"I
will sign every thing. I will abdicate; I will sign this second
treaty, which makes me Emperor of Elba! My wife and my son must be
restored to me!" He quickly stepped to the desk, and signed the two
papers with a steady hand.
"Well," he said, flinging the pen into a corner of the room, "now I
am no longer Emperor of France, but at the same time no longer a
prisoner at Fontainebleau. At Elba I shall be free, at least; I
shall be surrounded by the brave soldiers of my Old Guard; I shall
see again my wife and my son. That is to say," he gloomily murmured
to himself, "if her father permits them to rejoin me; for without
his permission she will not come. Louisa is a princess of Austria,
and has, therefore, been brought up in obedience. Oh, how I longed
for the consolation of her presence! She ought not to have left me
alone in these days!" His lips murmured softly, "Josephine would not
have done so! She would have gone with me into exile!" He sat a long
time absorbed in his reflections, which whispered to him of the
past, and of Josephine. He felt that they moved him too deeply, and,
with an impetuous gesture, he jumped up, and, proudly throwing back
his head, exclaimed: "Well, then, I have submitted to my fate, and
shall bear it manfully. We shall go to Elba, then! You will
accompany me, my friends, and I shall not be alone? Maret and
Berthier, you will not leave me, I hope?"
"Sire, I would follow your majesty to the end of the world!" said
Maret, tenderly.
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