Carleton College
Library - Ottawa
I
'
HISTORY OF EUROPE,
PROM THE COMMEMCEMENT OP THE
FRENCH REVOLUTION
IN
TO THE
RESTORATION OF THE BOURBONS
IN
H®H
BY ARCHIBALD ALISON, F.R.S.E.
ADVOCATE.
ABRIDGED FROM THE LAST LONDON EDITION:
»OS THB USE OP GENERAL READERS, COLLEGES, ACADEMIES, ANl OTHER
SEMINARIES OP LEARNING.
BY EDWARD S. GOULD.
SEVENTH EDITION,
NEW YORK:
A- S. BARNES & BURR, PUBLISHERS, '
51 AND 63 JOHN STREET.
1861.
RECOMMENDATIONS.
The Publishers annex the following Extracts of Letters commendatory
of Gould's Abridgment of Alison's History of Europe.
From Jas. Kent, ex-Chancellor of the State of New York.
" The numbers of Alison's History, as they successively appeared, I read with great
interest. I have now read Mr. Gould's Abridgment, and permit me to say, I think it is
admirably executed ; it is, indeed, one of the best abridgments I ever saw. The mate
rial facts are all retained, and stated in strong and perspicuous language ; and Mr. Gould
has displayed great industry and skill in preserving the substance of so great a history,
and yet giving it in language of his own."
From Joseph Story, a Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States.
*It seems to me an excellent abridgment of Alison's great work, written in a clear
and chaste style, presenting the narrative in an exact form for the general reader, and
condensing the facts and materials, so as to bring them within the reach of all classes of
persons desirous of information of that most interesting period, and justly to command
their confidence. The work cannot fail to be extensively useful ; for few can command
the leisure to read Mr. Alison's bulky volumes, even if the expense were no object ; and
all may, as I believe, profit from an abridgment so completely within the reach of the
means of the curious and the educated, and whose fidelity may be relied on."
From Rev. J. M. Matthews, D.D., late Chancellor of the University of N. York.
" 1 have examined Mr. Gould's Abridgment of Alison's History of Europe, and have
no hesitation in saying that Mr. G. has performed his task with singular fidelity and
ability. In abridgments of historical works, the important incidents are often so detached
from each other, and from their attending circumstances, as to impair the connexion and
interest of the narrative ; and the spirit and character of the original are sacrificed for the
sake of brevity. Mr. Gould cannot be charged with this fault. He has infused into his
Abridgment most of the excellencies which distinguish the History as written by Alison
him sen ; and has conferred a benefit on our seminaries of learning, by bringing within
their reach the substance of a work which is acknowledged to be one ol the most
valuable histories in our language."
From Col, Stone, Deputy-Superintendent of Common Schools in the city of New
York, and Editor of the Commercial Advertiser.
" Mr. Alison's noble work — the noblest of modern histories — notwithstanding the sur
prising cheapness and the popular form in which it has been brought out by the Harpers,
is, nevertheless, by far too voluminous to be universally read by the people. There are
therefore, thousands and thousands to whom Mr. Gould has rendered a valuable service
by the present Abridgment. Upon Mr. Gould's book we place a high estimate. Our
knowledge of his character forbids us L ;uestion its fidelity ; and, having read much of
his volume, we are free to vouch the clearness and spirit of his narrative, the vigour of
his style, and the soundness of his principles."
ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1844, by
EDWARD S. GOULD,
la th« Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.
(4)
THIS TOLUM B
IS INSCRIBED TO
THE HONORABLE ROGER MINOTT SHERMAN, LL.D.,
AS A SLIGHT TRIBUTE TO
S WORTH, HIS TALENTS, AND HIS FAME,
BY
IIS FRIEND AND RELATIVE,
EDWARD 3. GOULD.
PREFACE.
ALISON'S HISTORY OF EUROPE is the most voluminous work of the day ; it
employed its author twenty-eight years in study and composition; it contains
more than double the reading matter of Scott's Napoleon, occupies ten large
octavos, arid fills between eight and nine thousand pages : such a work — at what-
ever price it may be published — is sealed to the general reader, as well as to
colleges, academies, and other seminaries of learning. The editor of this volume
has therefore undertaken to place before his countrymen, within a compass that
all may have leisure to read and means to purchase, a condensed account of that
eventful period which Mr. Alison styles the era of Napoleon.
With this object in view, the editor has, as he believes, extracted every materia.
fact from Mr. Alison's work, adding nothing of his own in the way of opinion,
argument, or assertion, and endeavoring to present the original narrative —
abridged of its repetitions, superfluities, inaccuracies, and inelegancies — in the
spirit of its author : the preservation of Mr. Alison's language, however, is but
partially attained, as the requisite degree of condensation often rendered that
impossible. To avoid misapprehension on this point, it may be proper to say that
every line of this volume has been transcribed by the editor's own hand, and not
one paragraph is given in the precise words of the original.
It is not to be supposed that the omissions, in the compilation of this book,
have been made with unerring judgment ; but on that subject the editor contents
himself with believing that no two living men would entirely agree as to what
should be rejected and what retained in such an Abridgment of such a work.
The campaigns of Wellington in India, which Mr. Alison narrates at great
length, have been omitted in the Abridgment on account of their entire irrele-
vancy : the chapter on Britisn Finances is placed at the end of the volume, in
the form pf an Appendix.
The chapter on the American War — which the editor believes is destined to an
unenviable notoriety whenever it shall be currently circulated — is a tissue of
misrepresentation; and, as it has no legitimate connexion with the "History of
Europe," is a gratuitous libel on the people and institutions of the United
States, and could not be admitted into an American book without alterations
contradictory to the title-page of this volume — it has been wholly omitted.
« PREFACE.
There are many faults in Mr. Alison's book, which it is to be hoped he may
revise for a future edition. Corrections of style cannot, indeed, be expected, for
such a process would require a re-writing of the entire work ; and, besides, an
author capable of so many blunders, would almost necessarily be incapable of
amending them. His constant use of the word whok, as synonymous with aZ/, is
singularly absurd : " a diplomatic note from the whole sovereigns ;" " the whole
•oldiers retreated;" " he brought the whole guns to the front ;" "the whole houses
were occupied by marksmen." The word important is reiterated until it forces a
smile : almost every town, fortress, and post defended or captured throughout the
whole narrative is designated as an " important " one. The repetition of the same
word in a sentence is another great fault in Mr. Alison's style : " a large supply
of mules was obtained to supply the great destruction of those useful animals ;"
" the first business committed to the Senate and Chamber was the nomination of a
committee ;" " because a brave nation is not to be regarded as overthrown because
it has experienced reverses ;" " had no alternative but to submit, even on the hard
terms of submitting to the cession of Norway ;" " while this bloody conflict was
going oTi on the steeps above Zadorra on the right ;" " even the generals were
shaken by the general contagion ;" " obtain for Sweden the support of some foreign
power able to support its independence ;" " it was owing to the time lost in this
march and countermarch that the failure of the operation was owing :" these ex-
amples are but a small portion of what might be quoted. A worse fault than this
is Mr. Alison's misuse of words : he frequently writes of " a majority of seventy-
four to five," " a majority of two hundred and twenty-six to thirty ;" " the officers
and soldiers of the army were the seat of this conspiracy ;" " officials, nominated
by the crown, who enjoyed their seats only during life ;" " both in the tribune, in
the Club of Clichy and in the public journals ;" " the stocks rose from forty-five to
seventy, an advance of twenty-five per cent. ;" " the taxes on the inhabitants were
raised to two hundred per cent, on their incomes ;" " their respective shares in the
partition of Europe were chalked out ;" " the Russians and Austrians threw upon
each other the late disasters ;" " he was believed to be the sole survivor of his fol-
lowers."
Mr. Alison frequently falls into magniloquence. Speaking of Napoleon's return
from Egypt, he says : " Discourses of this sort, in every mouth, threw the public
into transports, so much the more entrancing as they succeeded a long period of
disaster ; the joyful intelligence was announced, amid thunders of applause, at all
the theatres ; patriotic songs again sent forth their heart-stirring strains from the
orchestra ; and more than one enthusiast expired of joy at the advent of the hero
who was to terminate the difficulties of the Republic." Referring to the retreat
of the French army from Germany after the battle of Leipsic, Mr. Alison says :
" the French eagles bade a final adieu to the German plains, the theatre of their
glories, of their crimes, and of their punishment." When the British troops
entered Bordeaux, in 1814, the inhabitants of that town proclaimed Louis XVIII.
king : Mr. Alison thus comments on the proceeding : " Thus had England the
glory o •'. first of all the allied powers, obtaining an open declaration from a great
citv in France in favor of their ancient but exiled monarch — just twenty year*
PREFACE. vn
and one month after the contest had begun, from the murder of the best and most
blameless of their line."(!) After the battle of Malo-Jaroslawitz, Napoleon held
a council of war, of which Mr. Alison remarks : " An Emperor, two Kings, and
three Marshals were there assembled : upon their deliberations hung the destinies
of the world." This Emperor was Napoleon, the two kings were Eugene Beau-
harnois and Murat, the marshals, Berthier, Bessieres and Davoust ; and the time
was during the retreat from Moscow, when it was doubtful whether the par.
ties thus deliberating could force their way through the lines of their enemies.
In concluding this subject of inaccuracies and inelegancies of style, it may be
remarked, that the History of Mr. Alison abounds in mis-prints, for which, of
course, he is not responsible, although their correction is important to the accu-
racy of the work. Pius VII. is denominated Pius VI. ; Austria is printed for
Asturia, and again for Cuslrin; Finland for Sweden; Souham for Jourdan; notres
liberateurs for nos Uberateurs ; 31st for the 30th of April ; and in an indefinite
number of instances the dates in the marginal notes are erroneous.
Of the historical inaccuracies of Mr. Alison, it will suffice to designate a few of
the many instances in which he contradicts himself. In speaking of the events at
Malo-Jaroslawitz, on the retreat from Moscow, 1812, he says, that was "the/rs*
time Napoleon ever retired in an open field from his enemies ;" yet at Aspern, in
1809, after a much more disastrous defeat, Napoleon, he says, " retreated from
his enemies in an open field." Commenting on the battle of Dresden, August,
1813, he says the action was memorable from being "the last pitched battle
Napoleon ever gained ;" yet he tells us that Napoleon won the battle of Hanau,
October, 1813 ; of Champaubert, February, 1814 ; of Montereau, February, 1814
— which also he styles " the last and not the least brilliant of Napoleon's victo-
ries ;" and, finally, the battle of Ligny, June, 1815. Relating the arbitrary
measures of Napoleon to sustain the war and his government, after the battle of
Leipsic, Mr. Alison says, " a decree was passed by the Senate vesting the nomin-
ation of President of the Chamber of Deputies in the Emperor, and pi'orogating
tfie seat of such of the Deputies as had expired, and required to be. filled up anew, so
as to prevent any new election in the present disturbed state of the public mind.**
Mr. Alison's meaning in this ill-written sentence is, that the Deputies, whose terms
of service had expired were made, in the phrase of the present day, to hold over,
i. e. to continue to occupy their seats; yet, soon after, in referring to tile proceed-
ing, he says, "notwithstanding the pains which had been taken to secure the
interest of Napoleon in the Chamber, by granting to him the nomination of its
President, and the filling up of the vacant seats by the same authority, it soon
appeared," etc. Here we are told that the old members were kept in office and
that new members were put into their vacated seats : it is not, indeed, material
which of the two accounts is the true one, but the contradiction is a serious
blunder in an elaborate History. Again, speaking of the Charter granted by
Louis XVIII., after his first restoration, Mr. Alison recites its merits and its faults ;
in the former enumeration, he says, "prosecution or imprisonment was forbidden,
except in the cases provided for by law, and according to its forms :" in the latter, he
wm PREFACE.
says, " no provision was inserted to prevent or restrain arbitrary imprisonment, Of
limit the period during which a person arrested might be detained before trial-"
The value of Mr. Alison's work is also greatly impaired by an accumulation of
useless and uninteresting details ; by repetitions, to the third, fourth and fifth
time, of the same events ; and by the immethodical arrangement of chapters and
paragraphs, which places so many things out of the true order of their occurrence,
that the reader is constantly perplexed as to the chronological bearing of the inci-
dents upon each other.
It is unnecessary, though it would be easy, to prolong the perhaps ungracious
task of pointing out the faults of Mr. Alison's History : the editor has said thus
much in dispraise of the work, in order to furnish substantial reasons for under-
taking its abridgment ; whether he has committed errors equal in number and
consequence to those he has detected, is a matter for the public to decide.
NEW YORK, October, 1843.
ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FOURTH EDITION.
The Editor takes the occasion presented by the issuing of a Fourth Edition
of this Abridgment, to express his gratification at the decided success of the
book ; it has been, so far as he knows, universally approved — especially by
those whose approbation he was most desirous to secure ; and he will add, as
a proof of its success, that the number of copies sold in the past sixteen months
exceeds six thousand.
The present edition, as well as the one that immediately preceded it, is
furnished with an elaborate series of Questions which, without injuring it for
libraries, will render it more generally useful in seminaries of learning :
its value is also increased by the correction of a great number of verbal and
typographical errors, which existed in the earlier editions, and which, indeed,
seem to be inseparable from the first publication of a printed book.
NEW YOHK, March, 1845.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. *,
".j,UfcEc AND COMMENCEMENT OF THE REVOLUTION.
Importance ot ine subject — Causes of the savage character of the French Revo-
lution — Decreasing power of the nobles — Philosophy and Literature — State
of the Church — Privileges of the nobles — Taxation — Feudal services — Royal
prerogative — Corruption at court — Embarrassments of the finances — States.
General — Contests between the parties — Vacillation of the court — National
Assembly — Sitting of June 23rd — Concessions of the King — Defection of the
Duke of Orleans — Further concessions of the King — Consternation. in Paris
— Troops withdrawn to Versailles — Tumults in Paris — Storming of the Bas-
tile — Spread of the insurrection — National Guard, with La Fayette at their
head, set out for Versailles — First tumults there — The mob break into the
Palace — Royal family are forced to return to Paris — Progress of events —
Measures of the National Assembly — Finances — Confiscation of the Church
property — Assignats — Emigration of the nobles — Dissolution of the National
Assembly: - ......... . 1—9
CHAPTER II.
FROM THE OPENING OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY TO THE DEATH OF LOUIS.
Character of the Legislative Assembly — Its parties — Its measures — Oppression of
the clergy — Declaration of war against Hungary and Bohemia — Commence-
ment of the War — Insurrection of the Girondists — Proclamation of the allies
— Storming of the Tuileries — Imprisonment of the king and his family —
La Fayette 's escape from his army and imprisonment at Olmutz — Infernal
Triumvirate — Revolutionary Tribunal — General arrest of proscribed persons
— Massacres of the prisoners — Reflections on these atrocities — Legislative
Assembly gives place to the National Convention — Its parties — The Repub-
lic proclaimed — Finances — Universal Suffrage — Attempt to impeach Robes,
pierre and Marat — Preparations for the trial of Louis XVI. — Charges against
him — His previous treatment in prison — Appears before the Convention—-
Prepares his Will — Trial commences — Its result — Girondist? — Orders for
the King's Execution — Parting with his family — His death January 21st,
1793— His interment — Reflections — His character : . - 10 — 18
CHAPTER III. ^J^ C/^L'
ATE OF EUROPE PRIOR TO THE WAS. \/ f
Effects of the Revolution on other States — Condition of Great Britain — Opinions
— Parties — Mr. Fox — Mr. Pitt — Mr. Burke — Condition of Austria — Prussia
7
CONTENTS
• PA.QK
—Russia — Sweden — Turkey — Italy — Piedmont — Holland — Switzerland
— Spain — Forces of France — Treaty between Sweden and Austria — .Death
of the monarchs of these two countries — Francis, Emperor of Austria-
Efforts of the French to spread their Revolutionary principles — Effect of these
measures in England — France declares war against Great Britain : - - 18 — 24
CHAPTER IV.
CAMPAIGN OF 1792.
tfrench armies take the field — Their numbers — Numbers of the allies — Invasion
of Flanders — Ease with which it was repelled — Effect of the defeat in Paris
— King of Prussia joins the, army — Allies invade France — Their success —
Their inactivity — Defeat of Dumourier — Negotiations with Dumourier — Re-
treat of the allies — Renewed attempt on Flanders — Operations in Alsace and
the Low Countries — And in Flanders — Battle of Jemappes — Victory of the
French — Effects of Revolution in Flanders — French reverses on the Upper
Rhine — Close of the campaign :--.-... 24 — 3fr
CHAPTER V.
FRENCH REPUBLIC — FROM THE DEATH OF THE KINO TO THE FALL OF
ROBESPIERRE.
Difficulties in Paris— Revolutionary Tribunal— Trial of Marat— Efforts of the
Girondists — Commission of Twelve — Disturbance in the Convention — In-
surrection of the Club of Cordeliers. — Defeat of the Girondists in the
Convention — Renewal of the insurrection — Military preparations — Second
defeat of the Girondists — Their arrest and dissolution — Jacobins in power
— Opinions and revolts throughout France — Committee of Public Safety —
Law of suspected persons — Revolutionary Committees — Change of the Cal-
endar— Assassination of Marat — Proscription of the Girondists — Death of
the young Prince, Louis XVII. — Death of Marie Antoinette, Oct6ber 16th,
1793 — Violation of the Royal sepulchres in France — Abjuration of Chris-
tianity— Worship of Reason — Effects of these measures — Proscription and
Execution of Bailly, Custine, the Duke of Orleans, Desmoulins and Danton
—Dictatorship of Robespierre — Massacres throughout France — Reaction of "^
feeling in Paris — Accusation of Robespierre — His arrest — His execution —
Close of the Reign of Terror : 30—38
CHAPTER VI.
WAR IN LA VENDEE.
Description of La Vende'e — Its inhabitants — Commencement of hostilities —
Leaders — Orders of the Convention — Bravery and great success of the Roy-
aHsta — Their prisoners — Continued success of theVende'ans — Advance upon
Nantes — Republicans gain some success but are at length totally defeated —
Renewed efforts of the Convention on a large scale — Devastation of La Ven-
de'e— Alternate success of each party — Continued victories of the Ven-
deans unavailing — Cessation of hostilities — War of extermination com-
menced by order of the Convention— Atrocious cruelties of Carrier : - 39 — 44
C ONTENTS. 81
CHAPTER VII.
CAMPAIGN OF 1793.
PABE
Alliance of the European powers against France — Their want of union— Insubor-
dination of the French troops — French Finances — Commencement of the
campaign — Siege of Maestricht — Defeat of the French — Dumourier takes
command — Battle of Nerwinde and defeat of the French — Negotiations be-
tween the allies and Dumourier, and Dumourier's flight — Congress at Ant.
werp — Vigorous measures of the Convention — Disasters of the French on the
northern frontier — Operations on the Flemish frontier — Proximity of the
allies to Paris — Military preparations in France — Carnot — General discom-
fiture of the allies, and subsequent reverses of the French — Siege of Muu.
beuge commenced — Jourdan takes command and raises the siege — Moreau
attacks the Prussians at Permasin and at Weissenberg, and is defeated —
Fate of Strasburg — Secession of Prussia — Operations before Landau —
Campaigns on the Spanish frontier — Campaign in the maritime Alps — Cap-
ture of Lyons and massacre of the Royalists — Toulon — Its defences — Its
investment — Progress of the siege — Evacuation of Toulon — Distress and
escape of the inhabitants — Destruction of the French fleet — Massacre of
the citizens :
CHAPTER VIII.
CAMPAIGN OF 1794.
French navy — French and British ships of war — Success of the British fleets in
the West Indies — And in the Mediterranean — The Channel fleet under Lord
Howe encounters the French under Admiral Joyeuse — Victory of the British
commander — Effects of this victory — Allied plan of Campaign — Forces on
both sides — The allies underrate the power of Revolutionary France — Alter,
nation of success — Operations of Jourdan — Movements in West Flanders —
Defection of Austria — Success of the allies — Battle of Fleurus — Operations
on the Rhine — In Piedmont and Nice — Campaign on the Spanish frontier —
Jourdan and Kleber assume the offensive in the north — Winter campaign
—Subjugation of Holland — Capture of the Dutch fleet : • . 55—61
CHAPTER IX.
POLAND.
Kingdom of Poland — Primitive and savage character of the former government
— Clergy — Nobility— Peasantry — Power of the King — John Sobieski —
Factions after his death — First partition of Poland — Second partition— Resis-
tance of the Poles — Kosciusko — His success — Insurrection in Warsaw —
Provisional government established — Defeat of Kosciusko — Siege of War-
8aw — The siege is raised — Second siege of Warsaw — Its capture — Termina-
tion of the Polish Republic — Reflections : ..... 61 — *6
CHAPTER X
CONSOLIDATION OF THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT: CAMTAIGN OF 1795.
Parties in Paris after the fall of Robespierre — Humane measures of the Conven-
tion— Club of La Jeunesse Dore*e — Repeal of the Revolutionary laws, and
2
xii
CONTEN TS.
impeachment of the Jacobin leaders — Insurrection of the Fauxbourgs —
Firmness of the Convention — Their success — Execution of Jacobin prisoners
— The Convention form a new Constitution — Remarks on this Constitution
— It is opposed — The Convention appeal to the army — They appoint Napo-
leon Bonaparte to the command — Victory of Bonaparte over the insurgents
Secession of European powers from the alliance, but Austria and England
unite, nevertheless — French naval preparations — Campaign in the maritime
Alps — Position of the armies on the northern and eastern frontier — Jourdan's
operations and defeat on the Rhine — Expedition to Quiberon Bay — Defeat
of the Royalists — Republican atrocities — Capture of the Cape of Good
Hope: 66—73
CHAPTER XI.
CAMPAIGNS OF 1796.
Bonaparte's plan of campaign in Italy — His marriage with Josephine — Condition
of the French army — And of the allies — Action at Montenotte — Great sue-
cess of Napoleon — His alliance with Sardinia — He follows up his success—-
Battle of Lodi — His entry into Milan and military exactions — Vacillation of
Venice — Continued success — Siege of Mantua — Advance of Wurmser —
Defeat of Massena — Napoleon raises the siege of Mantua — Defeat of the
Austrians at Lonato and Salo — Personal danger of Napoleon — Battle of
Medola — Wurmser divides his forces — And advances upon Mantua — Action
of Caldiero — And of Arcola — Battle of Rivoli — Reflections on this cam.
paign — Civil war in La Vende'e — Condition of England — Disturbances in
London — Debate on the war — Proposals for peace — Relative position of
forces on the Upper and Lower Rhine — Opening of the campaign — Opera-
tions in the mountains and passes of the Black Forest — Discomfiture of Mo-
reau — Great disasters of the French — Moreau retreats through the Black
Forest — Continued defeats of the French — Siege and capture of Kehl —
Treaty between France and Spain — Ireland — French naval armament des-
tined for Ireland — Death of the Empress Catherine — Resignation of General
Washington: 74— 86
CHAPTER XII.
CAMPAIGN OF 1797.
Affairs in England — Suspension of specie payments in Great Britain — Limita.
tion of the Bill decreeing the suspension — Supplies for the year — Con.
spiracy in the British Navy — Mutiny at the Nore — Operations of the
hostile fleets — Action off Cape St. Vincent — Battle of Camperdown —
Effect of these victories — Death of Mr. Burke — Defection of Russia —
Armies in Italy — Battle of Tagliamento — Napoleon, after many minor
actions, forces his way across the Alps to the Austrian frontier — Armis-
tice of Leoben — Treaty of Judemberg — Partition of the Venetian territo-
ries— Venice — Revolutionary principles in Venice — Insurrection in the
Venetian provinces — Effects of these movements — Napoleon declares war
against Venice — Capture of Venice — Its spoliation — Operations on the
Rhine — Prussia — Genoa — Napoleon at Montebello— Domestic affairs of
France — Dissensions between the Royalists and Jacobins — Measures of
the Directory — Their victory — Its results : 86 — 97
CONTENTS. X
CHAPTER XIII.
EXPEDITION TO EGYF.T.
PAGE.
Napoleon returns to Paris — Naval preparations — Precautions of the British gov-
ernment— French fleet sails from Toulon — Nelson pursues — Napoleon ar-
rives in Egypt, captures Alexandria and advances to Cairo — Battle of the
Pyramids — Nelson arrives at Aboukir — Battle of the Nile — Honors con-
ferred on Nelson — Effects of this victory — Napoleon's expedition to Syria —
Capture of Jaffa and massacre of prisoners — Advance to Acre — British
squadron, under Sir Sidney Smith, arrives there — Napoleon attacks the
place — Arrival of the Ottoman fleet — Napoleon retreats — Defeats the Turks
at Aboukir: 97— 103
CHAPTER XIV.
FROM THE PEACE OF CAMPO FORMIO TO THE RENEWAL OF THE WAR.
Measures for the defence of England — Progress of Revolution in Holland^and
in Switzerland — The Swiss fly to arms — Success of the French in the larger
Cantons — and of the Swiss in the mountains — Sufferings of the Swiss —
Their final defeat — The Ecclesiastical States are next attacked — Outbreak
at Rome — France declares war against Rome — Violence to the Pope — and
his death — Pillage of Rome — Cis- Alpine Republic — Humiliation of the King
of Sardinia — Revolutionary proceedings at Naples — Defeat of the Neapoli-
tan troops — Flight of the Neapolitan Court — Championnet advances to Na-
ples— Desperate battle there — Disturbance in Ireland — Plan of the Insur-
rection— Measures of the opposite party — And of the Government — Progress
of the Insurrection — France and the United States — Controversy between
them — Hanse Towns — Effects of French aggression : 102 — 114
CHAPTER XV.
CAMPAIGN OF 1799.
Preparations of Austria — of Russia — of Great Britain — French forces — Jourdan
opens the campaign — His defeats — Impolitic measures of the Aulic Coun-
cil— Campaign in Italy — Effect of defeat on the Republicans there — Massena
takes command — The Arch-Duke Charles attacks him — Massena's defeat —
Suwarrow — Operations of Moreau in Italy — Suwarrow's great success —
Naples — Junction of Moreau and Macdonald — Suwarrow defeats Macdo.
nald — Fall of Turin — King of Naples resumes the throne — Punishment of
the insurgents — Capitulation of Mantua — and of Alexandria — Battle of Novi
— Continued errors of the Aulic Council — Disasters to which it leads — Sur-
render of Zurich — Achievements of Suwarrow — His retreat through the
Mountains — Effects on the allies of these disasters — Expedition to Holland
— Its first success and eventual defeat — Battle of Coni — Surrender of that
town — Close of the campaign : ....... 114 — 126
CHAPTER XVI.
FROM THE REVOLUTION OF SEPTEMBER 3RD, TO THE CAMPAIGN OF 1800.
Progress of the Revolution in Trance — Elections — Conspiracy of Sieyes — Napo-
leon abandons his army in Egypt — His return to France— His residence in
xJv
CONTENTS.
Paris — Conspiracy to place the government in his hands — Council of Five
Hundred resolve to remove to St. Cloud — Their proceedings there — Vio.
lent measures in both Councils — Napoleon disperses the members by force,
and takes command of the Government — His proposals for Peace to (Jrcut
Britain — Debate in Parliament — Domestic transactions of Great Britain
Rupture between England and Russia — Measures of Austria to con.
tinue the war — And of Napoleon — Napoleon's ambitious projects and
measures: ............ 12Q — 132
CHAPTER XVII.
FIRST CAMPAIGN OF 1800.
Austrian forces — French forces — Opening of the campaign — Battle of Engen —
Battle of Moeskirch — Action at Biberach — Position of the Austrians — Ac-
tive operations on both sides — Campaign of Italy — French disasters there —
Siege and capture of Genoa — Napoleon crosses the Alps by the Great St.
Bernard — His progress in Italy — His entrance into Milan — He defeats the
Austrians — Critical position of Melas — Battle of Marengo— Victory of the
French — Its results: ......... 133 — 141
CHAPTER XVIII.
SECOND CAMPAIGN OF 1800.
Treaty between Great Britain and Austria — Austria temporizes with France —
Novel proposal of Napoleon to Great Britain — Negotiations for peace — Na-
poleon's obstinacy breaks off the negotiations — Plot to assassinate Napoleon
— French and Austrian forces — Capture of Malta by the English — Accession
of Pius VII. — Renewal of hostilities — Moreau's operations in Germany —
Battle of Hohenlinden — Retreat and disaster of the Austrians — Arch-Duke
Charles takes command of the army — Solicits and obtains an armistice —
Macdonald's march across the Alps by the Splugen — He advances into Italy
— Armistice of Treviso — Treaty between France and Naples — Treaty of
Luneville : . 141 — 148
CHAPTER XIX.
FROM THE PEACE OF LUNEVILLE TO THE DISSOLUTION OF THE NORTHERN
MARITIME CONFEDERACY.
Difficulties between Great Britain and Denmark — British fleet proceeds to Co-
penhagen— Treaty with Denmark — Arbitrary measures of Russia — Mari-
time Confederacy against Great Britain — Retaliatory measures of Great
Britain — Embarrassments of the English ministry — Mr. Pitt resigns — His
successors pursue his policy — Sir Hyde Parker sails to Copenhagen — Battle
of Copenhagen — Victory of the British — Occupation of Hanover by the
Prussians — Death of the Emperor Paul — Accession of Alexander — His
measures and policy — Treaty between Russia and Great Britain — Dissolu.
tion of the Confederacy : ... 148 154
CONTENTS. XV
CHAPTER XX.
EXPEDITIONS TO EGYPT AND ST. DOMINGO — EUROPE, FROM THE PEACE OF
AMIENS TO THE RENEWAL OF THE WAR.
PASS-
Advance of the Turkish army toward Egypt — Negotiations for peace frustrated
by the British — Defeat of the Turks — Expedition of Sir R. Abercromby —
Battle of Alexandria — British take possession of Cairo — Surrender of the
French army — Attempts of Napoleon to regain Egypt — Naval action be-
tween the British and French — Treaty between France and Spain — Pre-
parations of Napoleon for invading England — French treaties with Turkey,
Bavaria, America, Algiers, and Russia — Effects of the peace — Ambitious
projects of Napoleon — Expedition to St. Domingo — Its first success and fi-
nal defeat — Condition of St. Domingo — Napoleon's aggressions in Europe —
Re volution in Holland — And in the Cis- Alpine Republic — Prosperity of Great
Britain — Causes of irritation between England and France — Mutual recrim-
inations— Extraordinary scene with Lord Whitworth at the Tuileries — Eng-
land declares war — Imprisonment of British travellers in France : - 155 — 164
CHAPTER XXI.
FRANCE, FROM THE PEACE OF AMIENS TO NAPOLEON'S ASSUMPTION OF THE
IMPERIAL CROWN.
Condition of France when Napoleon seized the reins of power — Necessity for a
despotic government — Napoleon's measures against the Jacobins — He estab-
lishes the Legion of Honor — Reestablishes the Catholic religion — Amnesty
in favor of exiles and emigrants — Changes in the Constitution — Proposals
to Louis XVIII. — Civil Code of Napoleon — Law of succession — Confisca-
tion of property the great sin of the Revolution — Napoleon's flattering pros-
pects— Moreau — Royalist conspiracy of Pichegru — Arrest of the Duke d'-
Enghein — His trial and execution, March 21st, 1804 — Consternation in Paris
when this murder was known — Murder of Pichegru — And of Wright — Trial
of Moreau — He embarks for America — Napoleon assumes the Imperial
Crown: - - 164—173
CHAPTER XXII.
FROM THE RENEWAL OF HOSTILITIES TO THE DECLARATION OF WAR BY SPAIN.
Preparation for war — Commencement of hostilities — Renewed preparations of
Napoleon for the invasion of England — And of England for repelling it —
Insurrection in Ireland — Naval operations — Illness of the King — Mr. Pitt
recalled to the ministry — Condition of Austria — Of Prussia — Of Russia —
Impression produced in Europe by the murder of the Duke d' Enghein —
Coronation of Napoleon and Josephine — Rupture between Spain and Great
Britain — The former power declares war against the latter : . . 173 — IT
CHAPTER XXIII.
FROM THE OPENING OF THE SPANISH WAR TO THE BATTLE OF AUSTERLITZ.
Napoleon's journey to Italy — Treaty between Great Britain and Russia — Napo-
leon assembles his army and flotilla at Boulogne for the invasion of England.
2
CONTENTS.
— Forces for the expedition — The French Admiral, Villeneuve, puts to sea
— Nelson sails in pursuit — Movements of the hostile fleets — Action of Sir
Robert Calder, off Ferrol — Its important results — Napleon abandons the
project of Invasion and moves his troops to the Rhine — Relative forces of
France and the allies — Nelson sails for Cadiz — Battle of Trafalgar — Results
of the battle — Death of Nelson — Honors to his memory — Napoleon's ope-
rations on the Rhine — He violates the Prussian neutrality — Indignation of
Prussia — Defeat of Auffemberg — Combat at Elchingen — Archduke Ferdi-
nand cuts his way through the French lines — Entire Austrian army under
Mack surrenders to Napoleon — Campaign in Italy — Battle of Verona — And
of Caldiero — Austrians retreat — Napoleon traverses Bavaria — Russians,
Austrians and French approach Vienna — Convention between Russia and
Prussia — Success of Ney and Augereau in the Tyrol — Proposals of Austria
for an Armistice — Movements around St. Polten — Kutusoff retreats — Com.
bat with Mortier — Lannes and Murat advance upon Vienna — The Emperor
Francis evacuates his Capital — Napoleon occupies Vienna — Junction of the
Russian and Austrian armies — Preparations on both sides for a general ac-
tion— The Battle of Austerlitz — Its results — Armistice of Austerlitz — Prussia
recedes from the Convention with Russia — And joins Napoleon — Treaty of
Presburg— Spoliation of Naples — Death of Mr. Pitt : - - . 179 — 194
CHAPTER XXIV.
FROM THE PEACE OF PRESBURG TO THE FALL OF PRUSSIA.
Condition of Europe — New ministry in England — Mr. Fox, Prime Minister —
French Finances — Occupation of Naples by the French — Insurrection in
Calabria — Battle of Maida — Louis Bonaparte made King of Holland —
French naval defeats — Differences between Great Britain and the United
States of America — Position of Prussia — Hostilities between England and
Prussia — Napoleon's exactions — Confederation of the Rhine — Irritation of
Prussia — Treaties of Russia and Great Britain with Prussia — Imprudence of
. Prussia — Napoleon invades Prussia — Manoeuvres of the two armies — Battle
of Jena — Battle of Auerstadt — Great results of these battles — Entire over-
throw of Prussia — Napoleon enters Berlin — His cruelty there — Contribu-
tions levied on the conquered provinces — Napoleon moves to the Vistula : 194 — 205
CHAPTER XXV.
CAMPAIGN OF EYLAU.
Russian forces — Russia applies to England — Impolitic and unjust course of the
British government — The armies approach each other — Napoleon goes to
Warsaw — Commencement of hostilities — Battle of Pultusk — Its result—-
The armies go into winter-quarters — Hostilities renewed — Russians retrea*
to Prussich-Eylau — Battle of Prussich-Eylau — Its result — Napoleon retreats
— Affairs of Turkey — Turkey declares war against Great Britain — Attach
on Constantinople — Change of ministry in Great Britain : - - 203 — 213
CHAPTER XXVI.
CAMPAIGN OF FRIEDLAND AND TILSIT.
Commencement of the campaign — Siege and capture of Dantzic — Foice? of the
two Nations — Russians defeat Ney at Guttstadt — Russians retire to Heils-
berg — French attack and are repulsed — Russians eventually retreat to Fried.
CONTENTS. XVII
PACK.
tand — Battle of Friedland — Proposals for Peace — Napoleon and Alexander
confer at Tilsit — Treaty between France and Russia — And with Prussia —
Secret articles of the Treaty of Tilsit : 213—218
CHAPTER XXVII.
FROM THE PEACE OF TILSIT TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF HOSTILITIES IN THE
SPANISH PENINSULA.
Napoleon's hostility toward Great Britain — The Continental System — Berlin
Decree — Measures of Great Britain — Milan Decree — Singular result of these
measures — Enthusiasm and adulation of the Parisians on Napoleon's return
to the Capital — Suppression of the Tribunate — And other despotic measures
— Proscriptions — Internal prosperity of France — Penal Code — Its atrocious
severity — Conscriptions — Political changes in Central Europe — Internal af-
fairs of Prussia — Austria — Sweden — Designs of Russia and France on the
fleets of Denmark and Portugal — England anticipates their movements and
takes possession of the Danish ships — Negotiations with England — Turkey
breaks from her alliance with France — Napoleon's proceedings in Italy — His
encroachments in Western Europe : 218 — 228
CHAPTER XXVIII.
PRELIMINARY MOVEMENTS OF THE PENINSULAR WAR.
Differences between France and Spain — Napoleon discovers the hostile intentions
of Spain and Portugal — He resolves to subjugate the Peninsula — Commences
hostilities in and against Portugal — Junot advances to Lisbon — The Portu-
guese Royal Family embark for Brazil — Junot occupies Lisbon — His govern-
ment—Affairs of Spain — Treaty of Fontainebleau — Invasion of Spain — The
King, Charles IV. attempts to escape to America — Is prevented — He resigns
his crown in favor of his son, Ferdinand VII. — French troops approach Madrid
— Murat takes possession of the Spanish Capital — Political intrigues between
Chales IV., Ferdinand, and Napoleon — By the representations of Savary,
Charles, Ferdinand, and the Spanish Royal Family are induced to travel to
Bayonne to meet Napoleon — Murat's misgovernment in Madrid — Insurrec-
tion and massacre of the inhabitants — Effects of these atrocities — Napoleon's
duplicity toward the Spanish Royal Family — Charles executes a second ab-
dication— Ferdinand is forced to a similar measure — Joseph Bonaparte
declared King of Spain — Napoleon's Constitution for Spain — Joseph's
Ministry: 228— 238-
CHAPTER XXIX.
CAMPAIGN OF 1808 IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.
The Spanish Peninsula — Forces destined to take part in the Peninsular war-
Revolts and massacres throughout Spain — Success of the French troops —
First siege of Saragossa — Siege of Valencia — Defeat of the Spaniards under
Blake and Cuesta — Atrocities of the French soldiers in Rio Seco and Cor-
dova— French retreat from the latter place — Their total defeat — Indignation
of Napoleon at Dupont's surrender — Joseph evacuates Madrid — Reverses of
the French — Arrival of Wellington in Portugal — He defeats the French
under Laborde and Junot — An Armistice is concluded and the French
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
evacuate Portugal — Sir John Moore arrives at Lisbon — And marches into
Spain — Movements of Austria — Interview between Alexander and Napoleon
at Erfurth — Murat made King of Naples — Napoleon's preparations to invade
Spain — His great success against the Spanish forces — He advances to Madrid
— Its capture — Sir David Baird lands at Corunna and joins Sir John Moore
— Advance and retreat of the British army — Sir John Moore continues his
retreat toward Corunna — Battle of Corunna — Death of Moore : - 239 — 252
CHAPTER XXX.
FIRST CAMPAIGN OF 1809 IN GERMANY.
M^sures of Austria during the peace — Position of the French and Austrian
forces — Napoleon's instructions to Berthier — Napoleon takes command —
Action at Thaun — Subsequent discomfiture of the Austrians — The Arch,
duke captures Ratisbon — Combat at Landshut — And at Ratisbon — Battle of
Echmul — The Archduke retreats: — Napoleon retakes Ratisbon — Results of
the campaign, thus far — Reverses of the French in other quarters — Hiller
takes post at Ebersberg — Massena attacks and defeats him — Napoleon ad-
vances to Vienna — and takes possession of that city — The Archduke Charles
approaches Vienna — Position of the two armies — Battle of Aspern — Napo-
leon retreats to Lobau and intrenches himself there : 253 — 262
CHAPTER XXXI.
FROM THE CAMPAIGN OF WAGRAM TO THE DETHRONEMENT OF THE POPE.
Ntpoleon prepares to cross the Danube — Position of the Archduke — The
French cross the river — And the Austrians retire to Wagram — Description
of Wagram — Battle of Wagram — The Archduke retreats to Bohemia — Na-
poleon grants an Armistice — Treaty of Vienna — Napoleon destroys the
ramparts of Vienna — Operations in the Tyrol — Great success of the Tyro-
lese — Treaty with them — Execution of Hofer — Expedition of the British
against Antwerp — Their partial success and retreat — Dissensions between
the Pope and Napoleon — The former is made prisoner and conveyed to
France: - 263— 273
CHAPTER XXXII.
MARITIME WAR ; AND CAMPAIGN OF 1809 IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.
British Naval expedition to Basque Roads — Its success — Success of the British
in the East and West Indies — Portugal — Spain — Forces of the Spaniards —
And of the French — Opening of the campaign — Second siege of Saragossa —
Its capture — Pillage by Lannes and Junot — Disasters following the fall of
Saragossa — Siege and capture of Gerona — Success of Victor in Central
Spain — Soult invades Portugal — And captures Oporto — Wellington arrives
at Lisbon — Marches against Oporto and retakes it — Soult's perilous retreat
— Wellington advances toward Madrid — Battle of Talavera — Wellington,
unsupported by the Spaniards, resolves to retire to the banks of the Tagus —
Ungenerous apathy of the Spaniards in their own cause — Wellington remon-
strates— And abandons them to their own resources — Battle of Ocana — Wel-
lington's system of maintaining his troops — And Napoleon's - 274—285
CONTENTS. X
CHAPTER XXXIIL
EVENTS OF 1810: CAMPAIGN OF TORRES VEDRAS.
tUMML
Napoleon's position — His want of an heir — Offers of his hand — Makes known
his intentions to Josephine — Her dignified conduct — Her divorce — Nego-
tiations with Austria — Marriage of Napoleon and Marie Louise — Russia
takes umbrage — Napoleon's measures force the King of Holland to abdi-
cate— His differences with Lucien — And with Joseph — Soult commences
operations in Spain — Siege of Cadiz — French and allied forces in Portugal
— Massena captures Ciudad Rodrig'o and Almeida — Wellington falls back
to Busaco — Battle of Busaco — Wellington retires to Torres Vedras — Mas.
sena retreats — Soult captures Badajoz — Wellington pursues Massena —
Action of Barrosa — Massena withdraws from Portugal — Battle of Fuentes
d' Onoro — Illness of George III. — Prince of Wales made Regent — Ex-
change of prisoners — Capture of the Island of Java : 285 — 293
CHAPTER XXXIV.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE CORTES ; WAR IN SPAIN; CAMPAIGN OF 1811 ON THE
PORTUGUESE FRONTIER.
The Cortes assemble at Cadiz — Their democratic measures — Joseph Bonaparte
enters Seville — Napoleon's projects — Joseph resigns his crown, but is per-
suaded to take it again — Operations in the East of Spain — Capture of Tor-
tosa — And of Figueras — Burning of Manresa — Siege of Taragona — Its cap-
ture— Siege and capture of Saguntum — And of Valencia — Beresford lays
eiege to Badajoz — Battle of Albuera — Retreat of Soult — Wellington recom-
mences the siege of Badajoz, but the approach of Soult and Marmont forces
him to relinquish it : 293—300
CHAPTER XXXV.
WELLINGTON'S INVASION OF SPAIN, 1812.
Wellington lays siege to Ciudad Rodrigo — Captures it — Siege and capture of
Badajoz — Effects of these two victories — Wellington advances into Spain —
Enters Salamanca — Battle of Salamanca — Wellington marches to Madrid —
His entrance into that city — He captures the park of French artillery at the
Retire — Aspect of French affairs in the Peninsula — Effects of the concen-
tration of the French forces — Wellington lays siege to Burgos — And aban-
dons it — He retreats to Ciudad Rodrigo : 301 — 307
CHAPTER XXXVI.
WAR IN TURKEY ; ACCESSION OF BERNADOTTE TO THE SWEDISH THRONE J FINAL
RUPTURE BETWEEN FRANCE AND RUSSIA.
Preparations of Russia for war in Turkey— Success of the Russian troops — Siege
of Schumla undertaken — Repulse of the storming party — Similar operations
at Rondschouck — Defeat of the Turks near Battin — Capture of Rond
XX CONTENTS.
schouck and Nicopolis — Turks defeated at Rondschouck — They cross the
Danube and attack Kutusoff— Their total defeat— Peace between Russia and
Turkey — Encroachments of Russia upon the Swedish dominions — Gusta-
vus, King of Sweden, resigns his crown — New king and change of policy in
Sweden — Death of the Crown-Prince — Bernadotte is appointed to succeed
him — Napoleon's further spoliations in Europe — Resented by Alexander —
Birth of Napoleon's son — Napoleon's measures force Sweden to declare
war against England — The French invade the Swedish territories — Sweden,
Great Britain and Russia declare war against France : 307 — 312
CHAPTER XXXVII.
ADVANCE OF NAPOLEON TO MOSCOW.
Immense preparations of Napoleon for invading Russia — Forces of Russia —
French troops cross the Niemen — Sufferings of the French before hostilities
commenced — Barclay retires from Wilna, and the French occupy it —
French advance to Witepsk — Alexander leaves the army at Potolsk and
proceeds to Moscow, and thence to St. Petersburg — Oudinot defeated on
the Dwina — Barclay and Bagrathion form a junction at Smolensko — Heroic
defence of General Newerofskoi — Russians evacuate Smolensko, leaving a
rear-guard for its protection — Napoleon attacks the town — Is repulsed —
Conflagration of Smolensko — The Russians abandon it — Napoleon pursues
— Battle at Valentina — Miserable condition of the French army — Move-
ments of Victor and Augereau — Russians resolve to give battle to Napo-
leon— Take post at Borodino — Battle of Borodino — Russians fall back
toward Moscow — And abandon it — French arrive at Moscow on the 14th
of September — Conflagration of Moscow — Kutusoff threatens Napoleon's
communications : ......... 313 — 322
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
THE RETREAT FROM MOSCOW.
Napoleon proposes an Armistice — Sufferings of his troops — Condition of the Rus-
sian army — Napoleon prepares to retreat — Evacuates Moscow and retreats
to Malo- Jaroslawitz — Is nearly made prisoner — Council of War held — He
continues his retreat — Its disastrous character — Severity of the weather —
Arrival at Smolensko — Continued retreat — Defeat of the French at Krasnoi
— Heroic defence of Ney — His escape — Napoleon arrives at Orcha — Battle
of Beresina — Its result — Napoleon sets out for Paris — Condition of the troops
after his departure — The army reaches Wilna — And are forced to abandon
it — Heroism of Ney — Result of the campaign : 322—332
CHAPTER XXXIX.
EVENTS IN FRANCE FOLLOWING THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN.
Napoleon arrives at Paris — Public depression — Relieved by Napoleon's firmness
— Malet's extraordinary Conspiracy — Its defeat — Napoleon's discontent,
notwithstanding — His efforts to recruit the army — Negotiations with the
Pope: - 332—335
CONTENTS M
CHAPTER XL.
CAMPAIGN OF 1813.
Combination of forces to cut off the retreat of the French army — Murat deserts
the army and repairs to Naples — Eugene takes command — Deliverance and
policy of Prussia — Her efforts to regain a footing among the Powers of
Europe — Treaty with Russia — Insurrection in Saxony — Institution of the
Order of the Iron Cross in Prussia — The Tugenbund — Position of the French
troops on the Elbe — Forces of Prussia — Of Russia — The allies occupy
Hamburg — Insurrections in the Hanse Towns— The allies approach the Elbe
and occupy Dresden — Napoleon joins the army — Battle of Lutzen — Allies
retire to Dresden and Bautzen — Napoleon takes possession of Dresden —
Negotiations with Russia and Austria — Battle of Bautzen — Armistice of
Pleswitz: . .... . 335—346
» CHAPTER XLI.
FROM THE ARMISTICE OF PLESWITZ TO THE RENEWAL OF THE WAR.
Measures of the British Cabinet — Treaty between Great Britain, Russia, and
Prussia — Scarcity of specie in Europe — Treaty of Napoleon with Denmark
— Policy of Austria — Negotiations for Peace — Interview between Metier-
nich and Napoleon — Convention agreed on — News of the battle of Vittoria
in Spain — Austria decides in favor of the Grand Alliance — Preparations and
forces on both sides — Congress at Prague — General Moreau joins the allies
— Schwartzenberg appointed ox>mmander-in-chief : ... 346 — 353
CHAPTER XLII.
DELIVERANCE OF GERMANY.
Blucher opens the campaign — Allies advance upon Dresden- — They attack the
town and are repulsed — Battle of Dresden — Death of Moreau — Allies re-
treat — French defeated at Toeplitz — Disasters of Macdonald in Upper Silesia
— And of Oudinot north of the Elbe — Napoleon's operations at Dresden and
in Silesia — Ney encounters Bernadotte at Dennewitz and is defeated — Dis-
couragement of Napoleon and his troops — The Cossacks make a descent
into Westphalia — Capture Cassel and retire with Jerome's treasures — Ben-
ningsen arrives at Toeplitz — Napoleon advances to Duben — Retreats to
Leipsic — Description of Leipsic — Disposition of the French troops — And of
the allies — Commencement of the battle of Leipsic — Result of the first day
— Napoleon's interview with Meerfeldt — Battle of Leipsic renewed — Its re.
suit — Retreat of Napoleon — Disasters of his retreat — He reaches Erfurth,
where Murat abandons him — Continued retreat — Secession of Bavaria —
Battle of Hanau — Napoleon crosses the Rhine — The allies enter Frankfort
— Bernadotte advances to Cassel — Capitulation of Dresden — Effect in Eu-
rope of Napoleon's defeat : ........ 353—368
CHAPTER XLIII.
THE LIBERATION OF SPAIN.
Improved condition of the British army in the Peninsula — Measures of the Cortes
— Condition of Cadiz — Wellington's forces and plans — French forces — Bat.
XX11 CONTEN I &.
PAOX
tie of Castella — Wellington takes leave of Portugal — He advances to Vit-
toria — Joseph's retreat — Battle of Vittoria — Great amount of spoil taken
from the French — Soult takes command of the French army — Assumes the
offensive — Battle of Sauroren — Retreat of Soult — Siege and capture of St.
Sebastian — Soult retreats over the Bidassoa — Dishonorable conduct of the
Spanish government toward their allies — Wellington prepares to invade
France — He attacks and defeats Soult — His regulations for protecting the
inhabitants from the rapacity of his troops — Soult's position on the Ni-
velle — He is again defeated by Wellington — He retreats to Bayonne —
His embarrassments — He is again defeated, and Wellington blockades
Bayonne: ... . 369—379
CHAPTER XLIV.
EUROPE IN ARMS AGAINST FRANCE.
Results of the Campaign of 1813 — Its effect in France — NapoleorPs measures for
defence — Discontent of the French people — Suffering in the army — Govern,
ment of Marie Louise, as Regent — Immense Conscriptions — Frontier for-
tresses— Domestic distress in France — Prosperity of England — Proposals of
peace by the allied Sovereigns — Napoleon negotiates to gain time — Re-
solute conduct of the Chamber of Deputies— Napoleon dissolves the Cham-
ber — Treaty of Valen§ay — Conferences with Pius VII. — Murat joins the
allies — Eugene Beauharnois proposes to join them — Denmark abandons
Napoleon — Proceedings at Frankfort — Accession of Switzerland to the Alii-
ance — Forces of the allies — And of Napoleon:. - . - - 376 — 388
CHAPTER XLV.
• FIRST CAMPAIGN OF 1814.
Invasion of France — Napoleon takes leave of his wife and son to join the army
— Battle of Brienne — Napoleon retreats to Troyes — The allies divide their
forces — Battle of Champaubert — Discomfiture of Blucher — Retrospect of the
fortunes of the Bourbons since the Revolution — The allies occupy Troyes
• — Movements of the allies — Measures of Napoleon to protect Paris — Battle
of Montereau — Congress of Chatillon — Detail of its proceedings — Napoleon
refuses peace — His ambitious views — Treaty of Chaumont — Blucher's move,
ments — Battle of Bar-sur-Aube — Action at La Guillotiere — Blucher's dan.
gerous position at Soissons — He is relieved by the surrender of that town —
Napoleon follows and attacks him — Battle of Craon — Russians retreat to
Laon — Defeat of Marmont — Battle of Laon — Napoleon retreats to Soissons
—Capture and recapture of Chalons : ..... 389—404
CHAPTER XLVI.
THE FALL OF NAPOLEON
Brief suspension of hostilities — Napoleon's affairs in other parts of his Empir
Holland — South Beveland — Antwerp — Flanders — Italy — Lyons — Welling,
ton resumes the offensive — Crosses the Adour — Soult retreats to Orthes —
Battle of Orthes and defeat of Soult — Events in Bordeaux — Beresford enters
that town — Wellington dereats Soult at Toulouse— Napoleon's embarrass-
CONTENTS.
PACK.
merits — Napoleon marches against Schwartzenberg — Battle of Arcis-sur-
Aube — Retreat of Napoleon — Arrives at Vitry — Proceeds to St. Dizier —
Discontent of his officers — His dispatches intercepted by the allies —
Schwartzenberg and Blucher march toward Fere-Champenoise — Battle at
that place — Defeat of General Pacthod — The allies hasten toward Paris —
Consternation of the citizens — the Empress and her son leave Paris — De-
scription of Paris — Its means of defence — Commencement of the Battle of
Paris — Defeat of the French and surrender of the Capital — Napoleon re-
turns toward Paris — His excitement when he hears of its capitulation —
Terms of the capitulation — The allies enter Paris — Meeting at the hotel of
Talleyrand — Napoleon denounced — Address to the people of Paris — Pro-
visiona. government organized — Noble conduct of Alexander — The Senate
dethrone Napoleon — The army declares for the Bourbons — Napoleon at
Fontainebleau — He abdicates the throne — Treaty with the allies — He takes
leave of his troops and departs for Elba — Death of Josephine — Louis XVIII.
leaves England for France — His entrance into Paris — Treaty of Paris — Lib-
eration of the Pope : - - " 405—423
CHAPTER XLVII.
INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND THE NORTH OF EUROPE.
Enthusiasm in England on the declaration of peace — Measures in Parliament —
Affairs of Norway — Bernadotte invades Norway — Norway submits and is
annexed to Sweden — British Corn Laws — Difficulties of Louis XVIII. —
His impolitic measures — His Charter — Its defects — Discontent of the peo.
pie — Penury of the government — Errors of the ministers — And of the Bour-
bons— Civil regulations — General exasperation : 424 — 432
CHAPTER XLVIII.
CONGRESS OF VIENNA. NAPOLEON'S FINAL STRUGGLE.
Members of the Congress of Vienna — Difficulties — Measures — Rumor of Napo-
leon's escape from Elba— Spirited conduct of the Congress when Napoleon's
escape is ascertained — Their Declaration — Napoleon in Elba — His escape
and arrival in France — His success with the Troops — Enters Grenoble —
Intelligence of his landing and progress reaches Paris — Consternation there
— Efforts of the Government to check him — Nev's treason — And that of
the army generally — Appeal of Louis XVIII. — He ie treats from Paris with
the Royal Family — Napoleon arrives at Fontainebleau — And at Paris — His
reflections in the Tuileries — His government and ministers — Resistance to
his authority in some of the Provinces — New treaty of the Allied Powers
— Forces preparing to invade France — Napoleon's efforts for defence —
Fouche's intrigues — New Constitution — Acte A.dditionel — Outbreaks of the
popular feeling — Caulaincourt endeavors to negotiate with the allies —
Murat commences hostilities — Contest in La Vendee" — New Elections —
Divisions in Paris — Napoleon discovers^Fouche's treachery — Dares not pun-
ish him — Forces of Wellington — And of Blucher — And of Napoleon —
Soult takes command — Napoleon sets out for the army — Secret intelli-
gence communicated to Wellington by Fouchd — Fouche's unparalleled du-
plicity— Napoleon crosses the frontier — Battle of Ligny — And of Quatre-
Bras — Blucher retreats to Wavre— -Wellington falls back to Waterloo — The
Field of Waterloo— THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO— Defeat of the French-
3
XXIV CONTENTS.
Flight of Napoleon — Grouchy retreats to Laon — Losses in the Battle — Na-
poleon arrives at Paris — Is denounced by the Chamber of Deputies — He
abdicates the crown — Chamber of Peers — Advance of the allies — Capitu-
lation of Paris — Napoleon escapes to Rochefort — Embarks on board the
Bellerophon — Surrenders himself to the British government — His letter to
the Prince Regent — He is sent to St. Helena — Violence of the Prussians in
Paris and its environs — Restoration of the works of art that were taken by
Napoleon from the European powers — Treaty of Paris — Proscription of
traitors — Execution of Ney — And of Murat — Napoleon in St. Helena — His
death and burial — Changes in the French government — Napoleon's remains
removed from St. Helena to France, and interred in the Church of the In-
valides: ... 433—461
Appendix, 463
Questions, .... ...... 495
HISTORY OF EUROPE.
CHAPTER I.
CAUSES AND COMMENCEMENT OF THE REVOLUTION.
FEW periods of the world's history can be compared, in interest and
importance, to that which embraces the origin and progress of the French
Revolution ; for, in no previous age were events of such magnitude
crowded together, nor were questions of such moment ever before arbi-
trated between contending nations. Hereafter, the era of Napoleon will
doubtless be ranked with the eras of Pericles, Hannibal and the Crusades.
The extraordinary character of this Revolution must not be attributed
to any peculiarities in the disposition of the French people, or to any faults
peculiar to their government, but rather to the weight of despotism which
preceded, and the prodigious changes which were destined to follow it.
It was distinguished by violence and stained with blood, because it origin-
ated chiefly with the laboring classes, and partook of the savage features
of a servile revolt ; it subverted the institutions of the country, because it
condensed within a few years the changes which should have taken place
in as many centuries ; it speedily fell under the direction of the most
depraved inhabitants, because its guidance was early abandoned by the
higher to the lower orders ; and it led to a general spoliation of property,
because its basis was an insurrection of the poor against the rich. France
would have done less at the Revolution, if she had done more before it ;
she would not so mercilessly have Vielded the sword to govern, if she
had not so long been governed by the sword ; nor would she have sunk
for years under the guillotine of the populace, had she not first groaned
for centuries under the fetters of the nobility.
For a hundred and fifty years before the Revolution, France had en-
joyed the blessings of domestic tranquillity, and, during this interval of
peace, the relative situation and feelings of the different ranks in society
underwent a total change. Wealth was silently accumulated by the
lower orders, while power imperceptibly glided from the higher, in con-
sequence of the dissipation of their revenues on objects of luxury. When
civil dissensions again broke out, this difference appeared in the most
striking manner. It was no longer the territorial noblesse, headed by
their respective lords, who took the field ; or the burghers of towns, who
maintained insulated contests for the defence of their walls: but the
2 H-I STORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. I
National Guard who everywhere flew to arms, animated by one common
feeling and strong in the consciousness of mutual support. They did not
wait for their landlords to lead, or their magistrates to direct ; but, acting
boldly for themselves, asserted the cause of democratic freedom against
the powers they had hitherto been accustomed to obey.
In the philosophical speculations of the eighteenth century, hazarded
by Voltaire, Rousseau, Raynal and the Encyclopaedists, the most unre-
served discussion on political subjects took place ; and, by a singular
blindness, the constituted authorities made no attempt to check these in-
quiries. Feeling themselves strong in the support of the nobility, the pro-
tection of the army, and the long established tranquillity of the realm, they
considered their power beyond the reach of assault, and anticipated no dan.
ger from theories on the social contract or from essays on the manners and
spirit of nations. A direct attack on the monarchy would have consigned
the offender to the Bastile ; but general disquisitions excited no alarm,
either among the nobility or in the government. The speculations of these
eloquent philosophers, however, spread widely among the rising genera-
tion. Captivated by the novelty of the ideas which were developed, and
seduced by the examples of antiquity which were held up to imitation, the
youth imbibed not only free, but republican principles. Madame Roland,
the daughter of an engraver, and living in an humble station, wept when
she was yet but nine years old because she was not born a Roman citizen ;
and she carried Plutarch's Lives, instead of her breviary, in her hand
when she attended mass in the cathedral.
Within the bosom of the Church too, owing to an invidious exclusion of
all persons of plebeian birth from the dignities and emoluments of the eccle-
siastical establishment, the seeds of deep-rooted discontent were to be found.
While the bishops and elevated clergy were rolling in wealth or basking
in the sunshine of royal favor, the humbler clergy, on whom devolved
the whole practical duties of Christianity, toiled in virtuous obscurity
among the peasants who composed their flocks. The simple piety and
unostentatious usefulness of these rural priests endeared them to their
parishioners, and farmed a striking contrast to the luxurious habits and dis-
sipated lives of the high-born dignitaries of the Church, whose enormous
wealth excited the envy of their indigent brethren and of the lower classes
of the people, while the general idleness of their lives rendered more of-
fensive the magnitude of their fortunes. Hence, the universal indignation,
in 1789, at the vices and corruption of the Church, and the readiness with
which, at the very commencement or the Revolution, the property of the
clergy was confiscated to relieve the embarrassed finances of the country.
The distinction between the nobility and the baseborn was carried to a
length in France of which, in a free country, it is difficult to form an
adequate conception. Every person was either noble or roiurier; no
middling class, no gradation of rank was known. On the one side, were
one hundred and fifty thousand privileged individuals; on the other, the
whole body of the French people. All situations of importance in the
Church, the army, the court, the bench, or the ranks of diplomacy, were
held by the former of these classes : a state of things of itself sufficient to
produce a revolution in a flourishing and populous country.
The system of taxation in France was another serious grievance.
The nobles and clergy were exempt from imposts on the produce of the
land, and this burden therefore fell exclusively arid with insupportable
1789.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 3
weight on the laboring people. At the same time, the peasantry were,
with few exceptions, in an indigent condition. Their houses were com-
fortless, their clothing was little better than rags, and their food was of
the coarsest and most humble kind. Then, too, in addition to the misfor-
tune of an impoverished peasantry, France was cursed with a body of
non-resident landholders, who drew their revenues from the soil, but ex-
pended them in the metropolis : thus depriving the country-people of that
direct trade in their own productions so essential to their prosperity.
Being thus deserted by their natural guardians, and receiving no benefit
or encouragement from them, the laboring classes acquired a discontented
spirit, and were soon ready to join those desperate leaders, who promised
them liberty and pillage as a reward for burning the castles and murder-
ing the families of the nobility.
Again, the local burdens and legal services, due from the tenantry to
their lawful superiors, were to the last degree vexatious and oppressive.
The peasantry of France were almost in a state of primitive ignorance ;
not one in fifty could read, and the people in each province were una-
ware of what was passing in the neighboring provinces. At a distance
of only fifty miles from Paris, men were unacquainted with the occurrence
of the most stirring events of the Revolution. No public meetings were
held, and no periodical press was within reach to spread the flame of dis-
content ; yet the spirit of resistance gradually became universal from
Calais to Bayonne.
The royal prerogative, by a long series of successful usurpations, had
reached a degree of despotism incompatible with rational freedom. The
most important right of a citizen, that of deliberating on the passing of
laws and the granting of supplies, had fallen into desuetude. For nearly
two centuries the kings, on their own authority, had published ordinances
possessing all the force of laws, which however could not be legally sanc-
tioned but by the representatives of the people. The right of approving
these ordinances was arbitrarily transferred to the Parliament and courts
of justice, and even their deliberations were liable to be suspended by
the personal intervention of the sovereign and infringed by despotic im-
prisonment.
Corruption, too, in its worst form had long tainted the manners of the
court, as well as of the nobility, and poisoned the sources of influence.
Since the reign of the Roman emperors, profligacy had never been con-
ducted in so open and undisguised a manner as under Louis XV. and the
regent Orleans.
Finally, hopeless embarrassment in the national finances was the
immediate cause of the Revolution. It compelled the king (Louis XVI.)
to summon the States-General as the only means of avoiding national
bankruptcy., Previous ministers had tried temporary expedients, and
every other effort — including the king's voluntary renouncement of his
household luxuries — had been made to avert the disaster ; but the extra-
vagant expenses of the government, combined with the vast interest on its
accumulating debt, rendered them all abortive.
The 5th of May, 1789, was the day fixed for the opening of the States-
General ; and, strictly speaking, that was the first day of the French
Revolution.
The Assembly was opened at Versailles with extraordinary pomp
Galleries, disposed in the form of an amphitheatre, were filled with a bnl-
3*
4 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. i.
liant concourse of spectators, while the deputies occupied the centre accord-
ing to the order established at the last Convocation in 1614. The clergy
sat on the right, the nobles on the left, the commons (or Third Estate) in
front, of the throne. After the ministers and deputies had taken their
places, the king appeared, followed by the queen, the princes, and a bril-
liant suite ; and as he seated himself on the throne amid loud applause,
the three orders of the deputies rose and covered themselves. In days
past, the commons remained uncovered and spoke on their knees in the
presence of the king : their present spontaneous movement was ominous
of the subsequent conduct of that now aspiring body. The king delivered
his speech and was followed by the minister of finance, M. Neckar ; but
although both were listened to with great attention, the deputies observed
with regret that neither monarch nor minister proposed any tangible expe-
dient for relieving the pecuniary embarrassment which had called them
together.
On the day following, May 6th, 1789, the nobles and the clergy organ-
ized themselves in their respective chambers ; but the commons, to whom
on account of their numbers the large hall had been assigned, waited, or
pretended to wait, for the other orders. The contest was now openly
begun. The commons alleged that they could not verify their powers
until they were joined by the other Estates ; while the nobles and clergy
had already verified their powers in their chambers apart, and were ready
to begin the business of the session. For several weeks, the commons
now continued to meet daily in the great hall, waiting vainly for the ac-
cession of the other orders : they attempted to accomplish nothing actively,
but merely trusted to the negative force of inactivity to compel their oppo-
nents to submit to them. This state of things could not long continue.
The refusal of the commons to organize themselves delayed the public
business completely, while the desperate state of the finances and the rap-
idly increasing anarchy of the kingdom called loudly for immediate
measures.
During the discussion on this important subject, the clergy, who wished
to bring about a re-union of the three orders without openly yielding to
the commons, sent a deputation headed by the Archbishop of Aix, to pro-
pose that a committee of the commons should meet a few of the clergy
and nobles in a private conference on the best means of assuaging the
general suffering. The commons, who did not wish to yield anything, and
yet knew not how to decline this proposition without compromising them-
selves, were at a loss what answer to return, when a young man, till
then unknown to the assembly, rose and said, " Go, and tell your col-
leagues that if they are so impatient to assuage the sufferings of the poor,
they must come to this hall and unite with their friends. Tell them no
longer to retard our operations by affected delays : tell them it is vain to
employ such stratagems as this to change our firm resolutions. Rather let
them, as worthy imitators of their master, renounce a luxury which con-
sumes the funds of indigence ; dismiss the insolent lacqueys who attend
them ; sell their superb equipages, and convert these vile superfluities into
aliment for the poor !" At this speech, which so clearly expressed the
passions of the moment, a confused murmur of applause ran through the
assembly, and every one asked who was the young deputy who had so
happily given vent to the public feeling. His name afterwards made
every man in France tremble : it was MAXIMILIAN ROBESPIERRE.
.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 6
At this crisis, the measures of the court were marked with a fatal racil-
lation. Neckar lacked resolution to carry through the only plan that
promised security — that of uniting the nobles and clergy in one chamber,
and the commons in another. He did not venture to propose this to the
commons, because it would have endangered his own popularity, or to
press it on the king, because he would doubtless have refused it. Thus,
by wishing to avoid a rupture with either party, he lost the confidence of
both, and pursued that temporizing policy, which in civil convulsions is
always ruinous.
Meanwhile, the pretensions of the commons hourly increased with the
indecision of their adversaries. They no longer debated whether they
should organize themselves as the representatives of the nation ; they
merely hesitated as to what title they should assume. The discussion
lasted till past midnight, and, atone o'clock in the morning, they resolved
by a vote of 491 to 90, to assume the title of NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. They
announced the result to the other orders, and assured them that they
should proceed to business with or without their concurrence. Their next
step was to declare all imposts illegal, except those voted by themselves
or during the period when they were sitting. They then proceeded to
consolidate the public debt and appoint a committee to watch over the
public subsistence.
No language can describe the enthusiasm, which these decisive meas-
ure's excited throughout all France. "A single day," it was said, "has
destroyed eight hundred years of prejudice and slavery." But the more
thoughtful trembled at the consequences of such gigantic steps.
At length, on the 23rd of June, the king seated himself on the throne,
surrounded by his guards and attended by the pomp of monarchy. He
was received in sullen silence. He commenced his speech by condemn-
ing the commons and lamenting the spirit of faction they evinced. His
declarations followed ; prescribing, first, the form of the meeting of the
Estates, and requiring their deliberations to be held with closed doors;
and, in the second place, setting forth an exposition of the rights which the
monarch conceded to his people. These in fact contained the whole ele-
ments of rational freedom. But the concessions which are made under
compulsion never satisfy those whom they are intended to conciliate, and
the multitude are never less reasonable than on the first acquisition of
power.
On the following day, the Duke of Orleans and forty-six of the nobility
went over to the commons ; when the king, seeing that opposition was
fruitless, desired the clergy and the remainder of the nobility also to join
them. The nobles made an energetic remonstrance, and foretold the fatal
effects of immersing themselves in a body where their own numbers would
be so inconsiderable, compared to those of their opponents : they at length
yielded, however, and were speedily lost in an overwhelming majority.
The king was not long in discovering his error and endeavored to atone
by rashness for the results of imprudence. The palace of Versailles
was thrown open to the officers of the army and the young nobility, who by
their declamation soon persuaded the court that they still had the power
to control the people. The king therefore changed his ministry, and not
only dismissed M. Neckar, but gave him an order to quit the kingdom :
an order that was instantly and silently obeyed.
As soon as this intelligence transpired, Paris was thrown into the utmost
6 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Cnxp. L
consternation. Fury succeeded to alarm ; the theatres were closed ; the
Palais-Royal resounded with the cry of " To arms !" and a leader, after-
ward distinguished, Camille Desmoulins, armed with pistols, gave the sig-
nal for insurrection by breaking a twig from a tree in the gardens and
placing it in his hat. His example was followed by the crowd and the
trees were stripped of their foliage. "Citizens," said Desmoulins, "the
moment for action has arrived ; the dismissal of M. Neckar is the signal
for a St. Bartholomew of the patriots ; this very evening, the Swiss and
German battalions will issue from the Champ de Mars to massacre us ;
our only resource is to fly to arms." The crowd unanimously adopted
his proposal, and marched through the streets bearing in triumph busts of
M. Neckar and of the Duke of Orleans. At first, they were charged by
a German regiment which was put to flight by a shower of stones ; but
the dragoons of Prince Lamberc coming up soon after, they were dis-
persed, and the bearer of one of the busts and a soldier of the French guard
were killed. This was the first blood shed in the Revolution.
In this extremity, the measures of the court were calculated neither to
conciliate nor overawe ; though the latter was attempted, since a part of the
troops were withdrawn to Versailles where the assembly was sitting. It
seemed as if the government were intent on intimidating that body, with-
out considering the power of the popular insurrection at Paris.
During the absence of the military, the tumults of Paris rose to an
unexampled height. Immense bodies of workmen assembled together,
and, being joined by the guards, broke open the arsenals and gun-
smiths' shops, distributed the arms among their adherents, burned sev-
eral houses and forced open the barriers, which had been closed by
order of the king. The Hotel des Invalides was taken by the aid of the
veterans who inhabited it, and within sight of the Ecole Militaire where
the troops of the line were stationed. No less than twenty thousand
muskets and twenty pieces of cannon were seized and given out to the
insurgents. The Place de Greve was converted into a vast depot of
arms ; at the Hotel de Ville, a committee was appointed which rapidly
organized an insurrectionary force ; fifty thousand pikes were forged and
distributed among the people, and it was determined that the armed force
should be raised to forty-eight thousand men. This was the commence-
ment of the National Guard of Paris, a body which was of essential
service, sometimes for good, sometimes for evil, during the Revolution.
On the morning of the 14th of July, intelligence was spread that the
royal troops stationed at St. Denis were marching on the capital, and that
the cannon of the Bastile were pointed down the street St. Antoine. The
cry immediately arose, " To the Bastile !" and the waves of the tumult
began to roll in that direction. This fortress was well provided with
artillery, but it was almost destitute of food, and its garrison consisted
of but eighty invalids and thirty soldiers of the Swiss guard. When
the insurgents arrived, a part of their number was admitted within the
first drawbridge to parley with the garrison, and they began, during the
conference, to escalade the inner walls ; upon which the governor of the
Bastile gave orders to fire. Fearful, however, of the effect of grape-shot
on the dense masses, he at first directed the discharge of musketry only,
which repelled the leaders, and the mob fell back in confusion. But the
arrival of the disaffected French guard with artillery soon changed the
scene. These men intrepidly sustained the fire of the fortress, which
1789.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 7
now discharged grape-shot, and they began to batter the walls in return,
while the people in the adjoining houses plied the garrison with musketry.
At this juncture, either by accident or design, the chain that suspended
the inner drawbridge was cut, and the bridge fell. The assailants rushed
in, and the garrison, seeing that further resistance was hopeless, hoisted
the white flag and threw down their arms.
The consequences of this insurrection were immense. The lower
orders throughout the provinces of France, in imitation of the capital,
organized themselves into independent bodies, and established National
Guards for their protection. Three hundred thousand men were in this
manner speedily enrolled for the popular party, and the influence of the
government, as well as the power of the sword, passed into the hands of
the people.
Paris, meantime, was in the last degree of confusion. The disorder
arising from many co-existing authorities rendered the supply of provi-
sions precarious, and the utmost exertions of the municipality were requi-
site to prevent the poorer inhabitants from dying of famine in the streets.
The more violent of the people assembled in mobs, and surrounded the
bakers' shops and depots of provisions, clamoring for food. An attack ou
the palace of Versailles was openly discussed in the clubs and recom-
mended by the orators of the Palais Royal ; until the court deemed it
indispensable to provide for their own security by ordering to Versailles
an additional number of troops. This movement, together with the feast
given to the new-comers by the regiments already quartered there, was
magnified into a new cause of offence by the Parisian rabble. The cry
arose, "To Versailles!" and a motley multitude of drunken men ana
women, armed and unarmed, set out in that direction. The National
Guard, which had assembled on the first appearance of disorder, impa-
tiently demanded to follow ; and although their commander, LA FAYETTE,
exerted his utmost influence to detain them, he was at length compelled
to yield, and the whole armed force of Paris set out for Versailles.
The members of the Assembly and the inhabitants of Versailles, though
less violently excited, were also in an alarming mood. No one, however,
anticipated immediate danger. The king was out at a hunting-party and
the Assembly were about to break up for the day, when the forerunners
of the disorderly multitude from Paris began to appear in the streets. At
the first intimation of the disturbance the king hastened to the town. He
found the gates of the courtyard of the palace closed, and his own troops
drawn up within the inclosure facing the crowd; while without, was
assembled an immense body of the National Guard, with armed men and
furious women uttering seditious cries and fiercely demanding bread. A
heavy rain soon began to fall, however; and this so well seconded the
efforts of La Fayette to pacify the multitude, that not long after midnight
comparative.order was restored. Indeed, La Fayette had at that time an
interview with the royal family, when he assured them of the security
of the palace; and unfortunately he was himself so far convinced of the
pacific disposition of his soldiers, that he repaired to a chateau at some
distance from the palace and retired to sleep.
But, at six o'clock on the following morning, a furious mob surrounded
the barracks of the royal body-guard, broke them open, and pursued the
inmates to the gates of the palace, where fifteen of them were seized and
doomed to immediate execution. Another mob besieged the avenues to
u
8 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [CHAP. 1,
the palace, rushed in at an open gate and speedily filled the staircase
and vestibules of the royal apartments. Two of the body-guard, posted
at the head of the stair, made the most heroic resistance and gave the
queen time to escape into the apartment of the king. The assassins
rushed into her room a few moments after she had left it, and, enraged at
finding their victim fled, pierced her bed with their bayonets.
General La Fayette, at the first alarm, threw himself on his horse anc*
hastened to the spot. He made an impassioned harangue to the grenadiers
and succeeded in prevailing on them to stay the fury of the mob. The
leaders of the tumult, being so far foiled, determined nevertheless to derive
some advantage from their success, by forcing the king and royal family
to accompany them to Paris. It was not deemed prudent to resist this
demand ; and the Assembly hastily passed a resolution that they were
inseparable from the king and would accompany him to the capital, there
to hold their future sessions. Thus the democratic party achieved a pro-
digious victory, by having both branches of the legislature transferred to
Paris, where their own influence was irresistible. The royal party set
forth at noon on the 8th of October, in the midst of the disorderly multi-
tude, who did not cease to insult and revile them during the whole of that
painful journey (prolonged by various impediments through seven hours,)
at the end of which they were conducted to the palace of the Tuileries.
Thus terminated the first era of the Revolution. Five months only
had elapsed since the meeting of the States- General ; and during that
time not only the power of the sovereign had been overthrown, but the
very structure of society changed ; and the king after having narrowly
escaped being murdered in his own palace was now a captive, surrounded
by perils in the midst of his capital.
The first legislative measures of the Assembly after removing to Paris,
were intended to appease the rising jealousy of the provinces. These
little states, finding their rights and importance extinguished by the fast
increasing sovereignty of the National Assembly, were in some instances
taking steps to counteract its influence. To meet the emergency, the
kingdom was divided into eighty-four departments ; each department
was subdivided into districts, and each district into cantons. A criminal
tribunal was established for each department ; a civil court for each
district ; a court of reference for each canton : and it resulted from the
further legislation on this subject that the whole force of the kingdom was
placed at the disposal of the lower orders. By the nomination of munici-
palities, they had the government of the towns ; by the command of the
armed force, the control of the military ; by the elections in the depart-
ments, the appointment of the deputies to the Assembly, of the judges to
the courts of law, of the bishops to the Church, and of the officers to tha
National Guard ; by the elections in the cantons, the nomination of magis-
trates and local representatives. Everything, either directly or by the
intervention of a double election, flowed from the people ; and the quali-
fication for voting was so low as, practically, to admit almost every able-
bodied man. With so complete a democratic constitution, it is not sur-
prising that, during all the subsequent changes of the Revolution, the
popular party should have acquired so irresistible a power, and that, in
almost every part of France, the persons in authority should be found
supporting the multitude, on whom they depended for political existence.
. The finances next occupied the attention of the Assembly, and it was
1790.J HISTORY OF EUROPE. 9
high time. The nation was subsisting entirely on borrowed money, and
the public debt had increased during the last three years no less than
1,200,000,000 francs, or nearly two hundred and fifty millions of dollars.
In this emergency, the property of the Church was the first that came to
hand, and it was, without the slightest scruple, sacrificed to the public
necessities. The Church lands were nearly one-half of the whole landed
property of the kingdom, and their value was estimated at several thousand
millions of francs.
This violent measure led to another which in the end proved even more
disastrous. The present necessities of the state required the sale of a
portion of the ecclesiastical property to the amount of 400,000,000 francs,
(or about eighty millions of dollars ;) and to facilitate the transaction, the
municipalities of Paris and other cities became the purchasers in the first
instance, and they relied for reimbursement on the subsequent sale of the
property, in detached portions, to individuals. But a difficulty arose in
finding a circulating medium in sufficient quantity to discharge the price
of so extensive a purchase before the secondary sales were effected ; and
the difficulty was met by issuing the promissory notes of the several mu-
nicipalities to the government in exchange for their land ; these notes
passed current as money until they severally came to maturity. When
that period arrived, however, the original difficulty recurred ; there was
no medium with which to discharge the notes ; arid at length recourse
was had to an issue of government bills, which should bear a legal value
and pass for money from one end of the kingdom to the other. The
issue of these bills soon superseded the necessity of sales of confiscated
property ; for the government retained the domains in its own control as
a security for its bills, which were thereafter made as they were wanted,
and eventually issued in such prodigious amounts as forbade all hopes of
their ever being redeemed. Thus arose the system of ASSIGN ATS, the
source of more public strength and private suffering than any other
measure in the Revolution.
Month after month the Assembly continued to sit, and almost every new
act of their legislation tended to the more complete ruin as well of what
was vicious as of what was good and venerable in the ancient constitution
and social organization of France. Meantime, as it was- evident to all
reflecting minds that greater atrocities were yet to be enacted, and that,
for the present, all legitimate government was at an end, the king made
two unsuccessful attempts to escape from Paris ; and the nobility began
to emigrate in large numbers to Coblentz. In fact, the resolution to depart
became so general, that the roads leading to the Rhine were crowded
with the elegant equipages of noble families, who did not, as in the time
of the Crusades, sell their estates, but abandoned them in the hope that
they might soon regain them by the sword. Vain hope ! The Assembly,
in due time, confiscated their property, the republican armies vanquished
their battalions, and their inheritances were lost for ever.
At length, on the 29th of September, 1791, after having adopted a consti-
tution which vested some nominal authority in the king and placed all the
real power in the hands of the people, the National Assembly closed its
iittings ; leaving the future conduct of the government to a Legislative
Assembly who had just been elected on the basis of a universal suffrage.
CHAPTER II.
FROM TTJE CPENTNG OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY TO THE DEATH OF LOUIS.
THE members of the Legislative Assembly — in the formation of which
not only was almost every man entitled to a vote, but was also eligible
to election — were, probably, the most motley group that ever undertook
to regulate the affairs of a large and powerful country. Not fifty of the
whole number were possessed of twenty-five hundred francs (five hun-
dred dollars) a year. They were composed chiefly of presumptuous and
half educated young men, clerks in counting-houses, and attorneys from
the provincial towns who had risen to notice during the absence of all
persons of wealth, and recommended themselves to attention by the ve-
hemence with which they proclaimed the principles of democracy. In
many instances they had talent enough to be dangerous, without knowl-
edge enough to guide or property enough to check their ambition. If a
demon were to select a body of men qualified to consign a country to per-
dition, he could not choose more efficient colleagues.
The new Assembly opened its sittings on the 1st of October, 1791. Its
members divided themselves into three parties ; the Feuillants, or friends
of the Constitution, who had for leaders Lameth, Barnave, Duport, Damas
and Vaublanc ; the Girondists or republicans, led by Vergniaud, Guadet,
Gensonne, Isnard, and Brissot ; and the Jacobins, or ultra revolutionists,
led by Chabot, Bazire and Merlin. The real influence of the latter party,
however, was to be found in the Jacobin clubs throughout Paris, where
Robespierre, Danton and others held absolute sway.
The first acts of the new Assembly were directed against the clergy and
the emigrants. The clergy having been already despoiled of their posses-
sions, were now required to take the oath to the Constitution, which cur-
tailed their salaries to a mere pittance and ordered them to be moved from
place to place, so that they could acquire no influence over their peo-
ple ; forbidding them, also, to exercise any religious rites in private. The
emigrants, were condemned to death and their estates to confiscation, un-
less they returned to France before the first of January, 1792. The
king refused to sign these acts, but as he had already openly disapproved
of the emigration, he issued a proclamation recalling the absentees. In
this, as in almost all his acts, he gave dissatisfaction and offence to every
party.
The Assembly were mere successful in persuading the king, though
much against his will, to declare war against Hungary and Bohemia.
This step, which was taken on the 20th of April, 1792, was popular with
all parties. The Royalists hoped that the German powers might prevail,
and by overturning the revolutionary authority, reinstate the king ; the
Constitutionalists, seeing their own consequence on the wane, hoped to
regain it through the influence of the army ; and the Jacobins longed for
the tumult and excitement of campaigns, from which they felt confident
in some way of reaping substantial advantage. Thus commenced tho
greatest, the most oloody, and the most eventful war which has agitated
mankind since the Fall of the Roman Empire. It rose from feeble be-
ginnings, but it finally enveloped the world in its commotion.
17$
1
1792.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 1]
The intelligence of the declaration of war was received with joy by all
the people of France. It communicated a new impulse to the public
mind, already so excited. Addresses to the Assembly came in from every
municipality, congratulating them on having vindicated the national
honor ; arms were prepared, gifts provided, and the nation seemed impa-
tient to receive its invaders. But such displays of patriotism, how strong
soever as auxiliary to military discipline, are seldom able to supply its
place. The first encounters with the enemy were all unsuccessful to the
French arms, and it more than once appeared in the sequel that, had the
allies acted with decision and pressed on to Paris before military experi-
ence had been added to the enthusiasm of the French, the war might have
been terminated by. a single campaign. These disasters to the armies
produced the utmost consternation in Paris : each party accused the others
of treachery, and general distrust and recrimination prevailed. The
Assembly took the most energetic measures for ensuring their own au-
thority and the public safety. They declared their sittings permanent,
disbanded the guard of the king, and exiled the refractory clergy. To
secure the capital from insult, they directed the formation of a camp of
twenty thousand men near Paris, and sought to maintain the enthusiasm
of the people by a series of revolutionary fetes.
The evident peril of the king now aroused him to more than usual vigor ;
but his measures still lacked that judgment which is essential to efficient
exertion. On pretexts comparatively frivolous, he estra'nged himself from
the Girondists, who in many respects were well disposed toward him, and
he dismissed the three ministers on whom he could best have relied. The
Girondists, chagrined at these proceedings, and fearful of the increasing
power of the Jacobins, planned a general insurrection. On the 20th of
June, a tumultuous body ten thousand strong, under direction of the Giron-
dists, made their way to the doors of the Assembly with a petition for the
total destruction of the Executive power. The hall was next thrown open,
and the mob, now increased to thirty thousand men, women and children,
passed through in procession uttering furious cries and displaying seditious
banners. They next proceeded to the palace, the outer gates of which
were left open. They immediately broke into the garden, thronged the
staircase and entered the royal apartments, where Louis stood sur-
rounded by a few attendants. The foremost of the crowd, overawed by his
presence, made an involuntary pause ; but the mass behind pressed on-
ward, and the king was soon jostled and in imminent danger, from which
his attendants with great difficulty rescued him, not however until he had
received numberless personal indignities from the mob. This outbreak at
last terminated without bloodshed, but its occurrence showed the desperate
condition of the capital.
The court had now no hope but in the approach of the allies, who, un-
der the Duke of Brunswick, had just entered the territories of France.
The allied army consisted of fifty thousand Prussians and sixty-five thou-
sand Austrians and Hessians. The Duke issued a proclamation, in which
he warned the Assembly that if they did not forthwith liberate the king
and return to their allegiance, they should forfeit their heads, and if the
slightest insult were again offered to the royal family an exemplary pun-
ish mont should be inflicted by the total destruction of the city of Paris.
The effect of this manifesto was, in every particular, unfortunate ; for, from
the distance of the invaders at the time of its promulgation, it roused the
4
12 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. II
people to resistance, instead of overawing them ; and, being regarded as a
disclosure of the ulterior designs of the king, it furnished a pretext to the
Assembly and the populace for yet more violent proceedings against the
whole royal family.
As it was evident that some new outrage was contemplated, the king
made preparations to defend the palace. His chief reliance was on the
Swiss guard, of whom he could assemble about eight hundred men. In
addition to these, some detachments of the National Guard who were
believed to be faithful occupied the court of the Tuileries, and some hun-
dreds of Royalists, chiefly of noble families, were scattered through the
palace. On the other hand, the insurgents, organized by Danton and
Robespierre, were assembled in great force and well supplied with artil-
lery. The first assault was nobly repelled by the Swiss; but, as they
were unsupported by the National Guard and unable from the smallness
of their numbers to follow up their advantage, they were eventually over-
thrown and massacred almost to a man. Thus in this last extremity, it
was neither in his titled nobility nor his native soldiers that the French
king found fidelity, but in the free-born mountaineers of Lucerne, un-
stained by the vices of a corrupt age and firm in the simplicity of rural
virtue. These events took place on the 10th of August, 1792, and they
were immediately followed by a decree of the Assembly suspending the
king, dismissing the ministers, and directing the instant formation of a
National Convention. On the 13th of August, the royal family were
removed to the Temple and confined as state prisoners.
