A.D. 1815.]

ESCAPE OF BUONAPARTE FROM ELBA.

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some of them notoriously the slowest nations in the world.

setting up Buonaparte as a burlesque emperor at the very ❘ by letters, the allied sovereigns to hasten up their quotas, doors of France-with the Buonaparte element burning like unextinguished embers all over that country, amongst troops disbanded and undisbanded, amongst a new race of marshals and generals, and princes and princesses, who combined all the talent of France, all its activity, and with an old, decayed dynasty again on the throne, which combined in itself and its supporters all the inactivity and helplessness of France-might very well have said to the allied sovereigns-" This is your work; we have no further concern in it; you may finish it as you please." But England was sure not to do this; as both the government and nation had set their mind ou hunting down the slippery and mischievous adventurer, they were sure to follow up the pursuit. The duke of Wellington's was, therefore, the only sound advice-to do the business well and effectually; and the result showed how correct he was in his prognostics.

The English ministry adopted the advice most cordially. Lord Liverpool, in the house of lords, and lord Castlereagh, in the commons, on the 6th of April, announced the astounding fact of the elopement of Buonaparte, and proposed addresses from both houses to the prince regent, recommending the most energetic measures of co-operation with the allies now finally to crush this lawless man. Whitbread vehemently opposed this measure, declaring that it was not our business "to commence a new crusade to determine who should fill the throne of France." This was true enough; but it was a truth, in the then temper of the government or public, which was not likely to be attended to. The addresses were carried in both houses without any division, and lord Wellington was nominated to command the forces which should take the field for England; and these were to amount to no fewer than one hundred and fifty thousand, and to consist of a moderate amount of English soldiers, and the rest to be paid Hanoverians, Belgians, Dutch, and Germans. Parliament immediately voted the enormous sum of ninety million pounds for supplies, knowing the vast subsidies which would be required by the allied monarchs, besides the large sum necessary to pay our own quota of troops.

On the 23rd of March the allied sovereigns, including that of England, signed, by their plenipotentiaries, a new treaty of alliance offensive and defensive, on the same principles as the treaty of Chaumont, entered into in March, 1814. The duke of Wellington then hastened away to Belgium to muster his forces there-for Belgium, as it had been so often before, was sure to become the battle-ground on this occasion. So early as the 5th of April he announced that he had placed thirteen thousand four hundred men in the fortresses of Belgium, and had besides twenty-three thousand English and Hanoverian troops, twenty thousand Dutch and Belgian, and sixty pieces of artillery. Unfortunately, the bulk of his victorious army of the Peninsula had been sent to the inglorious contest with America, where a good naval blockade would have been the most effectual kind of warfare. But he observed that Buonaparte would require some time to assemble a strong force, and this time must be employed by England to collect a correspondingly powerful army. The duke, with accustomed energy, not only applied himself with all his strength to this object, but to stimulating,

We may now notice the progress of Buonaparte's movements towards this new enterprise. That he never for a moment contemplated adhering to the scheme of the allies in sending him to Elba is very clear, and he used to laugh, in his conversations with Sir Neil Campbell as he rode about Elba, at the manner in which he had outwitted the allies. As on the voyage, so on the island, he was in constant fear of assassination. As on ship-board he insisted on a British officer sleeping at the door of his apartment; so, in Elba, he was a prey to fears of poison or the stiletto. He was afraid, too, of the Algerine pirates carrying him off for his ransom, but still more alarmed lest Brulart, the governor of Corsica, should attempt to carry out his threats of killing him, in return for his conduct to Pichegru, George Cadoudal, &c., who had been Brulart's friends. Another friend of Brulart who had fled to England was desirous of returning to France, and had solicited permission of Buonaparte. Buonaparte readily granted the request, but only to secure this Chouan chief in Paris, and have him shot. The remembrance of Brulart's menace and his vicinity now tortured him, though his conscience could not. To dissipate such thoughts, as well as general ennui, he projected all sorts of improvements in the defences of Elba, and soon involved himself in inextricable debts, for his revenue from the island did not exceed three hundred thousand francs; and the government of Louis XVIII., with a meanness, and an impolicy exceeding the meanness, took care not to pay the annuity agreed upon by the allied sovereigns for Buonaparte's maintenance, of two millions and a half of francs. As Louis XVIII. had thus broken the treaty as it concerned Buonaparte, he had no right to complain that the latter ceased to observe it too. For a time Buonaparte showed great partiality for the company of Sir Neil Campbell, but by degrees he began to keep him more and more at a distance. This ought to have been enough to convince that gentleman that some secret affairs were going on.

