In 1947, on this day United States Senator from Massachusetts Willard (Mitt) Romney was born in Detroit, Michigan. An installment of our variation of Eric Lipp's No Chappaquiddick thread where JFK survives Dallas.

Sen Romney MA-RHis passion for campaigning began in the late sixties when his father George served as Governor of Michigan. And supported by Californian Governor Nixon, Romney, Snr. calmly entered the White House in the turbulent year 1968.

But despite its initial sparkle, his father's single term of office was unremarkable and he was well beaten in 1972. The winning candidate Ted Kennedy left the Senate to occupy the White House, and his vacated seat would eventually be occupied by charismatic son Mitt. Despite Ted's desire to remain active in national politics, there would be no Romney, Jr. vs Kennedy rematch. because Ted had already made his mind up to return to California where he had campaigned in the 1960 election despite the strong reservations of his father Joseph P. Kennedy [1]. And when Mitt began to consider his own run for the White House and looked for his own source of support from California, Senator Kennedy would quickly emerge as one of his most vociferous opponents.

In 1880, on this day the founder of the Silver Legion of America William Dudley Pelley was born in Lynn, Massachusetts. An installment from the Fascist USA thread on Althistory Wiki.

Birth of an American Nazi 2He served firstly as Acting President of the United States of America after taking power in a coup de etat on April 9, 1936, and from then on as the first Chief of State of the New United States from 1936 until his death, though for the last decade of his leadership he was largely a figurehead.

Pelley's leadership of the NUS saw it come to a position as a dominant global power. His regime was marked by a strong anti-Semitic policy which saw Jews persecuted within the NUS and many deported to Europe for extermination by the Nazis, of whom Pelley was a strong admirer. Pelley's position as a close German ally during World War II saw America become a member of the Axis Powers - its military strength saw the Axis victorious in Europe but a conflict with Japan during the same period led to America's isolation from the Axis and a withdrawal into a strongly isolationist foreign policy which remains today. Pelley is the author of several works, and is the creator of the Pelley Doctrine, which dictates that the New United States will use "all force" to secure its own territory.

In 1942, General Douglas MacArthur and a select group that included his wife Jean and son Arthur, as well as Sutherland, Akin, Casey, Marshall, Charles A. Willoughby, LeGrande A. Diller, and Harold H. George, arrived in Corregidor in four PT boats.

Part 2 of 3: "Depth Charge" Doug Forced AshoreForced by the Japanese to abandon the military installation base on Guam, MacArthur et. al. were forced to seek sanctuary in the independent (and neutral) Philippine Republic. Of course they were by no means certain that such a request would be granted, but the depth charges of the Imperial Japanese Navy had damaged their escape crafts and they were left with no choice.

Despite the determined efforts of Aguinaldo, Rizal et. all the Filipino Patriots had only been partially successful in their bid for independence; instead of a Colony, the Philippines becomes a protectorate that eventually gained full independence during the 1920s when the United States was in a heavy isolationist phase. This status had been earned by fighting in World War One as a sovereign state alongside US/UK and subsequently becoming a Charter Members of the League of Nations. As a result the Washington naval treaties and the Nine Power Pact include a provision for the US to vacate the Philippine bases with the Philippine Republic sovereign and neutral with minimal military beyond constabulary forces.

Consequently, MacArthur was interned and spent the war in a luxury hotel suite in Manila with his wife and Philippine mistress. The Philippines missed World War Two in the Pacific, even though they declare war on Hitler ultimately their influence/involvement in events was limited. However, events took a further odd turn, when MacArthur emerged as the unlikely candidate for Military Governor of Japan.
This blog is an article from the Neutral Philippine thread conceived by Ed, Mike McIlvain and Scott Palter.

In 2013, disgraced judge Piero Antonio Bonnet escaped from his incarceration in the Vatican and burst into the Papal Conclave.

Crisis of the 116th CardinalClaiming to speak on behalf of "the 116th cardinal" he revealed previously undisclosed details of the Vatileaks scandal. These revelations we so profoundly shocking that the electors were forced to suspend the election process and seek deep meditation.

The Vatican authorities only became aware of this unprecedented situation due to the implausible delay in the appearance of smoke to signal the selection of a new holy Pontif.

