CHAPTER XI: ELBA--THE RETURN--WATERLOO--ST. HELENA
1814-1815



Bonaparte's spirits rose as the party proceeded. There were
remarkable evidences all along the line of march that his greatness,
while dimmed in one sense, had not diminished in others. A series of
attacks upon him had been arranged, much to the fallen Emperor's
delight.

"If you want to make a fellow popular, Bertrand," he remarked after
one of them, "kick him when he's down. I'll wager I am having a
better time now than Louis XVIII., and, after all, I regard this
merely as a vacation. I'll have a good rest at Elba while Louis is
pushing the button of government at Paris. After a while I'll come
back and press the buttons and Louis will do the rest. There's some
honey in the old Bees yet."

At Valence, however, the Emperor had a bitter cup to drain. Meeting
Augereau there, with whom he had fallen out, he addressed him in his
old-time imperial style, asking him what right he had to still live,
and requesting him to stand out of his light. Augereau, taking
advantage of the Emperor's fallen estate, replied in a spirited
manner, calling Napoleon an ex-Emperor and a tin soldier, as well as
applying several other epithets to his dethroned majesty which might
be printed in a French book, but can have no place in this.

"We shall meet again," retorted Bonaparte, with a threatening
gesture.