The victory over the throne on the 10th of August was followed by
the submission to the ruling party of all the departments of France. But
the intelligence had at first a different reception at the head-quarters of
La Fayette's army, then stationed at Sedan. The officers and men
appeared to share the consternation of their leader, and even renewed
their oath of fidelity to the constitutional throne ; but the period had not
arrived when soldiers, accustomed to look only to their chief, were pre-
pared at his command to defy the authority of the legislature. In fact,
La Fayette soon found that he had prematurely compromitted himself
and was forced to flee from the army, whence he intended to escape to
America; but he was arrested near the frontier by the Austrians and
conducted to the dungeons of Olmutz. He was offered his liberty on
condition of making certain recantations of opinions maintained by him
in the earlier stages of the Revolution concerning a modification of the
royal prerogative and in favor of a constitutional throne : but he preferred
enduring four years of rigorous confinement to receding in any particular
from the principles he had embraced. The Assembly declared him a
traitor and set a price on his head, and the first leader of the Revolution
owed his life to imprisonment in an Austrian fortress.
Meanwhile, the principal powers of the French government fell into
the hands of Danton, Marat and Robespierre, well designated "the Infer-
nal Triumvirate;" and their influence was speedily felt in the measures
adopted by the municipality of Paris.
Their first demand on the Assembly was for the appointment of a
Revolutionary Tribunal, which, by being invested with the power to
pronounce sentence of death without appeal, would be able to take sum-
mary vengeance on all concerned in the defence of the palace on the 10th
of August, on which occasion so many of "the people" were slain. Tha
1792.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 13
Assembly strove to resist this sanguinary demand, but they were forced
to submit.
On the 29th of August, the barriers of Paris were closed and remained
shut for forty-eight hours, so that all escape from the city was impossible;
arid domiciliary visits through every quarter of the town supported by a
large military force were then made by order of the Tribunal. Several
thousands of all ranks were arrested, but the victims were selected chiefly
from the nobles and dissident clergy. Dar.ton now directed the opera-
tions of the tribunal and prepared lists of proscription which ho distributed
to his functionaries. Early in the morning of the 2nd of September a band
of three hundred assassins, directed and paid by the magistrates, assembled
around the doors of the Hotel de Ville, where they were plied with ardent
spirits and furnished with final instructions.
The prison of the Abbaye was the first to be visited. Four-and-twenty
priests, put under arrest for refusing to take the new oath, were at the
time in custody at the Hotel de Ville. They were now placed in six
coaches and conducted to the Abbaye amid the yells and execrations of
the mob ; and the moment they arrived, they were dragged out from the
carriages into the inner court of the prison, and there butchered. The
cries of these victims first announced to the prisoners within the fate that
awaited themselves. A tribunal was convened in an adjoining dungeon,
over which Maillard presided by torch-light. He had a drawn sabre
before him, his robes were drenched in blood, and officers with drawn
swords and blood-stained shirts surrounded his chair. Reding, one of the
Swiss guards, was first summoned to appear before this tribunal ; but,
while he was passing through the court, the impatient populace assailed
him with knives, and he fell dead before he reached his judges. Others
were successively called for. A few minutes, and often a few seconds,
sufficed for the trial of each individual, when he was turned out to the
vengeance of the multitude who thronged around the door with knives
and sabres, panting for blood and loudly demanding a more rapid supply
of victims. Immured in the upper wards of the building, the other
prisoners witnessed with agony the prolonged sufferings of their comrades,
and some had the presence of mind to observe in what manner the victims
soonest met death, in order that, when their turn came, they might shorten
their own sufferings by avoiding useless struggles.
After this butchery "had proceeded for some time, the populace in the
more remote part of the court of the prison complained that those only
who were nearest the dungeon of the tribunal could cut down the prison-
ers, while they were deprived of the privilege of shedding aristocratic blood.
It was therefore stipulated, that those in advance should strike the con-
demned with the backs of their sabres, so that the victims might be made
to run the gauntlet through a long avenue of murderers before they were
finally struck down. The women in the adjoining quarter of the town
made a formal demand to the tribunal to be admitted as spectators of this
scene of blood ; accordingly, benches were arranged, under charge of
sentinels, for their accommodation. As each prisoner was successively
turned into the court, a yell of joy arose from the multitude ; and when
he fell, they danced like cannibal's around his remains. In the midst of
the massacre, Mademoiselle de Sombrieul, a beautiful girl of eighteen,
threw herself on her father's neck when he was beset by the assassins,
and declared they should not strike him but through her body. In
14 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP, a
amazement at her courage, the mob paused ; and one of their number
presented to her a cup filled with blood, exclaiming " Drink ! it is the
blood of the aristocrats: drink it, and we will spare him." She did so
and her father was saved. Similar tragedies took place at the same time
in all the other prisons of Paris and in many religious houses occupied as
prisons for the occasion. About five thousand persons perished during
these massacres, besides some thousands of criminals previously confined
in the jails for minor offences unconnected with the state, but who now
fell innocent victims to that thirst for blood by which the people were infu-
riated. The slaughter continued without interruption from the 2nd to the
6th of September ; at the end of which time the corses were thrown into
trenches already prepared by the municipality for their reception. They
were subsequently conveyed to the catacombs, where they were built up
with masonry, and where they still remain, the monument of crimes unfit
to be thought of even in the abodes of death, and which France would
willingly bury in oblivion.
The perpetration of these murders in the French capital by so small a
number of men, is one of the most inotructive facts in the history of
revolutions. Marat had long before said that, with two hundred assassins
at a louis a day for each, he would govern France and cause three hun-
dred thousand heads to fall : and these events of September seemed to
justify his assertion. The number of those actually engaged in the
massacre did not exceed three hundred, and about twice as many
witnessed and encouraged their proceedings: yet this handful of men
governed Paris and France with a despotism which three hundred thou-
sand armed warriors afterward strove in vain to impose. The immense
majority of the well-disposed citizens, divided in opinion, irresolute in
conduct and dispersed in different quarters, were incapable of arresting
a band of assassins engaged in the most atrocious cruelties, of which
modern Europe has yet afforded an example. It is not less worthy of
remark that these deeds of blood were enacted in the heart of a city
where above fifty thousand men were enrolled in the National Guard and
nad arms in their hands — a force, too, specifically provided to arrest
insurrectionary movements and support the majesty of the Law. But
they were so divided in opinion, and the Revolutionists composed so large
a part of their number, that nothing whatever was done by them, either
on the 10th of August when the king was dethroned, or on the 2nd of
September when the prisoners were massacred.
In the midst of these horrors, the Legislative Assembly drew to its
termination and was succeeded in its misrule of blood by a body still
more revolutionary and ferocious — fhe NATIONAL CONVENTION. Of its
members it is sufficient to say thai the most prominent and influential
were Robespierre, Danton, Marat, Desmoulins, Varennes and others who
directed the massacres of September. The whole was comprised in three
parties. The Girondists, occupying the right, had the majority of votes,
but lacked the courage and energy to exert their power on urgent occa-
sions. The Jacobins, occupying the summit of the left (whence their
designation "The Mountain,") were fewer in numbers, but they were
affiliated with the Parisian mob and supported by its municipality, who
at their call would always crowd around the doors of the hall and over-
awe the whole assembly. A third, or neutral party was called "the
Plain ;" its orinciples were not at first declared and its members ranged
1792.J HISTORY OF EUROPE 15
themselves with the Girondists, until terror compelled them to coalesce
with the fierce minority.
The first measure of the Convention was to abolish the monarchy and
proclaim a REPUBLIC. This occurred on the 20th of September, 1792 ;
after which the calendar was so changed that the current year became
the first year of the French Republic. Their next care was a considera-
tion of the finances. From the repori of M. Cambon, the minister of that
department, it appeared that the preceding assemblies had authorized the
issue of no less than 2,700,000,000 of francs (about five hundred and
forty millions of dollars,) — a prodigious sum to have been disbursed in
three years of peace. As a trifle only of this amount remained in the
treasury, a new issue was ordered on the security of the national domains
— which domains were constantly accumulating in the hands of the gov-
ernment, and now, from continual confiscations, embraced more than two-
thirds of the landed property of France.
The Convention then proceeded to some changes in the constitution
adopted by their predecessors. On the motion of the Duke of Orleans,
the few remaining requisites to election, whether for voters or candidates,
were abolished. Every person, of whatever rank, was declared eligible
to any office, so that absolute equality, in its literal sense, was universally
established.
Another measure, momentous in its consequences, was soon brought
forward : namely, an attempt on the part of the Girondists to impeach
Robespierre and Marat. The attempt failed, but its importance consisted
in its development of the relative strength of the Girondist and Jacobin
parties in the Convention, prior to the undertaking of another measure
which was destined to attract the eyes of Europe and of the world. This
was the trial of Louis XVI.
To prepare the nation for this event, and to familiarize them with the
tragedy in which they were resolved it should terminate, the Jacobins
had taken the most vigorous measures throughout all France. In their
central club at Paris, the question was repeatedly canvassed, and their
discussions were transmitted to all the departments ; while, daily, at the
bar of the Convention, petitions were presented praying for vengeance on
the remainder of the murderers of the 10th of August, and for "death to
the last tyrant."
The charges against Louis were very numerous ; but of all of them it
suffices to remark that, so far as they were true, the acts they recited were
perfectly justifiable ; and that the greater part were base calumnies,
incapable of proof and totally without foundation in fact.
During his imprisonment in the Temple, the unfortunate monarch was,
gradually and under various frivolous pretexts, deprived of almost every
comfort. At first, the royal family were permitted to spend their time
together. They breakfasted at nine in the queen's apartment ; at one,
if the weather were fine, they walked for an hour in the garden, strictly
watched by the officers of the municipality, from whom they often received
the most cruel insults. Some hours were devoted to the instruction of the
prince, and at intervals the princess-royal played with her brother and
softened by every attention the pain of her parents' captivity. Soon,
however, the precautions and restrictions of the manicipality became more
intolerable. The officers refused to let them be out of their sight for an
instant, and when they retired to rest, a bed was placed for the guard at
18 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. II.
the door of eacn room. Writing materials were taken from them, and, soon
after, the scissors, needles and bodkins of the princesses, with which they
nad whiled away many a tedious hour ; and, such was the rigor of their
exclusion from the world without, they were almost wholly ignorant of
what was taking place in the city. The municipality next determined
to separate the king and the dauphin from the queen and princesses : a
most barbarous decree and one that brought tears into the eyes of the
officers who enforced it.
The king appeared before the Convention to hear and plead to the
charges on the llth of December, when, after some debate, it was decided
that lie should have time to prepare his defence and choose his own counsel.
He made choice of M. Tronchet and M. Target ; the former of whom
accepted and faithfully discharged his duty; the latter had the baseness to
decline. The venerable Malesherbes afterward volunteered his services
to defend the king, and united with Tronchet in applying to Deseze for
his cooperation, which that celebrated advocate immediately accorded. •
When the eloquent peroration of Deseze was read to the king, the even-
ing before it was to be delivered to the Convention, Louis requested him
to strike it out from his argument. " It is enough for me," said he, " to
appear before such judges and demonstrate my innocence : I will not
condescend to appeal to their feelings." On the same day, he composed
his immortal Testament; the most perfect commentary on the principles
of Christianity that ever came from the hand of a king. " 1 recommend
to my son," said he in a portion of that touching memorial, "should fie
ever have the misfortune to become a king, to feel that his whole existence
should be devoted to the good of his people ; to bury in oblivion all hatred
and resentment, especially for my misfortunes ; to recollect that he can-
not promote the happiness of his subjects but by reigning according to the
laws ; at the same time, he cannot carry his good intentions into execution,
without the requisite authority. I pardon all those who have injured me
and I pray my son to recollect only their sufferings. I declare before
God. and on the eve of appearing at his tribunal, that I am wholly inno-
cent of the crimes laid to my charge."
The trial commenced on the 26th of December and was continued for
twenty days. The king's counsel defended their client with consummate
ability, but the case, like most cases that came before that bloody tribunal,
was prejudged, the royal victim was in effect condemned before he was
accused, and eloquence and argument, as well as every appeal to humanity
and justice, were equally vain. The final vote was taken on the 15th of
January, when Louis was unanimously pronounced guilty; an astounding
decision to all parties, but evidently given under the expectation that it
would not prove fatal to the king ; for, when the remaining question was
proposed as to the punishment to be inflicted, it was debated through a
protracted and stormy session of no less than forty hours, and finally decided
by a majority of only twenty-six out of seven hundred and twenty-one
votes. The sentence was DEATH.
But for the defection of the Girondists, the king's life would have been
saved. Forty-six of their party, including Vergniaud, voted against him.
They were anxious to save the king, but fearful of irritating the Jacobins
by voting according to their own wishes. Almost every one of these forty-
six afterward perished on the same scaffold, to which they had condemned
their sovereign
1793.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 17
On the 20th of January, Santerre, with a deputation from the munici.
pality, presented himself before the king and formally read the sentence.
Louis received it with unshaken firmness and demanded a respite of three
days in which to prepare for heaven; he also solicited an interview with
his family and a confessor. The last two demands alone were conceded,
and the execution was ordered for the following morning at ten o'clock.
The king's last interview with his family was a heart-rending scene.
At half past eight in the evening, the door of his apartment opened and
the queen appeared leading by the hand the princess-royal and the prin-
cess Elizabeth, the sister of Louis : they all rushed into his arms. For
some minutes there ensued a profound silence broken only by the sobs
of the afflicted family. The king then sat down, having the queen on his
left, the princess-royal on his right, Elizabeth in front and the dauphin
between his knees. This terrible scene lasted nearly two hours. Louis
at length rose ; the royal parents each gave a parting blessing to the
dauphin, while the princesses still held the king around the waist. As
he approached the door, they uttered the most piercing cries. " I assure
you," said Louis, " I will see you again in the morning at eight." " Why
not at seven?" they exclaimed. "Well, then, at seven," answered the
king. He then pronounced the word "adieu!" but in so mournful an
accent that the lamentations redoubled, and the princess-royal fainted at
his feet. The king finally tore himself from them and turned for conso-
lation to the Abbe Edgeworth, who spent the remainder of the night with
him and heroically discharged the perilous duty of attending his last
moments.
At nine o'clock, on the 21st of January, Santerre reappeared to conduct
his sovereign to the scaffold. In passing through the court of the Temple,
Louis gave a last look at the tower which contained all that was dear to
him in the world ; and, immediately summoning his courage, he calmly
seated himself in the carriage beside his confessor and opposite two gen-
d'armes. During the passage to the place of execution, which occupied
two hours, he continued to repeat the psalms pointed out to him by his
confessor. The streets were filled with an immense crowd who beheld
the mournful procession in silent dismay : a large body of troops sur-
rounded the carriage, and a double file of soldiers and National Guards
with a formidable train of artillery rendered hopeless any attempt at
rescue. When the procession arrived at the designated spot, between the
garden of the Tuileries and the Champs Elysees, Louis descended from
the carriage and disrobed himself without the aid of the executioners;
but he manifested a momentary indignation when they began to bind his
hands. The Abbe Edgeworth checked him, saying with almost inspired
felicity, " submit to this outrage, as the last resemblance to the Saviour,
who is about to recompense your sufferings." He mounted the scaffold
with a firm step ; with a single look he imposed silence on twenty drummers
placed there to prevent his being heard, and said with a loud voice *< I die
innocent of all the crimes laid to my charge; but I pardon the authors
of my death and pray God that my wrongs may never be visited upon
France. And you, unhappy people — " At these words, Santerre ordered
the drums to beat ; the executioners seized the king and the axe terminated
his existence. One of the attendants grasped the head and waved it in
the air, and the blood was sprinkled over the confessor who knelt beside
the lifeless corse of his sovereign.
18 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [CHAP. IIL
The body of the king, immediately after the execution, was removed
to the ancient cemetery of the. Madeleine at the end of the Boulevard
Italienne and placed in a grave six feet square. Large quantities of
quick lime were thrown on the body, so that when, in 1815, the remains
were sought after, that they might be conveyed to the Royal Mausoleum
in St. Denis, scarcely any part could be discovered.
The king was executed in the centre of the Place Louis XV. on the
same spot where afterward, the queen, the princess Elizabeth and many
other noble victims of the Revolution perished ; where, also, Robespierre
and Danton were executed ; and where the Emperor Alexander and the
allied sovereigns took their station, when their victorious armies entered
Paris on the 31st of March, 1814. Thus, the greatest of revolutionary
crimes and the greatest of revolutionary punishments took place on the
same spot : nor has modern Europe another scene to exhibit fraught with
equally interesting recollections. It is now ornamented by the colossal
obelisk of blood-red granite which was brought from Thebes, in Uppei
Egypt, in 1833, by the French government. That monument, which wit-
nessed the march of Cambyses, and survived the conquests of Caesar and
Alexander, is destined to mark to the latest generation the scene of the
martyrdom of Louis and of the final triumph of his immortal avenger.
The character of this monarch cannot be better described than in the
words of Mignet, the ablest of the Republican writers of France. " Louis
inherited a revolution from his ancestors : his qualities were better fitted
than those of any of his predecessors to have prevented or terminated
it ; for he was capable of effecting reform before it broke out, and of
discharging the duties of a constitutional throne under its influence. He
was perhaps the only monarch who was subject to no passion, not even
that of power, and who united the two qualities essential to a good king,
fear of God and love of his people. He perished, the victim of passions
which he had no share in exciting ; the passions of his supporters with
which he was unacquainted, and the passions of the multitude which he
had done nothing to awaken. Few kings have left so venerated a mem-
ory. History will write for his epitaph that, v/ith a little more force of
mind, he would have been unrivalled as a sovereign."
CHAPTER III.
STATE OF EUROPE PRIOR TO THE WAR.
IT was not to be expected that so great an event as the French Revolu
lion, rousing as it did the passions of one portion and exciting the appre-
hensions of the other portion of mankind all the world over, could long
remain an object of passing observation to the adjoining states. It ad-
dressed itself to the hopes and prejudices of the great body of the people
in every country ; and, by exciting their ill-smothered indignation against
their superiors, added to a sense of their real injuries the more powerful
stimulus of revolutionary ambition. A ferment accordingly began to spread
through the neighboring kingdoms ; extravagant hopes were formed, chi-
1792.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 19
merical anticipations indulged, and the laboring classes, inflated by the
rapid elevation of their brethren in France, believed the time was ap-
proaching when the distinctions of society were to cease and the miseries
af poverty expire, amid the universal dominion of the people.
Austria, Russia and England were at this time the great powers of
Europe, and they therefore bore a principal part in the long and desperate
struggle that ensued.
Nine years of peace had enabled Great Britain to recover in a great
degree from the exhaustion of the American war. If she had lost an
empire in the Western, she had gained one in the Eastern world. Her
national debt, amounting to £244,000,000 sterling (ten hundred and
sixty millions of dollars,) on which the annual interest was £9,317,000
(forty-four millions of dollars,) was a severe burden on the industry of the
people ; while the yearly taxes, though light in comparison with what
were subsequently imposed, were still felt to be oppressive. The resources
of the kingdom were, nevertheless, enormous. Commerce, agriculture
and manufactures had rapidly increased, the trade with the independent
States of North America was found to exceed in value what it had been
\vhen that country was in a state of colonial dependence, and the exertion
of individuals to improve their condition had produced a surprising effect
on the accumulation of capital and the state of public credit. The three
per cents., which were at -57 at the close of the war, had risen to -99, and
the overflowing wealth of the cities was already finding its way into the
most circuitous foreign trade and hazardous distant investments. The
national revenue amounted to £16,000,000 (seventy-six millions of dol-
lars,) and the army included thirty-two thousand soldiers in the British
Isles, besides an equal force in the East and West Indies and thirty-six
regiments of yeomanry. After the commencement of the war, and pre-
vious to 1796, the entire regular army of Great Britain amounted to two
hundred and six thousand men, including forty-two thousand militia. More
than half of this force, however, was required for the service of the colo-
nies ; and experience has proved that Britain can never collect more than
forty thousand at any one point on the continent of Europe. The strength
of England consisted in her inexhaustible wealth, in the public spirit and
energy of her people, in the moral influence of centuries of glory, and in
a fleet of a hundred and fifty ships of the line which gave her the undis-
puted command of the seas.
The opinions of the people on the French Revolution were greatly
divided. The young, the ardent, the philosophical, the factious, the rest-
less and the ambitious were sanguine in their expectations of its success,
and exulted in its promise of benefit to the human race : while the great
majority of the aristocracy, the adherents of the Church, the holders of
office under the monarchy, and in general the opulent ranks of society
beheld it with disgust and alarm.
At the head of the first party, was Mr. Fox, the eloquent and illustrious
champion of universal freedom. Descended from a noble family, he in-
herited the love of liberty, and by the impetuous torrent of his eloquence
long maintained his place as leader of the opposition of the British Empire.
Mr. Pitt was the leader of the second party, which, at the commence-
ment of the French Revolution, was in full possession of the government
and had a decided majority in both houses of Parliament. Modern his-
tory can scarcely furnish another character of such eminence. His early
20 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. TIL
career was distinguished by the sentiments and principles inherited from
his father, the first Lord Chatham, and his great abilities gave him from
the outset a prominent place in Parliament. On the 12th of January,
1784, before he was five-and-twenty years of age, he took his seat in the
House of Commons, as Chancellor of the Exchequer ; and never did a
more arduous struggle await a minister. The opposition, led by the
impetuous energy of Fox, aided by the experience, influence and admi-
rable temper of Lord North, possessed at that time a large majority in
the lower House, and they treated with the utmost scorn this attempt of a
young man of four-and-twenty to disposses them of the government. But
it was soon evident that Pitt's transcendent talents were equal to the task.
Invincible in resolution, cool in danger, fertile in resource, powerful in
debate, and possessed of a moral courage which nothing could overcome,
Pitt exhibited a combination of great qualities which, for political contest,
was never excelled ; he successfully withstood the most formidable par-
liamentary majority which had appeared in England since the days of
Cromwell, and ultimately remained victorious in the struggle.
Mr. Burke was the leader of a third party composed of the old Whigs
who supported the principles of the English, but opposed those of the
French, Revolution. This celebrated man had long stood side by side
with Mr. Fox in the opposition, but on the breaking out of the French
Revolution, he took part with the government. With great political saga-
city he exerted his talents to oppose the levelling principles which that
convulsion introduced; and his work on that subject produced a greater
impression on the public mind than, perhaps, any other book which has
yet appeared in the world. It abounds in eloquent passages and profound
wisdom ; but vast as ,was its influence, and unrivalled as was its reputa-
tion, its value was not fully understood till the progress of events demon-
strated the justice of its principles. The division on this vital question for
ever alienated these two illustrious men from each other, and drew tears
from both of them in the House of Commons where it took place : a striking
token of the effects which the Revolution, out of its immediate sphere,
produced on the charities of private life, and of the variance which it
occasioned in the bosom of families and between friendships that "had
stood the strain of a whole life."
Austria was the most formidable rival of the French Republic on the
continent of Europe. This great empire, containing at the time nearly
twenty millions of inhabitants, and having a revenue of ninety millions
of florins, held the richest and most fertile districts of Europe among its
provinces. The possession of the Low Countries gave Austria an advanced
post immediately in contact with the French frontier, while the mountains
of the Tyrol formed a vast fortress, garrisoned by an attached and war-
like people, and placed at a salient angle between Germany and Italy.
Her armies, numerous and highly disciplined, had acquired great renown
in the wars of Maria Theresa and maintained a creditable position, under
Daun and Laudohn, in the scientific campaigns with the Great Frederic.
Her t-rovernrnent, nominally a monarchy, but really an oligarchy in the
hands of the great nobles, possessed all that firmness and tenacity of
purpose for which aristocratic powers have always been distinguished,
and which, under unparalleled difficulties and disasters, at last brought
her successfully through the long struggle in which she was soon
afterward engaged. The Austrian forces, at the commencement of
1792.] HIS TORY OF EUROPE. 21
war, amounted to two hundred and forty thousand infant* y, thirty-five
thousand cavalry, and one hundred thousand artillery; while the extent
0*" the empire and the warlike disposition of the inhahitants furnished inex-
haustiDle resources for the maintenance of the contest.
The military strength of Prussia, raised to the highest pitch of ^Jiich
its resources would admit, by the genius of the great Frederic, rendered ,
this once inconsiderable kingdom a first-rate power on the Continent. Its
army, one hundred and sixty thousand strong, including thirty-five thou-
sand cavalry, was in the best state of discipline and equipment; and this
force, considerable as it was, formed but a small part of the strength of
the kingdom. By an admirable system of organization, the whole of the
Prussian youth were compelled to serve a limited number of years in the
army,* so that not only was a taste for military habits universally diffused,
but the country always possessed an immense reserve of experienced
troops who might in any emergency be called to its defence. The states
which composed the Prussian monarchy were by no means so coherent
as those of the Austrian dominions. Nature- had traced out for them no
limits like the Rhine, the Alps or the Pyrenees, to designate their boun-
daries ; no great rivers or mountain chains protected their frontiers ; and
few fortified towns guarded them from the incursions of the military
nations by which they were environed. Their surface consisted of four-
teen thousand square leagues, and their population amounted to nearly
eight millions, composed of different races, professing different creeds and
speaking different languages. Toward Russia and Austrian Poland, a
frontier of two hundred leagues was destitute of places of defence ; Sile-
sia, alone, enjoyed the double advantage of three lines of fortresses and
the strongest natural barriers. The national security rested entirely on
the army and the courage of the inhabitants. The government was a
military despotism, and the liberty of the press was unknown; neverthe-
less, the public administration was tempered by the wisdom and benefi-
cence of its state-policy. In no country of Europe were private rights
more thoroughly respected, or justice more rigidly observed, than in the
courts and domestic government of Prussia.
The immense Empire of Russia — comprehending nearly half of Europe
and Asia, backed by inaccessible regions of frost, secured from invasion
by the extent of its surface and the severity of its climate, inhabited by a
patient and indomitable race who were ever ready to exchange the luxu-
ries and adventure of the south for the hardships and monotony of the
north — was daily becoming formidable to the liberties of Europe. The
infantry of Russia had long been celebrated for its immovable firmness ;
and the cavalry, though inferior to its present sta.te of discipline and equip-
ment, was inured to service in the war with the Turks, and mounted on
a hardy and admirable race of horses. The artillery was more distin-
guished for the obstinate valor of its men, than for the condition of its
guns. The armies were recruited by a certain proportion of conscripts
drawn from every hundred of male inhabitants ; a mode of supply in a
large and rapidly increasing population, that was not easily exhausted.
The entire force in 1792 amounted to two hundred thousand men, exclu-
sive of the youth of the military colonies, and of the well-known Cossacks
of the Don. This irregular force, composed of the pastoral tribes in the
southern provinces of the Empire, was a very slight expense to the govern-
ment : it was necessary only to issue an order for a certain number of these
22 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. IIL
hardy bands to take the field, and crowds of active young men appeared,
equipped at their own cost, mounted on small but indefatigable horses, and
ready to undergo all the hardships of war. Gifted with the individual in-
telligence which belongs to the pastoral and savage character, and yet sub-
ject^ to a certain degree of discipline, they were the best light troops in
the world, and were more formidable to a retreating army than the bravest
of French or Russian dragoons. The population of Russia, in Europe alone,
was nearly thirty-five millions, and was increasing at a rate which doubled
its numbers in forty years : this supply of inhabitants, with the other re-
sources of the Empire, enabled her to bear a distinguished part in the ap-
proaching conflict.
Sweden was too remote from the scene of European strife to have much
weight in the political scale. She had recently, however, concluded a
glorious war with her powerful neighbor, Russia ; for her arms, in alliance
with the arms of Turkey, had taken the Russian forces by surprise, and
Gustavus, her king, extricating himself by a desperate exertion of valor
from a perilous situation, had destroyed the Russian fleet and gained a
great victory so near to St. Petersburg that the sound of his cannon was
heard in the palace of the empress. Catherine hastened to be rid of the
Swedish war by offering advantageous terms to her brave antagonist, and
flattered him to accept them by representing that the efforts of all sove-
reigns should now be directed toward resisting the progress of the French
Revolution and that he alone was worthy to head the enterprise.
Placed on the other extremity of the Russian dominions, the forces of.
Turkey were still less enable of affecting the balance of European power:
her troops, too,- though formidable among their native defences to an in-
vading army, were comparatively inefficient, when removed from their
own fields and brought into contact with the better disciplined armies of
other European states.
The political importance of Italy had sunk almost as low as that of
Turkey. Inhabiting the finest country in Europe — a country blessed
with the richest plains and most fruitful mountains, defended from inva
sion by the encircling sea and the frozen Alps, venerated also from the
recollections of ancient greatness and from its containing the cradle of
modern freedom — the people of Italy were yet as dust in the scale of
nations.
The kingdom of Piedmont, situated on the frontiers of Italy, partook
more of the character of its northern than its southern neighbors. Its
soldiers, drawn chiefly from the mountains of Savoy, Liguria, or the
maritime Alps, were brave, docile and enterprising, and, under Victor
Amadeus, had risen to the highest distinction in the beginning of the 18th
century. The regular army amounted to thirty thousand infantry and
three thousand five hundred cavalry ; and the government could, in addi-
tion to this, summon to its support fifteen thousand militia who, in defend-
ing their mountain passes, rivalled the best troops in Europe. They
were chiefly employed during the war in guarding fortresses ; and the
number of these, joined tc the natural strength of the country and its posi-
tion important as holding the keys of the great passes of the Alps, gave
this state a degree of military consequence beyond what could have been
anticipated from its mere physical strength.
Sunk in obscure marshes, crushed by the naval supremacy of England,
and cooped up in a corner of Europe, Holland had become a compara-
1792.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 23
lively insignificant power. Its army still consisted of forty thousand men
and its fortified towns and means of inundation showed the same ability
of defence as had formerly been exerted ; but the resolution of the people
was far inferior to the strength of their position.
The peasantry of Switzerland, on the other hand, cradled in snowy
mountains, tilling a sterile soil and habituated to hardships, exhibited at
this time the same characteristics which have always rendered them cele-
brated in European wars. Their lives were as simple, their courage as
undaunted and their patriotism as warm as were those of their ancestors
who fell at Morat or Morgarten : but as their troops did not exceed thirty-
eight thousand in number, they could take little active part in the great
contests that agitated the plains of Europe.
The people of the Spanish Peninsula were able to assume a more dis-
tinguished place in the strife for European freedom. This singular
and mixed race, united to the tenacity of purpose which marked the
Gothic, the fiery enterprise that characterized the Mcforish blood : cen-
turies of almost unbroken repose had neither extinguished the one nor
abated the other ; and Napoleon, at a later day, erroneously judged the
temper of her people when he measured it by the inglorious reigns of the
Bourbon dynasty. Her national strength had indeed declined, by reason
of the accumulation of estates in the hands of noble families who were
degenerated by long-continued intermarriages, and of the predominant
influence of the Catholic priesthood : but the courage and prowess of her
peasantry were unimpaired and her ability to repel invasion was signally
proved in many instances during the war. The nominal military strength
of Spain was one hundred and forty thousand men ; but this force was
far from being effective ; and in the first campaigns she was not able to
muster eighty thousand combatants.
The forces of France destined to contend with this immense aggregate
of military strength, were far from being considerable at the commence-
ment of the struggle. The infantry consisted of one hundred and sixty
thousand men, the cavalry of thirty-five thousand, and the artillery of ten
thousand. During the first stormy period of the Revolution, the discipline
of the troops had declined ; and the custom of each man's judging for him-
self had introduced into the army a degree of license wholly inconsistent
with military subordination. These defects, however, were speedily
remedied under the iron rule of the Convention.
In contemplation of the approaching contest, a treaty of alliance, offen-
sive and defensive, was concluded on the 7th of February, 1792, between
Sweden and Austria ; but, it seemed that Providence was preparing a
new race of actors for the mighty scenes now to be performed ; for Leo-
pold of Austria died on the 1st of March following; and on the 16th of
the same month, Gustavus was assassinated at a masked ball.
Leopold was succeeded by his son Francis, then but twenty-four years
of age, whose reign was the most eventful, the most disastrous, and ulti-
mately the most glorious in the Austrian annals. His first measures
were popular and judicious; Kaunitz was continued as prime-minister,
and with him were associated in the cabinet, Marshal Lascy and Count
Francis Colloredo. He suppressed- those articles in the journals which
loaded him with praise, observing, " It is by my future conduct that I
am to be judged worthy of praise or blame." When the list of pension-
ers was submitted to his inspection, he erased the name of hi mother,
4
24 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CcAr.IIT.
saying that it was not becoming for her to be dependent on the bounty of
the state.
Hitherto, Great Britain had observed a strict neutrality toward France,
but the progress of events soon forced her to a change of policy. The
10th of August came; the French throne was overturned; the royal
family imprisoned ; and the massacres of September stained Paris with
blood. In the frenzy of their democratic fury, and intoxicated with suc-
cess, the Revolutionary party adopted measures incompatible with the
peace of other states. A Jacobin club of twelve hundred members was
established at Chamberry, in Savoy, and one hundred of its most active
individuals were selected as travelling missionaries "armed with the
torch of reason and liberty, for the purpose of enlightening the Savoyards
on their regeneration and imprescriptible rights." An address was voted
by this club to the French Convention as "legislators of the world," and
received by them on the 20th of October, 1792. They ordered it to be
translated into the English, Spanish and German languages. The rebel-
lious Savoyards next formed a Convention, in imitation of that of France,
and offered to incorporate themselves with the great Republic. The
French Convention promptly accepted the proffered dominion of Savoy,
and united it to the Republic under the name of the Department of Mont
Blanc. The seizure of Savoy was followed by that of Nice with its ter-
ritory, and Monaco; these were styled the Department of the maritime
Alps. Italy was the next object of attack, and Piedmont the first point
assailed. To facilitate the work, a French fleet cast anchor in the Bay
of Genoa, and a Jacobin club was established in that city. Kellerman,
on assuming the command of the army of the Alps, informed his soldiers
that he "had orders to conquer Rome, and the orders should be obeyed."
The French ambassador at Rome was in the mean time so active in urg
ing the people to insurrection, that, when proceeding in his carriage to one
of his conferences, he was seized by the mob, at whom he had discharged
a pistol, and was murdered in the streets. Switzerland, too, and ^the
smaller German 'principalities, were subjected to insult or sequestration.
Finally, on the 19th of November, a decree was unanimously passed by
the Convention, which openly placed the French Republic at war with
all established governments.
These unprecedenied and alarming proceedings, joined to the rapid
increase and treasonable language of the Jacobin societies in England,
excited a general disquietude in that country ; and after some time spent
in correspondence with the French government, matters were brought to
a crisis by the execution of Louis. As there was now no longer even the
shadow of a government in the French capital with which to maintain a
diplomatic intercourse, the French minister was notified to quit the Brit-
ish dominions within eight days; and on the 3rd of February, 1793, the
French Convention declared war against Great Britain.
CHAPTER IV.
CAMPAIGN OF 1792.
AFTER the decision of the Assembly for war, and the forced declaration
of Louis to that effect, in April, 1792, three considerable armies were
ordered to be formed. In the north, Marshal Rochambeau commanded
forty thousand infantry and eight thousand cavalry, cantoned from Dun-
kirk to Phillipville. In the centre, La Fayette was stationed with forty-
five thousand infantry and seven thousand cavalry, from Phillipville ^to
Lautre ; while Marshal Luckner, with thirty-five thousand infantry and
eight thousand cavalry, observed the course of the Rhine from Bale to
Lauterburg. In the^south, General Montesquieu, with fifty thousand
men, was charged with the defence of the line of the Pyrenees and the
course of the Rhone. But these armies, however formidable their num-
bers may sound, were as yet very inefficient, as the license of the Revo-
lution had impaired their discipline, and destroyed their respect and
confidence in their commanders.
To oppose these forces, however, the allies made but an indifferent de-
monstration. Fifty thousand Prussians and sixty-five thousand Austrians
and Hessians were all that could at first be mustered at various points for
the invasion of France.
Encouraged by the inconsiderable Austrian force in the Low Countries,
the French resolved to invade Flanders in four columns, and on the 28th
of April, 1792, put themselves in motion ; but in every direction they were
routed by the Austrians at the first onset, so that the corps destined to
advance to Furnes fell back on hearing of these reverses, and General
La Fayette judged it prudent to suspend the movement of his whole army
and retire to his camp at Rancennes.
The extreme facility with which this invasion of Flanders was repelled,
astonished all Europe. The Prussians conceived the utmost contempt for
their new opponents, and it is curious to recur to the sentiments they
expressed on the occasion. " Do not buy too many horses," said the
minister Bischoffswerder, to several officers of rank ; " the farce will not
last long ; the army of lawyers will soon be annihilated."
The Jacobins and war party at Paris, though extremely disconcerted
by these disasters, had the address to conceal their apprehensions, and
denounced the severest penalties against the real or supposed authors of
the national disgrace. Energetic measures were taken to reenforce the
armies. Rochambeau was dismissed and Luckner ordered to take his com-
mand and resume offensive operations. But this feeble and irresolute old
nan was ill qualified to restore the confidence or efficiency of the army.
He was defeated in his first movement, and at the same time La Fayette
met with a signal overthrow. These events naturally increased the
presumption of the allies, and rendered them indifferent about pressing on
with energy to strike a decisive blow. The Duke of Brunswick, who
was intrusted with the command of the allied army, was alone adequately
impressed with the importance of the campaign, and strongly urged the
necessity of hastening their operations before the French could recover
from their discomfiture and alarm.
26 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [CHAP. IV.
On the 25th of July, the King of Prussia joined the army, and on the
same day the proclamation, already referred to in Chapter II., was issued
in the name of the Duke of Brunswick ; though it was not drawn up by
him, and he strenuously denounced its impolicy. On the 30th of July,
the whole army broke up and entered the French territory.
A triple barrier defended the eastern frontier of France, and the line
of march proposed by the allies lay through the centre of the chain : there
were but three fortresses on this line, Sedan, Longwy and Verdun, all
at that time in a wretched condition, after which nothing but fertile plains
interposed between the invaders and Paris. Under these circumstances,
a powerful attack and rapid advance seemed the most prudent and effectual
means of terminating the campaign ; and so it must have proved, had the
allies displayed an energy adequate to the emergency. They advanced,
indeed, but with inexplicable slowness and timidity ; took the fortress
of Longwy after a three days' siege, received intelligence of the flight
of La Fayette from his army, and at the end of six days invested Verdun.
This fortress capitulated on the 2nd of September. Sedan and the forest
of Argonne in its neighborhood were now the only impediments on the
road to Paris. But the successes of the allies, great in effect, though
trivial as military achievements, only increased their inactivity. They
lingered around Verdun until Dumourier, who was dispatched from the
Assembly to take command of the army, had occupied Sedan and the
passes of the forest with twenty-five thousand men. Yet though a golden
opportunity was thus wantonly thrown away, the allies displayed more
activity and military conduct in the sequel.
As it was now impossible to pursue his original line of advance or dis-
lodge Dumourier by an attack in front, the Duke of Brunswick moved a
part of his forces to Landres in order to turn the left of the French posi-
tion. This compelled Dumourier to detach a portion of his right wing
(which occupied the Croix au Bois, one of the five passes of the forest,) in
order to reenforce his left ; when Clairfait, finding the defences of the
Croix au Bois thus weakened, pushed on with a strong body of allies and
made himself master of the pass: by this means, the allies were enabled
to threaten the rear of the French and disturb their communications with
the capital. Dumourier was now forced to retreat with a part of his
army to St. Menehould ; but he still held the two most important passes
of the Argonne (Islettes and Chalade,) and France had gained time to
bring new forces into the field. Dumourier fortified his position at St.
Me'ne'hould, and was soon joined by two considerable auxiliary armies
under Kellerman and Bournonville, which raised the numbers and confi-
dence of the Republicans to a footing of equality with the invaders.
The Duke of Brunswick, after learning the movements of Dumourier,
put his troops in motion, advanced through the unguarded defiles of the
forest, and took post between the French army and Paris. The hostile
forces were now in a singular position : the allies faced toward the Rhine,
with their rear on Champagne ; while the French rear was at the forest
nf Argonne, and their front toward tneir own capital. An action imme-
diately ensued on the field of Valmy, in whi^h the allies had the advan-
tage, but they did not follow it up, and the contending parties withdrew
at nightfall to their original positions. But it is with an invading army
as with an insurrection ; an indecisive action is equivalent to a defeat.
This affair was merely a cannonade ; the loss on both sides did not exceed
•792.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 27
eight hundred men, yet it produced on the allies the effect of an overthrow :
it proved that the French troops could endure fire with steadiness, and
repel an assault with bravery ; and it destroyed the illusion under which
both armies had hitherto labored — namely, that the allied troops, when
joined on equal terms, were superior to the French. Indeed, the conduct
of the Duke of Brunswick, both in this action and in the movements which
for three weeks preceded it, would be altogether inexplicable, if the
external aspect of the military events were alone considered. The truth
is, as it was afterward revealed, that during this time a secret negotiation
was depending between the Duke and Dumourier, with the avowed
object of obtaining the recognition by Dumourier of the constitutional
throne, and to accomplish a junction between his force and the allies to
sustain it. The Duke was quite sincere in this project, but it soon ap-
peared that Dumourier was not, and he had encouraged the proposal and
protracted the negotiations merely to gain time for the better organization
of his forces. This accounts for the Duke's partial operations at Valmy ;
he was fearful by a decided battle and probable victory of converting a
promised ally into an irreconcileable opponent.
No sooner was the action terminated, than the interchange of secret mes-
sengers became more active than ever. Lombard, the private secretary
of the Duke, allowed himself to be made prisoner in disguise, and con-
ducted the negotiation. The Duke insisted on the immediate liberation of
the French king, and the reestablishment of a constitutional monarchy ;
while Dumourier avowed that, anxious as he was to accomplish these ob-
jects, he could not hope to bring the Convention to such a decision' until
the allies should first evacuate the French territory ; and he reasoned that
after rendering such signal service to his government, they would natu-
rally yield to his influence in behalf of the king : on the other hand, should
the allies refuse this preliminary condition, he would throw all his energies
into the scale of war, which, with his present reenforcements, he was well
able to maintain. Besides, were the contest continued, the lives of the
king and the whole royal family would be sacrificed to the resentment of
the Convention.
These representations were so well put by Dumourier and sustained by
such able arguments, that the allies after some discussion, in which the
King of Prussia strenuously opposed the plan of Dumourier, finally con-
sented to retreat ; agreeing to evacuate the fortresses they had taken, on
condition of being unmolested on their homeward march. They were not
long in discovering that they had been trifled with ; but in the mean time,
they had lost all their advantages, and the French frontier was put in a
state of defence.
Dumourier, having thus foiled the enemy by diplomacy and relieved the
country from the danger that threatened it on the east, found himself at
liberty to make a new attempt on Flanders.
While these decisive events were taking place in the central provinces,
operations of minor importance, though material to the issue of the cam-
paign, were going on in Alsace and the Low Countries. The French
camp at Maulde was broken up, and a retreat commenced toward the
camp at Bruille, a strong position in the rear: but in executing this move-
ment, they were, on the 14th of September, attacked and completely
routed by the Austrians. Encouraged by this success, the Archduke
Albert, with a force of twenty-five thousand men, undertook the siege of
28 HISTORY OF EUROPE. tCnA*. IV.
Lisle, one of the strongest towns in Europe, and which, in 1708, had made
a glorious defence against the united armies of Eugene and Marlborough.
The garrison consisted of ten thousand men, who, with their commander,
a man of courage and ability, were devoted to the cause of the Republic.
In this case, little success could be anticipated from a regular siege, but
the Austrians endeavored to intimidate the garrison by a bombardment,
which was continued night and day for a whole week. The soldiers,
however, in their bomb-proof casements, were secure from this terrible
Btorm which fell with desolating effect on the inhabitants : and soon after,
the arrival of General Lamartiliere and the approach of Dumourier forced
the Austrians to raise the siege and withdraw from France. This affair,
also, estimated by its results, was regarded as a glorious triumph to the
French arms, and inspired the Republican troops with new energy.
Meanwhile, General Custine, who was posted near Landau with seventeen
thousand Frenchmen, undertook an offensive movement against Spires,
where the allies had collected large magazines. By a rapid advance, he
surrounded and made prisoners a corps of three thousand men — an event
that led to the immediate capture of Spires, Worms and Frankenthal.
Custine next moved, at the head of an army now reenforced to twenty-two
thousand men, against Mayence. He invested that important fortress on
the 19th of October and on the 21st, by reason of Jacobin influence and
defection in the garrison, it was forced to capitulate. The allies thus
lost their only fortified post on the Rhine.
Dumourier now advanced upon Flanders at the head of a central force
of forty thousand men, in the highest spirits and anticipating nothing
but triumph : while three auxiliary armies moved in the same direction,
amounting together to sixty thousand men.
The Austrians could bring to oppose Dumourier but eighteen thousand
men : they were, however, intrenched at the village of Jemappes behind
fourteen redoubts strengthened by all the resources of art and armed by
nearly a hundred pieces of artillery : it was thought that the difference
in position of the respective armies nearly atoned for their disparity in
numbers, and both parties, with equal confidence, resolved on a general
action.
The battle commen'ced at daybreak on the 6th of November. General
Bournonville led the first attack against the village of Cuesmes, on the Aus-
trian left. A sustained fire of artillery for a time arrested his efforts, but
at length the flank of Jemappes was turned and the redoubts on the left
of the Austrian position were carried by an impetuous assault of the
French infantry. Dumourier seized this moment to bring his whole
centre against the front of Jemappes. He moved on rapidly and with
little loss till he reached the village, where his columns were disturbed and
thrown into some confusion by a flank charge of the imperial cavalry,
while the leading battalions, checked by a tremendous fire of grapeshot,
were beginning to waver at the foot of the redoubts. In this extremity, a
young general, rallying the broken regiments into one column, placed
himself at its head, and renewed the attack with such spirit that the vil-
lage and redoubts were carried and the Austrians driven at once from their
intrenchments into the centre of the field beyond. This young officer was
the Duke de Chartres, afterward Louis PHILIPPE, king of the French.
Meantime, Bournonville, though at first successful on the right, had not
followed up his attack with sufficient vigor; the Austrians had rallied,
1792.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 29
returned to the charge, and Bournonville began, in turn, to give ground ;
when Dumourier hastened to the spot and rode along in front of the waver-
ing columns, who received him with cries of vive Dumourier ! The effect
was decisive : the Austrians were repulsed, and the French dragoons,
taking advantage of their confusion, charged home and completely routed
them. Dumourier now returned to the centre to reenforce the Duke de
Chartres, but he had not proceeded far when an aid-de-camp met him with
the intelligence that the battle there, as well as on the left, was already
won and the Austrians were retiring on all points to Mons. The Aus-
trians lost in this action five thousand men ; but they saved all their artil-
lery except fourteen pieces and withdrew from the field in good order.
The French loss exceeded six thousand men, but they had gained a vic-
tory which greatly increased the moral strength of their army and in fact
led to the immediate conquest of the whole Netherlands ; for the Austrians
were so disheartened by the defeat of Jemappes, that between their own
want of conduct and the Jacobin influence which pervaded their garrisons,
every fortress of the Low Countries, including Antwerp and Namur, fell
into the hands of the French before the middle of December.
But the revolutionary party in Flanders, which had contributed so much
to the success of the French arms, soon reaped the bitter fruits of Repub-
lican conquest. The French Convention issued a dacree on the 15th of
December, proclaiming in their conquered provinces, " the sovereignty
of the people, the suppression of all the constituted authorities, subsisting
taxes and imposts, feudal and territorial rights, the privileges of the nobility
and exclusive privileges of every description." Immediately after the
issuing of this decree, Flanders was inundated by a host of revolutionary
agents, with " liberty," " patriotism." and " protection" on their tongues,
and violence, confiscation and bloodshed in their measures. Danton, La-
croix and Carrier were at the head of this band ; and, infusing their own
infernal energy into their agents, they gave the inhabitants of Flanders
a foretaste of the Reign of Terror.
The French troops, thus successful on the northern and eastern frontier,
and also (as related at the close of the last Chapter) in Piedmont and
Savoy on the southeastern side, were destined to some reverses on the
Upper Rhine, where the King of Prussia, by a vigorous assault, took
possession of Frankfort and slew or made prisoners its entire garrison,
with the exception of two hundred men. As the season was now far ad-
vanced, however, this success was not followed up, and both armies went
(into winter-quarters.
Thus terminated the campaign of 1792 ; a period fraught with valuable
instruction for the statesman and the soldier. The contagion of Repub-
lican principles had gained for France many conquests, but the severity
of Republican rule had rendered the delusion in the conquered provinces
as short lived as it was fallacious. The campaign which opened under
such untoward auspices, had been marked by brilliant success on the part
of the French ; but it was evident that their conquests had exceeded their
strength, and that at its close, their affairs in many quarters were de-
clining. The army of Dumourier fell into the most disorderly state,
whole battalions having deserted their colors and returned home or spread
themselves as banditti over the vanquished territory. The armies of
Bournonville and Custine were in little better condition, their recent fail,
ures having gone far to neutralize the effect of their previous success ;
30 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CnAT.V^v
while the troops who had overrun Savoy and Piedmont, were sufficing
under the consequences of their own plunder and devastation in the fiis
tricts where they were quartered.
CHAPTER V.
FRENCH REPUBLIC FROM THE DEATH OF THE KING TO THE FALL OP
ROBESPIERRE.
IT is necessary, now, to resume the narrative of events in the French
Capital, where the recent death of the king had disappointed by its result*
the expectations of his murderers, and, by increasing their reciprocal
hatred, had excited them to renew with even aggravated feroci'v their
strife of violence, outrage and blood.
The difficulty of procuring subsistence in Paris — the necessary result
of revolutionary convulsions — had increased to an alarming degree during
the months of February and March, 1793. Dread of pillage and unwill-
ingness of the cultivators to sell their commodities for payment in the depre-
ciated currency — for the issue of assignats was unlimited and confidence
in their value was already destroyed — rendered abortive the efforts of
government to supply the public necessities. At the same time, the price
of every article of consumption increased so greatly as to excite the most
vehement clamors among the people and soon inflamed them to fury. A
tumultuous body surrounded the hall of the Jacobins urging them to peti-
tion the Convention for a law reducing the prices of provisions, the penalty
of which should be death. The demand was refused ; and Marat, on me
following morning, published a violent tirade in his journal directly re-
commending the pillage of the shops. The populace were not slow in
following his suggestion, and many shops were accordingly broken open
and ransacked. All the public bodies were filled with consternation at
these disorders. The shop-keepers especially, who had been at the first
such decided revolutionists, were in despair when anarchy approached
their own doors.
In the midst of this convulsion, the Jacobins, despite the opposition of
the Girondists, organized a Revolutionary Tribunal which was empowered
to "take cognizance of every attempt against liberty, equality, the unity
and indivisibility of the Republic, the internal and external security of
the state, all conspiracies tending to the reestablishment of royalty, or
hostile to the sovereignty of the people, whoever might be the parties
accused." The members of the jury, the judges, and the public accuser
were chosen by the Convention ; the Tribunal decided on the opinion of a
majority of the jury ; the decision of the court was without appeal : and
the effects of the condemned were confiscated to the Republic. The pub-
lic accuser was Fouquier Tinville, and his name soon became as terrible
as that of Robespierre.
The creation of this fearful Tribunal gave the greatest alarm to the
Girondists, and they found it indispensable from mere self-defence to give
some check to the mad career of the Jacobins. They accordingly, by a
1793.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 31
great effort, caused Marat to be sent for trial to the Revolutionary Tribu-
nal, on a charge of having instigated the people to demand the punishment
of the national representatives. This was the first instance of destroying
the privilege of inviolability of the members of the Convention ; but the Ja-
cobins were not idle in counteracting it. Their leaders accompanied
Marat to the Tribunal, influenced its deliberations, obtained his acquit-
tal, and brought him back in triumph. An immense multitude followed
them to the hall, crowded into it with shouts, and seated themselves
in the vacant places of the deputies.
Defeated in this attempt, the Girondists saw that there was no time to
be lost in making some new organization. Guadet, one of their most
energetic members, rose in his place and proposed to " annul the author,
ities of Paris, to replace the municipality by the presidents of the Sections,
to unite the supplementary members of the Convention at Bourns, and to
announce this resolution to the departments by extraordinary couriers."
These decisive measures, if adopted, would have destroyed the designs
and influence of the Jacobins ; but they would also have occasioned a
civil war, and, by dividing the centre of action, augmented the danger of
foreign subjugation. Barere saw this, and proposed " a commission of
twelve persons to watch over the designs of the municipality, to examine
into the recent disorders, and arrest their authors," but' he denounced the
measures of Guadet as a virtual declaration that they were unequal to
combat the influence of the municipality. This proposal was adopted.
The Commission of Twelve commenced their proceedings with vigor.
They were aware that a conspiracy against the Girondists in the Conven-
tion had for some time been organized in Paris by the club of Cordeliers,
who demanded the proscription of three hundred deputies. The Commis-
sion obtained evidence of this conspiracy and arrested one of its leaders,
Hebert. The municipality denounced this arrest and invited the people
to revolt. Some of the most violent of the Revolutionary Sections followed
the example, while the more moderate ones who held out for the Conven-
tion were besieged by clamorous bands of armed men.
On the 25th of May, a furious multitude assembled around the hall of
the Convention, and sent a deputation to the bar of that body, demanding
in the most threatening terms the suppression of the Commission of Twelve
and the liberation of Hebert. Isnard, president of the Assembly, a cour-
ageous Girondist, replied indignantly, refusing the demand and averring
that if the Convention were again to be outraged by an armed faction,
France would rise as one man to avenge their cause, Paris would be des-
troyed, and strangers would soon inquire on which side of the Seine it
formerly stood.
For the time, the conspirators were baffled and forced to retire : but they
resolved to proceed to insurrection. The remainder of that day and the
whole of the next was spent in agitation and in exciting the people by
inflammatory harangues ; and such was their success, that by the morn-
ing of the 27th, eight-and-twenty of the Sections were assembled to peti-
tion for the liberation of Hebert. The Commission of Twelve could now
rely on the armed force of three Sections only ; yet these hastened on the
first summons to the support of the Convention, and ranged themselves with
their arms and artillery around the outside of the hall. But an immense
multitude crowded about their ranks ; cries of" death to the Girondists!"
resounded on all sides, and the hearts of the most resolute began to quail.
32 HISTORYOFEUROPE. tCHAP. V
Within the hall, the Girondists with difficulty maintained their ground
against the Jacobins, until Garat, the Minister of the Interior, entered
and deprived them of their last resource — their position of unbending firm-
ness. When called on to report the state of Paris, he declared that he
could find no evidence or appearance of a conspiracy, and in his judg-
ment the Convention was threatened with no danger but a mischievous
spirit within themselves to create dissension. It is but justice to Garat
to say, that he had been deceived into making this report by the artful
misrepresentations of Pache, the mayor of Paris. Astounded by this
report, so entirely the reverse of what they anticipated and coming as it
did from a minister of their own choice, the Girondists were struck dumb ;
the greater part of them withdrew at once and the courageous Isnard was
forced to yield the chair to Herault de Sechelles. The motion was then
put, that the Commission of Twelve be abolished and Hebert set at liberty :
it was carried at midnight amid the shouts of the mob, who climbed over
the rails and voted on the benches of the Mountain with the Jacobins.
The Girondists, on the following morning, ashamed of their untimely
desertion, assembled in force and reversed the decree of the Jacobins by
a decided majority. The agitation, which had begun to subside, was now
renewed with increased violence. The leaders of the Jacobins organized
a new insurrection, collected a large body of armed men whom they
placed under the command of Henriot, and on the morning of the 31st of
May, marched to the Tuileries where the Convention was assembled.
Under these auspices, a new petition was presented demanding the sup-
pression of the Commission, a law reducing the price of bread, and the
proscription of twenty-two leaders of the Gironde. The debate that en-
sued was violent to the last degree ; but the stern energy of the Jacobins
supported by the armed mob in part prevailed, and a majority voted to
suppress the Commission.
But the Revolutionists had no intention of stopping here. On the even-
ing of that day, Varennes declared in the club of the Jacobins that the
work was only half done, and that it must be completed before the
ardor of the people had time to cool. Additional preparations were there-
fore made, and at daybreak on the 2nd of June, all Paris was under arms.
The forces now assembled were formidable indeed. • One hundred and
sixty pieces of cannon manned by gunners with lighted matches in their
hands, resembled rather the preliminaries for assaulting a powerful for-
tress than demonstrations against an unarmed legislature. By ten o'clock
the avenues to the Tuileries were blockaded by dense columns of artillery,
and eighty thousand armed men surrounded the defenceless representa-
tives of the people.
Again the debate grew wild and vehement, and the whole Assembly
was in the utmost agitation, when Lacroix, one of its members and an in-
timate friend of Danton, entered the hall with a haggard air and announced
that the troops at the gate had refused to let him pass out, and that the
Convention was in fact imprisoned within the walls of the Tuileries. With
these words, he had unconsciously proclaimed the secret of the conspira-
tors : the insurrection was not conducted by Danton and the Mountain,
but by Robespierre and the municipality. Danton rose at once and pro-
posed that the members should go forth in a body to resent this insult, and
the president accordingly led the way, followed by the whole Convention.
They were met by Henriot at the principal gate leading to the Place du
1793.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 33
Carre jsel, who demanded the surrender of four-and-twenty of the culpable
deputies. This was indignantly refused, when Henriot replied " Cannon,
iers! to your guns!" Two guns charged with grapeshot were imme-
diately brought to bear on the members of the Convention, who instinctively
shrunk back, and after vainly attempting to escape by the other gates,
returned in dismay to the hall. Marat followed them at the head of
a body of brigands, crying, " In the name of the people, I order you to
enter, deliberate and obey !" When the members were seated, Couthon
rose and proposed that thirty of the Girondists, whose names he called
over, should be put under arrest. A great portion of the members refused
to vote, and this suicidal measure was carried by the sole voice of the
Mountain and a few of its adherents. The multitude now cheered and
dispersed : their victory was complete ; the municipality of Paris had
overthrown the National Convention.
The proscribed members were at first put under arrest in their own
houses, and several found the means of escape before the order was issued
for their imprisonment : but the greater part were consigned to the prison
and thence conducted to the scaffold. The political career of the Giron-
dists was now terminated : thenceforward, they were known only as in-
dividuals by their resolute conduct in adversity and death.
The aspect of the Convention, after this event, was entirely changed :
the Jacobins had absolute control of its proceedings, and all decrees pro-
posed by them were adopted in silence without any discussion. The
practical administration of affairs was lodged in the hands of the Com-
mittee of Public Safety which had been created some months before ; the
superintendence of the police was vested in a Committee of General
Safety ; while the internal regulation of the city was confided to the
municipality of Paris. Each of these departments was invested with
despotic power and executed its prerogative with terrible energy.
Opinions throughout the provinces of France were greatly divided at
this crisis. The magistracy of the cities had for the most part, under the
operation of universal suffrage, fallen into the hands of the Jacobins, and
that faction had organized clubs in almost every corner of the kingdom, so
that the preponderance of effective power was in their hands : yet the
majority of numbers in France was undoubtedly on the opposite side.
The catastrophe of the 2nd of June threw the whole of the southern depart-
ments into a flame. At Lyons, Marseilles and Bordeaux, violent agitations
ensued and the outrage of arresting the deputies excited among the Giron-
dists the most lively indignation. On the 13th of June, the department
of Eure gave the signal of insurrection, a great part of Normandy foLo.ved
the example, and all the departments of Brittany were in arms. In short,
so rapidly did the disaffection spread, seventy departments were in a state
of insurrection and but fifteen remained true to the Jacobin interest.
The want of an efficient organization, however, prevented this general
outbreak from accomplishing any important result : and as the Convention
put forth all its energies to maintain its supremacy, the insurrection was
crushed almost as speedily as it arose.
The Committee of Public Safety thenceforward exercised all the powers
of the government. It appointed and dismissed the generals, the judges
and the juries, brought forward all public measures in the Convention and
launched its thunder against every opposing faction. By means of its
commissioners, it ruled the provinces, generals and armies with absolute
34 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. V
sway ; and, soon after, the law of suspected individuals placed the personal
freedom of every subject at its disposal : the Revolutionary Tribunal ren-
dered it the master of every life ; the requisitions, master of every for-
tune ; and the accusations in the Convention, master of every member
of the Legislature.
The law of suspected persons declared all those liable to arrest, who
" by their conduct, their relations, their conversation, or their writing,
have shown themselves the partisans of tyranny or the enemies of free-
dom ; all those who have not discharged their debts to the country ; all
nobles ; the husbands, wives, parents, children, brothers, sisters, or agents
of emigrants who have not incessantly manifested their devotion to the
Revolution." Under this law, no one had any chance of safety but in
going to the utmost length of revolutionary fury.
The Revolutionary Committees were declared the judges of the persons
liable to arrest. Their numbers augmented with frightful rapidity. Paris
soon had forty-eight, and every village throughout the country had one or
more. Five hundred thousand persons drawn from the dregs of society to
serve on these Committees, disposed of the life and liberty of every man
in France. No better description can be given of the tyranny of these
despotic Commissioners than is furnished by the report of one of their num.
ber to the Convention. " Everywhere," said Laplanche, " I have made
terror the order of the day ; everywhere I have imposed heavy contribu-
tions on the rich and the aristocrats. From Orleans I have extracted fifty
thousand francs ; and in two days at Bourges, I raised two millions.
Where I could not appear in person, my delegates have supplied my
place. I have dismissed all the Federalists, dismissed all the suspected,
put all the Sans Culottes in authority. I have forcibly married all the
priests, and everywhere e^ctrified the hearts and inflamed the courage
of the people. I have passed in review numerous battalions of the National
Guard, to confirm their Republican spirit, and guillotined numbers of the
Royalists. In a word, I have completely fulfilled my mandate and acted
everywhere as a warm partisan of the Mountain and faithful represerita
tive of the Revolution."
To obliterate as far as possible all former recollections, the Convention
established a new era, changed the division of the years, and gave new
names to the months and days. The ancient and sacred institution of
the Sabbath was abolished ; the period of rest fixed at every tenth day;
time was measured by divisions of ten days, and the year divided into
twelve equal months, beginning on the 22nd of September. These
changes were preparatory to a general abolition of the Christian religion
and a substitution of the worship of Reason in its stead.
While these events were in progress, the arm of female enthusiasm
arrested the course of one of the tyrants. Charlotte Corday, a native of
Rouen, five-and-twenty years of age, conceived a project of restoring lib-
erty to her country by the assassination of Marat, and repaired to Paris
for that purpose. On a pretence of business of the state, she gained
admission to his presence while he was in a bath and stabbed him with a
knife. He uttered a loud shriek and expired, when some soldiers rushed
in, seized Charlotte and conducted her to prison. On her trial, she inter-
rupted the witnesses, saying, " These formalities are unnecessary ; 1 killed
Marat." She was condemned to death without delay, and underwent the
penalty of her crime with the same courage as she exhibited in com-
mitting it.
1793/ HISTORYOFEUROPE. 35
RoDGspierre and his associates made the assassination of Marat the
ground for increased severity toward the broken remains of the Girondists,
seventy-three of whom were speedily proscribed and thrown into prison.
Marie Antoinette, the beautiful and accomplished Queen of France, was
the next victim. Since the death of the king, the unfortunate royal family
had been closely confined in the Temple and subjected to new insults and
deprivations. Their fare was reduced to the humblest kind ; and wicker
lamps were the only lights and the coarsest habiliments the only dress,
accorded to them. The young prince was next separated from his mother
and placed in solitary confinement under the charge of Simon, " What
am I to do with the child ?" said Simon to the Committee : " banish him ?"
"No." "Stab him?" "No." " Poison him ?" "No." " What then ?"
" Get rid of him f" This direction was too faithfully executed. Deprived
of air, exercise, occupation, the ill-fated prince pined away and died.
Meantime, the queen, after having been for a while also subjected to
solitary confinement in a dark and loathsome cell, was brought to trial.
Few formalities were observed on this occasion. Some witnesses were
called, but none of them could or would testify anything against her,
excepting the monsters Hebert and Simon : but she was not the less con-
demned by her murderous judges. She was conducted to the place of
execution on the 16th of October, and died with a firmness worthy of
her race.
The execution of the queen was followed by a measure of singular
wantonness and barbarity : namely, the violation of the sepulchres of the
kings of France and the destruction of the monuments of antiquity through-
out the kingdom. The Convention next proceeded formally to abjure
Christianity ; or, in their own phrase, " to dethrone the King of Heaven
as well as the monarchs of the earth." This monstrous act was consum-
mated by the Assembly with forms and ceremonies, after which the
churches were stripped of their ornaments and all their plate was confis-
cated. The worship of Reason was next established, and the goddess of
the faith inaugurated in the person of a naked female of abandoned char-
acter, who was mounted on a magnificent car, conducted in triumph to
the cathedral of Notre Dame, and there worshipped by the infatuated mob.
The services of religion were now universally abandoned, and the pul-
pits deserted throughout the revolutionized districts; baptisms ceased;
tho burial service was no longer heard ; the sick received no communion;
the dying, no consolation. The village bells were silent; the Sabbath
was obliterated ; infancy entered the world without a blessing, and age
left it without hope. On every tenth day, a Revolutionary preacher
ascended the pulpit and preached atheism to the bewildered multitude.
On all the public cemeteries was placed this inscription, " Death is an
eternal sleep." At the same time, the most sacred relations of life were
placed on a new .footing. Marriage was declared a civil contract, binding
only during the pleasure of the contracting parties. A decree of the Con-
vention also suppressed the academies, public schools and colleges, inclu-
ding those of medicine and surgery. And in this general havoc, even the
establishments of charity were not safe. The revenues of the hospitals
and humane institutions were confiscated and their domains seized as part
of the national property.
The Jacobins next proceeded to destroy their former friends and the
^rliest supporters of the Revolution. Bailly, Custine, and the Duke
6
36 HISTORYOFEUROPE [CHAF. V.
Orleans, with many others of less note, were successively led to the scaf-
fold ; and ere long Robespierre, finding his individual plans and aggrand-
izement impeded by his rival, managed to cause the accusation and arrest
of Danton, with some other powerful antagonists. This last measure pro-
duced a violent agitation in Paris, and some attempt was made at a rescue,
but the power of Robespierre was absolute for the time, and Danton and
Desmoulins were brought to trial. Here, they evinced their wonted firm-
ness. Danton, being interrogated by the president concerning his age and
profession, replied, " My name is Danton, well known in the Revolution ;
my age is thirty-five ; my abode will soon be in nonentity, and my name
will live in the pantheon of history." Desmoulins, in reply to the same
question, said he was of the same age " as the Sans Culotte, Jesus Christ,
when he died." They displayed equal hardihood in their defence, and
some of the Convention were not a little moved by their denunciations :
but the influence of Robespierre at last prevailed, and they were con-
demned. In these cases, as in all the trials of the period, neither crime
nor proof were essential to conviction : many that fell well deserved to
die ; but for both innocent and guilty the real question was, not whether
the parties had committed a crime, but whether a majority of the Con-
vention desired their death.
The execution of Danton was followed by immediate and unqualified sub-
mission in every part of France ; and Robespierre became in truth the
sole dictator of the Republic. The vigor of his uncontrolled sway was
soon felt. From an estimate made under his direction, it was ascertained
that seven thousand prisoners, consisting of men, women and children, were
on various pretexts now confined in the prisons of Paris, while the total
throughout France exceeded two hundred thousand. As this number
involved great expense and inconvenience to the government, and the
present system of arrest was fast increasing it, it became necessary to
inspire the Revolutionary Tribunal with new energy that, by accelerating
the movements of the guillotine, the prisons might be relieved of their
accumulating burdens. The number of executions, in Paris alone, was
therefore raised to fifty and finally to eighty in a day : a trench was dug
as far as the Place St. Antoine to carry off* the blood of the victims, and
it required the constant labor of four men to keep it in order.
The insolence of power and the atrocious cruelty of Revolutionary
revenge were, if possible, more strongly evinced in the provinces than in
the metropolis. Le Brun especially distinguished himself in the northern
districts, by the aggravated character as well as by the number of his
butcheries : upward of two thousand persons were executed by his orders
in the city of Arras. The career of Carrier at Nantes was still more
relentless. He caused five hundred children of both sexes, the eldest of
whom was not fourteen years old, to be led out into one place and shot.
So deplorable a scene was never before witnessed. The emallness of their
stature caused most of the bullets, at the first discharge, to fly over their
heads — for the soldier in regular service is taught to fire on the level of
his own shoulder, and the troops on this occasion did so from the force of
habit. Immediately, the children broke their bonds, rushed into the ranks
of their executioners, clung around their knees and prayed for mercy :
but nothing could soften these assassins, and the helpless innocents were
slaughtered at their feet. At Lyons, other modes of butchery were in-
troduced by Collot d'Herbois. Sixty captives were first placed in a line
1794.1 HISTORY OF EUROPE. 37
by the side of a trench dug for their graves, and two pieces of cannon
loaded with grape and so placed as to enfilade the line, were discharged
upon them : those who did not fall or were only wounded by the shot, were
then dispatched by the gendarmes with sabres. On the following day,
more than two hundred prisoners were taken into a meadow, fastened to
each other with cords and dispatched by musketry. These fusillades
were continued for some days, and in the mean time the guillotine was in
active operation.
But there is a limit to human suffering ; an hour when indignant nature
will no longer submit, and courage arises out of despair. That avenging
hour was fast approaching. The lengthened files of prisoners daily led
to the scaffold had long excited the commiseration of the better classes in
Paris : the shops in the Rue St. Honore were shut and its pavement de-
serted when the melancholy procession, on its regular route to the guillo-
tine, passed along : and the people at length became alarmed at the rapid
progress and evident descent of the proscriptions. While the aristocrats
and nobility were alone condemned, they looked on at first with joy, and
afterward with comparative indifference ; but now the extending grasp
of the tyrant approached their own doors, and they began to deliberate on
the possibility and the means of assailing Robespierre in the height of his
power. The majority of the Convention themselves adopted these views ;
and Robespierre, aware of some hostile movement but ignorant of its ex.
tent, prepared for a trial of strength with his antagonists. He communi-
cated his suspicions and purposes to the most trusty Jacobin leaders, and
at length an insurrection was organized to break out on the 27th of July.
The leaders of the Convention were not idle : they spent the night of the
26th in planning their measures, and before daybreak were all firmly
united for the overthrow of the tyrant.
At an early hour on the morning of the 27th, the benches were thronged
by the deputies, and the leaders passed around from one member to another
to confirm them in their bold resolution. At noon, Robespierre entered
the hall and took his station near the tribune, in front, so that he might
intimidate his adversaries by his looks : but notwithstanding the extent of
his preparations, he was daunted by the appearance of the Assembly : his
knees trembled, the color fled from his lips, and he seemed already to
anticipate his fate.
His minion and advocate, St. Just, took the lead by denouncing his
enemies ; but he was interrupted by Tallien, who replied in a speech of
vehement eloquence, boldly recommended extreme measures, and ended
by drawing a dagger from his bosom and protesting, that if the Convention
hesitated to pass a decree of accusation against Robespierre, he would
himself stab him where he sat.
During this speech, Robespierre sat motionless with terror, and at its
conclusion he strove in vain to obtain a hearing : the president, Thuriot,
whom he had often threatened with death, constantly drowned his voice
by ringing the bell. Various cries of appeal on the one hand and exe-
cration on the other ensued ; but at length, Robespierre, Le Bas, Couthon}
St. Just, and others were by a unanimous vote put under arrest and sent
to prison : the Assembly then broke up at five o'clock in the afternoon.
No sooner were the partisans of Robespierre aware of his arrest, than they
sounded the tocsin, mustered their forces, and, proceeding to the prison,
liberated and bore him in triumph to the Hotel de Ville. The Conven-
38 HISTORY OF EUROPE. fCnAF.V
tion reassembled at seven o'clock, resolved to maintain their ground in
defiance of consequences. They were soon informed that the artillery
under Henriot, who had also been liberated, was now arrayed against
them, and the guns were at that moment pointed toward the hall. In this
extremity, Tallien and his friends acted with the firmness which in revo-
lutions so often proves successful. He instantly recommended several
energetic measures which were as promptly adopted, and messengers
were dispatched to enforce them, when Henriot ordered the artillery to
fire on the Assembly. The fate of France hung on the decision of these
men ; and, happily, they refused to obey the order. The aspect of things
was now entirely changed, and the Convention became the assailants.
The National Guard declared itself in their favor, marched to the Hotel
de Ville, overbore all resistance, and Meda, with a few files of soldiers,
rushed into the apartment where the liberated prisoners were assembled.
Robespierre was sitting by a table, and Mejla discharged a pistol at him,
which broke his under jaw, but did not inflict a mortal wound. Le Bas
shot himself and the rest were taken. The Revolutionary Tribunal made
but short work with the trial, and the prisoners were all condemned.
On the morning of July 29th, all Paris was in motion to witness the
tyrant's death. Twenty of his comrades were executed before him. When
he ascended the scaffold, the executioner tore the bandage from his face,
the lower jaw fell on his breast, and he uttered a yell which filled every
one with horror. He was then placed under the axe, and the last sounds
which reached his ears were the exulting shouts of the multitude.
Thus terminated the Reign of Terror : a period fraught with more polit-
ical instruction than any other period of equal duration since the beginning
of the world. The extent to which blood was shed during its continuance
will hardly be credited by future ages : but it is correctly stated that the
number of victims reached one million, twenty-two thousand, three hundred
and fifty-one. Of this number, eighteen thousand six hundred and three
were guillotined by the order of the Revolutionary Tribunals ; thirty-two
thousand were victims under Carrier, at Nantes ; thirty-one thousand,
at Lyons ; three thousand four hundred women died of premature child-
birth ; three hundred and forty-eight in childbirth, from grief; and there
were slain, during the war in La Vendee (of which an account will pre-
sently be given,) nine hundred thousand men, fifteen thousand women,
and twenty -two thousand children. In this enumeration are not com-
prehended the massacres at Versailles ; at the Abbey, the Carmes and
other prisons on the 2nd of September ; the victims shot at Toulon and
Marseilles ; or the persons slain in the little town of Bedoin, of which the
whole population perished.
CHAPTER VI.
WAR IN LA VENDEE.
THE district, immortalized by the name of La Vendee, embraces a part
of Poitou, of Anjou, and of the territory of Nantes. The country differs
both in its external aspect and the manners of its inhabitants from any
other part of France. The northern division, called the Bocage, is sprin-
kled with trees, and is composed chiefly of inconsiderable and detached
hills surrounded by fertile valleys, and the farms, which are small and
numerous, are inclosed by stout hedges. The southern part, adjoining
the ocean, is called the Marais ; it is perfectly flat and interspersed with
salt-marshes. The whole is mostly a grazing country, and the inhabit-
ants live on the produce and sale of their cattle. A single great road
from Nantes to Rochelle traverses the district, and another from Tours to
Bordeaux diverges from it, leaving between them a space of thirty leagues
in extent, intersected by innumerable cross-roads, dug out, as it were,
between two hedges, the branches of which frequently meet over the pas-
senger's head. This peculiar conformation affords the greatest obstacles
to an invading army.
The distinctions between landholder and tenantry, in La Vendee, were
almost nominal. A moderation of views on the one hand, and an unusual
degree of virtue and intelligence on the other, combined with a universal
religious sway that their excellent village pastors held over all, rendered
the whole people a band of brothers who lived in harmony, detesting every
species of innovation, and knew no principle in politics or religion but to
fear God and honor the king.
Hence it followed that the violence of the Revolutionary party in Paris
and elsewhere early aroused the indignation of the Vendeans, who uni-
formly took part with the king ; and the attempt to enforce the levy of
troops ordered by the Convention in 1793, occasioned a general resistance
which, without any previous concert, broke out simultaneously over the
whole of La Vendee. The earlier movements on both sides were con-
fined to skirmishes between detached parties, in almost all of which the
Vendeans were successful ; so that the Convention soon found it necessa-
ry to increase the number of their troops and introduce more system into
their manner of conducting the war. These measures and the success
which had induced them, stimulated the Vendeans, also, to renewed exer-
tions. Large numbers of the hardy peasantry flocked to the royal stand-
ard, and some of the citizens most distinguished by birth or talent placed
themselves at the head of the troops.
M. Bonchamps, commanding the army of Anjou, was among the most
ftble of the Royalist leaders : to great courage and eloquence he united
consummate military ability ; and, had his life been spared, would proba-
bly have proved himself one of the greatest commanders of the age.
Cathelineau, a peasant by birth ; Henri de Larochejacquelein, son of the
Marquis of that name ; M. de Lescure, an intimate friend of Larochfjac-
quelein ; M. d'Elbee, a Saxon ; and Stofflet, an Alsacian, also became dis-
tinguished as leaders in this war ; and Charette, the last of this illustrious
band, attained great eminence as a Vendean chief before the conclusion
5
40 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. VI.
of the struggle. The troops commanded by these chiefs were divided into
three corps, which, with some bodies of reserve, amounted in all to
nearly seventy thousand men.
The orders of the Convention to the troops sent to suppress this insur-
rection, were marked by the bloody spirit which characterized all their
proceedings : they decreed that those persons who had taken any part in
the revolt were outlaws, and should be shot within twenty-four hours by a
military commission ; and that the property of those so shot, together with
that of all who were slain in battle, should be confiscated.
But the Republicans soon found that they had a more formidable ene-
my to contend with in the Vendean army than in the unarmed masses of
citizens at Paris. The first expedition of the Royalists was directed against
the city of Thouars, occupied by General Queteneau with a division of
seven thousand men. The greater part of the troops in this affair were
undisciplined peasantry ; yet, such was the bravery of the leaders and the
devotion of the men, the town was carried by assault, and six thousand
prisoners, with twelve pieces of cannon and twenty caissons, fell into the
hands of the Royalists : nor is it the least remarkable feature of this vic-
tory, that not an inhabitant of the place was maltreated nor a house pil-
laged. The Vendeans next advanced against Chataignerie, which was gar-
risoned by four thousand Republicans, and carried it by a vigorous attack ;
but in this instance the garrison, after suffering severe loss, escaped
to Fontenay, where the Royalists followed them. The attack on this
latter town was at first unsuccessful : for the peasants, unused to long
marches and satisfied with what they had achieved, disbanded themselves
in large masses and returned to their homes, so that the army was re-
duced to an inefficiency of numbers, and compelled to fall back to Cha-
taignerie. The services of the clergy were, however, called to the aid
of the army ; and the peasantry, giving more heed to their spiritual than to
their temporal leaders, rejoined their standards. The combat could now be
renewed on more equal terms, and the Royalists again advanced to Fon-
teriay, where the Republicans, ten thousand strong with forty pieces of ar-
tillery, were drawn up to receive them. Bonchamps commanded the right,
Cathelineau the centre, and d'Elbee the left, while Larochejacquelein led
a small but determined body of cavalry. At first, the Vendeans faltered
under the sustained discharge of grape shot from the Republican batte-
ries ; but Lescure walked forward toward the guns, remained for some
moments in the very midst of the iron storm, and cried out to his men that
they could see from his standing there in safety that the Republicans did
not know how to fire. The men then rallied, followed him to the muzzles
of the guns and drove the artillerymen into the town. Lescure still led
the pursuit : his troops entered Fontenay with the fugitives and he himself
was the first Royalist within the gates. The town immediately surren-
dered with its artillery, stores, and ammunition ; and the greater part, of
the Republican army were made prisoners.
The Royalists became now much perplexed about the disposal of their
prisoners, of whom they had several thousands. To retain them in cus-
tody was impossible, as they had no fortified places within their own lim-
its ; to follow the example of the Republicans and murder them, was out
of the question ; at length it was decided to shave their heads and send
them home, a proceeding that caused no small merriment to the soldiers.
The Vendeans were also successful in other quarters. They gained
1794.] HISTORYOF EUROPE. 41
victories at Vetiers, Dong and Montreuil ; and at length, resolved to at-
tack the important city of Saunmr, where the Republicans were assembled
to the number of twenty-two thousand regular troops, besides a large body
of National Guards. The Royalist army, forty thousand strong, approached
Saumur on the 10th of June. While the officers were concerting a
plan of attack, the enthusiastic peasants threw themselves without orders
on the advanced guard of the Republicans, and actually made their way
into the town in great numbers : but as they acted without leaders and
without system, they could not improve their advantage and were driven
back. Such troops, however, are easily rallied. The officers took com-
mand of the retreating mass, led them back in order, and after a desperate
contest, carried the town. This victory was more important than any that
had yet been gained over the Republicans by the allied sovereigns of Eu-
rope. Eighty pieces of cannon, ten thousand muskets, and more than
twelve thousand prisoners fell into the hands of the Vendeans, while their
own loss was but sixty men killed and four hundred wpunded. The vic-
tors, as before, shaved the heads of their prisoners and sent them home,
stipulating only that they should not serve against La Vendee : an illu-
sory condition, speedily violated by the bad faith of the Republicans.
The Royalist leaders, flushed with victory, now advanced on Nantes,
although a second time the peasants, tired of the war, had withdrawn
from the ranks in great numbers. But the expedition ended in disaster.
Cathelineau was mortally wounded, and the assault repulsed with consid-
erable loss to the Vendeans.
In the mean time, the Republicans took the offensive, and sent a consid-
erable army under Westerman into the heart of La Vendee. The inva-
sion was at first successful ; three towns were taken and burned ; but the
brave peasantry gathered round their assailants, harassed them, and
finally drove Westerman before them with the loss of two-thirds of his
forces. A second invasion under Biron with fifty thousand troops, met
with a similar reverse : he was defeated with the loss of ten thousand men
and all his artillery, baggage and ammunition. But these defeats had the
natural effect of exasperating a comparatively powerful government, who
had large resources in men and material at their control. The Conven-
tion therefore redoubled their efforts to subdue the refractory insurgents.
Fourteen thousand men, under Kleber, were directed upon La Vendee, a
great part of the garrisons of Valenciennes and Conde were marched to
the same quarter, and the National Guard, together with a levy en masse
of the neighboring departments, soon followed in the same direction. Be-
fore the middle of September, two hundred thousand men surrounded La
Vendee and threatened to crush it by a simultaneous assault. For a time,
they were successful, having defeated the Royalists in several small en-
gagements and laid waste with fire and sword the districts they traversed.
At length, however, Kleber encountered Charette and Bonchamps near
Torfou, where after a well contested action he was defeated, and but for
the devotion of Colonel Chouardin and his regiment, who maintained the
bridge of Boussay and suffered themselves to be wholly destroyed in its
defence, his army would have been annihilated. The Royalists followed
this up by an attack on General Beysser, at Montaigut, on General Mu-
kierski, at St. Fulgent, and on the retreating columns of Kleber, in every
one of which battles they defeated the invaders with the loss of prisoners,
^ ammunition, and artillery. They were equally successful ID
42 HIS TORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. VI
other quarters, and the Republican forces quitted the province within a
fortnight from the time they entered it. Thus, by a series of the most
brilliant combinations, seconded by the heroic exertions of the peasants,
an invasion of one hundred thousand regular troops and a larger number
of undisciplined levies, was defeated, and losses inflicted on the invaders
far exceeding the entire loss that they had sustained from the allies in a
whole year's campaign.
But valor cannot contend always against innumerable odds : and the
unfortunate Vendeans were opposed by the resources of a whole nation.
The Convention, now fully aware of the danger of this protracted war,
once more resolved to terminate it at a blow. The Republican armies
again entered the devoted territory in great force ; retook the towns in
their march ; devastated the land ; and in two successive battles defeated
the Vendeans, who, in addition to their other losses, were deprived of the
services of three of their principal leaders — Lescure, d'Elbee and Bon-
champs, being mortally wounded. In every quarter, the march of the
Republicans was disgraced by atrocious cruelty : every town and village
was burned to the ground, and the inhabitants, without distinction of sex
or age, put to the sword. The deplorable condition of the province, at
this time, was thus represented to the Convention by Bourbotte and Tur-
reau : " We may say with truth that La Vendee no longer exists. A
profound solitude reigns in the country recently occupied by the rebels :
you may travel far in those districts without meeting a dwelling or a
living creature ; for, with the exception of Cholet, St. Florent, and some
Hittle towns, where the number of Patriots greatly exceeds that of the
Royalists, we have left behind us nothing but ashes and piles of dead."
Yet, fortune had not wholly abandoned the Vendeans : for, on the 23rd
of October, their retreating forces encountered a large body of Republican
veterans under general Lechelle, and, after a desperate action, totally
overthrew them, destroying no less than twelve thousand of their troopg
and capturing nineteen pieces of cannon. General Lechelle was so
overwhelmed by this disaster, that he resigned his command in despair
and retired to Tours, where he soon after died from anxiety and chagrin.
This astonishing victory was gained on the very day that Bourbotte
and Turreau had triumphantly announced to the Convention in Paris
that La Vendee no longer existed : it may be imagined with what con-
sternation they, a few days afterward received intelligence that the
Republican army was destroyed and nothing remained to prevent the
advance of the Royalists upon the capital.
After resting a few weeks to recruit their numbers and repair their
various losses, the Royalists, November 14th, advanced upon Granville ;
here they met with a repulse and lost eighteen hundred men. On their
retreat, they took the road of Pontorson, where they arrived on the 19th
of November, and found eighteen thousand Republicans drawn up to in-
tercept them ; but the Vendeans drove them through the streets at the
point of the bayonet, and captured their baggage and artillery. The
Republicans now retreated to Dol, where their numbers were raised by
reinforcement to thirty-five thousand men. The Royalists pursued and
attacked them in the streets at midnight. A horrible melee ensued, in
which the Vendean women and children — who, driven from their homes
by the Republicans, in October, had been since forced to follow the for-
tunes of the army — were trampled and destroyed by thousands.
1794., HISTORY OF EUROPE. 43
The victory, however, was with the Royalists, and the Republicans
retreated to Antrain, where they again endeavored to make head against
their conquerors. But the Royalists followed up their success, entered
the town pell-mell with the fugitives, and made prisoners of the whole
army. There was now great danger that an indiscriminate massacre
would ensue, for the Royalist troops were wrought up by the precedent
cruelties of the Republicans to the highest pitch of exasperation. But in
this, as in all cases when the Royalists were victorious, humanity pre-
vailed over retributive vengeance : the prisoners and the wounded were
treated with the same care as their own soldiers, and sent home without
exchange or condition.
Yet these victories, brilliant as they were in a military point of view,
were of no permanent advantage to the brave Royalists ; who, in a
foreign province, accompanied by their proscribed families, and en-
cumbered with sick and wounded men, women and children, were forced
to continue a retreat that, after all, promised them neither safety nor
repose. After many painful marches, in which they were harassed and
occasionally defeated by the accumulating forces of the Republicans, and
during which they of necessity abandoned their women, children and
stragglers to be butchered by their pursuers, they arrived at Mons in the
last degree of fatigue, depression and suffering. Here they were com-
pelled to halt from mere inability to proceed, and they thus gave the
Republican generals time to concert measures for their destruction. It
was not long delayed. Marceau, Westerman and Kleber speedily as-
sembled forty thousand men, and attacked the town with the utmost im-
petuosity. The Royalist troops made a heroic but unavailing defence ;
they were routed and scattered through the town, and the Republicans
commenced an indiscriminate massacre. Ten thousand soldiers and an
equal number of women and children perished in this horrible carnage,
and a remnant only of the army made good its retreat to Savenay. Here
some ten thousand men, of whom but six thousand were armed, took their
last stand. For a long time they held the Republican columns in check,
and when at length obliged to retire, they fell back in good order, and served
the few pieces of artillery they had left until the last cartridge was dis-
charged : even then, the rear-guard continued to fight with their swords
and bayonets till they all sunk under the fire of the Republicans. Of
eighty thousand souls, who, but six weeks before, had crossed the Loire,
scarcely three thousand, in straggling parties, ever returned to La Vendee.
With these disasters, the Vendean war ceased for a time ; and it would
never have revived, had the Republicans made a humane use of their
bloody victory. But the darkest period of the tragedy was approaching,
and in the rear of the armies came those fiends in human form who
exceeded the crimes even of Marat and Robespierre, and whose deeds
have left a deeper stain on the annals of France than the massacreof St.
Bartholomew, or all the preceding horrors of the Revolution. Their
atrocities took away hope from the vanquished ; and, in revenge and
despair, the Chouan bands sprung up, who, under Charette, Stofflet and
Tinteniac, long maintained the Royal cause in the Western Provinces.
