Note 293 — Chapter LXXI
Reading edition
"The hasty journey of the King of Naples through France created general surprise. The first idea excited by it was, that the Emperor had commissioned him to assemble the army and form a junction with the force under the viceroy, in order to protect Italy from an invasion, which appeared to be contemplated, and the execution of which was at that time rendered probable, by the movements of the English troops in Sicily. Nobody attributed his return to any other object."—Savary, tom. iii., p. 126.