and the troops were prudently confined to their barracks.

The best friends of the royal cause now hastened to the Princess, and besought her to depart immediately. She acceded to their request, and at eight o'clock on the same evening embarked on board a small vessel which the English consul had stationed in the river for her use.

Many of the inhabitants followed her to the shore, clinging round her garments, and urging her to remain. They then besought her to bestow on them some parting token of her regard which they might treasure up with fond remembrance; and they separated, satisfied and thankful, when her shawl, her ribbands, her feathers, were cut into shreds and distributed among them.

The following proclamation was, on the next morning, found placarded on the walls,

"Brave Bordelais!:

Your fidelity is well known to me. Your devotion unlimited does not permit you to foresee any danger; but my attachment for you and for every Frenchman directs me to foresee it. My stay in your city being prolonged might aggra vate circumstances, and bring down upon you the weight of vengeance. I have not the courage to behold Frenchmen unhappy, and to be the cause of their misfortunes.

I leave you, brave Bordelais! deeply penetrated with the sentiments you have expressed, and

assure you that they shall be faithfully transmitted to the King. Soon with God's assistance and under happier auspices, you shall witness my gratitude and that of the prince whom you love.

General Clausel now entered the place without opposition. The garrison hoisted the tri-coloured cockade and received him with acclamations; the national guard submitted in silence; and notwithstanding the apparently universal feeling, a few hours before, in favour of the Bourbons, an immense crowd assembled round the gates and welcomed him with shouts of joy.

The Duke of Angouleme proceeded to the south of France, and for a while fortune seemed to smile on his expedition. Some regiments of the line followed him with apparent fidelity, and his little army increased to more than six thousand men. In his first encounter with the troops of Buonaparte he met with considerable success; but being betrayed by those in whom he confided; the loyalty of the troops being seduced; and numerous corps of the enemy approaching him on every side, he was constrained to surrender to General Gilly. His force was sufficiently respectable to ensure honourable conditions. An universal amnesty was granted. The lives and property of his followers were secured, and the Duke received safe convoy to Cette, where he was to embark for Spain or England.

P

He had scarcely set out on his journey when General Grouchy arrived, and assumed the chief command of Napoleon's troops. Imagining that the former commander had exceeded his powers, he would not permit the Duke to proceed to the place of his destination, and despatched a courier to Paris for instructions. Buonaparte could not refuse to accede to the terms which had been granted by General Gilly, without subjecting himself to the utmost opprobrium ; but he adroitly seized the opportunity of giving a colour of generosity to what was merely an act of justice. He wrote the following letter to Grouchy, and without adverting to the convention already agreed on, acceded to its substance; but made the further and illegal demand, that is Royal Highness should engage to insist on the restitution of the crown jewels, which had been carried away by Lewis.

"Count Grouchy-The ordinance of the king, dated March 6, and the declaration, signed by his ministers on the 13th at Vienna might authorize me to treat the Duke of Angouleme as that ordinance and that declaration proposed to treat me and my family; but adhering to the views which induced me to order that the members of the Bourbon family should be permitted to leave France freely, my intention is, that you should give orders for conducting the Duke of Angouleme to Cette, where he shall be embarked, and

that you watch over his safety and protect him from all bad treatment. You will merely take care to recover the money which has been removed from the public chests, and to require the Duke of Angouleme to bind himself to the restitution of the crown diamonds, which are the property of the nation. You will also make known to him the enactments of the laws of the national assemblies, which are renewed, and which apply to the members of the family of Bourbon who may enter the French territory. You will, in my name, thank the national guards for the patriotism and zeal which they have manifested, and the attachment which they have shewn to me in these important circumstances. NAPOLEON." Palace of the Thuilleries, April 11.

(Signed)

212

CHAP. VIII.

First Acts of Napoleon ;-Review of the Troops; Replies of Napoleon to various Addresses ;—Freedom of the Press ;-Abolition of the Slave Trade; -Institution of a National Education ;-Private Feelings of Buonaparte ;-His justificatory Manifesto';—Examination of it ;-Defence of the War;-Preparations of Napoleon.

NAPOLEON was reinstated on the imperial throne; but much was yet to be done. The errors of the former government, and the delusions which he and his party had so industriously propagated, had alike contributed to his success. These delusions would ere long be dissipated, and all the calamities with which his return menaced France, would soon be apparent. His only hope of security lay in rallying round him the various political parties into which France was divided. To effect this purpose he had, while at Lyons, selected as his confidential ministers the heads of what was termed the republican party, but who had abandoned their extravagant notions of liberty, and had become