Thurreau was the first who commenced against the Vendeans a sys-
tematic war of extermination. He formed twelve corps, aptly denomi-
nated infernal columns, whose orders were to traverse the country in
every direction, isolate it from all communication with the rest of the
44 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. VII
world, carry off or destroy all the grain and cattle, murder all the inhab-
itants and burn all the houses. These orders were but too faithfully
executed, though at intervals Charette descended from his fastnesses and
took a bloody revenge on detached parties of the invaders.
While Thurreau was pursuing this system of extermination in La
Vendee, the scaffold was erected at Nantes, and those infernal executions
commenced, which fill the blackest page in the history of the world. A
Revolutionary Tribunal was established there, of which Carrier was the
presiding demon — Carrier, known in all nations as the inventor of that
last of barbarous atrocities, the Republican Marriage, in which two per-
sons of different sexes, generally an old man and an old woman, or a
young man and a young woman, bereft of every kind of clothing, were
bound together before the multitude, exposed in a boat in that situation
for half an hour or more, and then thrown into the river. It was ascer-
tained by authentic documents that,Jn addition to the adults, six hundred
children perished in this horrible manner: and such was the quantity of
corpses accumulated in the Loire, that the water became infected, and
a public ordinance was issued forbidding its use. For a long time after-
ward, mariners, when heaving their anchors in that vicinity, frequently
brought up the ghastly remains of the murdered victims.
CHAPTER VII.
CAMPAIGN OF 1793.
THE year 1793, was distinguished by the novel measure of treaties oi
alliance between England, Russia, Austria, Prussia, Spain, Naples,
Sardinia and Portugal — all Europe, in short, against Republican France ;
and thus did the regicides of that country, as the first fruit of their
murderous triumph, find themselves excluded from the pale of civilized
nations. The force of the allies was three hundred and sixty-four thou-
sand men acting on the whole circumference of France, from Calais to
Bayonne ; and that of the Republicans amounted to two hundred and
twenty thousand men, inferior troops for the most part, but possessing the
advantage of unity of language, government and public feeling, and adding
to these the important fact of acting in an interior and concentric circle,
which enables one corps rapidly to communicate with and support an-
other— an advantage of which the allies, by being spread over a much
larger circumference, were deprived. But both the contending parties
labored under some serious embarassments. On the part of the allies,
there was that want of union so common and so fatal to a combination of
national interests. Russia, especially, one of the most important powers
of the league, was at that time more anxious to complete the subjugation
of despoiled Poland than to resist the arms of Revolutionary France, and
the views of Prussia, too, were partly turned in the same direction, while
between Prussia and Austria jealousies existed as to their relative posi-
tion in the allied army. On this point, Prussia went so far as to de-
mand a division of the forces of the inferior powers of the league, a part
.:
93.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 45
of whom should be joined to an independent Prussian, and another part
to an independent Austrian army. Thus, entire unity of purpose, the
quality most essential to victory, was wanting in the allied armies from
the outset, and another serious evil, incidental to this, soon developed
itself; namely, the want of union between the superior, led to a want of
zeal in the inferior, powers. In addition to all this, Prince Cobourg, a
man every way ill qualified for such a command, was appointed general-
issimo of the allied forces.
On the other hand, the French armies had great difficulties of their
own to contend with. The troops, during the winter, following the ex-
ample of the factious inhabitants at Paris, resisted all subordination,
lost their discipline, and were, at the opening of the campaign, miserably
deficient in every species of equipment.
To support the prodigious expense of a war on all their frontiers,
would greatly have exceeded the ordinary and legitimate resources of
the French government : but, contrary alike to precedent and anticipa-
tion, they derived, from the miseries and convulsions of the Revolution,
the means of creating new resources. The period had arrived in France,
when all calculation in matter of finance was to cease ; for the inex-
haustible mine of assignats, possessing a forced circulation and issued on
the credit of the national domains, necessarily proved sufficient for every
exigency.
In February of this year, the French, under Miranda, opened the
campaign by laying siege to Maestricht, but with forces inadequate to so
great an undertaking. The first movement of the Austrians was to raise
the siege with an army of fifty-two thousand men under Prince Cobourg,
with whom was the young ARCHDUKE CHARLES, at the head of the grena-
diers. On the 1st and 2nd of March, the Austrians along the whole line
attacked the French cantonments, and, after an inconsiderable resistance,
succeeded in driving them back and in many points throwing them into
utter confusion. The French troops were immediately seized with the
discouragement so common at this period, whenever they experienced
a considerable reverse. Whole battalions fled in disorder into France,
officers quitted their troops, soldiers disbanded from their officers ; the
siege of Maestricht was raised, the heavy artillery dispatched in haste
toward Brussels, and the army driven beyond the Meuse with a loss of
seven thousand men in killed, wounded and prisoners. On the 4th of
March, the Republicans were again routed near Liege, and a large part
of the heavy artillery was there abandoned. A few days after, Tongres
was carried by the Archduke Charles at the head of twelve thousand
men, and the whole army fell back upon Tirlemont, and thence to Lou-
vain, where Dumourier arrived from the Dutch frontier and resumed the
command. The Austrians then desisted from the pursuit, satisfied with
their success, and not deeming themselves sufficiently strong to force the
united corps of the French army in that city.
Dumourier found the army, consisting now of forty-five thousand men,
in the utmost disorganization, but he immediately adopted measures of
reform ; and, to restore the confidence of the soldiers, resolved to com-
mence offensive operations. He was not long in finding an opportunity.
He fell in with a detachment of Austrians near Tirlemont, and defeated
them with a loss of twelve hundred men, after which he prepared to risk
a general action.
46 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. VII.
The Austrians, thirty-nine thousand strong, including nine thousand
cavalry, determined not to decline the combat, and concentrated their
forces along a position about two leagues in length, near the village of
Nerwinde. The battle took place on the 18th of March, and was eon-
tested with much spirit and varied success; but the Austrians eventually
remained masters of the field, having sustained a loss of two thousand
men, and inflicted one of two thousand five hundred killed and wounded,
besides fifteen hundred prisoners. This defeat, not very serious in itself,
proved disastrous to the French army, inasmuch as it destroyed their
reviving spirits, induced large bodies of them to disband, and forced
Dumourier to retreat upon Brussels, Antwerp and Mechlin.
Soon after, conferences were opened between Dumourier and the Aus-
trian generals, in virtue of which it was agreed that the French should
retire behind Brussels without being molested in their retreat. The
French army, accordingly, evacuated Brussels and Mechlin and retired
toward the French frontier. But it soon appeared that these movements
were made in reference to something more than military objects; for
Dumourier was now really anxious, as on a former occasion he pre-
tended to be, to restore a constitutional monarchy ; and he proposed to-
march to Paris in concert with the allies, to accomplish this project.
Having thus actually embarked in this perilous undertaking, Dumou-
rier's first care was to secure the fortresses on which the success of his
enterprise depended. But here he made shipwreck. The garrisons of
Coride and Valenciennes refused to abandon the Republic, and Dumou-
rier, finding his plans discovered at Paris, and himself likely to be
betrayed, was forced to take refuge in the Austrian lines.
A congress of ministers of the allied powers soon after assembled
at Antwerp, attended by Metternich and Stahrenberg on the part of
Austria, Lord Auckland on the part of England, and Count Keller on
the part of Russia. Such was the confidence inspired by recent events,
that these ministers imagined the last days of the Convention were at
hand ; and, in truth, so they would have been, had the ministers intro-
duced a little more vigor, unanimity and wisdom into their military
operations. Unfortunately, they came to the resolution of changing the
object of the war, and openly announced the necessity of providing in-
demnities and securities for the allied powers ; in other words, partitioning
the frontier territories of France among the invading States : and when
Valenciennes and Conde were taken, the standard, not of Louis XVII.,
but of Austria, was hoisted on their walls. This injudicious measure
converted the war from one of liberation to one of aggrandizement, and
gave the Jacobins of Paris too good reason to assert that the dismember,
ment of their country was at hand, and that all patriots, whether Repub-
licans or Royalists, must join against the common enemy.
The Convention took vigorous measures to promulgate this popular
view of the contest and to sustain it with a requisite force. A camp of
forty thousand men was ordered to form a reserve for the army, a le\y of
three hundred thousand men, already decreed, was hastened forward, and
sixty representatives of the Convention were appointed to serve as vice-
roys over the generals in all the armies. No less than twelve of these
viceroys were directed to proceed to the army of the North. No limit
was fixed to their authority ; but, armed with the despotic power of the
Convention, and supported by a Republican and mutinous soldiery, they
1793.1 HISTORY OF EUROPE. 47
with equal facility, placed the generals on a triumphal car or sent them
to the scaffold.
Meantime, fortune was not more propitious to the French arms on the
eastern than on the northern frontier. Their forces in that quarter, at
the opening of the campaign, were greatly outnumbered by the allies :
the entire Prussian and Austrian forces amounting to ninety-five thousand
men. while the French, under Custine, had not over forty-five thousand
in die field, and forty thousand in the garrisons of the Upper Rhine. The
campaign was opened on the 24th of March, by a movement of the King
of Prussia across the Rhine at Rheinfels, where he encountered and de-
feated Custine, who, after several days of retreat and partial actions, was
compelled to fall back to the lines of Weissenberg, leaving Mayence to its
own resources. The allies made immediate preparations for the siege of
this important fortress, and, after an investment of nearly four months, the
garrison capitulated on the 22nd of July.
On the 1st of May, the Republicans resumed the offensive on the
Flemish frontier by an attack, under General Dampierre, on the allied
position ; but they were repulsed, with a loss of two thousand men and a
large quantity of artillery. On the 8th, the French attacked the allies
along their whole line, but they were everywhere unsuccessful, except
at the wood of Vicogne, where they forced the Prussians to retreat until the
arrival of the English guards changed the aspect of the day. The latter
drove back the French with a loss of four thousand men and reestablished
the Prussians in their position. This action took place within a few miles
of Waterloo, and it was the first, time that the English and French soldiers
came into collision during the war. These disasters checked the spirit
of the Republicans and induced them to relinquish offensive operations.
They intrenched themselves at Famars, in a position to cover the city of
Valenciennes. But the allies were now in a condition to disturb them,
and advanced, eighty thousand strong, under the Duke of York, Ferrari,
Abercomby and Walmoden. Their attacks prevailed at all points ; and
the French, during the night, fell back to the "Camp of Caesar," leaving
Valenciennes to its fate. This important city and Conde were invested
by the allies, and both fell successively into their hands within a few
weeks. The capitulation of these two fortresses brought to light, as has
already been related, the fatal change in the object and policy of the
war, which had been agreed on in the Congress of Antwerp : and its effect
was doubly injurious, not only by rousing the patriotism of the French,
but by cooling the ardor of the allies; for, from the moment that the
Emperor of Austria took possession of Valenciennes and Conde in his Own
name, the several allied parties became jealous of him and of each other.
They did not, however, wholly relax in their efforts to continue the war,
but, following up the retreat of the French, they attacked them in the
Camp of Csesar, on the 8th of August, and routed them with so much ease
that the affair could hardly be called a battle.
The allies were now in great force within one hundred and sixty miles
of Paris, and there was no serious obstacle between them and that metro,
polis. They might have reached its gates within fifteen days , and, had
they moved forward with energy before the French recovered from their
consternation, the war would have been terminated at a blow. But the
unhappy dissensions which now prevailed in the allied counsels prevented
this bold and decisive measure, and France gained time to organize an
effectual resistance. 7
48 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [CHAP. VII.
Under the despotic control of the Convention, the whole kingdom was
suddenly converted into an immense workshop, resounding with the note
of military preparation. Manufactories of stores and arms were estab-
lished, horses and provisions seized, and no less than twelve hundred thou-
sand men forced into the ranks of the army. In this last measure, fear
was the efficient engine of success : the recruits had to choose between the
army and the prisons of the Revolution — and the bayonets of the allies
appeared to them much less formidable than the guillotine of the Conven-
tion. Of the finances of the country, it is sufficient to say, as has already
been said, the debts and expenses of the government were paid in paper
money, issued without cost and circulated under the mandate of the Revo-
lutionary Tribunal.
At the head of the military department was Carnot, a man whose ex-
traordinary talents and unbending character contributed greatly to the
success of the revolutionary wars. It was his misfortune to be associated
with Robespierre in the Committee of Public Safety, and his name conse-
quently stands affixed to many of the worst acts of that sanguinary tribu-
nal : but he has asserted, and his character entitles the allegation to atten-
tion, that in the pressure of business he signed those documents without
knowing what they contained, and that he saved more lives by his entreat-
ies than his colleagues destroyed by their severity. He was the origin-
ator of that great improvement in the military art which Dumourier first
practiced, and Napoleon brought to perfection : the rapid concentration,
namely, of superior force on a given point, by which movement the ene-
my's line is broken, flanked and defeated.
The allies, having declined to strike a decisive blow while their antag-
onists were dispersed in small bodies over the country, unwisely exposed
themselves to a similar blow from the Republicans, by dividing their own
forces and pursuing separate objects. The English laid siege to Dunkirk,
the Austrians to Quesnoy, and the remainder of the allied army was
broken into detachments to preserve the communications. The Austrian
expedition was successful, Quesnoy having capitulated fifteen days after the
trenches were opened, and its garrison of four thousand men surrendered
as prisoners of war ; while two columns of ten thousand men each, sent
to raise the siege, were defeated with great loss. But a different fate
awaited the British besieging army. Their approaches were needlessly
delayed and unskilfully conducted, and after having been set down before
Dunkirk for nearly three weeks, they had made no progress of importance.
At the end of that time, General Houchard arrived with fifty thousand
French troops to relieve the city. The situation of the English and
of the detachments of allies who covered their position, was such as to
give a vigorous attack every chance of success : Freytag with eighteen
thousand Austrians being posted at a considerable distance in the rear, and
the Dutch, under the Prince of Orange, were at Menin, three days' march
from the English lines. Had Houchard implicitly obeyed his instructions
from the Convention, he must have destroyed each of the three armies in
detail. As it resulted, however, he defeated only the Austrian corps, who
sustained a loss of fifteen hundred men ; on which the Duke of York,
finding his position untenable, withdrew in the night, leaving behind him
fifty-two pieces of heavy artillery and a large quantity of ammunition and
baggage. Houchard, satisfied with having raised the siege, did not follow
up his advantage with spirit ; but contented himself with an attack on the
1793.] HIS TORY OF EUROPE. 49
Dutch at Melin, whom he defeated. But he was in turn assailed by Gen
eral Beaulieu at Courtray, totally routed and driven behind the Lys. Noi
did the disaster to the French end there : for a panic ensued on this first
reverse which communicated itself to all the Republican troops in that quar-
ter, who thereupon tumultuously fled for refuge under the cannon of Lisle.
This defeat proved fatal to Houchard. He was summoned to Paris, tried
before the Revolutionary Tribunal, condemned and executed — a proceed-
ing interesting chiefly from the evidence it affords, of the clear perception
which those at the head of the government had obtained of the true prin-
ciples of the military art. " The Committee," said Barere to Houchard,
" instructed you to accumulate your troops in large masses on particular
points and defeat the enemy in detail : you disregarded their orders, and
have been yourself defeated."
The allies next laid siege to Maubeage, the possession of which now
became an object of capital importance, and their measures were taken
on a scale proportionate to the magnitude of the undertaking.
Under all these discouraging circumstances, the Committee of Public
Safety did not despair. They gave the command of the army of the north
to Jourdan, a young officer, hitherto untried, but who, placed between vic-
tory and the scaffold, had sufficient confidence in his own talents to accept
the perilous alternative. He promptly approached the Austrian position,
and after some skirmishing a general action took place on the 15th of
October, in which the Republicans were worsted with a loss of twelve
hundred men. Instructed by his failure that a change in his method of
attack was indispensable, Jourdan, in the night accumulated his forces
against the village of Wattignies, the key of the Austrian position, and
on the morning of the 16th assailed it with three columns supported by a
concentric fire of artillery. The village was speedily carried and Cobourg
retreated with a loss of six thousand men. The siege having been thus
raised, Jourdan established his winter-quarters at Guice, where a vast
intrenched camp was formed for the protection, and discipline of the
revolutionary recruits, who were daily arriving in large masses from
the interior.
After the' capture of Mayence, the allies on the Rhine relapsed into in-
activity, although their army in that quarter amounted to over one hundred
thousand men in excellent condition. The Convention, however, wearied
with the torpor of their enemies, ordered Moreau, who was in command of
the French on the Moselle, to attack the Prussian corps at Permasin.
The Republicans advanced with great intrepidity to the Prussian redoubts,
when they were arrested in front by a terrible fire of grape, and their
flank was at the same time assailed by the Duke of Brunswick : they im-
mediately gave way and precipitated themselves into the neighboring ra-
vines, leaving behind them four thousand men and twenty-two pieces of
cannon. A few days after this affair, the King of Prussia repaired to Po-
land, to pursue in concert with Russia his plans of aggrandizement at the
expense of that unhappy country, leaving the Duke of Brunswick in com-
mand of the army. The French retired to the ancient and celebrated
lines of Weissenberg, constructed in former times for the protection of the
Rhenish frontier from German invasion : they stretched from the town of
Lauterburg on the Rhine, through the village of Weissenberg to the Vos-
ges mountains, and closed all access from that side into Alsace. A simul-
taneous assault was made by the Prussians on the left of this position;
50 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [CHAP. V [I
by the Austrians, under Prince Waldeck, on the right; and by Wurmser,
with the main body of Austrians, on the centre. These attacks prevailed
at all points, and the French retreated in confusion ; but the pursuit of the
allies was so tardy that only one thousand prisoners fell into their hands.
Still, the victory was important, as it again opened a free road to the inva-
ders. Wurmser proceeded to Strasburg, which the constituted authorities
of that town offered to surrender to the Austrians in the name of Louis
XVII. : but Wurmser, not being empowered to make conditional conquests,
declined their proposal ; and, being unable to reduce the place by force,
withdrew to Fort Vauban, which he took with its garrison of three
thousand men, and afterward blockaded Landau. The inhabitants of
Strasburg, thus abandoned to their fate, experienced the full weight oi
Republican vengeance in return for their proposals to Wurmser. Seventy
persons of the most distinguished families were put to death, and terror
and confiscation reinstated the sway of the Convention over the unhappy
province.
The secession of Prussia from the confederation now became more and
more manifest. On his return to Berlin, Frederic William was assailed
by so many representations from his ministers as to the deplorable state
of the finances, and the exhaustion of the national strength in a contest
foreign to the real interests of the kingdom, and that, too, at a time when
the affairs of Poland required all his resources and attention, that he at
first adopted the resolution to recall all his troops from the Rhine. The
cabinet of Vienna made the strongest remonstrances against this defec-
tion, in which they were so well seconded by the cabinets of London and
St. Petersburg, th&t the resolution was rescinded. Nevertheless, orders
were given to the. Duke of Brunswick to temporize as much as possible,
and engage the troops in no serious enterprise or any conquest which
might turn to the advantage of the Austrians : the effect of which soon
appeared, in the removal of the Prussian mortars and cannons from the
lines before Landau. The French, meanwhile, made preparations to
relieve that place from its besiegers. Thirty thousand men from the
armies of the Moselle and the Rhine were directed thither under Pichegru,
and these were supported by thirty -five thousand under General Hoche,
who advanced from the side of La Sarre. After some preparatory move-
ments and partial actions, the Republicans, on the 26th of December,
attacked the covering army of the Duke of Brunswick. The allies, com-
batting with a divided purpose, were easily driven from their position,
raised the blockade of Landau, and crossed to the right bank of the Rhine
at Philipsberg. Fort Vaubari was evacuated, Spire and Worms were
reconquered by the French, who advanced to the gates of Manheim, and
Germany, so recently victorious, was now threatened on its own fron-
tier.
The campaign on the Spanish frontier, during this year, was charac-
terized by some events of military importance. The Spanish government
made vigorous efforts to increase their forces in February, and the zeal
arid patriotism of the inhabitants soon enabled them to put on foot two con-
siderable armies ; one of thirty thousand, destined to invade Roussillon, and
the other of twenty-five thousand, to advance on the side of Bayonne, by the
Bidossoa. The latter army commenced its offensive operations on the 14th
of April, by a partial attack on the French camp, which was followed
by a more serious action, on the 1st of May, when the French were
1793.J HISTORYOFEUROPE. 51
forced back from one of their positions, with a loss of fifteen pieces of
cannon ; and on the 6th of June, they were driven from a second intrench-
ment, and abandoned all their artillery and ammunition. They, however,
ivere not yet discouraged : but, after reorganizing their forces, themselves
assumed the offensive, and, on the 29th of August, made a spirited attack
on the Spanish posts fortified within the territory of France : but they were
repulsed with such loss that they could not renew the strife during the
remainder of the campaign.
The success of the army on the eastern side of the frontier was more
varied. The Spaniards, under Don Ricardos, invaded Roussillon in the
middle of April, and, on the 21st, they made a general attack on the
French camp, which ended in the defeat of the Republicans. Soon after,
the forts of Bellegrade and Villa Franca were taken ; and Ricardos,
pursuing his advantage, attacked a large body of French at Millas, who
were totally defeated and lost fifteen pieces of cannon. But the French,
by great exertions, assembled a reenforcement of fresh troops in this
quarter, and fell upon a corps of six thousand Spaniards under Don Juan
Comten. The Spaniards made a brave defence, but they were over-
powered by numbers, and, at length, lost one thousand men killed, fifteen
hundred prisoners, and all their artillery and camp equipage. Elated by
this victory, the French, under the command of Dagobert, resolved to at-
tack the entire Spanish army at Truellas. This battle took place on the
22nd of September, and it ended in the total defeat of the French, with a
loss of four thousand men and ten pieces of artillery. After this disaster,
Dagobert was displaced, and Davoust, with fifteen thousand fresh troops,
appointed to the command. Several trifling actions ensued, without any
decisive advantage on either side, until the 7th of December, when Ri-
cardos attacked the French lines and totally defeated the Republican
army, capturing forty-six pieces of cannon and twenty-five hundred pris-
oners. He followed up this victory with great promptness, attacked and
took the town of Port Vendre with all its artillery, and soon after com-
pelled Coillure to surrender, with more than eighty pieces of cannon ;
while the Marquis Amarillas overthrew the right of the French forces,
and so terrified those inexperienced troops by his assault, that whole bat-
talions disbanded themselves, and fled in confusion under the guns of
Perpignan.
The campaign in the districts of the maritime Alps was feebly con-
ducted on both sides ; it consisted of a few trifling actions, and resulted in
no event of importance. But while the operations of the allies, in this
quarter, were thus inefficient, the efforts of the French to shake off the
yoke of the Convention, were of a more decided character. Marseilles,
Toulon and Lyons, openly espoused the Girondist cause ; and, in the
month of July, two of the Jacobin leaders were put to death. From that
moment, the inhabitants of these towns, knowing that they were doomed
to Jacobin vengeance, began to cast cannon, raise intrenchments, and
make every preparation tor a vigorous defence. Marseilles was the first
to suffer for this imprudence. The troops of the Convention reached it
before the inhabitants were fully prepared for resistance, defeated the
insurrection, and established the guillotine in bloody sovereignty. The
next attack of the Jacobins was at Lyons, where the revolt was better
organized and the insurrectionists better prepared for defence. During
tlie whole of August and part of September, the besiegers made but little
52 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP VII
progress, and the Convention, alarmed at the protracted resistance of the
town, directed immediate preparations on a larger scale for its reduction.
A hundred pieces of cannon, drawn from the arsenals of Besancon and
Grenoble, were mounted on the besieging batteries ; veteran troops were
dispatched thither from the frontiers of Piedmont, and on the 24th of Sep-
tember a terrible bombardment and cannonade with red hot shot was
commenced, which continued without intermission for a whole week. The
result of this attack was terrible to the inhabitants of the city : night and
day the flaming tempest fell on them, burning their houses, destroying their
magazines, and scattering death among them in a thousand forms. Still,
their courage faltered not, nor did the garrison slacken iri their defence.
Soon, famine was added to their sufferings ; and, in the mean time, the
Convention, exasperated at their obstinacy, displaced Kellerman, who
had hitherto conducted the siege, increased the attacking army to sixty
thousand, and placing General Coppet at their head, ordered him to re-
duce Lyons instantly by fire and sword. These measures finally pre-
vailed. The garrison and citizens had maintained their position, until
their provisions of every sort were entirely exhausted and a large portion
of the town was laid in ashes by the bombs and hot shot of the enemy.
Surrender, therefore, became inevitable; but even in this extremity, the
brave Precy, who had so nobly directed the defence, refused to submit.
He resolved to force his way at the head of a chosen band, through the
enemy's lines, and seek in foreign climes that freedom that had departed
from France. On the night of" the 9th of October, the heroic column,
consisting of two thousand men, with their wives and children, set forth
on this perilous march. As they proceeded, they found themselves
enveloped on every side by cavalry, infantry and artillery, and they were
indiscriminately massacred ; of the whole number scarcely fifty forced
their way with Precy into the Swiss territories.
On the following day, the Republicans took possession of the city, and
Couthon, entering at the head of the authorities of the Convention, rein-
stated the Jacobin municipality in full force, and commissioned them to
seek out and denounce " the guilty." He wrote to Paris that the inhabit-
ants consisted of three classes: first, the guilty rich; second, the selfish
rich ; third, the ignorant workmen, incapable of any wickedness. " The
first," he said, "should be guillotined and their houses destroyed; the
fortunes of the second should be confiscated ; the third should be removed,
and their places supplied by a Republican colony." These directions
were carried out with a degree of atrocity unsurpassed by any of the
horrors of that horrible period. More than six thousand persons, of both
sexes and all ages, perished by the hands of the executioners ; twelve
thousand were driven into exile ; and the number of palaces and houses
pulled down and demolished by order of the municipality may be estima-
ted from the fact, that their destruction occupied six months of organized
labor, and was effected at an expense to the government of more than
seventeen millions of francs.
Toulon was the next object of Republican revenge. That rising sea-
port possessed a population of twenty-five thousand souls, and was warmly
opposed to the Revolution from its commencement. In their present
emergency, the inhabitants saw no alternative but to open their harbor to
the English fleet which was cruising in the vicinity, and proclaim Louis
XVII. king. This was done accordingly, and the Endish scniadron
HISTORYOFEUROPE. 53
entered the harbor. Soon after, a Spanish fleet arrived bringing a consid-
erable body of land-troops, and the allied forces, thirteen thousand strong,
took possession of ?11 the forts in the city. A large portion of the French
fleet lay at this time in the harbor, and their sailors, with the exception
of the crews of seven ships of the line who proved refractory, joined the
inhabitants in their defence.
On the land side, Toulon is backed by a ridge of lofty hills, on which
strong fortifications had long been erected and the artillery of which com-
manded the greater part of the city and harbor. The mountain of Faron
and the Hauteur de Grasse are the principal points of this rocky range,
ana on their occupation depends, in a great measure, the maintenance of
the place. They were now taken possession of by the allied troops.
Every exertion was made by the allies and inhabitants to strengthen the
defences of the town itself, and particularly to render impregnable the
Fort Eguillette, placed at the extremity of the promontory which shuts in
the lesser harbor, and was called by the -English, Little Gibraltar : yet
the regular force was too small and composed of too many heterogeneous
materials, to warrant any well-grounded hope of a permanent resistance.
The Republican forces soon arrived, to the number of forty thousand
men ; many of them veterans, all well disciplined, and provided with every,
thing necessary for prosecuting the siege. Dugommier, by order of the
Convention, took command of the Republican army, and Lord Mulgrave
assumed the direction of the garrison of Toulon.
The first attack of the Republicans was on the hill forts that com-
manded the harbor, disguised by a false attack against Cape Brun. The
breaching batteries were placed in charge of a young officer of artillery,
then chief of battalion, who was destined to outstrip all his predecessors in
European history — NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. Under his superintendence,
the works of the forts soon began to be seriously damaged ; and to inter-
rupt his fire, a sally from the garrison was resolved on. This attempt
was made on the 30th of November, by three thousand men, who moved
against the heights of Arennes, whence this annoyance proceeded ; while
another column of the allies, of nearly the same strength, attacked the
batteries at the gorge of Ollioulles. Both attacks were at first successful.
lOllioulles was carried and the guns on the point of being taken, when
Dugommier rallied his troops, led them back, and repulsed the assailants.
The sally on the side of Arennes was equally fortunate ; all the guns ol
the battery were carried and spiked ; but the impetuosity of the allies
having led them too far in pursuit of the enemy, they were in turn met by
fresh troops headed by Napoleon, and driven back to the city with con-
siderable loss. The whole force of the Republicans was next directed
against the English redoubt, styled Little Gibraltar. After that fort had
been battered at intervals for several days, the fire of the besiegers was
maintained through the whole of the 16th of December, and at two o'clock
on the morning of the 17th, Dugommier led his troops to the assault. They
were received with a tremendous fire of grape and musketry, which soon
filled the ditches with dead and wounded ; the column was driven back,
and Dugommier despaired of success ; but fresh troops continually ad-
vanced and at length overpowered the Spanish soldiers, to whom a part
of the line was intrusted, and gained the flank of the British detachment,
nearly three hundred of whom fell while defending their part of the
intrenchments. The possession of this fort, by the enemy, rendered the
54 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. VII
farther maintenance of the exterior defences impracticable ; and in the
night, the whole of the allied troops were withdrawn from the promontory
to the city. The attack on this fort was planned and urged by Napoleon,
who well knew that it commanded the inner harbor, and that its possession
by the besiegers would render the situation of the fleet extremely perilous,
and in all probability lead to the evacuation of the toTvn.
While this important success was gained on the side of Fort Eguillette,
he Republicans were not less fortunate on the other extremity of the line.
A little before daybreak, and shortly after the firing had ceased on the
promontory, a general attack was made on the whole range of posts which
crowned the mountain of Faron. On the eastern side of the range, the
Republicans were repulsed ; but on the north, where the mountain is
nearly eighteen hundred feet in height, steep, rocky, and supposed to be
inaccessible, they made good their ascent ; so that when the allies were
congratulating themselves on the defeat of what they deemed the main
attack, they beheld the heights above them crowded with glittering bat-
talions, and the tricolor-flag waving from the loftiest summit of the
mountain. This conquest, projected by Napoleon, was decisive of the
fate of Toulon: for though the town was as yet uninjured, the harbor
was no longer tenable. The evacuation was therefore resolved on. and
information conveyed to the principal inhabitants, that the means of re-
treat would be afforded them on board the British squadron ; and in the
mean time, the ships were moved to the outer- roads, beyond the reach of
the enemy's fire.
The distress of the inhabitants, who were now forced to choose between
exile and the guillotine, was extreme : nor can any words do justice to
the scene that ensued, when the last columns of the allied troops com-
menced their embarkation. Cries, screams and lamentations were heard
in every quarter ; the sad remnant of those who had favored the Royal
cause and had not yet secured the means of escape, came flying to the
beach, and with tears and prayers invoked the aid of their British friends.
Mothers, clasping their babes to their bosoms, helpless children and
decrepit old men, might be seen stretching their hands toward the harbor,
shuddering at every sound behind them, and even rushing into the waves
to escape the less merciful death that awaited them from their country-
men. Sir Sidney Smith, with a degree of humanity worthy of his high
character, suspended his retreat until not one individual who claimed his
assistance, remained on the strand : the total number borne away was
fourteen thousand, eight hundred and seventy-seven.
Before leaving the coast, the allies effected in part the destruction of
the French fleet. Fifteen ships of the line, eight frigates and eleven cor-
vettes were burned, three ships of the line and three frigates were brought
away uninjured and taken into the English service, and twelve ships of
the line and eleven frigates, owing to the lukewarmness or timidity of the
Spanish officers, escaped destruction, and remained in the hands of the
Republicans.
The storm which now burst on the heads of the remaining inhabitants
of Toulon, was a legitimate counterpart of what was endured at Lyons.
Several thousand citizens, men, women and children, perished within a
few weeks by the sword or the guillotine, and twelve thousand laborers
were hired from the surrounding departments to demolish the buildings
of the city.
CHAPTER VIII.
CAMPAIGN OF 1794-
WHILE the career of the French armies was thus marked by alterna-
tions of victory and defeat, a different fortune awaited her naval arma-
ments. Power at sea, unlike conquest on land, cannot spring from mere
suffering, or from the energy of destitute warriors with arms in their
hands ; nor are triumphs to be achieved on the ocean by merely forcing
column after column of conscripts on board ships of war.
At the commencement of the contest, the French navy consisted of
seventy-five ships of the line and seventy frigates ; but the officers, drawn
chiefly from the aristocratic classes, had, for the most part, emigrated on
the breaking out of the Revolution, and those who supplied their places
were deficient both in naval education and experience. On the other
hand, England had one hundred and twenty-nine ships of the line and
more than a hundred frigates ; ninety of each class were immediately put
in commission, and seamen of the best description, to the number of eighty-
five thousand, were drawn from the inexhaustible merchant-service.
Unable to face the English in large squadrons, the French navy remained
for a time in total inactivity ; but the French merchants, not having any
pacific means of employing their capital, fitted out an immense number
of privateers which proved extremely injurious to British commerce.
Meanwhile, the ascendency of the navy of Great Britain produced its
wonted effects on the colonial possessions of her enemies. Soon after the
commencement of hostilities, Tobago was taken by a British fleet, and in
the beginning of March, 1794, an expedition was sent against Martinique,
which island surrendered on the 23rd of that month. Soon after, the prin-
cipal forts in St. Domingo were wrested from the Republicans by the
Engush forces, while the wretched planters, a prey to the commotion
excited by Brissot and the friends of negro emancipation at the commence-
ment of the Revolution, were totally ruined. St. Lucia and Guadaloupe
were next subdued, and thus in little more than a month the French were
despoiled of their West India possessions, with hardly any loss to the
conquerors.
In the Mediterranean, also, the power of the British navy was speedily
felt. Corsica was selected as the point of attack. Three thousand ma-
rines and soldiers were landed, and they nearly effected the subjuga-
tion of the island by capturing the fortress of Bastia, which capitulated
at the end of May : and on the 1st of August, Calvi, the only remaining
stronghold, surrendered to the British arms. The crown of Corsica was
then offered by Paoli and the Royalist party to the King of England, who
accepted it.
But a more important achievement was at hand. The French govern-
ment, by great exertions, had equipped for service twenty-six ships of the
line at Brest, in order to secure the arrival of a large fleet laden with
provisions from America, and on the 20th of May, the fleet put to sea.
under Admiral Joyeuse. On the 28th, Lord Howe hove in sight with the
Channel-fleet of England, consisting also of six-aixd-twenty ships of the
6
56 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. VIIT.
line. The French were immediately formed in order of battle, and a
paitial action ensued between their rear-guard and the British van,
during which the Revolutionaire was so much damaged that she struck
to the Audacious ; but as the victors did not take possession of her before
nightfall, she was on the following morning carried off by the French and
towed into Rochefort. The next day each party endeavored to gain the
weather-gage, and, during the two following days, a thick fog concealed
the rival fleets from each other's view. On the 1st of June, the sun
broke forth with unusual splendor, and Lord Howe, having obtained the
weather-gage, bore down obliquely on the enemy's line, broke it near the
centre, and doubled, with a preponderating force, on one half of their
squadron. The French fleet was arrayed in close order in a line extend-
ing nearly east and west, and a heavy fire was commenced on the British
ships as soon as they came within range. The battle then became general
and was contested with great bravery on both sides ; but the superiority
of the British seamen everywhere prevailed. One of the French ships
was sunk, and ten surrendered ; but subsequently four of the prizes with
the remainder of the fleet escaped. Six ships of the line remained in the
hands of the British admiral, and were brought into Plymouth. The
Republicans were in some degree consoled for this disaster, by the safe
arrival of the fleet from America, consisting of one hundred and sixty
vessels laden with provisions — a supply of incalculable importance to a
population, whom the Reign of Terror and civil disunion had brought to
the verge of famine.
Never was a victory more seasonable than Lord Howe's to the British
government. The war, preceded as it was by violent party divisions in
England, had been regarded with lukewarm feelings by a large portion
of the people ; and until the Reign of Terror had shocked the respectable
portion of the advocates of the Revolution, these short-sighted friends of
freedom had feared the success of the British arms, lest it should
extinguish the dawn of liberty in the world. But the victory of the 1st of
June captivated the affections of the giddy multitude : the ancient, but
recently half-expiring loyalty of the British people, wakened at the sound
of their conquering cannon, and the hereditary rivalry of the two nations
revived in all its force. From this period, may be dated the commence-
ment of entire union among the inhabitants on the subject of the war.
The secession of Prussia from the allied cause was a serious loss, and
greatly embarrassed the opening movements of this year's campaign.
Indeed, Mr. Pitt, by a renewed and energetic remonstrance, caused the
King of Prussia a second time to promise his cooperation, but no effectual
aid resulted from it. General Mack was intrusted by the Austrian and
English governments with the preparation of a plan of the campaign, and
he proposed one which, had it been vigorously carried into effect, might
have produced brilliant results : this was, to open the French frontier by
the capture of Landrecy and march with the army in Flanders, through
Laon direct to Paris, while the Prussian forces, by a forward movement
on the side of Namur, supported the operation. This plan, however, was
not adopted; for the inhabitants of West Flanders protested against
having their province made a theatre of war, the Prussians declined any
active cooperation, and the remainder of the allied forces were unequal
to such an expedition. The number and disposition of the troops on both
sides, at the opening of the campaign, were as follows :
1794.J HISTORYOFEUROPE. 57
FRENCH. ALLIES.
Army of the North, . . 220,000
Moselle and the Rhine, 280,000
Alps, 60,000
South, 00,000
Eastern Pyrenees, . . . 80,000
Western ditto . . . 80,000
Flanders, 140,000
Duke of York, . . . 40,000
Austrians on the Rhine 60,000
Prussians ditto 65,000
Luxembourg, .... 20,000
Emigrants, 12,000
780,000 337,000
Unaware, as yet, of the immense military resources of a despptic and
i -evolutionary government, whose requisitions for soldiers, money and
munitions of war were enforced by the terrors of the guillotine, and
whose young men, deprived by the agitation of the period from all other
occupation, voluntarily crowded into the ranks of the army, the allies
resolved to capture Landrecy, and still entertained the hope of marching
thence to Paris. Preparatory to this movement, the Emperor of Austria,
on the 16th of April, reviewed a large division of the allied troops on the
plains of Gateau, amounting to nearly one hundred and fifty thousand
men. The troops were in the finest condition, th.e cavalry, in particular,
were superb ; but, instead of profiting by their concentrated force to fall
on the opposing armies, they were the next day divided into eight columns
and spread over many leagues of the Flemish frontier, with the absurd
intention of covering every point of entrance against the French ; and
that, too, while their project of pushing forward to Paris was not yet
abandoned. Landrecy was however besieged and captured, after ten days
of open trenches, with its garrison of five thousand men.
Notwithstanding the defect in the plans of the allies, their operations
were attended with considerable success. The plan of the French con-
sisted of a series of attacks on the posts and corps forming the line of the
allies, followed by an advance of their two wings, the one toward Philip-
ville, and the other toward Dunkirk. On the 26th of April, the move-
ment took place along the whole line. The centre, which attacked the
Duke of York near Cambray, experienced a bloody reverse. When the
Republicans arrived at the redoubts of Troisville, they were intrepidly
assailed by the English guards in front, supported by Prince Schwartzen-
berg with a regiment of Austrian cuirassiers, while General Otto charged
them in flank, at the head of the English cavalry, and completed their
rout. The whole corps was driven back to Cambray, with a loss of thirty-
five pieces of cannon and more than four thousand men. While this dis-
aster was taking place on the left of the French army, the centre sustained
a similar repulse from the Austrian covering force. But these advant-
ages were counterbalanced by the defeat of General Clairfait on the right,
who was attacked by fifty thousand French troops under Souham and Mo-
reau, and forced to retreat precipitately with a loss of thirty pieces of
cannon and twelve hundred prisoners. Prince Cobourg immediately de-
tached the Duke of York to Tournay to support Clairfait, and himself
remained in the neighborhood of Landrecy, to put that fortress in a state
of defence.
The Convention, greatly dissatisfied with the progress of their armies
against the allied centre, ordered Jourdan to march with forty thousand
men to the Ardenne forest, and unite himself with the army on the Sambre,
HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. V1I1
Previously to his march, on the 10th of May, the French army crossed
that river to attack the allies at Grandrengs, and a furious battle ensued,
in which the Republicans were defeated, and forced to recross the river
with a loss of ten pieces of .cannon and four thousand men. On the 20th
of May they renewed the attack, but 'were so roughly handled that, had
not Kleber arrived on the ground with fresh troops, the French army
would have been totally destroyed : as it was, they lost four thousand men
and twenty-five pieces of artillery.
While blood was thus flowing freely on the banks of the Sambre, some
movements of importance took place in West Flanders. The allies had
there collected ninety thousand men, and the situation of the French left
wing suggested the design of cutting it off from the main body, and forcing
it back on the sea, where it must needs surrender : and had the allies acted
more in concert, they might readily have accomplished this bold under-
taking. But, obstinately pursuing the old system of dividing their forces,
they moved in separate detachments and were easily defeated in detail by
the French troops. On the 22nd of May, Pichegru assumed the command
of the French, with the intention of laying siege to Tournay. A number
of indecisive actions ensued, in which no object wa,s accomplished, though
large numbers of troops were destroyed ; no less than twenty thousand
men having fallen on the two sides.
The result of these bloody actions, which demonstrated the strength of
the Republicans, and showed the desperate strife that must follow any
further attempts to subdue them, produced a change in the Austrian coun-
sels, arid led to a determination on the part of the Emperor to withdraw
from the contest as soon as decency would permit.
Meanwhile, the Convention, unaware of this favorable change in their
prospects, stimulated the army on the Sambre to fresh exertions. They
again crossed that river under Kleber, on the 26th of May, but were easily
repulsed. Nothing daunted, they renewed the attempt on the 29th, and
this time succeeded in driving back the allies, after which they invested
Charleroi. But the Emperor soon arrived with ten thousand additional
troops, attacked the French lines on the 3rd of June, and again drove them
across the Sambre. On the following day, Jourdan arrived with forty
thousand men, and the French army, thus reenforced, returned to the siege
of Charleroi, and on the 12th of June destroyed a strong redoubt which
constituted its principal defence. The allies, alarmed at this result, made
great efforts to raise the siege, and succeeded in breaking up the position
of the Republicans, driving them over the river with a loss of three thou-
sand men. On the 18th of June, the French army for the fifth time crossed
the Sambre, and for the third time invested Charleroi. As the French
before this place now numbered seventy thousand men, it became
necessary for the allies to ree'nforce the covering army, which was done
by withdrawing the Austrian troops from the Scheldt, leaving the Duke
of York with the English and Hanoverians alone in that position : this
separation of the Austrian and English forces contributed not a little to
augment the misunderstanding which already existed between those two
nations. The Austrian auxiliaries did not arrive in time to relieve Char-
leroi, which capitulated on the 25th of June. The garrison had hardly
left the gates, however, when the Austrians arrived ; and, as the allied
forces were now sufficiently numerous to warrant the undertaking, they
resolved to hazard a battle. This took place on the 26th, on the plains
J794.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 59
of Fleurus : it was commenced in the morning and continued with great
vigor throughout the whole day. In the event, the allies retreated, leaving
the French masters of the field ; but neither party had any cause for tri-
umph. The loss on boih sides was nearly equal, being between four and
five thousand men of each army : but this material advantage ensued to
the French, that by the eastwardly movement of the Austrians and the
pacific intentions of their Emperor, Flanders was in effect abandoned to
the Republican armies, who not long after were enabled to concentrate
themselves without opposition at Brussels. The sole care of the British
was now to cover Antwerp and 'Holland ; but on the 15th of July, they
were forced to evacuate the former, after which they withdrew their
whole force to Breda for the defence of the latter.
While the fortune of war was thus decisively inclining to the Republi-
can side on the northern frontier, events of but trifling importance were
taking place on the Rhine, though their tendency was favorable to the
French. In Piedmont, they gained a more decided advantage, General
Dumas having made himself master of Little St. Bernard and Mount Ce-
nis, by which means the whole ridge of the Alps separating Piedmont from
Savoy, fell into the possession of the Republican troops, and the keys of
Italy were placed in the hands of the French government. The opera-
tions on the frontiers of Nice, under the direction of General Bonaparte,
were not less successful, and before the end of May, the Republicans
were masters of all the passes through the maritime Alps ; while, from
the summit of Mount Cenis they threatened a descent upon the valley of
Susa, and from the Col di Tende they could advance without interruption
to the siege of Coni.
On the Spanish frontier, the war assumed a still more decisive aspect.
The reduction of Toulon having enabled the central government to de-
tach General Dugommier to reenforce the army on the Eastern Pyrenees,
it was resolved to act offensively at both extremities of that range of moun-
tains. During the winter, great exertions had been made to improve the
discipline and condition of the French troops ; while on the other hand,
the Spanish government, destitute of energy, and exhausted by the exer-
tions they had already made, were unable to maintain the number and
efficiency of their forces. Before the end of the year 1793, they had been
reduced to the necessity of issuing more than sixty millions of dollars in
paper money, secured on the income of the tobacco-tax ; but all their
efforts to recruit their armies from the natives of the country proved inef-
fectual, and they were obliged to take into their service some of the foreign-
ers employed in the siege of Toulon. Between two such contending
powers as the French and Spanish, victorv could not long remain doubtful.
The Republicans prevailed in almost every encounter, defeating and dis-
piriting the Spanish troops, making them prisoners, taking their cannon,
and capturing not only the fortresses of which they had possessed them-
selves on the French territory in the preceding campaign, but also the
Spanish fortresses of Figueras and Rosas, two of the most important posts
on the whole frontier, hitherto regarded as nearly impregnable, and of the
greatest consequence to the French as they laid open the richest plains
of Spain to their invasion. Nor were the Spaniards more successful on
the Western Pyrenees, where the French made themselves masters of St.
Marcial, Bidossoa, Fontarabia, and St. Sebastian ; and thus, as early as
August found themselves firmly posted in the Spanish territory, with am-
8
00 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. VIII.
pie magazines and stores both of provisions and ammunition. These terri-
ble disasters compelled the Spaniards to sue for peace, which the French
government were not unwilling to grant, as by so doing they could avail
themselves of the experienced soldiers who had gained these conquests,
to reenforce their armies for the expedition they meditated on the south
of the Alps.
Meantime, the French armies in the north, after a delay of nearly two
months, resumed the offensive. Jourdan and Kleber defeated the retreat,
ing Austrians in a pitched battle at Ruremonde, captured the castle of
Rheinfels, and the noble fortress of Maestricht with its three hundred and
fifty pieces of cannon — so that, on the left of the Rhine, the Imperialists
retained nothing of all their possessions but Luxembourg and Mayence.
On the other side, Moreau pressed the Duke of York and compelled him
to retire to the right bank of the Meuse, leaving Bergen-op-Zoom, Breda
and Bois-le-Duc to their own resources. Pichegru then pushed on with
seventy thousand troops to Bois-le-Duc, which he soon forced to capitulate.
He followed up his success, crossed the Meuse, drove the Duke of York
with considerable loss across the Waal, and invested Grave and Venloo,
which latter place surrendered to the French musketry alone.
These successes of the French in the north, great as they were, formed
but the prelude to a winter campaign of still more decisive results. On
the 27th of October, Pichegru laid siege to Nimeguen, where the Duke
of York was intrenched with thirty thousand men. The Duke made a
vigorous sally when the Republicans had taken up their position, and
repulsed them for the moment ; but the French soon strengthened their
approaches, and the Duke, finding it impossible to protect the place,
evacuated it in the night, leaving but three thousand Dutch troops for its
defence ; and the next day this fine fortress, which commands the passage
of the Waal, fell into the hands of the French.
The French army now stood in great need of repose ; but the Convention,
inflamed with the spirit of conquest, kept them in the field, and insisted
on renewed exertions. Accordingly, on the 28th of December, they
commenced their winter campaign by an attack, in two columns, on the
Dutch advanced posts. The Dutch troops, after a slight resistance, fled
in confusion, leaving sixty pieces of cannon and sixteen hundred prisoners
behind them. On the following' day, Grave capitulated, and Breda, one
of the last of the Dutch barrier towns, was invested.
The States-General of Holland, being now deserted by the allies and
wholly unable to resist the overwhelming forces of the French, made
proposals of peace to the Convention, offering to recognize the Republic
and pay two hundred millions of francs. The Convention, however, had
resolved to establish their revolutionary government in Holland, and
would listen to no proposals, but ordered Pichegru to subdue that devoted
country. The unprecedented cold of the winter aided in giving an
unlooked-for success to this ambitious determination, for the rivers were
so frozen as to offer a free passage to the troops. The situation of the
Prince of Orange was now embarrassing in the last degree. He presented
himself before the States-General, and declaring that he had done his
uttermost to save the country, avowed his determination to retire from his
command : at the same time, he recommended them to make a separate
peace with the enemy. He then embarked for England, and the States
immediately ordered their troops to cease all resistance, while they
1794.J HISTORY OF EUROPE. 6
dispatched ambassadors to Pichegru's head-quarters with new proposals
for peace.
The French Generals, desirous to avoid the appearance of subjugating
the Dutch, were pausing in their career, expecting that revolutionary
movements would manifest themselves in the principal towns, to which,
indeed, they incited the inhabitants by encouraging proclamations. The
event justified their expectations. On the 18th of January, 1795, the
popular party in Amsterdam surrounded the burgomasters in the town-
hall, at the moment when the advanced guard of the French army reached
the gate of that city. The magistrates, in alarm, resigned their authority ;
Democratic leaders were installed in their places ; the tricolor flag was
hoisted on the H6tel-de-Ville, and the Republican troops entered the town
amid the shouts of the multitude. The conquest of this rich and powerful
city, which had defied the whole power of Louis XIV, and imposed such
severe conditions on France at the treaties of Utrecht and Aix-la-Chapelle,
was of great importance- to the French government. Utrecht, Leyden,
Haarlem, and all the other towns of Holland soon underwent a similar
revolution and received the French troops as deliverers. But an event,
still more marvellous, succeeded these rapid and surprising conquests :
namely, the capture of the Dutch fleet of fifty vessels, by a squadron of
French cavalry ! The ships were at the time frozen up in the Texel ;
and the Republican forces, after having crossed the lake of Biesbos on
the ice and made themselves masters of the arsenal of Dordrecht, contain-
ing six hundred cannons, ten thousand muskets and immense stores of am-
munition, packed through Rotterdam and took possession of the Hague. A
body of cavalry now crossed the Zuyder Zee, and summoned the fleet: the
commanders, confounded at the hardihood of the enterprise, immediately
surrendered to this novel kind of assailants. The province of Zealand
capitulated about the same time, Friesland and Groningen were succes-
sively evacuated, the British troops embarked for England, and the whole
of the United Provinces submitted to the Republican arms.
CHAPTER IX.
POLAND.
THE kingdom of Poland formerly extended from the Borysthenes to the
Danube, and from the Euxine to the Baltic. She was the Sarmatia of
the ancients, and embraced, within her borders, the original seat of those
nations which subverted the Roman Empire. Prussia, Moravia, Bohemia,
Hungary, the Ukraine, Courland and Livonia are all fragments of her
once mighty dominion. The Goths, who appeared as suppliants on the
Danube, and were ferried across by Roman hands never to be driven
back ; the Huns, who under Attila spread desolation through the Empire;
the Sclavonians, who overspread the greater part of Europe — all emerged
from her vast and uncultivated plains. But her subsequent progress has
ill corresponded to such a commencement : her greatest triumphs have
ever been succeeded by her greatest reverses ; the establishment of her
62 HISTORY OF EUROPE, [CHAP. IX.
internal freedom has led to nothing but external disaster, and the deliverer
of Europe in one age, was in the next swept from the book of nations.
These extraordinary facts have arisen from one cause : that Poland
retained, until a modern period, the independence and equality of her
ancient savage life. She was neither subjugated by more polished States,
nor did she vanquish more civilized ones ; the simplicity and bravery of
the pastoral character remained unchanged in her native plains for fifteen
undred years. And as Poland then was, she ever continued — a race of
ealous freemen and iron-bound slaves ; a wild democracy ruling a
captive people. After representative assemblies had been established for
centuries in Germany, France and England, the Poles adhered to their
ancient custom of summoning every freeman to discuss, sword in hand,
the affairs of the Republic. An hundred thousand horsemen met always
for this purpose in the field of Volo, near Warsaw; and this terrible as-
sembly, where all the proprietors of the soil were convoked, constituted
at once the military strength of the nation in war, and its legislature in
peace. In the estimation of this haughty race, the will of a freeman was
what no human power should attempt to control ; and, therefore, it was
the fundamental principle of all their deliberations, that no resolution
could be adopted but by a literally unanimous vote. This relic of savage
equality was productive of incalculable evils to the Republic ; yet, so
blind are men to the cause of their own ruin, it was ever adhered to by
the Poles with enthusiastic obstinacy, and is even spoken of with ad-
miration by their national historians. Unanimity, however, is a virtual
impossibility in human legislation ; and as it could not occur in Poland
more than elsewhere, and as it was indispensable, nevertheless, that the
affairs of their government should goon, the Poles adopted the only other
method of expediting their deliberations : they massacred the minority.
This appeared to them an evil incomparably less than carrying measures
by a majority : " Because," they reasoned, "the acts of violence are few
in number, and affect only the individual sufferers: but if once the pre-
cedent is established of compelling the minority to be governed by the
majority, there is an end* to the liberty of the people."
The clergy, that important body who have done so much for the freedom
of Europe, never formed a separate order, or possessed any spiritual
influence in Poland : the order was confined to the nobles, who had no
sympathy with the serfs, and disdained to admit them to any of their
sacred offices. The inequality of fortune, too, and the rise of urban
industry, the source of so much benefit to all the other European powers,
was in Poland productive of positive evil. Fearful of being compelled
to divide their power with the inferior classes when they chanced to be
elevated by riches and intelligence, the nobles affixed the stigma of
dishonor to every lucrative or useful profession. Their maxim was, that
nobility is not lost by indigence, or even by. domestic servitude, but is
destroyed by commerce and industry : their constant policy was, also, to
debar the serfs from the use of arms ; for, though they continued to de-
spise, they had also learned to fear them. In short, the freemen, or nobility
of Poland, strenuously proscribing -every kind of power and every attempt at
superiority on the part of the lower orders, as a usurpation, and, on their
own part, every kind of industry as a degradation, remained, to the close
of their career, at open variance with all the principles on which the
prosperity of society depends.
1794.] HISTORYOFEUROPE 63
The crown of Poland, though held long by the great families of the
Jagellons and the Piasts, had always been elective. The king disposed
of all offices in the Republic, and a principal part of his duty consisted
in gcring from province to province to administer justice in person. The
nobility carried his sentences into execution with their own armed force ;
and as there was never any considerable standing army in the service of
the Republic, the military force of the throne was altogether nugatory.
Nothing can so strongly demonstrate the wonderful power of democ-
racy and its desolating effects when unrestrained, as the history of John
Sobieski. The force, which this illustrious champion of Christendom
could bring into the field to defend his country from Mohammedan in-
vasion, seldom amounted to fifteen thousand men ; and when, previous
to the battle of Kotzim, he found himself, by an extraordinary effort, at
the head of forty thousand, of whom hardly one-half were disciplined, he
was inspired with such confidence, that he attacked without hesitation
eighty thousand Turkish veterans strongly intrenched, and gained over
them the greatest victory that had been achieved by the Christian arms
since the battle of Ascalon. The troops which he led to the rescue of
Vienna were but eighteen thousand native Poles, and the combined Chris-
tian armies amounted to only seventy thousand combatants ; yet with this
force he routed three hundred thousand Turks, and broke the Mussulman
power so effectually, that the crescent of Mohammed steadily receded
before the other European powers, and from that period, historians date
the decline of the Ottoman Empire. Yet after these glorious triumphs,
the ancient dissensions of the Republic revived and paralyzed its strength,
the defence of the frontiers was intrusted to a few undisciplined horsemen,
and the Polish nation, to their eternal disgrace, allowed this heroic king to
be besieged by innumerable hordes of barbarians for months, before
they would advance to his relief. Sobieski, worn out at last with inef-
fectual endeavors to create a regular government, or establish a permanent
force for the protection of Poland, foretold the fate of the Republic in his
death-bed address to the Senate, wherein he assured them that their
dangers as a nation arose not from external enemies, but from the
vices of their own unenlightened government ; and he predicted that
within forty years the Republic would cease to be. His prophecy was
not literally fulfilled, for the glories of his reign prolonged the existence
of Poland nearly a century ; but, though he erred as to the time, he was
right as to the fact of its speedy dissolution.
Never did a people exhibit a more extraordinary spectacle than the
Poles after this period. Two factions divided the kingdom, and kept it
in a perpetual war : each faction had its army, and each army was a
foreign army. The inferior noblesse introduced the Saxons, and the
superior called the Swedes to their aid ; so that, from the time of Sobieski's
death, strangers never ceased to reign in Poland ; its national forces were
continually diminishing, and, at length, totally disappeared. When,
therefore, the adjoining states of Russia and Austria effected the first
partition of Poland, in 1772, they were not required to conquer a kingdom,
but only to take shares of a state which had fallen to pieces. The
election of Stanislaus Poniatowski to the remnant of the throne of Poland,
in 1764; took place literally under the buckler ; but it was the buckler of
the Muscovite, the Cossack and the Tartar, who overshadowed the plain
of Volo with their arms.
8*
64 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. IX.
The next struggle of the Poles, like all that preceded it, originated in
their own dissensions. The partisans of the ancient anarchy revolted
against the new and more stable Constitution of Poniatowski : they took
up arms at Targowice, and invoked the aid of the Empress of Russia to
restore the disorder from which she had already gained so much. A
second dismemberment took place on the 14th of October, 1793, and, in
the disordered state of the country, it was effected without opposition.
Prussia and Russia took this partition upon themselves, and their troops
were at first quietly cantoned in the provinces which they had severally
seized.
There is a certain degree of calamity which subdues man's courage ;
but there is also another degree which, by reducing men to desperation,
leads to the greatest enterprises : and to this latter state the Poles were
now reduced. Abandoned by all the world, distracted with internal
divisions, destitute of fortresses and resources, the patriots of that unhappy
country resolved to make a bold effort to recover their freedom. The
first movement was made by a band of these brave men, at Warsaw, and
they made choice of Kosciusko to direct their efforts.
This illustrious hero, who had received the rudiments of military
education in France, and had afterward served with distinction in the
American war for independence, was every way qualified to head the
last struggle for freedom of the oldest republic in the world. Having, by
aid of the regiments which had revolted, and the junction of some bodies
of half-armed peasants, collected a force of fiv* thousand men, Kosciusko
left Cracow and advanced into the open country. He encountered a
detachment of three thousand Russians at Ralsowice, on the 8th of April,
1794, and routed them with great slaughter. This action, inconsidera-
ble in itself, was important in its consequences. The Polish peasants
exchanged their scythes for the arms found on the field of battle, and the
insurrection, encouraged by this gleam of success, soon extended into the
adjoining provinces. Stanislaus in vain disavowed the acts of his subjects ;
the passion for independence spread with the rapidity of lightning, and
soon every patriot in Poland was in arms.
Intelligence of the victory at Ralsowice reached Warsaw on the 12th
of April ; a violent agitation ensued, and on the morning of the 17th, the
brigade . of Polish guards, under direction of their officers, attacked the
governor's house and the arsenal, and was speedily joined by the populace.
The Russian and Prussian troops in the neighborhood of the capital were
about seven thousand men, who, after a prolonged contest in the streets
for six-and-thirty hours, were driven across the Vistula, with the loss of
three thousand men in killed and prisoners. Immediately, the flag of
independence was hoisted on the towers of Warsaw.
Kosciusko now did everything that courage and energy could suggest
to put on foot a formidable force to protect the revolt : a provisional gov-
ernment was established, and in a short time, forty thousand men were
raised — an effort highly honorable to the patriotism of the Poles, although
the army was inconsiderable, compared with the forces that Russia and
Prussia could bring into the field.
No sooner was the King of Prussia informed of the Revolution at
Warsaw, than he moved forward at the head of thirty thousand men to
besiege that city, while the Russian General Suwarrow, with forty
thousand veterans, prepared to overrun the southeastern parts of the
1794.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 65
kingdom. Aware of the necessity of striking a blow before the enemy's
forces were concentrated, Kosciusko, with twelve thousand men, marched
to attack the Russian General Denisoff ; but on approaching his corps, he
discovered that the Russians were already united with the king of
Prussia. He retreated immediately, but was pursued by the allies, over-
taken near Sckoczyre, and after a gallant defence, defeated ; upon which
Cracow fell into the hands of the conquerors. This check was the more
unfortunate, as about the same time General Zayonschuk was defeated at
Chelne, and compelled to cross the Vistula, leaving the whole right bank
of that river without defence.
The combined Russian and Prussian armies now advanced against
Warsaw, where Kosciusko occupied an intrenched camp with twenty-
five thousand men. During the whole of July and August they pressed
the siege of this capital, at the end of which time, the king of Prussia,
despairing of success, raised the siege and withdrew his army, leaving a
portion of his sick and stores in the hands of the patriots.
Encouraged by this event, the Poles were enabled to recruit their
forces to nearly eighty thousand men under arms ; but they were in-
judiciously scattered over too extensive a line of country, and exposed
to being beaten in detail. Indeed, the enthusiasm occasioned by the
raising of the siege of Warsaw had not subsided before Sizakowski, with
ten thousand men, was defeated by the Russians under Suwarrow, on the
17th of September. This celebrated general, to whom the principal
conduct of the war was now committed, followed up his success with the
utmost spirit. The retreating army was again assailed on the 19th, and,
after a brave resistance, driven into the woods below Janow and Biala,
with a loss of four thousand men and twenty-eight pieces of cannon. On
receiving intelligence of this disaster, Kosciusko resolved to concentrate
his forces and fall upon General Fersen before he could join Suwarrow,
who was now advancing against Warsaw. With this view, he ordered
General Poninsky to come up with his forces, and himself moved on to
the attack. But when he arrived at the Russian position, he found that
Poninsky had delayed his march, and was not there to join in the combat.
Nevertheless, fearing to retreat, he was forced to make his dispositions for
the battle, which took place on the 4th of October. The Poles contested
the ground most gallantly ; but they were inferior to the enemy, both in
numbers and discipline, and were at length defeated with a loss of nearly
half their number, and Kosciusko was himself made prisoner. The
retreating army, reduced to seven thousand five hundred men, fell back
in confusion toward Warsaw.
After the fall of Kosciusko, nothing but a series of disasters awaited
the Poles. The Austrians overran the yet unconquered provinces; and
Suwarrow, with his entire army, advanced upon Praga, where twenty-six
thousand Poles, with one hundred pieces of cannon, defended the bridge of
the Vistula and the approach to Warsaw. On the 4th of November the
Russians, in seven columns, assailed the ramparts, rapidly filled up the
ditches with their fascines, broke down the defences, and poured their
battalions into the intrenched camp. The defenders in vain did their ut-
most to resist the torrent. The wooden houses of Praga took fire, and
amid the shouts of the victors and the cries of the inhabitants, the Poles
were borne back to the edge of the Vistula. Ten thousand soldiers fell
on tha spot, nine thousand were made prisoners, and twelve thousand citi-
66 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [CHAP. X
zens, without distinction of sex or age, were put to the sword : a dreadful
carnage, which has left a lasting stain on the name of Suwarrow, and
which Russia expiated in the conflagration of Moscow.
The tragedy now closed. Warsaw capitulated; the detached parties
of the patriots melted away, and Poland was no more.
Sucli was the termination of the oldest Republic in existence, and such
the first instance of the total destruction of a member of the Euiopean
family by its ambitious kindred. The event excited a profound sensation
in Europe. The folly of its preceding career, the irretrievable defects
of the Polish constitution, were forgotten ; and Poland was remembered
only as the bulwark of Christendom against the Ottomans. The bloody
march of the French Revolution was overlooked, and the Christian world
was penetrated with a grief akin to that felt by all civilized nations at the
fall of Jerusalem.
The poet has celebrated these events in the immortal lines :
" Oh ! bloodiest picture in the book of Time :
Sarmatia fell, unwept, without a crime ;
Found not a generous friend, a pitying foe,
Strength in her arms, nor mercy in her wo !
Dropped from her nerveless grasp the shattered spear,
Closed her bright eye, and curbed her high career:
Hope for a season bade the world farewell,
And Freedom shrieked as Kosciusko fell !"
But the truth of history must dispel this illusion, and unfold, in the fall
of Poland, the natural consequences of its national delinquencies. Sar-
matia did not fall unwept, nor without a crime : she fell the victim of her
own dissensions ; of the chimera of equality insanely pursued, and the
rigor of aristocracy unceasingly maintained : of extravagant jealousy of
every superior, and merciless oppression of every inferior rank. The
eldest born of the European family was the first to perish, because she
had thwarted all the ends of the social union ; because she had united the
turbulence of democratic, to the exclusion of aristocratic societies ; because
she had the vacillation of a Republic without its energy, and the oppres-
sion of a monarchy without its stability. Such a system neither could
be, nor ought to be, maintained.
CHAPTER X.
CONSOLIDATION OF THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT ! CAMPAIGN OF 1795.
ON the day after the fall of Robespierre, there were but two parties in
Paris ; that of the Committee, who strove to maintain their Jacobin ascend-
ency, and that of the Liberators, who labored to overthrow it. The lat-
ter party was known by the name of Thermidorians, from the month in
which its members had triumphed over the dictator ; it consisted of the
whole centre of the National Convention, together with the remnant of the
Royalists and the party of Danton. The Jacobins were still powerful,
however, and the Thermidorians were cautious about measuring their
1795.1 HISTORYOFEUROPE. 6*3
strength with them ; but the friends of clemency gained daily accessions
to their force. On the 30th of July, 1794, the contest was brought to an
issue. Barere, on the part of the Jacobins, rose in his place and proposed
that the Revolutionary Tribunal should be continued, and that Fouquier
Tinville should still act as public accuser. At the pronouncing of that
name a murmur of indignation was heard in the assembly, and Frcron
cried out, " I propose that we purge the earth of that monster, and that
he be sent to lick up in hell the blood that he has shed." This proposal
being carried by acclamation, Barere left the tribune ; and Tinville was
brought to trial with fourteen of his most guilty associates, who were
all condemned and executed.
The next measures of the Convention were of a humane tendency.
They repealed the law against suspected persons; and although the Revo-
lutionary Tribunal continued its sittings, its forms were remodelled, and
its vengeance was directed chiefly against the authors of former outrages.
The captives were gradually released from confinement, and instead of
the fatal tumbrils that formerly stood at the gates of the prisons, crowds
of joyous citizens there welcomed with transport their liberated parents or
children. At the end of two months, out of ten thousand suspected per-
sons, not one remained in the prisons of Paris.
In order to strengthen themselves more effectually for the future, the
Thermidorians enlisted in their support such youths of the metropolis as
be-longed to the most respectable families who had lost some relative at
the guillotine, and were therefore irreconcilably hostile to the Jacobins.
To distinguish them from the populace, they wore a particular dress called
the Costume a la Victime ; they bore in their arms short, loaded clubs ; and
were known by the name of La Jeunesse Dorte. The contests between
them and the Jacobins at length assumed an important character. Paris
became one vast field of battle, in which each strove for the mastery.
The strife was long and obstinate ; but finally the Convention passed a
decree dissolving the Jacobin clubs all over Paris, and the Jeunesse Doree
carried it into execution with force of arms.
The Convention gradually repealed the laws passed during the Revo-
lutionary government: that, namely, regulating the price of provisions,
the prohibitions against the Christian worship, the statutes confiscating the
Girondists' property and passed an act restoring to the original owners such
property, confiscated by the government, as had not been disposed of to
third parties. They next proceeded to the decided step of impeaching
Varennes, Collot d' Herbois, Barere, Vadier, and other prominent leaders
of the Jacobins, who had been most active in the cruelties of the Reign of
y'orror. This bold measure "produced a great agitation, and a revolt was
organized in the fauxbourgs to prevent their trial from proceeding. The
insurgents forced their way into the assembly, and were about to recom-
mence their scenes of violence, so common in the preceding year, when
a band of the Jeunesse Doree made their appearance and quickly dispersed
the mob. The trial proceeded and the parties were all found guilty ; but
the Thermidorians, from considerations of policy, made a humane use of
their victory. Varennes, Collot d' Herbois, and Barere were condemned
to the limited punishment of transportation ; and seventeen members of
the Mountain were put under arrest and conducted to the chateau of Ham.
By the fall of Robespierre and the execution of his associates, the Ja-
cobins had lost the municipality ; the closing of their clubs had deprived
68 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [CHAP X.
them of their centre of operations ; and the late exile of so many of their
members hacl taken from them their ablest leaders. Still, there remained
to them the forces of the fauxbourgs, the inhabitants of which had retained
their arms ; and their failure in attempting to rescue Varennes and the
rest had not discouraged them. A new insurrection was agreed on for the
20th of May, 1795, on which day no less than thirty thousand men, armed
with pikes, proceeded to the hall of the Convention. When the members
were informed of their approach, they passed resolutions for summoning
the National Guard, and making other provision for their defence ; but the
danger that was at their very door, could not be resisted by legislative
enactments. The multitude crowded into the hall, tore the president from
his chair, and as Ferraud, with generous devotion, threw himself before
the mob, to intercept the blows destined for the president, he was mortally
wounded, dragged out, and beheaded in the lobby. The rabble then took
possession of the seats vacated by the terrified members of the Conven-
tion, and proceeded at once to organize a new government. Everything
seemed to indicate a complete revolution.
But, though the Convention was thus forcibly dissolved, its committees
still existed, and their firmness saved France. They immediately con-
vened, passed resolutions befitting the emergency, and, when night
approached, proceeded with the National Guard and the Jeunesse Doree
to the hall where the insurgents were legislating. A violent contest
ensued, but it resulted in the defeat of the Jacobins, and, at midnight, the
members of the Convention resumed their places. All that had been
done by the rebel authority was annulled, and twenty-eight members who
had supported their proceedings were put under arrest. On the following
day, the Jacobins renewed their attempts, and again surrounded the
Convention, bringing with them a train of artillery, which was deliberately
placed in position for an attack. But the National Guard and Jeunesse
Doree stood this time on the alert, and the insurgents were summarily
defeated.
Instructed by such disasters and escapes, the Convention now resolved
on decisive measures : and six of the most turbulent leaders of the
Mountain were delivered over to the military commission, and executed.
The murderer of the deputy Ferraud was next discovered, tried, and
condemned. On the occasion of his execution, the Convention, anticipating
another revolt, ordered the disarming of the fauxbourgs, which was
effectually accomplished by the firmness of the National Guard, who,
thirty thousand strong, and provided with artillery and mortars, brought
the refractory inhabitants to submission. Soon after, the National Guard
was reorganized by the exclusion from its ranks of all indigent citizens,
and from that day the multitude ceased to rule in Paris. *
The Convention now proceeded to form a new Constitution, in which
some of the fundamental principles of the Revolution were unequivocally
repudiated ; and, so contagious was this spirit of reaction, Royalist
doctrines began rapidly to gain currency. The National Guard and
Jeunesse Doree of several sections openly espoused the Royalist side,
while in the South of France bands were organized, who traversed the
country, and executed dreadful reprisals on the Revolutionary party.
At Lyons, Aix, Tarascon and Marseilles, they massacred the Jacobin
prisoners without trial or discrimination, and the horrors of the 2nd of
September, with the exception of the reverse of parties, were reenacted •
HISTORY OF EUROPE. 69
in most of the prisons of that part of the country. The people, exasperated
with their remembrances of the Reign of Terror, were insatiable in their
vengeance. They invoked the names of parents, brothers, or sisters,
when retaliating on their oppressors ; and, while themselves committing
murders, cried to their victims, with every stroke : " Die, assassins ! "
Meanwhile, the framing of the new Constitution was completed. By
this instrument, the third one that had been formed in France during a
few years, the legislative power was divided into two Councils ; that of
the Five Hundred, and that of the Ancients. The Council of Five Hundred
was intrusted with the sole power of originating laws, and the Council of
the Ancients, with the power of passing or rejecting them ; and to insure
the prudent discharge of this duty, no person could be a member of the
fatter Council till he had reached the age of forty. The executive power
was lodged in the hands of five Directors, to be nominated by the Council
of Five Hundred, and approved by the Ancients : they were liable to
impeachment for misconduct, were each to be president for three months
by rotation, and every year one new Director was to be chosen, and one
to retire to make room for him. This Directory had the disposal of the
army and finances, the appointment of public functionaries, and the
control of public negotiations. They were lodged, during the period of
their official duty, in the Palace of the Luxembourg, and attended by a
guard of honor. The elective franchise was greatly restricted by the
new charter, being confined entirely to proprietors ; all popular societies
were interdicted, and the press was declared absolutely free.
It is important to recollect that this Constitution, so cautiously framed to
exclude tfte direct influence of the people, and curb the excesses of popular
licentiousness, was the voluntary work of the very Convention which
had come into power under the democratic Constitution of 1793, and
immediately after the 10th of August; which had voted the death of the
King, the imprisonment of the Girondists, and the execution of Danton ;
which had supported the bloody excesses of the Revolutionary Tribunal,
and survived the horrors of the reign of Robespierre. Let it no longer be
said> therefore, that the evils of popular rule are imaginary dangers,
contradicted by the experience of mankind. The checks thus imposed on
the power of the people, were the work of their own delegates, chosen by
universal suffrage, during a season of unexampled public excitement,
whose proceedings had been marked by a more violent love of freedom
than any that ever before existed from the beginning of the world.
Nothing can speak so strongly for the necessity of controlling the people,
as the acts of the representatives whom they had themselves chosen to
confirm their power.
The discussion of this Constitution in the assemblies of the people to
whom it was referred, produced the most violent agitation throughout
France. Paris, as usual, took the lead. Its forty-eight Sections were
constantly in -session, and the public effervescence resembled that of 1789.
This was brought to its height by an additional clause in the Constitution,
wherein the Convention decreed that two-thirds of their own number should
be'incorporated into the new legislature, and that, therefore, the electors
should fill up only the remainder.
This rapid stride toward despotism was loudly resisted all over France.
The National Guard of Paris declared their opposition, and the Jeunesse
Doree pledged themselves to resist it. But the' Convention did not waver.
70 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [CHAP. X.
They had first lost the support of the Jacobins by their proscription ; and
now, that of the Royalists by their ambition : one power remained, and
they appealed to it — THE ARMY. They submitted the Constitution to the
soldiers, and it was by them unanimously approved. A body of five thou-
sand regular troops assembled in the neighborhood of Paris, and their
adhesion to the Convention was eagerly proclaimed to the citizens. The
Sections of Paris, however, openly resolved to revolt. A meeting of the
electors took place on the 3rd of October, at the Theatre Francais, under
the protection of the National Guard, where they unanimously decided on
resistance.
But while these things were in progress, the Convention was not idle.
They passed a decree, dissolving the electoral bodies in Paris, and em-
bodying into a regiment fifteen hundred Jacobins, many of whom were
liberated from the prisons for that especial purpose. General Menou was
appointed to the command of this armed force, and he advanced with the
troops of the line to disperse the Sections. But Menou had not the energy
requisite for such service, and, instead of attacking, he entered into nego-
tiations with the insurgents, and retired in the evening without having
effected anything. His failure gave the Sections the advantage of a
victory, and the National Guard mustered in greater strength than ever,
and resolved to attack the Convention on the following day. The Con-
vention, learning what Menou had done, immediately dismissed him, and
gave the command to General Barras, who solicited the appointment, as
second in command, of a young officer of artillery who had distinguished
himself at Toulon and in the maritime Alps — Napoleon Bonaparte. This
young officer was at once introduced to the committee. His manner was
timid and embarrassed ; the career of public life was yet new to him ; but
his clear and distinct opinions inspired the committee with confidence, and
they invested him with the desired command.
Under his direction, fifty pieces of artillery were immediately so disposed
as to command all the avenues to the Convention, and, early on the fol-
lowing morning, the neighborhood of the Tuileries resembled an intrenched
camp. In this position, Napoleon awaited the attack of the insurgents,
who amounted to no less than thirty thousand men, while the army of the
Convention did not exceed six thousand. But the insurgents had no
artillery, and though they were individually brave men, they could nol
long sustain a close contest with disciplined troops. The battle was soon
terminated by the total overthrow of the National Guard, and the Con-
vention, from that day, held the undisputed control of the Republic.
While these important changes were taking place within the French
dominions, other events of moment occurred on her frontier and throughout
Europe.
The great success which everywhere attended the French arms at the
conclusion of the campaign of 1794, led, early in the following year, to a
dissolution of the confederacy between the allied sovereigns. Prussia,
Spain, Bavaria, the Elector of Mayence, and other powers, successively
detached themselves from the league, and some of them entered into
separate treaties of peace with France ; while Holland was forced to
conclude with France an offensive and defensive treaty, and bound to aid
in prosecuting the war against the enemies of the Republic. Austria and
England remained firm in- their determination to continue the war, and
Mr. Pitt and Thugut, the respective ministers of the two nations, formed
1795.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 71
a new treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, by which Austria agreed
to maintain two hundred thousand men in the field, and England contracted
to furnish a subsidy of six million pounds sterling, for their support.
England made exertions for the prosecution of the war more con-
siderable than she had yet put forth, and seemed sensible that renewed
efforts were indispensable now that the strife threatened to approach her
own shores. Her naval force was augmented to one hundred thousand
seamen, one hundred and eight ships of the line were put in commission,
and the land forces raised to one hundred and fifty thousand men. The
expenditure of the year, exclusive of the interest of the national debt,
amounted to twenty-seven and a half millions sterling, of which eighteen
millions were raised by loan, and three and a half millions by exchequer
bills. To such an immense extent, thus early in the contest, was the
ruinous system of providing for the expense of the year by borrowing,
adopted by the British government. On the 18th of February, Russia
became a party to the new treaty of alliance, though this measure was
not at first productive of important results. The Empress Catherine was
as yet too much occupied in the affairs of Poland, and too little interested
in the continental war, to take an active part in the present campaign ;
she merely sent twelve ships of the line, and eight frigates, to reenforce
Admiral Duncan in blockading the fleet recently acquired by France
from the Dutch Republic.
During the winter of 1794-5, the French government made great
efforts to put their navy on a respectable footing ; and, early in March,
_ji expedition was fitted out at Toulon, consisting of thirteen ships of the
line and carrying eighteen thousand land troops, intended to recover pos-
session of Corsica. Lord Hotham, who commanded the English block-
ading fleet in the Mediterranean, was at Leghorn when this French fleet
sailed, but was ignorant of their movements ; and the French succeeded
in capturing the Berwick seventy-four gun ship in the Gulf of St. Florent,
the whole Republican fleet having come upon her unawares. The British
admiral immediately put to sea with thirteen line-of-battle ships, and fell
in with the French squadron on the 15th of March. He captured two
ships of the line, the Ca Ira and the Censeur, and the remainder of the
enemy's fleet fell back to the Isles de Hyeire**. and disembarked their
troops. The object of the expedition was thus entirely frustrated.
The campaign in the maritime Alps was opened on the 12th of May.
by a successful French attack on the Col Dumont, then occupied by two
thousand Piedmontese troops. Soon after, Kellerman having weakened his
right by detaching some battalions to Toulon, the Imperialists assumed the
offensive, and by a series of well-concerted movements forced the French
to evacuate all their positions in that quarter. But toward the end of
August, the activity of the Republicans had greatly reenforeed their armies
on the Alpine frontier ; and General Scherer taking command, prepared
to give battle to the allies, forty thousand strong, near the little seaport
of Loano. The battle commenced on the 23rd of November; and at the
conclusion of the day, the centre of the allies was forced and their left
wing partly turned. The combat was renewed on the following morning
and ended in the total defeat of the allies, with a loss of two thousand
killed, five hundred taken prisoners, and a large quantity of baggage,
magazines and artillery. This victory, by giving the French the entire-
command of the maritime Alps, closed the campaign in. that quarter.
72 H'ISTORYOFEUROPE. [CHAP. X
The position of the armies on the northern and eastern frontier remained
the same as at the close of the preceding campaign, but their condition
was much changed for the worse. The troops were ill paid, ill fed, ana
in want of all military supplies requisite fora vigorous prosecution of the
war; and their discipline was greatly relaxed. The condition of the
Austrians, on the Bother hand, was much improved ; but they remained
in total inactivity on the right bank of the Rhine, and, failing to succor
the garrison of Luxembourg, that fortress, with ten thousand men and a
large train of artillery, fell into the hands of the Republicans on the 24th
of June. The Prince of Conde, on the Upper Rhine, was at the same
time engaged in a secret negotiation with Pichegru, who was growing
disaffected toward the Convention : the precise nature of these negotiations
has never transpired ; but after six months passed in this way, Pichegru
discontinued it. and prepared to obey the orders of the Convention, by
commencing the campaign.
Jourdan, having at length obtained the necessary supplies, prepared to
cross the Rhine in the beginning of September. On the 6th of that month,
he effected the passage at Eichelcamp, Neuwied and Dusseldorf, and
compelled the garrison of the latter town to capitulate : he then advanced
toward the Lahn, and established himself on the banks of that river.
Pichegru, meantime, crossed the Upper Rhine at Manheim, one of the
principal bulwarks of Germany, and by a spirited demonstration forced
that city to surrender. This was a great disaster to the Austrians, as it
opened the way for Jourdan to throw his whole army against Mayence on
the right bank of the Rhine. But the Austrian commander, Clairfait,
proved himself equal to the emergency. By a. skilful and rapid march
he turned the left of the French line and forced Jourdan to a disastrous
retreat, which threw his whole army into confusion. Then, suddenly
abandoning the pursuit, Clairfait turned upon Mayence and arrived there
by forced marches before the French besieging army were aware of his
approach. The lines of circumvallation around this city, which the Re-
publicans had been a whole year in constructing, and the remains of
which still excite the admiration of travellers, were of immense extent
and garrisoned by thirty thousand men. The Imperialists advanced to
the assault in three columns, and the Republicans were so taken by sur-
prise, that they abandoned the rirst line almost without firing a shot. The
panic occasioned to the remainder of the French army by this event was
such, that the Austrians carried the entire works by storm, and the Repub-
licans fled in every direction. This brilliant achievement was followed
by a series of successes on the part of the Austrians, under Clairfait and
Wurmser, which ended in their driving the French from all their positions
and recapturing Manheim. A suspension of arms during the winter was
then agreed on, and both parties retired into winter-quarters.
This year was distinguished by the unfortunate descent of the English
and the Royalist emigrants on the coast of France. The obstacles to the
landing of the troops had been effectually removed by the naval engage-
ment off L'Orient between a British fleet of fourteen ships of the line and
eight frigates, under Lord Bridport, and a French fleet of twelve ships of
the line and thirteen frigates, in which the latter were defeated with a
loss of three ships of the line. The invading army, amounting to about
ten thousand men, landed in Quiberon Bay on the 27th of June and made
themselves masters of the fort of Penthievre. Their arrival, together
1795.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 73
with their success in capturing this fort, was the signal for all the Roy-
alists to rise in the west, and the Chouan bands crowded in great numbers
to the camp of the invaders. The Republican forces, however, were on
the alert, and Hoche, with a considerable body of disciplined troops,
advanced to Quiberon. He attacked the Royalist forces on the 7th of
July, drove them from their intrenchments, and hemmed them in on the
narrow peninsula where they had first landed. The misery of the men,
cooped up in a corner of land without tents or lodgings, soon became
extieme ; and a body of Chouans from the interior, in connection witji
Count Vauban and three thousand men under his command, planned an
attack against the rear of the Republicans, in the hope of relieving the
blockade : while the besieged army sallied from their camp to take the
enemy in front. The latter attempt was made ; but the troops in the rear
did not come up, and the emigrants therefore drew on themselves the
whole Republican strength. The Republicans prevailed in the battle,
drove the invaders under the guns of the fort, -and would have entered it
with the fugitives, had they not been arrested by the fire of some English
cruisers in the harbor. They followed up their success by a night attack
on the fort, which was devised and executed with great skill and bravery,
and was completely successful : the fort, and a large number of pris-
oners fell into their hands, a small part only of the whole invading
force having been able to escape to the British ships.
Tallien, whom the Convention had sent down to Quiberon Bay as
commissioner of the government, made an atrocious use of this victory,
and stained, with ineffaceable disgrace, the glory he had won in his tri-
umph over Robespierre. In defiance of the verbal capitulation entered
into between the French general and the emigrant prisoners when the
latter surrendered, he caused them to be closely confined, and by his
personal influence with the Convention procured an order for their sum-
mary execution. Seven hundred and eleven of them, among whom were
the members of the noblest families in France, were accordingly put to
death in cold blood.
The French marine was so broken by various disasters in the Medi-
terranean and at L'Orient, that nothing more of consequence took place
at sea for the remainder of the year: though, by means of predatory
expeditions against the commerce of Great Britain, they inflicted many
losses on the English merchants. The English availed themselves of
their maritime supremacy to make themselves masters of the Cape of
Good Hope, which surrendered to Sir James Craig, on the 16th of Sep-
tember.
CHAPTER XI.
CAMPAIGNS OF 1796.
EARLY in March, 1796, Napoleon Bonaparte laid before the Conven-
tion a plan for a campaign in Italy, which was so remarkable for its
originality that it attracted the especial notice of Carnot, then minister at
war. About the same time the youthful officer was married to Jose-
phine, widow of Alexander Beauharnois, a general of the French army,
who had been guillotined during the Reign of Terror. The genius
developed in Napoleon's plan of the campaign, together with the obliga-
tion conferred by him on the Convention in defending them against the
last insurrection of the National Guard and the Jeunesse Doree, decided
the vote of that body in his favor, and he was invested with the command
of the army in Italy.
He found the troops in a miserable condition. The number of men
was about forty-two thousand, and the artillery amounted to sixty pieces.
The cavalry were almost without horses, the soldiers of all ranks were
in great want of tents and magazines, and they had for a long time sub-
sisted on half rations, collected by themselves in marauding expeditions.
But, considered with reference to their military qualities, this army was
the most efficient in the service of the Republic. Its soldiers had seen a
good share of service, were inured to hardships and privations, and among
its officers were to be found the names of Massena, Augereau, Serrurier
and Berthier.
On the other hand, the allies had more than fifty thousand men in good
condition, well supplied, and having two hundred pieces of artillery, while
the Sardinian army, of twenty-four thousand men, guarded the avenues of
Dauphiny and Savoy. Their forces were thus distributed : Beaulieu, a
veteran of seventy-five, with thirty thousand Austrians and one hundred
and fifty pieces of cannon, was on the extreme right of the French, and
in communication with the English fleet ; and Colli, with twenty thousand
men and sixty guns, was in a line with him to the north, covering Ceva
and Corri. Generally speaking, the French occupied the crest of the
mountains, while the allies were stationed in the valleys leading to the
plains of Italy.
Napoleon arrived at Nice on the 27th of March, and having ascer-
tained the relative position of the troops, resolved to penetrate into Pied-
mont by the Col de Cadibone, the lowest part of the ridge that divides
France from Italy ; and, by pressing his columns on the line of communi-
cation, separate .he Austrian and Piedmontese armies from each other.
At the same time, Beaulieu was assuming the offensive and directing his
columns toward his own left at Genoa. Leaving his righkwing at Dego,
he pushed his centre, under D'Argenteau, to the ridge of Montenotte, and
himself advanced with the left along the sea-coast. The two armies
came into contact at Montenotte, and the battle that ensued became cele-
brated, as being the first one in which Napoleon was ever engaged as
general -in-chief. The Imperialists, ten thousand strong, first encountered
a body of only twelve hundred French, under Colonel Rampon, whom
1796.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 75
they speedily drove back to the old redoubt of Monte Legino; but the
French colonel, perceiving the vital importance of this fort, which if lost
would expose the whole army to being divided, repulsed the impetuous
assaults of the Austrians, and made good his stand until nightfall. Du-
ring the night, Napoleon, with the divisions of Massena and Serrurie?
moved up to the heights in the rear of Montenotte, and in the morning the
Austrians found themselves surrounded on all sides. They resisted for
a time the French attacks, but were at length completely routed, with a
'loss of five pieces of cannon, two thousand prisoners, and more than a
thousand killed and wounded. This victory opened the plains of Pied-
mont to the French, and completely separated the Austrian and Sar-
dinian armies.
