[133] "Correspondance de Napoléon I." (Letter to the King of Wurtemberg， April 2， 1811.)[134] Testament of April 25， 1821 "It is my desire that my remains rest on the banks of the Seine， amidst that French people I have so dearly loved."[135] "Correspondance de Napoleon I.， XXII.， 119. (Note by Napoleon， April， 1811.) "There will always be at Hamburg， Bremen， and Lubeck from 8000 to 10，000 Frenchmen， either as employees or as gendarmes， in the custom-houses and warehouses."[136] "Souvenirs"， by PASQUIER (Etienne-Dennis， duc)， Librarie Plon， Paris 1893.-， II.， 88， and following pages： "During the year 1813， from Jan. 1 to Oct. 7， 840，000 men had already been drafted from imperial France and they had to be furnished." - Other decrees in December， placing at the disposition of the government 300，000conscripts for the years 1806 to 1814 inclusive. - Another decree in November organizing 140，000 men of the national guard in cohorts， intended for the defense of strongholds. - In all， 1，300，000 men summoned in one year. "Never has any nation been thus asked to let itself be voluntarily led in a mass to the slaughterhouse. - Ibid.， II.， 59. Senatus-consulte， and order of council for raising 10，000young men， exempt or redeemed from conscription， as the prefects might choose， arbitrarily， from amongst the highest classes in society. The purpose was plainly " to secure hostages in every family of doubtful loyalty. No measure created for Napoleon more irreconcilable enemies."- Cf. De Ségur， II.， 34. (He was charged with organizing and commanding a division of young men.) Many were sons of Vendéans or of Conventionalists， some torn from their wives the day after their marriage， or from the bedside of a wife in her confinement， of a dying father， or of a sick son； "some looked so feeble that they seemed dying." One half perished in the campaign of 1814. - "Correspondance，" letter to Clarke， Minister of War， Oct.23， 1813 (in relation to the new levies)： "I rely on 100，000 refractory conscripts."[137] "Archives nationales，" A F.，VI.， 1297. (Documents 206 to 210.)(Report to the Emperor by Count Dumas， April 10， 1810.) Besides the 170 millions of penalties 1，675，457 francs of penalty were inflicted on 2335 individuals， " abettors or accomplices." - Ibid.， A F.，VI.， 1051. (Report of Gen. Lacoste on the department of Haute-Loire， Oct.
13， 1808.) "He always calculated in this department on the desertion of one-half of the conscripts. In most of the cantons the gendarmes traffic with the conscription shamefully； certain conscripts pension them to show them favors." - Ibid.， A F.，VI.， 1052. (Report by Pelet， Jan. 12， 1812.) "The operation of the conscription has improved (in the Herault)； the contingents of 1811 have been furnished. There remained 1800 refractory， or deserters of the previous classes； 1600 have been arrested or made to surrender by the flying column； 200 have still to be pursued." Faber， - "Notice (1807) sur l'intérieur de la France，" p. 141： "Desertion， especially on the frontiers， is occasionally frightful； 80 deserters out of 160have sometimes been arrested." - Ibid.， p.149： It has been stated in the public journals that in 1801 the court in session at Lille had condemned 135 refractory out of the annual conscription， and that which holds its sittings at Ghent had condemned 70. Now， 200conscripts form the maximum of what an arrondissement in a department could furnish." -Ibid， p.145. "France resembles a vast house of detention where everybody is suspicious of his neighbor， where each avoids the other. . . One often sees a young man with a gendarme at his heels oftentimes， on looking closely， this young man's hands are found tied， or he is handcuffed." - Mathieu Dumas， III.， 507 (After the battle of Dresden， in the Dresden hospitals)： "I observed， with sorrow， that many of these men were slightly wounded： most of them， young conscripts just arrived in the army， had not been wounded by the enemy's fire， but they had mutilated each other's feet and hands.
Antecedents of this kind， of equally bad augury， had already been remarked in the campaign of 1809."[138] De Ségur， III.， 474. - Thiers， XIV.， 159. (One month after crossing the Niemen one hundred and fifty thousand men had dropped out of the ranks.)[139] Bulletin 29 (December 3， 1812).
[140] De Pradt， Histoire de l'Ambassade de Varsovie，" p.219.
[141] M. de Metternich， I.， 147. - Fain， "Manuscript，" of 1813， II.， 26. (Napoleon's address to his generals.) "What we want is a complete triumph. To abandon this or that province is not the question； our political superiority and our existence depend on it. " - II.， 41， 42.
(Words of Napoleon to Metternich.) "And it is my father-in-law who favors such a project！ And he sends you！ In what attitude does he wish to place me before the French people？ He is strangely deluded if he thinks that a mutilated throne can offer an asylum to his daughter and grandson. . . . Ah， Metternich， how much has England given you to make you play this part against me？" (This last phrase， omitted in Metternich's narrative， is a characteristic trait； Napoleon at this decisive moment， remains insulting and aggressive， gratuitously and even to his own destruction.)[142] "Souvenirs du feu duc de Broglie，" I.， 235.
[143] Ibid.， I.， 230. Some days before Napoleon had said to M. de Narbonne， who told me that very evening： "After all， what has this (the Russian campaign) cost me？ 300，000 men， among whom， again， were a good many Germans." - "Souvenirs"， by PASQUIER (Etienne-Dennis， duc， Librarie Plon， Paris 1893. II. 110. (Apropos of the Frankfurt basis， and accepted by Napoleon when too late.) "What characterizes this mistake is that it was committed much more against the interests of France than against his own. . . . He sacrificed her to the perplexities of his personal situation， to the mauvaise honte of his own ambition， to the difficulty he finds in standing alone to a certain extent before a nation which had done everything for him and which could justly reproach him with having sacrificed so much treasure and spilled so much blood on enterprises proved to have been foolish and impracticable."[144] Leonce de Lavergne， "Economie rurale de la France，" P.40.
(According to the former director of the conscription under the Empire.)