was given, and the actual cipher in which he corresponded*. It is for the ministry to account, why the informer was treated with studied coolness; why the cipher was contemptuously styled a conundrum, and not one precaution adopted.

* The reader is here presented with the actual cipher of Buonaparte, not only as an object of considerable curiosity, but of very great ingenuity. It is superior to any which has been yet given to the public, and would baffle the skill of the most experienced decipherer.

Frequent communications were received by the British government from Sir Neil Campbell. He unequivocally stated his opinion that some plot was in agitation. He made frequent visits to the continent to watch the intrigues of Napoleon; and he did not fail to report what appeared to

A Proclamation, in Cipher, from Buonaparte to the French Army, a copy of which was in the hands of one or more persons, in almost every Regiment in the Service.

Neyiptuhklmepenelzinwicetttklmeprtgzkp

Achwhrdpkdabkfkntzimepunggwymgftgq

Ffdesreuwxqfkzxbeliqnfmysnqangopolfa

PmmlampabJarwccqzuanruvzskqdknh

Hihydghtbailxdfqkngtxyrogwgrlnlwtoy

Pberzepbgairfygkpzawrwleipdgacrkff

mwzfergpech

The same deciphered by means of the Table and Key.

Français! votre pays etait trahi, votre Empereur seul peut vous remettre dans la position splendide que convient a la France. Donnez toute votre confiance a celui qui vous a toujours conduit. a la gloire.

Ses aigles planeront encore en l'air, 'et etonneront les nations. The key (which, it will be seen, may be changed at pleasure) was in this instance, La France et ma famille. (France and my family.)

It is thus used

L. being the first letter of the key, refer to that letter in the first column of the cipher in capitals; then look for the letter f, which is the first letter of the proclamation, and that letter which corresponds with f, being placed underneath it, viz. n, is that which is to be noted down. To decipher the proclamation, the order of reference must of course be inverted, by looking for

him deserving of notice. Would it have been difficult to have stationed a few frigates round the the island, and have rendered it impossible for Napoleon to escape with sufficient force to cover his landing; and even to have rendered his personal escape impossible? Would there have been any impropriety or indelicacy in adopting these measures of precaution? Except a satisfactory reason be asssigned for the omission of these measures, posterity will attribute much of the waste of blood and treasure, which the new revolution occasioned, to the strange and almost criminal supineness of ministers.

If some blame is to be attributed to the British government, the conduct of the French cabinet evinced a blind security bordering on insanity. In the month of November a stranger waited on one of the ministers, and offered to communicate important state discoveries, It was agreed that he should receive a certain sum (60007.) He then made a full disclosure of the whole conspiracy to effect the escape of Buonaparte from Elba, and to

the corresponding letter to n, in the division opposite that letter L, which stands in the column.

Translation.

Give

Frenchmen! your country was betrayed; your Emperor alone can replace you in the splendid state suitable for France. your entire confidence to him who has always led you to glory.. His eagles will again soar on high, and strike the nations with astonishment.

erect his standard in France. The minister, instead of consulting with his colleagues, and adopting those precautions which prudence dictated, communicated the secret to one of the agents of the police. He was a Buonapartist and a conspirator, and he so adroitly managed the business, that nothing criminal appeared against his accomplices, and the informer was branded as an impostor.

It is likewise a curious fact, which posterity will scarcely believe, that there were found in the bureau of the Abbé Montesquiou, the minister of the home department, several successive communications from the Comte de Bouthilliers, Prefect of the department of Var, unopened. Some of them were dated six weeks before, and informed him that, from the frequent departure of suspected persons to and from Elba, the Prefect had reason to believe that a treasonable plot was carrying on. Later communications detailed the whole plan with the names of the partisans engaged to assist in it, and requested instructions how to proceed, and an armed force to arrest the traitors on their first landing. It is needless to say, that had it not been for this unparalleled and almost inconceivable neglect, the plot might have been completely counteracted, the conspirators consigned to the punishment which they merited, and the blood of France and of Europe saved.

82

CHAPTER III.

The Embarkation of Buonaparte.-Dangers of his voyage.-Landing at Frejus.-Progress to Grenoble.-His Proclamations-Treason of Labedoyère. Noble Conduct of General Marchand. --Entry of Napoleon into Grenoble.

CIRCUMSTANCES hastened the grand catastrophe before the conspirators were fully prepared. The congress at Vienna drew to a close, and it was well known that the statesmen who presided there, either sensible of their folly in allotting the island of Elba as the residence of a person so dangerous, or informed of the designs which he meditated, had determined to remove him to a situation more secure to Europe, and fatal to all his hopes. This, undoubtedly, would have been a direct violation of the treaty which they had concluded with him, and nothing but the clearest proof of his treachery could have justified such a proceeding. If the Allies were in possession of these proofs, whence arose the infatuated neglect of every precaution? He had no time to lose, and did he not immediately