In 1942, on this day General Douglas MacArthur, his wife Jean, four year old son Arthur and Cantonese amah Ah Che were all killed when ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy fired upon Motor Torpedo Boat PT-41 in Manila Bay. Their tragic deaths, and the surrender of Bataan and then Corregidor marked a new low point of confidence in a series of reversals that had beset the Allies since the attack on Pearl Harbour.

Death of Dug-out DougAlthough Washington could place the blame for the "Day of Infamy" on local commanders Husband Kimmel and Walter Short, the Philippine Fiasco was expected and it was a different matter altogether. For one, the mismanaged defence was organized by a trusted insider, the former US Chief of Staff, Douglas MacArthur. But he foolishly ignored warnings of an attack, and his unprepared air force were destroyed by a Japanese bombing run of the runway. Then, initial success in confronting the invaders was set back by lack of resources. Not expecting to order a retreat, MacArthur had failed to properly organize the defence of Bataan. Soon enough, he was hopelessly trapped on Corregidor Island in Manila Bay arguing that Japan had the bottle, but he owned the cork.

He then refused to join the President of the Philippines in his escape by submarine, and when ordered by the President to depart for Australia, faced a choice between a court martial or abandoning his men to die. Indecisively, he threatened to resign his commission, and fight on as a sixty-one year old private. But finally, accepting an assurance from the PT Boat Commander, Lieutenant Bulkeley that escape would be "a piece of cake" he unwisely chose a Motor Boat over a submarine. It was a final misjudgement in a string of poor decisions.

One of the many consequences of his death would be felt in North Africa. Having been falsely assured by Winston Churchill that Singapore was impregnable, after its capture the Australian Government demanded the recall of their divisions for domestic defence. Churchill had convinced Roosevelt that it was necessary to create a paper army in Australia headed by MacArthur in order to avoid that eventuality, but of course that was no longer possible.

In 1938, on this day the tin-pot army of Austrian Chancellor Adolph Schicklegruber marched into the tiny Soviet Republic of Munich. Predictably, the Füehrer's latest antics were greeted by fresh calls for the introducton of the collective security model proposed and then abandoned during the brief "Wilsonian Moment".

Happy Endings 13
Das Kleiner AnschlußUnlike the outmoded structures of the other victor nations, the American Republic's constitution encouraged a sensible level of consultation between the branches of government prior to executive action. This quickly revealed a shocking new isolationism on the Hill. Lacking a platform of popular support, President Wilson quietly dropped¹ his radical proposals for collective security and instead of attending in person dispatched his Secretary of State Robert Lansing to the Peace Conference. After months of drawn-out negotiation, Lloyd George and Clemenceau admitted their worst fears of a twenty-year armistice followed by an even more bloody conflict.

The cause of this cycle was determined to be Prussian militarism which was squarely blamed on Bismarck and his heirs. And so the unavoidable and perhaps inevitable conclusion was that the Prussian German State had to be broken up. The demilitarization of the Rhineland, and the occupation of the coal-rich Saar proceeded without much difficulty. And in fact, many aspects of the break-up went to plan, but only where Anglo-French interests were at stake. Some of the länder even refused to return to the pre-unification monarchies and one such example was Bavaria.

But by this stage, the Anglo-French Governments had decided that a mixture of different philosophies was no bad thing after all as it would "spike" a resurgence of German unity. However the small fly in this ointment was a ridiculous little man with a bad moustache. His romantic dreams of a Großer Deutschland generated concern in European Capitals and a wild level of enthusiasm in Southern Germany and Austria. But it was nothing of substance to really trouble the happy retirement years of Woodrow Wilson and his second wife Edith Bolling. After all, they had only married in 1914, and were able to fully enjoy the long autumnal years after they left the White House in 1921. Unlike Prussian Germany, their happy marriage really was a lasting union under God.

In 1689, on this day deposed English monarch James II landed in Kinsale with six thousand French soldiers and set about establishing a new Kingdom, a Catholic Stuart Ireland.

Jacobite Rule Established in the Kingdom of IrelandEver since the Reformation, the English feared that the Catholic Powers would use Ireland as an invasion bridgehead. When Cromwell led an Irish campaign, he had granted land to discharge his Protestant Army. After the restoration, it was hoped that the Stuarts would return that disputed land. And when James II was overthrown by the Williamites, it became clear that the violent clash between Protestants and Catholics would be fought to a decision in Ireland.

