The armies of the Allies had gradually pushed forward from Paris and now nearly surrounded Fontainebleau. When the last of the marshals had quitted Napoleon's presence for the night, after imperiously demanding his resignation, he revolted at the humiliations he had to undergo and disgusted at their cowardice, exclaimed: "These men have neither hearts nor entrails. I am conquered less by fortune than by the selfishness and ingratitude of my brothers-in-arms!" The same night, in a fit of despair he swallowed a weak poison contained in a bag that he had worn around his neck since 1808. The palace was aroused by his cries and Dr. Yvan hastily summoned by his valet. An antidote was given him and his life saved. To Caulaincourt he said an hour later: "God would not allow it. I could not die. Why did they not let me die? It is not the loss of my throne that makes existence insupportable to me. My military career is enough glory for one man. Do you know what is more difficult to bear than reverses of fortune? It is the baseness, the horrible ingratitude of men. I turned my head away with horror from the sight of their meanness and their contemptible selfishness, and I am disgusted with life. What I have suffered during the last three weeks, no one can tell."

Some months later, while at Elba, Napoleon ascribed his ruin entirely to Marmont, to whom he had confided some of his best troops, and a post of the greatest importance, as a person on whose devotion to him he could most depend. "For how could I expect to be betrayed," he said, "by a man whom I had loaded with kindness from the time he was fifteen years of age? Had he stood firm, I could have driven the Allies out of Paris, and the people there,—as well as throughout France,—would have risen, in spite of the Senate, if they had had a few troops to support them."

The Emperor remained long enough at Fontainebleau to hear of the restoration of the Bourbon Monarchy, and on the 20th of April, the commissioners of the Allied Sovereigns having arrived, he once more called his loyal officers about him and signified that they were summoned to receive his last adieu. A few of the marshals and others who had sworn fealty to the new monarch were also present. "Louis" (the King), Napoleon said, "has talents and means: he is old and infirm; and will not, I think, choose to give a bad name to his reign. If he is wise, he will occupy my bed, and only change the sheets. He must treat the army well, and take care not to look back on the past, or his time will be brief. For you, gentlemen, I am no longer to be with you;—you have another government; and it will become you to attach yourselves to it frankly, and serve it faithfully as you have served me."

As he passed along he beheld all that now remained of the most brilliant and numerous courts in Europe, reduced to about sixteen individuals, who thus waited to manifest their regard and respect for the fallen Emperor. Junot, had died the year before, and Caulaincourt and General Flahault were absent on missions. Napoleon shook hands with them all; then hastily passing the range of carriages, he advanced towards the relics of the Imperial Guard which he had desired to be drawn up in the courtyard of the castle. He advanced to them on horseback and tears dropped from his eyes as he dismounted in their midst. "Soldiers of the Old Guard," said he, "I bid you farewell! During twenty years you have been my constant companions in the path of honor and glory. In our last disasters, as well as in the days of our prosperity, you invariably proved yourselves models of courage and fidelity. With such men as you, our cause could not have been lost; but a protracted civil war would have ensued, and the miseries of France would thereby have been augmented. I have, therefore, sacrificed all our interests to those of the country. I depart: you, my friends, will continue to serve France, whose happiness has ever been the only object of my thoughts, and still will be the sole object of my wishes. Do not deplore my fate. If I consent to live, it is that I may still contribute to your glory. I will record the great achievements we have performed together. Farewell, my comrades! I should wish to press you all to my bosom. Let me at least embrace your standard."

At these words, General Petit took the eagle and came forward. Napoleon received the general in his arms, and kissed the flag. The silence of this affecting scene was only interrupted by the occasional sobs of the soldiers. Having kissed the flag, Napoleon said with great emotion, "Farewell once more my old comrades! Let this kiss be impressed on all your hearts!"

On this occasion the English commissioner who stood near him, and had previously been his inveterate enemy, was so deeply moved that he was affected in the same degree as Napoleon's attendants. When leaving Napoleon called for Rustan, his Mameluke servant, but the latter had concealed himself, though on the preceding day he had received from his master, at Fontainebleau, a present of 30,000 francs to provide for his wife and family during his absence. The Emperor, in speaking afterwards of this man who nightly slept across his doorway, said, "I am by no means astonished at his conduct, as he was imbued with the sentiments of a slave; and, finding me no longer master, he imagined his services might be dispensed with."

