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witnessed these gallant struggles, still Jermanouski, commandant of the Polish
dwell upon the theme with pride and de- lancers of the guard who accompanied
light. The army of Napoleon amounted the Emperor to Elba; and, as they tally
to no more than 85,000 at the utmost, with the accounts circulated here, both
computing all the regular troops, ex- in print and conversation, as well as with
cepting those of Marshal Soult; and with the famous bulletin of the niteur, I
these the French Emperor was so near shall venture to give you a short detail of
obtaining a final success over the multi- his information.
The colonel com-

tude of his opponents, that, before the manded at Porto Longone, and had, be-
allies moved for the last time upon Paris, sides his lancers, about three hundred
the order was given, and was in force soldiers in his garrison. Six days before
for twenty-four hours, for a retreat to the embarkation the Emperor had sent
the Rhine. Of this fact assurance was for him, and, enquiring what number of
given me, from indubitable authority at vessels were in his harbour, desired him
Paris, a few days after the capitulation, to hire and provision them on his return,
and my informant added, that the second and to prevent all boats from leaving the
in command in the Austrian army told port. He followed his instructions, and
him, when the advance was resolved was speedily visited by an Englishman
upon, that he expected to be marched who was detained by this measure, and
prisoner into the French capital. The who represented to him, in the most vio-
head-quarters of the Emperor of Austria lent terms, that his detention was unjust,
were by chance separated from those of and might cause a war between Elba
the grand army, so that the inclination and Great Britain. The colonel smiled,
of the Prince Schwartzenberg to retreat represented the inequality of the powers,
could not be backed by a precise order but still obeyed his instructions. The
from his master; and when that general day before the embarkation he received
insisted upon waiting for instructions orders to disburse three or four thousand
from his court, the Emperor Alexander, francs, for making a road, and had al-
affirming the distance would cause too
great a delay, took the responsibility of
the advance upon himself, and the move-
ment was commenced in precise opposi-
tion to the wishes of the commander in
chief and the whole Austrian army. The
allies found themselves at Paris they knew
not how.

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THE RETURN FROM ELBA.

most forgotten the embargo, when, on the 26th of February, whilst he was working in his little garden, an aide-de-camp from the Emperor directed him to embark all his men by six o'clock in the evening, and repair to the flotilla off Porto Ferrajo, at a given time the same night. It was so late, that he could not put his soldiers on board before half past seven, The Emperor Alexander was amusing at which time he got into a boat, and himself at Vienna at a dressing match rowing to the station, arrived at the imwith Madame in which the au- perial brig the Inconstant, which was tocrat of all the Russias, although he em- under sail. On mounting the deck, the ployed only a minute and fifty seconds Emperor accosted him with " comment at this toilet, was beaten by his fair rival ce va-t-il? où est votre monde ?" and, on by twenty-five seconds; the King of receiving the answer, said no more. The France was grubbing for the bones of colonel learned that the little garrison of the Dauphin; and the Duchess of An- Porto Ferrajo had not received orders to goulême, having made her uncle promise embark until one o'clock the same day, solemnly at parting that he would abolish that they had got on board at four, and the fête of the mi-caréme, was upon a pro- that the Emperor, with Bertrand, Drouet, gress with her duke into the south, when his staff, arrived at eight when a single Napoleon embarked at Elba with eleven gun gave the signal, and they set sail. hundred and forty-two men, and in The flotilla consisted of the Inconstant twenty days recovered the imperial of twenty-six guns, L'Etoile, and La crown of France. Some circumstances Caroline, bombardes, and four feluccas. relative to the expedition were related in The soldiers on board the Inconstant my presence, the other evening, to Ge- were four hundred of the old guard. The neral Kosciusko, by Baron the Colonel colonel knew not, and no one appeared

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to know, whither they were going, but were put to the officers by the men, and the guard, when drawn out on the beach, by the officers even to the Emperor, who had shouted "Paris, ou la mort," as if smiled, and said nothing: at last, howby a presentiment of their destination. ever, he exclaimed-" eh bien! c'est la The wind blew from the south, and at France." Immediately every body was first rather strong, but subsided into a in activity, and crowded round the Emcalm, so that by daylight they had made peror, to hear his intention. The first no more than six leagues, and were be- step he took was to order two or three of tween Elba and Caprai, in sight of the the commissaries of his little army to English and French cruisers. The night, prepare their pens and paper, which they however, had not been totally lost, for accordingly got in order, and, resting on during the darkness the soldiers and the companion, took down, from the crew had been let over the sides of the Emperor's mouth, the proclamations to brig, and had entirely changed her paint- the army and to the French. When ing from yellow and grey to black and these compositions were written, they white, in order to escape the observa- were read aloud; Napoleon disliked some tion of those who were acquainted with portions of them, and made alterations; the vessel.

