While Napoleon had no throne but his rock, they had shown themselves as disinterested as faithful: when he had recovered his crown, they flattered themselves, that they should be recompensed with generosity.
Some, whom honour alone had attached to Napoleon, enjoyed in prospect the praises, titles, ribands, that would be bestowed on them: others, inspired with less lofty sentiments, expected benefits more solid. The guard and its worthy chiefs were ambitious only of the favour of retaining the glorious title of grenadiers of the island of Elba. Vain illusions! the Emperor's thoughts, entirely absorbed by other cares, were no longer turned to those brave fellows, who had shared his exile and his misfortunes. The moment of forgetfulness, however, had not time to degenerate into ingratitude: it was repaired: promotions, endowments, indemnifications, were bestowed on them; and, if they did not feel themselves completely satisfied with the conduct of Napoleon, they had at least no reason to complain.
The Emperor would have wished from feeling, and perhaps too from ostentation, to have had it in his power, to acknowledge in a manner more worthy of himself their services and attachment: but he was deterred by the fear of being charged with imitating the Bourbons, and of preferring those Frenchmen, who had gone into exile with him, to those who had retained their fidelity in their mother country.
The emigrants had sullied their native land with blood, shed either by their own weapons, or in the civil wars they had fomented and cherished; and the indignant nation had long combated them, and pursued them with its maledictions, as the enemies of its happiness and tranquillity.
The Frenchmen who returned from the island of Elba with Napoleon, on the contrary, had spilt their blood in the defence of their country. They were beloved, honoured, respected and the recompenses the Emperor might have bestowed upon them, instead of tending to alienate France, would have fulfilled her wishes. She would have enjoyed it with that feeling of pride and pleasure, which a mother experiences, when she hears the triumphs of her children proclaimed in the lists opened for youth, and sees their heads adorned with the rewards of their success.