iv PREFACE. 
prevalence of a military spirit, fostered by long war 
and brilliant achievements. 
As the depriving of Buonaparte of that sovereignty 
which he had wielded to the hazard and disturbance 
of all the neighbouring states was the great object of 
the powerful confederacy formed against him, it was 
not to be expected that its recovery, by means which 
proved the remaining force of that engine of which he 
was still the absolute, master, would be acquiesced in ; 
and the instant declaration of the allied sovereigns, 
that they were firmly resolved to employ every effort 
forthe defeat of {his unwarrantable enterprise, _an- 
nounced an impending conflict which no pacific nego- 
ciation could terminate. The extraordinary events of 
this new revolution, of which the immediate success was 
not less wonderful than its sudden extinction, have af- 
forded subjects for narrative rendering the present year 
in some respects more dramatically interesting, if the ex- 
pression may be allowed, than any which have preceded 
itin the long course of political contention. Its rapid 
changes, and the memorable battle which at once over- 
threw an imperial throne, and consigned its possessor 
to perpetual imprisonment on a rock in the midst of a 
distant ocean, were incidents singularly adapted to 
work upon the universal passion for wonder and no- 
velty. . 
The termination of the contest would have been 
more satisfactory had the restored monarchy of France 
been able to support itself by the attachment of the 