Napoleon now hurried through the group that surrounded him—stepped into his carriage, and instantly drove off. The carriages took the road to Lyons.

Four commissioners, one each from the great Allied Powers, Austria, Russia, Prussia and England, accompanied him on his journey. He was attended by the ever faithful Bertrand, Grand Master of the Palace, and some other attached friends and servants. While fourteen carriages were conveying him and his immediate suite towards Elba, 700 infantry and about 150 cavalry of the Imperial Guard,—all picked men and volunteers,—marched in the same direction to take on them the military duties of the exiled court.

Not far from Lyons Napoleon met Augereau, general-in-chief of the Army of the East, whose conduct during the late campaign had been that of a traitor. When Augereau had taken his leave from his ex-chief one of the commissioners ventured to express surprise that Napoleon should have treated him with such a show of affection. "Why should I not?" he asked.

"Your Majesty is perhaps unacquainted with his conduct. Sire, he entered into an understanding with us several weeks ago!"

The Emperor afterwards confirmed this anecdote, adding: "The conqueror of Castiglione might have left behind him a name dear to his country; but France will execrate the memory of the traitor of Lyons."

During the early part of his progress the Exile was received respectfully by the civil functionaries of the different towns and departments, and many tokens of sympathy on the part of the people were expressed. As he increased the distance between himself and his capital, and was carried into provinces wherein his name had never been extremely popular, he was once or twice subjected to personal insult, and danger of violence, when the horses were changing. At Lyons, an old woman in mourning, and with a countenance full of enthusiasm, rushed forward to the door of the carriage. "Sire" said she, with an air of solemnity, "may the blessing of heaven attend your endeavor to make yourself happy. They tear you from us; but our hearts are with you, wheresoever you go."

The Austrian commissioner, quite disconcerted, said to his companion, "Let us go; I have no patience with this mad woman!"

At length Napoleon disguised himself and sometimes appearing in an Austrian uniform, at others riding on before the carriages in the garb of a courier, reached in safety the place of embarkation. A French vessel had been sent round from Toulon to Cannes, for the purpose of conveying him to Elba; but there happened to be an English frigate also in the roads and he preferred sailing under any flag rather than the Bourbon. The voyage to Elba was uneventful. Napoleon succeeded in making a favorable impression on the English crew and when, on finally leaving the "Undaunted," he caused some two hundred napoleons ($800) to be distributed among the sailors, the boatswain undertook to return thanks in the name of the crew by "wishing him a long life—and better luck next time!" As he left the vessel a royal salute was fired.

The Emperor of the little island of Elba came in view of his new dominions on the afternoon of May 4th, 1814, and went ashore in disguise the same evening, in order to ascertain for himself whether the feelings of the Elbans were favorable or otherwise. He found the people considered his residence as likely to increase in every way the importance and prosperity of their island, and returned on board the ship; at noon the day following he made his public entry into the town of Porto-Ferrajo amidst many popular demonstrations of welcome and respect. The English and Austrian commissioners landed with him, those from Russia and Prussia having departed at the coast of Provence. When the Exile climbed to the hill above Ferrajo, and looked down upon the whole of his territory, as upon a map, he remarked to Sir Neil Campbell, the English commissioner, "It must be confessed that my island is very small."

The island, however, mountainous and rocky, for the most part barren, and of a circumference not exceeding sixty miles, was his. He forthwith devoted to it the same anxious care and industry that had sufficed for the whole affairs of France, and a large portion of Europe besides. In less than three weeks he had thorougly acquainted himself with its history, resources and the character of its people, had explored every corner of the island "and projected more improvements of all sorts" according to one historian, "than would have occupied a life-time to complete." He even extended his "Empire" by sending some soldiers to take possession of a small adjacent islet, hitherto unoccupied for fear of Corsairs. He established residences in four different corners of Elba and was continually in motion from one to the other. All the etiquette of the Tuileries was adhered to as far as possible, and Napoleon's eight or nine hundred veterans were reviewed as frequently and formally as if they had been the army of Austerlitz or Friedland, and over which hung the flag of Elba which the Emperor had adopted, and which was that of the island,—white, striped with purple and studded with stars. Sometime later he adopted a new flag as King of Elba; silver with a red band, the latter having bees of gold on it. The Emperor wore the uniform of the Colonel of the Horse Chasseurs of the Guard. He had substituted on his chapeau the red and white cockade of the island for the tri-colored cockade. His presence gave a new stimulus to the trade and industry of the island and the port of Ferrajo was crowded with vessels from the opposite coast of Italy.

