Most historians portray Napoleon's return to France as an
example of his disregard for hundreds of thousands of lives
in order to satisfy his outsized ambition. We at Napoleon on
the Net, however, view the `Hundred Days' as an example
of the Emperor's superior charisma and the love for him that
it inspired. The support of the common people of France
was the basis of Napoleonic rule. The generals and the
politicians did not rush to support Napoleon's new
adventure, but, as we will show, the front-line soldiers and
the common people were determined to uphold the basic
principle the Revolution: that it is the people's right to decide
the form of their government. Vincent Cronin, in his
acclaimed biography of Napoleon, entitled Napoleon
Bonaparte: An Intimate Biography (William Morrow &
Company, 1972, pp. 391-392), describes Napoleon's first
major confrontation with French troops sent by the Bourbon
regime to kill or capture him. "Napoleon had 1,100 men
against about......
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