iles of Paris, and sees the glare of the enemy's watch-fires all over
the northern sky.

On the morrow he hears that the allied sovereigns are about to enter
Paris, and Marmont warns him by letter that public opinion has much
changed since the withdrawal, first of the Empress, and then of
Joseph, Louis, and Jerome. This was true. The people were disgusted by
their flight; Bluecher now had eighty cannon planted on the heights of
Montmartre; and men knew that he would not spare Paris if she hazarded
a further effort. And thus, when, on that same morning, the Czar, with
the King of Prussia on his right, and Schwarzenberg on his left, rode
into Paris at the head of the Russian and Prussian Guards, they met
with nothing worse than sullen looks on the part of the masses, while
knots of enthusiastic royalists shouted wildly for the Bourbons, and
women flung themselves to kiss the boots of the liberating Emperor.
The Bourbon party, however, was certainly in the minority; but at
places along the route their demonstrations were effective enough to
influence an impressionable populace, and to delight the
conquerors.--"The white cockade appeared very universally:"--wrote
Stewart with suspicious emphasis--"many of the National Guards, whom I
saw, wore them."[446]

Fearing that the Elysee Palace had been mined, the Czar installed
himself at Talleyrand's mansion, opposite the Place de la Concorde;
and forthwith there took place a most important private Council. The
two monarchs were present, along with Nesselrode and Napoleon's
Corsican enemy, Pozzo di Borgo. Princes Schwarzenberg and Lichtenstein
represented Austria; while Talleyrand and Dalberg were there to plead
for the House of Bourbon: De Pradt and Baron Louis were afterwards
summoned. The Czar opened the deliberations by declaring that there
were three courses open, to make peace with Napoleon, to accept Marie
Louise as Regent for her son, or to recall the Bourbons.[447] The
first he declared to be impossible; the second was beset by the
gravest difficulties; and, while stating the objections to the
Bourbons, he let it be seen that he now favoured this solution,
provided that it really was the will of France. He then called on
Talleyrand to speak; and that pleader set forth the case of the
Bourbons with his usual skill. The French army, he said, was more
devoted to its own glory than to Napoleon. France longed for peace,
and she could only find it with due sureties under her