Napoleon received no money whatever from the Bourbon court, his pension having been entirely forgotten by his successors at the capital. His complaints on this head were not even considered, and the exchequer of the Exile being rapidly depleted by his generous expenditures, he soon became in need of many necessities. These new troubles imbittered the spirit of the fallen Chief and but for the course of events at Paris, of which he was kept fully advised, would have become overpowered by a listlessness which at one time affected him seriously.

While on the island the Emperor observed that his new flag had become the first in the Mediterranean. It was held sacred, he said, by the Algerians, who usually made presents to the Elban captains, telling them they were paying the debt of Moscow. Some Algerian ships once anchoring off the island, great alarm was caused among the inhabitants, who questioned the pirates, and asked them plainly whether they came with any hostile views. "Against the Great Napoleon;" they replied, "Oh! never; we do not wage war on God!"

Louis XVIII. had made his public entry into Paris on the 21st of April. He was advanced in years, gross and infirm in person, yet he was, perhaps, less unpopular than the rest of his family; but it was his fatal misfortune to continue to increase day by day the bitterness of those who had never been sincerely his friends. The King had been called to the throne by the French Senate in a decree which provided that he should preserve the political system "which Napoleon had violated," and which declared the legislative constitution as composed of a hereditary sovereign and two houses of assembly; to be fixed and unchangeable. Louis, however, though he proceeded to France on this invitation, did not hesitate to date his first act in the twentieth year of his reign. The Senate saw in such assumptions the traces of those old doctrines of "the divine right of kings," of which Louis was a shining example, and which they, who though not originally of his party, had consented to his recall—although they had through life abhorred and combatted such principles; and they asked themselves, why, if all their privileges were but the gifts of the King, they might not, on any tempting opportunity, be withdrawn by the same authority. They, whose titles had all been won since the death of Louis XVI., were startled when they found, that, according to the royal doctrine, there had been no legitimate government all that time in France!

The first tumult of the Restoration being over, and the troops of the Allies withdrawn, things began to so shape themselves that there were many elements of discontent amongst all classes, one of the most powerful of which was in the army itself. The Allies had restored, without stipulation, the whole of the prisoners who had fallen into their hands during the war. At least 150,000 veteran soldiers, all of whom had fought under Napoleon on many battlefields, were thus poured into France ere Louis was well seated on the throne; men, too, who had witnessed nothing of the last disastrous campaigns; who had sustained themselves in their exile by recounting their earlier victories; and who now, returning fresh and vigorous to their native soil, had but one answer to every tale of misfortune which met them: "These things could never have happened had we been here!"

The Empress Marie was at Blois at the time Napoleon signed his abdication, and Savary has described her grief as very great, but her own reverses were sufficiently severe to account for this, without any strong feeling for Napoleon. By direction of Napoleon she applied for protection to the Emperor of Austria and went to Rambouillet to meet him, where he explained to her that she was to be separated from her husband "for a time." The Emperor Alexander visited her also, very much against her will, and a few days afterwards she departed for Vienna. Alexander also visited Josephine, and found her distress at Napoleon's abdication very great. She appears never to have recovered from the shock for she survived it only about six weeks. She died on the 29th of May, 1814, at Malmaison, and was buried in the church of Ruel. Her funeral was attended by several generals of the allied armies, and marshals and generals of France. The body was afterwards placed in a magnificent tomb of white marble, erected by her two children, and bearing the simple inscription: "Eugene and Hortense to Josephine."

Napoleon's mother, and sister Pauline, as well as a number of ancient and attached servants of his civil government and his army, visited him during the summer of 1814. Not the least of these was Pauline, who made repeated voyages to Italy, and returned again as mysteriously. In the circles of Ferrajo new and busy faces now appeared and disappeared—no one knew whence they had come or whither they went and an air of bustle and mystery pervaded the atmosphere of the place. The Emperor continued to review his handful of veteran soldiers with as much pride as if they had been the innumerable hosts he had led to victory on the Continent, and seemed to be fairly well contented with his situation notwithstanding he had fallen from an eminence that had been reached by no other man in modern times. The only notable change observed in his habits was that he became grave, and reserved, and seemed no longer to take any interest in the improvements he had effected on the island.