Very soon after Buonaparte's arrival at Elba he began to show an anxiety to add recruits to his body guard of seven hundred men. As early as July the fermentation going on in Italy and at the court of Murat showed unmistakably its connection with Elba. Recruits came over to Elba, and soldiers were dismissed, who were, in reality, emissaries to France and Italy; and two persons were arrested in Leghorn, on whom were found lists of hundreds of persons willing to serve Napoleon. Soon after arrived in Elba Napoleon's mother and sister Pauline. About the end of August another lady and a little boy of about three or four years old were mysteriously introduced, and again dismissed for Naples; but this lady was recognised as a Polish mistress of Napoleon, and the boy one that he had by her. Baron Köhler had taken his leave in May, and Napoleon had professed great grief at his going. He embraced Köhler at going, and shed tears. Some one asked Köhler what he thought of when he saw these marks of affection; he replied -"Judas Iscariot." But Sir Neil Campbell, after Köhler's departure, found Buonaparte less and less accessible; yet when he did see him he always professed the utmost contempt of the rumours that he intended to escape. He said

aloof;

only a few peasantry occasionally cried, "Vive l'Empereur," but did not join him. He began to be very uneasy. But on the 7th of March, as he approached Grenoble, colonel Labedoyere, who had been gained over before, came out with an eagle in his hand, and at the gates distributed tricolour cockades, which had been concealed in a drum. Buonaparte advanced alone towards the troops, and called on any one who wished to kill his emperor to do his pleasure. All cried " Vive l'Empereur," and crowded round him. General Marchand endeavoured to recall the soldiers to their duty, but in vain.

Whilst Napoleon was thus advancing towards Paris, the besotted Bourbons rather rejoiced in it, for they said it would compel the two chambers to invest the king with despotic power-that was what they were still craving; and Louis himself, addressing the foreign ambassadors, bade them assure their sovereigns that he was well, and that the foolish enterprise of that man should as little disturb Europe as it had disturbed him.

he meant to spend the remainder of his days like an English party. All the authorities, proprietors, and clergy, stood country gentleman; and, to blind Sir Neil the more, he declared his determination to make himself master of the English language, and desired him to get him a grammar. As winter approached, the symptoms of some projected change were so open that the British resident ought to have put his government into full possession of the facts. The little court of Elba was crowded by people coming and going, of various nations and characters, many of them most suspicious. The four armed vessels of Napoleon were actively and incessantly employed in carrying to and fro Italians, French, Sicilians, Greeks, who gave no reason for their coming or going. All sorts of rumours were afloat. Discharges and furloughs were granted to two or three hundred of Napoleon's old guard, and these, it was afterwards found, were employed to communicate with the troops and officers in France, and prepare them for Buonaparte's return. With all these circumstances in existence, the allied sovereigns should have been fully informed, and a proper fleet ought to have cruised near Elba to prevent the too obvious catastrophe which was approaching. But Sir Neil Campbell seems to have been quite content to spend his time at Leghorn, as if nothing was in agitation. At length the French consul at Leghorn assured Sir Neil that Buonaparte was certainly about to pass over to the continent, and he hastened to Elba to find himself too late. He reached Porto Ferrajo on the 27th of February, and found the mother and sister of Buonaparte in well-feigned distress at the departure of the emperor, who, they informed Sir Neil, had sailed away towards the coast of Barbary. They did all they could to detain the British envoy, but he then plucked up energy enough to sail after the fugitive in the Partridge sloop of war. But Napoleon had got the start, and the easy Briton only obtained a glimpse of his flotilla at Cannes after Buonaparte had landed. This flotilla consisted of the Inconstant brig, and six other small vessels, carrying about one thousand men; but the soldiers in France were already seduced, and general l'Allemand, quartered in the north-east of France, was commissioned to cut off the retreat of Louis and his family, and hold them as hostages for the emperor's advantage. At the same time Murat was prepared to declare in his favour, and, in fact, only declared too soon. To conceal the emperor's departure, his sister Pauline gave a ball that evening, and he only left it to go on board the squadron. The little fleet did not cross without some danger, for a French man-of-war hailed the Inconstant; but the captain of the Inconstant was well acquainted with the commander, and had been accustomed to sail about without question from place to place. The two captains, therefore, only exchanged the usual civilities, and the captain of the man-of-war inquiring how the emperor did, Napoleon is said to have himself replied, through the speak-without this he could not have escaped. These decrees, dising-trumpet," Il se porte à merveille."

