change in consequence of the apparently triumphant course of Napoleon’s adventure.  All Europe prepared once more for war.  It was evident that the usurper owed everything to the French soldiery—­that body to which the treaty of Paris had at once restored 150,000 veterans, idle, and indisposed for ordinary labour—­and that until this ferocious military were effectually humbled there could be no peace for the world.

A formal treaty was forthwith entered into, by which the four great powers bound themselves to maintain each of them at least 150,000 troops in arms, until Buonaparte should either be dethroned, or reduced so low as no longer to endanger the peace of Europe.  The other states of the continent were to be invited to join the alliance, furnishing contingents adequate to their respective resources.  The King of France was to be requested to sign the treaty also; but with reference to this article an explanatory note was affixed, by the representatives of the Prince Regent of England, denying, on the part of his royal highness, any wish to force a particular government on the people of France:  and it was further stipulated that in case Britain should not furnish all the men agreed on, she should compensate by paying at the rate of L30 per annum for every cavalry soldier, and L20 per annum for every foot soldier under the full number.  Such was the treaty of Vienna; but the zeal of the contracting parties went far beyond the preparations indicated in its terms.  Napoleon was hardly re-seated on his throne ere he learned that he must in all likelihood maintain it against 300,000 Austrians, 225,000 Russians, 236,000 Prussians, an army of 150,000 men furnished by the minor states of Germany, 50,000 contributed by the government of the Netherlands, and 50,000 English, commanded by the Duke of Wellington;—­in all one million eleven thousand soldiers.

His preparations to meet this gigantic confederacy began from the moment when he re-established himself in the Tuileries.  Carnot became once more minister of war; and what Napoleon and he, when labouring together in the re-organisation of an army, could effect, had been abundantly manifested at the commencement of the consulate.  The army cantoned in France, when Buonaparte landed at Cannes, numbered 175,000; the cavalry had been greatly reduced:  and the disasters of 1812, 1813, and 1814, were visible in the miserable deficiency of military stores and arms, especially of artillery.  By incredible exertions, notwithstanding the pressure of innumerable cares and anxieties of all kinds, and although the temper of the nation prevented him from having recourse to the old method of conscription—­the Emperor, ere May was over, had 375,000 men in arms—­including an imperial guard of 40,000 chosen veterans, in the most splendid state of equipment and discipline, a large and brilliant force of cavalry, and a train of artillery of proportional extent and excellence.