army's retreat from the city in the depth of winter, thousands died of
cold and hunger, and 30,000 men had already fallen in the fruitless
victory at Borodino.

Napoleon was nearing his downfall as he struggled across the continent
in the dreadful march which reduced an army of a quarter of a million
men to not more than twelve thousand. He had to meet another failure
and the results of a destructive imperial policy in 1814, when he was
defeated at Leipzig by Austria, Russia, and Prussia, who combined most
desperately against him. The Allies issued at Frankfort their famous
manifesto "Peace with France but war against the Empire." They
compelled Napoleon to abdicate, and restored the Bourbon line. A court
was formed for Louis XVIII at the Tuileries, while Napoleon was sent to
Elba.

Louis XVI's brother, the Count of Artois, came back, still admired by
the faded beauties of the Restoration. The pathetic figure of Louis
XVI's daughter, the Duchess of Angouleme, was seen amid the forced
gaieties of the new regime, and Madame de Staeel haunted the court of
Louis XVIII, forgetting her late revolutionary sentiments.

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Napoleon grew very weary of his inaction on the isle of Elba. He had
spent all his life in military pursuits and missed the companionship of
soldiers. He thought with regret of his old veterans when he welcomed
the guards sent to him. Perhaps he hoped for the arrival of his wife,
too, as he paced up and down the narrow walk by the sea where he took
exercise daily. But Marie Louise returned to her own country.

Napoleon found some scope for his activity in the government of the
island, and gave audiences regularly to the people. He might seem to
have lost ambition as he read in his library or played with a tame
monkey of which he made a pet, but a scheme of great audacity was
forming in his mind. He resolved to go back to France once more and
appeal to the armies to restore him.

The Bourbons had never become popular again with the nation which was
inspired with the lust for military successes. The life in the
Tuileries seemed empty and frivolous, wanting in great figures. There
was little resistance when the news came that Napoleon had landed and
put himself at the head of the troops at Grenoble.

He had appealed to the ancient spirit of the South which had risen
before in the cause of liberty. Feudalism and the oppression of the
peasants would return under the rule of the Bourbons,