Eylau: Precis Des Travaux de la Grande Armée
Delegation of the Senate to H. M. the Emperor.
Berlin, November 19, 1806.
H. M. received, on his return from the parade, the senators François (of Neufchâteau), of Aremberg and Colchen, composing the delegation of the senate.
Mr. François (of Neufchâteau), after having carried the word in the name of the senate, gave a fair reading of the following address:
Senate Address to the Emperor and King.
LORD,
“The senate hastens to express to Y. Imperial and Royal M. all the sentiments which the message inspires them that they wish to receive from Y. M.
“This act forever memorable, Lord, is quite a bright testimony of the magnanimity of Y. imperial M.
“Who knows better than the senate all that Y. M. did not to retake up the weapons which he had deposited on the altar of the harmony?
“By believing in continental peace, because you wish highly, Lord and because it was necessary to Europe, you added to your military glory, which cannot increase any more, a new kind of glory which will not be less durable.
“History, Lord, will devote this generous moderation of Your Majesty, who did not fail to apply all his resources of high precaution, to reconcile the true interests of the foreign nation with those of France and its allies.
“The wishes of the Senate and the French People, Lord, is the same as the one wish of Y. Imperial and Royal M., that of justice, national glory and humanity.
“Never did the devotion of the Great-People appear with as illumination. The fathers envy the noble destiny of this warlike youth, which spreads towards the camps of Y. M., and which deserves to burn in the ranks of the champions of Marengo and Austerlitz, a glance of its Emperor.
“There is not any Frenchman who is not convinced, Lord, that Your Majesty does not raise trophy on trophy, who give to our fatherland all the prosperity which it has the rightfully waited for its territory and its industry, to defend your faithful allies, to guarantee confederates that hasten to join together with your standards, and to ensure Europe this organization which claimed the happiness of the people, as well as assurances and the independence of the neutral powers.
“The Senate could not read without softening these words of Your Majesty:
“Our heart is painfully affected by this constant preponderance, which obtains in Europe the genius of the evil, of those occupied unceasingly with crossing the designs that we make for the peace of Europe, the rest and the happiness of the present generation, besieging all the cabinets by all kinds of seduction, mislaying those who it could not corrupt, blinding them to their true interests, and launching them into the milieu of the partisanship, without other guides for the passions which it has inspired in them.”
“Lord, despite everything with these efforts, Europe will obtain this prosperous state, the constant object of the care of Your Majesty.
“Which power could resist the value of the French, with that of all these people who you lead to victory, and with this incomparable genius of the greatest of the captains, who, varying these plans according to the seasons, the men and the places, creates for each new enterprise a new art of war, increases all the forces by the science of concentration of forces, multiplies all at an instant for the occasion without losing anyone, shortens the distances by the precision of the marches, menaces all the points, except that which it decides to attack, shows the possibility for its plans only when it is not any more in a posture to place themselves at the place that they must illustrate by their defeat, obliges them to receive a battle where they can lose all without hoping for advantages proportioned with their dangers, face the precautions of prudence with all the glare of audacity, and when it gives the signal of the triumph, disperses with the speed to melt all that is opposed to its rise of frightening eagles!
“Receive, Lord, the new homage of admiration, recognition and love, that the Senate offers, in the name of the French people, for Y. I. and R. M.
“These sentiments of the great nation, foretell those which will meet with those of posterity going back through time, and are the monument of glory worthiest of the first of the heroes, and the tribute dear to the paternal heart of Y. M.”
The Emperor has responded, that he thanked the Senate for their service, that he charged the delegation with bringing back to Paris the 340 flags and standards taken in this campaign on the Prussian army; that he would wish that these flags remained deposited with the Senate until the monument that H. M. ordered raised at the end and in a state to be received in it. H. M. also gave to the deputaton the sword, the scarf, shoulder boards and the ribbon of the Frederick the Great, to be transported to the Invalids, given to the governor and kept within the hotel.
The deputies of the Senate being withdrawn were accompanied to their residence by 340 grenadiers of the guard imperial, which carried the 340 flags and standards.
Deputies of the palatinate of Posen, having then been allowed an audience with the Emperor, offered the homage of this palatinate to him, and expressed the desire that H. M. proclaimed the independence of the Poles.
The Emperor responded, that France had never recognized the different divisions of Poland; that he could nevertheless make this proclamation only when the Poles would decide to defend their rights, like a nation, with weapons in hand, by all kinds of sacrifices, and that even of their life; that, until this hour, Europe had reproached them for having often sacrificed, in civil dissentions, the interests of their fatherland; that they could now prove that they were corrected by the experiment of long misfortunes of which they were the victims.
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