Nivose: Decadi. 92nd year of the Republic, one and
indivisible. We, John Thomas Napoleon, by the constitutions of the
Empire, Emperor of the French Republic, to our marshals, generals,
officers, and soldiers, greeting:
"'Soldiers!
"'From the summit of the Pyramids forty centuries look down upon you.
The sun of Austerlitz has risen once more. The Guard dies, but never
surrenders. My eagles, flying from steeple to steeple, never shall droop
till they perch on the towers of Notre Dame.
"'Soldiers! the child of YOUR FATHER has remained long in exile. I have
seen the fields of Europe where your laurels are now withering, and I
have communed with the dead who repose beneath them. They ask where are
our children? Where is France? Europe no longer glitters with the
shine of its triumphant bayonets--echoes no more with the shouts of
its victorious cannon. Who could reply to such a question save with a
blush?--And does a blush become the cheeks of Frenchmen?
"'No. Let us wipe from our faces that degrading mark of shame. Come,
as of old, and rally round my eagles! You have been subject to fiddling
prudence long enough. Come, worship now at the shrine of Glory! You have
been promised liberty, but you have had none. I will endow you with the
true, the real freedom.
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