Napoleon has returned to Fra,nce from Salzburg, and has made
two speeches, one at Arras, and the other at Lille. At Arras he told the Mayor, " You are right to have confidence in the future. It is only weak Governments who seek in foreign complications to divert attention from troubles at home. But he who derives his strength from the great body of the nation has only to do his duty, and to satisfy the permanent interests of the country ; and, while holding aloft the national flag, we should not allow ourselves to be drawn away by intemperate impulses, however patriotic they may be." At Lille, the Emperor acknowledged that " spots have darkened our horizon," but asserted " that as good fortune had not dazzled, so transient reverses would not discourage him." As usual, the Emperor is enigmatical, but Paris will have it that as one does not look back to the horizon, the dark spots are in the future; and Paris is most probably in the right.
