[92] "A military party made me a proposal of offering the dictatorship to Eugene Beauharnois. I wrote to him, under the impression that the matter had already assumed a substantial form; but I only received a vague answer. In the interim, all the interests of the Revolution congregated round myself and Carnot, whose memorial to the King had produced a general sensation."--FOUCHÉ, tom. i., p. 244. [93] See Parliamentary Debates, vol. xxxi., 1815. [94] "At this time there was a very pretty cunning little French actress at Elba. Napoleon pretended to be very angry with her, saying she was a spy of the Bourbons, and ordered her out of the island in twenty-four hours. Captain Adye took her in his vessel to Leghorn: Sir Niel Campbell went at the same time; and during this absence, on Sunday the 26th February, a signal gun was fired at four in the afternoon, the drums beat to arms, the officers tumbled what they could of their effects into flour sacks, the men arranged their knapsacks, the embarkation began, and at eight in the evening they were under weigh."--_Memorable Events_, p. 271. [95] The Zephyr, Captain Andrieu. [96] "He asked how the Emperor did. Napoleon replied through the speaking trumpet, 'Il se porte à merveille.'"--_Memorable Events_, p. 271. [97] Lord Castlereagh stated, in the House of Commons, 7th April, 1815, that Napoleon was not considered as a prisoner at Elba, and that if he should leave it the allies had no right to arrest him.--_Parl. Deb._, vol. xxx., p. 426. [98] "Soult did not betray Louis, nor was he privy to my return and landing in France. For some days, he thought that I was _mad_, and that I must certainly be lost. Notwithstanding this, appearances were so much against him, and without intending it, his acts turned out to be so favourable to my projects, that, were I on his jury, and ignorant of what I know, I should condemn him for having betrayed Louis. But he really was not privy to it."--NAPOLEON, _Las Cases_, tom. i., p. 343; _O'Meara_, vol. i., p. 386. [99] "The Royalists made a mockery of this terror: it was strange to hear them say that this event was the most fortunate thing possible, because we should be relieved from Buonaparte; for the two Chambers would feel the necessity of giving the king absolute power--as if absolute power was a thing to be given."--MAD. DE STAËL, tom. iii., p. 138. "Yesterday the King received the diplomatic corps. His majesty said to the ambassadors, 'write to your respective courts that I am well, and that the foolish enterprise of _that man_ shall as little disturb the tranquillity of Europe, as it has disturbed mine.'"--_Moniteur_, March 8. [100] "I am persuaded that the suspicion of his acting a treacherous part is groundless."--MAD. DE STAËL, tom. iii., p. 87. [101] "General Lallemand would have been infallibly shot, had not Napoleon reached Paris with such extraordinary rapidity."--SAVARY, tom. iv., p. 256. [102] Fouché, tom. ii., p. 249.