ell prepared to take a part in his overthrow; nor was it
long ere all these internal enemies, at whatever distance their
principles and motives might have seemed to place them from each other,
were content to overlook their differences and work together.
Talleyrand, there can be little doubt, and others only second to him in
influence, were in communication with the Bourbons, before the Allies
crossed the Rhine. _Ere then_, said Napoleon at St. Helena, _I felt the
reins slipping from my hands_.

The allied princes issued, at Frankfort on the Mayne, a manifesto, the
firm and temperate language of which was calculated to make a strong
impression in France, as well as elsewhere. The sovereigns announced
their belief that it was for the interest of Europe that France should
continue to be a powerful state, and their willingness to concede to
her, even now, greater extent of territory than the Bourbon kings had
ever claimed--the boundaries, namely, of the Rhine, the Alps, and the
Pyrenees. Their sole object in invading France was to put an end to the
authority which Napoleon had usurped over other nations. They disclaimed
any wish to interfere with the internal government--it was the right of
the nation to arrange that as they pleased; the hostility of Europe was
against, not France, but Napoleon--and even as to Napoleon, against not
his person, but his system. The same terms were tendered to Napoleon
himself, through M. de St. Aignan, one of his own ministers, who
happened to have fallen into the hands of the Allies at Weimar; and his
answer was such that diplomatists from all the belligerent powers
forthwith assembled at Manheim;--Lord Aberdeen appearing on the part of
the government of England--a circumstance of itself sufficient to give
to these new conferences a character of greater promise than had
attended any of recent date.

But although Napoleon authorised Caulaincourt to commence this
negotiation on his behalf, it was very soon manifest that he did so
merely, as before, for the purpose of gaining time. His military
preparations were urged with unremitting energy. New conscriptions were
called for, and granted: every arsenal resounded with the fabrication of
arms: and all the taxes were at once doubled by an imperial decree. The
enslaved press proclaimed that the national ardour was thoroughly
stirred, and with its thousand voices reminded the Allies of the effects
of the Duke of Brunswick's proclamation when abou