year after Napoleon's death, which
witnessed a revolution in Spain, and the Congress of Allied Sovereigns
at Verona. Earlier in the year, the publication of Las Cases' _Memorial
de S^te^ Helene_, and of O'Meara's _Napoleon in Exile, or a Voice from
St. Helena_, had created a sensation on both sides of the Channel.
Public opinion had differed as to the system on which Napoleon should be
treated--and, since his death, there had been a conflict of evidence as
to the manner in which he had been treated, at St. Helena. Tories
believed that an almost excessive lenience and indulgence had been
wasted on a graceless and thankless intriguer, while the "Opposition,"
Liberals or Radicals, were moved to indignation at the hardships and
restrictions which were ruthlessly and needlessly imposed on a fallen
and powerless foe. It was, and is, a very pretty quarrel; and Byron,
whose lifelong admiration for his "Heros de Roman" was tempered by
reason, approached the Longwood controversy somewhat in the spirit of a
partisan.

In _The Age of Bronze_ (sects, iii.-v.) he touches on certain incidents
of the "Last Phase" of Napoleon's career, and proceeds to recapitulate,
in a sort of _Memoria Technica_, the chief events of his history, from
the dawn at Marengo to the sunset at "bloody and most bootless
Waterloo," and draws the unimpeachable moral that "Honesty is the best
policy," even when the "game is Empire" and "the stakes are thrones"!

From the rise and fall, the tyranny and captivity of Napoleon, he passes
on to the Congress of Allied Powers, which met at Verona in November,
1822.

The "Congress" is the object of his satire. It had assembled with a
parade of power and magnificence, and had dispersed with little or
nothing accomplished. It was "impar Achilli" (_vide ante_, p. 535,
note 1), an empty menace, ill-matched with the revolutionary spirit,
and in pitiful contrast to the _Sic volo, sic jubeo_ of the dead
Napoleon.

The immediate and efficient cause of the Congress of Verona was the
success of the revolution in Spain. The point at issue between Spanish
Liberals and Royalists, or _serviles_, was the adherence to, or the
evasion of, the democratic Constitution of 1812. At the moment the
Liberals were in the ascendant, and, as Chateaubriand puts it, had
driven King Ferdinand into captivity, at Urgel, in Catalonia, to the
tune of the Spanish Marseillaise, "_Tragala, Tragala_" "swallow it,
swallow it," that is, "accept the Const