N FROM ELBA.

A cry of tremendous import reverberated through Paris, all France, and
all Europe, in the first days of March, 1815. Napoleon, it was said, had
quitted Elba, and would soon arrive in France!

The royalists heard it with dismay, the Bonapartists with a delight that
they hardly took the pains to conceal.

Hortense alone took no part in the universal delight of the
imperialists. Her soul was filled with profound sadness and dark
forebodings. "I lament this step," said she; "I would have sacrificed
every thing to prevent his return to France, because I am of the belief
that no good can come of it. Many will declare for, and many against
him, and we shall have a civil war, of which the emperor himself may be
the victim[46]."

[Footnote 46: Cochelet, vol. ii., p. 348.]

In the meanwhile the general excitement was continually increasing; it
took possession of every one, and at this time none would have been
capable of giving cool and sensible advice.

Great numbers of the emperor's friends came to the Duchess of St. Leu,
and demanded of her counsel, assistance, and encouragement, accusing her
of indifference and want of sympathy, because she did not share their
hopes, and was sad instead of rejoicing with them.

But the spies of the still ruling government, who lay in wait around the
queen's dwelling, did not hear her words; they only saw that the
emperor's former generals and advisers were in the habit of repairing to
her parlors, and that was sufficient to stamp Hortense as the head of
the conspiracy which had for its object the return of Napoleon
to France.

The queen perceived the danger of her situation, but she bowed her head
to receive the blows of Fate in silent resignation. "I am environed by
torments and perplexities," said she, "but I see no means of avoiding
them. There is no resource for me but to arm myself with courage, and
that I will do."

The royal government, however, still hoped to be able to stem the
advancing tide, and compel the waves of insurrection to surge backward
and destroy those who had set them in motion.

They proposed to treat the great event which made France glow with new
pulsations, as a mere insurrection, that had been discovered in good
time, and could therefore be easily repressed. They therefore
determined, above all, to seize and render harmless the "conspirators,"
that is to say, all those of whom it was known that they had remained
faithful to the emperor in