Page:Life of Napoleon Bonaparte.pdf/20

20 eloquence, of military genius, indignation, and no small share of self-estimation.

The position of Napoleon at Elba, within a few days' sail of France, was most favourable for intrigues, and a constant correspondence was maintained with his relations and adherents, from many of whom he received visits; and a conspiraey was soon formed, having for its object his return. The British Commissioner had no means of preventing an escape, even though he suspected it, and on the night of the 26th of February, 1815, Napoleon sailed for the French coast, and, on the 1st of March, disembarked in the Gulf of St. Juan. The news of the Emperor's landing did not reach Paris till the 5th of March, at night. It transpired on the 6th, and on the 7th a royal proclamation appeared in the Moniteur, convoking the chambers immediately. A decree was also issued, placing Napoleon, and all who should join him, out of the protection of the law.

At two o'clock on the 20th of March, Napoleon set out for Paris; but retarded by the crowd, and the felicitations of the troops and the generals who came to meet him, he could not reach it till nine in the evening. As soon as he alighted, the people rushed on him: a thousand arms bore him up, and carried him along in triumph to the Tuileries.

The Emperor, though greatly fatigued by nocturnal marches, reviews, perpetual harrangues, and labours in the closet, which had, for thirty-six hours, occupied all his attention, determined, nevertheless, on reviewing the troops; after which he returned to his closet, and immediately applied himself to business. His situation rendered it essentially necessary for him to ascertain without delay the precise state of the country, the government of which he had thus unexpectedly resumed; and so vast was the undertaking, that the faculties of any other man must have been overwhelmed.