Capitulation of Paris.

Chapter LXII.

Capitulation of Paris

Retirement of the army of Vilette behind the Loire - Occupation of the French capital by the Allies - Thoughts on the disposition of the Bourbon Government towards Great Britain - Conduct of the Allies after their possession of Paris - Infringements of the treaty - Removal of the works of art from the Louvre - Reflections on the injurious result of that measure to the British student - Liberal motive operating on the English Administration of that period - Little interludes got up between the French King and the Allies - Louis the Eighteenth’s magnanimous letters - Threatened destruction of the Pont de Jena by Marshal Blucher - Heroic resolution of His Most Christian Majesty to perish in the explosion.

The rapid succession of these extraordinary events bore to me the character of some optical delusion, and my mind was settling into a train of reflections on the past and conjectures as, to the future, when Fouché capitulated for Paris, and gave up France to the discretion of its enemies. In a few hours after 1 saw that enthusiastic, nay, that half-frantic, army of Vilette (in the midst of which I had an opportunity of witnessing a devotion to its chief which no defeat could diminish) on the point of total annihilation. I saw the troops, sad and crestfallen, marching out of Paris to consummate behind the Loire the fall of France as a warlike kingdom. With arms still in their hands, with a great park of artillery, and commanded by able generals, yet were they constrained to turn their backs on their metropolis, abandoning it to the “tender mercies” of the Russian Cossacks, whom they had so often conquered.

I saw likewise that most accomplished of traitors, Fouché, Duke of Otranto, who had with impunity betrayed his patron and his master, betraying, in their turn, his own tools and instruments, signing lists of proscription for the death or exile of those whose ill fortune or worse principle had rendered them his dupes, and thus confirming, in my mind, the scepticism as to men and measures which had long been growing on me.

The only political point I fancy at present that I can see any certainty in is, that the French nation is not mad enough to hazard lightly a fresh war with England. The highest flown ultras, even the Jesuits themselves, cannot forget that to the inexhaustible perseverance of the United Kingdom is mainly attributable the present political condition of Europe. The *people *of France may not, it is true, owe us much gratitude, but considering that we transmitted both his present and his late Majesty safely from exile here to their exalted station amongst the potentates of Europe, I do hope, for the honour of our common nature, that the *Government *of that country would not willingly turn the weapons which *we *put into their hands against ourselves. If they should, however, it is not too much to add, bearing in mind what we have successfully coped with, that their hostility would be as ineffectual as ungrateful.

And here I cannot abstain from briefly congratulating my fellow-countrymen on the manly and encouraging exposition of our national power recently put forth by Mr. Canning in the House of Commons. Let them rest assured that it has been felt by every cabinet in Europe, even to its core. The Holy Alliance has dwindled into comparative insignificance, and Great Britain, under an energetic and liberal-minded administration, re-assumes that influence to which she is justly entitled, as one in the first order of European empires.

To return. The conduct of the allies after their occupation of Paris was undoubtedly strange, to say the least of it, and nothing could be more inconsistent than that of the populace on the return of King Louis. That Paris was betrayed is certain, and that the article of capitulation which provided that “wherever doubts existed, the construction should be in *favour *of the Parisians,” was not adhered to, is equally so. It was never in contemplation, for instance, that the capital was to be rifled of all the monuments of art and antiquity whereof she had become possessed by right of conquest. A reclamation of the great mortar in St. James’s Park, or of the throne of the King of Ceylon, would have just as much appearance of fairness as that of *Apollo *by the Pope, and *Venus *by the Grand Duke of Tuscany. What preposterous affectation of justice was there in employing British engineers to take down the brazen horses of Alexander the Great in order that they may be re-erected in St. Mark’s Place at Venice, a city to which the Austrian Emperor had no more equitable a claim than we have to Vienna! I always was, and still remain to be, decidedly of opinion that, by giving our aid in emptying the Louvre, we authorised not only an act of unfairness to the French, but of impolicy as concerned ourselves, since by so doing, we have removed beyond the reach of the great majority of British artists and students the finest models of sculpture and of painting this world has produced.

