victory, affording them free quarters, with the incidental privileges of plunder, a constant change of scenery and excitement, and pleasant cantonments in the finest cities of Europe.* It was in their nature to forget easily both the comrades who had perished and their own occasional hard sufferings; and the national confidence and the pride of many victories made them cherish the belief that, if they had been in France in 1814, Napoleon would not have been beaten by all the odds against him. They also gave implicit credit to the assertion that the emperor had been betrayed by some of his marshals, and embraced the corollary, that, with less wealthy and pampered and more faithful generals, he was likely to succeed in a new trial. This, too, opened the brilliant and tempting perspective of a new cast of promotions, orders, titles, &c. And what was there to get or to hope for from Louis XVIII.? Besides these selfish considerations, there were certainly higher motives of action: many of these men were enthusiastically attached to the military glory of their old master, and were eager above all things to wipe off the disgrace of defeat from their country. In the vain hope of keeping matters quiet by making as few changes as possible, Louis XVIII. had retained in his service nearly all the men that Bonaparte had left in employment, and many of the subordinate agents of the police, post-office, and other departments were in Napoleon's interest. It was the same with most of the municipal authorities, at least in the centre and in the north of France. Even in the standing army few of Bonaparte's officers had been changed, and men like Ney and Davoust were left at the head of these forces. Although Louis XVIII. had abilities, information, liberal views, and excellent intentions, the emigrants and other royalists who surrounded him, and the civil government which their importunities had forced upon him, were at once imbecile and extravagant, weak (as they had no hold on the people), and yet revengeful; and, after the departure of Talleyrand for Vienna, nearly everything went wrong, and, though no acts of tyranny were committed, many petty spites were indulged in. Moreover, the weak government of King Louis, surrounded from the first moment of its existence by treachery and by plots, had no instruments wherewith to operate; the police, from which it expected information, was in the interest of Bonaparte; the officers and people who managed the telegraphs were in the interest of Bonaparte; the magistrates upon whom it depended for the suppression of cabal and sedition were (at least in a great part of France) in the interest of Bonaparte; the troops upon which it counted for the suppression of insurrection were almost to a man devoted to Bonaparte; and, when the government could no longer be kept ignorant that something was preparing, the police protested that it was but a bagatelle, a mere fit of impatience and uneasiness which would soon pass off under gentle treatment. It is said that long before the

• A. Vieusseux.-Fleury de Chaboulon, Mémoires.

close of the year 1814, the initiated named the month and almost the very day on which the emperor would return. Some of the old republican party, including men who had conspired against him, now joined the Bonapartists, and invited Napoleon to return. The brothers, sisters, and other relatives of Bonaparte, all rich, and one of them (Murat) still powerful, promoted the widely spread plot, for they all felt that by his fall they had either been reduced to obscurity or left without any prop to their adventitious greatness. Murat's wife was incessantly telling him that Austria would never abide by her treaty with him, that all the members of the grand alliance were determined to restore King Ferdinand, that, unless the throne of Napoleon could be re-established, his throne of Naples must fall, and leave him and her and her children, not only without a kingdom, but without a home; and at the proper moment, when the weak mind of Murat was oscillating like the pendulum of a clock, Napoleon himself wrote to tell him that the lion was not dead, but only sleeping! Murat prepared for the réveiller. Except the cardinal-uncle Fesch, Louis Bonaparte, the ex-king of Holland, and Eugene Beauharnais, the ex-viceroy of Italy, every living member or connexion of the Bonaparte family appears to have been actively engaged. Madame Hortense, sister of Beauharnais, wife of Louis, and ex-queen of Holland, was very busy, and, as she had been allowed to remain in Paris, she had many means of being useful, and her house became a principal rendezvous of the party. She sent messages and secret agents to her brother in Bavaria; but Eugene would not be moved, and he remained quiet with his wife and father-in-law in Munich. Lucien Bonaparte, though he had incurred so much disgrace, though he had been obliged to seek a refuge in England, was very eager for his brother's restoration, and, as a professed liberal and constitutionalist, he undertook to manage the liberal and constitutional parties.

