The Washington herald., 1914-10-25

The Hundred Days stand alone in his
tory Historians hardly know whether 70
= dignity that brief. but extraordinary pc
riod as an epoch or dismiss II as an cpl
sode Surely no other fifteen weeks in
the chronology Of the world can equal In
dramatic interest those which began with
the return from Elba in March, 1875, and
ended with the battle of Waterloo In
June.
As the King ran out one door Of the
Tuileries and the Emperor ran in the
other. il was a simple matter TO tear
away the Eliess that had been stitched
over the bees on the palace tapestries
The violet also had become a symbol Of
allegiance to the Emperor. 1t was In
bloom when he left for Elba, and the
legend grew that he had promised TO
return when the violets bloomed again.
The faithful, who in secret waited and
longed for the restoration of the empire,
fondly toasted the exiled monarch as
Father Violet" or Corporal Violet
songs were sung to ''le Pere de la Vio-
lette," and the flower was worn when
it would have been treason to wear
red, white, and blue ribbon.
With the return from EIba and the full
fllment of the prophecy in the legend,
the women Of Paris wore huge punches of
violets and trimmed their morning caps
with them. while the jewellers hastened
TO manufacture violet pins and brooches.
On the other hand, women who were un-
swerving royalists dared not open floral
war and pit the lily against the violet;
but they wore with impunity eighteen
tucks in their skirts as a sign Of their
loyalty to the fugitive Louis XVIII
The people who loafed about the throne
recanted their solemn oaths Of allegiance
and their political principles as swiftly as
they changed their ribbons and their
boutonnieres. The Emperor himself ex-
claimed as he saw the politicians and
generals who less than a year before had
hastened to desert his fallen foEtunes,
equally quick now to forsake the fleeing
King. Just like mankind. One must
laugh at them to keep from crying"
He knew that he had been placed on
the throne again by a mere military revo-
luton. and that only a few thousand men,
all told, had taken part in the movement.
The nation had been only Iooker-on.
The people have let me come" he frank
ly admitted, Just as they let the others
60"
The French were no longer Bourbon
or Bonapartist, and the heart Of the rend-
ed nation wished a plague on both their
houses. The people were sick of glory
purchased with blood and longed only for
liberty and peace.
Lightning Changes.
On his arrival in the Tuileries at 9
~
the palace crowded with his old ministers |
and courtiers Out OF the crowd he chose
his cabinet on the spot. He filled most |
of the posts with former ministers, but |
he appointed Marshal Davout minister of |
war and gave the portfolio of the interior
to Carnot, the inhexible Republican. who
had held aloof from the empire in the
days Of its glory. but who had come to
its aid in 1874 when alien armies invaded
his loved fatherland. Seemingly unable to
escape his evil genius. the Emperor made
Fouche minister of police again, but he
appointed Savary to the command Of the
gentarmerie, and thus thA two ducal de-
tectives could spy on each other.
Among the marshals, Soult, Massena,
Suchet, Bruno, Money, and Mortier, as
we'll as Davout, came back to their old
master. Augureau, who had betrayed
him the year before, and insulted his
misfortunes, sought with a noisy procla-
nation Of fealty to regain his confidence.
But the Emperor coldly repulsed him
Nor could ne conceal from Ney his dis
gust with that marshaPs abandonment
of him in 1914, and his threat to bring
him to Paris in an iron cage. The poor
Prince Of the Moslkova skunk away and
felt like blowing out his brains.
Marshals Berthier, Marmont, and Mac
donald went with Louis XVIII in his
flight from the throne. But when the
King passed from Lille to Ghent, where
he was destined to remain in a Belgfan
exile throughout the Hundred DAYS, Mac
donald, rather than quit the soil of
Franco, took his leave and entered into
an honorable retirement Berthier saw
Louis settled at Ghent, when he too.
withdrew. Marmont alone stayed by the
Bourbon monarch. Junot, another Of Ma
poIeon's Toulon comrades, whom he had
made duke, but not a marshal was also ]
absent from his side, for the Iuckless
Duke Of Abrantes had gone mad.
Although the ink was no more than
dry on Marshal Soult's proclamation de-
nouncing him as an adventurer and
usurper, the Emperor took him to his
bosom and appointed him his chief OF !
stan until Berthier should return. The |
phrase When Berthier returns" was con-
tinually on his lips. But he waited and !
watched in vain. "a
Berthier was in q painfully trying sit J
uation, between his lifelong habit of
loyalty to Napoleon and his duty to his /