Lyon

France's second city was meant to be the lock. The Count of Artois, the king's brother, and Marshal Macdonald organised resistance there; they reviewed the troops, called for a cheer for the king, and got only silence. Artois left the city in the night of 9-10 March, escorted by a single cavalry officer willing to follow him.

Napoleon entered on the evening of 10 March, cheered by the silk workers and the suburbs. He stayed three days and governed: the Lyon decrees, dated 13 March, dissolved the Chambers, annulled Restoration appointments, abolished the restored old nobility, banished returned émigrés and ordered the confiscation of their property.

The tone was deliberate. The return presented itself as 1789's revenge on 1814: this is the moment when the Hundred Days sought popular support, lacking any among the elites. The contradiction would break out a month later with the Additional Act, a liberal text drafted by Benjamin Constant, which disappointed both camps at once.

Lyon had reasons to welcome him. The silk trade, collapsed under the Revolution, had been revived by orders from the imperial furniture service: palace hangings, court gowns, uniforms. Place Bellecour, razed in 1793 to punish the federalist revolt, had been rebuilt on the Consulate's orders. The city was giving back what it had been given.