It was on the 26th of February, 1815, that Napoleon embarked with a body of about 1000 men, composed of some of his old guards who had followed him to Elba, of some Italians and Elbese, some Corsicans and others, comprising about 200 dragoons and about 100 Polish lancers, with saddles, but without horses. On the 1st of March he landed at Cannes, a short distance from Frejus. The Provençals neither welcomed him nor attempted to oppose him. There were no king's troops in the neighbourhood. He hurried through Provence, into Dauphiny, "the cradle of the Revolution ;' and there the people began to flock round his standard. Still no troops joined him, and he felt uneasy. On the 5th of March he issued two exciting proclamations, one to the French people, and the other to the army. It was in the latter that he said that his soldiers had not been beaten, and that he and they had only been betrayed; that in his exile he had heard the complaining voice of his army, and that he had arrived once more among then to renew their glory, and to put down foreign

interference. After reminding them of the victories of Ulm, Austerlitz, Jena, &c., and bidding them come and range themselves under the banner of their old chief, he said, "Victory shall march at the charging step. The eagle shall fly from steeple to steeple, till she perches on the tower of Notre Dame!" This proclamation produced an immense effect. As he approached Grenoble, he met for the first time some regular troops. They were a battalion of infantry, which had been sent forward from that city to stop his march; but a short parley on the road ended in their joining him. Just outside the walls of Grenoble, the 7th regiment of the line, commanded by M. Charles de Labédoyère, an officer of noble birth, and one who had been promoted by Louis XVIII., but who had recently set out from Paris with the determination to break his oath to that king, set up a joyous shout, rushed from their ranks to hug and kiss their old comrades, who had come from Elba, crying "Vive l'Empereur!" and joined him. General Marchand, who commanded the strong garrison within the walls, shut the gates, and would fain have done his duty; but his men joined in the cry of "Vive l'Empereur," and, when Bonaparte blew open one of the gates with a howitzer, all the soldiers did what the 7th regiment had done just before them. Next morning the civil authorities of Grenoble renewed their allegiance. Bonaparte had now an enthusiastic veteran army of nearly 7000 men. With this force he descended the mountains of Dauphiny, and appeared within sight of Lyons on the 10th of March. The king's brother, the Count d'Artois, was in that city, and was ably and honestly assisted by Marshal Macdonald, who could not throw his oaths to the wind; but the troops and the populace at Lyons followed the example at Grenoble, the prince and the conscientious marshal were obliged to fly for their lives, and Bonaparte entered that second city of France in triumph. The rest of the march to Paris was a triumphant one. All along the road the emperor was joined by soldiers, in detachments, battalions, or entire divisions, who tore the white cockade fron their caps, trampled upon it, and mounted the tricolor. The Bourbons were abandoned by the whole army; yet still, except in Grenoble and in Lyons, the people gave few or no signs of enthusiasm: many fled out of the way, and the majority of those that remained on the line of march seemed to be bewildered, and to be wondering what would come next. Louis XVIII. was now waited upon by Marshal Ney, whom he had favoured and honoured, but who apparently apprehended that the command of the troops that still remained under the white flag would be given to Macdonald, or to Marmont, or to some other marshal equally averse to perjury and treason. Ney, with a profusion of protestations, volunteered to take the command, to intercept the invader; and, on getting what he wished, and on kissing the king's hand at parting, he swore that within a week he would bring Bona

parte to Paris in an iron cage. "Adieu, marshal; I trust to your honour and fidelity," was the reply of the confiding and duped Louis. The marshal went to Lons-le-Saulnier, and joined the emperor with his entire force! Nothing now remained to Louis but some battalions under Marshal Macdonald, who posted himself at Melun, between Paris and Fontainebleau. On the 19th of March, Bonaparte slept in the old palace of Fontainebleau, where he had signed his act of abdication in the preceding month of April. The next morning he resumed his easy march for the capital. Instead of disputing his passage, Macdonald's people trampled on their white flags and cockades, shouted "Vive l'Empereur," kissed, hugged, and joined. Macdonald, with a few officers, escaped to Paris. He found the Tuileries deserted Louis XVIII. had fled at midnight for the fortified town of Lille, near the Belgian frontier, and most of his ministers and courtiers had fled many hours before. The Royalists wept and tore their hair, but they were helpless; the mass of the population of Paris seemed totally indifferent; there was no armed force within the city upon which any dependence could be placed. About twelve hours after the king's departure, or at noon of the 20th, a great troop of half-pay officers, with their swords drawn, with two pieces of cannon, and a detachment of cuirassiers, reached the Place de Carrousel, shouting "Vive l'Empereur!" and demanding to mount guard at the palace with the national guards. There was no resisting this demand, and, in the gardens of the Tuileries, in the courts, and at the gates of the palace, national guards, wearing the white cockade, were mixed with these half-pay desperados wearing the tricolor cockade. Shortly after this, there arrived at the Tuileries, from all quarters of Paris, new personages, ex-ministers of Bonaparte, councillors of state, chamberlains in their imperial court costume, comptrollers of the household, court valets in their old livery, cooks, and butlers, who resumed their services as tranquilly as they could have done if Bonaparte had only been absent on a short journey or campaign, and as if his court and household had been kept in a state of readiness for his return. Ladies appertaining to the imperial court now began to arrive, and to fill the salons of the palace; and the very ushers and pages were already at the doors of the several apartments, to maintain the strict imperial etiquette. At halfpast nine, on the night of the 20th-a foggy and rainy night-a tremendous noise announced the arrival of the emperor, a troop of lancers galloped through the principal gate, a low mud-covered carriage stopped, Bonaparte in his grey great-coat stepped out, a number of generals and officers took him on their shoulders, and carried him up to the state apartments, while the soldiery and a part of the mob rent the air with cries of" Vive l'Empereur!"+

Ney admitted on his trial that he had said these words.

