The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero)/Poetry/Volume 7/On Napoleon's Escape from Elba

ON NAPOLEON'S ESCAPE FROM ELBA.[1]

Once fairly set out on his party of pleasure,
Taking towns at his liking, and crowns at his leisure,
From Elba to Lyons and Paris he goes,
Making balls for the ladies, and bows to his foes.

March 27, 1815.
[First published, Letters and Journals, 1830, i. 611.]


  1. [It may be taken for granted that the "source" of this epigram was a paragraph in the Morning Chronicle of March 27, 1815: "In the Moniteur of Thursday we find the Emperor's own account of his jaunt from the Island of Elba to the palace of the Thuilleries. It seems certainly more like a jaunt of pleasure than the progress of an invader through a country to be gained."]