This unique and atmospheric volume presents the dramatic story of Napoleon's escape from Elba and his march on Paris in the words of eyewitnesses and participants. Drawing on hundreds of firsthand accounts by Napoleon's supporters and opponents, Paul Britten Austin recreates the drama of those tumultuous days of the spring of 1815: Napoleon's dramatic landing at Antibes in the south of France, the first heady days of his arrival after almost a year of exile, his almost miraculous march across France, his arrival in Paris, and the coup which led to the fall of the Bourbons.

Paul Britten Austin's technique, so brilliantly presented in his earlierh 1812 trilogy on Napoleon's invasion of Russia, brings historical events to life and gives a dramatic insight into the hopes and fears of the French nation in that spring of 1815.