DISCOVERY 



175 



that Napoleon was imprisoned at Elba, or at least 

 interned. This is quite contrary to the facts, and was 

 indignantly disclaimed by Castlereagh in Parliament. 

 He said that Napoleon was not in any way to be 

 considered as a prisoner in Elba, as the sovereignty 

 of the island had been conferred upon him, and to 

 look upon him in any other light would be a contra- 

 vention of the Treaty. The " mad adventure " 

 requires more consideration. I shall endeavour to 

 show that it was impossible for Napoleon to remain in 

 Elba, that his march to Paris was one of the most 

 heroic exploits in History, that its conception and 

 execution was a work of consummate genius, that no 

 more emphatic plebiscite was ever given by a nation 

 to the sovereign of its choice, that England, and indeed 

 Europe, had no right to interfere with the decision 

 of the French people, and to impose upon them a 

 dynasty which they detested. 



Napoleon had many reasons for leaving Elba. He 

 had no money. Of the annual revenue of two millions 

 of francs from the Grand Livre of France, promised 

 to him and to his %vife in reversion by the Treaty of 

 Fontainebleau, not a sou had been paid. The excuse 

 of Castlereagh, that the pension, being an annual one, 

 did not become due tUl the year had expired, was 

 treated with contempt by Lord Wellesley, and Lord 

 Grey denounced the " low and pitiful expedient of 

 arguing that the Treaty of Fontainebleau had not 

 been violated because the money stipulated did not 

 become due till the end of the year." TalleyTand was 

 endeavouring to persuade his friends in Vienna that 

 the residence of Napoleon at Elba was a danger to 

 France, and that he should be removed by force or fraud 

 to some other place. St. Helena was mentioned, 

 but was considered to be too healthy. But, worse 

 than this, at the very time when Talleyrand was getting 

 his colleagues to sign the Declaration of March 13, 

 one of the most disgraceful documents in the archives 

 of History, he and Fouche were plotting to assassinate 

 the Emperor "in his island, to make the " Aiglon " 

 Emperor, with Marie Louise as Regent, and of course 

 themselves as rulers of France. \\'ellington, an 

 honourable man, put his name to this document, having 

 only just arrived at Vienna, and having not yet dis- 

 covered with what a scoundrel he had to deal. The 

 Declaration was very properly denounced in PeuUament 

 by the Opposition, which, although small in numbers, 

 was more weighty in intellectual and moral force than the 

 Government, and had as leaders the men who afterwards 

 made the beneficent and peaceful revolution of 1832. 



What was this " mad adventure " ? Napoleon 

 landed at Golfe Juan on March i, 1815, with 1,100 

 men and no horses, and entered the Tuileries as a 

 sovereign at 9 p.m. on March 20, without having fired 

 a shot. The most remarkable incident of his progress 



took place on March 7 at Lafirey. On the narrow 

 road between the lake and the hills a battalion of 

 infantry was drawn up, commanded by Delessart, a 

 boy of nineteen. He said to an officer of Napoleon's, 

 " I am determined to do my duty, and if you do not 

 immediately withdraw I will have you arrested." 

 " Will you fire ? " said the officer. " I will do my 

 duty," replied the boy. Napoleon ordered his soldiers 

 to carry their muskets under their left arms and 

 advanced alone. A captain gave the order, " There 

 he is, fire ! " The soldiers were livid, their limbs 

 shook and their hands trembled. Advancing within 

 pistol-shot Napoleon opened his overcoat, and said : 

 " If there is amongst you a man who wishes to 

 kill his Emperor, he can do it ; here I am." A 

 great shout rose of " Vive I'Empereuj ! " the 

 ranks were broken, white cockades strewed the 

 ground, and shakos were raised on the bayonets. The 

 soldiers rushed to the Emperor, surrounded him, 

 cheered him, knelt down before him, stroked his boots, 

 his sword, and the hem of his garment. Delessart 

 broke into tears and tendered his sword to the Emperor, 

 who embraced and comforted him. Surely this is one 

 of the great scenes of History ! 



The debates in both Houses of the English Parliament 

 should be read by every Englishman at the present 

 time. Burdett argued that the Government had no 

 right to impose a sovereign on an independent nation 

 against its will ; whoever heard of a single man invading 

 a nation of thirty millions and becoming sovereign 

 against their will ? The nation worked for him, greatly 

 from dislike of the dynasty which he overthrew. 

 England had done enough for the Bourbons ; they had 

 cost the country eight hundred millions of money and 

 oceans of blood. Napoleon Bonaparte was Emperor 

 of France by the wish of the French people. In his 

 march of five hundred miles there was not a single 

 individual to Uft up his hand against him : how could 

 the feeling of the people be more unequivocally shown ? 

 Whitbread, perhaps the noblest character in the House, 

 said that the restoration of Bonaparte to the throne 

 of France was even more miraculous than his original 

 elevation to it. Sheridan denounced the manifesto 

 of March 13, and moved an amendment in favour of 

 peace, which was supported by Lord Althorp and 

 Tierney. This is what the best statesmen in England 

 thought of what Professor Hearnshaw caUs a " mad 

 adventure." Most Englishmen, acting on the uni- 

 versally accepted principles of the present day, would 

 consider that we had no right to undertake the Waterloo 

 campaign, and some might come to the conclusion, 

 that it would have been better for the world, and 

 possibly for ourselves, if Napoleon had won the Battle 

 of Waterloo. Oscar Browni.ng. 