When this step was first determined on, the Prussians began with moderation - they rather smuggled away than openly stole 14 paintings; but no sooner was this rifling purpose generally made known, than his *Holiness *the Pope was all anxiety to have his *gods *again locked up in the dusty store-rooms of the Vatican! The Parisians now took fire. They remonstrated and protested against this infringement of the treaty, and a portion of the National Guards stoutly declared that they would *defend the gallery! *But the king loved the Pope’s toe better than all the works of art ever achieved; and the German autocrat being also a devoted friend of St. Peter’s (whilst at the same time he lusted after the “brazen images”), the assenting fiat was given. Wishing, however, to throw the stigma from the shoulders of Catholic monarchs upon those of Protestant soldiers, these wily allies determined that, although England was not to share the spoil, she should bear the trouble, and therefore threatened the National Guards with a regiment of Scotch-men, which threat produced the desired effect.

Now it may be said that the “right of conquest” is as strong en one side as on the other, and justifies the reclamation as fully as it did the original capture of these *chef d’oeuvres, *to which plausible argument I oppose two words, *the treaty! the treaty! *Besides, if the right of conquest is to decide, then I fearlessly advance the claim of Great Britain, who was the principal agent in winning the prize at Waterloo, and had therefore surely a right to wear at least some portion of it, but who, nevertheless, stood by and *sanctioned *the injustice, although she had too high a *moral sense *to participate in it. What will my fellow-countrymen say when they hear that the *liberal *motive which served to counterbalance in the minds of the British ministry of that day the solid advantages resulting from the retention of the works of art at Paris was a jealousy of suffering the French capital to remain “the Athens of Europe!”

The farce played off between the French king and the allies was supremely ridiculous, The Cossacks bivouacked in the square of the Carousel before his majesty’s windows, and soldiers dried their shirts and trousers on the iron railings of the palace. This was a nuisance; and for the purpose of abating it three pieces of ordnance, duly loaded, with a gunner and ready-lighted match, were stationed day and night upon the quay, and pointed directly at *his majesty’s drawing-room, *so that one salvo would have despatched the most Christian king and all his august family to the *genuine *Champs Elysées. This was carrying the jest rather too far, and every rational man in Paris was shaking his sides at so shallow a manoeuvre, when a new object of derision appeared in shape of a letter purporting to be written by King Louis, expressing his wish that he was young and active enough (who would doubt his wish to grow young again?) to put himself at the head of his own army, attack his puissant allies, and cut them all to pieces for their duplicity to his loving and beloved subjects.

A copy of this letter was given me by a colonel of the National Guards, who said that it was circulated by the *highest *authority. *

“Lettre du Roi au Prince Talleyrand.*

“Du *22 *Jufllet, 1815.

La conduite des armées allées réduira bientot mon peuple a s’armer contre elles, comme on a fait en Espagne.

Plus jeune, je me mettrais a sa tete; mais, si l’age et mes infirmités m’en empechent, je ne veux pas, an moins, paroitre conniver a des mesures dont le gémis! je suis résolu, si je ne puis les adoucir, a demander asile an roi d’Espagne.

“Que ceux qui, meme apres la capture de l’homme a qui ils out déclaré la guerre, continuent a traiter mon peuple en ennemi, et doivent par conséquent me regarder comme tel, attentent s’ils le veulent a ma liberté ils en sont les maitres! j’aime mieux vivre dans ma prison que de rester ici, témoin passif des pleurs de mes enfans.”

But to close the scene of his majesty’s gallantry, and anxiety to preserve the capitulation entire. After he had permitted the plunder of the Louvre a report was circulated that Blucher had determined to send all considerations of the treaty to the d---, and with his soldiers to blow up the *Pont de Jena, *as the existence of a bridge so named was an *insult *to the victorious Prussians! This was, it must be admitted, sufficiently in character with Blucher; but some people were so fastidious as to assert that it was in fact only a clap-trap on behalf of his most Christian majesty; and true it was, the next day copies of a very dignified and gallant letter from Louis XVIII. were circulated extensively throughout Paris. The purport of this royal epistle was not *remonstrance, *that would have been merely considered as matter of course. It demanded that Marshal Blucher should inform his majesty of the precise moment the bridge was to be so blown up, as his majesty, having no power of resistance, was determined to go in person, stand upon the bridge at the time of the explosion, and mount into the air amidst the stones and mortar of his beautiful piece of architecture! No doubt it would have been a sublime termination of so *sine cura *a reign, and would have done more to immortalise the Bourbon dynasty than anything they seem at present likely to accomplish!

However, Blucher frustrated that gallant achievement, as be did many others, and declared in reply, that he would not singe a hair of his majesty’s head for the pleasure of blowing up a hundred bridges!

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