Napoleon's escape from Elba. her army ready for action; Austria maintained her forces on a war footing; and British troops in great number were sent over to Belgium; till a million of armed men, in the midst of a congress assembled for the general pacification of the world, were retained under their banners ready for mutual slaughter. When, however, the political reasons which prompted France, Austria, and England to form a secret arrangement to carry out the treaty of Paris somehow transpired, the views of the northern powers were materially modified; but while their rulers were still discussing the fresh territorial arrangements to be determined upon, the news suddenly reached Vienna that Napoleon had quitted the island of Elba, and had again entered France. This thunderbolt dispelled at once the numerous jealousies which had been fast gathering during the winter. All minor differences were forgotten, and, at the first meeting of the plenipotentiaries, a declaration was drawn up and signed in the name of all the Powers, which in the most rigid terms proscribed Napoleon as a public enemy, and expressed their determination to employ their whole forces to prevent Europe from being again plunged into revolutionary confusion.
His landing in France and advance on Paris. The escape of Napoleon from Elba, his landing, his addresses to the soldiers and to the people, the defection of Labedoyère, his triumphant advance by Lyons to Paris, the treason of Ney and flight of the Bourbons to Ghent as the imperial adventurer approached the capital, are all well-remembered events. They succeeded each other with astonishing and bewildering rapidity. On the 21st of March Napoleon found himself once more in the palace of the
