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"It is the emperor!" cried a voice, in amazement, and a horseman dismounting in a moment approached the carriage. "It is General Belliard," exclaimed the emperor, and alighted hastily from his carriage. "General, whither are you moving? What about Paris?" "Sire, all is lost!" said Belliard, after a mournful pause. "How so?" cried Napoleon, vehemently. "You see I am coming!
The Russians had opposed to us two still more formidable. Every moment our guns were shattered, and our ammunition-waggons blown up. It was into the midst of this volcano that the king urged his horse: there he stopped, alighted, and remained motionless. Belliard warned him that he was sacrificing his life to no purpose, and without glory. The king answered only by pushing on still farther.
But as they felt themselves too weak to throw themselves into that gap, behind a line still formidable, they called aloud for the guard: "The young guard! only let it follow them at a distance! Let it show itself, and take their place upon the heights! They themselves will then be sufficient to finish!" General Belliard was sent by them to the emperor.
The Belgian congress gathered that the acceptance of Prince Leopold was regarded by the powers as more important than the maintenance of the terms of that protocol, and they accordingly elected him as their king on June 4 without accepting the protocol. In answer to Dutch complaints Ponsonby and General Belliard, the French minister, were recalled from Brussels as the protocol of May 10 required.
He swore on his honor that the Russians were lost if the Emperor would give another division. Napoleon shrugged his shoulders and continued to pace up and down without replying. Belliard began talking loudly and eagerly to the generals of the suite around him. "You are very fiery, Belliard," said Napoleon, when he again came up to the general. "In the heat of a battle it is easy to make a mistake.
"Well, then," he said, in a faint, hollow voice, "I will return to Fontainebleau." Napoleon reentered his carriage. When his three attendants had taken seats, he rose and called out in a commanding voice, "General Belliard!" The general approached the carriage hesitatingly; he was still afraid lest the emperor should change his mind.
Belliard first relieved his apprehensions, and then added, that "Beyond the Wiazma, behind a ravine, on an advantageous position, the enemy had shown himself in force and ready for battle; that the cavalry on both sides immediately engaged, and as the infantry became necessary, the king in person put himself at the head of one of Davoust's divisions, and drew it out to lead it against the enemy; but that the marshal hastened up, calling to his men to halt, loudly censuring that manoeuvre, harshly reproaching the king for it, and forbidding his generals to obey him: that Murat then appealed to his dignity, to his military rank, to the exigency of the occasion, but in vain; that, finally, he had sent to declare to the emperor his disgust for a command so contested, and to tell him that he must choose between him and Davoust."
The general in vain informed him that there was no longer an army in Paris; that the regulars were all coming behind, and that neither they nor he himself, having left the city in consequence of a convention, could possibly return to it. The Emperor still demanded his carriage, and bade Belliard turn with the cavalry and follow him.
For a moment the arguments of General Belliard seemed to take effect, and the order to march was given to the young guard. The emperor stopped the guard, forbidding an operation which, though recently likely to be successful, was now dangerous from the delay.
Fortunately, their last attacking column presented itself towards Semenowska and the great redoubt, without its artillery, the progress of which had, no doubt, been retarded by the ravines. Belliard had barely time to collect thirty cannon against this infantry.
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