of a desire to foment a civil war, moved forward his army in pursuit of the French towards Castelnaudry. Suchet, however, unhesitatingly acknowledged the Provisional Government; and Soult, finding that he was standing out alone, sent an officer to conclude a convention for the cessation of hostilities, which was effected on the 18th.

It was with feelings of deep regret that, whilst these negotiations were in progress, Lord Wellington received Major-General Colville's report of a sanguinary action which had been fought in front of Bayonne. On the morning of the 14th of April, the governor of Bayonne made a fierce sortie upon the invading corps, and succeeded in breaking through the Allied line, and carrying the village of St. Etienne; but the advanced pickets being promptly and vigorously supported, the besiegers recovered their positions, with a loss to the enemy of 900 men placed hors de combat, and to the Allies of 600 killed and wounded, and 236 prisoners. In this cruel and unnecessary sacrifice were included General Hay, who commanded the outposts, who was killed; and General Sir John Hope, who whilst bringing up reinforcements, was made prisoner. Sir John's horse was killed under him, and being wounded himself, he could not be extricated in time to save him from falling into the hands of the enemy. In this affair, General Stafford also was wounded. If the general belief that Thevenot, the French governor, had received intelligence of the abdication of the Emperor, was correct, his conduct was most unwarrantable. He ought under such circumstances to have remained entirely on the defensive. The siege had not commenced, for neither stores nor artillery had been brought forward; there could, therefore, have been no immediate cause for apprehension. The affair was one of purely gratuitous slaughter, in which the French, who lost a general, suffered the heavier loss. By an accident which looks almost like retribution, Thevenct's casualties were many of them occasioned by the indiscriminate fire of his own guns.

Formal notice of the convention entered into between Lord Wellington and Soult was received by the governor of Bayonne on the 20th; notwithstanding which, he hesitated to acknowledge the Provisional Government for several

days; but so soon as the white flag was hoisted on the walls of the fortress, the operations of the siege were of course suspended. It is a remarkable coincidence that the last blood shed in this unprincipled and aggressive war of six years' duration, should have been spilled upon the spot on which Napoleon's infamous project for the invasion of Spain was begun and matured.

Advance of the Allies on Paris-Termination of the Peninsular WarReturn of Louis XVIII-The Duke of Wellington appointed Ambassador to France-Napoleon banished to Elba-State of France— Escape of Napoleon-Progress to Paris-Appointment of the Duke of Wellington to the Command of the British Army in the Netherlands -Departure of Napoleon for the Frontier-Strength of the Respective Armies,

WE have already described the extremity to which Napoleon had been reduced, and the enormous power that was arrayed against him. Alarmed by the masses that were crowding down upon him, he had retreated to Arcis-surAube, where he unexpectedly came in contact with the army of Schwartzenburg. A sanguinary battle ensued, in which, although he fought with all the energy of desperation, he was thoroughly beaten, and his army reduced to 70,000 men: the force opposed to him numbered 150,000 men; yet he managed to throw himself with the main body of his army, in rear of the Allied troops on the Marne on the 22nd. The congress of Chatillon had broken up on the 19th, and Napoleon's minister had brought him its ultimatum. Determined to astonish the generals of the Allies by the boldness of his manoeuvres, he marched on Vitry and St. Dizier. The decision of the Great Powers engaged them not to lay down their arms until the continent should have returned to the limits which France had overstepped in 1792. The Allies replied to his last act of madness by following Napoleon with their cavalry; and rapidly concentrating

their forces at Châlons, they marched on Paris. The feeble corps of Marmont and Mortier were accordingly driven back upon the capital; and on the 29th of March, Paris was invested on its northern side by the main armies of the Allied sovereigns. Marmont had some 15,000 troops in Paris, and the National Guard and retired military would have doubled that number. On the 30th, however, after a short combat, the Allies established themselves on the heights of Belle Vue, and the Regent having abandoned his authority, Paris capitulated the same evening. The ensuing day, the Allied sovereigns entered Paris, and were received with such demonstrations of enthusiastic satisfaction as clearly showed that the French considered that they had had quite enough of war and "glory." On the arrival of the Emperor within ten miles of the capital on the 31st, he found it in the hands of the enemy, and hastening back to Fontainebleau, collected on that point all the troops he could muster. On the 3rd, he would again have advanced towards Paris, but he here learned that by - a decree of the senate his crown had already been disposed of.

