irritation pervaded the public mind in Italy, and the army had not
proceeded three marches beyond Mantua when an insurrection broke out in
Milan. The Finance Minister, Pizna, was assassinated, and his residence
demolished, and nothing would have saved the Viceroy from a similar fate
had he been in his capital. Amidst this popular excitement, and the
eagerness of the Italians to be released from the dominion of the French,
the friends of Eugene thought him fortunate in being able to join his
father-in-law at Munich almost incognito.

--[Some time after Eugene visited France and had a long audience of
Louis XVIII. He announced himself to that monarch by his father's
title of Marquis de Beauharnais. The King immediately saluted him
by the title of Monsieur le Marechal, and proposed that he should
reside in France with that rank. But this invitation Eugene
declined, because as a French Prince under the fallen Government he
had commanded the Marshals, and he therefore could not submit to be
the last in rank among those illustrious military chiefs.
Bourrienne.]--

Thus, at the expiration of nine years, fell the iron crown which Napoleon
had placed on his head saying, "Dieu me l'a donne; gare a qui la touche."

I will now take a glance at the affairs of Germany. Rapp was not in
France at the period of the fall of the Empire. He had, with
extraordinary courage and skill, defended himself against a year's siege
at Dantzic. At length, being reduced to the last extremity, and
constrained to surrender, he opened the gates of the city, which
presented nothing but heaps of ruins. Rapp had stipulated that the
garrison of Dantzic should return to France, and the Duke of Wurtemberg,
who commanded the siege, had consented to that condition; but the Emperor