Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1895-07-06


sumcd in debates about tcchnicalities. The
real issue was how the Past might be set mp
again III Europe and the Future prevented
This profound business, mctiiacval and in
ane, vas still on ut the end of February, ISIS,
when the startling news was borne to the Con
gross that Nap olcon Bonaparte quitting Elba,
had landed at Cannes.
The intelligence flashed north, south, cast
and west The cowardly and pallid Past en-
throned il Paris smiled n CHASTITY smile. The
Court newspaper chronicled the landing a.
Cannes thus: 1.-THE information comes to us
that that miserable adventurer and brigand
Bonaparte has left the island of Elba and again
polluted the soil of France with his bloody
feet The next notice of news from the south
was given in the same organ thus: "Our intel
ligcncc is that the i,,an Bonapartc h.s set ont
from Cannes to Lyons, and that certain turbu-
lent adyenturers have Joined Kim on the way. ~
On the following day the same paper said: sit
is now certain that General Bonaparte at the
head OF great aud enthusiastic force is APP
preaching the city, on the Lyons road" On
the next morning the paragraph read thus ::
His Majesty the Emperor Napoleon entered
the city last night, and slept at the Tuilericsl'
This journalistic transcript OF events, ID
surd as !. seems, was III striking conformity
to the facts. On the LIST of March the ..man
Bonapartc'' did land ut Cannes. On the way
out from Eliza the ship Zephyr on which he
sailed, had b en- accostcd by the barque In
speaking trumpet, saying, How is General
Bonapartcf' Napoleon, being on deck and
hearing the call, himself took the trumpet of
the Zephyr and answ red, The Emperor is
quite well. thank you'll" At the landing. when
an enthusiastic pci:s;I:t came up in salutation
Napoleon said to Bertrand: Here is one re-
cruit alrcadyi'
The spec tacic tina: enSuCl has no parallel in
history. The old soldiers of the Republic and
the Empire rose rs if from the earth 10 greet
their commander. His progress en- route to
Paris became :. triumph. AT Grgnohle the Off
GERS and soldiers of the King joined him. AT
Lyons the forces Of the Duke of Orleans went
over 10 the Emperor. Ncy, who had accented
the Restoration and become a peer of France
had promised the King to pat Napoleon ia an
iroa cage and bring him to Paris. With di
vision Of the army lie met his old commander
ut Auxcrrc, forgot all his hateful oaths of al
lc;,ianco to the Bourbons, and rushed into the
E:npcrors arms.
For eighteen days the gathering tumult
swelled ard broke into IA tempest of cnthu-
siasm. On the 18th ui March, Napoleon enter
cd Paris, and the RESTORATION was blown like
n thistlo-down out of the city. Louis fled 70
Belgium. and his Eoyalist followers returned
tn England. The Congress Of Vienna rose sud
denly from the consideration of court etiquette
and rcaalia to find that their cardboard house
in Paris was gone, end that the Imperial Re
ality was there again with the gray coat. and
thrce-cornered hat, and marble face, Just as
of old.
From the lst OF March 10 Waterloo was Pc
Rod Of n hundred and ten days. History calls
it the Hundred Days. The iron purpose of Ma
polcor, his tireiess energy. and omniscient
perception, were never seen in such prodi yious
eruption and glare as i'll this period OF his
fate. The allies had become desperate. The
whole world pefceived that the Imperial re-
publicanisrn of Fral.ce, iripcrsoratcd in Bona
par:e and sprin aging in the wind Of his sword,
must now triumph TO the borders of Europe
or perish 1aiserabiy under the heels Of banded
kings. The two ideas which the parties # the
past and the future rcprV-sentcd were irrecon-
cilablc; they could no longer coexist. Either
must Napoleon and his dynasty be stamped
into the earth, or the old system OF political
society in Europe disappear forever
The French people sprang To the call. In
few weeks u. 90 men. volunteers and con-
scripts werc thrown into the :icid. II was the
last call to arms, and France was drained
from her mountains to the sca-drained not
only Of men and horses. hut of th.: moral
force and enthusiasm which constitute the
soul of war. Napoleon declared that with a
few additional weeks IL April and May of 1915
he would have drawn around his Empire q
rin, of brass and fire that no human power
could penetrate.
Bat he WAS obliged to take the field with in
complete preparation. The allied armies OF
England and Prussia, under Wellington and
6lucher. came ON, the one from Flanders, and