he Prussian minister,
Hardenberg, that he would not allow Prussia to annex more than a fifth
part of Saxony. Great Britain, France, Bavaria, and the minor German
states joined Austria in this action, and thus the attempt to effect a
settlement of Europe by a concert of the four allied powers broke down.
On January 3, 1815, a secret treaty was concluded between Austria,
France, and Great Britain in defence of what their diplomatists called
"the principles of the peace of Paris". Each of these powers was to be
prepared, if necessary, to place an army of 50,000 men in the field.
Bavaria joined them in their preparations for war, and many of the
troops which occupied Paris in 1815 would have been disbanded or
dispersed, but for the prospect of a rupture between the allies
themselves. But a compromise was soon arranged, and on February 8 it was
agreed that Cracow, the Polish fortress which threatened Austria most,
should be an independent republic, and that Prussia should retain enough
of Western Poland to round off her dominions, while the remainder of the
duchy of Warsaw became a constitutional kingdom under the tsar. Prussia
was to be allowed to annex part of Saxony, and was to receive a further
compensation on the left bank of the Rhine and in Westphalia. The most
thorny questions were now settled, and Castlereagh had left Vienna when
the congress was electrified by the news that Napoleon had reappeared in
France.

The episode of "the Hundred Days" interrupted, but did not break up, the
councils of the congress at Vienna. It cannot be said that Napoleon's
escape from Elba took the negotiators altogether by surprise. They were
already aware of his correspondence with the neighbouring shores of
Italy, and his removal to St Helena or some other distant island had
been proposed by the French government, though never discussed at the
congress. Sir Neil Campbell, the British commissioner at Elba, had gone
so far as to warn his government of Napoleon's suspected "plan," and to
indicate, though erroneously, the place of his probable descent upon the
Italian coast. Owing to an almost incredible want of precaution, he
embarked on February 26 with the least possible disguise, and
accompanied by 400 of his guards, on board his brig the _Inconstant_,
eluded the observation of two French ships, and landed near Cannes on
March 1. Thence he hastened across the mountains to Grenoble, passing
unmolested, and sometimes welcomed, through di