Though Napoleon received with coldness the Commissioners whom he had himself solicited, yet that coldness was far from being manifested in an equal degree to all.  He who experienced the best reception was Colonel Campbell, apparently because his person exhibited traces of wounds.  Napoleon asked him in what battles he had received them, and on what occasions he had been invested with the orders he wore.  He next questioned him as to the place of his birth, and Colonel Campbell having answered that he was a Scotchman, Napoleon congratulated him on being the countryman of Ossian, his favourite author, with whose poetry, however, he was only acquainted through the medium of wretched translations.  On this first audience Napoleon said to the Colonel, “I have cordially hated the English.  I have made war against you by every possible means, but I esteem your nation.  I am convinced that there is more generosity in your Government than in any other.  I should like to be conveyed from Toulon to Elba by an English frigate.”

The Austrian and Russian Commissioners were received coolly, but without any marked indications of displeasure.  It was not so with the Prussian Commissioner, to whom he said duly, “Are there any Prussians in my escort?”—­“No, Sire.”—­“Then why do you take the trouble to accompany me?”—­“Sire, it is not a trouble, but an honour.”—­“These are mere words; you have nothing to do here.”—­“Sire, I could not possibly decline the honourable mission with which the King my master has entrusted me.”  At these words Napoleon turned his back on Count Truchess.

The Commissioners expected that Napoleon would be ready to set out without delay; but they were deceived.  He asked for a sight of the itinerary of his route, and wished to make some alterations in it.  The Commissioners were reluctant to oppose his wish, for they had been instructed to treat him with all the respect and etiquette due to a sovereign.  They therefore suspended the departure, and, as they could not take upon themselves to acquiesce in the changes wished for by the Emperor, they applied for fresh orders.  On the night of the 18th of April they received these orders, authorising them to travel by any road the Emperor might prefer.  The departure was then definitively fixed for the 20th.

Accordingly, at ten on the morning of the 20th, the carriages were in readiness, and the Imperial Guard was drawn up in the grand court of the Palace of Fontainebleau, called the Cour du Cheval Blanc.  All the population of the town and the neighbouring villages thronged round the Palace.  Napoleon sent for General Kohler, the Austrian Commissioner, and said to him, “I have reflected on what I ought to do, and I am determined not to depart.  The Allies are not faithful to their engagements with me.  I can, therefore, revoke my abdication, which was only conditional.  More than a thousand addresses were delivered to me last night:  I am conjured to resume the reins