It was evident, however, that something was preparing; but the commissioners who watched over Napoleon were unable to fathom it. They repeatedly remarked on the absurdity of the Allied Powers in withholding his pension, which they had solemnly pledged should be paid every quarter, thereby tempting him to release himself; but their reports were left unnoticed by those in whose hands they fell. This obliged the Emperor to sell every luxury and comfort around him to raise the means of paying his current expenses. Then it was that he began to forecast the future and to contemplate a bold stroke, not only for liberty, but to regain his lost throne before he could be transported to St. Helena which he had been informed privately was being discussed at Vienna.

In this he was aided by a nation which was far from satisfied with the man whose possession of the royal sceptre had only been made possible by the force of foreign armies, and it was apparent to nearly everyone that Louis XVIII. could not long rule France tranquilly, even though Napoleon did not return.

Ere autumn closed Napoleon granted furloughs on various pretexts to about two hundred of his Guard, and these at once scattered themselves over France singing his praises. It now began to be whispered that the Exile would return to the soil of France in the spring of the coming year. Among the soldiery and elsewhere he was toasted under the sobriquet of "Corporal Violet," a flower or a ribbon of its color being the symbol of rebellion, and worn openly in the sight of the unsuspecting Bourbons. It was by this secret symbol that Napoleon's friends knew each other. Rings of a violet color with the device, "It will re-appear in the spring," became fashionable; women wore violet-colored silks and the men displayed watch-strings of the same color; while the mutual question when these friends met was generally, "Are you fond of the violet?" to which the answer of a confederate was, "Ah! well."

The representatives of all the European princes had met in Vienna to settle finally a number of questions left undecided at the termination of the war, including a division of the "spoils." Talleyrand was there for France, Wellington for England, Metternich for Austria. On the 11th of March these representatives, who were then discussing among other things "how to get rid of the Man of Elba," were thrown into a panic by the news that Napoleon Bonaparte had reared his standard once more in France and was marching on Paris!

Of the state of affairs in France Napoleon had been fully advised as well as of the sessions of the ministers at the Congress of Vienna, who had suggested that, as the French government would not honestly pay his pension, he should be taken to some place of greater safety, and St. Helena was even mentioned at this time. This determined Napoleon to act, especially as he was fully convinced that he had a good chance of being well received by the twenty or thirty millions of people who were being treated with contempt by Louis XVIII. and his followers. The arrival also of M. Fleury de Chaboulon, with secret messages from Maret, (Duke of Bassano) then at Paris, had much to do with the hasty determination of Napoleon to quit Elba at the earliest moment possible. Reserved as the Exile was with others he told his mother of his plans. "I cannot die on this island," he said to her, "and terminate my career in a repose unworthy of me. Besides, want of money would soon leave me here alone, exposed to the attack of my enemies." His mother reflected for some time in silence and then replied, "Go, my son—go and fulfill your destiny! You will fail perhaps, and your failure will soon be followed by your death. But I see with sorrow that you cannot remain here; let us hope that God, who has protected you amid so many battles, will save you once more!"

Bertrand, who was sharing Napoleon's exile, was now informed of the Emperor's decision as was also Druot who at once commenced secret preparations for the approaching expedition. Eleven hundred soldiers were collected of whom 800 belonged to the Guard and 300 to the 35th light infantry that Napoleon had found in the island. None of these men had any idea of the projected enterprise. Colonel Campbell, who was watching proceedings in Elba for the English, had left Ferrajo and gone to Leghorn. There remained then only the cruisers that were easily deceived or avoided. In order to keep his preparations a profound secret, Napoleon, two days before embarking, laid an embargo on the vessels in the harbors of Elba, and cut off all communication with the sea. He then ordered his ordnance officer, Vantini, to seize one of the large vessels lying in the port, which, with the "Inconstant" of twenty-six cannon, and six other smaller craft, making in all seven vessels, he secured the means of embarking his eleven hundred men and four pieces of field artillery. He had decided to commence his romantic enterprise on the 26th of February, 1815. On this day he allowed his soldiers to remain at their usual employment until the middle of the day. They were suddenly summoned in the afternoon and after being lightly fed, were assembled with arms and baggage on the pier where they were informed that they were to go on board the vessels. The inhabitants of the island regretted the Exile's departure as they feared its prosperity would go with him. Napoleon's staff and about three hundred men embarked on board the "Inconstant," the others being distributed in the other vessels of the flotilla.

