The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-10-18

if he was left without an income he would probably take his troops and cross over to the mainland.
 The Broken Treaty
 By the treaty of Fontainebieau at the time of the abdication, Austria, Russia and Prussia guaranteed Napoleon the sovereignty of Elba and yearly income of 0e0 from the French treasury, while lis mother and his brothers and sisters were to receive and divide among them selves s5o0,0oo a year. The euchies of Parma, Placentia and Gaustalla were pledged to Marie Louise, and after her to the King of Rome and his descendants, and a suitable provision was to be made for Prince Eugene. M sN
 None of those promises was kept. The allies, who sat down in the Congress of Vienna to divide the spoils of their vic- tory. gave Eugene nothing, determined that the son of Napoleon should not in herit his mothers duchy or be permitted even to live with her. and they left the Emperor without a cent of the annuity stipulated in the treaty.
 Although he is supposed to have brought with him from France nearly sSO0,0Oo, Napoleon began to feel the pinch acutely as the months went by. He pressed the people for their taxes until they riotously rebelled and he raked together all the useless old guns and shipped them to Italy, where he sold them for junk and where he also found market for some moldy flour which he discovered in the commissariat. ss
 When he adopted the expsdient Of pay ing off with due bills on the French treasury, a feeling of homesickness spread among his troops and retainers until it threatened to become epidemic, and the army dwindled away from resig- nations and assertions. And the soldiers were no more ornaments of the empire. The Emperor had organized the little army to defend his island against the eyer-present peril of the Barpary cor sairs, but as time wore on he came to regard it as his only protection from as- sassnation or deportation at the instance of the allied nations themselves.
 Deportation or Assassination?
 Talleyiand and Louis XVIII were agreed that he should be gent farther away, to the Azores perhaps, which were some 800 miles out in the Atlantic, or to St. Louis in the West Indies. His Corsican enemy, Pozzo di Borgo, reported a unanimous sentiment among the states men gathered in Vienna for his removal from the eyes of Europe" and ''as far as possible" Pozzo himself thought St. Helena would be an excellent choice.
 But when Talleyrand declared i've must hasten to get rid of the man from Elha," Napoleon was left in doubt whether he would be called upon to de- fend himself from kidnapers or assas- sins. The choice really had narrowed down to abduction or assassination. bankruptcy or flight when he chose the latter. He knew that France was growing restive under the reactionary policy of the Bourbon rule which for clgn armies had imposed on the coun- try, and that the army filled with the spirit of revolt As he wrestled with his problem in secret, he retired more ana more within himself.
 Colonel Campbell, the British commis- soner was impressed with something wild in his air. But when the colonel, in the middle of February. made a parting call before leaving for a brief absence in Italy, he found the Emperor unusually dull and reserved" appar- ently interested in nothing nut the af- fairs of his little empire, it's roads and bridges. and in his farm and gardens, with their cabbages and onions and flower beds.
 Nevertheless Campbell had his misgiv- ings, and he charged the captain of British war vessel to keep his eye on the island. But his suspicious were laughed oway in FIore -~e. When you return to Elba." an insp l British under secretary of state for foreign affairs said to the commissioner. you may tell Bonaparte that he is quite forgotten in Europe. No- body thinks of him at all He is quite forgotten--as much as if he had never existed"
 The Eagles Flight
 Meanwhile the Great Forgotten was di- viding his, attentions between the flower beds at the Mulini and at Fort Stella, which his soldiers were laboricusly pre- raring and the equipment of his leaky little navy for mysterious cruise. Abso- lutely no one else knew where or wither the vessels would sail. until he let Mime. Mere into the secret the day before the departure and received the blessing of