they were again read, and again altered; It was proposed to return to Porto Fer- until after at least ten revisions, he said rajo, but Napoleon ordered the flotilla to "that will do, now copy them." At the continue its route, determining, in case of word, all the soldiers and sailors who necessity, to attack the French cruisers, could write laid themselves down on the two frigates and a brig, which however deck, with their paper and implements, it was thought would join rather than and completed a sufficient number for oppose them. At twelve the same day immediate dispersion on landing. The the wind freshened, and the flotilla, at next object was the preparation of the four o'clock, was off the headland of tricoloured cockades, which was easily Leghorn. Three men of war were in managed, by ripping off one of the cirsight, and one of them, a brig, bearing cles of the Elbese cockade, which had, down on the Inconstant, the ports were at their first arrival on the island, been taken up, and some preparations made even more like the French national cofor action. The guard, however, were lours, but had been changed by the Emordered to take off their caps and lie peror, who thought it might be the cause down on the deck, Napoleon intending to of suspicion. During these occupations board the vessel only as a last resource, and for the latter part of the voyage, the and in case the Inconstant should not be officers, soldiers, and sailors surrounded permitted to pass without a visit. But Napoleon, who took very little sleep, and the Zephyr, so she was called, only pas- was generally on deck. Lying down, sed alongside the brig, and her captain, sitting, standing, and strolling about him, Andrieux, being hailed by Lieutenant familiarly, they asked him unceasing Taillade, who was known to him, only questions, to which he as unreservedly asked whither the Inconstant was bound? and without one sign of anger or impa----Taillode answered "to Genoa," and tience replied, although some were not a wished to know if he could execute any little indiscreet, for they required his commission for the captain of the Zephyr opinions on many living characters, kings, -Andrieux said no, and at parting cried marshals, and ministers, and discussed out "how's the Emperor ?" Napoleon notorious passages of his own campaigns, himself exclaimed-"wonderfully well," and even of his domestic policy. After and the ships dropped away from each satisfying or eluding their curiosity, he other. The wind increased during the would himself enter into details of his night of the 27th, and at day-light of the own conduct, of that of his rivals, or of 28th the coasts of Provence were in sight. his friends; and then from the examinaA seventy-four gun ship was seen steer- tion of contemporary merit, touched upon ing apparently for Sardinia. The colo- such historical topics as related more nel said, that before this time it was ge- particularly to the military events of monerally thought on board that the flotilla dern up to ancient times. was going to Naples. Many questions did with an easy persuasive eloquence

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THE LANDING AT CANNES.

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which delighted and instructed his hear- about the other two as well as they can." ers, and, as our colonel added, rendered The horses had been landed some way every word worthy a perpetual record. farther down, so that, the bivouac being He talked without disguise of his present broken up, Napoleon and his staff proattempt, of its difficulties, of his means, ceeded to the spot on foot. The Empeand of his hopes. He said, "In a case ror walked alone, interrogating some like this, one must think slowly, but act peasants whom he met. Jermanouski promptly. I have long weighed and and the generals followed, carrying their most maturely considered the project. own saddles. When they found the The glory, the advantages we shall gain, horses, Bertrand, the grand marshal, reif we succeed, I need not enlarge upon. fused to take one; he said he would walk, If we fail to military men, who have Drouot followed his example. Camfrom their infancy faced death in so many brone and Molat were the other two shapes, the fate which awaits us is not mounted officers. The Emperor then terrific we know, and we despise, for gave Colonel Jermanouski a handful we have a thousand times faced the worst of Napoleons, and ordered him to' which a reverse can bring.' procure some horses for immediate These were nearly the last words use. The colonel bought fifteen, giving which he spoke before his little fleet any thing the peasants asked. These came to an anchor in the gulf of Juan, were harnessed to three pieces of cannon and they were delivered with a more which were brought from Elba, and to a set phrase, as a sort of final address, to coach, given to her brother by the Printhe companions of his great enterprise. cess Pauline. News came of the failure at Antibes. "We have made a bad beAntibes had been in sight since mid- ginning," said the Emperor; "but we day, on the 28th, and on the 1st of have nothing to do but to march as fast March, at three o'clock in the afternoon, as we can, and get to the passes before the flotilla anchored in the bay. A cap- the news of our arrival." The moon tain and five and twenty men were dis- rose, and Napoleon, with his invading patched to make themselves masters of army, moved forwards at eleven o'clock. any battery which might command the They marched all night: the peasants of landing-place, and the officer finding the villages through which they passed none, marched without orders to An- said nothing-they stared, shrugged up tibes, which he entered, but was made their shoulders, and shook their heads, prisoner by the officer commanding the when they were told the Emperor was garrison. The troops were disembarked returned. At Grasse, a town of six by five in the evening, on the beach at thousand inhabitants, where there was a Cannes; the Emperor was the last to report that pirates had landed, every leave the brig. Napoleon took some re- thing was in a state of alarm. Shops freshment and repose in a bivouac, which and windows were shut, and the crowds was prepared for him in a meadow sur- in the street, notwithstanding the national rounded by olive trees, near the shore, cockade, and the shouts of Vive l'Empewhere there is now a small column raised reur, suffered the troops to march withto commemorate the event, and where out a word, or sign, either of disapprothey shew the table on which he was bation or approval. They halted for an served. The Emperor, previously call- hour on a hill above the town, and the ing Jermanouski, asked him if he knew soldiers began to look at each other with what cavalry horses had been embarked an air of doubt and dissatisfaction; at Elba? the colonel told him, he knew when, on a sudden, a body of the townsnothing of the matter, and that he him- people were seen coming towards them self had not brought one. "Well," re- with provisions, and crying, Vive l'Emplied Napoleon, "I have brought four pereur! From this moment the people horses; let us divide them. I fear I of the country seemed satisfied that the must have one: as you command my Emperor had landed, and his march was cavalry, you must have another. Ber- rather a triumph than an invasion. The trand, Drouot, and Cambrone, must settle cannons and the carriage were left at 4F MoN. MAG No. 286.