During the early skirmishes, acts of religious violence forced the Protestant population to flee for their lives. But of course the Catholic victory was a close run thing. Days before the Battle of the Boyne, the Earl of Tyrconnell (commander in chief of the Jacobite forces in Ireland) recognised William and opened fire. One shot grazed William's shoulder, causing him to slump over his horse which then threw him. The wild jubilation that followed was an unmistakeable sign that only the death of William could have prevented an eventual Protestant victory.

In 1776, in Baltimore, Maryland, newspapers made recognition of the fairer sex, which would be much needed as the troubles with the mother country became increasingly violent.

Beginning of Women's Suffrage in AmericaA blurb noted, "The necessity of taking all imaginable care of those who may happen to be wounded in the country's cause, urges us to address our humane ladies, to lend us their kind assistance in furnishing us with linen rags and old sheeting, for bandages". As the newspapers came out early, posted bills appeared that evening reading, "Our country's cause for liberty includes us all", reiterating the need for women to help as well as noting that men would need to share their liberty when granted. The appeal for aid would be crucial to the American war effort as well as to the quick pace of suffrage for women in the soon-to-be independent colonies.

A new story by Jeff ProvineOver the course of the Revolutionary War, women did aid in many ways such as tending to farms and businesses while men were gone to war, collecting supplies, tending to the wounded, and even participating in battle. Molly Pitcher, the nickname for who is believed to be Mary Hays, aided her husband during the darkest days of Valley Forge and even assisted in firing the cannon when he collapsed at the Battle of Monmouth. Thomas Paine (whom many began to suspect was merely making his name and fortune by writing fiery notions) produced a companion to his popular The Crisis entitled The Warm Hearth to encourage the home front as he had the soldiers. He wrote, "These are the times that try women's souls: The harvest wife and sunshine sweetheart will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but she that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman". He was much criticized for holding women in an esteem that would not be seen commonly in England until the late Victorian Era, but the bold voice was echoed by women throughout the Revolution, notably Abigail Adams as she wrote to her husband.

It would be the words of Abigail Adams that would finally assure a permanent political voice for American women. She had written her husband during the Continental Congress that she longed for a declaration of independence and, " .. by the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors". The words would seemingly fall under blind eyes in 1776, but in 1787, at the Constitutional Convention, they would be reiterated along with the demands of thousands of women for the vote. Interestingly, the reason Mr. Adams attended was that he had been passed over for Minister to Britain in favor of Thomas Paine, whose growing fame among the womenfolk had made him irksome to many in Congress and wanted him more distant.

Men at the Congress were not so certain. Along with the cries for recognition were the knowing nods of conservatism, fearing what pure democracy could do to a country legally torn apart by the mob (as would be seen some years later in the French Revolution). Finally, however, Abigail would write to John about the issue of the three-fifth compromise with the struggles for the South to get representation for their population while having slaves unable to vote. Women were allowed to vote in some of the states; for example, Lydia Taft of Massachusetts had won her vote in a town all meeting after the deaths of her husband and son left her the head of the family, and New Jersey listed the only restriction on general suffrage to be possessing only fifty pounds in cash or property. Mrs. Adams noted that if voting rights were expanded in the North with its largely Federalist leaning, they would gain an advantage on popular referenda.

Adams skillfully weaved the point into the discussion in the convention and later Constitution when the Fourth Amendment in the Bill of Rights provided for universal suffrage dependent upon property. Many local laws had already changed to be more welcoming of women, and the national consensus finally included the voice of women. Many famous ladies would speak up for rights, such as Representatives Frances Wright in 1840. The first female United States Senator, Elizabeth Caddy Stanton, would be instrumental in legislation that would solve the slavery question by gradual emancipation with reimbursement to masters after instilling legal requirements for humane treatment. During the latter part of the nineteenth century, many women in the federal government would be praised for their works of social reform, though they would also be criticized for limiting America's potential in expansionism, particularly in the cases of independence retained to new territories in the Philippines, Hawaii, Cuba, and Nicaragua.

In 2008, shaken awake from the peaceful sleep of aeons into the frightful nightmare of his corrupted Paradise the Supreme Being disowns the cold-hearted stranger that man has become instead he abandons the Earth to build a new Eden on the Planet Mars.