Napoleon, occupying now a central position, having received reenforce-
ments of troops, and improved, by supplies and victory, the condition and
spirits of his men, resolved to attack both allied armies at the same time.
A series of actions immediately followed, each small in itself, but import-
ant as a part of the general result, which by regular progression increased
the conquests of Napoleon, and drove back his antagonists from their
positions, until the French army, descending from the sterile summits of
the Alps, found themselves, though still among the lesser mountains, in
communication with the rich and fertile plains of Italy. The soldiers,
animated with success, speedily recovered from their fatigues, the strag-
glers rejoined their colors, and bands of conscripts from the depots pressed
forward to share the glories and the spoils of the Italian army ; so that,
despite their losses, the Republicans were as strong as at the commence-
ment of the campaign : while the allies, besides having been driven from
their Alpine barriers, were weakened by the loss of more than twelve
thousand men and forty pieces of cannon.
The court of Turin was in the utmost consternation at the advance of
the French. The ministers of Austria and England urged the king to
imitate the example of his ancestors, and abandon his capital, leaving the
fortresses of Tortona, Alexandria and Valentia in the hands of the Aus-
trians, to give Beaulieu a firm footing on the Po. But the arguments of
the Cardinal Costa overruled this advice, and persuaded the king to unite
himself with France. Napoleon, on receiving the advances of the Sar-
dinian government to this effect, granted an armistice, which was fol-
lowed by a treaty of peace, wherein the king of Sardinia ceded to the
Republic, Savoy, Nice, and the whole possessions of Piedmont west of the
highest ridge of the Alps, including the fortresses of Coni, Ceva and Alex-
andria, and granted a free passage through his dominions to the French
troops.
Having secured his rear by this advantageous treaty, Napoleon lost no
time in pursuing the discomfited remains of Beaulieu's army, which had
retired behind the Po, with the intention of covering the Milanese terri-
tory. He had inserted and given publicity to a clause in the treaty with
the king of Sardinia, granting him permission to cross the Po at Valentia,
and thereby deceived the Austrians as to the place where he really in-
tended to effect the passage. The attention of Beaulieu having been by
this artifice drawn to Valentia, the French forces were rapidly moved to
Placentia, and crossed the river in boats on the 7th of May. Napoleon
arrived two days afterward with the bulk of his forces, and established a
bridge. Thus, one great obstacle to the conquest of Lombardy was
9*
76 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XI.
already removed. Beaulieu was at Pavia, busily engaged in erecting
fortifications, when he heard of the passage at Placentia. He imme-
diately moved forward with his advanced guard to Tombio, but the French
drove him back with loss.
The French troops having now entered the states of Parma, the Grand-
duke of those domains, possessing no military resources, was forced to
make peace on such terms as the victor chose to grant. The spoliation
consisted in part, of a contribution in money, sixteen hundred horses, and
a large supply of corn and provisions; but on this occasion Napoleon
commenced another kind of military plunder, unparalleled in modern
warfare, that of exacting from the vanquished their most precious works
of art. Parma was compelled to surrender twenty of its principal paint-
ings, among which was the celebrated St. Jerome, by Corregio.
On the 10th of May, Napoleon marched toward Milan, but the Adda
lay in his way, and it was necessary to cross that stream at the bridge of
Lodi, which was held by twelve thousand Austrian infantry and four
thousand cavalry. Napoleon arrived at Lodi at the head of the grena-
diers of D'Allemagne, on which the Austrians withdrew from the town,
crossed the river, and posted their infantry with twenty pieces of cannon,
at the farther extremity of the bridge, to defend the passage. To attempt
to cross this narrow defile which was thus swept with a constant storm of
grape shot, seemed little short of madness ; yet, such was the enthusiasm
of the French grenadiers, led on by their dauntless general, they rushed
forward with an impetuosity that nothing could resist, carried the Aus-
trian guns, and established themselves on the other side of the river.
After this disaster, Beaulieu retired behind the Mincio, leaving Milan
to its fate, where Napoleon made a triumphant entry on the 15th of May.
The citizens received him as a deliverer; from every part of Italy the
young and ardent flocked to Milan to welcome him. A succession of
balls and festivities gave token of the universal joy ; but the illusion was
of short duration. Italy was destined soon to experience the bitter fate
of every people who look to foreign aid for their deliverance. In the
midst of the general joy, a requisition of twenty millions of francs struck
the Milanese with astonishment, and wounded them in their tenderest
part — their domestic and economical arrangements. Great requisitions
of horses and provisions were at the same, time made in all the Milanese
territory. Nor did the Duke of Modena escape more easily: he was
compelled to purchase peace at the expense of ten millions of francs and
twenty paintings from his gallery. Thus, liberated Italy was treated with
greater severity than usually falls to the lot of a conquered state. The
rage for republicanism and the work of revolution went on, nevertheless :
within ten days from the occupation of Milan, national guards, in the
Republican interest, were organized all over Lombardy, revolutionary
authorities were everywhere established, and the country rendered sub-
servient to the military power of France. These changes and exactions
were not, however, enforced with the unanimous approval of the people
of Lombardy. The thinking part of the community abhorred them from
the first, and all soon began to perceive, that in welcoming the French,
they had bowed to a heavier yoke than the one they " formerly bore.
Roused to indignation by such treatment, an insurrection was organized
over the whole 6f that beautiful district, and it first broke out at Pavia,
wnere the people rose against the garrison, forced it to capitulate, and
1796.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 77
shut their gates against the French troops. Napoleon hurried to the scene
of tumult with a sufficient force, made his way into the town by assault,
ordered the magistrates and leaders of the town to be shot, delivered the
city up to plunder, and cut down great numbers of the people in the
streets. This terrible example crushed the insurrection, indeed; but as a
merciless and unwarrantable massacre, it has left a blot on the character
of Napoleon.
The French army now continued its march, and on the 28th of May,
entered the city of Brescia, situated on the neutral territory of Venice.
Its arrival threw the Venetian Senate into the greatest perplexity, as it
compelled them to take part with Austria or France, and they knew
not which to choose. It was evident, from the experience of Lombardy,
that to side with France was to embrace their own ruin : and to defy tha4
power with its armies at her gates, was equally fatal. They therefore
adopted the most timid course, which in presence of danger is usually th?
most perilous : they made no warlike preparations, and sent commis-
sioners to the French general to deprecate his hostility. The consequence
was what might have been anticipated, between such parties in such a
relation; the conquering general levied contributions on the Venetian
territories, and took immediate possession of two important fortresses —
Porto Legano and Verona.
Having thus gained the command of the Adige, Napoleon made prepa-
rations for investing Mantua, the most important fortress in Italy. Serru-
rier commenced the blockade on the 14th of June, with ten thousand
men; and as the siege would necessarily occupy a considerable time,
Bonaparte had leisure to deliberate on his ulterior measures. He learned
that Wurmser had been detached from the army of the Upper Rhine with
thirty thousand men, to reenforce the Austrian army in Italy, and would
arrive at Verona about the middle of July. Believing that, in the interim,
he would have time to subdue the central states of Italy and thus secure
his rear from molestation, Napoleon set out with the division of Augereau
to cross the Appenines. His expedition was little else than a march of
triumph. He first entered Modena, where he was received with every
demonstration of joy; proceeded thence to Bologna, where the same
scenes were enacted, and took possession, on his' road thither, of the Fort
of Urbino with its sixty pieces of cannon. He next marched to Ferrara,
and took its arsenal with one hundred and fourteen pieces of artillery;
and in the mean time, General Vaubois crossed the Appenines with another
division, and directed his steps toward Rome. At the intelligence of his
approach, the council of the Vatican was thrown into the utmost alarm.
Azara, minister of Spain, was dispatched immediately with offers of
submission, and arrived at Bologna to lay the tiara at the feet of the
Republican general. The terms of the armistice were soon agreed on:
it was stipulated that Bologna and Ferrara should remain in possession
of the French ; that the Pope should pay twenty millions of francs, furnish
large contributions of stores and provisions, and give up a hundred of the
finest works of art to the French commissioners. After concluding this
important treat}'', Napoleon dispatched Murat to Leghorn, where, in open
violation of all the usages of war, he found and confiscated the effects
of English merchants to the value of twelve millions of francs. The
French commander-in-chief then returned to hasten forward the siege
of Mantua.
78 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XI.
Meanwhile. Wurmser was approaching at the head of sixty thousand
effective troops, which was twice the number that Napoleon, after deduct-
ing the fifteen thousand before Mantua, and ten thousand occupied in
maintaining his communications, could bring into the field to oppose him.
The French troops were thus divided : Sauret, with four thousand five
hundred was posted at Salo: Massena, with fifteen thousand, occupied
Corona and the plateau of Rivoli ; Despinois held five thousand in the
environs of Verona ; and Augereau commanded a reserve of eight thousand
at Legnago. Napoleon, with two thousand cavalry, took post at Castel-
nuovo, to be equally near any of the points requiring his assistance.
On the 29th of July, the Imperialists attacked the French lines at all
points, and everywhere with success. Massena was driven from his
intrenchments at Corona, retired to Rivoli, and was glad to escape to
Castelnuovo: at the same time, the Austrians appeared in force before
Verona and on the other side of the Lake of Guarda Lusignan, carried
the town of Sabo, and thus cut off the principal line of retreat toward
France.
In this extremity, Napoleon, for the first time during the campaign,
called a council of war. He heard the opinions of his officers, all oi
whom except, Augereau recommended a retreat behind the Po, and in the
course of the night formed his own resolution. He ordered the siege of
Mantua to be raised, united the troops investing that place to all the other
divisions excepting Massena's, and advanced by forced marches to Lonato,
where he encountered and defeated Quasdonovich ; who, astonished at
finding himself opposed by an army where he expected to see only a
rear-guard, fell back toward the mountains, to await intelligence of the
main body under Wurmser.
That brave commander, having dislodged Massena from his position,
advanced to Mantua, where he made a triumphal entry on the 1st of
August. But on the very night of his arrival, he learned that Quasdon-
ovich had been checked and Brescia taken. He immediately advanced
his columns across the Mincio and moved upon Castiglione, while Quas-
donovich resumed the offensive and retook Salo. Napoleon was now,
with an inferior force, Between the two armies: but his energies rose
with the emergency. On the 3rd of August, he advanced with twenty-
five thousand men upon Lonato, carried it by a rapid assault, and while
the Imperialists were extending themselves toward Salo to open a com-
munication with Quasdonovich, made a desperate charge on their centre
and divided their army : one of the Austrian divisions effected its retreat
to the Mincio, but the other, that was moving toward Salo, was totally
routed. Meantime, Augereau had been contending with superior numbers
at Castiglione, and with difficulty maintained his ground ; but now Napo-
leon arrived with reinforcements and the Austrians gave way, retreating
toward Mantua, until Wurmser, with fresh troops, came in person to theii
relief.
As the Austrian veteran was still bent on bringing the contest to a
close in a pitched battle, both parties were occupied on the ensuing day
in collecting and organizing their forces. Napoleon had arrived at Lonato
for that purpose, and after dispatching thence some large bodies of troops,
he remained for the moment with only twelve hundred men at head-
quarters. While thus situated, he was suddenly summoned to surrender
by the commander of four thousard Austrians ; who, in the intricate coun-
1796.) HISTORY OF EUROPE. 79
termarchings of the day, had unexpectedly come up. Napoleon caused
his numerous staff to mount on horseback, and having ordered the officer
who bore the flag of truce to be brought before him, directed the bandage
to be taken from his eyes, and told the astonished Austrian that he was in
the midst of the French army, and in presence of its general-in-chief;
and that, unless the Austrian troops laid down their arms, they should be
all put to the sword. The officer, deceived by the splendid conVge,
returned to his division and recommended them to surrender, which was
accordingly done on the spot. When they entered the town, they had
the mortification to discover that they jiad not only capitulated to one-third
their own number, but had also missed an opportunity of making prisoner
the commander-in-chief of the French army.
On the following day, August 5th, the battle took place at Medola and
ended in the defeat of the Austrians, who fell back behind the Mincio;
the French were disabled, by excessive fatigue, from pursuing them.
Wurmser then leisurely retreated to his former station at Roveredo and in
the fastnesses of the Tyrol. He had, in his brief expedition, victualled
Mantua and supplied it with a fresh garrison ; but he had lost nearly
twenty thousand men and sixty pieces of cannon, and the spirit of his
soldiers was completely broken by fatigue and disaster. Napoleon, on
the retreat of the Austrians, resumed the blockade of Mantua.
After a repose of three weeks, during which the armies on both sides
received considerable reinforcements, the war began anew. The Aulic
Council of Vienna, untaught by former disasters of the imprudence of
forming plans at a distance for the regulation of their armies, again
framed and transmitted to Wurmser orders for expelling the French
from the line of the Adige, directing him, as before, to divide his forces
into two columns, and thus repeating the error that proved so fatal to his
previous expedition. Napoleon, who occupied a central position, equi-
distant from both divisions, moved first to Serravale on the Adige against
Davidowich, whom he forced back into Roveredo in confusion. Davido-
wich rallied his broken troops in the defile of Galliano, but he was again
routed with great loss, driven toward Trent, and on the following day,
September 5th, Napoleon entered that city while the remains of Davido-
wich's corps retreated behind the Lavis.
Wurmser, on receiving intelligence of this defeat, resolved to advance
<>y the Val Sugana, sieze Verona, and raise the siege of Mantua. But
Napoleon, who, by treachery at the Austrian head-quarters, was during
this whole campaign kept informed of his adversary's plans, and was
therefore enabled always to take him at advantage, anticipated the move-
ment; and, by a forced march, placed himself in a position to surprise
the Austrian rear-guard, which he utterly routed. At the same time,
\he divisions of Massena and Augereau surprised the main body under
Wurmser, near Bassano, where the Austrians, discouraged by repeated
defeats, made but a feeble resistance. They were broken at all points,
and fled into Bassano with a loss of four thousand prisoneis, thirty pieces
of cannon, and almost all their baggage and ammunition. Wurmser now
pushed on with sixteen thousand men toward Mantua, which he reached
without further loss: but a number of smaller actions ensued with the
broken and scattered detachments of the Austrians, in all of which the
French prevailed. . The Austrian army had taken the field, but one
month before, with fifty thousand men; they were now reduced to thirty
80 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XI.
thousand, of whom sixteen thousand, with Wurmser, were shut up in
Mantua, where they were of no real service, as the garrison was suffi-
cient without them and was beginning to suffer for want of provisions.
The French army had, however, lost during the same time, fifteen thou-
sand men in killed, wounded and prisoners.
Still, the Austrian government did not relax their efforts, and by the
first of November had raised their Italian armies to fifty thousand men.
Their first movement was against Massena at Bassano, where, under
General Alvinzi, they were partially defeated ; but the French under
Vaubois, having on the same day attacked the Austrian position on the
Lavis, were totally defeated by Davidowich and driven to Galliano with a
loss of four thousand men. Napoleon hastened in person to repair this
disaster, and attacked the Austrians on the heights of Caldiero ; but he
was bravely repulsed by the Imperialists, and retreated in the night with
a loss of more than three thousand men, yielding the victory in a pitched
battle to the Austrians for the first time in the campaign.
Having thus found that the Austrian position at Caldiero was impreg-
nable in front, Napoleon resolved to assail it in flank, and accordingly
made a rapid night march by the village of Arcola with his whole force.
A desperate action ensued at this place which continued through two
whole days, and in the end both parties withdrew from the field, leaving
the victory undecided. But on the third day, November 17th, the battle
was renewed with a more decisive result, and the Austrians were forced
to give way. They retreated, however, in good order, and sustained no
further loss than what occurred in the action.
The result of the battle of Arcola was by no means so decisive as the
previous victories of the French : the loss on both sides had been nearly
equal, no important position was gained, nor were the spirits of the
defeated soldiers broken. Nearly two months of inaction followed,
which the commanders of both armies occupied in reorganizing their
forces : and in the mean time, Mantua was reduced to the last extremity
from famine ; it therefore became indispensable for the Austrians to
adopt some energetic measure for its relief. Accordingly,^! the 12th
of January, 1797, Alvinzi advanced at the head of thirty-five thousand
men, attacked the French posts on the Montebaldo,' and forced them back
to the plateau of Rivoli : here, they were reenforced by the whole French
centre under Napoleon, and again attacked on the 14th. The action was
contested with great bravery on both sides, but at length the Austrians
prevailed on all points, and were preparing for a final charge that must
have ended in the total overthrow of Jhe Republican troops, when Napo-
leon, with great presence of mind, sent a flag of truce to Alvinzi. proposing
a suspension of arms for half an hour, as he had some proposal to make
in consequence of the arrival of a courier from Paris. Alvinzi was simple
enough to fall into the snare, granted the suspension, and Napoleon pained
time to rally his troops. This changed the fate of the day. The French
recovered from their confusion, repelled every subsequent attack, and
finally repulsed the Austrians with immense loss in prisoners and artil-
lery. This victory was followed up by an attack on Provera's division
near fort St. George, on the 16th of January, where the Austrians were
again defeated and lost six thousand prisoners.
Mantua, being now deprived of its last hope of relief, was forced to
capitulate. Wurmser. with all his staff, and five hundred men, was
1797.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 81
allowed to return to Austria ; the remainder of the garrison, eighteen
thousand strong, surrendered their arms, with fifty standards and more
than five hundred pieces of artillery.
Napoleon now directed his arms against Rome ; for, during the strife
on the Adige, the pope had not only refused to ratify the treaty of Bo«
logna, but had openly engaged in hostile measures against the French.
The soldiers who had vanquished the strength of Austria were not long
in crushing the feeble forces of the Church. The pope again submitted,
and peace was concluded at Tolentino on the 19th of February, on terms
far more humiliating to the Holy See thaji the conditions of the previous
treaty.
Such was the Italian campaign of 1796. On no former occasion in the
history of the world, had so great success been achieved in so short a
time, or so mighty a power been vanquished by forces so inconsiderable.
An army not exceeding fifty thousand men at any one time, though con-
stant reinforcements kept it at nearly that strength, had not only broken
through the barriers of the Alps, subdued Piedmont and Lombardy and
humbled the whole of the Italian States, but defeated and almost destroyed
four powerful armies of Austrians, and concluded by a capture of the
most important fortress in Italy.
The civil war in La Vendee and Brittany, which had so long disturbed
the domestic government of France, was brought to a conclusion in the
early part of the same year. General Hoche, at the head of one hundred
thousand men, enveloped the disaffected provinces, and by a course
marked both with vigor and humanity, succeeded in suppressing all the
revolts, taking possession of the towns, and finally reconciling the people
to the Republican sway. Charette and Stofflet, the brave and indomi-
table leaders of the Chouan bands, were by great exertions made prisoners,
and both perished under the sentence of military commissions — an igno-
minious and cruel fate for men of such distinguished qualities.
The condition of England, at the close of the year 1795 and in the
beginning of 1796, was, in respect of public opinion, nearly as much
divided as France had been during the Revolution. The continued dis-
asters of the war, the pressure of new and increasing taxation, the appa-
rent hopelessness of prolonging the struggle with a military power which
all the armies of Europe had been unable to subdue, not only gave new
strength and vigor to the Whig party who had opposed hostilities from the
first, but induced many original opponents of the revolutionary mania to
hesitate about a further continuance of the contest. So violent, indeed,
had party spirit become, and so completely had it usurped the place of
patriotism and reason, that many of the popular leaders really began to
wish for the triumph of their enemies : for they saw no hope of carrying
through a Parliamentary reform, nor of acquiring any addition u> the
democratic power, unless, by the success of the French, the present
ministry were forced to retire from the government.
These ill-humors at length broke out into open violence. On one
occasion, as the king was going to Parliament, the royal carriage was
surrounded by an immense crowd of turbulent people, who loudly de-
manded peace and the dismissal of Mr. Pitt. One of the windows was
broken by a stone, or a bullet from an air-gun ; and on his majesty's
return, he was again assailed and narrowly escaped the fury of the popu-
lace. These outrages, however, tended only to strengthen the govern-
82 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. Xf.
ment, by clearly convincing all reasonable men, into what excesses the
populace would speedily run, if they were not restrained by a firm hand,
and also how narrow a line divided England from the horrors of the
French Revolution.
The question on the continuance of the war was warmly debated in
Parliament, but was at length carried, and the measure provided for by
liberal supplies. Another measure excited a violent controversy, namely,
a bill to provide for the additional security of the king's person and the
prevention of seditious meetings throughout the country. This bill passed
the House of Commons by the decisive vote of two hundred and fourteen
to forty-two, and the House of Lords by sixty-six to seven. The opposi-
tion were so exasperated by the success of the ministers on this occasion^
that Mr. Fox and a large part of the minority withdrew, for a considerable
time, from the house.
Previous to the opening of the campaign, the British government, in
order to bring the French Directory to the test, authorized their minister,
Mr. Wickham, to make some advances on the subject of a general peace ;
but the Directory replied, that they would treat only on condition of
retaining the Low Countries; a condition to which neither England nor
Austria could submit. As all hope of peace was thus at an end, the
allied powers made great preparations for prosecuting the war: and the
Archduke Charles was appointed to the command of the armies on the
Rhine.
The forces of the contending parties here were not greatly dissimilai
in infantry, but in cavalry, the Imperialists were greatly superior to their
antagonists. On the Upper Rhine, Moreau commanded seventy-one
thousand infantry and six thousand five hundred cavalry; while Wurm-
ser, wlio was opposed to him, had sixty-two thousand foot and twenty-two
thousand horse: but, before the campaign was far advanced, thirty thou-
sand men, as has already been related, were directed under Wurrnser to
reen force the army of Italy. On the Lower Rhine, the Archduke com-
manded seventy-one thousand infantry and twenty-one thousand cavalry;
while the French, under Jourdan, amounted to sixty-three thousand
infantry and eleven thousand cavalry. Thus, the Austrians were, pre-
vious to the detachment of Wurmser for Italy, superior in numbers to the
French ; but the latter had the important advantage of holding much the
greater number of fortresses on the line.
The campaign was opened by Kleber. He crossed the river at Dussel-
dorf, and, being joined by Ney and Soult, defeated the advanced posts of
the Austrians, who retreated with the loss of fifteen hundred prisoners
and twelve pieces of cannon. The Archduke moved immediately to the
assistance of the discomfited corps, with forty-five thousand infantry and
eighteen thousand cavalry : on which Jourdan, in turn, marched to sup-
port Kleber, and the two main armies were nearly brought into contact,
when the French, finding themselves outnumbered and outmanoeuvred,
wore forced to retreat. Moreau, who commanded the army on the Upper
Rhine, including the divisions of Desaix and St. Cyr, taking advantage
of the absence of the Archduke, formed a project for crossing the Rhine
at Strasburg, and seizing the fortress of Kehl, which was negligently
guarded on the opposite shore. The expedition was planned with great
dispatch and secrecy, and on the night of the 24th of June, the French
army moved silently across the river, advanced to the intrenchmrints of)
1796.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 83
Kehl, and carried them at the point of the bayonet. From the magnitude
of this undertaking and the skill with which it was carried out, it ranks
as one of the most distinguished exploits of that remarkable period.
Having thus gained a permanent footing on the right bank of the Rhine.
Moreau, toward the end of June, advanced to the foot of the mountains
of the Black Forest at the head of seventy-one thousand men. This cnle-'
brated chain of mountains is a mass of rocky hills separating the valley
of the Rhine from that of the Neckar. The French general immediately
attacked a body of ten thousand Swabian troops at Renchen, occupying
the entrance of the defiles leading through the mountains: the Swabians
gave way with considerable loss and retreated before Moreau, who now
had broken through the centre of the Austrian line, and threatened their
whole communications. On receiving this alarming intelligence, the
Archduke hastened by forced marches to arrest the progress of the in-
vaders, and overtook them on the banks of the Murg, when a partial action
ensued which, though indecisive, was unfavorable to the Austrians. After
this slight repulse, the Archduke advanced the Saxons on his left toward
the French right in the mountains and pushed his centre to Malsch, where
Moreau attacked him on the 9th of July : a general action took place, but
still without important results, the Austrians merely retaining possession of
the centre of the field, while their left was driven back. The Archduke
now had an opportunity to strike a decisive blow by pressing forward to
the base of Moreau's position, crushing Desaix and surrounding St. Cyr
in the mountains ; but by so doing he would, at the same time, have ex-
posed the Austrian dominions to Moreau's advance. He chose the more
prudent course, and withdrew in the evening to Pforzheim, preparatory ta
marching by the Neckar into the Bavarian plains.
On the 14th of July, the Imperialists broke up from Pforzheim and
retired slowly and in good order toward Stutgard and the right bank of
the Neckar. By this means, they drew nearer the army of Wartensleben,
and gained a central and interior line of communication. On the 25th,
the Austrian forces were concentrated on the right bank of the Neckar,
between Cronstadt and Esslingen, where Moreau attacked them on the
following morning with his whole centre and left wing, but no result fol-
lowed the action, as both parties remained on the field. The Archduke
continued his retrograde movement until he reached Neresheim, where,
having joined his left wing, which had retired through the Black Forest,
he attacked the position of Moreau, defeated his right wing, and would
have gained an important victory, had all his troops come up in time to
follow the retreating masses of the French.
Jourdan, after having remained a few days at Frankfort, and levied a
heavy contribution on that flourishing city, marched on the great road to
Wurtzburg, to cooperate with Moreau in an advance into the Empire.
Wartensleben retired at his approach, and Wurtzburg fell into the hands
of the French. Wartensleben slowly continued his retreat until the 18th
of August, when he crossed the Naab, where he awaited a junction with
the Archduke. That commander arrived on the 20th, and being now
superior in force to the pursuing army of Jourdan, he resumed the offen-
sive, attacking the French advanced guard under Bernadotte, on the 22nd,
whom he drove back with loss into the mountains. He then dispatched
Hotze with a sufficient force to continue the pursuit of Bernadotte, and
himself turned upon Jourdan, at Amberg, on the 22nd, The French made
10
84 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XI.
a feeble resistance, and, but for the firmness of Ney, who checked the
pursuit of the Austrians, would have experienced a terrible defeat. Jour-
dan's position was now extremely critical ; but after a painful retreat of
six days, during which Ney continued to protect his rear, he extricated
himself from the mountains and reached Schweinfurt on the Maine.
Hotze passed that river on the 1st of September and retook Wurtzburg,
where he was joined by the Archduke on the 2nd. Jourdan, deeming it
necessary to gain a respite from the Austrian pursuit by a general attack,
and being ignorant of the Archduke's arrival, assaulted the Austrian lines
on the 3rd ; but he was so severely handled, that he was glad to escape
into the forest of Gramchatz without being entirely broken by the imperial
cavalry. The French continued their retreat toward Lahn, which they
reached on the 9th in a disorganized state, after suffering immense loss
in prisoners and artillery- At Lahn they were joined by the blockading
force from Mayence, fifteen thousand strong, and by ten thousand men
from the army of the north ; so that their numbers were again equal to
their pursuers. But the Archduke attacked them at Lalm and afterward
at Altenkirchen, defeating them in both instances. The French army
was in such a disordered condition, that they retreated to Bonn and
Neuweid, and remained in total inactivity for the remainder of the cam-
paign.
Moreau was now in a dangerous situation, having advanced into the
heart of Bavaria, while the Archduke was thus driving Jourdan to ex-
tremity : the defiles of the Black Forest were in his rear, he was distant
two hundred miles from the Rhine, threatened by Latour with forty thou-
sand men on one flank, and by the Archduke and Nawendorf with twenty-
five thousand on the other. He was, nevertheless, at the head of a superb
army of seventy thousand men, and no detached columns could prevent
his retreat. He immediately commenced a retrograde movement, but in
perfect order ; and when he approached the defiles of the Black Forest,
he encountered Latour at Biberach, and totally defeated him. He then
entered the Black Forest, and by a well-concerted and deliberate march,
safely accomplished a retreat which has ever since been regarded as
equivalent to a victory.
The Archduke pursued the retreating army by a different line of march,
and came up with Moreau at Emmendingen, where a general action took
place, in which the French were routed with a loss of two thousand men.
The Imperialists followed up this success, intending to renew the combat
on the following day ; but Moreau retreated during the night to Schlien-
gen, a strong position, where he was determined to make a stand and await
the attack of the Austrians. Here, again, the Archduke was successful ;
he drove the Republicans from their intrenchments with great loss, and
was prevented from totally overthrowing them only by the broken char-
acter of the ground over which they retreated, where his cavalry could
not act efficiently,
Moreau, having during the night reached the borders of the Rhine,
crossed that river on the day following without molestation, and proposed
an armistice, which the Austrians declined. He then marched into Kehl,
to which place the Archduke promptly laid siege on the 9th of October.
The defence was long and obstinate ; but the perseverance and bravery
of the victorious Austrians, proved at last an overmatch for the garrison :
after a series of attacks and bombardments, the fortress was, on the 9th
1796.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 85
of January, 1797, carried by assault. Henningen was next invested, and
evacuated by capitulation on the 31st of the same month.
This event terminated the campaign of 1796 in Germany : a campaign
the most remarkable that had yet occurred, excepting that of Na'poleon
in Italy.
In August of this year, the treaty between France and Spain, already
referred to, was brought to a conclusion. By this treaty, the two powers
mutually guaranteed to each other their dominions, both in the Old and
New World, and engaged to assist each other in case of attack, with
twenty-four thousand land troops, thirty ships of the line, and six frigates.
This was followed, in the beginning of October, by a formal declaration
of war on the part of Spain against Great Britain ; so that England, who
had commenced the war with so many confederates, now saw herself not
only deprived of her maritime allies, but the whole coast of Europe, from
Texel to Gibraltar, was arrayed in fierce hostility against her. Impressed
with the danger of these concurrent circumstances, and desirous, also, of
silencing the clamor of the party who denounced the war as unnecessary
and impolitic, Mr. Pitt, at the close of this year, renewed his overtures for
a general peace. But the liberal terms proposed by Great Britain were
haughtily rejected, and the negotiations brought to a summary conclusion
on the 17th of December.
Ireland, about this period, was in an alarming condition. The success-
ful issue of the French Revolution, had stimulated a host of reckless
adventurers to project a similar revolt against the authority of England,
and more than two hundred thousand men were engaged in a conspiracy
to overturn the established government. Overlooking the miseries and
horrors which the convulsions in France had occasioned, and, withoul
considering how an insular power was to maintain itself against the naval
force of England, the disaffected in Ireland rushed blindly into the project.
They were enrolled under generals, colonels, and other officers in all the
counties, arms were secretly provided, and nothing was wanting but the
arrival of the French troops. These preparations, too, were made with
such secrecy, that the British government had little warning of their dan-
ger ; while the French Directory, accurately informed of the whole, were
prepared to turn it to the best account. Hoche, at the head of a hundred
thousand men, on the shores of La Vendee and Brittany, was ready to
make the descent ; and an expedition was fitted out at Brest, consisting of
fifteen ships of the line, to carry each six hundred soldiers, twelve frigates
and six corvettes, to carry each two hundred and fifty, and transports and
other vessels to carry, in all, twenty-five thousand. This armament was
to be joined by seven ships of the line from Rochefort.
To distract the attention of Great Britain, the most contradictory accounts
were circulated as to the object of this expedition ; sometimes, it was in-
tended for the West Indies ; at other times, for Portugal ; but the British
government soon suspected where the blow was really to fall. Orders
were transmitted to Ireland to hold the militia in readiness ; a vigilant
watch was kept on the coast, and all the cattle and provisions ordered to
the interior counties, on the first appearance of the enemy. The expedi-
tion set sail on the 15th of December, but it encountered disasters from
the very moment of its leaving the harbor. A violent tempest arose, and,
although the mist which accompanied it enabled the French admiral to
elude the vigilance of the British squadron, one ship of the line struck on
86 HISTORYOFEUROPE. CIIAF. XII.
the rocks at Ushant, and went down, several others were much damaged,
and the fleet was entirely dispersed. On the 31st of December, Admiral
Bousset made his way back to Brest, where he was soon followed by the
scattered divisions of his fleet, after two ships of the line and three frigates
had been lost : one of the former, by the violence of the tempest, and the
others by the attacks of the British squadron.
The close of this year was marked by the death of the Empress Cathe-
ine, of Russia, and the accession of Paul to the throne. Few sovereigns
will occupy a more conspicuous place in the page of history, and few have
left in their conduct on the throne, a more exalted reputation, than the
Empress Catherine : yet her high qualities as a sovereign were counter-
balanced by the vices of her private life, and it might, perhaps, be said of
her, even more truly than of Elizabeth of England, that " if to-day she
was more than a man, to-morrow she would be less than a woman."
The end of the same ye"ar witnessed the resignation of the presidency
of the United States of America by General Washington, and his volun-
tary retirement into private life. Modern history has not another character
so spotless to commemorate. Invincible in resolution, firm in conduct,
incorruptible in integrity, he brought to the helm of a victorious Republic
the simplicity and innocence of rural life ; he was forced into greatness
by circumstances, rather than led into it by inclination ; and he prevailed
over his enemies rather by the wisdom of his designs, and the perseve-
rance of his character, than by any extraordinary genius in the art of
war. He was the first to recommend a return to pacific councils when
the independence of his country was secured, and he bequeathed to his
fellow-citizens, on leaving their government, an address to which no com-
position of uninspired wisdom can bear a comparison. He was a Crom-
well, without his ambition ; a Sylla, without his crimes ; and after having
raised his country to the rank of an independent State, he closed his career
by a voluntary relinquishment of the power which a grateful people had
bestowed.
CHAPTER XII.
CAMPAIGN OF 1797.
THE aspect of affairs in England had never been so clouded since the
commencement of the war, nor indeed during the whole of the 18th century,
as at the opening of the year 1797. The negotiations for peace had just
been unpropitiously terminated, and the national burdens were daily
increasing under the operations of a war which held out no promise of
success. Party spirit raged with uncommon violence in every quarter
of the kingdom ; insurrections prevailed in many districts of Ireland, dis-
content and suffering in all ; commercial embarrassment was rapidly
increasing, and the continued pressure on the Bank, threatened a total
dissolution of public credit. The consequence of this accumulation of
disasters was a rapid fall of public securities ; the three per cents sold as
low as -51, having fallen to that from -98, where they stood at the break,
ing out of the war.
1797.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. Q7
For a long period, the Bank had experienced a pressure for money,
owing partly to the demand for gold and silver, which resulted from the
distresses of commerce, and partly to the great drains on the specie of the
country, occasioned by the large loans made to the Imperial government.
As early as January, 1795, the influence of* these causes was so severely
felt, that the Bank directors informed the Chancellor of the Exchequer of
their wish, that he would so arrange his finances as not to depend on any
further assistance from them ; and during the whole of that and the follow-
ing year, the peril of continued advances for the Imperial loans, were
strongly and earnestly represented to the government. The pressure
arising from these causes was brought to a crisis at the close of 1796, by
a. run upon the country banks, which arose from the dread of invasion,
and the anxiety of every man to convert his paper into cash, in the troubled
times which seemed to be approaching. These banks, as the only means
of averting bankruptcy, applied from all quarters to the Bank of England ;
the panic extended to the metropolis ; and, such was the run upon that
institution, it was reduced to payment in sixpences, and stood on the verge
of insolvency, when an order in council was interposed for its relief, sus-
pending cash payments until the sense of Parliament could be taken on
the best means of restoring the circulation, and sustaining the public and
commercial credit of the country.
This measure of Mr. Pitt excited a vehement debate in the national
legislature, and all over the country ; but it was approved by both houses
of Parliament, and a bill passed, providing that the Bank of England
notes should be received as a legal tender by the collectors of taxes, and
have the effect of stopping the issue of arrest on mesne process, for pay-
ment of debt between man and man. The bill was limited in its operation
to the 24th of June ; but it was afterward renewed from time to time, and
in November, 1797, extended till the conclusion of a general peace.
Indeed, the obligation on the Bank to pay in specie was not imposed until
the act of Mr. Peel, in 1819. Such was the commencement of the paper
system in Great Britain, which ultimately produced such astonishing
effects ; which enabled the government, for so long a period, to carry on
so costly a war, and to maintain for years armaments greater than had
been raised by the Roman Empire, in the zenith of her power.
The supplies voted by Parliament for the year 1797, were on a scale
commensurate to the emergency. The land forces were raised to one
hundred and ninety-five thousand, of whom sixty-one thousand were in
the British Islands, and the remainder in the colonial dependencies of the
empire. The ships in commission were one hundred and twenty-four of
the line, eighteen of fifty guns, one hundred and eighty frigates, and one
hundred and eighty-four sloops. This great force, however, being scat-
tered over the whole globe, could not assemble on any one point a fleet
which, numerically, was equal to those that her allied antagonists could
bring against her. It was at this time that the famous mutiny in the feet
took place.
A feeling of discontent had for a long time prevailed in the navy, without
having attracted the serious attention of the government. It was in part
brought to a crisis by the insubordinate spirit of the times, but it had its
origin in a variety of grievances, which had grown up with the naval
system of England. The prevalence of these discontents was made
known to Lord Howe and the Lords of the Admiralty, by a variety of
8
98 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XII,
anonymous communications, but when inquiry was made of the captains
of the individual ships, they all denied the existence of any mutinous
disposition among the men. Meanwhile, however, a vast conspiracy,
unknown to them, was already organized ; and it was brought to maturity
on the return to port of the Channel fleet, in the beginning of April ; when,
on making the signal, on board the Queen Charlotte, to weigh anchor, the
crew, instead of obeying, gave three cheers, which were returned by
every vessel in the fleet, and immediately the red flag of mutiny was run
up to each mast head. The officers strove in vain to exert their authority ;
yet the mutineers, though refusing absolutely all obedience, resorted to no
overt act of violence and bloodshed. They drew up a remonstrance,
stating their grievances, and forwarded it in duplicate to the Admiralty
and the house of Commons. The Board of Admiralty was at once trans-
ferred to Portsmouth ; the demands of the seamen, having been found, for
the most part, equitable, were acceded to; and Lord Howe at length
persuaded the men to return to their duty, after promising them entire
amnesty for the past. Order being thus happily restored, the fleet, consist-
ing of twenty-one ships of the line, put to sea, and resumed the blockade
of the harbor of Brest.
Hardly was this commotion at an end, however, when a still more
serious mutiny broke out in Lord Duncan's squadron at the Nore, which
extended to every vessel in the fleet excepting his lordship's own line-of-
battle ship and two frigates. A man named Parker was at the head of
this mutiny, and the demands he made related in part to the distribution
of prize money, which had been overlooked by the other mutineers ; but
he went to such extravagant lengths in other respects, and couched his
demands in such a menacing strain, that the government could not pos-
sibly entertain his petitions. Fortunately for Great Britain and for tht
cause of freedom throughout the world, a monarch was on the throne
whose firmness no danger could shake, and a minister was at the helm
whose capacity was equal to any emergency. They denied the petition
peremptorily, and adopted the most energetic measures to sustain their
authority. All the buoys in the mouth of the Thames were removed ;
Sheerness, which was threatened by the insurgents, was garrisoned with
four thousand men ; red-hot balls were kept in constant readiness ; Til-
bury fort was armed with one hundred pieces of heavy cannon ; and a
chain of gun-boats was sunk to debar all access to the harbor. These
measures were nobly responded to by Parliament, almost every one of
the opposition following the lead of Mr. Sheridan, and throwing himself
into the breach with the ministry. An act was promptly passed by both
houses forbidding all communication with the sailors in mutiny, under
penalty of death, and imposing a like penalty on any one who should
attempt to seduce either soldiers or sailors from their allegiance. A nego-
tiation was then entered into by the Admiralty, which was protracted from
day to day, until by degrees the sailors became sensible of the desperate
character of their enterprise, and man by man, and crew by crew, with-
drew from their perilous compact, slipped the cables, one after another,
of their respective ships, and took refuge under the cannon of Sheerness;
until at length, on the 15th of June, twenty- four days after the mutiny
began, every vessel was placed under the control of the government.
Parker, the leader of the mutiny, and several of his more prominent
associates were executed ; but the greater part under sentence of death,
were nardoned bv royal proclamation.
1797.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 89
But, wna ever may have been the internal dissensions of the British
navy, its external operations were fraught with terror to its enemies.
Early in February, the Spanish fleet of twenty-seven ships of the line
and twelve frigates set sail for Brest, with a view of raising the blockade
of that harbor, forming a junction with the Dutch fleet, and sweeping the
British squadron from the Channel. Admiral Jarvis, who was stationed
off the coast of Portugal with fifteen ships of the line and six frigates,
immediately made sail in pursuit, and encountered the enemy off Cape
St. Vincent.
The British admiral pushed boldly through the centre of the hostile
fleet, doubled with his whole force on nine of the Spanish ships, and by
a vigorous cannonade drove them to leeward, so as to prevent their taking
any part in the engagement which followed. As soon as the Spanish
admiral saw the effect of this manoeuvre, which at a blow reduced the
number of his effective ships so nearly to an equality with the British
squadron, he wore around and endeavored to bring the remainder of his
fleet into communication with this repulsed detachment ; but Commodore
Nelson, who was in the sternmost ship of the British line, disregarded his
orders for the day, stood across the bows of the Spanish admiral's vessel,
and ran his own ship between two of the enemy's three-deckers — the
Santissima Trinidada, of one hundred and thirty-six guns, and the San
Josef, of one hundred and twelve. The former of these two soon struck to
Nelson's tremendous broadsides. Captains Collingwood and Trowbridge
immediately followed the example of Nelson, engaged, indifferently, one
or two at a time of the Spanish three-deckers, though their own vessels
were but seventy-fours, and soon gave the Spanish admiral abundant
occupation with the affairs of the main body of his fleet. The action
now became general, and was continued through the remainder of the
day, at the close of which the Spaniards retreated into Cadiz, leaving two
three-deckers and two seventy-fours in the hands of the British. Two
other ships had hauled down their colors in the action, but not being taken
possession of in season by their captors, they made good their escape with
the remainder of the fleet.
In the beginning of October, the Dutch fleet, taking advantage of the
absence of the British blockading squadron, which had been driven to
Yarmouth Roads by stress of weather, sailed from the Texel for Brest.
It consisted of fifteen ships of the line and eleven frigates under the com-
mand of De Winter. As soon as Admiral Duncan was apprised by his
cruisers that the Dutch fleet was at sea, he weighed anchor with all haste,
and neared the hostile squadron before it was out of sight of the shore of
Holland. Duncan's fleet comprised sixteen ships of the line and three
frigates. His first care was to place his ships in such a position as to
cut off the enemy from returning- to the Texel ; after which he bore down
upon them and found them drawn up in order of battle about nine miles
off the coast, between Camperdown and Egmont. He commenced the
attack by breaking the enemy's line and running between them and the
shore, which prevented the Dutch vessels from withdrawing into the shal-
lows out of reach of the British fire — for the Dutch ships were of lighter
draught than the English. The action was continued with great spirit
for some hours, yard-arm to yard-arm, and in the event twelve ships of
the line struck to the British fleet ; but, owing to the gale, some of them
were not secured in time and made their escape : and of (hose that were
00 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XII.
secured, two were retaken by their crews on the homeward passage, and
one was so disabled that she went to the bottom ; but eight line-of-battl*1
ships and two of fifty-six guns were brought safely into Yarmouth Roads.
These two victories filled all Europe with astonishment: the first, by
the proof it afforded of the decided superiority of British seamanship, tho
English fleet having defeated twice their own number of Spanish vessels;
and the second, by the unexampled proportion of the enemy's ships that
were captured. But the effects on the domestic security and public spirit
of Great Britain, were far more important. Despondency was felt no
longer. Bonfires and illuminations were universal ; enthusiasm spread
to every breast, and amid the roar of artillery and the festive light of
cities, faction disappeared and opposition sunk into neglect. From these
victories may be dated that concord among all classes and that resolute
British spirit which never afterward deserted the country.
The illustrious statesman, to whose genius and foresight the first devel-
opment of the spirit that led to these consequences is, under Providence,
to be ascribed, was in part permitted to witness the result of his labors in
the cause of freedom. Mr. Burke, whose health had been broken by the
death of his son, and who had long labored under severe and increasing
weakness, breathed his last at his country-seat of Beaconsfield, on the 9th
of July, 1797. His counsels on English politics, during his last hours,
were of the same direct, lofty and uncompromising spirit, which had ever
made his voice sound like the note of a trumpet to the heart of England.
*' Never succumb," said he, to his surrounding friends. "It is a struggle
for your existence as a nation. If you must die, die with the sword in
your hand. But I have no fears whatever for the result. There is a
salient living principle in the public mind of England, which requires
only a proper direction to enable her to withstand this or any other fero-
cious foe. Persevere, therefore, till this tyranny be overpast."
The prospects of the allied forces for the campaign of 1797, were over-
clouded by the death of the Empress Catherine, inasmuch as her succes-
sor, the Emperor Paul, refused to carry out her projects and sustain her
policy in regard to the war against France : the burden of the contest,
therefore, rested on Austria and Great Britain alone.
The relative position of the belligerent parties at the close^of 1790, ren-
dered it apparent that the Alpine frontier would be the most assailable
point of the Austrian dominions on the opening of the next campaign. The
French Directory, therefore, though they had grown too jealous of Napo-
leon's abilities and rising fame to intrust him with all the force he soli-
cited, sent him a detachment of twenty thousand choice troops under
Bernadotte and Delmas, which raised the army of Italy to sixty-one
thousand men, independent of sixteen thousand who were scattered from
Ancona to Milan, and employed in overawing the states in the rear, and
protecting the communications of the army. The Austrians were equally
aware of the exposed situation of their southern frontier, and ordered
large reinforcements of troops to that quarter; but they were dilatory in
their movements, and the most efficient part of the army did not arrive
until it was too late for them to be of any service in the issue of the
campaign.
Napoleon commenced his operations on the 10th of March, by a forward
movement, directing his march toward the position of the Archduke,
whose army, thirty-five thousand strong, was drawn up on the left bank
1797.J HISTORYOFEURCPE 91
of the Tagliamento. This stream, after descending from the mountains,
separates into several fordable branches, and the ground for a great ex-
tent between them is covered with stones and gravel. The Austrians were
in order of battle when the French arrived on the opposite bank of the
river ; and Napoleon, seeing them so well prepared to oppose his passage,
had recourse to a stratagem. He ordered his troops to retire out of the
reach of the Austrian artillery, establish a bivouac, and begin to cook
their food : when the Archduke, supposing the French had abandoned the
intention of an attack for the day, withdrew his forces into their camp in
the rear. When all was quiet, the signal was given by the French
general : the soldiers ran to arms, formed with great rapidity, advanced
in columns by echellon, flanking each other in fine order, and precipi-
tated themselves into the river. The precision and beauty of the move-
ment resembled the exercise of a field-day. The Austrian cavalry hast-
ened to the spot, and charged the French infantry on the edge of the water,
but it was too late. The French had gained their position, and kept
it. The firing soon became general along the line ; and the Archduke,
seeing the passage achieved and his flank turned, and being, besides, un-
willing to engage in a decisive action before the arrival of his veterans
from the Rhine, ordered a retreat. The French light troops pursued him
for four miles; during which time, the Imperialists lost six pieces of
cannon and five hundred men, and also, what was of more importance,
they lost the moral effect of a first success.
Meanwhile, Massena had effected a passage at St. Daniel and made
himself master of Osopo, by which means he cut off the Archduke's
retreat by the direct road to Carinthia : the latter therefore determined to
regain it by the cross-road which followed the Isonzo, as Napoleon would
probably choose the Carinthian road to advance on Vienna. For this
purpose, he dispatched his parks of artillery, and the division of Bayalitch
by the Isonzo toward Tarwis, while the remainder of his forces retired by
the Lower Isonzo. Napoleon now pushed forward to Gradisca, situated
on the Lower Isonzo, and garrisoned by three thousand men. Bernadotte
first assailed this place, but he was repulsed with a loss of five hundred
men ; Serrurier, however, soon appeared on the heights in the rear, when
the garrison was forced to surrender with ten pieces of artillery. Berna-
dotte next moved upon Laybach, and took possession of it, while a thou-
sand horse occupied Trieste, the greatest harbor of the Austrian dominions.
Massena followed up his success at Osopo, by taking Col-de-Tarwis, the
crest of the Alps, which commands the two valleys descending to Carin-
thia and Dalmatia. The Archduke made a great effort to retake this
important post, but after a desperate and bloody action on its snowy
heights, he was at last forced to leave it in the hands of the French.
When Napoleon found himself securely in possession of this post, he
pressed forward and gained the defiles in advance of Bayalitch; who,
now having become involved in these rocky passes, and completely
surrounded by superior forces, was obliged to surrender himself and his
whole division prisoners, with all his artillery and baggage. The French
troops had now passed the Alps, established themselves in the fertile
plains that stretch beyond them into Germany, and were encamped within
sixty leagues of Vienna, with an army of forty-five thousand men.
But, though Napoleon had thus far conducted the campaign triumph-
antly, he began now to be embarrased by his success. The Venetian
92 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [CHAP. XII
provinces, taking advantage of his absence, were preparing to revolt,
and threatened his communications in the rear; he had just received a
dispatch from Moreau, announcing his inability to support him in his
contemplated advance on the Austrian capital; and the Directory were
too jealous of his success to forward any further assistance. Hence, as
his army was too small in numbers to warrant his marching unassisted
'into the heart of the Austrian dominions, he resolved to make proposals
of peace to the Archduke, taking care, at the same time, to press vigor-
ously on the retreating Imperialists, in order to support his negotiations.
The latter part of his policy was maintained with such energy that, on
the 6th of April, he had driven everything before him as far as Judem-
berg, his advanced guard occupied Leoben, and the terror he inspired in
the capital was so great that the several members of the Emperor's family,
together with the archives of the nation, were sent into Hungary. On
the 7th of April, the chief of the Archduke's staff, Bellegarde, presented
himself at the outposts of the French army, and a suspension of hostilities
was agreed on at Leoben for five days.
On the 9th of April, the treaty was concluded at Judemberg; and as
the French commissioners had not arrived, Napoleon signed it in his
own name on behalf of the French government. Its principal articles
were, 1. The cession of Flanders to the Republic, and the extension of
its frontier to the Rhine. 2. The cession of Savoy to the same power,
and the extension of its territory to the summit of the Piedmontese Alps.
3. The establishment of the Cis-Alpine Republic, including Lombardy,
the states of Modena, Cremona and the Bergamasque. 4. The Oglio was
fixed on as the boundary of the Austrian possessions in Italy. 5. The
Emperor, in return for so many sacrifices, was to receive the whole con-
tinental states of Venice, including Illyria, Istria, Friuli, and Upper Italy
as far as the Oglio. 6. Venice was to obtain, in return for these losses,
Romagna, Ferrara and Bologna, wrested by the French from the pope.
7. The important fortresses of Mantua, Peschiera, Porto Legnago, and
Palma Nuovo were to be restored to the Emperor on the conclusion of a
general peace, together with the cky and castles of Verona.
This iniquitous partition of the neutral territories of Venice was an act
of darker atrocity than the spoliation of Poland, and it failed to excite an
equal degree of general indignation, only because it was accompanied
by no heroism or dignity on the part of the vanquished.
Venice exhibits one of the most curious and instructive instances in
modern history, of the decline of a state without any rude external shock,
from the mere force of internal corruption, and the long-continued direc-
tion of the passions to selfish objects. The League of Cambray had,
indeed, shaken its power; the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope had led
to an abridgment of its resources; and the augmentation of the strength
of the Trans- Alpine monarchies, had diminished its relative importance :
but still, its wealth and population were such as to entitle it to a respect-
able rank among the European states, and, if directed by energy and
courage, would have given it a preponderating weight in the issue of this
campaign. But centuries of peace had destroyed the courage of the
higher orders; ages of corruption had extinguished the patriotism of the
people ; and the continued pursuits of selfish gratification, had rendered
all classes incapable of the sacrifices which the defence of their country
required. The arsenals were empty; the fortifications decayed; the
1797.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 93
fleet, which once ruled the Adriatic, was rotting in the Lagunse ; and the
army, which formerly faced the banded strength of Europe in the League
of Cambray, was now drawn entirely from the semi-barbarous provinces
on the Turkish frontier. With such a population, nothing grand or
generous could be attempted ; yet it was hardly to be expected that the
country of Dandolo and Carmaguolo should yield without a struggle.
The proximity of the Venetian continental provinces to those which had
recently been revolutionized by the Republican arms, ana the sojourn,
ing of the French troops among the ardent youth of their principal
cities, naturally and inevitably led to the rapid propagation of democratic
principles among the inhabitants. This took place more particularly
after the victories of Rivoli and the fall of Mantua had dispelled all
dread of the return of the Austrian forces. Revolutionary clubs and
committees were everywhere formed, who corresponded with the Repub-
lican authorities of Milan, and openly expressed a wish to throw off the
yoke of the Venetian oligarchy. These proceedings were secretly
encouraged by Napoleon, who directed Captain Landrieux, chief of the
cavalry-staff, to communicate with the malcontents, and give unity and
effect to their operations. At the same time, to preserve the outward
appearance of neutrality, he ordered General Kelmaine to forbid his
officers and soldiers from counselling or assisting the disaffected.
The result of these measures was soon apparent. On the 12th of
March, a revolt broke out at Bergamo, and the insurgents, avowing that
they were supported by the French, dispatched couriers to Milan and
other towns of Lombardy, and besought the Republican commander of
the castle to assist them with his troops, which, however, he declined to
dc The example of Bergamo was soon followed by all the chief towns
in the Venetian provinces. *
These revolts excited the utmost alarm at Venice. The Senate dared
not act openly against the insurgents, who declared themselves supported
by the Republican commanders, but they dispatched Pesaro to Napoleon's
head-quarters to complain of his officers. Napoleon feigned surprise at
the intelligence thus communicated, though he positively declined to
interfere in the matter; and at the same time, threatened Venice with
vengeance if she proceeded to hostilities. In this extremity, the Venetian
government knew not what course to pursue ; but while they were delib-
erating, a counter revolution broke out in the provinces without their
knowledge or authority, and several partial actions ensued between the
two parties. Napoleon promptly availed himself of this as a ground of
complaint, and sent an insolent letter to the Senate, demanding satisfac-
tion for the revolt, in which some of his own troops had suffered. While
this demand was under discussion, an event look place on the Adige
which gave the French general too fair a pretext for breaking off all
negotiation. A levy en masse of the Venetian peasantry had assembled
at Verona, on the 17th of April, and put to death in cold blood four hun-
dred wounded men in the French hospitals. General Ballaud, in com-
mand of the forts, resented this atrocious cruelty by firing on the city
with red-hot balls. An extensive conflagration ensued, when the inhab-
itants, exasperated in turn, laid siege to the forts, and put to death the
French garrison of one of them which capitulated.
These excesses were speedily retaliated on the Venetians by the
French troops. General Chabran approached Verona with his columns,
94 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XII,
shot the authors of the massacre, and levied a contribution on the city of
eleven hundred thousand francs, on the 28th of April; and on the 3rd of
May, Napoleon declared war against Venice.
Meanwhile, Venice itself was a prey to faction, and in the last state of
perplexity and distress. The senators met at the Doge's palace, and
endeavored by concessions and promises, to arouse the patriotism of the
people; but the revolutionary party, which was in the ascendant, refused
all compromise, and forced the Senate to abdicate its authority. At this
result, the shouts of the giddy multitude rent the sky, the tree of Liberty
was planted on the Place of St. Mark, and the democrats entered, amid
bloodshed and plunder, upon the exercise of their newborn sovereignty.
A momentary reaction here took place, and a body of real patriots strove
to resist the disorder : they were soon overpowered, however, by the
revolutionists, who called in the French troops to their aid, and brought
them in boats to the Place of St. Mark, where a foreign standard had not
been seen for fifteen hundred years, but where the banner of freedom
was never again to wave.
The French troops were not long in securing to themselves the spoils
of their revolutionary allies. The Golden Book, the record of the sena-
tors of Venice, was burned at the foot of the tree of Liberty ; and while
the democrats were exulting over the destruction of this emblem of theirv
ancient subjection, their allies were depriving them of the means of future
independence. The treasures of the Republic were seized by the French,
as were also the remnants of the navy ; though neither the one nor the
other equalled in value what the captors anticipated. The revolutionary
party discovered, when it was too late, the consequences of their conduct,
and reaped the bitter fruits of their Republican alliance in a forced sub-
jection to a foreign despotism, in the support of foreign troops, and in the
spoliation of all the proud mementoes which decorated their capital.
While these memorable events were taking place on the southern side
of the Alps, the French armies on the Rhine, under Moreau, Desaix,
Davoust and Hoche, were rapidly recovering their losses of the last cam-
paign ; and Moreau had added greatly to his military fame by a brilliant
passage of the Rhine at Diersheim, in presence and in spite of an Austrian
army on the opposite bank : but these generals were prevented from taking
advantage of the success with which they commenced the campaign, by
the treaty of peace concluded with Napoleon.
Prussia, during this eventful year, adhered steadily to the system of
armed neutrality. The health of her king had long been visibly deelin.
ing, and he at length expired at Berlin on the 16th of November. Though
endowed neither with shining civil nor remarkable military talents, few
monarchs have conferred greater benefits on their country than this sove-
reign. He was succeeded by his son, Frederic William III., then twenty-
seven years of age ; a man much better calculated than his father to take
part in the stirring events which were so soon to agitate the continent of
Europe.
The progress of revolutionary principles in Italy began about this time
to affect the people of Genoa. The government there was vested in an
aristocracy which, although less jealous and exclusive than that of Venice,
was far more resolute and determined. A treaty had been concluded
with the French Directory, by which Genoa purchased its neutrality with
the payment of two millions of francs, a loan of two millions more, and
1797.] * HISTORY OF EUROPE. 9D
the recall of families exiled for their political opinions. But the mem.
bers of the revolutionary club now insisted on far greater domestic
concessions ; and as they were secretly encouraged by Napoleon, they
soon rose in arms to enforce their demands. The patrician families,
however, were not wanting in courage or ability : by a bold and skilful
movement they completely crushed the insurrection, and, but for subse-
quent foreign interference, would have maintained their government. It
was not, however, consistent with the system of Republican ambition to
allow a revolutionary party to be subdued in any country which the arms
of France could reach. In the contest between the government and the
insurgents, some Frenchmen who had taken an active part in the revolt
were wounded and taken prisoners with the rest ; and Napoleon made
this a pretext for throwing the weight of his authority into the democratic
scale. It was vain for the government of Genoa to resist the power of
France, however arbitrarily and unjustly applied: and the Genoese Senate
of necessity submitted to a new Constitution, which placed the government
in the hands of the democracy. The people in some sections made a
brave resistance to this tyrannical imposition ; but this led only to new
exactions on the part of the French, and thenceforward Genoa, having
lost even the shadow of her independence, became a mere outwork of the
French Republic.
Meanwhile, Napoleon, sheathing for a time his victorious sword, estab-
lished himself at the chateau of Montebello, near Milan ; a beautiful
summer residence, overlooking a great pan of the plain of Lombardy.
Negotiations for a final peace were there immediately commenced ; before
the end of May the powers of the plenipotentiaries had been verified, and the
work of treaties was in progress. 'The future Emperor of the West here
held his court in more than regal splendor ; the ambassadors of the Em-
peror of Germany, of the Pope, of Genoa, Venice, Naples, Piedmont and
the Swiss Republic assembled to examine the claims of the several states
which were the subject of discussion ; and here weightier matters were
to be determined, and dearer interests were at stake, than had ever before
been submitted to European diplomacy since the iron crown was placed
on the brow of Charlemagne. Already, Napoleon acted the part of a
sovereign prince ; his power exceeded that of any then living monarch ;
and he had entered on that dazzling career which ended in the subjuga-
tion of the world. The negotiations at Montebello were brought to a
conclusion on the 17th of October, and the treaty of Campo Formio was
the result. The articles of this treaty did not essentially differ from those
agreed on between Napoleon and Austria at Judemberg, save that Mantua
and Mayence were ceded to France. The treaty, however, contained
some secret articles of importance, the most material of which regarded
the cession of Salzburg to Austria, with Inviertil and Wasseburg on the
Inn, from Bavaria ; the free navigation of the Rhine and the Meuse ; the
abandonment of Frickthal by Austria to Switzerland ; and the providing
of equivalents on the right bank of the Rhine, to the princes dispossessed
on the left bank of that river. But it was expressly provided, that " no
acquisition should be proposed to the advantage of Prussia"
While the foreign relations of France were thus distinguished by tri-
umph and conquest, her domestic government was in a state of turmoil
and distress. National bankruptcy, with its thousand evils, had been
publicly declared, and the general distress and ruin that ensued were
11
96 H I S T 0 RrY OF EUROPE. 4 [CHAP. XII.
beyond estimation. Political events, too, of vast importance were at hand.
The election of May, 1797 — when by the Constitution one-third of each
house was changed — produced an entire alteration in the balance of par-
ties, a decided majority of Royalists having come into power. The mul-
titude, ever ready to follow the victorious party, ranged themselves on
the Royalist side, and a hundred newspapers thundered forth their decla-
rations in the same cause. Pichegru was appointed president of the
Council of Five hundred, and Barbe Marbois, also a Royalist, president
of the Council of Ancients. Almost all the ministers were changed ; and
the Directory was openly divided into two parties, the majority consisting
of Rewbell, Barras and Lareveillere ; the minority, of Barthelemy and
Carnot. The chief strength of the Royalist party, out of the Assembly,
lay in the Club of Clichy ; that of the Jacobins, in the Club of Salm ;
and the opposite factions soon grew so exasperated, that they mutually
aimed at supplanting each other by means of a revolution.
Before long, the legislative acts of the Councils, and the declarations
of the Royalists in the tribune, in the Club of Clichy and in the public
journals, awakened great anxiety among the Jacobins ; and the majority
of the Directors became alarmed for their own official existence, as it
was evident that the Councils would totally ruin the Republican party.
It had already been ascertained that one hundred and ninety of the depu-
ties were engaged to restore the exiled family, while the Directory could
count on the support of only one hundred and thirty ; and the Ancients
had resolved, by a large majority, to transfer the seat of the legislature
to Rouen, on account of its proximity to the western provinces, where
Royalist principles had always been decidedly maintained. In short,
the Directory were aware that, for regicides, the transition was easy from
the Luxembourg to the scaffold.
In this extremity, Barras, Rewbell and Lareveillere resolved on de-
cisive measures. They knew that they could count on the support of the
army, and therefore drew toward Paris a number of regiments, twelve
thousand strong. They next changed the ministry, appointing Francois
de Neufchateau to the department of the Interior ; Hoche, to that of War ;
Larouche, to that of the Police ; and Talleyrand, to that of Foreign Af-
fairs. The sagacity of this last politician led him to incline, in all the
changes of the Revolution, to what was about to prove the victorious side ;
and his accepting office under the Directory at this crisis was strongly
symptomatic of the chances that were accumulated in their favor. Na-
poleon, too, resolved to support the Directory, and sent his aid-de-camp,
Lavalette, to Paris, to observe the motions of the parties and communicate
to him the earliest intelligence ; and he afterward dispatched Augereau
to assist the Directory in their arrangements with the army. He de-
clined going himself to the capital, until circumstances might render his
presence there indispensable.
The party against which these formidable preparations were directed
was strong in numbers and powerful in eloquence, but destitute of the
reckless hardihood and vigor which in civil convulsions usually command
success. The military force immediately under their command was small,
consisting of only fifteen hundred grenadiers of questionable loyalty : and
in debating on the course proper to be pursued in the emergency, the
majority of the Royalists were restrained by scruples of conscience — as
the friends of freedom and good order often are in a revolutionary crisia
— from taking the lead in acts of violence.
1797.] HIS TORY OF EUROPE. 97
The Directory, however, entertained no such scruples. They appointed
Augereau .to the command of their troops, ordered them into Paris, and
on the 3rd of September, at midnight, the inhabitants observed twelve
thousand armed men defiling over the bridges, with forty pieces of can-
non, and gradually occupying all the avenues to the Tuileries. Not a
sound was heard but the measured tramp of the men, and the rolling of
the artillery wheels, until the movement was completed ; when a signal
gun was discharged that startled every one who heard it. The soldiers
speedily surrounded the Hall of the Councils, where Augereau arrested
Pichegru, Willot, and twelve other leaders of the assemblies, and con-
ducted them to the Temple. By six o'clock in the morning, all was
concluded. Several hundreds of the most powerful Royalists were in
prison, the streets were filled with troops, and military despotism was
established.
It maybe presumed, that power thus obtained was not delicately used.
Pichegru, and some fifty other members of the Councils, were condemned
to transportation,; all the acts passed by the Royalist majority were
annulled, and the liberty of the press was destroyed. The Directory
carried on the government thereafter by military power alone ; three
men took upon themselves to govern France on their own account, with-
out either the sanction of law or the concourse of legal assemblies.
CHAPTER XIII.
EXPEDITION TO EGYPT.
ON the conclusion of the peace of Campo Formio, Napoleon returned
to Paris, where he was received with enthusiastic admiration by all
classes of the inhabitants. He lived, however, in the most retired man-
ner, seldom appeared in public, wore the costume of the Institute, and
avoided society excepting that of scientific men. But this manner of life
was pursued only with a view to political effect.
After a time, he grew restless under inaction ; and the Directory
became alarmed at his popularity, indulging a well-grounded fear, that
in these days of changes and revolutions, he might successfully contend
with them for the possession of the government. Napoleon, therefore,
soon resolved upon some new military exploit, and the Directory, anxious
to be relieved from his presence, eagerly forwarded his views. A de-
scent upon England was the first project, and it was the one most accept-
able to the Directors ; but Napoleon, after a careful examination, decided
against that, and resolved on an expedition to Egypt. The Directors,
whose anxiety to employ him abroad overpowered every other consid-
eration, reluctantly consented, and preparations to an extent commen-
surate with the undertaking, were immediately set on foot. In the
mean time, however, to anticipate the movements of the British navy, and
prevent any interruption from that quarter in the Mediterranean, the
descent upon England was made the ostensible object of the armament,
arid the public journals were filled with speculations on the results of the
anticipated conquest.
93 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAF. XIII
The British government, aware of the great preparations which wore
making over all France, yet doubtful where the blow was really to fali
made every arrangement which prudence could suggest to avert the
impending danger. The principal effoits of the Admiralty were directed
to strengthen the fleet off Brest, and the coast of Spain, whence the
threatened invasion might be expected to issue; at the same time, Nelson
was sent into the Mediterranean with thirteen sail of the line and one ship
of fifty guns.
Napoleon arrived at Toulon on the 9th of May, and took command of
the army. The fleet consisted of thirteen ships of the line, two of sixty-
four guns, fourteen frigates, seventy- two brigs and cutters, and four hun-
dred transports : it bore thirty-six thousand soldiers of all arms, and ten
thousand sailors. On the 19th of May, the fleet set sail. It proceeded
first to Genoa, and thence to Ajaccio and Civita Castellana ; and, having
effected a junction with the squadrons in those harbors, bore away for
Malta, where it arrived on the 10th of June. Before Napoleon left
France, a secret arrangement had been made with the grand-master and
principal officers of Malta for its surrender to the French, and they now
took quiet possession of this immense fortress and its unrivalled harbor.
Napoleon immediately put its 'batteries in condition, left a sufficient gar-
ris.Mi to defend the place, and on the 19th of June sailed for Egypt.
On the 20th of June, Nelson arrived at Naples ; he hastened thence to
Messina, but learning that the French fleet had reached Malta and taken
possession of it, he directed his course toward Alexandria, where he
arrived on the 29th : but finding no enemy, he set sail for the north,
imagining that the expedition of Napoleon was bound for the Dardanelles.
It is a singular fact, that on the night of the 29th of June, the French and
English fleet crossed each other's track without either party's being
aware of it.
The French fleet came in sight of the Egyptian shore on the 1st of
July, and on the 2nd the troops were landed and marched to Alexandria,
which place they carried by assault, after a brief resistance of the Turk-
ish garrison. On the 6th of July, Napoleon set out for Cairo with thirty
thousand men, part of whom were put on board a flotilla of boats, and the
remainder proceeded by land across the Desert. After a march of five
days, in which the men suffered immensely from heat and thirst, the land
force formed a junction with the flotilla, and they proceeded in company
up the Nile. On the 13th, the army reached Chebreiss, where they
were attacked by Mourad Bey with a detachment of Mamelukes and
native infantry. The Egyptians were quickly defeated with a loss of
six hundred men, and retired in disorder toward Cairo. On the 21st of
July, the French army came in sight of that place, and of the Pyramids
on the opposite bank of the Nile. Here, Mourad Bey was intrenched,
with his entire force of twelve thousand infantry and six thousand Mame-
lukes.
Napoleon advanced in five divisions formed in hollow squares, with the
artillery at the angles, and the officers and baggage in the centre. As
they approached h'is position, Mourad sallied forth at the head of his
fiery Mamelukes — who, considered as individual horsemen, were the finest
cavalry in the world — and bore down upon the French squares. Their
charge was terrific, but the Republican infantry stood firm, presenting a
wall of bayonets on every side whicV the horses could not penetrate ; and
1798.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 9S
while the Mamelukes wheeled around and among the squares, in the
vain endeavor to find or force an opening, the inner ranks of the French
musketeers kept up a sustained fire at point-blank range, which mowed
down their assailants by hundreds. This murderous contest was contin-
ued until nearly one half of the Mamelukes were destroyed, when they
retreated to their intrenchments. Napoleon pressed forward in pursuit,
drove both cavalry and infantry toward the Nile, and so totally dispersed
the. whole force, that not more than two thousand five hundred made their
escape into Upper Egypt. This action decided the fate of Egypt ; the
whole country submitted at once to the French arms, and Napoleon
established himself at Cairo.
Meanwhile, Nelson, having learned the real destination of the French
fleet, returned to the Nile on the 1st of August, where he found the
enemy's squadron drawn up in order of battle in the Bay of Aboukir.
The French ships were at anchor close in-shore, and formed in a curve,
with the concave side of the line toward the sea. As soon as Nelson had
accurately examined the position of the enemy, he ordered one half of
his fleet to penetrate on the inner side of the French line and come to
anchor, while the other half anchored along the outer side, and thus
doubled on the enemy's ships. The British fleet commenced this move-
ment at three o'clock in the afternoon, and as they came up in succession,
were received with a steady fire from the French broadsides. Five
seventy- fours soon passed between the French line and the shore, enga-
ging nine of their antagonists, while six others took post on the opposite
side of the same ships. Another British vessel, the Leander, was inter-
posed across the French line, where she prevented the remainder of the
enemy's ships from assisting their comrades, and with her broadsides
raked right and left those between which she was placed.
It now grew dark, but both fleets were illuminated by the incessant
discharge of more than two thousand pieces of cannon, and the volumes
of flame and smoke that rolled over the bay, gave it the appearance of a
terrific volcano. Victory soon declared for the British. Before nine
o'clock, three ships of the line had struck, two were dismasted, and the
Orient, of one hundred and twenty guns, was discovered to be on fire :
the light of this burning vessel, soon rendered every ship in both fleets
distinctly visible, and, by showing the shattered condition of the French-
men, redoubled the ardor of the British seamen. At ten o'clock, the
Orient blew up with a tremendous explosion, and for a few minutes, as
by common consent, the firing on both sides ceased : but it was soon
renewed, and continued until after midnight. At daybreak, the magni-
rude of the victory was discovered. The Orient had disappeared, the
frigate La Serieuse was sunk, and the whole French line, excepting the
Guillaume Tell and the Genereux, had struck their colors : these ships,
having been but slightly engaged, cut their cables, stood out to sea, and
escaped.
Honors and rewards were heaped by a grateful nation on the heroes
of the Nile. Nelson was created a Baron, with a pension of two thousand
pounds sterling to himself and his two immediate successors; the Grand
Signior, the Emperor of Russia, the King of Sardinia, the King of Naples,
and the East India Company made him magnificent presents, and his
name was for ever embalmed in the recollection of his countrymen.
When Mr. Pitt was reproached for not conferring a higher dignity on
11*
100 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XIII
the conqueror, he replied, "Admiral Nelson's fame will bft coequal with
the British name, and it will be remembered that he gained the greatest
naval victory on record, when no man will think of asking whether he
was created a baron, a viscount, or an earl."
The battle of the Nile was a mortal stroke to the French expedition ;
as it cut off all hope of the return of the army, and all means of preserv-
ing the conquest Napoleon had achieved. Nor were its effects less
important in Europe ; as it brought about an alliance between the courts
of St. Petersburg, London and Constantinople against France ; and the
unusual spectacle of a junction between the Russian and Turkish fleets
in the Hellespont, on the 1st of September, helped to render memorable
this astonishing victory. The squadron, thus combined, not being required
on the coast of Egypt, steered for the island of Corfu, and established a
rigorous blockade of that fortress and harbor.
Being now excluded from intercourse with Europe, and menaced with
a serious attack from the Turks, Napoleon resolved on an expedition into
Syria, where the Sultan was assembling his forces. His army, however,
was already greatly reduced by fatigue, sickness and the sword; and,
after leaving behind him such garrisons as were indispensable to maintain
his conquests, thirteen thousand men, with nine hundred cavalry and
forty-nine pieces of cannon, constituted the whole of his disposable force.
He set out for Syria on the llth of February, 1799, and as his march
lay across the Desert, the troops suffered so greatly that it required all
his efforts to keep them in their ranks.
On the 4th of March, the army arrived at Jaffa, the Joppa of antiquity.
Napoleon sent a flag of truce to the town and summoned it to surrender,
but his messenger was beheaded on the spot. He immediately opened a
fire of artillery on the walls, and on the 6th, the breach thus made being
declared practicable, an assault took place. In the mean time, the
grenadiers of Bon's division discovered an opening on the sea-side, and,
by crowding into the city in the rear, decided the victory. A desperate
carnage ensued, and the town was delivered up to the horrors of sack
and pillage. During this scene of slaughter and rapine, four thousand
of the garrison proposed to lay down their arms on condition of their lives
being spared ; and Eugene Beauharnois (Napoleon's step-son) and Cro-
sier— both aids-de-camp of Napoleon — took upon themselves to agree to
the proposal. The prisoners were conducted to the head-quarters of
the French commander, who ordered their arms to be tied behind their
backs, and summoned a council of war to deliberate on their fate. For
two days, the terrible question, What is to be done with these captives ?
was debated. If they were sent back to Egypt, the force detached to
guard them would weaken the army to inefficiency ; if they were libe-
rated, they would increase the number of the already too numerous
enemies of France ; if they were detained as prisoners in the camp, they
would consume the scanty supplies of provisions indispensable for the
support of the French soldiers. The alternative of putting them to death
in cold blood presented itself and was adopted by Napoleon. This atro-
cious massacre took place on the 10th of March. The unhappy victims
were separated into small detachments, fettered, and shot down like beasts
of prey by the French infantry. Their bones still remain in great heaps
amid the sand-hills of the Desert — a monument to the eternal infamy
of Napoleon.
i799.] HISTORY OF EUROPE 101
The French army pursued its route, and on the 16th of Marcn arrived
at Acre, a strong fortress on the shores of the Mediterranean, and distin-
guished as a place of great importance in the wars of the Crusades. The
town was well garrisoned, ably commanded by the Pacha of Syria, and
supported by the English squadron in the bay, under the command of Sir
Sidney Smith.
This celebrated man, who had been wrecked on the coast of France
and confined in the Temple, made his escape a few days after Napoleon'
left Paris for Toulon; and after a variety of adventures arrived in
England, where he was appointed to the command of the squadron in
the Archipelago. Having received information of the intended attack
on Acre, he hastened to that place, and arrived just two days before the
appearance of the French army : his fleet consisted of the Tiger, eighty-
four guns, the Theseus, seventy-four, and some smaller vessels. He
immediately cooperated with the garrison, and aided in strengthening
their defences; and on the day after his arrival, was fortunate enough to
capture the French flotilla from Alexandria with the heavy artillery and
stores for the siege, as it was creeping around the headlands of Mount
Carmel : these guns were invaluable to the garrison, and their loss was
irreparable to the French army.
Napoleon commenced his attack on the 28th of March, but he was
bravely repulsed; and he renewed the assault on the 1st of April with a
similar result: and while he was thus unsuccessful in front, his rear was
menaced by an army of Oriental militia, thirty thousand strong, who had
been for some time assembling in the provinces and following his march.
He retired from Acre, therefore, to give battle to this host at Mount
Thabor, where he entirely routed them. In the mean time, the French
cruisers succeeded in landing nine heavy guns at Jaffa, which being
now transported to Acre, were of some assistance to the French army in
resuming the siege of that place.
On the evening of the 7th of May, an unknown fleet was seen on the
verge of the horizon, and both besiegers and besieged were in the greatest
anxiety to learn its purpose and destination; it was soon ascertained that
the ships, thirty in number, were the Ottoman fleet dispatched thither to
aid in the defence of Acre.
Napoleon, seeing the necessity of pressing his attacks if he hoped to
succeed, redoubled his efforts. He kept up a constant cannonade and
bombardment during two days, and on the 10th of May made his final
demonstration: but all was without avail- "he intrepidity of both the
English and Turkish troops proved an overmatch for the desperate valor
of the French, and Napoleon was compelled to retreat. The siege had
cost him, in slain and wounded, nearly one half of his army and almost
all his artillery and baggage, wnich latter fell into the hands of Sir
Sidney Smith. ATlcr a painful 'retreat over the Desert, the remnants
of the French army reached El-Arish on the 1st of June, and proceeded
thence by easy marches to Cairo.
On the 15th of July, Napoleon received intelligence of the landing of a
large body of Turks in Aboukir Bay, and he immediately set off with all
his disposable forces to meet them. He arrived on the 23rd at Alexan-
dria, and on the 25th reached Aboukir, where the Turks were strongly
intrenched on the peninsula: a position which, however capable of
defence, offered no retreat in case of disaster. The result showed the
102 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XIV.
error committed by the Turks in the choice of ground ; for in the action
that took place, two thousand were slain, two thousand made prisoners,
and five thousand driven into the sea by the impetuous charge of Murat's
cavalry : thus, the whole army of nine thousand men was totally destroyed;
an fiveni almost unparalleled in modern warfare.
CHAPTER XIV.
FROM THE PEACE OF CAMPO FORMIO TO THE RENEWAL OF THE WAR.
DURING the uncertainty which prevailed as to the destination of the
French armament that eventually sailed for Egypt, the British govern-
ment felt great anxiety to provide for the national defence, without incur-
ring a ruinous expense by the augmentation of the regular army : and,
under pressure of the danger to be apprehended from a French invasion,
the ministry, with -the approbation of the king, ventured on the bold step
of allowing regiments of volunteers to be raised in every part of the king-
dom. This bill passed the House on the 6th of May; and, in a few
weeks, one hundred and fifty thousand men were enrolled under the new
law, and armed for the protection of the country. The event proved that
the confidence of the government in the loyalty of the people was not
misplaced. In no instance, did the volunteers thus raised fail in their
duty, or swerve from the principles of patriotism which first brought them
together. When they put on their uniform they cast off all the vacillating
feelings of former years, and, in taking up their arms, they adopted the
resolution to defend the cause of England to the last.
While England was thus taking measures to secure herself from inva-
sion, the French Directory were gradually extending their despotism over
the states adjacent to France. The Dutch had now an opportunity to
contrast the temperate government of the House of Orange with the demo-
cratic rule which was substituted in its stead. Their trade was ruined,
their navy defeated, their flag swept from the ocean, and their numerous
merchant vessels were rotting in their harbors. A reaction in favor of the
former order of things had, in consequence, become very general in the
minds of the people ; which feeling the French Directory deemed it
necessary to quell, by overthrowing the remnants of the aristocratic con-
stitution, and vesting the government in a Directory of their own selection.
The Dutch Assembly was, at this time, engaged in framing a Constitution,
and the majority were resolved to establish it on the old federative prin-
ciples; but the leaders of the minority, aided by the French troops, sur-
rounded the council -hall during the session, arrested twenty-two of the
prominent deputies of the Orange party, and the six commissioners of
foreign relations. The remainder of the Assembly met early on the
following morning, and, under the dictation of the bayonet, passed decrees
sanctioning their acts of violence, and introducing a form of government
on the model of that established in France. By this new Constitution, the
privileges of the provinces were abolished; the ancient federal Union
superseded by a Republic, one and indivisible; the provincial authorities
1798.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 103
changed iiuo functionaries emanating from me central government; a
Council of Ancients and Chamber of Deputies established ; and the exe-
cutive authority confided to a Directory of five members, all devoted to
the interests of France. The sitting was terminated by an oath of hatred
to the Stadtholder, the federal system, and the aristocracy ; and ten depu-
ties who refused to take the oath were summarily deprived of their seats.
So completely was the whole accomplished, under the terror inspired by
the army, that some months afterward, when the means of intimidation
were removed, a number of deputies who had joined in these acts of
usurpation, resigned their seats, and protested against the part they had
been compelled to take in the transaction.
The people of Holland soon discovered, that in the pursuit of democratic
power they had lost their ancient liberty. The first step of the new Direc-
tory was the issuing of a proclamation, forbidding all petitions from cor-
porate bodies or assemblages of men, and declaring that none would be
received but from insulated individuals ; whereby they extinguished the
national voice in the only quarter where it could make itself heard in a
serious manner. All the public functionaries were appointed from the
Jacobin party; numbers of people were banished or proscribed; and,
under pretext of securing the public tranquillity, domiciliary visits and
arrests were multiplied to an alarming extent. Individuals suspected of
a leaning to the opposition, were deprived of the right of voting in the pri-
mary assemblies ; and, finally, the sitting assembly declared itself the
permanent Legislative Body — thus suspending all elections by the people.
These flagrant wrongs excited the utmost indignation throughout the coun-
try, and the Directors soon became as offensive as they had formerly been
agreeable to the populace. Alarmed at the position of affairs, and fearful
of losing their influence in Holland, the French Directory ordered Gene-
ral Daendels to take military possession of the government. He accord-
ingly led two companies of grenadiers to the palace of the Directory, seized
one member, and forced two to resign ; the other two made their escape.
A provisional government was then formed, consisting of Daendels and
two associates, nominated by the French Directory, without the slight-
est regard to the wishes of the people or any pretence of authority from
them. Thus, military despotism was the result of revolutionary changes
in Holland, within a few years after they were first commenced, amid the
general transports of the lower orders.
Switzerland was the next object of the Directory's ambition. The
constitutions of the Swiss Cantons were various. In some, as the Forest
Cantons, they were highly democratic ; in others, as in Berne, essentially
aristocratic : but in all, the great objects of government — security to per-
sons and property, freedom in life and religion — were attained, and the
aspect of the population exhibited a degree of happiness and prosperity
unparalleled in any other part of the world. The military strength of
Switzerland lay in the militia of the different Cantons ; which, though
formidable if united and led by chiefs skilled in mountain warfare, was
ill qualified to maintain a protracted struggle with such armies as the
neighboring powers could bring into the field.
The chief defect in the constitution of the Helvetic Confederacy was that,
with the usual jealousy of the possessors of political power, it excluded the
conquered provinces from a participation in the privileges enjoyed by th»
older Cantons ; and thus the seeds of disaffection were sown between the
9
104 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XIV
component parts of the state: yet, practically, this evil was of trifling
weight, under the truly paternal and beneficent system of Swiss admin-
istration ; nor would it have ever led to serious consequences, had the sim-
ple minded and honest peasantry of Switzerland been left in the quiet
enjoyment of such rights as were already conceded to them. But the
proximity of Switzerland to France, and the contagion of French revo-
lutionary principles, combined with the infamous system of Republican
propagandism, were fatal to the peace of this devoted country.
As early as July, 1797, the French envoy, Mengaud, was dispatched
to Berne to insist on the dismissal of the English resident Wickham. and,
at the same time, to set on foot intrigues with the democratic party, simi-
lar to those which were practiced for the overthrow of Venice. By a
prudent resolution of the English government, intended to save the Swiss
from a controversy with their formidable neighbors, Wickham was recalled.
The Directory, foiled in their attempt to involve the Swiss in a conflict,
ordered their troops on the frontier to take possession of that part of the
territory of Bale which was subject to the jurisdiction of the Cantons : but
here, too, the French were unsuccessful, for the Swiss government con-
fined itself to simple negotiations in reply to so glaring a violation of
existing treaties. At length, Napoleon struck a chord in the Valteline,
which soon vibrated with fatal effect throughout Switzerland, and, by rous-
ing the spirit of democracy, prepared the country for subjugation. This
province, consisting of five bailiwicks, and containing one hundred and
sixty thousand inhabitants, extended from the source of the Adda to its
junction with the Lake of Como. It had been formerly conquered by the
Grisons from the Duke of Milan. Francis I. had guaranteed to them the
enjoyment of it, and they had governed it with moderation and justice for
three centuries. Napoleon, however, saw in this sequestered valley a
place for inserting the wedge of dissolution into the Helvetic Confederacy ;
and, in the summer of 1797, he sent his aid-de-camp Leclerc to the cottages
of the province. It was not long before the inhabitants, seduced by his
insidious counsels, rose in insurrection, claimed their independence, ex-
pelled the Swiss authorities and hoisted the tricolor flag. Napoleon,
chosen in the plenitude of his power at Montebello as mediator between
the contending parties, pronounced a decree which settled the disputed
points by annexing the whole insurgent territory to the Cis-Alpine Republic.
This iniquitous proceeding, which openly encouraged every subject dis-
trict in the Swiss Confederacy to declare its independence, had its due
effect in the Valais, the Pays de Vaud, and other provinces, where the
revolutionary spirit soon declared itself. This was followed by an act of
open hostility on the part of France, the seizure, namely, of the province
of Erguel, on the 15th December, by five battalions drawn from the army
of the Rhine. An insurrection in the Pays de Vaud immediately took
place ; and the French envoy, Mengaud, proclaimed that the governments
of Berne and Fribourg should be held responsible for the persons and pro-
perty of all those who addressed themselves to France for the restitution
of their rights. On the 4th of January, 1798, General Menard, with ten
thousand men, established his head-quarters at Ferney, near Geneva, to
support the insurgents. These measures soon brought affairs to a crisis:
the insurrections became general, and the Senate of Berne boldly deter-
mined on resistance. They issued a proclamation calling on the shep-
herds of the Alps to defend their country, and ordered out the militia,
1798.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. JQ5
twenty thousand strong. Being still desirous to avoid proceeding to extre-
mities, they informed the Directory that they would disband their militia
if the invaders would withdraw. But the Directory no longer confined
their pretensions to supporting the insurgents : they insisted on overturn-
ing the whole Constitution of the country, forming twenty-two Cantons
instead of thirteen, and creating a Republic, one and indivisible, with a
Directory in all respects like that of France.
As peace was now impossible, the Senate urged forward their prepara-
tions. The Oberland en masse flew to arms, the shepherds descended
from their glaciers, every valley sent forth its little horde of men, and the
accumulating streams united like an Alpine torrent, forming a body of
near twenty thousand combatants on the frontiers of Berne. The smaller
Cantons followed the example : Uri, Underwalden, Schwytz, and Soleure,
sent forth their contingents with alacrity ; and the peasants set out from
their cottages, not doubting of triumph in the holy war of independence.
The women fanned the generous flame, not only by encouraging their
husbands and brothers to take up arms, but by themselves joining the ranks
with a determination to share the perils and glories of the strife. Almost
everywhere, the inhabitants of the mountains retained their allegiance ;
the citizens of the towns and plains alone were deluded by the fanaticism
of revolution.
General D'Erlach, who commanded the Swiss troops, divided his army
into three corps, of about seven thousand men each, who were so posted
as to cover Fribourg, Buren and Soleure. Had D'Erlach acted on the
offensive before the French forces were concentrated, he would probably
have gained such decisive success as to encourage the loyal inhabitants,
and confirm the patriotism of those who were wavering ; but by waiting
the attack of the French, he yielded the advantage to General Brune, who,
during the inaction of the Swiss, completed the organization of his troops.
