The number of visitors to Elba was sometimes as high as three hundred
in a single day. Among these were a few English, fewer French, but
many Italians. As time passed the heaviness of the Austrian yoke had
begun to gall the people of Napoleon's former kingdom, and
considerable numbers from among them, remembering the mild Eugene with
longing, joined in an extensive though feeble conspiracy to restore
Napoleon to the throne of Italy. Lucien returned to Rome in order to
foster the movement, and Murat, observing with unease the general
faithlessness of the great powers in small matters, began to tremble
for the security of his own seat. With them and others Napoleon
appears to have corresponded regularly. He felt himself entirely freed
from the obligations he had taken at Fontainebleau, for he was sure
the people of southern France had been instigated to take his life by
royalist agents, and while one term after another passed, not a cent
was paid of the promised pension; his own fortune, therefore, was
steadily melting away. For months he behaved as if really determined
to make Elba his "isle of repose," as he designated it just before
landing; but under such provocations his temper changed. The
corner-stone of his treaty was his complete sovereignty; otherwise the
paper was merely a promise without any sanction, not even that of
international law. This perfect sovereignty had been recognized by the
withdrawal of all the commissioners as such, Campbell insisting that
he remained merely as an ambassador.