eet again
up above in the country of the brave. Protect my child, I leave him in
your care. _Long live Napoleon II._!"

He had thought of killing himself, so that no one should behold Napoleon
after his defeat; like Jesus Christ before the Crucifixion, he thought
himself forsaken by God and by his talisman, and so he took enough
poison to kill a regiment, but it had no effect whatever upon him.
Another marvel! he discovered that he was immortal; and feeling sure of
his case, and knowing that he would be Emperor for ever, he went to an
island for a little while, so as to study the dispositions of those folk
who did not fail to make blunder upon blunder. Whilst he was biding his
time, the Chinese and the brutes out in Africa, the Moors and what-not,
awkward customers all of them, were so convinced that he was something
more than mortal, that they respected his flag, saying that God would be
displeased if any one meddled with it. So he reigned over all the rest
of the world, although the doors of his own France had been closed upon
him.

Then he goes on board the same nutshell of a skiff that he sailed in
from Egypt, passes under the noses of the English vessels, and sets foot
in France. France recognizes her Emperor, the cuckoo flits from steeple
to steeple; France cries with one voice, "Long live the Emperor!" The
enthusiasm for that Wonder of the Ages was thoroughly genuine in these
parts. Dauphine behaved handsomely; and I was uncommonly pleased to
learn that people here shed tears of joy on seeing his gray overcoat
once more.

It was on March 1st that Napoleon set out with two hundred men to
conquer the kingdom of France and Navarre, which by March 20th had
become the French Empire again. On that day he found himself in Paris,
and a clean sweep had been made of everything; he had won back his
beloved France, and had called all his soldiers about him again, and
three words of his had done it all--"Here am I!" 'Twas the greatest
miracle God ever worked! Was it ever known in the world before that a
man should do nothing but show his hat, and a whole Empire became his?
They fancied that France was crushed, did they? Never a bit of it. A
National Army springs up again at the sight of the Eagle, and we all
march to Waterloo. There the Guard fall all as one man. Napoleon in his
despair heads the rest, and flings himself three times on the enemy's
guns without finding the death he sought; we all saw him do it, we
soldiers