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Updated: June 11, 2025
Napoleon passed through the crowd of his officers, who were drawn up in an avenue as he passed, bidding them adieu merely by forced and melancholy smiles: their good wishes, equally silent, and expressed only by respectful gestures, he carried with him. He and Caulaincourt shut themselves up in a carriage.
"She has done me much harm, doubtless, but I have left in her flanks a poisoned dart. It is I who have made this debt, that will ever burden, if not crush, future generations." Finally, he came back to the hateful compact which Caulaincourt pressed him in vain to sign. How could he take money from the allies. How could he leave France so small, after receiving her so great!
The idea of a general partition of Turkish lands grew stronger, and in an interview with Metternich, Napoleon hinted that Austria should have a share. Instructions were sent to Caulaincourt that he should hold out hopes in order to gain time and to learn whether it was definitely impossible that matters should remain as the treaty of Tilsit, taken literally, had arranged them.
"If I had been born a Frenchman, like the general, I should not be to-day in the camp of your Majesty." When the Duke of Vicenza had finished his report to the Emperor, his Majesty remarked with a bitter smile, "I am sure that wretch Jomini thinks he has performed a fine action! Ah, Caulaincourt, these desertions will destroy me!"
Then turning to Caulaincourt, he said, "Alas! when will fate relent? When will there be an end of this? My eagles will yet triumph, but the happiness which accompanies them is fled. Whither has he been conveyed? I must see him. Poor, poor Duroc!" The Emperor found the dying marshal in a cottage, still stretched upon the camp litter by which he had been conveyed from the field.
On the 7th of April the Duke de Vicenza entered the emperor's cabinet, pale and with a mournful air. "Caulaincourt," cried Napoleon, "you have delivered my abdication to Alexander?" "Yes, sire," said Caulaincourt, sadly. "Ah, sire, I bring bad news, which my lips almost refuse to utter!" "Speak, I am courageous enough to hear all; be, then, courageous enough to tell me all.
Amount of the Allied forces against Napoleon Their advance towards the Rhine Levy of 280,000 men Dreadful situation of the French at Mayence Declaration of the Allies at Frankfort Diplomatic correspondents The Due de Bassano succeeded by the Duke of Vicenza The conditions of the Allies vaguely accepted Caulaincourt sent to the headquarters of the Allies Manifesto of the Allied powers to the French people.
When their interview was over, he made Prince Eugene read to them his twenty-ninth bulletin; after which, declaring aloud what he had confided to each of them privately, he told them "that he was about to depart that very night with Duroc, Caulaincourt and Lobau, for Paris; that his presence there was indispensable for France as well as for the remains of his unfortunate army.
A few weeks had softened the displeasure he felt after Schönbrunn, and he now began to shower favors on Caulaincourt, expressing the greatest anxiety for the match. The youth of the princess was, however, a serious obstacle, and he must consult his empress-mother.
It is significant that while Schwarzenberg cautiously felt about for Napoleon's rearguard, of which he lost touch for two whole days, Metternich insisted that the peace Congress must be opened. Caulaincourt had for several days been waiting near the allied head-quarters; and, said the Austrian Minister, it would be a breach of faith to put him off any longer now that Castlereagh had arrived.
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