of
artillery. Only five short months afterwards, while the unfortunate
emperor was on his way to St. Helena, poor Labedoyere was shot on the
plain of Grenelle, for the "treason" of re-swearing fealty to the
original master he had loved so well.

On the 9th of March, Bonaparte appeared before Lyons, which he entered
without resistance. Once in possession of this important city, and
hailed Emperor by his beloved soldiery, Bonaparte assumed the
"sovereignty and dominion" which he had "renounced" for ever.
"Frenchmen!" he said, after his sententious but stirring manner, "there
is no nation, however small it may be, which has not had the right, and
which may not withdraw itself from the disgrace of obeying a prince
imposed on it by an enemy momentarily victorious. When Charles VII.
re-entered Paris, and overthrew the ephemeral throne of Henry V., he
acknowledged that he held his throne from the valour of his heroes, and
_not from a Prince Regent of England_."

Although the troops assembled around him were comparatively a handful,
Bonaparte had unquestionably obtained sufficient assurance of the
general disposition of the army in his favour. Preparations indeed had
been made for collecting a large body of troops at Melun for the
immediate protection of Paris, while another was posted at
Fontainebleau, so as to place the adventurer as it were between two
fires. The greatest hopes were derived from the professed loyalty to the
Bourbon cause of Marshal Ney, who had spontaneously presented himself at
the Tuileries and proffered his services to the king. With the marshal,
12,000 or 15,000 men were posted at Lons-le-Saulnier, whence it was
understood that he would fall on the rear of Bonaparte. Instead of doing
so, he joined him at Auxerre with his whole division, which had already
hoisted (under his orders) the tri-coloured flag. This defection
practically decided the contest; and Bonaparte entered Paris on the
evening of the 20th as a conqueror, received everywhere by the military
in triumph.

Meanwhile, on the 13th of March, the powers who had signed the Treaty of
Paris assembled in congress at Vienna, "being informed of the escape of
Napoleon Bonaparte, and of his entrance into France with an armed
force," issued a formal declaration, in which they stated that, "by thus
breaking the convention which established him on the island of Elba,
Bonaparte had destroyed the only legal title on which his existence
depended; ... depr