It was about five o’clock in the afternoon of the 1st of March, 1815,
that Napoleon landed at Cannes, in the Gulf of Juan. From thence he
proceeded toward Paris with his little army, then consisting only of 500
grenadiers, of the guard, 200 dragoons and one hundred Polish lancers;
these last being without horses, were obliged to carry their saddles on
their backs.
When between Mure and Vizele, Cambronne, who commanded the advance guard
of forty grenadiers, met a battalion which had been sent from Grenoble
to arrest their march. Colonel La Badoyere, who headed the battalion,
refused to parley with Cambronne; upon which the Emperor, without
hesitation, advanced alone; followed at some distance by 100 grenadiers
with their arms reversed. There was profound silence until Napoleon had
approached within a few paces, when he halted, and throwing open his
surtout exclaimed, “If there be amongst you a soldier who would kill his
general--his Emperor, let him do it now!--Here I am!” The cry of _Vive
l’Empereur_ burst instantaneously from every lip. Napoleon threw himself
among them, and taking a veteran, covered with chevrons and medals, by
the arm, said, “Speak honestly, old moustache, couldst thou have had the
heart to kill thy Emperor?” The man dropped his ramrod into his piece to
show that it was unloaded, and answered, “Judge if I could have done
thee much harm,--all the rest are the same.”
[Illustration: THE RETURN FROM ELBA.]