Monsieur and the duke of Orleans hastened to Lyons, and the duke of Angoulême to Nîmes. Corps of volunteers were called out, and an address to the people was composed by Benjamin Constant, calling on them to defend their liberties against Buonaparte; and a woman on the staircase of the Tuileries exclaimed, "If Louis has not men enough to fight, let him call out the widows and childless mothers who have been rendered such by Napoleon!" In the meantime the conspiracy of general l'Allemand and his brother at Lisle, to carry over the garrison of eight thousand men to Napoleon, was discovered by general Mortier, and defeated. Had this plot succeeded, Louis and his family must have been made prisoners. But there ended the feeble adhesion to the Bourbon cause.

When Buonaparte reached Lyons, the soldiers, in spite of the duke of Orleans, of Monsieur, and of marshal Macdonald, went over to him to a man. He was now at the head of seven thousand men, and Maçon, Chalons, Dijon, and nearly all Burgundy declared for him. Marseilles and Provence stood out, the authorities of Marseilles setting a price upon his head. But being now in Lyons, Buonaparte issued, with amazing rapidity, no fewer than eight decrees, abolishing every change made by the Bourbons during his absence, confiscating the property of every emigrant who had not lost it before, restoring the tricolour flag and cockade, the legion of honour; abolishing the two chambers, and calling a Champ-de-Mai, to be held in the month of that name, to determine on a new constitution, and to assist at the coronation of the empress and the king of Rome. He boldly announced that the empress was coming; that Austria, Russia, and England were all his friends, and that

seminated on all sides, had a wonderful effect on the people, Buonaparte landed at Cannes on the 1st of March. His and he advanced rapidly, reaching Auxerre on the 17th of advanced guard presented themselves before Antibes, and March. He rode on several hours in advance of his army, were made prisoners by the garrison. This did not dis- without guards, talking familiarly with the people, sympacourage Buonaparte; he advanced by forced marches with thising in their distresses, and promising all sorts of rehis now less than one thousand men, and leaving behind dresses. The lancers of Auxerre and Montereau trampled him his train of artillery. Till he reached Dauphiny, the white cockade under foot, and joined him. He appointed however, he received very little encouragement from any Cambaceres minister of justice; Fouche, of police; and

A.D. 1815.]

ARRIVAL OF BUONAPARTE IN PARIS.

Davoust minister of war. But Fouché, doubting the sincerity of Buonaparte, at once offered his services to Louis, and promised, on being admitted to a private interview, to point out to the king a certain means of extinguishing the usurper. This was presumed to mean assassination by some of his secret agents, and was honourably rejected by Louis, and an officer was sent to arrest Fouché; but that adroit sycophant retired by a back door, locking it after him, got over a wall, and was the next moment in the house of the duchess of St. Leu, and in the midst of the assembled Buonapartists, who received him with exultation.

Thus surrounded by treason, Louis doubted the fidelity of Soult, who resigned his command; but he trusted Ney, and sent him to attack Buonaparte in the rear, whilst an army at Melun, under Clarke, duke of Feltre, was to attack him in front. Ney took leave of Louis on the 9th of March, declaring that he would bring Buonaparte to him in a cage; but at Lons-le-Saulnier, on the 14th, he received a letter from Napoleon, calling him "the bravest of the brave," and inviting him to resume his place in his army, and Ney went over at once. To abate the public opinion of his treason, he pretended that this expedition had been long arranged betwixt himself and Buonaparte, but this Buonaparte at St. Helena denied.