Immediately on the commencement of hostilities throughout Europe, Lord Castlereagh repaired to Paris as the representative of Great Britain, at the Congress of Sovereigns and Ministers which had been convened for the purpose of discussing the steps to be adopted for securing the final peace of Europe; and one of his first acts was to recommend the Prince Regent to appoint the Marquis of Wellington ambassador at the court of France, an office which he at once accepted, leaving Toulouse on the 30th April. Lord Wellington arrived in Paris on the 4th of May, where he was greeted by the monarchs and illustrious men who were there assembled, with the distinction due to his pre-eminent talents and distinguished services. It was at the same time announced to him that he had been elevated to a dukedom; and having already been decorated with the grand crosses of all the principal orders of European knighthood, may be said to have attained the summit of worldly fame and glory. The Duke of Wellington's stay in Paris was necessarily brief; and from the French capital he proceeded to Madrid, where his presence was ardently expected. The country was threatened with a political con

vulsion, which Ferdinand's early display of unamended despotism and cruelty seemed calculated to hurry to a crisis. From the commanding influence which the Duke possessed over every party, it was considered possible that the spirit of the contending factions might be sufficiently moderated to lead to such practicable alterations as might restore national tranquillity; and, anxious for its accomplishment, he reached Madrid on the 24th of May.

On the 10th of June, the Duke rejoined the army at Bordeaux, and peace having been signed by the Allied powers, nothing remained but to break up the armies, and dispatch the troops under orders for service in America, to their destination, with the least possible delay. On the 14th, accordingly, he took leave of his army in a general order, in which he thanked them for their good conduct, discipline, and gallantry, in his own name and in that of the country at large. On the 23rd, he reached Dover, in Her Majesty's ship, "Rosario," where he was greeted with the most enthusiastic demonstrations of applause, and conveyed to his hotel upon the shoulders of the people. The Allied Sovereigns had preceded him to England, on their memorable visit to the Prince Regent; and the whole of them having assembled at Portsmouth to witness a naval review, the Duke set out the next morning to pay his respects to the Prince. Whatever may have been the failings of George IV., a want of appreciation of the character and services of the Duke of Wellington, was not among the number. On his return to town, he received the thanks of the House of Lords in person, and his wife and venerable mother were present during the ceremony. Besides the thanks of the House of Commons, 10,000l. per annum was unanimously voted to him out of the consolidated fund, along with 100,000l., in addition to the former grant of 200,000l., making in all a sum equivalent to half a million sterling. Singularly enough, Mr. Whitbread and Mr. Ponsonby, by whom in the earlier part of his career he had been so often assailed, were among the members of the House of Commons who suggested that the amount of the grant originally proposed was inadequate to his claims upon the country, and who suggested the additional 100,000. Parliamentary grants were also conferred upon his gallant associates in

arms, Generals Hope, Graham, Cotton, Hill and Beresford, all of whom were elevated to the peerage. His Grace attended in person to receive the thanks of the House of Commons, wearing his uniform of Field Marshal, the ribbon of the Garter, and various decorations: nothing could be in better taste than his replies to both Houses of Parliament.

By a liberal arrangement of the Allied Sovereigns, Napoleon had assigned to him, as his future kingdom and place of retreat, the small island of Elba, which was secured to him as an independent sovereignty; and he was accompanied thither by a few of his most intimate friends and devotees. Everything which the most sanguine expectations could have anticipated had been achieved. The standards of Northern Europe were planted in the squares of Paris. The British flag was waving in the market-places of Bordeaux and Toulouse; and the banners of Portugal and Spain were floating over the plains of Southern France.

Five years before, the Duke of Wellington had left Eng. land under every possible discouragement, and in that brief interval how truly herculean had been the task he had performed, and how unparallelled the triumphs he had achieved and the honours he had won. He left England trembling for her safety, and returned to find her, what he had assisted to make her, the most powerful nation upon earth. Desirous of assuming the duties of his new office, the Duke would only permit himself to remain a few days in England; and leaving London on the 8th August, returned to Paris, by the Netherlands, where the army under Lord Lynedoch was still cantoned, for the purpose of inspecting the Belgian frontier on the side of France, and estimating its means of defence. After making a rapid survey, in the course of which he decided on the necessity that existed for restoring some of the fortifications which had fallen into a state of dilapidation, he passed on to Paris, where he arrived on the 22nd August. He shortly afterwards addressed a memorandum to the British Government, in which he described the position as one affording "great military advantages," of which, a year afterwards, he showed how well he could avail himself.

There were, at this time, scattered throughout France vast numbers of retired officers, and disbanded sol

Y