The discharge of a single cannon at about 7 o'clock in the evening was the signal agreed upon for weighing anchor, and when the sails were unfurled, and the little fleet steered its course, reiterated cries of "Paris or death!" were heard from the exultant troops. The Emperor had said to them, "Grenadiers! we are going to France; we must march to Paris!"

The English commissioner immediately attempted to get Napoleon's mother and sister to betray his destination and being unsuccessful, at once pursued; but was unable to overtake his charge. On the voyage a French ship-of-war crossed his path; but the Emperor made all his soldiers and those persons who could be suspected descend under the deck, and the steersman of the "Inconstant," who happened to be well acquainted with the commanding officer, had received and answered the usual challenge without exciting any suspicion. In reply to the question of how they left the Emperor at Elba, Napoleon himself made answer by signal that, "He was very well."

During the voyage he dictated two proclamations which were copied by almost all his soldiers and attendants who could write. These were to be duplicated on landing and distributed throughout France.

The Emperor, having left Elba on the 26th of February, arrived off Cannes, near FrÉjus, on March 1st,—the very spot he had touched when he arrived from Egypt, and from which he had embarked ten months before. He landed without opposition, and his handful of men,—500 grenadiers of the Guard, 200 dragoons and 100 Polish lancers, these last without horses and carrying their saddles on their backs, were reviewed and immediately began their march on Paris. He bivouacked that night in a plantation of olives, with all his men about him. As soon as the moon rose, the reveillÉ sounded. A laborer who was going thus early to work in the fields recognized the Emperor's person, and uttering a cry of joy, said he had served in the Army of Italy and would join the ranks. "Here is a reinforcement already!" said Napoleon to Bertrand, and after spending the balance of the evening in chatting familiarly with his Guard, the march towards Paris recommenced.

Early in the morning they passed through the town of Grasse, and halted on the height beyond it. There the whole population of the place surrounded them, some cheering and many others maintaining perfect silence; but none offered any show of opposition. The peasants blessed his return; but, on viewing his little band looked upon him with pity, and entertained no hope of his ultimate success. The roads were so bad that the pieces of cannon which they had with them were abandoned in the course of the day, but they marched full twenty leagues ere they halted for the night at Seranon. "Before arriving at this stopping place," says Thiers, "the Emperor stopped a few minutes in a hut, occupied by an old woman and some cows. Whilst he warmed himself before a brushwood fire he entered into conversation with the old country-woman, who little imagined what guests she entertained beneath her humble thatch, and was asked, 'What news from Paris?' She seemed surprised at a question to which she was little accustomed, and replied very naturally that she knew of none. 'You don't know what the King is doing then?' said Napoleon.

"'The King?' answered the old woman, still more astonished, 'the King! You mean the Emperor—he is always yonder.'"

This dweller in the Alpine country was wholly ignorant that Napoleon had been hurled from his throne and replaced by Louis XVIII. All present were struck with astonishment at witnessing this extraordinary ignorance. Napoleon, who was not less surprised than the others, looked at Druot and said, "Well, Druot, of what use is it to disturb the world to fill it with one's name?"

On the 5th of March the Emperor reached Gap, where he published his first proclamations,—one to the army and another to the French people. The former said: "Soldiers! We have not been conquered. Two men, raised from our ranks, (Marmont and Augereau) have betrayed our laurels, their country, their prince, their benefactor. In my exile I have heard your voice. I have arrived once more among you, despite all obstacles, and in all perils. We ought to forget that we have been the masters of the world; but we ought never to suffer foreign interference in our affairs. Who dares pretend to be master over us? Take again the eagles which you followed at Ulm, at Austerlitz, at Jena, at Eylau, at Friedland, at Tudela, at Eckmuhl, at Essling, at Smolensk, at Moskowa, at Lutzen, at Wurtchen, at Montmirail. Soldiers! come and range yourselves under the banners of your old chief. Victory shall march at the charging step. The eagle, with the national colors, shall fly from steeple to steeple, till it reaches the towers of Notre Dame! In your old age, surrounded and honored by your fellow-citizens, you shall be heard with respect when you recount your high deeds. You shall then say with pride, 'I also was one of that great army which entered twice within the walls of Vienna, which took Rome, and Berlin, and Madrid and Moscow, and which delivered Paris from the stain printed on it by domestic treason, and the occupation of strangers.'"