The Reconciliation
Co-written with Jeff ProvineMonths of peeping through telescopes quickly develops into a 24x7 Internet-based fixation until technocrats step into the void of childish disappointment by promising to reverse mankind's "downgrade".

Funded by the largest PayPal fund in human history, a colloborative international project is launched which quickly consumes the global resource pool of geeks at the expense of gadget development which is temporarily put on hold. Until finally landing on the Red Planet, the wayward child confronts an angered parent exhibiting a "this better be good" expression which signals a somewhat limited patience for reconciliatary dialogue.

Disregarding a pre-prepared (but somewhat over-complicated) statement carefully drafted by World Leaders (and their lawyers), Commander Robert A. Taylor removes his helmet, looks the Supreme Being straight in the eye and delivers an emotionally shattering ad hominem - "Something was missing in our harsh world, and that was love".

In 1981, on this day Reichchancelor Kurt Waldheim (pictured in the centre) authorised a settlement of $7,000 per holocaust survivor to expatriates of Vienna's former Jewish Community. Article 46 Settlement
This action brought a financial closure at least to a series of tragic events that had begun forty-three years before.
Canadian journalist Isabel Vincent described how a marrauding group of Nazi thugs ruthless expatriated their businesses and homes and murdered some ~
"..after the German Army marched into Austria on March 12, 1938 Jews were forced by law to register their property with the Gestapo, the secret state police, which worked under the auspices of the SS, the most powerful organization within the Nazi Party. Jews were also encouraged to leave the country as per the Nazi's Jewish emigration policy. However they could only do so by buying their way out and selling all of their valuables and property at cut-rate prices to various government agencies. A year later, when the war started, confiscation by the SS was commonplace in countries occupied by the Nazis, who seemed to thumb their notes at Article 46 of the 1907 Hague Convetion on the Rules of Land Warface which states that "the honour and rights of families, the lives and private property of citizens, as well as religious convictions and practices will be respected. Private property will not be confiscated. ""

In 1938, a culmination of historical cross-national pressures to unify German populations under one nation resulted in the Anschluss - the annexation of Austria and Switzerland into Greater Germany by the Nazi regime in two phases. Anschluss Phase 1
During World War One Switzerland's neutrality was seriously brought into question by the Grimm-Hoffmann Affair. Robert Grimm (pictured), a socialist politician, traveled to Russia as an activist to negotiate a separate peace between Russia and Germany, in order to end the war on the Eastern Front in the interests of socialism and pacifism. Swiss neutrality was further compromised by one unexpected result of the peace settlement, an expansion of Switzerland itself during the Interwar Period. In a referendum held in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg on 11 May 1919 over 80% of those voting supported a proposal that the state should join the Swiss Confederation.
Later, and as a result of Aryanisation, both Germany and Austria suffered a catastrophic capital flight as huge quantities of gold and other Jewish assets had been moved to Swiss Banks in Basle.
Continues in Phase Two.

In 1785, on this day 15th President of the United States John McLean was born in Morris County, New Jersey.

Birth of the Politician on the Supreme CourtHe was an American jurist and politician who served in the United States Congress, as U.S. Postmaster General, and as a justice on the Ohio and U.S. Supreme Courts. Because of his positions on anti-slavery extension he was often discussed for the Whig and Republican nominations for President.

While Postmaster General, McLean supported Andrew Jackson, who offered him the posts of Secretary of War and Secretary of the Navy. McLean declined both and was instead appointed to the Supreme Court by Jackson on March 6, 1829, to a seat vacated by Robert Trimble. McLean was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 7, 1829, receiving his commission the same day.

Known as "The Politician on the Supreme Court", he associated himself with every party on the political spectrum, moving from a Jackson Democrat, to the Anti-Jackson Democrats, the Anti-Masonic Party, the Whigs, the Free Soilers, and finally the Republicans. Through the 1830s and 1840s, he was frequently discussed as a potential Whig presidential candidate.

But he finally entered the Executive Branch of the Federal Government when President John Tyler offered him the post of Secretary of War. And because of his anti-slavery-extension positions, he was considered by the new Republican party as a candidate in 1856. He narrowly beat John C. Frémont and went onto beat John Buchanan in the fall.

