4. A Dethroned King on the Lam
A year later, when Napoleon escaped from Elba and regained power, Joseph joined his younger brother in Paris. After Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo and second abdication, Joseph chartered an American ship, the Commerce, for an escape to the United States. He came up with a harebrained scheme to spirit his brother to freedom. He proposed to switch places with the former emperor, and impersonate Napoleon while the latter sailed in his place to America. The plan went nowhere. When he heard that Napoleon had surrendered to Captain Maitland of the British Royal Navy’s HMS Bellerophon, Joseph finally sailed off to the United States. He left his wife and daughters in Paris. They eventually moved to Frankfurt, and then to Brussels. En route, Joseph’s ship was boarded and inspected twice by the Royal Navy. However, he had fake identity papers, and they passed muster with the British inspectors.