Between Mure and Vizele, Cambronne, who commanded Napoleon's advanced guard of forty grenadiers, met suddenly a battalion sent forward from Grenoble to arrest the march. The colonel refused to parley with Cambronne and either party halted until the Emperor came up. Napoleon did not hesitate for a moment but dismounted and advanced alone; some paces behind him came about a hundred of his Guard, with their arms reversed. There was perfect silence on all sides until the returned Exile was within a few yards of the men. He then halted, threw open his surtout, so as to show the star of the Legion of Honor, and exclaimed, "If there be among you a soldier who desires to kill his general—his Emperor—let him do it now. Here I am!"

The old cry of "Vive l'Empereur!" burst instantly from every lip. Napoleon threw himself among them, and taking a veteran private, covered with scars and medals, by his beard, said, "Speak honestly, old Moustache, couldst thou have had the heart to kill thy Emperor?"

The old soldier dropped his ramrod into his piece to show that it was not loaded, and answered, "Judge if I could have done thee much harm—all the rest are the same!" The soldiers had now broken their ranks and were surrounding the Emperor, kissing his hands and calling him their general, their Emperor, their father. The commander of the 5th battalion, thus abandoned by his soldiers, knew not what to do, when Napoleon, freeing himself from the throng stepped forward, asked his name, his grade, his services and then added: "My friend, who made you chief of battalion?" "You, Sire," "Who made you captain?" "You, Sire," "And would you fire on me?" "Yes" replied the brave man, "in the performance of my duty." He then gave his sword to Napoleon, who took it, pressed his hand and in a voice that clearly indicated that the weapon would be restored at that point, said, "Meet me at Grenoble." Turning to Bertrand and Druot the Emperor then said: "All is decided: within ten days we shall be in the Tuileries!"

Napoleon now gave the word, and the old adherents and the new began the march together towards Grenoble. Ere they reached that town Colonel Labedoyere, an officer of noble family, and who had been promoted by Louis XVIII., appeared on the road before them at the head of his regiment, the seventh of the line. These men and the Emperor's little column, on coming within view of each other, rushed simultaneously from their ranks and embraced with mutual shouts of, "Live Napoleon! Live the Guard! Live the Seventh!"

Labedoyere now produced an eagle, which he had kept concealed about his person, and broke open a drum which was found to be filled with tri-colored cockades. As these ancient ensigns were exhibited by the first officer of superior rank who voluntarily espoused the side of the returned Exile, renewed enthusiasm was apparent on all sides. Napoleon then questioned young Labedoyere concerning the state of Paris, and France in general. That gallant officer answered with much frankness: "Sire, the French will do everything for your Majesty; but your Majesty must do everything in return for them; no more ambition, no more despotism; we are determined to be free and happy. It is necessary, Sire, to renounce that system of conquest and power which occasioned the misfortune of France and yourself."

Napoleon replied, "I know that. I return to revive the glory of France, to establish the principles of the Revolution and to secure to the nation a degree of liberty which, though difficult at the commencement of my reign, is now become not only possible but necessary."

This act of Labedoyere was most decisive, for in spite of all the efforts of General Marchand, commandant at Grenoble, the whole of that garrison, when he approached the walls, shouted "Vive l'Empereur!" Though welcoming Napoleon with their voices and shaking hands with his followers through the wicket below, they would not so far disobey the governor as to throw open the gates. Neither could any argument prevail upon them to open fire on the advancing party and in the very teeth of all their batteries Napoleon calmly planted a howitzer or two and blew the gates open. Then, as if the spell of discipline was at once dissolved, the garrison broke from their lines and dragging the Emperor from his horse, bore him aloft on their shoulders towards the principal inn of the place, amidst the clamors of enthusiastic and delirious joy. The inhabitants of Grenoble, being unable to bring him the keys of the city, brought him with acclamations, the shattered gates instead, exclaiming: "For want of the keys of the good city of Grenoble, here are the gates for you!" Next morning he reviewed his troops, now amounting to about 7,000, and on the 9th recommenced his march.

On the 10th of March Napoleon came within sight of Lyons and was informed that Marshal Macdonald had arrived to take the command, had barricaded the bridge of Guillotierre, and posted himself at the head of a large force to dispute the entrance of the town. Nothing daunted with this intelligence, the column moved on, and at the bridge of Lyons, as at the gates of Grenoble, all opposition vanished when the person of the Emperor was recognized by the soldiery. Macdonald was forced to retire and Napoleon entered the second city of France in triumph. Macdonald would have been taken prisoner by his own troops, had not some of them, more honorable than the rest, insisted on his escape being unobstructed. He thereupon returned to Paris where he once more hoped to make a stand.

