The danger which threatened the Emperor at Aix was thus averted; but there was another to be braved.  During the seven or eight hours he passed at La Calade a considerable number of people had gathered round the inn, and manifested every disposition to proceed to some excess.  Most of them had in their hands five-franc pieces, in order to recognise the Emperor by his likeness on the coin.  Napoleon, who had passed two nights without sleep, was in a little room adjoining the kitchen, where he had fallen into a slumber, reclining an the shoulder of his valet de chambre.  In a moment of dejection he had said, “I now renounce the political world forever.  I shall henceforth feel no interest about anything that may happen.  At Porto-Ferrajo I may be happy—­more happy than I have ever been!  No!—­if the crown of Europe were now offered to me I would not accept it.  I will devote myself to science.  I was right never to esteem mankind!  But France and the French people—­what ingratitude!  I am disgusted with ambition, and I wish to rule no longer!”

When the moment for departure arrived it was proposed that he should put on the greatcoat and fur cap of General Kohler, and that he should go into the carriage of the Austrian Commissioner.  The Emperor, thus disguised, left the inn of La Calade, passing between two lines of spectators.  On turning the walls of Aix Napoleon had again the mortification to hear the cries of “Down with the tyrant!  Down with Nicolas!” and these vociferations resounded at the distance of a quarter of a league from the town.

Bonaparte, dispirited by these manifestations of hatred, said, in a tone of mingled grief and contempt, “These Provencals are the same furious brawlers that they used to be.  They committed frightful massacres at the commencement of the Revolution.  Eighteen years ago I came to this part of the country with some thousand men to deliver two Royalists who were to be hanged.  Their crime was having worn the white cockade.  I saved them; but it was not without difficulty that I rescued them from the hands of their assailants; and now, you see, they resume the same excesses against those who refuse to wear the white cockade.”.  At about a league from Aix the Emperor and his retinue found horses and an escort of gendarmerie to conduct them to the chateau of Luc.

The Princess Pauline was at the country residence of M. Charles, member of the Legislative Body, near the castle of Luc.  On hearing of the misfortunes of her brother she determined to accompany him to the isle of Elba, and she proceeded to Frejus to embark with him.  At Frejus the Emperor rejoined Colonel Campbell, who had quitted the convoy on the road, and had brought into the port the English frigate the ‘Undaunted’ which was appointed to convey the Emperor to the place of his destination.  In spite of the wish he had expressed to Colonel Campbell he manifested considerable reluctance to go on board.  However, on the 28th of April he sailed for the island of Elba in the English frigate, in which it could not then be said that Caesar and his fortune were embarked.