On the 27th of April the first battalion of the THIRTY-FIRST sailed with a force for the island of Corsica; when the troops arrived opposite Ajaccio, that place capitulated. The THIRTY-FIRST regiment then sailed for Bastia (the birth-place of Napoleon), and landing there on the 11th of May, remained until the 24th of June following, when it embarked for Sicily, and again went into garrison in the citadel of Messina, on the 18th of July, 1814. In the meantime the brilliant successes gained over the French in the Peninsula and South of France, by the troops under the Duke of Wellington, in which the _second_ battalion of the THIRTY-FIRST regiment bore a prominent part, led to a treaty of peace with France; Napoleon retired to Elba, which island was ceded to him in full sovereignty for life, with a pension payable from the revenues of France; and on the 3rd of May, 1814, Louis XVIII. entered Paris, and ascended the throne of his ancestors. On the 24th of October, 1814, the _second_ battalion of the THIRTY-FIRST regiment was disbanded at Portsmouth, and the officers and men fit for service were transferred to the first battalion, with which they were incorporated on the 6th of May, 1815, at Messina. In commemoration of the services of the _second_ battalion during the Peninsular War, the THIRTY-FIRST regiment has received the Royal Authority to bear on the Regimental Colour and Appointments, the words “TALAVERA,” “ALBUHERA,” “VITTORIA,” “PYRENEES,” “NIVELLE,” “NIVE,” “ORTHES,” and “PENINSULA.” [Sidenote: 1815] Although the first and second battalions of the THIRTY-FIRST regiment were employed in different countries, yet they were engaged in the promotion of the same interests, namely, the restoration of the exiled families of the House of Bourbon to the thrones of their ancestors; the achievements of the _second_ battalion were in the most distinguished arena, but the _first_ battalion, although it was stationed among the pastoral beauties of Sicily, and the luxurious towns of Italy, maintained its discipline and character, besides adding honors to those formerly acquired on the field of battle, whenever, as on the heights of _Albaro_, an opportunity had offered. The peace of Europe was again to be disturbed. The French army retained a chivalrous veneration for Napoleon, who returned from Elba, landed at Cannes, in Provence, on the 1st of March, 1815, and was joined by his former troops. Louis XVIII. withdrew from Paris to Ghent, and Napoleon assumed his former dignity of Emperor of the French.