Napoleon in time felt certain that
he could count once more upon the loyalty of the French nation. That he
would not be obliged to encounter again the combined forces of the
European Powers he inferred from his knowledge of the ever-recurring
jealousies among them and from the fact that even then Russia and
Prussia on one side were quarreling with Austria and Great Britain on
the other over the fate of Saxony and Poland. If some fighting were
necessary, the return of French prisoners from Russia, Germany, Great
Britain, and Spain would supply him with an army far larger than that
with which he had fought the brilliant campaign of 1814.
[Sidenote: The Episode of Napoleon's Return to France: "The Hundred
Days," March-June, 1815]
On 26 February, 1815, Napoleon slipped away from Elba with some twelve
hundred men, and, managing to elude the British guardships, disembarked
at Cannes on 1 March and advanced northward. Troops sent out to arrest
the arch-rebel were no proof against the familiar uniform and cocked
hat: they threw their own hats in the air amid ringing shouts of
_vive l'empereur_.
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