The Hundred Days

On Elba, Napoleon followed the news from France: the promised annuity went unpaid, the Charter irritated an army placed on half-pay, the émigrés demanded the national lands back, the clergy reclaimed the civil registry. The Congress of Vienna was discussing deporting him further away. On 26 February 1815 he embarked with eleven hundred men aboard the Inconstant.

Landing at the Golfe-Juan on 1 March, he avoided the royalist Rhône valley and took the Alpine road. At Laffrey on the 7th he walked alone towards the 5th of the line sent to arrest him and opened his greatcoat: "If there is one among you who wishes to kill his emperor, here I am." The battalion rallied. Grenoble, Lyon, then Ney — sent to bring him back "in an iron cage" — joined him. Louis XVIII left the Tuileries on the evening of the 19th; Napoleon slept there on the 20th.

The regime had to rebuild its legitimacy: the Additional Act drafted by Benjamin Constant established two chambers and freedom of the press, but drew only a million and a half votes; the Vendée rose; the Champ de Mai of 1 June was a festival more than a rallying.

Above all, the declaration of 13 March had outlawed Napoleon: there would be no negotiated peace. The Allies had to be beaten before they joined. On 12 June he left for Belgium; six days later everything was settled at Waterloo. The Hundred Days lasted a hundred and ten, from the Golfe-Juan to the second abdication.