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Grasse; and, as the roads were steep with his ancient master. Napoleon slept and bad in the course of this first march, at Gap on the fifth, attended only by which was twenty leagues, (for they ten cavalry soldiers and forty grenadiers. reached the village of Cérénon in the The fortresses and bridge of Sisteron evening of the 2d,) the Emperor fre- were the same day occupied by General quently walked on foot with his grena- Cambrone, at the head of forty grenadiers, whom, when they complained of diers. But Melon was the only recruit; their hardships, he called his grumblers, so that the inhabitants of the towns and and who laughed at him when he stum- villages, particularly at St. Bonnet, wishbled and fell. The familiar appellations ed to sound the tocsin, and rise in mass by which he was known to his soldiers to accompany the little army; and, notat this time were, Notre petit tondu, withstanding they were refused, almost and Jean de l'epée; and he frequently blocked up the roads, and impeded the heard these names repeated in a half march by pressing round the Emperor, -whisper, as he was scrambling up the who sometimes walked on foot. On ascents amidst his veterans. He slept at the 6th, Napoleon slept at Gap, and Barême on the third, and dined at Digne General Cambrone, with his forty, at on the fourth it was either here, or at Mure, towards which place the advanced Castellan, as the colonel said, that Na- guard of the garrison of Grenoble, of poleon endeavoured to persuade the six thousand men, had marched to stop landlord of the inn at which he stopped, their further progress, and refused to parto cry Vive l'Empereur ! and when the ley with the general. Colonel Jermaman positively refused, and exclaimed, nouski, being on the advance, saw a on the contrary, Vive le Roi! so far from being angry, praised his loyalty, and only asked him to drink his health,

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to which mine host acceded.

body of troops with a white flag drawn up in a defile near Vizille. He attempted to parley, but an officer, advancing towards him, cried out, Retire, I can At Digne, the proclamations to the have no communication with you; keep army and to the French people were your distance; my men will fire." The printed, and circulated with such rapidi- colonel tried to pacify him, telling him, ty throughout Dauphiny, that, on his it was with the Emperor Napoleon that route, Napoleon found the towns and he would have to speak, not with himvillages ready to receive him. As yet, self. But the officer still threatened, however, only one soldier had joined and gave the same answer to Raoul, an him, a grenadier, whom Colonel Jer- aide-de-camp of the staff, so that the manouski met on the road; and, inform- colonel returned to the Emperor, and ing him of the attempt in which he was reported his failure. Napoleon said to engaged, endeavoured to persuade into Jermanouski, smiling, "If that is the the service. The soldier being told that case, I must try what I can do myself." the Emperor was advancing, laughed He dismounted; and ordering about heartily, and said, "Good! I shall have fifty of his grenadiers to advance, with something to tell at home to-night." He arms reversed, walked quietly towards was with some difficulty convinced that the defile, where he found a battalion of the colonel was not in jest; but, when the fifth of the line, a company of sappers, he believed him, consented readily to en- and another of miners, amounting in all list. "Where shall you sleep to-night?" to seven or eight hundred men, drawn said he to the officer; and, on being told, up to oppose him. The officer commandrejoined, "My mother lives three leagues ing continued to vociferate, sometimes hence; I must take leave of her; but against the Emperor, calling out, it is an will be with you to-night." Jermanou- impostor, it is not he; and sometimes ski was accosted some time after arriving against his troops, ordering them to fire. in his quarters that evening, by his re- The troops were silent and motionless; cruit, who tapped him on the shoulder, for an instant, it appeared, they were and would not be satisfied until promised about to raise their muskets, when Nathat the Emperor should be instantly in- poleon, halting his grenadiers, walked formed that Melon, the grenadier, had calmly up to the battalion, and, when kept his word, and had joined fortunes close to the line, stopped short in the