He moved, on the 2nd of March, toward Fribourg and Soleure, where the
revolutionary partisans were the most numerous. His advance was hero-
ically opposed by a single Swiss battalion, which would not yield until
it was nearly cut to pieces ; but the garrisons of Fribourg and Soleure
surrendered after a mere show of resistance ; and as by this defeat the
position of D'Erlach was turned, he was forced to make a discouraging
retreat at the very commencement of the campaign : a movement which
led to the destruction of nearly one-half of his corps. Brune followed up
his victory by an attack on the second Swiss corps, under Graffenreid;
but here, the French veterans, although twice the numerical strength of
their opponents', were repulsed with the loss of two thousand men and
eighteen pieces of cannon. The third corps, now commanded by D'Erlach
in person, was less fortunate : it was assailed by the division of Schawen-
burgh, in front of Berne, and after an obstinate contest, maintained during
the whole day, the Swiss were defeated, and Berne capitulated on the
same night. Deplorable excesses followed the dispersion of the Swiss
army. The brave D'Erlach was murdered by his own soldiers at Mun-
zingen ; and Steiger, his second in command, barely escaped the same
fate by a flight into Bavaria. Many other brave officers fell victims to
the fury of the troops ; and the democratic party, by spreading the belief
that the army had been betrayed by its leaders, occasioned the destruction
of the only men who might have sustained the sinking fortunes of their
country.
106 HISTOR, YOFEUROPE. [CHAP. XIV
The French, on their entrance into Berne, took possession of its treasury,
with the public archives, and three hundred pieces of cannon and forty
thousand muskets. The fall of this town was followed by an explosion
of the revolutionary volcano over a great part of Switzerland. The people
of Zurich and Lucerne rose in open insurrection, dispossessed the authori-
ties, and hoisted the tricolor flag: the Lower Valaisans revolted against
the Upper, and, with the aid of the French, made themselves masters
of the castellated cliffs of Sion. Nearly all the level provinces joined
the revolutionists. A new Constitution was speedily formed for the con-
federacy, on the basis of that established in France in 1795 ; and it was
proclaimed at Arau on the 12th of April. By this instrument, all Swit-
zerland was comprised in one Republic; and the entire control of the
government placed in the hands of five Directors, who evinced their quali-
ties by passing a law to the effect, that whosoever spoke disrespectfully of
the new authorities, should be punished with death.
But while the rich and popular part of Switzerland was thus falling a
prey to the revolutionary fever of the times, a more generous spirit ani-
mated the shepherds of the small Cantons. The people of Schwytz, Uri,
Underwalden, Glarus, Sargans, Turgovie and St. Gall, rejected the new
Constitution. The inhabitants of these romantic and sequestered regions,
communicating little with the rest of the world, ardently attached to their
liberties, and inheriting all the dauntless intrepidity of their forefathers,
were not to be seduced by the glittering offers of revolutionary freedom.
Aloys Reding, a brave and experienced soldier who had fought against
the French in Spain, took the lead in this resistance, with the hope that he
might maintain a Vendean war amid the precipices and woods of the
Alps, until the German nations were roused to his relief: but a district
containing an entire population of only eighty thousand, could hardly
accomplish what the three millions of Brittany and Vendee had failed to
achieve. Reding began his heroic career by an attack on Lucerne, which
speedily surrendered ; but the advance of a large body of French troops
forced him to abandon his conquest, and concentrate his forces for defence.
After meeting with several reverses, he took post on Morgarten with the
little army of Schwytz, three thousand in number. Early in the morning
of the 20th of May, a corps of seven thousand French soldiers appeared
descending from the hills to the attack. The Schwytzers advanced to
meet them, encountered them before they had reached the bottom of the
slope, and forced them backward to the summit of the ridge. The battle
now raged for the whole day, but the French were unable to dislodge the
orave peasants from their position. During the night, both sides were
reenforced by fresh troops ; and the next morning the battle was resumed
with the same result. The rocks, the woods, the thickets, were bristling
with armed men ; every cottage became a post of defence, every meadow
a scene of carnage, and every stream was dyed with blood. Darkness
put an end to the combat, and still the mountaineers were unsubdued : but
in the night they received intelligence that a longer continuance of the
struggle would be unavailing. The inhabitants of Uri and Underwalden
had been driven into their valleys, a French corps was rapidly advancing
in the rear of Morgarten, and Sargans and Glarus had submitted to the
invaders. Slowly and reluctantly the men of Schwytz were brought to
yield to the inexorable necessity ; they submitted to the persuasion of
Reding, and agreed to a convention, by which they were to accept the
1798.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 107
Constitution and be allowed the use of their arms, the enjoyment of their
religion and property ; and, on the other hand, the French troops were to
withdraw from the frontier. The other small Cantons followed this exam-
ple, and peace was for a time restored to that part of Switzerland.
The period that followed these bloody hostilities, was one of bitter suffer-
ing and humiliation to the conquered people. Forty thousand men lived
upon them at free quarters; and the requisitions for the pay, clothing and
equipments of these hard task-masters, furnished a sad contrast to the illu-
sions which had seduced the urban population from their allegiance. It
was in vain that the revolutionary authorities — now themselves alive to the
miseries they had brought on their country — protested against the various
spoliations of the French Directory and their still more rapacious commis-
sioners : they were merely informed, in reply, that Switzerland was a coi»-
quered nation, and must submit to the lot of the vanquished. The Swiss
Directors, in disgust resigned thoir places ; but this was equally unavailing;
the vacancies were supplied by more subservient Directors, who formed a
treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, with France, binding Switzer-
land to furnish a contingent of troops and to submit to the construction of
two military roads through the Alps, one to Italy and one to Swabia :
conditions far worse for Switzerland than would have been an annexation
of that country to France ; since they imposed on the former all the bur-
dens and dangers of war, without either its advantages or its glories.
The discontent arising from all these grievances was fast increasing,
when the imposition of the oath to the new Constitution brought matters to
a crisis in the small Cantons : the shepherds of Underwalden unanimously
declared that they would rather perish than take the oath ; and they were
joined by the most determined men of Uri and Schwytz. Immediately,
sixteen thousand French troops were dispatched to quell this revolt — a
force so overwhelming, that the mountaineers from the first despaired of
success ; but they resolved to yield nothing, and die in defending their
rights. In their despair, they neglected both discipline and method ; yet,
such was the force of their native valor, three thousand shepherds kept at
bay sixteen thousand of the bravest troops of France. Every hedge, thicket
and cottage was obstinately defended ; the dying crawled into the hottest
of the fire ; the women and children threw themselves on the enemy's
bayonets ; but heroism and devotion were equally vain against such des-
perate odds. Slowly but steadily the French columns gained ground,
and their progress was marked by the flaming houses and bleeding corses
of the inhabitants. Near the close of the action, a band of two hundred
Schwytzers arrived on the field ; they were too late and too few to retrieve
the battle, but they perished to a man after having slain twice their num-
ber of the enemy. Night at length drew a veil over this scene of horror,
which ended in the total subjugation of these Cantons to the stern despotism
of France.
Such tragical events were little calculated to induce other states to
follow the example of the Swiss in leaguing themselves to the principles
or leaders of French democracy. The Grisons took counsel from the
disasters of their brethren in the Forest Cantons, and invoked the aid
of Austria, who, by the authority of former treaties, now guaranteed and
secured their independence.
The Ecclesiastical States of Itajy were the next to be attacked. It
had long been an avowed object of French Republican ambition, to revcu
12
1
108 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XIV.
lutioruze the Roman people, and plant the tricolor flag in the city of
Brutes: and fortune at length favored the Directory with a pretext for
accomplishing this design.
. Joseph Bonaparte, brother to Napoleon, had been appointed ambassador
at the court of Rome ; but as he was deemed too honorable a man to be
intrusted with the management of political intrigue, Generals Duphot
and Sherlock were ordered to accompany him. The French embassy,
under their direction, soon became a centre of revolutionary action; and
the numerous ardent characters with which the Italian cities ever abound,
flocked there as to a common focus, whence the next great explosion of
democratic power was to be expected. On the 27th of December, 1797,
a crowd assembled in Rome and moved to the palace of the French
ambassador, where they exclaimed, "Vive la Republique Romaine !" and
invoked the aid of the French in planting the tricolor flag on the Capitol.
In this emergency, the papal ministers sent a regiment of dragoons to
prevent a sortie of the revolutionists from the ambassador's palace ; and
these troops gave notice to the insurgents that their orders were to allow
no one to leave the place. Upon this, Duphot, indignant at being
restrained by the pontifical forces, drew his sword, rushed down the
staircase, and put himself at the head of a hundred and fifty armed
Roman democrats, who were contending with the dragoons in the court-
yard of the palace. He was instantly killed by a volley from the papal
soldiers : a violent scuffle ensued, and after passing several hours in the
greatest alarm, Joseph Bonaparte, with his suite, retired to Florence.
This catastrophe, however obviously occasioned by the revolutionary
schemes which were on foot and in agitation at the residence of the
French ambassador, did literally take place within the precincts of his
palace, and was therefore a violation of the law of nations. The Direc-
tory declared war against Rome with a promptness that showed how
eage-rly they had sought the quarrel, and Berthier received orders to
advance instantly upon the Ecclesiastical dominions. That general, at
the head of eighteen thousand veterans, entered Ancona on the 25th of
January, 1798, where he completed a revolution that had broken out a
few days before, secured its fortress, crossed the Appenines, and on the
10th of February, appeared in front of the Eternal City. The pope,
(Pius VI.,) who was now more than eighty years of age, shut himself up
in the Vatican, and spent night and day at the foot of the altar, imploring
protection from Heaven. Berthier might easily have taken possession
of Rome at once, but he preferred to avail himself of the sorry pretext
of resorting to that step only when the inhabitants invoked his aid ; and
he encamped without the walls for five days, while the revolutionists
within were completing their preparations. On the 15th of February,
all was arranged: the revolutionists, in open revolt, passed through the
streets, invited the French to enter, and Berthier hoisted the flag of the
Republic over the walls of Rome.
But the Directory did not stop at the mere conquest of the city. They
ordered the pope to retire into Tuscany, dismiss his Swiss guard, supply
their place with French soldiers, and dispossess himself of his temporal
authority. He replied with the firmness of a martyr: "I am prepared
for every kind of disgrace ; but as supreme pontiff, I am resolved to die
in the exercise of all my powers. You may employ force ; you may
become masters of my body, but not of my soul. Free in the "egioc
1798.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 109
where it is placed, it fears neither the events nor the sufferings of this
life. I stand on the threshold of another world, where T shall soon be
sheltered from the violence and impiety of this." Force was, neverthe-
less, employed by the French. The aged pontiff was dragged from the
altar in his palace, his repositories were plundered, the very rings torn
from his fingers, and he himself, with only a few domestics for attendants,
was conveyed into Tuscany, amid the brutal jests and sacrilegious songs
of the French dragoons. The subsequent treatment of this venerable
man was still more disgraceful to the Republic, Fearful that his virtues
and sufferings might produce an influence in Italy unfavorable to the
interests of France, the Directory ordered him to be removed to Leghorn,
in March, 1799. After remaining there for a time, he was compelled to
renew his journey, was conveyed across the Appenines and the Alps,
exposed, by travelling at night, to the cold of those elevated regions;
and he at length reached Valence, where he expired on the 29th of
August, in the eighty-second year of his age and the twenty- fourth of his
pontificate.
But long before the pope sunk under the persecution of his oppressors,
Rome experienced the bitter fruits of republican fraternization. Imme-
diately on the entrance of the French troops into the city, a systematic
pillage was commenced that surpassed any to which Rome had previously
been subjected : treasures of art which had survived the Gothic fire and
the rapacity of Spanish soldiers in a past age, were now borne off; and
although the bloodshed was much less, the spoil collected was incom-
parably greater than at the disastrous sack of Rome which followed the
death of the Constable de Bourbon. The work of revolution now pro-
ceeded rapidly in the Roman states. All the ancient institutions were
subverted ; the executive was made to consist of five consuls, after the
model of the French Directory; heavy contributions and forced loans
were exacted from the wealthier classes; the legislative power was
vested in two Chambers chosen by the lowest ranks, and the state was
divided into eight departments.
While the Roman states were thus undergoing fusion in the revolu-
tionary crucible, the Constitution of the Cis-Alpine Republic disappeared
as rapidly as it had been formed. The endless exactions and impositions
of the Directory soon exhausted the resources of that country, and forced
the inhabitants, in self-defence, to organize a conspiracy for throwing off
the French yoke. This plan was discovered, the existing Constitution
dissolved, and a new one established under the dictation of the French
ambassador, in which no attention was paid to the liberties or wishes of
the people.
The King of Sardinia was at this time enduring the last acts of humil-
iation from the hands of his merciless allies. The peace which this
monarch had early concluded with their victorious general, the fidelity
with which he had discharged his engagements, and the firm support, that
the possession of his fortresses had given to the French troops, could r.ct
save him from spoliation. Since his opening the gates of Italy to France
by the cession of the Piedmontese fortresses, his life had been a continual
scene of mortification and disappointment. His territories were traversed
in every direction by French columns, of whose approach he received no
notice, except a statement of the supplies they required, and these he was
compelled to furnish gratuitously. He was forced to banish all emi-
110 HISTORY OF EUR OPE. [CHAP. XIV.
grants from his dominions, and oppress his subjects by enormous contri-
butions for the use of his insatiable allies ; and, at the same time, his
provinces were filled with revolutionary clubs, openly patronized by the
French ambassador, where the dismemberment of his government was
daily proposed. In due time, the revolutionists made their demonstration
by assembling in a body, eight thousand strong, in the district of Carrioso.
The king's troops defeated them in two successive engagements ; but
here the Directory interfered ; and, on the ground of an alleged conspi-
racy in Piedmont, pretended to have been organized by the king for the
massacre of the French troops, they insisted on his surrendering to them
the invaluable fortress of Turin. He was forced to submit, and thus
divested himself of the last means of resistance. His guards were now
dismissed, and French soldiers attended him on all occasions, who, under
the semblance of respect, kept him a prisoner in his own palace. The
government was then remodeled ; French officers were appointed to
conduct it ; the arsenals, the treasury, and all remaining fortresses were
seized ; and, finally, the king was constrained to abdicate his continental
authority, and take refuge in the island of Sardinia.
The French intriguers were next occupied with the affairs of Naples,
where, since the occupation of Rome by Berthier, extensive military
preparations had been made for the protection of the government. The
revolutionary party had already widely disseminated their principles, and
excited both the alarm and indignation of the king, when news was
received of the total destruction of the French fleet at the battle of the
Nile. No words can describe the joy to which this event gave rise in
Naples ; and on the arrival of Nelson at that port with his victorious
fleet, the enthusiasm of the inhabitants was unbounded. The English
admiral was received with more than regal honors ; the king and queen
went out to meet him in the bay, and the shores were thronged by the
ardent population of the capital, who rent the air with reiterated accla-
mations. The general exultation at this period raised the courage of the
Neapolitans to rashness ; and although they took the precaution of nego-
tiating with Austria for support, and entered into a treaty for that pur-
pose, they could not be induced to wait for the cooperation of the Emperor
before they commenced hostilities. The Aulic Council, indeed, sent
General Mack to command the Neapolitan forces ; but this proceeding,
however well intended, was of incalculable injury to the cause, for
Mack's deplorable ignorance and incapacity, served only to precipitate
the ruin of the king.
The Directory, in the belief that Naples wouM not venture to take the
field, until the Austrian forces were ready to support them, had as yet
^iven no orders for concentrating their own troops, who were scattered
about over the Roman states in divisions of four or five thousand men :
consequently, the first operations of Mack were successful, and Cham-
pionnet, who commanded at Rome, was compelled to evacuate that city,
and retire upon Terni. But the Neapolitan soldiers were so inefficient
and ill-disciplined, that they fell into confusion from the mere fatigue of
the march ; and, on their advancing beyond Rome to follow up their suc-
cess, they were everywhere defeated, with the loss of prisoners, baggage
and artillery. In one instance, a body of four thousand men laid down
their arms to a French detachment of three thousand five hundred, on an
open field. Mack now speedily retreated with his scattered forces to the
1798.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. Ill
Neapolitan frontier, vigorously pursued by Championnet : within seven-
teen days from the opening of the campaign, eighteen thousand French
veterans had driven Ibefore them forty thousand Neapolitans, splendidly
dressed and abundantly equipped, but destitute of the qualities which are
requisite to success in war.
The terror inspired by these disasters was such, that the court of
Naples was conceived to be insecure in the capital ; and in the night of
the iilst of December, the whole royal family withdrew on board of Nel-
son's fleet, and embarked for Sicily, with their most valuable effects and
a large sum in specie from the public treasury. The inhabitants were in
great consternation when they learned, on the following morning, that
the royal family and ministers had fled, leaving them to defend them-
selves against the whole power of France. Nothing could be expected
from citizens, when the leaders of the state thus deserted their posts ; and
the revolutionary party, being now uncontrolled, openly took measures
against the government, and prepared the way for the approaching army
of invaders.
Championnet, meanwhile, was entering the Neapolitan territories. He
found Mack posted in a strong position behind the Volturnus : but the
native troops were so dispirited, that they scarcely awaited the onset of
the French before they retreated in every direction, and Championnet
advanced almost without resistance toward Naples. At Capua, he met
with a check that might have resulted to his injury, had Mack improved
a momentary advantage ; but the latter general, having lost confidence in
his troops, instead of striking a decisive blow, proposed an armistice ;
agreeing to deliver up Capua, Acerra and Benevento to the French, and
pay them two and a half million of francs within fifteen days. Champi-
onnet thus escaped from a dilemma with all the fruits of a great victory,
and moved on at once to Naples.
The intelligence of this armistice reached the capital before the French
army arrived there, and it excited the utmost indignation among the
lazzaroni. These men flew to arms with great unanimity, and deter-
mined to resist both the payment of the subsidy, and the entrance of the
invading forces. They drew the artillery from the arsenal, threw up
intrenchments on the heights commanding the approaches to the city, and
barricaded the principal streets. For three days, commencing on the
21st of January, 1799, a dreadful combat raged around the walls. The
French veterans came on, column after column, with the most desperate
bravery, but they were met with equal resolution by the defenders of the
town, and no material advantage had yet been gained by either party,
when, during an assault on one of the gates, Michel le Fou, the lazzaroni
leader, was made prisoner. He was conducted to the head-quarters of
the French general, where, being kindly treated, he offered to mediate
between the contending parties. This at once terminated the combat.
The French took possession of the city, disarmed the lazzaroni, appointed
a provisional government of twenty-one members, and styled the new
democratic state the Parthenopeian Republic.
Ireland was doomed next to experience the turmoil of revolutionary ex-
plosion. All the horrors of the Reign of Terror had failed to open the eyes
of the Irish people to the real tendency of French reform; nor could the
experience of other European states which had sought the aid of France
in establishing democratic governments within their dominions, teach tho
112 HISTORY OF EUR OPE.
inhabitants of Ireland the danger of intriguing with the emissaries of the
Directory. The greater part of the Catholics — who constituted three-
fourths of the inhabitants — leagued themselves together for establishing
a Republic in alliance with France ; for the severance of all connection
with England, the restoration of the Catholic religion, and the reclaiming
of lands confiscated by the British government during the various rebel-
lions that had taken place in Ireland in the two preceding centuries.
The system on which this immense insurrection was organized> was
one of the most simple and efficacious that ever was devised. Persons
in every part of Ireland were sworn into an association, called the Society
of United Irishmen, the real objects of which were kept a profound secret,
while the ostensible ones were best calculated to allure the populace.
Each meeting was represented by five persons in a committee, vested
with the management of all affairs. From every committee, a deputy
attended a superior body; one or two deputies from these composed a
county committee ; two from every county committee, a provincial com-
mittee ; and this last body elected by ballot five persons to superintend
the whole business of the Union : the names of the five thus appointed
were communicated only to the secretaries of the provincial committees,
who were officially intrusted with the canvassing of the votes. Thus,
though their power was unlimited, their agency was invisible, and some
hundred thousands of men obeyed the dictates of an unknown authority.
Liberation from tithes and dues to the Protestant clergy, and the restora-
tion of the Roman Catholic faith, were the principal inducements held out
to the lower classes; while Parliamentary reform was the ostensible
motive submitted to the country at large, that being best calculated to
conceal the ultimate design, and enlist in the cause the greater number
of the respectable classes.
To resist this formidable combination, another society, composed of
those attached to the British government and Protestant ascendency, was
formed with the title of Orangemen. The same vehement zeal and
ardent passion which have always distinguished the Irish character,
marked the efforts of the rival parties, and the feuds between them became
universal. Deeds of depredation, rapine and murder filled the land; and
it was sometimes hard to say whether the most violent acts were perpe-
trated by the open enemies of the law, or by its unruly defenders.
The British government, meantime, were not at all aware of the
extent of the danger. They had received only some vague information
of the existence of a seditious confederacy, at the moment when the insur-
rection was on the point of breaking out. But at this juncture, the de-
struction of the Dutch fleet off Camperdown having deprived the insurgents
of the expected aid from France, by destroying the means of transporting
the French troops, the malcontents became desperate and commenced the
rebellion without any concentrated action. They maintained, therefore,
a Vendean system of warfare in the southern counties, and compelled all
the respectable inhabitants to fly to the towns for safety from massacre
and conflagration. These disorders were soon repressed, and with great
severity, by the British regular troops, aided by forty thousand yeomanry
of the country : but the excesses of the government forces, inseparable
from this sort of strife, excited the deepest feeling of revenge in the furious
and undisciplined multitude.
On the 19th of February, 1798, Lord Moira made an eloquent speech
1798.5 HISTORY OF EUROPE. 113
m the British Parliament in favor of the insurgents ; but the period for
accommodation was past. On the same day, the Irish committees came
to a formal resolution to regard no offers from either house of Parliamert,
and agree to no terms but a total separation from Great Britain. Although
the designs of the insurgents were now revealed, the names of the leaders
were unknown, till at length, one of the chiefs having betrayed this in-
formation, fourteen of the principal individuals were arrested at Dublin.
The conspirators were thus deprived of their most respectable and intelli-
gent leaders ; but the rebellion nevertheless broke out in different parts
of Ireland, on the 23rd of May. A great number of isolated combats
took place, and two or three pitched battles occurred, between the rebels
and the regular troops, which were accompanied and followed by a thou-
sand acts of ferocious cruelty ; but in the event, the discipline and skill
of the government soldiers prevailed, and by the end of July the insurgents
were entirely subdued, excepting a few scattered bands in the mountains
of Wicklow and Wexford.
So unbounded was the arrogance, and so reckless the policy, of the
French government at this time, they nearly involved themselves in a
war with the United States of North America ; a country where demo-
cratic institutions prevailed to the greatest extent, and where gratitude to
France was unbounded for services rendered during the American war
with Great Britain.
The origin of the difficulty was a decree of the Directory, issued in
January, 1798, ordering that all ships having for their cargoes, in whole
or in part, English merchandise, should be lawful prize, whoever was the
proprietor of such merchandise, which should be held contraband from
the single fact of its coming from England or from any of its colonies ;
that the harbors of France should be shut against all vessels which had
so much as touched at an English harbor, and that neutral sailors found
on board of English vessels should be put to death. This barbarous
decree immediately brought France into collision with the United States,
as the ships of the latter country were at that period the great neutral
carriers of the world. Letters of marque were issued by the Directory,
and an immense number of American vessels which had touched at Eng-
lish ports, were brought into France. The American government sent
envoys to Paris to remonstrate against these proceedings: they were
however denied an audience with the Directory, but permitted to remain
in Paris, and addressed by Talleyrand and his inferior agents. It was
then intimated to the envoys that the intention of the Directory when re-
fusing to receive them in a public, and yet permitting them to remain in
a private capacity, was to lay the United States under a contribution of
five millions of dollars as a loan to the French government, and two hun-
dred and fifty thousand dollars for the private use of the Directors. This
disgraceful proposal was urged on the envoys, not only by the subaltern
agents, but by Talleyrand himself, who openly avowed that nothing could
be done at Paris without money. These terms were indignantly rejected ;
the envoys left Paris ; letters of marque were issued by the American
President ; all commercial intercourse with France was suspended ;
Washington was appointed generalissimo of the forces of the United States ;
the treaties with France were declared to be at an end ; and every pre-
paration was made to sustain the national independence.
The Hanse Towns were not fortunate enough to escape the exactions
114 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XV,
of the Directory. Their distance from the scene of contest ; their neu-
trality, so favorable to the commerce of the Republic; the protection
openly afforded them by Prussia, could not save them from French rapa-
city. Their ships, bearing a neutral flag, were daily captured by the
French cruisers ; and they at length purchased a license to navigate the
high seas by secretly paying near four millions of francs to the Repub-
lican rulers.
So long as the European states retained the slightest hope of maintaining
their independence, these incessant usurpations of the French government
could not fail to bring about a renewal of the war. France had made
more rapid strides toward universal dominion during one year of pacific
encroachment, than in the six preceding years of hostility. The continu
ance of amicable relations was favorable to the secret propagation of the
revolutionary mania; and, without the shock of war, the independence of
the nations was silently melting away before the insidious but incessant
efforts of democratic ambition. These considerations, strongly excited
by the infamous subjugation of Switzerland and of the Papal States, led
to a general feeling throughout all the European monarchies of the ne-
cessity of a coalition to resist the farther encroachments of France. The
Emperor of Russia evinced his readiness to join in such a confederacy ;
while the Emperor of Austria, meeting numberless difficulties in adjusting
with the French government the details of the treaty of Campo Formio,
virtually dissolved that compact by certain military preparations, which
were considered equivalent to a declaration of war against France.
CHAPTER XV.
CAMPAIGN OF 1799.
ALTHOUGH Austria was, to outward appearance, at peace with France
after the armistice of Leoben, she had been indefatigable in her exertions,
since that event, to prepare for a renewal of the war. Her army was
raised to two hundred and forty thousand men, supported by an immense
train of artillery, all admirably equipped and ready to take the field.
The Emperor of' Russia embarked warmly in the cause, and ordered
a Muscovite army of sixty thousand men to begin its march from Poland
toward the north of Italy ; he also concluded a treaty of alliance, offen-
sive and defensive, with Great Britain, engaging to furnish an auxiliary
force of forty-five thousand men, to act in conjunction with the British
forces in the north of Germany ; and England, on her part, agreed to
advance two hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds sterling to the
Emperor, and pay, besides, a monthly subsidy of seventy-five thousand
pounds. Paul at the same time gave an asylum to Louis XVIII. in the
capital of Courland, and entertained with munificence the French emi-
grants who sought refuge in his dominions. But all his efforts failed to
induce Prussia to swerve from her neutrality : she stood by as an uncon-
cerned spectator of a strife in which her own independence was at stake,
when her army, now two hundred and twenty 'housand strong, might have
1799.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 115
interfered with decisive effect. She was rewarded for her forbearance by
the battle of Jena.
Great Britain also exerted herself for the approaching contest. To
meet the increased expenses which the treaty with Russia and the prose-
cution of the war were likely to occasion, Mr. Pitt proposed a tax hitherto
unknown in Britain, and now designated the Income Tax. It was thus
graduated : all incomes of less than sixty pounds a year were exempt from
the impost ; those of less than one hundred and five pounds paid a tax of
two and a half per cent. ; and those over two hundred pounds, ten per cent.
The intention of this tax was to require from each person a contribution
to the wants of the state in exact proportion to his ability ; an admirable
theory, and, if carried fully into effect, would have gone far toward re-
lieving the financial embarrassments consequent on the war. The land
forces of Great Britain were this year raised to one hundred and thirty-
eight thousand men, the sea force to one hundred and twenty thousand,
and one hundred and twenty thousand were embodied in the militia.
The forces of the Republic were greatly inferior to those of the allies
at the opening of the campaign. Their numbers were reduced by dis-
charges and desertions to an unprecedented extent ; their choicest troops
were exiled in Egypt ; and the officers of the armies in the conquered
provinces, were so much more intent on political intrigues and rapine than
on the proper discipline and regulation of the soldiers, that their effective
strength was much impaired. Nevertheless, the French commenced hos-
tilities in the Grisons with considerable success ; and in a series of actions
in this quarter, during the month of March, made themselves masters of
the upper extremity of the two great valleys of the Tyrol, the Inn and the
Adige. Massena and Oudinot then advanced to Feldkirch, a fortress
situated on a rocky eminence and commanding the principal passage from
the Vorarlberg into the Tyrol : but here they met with a serious repulse,
and retreated with the loss of three thousand men.
In the mean time, Jourdan opened the campaign on the Rhine, which
river he crossed at Kehl, and marched thence toward the Black Forest ;
but learning that the Archduke was approaching with superior forces, he
moved to a strong position between the Lake of Constance and the Danube..
The Austrians commenced the attack on the advanced guard of the Re-
publicans at Ostrach, and were for a time bravely resisted ; but at length
the French left wing, under St. Cyr, having been outflanked at Mengen,
Jourdan was forced to retreat with his whole army to Stockach. At this
place, all the roads to Swabia, Switzerland and the valley of the Neckar
unite, and Jourdan here made a stand, because by further retreat he would
have abandoned his communications with Massena and the Grisons. The
Archduke followed closely the retiring columns of the French, and was
making his dispositions to attack, when Jourdan resolved to anticipate him
in that movement. At five o'clock in the morning, on the 26th of March,
all the French columns were in order of battle, and the left wing, under
St. Cyr and Soult, was soon engaged with the Austrian right at Liptingen.
This attack, after an obstinate resistance on the part of the Austrians, was
successful ; and as their right was turned, the victory seemed to be decided
in favor of the French. But the Archduke hastened to the scene of danger
with twelve squadrons of cuirassiers and six battalions of grenadiers, who
soon changed the fortune of the day. The battle now raged along the
whole line, each party contesting its ground with the greatest bravery ;
116 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XV.
but the Austrians at length succeeded in cutting off the French left wing
so entirely from the main body, that St. Cyr was forced to retreat across
the Danube, and trust to his own resources for escape in a hostile country.
The French centre and right had hitherto maintained their position ; but
after St. Cyr's discomfiture, they fell back toward the Black Forest.
Jourdan was so much disconcerted by the result of this action, that, after
reaching the defiles of the Forest, he surrendered the command of the
army temporarily to Ernouf, chief of the staff, and set out for Paris to
inform the Directory of the condition of the troops.
The Austrians had now an opportunity to overwhelm the French army
on its retreat, and the Archduke burned with impatience to crush the
invaders by a decisive blow ; but he was restrained by the injudicious
measures of the Aulic Council, who forbade his advance toward the Rhine
until Switzerland was cleared of the enemy. He was therefore compelled
to put his army into cantonments between Engen and Wahlweis, and the
French leisurely effected their retreat through the Black Forest.
While these operations were in progress north of the Alps, events
equally important were taking place in Italy, where Scherer had been
placed in command of the French army. This officer had gained some
distinction in the Alps and Pyrenees, in the campaign of 1795, but he
was unknown to the Italian army, and possessed the confidence neither
of his officers nor soldiers. His first movement was upon the Austrian
camp at Pastrengo, where his left wing and centre were victorious, but
his right suffered so severely from the Austrians under General Kray,
that the advantages of the battle were nearly divided between the two
armies. This occurred on the 26th of March. On the 30th, Scherer
resolved to attempt the passage of the Adige and push on to Verona ; and
he ordered Serrurier with seven thousand men to cross at Polo, which
that general accordingly did, and advanced boldly on the high road lead-
ing to Trent : but he was attacked by Kray, and defeated with a loss in
killed and prisoners of nearly three thousand men. Notwithstanding this
check, Scherer persisted in his design on Verona, and concentrated his
army near Magnano, where Kray attacked him on the 5th of April. The
French forces amounted to forty-one thousand men, and the Austrians to
forty-five thousand. For several hours victory inclined to the Republican
standard, and the Imperialists were gradually losing ground, when Kray
brought up a large reserve of artillery and cavalry, who soon drove the
French from the field. Scherer retreated behind the Tartaro, carrying
with him two thousand prisoners and several pieces of cannon taken early
in the action ; but his own loss was four thousand killed and wounded,
four thousand prisoners, seven standards, eight pieces of cannon and forty
caissons, which fell into the hands of the Imperialists.
The Republicans were thrown into the deepest dejection by this defeat :
they retired on the day following behind the Mincio; and Scherer, not
feeling himself in security even there, continued his retreat across the
Oglio and the Adda. This retrograde movement was performed in such
haste and confusion that the troops loudly complained of their commander's
incapacity, and demanded his removal. Their discontent, and that of all
France, was further augmented by intelligence of the capitulation of
Corfu, which surrendered to the combined forces of Turkey and Russia
on the 3rd of March.
Massena, who after Jourdan's withdrawal was intrusted with the com.
1799.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 117
mand of the French forces both on the Rhine and in the Alps, now found
himself under the necessity of taking a defensive position in the Grisons,
as the defeat of the army of Italy threatened to bring Kray's victorious
divisions on his flank. He therefore intrenched himself on the line of the
Limmat and Linth, and established his head-quarters at Zurich.
The Archduke resumed the offensive by a general attack on Massena's
whole line, on the 14th of May, which was so far successful that Massena,
after sustaining a loss of near five thousand men in prisoners alone, was
forced to retreat from the Grisons and collect his whole force around
Zurich. The Austrian loss in this movement was only seventy-one men;
an extraordinary but well- authenticated proof of the advantage of offensive
operations in mountain warfare, and of the great disasters to which the
best troops are subjected by being exposed, when acting on the defensive,
to the loss of their communications by having their positions turned.
Encouraged by this success, and by the near approach of the Russian
army, the Archduke issued a proclamation exhorting the Swiss to take up
arms against their oppressors and cooperate with him in driving them to
their own frontier. At the same time, he ordered a concentration of all
his forces, and prepared for a vigorous attack on Massena. The latter
general, anxious to prevent a junction between Hotze and the Archduke,
left his intrenchments and attacked the Imperialists' advanced guard at
Stein. An indecisive action ensued, which, though resulting in favor of
the French, did not prevent the junction of the Austrian forces ; and the
following day, the Archduke retaliated on the French columns and drove*
them back to their intrenchments. This repulse of the French centre was
followed by a defeat of their right wing under Lecourbe ; who, being as-
sailed by a detachment of ten thousand men from Suwarrow's army, was
forced to abandon the heights of St. Gothard. The Archduke now resolved
to attack Massena in his almost impregnable position at Zurich ; and, hav-
ing drawn together the principal part of his forces, pushed them forward
to the French lines on the 5th of June. A desperate battle took place,
but Massena maintained his ground against the utmost impetuosity of the
Austrian assault, and the Archduke was at length compelled to retire with
a loss of three thousand men. He was not, however, discouraged by this
failure ; and after one day's repose, made his dispositions to renew the
attack : but Massena, apprehensive of the result, retreated during the night
to Mount Albis, leaving behind him one hundred and fifty pieces of can-
non and an immense quantity of warlike stores.
A few' days after the battle of Magnano, Suwarrow, with his Russian
veterans, joined the Austrian army, which was still encamped on the banks
of the Mincio ; and the command of the whole devolved on the Russian
field-marshal. Suwarrow's favorite weapon was the bayonet ; his system
of war, incessant and vigorous attack ; and the temper of hn mind, as well
as the general character of his tactics, was aptly illustrated by his first
order to General Chastelar, chief of the Austrian staff. That officer having
proposed to reconnoitre the French position, Suwarrow answered hastily :
" Reconnoitre ! that does not belong to my system : it is of no use but to
the timid, and to inform the enemy that you are coming. It is never dif-
ficult to find your opponents when you really wish to find them. No !
Form column; charge bayonet; plunge into the centre of the enemy — that
is my way to reconnoitre !"
Moreau, who had superseded Scherer in the command of the French
118 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [CiiAi\ XV.
army, finding his forces reduced by sickness and the sword to twenty-eight
thousand combatants, retired toward Milan, leaving a large quantity of
military stores and reserved artillery parks at Cremona, to the allies.
Suwarrow detached twenty thousand men under Kray to besiege Peschiera
and blockade Mantua, while he, with the main body of his troops, pursued
the retreating army of Moreau. On the 25th of April, he reached the
Adda, and prepared to force a passage across it. Moreau made his dis-
positions to oppose the passage at what he conceived to be the most exposed
part of the river ; but while his attention was occupied with the allied
centre, a detachment of Austrians under General Ott succeeded in con-
structing a bridge during the night at Trezzo, and passed over the whole
right wing, while Wukassowich surprised the passage at Brivio. These
movements were decisive. Grenier's division was driven toward Milan
with a loss of two thousand five hundred men, and Serrurier, being isolated
by Wukassowich, and at length entirely surrounded by the allies, was
forced to surrender with his whole corps, seven thousand strong. Su-
warrow pressed forward to Milan, and made a triumphal entry there on
the 29th of April ; while Moreau, having left three thousand men to gar-
rison the citadel of Milan, evacuated the town, divided the remnant of his
army into two columns, marched with one to Turin, and dispatched the
other, under Victor and Laboissiere, toward Alexandria, to occupy the
approaches to Genoa.
Suwarrow was now master of all the plains of Lombardy, and at the
head of an overwhelming force ; but he did not evince that activity in fol-
lowing up his adversary which might have been expected from the general
vigor of his character. In the mean time, Kray was gaining ground in the
rear. Orci, Novi, Peschiera and Pizzighitone surrendered to his arms,
with a hundred pieces of cannon, twenty gun-boats, a siege equipage and
immense stores of ammunition and provisions ; which acquisitions enabled
him to draw closer the blockade of Mantua.
At length, after giving himself up to the festivities of Milan for more
than a week, Suwarrow left four thousand men to blockade the citadel of
that town, and set out for Alexandria. On the night of the llth of May,
one of his divisions, under Rosenberg, was defeated in an attempt to cross
the Po ; and on the day following, an action took place between his ad-
vanced guard under Bagrathion and the French division of Victor, near
Alexandria ; when the Republicans, after an obstinate defence, were
forced to retreat under shelter of the cannon of Alexandria. Moreau now
ordered Victor to retire to Genoa, while he himself retreated to Turin ;
whither Suwarrow eagerly pursued him. On the 27th of May, Wukas-
sowich, with the Russian advanced guard, having by the assistance of the
inhabitants surprised one of the gates, the allies-forced their way into the
town and the French retreated to the citadel, leaving in the hands of the
victors two hundred and sixty-one pieces of cannon, eighty mortars, sixty
thousand muskets, and all the ammunition and stores which had been ac.
cumulating there since the first occupation of Italy by Napoleon. On the
same day, Suwarrow received intelligence of the surrender of the citadel
of Milan ; an event which enabled the besieging force of that fortress to
join with the army before Mantua, and the artillery was dispatched to
Tortona, which place was now closely invested. After the capture of
Turin, Moreau's position became nearly desperate ; but by constructing,
with herculean labor, a practicable road across the Appenines, he at length
1799.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 119
made good his retreat to Loano, where he effected a junction with Victor's
troops. Thus, in less than three months from the opening of the campaign
on the Adige, the French standards were driven to the summit of the
Alps ; the whole plain of Lornbardy, excepting a few of its fortresses, was
regained ; and the conquests of Napoleon were lost to France in less time
than he had taken to achieve them.
The affairs of Naples began to attract attention while these events were
yet in progress. The exactions of the Directory, the desecration of the
churches, and the abolition of religious festivals, had of late excited in the
inhabitants of that kingdom the most lively indignation and horror, and
insurrections were the immediate consequence. At this juncture, Mac-
donald, who was in command of the Republican troops at Naples, received
orders, on the 7th of May, to evacuate the South of Italy and hasten to
the support of Moreau, in Lombardy. He therefore assembled all his
disposable forces, and set off for Rome at the head of twenty thousand men ;
and although his movement was a signal for a general rising on the part
of the Neapolitans, and his march was harassed by their attacks at every
step, he reached that city on the 16th, and advanced as far as Lucca by
the end of the month, without serious loss.
Macdonald was now in full communication with Moreau, and as their
united forces amounted to thirty-seven thousand effective troops, they de-
termined to resume the offensive, relieve Mantua and Tortona in the first
instance, and afterward compel the allies to evacuate Lombardy. The.
allied troops at this moment in Italy exceeded a hundred thousand men,
but they were dispersed over a large surface, and not more than eight-and-
twenty thousand were assembled at any one point ; so that the project of
the Republican generals was not without promise of success. Macdonald
therefore pushed on to Modena, where Hohenzollern, with five thousand
Austrians, was in command, and quickly defeated him with a loss of fifteen
hundred men. The French general hastened thence to Parma, where
Ott was stationed with six thousand troops : and he, too, was compelled to
make a precipitate retreat.
The moment that Suwarrow heard of Macdonald's advance, he prepared
to meet him with an energy befitting the emergency ; and by his great
exertions and the promptness with which his plans of combination were
carried out, no less than thirty-six thousand troops were assembled at
Garofalo on the 15th of June. Macdonald nevertheless pressed forward,
not knowing the amount of the allied forces, and on the 17th crossed the
Trebbia and attacked the advanced guard of the Imperialists. This corps
was soon driven back and pursued until the columns of the main body,
under Suwarrow, came up, when the French in turn gave ground. Vic-
tor brought up his division to protect the retreat of the Republicans, who
retired in good order until the Cossacks charged them in flank ; when, in
spite of the discipline of the troops and the coolness with which they threw
themselves into squares to resist the onset of these children of the desert,
the French ranks were broken and a great part of their division cut to
pieces. A column of allies pursued the fugitives across the Trebbia, but
they were repulsed by the French main body ; and here, for the day, the
combat terminated. The hostile armies bivouacked that night on the same
ground which, nineteen hundred years before, was occupied by Hannibal
and the Roman legions. The battle was renewed at six o'clock the fol-
lowing morning between the troops of Bagrathion and the French left under
10
120 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XV.
Victor, who contested the ground through the whole day, at the close of
which Victor was driven back with great slaughter. In the course of the
day, the action became general, but the result was at all points the same.
The French retired with loss to their former ground, and again the Trebbia
formed the line of separation between the two armies for the night. On
the 19th of June, the sun rose for the third time on this scene of slaughter ;
and at ten o'clock the whole French army, divided into two lines presented
itself on the opposite side of the river. Suwarrow gave the order to attack ;
but at the same moment, he saw the first French line advance and throw
themselves into the stream. Suwarrow awaited their approach ; and,
after a murderous strife, the Republicans were overwhelmed and driven
back across the river with great loss. At this moment, Prince Lich-
tenstein charged the second line, that had advanced to support the first,
and again the steady valor of the allies prevailed. The French were
driven back, and the battle was at an end. The total loss on each side
w.as about twelve thousand men killed and wounded, but the victoiy re-
mained with the allies, as they had constantly defeated the French advance
and finally retained possession of the field. Macdonald retreated toward
the Appenines during the night of the 19th of June.
Early in the morning of the 20th, a dispatch from Macdonald to Moreau
was intercepted, designating the line of the French retreat ; whereupon,
Suwarrow immediately pushed forward in pursuit. Victor's detachment
in the rear was soon overtaken, broken, and the greater part made
prisoners. The Austrian General Melas advanced to Placentia, where
he made prisoners of the French wounded, five thousand in number,
including four generals: and at length Macdonald, with a straggling
remnant of his army, reached Parma, and proceeded thence slowly to
Genoa ; while Suwarrow retraced his steps, to press with renewed vigor
the blockade of Mantua and Tortona. He soon received intelligence of
the fall of the citadel of Turin, the garrison of which capitulated, June
20th, on condition of being sent back to France. This was a conquest
of great importance, as it relieved the besieging force, and enabled it to
join the main army, besides putting in possession of the allies one of the
strongest fortresses in Piedmont, with six hundred and eighteen pieces
of cannon, forty thousand muskets, and fifty thousand quintals of powder.
Mutual exhaustion, and the intervening ridge of the Appenines, now
compelled a cessation of hostilities for more than a month, during which
time both parties were engaged in reorganizing their forces.
The retreat of Macdonald from Naples, was immediately followed by
the king's taking possession of his throne, and the deliverance of the
Neapolitan dominions from the French yoke, which was accomplished
with the assistance of the British and Russian fleets. The French gar-
risons of the several fortresses that were forced to surrender, were sent
home in conformity to the conditions of the capitulation; but the insurgent
N apolitans, who acted with the French in accomplishing the Revolution,
were handed over to a military commission, and executed without mercy.
A part of these executions were wholly unjustifiable, the insurgents hav-
ing, in some instances, been expressly included in the capitulations, and
surrendered on condition of security to their persons and property. But
on the arrival of the king and his court, on board Nelson's fleet, these
conditions were annulled, as not having received the royal sanction, and
Nelson himself concurred with the king in that outrageous decision.
1799.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 121
These victims, accordingly, suffered death with the rest ; and their blood
has left an ineffaceable stain on the character of the British admiral and
the Neapolitan sovereign. The fate of Prince Francis Carraccioli was
equally conspicuous and deplorable. He had been one of the principal
leaders of the Revolution, and, after the capitulation, retired to the
mountains, where he was betrayed by a servant, and brought on board
of Nelson's own ship. Here, a court-martial was summoned, and the
old man was condemned, hung at the yard-arm, and thrown into the sea.
The blockade of Mantua, which had been maintained with rigor during
the cessation of hostilities, was now changed to a siege. Trenches were
opened on the 14th of July; on the 24th, all the besiegers' batteries were
brought to bear on the outworks, and the defences of the fortress rapidly
sunk before the storm of two hundred pieces of heavy artillery. On the
30th of July, the garrison, reduced to seven thousand five hundred men,
surrendered on condition of being sent back to France and not serving
again until regularly exchanged. The fortress of Alexandria had already
surrendered to the allies under Count Bellegarde, and Suwarrow, on the
2nd of August, concentrated his forces around Coni and commenced the
siege of Tortona, which place at length capitulated on the llth of Sep-
tember. In the mean time, however, the French army under Joubert,
who had been appointed to supersede Moreau, advanced to raise the siege
of the latter place. His movements showed that he was ill-qualified for
the command he had assumed, as, in defiance of the advice of his officers,
he unnecessarily exposed himself at Novi, in a disadvantageous position,
and with forces inferior to the allies. He was not long in discovering
his error, but it was too late to repair it, for Suwarrow hastened to attack
him before he could retreat. The action was commenced by Kray, at
five o'clock in the morning of the 15th of August; he directed his move-
ment against the French right, and was followed by Bellegarde and Ott,
who, severally, attacked the left and centre. The Republicans resisted
this onset with great bravery, but the allies, nevertheless, were gaining
upon them on the left, when Joubert, placing himself at the head of the
wavering line, was struck down by a musket-ball, and expired, crying,
" Forward, my brave fellows ! forward !" Moreau immediately took the
command, and repaired the confusion that followed the death of Joubert.
For four successive hours the French stood firm, resisting the reiterated
attacks of the allies, and repelling them with a steady slaughter, that
would have discouraged a less resolute commander than Suwarrow. At
length, when the efforts of both armies were relaxing from fatigue, Melas
was ordered to charge with the allied reserve on the French right. This
attack decided the battle. The Republicans were speedily thrown into
disorder by the onset of fresh troops ; and, although for a time Moreau
kept his centre steady, to protect a retreat that became inevitable, the
impetuous assaults of the allies soon converted the retrograde movement
into a rout : infantry, cavalry and artillery disbanded and fled in tumult-
uous confusion, and the scattered troops at length rallied at Gavi, only
because the allies were too much exhausted to continue the pursuit.
The loss of the allies in this action was seven thousand killed and
wounded, and twelve hundred prisoners; and that of the French, seven
thousand killed and wounded, three thousand prisoners, thirty-seven
pieces of cannon, twenty-eight caissons and four standards. After the
battle, Suwarrow, in obedience to his orders, detached Kray to the Tessino
122 HJSTORYOFEUROPE. [CHAP. XV.
with twelve thousand men ; and, on the surrender of Tortona, himself
followed the same route with seventeen thousand ; while Moreau retired
into the fastnesses of the Appenines.
When Zurich surrendered and Massena retreated to Mount Albis, the
Archduke established the greater part of his forces on the hills which
separate the Glatt from the Limmat, and placed a line of posts along that
river and the Aar, to observe the movements of the Republicans. Each
of the opposing armies in Switzerland numbered about seventy-five thou-
sand combatants, and both were waiting for reinforcements ; but, as the
auxiliaries expected by the Archduke under Korsakow were much the
more important in strength, Massena resolved to assume the offensive
before that officer could arrive. At the time that the French commander
was making preparations for this purpose, the Aulic Council gave him
every facility for success, by insanely ordering the Archduke to depart
with hid veterans for the Rhine ; leaving his position to be occupied by
Korsakow'g Russians, who were yet unskilled in mountain warfare and
unacquainted with French tactics. It was in vain that the Archduke
remonstrated against the ruinous policy of this division of forces : he was
eut short by the court of Vienna with the direction to " execute their will,
without further objections."
The result of these movements was what might have been anticipated.
Massena's troops commenced their march on the 14th of August, and
made a simultaneous attack on several points of the allied position, in
every one of which they were successful. The centre was forced back
almost to Zurich ; the Swiss and Imperialists were expelled from Schwytz ;
the elevated and important post of Wasen was taken ; the Grimsel and
the Furca were evacuated: in short, the whole left wing of the allies
was routed in less than forty-eight hours, with the loss of ten pieces of
cannon, four thousand prisoners, two thousand killed and wounded, and
St., Gothard, with all its approaches and lateral valleys, was taken by
the French. Korsakow now collected his forces around Zurich, and
dispatched couriers to hasten the advance of Suwarrow, who was coming
to his aid. Massena, however, resolved to follow up his success before
the Russian field-marshal's arrival. On the 24th of September, he
planned two attacks on Korsakow's position; one a feigned attack on
Zurich in front, and while drawing the attention of the allies to this
point, he purposed to cross the river with the bulk of his army farther
down, where it was slightly defended, and, by turning the allied centre,
make a simultaneous assault in both front and rear. This plan was
executed with great precision and ability. While the Russian com-
mander was steadily resisting the feigned attack in front, arid congratu-
lating himself on an easy victory when he should move forward to secure
it, he was alarmed, and presently his whole army was thrown into
confusion, by the French demonstration in his rear. The approach of
night terminated the contest for the moment, and Massena, fully aware
of his advantage, summoned the Russian general to surrender: but
Korsakow, who had formed the desperate resolution of cutting his way
through the enemy's line, sent no answer to the proposal.
At daybreak, on the 28th of Sept'r, the allies issued from their in-
trenchments, and attacked the French divisions on the road to Winterthur.
The French made an obstinate resistance ; but the allied troops, fighting
with the courage of despair, were invincible, and Soon opened a passage
1799.] HISTORY OF EUR OPE. 123
for retreat. Unfortunately, Korsakow, in arranging his column had, in
defiance alike of common sense and military rule, placed his infantry in
front, his cavalry in the centre, and his artillery and equipages in the rear,
He effected a retreat with the infantry and cavalry ; but his whole ar-
tillery was lost, and Zurich, thus abandoned, speedily surrendered to
the Republican arms. Korsakow's total loss was eight thousand killed
and wounded, and five thousand prisoners. Soult, on the same day, made
a successful attack on the right wing of the allies, under Hotze, in which
the latter officer was slain, and his division driven across the Rhine, with
a loss of three thousand prisoners and twenty pieces of cannon.
Suwarrow, in the mean time, was pressing forward to the assistance of
Korsakow. On the 21st of September, he arrived at the foot of the moun-
tains, crested by St. Gothard, where General Gudin was strongly posted
with four thousand Republican troops. The Russians pushed bravely up
the steep zigzag ascent, but were arrested by the incessant fire of the
sharp-shooters, who, posted behind rocks and trees, caused every shot to
tell on the dense mass of their opponents, while, in return, the Russians
could make no impression on the scattered and invisible enemy. Irritated
by these obstacles, the old marshal advanced to the front of his column,
laid himself down in a ditch, and declared his resolution "to be buried on
the ground where his children had retreated for the first time." This
appeal was irresistible. The Russians renewed their march, sustained
the fire of the French without flinching, and carried the summit of St:
Gothard at the point of the bayonet. Lecourbe, who was stationed beyond
this pass with the French reserve, now found his position turned and had
no alternative but a retreat. He therefore, during the night, threw his
artillery into the Reuss, and retired down the valley of Schollenen, de-
stroying the Devil's Bridge to secure his rear. Suwarrow followed close
upon his steps, renewed the bridge under a storm of artillery and musketry,
and formed a junction with Auffenberg at Wasen. When the Russian
commander arrived at Altdorf, however, he learned the news of Korsa-
kow's defeat ; and as, by Massena's advance, his own line of march was
interrupted, he was forced to turn and attempt a junction with the Austrians
by passing through the terrible defile of Shachenthal. No words can do
justice to the difficulties and perils braved by the Russians in this retro-
grade movement. They were compelled to abandon their artillery and
baggage, and march in a single file up rocky paths, almost inaccessible
to the chamois-hunter. The passage was at length achieved with great
loss, and Suwarrow arrived at Mutten, where, in conformity to the plan
of his march, he was to have met two Austrian corps. But the disasters
of Korsakow had deranged all the combinations on this side of the
Alps, and the brave Russian chief found himself in an isolated position,
v/ithout artillery and baggage, and surrounded by an overwhelming force.
He immediately called a council of war, and, following the dictates of his
own impetuous courage, proposed to advance on Schwytz in the rear of
the French position at Zurich : but this rash project was overruled by
his more prudent officers, who at length, and with the utmost difficulty,
persuaded the veteran conqueror to change his plans, and, for the firsl
time in his life, to order a retreat.
Preceded by the Austrian division of Aufifenberg, the Russians now
ascended M6nt Bragel, driving before them the detachments of Molitor,
who disputed every foot of ground, and finally took post at Naefels, where
13*
124 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XV
he resolutely withstood the Russian advance, and resisted all attempts to
dislodge him. Suwarrow, being thus foiled, changed his line of retreat and
moved toward the Grisons by Engi, Matt, and the valley of Sernst. This
route offered difficulties even greater than were encountered in the defile
of Shachenthal, for in addition to the ordinary perils of the way, a fall of
snow had just obliterated all traces of the path over the mountains. No
cottages were to be found in these dreary and sterile wastes ; not even trees
were there to light up the cheerful fires of the bivouac : vast gray rocks,
rising at intervals above the snow, alone broke the mournful uniformity of
the scene ; and under their shelter, or on the open surface of the mountain,
the soldiers were forced to lie down and pass a long autumnal night. But
nothing could overcome the indomitable spirit of the Russians. They
struggled on through hardships that would have daunted any other soldiers,
and at length the straggling army was rallied in the valley of the Rhine,
and head-quarters were established atllantz, on the 10th of October.
In the mean time, Korsakow having reorganized his army, halted at
Busingen, and turned successfully on his pursuers : and the Archduke,
who since his joining the army of the Rhine had, by a brilliant coup de
main, taken possession of Manheim, moved forward from that place to
support the Russian corps.
This succession of disasters at the close of a campaign that had opened
so brilliantly, led to an unfortunate jealousy between the Anstrians and
Russians. Each party laid on the other the blame of its defeats, and
severe recriminations followed. While they were in this state of mind,
Suwarrow proposed to the Archduke a renewal of offensive operations
against the French lines, on the banks of the Thur ; to which the Arch-
duke with reason objected, as an unnecessary exposure of their troops, but
recommended a joint movement in Switzerland. The old marshal, irri-
tated at the disapproval of his plan by a younger officer, and soured by
his late discomfiture, replied in angry terms, that his troops were not
adapted to any further operation in the mountains ; but that, on the con-
trary, they needed repose. And he immediately moved them to winter-
quarters in Bavaria. This event was, in due time, followed by a rupture
between the cabinets of St. Petersburg and Vienna.
On the 22nd of June, in this year, a special treaty was concluded between
Great Britain and Russia, for the purpose of reestablishing the Stadtholder
in Holland, and terminating the revolutionary tyranny under which that
country had for some time groaned. Russia agreed to furnish seventeen
thousand men for the expedition, and England, in addition to sending thir-
teen thousand troops to act in conjunction with the Russians, was to pay
forty-four thousand pounds sterling a month, for the support of their allies,
and sustain the joint operation of these land forces, by the cooperation of
her navy. The landing of the British troops on the coast of Holland, was
accomplished on the 27th of August, under cover of the fire of the ships ;
and Sir Ralph Abercromby, who commanded the army, immediately took
possession of the fort of the Helder. The British squadron then entered
the Texel and summoned the Dutch fleet, under Admiral Story, consist-
ing of eight ships of the line, three of fifty-four guns, eight of forty-four
and six smaller frigates. At sight of the British flag, symptoms of insub-
ordination appeared among the Dutch sailors ; and the admiral, unable to
escape, and despairing of assistance, surrendered without firing a shot.
As the Russian troops had not yet arrived, the English commander
I799.J HISTORY OF EUROPE. 125
remained on the defensive, and thus gave the Republicans time to assem-
ble their forces, to the number of twenty-four thousand, including seven
thousand French soldiers. General Brune was placed at the head of tins
army, and he attacked the British position on the 10th of September : but,
after a well contested action, he was repulsed wi'th a loss of two thousand
men. Soon after this, the Russian contingent, seventeen thousand strong,
and an English reenforcement of seven thousand joined the British army,
and the Dux;e of York assumed the command. Being now in sufficient
force to warrant offensive operations, the Duke resolved to attack the
enemy. He moved forward for this purpose, on the 19th of September,
commencing the action with the Russians on his right wing. These troops,
however, advanced too rapidly, and fell into some disorder before they
encountered their antagonists, who, receiving them with great steadiness,
bore them back at the point of the bayonet. The English centre and left
were more successful : they had gained on the enemy in every attack, and
were beginning to feel assured of a complete victory, when the retreat of
the Russian right wing left their flank uncovered, and forced them to fall
back to their intrenchments.
The Duke of York, not discouraged by this repulse, renewed his attack
on the 2nd of October, at six o'clock in the morning. On this occasion,
the Russians retrieved their late disgrace by an impetuous onset, which
carried everything before them ; and, being well seconded by the British
centre, the Republican position was speedily turned, and Brune retreated
with a loss of three thousand men and seven pieces of cannon.
Notwithstanding this victory, the allied army was in a precarious con-
dition. The autumnal rains had set in with more than usual severity,
the health of the soldiers began to be seriously affected, and they cculd
look for no further reinforcements; while the enemy was gaining daily
accessions of men, and preparing to resume the offensive with over-
whelming numbers. Under these circumstances, it became necessary to
capture some important town, where the allied troops could be comfort-
ably quartered ; and after some deliberation, Haarlem was selected, as
promising the most easy success. All arrangements being completed,
the army marched toward that place on the 6th of October; but they were
met by the Republican forces, and an indecisive action ensued which
lasted through the whole day. The loss on each side was about two
thousand men, in killed, wounded and prisoners, and the allied army
retained possession of the field. But to them, an indecisive action was
equivalent to a defeat: their object was Haarlem, and they had gained
nothing but a battle-field. They were therefore forced to retreat to their
intrenchments, where Brune followed them on the 8th; and, after in-
vesting their position so that they had no hope of escape, he compelled
them to capitulate on the 17th of October. By the conditions of the sur-
render, the allies were to evacuate Holland within six weeks, restore
eight thousand French or Dutch prisoners, and give up in good order the
works of the Helder, with its artillery. These conditions were all
fulfilled before the 1st of December; the British troops returned to Eng-
land, arid the Russians went into winter-quarters in Jersey and Guernsey.
After Suwarrovv withdrew from Italy, in September, the command of
the Austrian forces devolved on Melas, who, in obedience to the direc-
tions of the Aulic Council, concentrated his forces around Coni, and be-
gan the siege of that last bulwark of the Republicans in the plain of
126 HI STORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XVI.
Italy. Championnet, to whom the French forces were intrusted, attempted
to raise the siege; and, for that purpose, made several partial attacks on
the Austrian outposts, in which he gained considerable advantages.
Emboldened by this result, he at length resolved on a general action;
but he committed the capital error, in planning his movement, of dividing
his army into three columns to attack on three sides an enemy in a cen-
tral position: thus giving Melas an opportunity to engage any one of his
divisions with greatly superior forces. The Austrian commander quickly
seized the advantage thus offered; and, on the morning of November
4th, greatly to the surprise of Championnet, who dreamed of nothing on
the part of the Austrians but defensive operations, he impetuously as-
sailed the division of Victor, sixteen thousand strong. The French
troops bravely withstood the attack for a time, but, overpowered by num-
bers, they at length gave way, and retreated with a loss of seven thousand
men in killed, wounded and prisoners. Notwithstanding this destruction
of his centre, and the consequent isolation of his two wings, Championnet
made great efforts to relieve Coni: but the combinations of Melas were
an overmatch for his diminished strength, and he was forced to abandon
his project, and leave Coni to its fate. This stronghold was eventually
surrendered on the 4th of December, and its garrison of three thousand
men, with five hundred sick and wounded, were made prisoners of war.
With two other events, the campaign in Italy was brought to a close:
these were, the ^capture of the castle of St. Angelo by the Neapolitan
forces, and of Ancona by the Russians. By the latter conquest, five
hundred and eighty-five pieces of cannon, seven thousand muskets, three
ships of the line and seven smaller vessels fell into the hands of the allies
CHAPTER XVI.
*ROM THE REVOLUTION OF SEPTEMBER 3RD, TO THE CAMPAIGN OF 1800.
THE Revolution of France had now run through the several changes
of universal enthusiasm, general suffering, plebeian revolt, bloody anar-
chy, democratic cruelty and military despotism. There remained a last
stage to which it had not yet arrived; this was, the rule of a SINGLE
DESPOT, a result to which the weakness consequent on exhausted passion
was speedily bringing the country.
'Ihe election of a new third of the Legislature, in May, 1799, ended in
a return of members adverse to the government established by Augereau's
bayonets, who waited only for an opportunity to remove that faction from
the helm of state. In the Directory, it fell to Rewbell's lot to retire, and
Sieyes was chosen in his place. The people of France were already
sufficiently dissatisfied with the conduct of their precedent rulers, when
tie disasters of the campaign in Italy and the Alps raised their discon-
.ent to exasperation. In the midst of this effervescence, the restraints
imposed on the liberty of the press could no longer be maintained, and
the influence of the daily journals was suddenly brought to bear with
prodigious force against the government.
1799.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 127
A conspiracy was soon organized, of which Sieyes became the head,
and a large number of both Councils its members. By a series of
intrigues, they managed to displace Lareveiilere and Merlin from the
Directory, and appointed General Moulins and Roger Ducos their suc-
cessors. But these measures, though they placed the government in
new hands, did not bring to it any accession of vigor or ability. Imme-
diately after these appointments in the Directory had taken place, news
was received of the capture of Zurich by the Archduke, and of the suc-
cess of the allies in Italy ; disasters which rendered it incumbent on the
Directory to gain favor with the people by some new and decisive effort.
For this purpose, they made several changes in the commands of the
army, ordered a conscription of two hundred thousand men to recruit
their diminished ranks, and levied a forced loan of one hundred and
twenty millions of francs from the more opulent inhabitants. At the
same time, as the Jacobins were beginning to make head, and threatened
serious disturbances, Fouche was appointed minister of police, and his
energetic measures soon put an end to the intrigues of that dangerous
party. It was not long, however, before the new Directory grew as un-
popular as the old one ; and as this state of affairs was greatly promoted
by the denunciations of the daily journals, which had now become as
violent in their opposition to the present, as they but recently were to the
former Directory, a decree was issued for the arrest of eleven of the
disaffected editors. This bold step again threw the whole country into
confusion; and the more reflecting part of the inhabitants began to look
around in the greatest anxiety, dreading another revolution, and won-
dering what would be its course and who its master spirit. The Direc-
tory, too, felt the want of a military chief capable of putting an end to
these distractions, and of extricating the country from the perils con-
sequent on the alarming progress of the allies. " We must have done with
declaimers," said Sieyes; "what we want is a head and a sword." It is
not strange that, in this emergency, all eyes were at length turned toward
the youthful hero who had hitherto chained victory to his standards.
Napoleon, on his return to Alexandria, after his victory over the Tuiks
at Aboukir, on the 25th of July, learned the situation of affairs in Eu-
rope from some newspapers sent on shore by Sir Sidney Smith ; and he
adopted the extraordinary resolution of abandoning his army to its fate,
and returning privately to France. Leaving, therefore, Kleber to direct
the government, he set out from Alexandria, on the 22nd of August, ac-
companied by Berthier, Lannes, Murat, Marmont, Andreossy, Berthollet,
Monge and Bourrienne, escorted by a few faithful guides. The party
embarked on a solitary part of the beach, in some fishing boats, which
conveyed them to two French frigates, lying off the shore. Napoleon
ordered the ships to be steered along the coast of Africa, in order that, if
pursued by the English cruisers, and no other means of escape v^ere left,
he might land on the deserts of Lybia, and depend on chance for there-
after reaching Europe. But his voyage, though protracted by adverse
winds, was successful ; and, after a narrow escape from the English fleet
near the coast of France, the frigates anchored in the Bay of Frejus, on
the 8th of October.
The arrival of Napoleon at this opportune moment, excited the public
enthusiasm to the highest pitch. His unauthorized and shameful deser-
tion of the army was overlooked, and all joined, by universal acclamation,
128 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XVI
in hailing him as the destined saviour of his country. He reached Paris
on the 16th of October, and presented himself unexpectedly before the
Directory. Their reception of the renowned commander was, to all out-
ward appearance, extremely cordial and flattering ; yet a vague disquietude
had already taken possession of their minds, as to his ulterior intentions.
Napoleon, on his own part, although convinced that the moment he had
long wished for had arrived, and also fully determined to seize the
supreme authority, was yet undecided as to the manner of carrying his
purpose into effect. And, indeed, so general was the conviction, about
this period, of the impossibility of continuing the government of France
under the Republican form, that previous to Napoleon's return, various
projects had not only been set on foot, but were far advanced, for the
restoration of monarchical authority. The brothers of Napoleon, Joseph
and Lucien, were deeply implicated in these intrigues : the Abbe Sieyes
at one time thought of placing the Duke of Brunswick on the throne : and
Barras was not averse to the restoration of the Bourbons, but was in fact
negotiating with Louis XVIII. for that purpose.
No sooner had Napoleon taken possession of his unassuming dwelling
in the Rue Chantereine, than the generals who had been sounded by Jo-
seph and Lucien, hastened to pay their court to him ; and with them carne
the officers who conceived themselves to have been ill used by the Direc-
tory. In addition to Lannes, Murat and Berthier who had shared his
fortunes in Egypt, and were warmly attached to him, Jourdan, Augereau,
Macdonald, Bournonville, Le Clerc, Lefebvre and Marbot concurred in
offering the military dictatorship to Napoleon ; and Moreau, although at
first undecided, was at length won to the same course by the address of
his great rival. Many of the most influential members of the Councils
were also disposed to favor the enterprise : Sieyes and Roger Ducos gave
it their countenance ; and Moulins, Cambaceres, Fouche, and Real, were
assiduous in their attendance. These individuals, however, were as yet
far from agreeing on the precise course to be adopted.
At length, on the 5th of November, after the conspiracy had been in
progress for nearly a month, a banquet, under the direction of Lucien
Bonaparte, was given at the Council-Hall of the Ancients, in honor of
Napoleon. The feast passed off with sombre tranquillity. Every one
spoke in a whisper ; anxiety was depicted on each face ; and Napoleon's
own countenance was greatly disturbed. He soon rose from the table and
left the Hall, where the chief object of the party had already been accom-
plished, the bringing together, namely, of six hundred persons of various
political principles, and thus engaging them to act in unison in some com-
nibn enterprise. In the course of the night, the final arrangements were
made between Sieyes and Napoleon. It was agreed that the governmen
should be overturned, and, in place of the Directory, three consuls ap
pointed, charged with a dictatorial power, which was to last three months
that Napoleon, Sieyes and Roger Ducos should fill these stations, and thai
the Council of Ancients should pass a decree on the 8th of November, at
seven in the morning, transferring the legislative body to St. Cloud, and
appointing Napoleon commander of the guard of the Council, of the garri-
son at Paris, and of the National Guard.
During the two critical days that intervened, the secret was faithfully
kept, and every preliminary arrangement completed. At daybreak on
the 8th of November, the boulevards were filled with a numerous and
3799.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 120
splendid cavalry, and all the officers in and around Paris repaired in full
dress to the Rue Chantereine. The Council met at the appointed hour,
and after some debate, the decree was passed, transferring the seat of the
legislative body to St. Cloud, appointing their meeting there for the fol-
lowing day at noon, and charging Napoleon with full powers to see thest-
measures carried into effect. t This extraordinary decree was then or-
dered to be placarded on the walls of Paris, and dispatched to all the au-
thorities. When this was completed, Napoleon presented himself at the
bar of the A.ncients, attended by his staff; he complimented the mem-
bers on their firmness, which he averred had saved the country, and
announced his determination to have and to support a republic. A deputy
attempted to speak in reply, but the president stopped him, on the ground
that all deliberation was interdicted until the Council met at St. Cloud.
The assembly then broke up, and Napoleon proceeded to the garden of
the Tuileries, where he passed in review the regiments of the garrison,
addressing to each a few energetic words. The weather was beautiful ;
the confluence of spectators immense ; their acclamations rent the sky ;
and everything announced the transition from anarchy to despotic power.
In the mean time, the Council of Five Hundred, having received a
confused account of the revolution that was in progress, tumultuously
assembled in their hall. They were hardly convened when a message
arrived from the Ancients with the decree of removal to St. Cloud. The
moment it was read, a number of voices broke forth ; but the president,
Lucien Bonaparte, cut them short, by referring to the decree which pro-
hibited debate until after their removal. The Directory was next disposed
of, by Napoleon's compelling the members to resign.
On the morning of the 9th, a military force, five thousand strong, sur-
rounded St. Cloud ; but the Council of Five Hundred were nothing
daunted, and in their preliminary discussions in the garden of the palace,
a majority of them resolved to oppose the revolution. The Ancients were
greatly disturbed at this unexpected resistance, and many of them were
beginning to regret their own precipitancy, when the hour arrived for
opening the assembly.
Lucien Bonaparte was in the chair of the Five Hundred, and Gaudin
ascended the tribune and commenced a set speech, thanking the Ancients
for their energetic measures, and proposing the formation of a committee
of seven persons to report on the state of the Republic. But the moment
he concluded, a violent opposition arose ; and tumultuous cries of " Down
with the dictators ! Long live the Constitution !" prevented all further
proceedings.
Napoleon, who saw the dangerous nature of the crisis, went to the hall
of the Five Hundred, left his suite and soldiers at the door, and entered
alone and uncovered. As he made his way to the bar, cries of " Down
with the tyrant ! death to the dictator !" drowned all other voices ; and
the deputies, rushing from their places, crowded around and heaped on
him all manner of personal invectives. At this juncture, two of his grena-
diers at the door, alarmed for his safety, ran forward, took him in their
arms and bore him out of the hall. As soon as he was gone, Lucien
strove to restore order ; but, finding his efforts ineffectual, he resigned
the chair, and stood before the bar as the counsel of his brother. Just
as he began to speak, an officer with ten grenadiers entered. The officer
stepped to Lucien, laid his hand on his shoulder, and whispered, " Bv
130 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [CHAP. XVI
your brother's orders:" the grenadiers shouted, "Down with the assas-
sins !" and Lucien left the hall with his guard.
Meanwhile, Napoleon had descended to the court, mounted on horse-
back and appealed to the soldiers, assuring them that when he was about
to point out to the Council the means of saving the country, the deputies
had answered him with poniards. Lucien, soon joined him, corroborated
his words, and urged the troops to dissolve the Council by force. The
word was given, the grenadiers advanced with fixed bayonets into the
hall, and the members of the Council, in dismay, threw themselves out
of the windows to avoid the charge. At eleven o'clock that night, a por-
tion of the members of both Councils, not exceeding sixty persons in all,
assembled, and unanimously passed a decree abolishing the Directory,
expelling sixty-one refractory members of the Councils, adjourning the
Legislature for three months, and vesting the executive power in the
mean time in the hands of Napoleon, Sieves and Roger Ducos, under the
title of provisional consuls. Two commissions of twenty-five members
each, were also appointed from each Council, to unite with the consuls in
the formation of a new Constitution. Some discussion arose in arranging
the details of that instrument ; but it ended in the assumption of supreme
power by Napoleon, as First Consul, associated with two other consuls
holding nominal authority. To these were added eighty senators, a hun-
dred tribunes, and three hundred legislators, who forthwith proceeded to
exercise all the functions of government. Sifiyes and Roger Ducos soon
resigned their offices, and Napoleon appointed in their stead Cambaceres
and Le Brun. Talleyrand was made minister of Foreign Affairs, Fouche~
was retained in the Police, and La Place received the portfolio of the
Interior. The new Constitution, on being submitted to the people, was
approved by three millions eleven thousand and seven votes: that of 1793
had but one million eight hundred and one thousand nine hundred and
eighteen ; and that of 1795, one million and fifty-seven thousand three
hundred and ninety.
One of Napoleon's first measures, on arriving at the consular throne,
was to make proposals of peace to the British government, which he did
through the medium of a letter, in his own name, to the King of England.
His communication was couched in general terms, expressive, indeed, of
a desire for peace, but filled with vague questions as to the continuance
of the war, instead of designating some conditions by which it might be
brought to a close. Lord Grenville's answer was more explicit, disclaim-
ing any intention, on the part of his majesty, to control or interfere with
the internal policy of France, but resolving nevertheless to resist her
foreign aggressions; and at the same time avowing a disposition for peace
whenever the French government should evince a similar desire, accom-
panied by a declaration of its principles and the requisite proofs of its
stability.
The debate on the question of continuing the war was prolonged through
several weeks in Parliament ; and at length, on the 3rd of February, 1800,
the belligerent measures of the ministry were sustained by a vote of two
hundred and sixty-five to sixty-four. This was followed by a vote of sup-
plies to the army and navy proportioned to the importance of the contest.
Several domestic measures of consequence, were also adopted during
this session. The Bank charter was renewed for twenty-one years, in
consideration of which, the directors made a loan to the government of
1800.1 HISTORY OF EUROPE. 131
three millions sterling, for six years without interest. The union of Ire-
land with Great Britain, after a stormy debate in both houses of the Dublin
Parliament, was carried by a large majority, to which event the powerful
abilities of Lord Castlereagh greatly contributed. By the treaty of union,
the Irish peers for the united imperial Parliament were limited to twenty-
eight temporal and four spiritual ; the former elected for life by the Irish
peerage, and the latter, by rotation ; and the commoners were limited to
one hundred. The churches of England and Ireland were united, and
provision made for their union, preservation, discipline, doctrine and wor-
ship. Commercial privileges were fairly participated, the national debt of
each was imposed as a burden on its own finances, and the general expen-
diture for the next ensuing twenty years, ordered to be defrayed in the
proportion of fifteen for Great Britain and two for Ireland. The laws and
courts of both kingdoms were maintained on their present footing, subject
to such alterations as the united Parliament might deem expedient. This
important measure was carried in the British House of Commons, by a
vote of two hundred and eight to twenty-six, and in the Lords, by seventy-
five to seven.
Since the financial crisis of 1797, when the suspension of specie pay-
ments took place, the prosperity of the British Empire had been steadily
and rapidly increasing. Prices of every kind of produce had risen, and
the industrious classes were, generally speaking, in affluent circumstances.
Immense fortunes rewarded the efforts of commercial enterprise ; the de-
mand and value of labor, increased by the withdrawal of nearly four
hundred thousand soldiers and sailors, was almost unlimited ; and even the
increasing weight of taxation and the alarming magnitude of the national
debt, were but little felt amid the general rise of prices and incomes
resulting from the profuse expenditure and lavish issue of paper by the
government. One class only, that of annuitants, and all depending on a
fixed income, experienced a decline of comforts, which in many cases was
greatly aggravated by the high prices and scarcity following the disastrous
harvest of 1799. The attention of Parliament was early directed to the
means of alleviating the famine of that year. An act was passed to lower
the quality of all the bread baked in the kingdom ; the importation of rice
and maize was encouraged by liberal bounties ; distillation from grain
was prohibited, and by these and other means an additional supply of
grain, to the enormous amount of two and a half millions of quarters, was
procured for the use of the inhabitants.
The jealousies which led to a rupture between the Austrians and Rus-
sians at the close of 1799, were soon after extended to the relations of the
Emperor Paul with Great Britain, and were greatly augmented by the
issue of the expedition against Holland. Napoleon promptly availed
himself of this state of affairs, and sent back to the Emperor all the
Russian prisoners taken in the last campaign, not only without exchange,
but newly equipped in their native uniform : and this was followed by a
succession of civilities arid courtesies, between the cabinets of St. Peters-
burg and Paris, which terminated in the dismissal from Russia of Lord
Whitworth, the English minister; and the arrival at Paris of Baron
Springborton, the Russian ambassador.
The Archduke Charles made great exertions in the close of the year
1799, to reorganize the military forces of Austria ; at the same time, afte^r
the secession of Russia was confirmed, he urgently recommended the
14
132 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XVI.
Aulic Council to fake advantage of the present opportunity to conclude a
peace with France, which Napoleon offered on the basis of the Campo
Formio treaty. But the Council were bent on prosecuting the war, and
they went so far as to requite the sound and prudent advice of the Arch-
duke, by dismissing him from the service and appointing Kray in his
place.
Napoleon's measures for maintaining the war were befitting his talents
and energy, and were besides much facilitated by the new regulations,
which he introduced in the management of the national finances. On
the conditional refusal of Great Britain to treat for peace, he issued an
exciting proclamation, telling the people that the English ministry had
rejected his proposals for peace, and that to attain it, he needed money,
iron and soldiers ; and he swore that, these being conceded, he would
combat only for the happiness of France, and the peace of the world. A
conscription was ordered for the whole youth of France, without any
exemption on account of rank or fortune, which produced a supply of one
aundred and twenty thousand men ; and thirty thousand experienced sol-
diers were gained, in addition, by a demand for all the veterans who had
obtained leave of absence during the eight preceding years. Various
improvements were effected in the artillery department, which greatly
augmented the efficiency of that important arm of the public service.
Twenty-five thousand horses, brought from the interior provinces, were
distributed among the artillery and cavalry on the frontier ; and all the
stores and equipments of the armies were repaired with a celerity so
extraordinary that it would appear incredible, if long experience did not
prove, that confidence in the vigor and stability of a government operates
as rapidly in increasing, as the vacillation and insecurity of democracy
does in withering the national resources.
While these energetic measures for conquest were in progress, Napo-
leon applied himself to ulterior projects, which he had already resolved
on. He endowed the officers of state, and all the members of the legis-
lature, with ample salaries ; even the tribunes, who were professedly
created as barriers for the people against governmental encroachments,
received each an annual compensation of seventeen thousand francs. He
also commenced the demolition of all ensigns and memorials, which re-
called the ideas of liberty and equality : the engraved image of the
Republic, at the head of official letters, was cancelled ; and the habili-
ments of authority were replaced by the military dress, so that the courl
of the first magistrate of the Republic bore the appearance of a general's
head-quarters. These acts were followed by a total suppression of the
liberty of the press ; and not long after, preparations were made by Na-
poleon for removing from his place of residence to the Tuileries, which
was accomplished on the 19th of February, 1800, with great pomp and
military display. On that day, royalty was, in effect, restored in France,
somewhat less than eight years after it had been formally abolished by
the revolt of the 10th of August. No sooner was Napoleon established
at the Tuileries, than the usages, dress and ceremonial of a court were
resumed. The anterooms were filled with chamberlains, pages and
esquires; footmen, in brilliant liveries, crowded the lobbies and stair-
cases ; and Josephine presided over the drawing-room, with a grace well
becoming the brilliancy of the assemblage.
CHAPTER XVII.
FIRST CAMPAIGN OF 1800.
AT the opening of the campaign of 1800, Field-marshal Kray had his
head-quarters at Donauschingen, but his chief magazines were in the
rear at Stockach, Engen, Moeskirch and Biberach. His right wing,
twenty-six thousand strong, under Starray, rested on the Maine ; the left,
consisting of twenty-six thousand men and seven thousand militia, under
the Prince of Reuss, was in the Tyrol ; and the centre, under Kray in
person, forty-three thousand strong, was stationed behind the Black For-
est: while a reserve of fifteen thousand, commanded by Keinmayer,
guarded the passes from the Renchen to the Valley of Hell, and formed
the link connecting the centre with the right wing. Thus, although the
total Imperialist force exceeded one hundred and fifteen thousand men,
the divisions were stationed at such distances from each other as to be
incapable of rendering effectual aid in case of need.
The French army was also divided into three corps. The right, thirty-
two thousand strong, under Lecourbe, occupied the Cantons of Switzerland
from the St. Gothard to Bale ; the centre, under St. Cyr, consisted ol
twenty-nine thousand men, and occupied the left bank of the Rhine from
New Brisach to Plobsheim ; the left, under Sainte Suzanne, twenty-one
thousand strong, extended from Kehl to Haguenau. In addition to these,
Moreau, who was general-in-chief of the whole force, was at the head of
twenty-eight thousand men in the neighborhood of Bale. Moreau had also
at disposal, the garrisons of the fortresses in his vicinity, which together
might be estimated as a reserve of thirty-two thousand men ; and his pos-
session of the bridges of Kehl, New Brisach, and Bale, gave him the
means of crossing the Rhine at pleasure. The plan for opening the
campaign, as arranged between Moreau and Napoleon, was to make a
feint against the corps of Keinmayer and the Austrian right ; and, having
thus drawn Kray's attention to that quarter, to concentrate the French
centre and left upon the Imperial centre, break through the Austrians'
line, cut off their communication with the Tyrol and Italy, and force
them to the banks of the Danube.
The preliminary movements of this plan were executed with precision,
and the Austrian generals, perplexed at the apparently contradictory
character of the French evolutions, were in great uncertainty as to the
point where the storm was really to burst ; and were therefore compelled
to await it without any material change of position. Under these cir-
cumstances, Moreau directed Lecourbe to move toward Stockach, and
separate the Austrian left wing from its centre ; this order was promptly
executed, and the French general, falling in with an Austrian corps,
under the Prince of Lorraine, defeated it with a loss of three thousand
prisoners and eight pieces of cannon. On the same day, May 2nd. Mo-
reau attacked the main body of Austrians, in the plain before Rngen.
Kray maintained his ground with great resolution until nightfall, when
the French, being reenforced by St. Cyr, renewed the battle and forced
the Austrians to retreat. The loss on each side was about seven thou-
134 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP.
sand men ; but the advantages of the victory remained with the French,
by reason of its moral effect on the troops of both armies.
On the 4th of May, Kray retired to a strong position in front of Moes-
kirch, the natural and military defences of which place seemed to render
it almost inaccessible to an attacking army. The French soon advanced
in great force, preceded by Lecourbe, who, in hastening to form a junction
with Moreau, arrived on the ground sooner than the designated time.
He immediately attacked, without waiting for the main army to come
up ; hut he was received with such a storm from the Austrian batteries,
that he soon fell back, and took refuge in a neighboring wood, to avoid
the shot. Moreau now approached, and ordered the division of Lorges to
attack Kray's intrenchments on the left : but this corps, too, was thrown
into confusion, and routed by the Austrian fire. Encouraged by this
success, Kray made a sally with his right wing, which was, however,
promptly repulsed by the French ; and Moreau, following up this advan-
tage by a simultaneous attack on all points of the Austrian left, pushed
his columns into the village of Moeskirch, and carried that part of the
Imperialist position. Kray now withdrew his defeated left wing, and
bravely maintained the action with his centre and right. Both parties
redoubled their efforts, but at length the day closed, leaving a part of
the field in the hands of the Austrians, while the French retained the
remainder. The loss on each side was about six thousand men.
Kray retired across the Danube on the following day, and on the 7th,
was joined by Keinmayer's division, at Sigmaringen. With this aug-
mented force, he recrossed the Danube and moved toward Biberach, in
order to secure the magazines at that place, and transport them to the
intrenched camp at Ulm. But on the 9th, St. Cyr came up with an
Austrian detachment at Biberach, and by means of his superior force,
entirely routed them. Pursuing his success, the French general ad-
vanced into the town, seized the magazines before the Austrians had time
to destroy them, and compelled Kray to continue his march upon Ulm,
where he arrived two days afterward, having lost in this affair at Bibe-
rach, twenty-five hundred men in killed, wounded and prisoners, and five
pieces of cannon.
The Austrian commander, in retiring to Ulm, separated himself from
his left wing in the Tyrol ; but in other respects he occupied, there, a
very advantageous position. Its location was central; its defences were
nearly impregnable, and daily accessions of strength were coming in
from Bohemia and the hereditary states: while the French, unable to
dislodge them by a sudden attack, and equally unable to advance into
the Austrian dominions, leaving such a formidable army in their own
rear, were brought to a stand, in spite of their previous successes.
Nevertheless, as it was indispensable to the progress of the campaign
that Kray should be driven from this stronghold, Moreau devoted all his
energies to the task. He first divided his forces into three columns, and
advanced to the Austrian intrenchments on three different points, hoping,
by distracting the enemy's attention, to find a practicable opening in his
lines. Kray narrowly watched this movement, and discovered that the
French division under Sainte Suzanne was so far separated from the
other two columns as to be precluded from their support. The Archduke
Ferdinand was therefore dispatched against this corps, and, by an im-
petuous and brilliant charge, completely routed Sainte Suzanne, and
IBOO.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 135
drove him back in disorder more than two leagues. Moreau, perceiving
from this vigorous stroke, the danger of dividing his forces, tried the
expedient of advancing into Bohemia, and occupying Augsburg; in the
belief that Kray, when he saw his communications thus threatened,
would abandon his position to maintain them. But Kray, well knowing
that Moreau would not continue his march in that direction, as he would
thereby be cut off from his own communications, patiently awaited the
French commander's return ; a movement which Moreau gladly made,
as soon as he found that Kray was not deceived by the artifice. At
length, on the 19th of June, Moreau effected a passage across the Danube
at Blindheim, and thence took a position at Hochstedt, which induced
Kray to risk a general action. A short but desperate combat took place,
in which the Austrians were defeated, and Kray, finding himself out-
flanked, was compelled to evacuate his intrenchments at Ulm. He left
a garrison of ten thousand men within its walls, and stationed his cavalry
on the Brentz to cover his movement ; then, pushing forward his artillery
and caissons, he followed with the main body of his army in three divis-
ions, and by a masterly retreat on a semicircular line, of which the
French occupied the base, he reached Nordlingen in safety on the evening
of the 23rd of June. He thence moved along the Danube to Landshut,
where he crossed the river, and finally retreated to Amfing on the Inn.
Moreau left a detachment to invest Ulm, and with his main body occu-
pied Munich. On the 15th of July, intelligence arrived of Napoleon's
operations in the south, which led to a suspension of arms under the ap.
pellation of the armistice of Parsdorf ; and for the present the campaign
in this quarter was at an end. By this subsidiary treaty, hostilities were
terminated in all parts of the Empire, and were not to be resumed with-
out a notice of twelve days.
The military operations in Italy were commenced by a formidable
attack on the French defensive positions around Genoa, led on by Melas,
with near sixty thousand Austrian troops. This beautiful city was pro-
tected by a double line of strong fortifications, extending through the
heights of the Appenines, that surround it, and the Imperialists every-
where met with the most determined opposition from the French covering
army : but Melas, aided by superiority of numbers, and the advantage
which is inseparable from the initiative in mountain warfare, prevailed
on every point. Soult, on the French right, was driven in from Monte-
notte upon Genoa ; Savona, Cadebone, and Vado, were occupied by the
Austrians, and the Republican left, under Suchet, was altogether de-
tached from the centre and thrown back toward France. Hohenzollern,
who was intrusted with the attack of the Bochetta, drove the French far
up that important pass, and succeeded in retaining the crest of the moun-
tains ; while Klenau, on the Austrian left, advanced in three columns up
the narrow ravines leading to the eastern fortifications of Genoa, dis-
lodged the French from the heights of Monte Faccio, and invested the
forts of Quizzi, Richelieu, and San Tecla, within cannon-shot df Genoa.
The situation of the French in Genoa was now critical, more especially,.
as a large and influential part of the inhabitants were attached to the
cause of the Imperialists, and ardently desired to throw off the democratic
tyranny to which for four years they had been subjected. But Massena
was not easily daunted. On the 7th of April, he sallied from the town,
and attacked the Austrians on Monte Faccio with such vigor, that they
11
130 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XVIL
were dislodged and driven from their posts with a loss of fifteen hundred
prisoners. On the same day, however, the Imperialist right was greatly
strengthened at Vado and St. Jaques, and the French were threatened
with more serious evils in that quarter. Massena soon found that his
partial success at Monte Faccio would be of little avail for the protection
of Genoa, and he resolved on a more serious attack in the direction of
Savona. Accordingly, he organized his forces for that purpose, and a
series of desperate actions ensued, which continued during fifteen days;
but in the event, he made no impression of consequence on the Austrians,
and was driven back to the town with a loss of seven thousand men in
killed and wounded. Melas now established a strict blockade of Genoa,
and marched against the French left wing under Suchet, who had long
been separated from the main army, but continued to maintain a position
where he threatened the right of the Imperialists. He withstood the
Austrian assault for a time at the Col di Tende, but on the 6th of May,
he was forced across the frontier and over the Var, with a loss of more
than three thousand men. After this event, nothing remained to the
French of their conquests in Italy but the ground which was commanded
by the cannoo of Genoa.
