During the period of Napoleon's exile on Elba, the allied plenipotentiaries assembled at Vienna to determine the future shape of Europe after the fall of Napoleon and break-up of the First French Empire. The congress was characterized by its dances more than its debates and the former allies nearly came to a renewed war, with Britain and Russia leading opposite factions. Napoleon's father-in-law, the Emperor Francis of Austria, was vigorously opposed to the deposed Emperor's presence so close to his own possessions in northern Italy, as well as against any further intimacy between Napoleon and his daughter, Marie-Louise. To effect the latter policy he appointed Count Neipperg to her entourage with instructions to seduce the Arch-duchess. Neipperg's successful debauchery ensured the intellectually dull Marie-Louise forgot her husband and, after Napoleon's death, married the one-eyed, but dashing count.
During the tortuous negotiations in Vienna and Napoleon's occupation of the Elban throne, his ultimate fate continued to be discussed, and both the Azores and St Helena were again suggested as possible final solutions to the problem of what to do with the quondam Emperor. At one point the purchase of an Azorean island from the Portuguese was considered. In the event, the dilatory nature of the debates, the increasing discontent in France and the refusal of Louis XVIII to pay Napoleon his pension, guaranteed a brief, heady success for Napoleon as he returned to France for what history knows as 'The Hundred Days'. The action however, immediately united the congress, which unanimously declared Napoleon an outlaw with the consequence of ultimate defeat for his cause at Waterloo, and his final exile on St Helena.
Taking advantage of the wranglings and intrigues at Vienna, Talleyrand skilfully rehabilitated France among the first rank of European powers. Indeed at one point when a new war seemed inevitable, the idea was mooted that Napoleon himself be brought home from exile in order to command French armies in the field against the Russian faction!
Thus was the eagle finally caged, though Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater was to play one last part in the drama during the Hundred Days.