m it carried along to victory. Belgians
strongly objected to Dutch rule, and German "Unitarians," as
Metternich dubbed them, spurned a form of union which subjected the
Fatherland to Austria and her henchmen. Hardest of all was the fate of
Italy. After learning the secret of her essential unity under
Napoleon, she was now parcelled out among her former rulers; and
thrills of rage shot through the peninsula when the Hapsburgs settled
down at Venice and Milan, while their scions took up the reins at
Modena, Parma, and Florence.

It was on this popular indignation that Murat now built his hopes.
After throwing over Napoleon, he had looked to find favour with the
allies; but his movements in 1814 had been so suspicious that the fate
of his kingdom remained hanging in the balance. The Bourbons of Paris
and Madrid strove hard to effect his overthrow; but Austria and
England, having tied their hands early in 1814 by treaties with him,
could only wait and watch in the hope that the impetuous soldier would
take a false step. He did so in February, 1815, when he levied forces,
summoned Louis XVIII. to declare whether he was at war with him, and
prepared to march into Northern Italy.

The disturbed state of the peninsula caused the Powers much uneasiness
as to the presence of Napoleon at Elba. Louis XVIII. in his
despatches, and Talleyrand in private conversations, two or three
times urged his removal to the Azores; but, with the exception of
Castlereagh, who gave a doubtful assent, the plenipotentiaries scouted
the thought of it. Metternich entirely opposed it, and the Czar would
certainly have objected to the reversal of his Elba plan, had
Talleyrand made a formal proposal to that effect. But he did not do
so. The official records of the Congress contain not a word on the
subject. Equally unfounded were the newspaper rumours that the
Congress was considering the advisability of removing Napoleon to St.
Helena. On this topic the official records are also silent; and we
have the explicit denial of the Duke of Wellington (who reached Vienna
on the 1st of February to relieve Castlereagh) that "the Congress ever
had any intention of removing Bonaparte from Elba to St. Helena."[460]

Napoleon's position was certainly one of unstable equilibrium, that
tended towards some daring enterprise or inglorious bankruptcy. The
maintenance of his troops cost him more than 1,000,000 francs a year,
while his revenue was less than half of that s