In 2011, a devastating earthquake, initially estimated at Richter magnitude 8.9 but later upgraded to magnitude 9.0, struck Japan's divided island of Honshu.

Meltdown in North JapanIts epicenter was located in the Miyagi prefecture, within the People's Democratic Republic of Japan, commonly known in the West as North Japan. The PDRJ had been established in 1947 under the direction of occupation forced from the Soviet Union following the invasion of the Japanese Home Islands which ended the Pacific phase of World War II.

The earthquake was discovered to have done serious damage to the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Plant located in the town of Okuma in the Futaba District of Fukushima Prefecture, whose namesake city had been permanently established as the capital of North Japan in 1948. The seriousness of the damage was concealed for several days by the Communist regime of "People's Secretary" Tadayoshi Ichida, by which time at least two of the plant's six reactors were approaching meltdown despite the efforts of technicians and drafted labor to shut them down. Additionally, a cooling pool for spent fuel rods was reported to have dried up, leaving the fiercely radioactive and highly flammable rods exposed to the air.

A new article by Eric LippsThe accident was greeted with horror in Tokyo, capital of the Republic of Japan, AKA South Japan. It was feared that in the event of a meltdown a huge plume of radioactive material might - depending on the direction of the wind at the time - drift southward across the demilitarized zone separating the two Japans just north of Tokyo. Although no Japanese cities had ever been subjected to nuclear attack, the images from Kaesong and Pyongyang after the bombings of September 9 and 12, 1952, had left a deep impression upon the Japanese people, many of whom became convinced that the U.S. had been willing to use this weapon in Korea because its targets were nonwhite. A 1995 alternative history novel, The Fallen Sun, depicted a world in which the German discovery of uranium fission had occurred not in December 1939, after the outbreak of the Second World War, but a year earlier, so that word of the discovery was not suppressed by the Nazi regime before reaching the West. As a result, in the novel, the war ended in late 1945 following the atomic bombing of two Japanese cities, forestalling the planned joint U.S.-Soviet invasion which resulted in the division of the land of the Rising Sun. The novel, first published in Japan, proved highly popular in the U.S. and Europe - and highly controversial both in Japan and abroad for its suggestion that such a world might in some ways be better, even for Japan, than the "real" one in which others had been the first to die beneath a mushroom cloud.

The secretive North Japanese government showed its desperation when, on March 14, it revealed just how seriously it had been harmed by the earthquake, and in particular how dangerous the situation had become at the Fukushima facility. Offers of help followed from the U.S., Europe, the Korean Union and even South Japan, which had itself sustained serious damage in the March 11 quake. The question was whether that aid would be enough, and in time enough, to avert an even greater disaster.

In 1649, like most revolutions, the French Fronde began because of money. Participation in the Thirty Years War had helped France weaken its Hapsburg competitors by supporting Sweden against Austria and then going into direct war with Spain in 1635, but the coffers of the king had run dry and all the fighting had not delivered France any greater power over Europe.

Parlement Rejects Peace of Rueil Instead, it had created a generation of battle-hardened, unemployed young men who had fought under their own leadership in Germany. The nation had been turned into a powder keg, and taxation would be the match.

The Thirty Years War was nearly closed with the Peace of Westphalia, but the ongoing war with Spain needed more funding. Cardinal Mazarin, who had taken over after the death of Cardinal Richelieu, effectively ruled France while the young King Louis XIV was being groomed toward adulthood. He knew he could not tax the princes without losing political power, so he decided to tax the Parlement of Paris, the elected officials of the bourgeoisie. Unlike the Parliament of England, which held the right to tax, the Parlement acted more like the tribunes of Ancient Rome, speaking up in judicial review of laws passed by the royal Court. Strictly, Parlement was a council for advice and meant to record the law, but Mazarin's measure in May of 1648 had been a step taken too far. Taxes had built upon the middle class for some time, and they now marched out against it. Not only did Parlement refuse to pay, but they demanded reform to eliminate previous unfair taxes.