+ Quarante-Huit Heures de Garde au Chateau des Tuileries pendant les journées des 19 et 20 Mars 1815. Par un Grenadier de la Garde Nationale.

Thus far all had seemed to go well, but the triumph was soon damped by sundry little circumstances. It was impossible not to see that, with the exception of some of those faubourg mobs, which he hated and feared, the people of Paris were silent, lukewarm, cautious, or averse. Then came brother Lucien with his tail of constitutionalists and liberals, including Carnot and Fouché, protesting that the promises and pledges he had given must be kept, that the French people must have more liberty than they had enjoyed under the empire or under the restoration, that France could no longer do without a free constitution, and, finally, that the liberals would do nothing for him unless he granted a new constitution. Bonaparte said that there would be time for making a good constitution hereafter, when he should have dissolved by victories the European confederacy against him; that now every thought ought to be given to the means of raising money and troops, the casting of artillery, the manufacturing of arms, ammunition, &c., in order to put him in condition to scatter the armies of the allies. But the liberals stuck to their point; the constitution must come first, their exertions in his cause afterwards: and, accordingly, though sorely against his will, Bonaparte proclaimed a sort of constitution, under the very unpromising title of "Acte Additionnel aux Constitutions de l'Em pire.' The liberals, who had expected to be allowed to make the constitution themselves, were grievously offended; and those among them who were sincere in their constitutionalism declared this Acte Additionel a poor defective thing, although it was known that Carnot, and that great and unwearied maker of constitutions, the Abbé Sièyes, had been consulted by the emperor in its confection. Substantially the Acle was much the same as the charte which Louis XVIII. had given (octroyée)

in 1814.* On the 4th of June, three days after Bonaparte, his great officers of state, marshals, generals, &c., had taken their oaths to this constitution at a grand celebration, called a Champ de Mai, but held in the Champ de Mars, and in the month of June, the two new Chambers opened their session. The Chamber of Peers, appointed by the emperor himself, and composed principally of men who owed their rank and fortune to him, at first seemed disposed to be as submissive as the Senate had formerly been. The Chamber of Representatives showed at once a very different disposition, raising the voice of criticism and censure which the man of the people had never been able to bear. Their session was a very short one; and the first serious business the two Houses or Chambers did was to pronounce the dethronement of Bonaparte. Before that crisis arrived, he bitterly reproached his brother Lucien and others, for advising and forcing him to give this constitution, and to call these Chambers together. After eleven weeks' sojourn in the capital, matters stood with him much as they did when he arrived; he could count confidently on the devotion and bravery of his old army, but he could not hope that the rest of France would do much for him. His distress, or doubts, were increased by the dismal news which came howling to him from beyond the Alps. Murat, instead of waiting for his mot d'ordre, had thrown off the mask as soon as he learned the departure from Elba, had rushed towards Upper Italy like a madman, had been beaten by the Austrians, aban

There were to be an hereditary Chamber of Peers appointed by the Emperor, and a Chamber of Representatives elected, not by the citizens directly, but by the electorai colleges of France. The Representative Chamber was to be renewed by election every five years, and was to possess the exclusive right of voting taxes, &c. Ministers were to be responsible, and judges irremovable. Property was declared inviolable, and all subjects were to have the right of petitioning.

doned by his own army, and put to an ignominious flight from his kingdom of Naples, many weeks before Bonaparte was ready to commence operations on the frontiers of Belgium. Bonaparte afterwards declared that the blind precipitation of Murat in 1815 did more mischief to his cause than Murat's defection in 1814 had done. But this was not true.

On the night of the 11th of June, just a week after the opening of the two Chambers, Bonaparte quitted Paris to open the campaign. His countenance, which had long been clouded, brightened as he sprung into his travelling carriage, and as he said, or as he is reported to have said, "Je vais me mésurer avec ce Villainton" (I am going to measure myself with this Wellington). He had assembled an army of about 125,000 men, chiefly veteran troops, of whom 25,000 were cavalry, and 350 pieces of artillery. With this force he advanced to the Belgian frontier on the 14th of June, and on the very next day the stern conflict began.