Astounded by these repeated defections, Louis endeavoured to gather some intimation of the state of other bodies and troops about him. He attended a sitting of the chamber of deputies, and was received with acclamation; he reviewed twenty-five thousand national guards, and there was the same display of loyalty; he inspected six thousand troops of the line, but there the reception was not encouraging. He finally summoned a general council at the Tuileries, and there the generals declared frankly that he had no real means of resisting Buonaparte. This was on the 18th of March, and Louis felt that it was time for him to be making his retreat. At one o'clock in the morning of the 20th he was on his way towards Lisle, escorted by a body of household troops. It was time, for that very day Buonaparte reached the camp of Melun, where Macdonald had drawn up the troops to attack him; but Buonaparte threw himself amongst them, attended only by a slight escort of horse, and the soldiers all went over to him with a shout. Macdonald rode back to Paris, and, following the king, assumed the command of the guard accompanying him. Louis hoped that the troops at Lisle, under Mortier, would stand by him; but Mortier assured him of the contrary, and so, taking leave of Macdonald on the frontiers, Louis pursued his way to Ostend and thence to Ghent, where he established his court. The household troops who had accompanied him were disbanded on the frontiers, and in attempting to regain their homes by different routes, most of them were killed, or plundered and abused.

On the evening of the very day that Louis quitted Paris Buonaparte arrived in it. He had slept on the night of the 19th at Fontainebleau, where, in the preceding April, he had signed his abdication. No sooner had the king departed, than the Buonapartists, who were all ready for that event, came forth from their hiding-places. Lavalette resumed his position at the post-office, and thus managed to intercept the proclamations of Louis, and to circulate those of Buona

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parte. Excelsmin took down the white flag from the
Tuileries and hoisted the tricolour, and a host of the adherents
of the old imperial government, hurrying from all quarters,
thronged the avenues to the palace, and filled the court of the
There were ex-ministers of Buonaparte, ex-coun-
Carousel.
cillors, ex-chamberlains, in imperial costume-in short, every
species of officers and courtiers, down to cooks, and butlers,
and valets, all crushing forward to reoccupy their places.
The guards at the gates stood with tricolour cockades already
on their hats, and the great ladies of that court came driving
in, for they were not far off. Madame Hortense, the wife of
Louis of Holland, now styled the duchess of St. Leu, had
been permitted to remain in Paris, and her house had been
the focus of all the Buonapartist adherents and conspiracies.
From that centre had been sent summonses to every branch
of the Buonaparte family to be in readiness, and all had
responded except cardinal Fesch, Louis Buonaparte, and
Eugene Beauharnais, who had too much sense to quit
Munich with his wife, the daughter of the Bavarian king.
Even Murat, to his ruin, had been induced to declare for
Buonaparte's return.

When the returned emperor, therefore, drove up to the Tuileries, at nearly ten o'clock on the night of the 20th-a foggy and wet night-his carriage, covered with mud, was surrounded by his friends, as if he had only been absent on one As he stepped out of his carriage in his of his campaigns.

old grey great-coat and cocked hat, now to be seen in the museum of the Louvre, he was instantly so hemmed in that he called out, "My friends, you stifle me!" and a number of general officers at once hoisted him upon their shoulders, and thus bore him into the palace and up into the state apartments amid deafening shouts of "Vive l'Empereur."

Thus was the man, who had been put down by all the assembled armies of Europe, not twelve months before, who had quitted Paris weeping like a woman, and threatened, in his exile southward, with being torn limb from limb-thus, as it were, miraculously borne back again on men's shoulders, and seated on the throne of the second time expelled Bourbons! It was far more like a wild romance than any serious history. The peace of the world had again to be achieved. The Bourbons had been worsted everywhere, even in loyal Vendée, and in Marseilles, which had so recently set a price on Buonaparte's head. The duke of Angoulême was surrounded in Marseilles, and surrendered on condition of quitting France. The duke of Bourbon found La Vendée so pre-occupied by Buonapartists that he was obliged to escape by sea from Nantes; and the duchess of Angoulême, who had thrown herself into Bourdeaux, found the troops there infected by the Buonaparte mania, and, quitting the place in indignation, went on board an English frigate.

But the position of Buonaparte was far from being secure or satisfactory. Though the soldiers had come over to him, and endeavoured to rouse the populace of Paris to shout for his return, it was in vain. The guards, incensed at their silence, struck them with the flat of their swords, and badə them cry, "Napoleon and Liberty!" but, though they saw that Napoleon had returned, they very much doubted whether he had brought liberty with him, and they remained cold and indifferent. They saw the armies of the allies looming again in the distance, and they gave no credence to