ATERLOO--Napoleon returns to
Paris.

Napoleon had now, among other preparations, strongly fortified Paris and
all the positions in advance of it on the Seine, the Marne and the Aube,
and among the passes of the Vosgesian hills. Lyons also had been guarded
by very formidable outworks. Massena, at Metz, and Suchet, on the Swiss
frontier, commanded divisions which the Emperor judged sufficient to
restrain Schwartzenberg for some time on the Upper Rhine: should he
drive them in, the fortresses behind could hardly fail to detain him
much longer. Meantime the Emperor himself had resolved to attack the
most alert of his enemies, the Prussians and the English, beyond the
Sambre--while the Austrians were thus held in check on the Upper Rhine,
and ere the armies of the North could debouche upon Manheim, to
co-operate by their right with Wellington and Blucher, and by their left
with Schwartzenberg. Of the Belgian army, and even of the Belgian
people, he believed himself to possess the secret goodwill, and that one
victory would place the Allies in a hostile country. By some daring
battle, and some such splendid success, he yet hoped to shatter the
confidence of the European confederacy; nor--even had he entertained
little hope of this kind--was the situation of affairs in Paris such as
to recommend another protracted and defensive warfare within France. The
fatal example of 1814 was too near: it behoved Napoleon to recommence
operations in the style which had characterised his happier campaigns.

He left Paris on the evening of the 11th of June, exclaiming, as he
entered his carriage, "I go to measure myself against Wellington." He
arrived at Vervins on the 12th, and assembled and reviewed at Beaumont,
on the 14th, the whole of the army which had been prepared to act
immediately under his own orders. They had been carefully selected, and
formed, perhaps, the most perfect force, though far from the most
numerous, with which he had ever taken the field. Buonaparte saw before
him 25,000 of his imperial guard, 25,000 cavalry in the highest
condition, 300 pieces of artillery admirably served, and infantry of the
line, almost all veterans, sufficient to swell his muster to at least
135,000 men. He reminded them that this was the anniversary of Marengo
and of Friedland, and asked, "Are they and we no longer the same men?
The madmen!" he continued, "a moment of prosperity has blinded them. The
oppression and humiliation of the Fr