Including 80,000 Austrians, destined to act in the north of Italy, and a hundred and forty thousand British, Portuguese, and Spaniards, who, under the guidance of Wellington, were assailing the south, the whole force of the allies formed a mass of _a million and twenty-eight thousand men_, which was prepared to act against the French empire. The French army was so reduced, that the Emperor could not, with the utmost exertion, reckon upon more than 350,000 men to defend the frontiers of his widespread dominions. Of these, 100,000 were blockaded in Hamburg and on the Oder, 50,000 were maintaining a painful defensive against the Austrians in the north of Italy, and 100,000 were struggling against the superior armies of Wellington on the Spanish frontiers. So that the real army which the Emperor had at his disposal to resist the invasion on the Rhine did not exceed 110,000. On the 31st of Dec., 1813, the united and victorious allies crossed that river. Numerous battles ensued. At length a conference was held, and the allied sovereigns offered to conclude peace, and recognize Napoleon as Emperor of France, on certain conditions, which would have left him an empire greater than that over which his nephew now reigns. This did not, however, satisfy his ambition. The overtures were refused, and on the 30th of March, 1814, after numerous sanguinary engagements, and the storming of the city, the allies entered Paris, which had been forced to capitulate. On the 11th of April Napoleon signed his abdication at Fontainbleau, and on the 28th of the same month, at eight at night, set sail from Frejus for the island of Elba, on board the English frigate “_The Undaunted_.” On the 1st of March, 1815, having escaped from Elba, he again entered France, with a few hundred men, and was everywhere received with acclamation and shouts of joy, which resounding throughout the land, were echoed to the Tuileries, and caused such consternation, that the court became alarmed, and at midnight, on the 19th, Louis XVIII. and the royal family, left Paris, and escaped into Belgium, while at nine o’clock in the evening of the next day Napoleon entered the vacated palace. The allies became alarmed, and on the 25th of March, Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Great Britain, concluded a treaty, engaging to unite their forces against Bonaparte, with a secret stipulation that the high contracting parties should not lay down their arms till the complete destruction of Napoleon had been effected. Such, however, was the poverty at this time of the Continental powers, that they were unable to put their armies in motion without pecuniary assistance. And a treaty was entered into at Vienna on the 30th of April, by which England agreed to furnish Austria, Russia, and Prussia, the necessary means for the prosecution of the war, and actually paid to foreign powers during the year above £11,000,000 ($55,000,000).