A guard of mounted citizens who had been formed to attend on the person of Count d'Artois, the heir of the Empire, and who had accompanied Macdonald, were the foremost to offer their services to the Emperor after he reached the hotel; but he rejected their assistance and dismissed them with contempt. Finding that one of their number had followed the Prince until his person was out of all danger, Napoleon immediately sent to that individual the cross of the Legion of Honor.

Meanwhile, during the week that the Emperor had continued his march Parisward without opposition, the newspapers of the capital were silent, and none ventured to make any allusion whatever to his successes. There then appeared a royal decree, proclaiming Napoleon Bonaparte "an outlaw," and convoking, on the instant, the two Chambers. Next day the "Moniteur" announced that, surrounded on all hands by faithful garrisons and a loyal population, this "outlaw and invader" was already stripped of most of his followers, was wandering in despair among the hills, and certain to be a prisoner within two or three days at the utmost! Louis received many addresses full of loyalty and devotion from the public bodies of Paris, from towns and departments, and, above all, from the marshals, generals and regiments who happened to be near the capital. The partisans of Napoleon at Paris, however, were far more active than the royalists. They gave out everywhere that, as the proclamation addressed "To the French people" from Gap had stated, Napoleon came back thoroughly cured of that ambition which had armed Europe against his throne; that he considered his act of abdication void, because the Bourbons had not accepted the crown on the terms which it was offered, and had used their authority in a spirit, and for purposes at variance with the feelings and the interests of the French people; that he was come to be no longer the dictator of a military despotism, but the first citizen of a nation which he had resolved to make the freest of the free; that the royal government wished to extinguish by degrees all memory of the Revolution; that he was returning to consecrate once more the principles of liberty and equality, ever hateful to the eyes of the old nobility of France, and to secure the proprietors of forfeited estates against all machinations of that dominant faction;—in a word, that he was fully sensible of the extent of his past errors, both of domestic administration and of military ambition, and desirous of nothing but the opportunity of devoting, to the true welfare of peaceful France, those unrivalled talents and energies which he had been rash enough to abuse in former days.

Napoleon's friends declared, too, and with much show of authority, that the army was, high and low, on the side of the Emperor; that every detachment sent to intercept him would but swell his force so that nothing could prevent him from taking possession of the Tuileries ere a fortnight more had passed over the head of the Bourbon King.

Napoleon remained at Lyons from the 10th to the 13th of March. Here he formally resumed the functions of civil government, published various decrees, one of which commanded that justice be administered everywhere in his name after the 15th, another abolishing the Chambers of the Peers and the Deputies and summoning all the electoral colleges to meet in Paris to witness the coronation of Marie Louise and her son, and settle definitively the constitution of the State; a third, ordering into banishment all those whose names had not been erased from the list of emigrants prior to the abdication of Fontainebleau; a fourth, depriving all strangers and emigrants of their commissions in the army; a fifth, abolishing the order of St. Louis, and bestowing all its revenues on the Legion of Honor; and a sixth restoring to their authority all magistrates who had been displaced by the Bourbon government.

These publications soon reached Paris and caused much alarm among the adherents of the King.

Marshal Ney now received orders from the Minister of War to take command of a large body of troops whose fidelity was considered sure, and who were about to be sent to Lons-le-Saunier, to intercept and arrest the returning Exile before he could make further progress. Ney immediately rode to Paris from his retired country-seat and there, for the first time, learned of the disembarkation of Napoleon from Elba. He is even said to have declared that he would bring his former chief to Paris in a cage, like a wild beast, in the course of a week. On reaching Lons-le-Saunier he received a letter from Napoleon reminding him of their former campaigns and summoning him to join his standard as the "bravest of the brave." Ney had a secret interview with a courier who brought this letter, with one from Bertrand. Generals Lecourbe and Bourmont, by whom the marshal was attended, advised him not to oppose a torrent which was too powerful for any resistance he could bring against it. While in this state of doubt and indecision, sorely perplexed as to his exact duty, he received intelligence that his vanguard, posted at Bourg, had gone over to Napoleon, and that the inhabitants of Chalons-sur-Saone had seized the park of artillery. All this confirming what Ney had just been told by the courier, he exclaimed, "It is impossible for me to stop the incoming water of the ocean with the palm of my hand!" Accordingly, on the following morning, he published an order of the day, declaring that "the cause of the Bourbons was lost forever, and that the legitimate dynasty which the French nation had adopted was about to reascend the throne." This order was read to the troops and was received by them with rapture; some of the officers, however, remonstrated and left their command. One, before he went away, broke his sword in two, and threw the pieces at Ney's feet, saying, "It is easier for a man of honor to break iron than to infringe his word."

