"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. I wish no concealment whatever--I desire to
know the whole truth."
"Well, sire, all is lost. The Emperor Alexander has issued to-day a
manifesto, which has been placarded over every part of Paris, to the
effect that 'he would no longer treat with Bonaparte, nor with any
member of his family.'"
"Ah, the perfidious wretch!" murmured Napoleon, "he plighted me once
eternal friendship and fidelity.--Proceed, Caulaincourt! What says
the so-called provisional government presided over by M. Talleyrand,
the renegade priest, whom I made a man of distinction, whom I raised
to the dignity of a prince, on whom I lavished honors, and who has
now become the leader of the royalists? What say M. Talleyrand, and
the provisional government, and the senate, who swore allegiance to
me?"
"Sire, the senate solemnly declared yesterday, the 6th of April,
that the Emperor Napoleon has forfeited his throne, because, by
abusing the powers conferred on him, by despotism, by trampling
under foot the liberty of the press, by undertaking wars in
violation of right, and by his openly manifested contempt of man and
human law, he has rendered himself unworthy of the sovereignty of
the nation.
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