Nor were even these the worst tidings.  Two parties, of which one had not of late years attracted much public notice, and the other had as long wanted efficient leaders, were well-known ere now to be labouring throughout France, though not as yet in conjunction, for one common purpose—­the deposition of Buonaparte.  The royalists had recovered a great share of their ancient influence in the society of Paris, even before the disasters of the Russian expedition.  The exiled Bourbon had found means to distribute proclamations early in 1813:  his agents had ever since been exerting themselves indefatigably, both in Paris and in the provinces, especially in those of the west.  The Mayor of Bourdeaux (Lynch) was at the head of a loyal association, comprehending the chief inhabitants of that great city, and already in communication with the Marquess of Wellington, who, however, felt it his duty to check them on this occasion, lest the progress of events should render their efforts fruitless to Louis, and fatal to themselves.  La Roche Jacquelein (a name already so illustrious in La Vendee) had once more prepared that faithful province for insurrection.  Saintonge had been organised by the Abbe Jaqualt; Perigord by Messieurs de la Roche Aymon; and in the countries about Nantes, Angers, and Orleans, great bands, consisting partly of Buonaparte’s own refractory conscripts, were in training under the Counts De L’Orge, D’Antichamp, and Suzannet.  The royalist gentlemen of Touraine, to the number of 1000, were headed by the Duke of Duras; those of Brittany were mustering around Count Vittray, and various chieftains of the old Chouans; and Cadoudal, brother to Georges, was among the peasantry of Varnes.  These names, most of them well-known in the early period of the Revolution, are of themselves sufficient to show how effectually the Buonapartean government had endeavoured, during thirteen years, to extinguish the old fire of loyalty.  It had all the while glowed under the ashes, and it was now ready to burst forth shining and bright.  The Bourbon princes watched the course of events with eager hope.  The Duke of Berri was already in Jersey, Monsieur (now Charles X.) in the Netherlands, and the Duke D’Angouleme about to make his appearance at the headquarters of Wellington, in Bearn, the cradle of his race.  The republicans, meanwhile,—­those enthusiasts of the Revolution who had in the beginning considered Buonaparte’s consulate as a dictatorship forced on France by the necessities of the time, and to be got rid of as soon as opportunity should serve—­and who had long since been wholly alienated from him, by his assumption of the imperial dignity, his creation of orders and nobles, his alliance with the House of Austria, and the complete despotism of his internal government—­these men had observed, with hardly less delight than the royalists, that succession of reverses which darkens the story of the two last campaigns.  Finally, not a few of Napoleon’s own ministers and generals, irritated by his personal