The Austrians pressed the siege of Genoa with redoubled vigor, while
the British fleet, maintaining a rigid blockade of the harbor, shut out all
hope of relief from the sea ; so that the garrison and inhabitants soon be-
gan to suffer for want of provisions. For a few days, Massena desisted
from offensive operations, repaired the injury done to his defences, and
established a system for the equal and economical distribution of his sup-
plies ; but as the condition of the garrison was rapidly growing worse, he,
on the 13th of May, resolved to break up the position of the besiegers by a
powerful attack on Monte Creto. Soult led the Republican columns, and
at first the Austrians began to give way ; but, rallying under the support
of Hohenzollern's reserve, they drove the French back into the town, taking
a large number of prisoners, and Soult himself among the number.
With this repulse, Massena relinquished all efforts to raise the siege,
and the horrors of famine and pestilence soon reduced the garrison to the
last extremity. Finding, at length, that it was impossible to hold the
place, Massena, on the 5th of June, surrendered Genoa to the Austrians,
and was permitted to march out with his troops, artillery, baggage and
ammunition. The favorable terms granted to Massena, and the facilities
afforded him by the Austrians and the English fleet in expediting his de-
parture, were soon explained by the intelligence of Napoleon's advance
to Milan, of which the Austrian commander was aware previously to his
agreeing to the capitulation.
Napoleon, at the opening of the campaign, hesitated whether to unite
himself with Moreau in Germany, or Massena in Italy ; but the decided
success which accompanied the movements of the former commander, soon
rendered the First Consul's aid unnecessary on the Rhine, and he therefore
turned his attention to Italy, where the Austrians were victorious. In
order to advance by the shortest route, and pursue a march that would place
his army on the weakest point of the Austrian lines, he resolved to cross
the Alps by the Great St. Bernard, and sent his engineers to explore the
passage. When Marescot returned from the survey, he began to enume-
rate the dangers of the attempt ; but Napoleon interrupted him, by say-
ing, " Is it possible to pass ?" " Yes," answered Marescot, " but with great
1800.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 137
difficulty." "Let us set out, then," said Napoleon; and on the 9th of
May, preparations were begun for the ascent.
A hundred large fir-trees were provided, each so hollowed as to contain
a piece of artillery ; the carriages of the guns were taken to pieces and
placed on the backs of mules ; and the ammunition was dispersed among
the peasants, who, induced by the large rewards offered them, arrived from
all quarters to aid in the enterprise. On the 16th of May, Napoleon slept
at the convent of St. Maurice, and on the following morning the army be-
gan to ascend the mountain. The march continued through four days,
and during each, from eight to ten thousand men passed along. Napoleon
remained at St. Maurice until the 20th, when the whole had crossed.
The march, though toilsome, presented no extraordinary difficulties, till
the leading column arrived at St. Pierre : but from that village to the sum-
mit, it was painful and laborious in the highest degree. A hundred men
were harnessed to each gun, and they were relieved every half mile ; the
soldiers vied with each other in dragging their load up the rugged track;
and it soon became a point of honor for each column to prevent its cannon
from falling behind. To encourage their efforts, the band of each regiment
played the most lively airs, and, where the ascent was particularly steep,
the charge was sounded : while the men, toiling painfully up and ready
to sink under the weight of their arms and baggage, joined their voices to
the noise of the instruments, making the solitudes of St. Bernard resound
with the strains of military music.
At length, the leading files reached the hospice at the summit, where, by
the provident care of the monks, each soldier received a ration of bread
and cheese and a draught of wine, as he passed ; a most seasonable supply,
which exhausted the ample stores of the establishment ; but the liberality
was amply compensated by the First Consul before the termination of the
campaign.
Lannes, who commanded the advanced guard, descended rapidly the
beautiful valley of Aosta, occupied the town of that name, and overthrew,
at Chatillon, a body of fifteen hundred Croatians, who endeavored to dis-
pute his passage. The soldiers, finding themselves in a level and fertile
valley, believed their difficulties were all passed, when suddenly their ad-
vance was checked by the cannon of Bard. This fort, perched on a pyra-
midal rock midway between the opposite cliffs of the valley, and not more
than fifty yards distant from the base of either side, commands the narrow
road that winds around its feet, and is beyond the reach of any attack other
than regular approaches. The cannon of the fort, twenty -two in number,
were so disposed on its well-constructed bastions as to reach not only every
point of the road through the village below, but apparently every path on '
the mountains practicable for a single traveller.
When Lannes became aware of this formidable obstacle he advanced to
the front of his column, and ordered an assault on the village ; this was
quickly carried by the French grenadiers, but the Austrians retired in
good order to the rock above, whence the garrison of the fort poured an
incessant fire on every column that attempted to pass. In a moment, the
march of the whole army was arrested ; the alarm extended rapidly along
the line from front to rear, and it seemed to be necessary to retreat over
the mountains. Napoleon was at St. Bernard when this intelligence
reached him. He instantly pushed forward, and with his spy-glass long
and minutely surveyed the ground. After a time, he discovered that it
I
E38 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XVII,
was possible for the infantry to pass by a path along the face of the cliff,
above the range of the guns of Bard ; but it was wholly impracticable for
artillery.
In this extremity, he summoned the fort to surrender, and threatened an
instant assault in case of refusal ; but the Austrian commander replied as
became a man of courage and honor, that he was well aware of the im-
portance of his position, and that the means of defending it were in his
power. Time now pressed, and almost every one was in despair ; but the
genius and intrepidity of the French engineers surmounted the difficulty.
The infantry and cavalry traversed, one by one, the path which Napoleon
had discovered on the side of the mountain ; and in the night, the artil-
lery-men moved their cannon gradually through the village, and close
under the guns of the fort, by spreading straw and manure over the streets
and wrapping the wheels, so that scarcely any sound was made by their
transportation. In this manner, forty guns and a hundred caissons were
conveyed beyond the reach of the fort, while the Austrians above, in un-
conscious security, were sleeping beside their loaded cannon. During
the following night, the same hazardous operation was repeated with equal
success : and although the Austrian commander wrote to Melas that
thirty-five thousand men and four thousand horse had defiled along the
cliffs, but that not one piece of artillery should pass beneath his guns, the
cannon and ammunition of the French army were in fact safely proceed-
ing on the road to Ivrea. The passage was completed on the 26th of
May, and on the 28th, the whole of the Republican forces with their
artillery reached Ivrea, which place Lannes had already taken with the
advanced guard.
While the centre of Napoleon's army was thus surmounting the
obstacles of St. Bernard, his right and left wings were equally successful
in the movements assigned to them. Thurreau, with five thousand men,
descended to Susa and Novalese ; Moncey, with sixteen thousand crossed
the St. Gothard, and Bethencourt with a division of Swiss troops ascended
the Simplon and forced the defile of Gondo. Consequently, more than
sixty thousand men were assembling in the plains of Piedmont, and threat-
ened the rear of the Imperial army.
Napoleon directed his troops rapidly toward the Tic»no, and reached
the banks of that river on the 31st of May. The arrival of so great a
force in a quarter where they were wholly unexpected, threw the Aus-
trians into the utmost embarrassment ; and a general retreat, on their
part, was the first consequence of the French advance. On the 2nd of
June, the First Consul made a triumphal entry into Milan; where he
instantly dismissed the Austrian authorities, and reinstated the Republican
magistrates ; but, knowing that the chances of war might expose his par-
tisans to severe reprisals, he wisely forbade any harsh measures against
the vanquished party. The entrance into Milan was followed by a gene-
ral submission of the towns in Lombardy.
Melas, on learning the progress of the French army, concentrated his
forces at Alexandria with all possible expedition ; while Napoleon hast-
ened onto assail the detached columns of the Austrians before they could
effect a junction with each other, Lannes first came up with a body of
fifteen thousand men advantageously posted at Montebello, under the com-
mand of Ott. His own corps numbered but nine thousand ; but as Victor
with a similar force was only two leagues in his rear, he did not hesitate to
1800.. HISTORY OF EUROPE. 139
attack. The French infantry with great gallantry advanced in echellon,
under a fire of grape-shot and musketry, to storm the hills on the right of
the Austrian position ; but after making a temporary lodgment, they were
driven with great slaughter down into the plain. The Imperialists fol-
lowed up this success with an attack on the French centre, and the
Republicans were there beginning to waver, when the arrival of Victor
enabled the broken divisions to rally, and the contest was maintained for
some hours, without advantage to either party. Napoleon, at length,
came on with the division of Gardaune, and decided the battle. Ott, how-
ever, retreated in good order, leaving behind him three thousand killed
and wounded, and fifteen hundred prisoners : the French loss, in killed
and wounded, was nearly the same.
While Napoleon was thus driving the Austrians before him, Suchet,
with the left wing of the army of Genoa, had made a stand against the
pursuing Imperialists under Elnitz, and, by an impetuous assault on the
banks of the Var, forced him, in turn, to retreat ; after which, by a skilful
combination of movements and attacks, he at length drove him to Ceva,
with a loss of one half of his whole corps.
These operations rendered the situation of Melas highly critical. Na-
poleon was in his front, Suchet in his rear, the Alps on the left, and the
Appenines on the right : he had no hope of escape but by cutting his way
through Napoleon's army ; and, with the resolution of a brave man, he
adopted this alternative. While he was vigorously concentrating his
forces for the enterprise, Napoleon, anticipating the movement, had for
some days awaited his approach at Stradella, where Desaix arrived from
Egypt with his aids-de-camp, Savary and Rapp, on the llth of June. In
the belief that the Austrian commander was not likely to attack him in
his present strong position, he resolved to give battle to Melas on his own
ground ; for which purpose he advanced to the plains of Marengo, on the
13th, and made his dispositions for the combat. The Austrian army
amounted to thirty-one thousand men, including seven thousand five hun-
dred cavalry ; and the French were twenty-nine thousand strong.
By daybreak on the 14th of June, the whole force of Melas was in mo-
tion, advancing in three columns over the bridges of the Bormida, toward
the French position. Napoleon was surprised. He had been induced to
believe during the night, that Melas intended to retreat ; and he had not,
therefore, the slightest anticipation of his commencing the attack : nor was
he prepared to receive it, for his right wing was near half a day's march
in the rear. At eight o'clock, the Austrian infantry, under Haddick and
Kaim, preceded by a splendid array of artillery, commenced the battle.
They speedily overthrew Gardaune, who, with six battalions, was sta-
tioned in front of the village of Marengo ; and, following on, encountered
the corps of Victor and Lannes. Here, for two hours, the battle raged with
the utmost fury. The opposing masses were within pistol-shot of each
other, and all the chasms produced by the incessant discharge of artillery
were rapidly filled up by a regular movement to the centre : but at length,
the perseverance of the Austrians prevailed over the heroic devotion of
the French ; the village was carried ; the stream that traversed it, forced ;
and the Republicans were driven back to their second line in the rear.
Here they made a desperate stand, and Haddick's division, disordered by
success, was in turn forced back across the stream ; but the French could
not follow up their advantage, and the Austrians, perceiving their weak*
140 HISTORYOFEUROPE [CHAP. XVII.
ness, returned to the charge, and Victor's line was broken. Thus en-
couraged, Melas pushed on with additional forces, established himself in
the village, and having outflanked Lannes, he, too, was compelled to
retreat. At first, he retired by echellon in squares, with admirable dis-
cipline ; but the Imperial cavalry, which swept like a tempest around
the retreating troops, at length disordered their squares, while the Hunga-
rian infantry, halting at every fifty yards, poured in destructive volleys
at point-blank range, and the incessant storm of grape from the well-served
Austrian artillery, completed the rout. The whole mass at length gave
way; the plain was covered with a confused host of fugitives; the alarm
spread even to the rear of the army; and the fatal cry "tout est perdu,
sauve qui peut," echoed over the field.
Matters were in this condition, when, at eleven o'clock, Napoleon
arrived with a detachment of the right wing. The sight of his staff, sur-
rounded by two hundred mounted grenadiers, and accompanied by the
Consul's own guard of reserve, revived the spirit of the fugitives. Napo-
leon immediately detached eight hundred grenadiers of his guard, to make
head against Ott ; at the same time, he himself advanced with a demi-
brigade to support Lannes, and sent five battalions under Monnier, to
hold in check the Austrian light infantry on the left. The grenadiers
advanced in squares into the midst of the plain, making their way through
both their own fugitives and the enemy, and for a time they sustained the
brunt of the battle ; but at length, the steady fire of the Austrian artil-
lery, followed up by a charge of hussars, broke their ranks, and drove
them back in disorder ; the leading battalions of Desaix's division, how-
ever, came forward in time to cover their retreat. Melas now, deeming
the victory secure, retired to Alexandria, leaving Zack, chief of his stafi^
to follow up his success : while Napoleon made arrangements to secure
a retreat by the line of Castel Nuovo.
It was now four o'clock ; and Desaix's main body, being the French
right wing, made its appearance. " What do you think of the day ?"
said Napoleon. " The battle is lost," answered Desaix ; " but it is early ;
there is time to gain another one." Napoleon coincided with this opinion,
but all the other officers advised a retreat. The combat was, therefore,
to be renewed ; and Desaix put himself at the head of his division, arid
pressed on to meet Zack's advancing columns, who, expecting no resist-
ance, were at first thrown into disorder. They soon rallied, however,
checked the French advance, and at this moment Desaix was mortally
wounded by a ball in the breast. The Hungarian grenadiers pressed on,
and the French column soon hesitated, broke, and gave way. At this
critical moment, when everything seemed lost for Napoleon, Kellerman,
by a sudden movement, conceived and undertaken by himself, changed
the defeat into a victory. He was stationed with eight hundred cavalry
in a vineyard, where the overhanging vines concealed him from sight ;
and the advancing column of Zack, having just broken Desaix's division,
was following up its success, and marching past Kellerman's squadron
without being aware of his presence. In an instant, Kellerman dashed out
on the unprotected flank of this column, threw it into inextricable confu-
sion in less time than is requisite to relate the fact ; and, being supported
by Desaix's division, which immediately rallied, made Zack himself, and
two thousand of his grenadiers prisoners on the spot. The remainder of
the column retreated in confusion- overturned those who were advancing
1800.] HTSTORY OF EUROPE. 141
to its support, and the entire Austrian army became, in those few moments,
one mass of fugitives, flying across the plain.
The tide of battle being thus suddenly and unexpectedly turned, it
was easy to rally the broken French divisions, and secure the victory.
The loss of the Imperialists was seven thousand killed and wtmnded,
three thousand prisoners, eight standards and twenty pieces of cannon.
The French sustained an equal loss in killed and wounded, together with
one thousand prisoners taken in the early part of the day. But although
the losses .on both sides were so nearly equal, defeat was highly disastrous
to the Austrians ; for they fought to secure a passage through Napoleon's
enveloping masses, and having failed, they were left without retreat ; so
that, by a single victory, Napoleon had in effect destroyed his enemy,
and gained the command of Italy. Nor was that all : for such a result,
coming at the outset of his career as First Consul, served to fix him per-
manently on the throne of France.
In view of these brilliant consequences, one would suppose that Napo-
leon might have been generous to Kellerman, who in reality and directly
secured them : but his was a disposition that could not pardon one whose
services chanced to dimmish the lustre of his own exploits. When this
young officer appeared at head-quarters after the battle, Napoleon coolly
said, " You made a good charge this evening ;" then turning to Bessieres,
he added, " The guard has covered itself with glory." " I am glad you
are pleased with my charge," said Kellerman, nothing daunted, " for it
has placed the crown on your head." But the obligation was too great
and too notorious to be forgiven, and Kellerman though promoted with
the other generals, never aftenvard enjoyed the favor of Napoleon.
On the following morning, after holding a council of war, Melas sent
a flag of truce to the French head-quarters, with proposals fora capitula-
tion. An armistice was immediately agreed upon, until an answer could
be received from Vienna ; and, in the mean time, the Imperial army was
to occupy the country between the Mincio and the Po, and the fortresses
of Tortona, Milan, Turin, Pizzighitorie, Arona, Placentia, Ceva, Savona,
Urbia, Coni, Alexandria and Genoa were to be surrendered to the French,
with all their artillery and stores, the Austrians taking with them only
their own cannon.
CHAPTER XVIII.
SECOND CAMPAIGN OF 1800.
Two days before intelligence was received of the battle of Marengo
and the armistice that followed it, a treaty between Austria and Great
Britain for the further prosecution of the war had been signed at Vienna :
but even the disasters of that defeat could not shake the firmness or good
faith of the Austrian cabinet. The inflexible Thugut, who then presided
over its councils, was assailed by representations of the perils of the Em-
pire ; but he opposed all such arguments by producing the treaty with
England, and pointing out the disgrace that would attach to the Imperial
H2 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XVIIL
government if, on the first appearance of danger, engagements so solemnly
entered into were to be abandoned. Nor did the situation of affairs justify
any measures of despondency. If the battle of Marengo had deprived
the allied powers of Piedmont, the strength of the Imperial army was still
unbroken : it had exchanged a disadvantageous offensive position in the
Ligurian mountains, for an advantageous defensive one on the frontiers
of Lombardy ; the cannon of Mantua, so formidable to France in 1796,
still remained to arrest the progress of the victor; and the English
forces of Abereromby, joined to the Neapolitan troops and the Imperial
divisions in Ancona ancl Tuscany, might prove too formidable a body on
the right flank of the Republicans, to permit any considerable advance
toward the hereditary states. Nor were affairs by any means desperate
in Germany. The advance of Moreau into Bavaria, while Ufm and In-
golstadt were not reduced, was a perilous measure for the French ; and
the line of the Inn furnished a defensive frontier not surpassed by any in
Europe.
Influenced by these considerations, the Austrian cabinet resolved to
gain time, and, if they could not obtain tolerable terms of peace, to run
all the hazard of a renewal of the war. -Count St. Julien was sent to
Paris, as plenipotentiary on the part of Austria, bearing a letter from the
Emperor individually, in which were these words .' " You will give credit
to everything which Count St. Julien shall say on my part, and I will
ratify whatever he shall do." In virtue of these powers, preliminaries
of peace were signed at Paris, on the 28th of July, by the French and
Austrian ministers. The treaty of Carnpo Formio was taken as the basis
of the pacification, unless where changes had become necessary. It was
provided that the frontier of the Rhine should belong to France, and the
indemnities stipulated for Austria, by the secret articles of the treaty
of Campo Formio, were to be given in Italy, instead of Germany.
As the treaty was signed by Count St. Julien in virtue of the Emperor's
letter only, it was further provided that these preliminary articles should
not be binding until after being ratified by the respective governments : a
clause of which the cabinet of Vienna availed themselves. On the 15th
of August, the Austrian plenipotentiary was recalled, and notice given
of the refusal to ratify.
Napoleon was, or affected to be, highly indignant at this proceeding,
and he immediately announced that the conclusion of the armistice should
take place on the 10th of September, and ordered certain movements of
the army in reference to that event. But he soon returned to more mode-
rate sentiments, and dispatched full powers to M. Otto, resident at London
as agent for the exchange of prisoners, to conclude a naval armistice with
Great Britain. The object of this proposal, hitherto unknown in European
diplomacy, 'was to obtain means, while the negotiations were pending,
of throwing supplies into Egypt and Malta, the former of which stood
greatly in need of assistance, while the latter was reduced to the last
extremity from the vigilant blockade maintained for two years by the
British cruisers.
As soon as the English government received this proposal, they signified
their desire for a general peace, but declined to agree in the mean time
to a naval armistice, until the preliminaries of such general pacification
• were signed. Napoleon, however, was obstinately bent on saving Malta
and Egypt, and insisted on the naval armistice as a sine qua non; declaring,
1800.] HISTORY OFEUROPE. 143
that unless it were agreed to before the llth of September, he would
recommence hostilities in both Italy and Germany. The urgency of
the case, and the imminent danger that would ensue to Austria if war
were so soon renewed, induced the cabinet of London to make some con-
cession : they therefore presented to M. Otto a counter project for a sus-
pension of hostilities between all the belligerent powers. By this it was
proposed, that an armistice should lake place by land and sea, during
which the ocean was to be open for the navigation of trading vessels of
both nations ; Malta and Egypt were to be put on the same footing as the
besieged fortresses in Germany, by the armistice of Parsdorf ; that is to
say, they were to be provisioned for twelve days at a time, during the
dependence of the negotiations. The blockade of Brest and other mari-
time ports was to be raised, but the British squadrons would remain off
their entrances, and ships of war would not be permitted to pass. Nothing
could be more equitable toward France or generous towartfr-Austria, than
these propositions. They compensated the recent disasters of the Impe-
rialists on land with concessions by the British at s"ea, and abandoned to
the vanquished on one element, those advantages of a free navigation
which they could not obtain by force of arms, in consideration of the
benefits that would accrue from a prolongation of the armistice to their
allies on another.
Napoleon, however, insisted on a condition which ultimately proved
fatal to the negotiation. This was, that the French ships of the line only
should be confined to their ports, but that frigates should have liberty of
egress, and that six vessels of that description should be allowed to go
from Toulon to Alexandria without being visited by the English cruisers.
This condition was inadmissible, and the negotiation was broken off".
The Austrian cabinet, being now left to contend alone with Napoleon,
were in no condition to resist his demands. A new convention was there-
fore concluded at Hohenlinden, on the 28th of September, by which the
cession of the three German fortresses, Ulm, Philipsburg and Ingolstadt,
was agreed on, and the armistice was prolonged for forty-five days, both
in Germany and Italy.
As soon as it became evident that Great Britain would not accede to
the First Consul's demands, the portfolio of the French war department
was placed in the hands of Carnot, and every exertion made to put all the
armies in a condition to resume hostilities. On the same day that this
took place, October 8th, a plot to assassinate Napoleon at the opera was
discovered by the police. Cerachi and Demerville, the leaders of the
conspiracy, and both determined Jacobins, were arrested and executed.
It was not long before the French armies were in a very formidable
condition. In addition to a corps of fifteen thousand under Macdonald at
Dijon, and one of twenty thousand on the Maine under Augereau, the
army of Italy was raised to eighty thousand men, and the grand army
under Moreau in Bavaria to one hundred and ten thousand. Austria,
too, foreseeing the result of the negotiations for peace, had made good use
of the armistice to recruit and reorganize her forces, having raised her
entire German army to one hundred and ten thousand men ; though its
efficiency was greatly impaired by the usual system of the Aulic Council,
which caused the troops to be scattered too much in detail over the coun-
try ; and also by their injudicious removal of Kray, and the substitution
in his place of the young Archduke John. In Italy, the ntal foice under
]5
144 HISTORY OF BUR OPE, [CHAP. XVIII
Field-marshal Bellegarde amounted to one hundred thousand men ; but
it was so subdivided that not more than sixty thousand could be assem-
bled at any one point. Renewed efforts were made at this time to engage
Russia and Prussia in the common cause; but they both declined to
interfere.
In the middle of September, the garrison of Malta, having been entirely
reduced by famine, capitulated, on condition of being sent to France and
not serving again until regularly exchanged : this noble fortress, therefore,
with its unrivalled harbor and impregnable walls, was permanently
annexed to the British dominions. The English also made themselves
masters, in the course of this year, of Surinam, Berbice, St. Eustache
and Demerara, Dutch settlements in the West Indies and on the main
land adjoining them.
After the death of Pope Pius VI., through the cruelty and tyranny of
the French government, the Roman conclave made choice of Cardinal
Chiaramonte as his successor, with the title of Pius VII. Rome at this
time was suffering under the exactions of the recently recovered power
of the King of Naples, and the new pontiff, without openly engaging in a
war, lent a willing ear to the proposals of Napoleon. But in other parts
of Italy, a feeling of entire hostility to France prevailed ; and in Tuscany
an insurrection broke out among the peasants, which was promptly sub-
dued, and with great cruelty, by the French troops. The army employed
on this service was afterward dispatched to Leghorn, where they seized
and confiscated forty-six English vessels with their cargoes.
In the month of November, Napoleon announced the conclusion of the
armistice, and on the 28th of that month, both parties were prepared to
commence hostilities. The line of the Inn, behind which the Austrians
were intrenched, is one of the strongest frontier positions in Europe ; and
the true policy of the Imperial forces, at this time, was to remain on the
defensive, but the Aulic Council decided on carrying the war into Bava-
ria ; and accordingly, the Austrian columns were moved to Landshut on
the 29th ; and as it chanced, Moreau, unaware of their march, was at
the same time advancing toward Ampfing on such a line as to bring the
flank of his left wing in immediate contact with the main body of the
Imperialists. The consequence was, that despite the utmost efforts of
Ney, Grenier and Legrand, the division was totally routed, and, falling
back in confusion on the centre, spread terror and discouragement through
the whole army. Had this success been vigorously followed up, there
can be no doubt that Moreau would have suffered an overwhelming
defeat. But the Archduke John, satisfied with his advantage, allowed
the French troops to recover from their consternation ; and on the follow-
ing day, they retired in good order through the forest of Hohenlinden to
the ground beyond, which Moreau had previously studied as the probable
theatre of a decisive battle, and where he now defended his position with
great care and skill.
The Archduke, after having thus allowed the enemy to escape when
he might have taken him at advantage, resolved now to pursue him ; not
imagining that Moreau had made a stand, but indulging the belief that
he was retreating in disorder. On the 3rd of December, long before day-
light, his whole army was in motion in three columns, and they plunged
into the forest, trampling the yet unstained snow in full confidence of
victory. From the outset, however, the most sinister presages attended
1800] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 145
their steps. During the night, the wind had changed, and the heavy
rain of the preceding day turned into snow, which fell in such thick
flakes as rendered it impossible to see twenty yards before the head of
the columns; while the dreary expanse of the forest, under the boughs,
presented a uniform white surface where the roads could not be distin-
guished. The cross-paths between the roads, bad at any time, were
almost impassable in such a storm; and each division, isolated in the
snowy wilderness, was left to its own resources without receiving intel-
ligence or aid from its associates.
The central column, which advanced along the only good road, out-
stripped the others, and its leading detachments had traversed the forest
and approached the village of Hohenlinden about nine o'clock in the
morning. It was there met by the division of Grouchy, and a furious
conflict immediately commenced. The Austrians endeavored to debouch
with their main body from the defile, and extend themselves along the
front of the wood ; while the French strove to drive them back into the
forest. Both parties made the most heroic efforts ; the falling snow at
first prevented the troops of the opposing lines from seeing each other,
but they aimed at the flashes which appeared through the gloom, and
rushed forward with blind fury to the deadly charge of the bayonet.
Gradually, however, the Austrians gained ground, and their ranks were
extending themselves in front, when Grouchy and Grandjean, by leading
on fresh battalions, forced them to retire into the wood. Here, the combat
was maintained hand to hand among the trees and thickets with invincible
resolution.
In the mean time, the other columns had advanced by different roads
to more remote parts of the field, and were warmly engaged in the battle.
The right was assailed by Ney as it began to defile on that side from the
forest, and it was driven back by such an impetuous charge that its
ranks were broken, and the whole mass retired with a loss of eight
pieces of cannon and a thousand prisoners. A similar fate awaited the
left wing, which, being attacked by Grenier, was forced to retreat with
still greater loss. Moreau was keeping the Austrian centre in check by
a series of assaults with fresh detachments, when the defeat of both wings
of the Archduke's army not only spread confusion into the main column,
but, by disengaging a part of Ney's and Grenier's divisions, enabled him
to bring an overwhelming force against the only corps of Imperialists
that yet maintained its ground. Soon after this accumulation of strength
began to be felt in front, the rear of the same column was assailed by
Richepanse with two regiments of infantry. This combined attack was
decisive. The Imperialists broke and fled in every direction, leaving
more than a hundred pieces of cannon, and fourteen thousand men, killed,
wounded and prisoners, on the field.
The Archduke retired with his shattered forces during the night behind
the Inn, where he made a show of defence; but Moreau soon crossed the
river lower down than the Austrian position, and the Imperialists, being
thus outflanked, again retreated and took post behind the Alza, to cover
the roads leading to Salzburg and Vienna. But Moreau found, from
the manner of the Archduke's retreat, that the spirit of the Austrian
troops was broken ; and he continued his pursuit, with a determination of
destroying the whole army before it could recover from its disasters. He
therefore hastened on to Salzburg, where his advanced guard became
146 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP- XVIIL
enveloped in a thick fog ; and before Lecourbe, who led the attack, was
aware of his danger, his corps was charged by a large body of Imperial
horse, and routed with a loss of two thousand men. The affairs of the
Archduke were, however, in too desperate a condition to be relieved by
this partial success, and he retreated in the night, leaving Salsburg to
its fate. Decaen took possession of it in the morning, and, for the first
time, the Republican standards waved on the picturesque towers of that
romantic city.
The same day, Richepanse continued the pursuit, and on the 16th he
overtook the Austrian rear at Herdorf, where he routed them with the
loss of a thousand prisoners. For the next two days, he kept up a run-
ning fight, at the end of which the Austrians reached Schwanstadt, arid
endeavored to make a stand against their inveterate pursuers. Still, all
was in vain. Nothing could resist the impetuosity of the French troops,
and the Imperialists, again defeated with great loss, continued their flight.
Affairs were in this disastrous state, when the Archduke Charles, to
whom the nation unanimously appealed as the only means of saving the
monarchy, arrived, and took command of the army. But when he
reviewed the troops as they crossed the Traun, his experienced eye told
him that little was to be hoped from their exertions: they were but a
confused mass of infantry, cavalry and artillery: their discipline was
lost ; the men neither grouped around their standards nor listened to the
voice of their officers; dejection and despair were painted in every
countenance. The Archduke, perceiving that resistance was hopeless,
reluctantly dispatched a messenger to Moreau, soliciting an armistice ;
which, after some hesitation on the part of the French general, was
signed on the 25th of December.
Before these events were brought to a conclusion in Germany, Macdon-
ald was ordered to march his army of fifteen thousand men across the
Alps, into the Italian Tyrol, by the passage of the Splugen. He arrived
with his advanced guard at the village of that name, on the evening of
the 26th of November, accompanied by a number of sappers, and the
sledges containing his artillery. In the morning of the 27th, he com-
menced the ascent. The country guides placed poles along the route ;
the laborers followed and removed the snow, and the dragoons came next,
to trample down the road with their horses' feet. In this manner, a de-
tachment had, with great fatigue, nearly reached the summit; when the
wind suddenly rose, an avalanche slid down the mountain, crossed the
path and swept away thirty dragoons from the head of the column, into
the abyss below, where they were dashed to pieces between the ice and
the rocks. General Laboissiere, who led the van, was a little in advance
of the dragoons ; he therefore escaped the avalanche, and proceeded in
safety to the hospice above : but the remainder of the column, thunderstruck
by such a catastrophe, returned to Splugen. The wind continued to blow
with great violence for the three succeeding days, and detached so many
avalanches, that the road was entirely blocked up ; and the guides declared
that no efforts could render it passable in less than two weeks. Macdon-
ald, however, was not to be daunted by such obstacles. Independently
of his anxiety to fulfil his designated part in the campaign, necessity re-
quired him to proceed ; for the unwonted accumulation of men and horses
in these Alpine regions, promised soon to consume the whole substance
of the country, and expose the troops to destruction from famine He
HISTORY OF EUROPE.
147
consequently, made the best arrangements within his control, to reopen
the passage. Four strong oxen were first sent along the route, led by
experienced guides : these were followed by forty robust peasants, who
cleared or beat down the snow ; two companies of sappers came next and
improved the path ; and behind them rode the dragoons. A convoy of
artillery, a hundred beasts of burden, and a strong rear-guard closed the
march. Many men and horses were overwhelmed by the snow, and not
a few perished from cold ; but at length, the hospice was gained, the
descent on the other side achieved, and the advanced guard of the army
reached the sunny fields of Campo Dolcino, at the southern base of the
mountain. On the 5th of December, Macdonald commenced the passage
with the remainder of his army ; and on the 7th, he reached Chiavenna
with his whole force.
But the difficulties of this enterprising commander did not terminate
here : for his subsequent orders required him to penetrate into the valley
of the Adige, by the route of Mont Tonal, on the summit of which ridge,
after encountering all the perils of the ascent, he found his road barred
by a corps of Austrian troops, posted behind a triple line of intrenchments.
He advanced against this new obstacle with great intrepidity, and forced
two of the lines ; but the third resisted every effort, and he was compelled
to retrace his steps down the mountain. He now made a circuit to reach
his destination in the Tyrol ; which, after a series of hardships, he at
length accomplished on the 6th of January. All the operations in this
quarter, however, were brought to an end by an armistice, agreed upon
between the armies, at Treviso, on the 16th of the same month. By the
conditions of this armistice, the Austrians were to surrender Peschiera,
Verona, Legnago, Ancona and Ferrara ; but they retained Mantua, the
chief object of the campaign. Napoleon was so irritated at these terms,
that he never again intrusted an important command to Brune, by whom
they were conceded.
As the French troops were now disengaged from all other enemies in
Italy, Napoleon directed a corps to advance on Naples, with the avowed
intention of dismembering that kingdom. And this he would readily have
accomplished, but for the heroic exertions of the Neapolitan queen, who,
immediately after the battle of Marengo, anticipating such an invasion,
set off alone from Palermo, and made a journey to St. Petersburg, where
she implored the intervention of the Russian Emperor. Paul, whose
chivalrous character was highly flattered by this adventurous step on the
part of the queen, espoused her cause, and dispatched a special messenger
to treat with Napoleon in her behalf. It may be presumed that, desirous
as Napoleon was of maintaining a good understanding with Russia, this
mediation was entirely successful ; and the First Consul, abandoning his
hostile purposes, concluded a treaty with Naples, on the 9th of February.
By this compact, known as the treaty of Foligno, it was provided that
the Neapolitan troops should evacuate the Roman States, and that all the
ports of Naples and Sicily should be closed against English and Turkish
vessels of merchandise, as well as war, and remain shut until the conclu-
sion of a general peace ; that port Longone in the island of Elba, Piom-
bino in Tuscany, and a small territory on the sea-coast of that duchy,
should be ceded to France ; and that in case of a menaced attack on the
Neapolitan dominions, from the troops of Turkey or England, a French
corps, equal in strengh to one that the Emperor of Russia might send,
15*
148 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [CHAT. XIX
should be placed at the disposal of the King of Naples. Under the words
of this last condition, was veiled the most important article of the treaty ;
for, being speedily carried into effect, it revealed the intention of Napo-
leon to take military possession of the whole peninsula. On the 1st of
April, before either any requisition had been made by the King of Naples
or any danger menaced his dominions, a corps of twelve thousand men,
under the command of General Soult, set out from the French lines and
took possession of the fortresses of Tarentum, Otranto, Brindisi, and all
the harbors in the extremity of Calabria. The object of this obtrusive
occupation was to facilitate the establishment of a communication with
the army of Egypt.
As a consequence of the armistice granted to the Archduke Charles in
Germany, and that agreed upon with Brune at Treviso, negotiations for
peace were entered into between Austria and France, which ended on
the 9th of February, in the treaty of Luneville. The conditions of this
treaty did not materially differ from those of the treaty of Campo Formio,
or from those offered by Napoleon before the opening of the campaign : a
remarkable fact, when it is considered how great an addition the victories
of Marengo and Hohenlinden had since made to the preponderance of the
French arms.
CHAPTER XIX.
FROM THE PEACE OF LUNEVILLE TO THE DISSOLUTION OF THE NORTHERN
MARITIME CONFEDERACY.
THE various alternations of war, peace and neutrality that were now
occurring between the different powers of Europe, led naturally to much
discussion and controversy on the subject of maritime law, and the rights
of merchant ships trading from neutral to belligerent countries. Under
a strict construction of the law of nations, and without at all violating
the provisions of that code, numerous seizures and confiscations had been
made by the British government, which revived the jealousies of the
other European states, at the almost unlimited power of the English navy.
In December, 1799, an altercation took place in the Straits of Gibraltar
between some British frigates and a Danish ship, in which the Dane
refused to submit to a search of the vessels under his convoy: but
eventually, the government of Denmark formally disavowed the conduct
of their captain, and the amicable relations remained unchanged. But
the next "collision of a similar character, led to more serious results. On
the 25th of July, 1800, the cornmander of the Danish frigate Freya re-
fused to allow his ships to be searched, but offered to show certificates to
the British officer, specifying the nature of the cargoes under his charge :
and he intimated, that if a boat were sent to make search it would be fired
upon. On receiving this reply, the British captain laid his vessel along,
side the Dane ; and, as the latter persisted, he discharged a few broadsides
at the Freya, took possession of her and the ships under her convoy, and
carried them into the Downs.
1800.] HISTORY OF EUROPE 149
At the same time, the English cabinet had learned that hostile negotia-
tions were in progress between the Northern courts relative to neutral
rights ; and deeming it probable that these would end in a declaration of
hostile intentions, they wisely resolved to anticipate an attack. For this
purpose, Lord Whitworth was sent on a special message to Copenhagen ;
and, to give greater weight to his arguments, a squadron of nine sail of
the line, four bombs and five frigates was dispatched to the Sound, under
the command of Admiral Dickson. The Admiral found four line-of-
battle ships moored across the strait from Cronenberg Castle to the Swe-
dish shore ; but the English fleet passed without the commission of any
act of hostility on either side, and came to anchor off Copenhagen. The
Danes were employed in strengthening their fortifications ; batteries
were erected on advantageous points near the coast, and three floating
bulwarks were stationed at the mouth of the harbor* but their prepara-
tions were incomplete, and the strength of the British squadron precluded
the hope of a successful resistance. An accommodation was therefore
entered into, the principal conditions of which were, that the frigate and
merchant vessels -carried into the Downs, should be repaired at the ex-
pense of the British government, and the question of right of search
adjourned to London, for further consideration. In the mean time,
Danish trading ships were to sail with convoy only in the Mediter-
ranean, where it was necessary to guard against the Barbary cruisers,
and their other vessels were to be liable, as before, to search.
This treaty was, under the circumstances, a triumph to Great Britain ;
and it would have led to no disastrous consequences, but for the interfer-
ence of the Emperor of Russia. The Northern Autocrat had been greatly
irritated at the ill-success of the expedition to Holland ; he was further
exasperated at the refusal of the British government to include Russian
prisoners with English, in the exchange with the French ; and finally, the
taking possession by England of Malta — which fortress Paul, as Grand-
master of the order of St. John of Jerusalem, felt bound to restore to that
celebrated order, while at the same time he knew that England would
not relinquish it — excited him to o^n- hostility and outrage. He
instantly ordered an embargo on all Britisn ships in the Russian harbors ;
and thereby detained nearly three hundred vessels with valuable cargoes,
until the frost had set in and rendered the Baltic impassable. Nor was
this all. ' The crews of these vessels, with Asiatic barbarity, and in
defiance of the usages of civilized states, were marched off into prisons in
the interior, some of them a thousand miles from the coast ; and all the
English property on shore was put under sequestration. When these
orders were promulged, several British ships at Narva weighed anchor,
and escaped the embargo : this so enraged the Autocrat, that he com-
manded the remaining vessels in the harbor to be burned, and published
a declaration that the embargo should not be removed until Malta was
given up to Russia.
The moment that Russia thus made common cause with the other
Northern powers, Prussia and France threw their influence into the scale,
and brought about a general maritime confederacy, hostile to Great
Britain, which was signed ^ Russia, Sweden and Denmark, on the 16th
of December, 1800. By this treaty, the contracting parties proclaimed
that free ships made free goods ; that the flag covered the merchandise ; '
and that a port is to be considered under blockade, only when such a force
150 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Ciur. XIX.
is stationed at its mouth as renders an entrance dangerous. They fur-
ther declared, that the certificate of a captain of a convoy that no contra-
band goods were under his charge, should relieve his vessels from search ;
and that if any of the parties to this convention should be dealt with
otherwise than in conformity to its enactments, the other parties would
make common cause with the party aggrieved, and aid in its defence.
As it was manifest, that if this new code of maritime law were recog-
nized, all the victories of the British navy would be fruitless — since
France, by means of neutral vessels, could regain her whole commerce,
import all the materials for the construction of a navy, and educate a
body of sailors to man her ships of war, when so constructed — Mr. Pitt
resolved on such measures of reprisal, as would show the Northern pow-
ers the qualities of the nation they had thought fit to provoke. On the
14th of January, 18dl,the British government issued an order for a gen-
eral embargo on all vessels belonging to any of the confederated powers ;
and letters of marque were granted for the capture of the numerous ves-
sels belonging to those states. The House of Commons sustained Mr.
Pitt's measures by a vote of two hundred and forty-five to sixty-three, and
the result was, that nearly one half the merchant ships at sea, belonging
to the Northern powers, found their way into the harbors of Great Britain.
The union of Ireland with England, from which such important
results were anticipated, proved a source of weakness to the British
Empire at this important crisis. By a series of concessions, which com-
menced soon after the coronation of George III. and continued through
his reign, the Irish Catholics had been placed nearly on a level with
their Protestant fellow-subjects, and they were at length excluded only
from sitting in Parliament, and from holding about thirty of the principal
offices in the state. When, however, Mr. Pitt carried through the great
measure of Union, he gave the Catholics reason to expect, that a removal
of all disabilities would follow : not, indeed, as matter of right, but of
grace and favor. When the time arrived, he found himself unable to
redeem his tacit pledge. It was ascertained, that the removal of the
Catholic disabilities involved many fundamental questions in the Consti-
tution : in particular, the Bill of Rights, the Test and Corporation Acts ;
and, in general, the stability of the whole Protestant Church establish-
ment. It was, besides, discovered, when the measure was brought for-
ward in the cabinet, that the king entertained scruples of conscience on
the subject, in consequence of his oath at the coronation, " to maintain
the Protestant religion established by law." Under these circumstances,
Mr. Pitt stated that he had no alternative, but to resign his office. On
the 10th of February, it was announced in Parliament, that the cabinet
ministers held the seals only, until their successors were appointed ; and
soon after, Mr. Pitt, Lord Grenville, Earl Spenser, Mr. Dundas and Mr.
Windham resigned, and were succeeded by Mr. Addington, then Speaker
of the House of Commons, as First Lord of the Treasury, Lord Hawkes-
bury, as Minister of Foreign Affairs, and a new ministry taken entirely
from the Tory party.
It has long been the practice of the administrations of Great Britain, not
to resign on the question which directly occasions their retirement, but to
select some minor point, which is held forth to the world as the real ground
of the change : and this custom is attended with the great advantage, of
not implicating the crown or the government in a collision with either
1801.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 151
House of Parliament. From the fact, therefore, of Mr. Pitt's having so
conspicuously designated the Catholic Question as the reason of his with-
drawing, it is more than probable that this was not the true cause : or,
that if it were, he caught at the impossibility of any further concessions to
the Catholics of Ireland as a motive for resigning, to prevent the approach
of other and more important questions which remained behind. There was
no necessity for bringing forward the Catholic claims at that moment, nor
any reason for breaking up a cabinet at a period of unparalleled public
difficulty, merely because the king's scruples prevented them from being
at that time conceded. But the question of peace or war was in a very
different situation. Mr. Pitt could not disguise from himself that the coun-
try was now involved in a contest, apparently endless, if the principles on
which it had so long been conducted were rigidly adhered to. Hence, as
it was possible, perhaps probable, that at no distant period England might
be driven to an accommodation, to which arrangement the maintenance
of his system would prove an obstacle, Mr. Pitt retired with the leading
members of his cabinet and was succeeded by inferior adherents of his
party, who, without departing altogether from his principles, might feel
more at liberty to adapt them to the pressure of actual circumstances.
In doing this, the English minister acted the part of a patriot. " He sacri-
ficed himself," said Bignon, "to the good of his country and a general
peace. He proved himself to be more than a great statesman — a good
citizen."
But, though Mr. Pitt retired, his mantle fell on his successors, who, in
their measures toward foreign States, evinced neither vacillation nor
timidity. They provided, for both the army and navy, larger appropria-
tions than had been made in any previous year since the commencement of
the war : and they had need of all the resources of the nation, for the forces
of the maritime league were extremely formidable. Their united strength
amounted to twenty-four ships of the line roady for sea, which, in a few
months, could with ease have been increased to fifty, besides twenty-five
frigates ; a fleet which, combined with the Dutch ships, might have raised
the blockade of the French harbors and enabled tho confederated powers
to ride triumphant in th^ British Channel. As yet, however, the hostile
fleets were not concentrated, and England resolved to strike a decisive blow
in a vulnerable point, before her enemies could combine for her destruction.
In the beginning of March, a squadron was assembled at Yarmouth,
consisting of eighteen ships of the line, four frigates and a number of bomb
vessels; in all, fifty-two sail. Sir Hyde Parker was placed at the head
of the fleet, and Nelson received the appointment of his second in com-
mand. The admiral set sail on the 12th of March. Soon after putting
to sea, the Invincible struck on one of the sand banks of that dangerous
coast, and sunk with a part of her crew. On the 27th, Sir Hyde arrived
off Zealand and dispatched a letter to the governor of Cronenberg Castle,
to inquire whether the fleet would be allowed to pass the Sound. The gov-
ernor replied, that he could not allow a squadron to approach the guns of
his fortress until the intentions of its commander were declared : and the
British admiral rejoined, that he considered such answer equivalent to a de-
claration of war. By the earnest advice of Nelson, it was resolved to force
the passage, and the line was formed accordingly. Nelson's division led
the van, Sir Hyde's followed in the centre, and the rear was commanded
by admiral Graves. When the leading ships came within range,, the bat-
12
152 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XIX.
ferics from the Danish shore opened their fire ; and, as the vessels were
steered through the middle of the channel, they began to suffer consider-
able injury ; but Nelson, observing that the batteries on the Swedish side
of the Sound were silent, changed his direction, and, by running along
that shore, was enabled to pass almost without the reach of the Danish
guns. The passage occupied four hours ; and, about noonday, the fleet
came to anchor off the harbor of Copenhagen.
The garrison of this city consisted of ten thousand regular troops and a
larger number of volunteers. Six ships of the line and eleven floating-
batteries, besides a great number of smaller vessels, were moored in an
external line to protect the entrance of the harbor, and those were flanked
on either side by two islands called the Crowns, each mounting about sixty
large guns. Within these powerful defences, four ships of the line were
moored across the harbor, and a fort of thirty-six heavy guns had been
constructed on a sand-bar to support them. The fire of these formidable
out- works crossed with that of the batteries on the island of Amack and
the citadel of Copenhagen ; and it seemed impossible that an attacking
squadron could, for any length of time, endure so heavy and concentric a
discharge. Besides, the channel, by which alone the harbor could be ap-
proached, was extremely intricate and little known to the British pilots :
the water on either side of the channel was shoal and intersected with bars,
and the buoys that marked the true course had all been removed. Indeed,
the danger of the navigation was so great, that a day and night were oc-
cupied by the boats of the fleet in making soundings, and in endeavoring
to replace the buoys.
The approach to the Danish exterior line was covered by a large shoal
called the Middle Ground, exactly in front of the harbor and distant from
it three-quarters of a mile. As this shoal was impassable for ships of
any magnitude, Nelson proposed to pass around it by the King's channel
with a detachment of twelve ships, and lay them between the Danish line
and the entrance of the harbor ; while Sir Hyde Parker, with the remain-
der of the fleet, was to menace the Crown batteries and the four Danish
ships on the inner line, and also lend his aid to such of Nelson's squadron
as might come disabled out of the action. The small craft, headed by
Captain Riou, led the way, accurately threading u dangerous and winding
course between the island of Saltholm and the Middle Ground ; the larger
ships followed, coasting along the outer edge of the shoal, doubled its far-
ther extremity, and cast anchor just at sunset off Draco Point, not more
than two miles from the right of the enemy's line. The signal to prepare
for action was made, and the seamen passed the night in anxious expecta-
tion. At daybreak on the 2nd of April, the wind was found to be fair, and
all the captains received their final instructions.
The action began at a few minutes past ten, and was general by
eleven. Nine only of the line-of-battle ships could reach the stations
allotted to them, three others having run aground; and, in consequence,
Captain Riou, with his frigates, was compelled to confront the Crown
batteries. The cannonade soon became tremendous ; more than two
mousand guns poured forth their, thunder within a space not exceeding
half a mile in breadth, and the fleets were wrapped in a huge mass of
smoke and flame. The firing continued for three hours without any
apparent diminution on either side, but at length, the discharges from the
Danish fleet began to slacken; loud cheers from the English sailors
i
1801.J HISTORY OF EUROPE. 153
announced the surrender of the enemy's ships, as they successively low-
3red their flags ; and before two o'clock, the whole outer line of defence
was either taken or destroyed. The loss of men in this desperate action
was very severe ; that on the side of the British amounting to twelve
hundred, and of the Danish, including prisoners, to six thousand. Of the
/essels taken, one only, the Holstein, of sixty-four guns, was brought to
England ; the remainder were so far injured, that it was deemed advis-
able to sink them after their capture. A negotiation immediately fol-
lowed the battle, which, though protracted by the Danish government
on account of thefr fears of Russia, was at last concluded in an armistice
for fourteen weeks, during which the armed Danish vessels were to remain
m their present position, and the prisoners and wounded immediately
sent ashore, and placed to the credit of England in case of a renewal
of hostilities.
On the same day that the British fleet forced the passage of the Sound,
the Prussian cabinet made a formal demand on the regency of Hanover,
to permit the occupation of the Electorate by the Prussians, and disband
a part of their own forces. As this proposal was -supported by an army
of twenty thousand men, the Hanoverian government was compelled to
submit; and Hanover, Bremen and Hameln were occupied accordingly.
At the same time, the Danes took possession of Hamburg and Lubec, so
as to close the mouth of the Elbe against English commerce : and, on
the other hand, a British squadron, under Admiral Duckworth, reduced
all the Swedish and Danish islands in the West Indies.
While everything thus announced the commencement of a war with
the Northern powers, an event occurred which altered the whole aspect
of affairs; this was, the death of the Emperor Paul, which took place on
the 23rd of March. His son, Alexander, succeeded to the throne, and a
total change of policy ensued on the part of the cabinet of St. Petersburg.
The administration of Paul was a season of misrule and tyranny,
owing in part to the impetuosity of his temper; and, of late, to a partial
insanity, which was evinced in a variety of ways. The leading nobles
of Russia, disapproving his policy, and foreseeing that it would bring
permanent injury and disgrace on the Empire, formed a conspiracy to
compel him to abdicate the crown, and the plot was so far communicated
to Paul's two sons, the Grand-dukes Alexander and Constantine; but no
intimation was given them that the conspiracy would endanger their
father's life : the young princes, however, very reluctantly consented to
the measure, although they were forced to admit its necessity; and
Alexander, in particular, yielded to the arguments of the nobles, only
on condition that no personal violence should be exerted in the proceed-
ing. The nobles had, nevertheless, resolved on Paul's death,, as the
only method of attaining security for the government; and they assas-
sinated him at night in his bed-chamber.
The new Emperor, on the day succeeding his elevation to the throne,
proclaimed his intention of governing according to the maxims and system
of his august grandmother, Catherine ; and one of his first acts was an
order for the liberation of the British sailors, who had been taken from
their ships and carried into prisons in the interior of the country : these
men were therefore immediately conducted, at the public expense, to the
ports from which they had severally been taken. At the same time, all
prohibitions against the export of corn were removed; a measure of no
154 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XIX.
small importance to the famishing population of the British Isles, and
hardly less material to the well supplied proprietors of Russian grain.
The young Emperor soon after wrote a letter, with his own hand, to the
King of England, expressing, in the warmest terms, his desire to reestab
lish the amicable relations of the two countries ; a declaration that was
received with shouts of joy both in London and St. Petersburg.
The British cabinet at once dispatched Lord St. Helens to the Russian
Capital ; and, soon after his arrival, he signed a treaty, as glorious to
England as it was confirmatory of the correctness of her views in regard
to the right of search. By this convention it was provided, that the
search "of merchant ships belonging to one of the contracting powers,
and navigating under convoy of a ship-of-war of the same power, shall
be exercised only by ships-of-*var of the belligerent party, and shall
never extend to the fitters-out of privateers or other vessels which do not
belong to the imperial or royal fleets of their majesties, but which their
subjects may have fitted out for war; that the effects on board neutral
ships shall be free, excepting contraband of war and enemies' property ;
and it is agreed not to comprise in the number of the latter, the merchan-
dise of the produce, growth or manufacture of the countries at war, which
shall have been acquired by the subjects of the neutral power, and shall
be transported for their account." The articles contraband were spe-
cified to comprise all arms and materials of war, excepting such as were
necessary for the defence of the ship and crew ; and a port was declared
to be blockaded only when, by reason of the disposition and strength of
the ships maintaining such blockade, there was danger in entering the
harbor. By this treaty, the right of search was placed on its true footing,
being divested of the accompaniments most likely to occasion irritation
in neutral vessels, and not stipulated in favor of either party as a new
right, but recognized as a privilege already existing, necessarily inherent
by the practice of maritime states in every belligerent power, and sub-
jected to such restraints as the enlarged experience of mankind had
proved to be beneficial.
Napoleon was greatly exasperated at the terms of this treaty, and sent
Buroc to St. Petersburg to counteract the influence of Great Britain;
but, though Alexander gave the French minister a flattering reception,
lae could not be induced to waver in his policy.
Sweden and Denmark were not expressly included in this convention,
but they of necessity followed the example of Russia. On the 20th of
May, therefore, the Danish government agreed to evacuate Hamburg,
and restore the free navigation of the Elbe, and both Sweden and Den-
mark raised the embargo: Great Britain adopted corresponding mea-
sures; and Prussia took an early opportunity to withdraw her troops
from Hanover. Thus was dissolved, in less than six months after its
formation, the most formidable confederacy that then had ever been
arrayed against the maritime power of England.
• CH A.PTER XX.
EXPEDITIONS TO EGYPT AND ST. DOMINGO EUROPE, FROM THE PEACE OP
AMIENS TO THE RENEWAL OF THE WAR.
THE Turkish army which Napoleon destroyed at Aboukir, was but an
advanced guard of the force collected by the Sublime Porte to recover
Egypt from the Republican arms. The main body, consisting of twenty
thousand janizaries and regular troops, and twenty-five thousand irreg-
ulars, arrived in the end of October, 1799, in the neighborhood of Gazah,
on the confines of the Desert which separates Syria from Egypt. At the
same time, a corps of eight thousand janizaries, under convoy of Sir
Sidney Smith, arrived at the mouth of the Nile, to effect a diversion in
that quarter. The leading division of this corps, four thousand strong,
landed and took possession of the tower of Bogaz, where they began to
fortify themselves ; but General Verdier, with one thousand French
troops, routed them with a loss of five pieces of cannon and all their
standards.
Kleber now turned his attention to the main army approaching from
the Syrian desert. The check at the mouth of the Nile rendered the
Grand Vizier well disposed toward negotiation ; and on the other hand,
the declining numbers and desponding spirit of the French made them
desirous, on almost any terms, to extricate themselves from a hopeless
banishment. A convention was accordingly signed by the two parties
on the 20th of January, 1800, which provided that the French soldiers
should return to Europe with their arms and baggage in their own vessels
or in those furnished by the Turkish authorities. But the British govern-
ment had previously prohibited such a convention, as by their joint treaty
with Turkey and Russia they were empowered to do, and sent orders to
Lord Keith, commanding the English fleet in the Mediterranean, not to
consent to any arrangement which should allow the French troops to
return to Europe but as prisoners of war: and Kleber was advised of
this after he had begun his preparations for embarking, in conformity to
the agreement with the Turks.
The French general, naturally exasperated at this interference of
England, resolved to renew hostilities ; and, on the 20th of March, he
reached and attacked the Turkish army in its intrenchments atHeliopolis.
The disproportion of 'numbers between the two parties was very great ;
but European discipline prevailed, as usual, over Asiatic valor, and the
Turks were defeated with prodigious loss. This victory, though it availed
nothing toward aiding the French to return home, was of consequence in
enabling them to remain in peace on the banks of the Nile, a treaty to that
effect having been concluded with the Turks, soon after the battle : buT
Kleber reaped little personal benefit from this result, as he was assassi-
nated by an Arab in the month of June. Menou succeeded to his com-
mand.
As soon as the British government learned the new position assumed by
the French troops in Egypt, they resolved on an expedition to expel them
from tha* country, and dispatched Sir Rulph Abercromby with a large fleet
16
156 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XX.
and fifteen thousand men, to Alexandria. The leading frigate of the
squadron made the signal for land, on the 1st of March, 1801, and on the
following morning the whole fleet anchored in the Bay of Aboukir, on the
same spot where Nelson had gained his great victory three years before.
The state of the weather prevented for some days the landing of the troops ;
but on the 8th, five thousand five hundred men embarked in one hun-
dred and fifty boats for the shore. The French, to the number of about
two thousand, were posted on the heights, in a semicircular line about a
mile in length, supported on one side by twelve pieces of artillery, and on
the other, by the castle of Aboukir. The moment the boats came within
easy range of the French fire, a tremendous storm of grape opened upon
them, ploughing the water in every direction, and scattering the transports
over the waves. But the sailors plied their oars, and the troops steadily
advanced in spite of every obstacle ; indeed, they moved with such pre-
cision, that the prows of nearly all the first division struck the beach at
the same moment. The troops sprang on shore, formed before they could
6e charged by the enemy's cavalry, and moving rapidly up the ascent
with fixed bayonets, carried the heights in the most gallant style. In an
hour, the whole detachment was established on the French lines, and had
taken eight of the twelve guns by which they were supported.
Abercromby proceeded to strengthen his position and effect the land-
ing of the remainder of his forces. Several partial actions ensued be-
tween detachments of the two armies during the following days, and on
the morning of the 21st, a general battle was fought in front of Alex-
andria, in which the French were defeated with a loss of two thousand
men, and Menou retreated to the heights of Nicopolis ; but the victory
was dearly purchased by the English, who suffered an irreparable disas-
ter in the death of Sir Ralph Abercromby. Some weeks now elapsed,
in which both parties occupied themselves with reorganizing their forces.
On the 9th of May, General Kfutchinson arrived at Alexandria, with a
reenforcement of three thousand fresh troops, and assumed command of
the British army. He immediately took the offensive, and, pressing on
the French division under Belliard, compelled them to retreat before him,
until he finally drove them into Cairo, and laid siege to that city, on the
20th of May. On the following day, the French commander proposed a
capitulation, stipulating that the troops, consisting of thirteen thousand
six hundred and seventy two men, with their arms, artillery and baggage,
should be conveyed to France. This was acceded to, and the English
took possession of Cairo.
When Menou, who was at Alexandria with the other division of the
French army, amounting to ten thousand men, heard of this capitulation, he
professed himself highly incensed, and avowed his determination to die under
the ruins of Alexandria, rather than surrender. But the British troops,
on the 17th of August, laid siege to that place, and Menou soon forgot hb
bold resolution : for, on the 31st, he agreeed to evacuate the town on con-
dition of being transported to France with his men, arms, baggage, and ten
pieces of cannon. The military results of this conquest were very great.
Three hundred and twelve pieces of cannon, chiefly brass, were found on
the works of Alexandria, besides seventy-seven on board the ships of war.
The magazines contained one hundred and ninety-five thousand pounds of
powder and fourteen thousand gun-cartridges. The total number of troops
who capitulated in Egypt, was nearly twenty-four thousand of the tried
180L] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 157
veterans of France, who thus yielded to an English force considerably
inferior to their own.
Although Napoleon had now lost his footing in Egypt, he did not despair
of regaining it, and made several abortive attempts to take possession of
Alexandria, by fleets dispatched for that purpose, which accomplished no-
thing but escapes through the British squadron in the Mediterranean, and
returned home without having reached Alexandria. Napoleon, exasperated
at these failures, ordered a new expedition to be prepared of fifteen ships
of the line, twelve of which, six Spanish and six French, were to unite at
Cadiz, and be joined by Admiral Linois with three more from Toulon.
The British government immediately dispatched Sir James Saumarez,
with seven ships of the line and two frigates, to resume the blockade of
Cadiz ; and he had hardly arrived off that harbor, when he learned that
Admiral Linois was approaching from the Mediterranean with three ships
of the line, and one frigate. The English admiral immediately put to
sea in search of this squadron, when Linois retreated into Algesiraz Bay,
and took shelter under its powerful batteries. Sir James followed him and
stood into the bay, but the wind soon failing, the Hannibal grounded on a
shoal, in such a position as to be exposed to the fire both of the shore bat-
teries and the French ships ; and as the other vessels were unable to ren-
der her any assistance, they withdrew and left her to her fate. She made
an honorable defence, but soon struck her colors.
Sir James now repaired to Gibraltar, refitted and recruited his squad-
ron, and, on the morning of July 12th, set sail again, to avenge his loss
and discomfiture ; and, in the mean time, six ships of the line and three
frigates, from Cadiz, had joined the French fleet in Algesiraz Bay, and
the united squadrons were now on their return to Cadiz with their prize,
the Hannibal, in tow. As soon as the British fleet, consisting of but five
ships of the line, came in sight of the French and Spanish vessels, the
latter, though comprising together nine line-of-battle ships, including two
three deckers, made sail to escape toward Cadiz, leaving the Hannibal to
drop astern. The British gave chase, and at eleven o'clock at night, the
Superb opened its fire on the Real Carlos, of one hundred and twelve
guns, which ship, after, three broadsides, was discovered to be OR fire.
Deeming this gigantic adversary so far disabled that she must soon fall
into the hands of the vessels behind, the commander of the Superb pressed
on, and in half an hour overtook and captured the St. Antoine, of seventy-
four guns. The Caesar and Venerable came up in succession, and the
chase was continued through the night, in the midst of a tempestuous gale.
But while the British sailors were making every effort to overtake the
retreating ships, a terrible catastrophe happened to the enemy. The
Superb, after having disabled the Real Carlos, passed on and poured a
broadside into the San Hermenigeldo, also of one hundred and twelve
guns, and she thence proceeded to the attack of other vessels still farther
advanced. In the darkness of the night, the commanders of these two
Spanish three-deckers, mutually mistaking each other for an enemy,
joined in a close action ; the violence of the wind spread the flames from
one to the other, the heavens were illuminated by the conflagration, and
at midnight they both blew up with a tremendous explosion. Out of the
two thousand men composing their crews, two hundred and fifty were saved
by the English boats, the remainder perished.
When morning dawned, the fleets were very much scattered ; and
159. HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XX,
eventually both drew off without prizes ; but it was a triumph to the
British to have engaged nearly double their numbers, and escape with all
their vessels ; while the combined fleet suffered the destruction of two of
its largest ships.
About this time, a treaty between France and Spain was announced,
having for its object " to compel the court of Lisbon to separate itself from
its alliance with Great Britain, and cede, until the conclusion of a general
peace, a fourth part of its territory to the French and Spanish forces." In
this extremity, Portugal appealed for aid to Great Britain ; but, as that
power could not then grant it, Portugal was forced to submit ; she pur-
chased a treaty with her powerful neighbors by ceding to France one half
of Guiana, paying twenty millions of francs for the support of the French
troops, confirming Olivenza with its territory to Spain, and closing her
ports against all. English ships, whether of war or of commerce.
When Napoleon found himself relieved by the treaty of Luneville from
all apprehension of a struggle with the Continental powers, he bent his
attention to the shores of Great Britain, and made great preparation for
invading that country : while England' concentrated her resources for a
general defence of the coast. But it was soon apparent that these efforts,
on both sides, were a mere cover to the intentions of the respective cabi-
nets ; for while the shores of the Channel were covered with boats and
transports on the one hand, and fleets of armed ships on the other, couriers
passed incessantly to and fro with dispatches having reference to a gen-
eral peace, preliminaries for which were eventually signed, on the 1st of
October, 1801. By these preliminary articles it was agreed, that hostili-
ties between the contracting parties should immediately cease by land and
sea ; that Great Britain should restore its colonial acquisitions in every
part of the world ; Ceylon in the East, and Trinidad in the West Indies,
alone excepted : that Egypt should be restored to the Porte, Malta and its
dependencies to the order of St. John of Jerusalem, the Cape of Good
Hope to Holland ; the integrity of Portugal was to be guaranteed, the
harbors of the Roman and Neapolitan states evacuated by the French, and
Porto Ferrajo by the English forces.
In the same year, treaties were concluded between France and Turkey,
France and Bavaria, France and America, France and Algiers, and
France and Russia. On the 27th of March, 1802, the definitive treaty
with England was signed at Amiens ; its conditions varied in no essential
particular from the preliminaries signed at London, in October, 1801.
A feeling of joy overspread all Europe when intelligence of the treaty
of Amiens was promulgated : the population of Paris forgot, in the splen-
dor of military pageantry, the calamities of the Revolution, and visitors
Crom other countries flocked to the French metropolis to examine the locali-
ties where such frightful scenes had been enacted, and to see the several
heroes of the mighty drama.
But the active and indefatigable mind of Napoleon took no respite du-
ring this period of general relaxation. Thinking nothing done while aught
remained to do, he no sooner attained the highest point of military glory,
fhan he turned his thoughts to the restoration of the naval power of France ;
and as the recovery of the French colonies promised the only means that
could be relied on for the permanent support of marine forces, he projected
an expedition for the recapturing of St. Domingo, which had freed itself
from the French yoke by a bloody insurrection during the misrule of the
.National Assembly.
1801.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 159
The forces collected by Napoleon for this purpose were commensurate
to the importance of the undertaking : thirty-five ships of the line, twenty,
one frigates and eighty smaller vessels, having also on board twenty-one
thousand land troops, might have been deemed a sufficiently powerful
armament to subjugate a rival kingdom, rather than one destined to reduce
a distant colonial settlement. The fleet was commanded by Villaret
Joyeuse ; the army, by Le Clerc, Napoleon's brother-in-law ; and the
troops consisted, for the most part, of the veterans of Hohenlinden, accom-
panied by their own officers, Richepanse, Rochambeau, and others. The
several detachments of the fleet sailed simultaneously from Brest, L' Ori-
ent and Rochefort, on the 14th of December ; and these were followed by
other vessels from Cadiz, Havre and Holland with additional troops, which
eventually raised the whole land force to thirty-five thousand men. So
completely were the people of St. Domingo at fault as to the destination
of this armament, that, but for its detention for fifteen days in the Bay of
Biscay, Toussaint, the negro general-in-chief of the new government,
would have been taken entirely by surprise by the arrival of the fleet off
the island, in the beginning of February. As it chanced, however, he
learned from an American vessel that a large number of French ships of
war had appeared in the southern latitudes ; and, instantly divining their
object, he made all possible preparation for defence.
Toussaint's entire military force, over the island, did not exceed
twenty thousand men, hence, he could hope nothing from pitched battles
with the conquerors of Austria; he therefore adopted a line of defence
exactly conformable to his position. Orders were immediately given for
removing everything valuable from Cape Town, where the French were
expected to land, and to prepare combustibles for destroying the city by
fire, the moment it was evacuated. These orders were faithfully execu-
ted. One division of the French troops disembarked on the 4th of Feb-
ruary ; during that night, the flames burst out in every direction, and in
the morning, of eight hundred houses, but sixty remained standing, and
all the stores and provisions that could not be removed were destroyed
with the buildings that contained them : a noble act of devotion on the
part of the negroes, and one of sinister import to the invading army.
The French troops soon overran and took possession of all the plains
and seacoast of the island, driving the negro bands into the impracticable
mountains and woods in the centre : but this apparent triumph was the
result of the system of defence adopted by Toussaint, to cut off supplies
from the French, and harass them with an incessant guerilla warfare,
which rendered their discipline and experience unavailing. This state
of things continued for three months, during which numberless actions
took place, and in many, the French suffered severe loss ; but both par-
ties at length becoming exhausted, a general pacification was agreed
upon, on the 5th of May, 1802; when the negroes submitted to the
government of the invaders, surrendered their arms and disbanded their
forces. But they soon found reason to repent their reliance on the faith
of Napoleon ; for, in compliance with his original instructions, Toussaint
was treacherously arrested and transported to France ; and this act was
followed by a system of oppression which *oon forced the negroes into
revolt.
The situation of the French, in turn, became critical. Pestilence and
the sword had reduced their numbers to thirteen thousand men in all : and
16*
ICO HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XX.
of these, five thousand were in the hospitals, and Le Clerc himself, with
several of his best officers, had fallen victims to the clfmate. Rocham-
beau took command after the death of Le Clerc ; but the increasing force
and success of the negroes decimated his troops, and in February, 1803,
he found himself reduced to extremity. When matters were in this con-
dition, a finishing blow was given to the hopes of the French army, by
the rupture of the treaty of Amiens, and renewal of hostilities between
France and Great Britain. The negroes, supplied with arms and ammu-
nition by the English cruisers, became at all points irresistible, and ihe
invaders were forced to capitulate.
Since the expulsion of the French from the island, St. Domingo has
been nominally independent ; but slavery is far from being abolished
there, and the condition of the people is anything but meliorated by the
change. The industrious habits of the people and the flourishing aspect
of the island have disappeared; the agricultural opulence of its fields has
vanished ; and, from being the greatest exporting island in the West In-
dies, it has ceased to raise sugar at all. In 1789, the population of St.
Domingo was six hundred thousand, and its export of sugar amounted to
six hundred and seventy-two millions of pounds weight : in 1832, its popu-
lation was two hundred and eighty thousand, and its export of sugar, not
one pound.
But, though Napoleon was thus foiled in his attempts to establish colo-
nial dependencies, he did not limit his ambition to this achievement.
Simultaneously with the expedition to St. Domingo, he began to operate
on the field of Europe, and the peace of Amiens was hardly concluded,
when his conduct gave unequivocal proof that he was resolved to be fet-
tered by.no treaties, and that, to those who did not choose to submit to his
authority, no alternative remained but the sword.
By the llth article of the treaty of Luneville, it had been provided that
" the contracting parties shall mutually guarantee the independence of
the Batavian, Helvetian, Cis-Alpine and Ligurian republics, and the right
of the people who inhabit them to adopt whatever form of government they
may think fit." The allies, by this clause, of course understood inde-
pendence in its true sense; that is, a liberation of these republics from
the influence of France : but it soon appeared that Napoleon attached a
very different meaning to the word, and that he intended to establish con-
stitutions in them all which should subject them absolutely to his power.
He made his first demonstration on Holland, where, on the 17th of
September, the French ambassador sent a Constitution, completely drawn
up, to the Directory, with an intimation that they had nothing to do but
to affix to it the seal ,pf their approbation ; and, on the same day, it was
published to the nation, the Directory taking for granted that it would be
approved. The Dutch Legislature, however, were not prepared for this
degradation ; and the last act of their political existence was as honorable
as, in the end, it proved unavailing : they decreed the suppression of the
illegal acts of the Directory, and on the 18th their hall was cleared and
their doors closed by French bayonets. A new Constitution was then pub-
lished by the pliant Directory, alike without the knowledge or concurrence
of the people, although it assimilated to their wishes more nearly than the
democratic institutions which preceded it. The Directory went through
the form of submitting this instrument to the people ; and of four hundred
and sixteen thousand four hundred and nineteen citizens, having a right
1802.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 161
to vote, fifty-two thousand two hundred and nineteen rejected it. The
fact that a great majority of the whole declined to vote at all, was as-
sumed to be favorable to the change, and the new government was there-
fore solemn.y proclaimed. The conduct of the Dutch on this occasion,
affords a striking proof of the impossibility of eradicating, by external
violence, the institutions which have grown with the growth and strength-
ened with the strength of a free people. In vain did the armies of France
subdue them, and force upon them democratic forms of government with
the loud applause of the indigent rabble in power. The great mass of
the inhabitants and nearly all the proprietors withdrew from public situa-
tions, and took no share in the changes imposed on their country. In the
seclusion of private life, they retained the habits, the affections and the
religious observances of .their forefathers ; and their children were nur-
tured in these patriotic feelings, untainted by the revolutionary passions
which agitated the surrounding states.
This was followed by a similar revolution in the Cis- Alpine Republic,
and a change of its name to the Italian Republic ; after which, Piedmont
was formally annexed to France. These acquisitions, formidable in them-
selves, became doubly so by the means which Napoleon adopted to render
them permanent conquests. He employed a corps of engineers and an
immense number of workmen to construct the celebrated roads over Mont
Cenis, Mont Genevre and the Simplon ; and the Alps soon ceased to pre-
sent any obstacle to an invading army. The government of Switzerland,
too, again underwent a radical change, and a Constitution more conform-
able to Napoleon's modified views of republicanism was forced on the
inhabitants of that devoted country.
While the continent of Europe was agitated by these events, England
enjoyed the blessings and the tranquillity of peace. During the brief
interval of national repose that was vouchsafed to her, the opening of the
European ports brought into her harbors an unlimited commerce, and
rendered her seaports the emporium of the civilized world. Her exports
and imports rapidly increased ; the cessation of the income-tax conferred
comparative affluence on the middling classes ; agriculture, sustained
by continued high prices, shared in the general prosperity ; the sinking
fund, relieved in some degree from the counteracting influence of annual
loans, attracted universal attention ; while the revenue, under the influ-
ence of so many favorable circumstances, steadily augmented, and the
national exigencies were easily provided for, without any addition tc
the burdens of the people. So wide-spread was the enthusiasm, occa
sioned by this bright gleam of prosperity, even sagacious, practical men,
were carried away by the delusion ; and the only apprehension expressed
by the moneyed classes was, that the sinking fund would extinguish the
national debt too rapidly, and capital, left without the means of secure
investment, would be exposed to the risk and uncertainty of foreign
adventure.
But these flattering prospects were of short duration. Independent of
the increasing jealousy with which the British government beheld the
continental encroachments of Napoleon, and which rapidly communi-
cated itself to all classes of the English people, several causes of irrita-
tion grew up between the rival governments, which first weakened, and
finally destroyed, the good understanding between them.
The first of these subjects of irritation, was the asperity with which the
government and acts of the First Consul were canvassed in the English
162 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [CHAP. XX.
newspapers. To Napoleon, who was accustomed only to the voice of
adulation, and read nothing in the enslaved journals of his own country
but graceful flattery, these diatribes were in the highest degree painful ;
and not the less so, because the charges they contained in regard to his
ambitious policy and foreign aggressions, were too true to be refuted.
He, therefore, caused his minister at London to remonstrate against these
attacks, and concluded by formally soliciting, " First, that the English
government should prohibit the unbecoming and seditious publications
with which the newspapers in England are filled ; secondly, that the
individuals specified in the annexed list, be sent out of Jersey ; thirdly,
that Georges and his adherents be transported to Canada ; fourthly, that
it be recommended to the princes of the House of Bourbon, resident in
Great Britain, to repair to Warsaw ; and, fifthly, that such emigrants as
still think proper to wear the orders and decorations of the ancient gov-
ernment of France, be required to quit the territories of the British
Empire."
The English government replied to this extraordinary requisition in
dignified, but courteous language, referring in detail to each specifica-
tion, and concluding thus : " His majesty is sincerely disposed to adopt
every measure for the preservation of peace, which is consistent with the
honor and independence of the country, and the security of its laws and
Constitution. But the French government must have formed a most
erroneous judgment of the disposition of the British nation, and the char-
acter of its government, if they have been taught to expect that any
representation of a foreign power, will ever induce them to consent to a
violation of those rights on which the liberties of the people of this country
are founded."
No further diplomatic correspondence took place on this subject; but
the war of the journals continued with redoubled vehemence, and several
replies of a hostile character appeared in the Moniteur, bearing evident
marks of Napoleon's composition. The French incessantly urged the
execution of "the treaty of Amiens, the whole treaty of Amiens, and
nothing but the treaty of Amiens :" they loudly complained that the
British government had not evacuated Alexandria, Malta, and the Cape
of Good Hope, as stipulated in that instrument ; and declared that the
French people would ever remain in the attitude of Minerva, with a hel-
met on her head, and a spear in her hand. The English replied, that
the strides made by France over Continental Europe since the general
pacification, and her menacing conduct toward the British possessions,
were inconsistent with any intention of preserving peace, and rendered it
indispensable that the securities held by them for their own independ-
ence, should not be relinquished. This recriminating warfare was con-
tinued with equal zeal on both sides of the Channel ; loud and fierce
defiances were exchanged, and it soon became manifest, not less from the
temper of the people than the relations of their governments, that the
contest must, be decided by the sword.
This view of the case was farther confirmed by an extraordinary scene
between Napoleon and Lord Whitworth. the English ambassador at Paris,
on the 21st of February, 1803 ; in which Napoleon, with great vehe-
mence, insisted on the evacuation of Egypt and Malta, complained of the
abuse of the English newspapers, and threatened to renew hostilities
. immediately, unless his grounds of complaint were removed.
The British government, plainly foreseeing the result, resolved to
1803.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 163
anticipate it, and made speedy preparations for an outbreak. Parlia-
ment sustained the measures of the ministry by a unanimous vote ; the
militia was called out; ten thousand additional men were ordered for
the navy ; Lord Nelson was put in command of the Mediterranean fleet;
Sir Sidney Smith received orders to put to sea with a squadron of obser-
vation ; and England resumed her arms with a degree of enthusiasm
exceeding that with which she had laid them aside.
These movements led to a second and still more violent ebullition on
the part of the First Consul. In a public court at the Tuileries, held a
few days after, he addressed Lord Whitworth in the following terms:
" So, you are determined to go to war ! We have already fought for fif-
teen years; I suppose you wish to fight for fifteen years more. The
English wish for war; but if they are the first to draw the sword, I will
be the last to return it to the scabbard. They have no respect for trea-
ties. Henceforth, treaties must be shrouded in black crape. Wherefore
these armaments ? Against whom are these measures of precaution ? I
have not a single ship of the line in the harbors of France : but if you
arm, I shall arm also. If you insist on fighting, I, too. shall fight. You
may destroy France, but you can never intimidate her. If you would
live on terms of good understanding with us, you must respect treaties.
Wo to those who violate them ! they must answer for the consequences
to all Europe." This violent harangue, rendered still more emphatic
by the impassioned gestures with which it was accompanied, induced the
English ambassador to suppose that the First Consul would so far forget
his dignity as to strike him; and he was deliberating with himself as to
what he would do, in the event of such an insult's being offered to the
nation he represented, when Napoleon retired, and delivered the assem-
bled and astonished ambassadors of Europe from the pain they experi-
enced at witnessing so remarkable a scene.
The British government contented itself with replying to these intem-
perate sallies on the part of the First Consul, by recapitulating the mutual
obligations of the treaty, and avowing a readiness to execute every
article to the letter, the moment they were satisfied of similar intentions
on the part of France. The negotiations were protracted for two months
longer; but, on the 12th of May, Lord Whitworth, finding all hope of
arrangement at an end, demanded and received his passports: on the
16th, letters of marque were issued by the British government; and the
war recommenced with increased animosity.
The declaration of war was followed by an act on the part of the First
Consul, as unnecessary as it was barbarous; and which contributed
more, perhaps, than any other circumstance, to produce that strong feel-
ing of personal hatred toward Napoleon which pervaded all classes of
the English people during the remainder of the contest. Two French
vessels had been captured, under the English letters of marque, in the
Bay of Audierne ; and the First Consul made this a pretext for ordering
the arrest of all the British subjects, then travelling in France, between
the ages of eighteen and sixty years. Under this savage decree, more
than ten thousand innocent persons, who had repaired to France in pur-
suit of business, science or amusement, were at once thrown into prison ;
whence great numbers of them were not liberated until the invasion of
the allies, in 1814. This severity was the more unpardonable, as the
minister of Foreign Affairs had, a few days before, given the English t
164 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXI.
residents at Paris assurances, that they should be permitted to leave the
kingdom without molestation ; and many had, in consequence, declined to
avail themselves of the means of escape when they were in their power.
CHAPTER XXI.
FRANCE, FROM THE PEACE OF AMIENS TO NAPOLEON'S ASSUMPTION OF THE
IMPERIAL CROWN.
BEFORE proceeding to the history of the war, thus unhappily renewed,
it is necessary to take a retrospective view of the internal affairs of
France.
When Napoleon seized the reins of power in that country, he found
the institutions of civilization, and the bonds of society, dissolved to an
extent of which the history of the world affords no previous example.
Not only had the throne been overturned, the nobles exiled, the landed
estates confiscated, and the aristocracy destroyed ; but the institutions of
religion, law, commerce and education, were totally annihilated. Ever
the establishments of charity had shared in the general wreck ; the mon
astery no longer dispensed its munificence to the poor, and the doors oi
the hospitals were closed against the indigent sick and wounded. Tr
restore that which the insanity of preceding years had overthrown, wa:
the task that awaited the First Consul, and the success of his efforts is a
far prouder monument to his memory than all the victories he achieved.
He began at the outset, cautiously but firmly, to coerce the democratic
spirit of the people, and to reconstruct those classes and distinctions in
society, which he well knew were the indispensable bulwarks of a throne.
Those who reproach Napoleon for establishing a despotic government,
would do well to show how he could have formed a counterpoise to
democratic ambition, or a check on regal oppression, out of the represen-
tatives of a community whence the superior classes of society had been
violently torn : how the turbulent passions of a republican populace could
have been moulded into habitual subjection to a legislature, distinguished
in no manner from themselves; and to a body of titled senators destitute
of wealth, consideration and hereditary rank : how a constitutional throne
could have existed without any support from the altar, or any foundation
in the religious feelings of its subjects: and how a proud and victorious
army could have been taught that respect for the majesty of the Law,
which is the invaluable growth of centuries of order, but which the suc-
cessive overthrow of so many previous governments in France had effect-
ually destroyed. After its patricians had been cut off by the civil wars
of Sylla and Marius, Rome necessarily sunk under the despotic rule of
the emperors. When Constantine founded a second Rome on the shores
of the Bosphorus, he saw that it was too late to restore the balanced Con
stitution of the ancient Republic. On Napoleon's accession to the con-
sular throne, he found the vacancies in the French aristocracy still
greater ; and the only remaining means of righting the scale, was to cast
into it the weight of the sword.
1801.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 165
One of Naporeon's first measures, was a decree against the Jacobins,
toward whom he entertained an inextinguishable hatred. The pretext
for this proceeding was furnished by an unsuccessful attempt against his
life, by means of what was called "the infernal machine." He was
going in his carriage from the Tuileries to the opera, and in passing
through the Rue St. Nicaise, the coachman found that narrow street
nearly obstructed by an overturned chariot; the man, however, had the
address to make his way through, and drive on without stopping. He
had hardly passed, when a terrible explosion took place in the rear,
which broke the windows of the Consul's carriage, struck down the last
man of the guard, killed eight persons and wounded twenty-eight, besides
doing great injury to forty-six adjoining houses. Napoleon proceeded to
the opera, where he was received with indescribable enthusiasm; and
on his return to the Tuileries, a crowd of public functionaries from every
part of Paris waited on him, to offer their congratulations. He inter-
rupted them by saying, that the plot was the work of his worst enemies,
the Jacobins ; and, in a vehement harangue, he demanded the immediate
infliction of an exemplary punishment on the leaders of that party.
Truguet had the courage to suggest, that there were other guilty persons
in France besides the Jacobins ; and that, as in this particular instance
there was yet no proof against any one, it would be well to stay such
summary proceedings. Napoleon, however, was not so to be thwarted:
he insisted on the justness of his suspicions; and although, while the dis-
cussion was in progress, he received certain information, through Fouehe,
that the real perpetrators of the crime were some Royalists of the Chouan
bands, he forced the Senate to pass a decree of immediate transportation,
without a form of trial, against no less than one hundred and thirty
Jacobins, among whom were many of those implicated in the worst ex-
cesses of the Reign of Terror. Within a month from this time, Saint
Regent and Carbon, who were actually concerned in the conspiracy,
were brought to trial, condemned and executed.
In order to restore gradually the succession of ranks in society, Napo-
leon soon resolved to create an order of nobility, under the title of the
Legion of Honor ; and a motion for its establishment was brought before
the Council of State in May, 1801. It met, both there and elsewhere, an
unexpected degree of opposition, from its evident tendency to counteract
the levelling principles of the Revolution ; and Napoleon's utmost influ-
ence could obtain for it but a feeble majority in the several houses of the
national legislature. It was, nevertheless, carried into execution, with
all those details of pomp and ceremony that are so powerful with the
multitude. The inauguration of the dignitaries of the order took place,
with great magnificence, in the church of the Hotel des Invalides ; and
the decorations soon began to be eagerly coveted by a people, whose pas-
sion for individual distinction had been a secret cause of the Revolution
itself. The event proved that Napoleon had rightly appreciated the true
character of the people. The leading object in the Revolution was the
extinction of castes, not of ranks ; equality of rights, and not of classes;
the abolition of hereditary, not personal distinction. But an institution
which conferred lustre on individuals, and not on families, and led to no
hereditary privileges, was found in practice to be so far from running
counter to the popular feeling, that it precisely coincided with it. Ac-
cordingly, the Legion of Honor, which gradually extended so as to
166 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXL
embrace two thousand persons of the greatest eminence in every depart,
ment, both civil and military, in France, became highly useful and
acceptable.
Another measure, and one of the greatest importance, was next brought
forward : this was, the reestablishment of the Catholic religion in France,
and the renewing of those connexions with the pope which had been
violently broken during the fury of the Revolution. Napoleon, himself,
so far from being a fanatic, was even a disbeliever in religion ; but he
was too sagacious not to perceive, that the destruction of its hallowed
institutions was wholly inconsistent with the prosperity of a regular
government; and he therefore commenced a negotiation with the pope
for reviving them. This measure, too, encountered great opposition in
the legislature ; but k was eventually carried. Ten archbishops and
fifty bishops were established ; the former with a salary of fifteen thou-
sand, and the latter with one of ten thousand francs each: and it was
provided, that there should be a parish priest in every district of a justice
of the peace, with as many additional ministers as might be deemed
necessary. The bishops and archbishops were to be appointed by the
First Consul, and these functionaries were to nominate the parish priests
and inferior clergy. It is remarkable, that some of the most distinguished
of the French generals, such as Moreau, Lannes, Oudinot, Victor and
others, openly expressed their disapprobation of this proceeding.
Napoleon, however, remained firm; despite all opposition and the loud
discontent of the capital ; the reestablishment of public worship was an-
nounced by a proclamation of the three Consuls ; and, on the llth of April,
1802, a grand religious ceremony took place, in honor of the occasion, in
the cathedral of Notre Dame. The result of this measure fully vindi-
cated Napoleon's judgment in its adoption ; the entire population of the
rural departments beheld the change with unbounded satisfaction and
delight, and the different sovereigns of Europe freely avowed their gratifi-
cation at an event so auspicious to the general benefit of mankind.
On the 29th of April, a general amnesty was published in favor of
exiles and emigrants, who had fled or been driven from their homes, during
the Revolution ; and, in consequence, more than a hundred thousand per-
sons returned to their native country ; though, for the most part, they were
in great destitution from the previous confiscation of their estates. In the
month of May, a system of public instruction was introduced on a scale
of comparative liberality ; but it is observable, that all tuition of a reli-
gious character was carefully avoided in the decree. On the 8th of the
same month, the obsequious legislature extended the time of Napoleon's
consulship ten years beyond the term for which he was originally ap-
pointed : an acquisition of power, which, though far short of his ambitious
desires, was yet an important step toward their final accomplishment. In
reply to the address of the Senate which announced this decree, Napoleon
suggested, that he would prefer to have it sanctioned by the voice of the
people : and the Council of State, improving on the hint, and without ask-
ing the concurrence of the other branches of the legislature, forthwith
submitted to the people this question : " Shall Napoleon Bonaparte be
Consul for life ?" Registers were opened in every commune to receive
the votes of the citizens, and, on the 2nd of August, it was officially
announced, that of three millions, five hundred and fifty-seven thousand,
eight hundred and eighty-five citizens who voted, three millions, three
1802.1 HIS TORY OF EUROPE. ,.*7
hundred and sixty-eight thousand, two hundred and fifty-nine gave their
suffrages in the affirmative. This is one of the most remarkable facts
in the history of the Revolution, and is singularly descriptive of that
longing after repose which uniformly succeeds revolutionary convulsions,
and so generally renders them the preludes to despotic power. The rapid
rise of the public funds, demonstrated that this feeling was common among
the holders of property in France. The price of these securities ad-
vanced, with every addition to the authority of the successful general : it
rose from *8 to -16, when he seized the helm of state ; and after the con-
sulship for life was proclaimed, it reached -52.