Ney put his soldiery in motion forthwith, and joined the march of the Emperor on the 17th of March at Auxerre, being received by Napoleon with open arms. Ney avowed later that he had chosen the part of Napoleon long ere he pledged his oath to Louis, adding that the greater number of the marshals were, like himself, original members of the Elban conspiracy to again place him on the throne.

In and about the capital there still remained troops sufficient in numbers to overwhelm the advancing column, and Louis intrusted the command of these battalions to Marshal Macdonald, who proceeded to establish himself at Melun with the King's army, in the hopes of being supported by his soldiers in the discharge of his commission.

On the 19th Napoleon slept once more in the chateau of Fontainebleau, and on the morning of the 20th he advanced through the forest, alone, and with the full knowledge of Macdonald's arrangements. About noon the marshal's troops, who had been for some time under arms on an eminence beyond the wood, perceived suddenly a single open carriage coming at full speed towards them from among the trees. A handful of Polish horsemen, with their lances reversed, followed the equipage. The little flat cocked hat; the gray surtout; then the person of Napoleon was recognized. In an instant the men burst from their ranks, surrounded him with the cries of "Vive l'Empereur!" and trampled their white cockades in the dust. Macdonald escaped to Paris but Louis had not awaited his last stand. He had set off from the Tuileries in the middle of the preceding night, amidst the tears and lamentations of several courtiers, taking the road to Lisle. McDonald soon overtook and accompanied him to the frontier of the Netherlands, which he reached in safety.

Napoleon once more entered Paris on the evening of the 20th of March. He came preceded and followed by the soldiery on horseback, and on whom alone he had relied. At the Tuileries he was received with every possible demonstration of joy and was almost stifled by the pressure of those enthusiastic adherents who, the moment he stopped in the court-yard of the palace, mounted him on their shoulders and carried him in triumph up the great staircase of the palace. The Emperor, during this dramatic proceeding, continued to exclaim, "Be steady my good children; be steady I entreat you." A piece of his coat being either purposely or by accident torn off, was instantly divided into hundreds of scraps, for the procurement of each remnant of which, by way of relic, there was as much struggling as if the effort had been made to become possessed of so many ingots of gold. He found in the apartments, which the King had but lately vacated, a brilliant assemblage of those who had in former times filled the most prominent places in his own councils and court.

"Gentlemen," said Napoleon, as he walked round the circle, "it is disinterested people who have brought me back to my capital. It is the subalterns and the soldiers that have done it all. I owe everything to the people and the army."

All night long the cannon of Marengo and Austerlitz pealed forth their joyous sounds, the city was brilliantly illuminated, and all except the Bourbons, who, as Thiers happily says, "during twenty-five years had neither learned or forgotten anything," were rejoicing at the return of the Exile. Napoleon had now proved that he was not only Emperor of the army but of the citizens, the people, the peasantry, and the masses. With a handful of men he had marched from one end of the kingdom to the other, entered the capital and taken possession of the throne, and that without shedding even one drop of blood!

He assigned, among other reasons for leaving Elba, that in addition to the violation of the treaty of Fontainebleau in failing to pay his pension, that his wife and child had been seized, detained, and never permitted to join him; that the pensions to his mother and brothers were alike refused, and that assassins had been sent over to Elba, for the express purpose of murdering him. This last charge has also been made by Savary with much positiveness. "Last year," said Napoleon, "it was said that I recalled the Bourbons; this year they recall me; so we are equal!"

Previous to the morning of the 20th of March the nights had been rainy and the days sombre and cloudy; but on this morning, the anniversary of the birth of the young King of Rome, the day was ushered in by a brilliant sun and which produced a strong effect on the populace who again referred in their acclamations to the "sun of Napoleon" as they had that of Austerlitz, ten years before. On the following day the whole population of the capital directed their steps towards the Tuileries and repeated anon and anon their pleasure at the return of the Emperor who had, between the 1st and the 20th of March, fulfilled that strange prophecy in which he said, victory would march at the charging step, and that the imperial eagle would fly, without pause, from steeple to steeple, to the towers of Notre Dame, even to the dome of the Palace of the Tuileries!