the cause of usurpation, would secretly betray it.  The future was viewed with alarm, and the present with dissatisfaction.  The sight of the federates who paraded the faubourgs and the boulevards, vociferating, “The Republic for ever!” and “Death to the Royalists!” their sanguinary songs, the revolutionary airs played in our theatres, all tended to produce a fearful torpor in the public mind, and the issue of the impending events was anxiously awaited.

One of the circumstances which, at the commencement of the Hundred Days, most contributed to open the eyes of those who were yet dazzled by the past glory of Napoleon, was the assurance with which he declared that the Empress and his son would be restored to him, though nothing warranted that announcement.  It was evident that he could not count on any ally; and in spite of the prodigious activity with which a new army was raised those persons must have been blind indeed who could imagine the possibility of his triumphing over Europe, again armed to oppose him.  I deplored the inevitable disasters which Bonaparte’s bold enterprise would entail, but I had such certain information respecting the intentions of the Allied powers, and the spirit which animated the Plenipotentiaries at Vienna, that I could not for a moment doubt the issue of the conflict:  Thus I was not at all surprised when I received at Hamburg the minutes of the conferences at Vienna in May 1815.

When the first intelligence of Bonaparte’s landing was received at Vienna it must be confessed that very little had been done at the Congress, for measures calculated to reconstruct a solid and durable order of things could only be framed and adopted deliberately, and upon mature reflection.  Louis XVIII. had instructed his Plenipotentiaries to defend and support the principles of justice and the law of nations, so as to secure the rights of all parties and avert the chances of a new war.  The Congress was occupied with these important objects when intelligence was received of Napoleon’s departure from Elba and his landing at the Gulf of Juan.  The Plenipotentiaries then signed the protocol of the conferences to which I have above alluded.

[Annex to the preceding chapter.]

The following despatch of Napoleon’s to Marshal Davoust (given in Captain Bingham’s Translation, vol. iii. p. 121), though not strictly bearing upon the subject of the Duke of Bassano’s inquiry (p. 256), may perhaps find a place here, as indicative of the private feeling of the Emperor towards Bourrienne.  As the reader will remember, it has already been alluded to earlier in the work: 

To marshal Davoust.
Compiegne, 3d September 1811.

I have received your letter concerning the cheating of Bourrienne at Hamburg.  It will be important to throw light upon what he has done.  Have the Jew, Gumprecht Mares, arrested, seize his papers, and place him in solitary confinement.  Have some of the other principal agents of Bourrienne arrested, so as to discover his doings at Hamburg, and the embezzlements he has committed there. 
                    (Signed) Napoleon.