rule for twenty years. In 1794, France's National Convention, represented by Victor Hugues, tried to reconquer the islands but succeeded in occupying them only temporarily, the islands being recaptured away by the powerful British vessel Queen Charlotte. 19th Century In 1802, the First French Empire under Napoleon launched a successful operation to recapture the archipelago from the British. On 14 April 1809, the British fleet of Admiral Sir Alexander Forrester Inglis Cochrane reconquered the archipelago. Three young people from les Saintes, Mr. Jean Calo, Mr. Cointre and Mr. Solitaire, succeeded in guiding three French vessels (D'Hautpoul, Courageux, and Félicité) commanded by the infantry division of Admiral Troude which were caught unawares inside the bay and helped them to escape back to France through the North Passage called "La baleine". These men were decorated with the Legion of Honour for their actions. Guadeloupe island was also conquered on 26 February 1810 by the British.. The French Governor Jean Augustin Ernouf was forced to capitulate. By a bilateral treaty signed in Stockholm on 3 March 1813, Sweden promised the British that they would make a common front against Napoleon's France. In return, the British would have to support the ambitions of Stockholm on Norway. Pragmatically, Karl XIV Johan indeed understood that it was time for Sweden to abandon Finland (lost in 1809) and to spread the kingdom westward. Besides, Great Britain offered the colony of Guadeloupe to Karl XIV Johan personally to seal this new alliance. Under the Treaty of Paris signed on 30 May 1814, the United Kingdom accepted to give Guadeloupe back to France. King Karl XIV Johan of Sweden retroceded Guadeloupe to France and earned in exchange the recognition of the Union of Sweden and Norway and the payment to the Swedish royal house of 24 million gold francs in compensation (Guadeloupe Fund). However, the French only came back to les Saintes on 5 December, when the General Leith, commander in chief of forces in the West Indies and governor of the Leeward Isles accepted it. The new governor of Guadeloupe and dependencies, the Commodore Sir Comte de Linois and his deputy governor Sir Eugène-Édouard Boyer, Baron de Peyreleau, sent by Louis XVIII to repossess the colony were quickly disturbed by the return of Napoleon I in April 1815 (Hundred Days). A conflict broke out between Bonapartists and monarchists. On 19 June 1815, Sir Comte de Linois (monarchist) forced