The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-02-26
CENTENARY OF NAPoLEoNs
 FLIGHT FROM PRISON ISLAND

The people of the little Mediter- ranean island of ETba. will observe to- day the centennial of one of the two great events which made Elba for ever memorable in history The first Of these events was the arrival of the deposed Napoleon; the second, his de-. parture. It was Just a hundred years ago today, on Feb. 26, 1915, that the great Corsican boarded a ship and sailed away for France, there to enact that great drama of the Hundred Days which ended in defeat and dis aster on the bloody field of Waterloo. ETba. a tiny islet sixteen miles long, remains today much as it was during that period Of n1ne months and twen- ty-txvo days when Napoleon the Great became Napoleon the Little. ruled as .sSovereign Of E1ba,'' issuing royal de- crees to This people, acting as gem eraI of a comic opera army and as 'sadmiraP' of a navy that consisted of two or three dere1ict ships.
 When the powers banished the Cor sican to EIba they generously gave him an annuity of two million francs a bodyguard of a thousand mAn, and permitted him to retain the empty title of stEmperor.'' At EIba. he had five palaces, the adulation of the hero worshipping people, and a mimic state to rule over, but he spent most of his time alone, pondering over past gIories. Even the beautiful Pole. Countess Waleswska, with whom he had been infatuated in happier days, failed to rouse the Emperor from his despondencys and after she had been with him a couple of days he ordered her deported from his "Izing- dom.,'
 While Napoleon brooded and played with his nake-be1ieve government, the people of France were becoming heartily tired of the besotted rule of their restored king. The soldiers plot ted openly for the return of Napo. leon, In February Fleury de Chaibou- 1 Ion, who had been an auditor in the 1 French council of state, visited Etba and, on his own initiative, begged the Emperor to return to France.
 l Napoleon had considered such a project for months, and had purchas- ed four coasting vessels. He had ral- 1 lied about him his faxorite veterans as 9, bodyguard. The report of F1eury l de Chaboulon on conditions in France convinced the Emperor that the time 1 was ripe to strike, and once his mind was made up he lost no time in com 1 p1eting. preparations. On the night l of the twenty-fifth of February he
 gave a. final ball at court. While his l mother and sister directed the festivi- ties Napoleon left tht gay assembly and ordered his followers to marck overto the quay As the sun came UT | 41OAA ANS OO0 III tAS 0ASAAeOA1 e14Ae<-A l the fIotilIas with 300 men on board put to sea- and Napoleon gazed fol | the last time on the fading shores o.
 EGbc.
 The brig 'Tnconstant'' was Napo,
 Icons flagship, and, as the ship drift
 ed slowly in the light breeze it fel
 in with a. French man-o'-war. Tn,
 soldiers secreted themselves in tn,
 Ieold. and the flag of ETba, whit, strewn with bees. was hoisted. Tn,
 Captain of the French ship inquired of the pilot as to the health of tn
 Emperor, and then sailed on
 After three days at sea the t1n
 constant reached the Bay St. Juan near AntEbes, and his followers rash