CHAPTER TWENTY -SEVENBefore putting France on a war footing, Napoleon made a final, futile
attempt to come to terms with the Allies. They responded by reiterating
that he was now outlawed as an enemy of humanity and would be
banished from Europe forever if captured; in theory the sentence of
outlawry also implied that the Emperor could be summarily executed if
taken. In vain did Napoleon recognize the Treaty of Paris and the 1792
frontiers and send envoys to the Czar and the Austrian Emperor. The
Allies were after his blood and would brook no compromise. It would be
another fight to the finish. But first the Emperor had to put his domestic
house in order.
All Napoleon's advisers had warned him that this time round he would
have to rule France on liberal principles. Accordingly, as early as Lyons
he proclaimed a reform of the Constitution and the summoning of an
electoral college. And his first appointments in Paris seemed to breathe
the spirit of reconciliation: Carnot, an opponent of the Empire, was
appointed Minister of the Interior; Lafayette returned as part of the 'loyal
opposition' in the Chamber; even Lucien Bonaparte was reconciled. As
part of the balancing act, in which he tried to reassure both royalists and
Jacobins, Napoleon recalled Fouche as Minister of Police; this was a bad
mistake for Fouche, as always, was acting as the Allies' double agent.
Napoleon's greatest catch was probably the 47-year old Benjamin
Constant, a disciple of Germaine de Stad and admirer of Madame
Recamier. Just days before the Emperor arrived in Paris, Constant
recorded a typically jaundiced opinion: 'He has reappeared, this man
dyed with our blood. He is another Attila, another Genghiz Khan, but
more terrible and more hateful because he has at his disposal the
resources of civilization.' But when Napoleon invited Constant to the
Tuileries and asked him to frame a new Constitution, which would avoid
the mistakes of his old imperial system and the excesses of the Bourbons,
Constant accepted.
Napoleon's first act on restoration was to issue the decrees of 21
March, in which he attempted to win over the bourgeoisie. The decrees