A new story by Jeff ProvineMazarin, a cardinal in anti-cardinal Paris, bought time for some months when victory over the Spanish at the Battle of Lens gave his government clout. He arrested those who stood against him, but the action only led to uprising. Barricades were erected in the streets, and panic erupted. The nobles called for the first union of the Estates General since 1615 to arrange for an army, but cardinal-led royals realized that would give them an unbeatable upper hand. Instead, Mazarin and the royalty fled. With the Treaty of Westphalia, the Prince of Conde returned with his army to begin to besiege a divided Paris. Terms of peace began to be discussed, but Parlement saw its one chance for a leap forward against the royalists. Taking up allies among the nobles, particularly Prince of Conti (brother of Conde and distantly royal), they appealed to Spain for aid. Conti invaded the north of France, and the country fell into civil war, mirroring the one that had been seen in England only a few years before. The Fronde (named after the sling Parisians had used to smash windows) had begun and would drag on for ten years.

Spanish aid would buy Parlement time to build their faction, but it would ultimately run out as Spain fell to its own "fronde". Campaigns crisscrossed France, and the tide of battle ebbed and flowed until Parlement and its noble allies finally triumphed over the royals. Rather than exiling their king as the English had done, the French embraced the young Louis XIV (pictured), who would initially struggle against the strong constitution that bound him. Still, he would rule effectively and prove an impeccable statesman and politician, guiding his Parlement to grant funds for public works, such as the Gardens of the People at Versailles.

The success of a parliamentary system on the Continent would magnify the advances in political theory made in England. Absolutism would be seen as a great evil, even though the committees and councils of Parlement would be unquestionable at various points, turning France against Sweden as well as its old opponents in Austria and Spain, who effectively defeated their republicans. The next century was tumultuous as England, the Netherlands, France, and several smaller republics in Italy and Germany would be pitted against the ideals of absolutists, which would eventually fall to their own revolutions.

Ultimately, however, the system would prove corruptible. Massive bureaucracy and political impotence would call for a return of seemingly royal powers to a single person who would be direct in using it, ushering in a new era of "fascism" under powerful rulers such as Governor-General Nathaniel Greene, Napoleon of Corsica, Lord Protector Arthur Wellesley.

In 1777, in a symbolic act of reconstruction, loyalist Thomas Hutchinson returned from Canada on this day to be reinstated as royal governor of the Massachussetts Colony.

Canada in CrisisPrior to his exile, Hutchinson believed that the Parliament should be controlling the thirteen colonies but he wasn't a supporter of the Stamp act. Even though he wasn't a supporter of the Stamp Act, he still enforced the tax. This caused a mob of angry patriots to go to Thomas Hutchison's house and burn it. His house had the most enriched library ever in the thirteen colonies. He was the symbol of loyalty during the pre-Revolutionary period, and he was also one of the most hated people in Boston.

Like Hutchinson, over fifty thousand American loyalists had fled north of the border, but they had neither accepted that their cause was lost, nor their society dismantled. And so it proved to be the case, quite contrary to the prediction from the rebel John Adams that the revolution took place in the hearts and minds of the American people before the fighting ever started. Because the "American Crisis" had abruptly ended when Commander-in-Chief William Howe's rampant British troops caught up with the bedraggled rebel army just outside Hackensack, New Jersey.

Trouble was the imperial government needed way more than fifty thousand loyalists to restore imperial rule in the reconstructed royal colonies. And in their unseemly haste, the British unwittingly depopulated Upper Canada. Because the communities in provinces such as Ontario that had begun to prosper over the previous four years were soon abandoned as no longer viable.

In 1856, on this day the disasterous foreign and military policies of the British Government were savagely exposed by an opportunistic cross-Channel invasion from the new steam-powered French Navy.

Allies in DisarrayNapoleon III's anglophobe ministers had encouraged the British to strike the Russian fortress at Kronstadt, a naval campaign that would guarantee victory in the Crimean War. And so an armada of 250 Royal Navy ships, many especially built under orders, asssembled in the Solent and sailed for Northern Russia. Meanwhile, Napoleon III (pictured) travelled in person to lead his troops besieging Sevastapol.

In his absence, a political convulsion in France brought to power military and naval commanders who had served under Bonaparte, and who recognised a once in a lifetime opportunity to reverse the injustice of his defeats at Trafalgar and Waterloo. Because many of those admirals and generals had participated as young men in those very battles and were burning to get even with "perfidious albion". Until his departure for Russia, these hotheads had only been held in check by the Emperor's presence in France.