In the meantime, the Duke of Wellington had raised his force in the field to about 76,000 men, of whom not near one-half were British. Knowing that his adversary would bring with him a tremendous artillery, Wellington had applied for 150 British pieces; but so miserably had he been supplied by our government, and by those who kept the keys at Woolwich, where there were guns enough to cannonade the world, that, when he united all his English pieces with those of the Dutch and German under him, he found he had only some 84 pieces. The duke's head quarters were at Brussels, the capital of the country, which it was Bonaparte's first great object to gain, and

the possession of which would have given the French immense advantages, moral and political, as well as military. On the duke's left lay Marshal Blücher with the Prussian army, estimated (after the junction of Bulow's corps) at about 80,000 men. The old marshal was well supplied with artillery, his government having sent him 200 cannon; but unluckily his artillerymen were not very good, and he had to complain of the manner in which his guns were served when the French fell upon him. Blücher's head-quarters were at Namur. The two armies were, of necessity, spread over a wide extent of country. The Duke of Wellington's had to preserve its communications with England, Holland, and Germany; to be near enough to connect readily with the Prussian army, and to protect Brussels. Blücher's army had to preserve its communications with the country in his rear and on his left, through which the reinforcements of the grand allied armies were to advance; he had to give the hand to Wellington, and at the same time he had to watch a long extent of frontier; and on that north-east frontier of France there were many strong fortresses, which enabled Bonaparte to mask his movements, and to attack wherever he chose, without letting his attack be foreseen by his enemy. In front of the extended lines of the British, and their immediate allies, the Hanoverians, Brunswickers, &c., there were, besides country bye-roads, no fewer than four great roads (paved roads, proper for the passage of artillery, and for all military purposes); and it was because there were all these roads leading from the French departments of the north, and the fortresses on the French frontier, and because the Duke of Wellington could not possibly tell or

Thus far all had seemed to go well, but the triumph was soon damped by sundry little circumstances. It was impossible not to see that, with the exception of some of those faubourg mobs, which he hated and feared, the people of Paris were silent, lukewarm, cautious, or averse. Then came brother Lucien with his tail of constitutionalists and liberals, including Carnot and Fouché, protesting that the promises and pledges he had given must be kept, that the French people must have more liberty than they had enjoyed under the empire or under the restoration, that France could no longer do without a free constitution, and, finally, that the liberals would do nothing for him unless he granted a new constitution. Bonaparte said that there would be time for making a good constitution hereafter, when he should have dissolved by victories the European confederacy against him; that now every thought ought to be given to the means of raising money and troops, the casting of artillery, the manufacturing of arms, ammunition, &c., in order to put him in condition to scatter the armies of the allies. But the liberals stuck to their point; the constitution must come first, their exertions in his cause afterwards: and, accordingly, though sorely against his will, Bonaparte proclaimed a sort of constitution, under the very unpromising title of "Acte Additionnel aux Constitutions de l'Em pire." The liberals, who had expected to be allowed to make the constitution themselves, were grievously offended; and those among them who were sincere in their constitutionalism declared this Acte Additionel a poor defective thing, although it was known that Carnot, and that great and unwearied maker of constitutions, the Abbé Sièyes, had been consulted by the emperor in its confection. Substantially the Acte was much the same as the charte which Louis XVIII. had given (octroyée)

in 1814.* On the 4th of June, three days after Bonaparte, his great officers of state, marshals, generals, &c., had taken their oaths to this consti tution at a grand celebration, called a Champ de Mai, but held in the Champ de Mars, and in the month of June, the two new Chambers opened their session. The Chamber of Peers, appointed by the emperor himself, and composed princi pally of men who owed their rank and fortune to him, at first seemed disposed to be as submissive as the Senate had formerly been. The Chamber of Representatives showed at once a very different disposition, raising the voice of criticism and censure which the man of the people had never been able to bear. Their session was a very short one; and the first serious business the two Houses or Chambers did was to pronounce the dethronement of Bonaparte. Before that crisis arrived, he bitterly reproached his brother Lucien and others, for advising and forcing him to give this constitution, and to call these Chambers to gether. After eleven weeks' sojourn in the capi tal, matters stood with him much as they did when he arrived; he could count confidently on the devotion and bravery of his old army, he could not hope that the rest of France would do much for him. His distress, or doubts, were increased by the dismal news which came ing to him from beyond the Alps. Murat, instead of waiting for his mot d'ordre, had thrown off the mask as soon as he learned the departure from Elba, had rushed towards Upper Italy like a madman, had been beaten by the Austrians, aban

but

howl

There were to be an hereditary Chamber of Peers appointed by the Emperor, and a Chamber of Representatives elected, not by the citizens directly, but by the electorai colleges of France. The Re presentative Chamber was to be renewed by election every five years, and was to possess the exclusive right of voting taxes, &c. Ministers were to be responsible, and judges irremovable. Property was declared inviolable, and all subjects were to have the right of petitioning.