Switzerland was in a high state of ferment. The people of the Grisons, who had taken possession of the Valtelline, and the people of Uri, who had seized the Livinenthal, had been respectively driven out of those territories by the Austrians. The Valais, Geneva, Neufchatel, and Pruntrut were, on the other hand, desirous of joining the confederation. The democratic peasantry were almost everywhere at war with the aristocratic burghers. Berne revived her claim upon Vaud and Aargau, which armed in self-defence.[6] Reinhard of Zurich, the Swiss _Landammann_, went, meanwhile, at the head of an embassy to Vienna, for the purpose of settling in the congress the future destinies of Switzerland by means of the intervention of the great powers. Talleyrand, with unparalleled impudence, also interfered in this affair, threatened to refuse his recognition to every measure passed without his concurrence, and compelled the Swiss to entreat him to honor the deliberations with his presence. On Austria's demanding a right of conscription in the Grisons alone, France having enjoyed that right throughout the whole of Switzerland at an earlier period, Talleyrand advised the Swiss to make a most violent opposition against an attempt that placed their independence at stake. "Cry out," he exclaimed, "cry out, as loud as you can!"[7] The disputes in the congress raised Napoleon's hopes. In France, his party was still powerful, almost the whole of the population being blindly devoted to him, and an extensive conspiracy for his restoration to the imperial throne was secretly set on foot. Several thousands of his veteran soldiery had been released from foreign durance; the whole of the military stores, the spoil of Europe, still remained in the possession of France; the fortresses were solely garrisoned with French troops; Elba was close at hand, and the emperor was guarded with criminal negligence. Heavy, indeed, is the responsibility of those who, by thus neglecting their charge, once more let loose this scourge upon the earth![8] Napoleon quitted his island, and, on the 1st of March, 1815, again set foot on the coast of France. He was merely accompanied by one thousand five hundred men, but the whole of the troops sent against him by Louis XVIII. ranged themselves beneath his eagle. He passed, as if in triumph, through his former empire. The whole nation received him with acclamations of delight. Not a single Frenchman shed a drop of blood for the Bourbon, who fled hastily to Ghent; and, on the 20th of March, Napoleon entered Paris unopposed. His brother-in-law, Murat, at the same time revolted at Naples and advanced into Upper Italy against the Austrians. But all the rest of Napoleon's ancient allies, persuaded that he must again fall, either remained tranquil or formed a close alliance with the combined powers. The Swiss, in particular, showed excessive zeal on this occasion, and took up arms against France, in the hope of