Another informant assured me that immediately after his speech, Napoleon walked to a grenadier who had his musket presented, and taking hold of one of his mustachios, said, Et toi, vieille mustache, tu a été avec nous à Marengo !

He

front, looked stedfastly at them, and riage, drawn by post-horses, and unacthrowing open his outer coat, exclaimed, companied, except by a crowd of gener"It is I, recognize me! If there be als and other officers, which prevented amongst you one soldier who would kill even his chariot from being seen. his Emperor, now is his time." They entered Paris by the Boulevards neufs. were vanquished at once; and, with re- The royal army, that had marched to peated shouts of "long live the Empe- oppose him in the morning, joined him ror," rushed forward to embrace the near the gates of Paris; but the brilliant guard. imposing scene described in the journals as occurring at Melun, did not take place, The five thousand young nobles of the royal body guard, who had taken leave of their friends in the morning, to fly to their posts and cover their king and their capital, were seen in the saloons in the evening, and told how, finding themselves in their respective positions without any men to command, they had thought it advisable to be themselves the heralds of their retreat, and of their submission to the new order of things. Napoleon came through the gate of the Tuileries opposite the Pont Royal, and alighted at the palace at eleven o'clock -a crowd of officers rushed upon himin an instant he was carried off his legs

The tricoloured cockade was assumed by the new reinforcements, who ranged themselves round the imperial eagles amidst the acclamations of the Elbese army, and that of the population of Vizille. Advancing towards Grenoble, the Colonel Jermanouski was met by an officer on full gallop, who said, "I salute you on the part of the Colonel Henry Labedoyère." The colonel soon arrived at the head of the 4th regiment of hussars, carrying an eagle, which had his hat fell off, and he was borne upon been hidden in the military chest.

the shoulders of the eager multiude up the great staircase into his apartments, where he was welcomed by some ladies of his former court; one of whom, the most beautiful of the party, in a transport of delight, threw her arms round his neck, and burst into tears.

He arrived at Fontainbleau at four on the morning of the 20th of March; there he reviewed a regiment of lancers in that court-yard, in which, eleven months ago, he had bid adieu to his army and to France: at seven he learnt that Louis had fled from Paris; and, at Before I close this letter, I cannot help twelve, his army having arrived from mentioning, that Napoleon, notwithstandAuxerre, he departed for the capital. ing the fatigues of his late journey, to Besides the troops of Elba, Grenoble, which some repose might have been Lyons, and Lons le Saulnier, the empe- granted, did not retire to rest until midror's force had been augmented by a night, and was transacting business by large body of officers of every rank; four o'clock the next morning. At one who since his entry into Grenoble, had in the afternoon of the 21st he reviewed from all quarters joined the old guard, the army of Paris, and the guard of and formed themselves into what they Elba. called a sacred battalion: a great number of soldiers on half-pay, or on leave, The reader may add to the above reor dismissed, flocked also to the imperial marks on the comparison between the standard. The peasants could with dif- landing at Torbay and at Cannes, that ficulty be prevented from marching with if some circumstances are more favourathe army to Paris. The emperor was ble to William than to Napoleon, there met near Essonne by Count - for- are others which tend to the preference merly his aide-de-camp, who brought a of the latter exploit. The expedition of superb carriage and six horses for him, as the Prince of Orange was not entirely did many others of his partisans, to fa- English: that of the Emperor was exvour his entry into the capital. This clusively French, both in its design and was at six in the evening; Napoleon, execution. The parallel between Ney however, remained in his travelling car- and Churchill is altogether to the advan

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WILLIAM AND NAPOLEON.

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