"
Maret read in a tremulous voice: "'I, who love your majesty with the
fervor which the savage feels for the sun--I, who belong to you with
body and soul--must tell you the truth; and this is: we must wage an
eternal war for you, BUT _I_ WILL DO SO NO MORE! I want peace! I
want at length to be able to rest my weary head and aching limbs in
my house, in the midst of my family, to enjoy their devotion, and no
longer to be a stranger to them--to enjoy what I have purchased with
a treasure that is more precious than all the riches of India--with
my blood, with the blood of a man of honor, a good Frenchman, a true
patriot. Well, then, I ask--I demand--the repose that I have
purchased by twenty-two years of active service, and by seventeen
wounds, from which my blood has welled, first for my country, and
then for your glory. It is enough!--my country needs repose, and
your glory is as radiant as the sun. I repeat, therefore, I want
peace. I speak in the name of all your marshals and generals, in the
name of your army, in the name of all France: WE DEMAND PEACE; give
it to us, then!--JUNOT, Duke d'Abrantes.'" [Footnote: "Memoirs of
the Duchess d'Abrantes," b. xvi., p. 323.]
"Well!" inquired Napoleon, when Maret had read the letter, "what do
you think of this impudence?"
"Sire," said Maret, in a low, tremulous voice, "your majesty knows
well that the Duke d'Abrantes is very dangerously ill, and that he
is said to be subject to frequent fits of insanity.
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