train of thought, while he was speaking the avenue of Marigny resounded
with the cries of 'Vive l'Empereur!' A crowd of men, chiefly of the poor
and labouring class, pressed forward into the avenue, full of wild
enthusiasm, and trying to scale the walls to make an offer to Napoleon to
rally round and defend him. Bonaparte for some time looked attentively
at this group. 'You see it is so,' said he; "those are not the men whom
I have loaded with honours and riches. What do these people owe me? I
found them--I left them--poor. The instinct of necessity enlightens
them; the voice of the country speaks by their months; and if I choose,
if I permit it, in an hour the refractory Chambers will have ceased to
exist. But the life of a man is not worth purchasing at such a price: I
did not return from the Isle of Elba that Paris should be inundated with
blood: He did not like the idea of flight. 'Why should I not stay
here?' he repeated. 'What do you suppose they would do to a man disarmed
like me? I will go to Malmaison: I can live there in retirement with
some friends, who most certainly will come to see me only for my own
sake.'

"He then described with complacency and even with a sort of gaiety this
new kind of life. Afterwards, discarding an idea which sounded like mere
irony, he went on. 'If they do not like me to remain in France, where am
I to go? To England? My abode there would be ridiculous or disquieting.
I should be tranquil; no one would believe it. Every fog would be
suspected of concealing my landing on the coast. At the first sign of a
green coat getting out of a boat one party would fly from France, the
other would put France out of the pale of the law. I should compromise
everybody, and by dint of the repeated "Behold he comes!" I should feel
the temptation to set out. America would be more suitable; I could live
there with dignity. But once more, what is there to fear? What
sovereign can, without injuring himself, persecute me? To one I have