It is as yet impossible to comprehend every report that circulates with regard to this fatal battle: some say there is manifest treason; others, a fatality without example. Thirty thousand men under Grouchy lost their way and were too late, taking no part in the engagement; the army, victorious till the evening, was, it is said, suddenly seized with a panic towards eight o’clock, and became broken in an instant. It is another Crecy, another Azincourt,———![1] every one trembles and thinks all is lost!
I had put in the text _une véritable Journée des Eperons_,[2] and must not omit to state what led to its being expunged.
The Emperor who alone knew I kept a journal at St. Helena, one day expressed a wish that I should read a few pages to him: on coming to this expression, inadvertently thrown in, he suddenly exclaimed, “What have you done! Erase, erase, sir, quickly! _Une Journée des Eperons!_ what a calumny! Ah! unfortunate army! brave men! you never fought better!” Then after a pause of a few moments, he added in a tone expressive of deep feeling:—“We had some base wretches amongst us! May heaven forgive them! But as to France, will _she_ ever recover from the effects of that ill-fated day!”
In allusion to the battle of Guinegatte, fought near Boulogne in 1513, between the army of Henry VIII. and that of France. The French were completely routed on this occasion, and the celebrated Bayard taken prisoner while covering the retreat; this was so precipitate that the day was ever after styled _La Journée des Eperons_ (or day of spurs), because as stated by contemporary historians, the French army made more use of their spurs than lances.—_Editor._
21st.—The best intentioned and most influential members of the national representation have been tampered with all last evening and all night, by certain persons, who, if their word is to be taken, produce authentic documents and demi-official papers guaranteeing the safety of France, on condition of the mere abdication of the Emperor, as they pretend.
The above opinion had become so strong this morning that it seemed irresistible: the president of the assembly, the first men in the state, and the Emperor’s particular friends, come to supplicate him to save France by abdicating. Though by no means convinced, yet the Emperor answers with magnanimity:—he abdicates!