suite in this wingof the chateau faces the opposite direction and looks acrossthe long corridor of Francis I, and out upon the Court ofthe Fountains. It was in that row of rooms, just on the other side of thewall from his own, that Napoleon imprisoned the Pope ofEome. And Pius VII had been liberated less than ten weeks,. THE FIRST ABDICATION 397 when the captor himself was virtually a captive in the ad-joining suite. Could punishment more closely tread uponthe heels of an offence, even within the jurisdiction of poeticjustice ? Ney, Macdonald and Oudinot, Berthier, Marmont and Lefebrewere at Fontainebleau, anxiously waiting for their release andan opportunity to make terms with the new regime. At last,Ney, the outspoken hussar, burst in upon the Emperor andboldly proclaimed their mutiny. Sire, the marshal Princeof the Moskva, bluntly announced, it is time to stop! Youare in the position of a man on his deathbed. You mustmake your will and abdicate in favour of the King of Rome. Must! Never in the eighteen years since he took commandof the Army of Italy had Napoleon heard that word fromthe lips of any man. In his astonishment, he appealed to hisother princes and dukes. Their answer was made withScotch candour by Marshal Macdonald, We have
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectnapoleo, bookyear1915