Great changes in the Constitution followed this alteration in the char-
acter of the executive authority. The Tribunate was reduced from one
hundred, to fifty members ; an important diminution, as it was a prelude
to the total extinction of that body ; and it now so completely annihilated
its remnant of freedom of debate, as to render it an insignificant obstacle
to the despotic tendency of the government. The Legislative Body was
reduced to two hundred and fifty-eight members, and separated into five
divisions, one of which was annually renewed. The Senate was invested
with the power to dissolve the Legislative Body and the Tribunate, to
declare particular departments out of the pale of the Constitution, and to
modify the fundamental principles of the Republic. The First Consul
was empowered to nominate his successor, and pardon offences. Thus, in
all but its name, the government had already become a despotic monarchy.
A few days after the Constitution was published, Napoleon presided
at the Senate, and received the congratulations of the public authorities,
and the foreign ambassadors, on his investiture for life. The soldiers
formed a double line from the Tuileries to the Luxembourg ; the First
Consul rode thither in a magnificent chariot, drawn by eight horses,
the two other consuls followed in carriages with six horses ; and they
were succeeded by a splendid cortege of domestic and foreign officers.
The gorgeous appearance of the procession captivated the Parisian mul-
titude, who rent the air with their shouts, and manifested as much joy at
the restoration of the monarchy, as they not long before had done at its
destruction.
While Napoleon was pursuing his projects for the establishment of a
hereditary dynasty in his own family, he caused a communication to be
made to the Count de Lille, afterward Louis XVIII., then residing under
the protection of the Prussian king at Koningsberg, by which, in the event
of the Count's renouncing all right to the French throne in his favor,
Bonaparte offered to provide for him a principality, with an ample revenue
in Italy. But Louis declined this proposal with great dignity, concluding
his reply in these words : " I know not the intentions of God toward my
family or myself, but I know the obligations which He has imposed on me.
As a Christian, I will discharge the duties which religion prescribes till
my latest breath ; as a son of St. Louis, I will make myself respected
even in fetters ; and as a successor of Francois I., I will ever be able to.
say with him, ' All is lost except our honor.' "
Napoleon, in this year, commenced the formation of a Civil Code, in
which the heterogeneous laws of the monarchy and Republic were wrought
to a consistent shape. To reform a system of law without destroying it,
is one of the most difficult tasks in political improvement, and one that
perhaps requires, more than any other change, a union of practical know-
13
168 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Cmr. XXI.
ledge vvith the desire for social melioration. To retain statutes as they
are, without ever modifying them according to the progress of society, is
to imike them clash with the great innovator, Time, and often become
pernicious in their operation : to new-model them in conformity to the
wishes of an excited people, is almost certainly to incur unforeseen and
irremediable evils. Nothing is more easy than to point out defects in
established laws, because their inconvenience is felt and proved : and
nothing is more difficult than to propose safe or expedient remedies, be-
jause almost no foresight is competent to estimate the ultimate effects
which changes may produce. The clearest proof of the wisdom with
which the Code of Napoleon was formed, is found in the fact, that it has
not only survived the Empire which gave it birth, but continues, under
new dynasties and different forms of government, to regulate the decisions
of many nations who were leagued to bring about the overthrow of its
author. Napoleon has said that his fame, in the eyes of posterity, would
rest more on the Code which bore his name, than on all his military vic-
tories ; and its permanent establishment, as the basis of the jurisprudence
of half of Europe, has already proved the truth of the prophecy.
The law of succession, as established by the preceding governments of
France, was too firmly rooted in the affections or prejudices of the people
to be disturbed, even by the power of the First Consul ; and its effects are
yet destined to be more important than those of almost any other change
brought about by the Revolution. Napoleon, therefore, in this instance
confirmed what he could not alter. By the statute in question, the right
of primogeniture and the distinction between personal and real estate were
taken away, and inheritance of every sort was divided in equal portions
among those standing in an equal degree of consanguinity to a person
deceased. This indefeasible right of children to their parents' estates
was fixed at one half, if but one child was left ; two-thirds, if two ; and
three- fourths, if three or more : all entails and limitations were abolished.
The effects of such a system, cooperating with the extensive subdivision
of landed estates, which took place from the sale of forfeited properties
during the Revolution, have been prodigious. It is estimated by the Duke
de Gaeta that, in 1815, there were thirteen millions and fifty-nine thousand
individuals in France belonging to the families of agricultural proprietors,
and seven hundred and ten thousand, five hundred persons belonging to
the families of landed proprietors not engaged in agriculture. As it may
be supposed, where so extreme a subdivision of property has taken place,,
the majority of these little proprietors are in a state of indigence.
The confiscation of property in France was the great and crying sin
of the Revolution, because it extended the consequences of present vio-
lence to future ages : and, by a striking operation of retributive justice,
the results of that very confiscation have rendered hopeless all the subse-
quent efforts made by the inhabitants of France for the recovery of their
freedom. By interesting so great a number of persons in the work of
spoliation, and extending so far the feeling of hostility to the nobles by
whom the confiscated estates might be claimed, the permanent settlement
of the law of succession on the footing of equal and endless subdivision,
has of necessity ensued ; and, strange as it may appear, public opinion
has approved the result. It is the prevalent opinion in France, that this
vast change is the leading benefit conferred on the country by the Revo-
lution j and yet, to an impartial spectator, nothing can be more evident
1804.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 169
than that it is precisely this change which has rendered nugatory every
subsequent attempt for the restoration of liberty ; because it nas totally
destroyed the features and the elements of European civilization, and left
only Indian ryots engaged in hopeless contests with a metropolis, wielding
the influence of a central government and the terrors of military power.
The universality of the illusion on this subject under which me French
people labor, is owing to an instinctive fear, which leads the revolutionary
party to shun everything that seems to favor even an approach to the
restoration of the dispossessed proprietors : and, in their terror of this
remote and chimerical evil, they have adopted measures which, by pre-
venting the growth of any hereditary class between the throne and the
peasant, have rendered the establishment of constitutional freedom im-
practicable, and doomed the first of European monarchies to the slavery
and decrepitude of Oriental despotism. By such mysterious means does
human iniquity, even in this world, work out its merited punishment, and
so indissoluble is the chain which unites guilty excess with ultimate retri-
bution.
Almost everything, now, seemed to favor Napoleon's ambitious pur-
poses. In the civil administration, all were reconciled to the consulate
for life, or submitted in silence to an authority they could not resist.
The army, dazzled by the brilliant exploits of their commander-in-chief,
rallied around his standard, and sought only to give utterance to their
admiration for his person : and the people, worn out with the sufferings
and anxieties of the Revolution, joyfully welcomed a government which
gave them that first of civil blessings, security tJ person and property.
Among the higher officers of the army, however, the same unanimity by
no means prevailed. Bernadotte was constantly in opposition to the First
Consul ; and Moreau on every occasion exhibited, in contrast to the in-
creasing splendor of military dress and the formality of court etiquette,
the simplicity of republican manners and costume. The conqueror of
Austria traversed the Place du Carrousel and the saloons of the Tuileries,
in the plain dress of a citizen ; he declined repeated invitations to the
First Consul's levees, until he was no longer asked to appear there ; and
he often manifested toward Napoleon, when they met in public, a degree
of coldness, which must have estranged persons even less jealous of each
other's reputation than the heroes of Marengo and Hohenlinden. Nothing
could induce him to attend at Notre Dame, when the reestablishment of
religion was celebrated ; and at a dinner of military officers at his own
house on the same day, he expressed the greatest contempt for the whole
proceeding. •
While Moreau was thus insensibly, and unavoidably, becoming the
leader of the discontented Republicans in Paris, another distinguished
general of the revolution was assuming the chief direction of the Royalist
party. Pichegru, having found means to escape from his place of exile,
sought an asylum in London, where he entered into close communication
with the French emigrants in that capital, among whom a Chouan chief,
Georges, was conspicuous. In due time, these two individuals, with
Polignac, Lajolais and others, landed privately on the coast of Nor-
mandy, and proceeded to Paris, where the police had strict cognizance
of their movements, artfully encouraged their undertaking, and suffered
them to remain for a time unmolested. Pichegru had an interview with
Moreau, and unfolded to him some points of a Royalist conspiracy, but
170 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [CHAP. XXI.
Moreau's principles were strictly those of the revolution ; and Pichegru,
disappointed at being unable to coalesce with that distinguished general,
prepared to withdraw from Paris with his associates : but the police now
interfered and arrested the parties implicated, to the number of nearly
fifty individuals, including Moreau himself. This was at once announced
by proclamation, and the Parisians were astounded at the intelligence
that a great number of Royalists, with Moreau at their head, had been
detected in a conspiracy.
During the examination of some of the prisoners thus arrested, Napo-
leon ascertained that a person, unknown to the prisoners testifying, had
attended some of the Royalists' meetings, and was received with great
ceremony and respect. The description of this unknown person, as
Napoleon affected to believe, corresponded so well to that of the Duke
d'Enghien, a son of the Duke de Bourbon, and a lineal descendant of the
great. Conde, that he signed an order for that prince's arrest, and gave such
minute directions for his seizure, as rendered it evident that his destruc-
tion was already determined. It subsequently appeared, that the duke had
not been at Paris at all, and that the stranger was no other than Piche-
gru. Nevertheless, the designs of the First Consul were carried into
effect. The prince was arrested in his bed, in the neutral territory of
Baden, on the night of March 15th; carried thence to Strasbourg, with
his papers, and the persons found in the chateau, and was immediately
afterward conveyed with a sufficient guard to Paris, and lodged in the
castle of Vincennes. Everything here was prepared for his reception —
his chamber being ready, and his grave dug. The moment Napoleon
heard of the prince's arrival at the barriers of Paris, he signed an order
for his delivery to a military commission, consisting of General Hullin
and six senior colonels of regiments, who at once proceeded to Vincennes,
where they found Savary with a strong body of gendarmes in possession
of the castle, and of all the avenues leading to it.
The duke had reached Vincennes at 7 o'clock in the evening, (March
20th ;) and, after supping and making many inquiries of the governor of
the castle, as to the object of his being brought there, retired to his room.
He had not fallen asleep, when he was summoned to attend the sitting of
the commission. Savary entered soon after the interrogatories began,
and took his station behind the president's chair. No evidence was
brought against the prince ; no witnesses were examined ; a simple act
of accusation was read to him, charging him with conspiring against
France, and carrying on a treasonable correspondence with her enemies.
The law, in such a case, required that the accused should be allowed
counsel ; but none was granted him, and he was compelled, at midnight,
to enter unaided on his own defence, which consisted in a simple, unequi-
vocal and manly denial of any criminal practice whatever, on his part,
toward the government of France.
At the close of his declaration, he earnestly requested a private audi-
ence with the First Consul ; and this desire was so reasonable, and was
urged so feelingly, that General Hullin, the president, took a pen, and
was commencing a letter expressive of the prince's wish, when Savary
whispered to him, saying, "What are you about?" "I am writing to
the First Consul," he answered, "to desire an interview." "Your
duty is finished," replied Savary, taking the pen out of his hand ; " this
18 my business."
1804.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 17t
The court then proceeded, without a vestige of evidence against the
prince, to pronounce him guilty of all the charges in the accusation, and,
under the peremptory directions of Napoleon, previously delivered to
them, they ordered him to immediate execution. While descending the
broken staircase that led to the fosse, he pressed the arm of his conductor
and asked, " Are they going to leave me to perish in a dungeon, or throw
me into an oubliette ?" When he arrived at the foot of the stairs, he saw,
through the gray mist of the morning, a file of musketeers drawn up, and
he uttered an expression of joy, at being permitted to die the death of a
soldier. He requested that a confessor might be sent for, but this was
denied ; and then, seeing all wishes unavailing and all hope extinguished,
he turned to the soldiers, calmly gave the word of command himself, and
fell pierced by seven balls. His remains, without any alteration of dress,
were thrown into the grave previously prepared at the foot of the ram-
part.
When this deplorable event was known in Paris, on the morning of
the 21st of March, a universal consternation prevailed; distrust, terroi
and anxiety were depicted in every countenance. The deed was loudly
stigmatized by a great portion of the people, as a bloody and needless
murder. Crowds issued through the barrier Du Trone, to visit the spot
where the noble victim had suffered ; and a favorite spaniel, that had fol-
lowed the prince to the place of execution, was seen lying on the grave.
The excitement occasioned by this scene was so great, that, by an order
of the police, the dog was removed, and visits to the castle were prohibited.
Other tragical events soon followed. Early on the morning of April
6th, General Pichegru was found strangled in his prison. Since his
arrest, he had undergone many examinations, during which he manifested
the most unconquerable firmness, and declared his intention of revealing
on his trial, the arts of the police, by whom he had been entrapped into
the conspiracy, and through whose secret agency constant facilities for
pursuing the plot, together with misrepresentations of its popularity, were
daily spread before him. His death was accomplished by means of a
black silk handkerchief, twisted around his neck with a small stick about
five inches in length. As there was no reason to suspect Pichegru of
having committed suicide, and as the certainty of his conviction rendered
it unnecessary for the government to destroy him privately, in anticipa-
tion of his escape from the law, he was undoubtedly murdered to prevent
his threatened disclosures of the practices of the police, and Napoleon has
not escaped the suspicion of being implicated in the deed.
When Georges was brought to trial, Captain Wright, commander of a
British vessel in which Pichegru came from England, and who was after-
ward wrecked on the coast of France and brought to Paris under arrest
with all his crew, was called to testify against the prisoner. This intrepid
sailor, who served as a lieutenant on board Sir Sidney Smith's ship when
he checked Napoleon's career at Acre, refused to give any evidence, say-
ing, with proper spirit, " Gentlemen, I am an officer in the British service ;
I am not bound to account to you for the discharge of my duty, and I deny
your authority to require answers from me to these questions :" and when
his deposition, previously taken in prison, was read, he added, " you have
omitted rny declaration, that I was threatened with being shot if I did not
reveal to my inquisitors the secrets of my country." He was remanded
to prison, though the government could show no legal or plausible ground
17*
172 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAT. XXI.
for his detention, and some time afterward was found dead in his cell, with
his throat cut from ear to ear. It is yet unknown who perpetrated this
murder, and will probably ever remain so : but it is certain that Captain
Wright did not commit suicide, and that the officials of his prison-house,
without whose knowledge he could not have been assassinated, had no in
terest whatever in causing his death.
On the trial of the conspirators, it soon became manifest that Moreau
had no concern in the plot, and the interest excited by his situation was so
intense, that when Lecourbe entered the court with Moreau's infant child,
all the soldiers in attendance spontaneously rose and presented arms; and
if Moreau had at that moment given the word, the court would have been
overturned and the prisoners liberated. Whenever he rose to address the
judges, the gendarmes rose also, and remained uncovered till he sat down.
In fact, the public mind was so agitated, that the influence of Moreau in
fetters almost equalled that of the First Consul on the throne. The trial
» resulted in the sentencing of Georges and fifteen others to death, and of
Moreau and four others to two years' imprisonment. Eight of those con-
demned to death were executed ; the others were pardoned ; and Napo-
leon, anxious to be quit of Moreau's presence, purchased from him his
estate of Gros Bois, and gave him every facility for retiring to the United
States of America, in conformity to his own request.
In the midst of these bloody events, Napoleon assumed the Imperial
crown ; and the shadow of the expiring Republic was transformed into the
reality of Byzantine servitude. The project was first broached to the
Senate, and its public announcement emanated from the Tribunate, as
being the only branch of the legislature in which even the form of popular
representation prevailed. Notwithstanding the headlong course of public
opinion in favor of despotic power, there were some determined men who
stood forward to resist the current. Carnot in the Tribunate, and Ber-
iier in the Council of State, were the foremost of this dauntless band.
But they accomplished nothing beyond the personal reputation incident to
such an evidence of devoted patriotism ; as, in both branches of the legis-
lature, the decree was carried by overwhelming majorities. On the 18th
of May, the Senate declared Napoleon Bonaparte Emperor of the French,
and referred the measure to the people for their ratification. The people
responded with enthusiasm. Three millions five hundred and seventy-two
thousand three hundred and twenty-nine votes were given ; and of these,
only two thousand five hundred and sixty-nine were in the negative.
History contains no other example of so unanimous an approval of the
foundation of a dynasty, nor any other instance where a nation so joyfully
took refuge in the stillness of despotism.
Napoleon's first step on coming to the imperial throne, was to create
Berthier, Murat, Moncey, Jourdan, Massena, Augereau, Bernadotte, Soult,
Brune, Lannes, Mortier, Ney, Davoust, Bessieres, Kellerman, Lefebvre,
Perignon, and Serrurier, Marshals of the Empire. On the same day, he
arranged the titles and precedence of the members of his family. He
directed that his brothers and sisters should receive the title of Imperial
highness ; that the great dignitaries of the Empire should adopt that of
most serene highness ; and that the address of " my lord" should be re-
vived in favor of these elevated personages. " Whoever," says Madame
de Stael, in speaking of these days and events, " could suggest an addi.
tional piece of etiquette from the olden time, propose a new reverence, 9
1804.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 173
novel mode of knocking at the door of an antechamber, a more ceremoni-
ous manner of presenting a petition or folding a letter, was regarded as a
benefactor of the human race. The code of imperial etiquette is the most
remarkable authentic record of human baseness that the history of the
world contains,"
CHAPTER XXII.
FROM THE RENEWAL OF HOSTILITIES TO THE DECLARATION OF WAR BY SPAIN.
THE recommencement of the war was followed by hostile preparations
of great extent on both sides of the Channel. Never did the ancient rivalry
of France and England break forth with more vehemence, and never was
the animosity of their respective governments more warmly supported by
the patriotism and passions of the people. The first military operation of
the French ruler was attended with rapid and easy success. He directed
Mortier with twenty thousand troops to reduce the Electorate of Hanover ;
and as the entire force of this province did not exceed sixteen thousand
men under Count Walmoden, resistance was hopeless : a convention was
therefore entered into at Suhlingen. by which it was stipulated that the
Hanoverian army should retire with the honors of war behind the Elbe,
taking with them their field-artillery, and agreeing afterward to disband
for one year. During this incursion, the French armies set at nought
the neutrality not only of Hanover, but of the lesser States in its vicinity.
Mortier occupied without hesitation Hamburg and Bremen, and closed the
Elbe and Weser against British merchandise. This uncalled for aggres-
sion was of importance, not only as demonstrating Napoleon's determina-
tion to admit of no neutrality in the approaching contest, but as unfolding
the first germ of the Continental System, to which he afterward mainly
trusted in his hostilities against Great Britain.
At the same time, St. Cyr was dispatched into Italy with an army of
fourteen thousand men. He occupied the port of Tarentum, invaded
Naples and Tuscany, declared Leghorn in a state of siege, and confis-
cated the British merchandise in that seaport. The islands of Elba and
Corsica were also put in the best state of defence, and ten 'thousand men
were employed in perfecting the fortifications of Alexandria, which for-
tress Napoleon considered as the key to the whole of the Italian peninsula.
In addition to these measures of conquest and defence, he soon issued a
decree against English commerce, declaring that no colonial produce,
and no merchandise coming directly from England, should be received
into the ports of France ; and that all such merchandise and produce
should be confiscated. Neutral vessels, arriving in France, were sub-
jected to new and vexatious regulations, and all that had touched at a
harbor of Great Britain were made liable to seizure.
But these proceedings sunk into insignificance, when compared with
the gigantic preparations made for the invasion of England, which Napo-
leon now seriously undertook. His object was to assemble, at a single
point, a flotilla capable of transporting an army of one hundred and fifly
174 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CiiAr. XXII.
thousand men, with itts field and siege equipage, ammunition, stores and
horses; and at the same time, to provide so formidable a covering naval
force as might secure its safe disembarkation, despite any resistance that
the English might make. The harbor of Boulogne was chosen as the
place of general rendezvous; every port, from Brest to the Texel, was
filled with gun-boats of all dimensions; the dock-yards and shipwrights
were put into requisition ; and the different vessels, as soon as finished,
were sent, around, under the protection of the several batteries along the
coast, to Cherbourg, Boulogne, Calais and Dunkirk. In the course of the
year, no less than thirteen hundred sail, of various descriptions, were
assembled at Boulogne and the adjoining harbors, for the transportation
of the troops, together with an immense number of other vessels, destined
to convey the stores and ammunition of the army: and the combined
navies of France, Spain and Holland, were engaged for the protection of
this innumerable fleet. The secret design of Napoleon was to assemble
the ships of the covering naval force at Martinique, bring them rapidly
back while the British, in detached squadrons, were traversing the At-
lantic in search of them, raise the blockade of Rochefort and Brest, and
enter the Channel with the entire armament, amounting to seventy sail
of the line. He intended then to cross over to England with the whole
army, reach London in five days, and complete the subjugation of Britain
at a blow.
On the other hand, the people and government of England were active
in preparing to repel the threatened invasion. In addition to the militia,
eighty thousand strong, which were called out on the 25th of March, and
the regular army of a hundred and thirty thousand, the House of Commons
passed a bill on the 18th of July, authorizing the king to call a levy of
all the male population between the ages of seventeen and fifty-five, who
were to be divided into regiments according to their years and professions ;
and, such was the general zeal and enthusiasm, three hundred thousand
men were within a few weeks enrolled, armed and disciplined, in the
different parts of the country. Great activity was also evinced in pro-
moting the efficiency of the navy: the harbors of France and Holland
were closely blockaded ; Lord Nelson rode triumphant over the Medi-
terranean; and, excepting when their small craft were stealing along
the coast to the rendezvous at Boulogne, the flag of France almost disap-
peared from the ocean.
While these extensive preparations were progressing, the government
was called to suppress another of those unhappy attempts at rebellion,
which have so frequently disgraced the history and blasted the prospects
of Ireland. A conspiracy was set on foot to force the castle and harbor-
stores of Dublin, dissolve the connexion with England, and establish a
Republic in close alliance with France ; but the means at the disposal
of the conspirators were as insignificant as the objects they had in view
were visionary. • Eighty or a hundred persons, under the guidance of
Emmet, a brother of the chief who was engaged in the previous insur-
rection, assembled on the eve of the festival of St. James, accompanied by
the peasantry from the adjoining counties, and set forth with the intention
of attacking the castle. But they abandoned this project during their
march, and began to commit various outrages on individual citizens ; and
among others, they murdered Lord Kilwarden, the venerable lord-chief-
justice of Ireland, under circumstances of great aggravation and atrocity,
1804.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 175
The insurrection was quelled by the regular troops, and the two principal
leaders, Emmet and Russell, were executed.
Notwithstanding the powerful condition of the British navy, no event
of importance, excepting the capture of Surinam in the West Indies,
resulted from the expeditions of the fleets ; and the people of the king.
dom, while considering the enormous burdens imposed on them for the
support of the naval armaments, soon perceived a want of energy in
the ministers whose duty it was to direct them to good account. The
commerce of Britain began to suffer for want of the active protection of
former days, and the general dissatisfaction was much increased by the
alarming state of the king's health. His majesty gradually recovered,
however; but during the interval of his illness, a great majority of the
men of the nation became convinced of the necessity of placing the helm
of state under firmer guidance; and all eyes were naturally turned
toward that illustrious statesman who had retired to make way for a
pacific administration, but could now, in strict accordance with his prin-
ciples, resume the direction of the second war with revolutionary France.
As is usual in such cases, the gradual approximation of parties in the
House of Commons indicated the conversion of the public mind, and it
soon became evident that the administration was approaching its end.
On the 15th of March, 1804, Mr. Pitt made a long and elaborate speech,
in which he commented with great severity on the misdirection of the
powers of the navy, and concluded with moving for returns of all the
ships in commission in the years 1793, 1801, and 1803. He was cor-
dially supported by Mr. Fox and Mr. Sheridan., and a coalition ensued
between the Whig and Tory branches of the opposition. The motion
was at first lost by a vote of one hundred and thirty to two hundred; but
from the character and influence of the men who were in favor of the
resolution, it was manifest that this majority would soon decrease : on
the 25th of April it was reduced to thirty-seven, and the ministers stated
that they held their offices only until successors could be appointed, which
latter event took place on the 12th of May.. Mr. Pitt became Prime
Minister, in place of Mr. Addington; Lord Melville, First Lord of the
Admiralty, in place of Earl St. Vincent; and Lord Harrowby, Foreign
Secretary, in place of Lord Hawkesbury.
Before the commencement of the revolutionary war, the revenue of
Austria amounted to a hundred and six millions of florins, or about forty-
six and a half millions of dollars. During the war, the revenue was in-
creased by the imposition of new taxes, and it sustained no diminution by
the peace of Carnpo Formio, as the Venetian states proved more than an
equivalent for the loss of the Low Countries. At the peace of Luneville,
the income of the government was a hundred and fifteen millions of florins,
with which sum they were enabled to maintain an army of three hundred
thousand men, including fifty thousand cavalry. Like most of the other
European states, Austria, during the difficulties of former years, had been
compelled to resort to a paper currency, and the Bank of Vienna, estab.
lished by Maria Theresa, in 1762, was the agent by which this was
effected. It was not, however, a paper circulation, convertible at pleas-
ure into gold, but a system of assignats, possessing a forced legal cur-
rency ; and the government, in 1797, passed a decree prohibiting any
person from demanding exchange in coin, for more than twenty-five florins.
While the war was in progress, silver and gold almost disappeared, and
176 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXII.
paper issues for small sums were in general circulation. A large portion
of the metallic currency was of brass, issued at nearly double its intrinsic
value. In 1789, the public debt of Austria was two hundred millions of
florins ; but in 1801, it had increased to six hundred millions. The
treasury had been reduced to the necessity of paying its annual interest
in paper money, and even of making forced loans from the inhabitants.
The population of Austria, in 1801, was twenty-seven and a half millions.
Jealousy of Prussia was, during the years that followed the treaty of
Luneville, the leading principle of the Austrian cabinet; this feeling
originated in the aggression and conquest of the Great Frederic, and had
been much increased by the impolitic and ungenerous advantage which
the court of Berlin took of the dangers and distress of the Austrian mon-
archy, to extend its possessions and influence in the north of Germany.
But though compelled, at intervals, to withdraw from her alliance with
England, Austria never ceased to look to that nation as the main pillar of
the confederacy for the independence of Europe. The more prominent
members of the administration of Austria at this period were the Count
Cobentzell, vice-chancellor of state, and Count Colloredo, a cabinet min-
ister and intimate friend of the Emperor. The Archduke Charles was
at the head of the war department, though he was restrained by the jeal-
ousy of his colleagues from following out his own views in the manage-
ment of the army.
By withdrawing from the alliance against France, in 1794, Prussia
had succeeded in appropriating to herself a large portion of the spoils of
Poland ; and during the long period of peace that she enjoyed, her popu-
lation had rapidly increased, the commerce of Germany had fallen into
her hands, and the turmoil and expenditure of war, so desolating to the
neighboring states, was felt in Prussia only by the increasing demand for
agricultural produce and the augmenting profits of neutral navigation. In
1804, the population of Prussia amounted to nine and a half millions ;
her revenue, to thirty-eight and a half millions of thalers, or nearly thirty
millions of dollars ; and her army consisted of two hundred thousand
men, strong, brave, and highly disciplined ; but not to be compared to the
French, either in the experience and skill of the officers, or in the moral
energy of the men as developed by the events of the Revolution.
The Prussian capital was one of the most agreeable and least expen-
sive in Europe. No rigid etiquette, no impassable line of demarcation,
separated the court from the people : the royal family lived on terms of
friendly equality, not only with the nobility, but with the other prom-
inent inhabitants of Berlin. Many ladies of rank, both at Paris and
London, expended larger sums on their dress than the Queen of Prussia;
but few women equalled her in dignity, grace, and elevation of sentiment.
A spirit of economy, order and wisdom pervaded the internal arrange-
ments of the state. The cabinet, comprising, among other members,
Hardenberg and Stein, was one of the ablest of the day; and the Prussian
diplomatists had long given their country an influence at foreign courts
beyond what could have been expected from her resources and power.
Russia, under the benignant rule of Alexander, was daily advancing
in wealth, power and prosperity. From the commencement of his reign,
his acts denoted a large spirit of benevolence. He abolished the knout
and the use of the torture, gave valuable rights to several classes of
citizens, introduced improvements in the civil and criminal codes, ban
1804. J HISTORYOFEUROPE. 177
ished slavery from the royal domains, and decreed the beginning of
representative institutions, by permitting the Senate to remonstrate against
the enactment of proposed laws. The population of Russia, in 1804, was
thirty-six millions; her revenue, fifty millions of silver rubles, or about
fifty-seven millions of dollars ; and her army contained, nominally, three
hundred thousand men ; though at this period, and for some years after,
she was unable to bring more than seventy thousand men into any one
field of battle. The greater part of the revenue of Russia was derived
from a capitation-tax; a species of impost common to all nations in a
certain stage of civilization, where slavery is general, and the wealth of
each proprietor is nearly in proportion to the number of agricultural
laborers on his estate. The tax amounted to five rubles for each free-
man, and two for each serf, and was paid by every subject of the Empire,
whether free or enslaved.
The principal powers of Europe were in these several conditions, when
the murder of the Duke d'Enghien took place ; and the startling intel-
ligence of that bloody deed, which excited both terror and indignation in
every court of Europe, was followed by the news of the assassination of
Pichegru and Wright, and the occupation by Napoleon, of Hanover and
Tarentum. This rapid succession of atrocious crime, and ambitious en-
croachment on neutral rights, at once dissolved all true confidence and
regard between the several European cabinets and France; and from
that day, each independent sovereign began to look on a renewal of
general hostilities as inevitable, though the majority confined their im-
mediate acts to remonstrances of a more or less emphatic character.
Meanwhile, Napoleon proceeded with his preparations for the descent
upon England, and repaired to Boulogne to review the troops and inspect
the condition of the flotilla. From Boulogne, he traversed the coast of
the Channel as far as Ostend, everywhere examining the condition of the
harbors, and the detachments of the grand army, and communicating to
all classes the energy of his own ardent and indefatigable mind.
On his return to Paris, he commenced preparations for the solemnity
of his coronation. Although the spirit of the age was essentially irre-
ligious, and the establishment of the Roman Catholic worship had proved
unpopular with many of the people, Napoleon well knew that a large
portion of the provincial inhabitants regarded the consecrating of his
authority by the ceremony of coronation as an important particular; and
that to all, whatever might be their latitude of opinion, it was of great
political consequence to show that his personal influence could compel
even the very Head of the Church himself, to officiate on the occasion.
The papal benediction appeared to be the link which would unite the
revolutionary to the legitimate regime, and cause the faithful to forget,
in the sac/ed authority with which he would thus be invested, the vio-
lence and bloodshed that had paved his way to the throne. For these
reasons, Napoleon had long before determined to induce the pope, con-
trary to all precedent for the last ten centuries, to repair to Paris ; and,
for some months, negotiations to this effect had been on foot, which ended
in the consent of the pope to undertake the journey. He accordingly
arrived at Fontainebleau on the 25tn of November, and reached Paris on
the following day, where he was lodged in state, at the Tuileries. The
ceremony of coronation took place at Notre Dame on the 2nd of Decem-
ber, with great pornp and magnificence. After taking the oath, and
178 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXII.
receiving the papal benediction, Napoleon took the crown from the hands
of the venerable pontiff and placed it on his own head, after which he
transferred it to the head of Josephine, who knelt before him.
The next day, an animating military spectacle took place in the Champ
de Mars. Napoleon laid aside his imperial robes in which he had been
crowned, and appeared in the uniform of a colonel of the guard, to dis-
tribute to all the colonels of the army the Eagles, which were thence-
forward to be the standards of France.
The close of this year was marked by an unfortunate rupture between
Spain and Great Britain. The former government, through negotiations
and treaties with France, had been in a measure compelled to purchase
peace by the payment of a large subsidy, the amount of which was kept
carefully concealed from the British cabinet. When the facts of the
case transpired, the English minister remonstrated against the payment
of such a sum of money, which was as directly furnishing France with
the means of prosecuting her descent upon England, as if the vessels
which it purchased were constructed in Spanish harbors, and moved
thcmce to Boulogne. It was not long after discovered that a squadron
of Spanish line-of-battle ships were equipped and ready to sail for Ferrol,
where a French fleet awaited their junction, and that the Spanish vessels
would put to sea, the moment that four Spanish frigates, with the sub-
sidy on board in specie, should arrive from America. The British cab-
inet immediately issued orders to Lord Nelson in the Mediterranean,
Lord Cornwallis on the Brest station, and Admiral Cochrane off Ferrol,
to prevent the sailing of both the French and Spanish squadrons; they
also directed each of the three naval commanders to detach two frigates
to cruise off Cadiz, and intercept the homeward-bound treasure-ships of
Spain ; and, at the same time, they directed the admirals to stop any
Spanish vessels laden with naval or military stores, and detain them
until the pleasure of the British government was known; but to commit
no further act of hostility, either on such vessels or on the treasure-
ships. These orders were punctually executed. Four of the six British
frigates soon fell in with the four Spanish ships off Cadiz, and the English
officer in command, informed the Spanish commodore of his instructions,
and entreated him to suffer the detention of his vessels without the effu-
sion of blood. But the Spaniard declined to submit to an equal force,
and, in consequence, an engagement took place, which ended in thb
blowing up of one of the Spanish ships, and the capture of the other three,
with te*n millions of dollars on board.
The capture of these frigates, before any formal announcement of hos-
tilities, produced the result which might have been anticipated ; namely,
a declaration of war by Spain against Great Britain.
CHAPTER XXIII.
FROM THE OPENING OF THE SPANISH WAR, TO THE BATTLE OF AUSTERLITZ.
WHILE Spain was making preparations to commence hostilities, in con-
formity to her late declaration of war, and the descent upon England
occupied the attention of the respective governments on both sides of the
Channel ; Napoleon found leisure to pursue his ambitious projects in
other quarters, by journeying through Italy, and, by the intervention of
force and flattery, as occasion required, annexing several of the minor
towns and states of that peninsula to the Empire of France. His rapid
strides toward universal dominion did not escape the notice of other Euro-
pean powers, and negotiations were soon on foot for the arrest of his pro-
gress.
A treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, was concluded between
Great Britain and Russia, on the llth of April, 1805. The preamble
ran thus : " As the state of suffering in which Europe is placed demands
a speedy remedy, their majesties have agreed to employ the most speedy
and efficacious means to form a general league of the states of Europe,
and to engage them to accede to the present concert, in order to remedy
the existing evils, without waiting for further encroachments on the part
of France." The forces proposed to be employed were fixed at five
hundred thousand men from the combined states of Europe ; and the ob-
jects of the alliance were to be thus declared : " First, the evacuation
of the country of Hanover and of the north of Germany. Secondly, the
establishment of the independence of the Republics of Holland and Swit-
zerland. Thirdly, the reestablishment of the King of Sardinia in Pied-
mont. Fourthly, the future security of the kingdom of Naples, and the
complete evacuation of Italy and the island of Elba by the French forces.
Fifthly, the establishment of an order of things in Europe which may
effectually guaranty the security and independence of the different states,
and present a solid barrier against future usurpations. To enable the
several powers which may accede to this coalition to bring forward the
forces respectively required of them, England engages to furnish a sub-
sidy, in the proportion of twelve hundred and fifty thousand pounds ster-
ling for every one hundred thousand of regular troops brought into the
field."
By separate articles signed between England and Russia, it was agreed
that the movements contemplated by the alliance should be commenced
as soon as four hundred thousand men were ready for active service ; of
which Austria was expected to furnish two hundred and fifty thousand,
Russia one hundred and fifteen thousand, and Hanover, Sardinia and
Naples, thirty-five thousand. After a protracted negotiation with Aus-
tria, that government at length joined the league, and Sweden followed
the example ; but Prussia, still under the baneful influence of France,
and bribed to neutrality by a vague proposal of Napoleon to annex Han-
over to her dominions, refused all connexion with the allied powers.
These threatening measures did not deter Napoleon from hastening his
preparations for the invasion of Great Britain : they rather, on the con-
""* 18
180 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXI11.
trary, furnished an additional reason for prosecuting that great under-
taking, for he was well aware that if England were destroyed, the
Continental coalition would soon fall to pieces. The French troops now
assembled at Boulogne and the harbors adjoining, amounted in all to one
hundred and fifty-five thousand men, provided with four hundred and thirty-
two pieces of cannon, nearly fifteen thousand horses, and a prodigious
quantity of military stores and ammunition. During its encampment on
the shores of the Channel, this great • army was organized in a manner
different from anything that had yet been attempted in modern Europe.
At the commencement of the war of the Revolution, the divisions of the
army, generally fifteen or eighteen thousand strong, were hurried into the
field under the first officer that could be found ; but it soon appeared that
few generals were capable of directing the movements of such considera-
ble masses ; while, on the other hand, if the divisions were too small,
there was a want of that unity and precision in their joint operations which
is ever necessary to success. Napoleon introduced a new system, divi-
ding his army, in the first instance, into corps of from twenty to thirty
thousand men, each of which was intrusted to a Marshal of the Empire ;
and again separating these corps into four or five divisions, under the
command of generals who received their orders from the marshal. In
this way, the generals became familiar with the qualities of their officers
and the officers with the capacity and disposition of their men : an esprit
de corps was .formed, not only among the officers of the same regiment,
but among those of the same division and corps ; and the various grades
of officers, from the sergeant of the company to the marshal himself, took
an equal degree of pride in the precision with which their subordinates
performed their several evolutions.
The organization of the flotilla at Boulogne was as perfect as that of the
land-forces. It was divided into as many squadrons as there were sections
in the army, and the stores, baggage and artillery were already on board,
so that nothing remained but the embarkation of the men, when the proper
time should arrive. From constant practice, every man in the army at
length came to know in what particular vessel he was to sail, and where
to station himself while on board ; and it was found by actual experiment,
that twenty-five thousand troops drawn up opposite the vessels allotted to
them, could be embarked in the short space often minutes. The flotilla
consisted of twenty-three hundred vessels, more than half of which were
gun-boats of different sizes, mounting three thousand pieces of cannon ;
and the ostensible object of this number of small armed vessels was to force
a passage across the Channel : in point of tact, however, Napoleon never
intended to fire one of these guns, but only to attract attention to them as
his sole dependence ; and, while the British navy was dispatched in vari-
ous quarters to protect her colonies, which the combined fleets of France
and Spain were professedly attempting to subjugate, he proposed, as has
already been related in the last chapter, to bring, by a sudden combina-
tion, an overwhelming naval force into the Channel, cover the passage ot
the flotilla, and land his formidable army on the English coast. The
army and flotilla being now in perfect readiness, Napoleon waited only
the arrival of the fleet to enable him to carry this project into execution.
The entire naval force intended to sustain this manoeuvre, was no less
than sixty-eight ships of the line, of which, France was to furnish thirty-
eight, and Spain thirty ; and they were to be thus stationed : of the French,
1805.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 181
twenty-one at Brest, six at Rochefort, and eleven at Toulon; and the
thirty Spanish ships were to be divided between the three ports of Cadiz,
Ferrol and Carthagena, the whole to await Napoleon's orders.
While the British government were in utter ignorance of the ulterior
destination of the French and Spanish fleets, they became aware that a
portion of these ships were probably ordered to the West Indies, and they
therefore directed their admirals to keep a careful watch along the whole
western and southern coast of the hostile countries. But despite the
utmost vigilance of Nelson, Cornwallis and Cochrane, Admiral Ville-
neuve put to sea, on the 10th of April, with eighteen French and Spanish
ships of the line and ten frigates, having also ten thousand veteran troops
on board, and sailed for the West Indies. Nelson soon heard of Ville-
neuve's departure ; but mistook his direction, and, under the belief that
he had gone to Egypt, set sail himself for Palermo. Within a few days,
however, the information brought by his cruisers convinced him that he
was in error, and he returned to Gibraltar. On the 5th of May, he ascer-
tained that Villeneuve had, in fact, gone to the West Indies, and, crowd-
ing all sail in that direction, he arrived at Barbadoes on the 4th of June ;
but in the interim, Villeneuve had reached Martinique, on the 14th of
May, and sailed thence to the north, on the 28th, after having been joined
by two additional ships of the line, and received Napoleon's final instruc-
tions. By these, he was ordered to repair to Ferrol and raise the block-
ade ; to withdraw the five French and ten Spanish ships of the line that
awaited him in that harbor, proceed thence to Rochefort where five ships
of the line lay at anchor, and with this combined fleet of forty ships, sail
to Brest, where twenty-one more were stationed under Admiral Gan-
theaume. With this force, which would greatly overmaster any fleet that
the British at the moment could oppose to them, Villeneuve was to hasten
to Boulogne find cover the passage of the flotilla: and everything now
seemed to promise success to the undertaking.
Nelson, learning nothing of the enemy's whereabout at Barbadoes, pro-
ceeded to Antigua, where he arrived on the 13th of June, and received
such information as induced him to believe that Villeneuve had returned
to Europe. As Nelson was confident that this movement of the French
admiral had reference to some dangerous project yet unknown to the
British government, he dispatched several fast-sailing vessels to Lisbon
and Portsmouth, to apprise the London cabinet of the return of the hostile
fleet, and express his fears as to their ulterior destination. Fortunately,
one of these vessels dispatched by Nelson outstripped Villerreuve, and
reached London on the 9th of July. The admiralty instantly sent orders
to Admiral Stirling, off Rochefort, to raise the blockade of that port and
unite himself with Sir Robert Calder, off Ferrol, directing also the latter
officer to take command of both squadrons, amounting together to fifteen
ships of the line, and cruise to the westward of Cape Finisterre, to inter-
cept the homeward-bound fleet.
Sir Robert had hardly gained his station, on the 22nd of July, when
the enemy hove in sight, consisting, now of twenty ships of the line, one
of fifty guns, and seven frigates. The weather was so hazy, that the
two fleets had almost come together before either was aware of the other's
approach. Some confusion took place in consequence, and the action, for
which Sir Robert immediately gave the signal, without regard to his in-
feriority of numbers, commenced in a disorderly manner, several vessels
182 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [CHAP. XXIII.
of both fleets having become engaged with two or more opponents. The
battle continued until night-fall, when the parties separated to repair
damages ; the English loss amounted to one hundred and ninety-eight
men killed and wounded, and one of their ships was so far disabled as to
require to be put in tow of another vessel : the loss of the enemy was
four hundred and seventy-six men, and two line-of-battle ships which sur-
rendered to the British. On the day following, neither party showed any
disposition to renew the combat ; and, on the third day, Sir Robert, aware
of the danger of encountering again a superior force, especially when that
force was every hour likely to be augmented by a junction with the
liberated fleets of Rochefort and Ferrol, wisely bore away with his
prizes toward the English Channel, Villeneuve then made sail for Fer-
rol, and having there joined the French and Spanish fleets, and repaired the
damages sustained in the action of the 22nd, he sailed for Brest. But he
received accounts at sea, from a Danish vessel, of the approach of a large
British squadron, and he immediately tacked and took refuge in Cadiz,
where he arrived on the 21st of August.
As the success of Napoleon's project depended mainly on his ability to
bring his entire naval force to Boulogne, before his intentions could be
discovered or interrupted, the action with Sir Robert Calder, so trivial
when considered as a maritime operation, was of immense importance
in its results. Napoleon was transported with rage when the intelligence
reached him, for he saw at once that his hopes of sujugating England
were at an end, and that all his mighty preparations for that object, with
the vast expense attending it, had been made in vain. But in that mo-
ment of fury and disappointment, he rose superior to misfortune, and
adopted one of the boldest resolutions, and traced the plan of one of the
most skilful achievements that any conqueror ever conceived. Without a
moment's hesitation, he dictated to his secretary orders for the transfer of
the entire army from the shores of the Channel to the banks of the Rhine :
their order of march, their lines of conveyance, their points of rendezvous,
together with the surprises, attacks and obstacles they might encounter,
were all provided for with surprising accuracy. Indeed, such was the
singular foresight of the plan, embracing a line of operations three hun-
dred leagues in extent, the stations assigned were reached by the troops
in exact accordance to the original orders, point by point, and day by day,
through the whole route to Munich.
The allied troops preparing to act against France, at this time, were no
less than three hundred and fifty thousand men, of whom one hundred
and sixteen thousand were Russians, advancing through Poland to the
plains of Bavaria ; but as this large force could not be concentrated in
masses for at least two months, Napoleon resolved to put forth all his
energies for a decisive blow against Austria while she was unsupported
by her allies. The French army from the northern coast, when united
with the disposable forces in Holland and Hanover amounted to a hun-
dred and ninety thousand men; and the army of Italy, including the
troops in the Neapolitan territories, was fifty thousand strong. But in
addition to these, Napoleon, on the 23rd of September, submitted two
propositions to the Senate, which were immediately adopted ; one was
for a levy of eighty thousand conscripts from the class who, by law, would
become liable to military service in 1806 ; and the other was the reor-
ganization of the National Guard, which greatly augmented the numbers
of that force and, in effect, placed it at the Emperor's disposal.
1805.] HIS TORY OF EUROPE. 183
Meanwhile, the British government directed their efforts to shut up the
combined fleets in the harbor of Cadiz, and Nelson repaired thither in the
Victory, of ninety guns, to take command of the blockading squadron.
His reception there was most gratifying. The yards of the British ships
were crowded with hardy veterans, anxious to get a sight of their favor-
ite hero, and their peals of acclamation made the welkin ring when he
appeared on the Victory's quarter-deck, shaking hands with his old cap-
tains, who crowded on board of his ship to welcome him. So great was
the terror of his name to the enemy, that although Villeneuve had just
received positive orders from Napoleon to put to sea, he hesitated to
obey ; and in a council of war. it was resolved not to venture out unless
he "was full one-third superior to the British fleet. As soon as Nel-
son learned this decision, he withdrew a part of his ships about sixty
miles to the westward of Cape Mary, and stationed a chain of repeating
frigates to inform him by signals of the French admiral's movements:
at the same time, the blockade was so rigorously maintained that he
judged the enemy would soon be compelled to put to sea for want of
provisions. Deceived, now, as to Nelson's real strength, Villeneuve
resolved to set sail and hazard a battle-
Accordingly, early on the 19th of October, the English frigates made
signal that the enemy were coming out of the harbor ; and at two o'clock
in the afternoon, they were fairly at sea, steering southeast. Nelson
gave orders to chase in the same direction, and at daybreak on the 21st,
the entire fleet of thirty-three line-of-battle ships and seven frigates, was
discovered drawn up in a semicircle, in close order, about twelve miles
off, and a few leagues to the northwest of Cape Trafalgar. The British
fleet consisted of twenty-seven ships of the line and four frigates. Nel-
son's plan of attack was to bear down on the enemy in two lines, one of
which was led by himself, in the Victory, and the other by Collingwood,
in the Royal Sovereign ; he ,then gave the signal from the mast-head of
the Victory for that order, celebrated as the last he ever made, " England
expects that every man will do his duty." It was received with loud
shouts from the British sailors, and the two lines pressed on to the con-
test. Collingwood's ship, however, so far outsailed all the others, that
he reached the enemy's line, steered boldly into its centre and was
already enveloped in fire, when the nearest vessels were yet two miles
in his rear. "See!" cried Nelson, as he watched his progress, "see
how that noble fellow Collingwood carries his ship into action!" and
Collingwood, well knowing what would be passing in the mind of his
commander, at the same time observed to his officers, "What would
Nelson give to be here !" Collingwood bravely maintained his position
against a whole circle of enemies, and when the other British ships came
up successively within range, their crews cheered to see, amid the open-
ings of the dense smoke, that his flag was still flying. At length, Nel-
son's line reached its appointed place, and the action became general.
Nelson laid his own ship alongside the Redoubtable, and a terrible can-
nonade was for a short time maintained; but before the latter vessel
hauled down her flag, a musket shot from one of the marksmen in her
maintop struck Nelson on the shoulder. " They have done for me at
last," said he to Hardy, as he fell to the deck. "I hope not," said
Hardy. "Yes," he replied, "my back-bone is shot through." He wa*
immediately carried below, after he had taken out his handkerchief to
14
184 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [€HAP. XXIII.
cover his face, lest the crew should recognize him. The cock-pit was
crowded with wounded and dying men, and he refused to receive the
attention of the surgeon until ell the others had taken their turns. The
action meanwhile continued, the enemy's ships began to strike their
colors, and as the cheers of the Victory's crew announced successively
the lowering of the hostile flags, a gleam of joy illuminated the counte-
nance of the dying hero. As soon as Hardy was able to leave the deck,
he came down to visit his commander. They both shook hands in silence,
and Hardy could not restrain his tears. " How goes the day, Hardy ?"
said Nelson. Hardy replied that everything went well, and fourteen or
fifteen of the enemy's ships were taken. "I bargained for twenty," said
Nelson; then he added, "I hope none of our ships have struck?" Hardy
assured him that not one had done so. Nelson continued in a stronger
voice, "Anchor, Hardy; the ships must all anchor: do you make the
signal." His articulation soon became difficult, and at half-past four he
expired, leaving a name unrivalled even in the glorious annals of the
British navy.
At the close of the action, twenty ships of the line had struck, inclu-
ding the Santissima Trinidada, of one hundred and thirty guns, and the
Santa Anna, of one hundred and twelve ; but one of the seventy -fours,
the Achille, blew up after she had surrendered. Had Nelson's (lying
instructions, to bring the fleet to anchor, been obeyed, the remaining
nineteen prizes would have been brought safely to Spithead : but the or-
der was neglected, and, early on the morning of the 22nd, a strong
southerly wind arose, which rendered the captured vessels unmanage-
able ; some drifted ashore and were destroyed by the waves, others
were sunk by the British, and two, having been blown off, were taken
by the French frigates. Four, only, reached Gibraltar in safety ; but the
prisoners, including the land forces on board, amounted to twenty thou-
sand men. Although the prizes were thus lost to the British, through an
unfortunate neglect of Nelson's orders, they were also .lost to the enemy,
whose fleet was almost wholly destroyed. Four ships of the line, which
escaped from the battle of Trafalgar, were captured by Sir Richard
Strachan on the 2nd of November, so that out of thirty-three sail of the
line, twenty-four surrendered to the British ; and the remaining nine
were so much injured as to be unfitted for any immediate service.
No words can describe the mingled feelings of joy and grief, exulta-
tion and despondency, which pervaded the British Empire, when news
was received of the battle of Trafalgar. The fleet had achieved one of
the greatest victories on record, and freed the country from the danger
of an invasion ; but, on the other hand, the people were called to mourn
the death of the hero by whom this great triumph had been gained. All
the honors which a grateful country could bestow, were heaped on the
memory of Lord Nelson. His brother was made an earl, with a grant
of six thousand pounds a year ; ten thousand pounds was voted to each
of his sisters, and one hundred thousand pounds for the purchase of an
estate. His remains were consigned to the tomb with great pomp, in St.
Paul's cathedral : and when his flag was about to be lowered into the
grave, the sailors, who assisted at the ceremony, with one accord rent it
in pieces, that each might preserve a fragment as long as he lived.
While these momentous events were taking place, Napoleon had
pressed forward with great energy toward the Rhine. Previous to his
1805.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 185
advance, however, he had renewed his negotiations with Prussia, and
made great efforts to effect a treaty with that power. But the cabinet
of Berlin could not be induced by Napoleon's arguments to go beyond its
policy of neutrality. During the progress of the negotiation, the Russia^
minister presented to the king a request from the Emperor Alexander,
for permission to pass his troops through the Prussian territories on their
route to Bavaria : this request was peremptorily refused, and Napoleon
was thereby enabled with ease to reach the Bavarian plains in advance
of the Muscovite army. The forces which he had now assembled were
the most formidable in respect of numbers, discipline and equipment, that
had ever yet taken the field in modern Europe. They consisted of one
hundred and eighty thousand men, divided into eight corps, under the
command of the most distinguished marshals of the Empire ; and, such
was the rapidity and secrecy of their march, they were far advanced on
their way to the Rhine, before it was known to the cabinets of London or
Vienna that they had broken up their camp on the heights of Boulogne.
The several corps, with the exception of that imder Bernadotte, thus far
met with no obstacles on their route, as they were traversing their own
or a friendly territory ; but the corps under that officer, in its march
across Germany from Hanover to Bavaria, came upon the Prussian state
of Anspach. Napoleon had foreseen this difficulty, and provided for it,
by giving Bernadotte positive orders to disregard the Prussian neutrality.
These orders were punctually executed, in defiance of the threats and
remonstrances of the local authorities ; and Bernadotte, with sixty thou-
sand men, including a division of Bavarians and the corps of Marmont,
traversed the territory of Prussia and assembled at Eichstadt on the
8th of October. By this master-stroke, the French troops were placed
in great force in the rear of an Austrian army, eighty thousand strong,
under General Mack, who, ignorant of Napoleon's movements, had
incautiously crossed the Inn and was reposing in fancied security around
the ramparts of Ulm.
The king and cabinet of Prussia were transported with astonishment
and indignation, when they received intelligence of the violation of their
neutrality by the French troops. They at once learned the humiliating
truth, which had long been obvious to the rest of Europe, but which an
overweening vanity that Napoleon well knew how to cajole had hitherto
hidden from themselves, that their alliance with France had been con-
tracted by the Emperor solely for his own advantage ; that he neither
respected nor feared their power, and that after having made them his
fawning and subservient instruments in subjugating other states, he would
probably end by overturning the independence of their own. They
immediately prohibited all intercourse with the French embassy, de-
manded satisfaction from the French minister resident at Berlin, and sent
forward a free permission to the Russian troops to traverse the Prussian
territories in their march to Bavaria.
When General Mack ascertained that Napoleon was approaching, he
disposed his forces at Ulm, Memmingen and Stockach, with advanced
posts in the defiles of the Black Forest, contemplating an attack only in
front, and expecting to be able to resist the invasion in his defensive posi-
tion. He was yet ignorant of the manoauvre by which Bernadotte at first,
and afterward Davoust and Soult, had taken ground in his rear with a
hundred thousand men, where they were establishing themselves at
186 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [CHAP. XXIH.
A.ugsbourg, while Napoleon, with the remainder of his army, was press-
ing on him from the west, on both banks of the Danube. Mack was not
long in discovering his desperate situation ; but, lacking the resolution
to adopt the only course of safety that was open to him, a retreat into the
Tyrol, he attempted to secure himself by intrenchments at Ulm, and sent
orders to General Auffemberg to join him at that place. This brave offi-
cer was then at Innspruch with four squadrons of cuirassiers and twelve
battalions of grenadiers, and while proceeding to Ulm, in obedience to
Mack's requisition, suddenly found himself enveloped by eight thousand
French cavalry under Murat. In this extremity, Auffemberg threw his
ivhole division into one immense square, with the cuirassiers at its angles,
and awaited the attack. The French dragoons came on like a tempest,
and speedily swept away the comparatively small number of Austrian
cavalry ; but the infantry stood firm, and, with a sustained fire of mus-
ketry, that reminded the French of their own achievement at the Pyra-
mids, mowed down their assailants by hundreds. After the combat had
been for a long time maintained in this manner, with severe loss to the
French, Oudinot arrived on the ground at the head of a brigade of French
grenadiers, well provided with artillery. The fatigued Austrians, un-
able to endure the onset of fresh infantry, were soon disordered, and
several thousands of the French forced their way into the square : but
Auffemberg still succeeded in forming a smaller square, and making
good his retreat with a part of his troops to some marshes in the neigh-
borhood of the Danube. He, however, left three thousand prisoners,
many standards, and all his artillery in the hands of the enemy.
Napoleon began now to close upon the Austrian army, and he gained
several minor victories over their detached parties, as he gradually drove
them in upon Ulm. On the llth of October, Ney encountered a body
of Austrians, twenty thousand strong, at Hasslach, and a desperate action
ensued, in which the French lost a part of their artillery, but at length
retired in good order from the field, with two thousand Austrian prisoners.
On the same day, Soult marched against Memmingen, which was garri-
soned by four thousand Austrians ; and on the 13th, having completed
his investment of the place, he summoned it to surrender. The Austri-
ans, discouraged by the host of enemies that were gathering around them,
and being destitute of provisions, immediately capitulated. By the 16th,
every avenue of escape was closed against Mack, and the main body of
the Austrian army ; yet, as the Archduke Ferdinand was with the troops,
it was deemed indispensable that an effort should be made at all hazards
to secure his retreat, by cutting a path through the French lines into
Bohemia.
On the day that this desperate resolution was formed by the Austrian
generals, Ney commenced an attack on the bridge and abbey of Elchin-
gen, where fifteen thousand Austrians were posted with forty pieces of
cannon. The battle was contested with great bravery, and, in the event,
the French columns, after many hours of desperate fighting, forced the
Austrians back upon their main body with a loss of thirty-five hundred
men, killed, wounded and prisoners. The resistance of these gallant
troops, however, gave the Archduke Ferdinand an opportunity to make
his escape. During the combat at Elchingen, he sallied from Ulm at the
head of ten thousand cavalry, which, by moving in two several directions,
created a diversion that enabled him, with a few hundred horse, to gaio
1805.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 187
the Bohemian frontiers ; but his deliverance was purchased by the sacri-
fice of nearly all the large body of cavalry that aided it, more than nine
thousand of them having fallen into the hands of the French.
As Mack was now deprived of all hope of relief, Napoleon summoned
him to surrender ; and after a brief negotiation, the entire Austrian army
capitulated and laid down their arms. It is hardly possible to speak in
terms of exaggeration of this astonishing victory : with a loss of not more
than eight thousand men, Napoleon had taken or destroyed nearly eighty
thousand of the best troops in the Austrian dominions.
While these stupendous events were paralyzing the Imperial strength
in the centre of Germany, the campaign had opened in Italy. The
Aulic Council, from whose errors the European nations suffered so often
and so deeply, and who could learn nothing even from their own experi-
ence, committed three capital faults in their plan of operations. In the
first place, they had ordered Mack with eighty thousand men to push for-
ward into an exposed situation, and bear the weight of the whole French
army in the valley of the Danube ; secondly, they compelled the Arch-
duke Charles to remain inactive on the Adige with ninety thousand men,
in presence of Massena who had only fifty thousand ; and thirdly, twenty
thousand men were kept scattered over the Tyrol without any enemy ai
all to occupy them.
As soon as the cabinet of Vienna ascertained Mack's dangerous situa
tion, they ordered the Archduke Charles to dispatch thirty regiments
across the Tyrol toward Germany to his assistance ; and the Austrian
army in Italy was thus reduced to nearly an equality of numbers with
Massena. The latter general occupied the city of Verona and its castles,
on the right bank of the Adige, while the Archduke held the suburbs of
the town, on the left bank of that river. The bridge between the two
camps was strongly barricaded and carefully guarded at each end. Mas-
sena, stimulated by the orders of Napoleon and the news of his success,
at length resolved to assume the offensive by forcing the bridge ; and at
midnight, on the 18th of October, after removing his own barricades as
silently as possible, he caused petards to be placed against those of the
Austrians. He then commenced a violent cannonade along the banks of
the river, and while the enemy's attention was thus diverted, the petards
were exploded and the barricades thrown down. The French troops
rushed forward, but found to their surprise a yawning gulf between them
and the opposite bank, a section of the bridge having been cut away by
the Austrians behind their barricades. In the confusion of the moment,
however, and under cover of a thick fog which the rising sun had not yet
dispelled, the French soldiers, by means of boats and planks, made good
their passage, and secured a footing on the Austrian shore, whence the
Archduke, after a whole day's fighting, was unable to dislodge them. He
therefore withdrew to the position of Caldiero, which he had been for
some time fortifying, and where he considered himself safe from any at-
tack ; and, indeed, so it proved : for after three entire days of the most
desperate fighting, in which both armies suffered severe losses, though
the greater portion was on the side of the French, Massena was compelled
to retire ; and but for the progress of events in Germany, which required
the Archduke's presence there, the French marshal would have been
unable to retain his position on the Adige.
The Archduke John had arrived at the head-quarters of the Austrian
188 HISTORY OF EUROPE [CHAP. XXIII.
army, and brought official intelligence of the disaster at Ulm, and the
consequent exposure of Vienna. Justly alarmed at this news, the Arch-
duke Charles made immediate preparations to fall back and cover the
Austrian capital ; but to conceal his movements from Massena, while he
pushed forward by forced marches his heavy artillery and baggage, he
made demonstrations of following up his success at Caldiero, which com-
pletely deceived the French commander and induced him to take a
defensive position in front of Verona. When the main body of the Aus-
trian army, with all its incumbrances of baggage and artillery, was suf-
ficiently advanced, the rear-guard broke up from their intrenchments and
followed the retreating columns ; and although Massena was not long in
discovering his mistake, and pushed on in pursuit, the Austrians had
gained a full day's march, and he could not overtake them in force.
Napoleon followed up his success at Ulm, by pressing through Bavaria.
He arrived at Munich on the 24th of October, where he was received with
every demonstration of joy, while the leading corps under Bernadotte,
Davoust, Murat and Marmont hastened toward the hereditary states of
Austria. The Iser was soon passed ; the French eagles were borne in
triumph through the forest of Hohenlinden, and nothing arrested the march
of the victorious troops until they reached the rocky banks of the Inn, and
appeared before the fortress ofBrannau; and the detention here was but
brief, for the Austrian garrison soon evacuated the place. At the same
time, Ney and Augereau were ordered into the Tyrol, to drive the Aus-
trian forces from the vast fortress which its mountains composed.
The Russians under KutusofF and Benningsen on the one side, and the
Austrians from Italy and the Tyrol under the Archdukes Charles and
John on the other, were now approaching to cover Vienna, and courier
after courier was dispatched to hasten their movements : the French troops
also were rapidly moving toward the same common centre ; and universal
alarm spread through the Austrian dominions.
Meantime, Prussia assumed a menacing attitude : the king openly in-
clined to hostile measures, Prince Louis vehemently declared his desire
for war, and the inhabitants echoed his wishes. Haugwitz, the author of
the temporizing system, soon lost his consideration in the cabinet, and
Hardenberg was intrusted with the direction of affairs. At this juncture,
the Emperor Alexander arrived at Berlin, and exerted his utmost influ-
ence to induce the king to embrace a more manly and courageous policy
than he had hitherto pursued. This proceeding decided the king, and a
convention was signed on the 3rd of November between the two monarchs,
stipulating that the treaty of Luneville should be taken as the basis of the
arrangement, and all the acquisitions which France had since made were
to be wrested from her; while Switzerland and Holland were to be
restored to their independence. Haugwitz was to be intrusted with noti-
fying this convention to Napoleon, with authority, in case of his acceding
to it, to offer him the former friendship and alliance of Prussia ; but, if he
refused, 10 declare war, with an intimation that hostilities would com-
mence on the 15th of December.
After the conclusion of this treaty, Alexander repaired to Gallicia, to
assume in person the command of the Russian army of reserve which was
advancing through that* province to the support of Kutusoff; but, unfor-
tunately, the cabinet of Prussia still lacked resolution to interfere at once
and decidedly in the war. Haugwitz did not set out on his mission unti*
1805.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 189
the 14th of November, the Prussian armies made no advance to the Da-
nube, and Napoleon was suffered to proceed without interruption toward
Vienna, while eighty thousand Prussian veterans remained inactive in
Silesia on his left flank ; a force which, acting in cooperation with the
Austrian and Russian troops, might readily have thrown back the French
Emperor, with disaster and disgrace, to the banks of the Rhine.
While Napoleon thus triumphantly approached the Austrian capital,
Ney and Augereau, with almost equal facility, carried everything before
them in the Tyrol ; where, within little more than three weeks, they
expelled the Imperialists from what had long been considered the impreg-
nable bulwark of the Austrian empire, though it was garrisoned by twenty-
five thousand regular troops and at least an equal number of well-trained
militia : more than half of this entire force fell into the hands of the inva-
ders. Ney then marched to Salzbourg, to form a junction with Massena,
and Augereau withdrew to Ulm to observe the Prussians, while the occu-
pation of the Tyrol was committed to the Bavarian troops. Napoleon still
continued his advance, and on the 6th of November, established his head-
quarters at Lintz, the capital of Upper Austria. Here, he remained a
short time to give some repose to his troops and introduce a new organ-
ization, with a view of destroying the Russian corps under Kutusoff; for
which purpose, four divisions, amounting to twenty thousand men, were
passed over to the left bank of the Danube and placed under the command
of Mortier, whose instructions were to advance cautiously, and send out
videttes in every direction, until he should gain a point whence he might
effectually surprise the Russian commander.
At Lintz, Napoleon also received the Elector of Bavaria, who hastened
to that city to render the homage due to the deliverer of his dominions ;
and on the same day, Count Giulay arrived from the Emperor of Austria
with proposals for an armistice, having reference to a general peace ; for
the cabinet of Vienna, despairing of the arrival in time of the Archduke
and Kutusoff, began to fear the destruction of their capital. Napoleon
received the envoy courteously ; but, after remarking that a beaten army,
unable to defend a single position, could not with propriety offer terms to
a conqueror at the head of two hundred thousand men, he sent him back
with a letter to the ^Emperor, in which he proposed to treat for peace on
condition that the Russians should forthwith evacuate the Austrian terri-
tory and retire into Poland, that the levies in Hungary should be dis-
banded, and Tyrol and Venice ceded to the French dominions. If these
terms were not accepted, he averred that he would continue his march
toward Vienna without an hour's intermission.
The proposal of such rigorous conditions showed the allies that they
had no hope, but in a bold prosecution of the war; they, therefore, dis-
patched the most urgent entreaties to the Russian head-quarters to hasten
the advance of their reserves, while a strong rear-guard took post at Am-
stetten, to secure a passage through the narrow defile of the Danube for
the main body and artillery of the allied army covering Vienna. This
rear-guard, however, was attacked by Oudinot and Murat, and, after a
bloody conflict, was forced to retreat ; but not until it had gained time for
the allied army to arrive at the rocky ridge behind St. Polten, the last
defensible position in front of Vienna, and which commanded the junction
of the lateral road, running from Italy through Leoben, with the great
route down the valley of the Danube to the capital. Napoleon saw the
190 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXIII.
necessity of wresting this important position from the allies, and directed
sixty thousand men to turn their right flank, fifty thousand to manoeuvre
on the left, while he in person, at the head of his Imperial guard and the
corps of Soult assailed them in front. As it was impossible for KutusofF
to maintain his ground against such overwhelming numbers, he resolved
to abandon the capital and withdraw to the left bank of the river.
Skilfully concealing his intention from the enemy, he moved his whole
army across the Danube at Mautern, over the only bridge which traverses
that river between Lintz and Vienna ; and having burned it behind him,
succeeded, for some days at least, in throwing an impassable barrier be-
tween his troops and their indefatigable pursuers. He continued his retreat
in good order until he reached the vicinity of Stein, where, on the llth of
November, his rear-guard was attacked by the whole advanced division
of Mortier's corps. The combat soon became warm ; fresh troops arrived
on both sides, and the grenadiers fought man to man with undaunted reso-
lution. Toward noon, intelligence was spread that the Russian division
of DoctorofF had, by a circuitous march, gained Mortier's rear ; and the
latter, finding himself thus attacked on both sides, and separated from the
remainder of his cojps, resolved to dislodge this new assailant. He ac-
cordingly made a spirited attack on DoctorofF's troops, but he was unable
to force them from their position until after several hours of hard fighting,
during which he lost three eagles and two-thirds of his men. Dupont at
length came up with the remainder of his corps and forced the Russians
to retreat.
Napoleon now ordered Lannes and Murat to advance upon Vienna and
endeavor to gain possession of the bridge over the Danube. At the same
time, the Emperor Francis retired from his capital, after confiding the
charge of it to Count Wurbna, his grand chamberlain. The citizens were
overwhelmed with consternation when they found themselves deserted by
the Emperor, and assembled in tumultuous crowds demanding arms to
defend the capital ; but it was too late. The means of resistance no
longer remained ; and a deputation was sent to Napoleon's head-quarters
to treat for a surrender.
Retaining a sufficient force to secure the occupation of Vienna, Napo-
leon ordered Murat, Bernadotte and Mortier to follow up KutusofF's retreat,
and prevent his junction with the Archduke Charles. Murat, deeming it
improbable that he could overtake KutusofF, had recourse to a stratagem,
and sent a flag of truce to the Russian head-quarters, announcing that an
armistice had been concluded at Vienna : but the wily Russian proved
an overmatch for Murat in diplomacy. He professed great joy at the
news, which he knew could not be true, and not only pretended to enter
cordially into the negotiation, but sent the Emperor's aid-de-camp,, Win-
zingerode, to propose terms of peace. Murat fell into his own snare ; for
while he stayed his pursuit to consider these proposals, KutusofF, after
ordering Bagrathion to remain behind with eight thousand men, pushed
forward the main body of his army to Znaim, where he was enabled to
open communications not only with the Austrians, but also with the reen-
forcing Russian troops.
Napoleon was greatly enraged when he found that his generals had
been thus foiled, and ordered an immediate attack on Bagrathion 's rear-
guard. This brave Russian commander soon found himself assailed in
front and on both flanks by Oudinot, Murat, Lannes and Soult, with no
1805.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 191
less than forty thousand men ; yet he maintained his position for twelve
hours, and finally retreated in good order with five thousand of his troops,
leaving behind him three thousand killed, wounded or prisoners. Nothing
now could prevent the junction of the allied forces, which took place at
Wischau on the 19th of November. Their entire strength amounted to
seventy-five thousand men ; and a division of the Russian Imperial guard
under the Grandduke Constantine, with a detachment under Benningsen,
was hourly expected, which would raise their numbers to ninety thousand.
Napoleon, when he found that the junction of the allies was inevitable,
took the most energetic measures to close the campaign by a general
action, and moved toward Austerlitz with all his disposable forces for that
purpose. In order to gain time for the requisite concentration of his
troops, he proposed to enter into a conference with Alexander for an ar-
mistice, and the Russian Emperor, equally anxious for a brief delay, dis-
patched an ambassador on this fruitless errand. While the negotiation
was in progress, Count Haugwitz arrived with the ultimatum of Prussia ;
but Napoleon was not disposed to treat on this subject until he had made
some further advance in the affairs of the campaign, and recommended
Haugwitz to repair to Vienna and open his conference with Talleyrand.
On the 1st of December, Napoleon had assembled his masses, to the
number of ninety thousand veteran troops, midway between Brunn and
Austerlitz. His left wing, under Lannes, was stationed at the foot of a
chain of hills, having a powerful guard of cavalry. Next to these was
the corps of Bernadotte, and between him and the centre were the grena-
diers of Oudinot, the cavalry of Murat, and the Imperial guard under
Bessieres. The centre, under the command of Soult, occupied the villages
near the heights of Pratzen. The right wing, under Davoust, was thrown
back in a semicircle, with its reserves at the Abbey of Raygern in the
rear, and its front line stretching to the Lake Moenitz. A succession of
marshes covered the front of the whole position.
The allies, in their plan of attack, decided to turn the right flank of the
French army so as, in case of success, to cut them off from Vienna and
drive them to the Bohemian mountains ; and they sought to effect this by
one of the most hazardous operations in war — a flank march in column in
front of a concentrated enemy, and that enemy Napoleon. Accordingly,
early in the morning of December 2nd, they moved forward in five col-
umns obliquely across the French position, while the reserve, under the
Grandduke Constantine, occupied the heights in front of Austerlitz. The
moment that Napoleon saw this suicidal manoeuvre undertaken, he ex-
claimed, " That army is my own !"
A heavy mist at first enveloped both armies, and for a time obscured
their movements from view ; but at length the sun arose in unclouded
brilliancy — that "sun of Austerlitz" which Napoleon so often afterward
apostrophized, as illuminating the brightest period of his life — and the
magnitude of the error committed by the allies was plainly revealed :
they had abandoned the heights of Pratzen, the key to their position, and
exposed the flank of their whole army, in detached masses, to the delibe-
rate1 attacks of the French veterans. It was impossible, under such cir-
cumstances, that the victory could remain long in doubt. The Russian
and Austrian troops fought with desperate valor against their disadvan-
tages, and in parts of the field gained a temporary success ; but in the
event, almost every attack of the French prevailed; the allied army was
19
192 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXIII.
broken and routed at all points, and at nightfall they were retreating in
almost utter disorganization, having lost in killed, wounded and prisoners,
thirty thousand men, besides a hundred and eighty pieces of cannon, four
hundred caissons and forty-five standards. The loss of the French did
not exceed twelve thousand men.
Such was the effect produced by this great disaster that, during a
council held at midnight, at the Russian Emperor's lodgings, it was
doubted whether hostilities could be prolonged with any hope of success,
and by four o'clock in the morning, Prince Lichtenstein was dispatched
to Napoleon's head-quarters to propose an armistice. There was no
difficulty in coming to an arrangement. Napoleon, notwithstanding the
extent of his victory, was well aware of the danger that might yet ensue
from a combination against him, of Prussia with the other European
powers; he knew that the Archduke Charles, with eighty thousand
troops, was already threatening Vienna, and that Hungary was rising
en masse at the approach of the invaders. On the 4th of December, an
interview took place between the Emperor Francis and Napoleon, which
lasted for two hours, and ended in an agreement that Presburg should be
the seat of the negotiations for peace, that an armistice should imme-
diately take place at all points, and that the Russian troops should retire
by slow marches to their own country. Savary was sent to the Emperor
Alexander to request his consent to these terms, which he granted with-
out hesitation, and Napoleon stopped the advance of the French columns.
On the 6th of December, the armistice was formally concluded at
Austerlitz, by which it was stipulated that, until the conclusion of a
general peace, the French should continue to occupy those portions of
Upper and Lower Austria, Tyrol, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and Mora-
via, then in their possession ; that the Russians should evacuate Moravia
and Hungary in fifteen days, and Gallicia within a month ; that all in-
surrectionary movements in Hungary and Bohemia should be stopped,
and no armed force of any other power permitted to enter the Austrian
territories. This latter clause was levelled at the Prussian armaments,
and it afforded the cabinet of Berlin a pretext for withdrawing from a
coalition into which they had entered at so untoward a period.
Alexander no sooner found himself delivered from the toils of his
redoubtable adversary, than he sent the Grandduke Constantine and
Prince DolgorOncki to Berlin, offering to place all his forces at the dis-
position of the Prussian cabinet, if they would vigorously prosecute the
war : but the diplomatist to whom the fortunes of Prussia were now com-
mitted, had very different objects in view, and he was prepared, by an
act of matchless perfidy, to put the finishing stroke to that system of
tergiversation and deceit, by which, for ten years, the cabinet of Berlin
had been disgraced. It has already been related that Haugwitz had
reached the head-quarters of Napoleon with instructions to declare war
against France ; but the battle of Austerlitz had changed the face of
affairs, and Haugwitz resolved not only to withdraw from the coalition,
but to secure a part of the spoils of his former allies; and if he could
not chase the French standards beyond the Rhine, at least to wrest from
England those continental possessions which she now appeared in no
condition to defend. Napoleon soon ascertained the disposition of the
minister, and offered to incorporate Hanover with the Prussian dominions
in exchange for some of the detached southern possessions of Pmssia,
1805.J HISTORYOFEUROPE. 193
which were to be ceded to France and Bavaria, provided she would
abandon her doubtful policy, and enter heart and hand into the French
alliance. Haugwitz eagerly accepted these proposals and signed a for-
mal treaty for carrying them into effect.
The negotiations between Austria and Napoleon were soon brought to
a close. By the treaty of Presburg, she was in a manner isolated from
France, and to all appearance, rendered incapable of again interfering
in the contests of Western Europe. She was compelled to cede the
Tyrol and Inviertel to Bavaria ; to relinquish the Continental dominions
of Venice and all her accessions in Italy, together with Voralberg, Ech-
stadt, and various towns and lesser principalities in Germany. The
electors of Wirtemberg and Bavaria were made kings of their respective
provinces, and the Emperor Francis was forced to engage, both as chief
of the Empire, and as co-sovereign, "to throw no obstacles in the way
of any acts which the Kings of Wirtemberg and Bavaria, in their capacity
of sovereigns, might think proper to adopt :" a clause which, by providing
for the independent authority of these infant kingdoms, virtually dis-
solved the Germanic Empire. The secret articles of the treaty were
still more humiliating. It was by them provided, that Austria should
pay a contribution of forty millions of francs in addition to an equal sum
already levied by the French in the conquered provinces, and also in
addition to the loss of the immense military stores and magazines which
had fallen into the hands of the victors during the war, and which were
either to be sent off to France or redeemed by a heavy ransom.
This treaty was followed by a measure hitherto unprecedented in
European history — the pronouncing sentence of dethronement against an
independent sovereign for no other cause than his having, during the late
campaign, contemplated hostilities against the Emperor of France. On the
26th of December, a menacing proclamation issued from Presburg against
the House of Naples. In this document Napoleon announced that Mar-
shal St. Cyr would march to Naples " to punish the treason of a criminal
queen, and precipitate her from the throne. We have pardoned" it con-
tinued, " that infatuated king, who has thrice done everything to ruin
himself. Shall we pardon him a fourth time ? Shall we a fourth time
trust a court without faith, without honor, without reason ? No ! The
dynasty of Naples lias ceased to reign ; its existence is incompatible with
the repose of Europe and the honor of my crown."
The dissolution of the European confederacy against Napoleon — which
its author had so assiduously labored to construct, and from which he ex-
pected such important results — was fatal to Mr. Pitt. His health, long
weakened by the fatigue and excitement incident to his position, sunk
under the disappointment of this failure of his projects ; and he expired at
his house in London, on the 23rd of January, 1806, exclaiming with his
latest breath, " Alas, my country !" Chateaubriand has said, " while all
other reputations, even that of Napoleon, are on the decline, the fame of
Mr. Pitt alone is continually increasing, and seems to derive fresh lustre
from every vicissitude of fortune." But this eulogium was not drawn
forth by the greatness and constancy merely, of the British statesman :
the justness of his principles, of which subsequent events have afforded
proof, is the true cause of the growth and stability of his fame. But for
the despotism of Napoleon, followed, as it was, by the freedom of the
Restoration, the revolt of the barricades and the military government of
194 HISTORYOFEUROPE [CHAP. XXIV
Louis Philippe, his reputation for accurate judgment and foresight, in
regard to foreign transactions, would have been incomplete ; without the
passage of the Reform Bill, and the subsequent ascendency of democratic
ambition in Great Britain, his worth in domestic government would never
have been appreciated. Every hour, abroad and at home, is now illustra-
ting the truth of his principles. He was formerly admired by a party
in England as the champion of aristocratic rights ; he is now looked back
upon by the nation as the last steady asserter of universal freedom : for-
merly, his doctrines were approved chiefly by the great and the affluent ,
they are now embraced by the generous, the thoughtful, the unprejudiced
of every rank — by all who regard passing events with the eye of historic
inquiry, or are attached to liberty, not as the means of elevating a party
to power, but as the birthright of the human race. To his speeches we
now turn as to the oracles fraught with prophetic warning of future disas-
ter. It is contrast which gives brightness to the colors of history ; it is
experience which brings conviction to the cold lessons of political wisdom j
and thus, though many eloquent eulogiums have been pronounced on the
memory of Mr. Pitt, all panegyrics are lifeless, compared to that fur.
nished by Earl Grey's administration.
CHAPTER XXIV.
FROM THE PEACE OF PRESBDRG TO THE FALL OF PRUSSIA.
THE peace of Presburg seemed to have finally subjected the continent
of Europe to the Empire of France. The formidable coalition of the
several powers was dissolved ; Austria had, apparently, received an irre-
parable wound ; Prussia, though irritated, was overawed ; and the Auto-
crat of Russia was indebted to the forbearance of the victor for the means
of escaping from the theatre of his triumph. Sweden, in indignant silence,
had withdrawn to the shores of Gothland ; Naples was overrun ; Switzer-
land was silent ; and Spain consented to yield her fleets and treasures to
the conqueror. England, unsubdued in arms and with unflinching reso-
lution, continued the strife ; but, after the prostration of her allies, and
the destruction of the French marine, the war appeared to have no longer
an intelligible object ; while the death of the great statesman who had
ever been the uncompromising foe of the Revolution, and the soul of the
confederacies opposed to it, led to an expectation that a more pacific sys-
tem of government might be anticipated from his successors.
The death of Mr. Pitt dissolved the administration of which he was
the head. His towering genius could ill bear a partner in power or
a rival in renown. Equals, he had none; friends, few; and with the
exception of Lord Melville, perhaps no statesman ever possessed his un-
reserved confidence. There were many men of ability and resolution in
his cabinet, but none of sufficient strength to take the helm when it drop-
ped from his hands. In addition, also, to the comparative weakness of
the ministry after Mr. Pitt's decease, the state of public opinion rendered
it doubtful whether any new administration, not founded on a coalition
1806.] IIISTORYOFEUROPE. 193
of parties, could command general support. Under these circumstances,
the king sent a messenger to Lord Grenville, requesting his attendance
at Buckingham House, to confer with his majesty on the formation of a
government. Lord Grenville, on repairing thither, suggested Mr. Fox
as the proper person to be consulted. "I thought so, and I meant it so,"
replied the king ; and the forming of an administration was forthwith
intrusted to these two distinguished men.
Mr. Fox, though entitled, by his talents and influence, to the highest
appointment under the crown, contented himself with the Department of
Foreign Affairs, considering that to be the situation in which the greatest
embarrassments would occur, and where his own principles were likely
soonest to lead to important results. Lord Grenville was made First
Lord of the Treasury ; Mr. Erskine, Lord Chancellor ; Lord Howick,
First Lord of the Admiralty ; Mr. Windham, Secretary at War : and
Earl Spencer, Secretary of State for the Home Department. The cabinet
exhibited a splendid array of ability ; but many observed, with regret,
that all the members of the precedent administration were excluded from
office, and anticipated that a coalition which thus seemed likely to depart
from the path of its predecessors, could not long retain the power it had
acquired. Nevertheless, no immediate change took place in the measures
of the government ; and Europe saw with surprise that the men who had
invariably characterized the war as unjust and impolitic, themselves pre-
pared to carry it on with the samo energy as the former ministers : a
striking fact, significant alike of the soundness of Mr. Pitt's policy, and of
the candor of the party who now directed public affairs.
The return of Napoleon to Paris, where he arrived on the 26th of
January, was an opportune event for the financial affairs of the country,
for the nation was on the verge of bankruptcy ; and nothing but the
Emperor's extraordinary efforts to meet the crisis, together with the timely
conclusion of the war, which relieved the demands on the treasury, could
have averted that calamity. After the public apprehensions on this sub-
ject were somewhat allayed, the municipality of Paris resolved to erect a
monument, commemorative of the campaign of Austerlitz ; and five hun-
dred pieces of cannon, taken from the Austrians, were accordingly con-
verted into the beautiful column in the Place Vendome.
Napoleon soon proceeded to execute his purpose against Naples, and
dispatched Joseph Bonaparte, at the head of fifty thousand men, to take
possession of the throne in his own name. As resistance was impossible,
the future sovereign of Naples made his entry into that city, on the 15th
of February ; and on the 14th of April, he received the decree by which
Napoleon also created him king of the two Sicilies. At the same time,
the Venetian States were definitively annexed to the kingdom of Italy, and
Napoleon's son-in-law, Eugene 3eauharnois, called to the throne. The
beautiful Pauline, Napoleon's sister, and wife of Prince Borghese, re-
ceived the duchy of Guastalla ; the Princess Eliza was created Prin-
cess of Lucca Piombino ; Murat was made Grand-Duke of Berg, with a
considerable territory ; and the Emperor reserved to himself twelve du-
chies in Italy, which he bestowed on the principal officers of his army.
Although Joseph Bonaparte was thus easily placed on the throne, he
soon had occasion to learn the precarious tenure of his power. He had
hardly returned to Naples from a visit into Sicily, when an English fleet
wrested from him the island of Capri, which bounds the horizon south of
19*
190 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [CHAP. XXIV.
.he Bay of Naples, and nothing but the generous forbearance of the Eng-
lish commander, Sir Sidney Smith, saved his capital and palace from a
bomoardment amid the light of a festive illumination. A more serious
disaster soon occurred in the southern provinces of his dominions. An
insurrection had broken out in Calabria, which threatened to overturn his
government in that quarter ; and the English commanders in Sicily re-
solved on an expedition by sea and land, to relieve the fortress of Gaeta,
and encourage the insurgents, a part of whom were there besieged by the
French troops under Massena. In the beginning of July, an expedition
also set sail from Palermo, consisting of five thousand men commanded
by Sir John Stuart, who landed at St. Euphemia. The English general
here learned that a French force, under Regnier, seven thousand five
hundred strong, was encamped at Maida, about ten miles distant, and he
immediately moved forward to attack them. Both parties contested the
field with great bravery ; but at length British intrepidity prevailed
over the French numbers and enthusiasm, and Regnier was forced to
retreat, leaving one half of his army on the field, in killed, wounded and
prisoners.
The battle of Maida, though it hardly attracted the notice of the
French people, dazzled as they were by the blaze of Ulm and Auster-
litz, had an important bearing on the progress of events : for, insignifi-
cant as were the numbers of the troops, and the immediate results of
the contest, the victory gave proof that the English soldiers were an
overmatch for Napoleon's veterans : it created an ardent desire through-
out the British Empire, for an opportunity to measure their national
strength with the conquerors of Continental Europe on a larger field ; and
it went far to reconcile all parties to a vigorous continuance of the war.
The conquest of Naples, and the assumption of the Sicilian throne by
the brother of Napoleon, together with the other partitions of Italy as
already related, were not the only usurpations that followed the peace
of Presburg. The old commonwealth of Holland was also destined to
receive a master from the victorious Emperor, in the person of his brother
Louis, who, as " in the existing state of Europe, a hereditary govern-
ment could alone guaranty the independence, and secure the civil and
religious privileges of the realm," was, on the 5th of June, declared
King of Holland. The same day on which this event took place, an am-
bassador arrived at Paris from the Grand Signior of Turkey, to congratu-
late Napoleon on his accession to the Imperial dignity, and friendly
relations were soon established between the two powers.
The victory of Trafalgar, with the subsequent achievement of Sir
Richard Strachan, had almost entirely destroyed the combined fleet that
issued from Cadiz ; but the squadrons of Rochefort and Brest still re-
mained, and Napoleon resolved to turn their resources to account. Half
of the Brest fleet, consisting of eleven ships of the line, were victualled
for six months ; and, in the middle of December, 1805, when the Eng-
lish blockading fleet had been blown off the station by violent winds,
these eleven ships put to sea accompanied by four frigates, and in two
divisions were dispatched, the one to St. Domingo, and the other to the
Cape of Good Hope. Admiral Duckworth pursued the former of these
squadrons, with seven ships of the line and four frigates, and on the 6th
of February attacked them in the harbor of St. Domingo. The French
frigates made their escape, but three of the ships of the line were cap-
1806.J HISTORY OF EUROPE. 197
tured, and the other two drifted ashore and were burned. Of the six
ships of the line dispatched for the Cape of Good Hope, two were cap-
tured by the British, one was driven ashore and burned, another wag
chased into Havana in a disabled condition, and two made good their re-
treat to France. About the same time, a British squadron under Sir
John Warren, captured two sail of the line, and the Belle Poule frigate,
commanded by Admiral Linois, on their return from the Indian Ocean;
and Sir Samuel Hood made prize of four, out of five French frigates,
bound for the West Indies with troops on board.
This almost total annihilation of the French navy, was followed by a
reduction of the remaining Dutch forces at the Cape of Good Hope, and
the final conquest of that peninsula ; and, early in the summer, Sir
Howe Popham took possession of Buenos Ayres ; but, in this instance,
the captured province was not occupied with a sufficient force, and the
inhabitants retook it on the 4th of August.
