success.  On discovering this affair the Emperor of Austria dismissed the French attendants of his daughter, and caused her to discontinue the use of the arms and liveries of Napoleon, which she had hitherto retained—­nay, even the imperial title itself, resuming those of her own family, and original rank as archduchess.  This procedure could not be concealed at Paris, and completed the conviction of all men, that there was no hope whatever of avoiding another European war; and almost at the same time a rash expedition of Murat, which, if successful, might have materially influenced the conduct of Austria, reached its end.

Napoleon, when at St. Helena, always persisted in denying any participation in this design of his brother-in-law; but, however this may have been, it is certain that much intercourse subsisted, during his stay at Elba, between the Queen of Naples and the female branches of the family at Porto Ferraio; nor can anyone doubt either that Murat had received some pretty distinct intimation of Napoleon’s intended descent in France—­or that he ventured on his movement in the confidence that this and the Emperor’s would lend to each other much moral support—­or that, if Joachim had prospered, Napoleon would have considered what he did as the best service that could have been rendered to himself.

Among the subjects which, prior to Buonaparte’s reappearance, occupied the Congress of Vienna, one of the chief was the conduct of Murat during the campaign of 1814.  Talleyrand charged him with having, throughout, been a traitor to the cause of the Allies; and exhibited a series of intercepted letters, from him to Napoleon, in proof of this allegation.  The Duke of Wellington, on the other hand, considered these documents as proving no more than that Murat had reluctantly lifted his banner against the author of his fortunes.  Talleyrand had always hated Murat and despised him—­(the father of the King of Naples had originally been steward in the household of the Perigords)—­and persisted in urging on the Congress the danger of suffering a sovereign of Buonaparte’s family and creation to sit on the throne which belonged of right to the King of the Sicilies.  The affair was still under discussion, to the mortal annoyance of the person whose interests were at stake, when Napoleon landed at Cannes.  Murat resolved to rival his brother’s daring; and, without further pause, marched, at the head of 50,000 men, to Rome, from which the Pope and cardinals fled precipitately at his approach.  The Neapolitans then advanced into the North of Italy, scattering proclamations by which Joachim invited all true Italians to rally round him, and assist in the erection of their country into one free and independent state, with him at its head.  The Austrian commander in Lombardy forthwith put his troops in motion to meet Murat.  The rencontre took place at Occhiobello.  The Neapolitans fled in confusion almost at the sight of the enemy; and Murat, unable to rally them, sought