Well, then, after a while he embarked again in the very same nut-shell
of a boat that he had left Egypt in, passed right under the bows of the
English vessels, and set foot once more in France. France acknowledged
him; the sacred cuckoo flew from spire to spire; and all the people
cried, "Long live the Emperor!"
In this vicinity the enthusiasm for the Wonder of the Ages was most
hearty. Dauphiny behaved well; and it pleased me particularly to know
that our own people here wept for joy when they saw again his gray coat.
On the 1st of March Napoleon landed, with two hundred men, to conquer
the kingdom of France and Navarre; and on the 20th of the same month
that kingdom became the French Empire. On that day THE MAN was in Paris.
He had made a clean sweep--had reconquered his dear France, and had
brought all his old soldiers together again by saying only three words:
"Here I am." 'Twas the greatest miracle God had ever worked. Did ever a
man, before him, take an empire by merely showing his hat? They thought
that France was crushed, did they? Not a bit of it! At sight of the
Eagle a national army sprang up, and we all marched to Waterloo.
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