The Reign of George III. - (Concluded.)

The allied sovereigns and their ministers assembled at Vienna, in the opening of the year 1815, in congress, to settle the boundaries of all such states as had undergone disruptions and transformations through the will of Buonaparte. They were proceeding, with the utmost composure, to rearrange the map of Europe according to their several interests and ambitions. Austria, Spain, France, Great Britain, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, and Sweden had their sovereigns or their representatives there. Those for England were the duke of Wellington, the lords Cathcart and Clancarty, and Sir Charles Stewart. Those of France, Talleyrand, the duke of Dalberg, M. Latour du Pin, and count Alexis de Noailles. All at once a clap of political thunder shook the place, and made every astute diplomatist look aghast. It was announced that Buonaparte had eloped from Elba, and was rapidly traversing France on the way to Paris, and that his old soldiers were flocking with acclamation to his standard. It was what was certain to occur - what every man not a cunning diplomatist must have foreseen from the first, as certainly as that a stone thrown up is sure to come down again. Yet no one seems to have foreseen it, except it were lord Castlereagh, who, not arriving at Paris before this foolish scheme was adopted, had protested against it, and then yielded to it. On the 13th of March the ministers of the allied powers met, and signed a paper which, at length, was in earnest, and showed that they were now as well convinced of a simple fact as the dullest intellect had been ten years before - that there was no use treating Buonaparte any otherwise than you would a wild beast - shut him safely up somewhere beyond the possibility of further mischief. They now declared him an outlaw, a violator of treaties, and an incorrigible disturber of the peace of the world; and they delivered him over to public contempt and vengeance. Of course, the British ambassadors were immediately looked to for the means of moving the armies of these high and mighty powers, and the duke of Wellington to plan and to lead the military operations against the man who had once more developed himself from the emperor of Elba into the emperor of the French.

The duke of Wellington wrote to the British government to inform them of this event, and that the allied sovereigns were this time resolved to make sure of the fugitive; that the emperor of Austria had agreed to bring into the field three hundred thousand men; the czar, two hundred and twenty-five thousand; Prussia, two hundred and thirty-six thousand; the other states of Germany, one hundred and fifty thousand; and that it was expected Holland would furnish fifty thousand. Thus nine hundred and sixty thousand men were promised, independent of Sweden and England; so that a million of men might be calculated upon to crush Buonaparte, provided that England was ready to furnish the necessary millions of money to put this mighty host in motion.

The duke earnestly recommended the utmost promptness and liberality as the only means to settle the matter effectually and at once. He said that to give only moderate assistance was sure to enable Buonaparte to protract the contest, and would cost England more in the end; that, on the contrary, if England found the means of maintaining a great army, he was confident that " the contest would be a very short one, and decidedly successful." And this, under the circumstances, was clearly the best advice. England, having been no party to the silly arrangement for setting up Buonaparte as a burlesque emperor at the very 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 on 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 Castle- reagh, 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, by letters, the allied sovereigns to hasten up their quotas, some of them notoriously the slowest nations in the world.

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 he meant to spend the remainder of his days like an English 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 C30 open that the British resident ought to have put his government Into füll 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 after - wards found, were employed to communicate with the troops and officers in France, and préparé 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 ad vantage. 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 speaking-trumpet, " Il se porte à merveille."

Buonaparte landed at Cannes on the 1st of March. His advanced guard presented themselves before Antibes, and were made prisoners by the garrison. This did not discourage Buonaparte; he advanced by forced marches with his now less than one thousand men, and leaving behind him his train of artillery. Till he reached Dauphiny, however, he received very little encouragement from any party. all the authorities, proprietors, and clergy, stood 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.