The two chambers equally laid at the foot of the throne the expression of their sentiments: but their language differed.
"Sire," said the Chamber of Peers, "hitherto paternal goodness has marked all the acts of your government[49]. If it be necessary that the laws should be rendered more severe, you would no doubt lament it; but the two chambers, animated with the same spirit, would be eager to concur in every measure that the importance of circumstances, and the safety of the people, may require."
[Footnote 49: The chancellor, no doubt, had forgotten the proscription, that delivered over to death all those Frenchmen who joined or assisted Bonaparte.]
"Whatever faults may have been committed," said the Chamber of Deputies, "the present is not the moment for inquiring into them. It is the duty of all of us, to unite against the common enemy, and afterwards endeavour, to render this crisis beneficial to the security of the throne and its public liberty."
The King did not stop at empty proclamations. He decreed,
That a new army should be assembled in front of Paris, under the orders of the Duke of Berri and the command of Marshal Macdonald:
That all the soldiers on furlough, or conditionally discharged, should rejoin their corps:
That all the half-pay officers should be called out:
That the three millions of national guards of the kingdom should take up arms, in order to check the factious and disperse their meetings, _while the army took the field_:
That the young national guards, who were desirous of forming a part of the acting army, should be armed and accoutred, and sent to the parts that were threatened.
That to render useful the services of those brave Frenchmen, who on all sides were demanding to be led against the enemy, battalions of royal volunteers should be formed, and make a part of the army of the Duke of Berri.
Marshal Ney, whose popularity and influence were well known, was appointed to take the command of the troops of the east.
The Duke de Feltre took the place of Marshal Soult.
In short, the King omitted nothing, that could concur in protecting his throne from the dangers, with which it was threatened.
Such measures, sufficient to stop an army of three hundred thousand men, could only attest the success of Napoleon; and yet the ministry daily caused the most encouraging reports to be spread among the people, and confirmed by the newspapers.