The island of Elba is the spot he has selected for his ignominious retreat.

France is holding forth repentant arms to her banished sovereign.

The Poissardes who dragged Louis XVI.
to the scaffold are presenting flowers to the Emperor of Russia, the restorer of their legitimate king! What a stupendous field for philosophy to expatiate in! What an endless material for thought! What humiliation to the pride of mere human greatness! How are the mighty fallen! Of all that was great in Napoleon, what remains?
Despoiled of his usurped power, he sinks to insignificance.

There was no moral greatness in the man.

The meteor dazzled, scorched, is put out,--utterly, and for ever.