Murat’s power was toppling over, for, do what he might, his interests were the interests of the France that he was fighting. But what could he do? It would take a clever man to find his way safely out of such an impasse as confronted Joachim. Could he have remained neutral, it is possible that he might have survived the hurricane; but that was almost impossible, cut off as he was from France and encircled by the allies. Besides, the quarrel with England had brought such misery to his subjects that this condition alone was reason enough for attempting the impossible. Napoleon was battling with his back to the wall, and even though he fought as man never fought before or since, the tide was engulfing him. His own Ministers were carrying on secret correspondence with the enemy, and preparing their own salvation, careless either of their duty or of their country’s humiliation. When on April 15, 1814, Murat received the news of the capitulation of Paris and the abdication of the Emperor, he paled as he read the dispatch, and betrayed great agitation and nervousness, and for several days afterwards he was gloomy and unapproachable. He repaired quietly to Bologna, and, while Italy went mad and raved in its madness, while the Milanese murdered Prina, and Eugène Beauharnais took refuge with the King of Bavaria, he returned to Naples, where he was received like a conqueror and was compelled to bow his appreciation and render his thanks for a display not one word or one smile of which, as he well knew, was genuine. The people expected very naturally that a new order of things would bring them a new Government, and Murat’s own suspicions were confirmed when the treaty of peace was signed at Paris, and the Congress of Vienna was summoned without any mention of him at all. Legitimacy was now the rage, and Joachim, though without an invitation, dispatched the Duke di Campochiaro and Prince de Cariati as his representatives to Vienna. That done, he turned to his kingdom and, taking time by the forelock, summoned the most able men of the country to him and set them to work upon the land, the finances, and the army, only warning them not to follow too hard after the latest fashion, nor to “run backwards blindfold.” At the same time, on his own account, he lightened the heaviest of the taxes, brought in measures for the encouragement of trade with England, and permitted the free export of grain. Then he decreed that the offices of State were to be given only to Neapolitans, and that foreigners holding them, who refused to be naturalized, must resign, after which he sat down to wait upon events.