Notes and Anecdotes, Political and Miscellaneous [pp. 629-634]

SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.
attesting that on the morning of the 31st of March, M.
de L******* came, with a pistol in his hand, to force
them to receive and attach white cockades to their
hlats. (See evidence at end ef mareiscript, Nos. 2. and 3.)
The royalist committee met frequently, but did not
do much. An important victory of the Allied armies
was necessary to its action. While expecting such an
event, they secretly collected heaps of white cockades,
and prepared the necessary proclamations. Communications had been established with the head quarters of
the Emperors of Russia and Austria, and with the
King of Prussia. They endeavored to make these
Princes explain their ulterior views, but only succeeded
in drawing from them evasive answers. Victory, indeed, did not appear in their eyes, by any means crtain; and they would doubtless have preferred an advantageous treaty, to the chances of a prolonged contest
wvith an adversary whom they knew to be so fertile in
resources, and so skilful in profiting by the most trivial
accidents.
Fate had decided. The imperial crown was to fall
from the head of the great man. It was in vain, that in
this unfortunate campaign, he worked every miracle
that genius could produce. In vain he exerted in every
combat all the resources of his super-human activity.
His hour was arrived. The enemy threatened the
capital left without defence. A capitulation had just
been accepted, and the next morning a Prussian avantgarde was to enter Paris.
The royalist committee declared its session permanent. It was preparing itself to profit by events, though
no favorable news had yet been received from the head
quarters of the enemy. The Emperor of Russia, the
Emperor of Austria, and the King of Prussia, had not
yet published their famous declaration that they would
not treat again with Napoleon. The name of Louis
XVIII, murmured about their ears, had not obtained the
least favor. The idea had not yet been conceived, of
imposing on the Emperor of Austria the sacrifice of a
crown in the possession of his daughter, and promised
to his grandson. The imperial authorities still occupied
the places that had been confided to them by the Emperor. Nothing had yet been changed; and the most
probable idea, supposing the abdication, then announced, of Napoleon, was that his son would ascend the
throne, with the regency entrusted to the Empress
Maria Louisa, under the protection of the Emperor of
Austria. Bernadotte, also, was vaguely spoken of,
who claimed a reward for the eminent services he had
rendered the coalition. The chances were strongly in
favor of Napoleon II. Only one thing could prevent
the choice falling upon him-a national demonstrationthe proclamation of a wvish, which the conquerors should
be forced to respect, could alone prevent it.
This had been hinted to the royalist committee, by
the Cotunt Langeron, a Frenchman, then a general in
the Russian service.
As the opinion of sixty-six individuals, almost all of
them entirely unknown, could not produce the effect of
a national demostration, it was necessary to deceive the
foreign Princes, to draw along a part of the population
by deceiving it, and to compromise individuals; and
that in the face of the imperial authorities, and the national guard of Paris. Mallet had dreamed the same
thing and it will be sceI that the means adopted, were,
almost precisely, the same on which the conspirator of
1812 had counted.
A meeting of the royalist committee had been appointed for the evening of the 30th of March. Events
were sufficiently advanced to enable all the members to
attend without danger. They discussed and adopted
the proclamation to the inhabitants of Paris, which is
inserted on the preceding page. The MSS. was immediately carried to M. Michaud, brother to the former
principal Editor of the Quotidienne, a printer in the rue
des Bons Enfans. M. Michaud consented to loan his
presses; and it was for this service that he figured in
the list of sixty-six, and was subsequently appointed
printer to the King. The officer who commanded at
the back gate of the bank of France, having perceived
an extraordinary bustle, and at an unusal hour, in the
house in which M. Michaud's printing office was kept,
became uneasy, and announced their intention of visiting the work-shops. The noise immediately ceased,
and it was only with the greatest precaution, that they
succeeded in renmoving from the office, the small number of copies already struck off.
Let us return to No. 36, rue de l'Echiquier. The
question made the order of the day, was how to effect,
or rather to get up the appearance of a royalist movement in Paris. The committee did not know what
course to determine on; it was afraid of the police, and
particularly so of the national guard. At this time M.
de L*******, without making known his plan, announced his intention of attempting alone, the next
morning, that which the members of the committee
could not without danger undertake together. He only
required of his fellow conspirators, to supply themselves
with proclamations and cockades, and to place themselves at given points, waiting until he should personally give them the sign for action. The proposition
was accepted;-they were not embarrassed by the
necessity of a choice.
M. de L****** had been in some small degree involved in the conspiracy of Mallett in 1812. Pursued
by the police he found it necessary to beat two agents
who had been instructed to arrest him, and he had been
arraigned before the tribunals for this offence, and corndemned to a month's imprisonment. Being marked as
a dangerous character, he had reason to fear every day
a new arrest, and consequently carefully concealed
himself. "I am known to the police," he said to the
committee. "It is not with them that I will act. I
will seek a position in which my person shall be unknown."
M. de L passed the night between the 30th
and 31st of March at the house of a member of the
committee, named Morin, in company with an old captain of the consular guard; and it was with these two
persons that he matured his plan.
The 31st of March, at day-break, M. de L
armed with two pair of pistols, proceeded, accompanied
by M. Morin and the officer of the consular guard, to
the Hotel-de-Ville. He passed, without encountering
any obstacle, by the post of the national guard, and,
without replying to any of the questions addressed to
him by the attendants, entered the cabinet of the prefect. M. de Chabrol had gone to the house of M. de
Montalivet, minister of the Interior, for the purpose of
assistin~ at a meeting' of the mayors of Paris.
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