About the same period, some differences arose between the United
States of America and Great Britain, which threatened to be followed
by important consequences. The grievances in which the difficulty
originated, were .such as unquestionably gave the Americans much
ground for complaint, although no fault could be imputed to the English
maritime policy, for they were the necessary result of the Americans'
having engrossed so large a portion of the carrying-trade between the
belligerent powers of Europe. The first subject of complaint was the
impressment of seamen, claimed to be British subjects, in the American
service : the next, the alleged violation of neutral rights, by the seizure
and condemnation, under certain.circumstances, of vessels engaged in
the carrying-trade of France. To these serious and lasting subjects of
discord, was added the irritation produced by an unfortunate shot from
the British ship Leander, on the coast of America, which killed an
American citizen, and produced so great a disturbance, that Mr. Jeffer-
son issued an intemperate proclamation, prohibiting the crew of that and
some other English vessels from entering the harbors of the United
States. Meetings took place in the principal cities of the Union, at
which violent resolutions were passed by acclamation. Congress dis-
cussed the subject, and, after some preliminary decrees, passed a non-
importation act against the manufactures of Great Britain. The English
people were equally loud in asserting their maritime rights, and a new
trans-Atlantic war seemed to be inevitable. But, fortunately for both
countries, whose real interests are not more closely united than their
popular passions are at variance, the adjustment of the matters in dis-
pute was left to wiser arid cooler heads than the vehement populace of
either. Mr. Monroe and Mr. Pinckney were sent as commissioners to
England, and by conferences with Lords Holland and Auckland, the dif-
ferences were amicably reconciled.
The cabinet of Berlin was greatly embarrassed on receiving intelli-
gence of the treaty concluded between Haugwitz and Napoleon at Vienna.
On the one hand, the object at which their ambition had for ten years
been directed, seemed about to be obtained by the possession of Hano-
ver ; but, on the other hand, some remains of conscience made them feel
ashamed at thus partitioning a friendly power, and they were not without
fear of offending Alexander, by openly despoiling his faithful ally. At
length, however, the magnitude of the temptation prevailed over the
198 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP XXIV
king's better principles, and he determined not simply to ratify the treaty,
but to send it back to Paris with certain modifications ; and, to give a
color to the transaction, as well, perhaps, as a salvo to his own sense of
justice, he offered to accept the proposed exchange of Hanover for cer-
tain southern provinces of Prussia, on condition that such exchange
should be deferred till a general peace was ratified, and the consent of
Great Britain obtained. At the same moment, it was represented to the
English minister at Berlin, that arrangements had been concluded with
France for insuring the tranquillity of Hanover, which " stipulated ex-
pressly the committing of that country to the sole guard of the Prussian
troops, and to the administration of the king, until the conclusion of a
general peace." But not a word was said of any ulterior designs to an-
nex Hanover to the Prussian dominions. Napoleon, however, who saw
through this equivocation, and determined that Prussia should take defi-
nite ground on one side or the other, apprised the cabinet of Berlin, thai
the treaty of Vienna had not been ratified within the prescribed time,
and was therefore no longer binding on France. This step was decisive.
On the 15th of February, Haugwitz signed a new treaty, which was rati-
fied on the 26th, and carried into immediate execution, by which Hanover
was openly ceded to Prussia, and her ports closed against the British flag :
the Prussian troops accordingly took formal possession of the territory.
The moment that the British government ascertained these facts, they
recalled their ambassador from Berlin, declared the Prussian harbors in
a state of blockade, and laid an embargo on all Prussian vessels in Eng-
lish ports. Within a few weeks, the Prussian flag was swept from the
ocean, and four hundred of her merchant ships fell into the hands of the
British cruisers.
In consenting to this infamous treaty with France, the cabinet of Ber
lin were actuated by a desire for gain, together with a wish to deprecate
the wrath and conciliate the favor of Napoleon ; and it is well to know
how far the latter objects were accomplished. "From the moment,''
says Bignon, "that the treaty of the 15th of February was signed, Napo-
leon did more than hate Prussia ; he entertained toward that power the
most profound contempt. All his views from that day were based on
considerations foreign to her alliance, and he pursued his plans as if that
alliance no longer existed." His hostility and contempt soon appeared
in his occupation of the abbacies of Werden, Essen and Elten, without
any regard to the claims of Prussia ; in his levying large contributions
from Frankfort and Hamburg ; and in his seizing, at Bremen, a large
quantity of merchandise, merely suspected to be British, and committing
it to the flames. The Imperial robber afterward exacted six millions of
francs, in this time of profound peace, from Hamburg and the Hanse
Towns, as the price of his military protection.
Napoleon next proceeded to form a general treaty with the Kings of
Bavaria and Wirtemberg, the Archbishop of Ratisbon, the Elector of
Baden, the Grand-Duke of Berg, the Landgrave of Hesse d'Armstadt,
the Princes of Nassau, Hohenzollern, Sigmasingen, Salm-Salm, Salm-
Kerbourg, Isemberg-Birchestein, Litchtenstein d'Aremberg, the Count de
la Leyen and the Grand-Duke of Wurtzberg — which compact is known
as the Confederation of the Rhine. By this treaty, the states in alliance
were declared to be for ever separated from the Germanic Empire, inde-
pendent of any power foreign to the Confederacy, and placed under the
HISTORY OF EUROPE. 190
protection of the Emperor of the French ; moreover, hostility committed
against any one of the parties was to be considered as a declaration of
war against the whole. The Emperor Francis, justly considering this
measure as subversive of his Empire, solemnly renounced the throne of
the Caesars, and declared himself the first Emperor of Austria independ-
ent of the hereditary states.
This separation, however, seemed likely to prove as serious to Prussia
as to Austria, by bringing the hostile influence of France so close to the
frontiers of the former power ; and it accordingly produced a great sen-
sation in Berlin. But this and some preceding causes of complaint sunk
into comparative insignificance, when it was discovered that Napoleon
had proposed to enter into negotiations with England, on the basis of
restoring Hanover to its lawful sovereign, and made advances to Russia,
promising to throw no obstacle in the way of a reestablishment of the
kingdom of Poland and Polish Prussia, in favor of the Grand-Duke Con-
stantine. Irritated beyond endurance, and anxious to regain the place
that he was conscious he had lost in the estimation of Europe, the King
of Prussia immediately put his armies on the war footing, dispatched M.
Kruscmark to St. Petersburg and M. .Lacobi to London, to seek a recon-
ciliation with those powers, opened the navigation of the Elbe, concluded
his differences with Sweden, and ordered his troops to defile in the direq.
tion of Leipsic.
The efforts of Prussia to regain friendly relations with England and
Russia were soon crowned with success — the cabinets of both countries
being willing to forgive and overlook her gross meanness and duplicity,
in consideration of her now honestly throwing her whole force into the
«cale against France: but a similar attempt to engage Austria in the
Compact totally failed. The cabinet of Vienna, with too much justice,
took the ground that the conduct of Prussia for ten years had been so
dubious and vacillating, her hostility to Austria on many occasions so
evident, her partiality for France so conspicuous, and her changes of
policy during the last twelve months so extraordinary, no reliance what-
ever could be placed on her maintaining for any length of time a decided
course ; least of all could it be hoped, that she would continue stedfast in
the sudden and perilous undertaking in which she had now engaged ; her
very vehemence, on this occasion, being the worst possible guaranty for
her constancy. Besides, the Archduke Charles, on being consulted as to
the state of the army, reported that the troops were without pay, organi-
zation and equipment, and in no condition to renew the war from which
they had so recently and deplorably suffered. In one quarter, however,
and where it was least expected, Prussia received encouragement and
promise of cooperation, though at the moment there were no means of
making the aid available : this was from the government of Spain, which,
tired of Napoleon's exhausting demands upon her treasury, and at last
opening her eyes, as Prussia had done, to the real designs of the French
Emperor, resolved to terminate her ruinous alliance with him and, at a
convenient opportunity, join her arms to those of the enemies of France.
The whole weight of the contest was, therefore, destined to fall on
Prussia alone; for although great and efficacious assistance might in
time be derived from England and Prussia, the Muscovite battalions were
yet cantoned on the Niemen, those of England had not sailed from the
Thames; while Napoleon, at the head of a hundred and eighty thousand
15
200 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [CHAP. XXIV.
veteran soldiers, was rapidly approaching the Thuringian Forest, whither
the rash haste of Prussia, by her premature declaration of hostilities, had
given him abundant pretext for concentrating his troops. And not only
had she precipitated this terrible invasion, without first assuring herself
of support from her allies; but she had also neglected the proper appli-
cation of her own resources for defence. Her entire disposable force did
not exceed a hundred and thirty thousand men ; and when these took the
field, no depots of magazines or provisions had been formed, no measures
taken for recruiting the army in case of disaster, no rallying points as-
signed for the retreating troops if defeated, nor were the frontier or
interior fortresses of the kingdom provisioned, armed or garrisoned in a
manner to render them capable of a protracted resistance. A general
and deplorable infatuation seemed to possess the whole people. They
seemed either to forget or despise the strength of their redoubtable adver-
sary; and, in the same mad proportion, to exaggerate their own. Care-
less of the future, and chanting songs of victory, the army bent its steps
toward Erfruth, dreaming of nothing but conquest and the overthrow of
Napoleon. Great as wa^s the infatuation of the troops, greater still was
the delusion of their commander, the Duke of Brunswick, who, though
an able man of the last century, was behind the present age, and totally
ignorant of the perilous chances of a war with the veterans of France.
He attributed the disasters of the late campaigns entirely to timidity and
want of skill in the Austrians, and maintained, that the way to combat the
French was to assume a vigorous offensive, and paralyze their enthusiasm
by holding them to defensive positions — a sound theory indeed, but one
which required an army differently constituted from any that Prussia
could muster, to carry out in practice. Besides, there was one thing of
which the Prussians, from the general-in-chief to the lowest drummer,
were entirely unaware — namely, the terrible vehemence and rapidity
which Napoleon had introduced into modern warfare, by the union of
consummate skill at head-quarters with enormous masses of troops in the
field; and thus, falling into the common error of applying to the present
the antiquated rules of the past, they based their calculations on a war
of manoeuvres, when one of annihilation awaited them.
The respective armies pressed forward to the contest ; and, on the 8th
of October, their advanced posts were in sight of each other. The line
adopted by the Prussians was an echellon movement with the right in
front, which was pushed on to Eisenach; next in order followed the
centre, commanded by the king in person, who, in connexion with the
left wing, under Hohenlohe and Ruchel, advanced upon Saalfield and
Jena; while each wing was covered by a detached corps of observation,
one under Blucher and the other under Tauenzein. The design of this
movement was, by a flank march, to pierce the base of the enemy's posi-
tion, and, by turning at once their centre and left, cut them off from their
communications with France. It was precisely the mano3uvre under-
taken by the allies at Austerlitz, excepting that the main bodies of the two
armies were not so near each other, and was of course liable, in its very
inception, to the same disastrous result.
Napoleon was not likely to lose this opportunity of at once defeating
and destroying the Prussian army. At three o'clock in the morning of
the 9th of October, the French troops were in motion. On the right,
Soult and Ney, with a Bavarian division, marched from Bayreuth by
1806.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 201
Hof, on Plauen; in the centre, Murat, with Bernadotte and Davoust,
moved from Bamberg by Cronach, on Saalbourg; on the left, Lannes
and Augereau advanced by Coburg and Graffenthal, on Saalfield. The
effect of these movements was, to bring the French centre and right
directly on the Prussian communications and reserves.
The Prussians were in the midst of their perilous advance toward the
French left, when intelligence of this change of their opponents' position
reached the Duke of Brunswick. He instantly sent orders to arrest the
march of his troops, and directed their concentration in the neighborhood
of Weimar. But before this movement could be accomplished, the
French skirmishers were upon their flanks, and in every quarter they
were forced to retreat with considerable loss. As yet, however, the
contest on both sides had been confined to detachments of light troops,
the principal force of the respective armies being too distant from
each other for a general action. But, in the meantime, Napoleon had
gained the whole line of the Prussian communications, and cut off every
chance of retreat. Three days were consumed in partial engagements
and important changes of position, every one of which resulted to the
advantage of the French. On the evening of the 12th, the corps of
Hohenlohe, consisting of about forty thousand men, was grouped in dense
masses on a ridge of heights on the road from Jena to Weimar: the
remainder of the army, about sixty-five thousand strong, under the Duke
of Brunswick, and accompanied by the king, lay about a league in the
rear of Hohenlohe. But while the Prussians were thus advantageously
posted, they learned that Murat and Davoust had advanced upon Naum-
berg; on which the Duke of Brunswick, desirous to protect that town,
and not suspecting that Napoleon contemplated an immediate action,
moved with the principal part of his corps to Auerstadt, where he arrived
at night on the 13th, leaving Hohenlohe at Jena to cover his retreat.
During the same day, Napoleon took up his position on the heights oppo-
site Jena, and made arrangements for a pitched battle on the following
morning, without dreaming that the Prussians had thus insanely divided
their forces.
At six o'clock on the 14th, the French commenced the attack, and the
Prussians, though taken entirely by surprise, received it with great intre-
pidity. But their numbers were only forty thousand men, while the
French exceeded ninety thousand ; and notwithstanding the determined
bravery with which they fought, it was impossible to avoid a terrible
defeat. Column after column of fresh troops poured in upon them, the
field was strewed with their dead and wounded, and at length they gave
way at all points and fled in tumultuous confusion, pursued by the cavalry
of Murat. At this moment, Ruchel arrived with a reenforcement of
twenty thousand men ; a force which, under different circumstances,
might have changed the fortune of the day ; but after a desperate combat
of one hour's duration, they, too, were broken, dispersed and almost anni-
hilated. It was no longer a battle, but a massacre. The Prussians,
abandoning their artillery and all form of discipline, fled to Weimar,
where the victors entered pell-mell with the fugitives.
While Hohenlohe and Ruchel were suffering this fearful disaster, the
King of Prussia was fighting under different circumstances, though with
little better success, at Auerstadt. Davoust, being posted near the king's
encampment, had that morning received a dispatch from Napoleon-— who
202 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP.
had not yet heard of the Duke of Brunswick's movement upon Auerstadt
— announcing his intention of giving battle to the whole Prussian army
at Jena, and directing him (Davoust) to fall on the Prussian rear, in order
to cut off its retreat. The French marshal's corps, thirty thousand strong,
though fully competent to check the flight of a routed army, would have
seemed to be scarcely able to withstand the shock of sixty thousand well
disciplined troops, who, commanded by the king and the Duke of Bruns-
wick, occupied the route designated for Davoust to pursue in Napoleon's
dispatch. But he, as well as his Emperor, was ignorant of the force
opposed to him. and without hesitation he began his march up the long
and steep ascent which bounds the plateau of Auerstadt. He had already
gained the defile of Koessen, and his vanguard was forming on the field
beyond, when the straggling columns of the Prussians, not anticipating
an attack at this point, crossed his path. A skirmish ensued, which, being
promptly followed up by the advancing forces on each side, soon became
a battle that raged without intermission during the whole day. The
Prussian army was greatly superior to its opponents in numbers ; and in
discipline and courage, was inferior to none in Europe ; but the French
troops, in addition to their high discipline, had the material advantage of
long experience and constant service in the field, to which the Prussians
had been strangers, through a protracted interval of peace ; and Davoust
occupied a position of defiles, which, in a great degree, compensated for
his deficiency of numerical strength. The battle resulted in the total
defeat of the Prussians, who retreated with great loss ; and Davoust, who
had won imperishable military renown by such a victory against such
odds, encamped on the scene of his triumph.
The King of Prussia, late at night, gave directions for the retreat of
the army upon Weimar, intending to form a junction with Hohenlohe, of
whose discomfiture he was yet Jgnorant. But as the troops, in extreme
dejection, were following the great road which leads to that place, they
were startled by the sight of an extensive line of bivouac fires on the
heights of Apolda, where Bernadotte was posted with his entire corps,
not having taken part in either action. This sudden apparition of a fresh
army of unknown strength on the flank of their retreat, compelled the
Prussians, at that untimely hour, to change their line and abandon the
great road. At the same time, rumors began to circulate through the
ranks of a catastrophe at Jena ; and the appearance of fugitives from that
quarter, moving in the utmost haste athwart the king's route, soon an-
nounced the magnitude of that overthrow. A general consternation now
seized the men. Despair took possession of the stoutest hearts ; and as
the cross-tide of the broken battalions of Jena mingled with the wreck of
the masses of Auerstadt, the confusion became inextricable, the panic
universal. Infantry, cavalry and artillery disbanded, and fled in hopeless
disorder across the fields without direction, command, or rallying-point.
The loss of the Prussians in the two battles was prodigious ; it amounted
to nearly forty thousand men — of whom one half were prisoners — two
hundred pieces of cannon and twenty-five standards ; and the conse-
quences of the retreat were not less disastrous. The unusual occurrence
of four generals being killed or mortally wounded, left the confused mass
of fugitives without a leader, and they therefore fled wherever chance
directed their steps. Fourteen thousand of the stragglers, arriving from
different points, made their way into Erfurth, a place capable, under other
180G.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 203
circumstances, of permanent defence ; but the entire number surrendered
on the following day, with a hundred and twenty pieces of cannon, to the
first corps of the enemy that approached the town. On the 16th, three
thousand men with twenty pieces of cannon, surrendered at Nordhausen,
and on the 17th, four thousand men and thirty pieces of cannon were taken
at Halle ; while the killed and wounded in the contests where these cap-
tures were made, bore a large proportion to the number of prisoners.
The king surrendered the command of the remnants of his army to Ho-
henlohe, and retired to Magdebourg, where Hohenlohe soon followed him
with about twenty-six thousand men, to protect that important fortress.
The French pursuit, however, was so rapid, that they arrived at Magde-
bourg before the bewildered Prussians had all taken refuge within its
walls. Hohenlohe, finding it would be impossible to maintain ihe place,
resolved to evacuate it with such of the troops as yet preserved any ap-
pearance of order ; and he accordingly withdrew on the side opposite to
the French position with fourteen thousand men, and made for Stettin,
abandoning Berlin to its fate, and leaving twelve thousand disorganized
combatants to defend themselves as they might at Magdebourg.
But the discomfitures of the Prussian general were not yet at an end.
Wherever he directed his march, he found himself opposed by superior
forces of the enemy ; and, after undergoing incredible hardships and fa-
tigue, and displaying withal conduct and bravery worthy a better fate, he
at length, on the 28th of October, was forced to surrender with his whole
army at Prentzlow. On the same day, in obedience to the summons of
Marshal Lannes, the governor of the fortress of Stettin, on the Oder,
capitulated without firing a shot ; and, such was the terror inspired by
the very appearance of a French detachment, the fortress of Custrin, with
four thousand men, opened its gates on the 31st to the bare command of a
single regiment of infantry, led by General Gauthier, and supplied with
but two pieces of cannon. The disgrace and literal absurdity of this
capitulation was made more conspicuous from the fact, that the French
soldiers could not take possession of the fortress — it being situated on an
island in the Oder — until the garrison supplied them with boats for the
purpose !
The only corps of the Prussian army which had hitherto escaped de-
struction, was that formed by the union of Blucher's cavalry with the Duke
of Saxe Weimar's infantry, and commanded by the former of these gen-
erals ; who, after drawing reinforcements from some ill-defended interior
fortresses, found himself at the head of twenty-four thousand men of all
arms, inclftding sixty pieces of cannon. Blucher first moved toward
Magdebourg, which had not at that time surrendered to the invaders ; but
finding his progress interrupted by nearly sixty thousand of the enemy,
he fell back to Lubec. Here, again, his march was impeded by thrice
his own number of men under Bernadotte: he nevertheless made an en-
trance into the town, and defended it iritil near nightfall with invincible
obstinacy ; but his loss in the affair was immense, and in the evening he
was glad to retreat with five thousand men to Schwertau, where his cav-
alry awaited him. He here ascertained that further resistance was hope-
less, as he was completely enveloped by his indefatigable enemies ; and he
capitulated on the summons of Murat, yielding his whole force, with his
artillery and baggage, into the hands cf the French troops. This too4
place en the 7th of November. On the 3th, Magdebourg surrendered with
20
204 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXIV
its garrison of fourteen thousand troops under arms, four thousand in hos-
pital, six hundred pieces of cannon, eight hundred thousand pounds of
powder, and extensive military stores of all sorts. The fortresses of
Hameln and Nieubourg on the Weser, soon followed the example of
Magdebourg, and their respective garrisons, augmented by stragglers to
eight thousand men, yielded themselves prisoners of war.
In this deplorable extremity, the King of Prussia sought to obtain condi-
ions of peace ; but Napoleon, who had resolved on utterly destroying his
jnfortunate enemy, coldly replied to the ambassador, that it was premature
to speak of peace when the campaign was scarcely begun, and that the
king, having chosen the arbitrament of arms, must abide the issue.
On the 26th of October, Napoleon made a triumphal entry into Ber-
lin ; and, in order as much as possible to lacerate the feelings of his van-
quished antagonists, he caused the procession to pass under the arch of the
Great Frederic, and himself took up his residence at the old palace. In
addition to this, he paraded a large body of prisoners through their na-
tive streets of Berlin, as an expression of his contempt for their misfor-
tunes ; he heaped all manner of indignity and cruelty on the nobles of the
capital ; and the brave old Duke of Brunswick, respectable from his age,
his former achievements and his honorable scars, and at that moment mor-
tally wounded, was driven by the persecutions of the French Emperor to
take refuge in Altona, where he soon after expired.
The French armies, without meeting any further resistance, took posses-
sion of the whole country between the Rhine and the Oder ; and in the
rear of the victorious troops appeared the dismal scourge of military con-
tributions : one hundred and sixty millions of francs were demanded, and
the rapacity of the French agents employed in its collection aggravated
the weight and odious nature of the imposition. Early in November,
Napoleon issued a decree, separating the conquered state into four
departments, namely, Berlin, Magdebourg, Stettin and Custrin ; and the
military and civil government of the whole was intrusted to a governor-
general at Berlin, appointed by the Emperor, and subject in all respects
to his control. The same system of usurpation was extended to the Duchy
of Brunswick, the states of Hesse and Hanover, the Duchy of Mecklen-
berg and the Hanse Towns. Napoleon announced his intention to retain
these territories until England should concede to him the liberty of the seas.
Negotiations for peace between France and Prussia were in the mean time
commenced, but Napoleon's demands were so exorbitant that the king re-
solved, even in his present state of helplessness, to abide the continuance
of the war, rather than accede to them.
When this was decided, the main body of the French army pushed on
to the Vistula to engage the forces of Russia. Napoleon made a brief
halt atPosen, in Prussian Poland, where he gave audience to the deputies
of that unhappy country, and made them promises of protection which he
never performed. At the same time, as the contingent losses of so vast a
body of men in constant service, even though always victorious, were con-
siderable, the Senate at Paris, on the Emperor's requisition, voted a ree'n-
forcement of eighty thousand conscripts from the youth who would arrive
at the lawful age in 1807. The Elector of Saxony was at this time ele-
vated to the dignity of a king, and, as such, admitted into the Confedera-
tion of the Rhine.
The campaign of Jena was the most marvellous of Napoleon's achieve-
1806.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 205
ments. Without halting one day before the forces of the enemy, the
French troops had marched from the Rhine to the Vistula ; three hundred
and fifty standards, four thousand pieces of cannon, six first-rate fortresses,
and eighty thousand prisoners, had been taken in less than seven weeks :
and of a noble array of a hundred and twenty thousand men, who were so
lately mustered on the banks of the Saale, not more than fifteen thousand
could be rallied to follow the fortunes of the Prussian king.
CHAPTER XXV.
CAMPAIGN OF EYLATJ.
ALTHOUGH the campaign of Jena had nearly destroyed the powei of
Prussia, Russia was yet untouched, and while her formidable legions were
in the field, the war was very far from being terminated. Napoleon felt
this, as the armies of the two Empires approached the Vistula at a season
of the year when, in ordinary contests, the soldier's only care is to protect
himself against the rigor of the elements. The efficient force of the
French, who were concentrated on the destined theatre of war early in
December, amounted to one. hundred thousand men ; while the allied
army of Russia and Prussia, owing to the expedition of a large detachment
to the Turkish dominions, could not be estimated at more than seventy-five
thousand. Field-marshal Kamenskoi, who had the command in-chief of
this force, was a veteran of the school of Suwarrow, nearly eighty years
of age, and little qualified to enter the lists with Napoleon ; but the ability
of Benningsen and Buxhowden, the two next in command, promised, in
part, to atone for the old marshal's deficiencies.
The cabinet of St. Petersburg had foreseen that the rapidity of Napo-
leon's movements would give the French a numerical superiority on the
Vistula, unless Russia could receive some material aid in bringing for-
ward her troops ; and they therefore made early application to Great
Britain, for a portion of those subsidies which she had so liberally granted
on former occasions, to the powers who combated the common enemy of
European independence ; and, considering that the whole weight of the
contest had now fallen on Russia, they solicited, and not without reason,
a loan of six millions sterling. The answer to this application, proved
too clearly that the spirit of Pitt no longer directed the British councils.
The subsidy was declined on the part of the government, but the minis-
ters proposed that a loan should be contracted in England, for the service
of Russia, and that, for the security of the lenders, the duties on British
merchandise then levied in the Russian ports, should be repealed, and
the same duties, in lieu thereof, levied in the British ports and applied to
the payment of the interest on the loan. This strange proposal, equiva-
lent to a declaration of want of confidence both in the integrity and sol-
vency of the Russian government, was of course rejected, and, to the
lasting discredit of England, Russia was left to contend unaided with the
powor of France.
The advanced posts of the allied army had reached the Vistula, though
206 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXV.
not in great force, before the French troops came up ; but on the arrival
of the latter, the allies fell back to Pultusk, and Davoust occupied War-
saw on the 30th of November. Wh^n, however, the second Russian
army, under Buxhowden, approached Pultusk, Kamenskoi resolved on a
forward movement. Head-quarters were advanced to Nas:eTfk, and the
four divisions of Benningsen's corps took post between the Ukra, the Hug,
and the Narew ; while Buxhowden's divisions, as they successively ar-
ived, were stationed between Golymin and Makow ; and Lestocq, on the
xtreme right, encamped near the banks of the Drewentz almost under
the walls of Thorn. The object of this general advance was to compel
the French to withdraw entirely from the right bank of the Vistula, that
the river might interpose between the winter-quarters of the two armies.
When Napoleon heard of this forward movement, he hastened to War-
saw, where he arrived on the 18th of December, and was welcomed as a
deliverer by the inhabitants. The nobility flocked into the capital from
all quarters, the peasantry assembled and demanded arms, the national
dress was generally resumed, several regiments of horse were raised,
and before the close of the campaign, no less than thirty thousand men
were enrolled in disciplined regiments from the Prussian provinces of
Poland. But this universal enthusiasm did not lead Napoleon to forget
his own policy, which was to encourage this revolt in Prussian Poland
only, lest by extending it to the Austrian portion of that ancient kingdom,
he might rouse the cabinet of Vienna from its neutrality. In his decree,
therefore, bv which he established a provisional government in Warsaw,
he was careful to say, that such government would continue only " un-
til the fate of Prussian Poland was determined by a general peace ;"
and this, in connexion with his other measures, showed to the reflecting
and prudent, that while he was resolved to make the utmost use of Po-
lish cooperation in pursuing his own plans of aggrandizement, he would
abandon this unfortunate people to their own resources, the moment he
ceased to need their aid, or was unable to render it available to himself.
Some skirmishes had already taken place between detachments of the
two armies, which ended in favor of the Russians ; but when Napoleon
took command in person, he gave orders for more serious operations.
On the 23rd of December, he directed Davoust to force the passage of
the Ukra, which had hitherto bounded the French lines ; and, after a
severe action of fourteen hours, the passage was effected, with a loss to
each army of one thousand men. The allies fell back toward Pultusk,
and being pursued, another conflict took place in front of Nasielsk, be-
tween General Rapp and the Russians under Count Tolstoy, in which
the latter were worsted, but not without inflicting a severe loss on the
victors ; in this affair, an aid-de camp of Alexander was made prisoner
by the French, and Count Segur, attached to Napoleon's household, fell
into the hands of the Russians. On the same day, Augereau, after fight-
ing from morning until sunset at Lochoczyn, forced a Russian division
to retire; so that, although no decisive advantage had yet been gained,
the whole allied army were now in full retreat upon diverging linr-s. and
evcrj' moment the several corps were separating farther from each other,
Kamenskoi was so much discouraged at the aspect of affairs, that he
ordered the artillery to be destroyed, lest it should too much impede the
flight of the troops ; but Benningsen, deeming such an order unnecessary,
and convinced that it resulted from an approaching insanity, which so-.j»
160C.] II ISTORYOF EUROPE. 207
entirely overset the mind of the veteran marshal, took upon himself the
bold step of disobeying it ; and, in order to gain time for the cannon and
equipages to defile in the rear, he resolved to maintain his position at
Pultusk with all the troops at his disposal, amounting to about forty thou-
sand men ; while the divisions of Doctoroff, Sacken and Gallitzin, at
Golymin, made a stand against Augereau, who was supported by a part
of Davoust's and Murat's corps. Bennin^sen drew up his army in
admirable order, in front of the town of Pultusk ; his right wing was
commanded by Barclay de Tolly and Count Tolstoy, his left by Sacken,
and the centre by himself in person. Lannes, with thirty-five thousand
men, advanced to the attack on the morning of the 26th. The battle was
contested at various points until long after dark, when a terrible storm
separated the combatants. Neither party could boast of decided success.
The Russians remained masters of the field till midnight, when they
crossed the Narew by the bridge of Pultusk, and retired in perfect order:
the French also retreated to such a distance, that when the Cossacks, the
next day, patroled eight miles beyond the battle-ground toward Warsaw,
they could discover no traces of the enemy. The French lost six thou-
sand men, and the Russians nearly five thousand. The action at Goly-
min, about thirty miles from Pultusk, which took place on the samo day,
terminated in a similar manner: the Russians, under Prince Gallitzin,
remained in possession of the field, and although they lost twenty-six
pieces of cannon, owing to the bad state of the roads, their killed and
wounded was something less than two thousand, while the French loss
exceeded four thousand men. As the Russian order for retreat still held
good, Prince Gallitzin, at midnight, resumed his march for Ostrolenka.
On the 28th, Napoleon reached Golymin, but finding that from the con-
dition of the roads, and the obstinate valor of the Russian troops, it was
impossible to gain any material advantage by the campaign, he issued
orders to stop the advance of his columns, and put the troops into winter-
quarters, while he himself returned with the Imperial Guards to War-
saw. As soon as the Russians learned that the French had withdrawn
from their pursuit, they also went into winter-quarters on the left bank
of the Narew.
This desperate struggle in the forests of Poland in the depth of winter,
created a great sensation throughout Europe. Independent of the inte-
rest excited by the extraordinary spectacle of two vast armies' prolonging
their contest amid the storms and snows of a Polish winter, the divided
trophies of the actions indicated that Napoleon's veterans had finally
encountered their equals in the field ; and that the torrent of French
conquest, if not averted, had at least been stemmed.
While the French armies were in cantonments on the right bank of
the Vistula, Benningsen, who had now been appointed to the chief com-
mand of the allied forces, resolved to commence an offensive operation
against the French left under Bernadotte and Ney, who, with nearly
seventy thousand men, had extended themselves so as to menace Kon ings-
berg, the second city of the Prussian dominions, while at the same time
they were threatening Dantzic and Graudentz. For this purpose, the
Russian general, whose movements were concealed by the forests that
separated him from the French lines, rapidly united his divisions and
pushed forward to Rhein, in Eastern Prussia, where he established his
head-quarters on the 17th of January. On the 10th, the Russian uav-
20*
208 HISTORY OF EUR OPE. [CHAP. XXV.
airy, under Gallitzin, surprised and defeated the light horse of Marshal
Ney, and on the 22nd a severe action took place at Lecberg, whence
the French cavalry were driven toward Allenstein. Bernadotte, alarmed
at this sudden irruption, made great efforts to concentrate his forces at
Mohrungen, where, on the 24th, he was attacked by Benningsen's ad-
vanced guard. Had this attack been delayed for a few hours, until the
entire Russian corps had reached the field, the French would have been
totally destroyed ; as it resulted, each party lost about two thousand
men, and Bernadotte retreated toward Thorn, severely pressed by the
Cossacks, who almost annihilated his rear-guard, and took several thou-
sand prisoners. Gallitzin had, in the mean time, fallen on the rear of
Bernadotte's position, penetrated into the town, and captured the French
marshal's private baggage, among which were found, as in the den of a
freebooter, silver plate bearing the arms of almost all the German states,
besides ten thousand ducats levied for his own use from the town of
Elbing.
This narrow escape of both Bernadotte and Ney, excited the utmost
alarm in the French army ; while, on the other hand, the Russians were
proportionably elated, and followed up their success by raising the siege
of Graudentz, and throwing ample supplies into that fortress. Napoleon,
who had not contemplated a renewal of hostilities until the present in-
clement season was passed, became, also, greatly disturbed at events
which rendered it indispensable to expose his troops to a new campaign
during the severity of a northern winter, and in a country where pro-
visions could scarcely be obtained for so large a body of men. But there
was no time for deliberation, as the Russians were advancing to the
relief of Dantzic, and would soon turn the whole French line of defence.
By a rapid concentration and forced march, the Emperor had, on the 2nd
of February, made his way to the rear of Benningsen's army, and inter-
posed between him and the Russian dominions, so that the sole line of
retreat open to Benningsen lay to the northeast, in the direction of Ko-
ningsberg and the Niemen. Napoleon endeavored to improve his advan-
tage, by completely hemming in the Russians, but his dispatches for
Bernadotte having fallen into Benningsen's hands, that officer was en-
abled to elude his grasp, and withdraw from Junkowo toward Leibstadt
on the night of the 3rd of February.
Murat immediately pursued the retiring Russians with his whole cav-
alry; and, as the latter had been much retarded during the night by the
passage of their cannon and baggage through the narrow streets of
Junkowo, the rear-guard was soon overtaken: the Russians, however,
fought with such determined bravery, that they effected their retreat in
perfect order, and their loss, which amounted to fifteen hundred men,
was no greater than the French sustained in the attack. On the night
of the 4th, Benningsen reached Frauendorf, where he stood firmly during
the next day. But a continued retreat in presence of the enemy, soon
began to be attended with its usual consequences on the troops, and Ben-
ningsen found it necessary to check the French pursuit by a general
action. He therefore, after some deliberation, selected the field of Prus-
sich-Eylau for that purpose, and pushed forward his columns to make
the requisite dispositions for a battle. On the night of the 5th, he arrived
at Landsberg, where he resisted a spirited attack from Davoust's corps ;
and, on the following day his rear-guard, under Bagrathion, was assailed
1807.] HISTORVT OF EUROPE. 209
by Murat's cavalry and a large part of the corps of Soult and Augereau.
Bagrathion maintained his ground, however, during the whole day, and
at night bivouacked in sight of the French army. Toward morning on
the 7th, he moved on to Prussich-Eylau, where, by noonday, the ' Rus-
sian forces were drawn up in order of battle, awaiting only the arrival
of Lestocq with the remains of the Prussian army. The entire allied
force, including Lestocq's division, amounted to seventy-five thousand
men, with four hundred and sixty pieces of cannon ; while the total
strength of Napoleon was not less than eighty-five thousand, including
sixteen thousand cavalry, and three hundred and fifty pieces of artillery.
The field of battle was a wide expanse of ground rising into small hills,
and well adapted to military operations. The Russian right, under
Tutschakoff, lay on both sides of Schloditten ; the centre, under Sacken,
occupied a cluster of hills in front of Kuschnitten ; the left, under Tols-
toy, rested on Klein-Saussgarten ; the advanced guard, ten thousand
strong, with its outposts extending almost to the village of Eylau, was
commanded by Bagrathion ; and Doctoroff held the reserve in the rear
of Sacken. After Napoleon had carefully reconnoitered this position, on
the morning of the 8th of February, he resolved to turn the Russian left
and throw it back upon the centre ; but to conceal his purpose, he com-
menced a violent attack on the centre and right, pushing forward Auge-
reau and Soult with his own left and centre. Augereau had not ad-
vanced more than three hundred yards, when his troops were arrested
by a terrible fire of the Russian artillery ; a snow storm at the same time
darkened the atmosphere, so as to prevent the combatants from seeing
each other, and a charge of Cossacks, whose lances reached the enemy
before they were aware of their approach, completed the disorder of the
French division, which fled in the wildest confusion to Eylau. So entire
was the destruction of Augereau's corps, not more than fifteen hundred
men, out of sixteen thousand, made good their retreat.
Napoleon was first apprised of this disaster by the fugitives who hur-
ried past his position at Eylau, and he nearly fell into the hands of the
division that pursued them. Soult was by this time also in full retreat
before the Russian centre ; and to check the advance of the latter, Napo-
leon formed an enormous column of fourteen thousand cavalry and twenty-
five thousand infantry, supported by two hundred pieces of cannon, and
sent them, under Murat, to break the Russian line. The first shock of
the dragoons was irresistible, and the French cuirassiers, advancing
through the openings they made, reached Benningsen's reserve of cav-
alry. They were here immediately charged by PlatofF, with his Cos-
sacks ; and, as in the meantime the Russian line had rallied and repelled
the French infantry, the cuirassiers had no avenue of retreat, and were
all destroyed excepting eighteen men, who regained their own quarters
by a long circuit around the Russian outposts. The battle was now won
on Benningsen's centre and right, but Davoust, who had long been held
in check on the left, soon after received a reenforcement, carried the
village of Klein-Saussgarten, and threatened to change the fate of the
day, when Lestocq arrived with his long-expected corps. He advanced
with great gallantry to the aid of the left wing, and although Davoust's
troops were more than double the number of his own, he forced him to
retreat with great loss, and the whole Russian line was soon pressing
forward in pursuit of the retreating army of Napoleon, when night sepa-
rated the combatants.
210 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [C HAP. XXV.
The losses in this battle were prodigious; twenty-five thousand inen
were killed or wounded on the side of the Russians; and thirty thousand
on that of the French, besides ten thousand who temporarily deserted
their colors. The Russians lost sixteen guns and fourteen standards,
and captured twelve French eagles in return.
Immediately after the battle, Napoleon gave orders for his heavy artil-
lery and baggage to defile toward Landsberg; but he was relieved from
the mortification of retreating before an enemy in an open field, by the
measures of Benningsen, who, in opposition to the wishes and advice of
his officers, and as yet ignorant of the immense loss and consequent in-
tentions of the French Emperor, resolved on withdrawing toward Ko-
ningsberg. For nine days, the French remained at Eylau, unable to
advance, unwilling to retreat, and apparantly awaiting some pacific
overture from the enemy. Finding, at length, that the Russians man-
ifested no disposition to propose an armistice, Napoleon resolved himself
to take that step, and sent General Bertram to Benningsen's outposts with
proposals of peace to the King of Prussia. The Russian commander sent
the envoy on to Memel, where that monarch resided, and sent also a
letter recommending him not to treat. The French officer, on being
presented to the king, proposed a separate treaty of peace, and on terms
far different from those which he would have offered after the battle of
Jena; but Frederic William could not be induced to negotiate on a
basis that excluded the Emperor of Russia from .he treaty, notwithstand-
ing the comparatively tempting offers that were made to him.
Foiled in his endeavors to seduce Prussia into a separate accommoda-
tion, Napoleon at length found himself compelled to retreat. Eylau
was evacuated, and six hundred wounded men were there abandoned to
the enemy, while the whole army, retiring by the great road of Lands-
berg, spread itself into cantonments on the banks of the Passarge, from
Hohenstein to Braunsberg. Orders were at the same time given to
resume the siege of Dantzic.
The bloody contest of Eylau excited the liveliest hopes among the
people of Germany and England, and the gloom and depression that it
diffused through all ranks in France were proportionably deep. The
funds fell rapidly, thousands of families were called to mourn the death
of relatives, and the general despondency was much increased when the
message of Napoleon to the Senate, dated March 26th, announced that
another conscription of eighty thousand men was needed, and must be
anticipated from the supply not legally due until September of the follow-
ing year. The number of young men who then annually attained the
age of eighteen in France, was two hundred thousand ; yet, within seven
months, Napoleon had called for no less than two hundred and forty
thousand. This requisition for men was followed by a demand for im-
mense supplies of stores and ammunition: all the highways converging
from France and Italy to Poland were covered with troops and baggage-
wagons; horses followed in great numbers from Holstein, Flanders and
Saxony, and contributions were levied to an indefinite extent in Germany
for the maintenance of the army. Indeed, so far did the provident care
of the Emperor reach, and so strongly did he feel the danger of his posi-
tion, he made gigantic preparations for a defensive warfare, and strength-
ened himself by fortresses and intrenchments, in anticipation of a struggle
for life or death on the banks of the Rhine.
1807.J HISTORY OF EUROPE. 211
While Napoleon was taking those measures which resulted in the
battle of Jena, the affairs of Turkey attracted some attention amonu the
powers of Europe. As early as August. 1806, the French Emperor had
sent General Sebastian! to Constantinople, for the express purpose of
fomenting discontent between Turkey and Russia. By a treaty between
these two powers, bearing date September 24th, 1802, it had been stipu-
lated, that the governors of the two Turkish frontier provinces of Wai la-
cilia and Moldavia should not be removed from office without the consent
of Russia; nevertheless, Sebastiani, seizing on this clause as the most
promising ground for bringing about a rupture, succeeded in persuading
the Sultan Selim to displace the rulers of those provinces: and as the
step was taken, not only without the concurrence of Russia, but also
without the knowledge of the other diplomatic functionaries at Constan-
tinople, the Russian minister complained loudly of the infraction of the
treaty, and he was supported by Mr. Arbuthnot, minister from Great
Britain, who threatened an attack on the Turkish capital by the fleets
of the two nations. A few days afterward, a Russian brig, which arrived
at the mouth of the Bosphorus, was denied admission by the Turkish
authorities: this so enraged the Russian minister, that he embarked on
board the English brig Canopus, threatening to leave the harbor if the
two dismissed governors were not replaced ; and the British envoy added,
that if the demand of Russia were not complied with, an English fleet
would enter the Dardanelles and lay the Turkish capital in ashes. In-
timidated by these threats, the Sultan acceded to the demand, and made
ample promises of satisfaction for the steps he had taken : but it soon
appeared that he had yielded to the storm only to place himself in a
condition to brave it, and that his policy and predilections were identified
with Napoleon's views. In the mean time, intelligence of the rupture,
but not of its reconciliation, had reached St. Petersburg, and General
Michelson was dispatched with a powerful army to make an immediate
descent on the Turkish dominions; and although, afterward, news of the
accommodation arrived, the Russian cabinet, either having no confidence
in the good faith of Selim, or not sorry to find a pretext for invading
Turkey, refused to countermand their orders to General Michelson, who
advanced accordingly into the Sultan's territory. Sebastiani. improving
the advantage thus offered, induced the Divan to declare war against
Russia, which was formally proclaimed on the 30th of December. But
notwithstanding the hostile attitude thus assumed by Turkey, she was yet
in no condition to sustain the war, and General Michelson overran Wal-
lachia and Moldavia, and took military possession of both provinces. An
application from the cabinet of St. Petersburg to that of London, for the
naval cooperation of the latter in prosecuting the contest, was readily
acceded to ; and Sir John Duckworth, having under his command seven
ships of the line, two frigates and two bomb- vessels, received orders to
force the passage of the Dardanelles and compel the Turks to renounce
their alliance with France. On the 26th of January, when the fleet
arrived off the mouth of these straits, Mr. Arbuthnot presented to the
Sultan the ultimatum of Great Britain, requiring the dismissal of Sebas-
tiani, the formation of a treaty with England and Russia, and the opening
of the Dardanelles to the vessels of the latter power. This proposal was
rejected, and a declaration of war against Great Britain immediately
ensued.
212 HISTORY OF EUROPE [CHAP. XXV.
Sir John Duckworth, on receiving this intelligence, made rapid prepa-
rations for passing the Dardanelles, and entered the straits on the 19th
of February, with a fair wind. The Turks opened a cannonade from
some of their batteries, but they were soon silenced by the broadsides of
the fleet, which, steadily advancing, overtook and destroyed the ship of
the Captain Pacha, together with five frigates, and cast anchor off the
Isle of Princes, within three leagues of Seraglio Point. Sir John Duck-
worth then sent a message to the authorities of Constantinople, that unless
the demands of Great Britain were instantly granted, he should in half
an hour open his fire on the town.
At first, the Sultan thought of nothing but submission. Sebastiani,
however, prevailed on him to pursue a different course ; and, in order to
gain time for repairing the ample batteries of the place, and of the Dar-
danelles, he dictated a reply, to the effect that the Sultan was anxious to
reestablish his amicable relations with England, and had appointed Allett
Effendi to treat on his behalf. The unsuspecting admiral, who, by reason
of Mr. Arbuthnot's illness, undertook the negotiation, was no match for
the French general in diplomacy, and readily fell into the snare. Day
after day passed in the exchange of notes and diplomatic communications;
and, meanwhile, the entire defence having been intrusted to Sebastiani,
the batteries of the capital, and along the whole straits through which
the British fleet would have to retire, were put in order. The guns were
mounted, ammunition supplied, men trained to the use of the cannon, and
in short, preparations of the most formidable description were in rapid
progress, while the English admiral remained inactive and credulous in
the harbor of Constantinople : when at length he became sensible of his
folly, and thought of retreating from his dangerous position, the wind had
changed to the southwest, and rendered his escape, for the time, impos-
sible. Fortunately, on the first of March, a breeze sprung up from the
east, all sails were spread, and the fleet reentered the perilous straits.
The passage was disputed with great spirit, but the inexperience of the
Turkish gunners prevented their improving to the utmost their advan-
tage; and the British ships escaped the scene of danger with a loss of
only two hundred and fifty men.
Sir John Duckworth, as soon as he had passed the straits, took posses-
sion of Lemnos and Tenedos, and established a strict blockade at the
entrance to the Dardanelles from the Archipelago ; and as a similar
measure was adopted by the Russian fleet at the mouth of the Bosphorus,
the Turks soon began to suffer from famine. After a time, their neces-
sities became so urgent, that they manned their ships of war and boldly
determined to attack the Russian squadron. The result was what might
have been anticipated. Four of their ships of the line were taken, three
burned, and the remainder driven back. This action occurred on the 1st
of July, 1807.
In the mean time, an event of great importance ha.d occurred in Eng-
land. This was the dismissal of the Whig ministry, on the 24th of March,
and the appointment on the Sth of April of a new cabinet, having among
its members Mr. Canning and Lord Castlereagh.
This change of ministry was followed by an immediate change in the
policy of Great Britain with respect to continental affairs. The men who
now succeeded to the charge of her foreign relations, had been educated
in the school of Mr. Pitt, and early imbibed his feelings of hostility toward
1807.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 213
the French Revolution. They were strongly impressed with the disastrous
effects of the economical system of their predecessors, which had led them
to withhold their resources at the decisive moment, when a proper appli-
cation of them might have brought the war to a triumphant conclusion ;
they did their utmost to atone for past errors, by renewing the alliances
of Great Britain with the continental powers : and in the case of Prussia,
they advanced liberal subsidies, together with arms and ammunition.
But it was too late to restore the relations of cordiality that existed between
England and Russia in the preceding year, as the Czar could not forgive
the ungracious refusal of aid solicited by him from the cabinet of London
before the battle of Pultusk.
CHAPTER XXVI.
CAMPAIGN OF FRIEDLAND AND TILSIT.
THE two armies under Benningsen and Napoleon, remained in a state
of tranquillity for nearly four months after the battle of Eylau ; but during
this time, some comparatively trivial operations had been undertaken by
detached parties of the respective nations, and the siege of Dantzic was
maintained with a force proportionate to its importance. This city, for-
merly one of the most flourishing of the Hanse Towns, had fallen to the
lot of Prussia on the last partition of Poland, in 1794 ; and though it had
much declined in wealth and population since that disastrous period, it
was still a place of strength and consideration. Its situation at the mouth
of the Vistula gave it a monopoly of the commerce of Poland, which con-
sisted in the export of immense quantities of wheat and the import of the
productions of almost every civilized country. The fortifications of
Dantzic were strong, but its principal defence lay in the marshy nature
of the ground in its vicinity which was traversed only by a few dikes,
and in the power which the besieged had of inundating the country to
the extent of several miles, by the sluices of the Vistula. The garrison
was composed of twelve thousand Prussians and five thousand Russians,
under the command of Field-marshal Kalkreuth.
As early as the middle of February, Napoleon gave orders for the
more vigorous prosecution of the siege, and detached a large body of his
best troops for that purpose. The besieging force proceeded by regular
approaches, took the several outworks of the place one after another, and
by the 7th of May, the garrison, though well furnished with provisions,
began to fail in ammunition. As the numbers of the French enabled
them to resist every attempt of the Russians to throw supplies into the
town, this deficiency soon rendered its defence impossible for any great
length of time ; and on the 24th of May, its commander was forced to
capitulate. The garrison was permitted to retire with their arms and the
honors of war, on condition of not serving against France for a year, or
until regularly exchanged ; and Dantzic, with its nine hundred pieces of
cannon, fell into the hands of the French troops.
On the reopening of the campaign between the two armies, BenningseD
214 HISTORY OF EUROPE [CHAP. XXVI.
was able to muster but a hundred and twenty thousand men, which num-
ber included the detached corps of sixteen thousand Prussians and Rus-
sians, under Lestocq, in front of Koningsberg, and the left wing, fifteen
thousand strong, under Tolstoy, on the Narew ; so that the force to be
relied on in direct opposition to Napoleon, was scarcely ninety thousand
men. The exertions of the French Emperor had assembled a much
larger force. Exclusive of an army of observation on the Elbe, and the
garrisons and blockading corps in his rear, no less than a hundred and
fifty thousand infantry and thirty-five thousand cavalry were ready for
immediate action on the Passarge and the Narew. Hence, vast as were
the resources of Russia when she had time to collect into one focus her
unwieldy strength, she was now overmatched on her own frontier.
After the fall of Dantzic, Benningsen was induced by the exposed situa-
tion of Ney's corps at Guttstadt, on the right bank of the Passarge, mid-
way between the two armies, to hazard an attack on that insulated body.
Early on the morning of the 5th of June, the Russian army was put in
motion for the accomplishment of this enterprise, and two feigned attacks
were made on the fortified bridges of Spandau and Lomitten, in order to
distract the enemy's attention : these attacks were so spiritedly main-
tained, that the French officers conceived the forcing of the bridge to be
the chief object of the Russian commander. Meanwhile, the real attack
was directed against Ney, seven miles to the right of the Passarge, and
seemed to promise perfect success, as the French marshal was taken en-
tirely by surprise. But the Russians advanced in detachments, and strict
orders had been given not to begin the battle until all were on the ground ;
consequently, some delays having occurred on the march, Ney was en-
abled to recover from his confusion, and organize a retreat before the
Russians assailed him. The action at length commenced at two o'clock;
Guttstadt was carried by assault, and four hundred prisoners, with several
guns and a quantity of magazines, were taken ; but, owing to the dilatory
movements of the Russians, Ney retired with comparatively little loss
to Aukendorfj where he passed the night, and the next day he made good
his retreat to Dippen. Napoleon took measures to retaliate this attack,
by a general advance upon the Russian position ; but Benningsen had no
desire to meet the whole French army with his inferior numbers, and
accordingly withdrew to the camp at Heilsberg, which he had previously
intrenched with great care.
Napoleon pursued the retreating columns to their intrenchments, and,
on the 10th of June, prepared for a general attack. He prevailed in the
first instance, and two French regiments established themselves within
the Russian redoubts ; but they were soon charged, broken and totally
destroyed. Following up this success, the Russians sallied forth upon
the plain, and forced Soult's division to give ground. At the same time,
the divisions of St. Cyr, St. Hilaire and Legrand, which had penetrated to
the foot of the redoubts along the line, were driven back with great loss ;
and at this junctur/e, when the French were retiring at all points, night
terminated the action.
At eleven o'clock, in the night, a deserter from the French was brought
to Benningsen's head-quarters and informed him that a fresh attack was
about to be made. The Russians immediately stood to their arms, and
were scarcely prepared for the new movement, when, by the uncertain
starlight, dark masses of the enemy were seen to emerge from the woods
1808.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 215
and advance at a rapid pp.ce in silence across the plain. The Russian
artillery opened a deadly fire on the columns, which, staggering under
the discharge, still pressed on without returning a shot. But when they
arrived within range of the musketry, the storm of balls and bullets com-
bined became so vehement, that they were forced to give way, and fled in
great confusion and with frightful loss to their own lines.
Napoleon was extremely disconcerted by this repulse, and vented his ill-
humor in violent sallies of passion against his generals. The butchery
had been useless. Twelve thousand Frenchmen had fallen around the
several Russian redoubts, without having gained the mastery of one ; and
the ditches were filled with their dead bodies, but none of them had been
crossed. The loss of the Russians amounted to nearly eight thousand
men-
Finding, thus, that the camp at Heilsberg could not be forced, Napo-
leon resolved to turn it, and dispatched Davoust's corps on the Landsberg
road toward Eylau and Koningsberg. This movement alarmed Ben-
ningsen, who, though not apprehensive of any attack in front, was with
reason fearful of being cut off from his supplies at Koningsberg ; and as
the French testified a determination to manosuvre on his right flank, he
gave orders to retreat to Bartenstein, which place he reached on the fol-
lowing day without molestation. The same movement on the part of
the French induced Lestocq to fall back from Braunsberg ; but as both he
and Benningsen were traversing the circumference of the arc while the
French were marching on its chord, the latter necessarily gained upon
the Russians, and eventually not only interposed between them and Ko*
ningsberg, but were in a position whence, by a rapid advance on Wehlau,
they might cut off the retreat to the Russian frontier. Under these oir,
cumstances, Benningsen found it indispensable to push forward by a
forced march to Friedland, where, by great exertions, he arrived on the
13th of June.
Friedland is a considerable town on the left bank of the river Alle,
which there flows in a northerly direction toward the Baltic. The wind-
ings of the river encircle the town on the south and east, and an artificial
lake covers it on the north, so that, in a military point of view, it is acces-
sible only on the western side, where the roads to and from Eylau, Ko-
ningsberg, Wehlau and Tilsit all concentre.
On the night of his arrival, Benningsen learned that the corps of Lannes
was lying at Postheneu, a village about three miles from Friedland on
the Koningsberg road, unsupported as yet by any of the other divisions of
the French army. He therefore resolved to attack (his isolated force, and
at four o'clock in the morning of the 14th, his vanguard was defiling over
the bridge of Friedland. Lannes's corps consisted of fifteen thousand men,,
and as a preponderance of numbers could be brought against them by the
Russians, the expedition promised well, provided its success was imme-
diate : but if Lannes could hold the enemy in check until the other
French divisions, which were rapidly advancing, reached the field, the
Russians in turn would be outnumbered, and that, too, in a most disad-
vantageous position, as a single bridge formed their sole line both of
advance and retreat. Benningsen weighed well these circumstances, and
at first passed but one division over the bridge ; but as this met with an
unexpected resistance, he ordered others to follow, and in the mean time
threw three pontoon bridges across the river to provide for a disaster.
16
?](? HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP XXVI
By degrees, as the increasing masses of the French showed that other
corps had arrived to support Lannes, the whole Russian army passed
over, and Benningsen, contrary to his original intention, found himself
involved in a general action.
At "one o'clock in the afternoon, Napoleon arrived at the heights of
Heinrichsdorf, which overlooked the whole field, and dispatched his staff
with orders for the battle. The corps of Ney, Victor and Mortier, together
with the infantry and cavalry of the Imperial Guard had already come
up, and were soon followed by a part of Murat's dragoons, so that the
Ernperor, confident of victory, remarked, "this is the anniversary of Ma-
rengo ; the battle could not have been fought on a more propitious day."
The French force in the field now amounted to eighty thousand men ;
while Benningsen, who had detached a considerable force to the rear to
secure the bridge over the Pregel at Wehlau, should a retreat become
necessary, could bring but forty-six thousand to resist the attack. The
general result of the action, therefore, may be said to have been decided
by the preliminary movements, for the defeat of Benningsen was inevita-
ble, with such a fearful majority of numbers against him.
Nevertheless, the battle was contested by the Russians with prodigious
bravery. By the resistless weight of the opposing masses, they were
indeed gradually forced back to Friedland, through its streets, and across
the river ; but when the whole fire of the French infantry and artillery
was concentrated on their columns, and this was followed up by a despe-
rate charge of Murat's cuirassiers and dragoons, they retired with the
steadiness and precision of field-day evolutions — not one square was
broken, not one gun captured during the retreat. Indeed, the result of
the action furnishes the best proof of the unconquerable valor of the
Russian troops. Seventeen thousand of them remained on the field killed
or wounded ; five hundred only were made prisoners ; no standards were
taken ; and but seventeen pieces of cannon, lost early in the day, fell
into the hands of the enemy. On the other hand, the French lost two
eagles and eight thousand men.
After the battle, the Russians retired in good order to Wehlau, which
they reached on the 15th, without being pursued or molested by Napo-
leon. In the mean time, Lestocq had advanced to Koningsberg, where,
forming a junction with Karnenskoi, he was enabled to show an array of
twenty-four thousand men ; with which force he resolved to make a stand
against the fifty thousand who were approaching, under Soult and Da-
voust, until the large magazines in the town were removed. His heroic
efforts were crowned with brilliant success. For two entire days he re-
sisted every attempt of the French host to dislodge him, conveyed the
magazines and military stores to a place of safety in the rear, and on the
17th effected his retreat with little loss to Wehlau, where he joined the
main army. Benningsen continued his retreat on the same day, reached
Tilsit on the 18th. and during the 19th and 20th crossed the Niemen at
that place, arid burned the bridge behind him.
The Ernperor Alexander, disheartened by the defeat and loss he had
sustained, foiled in the objects for which he had undertaken the war, and
deserted by those for whose advantage, more than for his own, he had
joined the alliance against France, was now desirous for peace ; and
communicated his wishes, through Prince Bagrathion, to the French com-
mander. These advances gave Napoleon the greatest satisfaction ; for,
X807.J HISTORY OF EUROPE. 21?
though as yet victorious over the Muscovite legions, he had learned to
appreciate their prowess in the field, and knew, also, that his further pro-
gress toward the Russian dominions would, in the end, reverse the pro-
portion of numbers now existing between his own army and that of his
antagonist. With these dispositions on both sides, there was little diffi-
culty in coming to an understanding. France had nothing to ask from
Russia, but that she should promote the Continental System by closing her
ports against England : and Russia had nothing to demand of France,
but that she should withdraw her armies from Poland and permit Alex-
ander to pursue his projects of conquest in Turkey. An armistice,
therefore, was immediately concluded. The Niemen separated the two
armies ; Napoleon established his head-quarters at Tilsit, and Alexander,
at Piktuhpohnen, on the opposite bank of the river.
On the 25th of June, the two Emperors held a private conference on a
raft moored in the middle of the Niemen, the respective armies being
drawn up in triple lines on both sides of the stream. The interview
lasted two hours, and ended in the establishment of a good understanding
and perfectly friendly relations between the two sovereigns. On the fol-
lowing day, they met again at Tilsit, where they were joined by the King
of Prussia ; and, after a fortnight of conference, two treaties were defi-
nitively concluded ; one, between France and Russia, and the other
between France and Prussia.
By the former, Napoleon agreed to restore to the King of Prussia, Sile-
sia and nearly all his German dominions on the right bank of the Elbe,
with the fortresses on the Oder and in Pomerania. The provinces which,
prior to 1772, formed part of the kingdom of Poland, and had since then
been annexed to Prussia, were erected into a separate principality, to be
called the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, and bestowed on the King of Sax-
ony. Dantzic, with a limited portion of territory in its neighborhood,
was declared a free and independent city, under the protection of the
Kings of Prussia and Saxony ; which was, in effect, declaring it a fron-
tier town of France. A right to a free military road across the Prussian
states, was granted to the King of Saxony, to connect his German with
his Polish dominions. The navigation of the Vistula was declared free
to Prussia, Saxony and Dantzic ; the Dukes of Oldenberg and Mecklen-
berg were reinstated in their dominions, on condition, however, that their
harbors should be occupied by French troops ; the Kings of Naples and
Holland, with the Confederation of the Rhine, were recognized by the
Emperor of Russia ; a new kingdom, styled that of Westphalia, was
erected in favor of Jerome Bonaparte, composed of the Prussian provinces
on the left bank of the Elbe ; hostilities were to cease between Russia
and Turkey; Wallachia and Moldavia were to be evacuated by the
Russians, but not occupied by the Turks until the conclusion of a gen-
eral peace ; and the Emperors of Russia and France mutually guaran-
tied their respective dominions, and agreed to establish commercial
relations w'tb each other on the most favorable footing.
By the second treaty, the King of Prussia recognized the Confederation
of the Rhine, and the Kings of Naples. Holland and Westphalia. He
ceded to the kings or princes who should be designated by Napoleon, all
the dominions which, at the commencement of the war, he possessed be-
tween the Rhine and the Elbe, and engaged to offer no opposition to any
arrangement in regard to them, which his Imperial majesty might choose
218 HISTORY OF EUROPE. TCHAP. XXVII
to adopt. He also ceded to the King of Saxony the circle of Gotha, in
Lower Lusatia ; he renounced all right to his acquisitions in Poland sub-
sequent to January 1st, 1772, and to the city and territory of Dantzic ;
consented to close his harbors to the ships and commerce of Great Brit-
ain ; and entered into a contract for the restoration of the strong-holds of
Prussia at certain fixed periods, and the payment of the sums necessary
for their civil and military evacuation. These concessions, together with
the enormous contributions exacted by Napoleon, entirely paralyzed the
strength of Prussia, and rendered her for a long time incapable of extri-
cating herself from that iron net in which she was enveloped by the
French troops.
But the important changes announced in these two treaties, were not
the only consequences of the interviews at Tilsit. By a secret conven-
tion concluded at the same time between the two Emperors, Turkey was
abandoned almost without reserve to the Russian Autocrat ; and, in re-
turn, Alexander agreed that if England should decline to make peace
with France on certain terms designated by Napoleon, " France and
Russia would jointly summon the three courts of Copenhagen, Stockholm
and Lisbon, to close their harbors against English vessels, recall their
ambassadors from London, and declare war against Great Britain." By
a further agreement, the dominions of the pope, as well as Malta and
Egypt, were ceded to France ; the sovereigns of the houses of Bourbon
and Braganza in the Spanish Peninsula, were to be replaced by princes
of the family of Napoleon ; and when the final partition of the Turkish
Empire should take place, Wallachia, Moldavia, Servia and Bulgaria
were to be allotted to Russia; and Greece, Macedonia, Dalmatia and the
seaports of the Adriatic, to France.
CHAPTER XXVH.
FEOM THE PEACE OF TILSIT, TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF HOSTILITIES IN
THE SPANISH PENINSULA.
WHEN the battle of Trafalgar destroyed Napoleon's prospect of inva-
ding England, and extinguished his hope of soon bringing the maritime
war to a successful issue, he did not abandon the contest in despair. He
readily saw that his preparations in the Channel must go for nothing,
that the flotilla at Boulogne would fall to pieces before a fleet capable of
protecting its passage could be assembled, and that every successive
year would enable England more exclusively to monopolize the com-
merce of the world, and drive his flag more completely from the ocean.
Yet, fertile in resource, indomitable in resolution, implacable in hatred,
he resolved to change the method, not the object of his hostility ; and
indulged the belief that he could succeed, through the extent and terror
of his continental victories, in achieving England's destruction by a pro-
cess more slow, but perhaps more certain.
The first part of his plan was to combine the European states in one
great alliance against England, and compel them to exclude the British flag
1807.1 HISTORY OF EUROPE. 219
and British merchandise from their harbors. The second part was, to
obtain possession by fraud, or force, or negotiation, of all the fleets of
Europe, and gradually bring them to a central point near the English
coast, whence he could eventually make his long-contemplated descent
upon that country. By the Continental System he hoped to weaken the
resources of England, to decrease her revenue, and spread commercial
distress through her borders, until the unanimity of her inhabitants should
be destroyed, and thus prepare the way for the grand assault, which was
his ultimate reliance. With an eye to the same end, he constantly ex-
erted himself to increase his own naval force. Amid all the expenditure
of his military campaigns, he proposed to construct, and to a certain ex-
tent actually did construct, from ten to twenty ships of the line every
year, while vast sums were annually expended on the naval harbors of
Antwerp, Flushing, Cherbourg and Brest.
It was in pursuance of these projects that, on the 21st of November.
1808, he issued a proclamation from Berlin — since known as the Berlin
Decree — declaring that " The British islands are in a state of blockade.
Every species of commerce and communication with them is prohibited ;
all packages or letters addressed in English, or in English characters,
shall be seized at the Post Office ; all British subjects, of whatever rank
or condition, who shall be found in the countries occupied by our troops,
or those of our allies, shall be made prisoners of war; every warehouse,
merchandise, or property of any sort, belonging to a subject of Great
Britain, or coming from its manufactories or colonies, is declared lawful
prize. Half the value of confiscated property shall be applied to indem-
nifying merchants whose vessels have been seized by the English crui-
sers. No vessels coming directly from England, or any of her colonies,
shall be received into any of our harbors ; and every vessel which, by
means of a false declaration shall have effected such entry, shall be con-
fiscated. The prize-court of Paris is intrusted with the determination of
all questions arising out of this decree in France and the countries occu-'
pied by our armies; that of Milan, with the decision of similar questions
in the kingdom of Italy. This decree shall be communicated to the Kings
of Spain, Naples, Holland and Etruria, and to our allies whose subjects,
like ours, have been victims of the injustice and barbarity of British
legislation."
Such was the famous Berlin Decree, and orders were dispatched for its
immediate and vigorous execution. Its unjust character and ruinous ten-
dency was so strongly felt in Holland, that Louis Bonaparte, the king, at
first positively refused to submit to its enforcement, and for some time
could be prevailed on to promulgate it only in foreign countries occupied
by the Dutch troops. In the north of Germany it was vigorously carried
into effect, and was made the pretext for a thousand iniquitous extortions
and abuses, which greatly augmented its oppression. An army of locusts,
in the form of inspectors, custorn-house officers and other functionaries,
fell on the countries occupied by the French troops, and made the search
for English goods a plea for innumerable frauds.
The English government replied to the Berlin Decree, by an Order ra
Council, on the 7th of January, 1807, declaring that, "No vessel shall be
permitted to trade from one port to another, if both belong to France and
her allies, and shall be so far under their control, as that British vessels are
excluded therefrom ; and the captains of all British vessels are hereby
21*
220 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXVII.
required to warn every neutral vessel coming from any such port, destined
to such other port, to discontinue her voyage ; and any vessel, after being
So warned, or after having had a reasonable time allowed it for obtaining
information of the present Order in Council, which shall, notwithstanding,
persist in such voyage to such other port, shall be declared good prize."
This Order was soon after modified in favor of vessels containing grain or
provisions for Great Britain, and of all vessels whatever, belonging to the
Hanse Towns, if employed in any trade to or from the British dominions.
After the treaty of Tilsit had subjected the Continent to the control of
Napoleon, it appeared that some more vigorous and extensive retaliation
was indispensable on the part of Great Britain. A few months' experi-
ence showed that the Berlin Decree, by prohibiting the importation of every
kind of British produce, necessarily left the Continental market open to
the manufacturing industry and colonial produce of other states. The
obvious and direct reply would have been to prohibit the importation into
the British dominions of the produce of France and its dependencies ; but
a little reflection showed that this would accomplish only a partial retri-
butive effect, by reason of the comparatively great extent of British com-
merce and manufactures. Therefore, on the llth of November, 1807, a
new Order in Council was issued declaring France and all the Continent-
al powers allied with her, in a state of blockade, and that all vessels were
good prize which should be bound for any of their harbors, excepting
such as had previously touched at, or cleared from, a British port.
Napoleon replied to this by a new decree issued from Milan, on the
17th of December, 1807, declaring, that " every vessel, of whatever na-
tion, which shall have submitted to be searched by British cruisers, or
paid any impost levied by the British government, shall be considered as
having lost the privileges of a neutral flag, and declared good prize.
Every vessel, of whatever nation, and with whatever cargo, coming from
any British harbor, or from any of the British colonies, or from any
country occupied by British troops, or bound for Great Britain, or for
British colonies, or for any country occupied by the British troops, is also
declared good prize."
It may safely be affirmed that the rage of belligerent powers and
the mutual violation of the law of nations, could not go beyond these
furious manifestoes. But, such was the exasperation now produced on
both sides, by the long continuance and desperate character of the contest,
the feelings of generosity and the dictates of prudence were alike forgotten.
Nevertheless, the very extravagance of these notable decrees, by render-
ing their strict execution impossible, led from the first to a system of
unlimited evasion, of which Napoleon himself set the example. He SQOK
discovered that a lucrative source of revenue might be opened by granting,
at exorbitant prices, licenses to import British produce and manufactures,
a condition was attached to the license, that an equal amount of French 01
Continental produce should be exported ; but this was readily evaded by
making up cargoes of old and almost worthless merchandise, and ship-
ping it under a fictitious certificate of value. Thus arose a system, the
most extraordinary and inconsistent that ever was known upon the earth.
While the two government* were carrying on their commercial warfare
with daily increasing virulence ; while Napoleon denounced the penalty
of death against every public functionary who should connive at the intro-
duction of British merchandise, and consigned to the flames, whatever of
1807.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 221
such property could by fiscal cupidity be discovered in the extensive
dominions subject to his control ; while, too, the English court of admi-
ralty daily condemned merchant vessels which had contravened the Orders
in Council, and issued the strictest injunctions to their cruisers to carry
them into full execution — both governments openly violated the very de-
crees to which they required such implicit obedience. British licenses
were sold at the public offices in London, and became the vehicles of an
immense trade with the Continent ; and Napoleon finally carried this
illicit traffic to such a height as to decree, that " no vessel shall sail from
any of our ports for any foreign port, unless provided with a license
signed by our own hand.'5 Hence, the Continental System and the re-
taliatory measures of Great Britain were virtually abandoned by the two
governments, though rigorously exacted as the first of public duties from
their subjects. As, therefore, the commerce in British merchandise
did not, in fact, diminish on the Continent, the suffering experienced in
England during this period, was not at all owing to the Berlin Decree,
but to the loss of the North American market, which the Orders in Council
ultimately closed against British productions. Thus Napoleon, in this
measure, on which he staked his influence, his fame, his throne, was, after
all, governed by the same regard to inferior interests which prompted the
Dutch, in*former times, to sell ammunition and provisions at exorbitant
prices to the inhabitants of a town besieged by their armies — resolved, in
any case, to make a gain by the warfare, and if they could not subdue the
enemy, at least to exact a large pecuniary profit from his necessities.
The return of Napoleon to Paris, after the termination of the Polish
campaign, was hailed by the universal rejoicing of the inhabitants : and,
in truth, they had never before such cause for exultation. The great
contest seemed to be over : their standards had been advanced in triumph
to the Niemen, the strength of Prussia was, to all appearance, irrevocably
broken, Austria was thoroughly overawed, and Russia, from being an
inveterate and fearful antagonist, had become the sworn friend of the
French Empire. Such a series of triumphs as Napoleon had achieved,
might have turned the heads of a nation less passionately devoted than
the French to military glory, but the oratorical welcomes of the public
bodies in Paris transgressed every allowable limit. They manifested, not
the enthusiasm of freemen, but the adulation of slaves. "We cannot
adequately praise your majesty," said Lacepede, president of the Senate ;
" your glory is too dazzling ; those only who are placed at the distance of
posterity can appreciate its immense elevation." " The only eloge worthy
of the Emperor," said the president of the Court of Cassation, "is the
simple narrative of his reign ; the most unadorned recital of what he has
wished, thought and executed ; of their effects, past, present and to come."
" The conception," said Count de Tabre, a senator, " which the mother
of Napoleon received in her bosom, could have flowed only from divine in-
spiration."
Napoleon took this favorable opportunity to eradicate the last remnant
of popular freedom from the Constitution, by suppressing the Tribunate
and thenceforward, the discussion on laws proposed by the government,
was intrusted to three commissioners, chosen from the legislative body
by the Emperor. As this blow at the last popular point in the Const itu
ion was received with shouts of approval from Calais to the Pyrenees,
Napoleon next issued a decree, prohibiting booksellers from publishing
222 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXVU.
any work, until it had received the sanction of the censors of the press,
and subjecting the periodicals and daily journals to the same restriction.
This censorship was carried to such an extent, that when the allies en.
tered France in 1814, they found a large portion of the inhabitants igno-
rant of the fact, that the battle of Trafalgar had ever been fought. The
years of the Empire are an absolute blank in French literary annals, so
far as all matters relating to government, political thought, or moral sen-
iment are concerned. Whoever attentively considers the situation of
France at this period, will perceive the unsoundness of the common no-
tion, that the press is, under all circumstances, the bulwark of liberty,
and that despotism is impossible where it is in operation. Thf>v will
rather concur in the opinion of Madame de Stael, that the effect of this
mighty agent is entirely dependent on the power which gains possession
of its resources; that only in a peculiar state of the public mind, and
when a certain balance exists between political parties, can it be used
beneficially on the side of freedom ; and that at other periods, or under
the influence of more corrupt feelings, it may become the instrument of
the most immovable popular or imperial despotism that ever was riveted
upon mankind.
Individual authors of that period were persecuted with unuaralleled
severity. Madame de Stael, long the object of Napoleon's hostility, from
the vigor of her understanding, and the fearlessness of her conduct, was
at first banished forty leagues from Paris ; then confined to her chAteau
on the Lake of Geneva, where she dwelt many years, and sought in
vain, in the discharge of every filial duty to her venerable father, to con-
sole herself for the loss of the intellectual society of Paris. At length,
the espionnage to which she was subjected, forced her to flee in disguise
to Vienna; and, hunted thence by the French emissaries, she continued
her flight through Poland into Muscovy, where she found that freedom
which old Europe could no longer afford. Her immortal work on Ger-
many was seized by the orders of the police and burned, and France
owes the preservation of one of the brightest, jewels in her literary coro-
net, to the fortuitous concealment of one copy from the myrmidons of
Savary. ^The world has no cause to regrei the severity of Napoleon to
this illustrious exile, whatever his biographer may have ; for it gave
birth to the Dix Annees d'Exil, the three volumes on Germany, and the
profound views on the British Constitution with which she has enriched
her work on the Revolution in France.
Napoleon's next attack was directed against the judicial establishment,
by reducing the term of service of the judges; who, thenceforward, in-
stead of holding office for life, were appointed for five years, and even
this period was liable to be summarily abridged at the Emperor's pleas-
ure. He also labored with great earnestness to reconstruct a nobility
for the Empire, well knowing that a permanent aristocracy would prove
the best possible safeguard for the continuance of his dynasty : this pro-
ject, however, was but partially successful, as the legitimate materials
for constructing such a political establishment were annihilated by the
Reis:n of Terror.
But, though the government of Napoleon was thus in all respects de-
spotic, it possessed the great advantage to the people of being also regu-
lar, conservative and systematic. The taxes were heavy, but the public
expenditure was immense, and enabled the inhabitants to pay their
1807.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 223
assessments with facility. No forced loans or arbitrary confiscations, as
in the time of the Republic, swept off at a blow the accumulations of
years ; no uncertainty as to enjoying the fruits of ind'istry, paralyzed
the hand of the laborer. The stoppage of all external commerce, com-
bined with the constantly increasing disbursements of the government,
produced an unprecedented degree of vigor in domestic manufactures,
and internal communication ; roads and canals spread out in every
direction, and were covered with wagons or boats laden with the richest
merchandise, while the agriculturalist found an ample market for his pro-
duce in the vast consumption of the armies. Beet-root was extensively
cultivated as a substitute for sugar-cane; and although the sugar ob-
tained from that vegetable was inferior in richness to the West India
commodity, it was superior in clearness and delicacy, and, as a native
production, was justly admired. .Lyons, Rouen and the Flemish towns,
again resounded with the activity of the artisan, their ruined looms were
restored, their empty warehouses replenished, and the internal consump-
tion of the Empire, deprived of foreign competition, rapidly raised from
the dust that which the Revolution seemed to have irrevocably destroyed.
Among the causes that led to the national wealth and prosperity of
France, at this period, should also be mentioned the enormous sums
which were exacted from half of Europe, in the shape of subsidies and
contributions, and expended, directly or indirectly, for the benefit of the
French people. In truth, all the great public works thenceforward un-
dertaken by the Emperor, and which have added so much to the lustre
of his name, were constructed by the funds wrung from the suffering
inhabitants of his conquered territories.
Amid this general prosperity, however, individual freedom expired.
A Penal Code was enacted, which enumerated no less than two hundred
and eighty state crimes, including such minute and trivial actions, and
requiring for conviction evidence so slender, that every man's life and
liberty were at the Emperor's disposal. And the impossibility of flight
from this persecution aggravated its horrors. In former days, by es-
caping across the frontier, a person suspected or accused might gain an
asylum in an adjoining state ; but now, the influence of the Imperial
authority pursued the fugitive to the remotest corner of Europe, and he
could find no resting-place on the Continent till he had passed the bound-
aries of civilization, and sojourned among the semi- barbarous tribes on the
confines of Asia. In the Ukraine, or in the provinces of Asiatic Turkey,
he might be safe ; but, excepting the unsubdued territories of the British
Empire, no other refuge could be found from the vengeance of Napoleon.
The levying of the conscription was another frightful feature in this
age of despotism. The law was applied to every male individual in the
realm, of the prescribed age, those alone excepted who were ill of in vet
erate asthma, spitting of blood, or incipient consumption. No Frenchman
liable, or who had once been liable to the conscription, could hold any
public office, enjoy any public salary, exercise any public right, receive
any legacy, or inherit any property, unless he produced a certificate that
he had obeyed the law and was legally exempt, or was in actual service,
or had been regularly discharged, or had not been required to perform
the military duties. Those who failed to join the army within the time
prescribed in their summons, were deprived of their civil rights, and
denounced to all the gendarmerie in the Empire as deserters. Eleven
224 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXVJI
depots were established for the punishment of the refractory, where they
wore the uniform and received the fare of convicts, and were compelled
to labor on the fortifications or public works without pay. And when
the terrors of this treatment were found insufficient to bring the conscripts
into the ranks, it was ordered that the delinquents should be fined fifteen
hundred francs and sentenced to three years' hard labor in the provinces,
with their heads shaved and their beards uncut. If they afterward de-
serted from the army, they were sentenced to ten years' hard labor in a
frontier location, to be fed on bread and water, and wear a ball of eight
pounds' weight attached to the leg by a chain. Such were the punish-
ments which awaited the youth of France, if they attempted to evade a
conscription that was sending them to the grave at the late of two hun-
dred and twenty thousand a year.
The political changes in Central Europe, consequent -on the treaty of
Tilsit, were rapidly developed. On his route to Paris, Napoleon met a
deputation of the principal nobles of Prussian Poland at Dresden, where
Talleyrand produced a Constitution for the Grand Duchy of Warsaw,
declaring the ducal crown to be hereditary in the Saxon family. The
Grand-Duke was invested with the sole executive power, and he alone had
the privilege of proposing laws to the Diet, which held the prerogative of
passing or rejecting them. The Diet was composed of eighteen senators
appointed by him, embracing six bishops and twelve lay nobles, and a
Chamber of Deputies containing a hundred members, sixty of whom were
elected by the nobility and forty by the boroughs. The powers of the
Chamber were limited to mere decisions on the arguments laid before
them by the orators of the Diet, and this mockery of a Parliament was
to assemble only for fifteen days in every two years. The ardent ple-
beian noblesse, whose democratic passions had so long brought desolation
on their country, found little in this charter to gratify their political
views ; but a substantial improvement was made in the condition of the
peasantry, by a clause declaring all the serfs to be free.
The Constitution of Westphalia was, in like manner, founded on the
model of that of France. It provided for a King, Council of State, Senate,
silent aristocratic Legislature and public orators, all cast in the Parisian
mould. The throne was declared hereditary in the family of Jerome
Bonaparte ; one half of the allodial territories of the former sovereigns,
of which the new kingdom was composed, were placed at the disposal of
Napoleon as a fund from which to form estates for his military followers;
provision was made for the payment of the contributions levied by France
before any part of the revenue could reach the new king; the kingdom
was joined to the Confederation of the Rhine, and the standing army re-
quired to be kept on foot for the service of France, when needed, was
fixed at twenty-five thousand men. In default of the king's heirs-male,
the throne was to succeed to Napoleon and his heirs by birth or adoption.
The same plan of government was adopted in Oldenberg, Mecklen-
burg, Dantzic, Hamburg, Bremen, Lubec and all the Hanse Towns ;
in every instance, the harbors were closed, commerce was annihilated,
and the military exactions of France reduced the whole to indigence and
almost to bankruptcy.
While the diplomatists of Europe were speculating on the extinction of
Prussia as an independent power, and the only question appeared to be,
what fortunate neighbor would acquire her territories, a new and im-
1807.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 225
proved system was adopted in the several branches of her government,
and the foundation laid in present suffering for future triumph. The
members of the cabinet whose temporizing and unworthy policy had so
largely contributed to the downfall of the kingdom, were removed from
office ; and the commanders who had so disgracefully surrendered the
national fortresses after the battle of Jena, were in a body dismissed from
the army. The king desired to call the intrepid and sagacious Harden-
berg to his councils ; but the influence of Napoleon, which had long be-
fore caused his removal from the administration, now prevented his
return, and Baron Stein was appointed to the chief direction of the govern-
ment. The talents and zeal of this eminent man soon produced extensive
and salutary changes in every department, and the condition of the whole
people was greatly improved by his wise regulations. Indeed, the ben-
efits of his policy were so conspicuous and universal, that he, too, fell
under the proscription of Napoleon ; and the king was reluctantly com-
pelled to send him into honorable exile in Russia. Nevertheless, from
his retreat in Courland he really, though privately, continued to direct
the Prussian councils ; and by the appointment of Scharnhorst, as min-
ister at War, a new impetus was given to the organization and increase
of the army, which proved of immense importance in the subsequent
struggle for European freedom.
This officer, who served under Lestocq in the late campaign, and aided
materially in the result of the battle of Eylau, boldly applied to the
military department the admirable principles by which Stein had secured
the affections of the burgher classes. He threw open to the citizens gen-
erally the higher grades of the army, from which they had hitherto been
excluded, abolished corporal punishments, so degrading to the spirit of
the soldier, and silently augmented the strength of the army by evading
a clause in the treaty with Napoleon, which provided, that Prussia should
not keep on foot more than forty-two thousand men ; a compliance Avith
which stipulation would at once have reduced her to the rank of a fourth-
rate power, and disabled her from assuming an attitude of resistance to
the encroachments of France. To elude the operation of this clause,
and at the same time avoid any direct or obvious infringement of the
treaty, he was careful to have no more than the prescribed number at
any one time in arms; but the moment the young soldiers were suffi-
ciently drilled, they were sent home, and their places supplied by others;
who., again, after the requisite instruction, successively gave way to ad-
ditional recruits. In this manner, the number of efficient troops gradu-
ally rose to two hundred thousand men.
Meantime, the inhabitants of Prussia, oppressed by foreign tyranny,
surrounded by rapacious enemies or impotent friends, and deprived of
their commerce, and of a market for the fruits of their industry, had no
resource but in secret voluntary associations. The universality of suffer
ing produced a corresponding unanimity of opinion, the divisions existing
before the war disappeared under its calamities, and the jealousies of rank
or class yielded to the pressure of the common distress: hence arose the
Tugendbund, a secret society, that embraced nearly the whole male
population of the north of Germany. A central body of directors at Ber-
lin guided its movements — provincial committees carried its orders into
effect, and an unseen authority was obeyed from one end of the subju-
gated provinces to the other.
220 HIST ORY.OF EUROPE. [CiiAi>. XXVII.
Austria had been bow^d to the earth by the disasters of Austerlitz, but
she still possessed the physical and material resources of power; and was
now silently, and without interruption, repairing; her losses, and taking
measures to resume her place in the rank of independent nations. Du-
ring the interval of hostilities, the Aulic Council were indefatigable in
their efforts to restore the equipment and revive the spirit of the army.
The artillery taken from the arsenal of Vienna, had been for the most
part regained by purchase from the French government ; great exertions
were made to supply the cavalry regiments with horses ; and the infantry
was powerfully recruited by the return of prisoners from France, as well
as by new enrolments on an extensive scale.
Hitherto, the King of Sweden had bid defiance to Napoleon's threats:
the passage around the Gulf of Bothnia was so nearly impracticable to an
invading army, that he was comparatively secure from attack ; and, with
the assistance of England, he did riot despair of making head against his
enemies, even should Russia be added to their formidable league. But
after the pacification of Tilsit, he learned that his transmarine dominions
were held by a precarious tenure. On the 13th of July, Marshal Brune
laid siege to the fortress of Stralsund, and although the garrison made a
determined resistance, they were forced to surrender on the 20th of
August, with four hundred pieces of cannon arid an immense quantity of
mill tar} stores.
Notwithstanding the precautions taken by the two Emperors, in their
negotiations at Tilsit, to envelope their designs in profound secrecy, the
British government possessed a golden key, which laid open their most
confidential proceedings. The cabinet of London was aware of the in-
tention of the Imperial despots to seize the fleets of Denmark and Portugal,
almost as soon as the purpose was conceived ; and the force at Napo-
leon's disposal left no room for doubt that the resolution would be imme-
diately carried into effect. Indeed, the ink of the treaty was hardly dry,
when the French troops, under Bsrnadotte and Davoust, began to defile
in such numbers toward Holstein, as to threaten Denmark with a speedy
loss of her continental possessions if she resisted the Emperor's demands :
besides, it was manifest from the course of her policy, that she would
prefer the Continental alliance, not only to a treaty with England, but also
to a doubtful neutrality.
Under these circumstances the British government had a serious duty
to perform. They were menaced with an attack from the combined
navies of Europe, amounting to one hundred and eighty sail of the line ;
of which immense force, the fleet in the Baltic was evidently destined to
form the right wing. They therefore resolved to deprive the allied powers
of this important accession to their strength, and apply it to their own use.
A large naval and military force was accordingly assembled to carry out
this intention ; the latter, consisting of twenty thousand land-troops, and
the former, of twenty-seven ships of the line and a large number of in-
ferior vessels : all of which arrived safely off the harbor of Copen.
hagen, early in August. An envoy was immediately sent on shore, to
demand that the Danish fleet should be surrendered to the British govern-
ment in pledge, and under an agreement for full restitution, till a general
peace should be concluded. This demand was resisted by the prince
royal, and Doth parties prepared to decide the question by the sword. The
land troops commenced their disembarkation on the 19ih of August, and
1807.1 II I S T O R Y O F E U R O P E . 227
in three days, Copenhagen was completely invested. On the 1st of.
September, everything being in readiness for the bombardment, the town
was summoned, and an accommodation offered, on condition of tho sur-
render of the Danish fleet. As the prince still rejected the proposal, the
bombardment commenced, and continued, with brief interruptions, for
three days and nights, during which time an eighth part of the city was
laid in ashes. General Peymann, finding that the whole town must
inevitably be destroyed if he persisted in the defence, at length consented
to capitulate ; and unconditionally delivered into the hands of the British,
the whole fleet, together with the artillery and naval stores of the capital.
In the beginning of October, the British squadron returned to England,
with its prize of eighteen ships of the line, fifteen frigates, six brigs, and
twenty five gun-boats, all in excellent condition.
In the mean time, the negotiations for peace with England, contem-
plated by the treaty of Tilsit, were set on foot, and the cabinet of St. Pe-
tersburg tendered their good offices to the English government for the
conclusion of a general peace. Mr. Canning replied, that Great Britain
was perfectly willing to treat on equitable terms, and requested a frank
declaration of the secret articles of the treaty with France, as the best
pledge of the friendly and pacific intentions of the Emperor Alexander.
This demand was evaded, and while the negotiations were in progress,
intelligence arrived of the capture of the Danish fleet. Even then, the
Russian Emperor was disposed to treat ; but a peremptory note from Na-
poleon, insisting on the immediate and full execution of the treaty, com-
pelled him to dismiss the English minister from St. Petersburg, and pro-
claim anew -the principles of the Confederacy, This measure was
followed on the part of Russia, by a declaration of war against Sweden,
and the occupation, by the Muscovite troops, of a considerable portion of
the Swedish territory : while Denmark resented the capture of her ships
by entering into a close alliance with France. About the same time, Tur-
key, finding herself betrayed and abandoned by France, notwithstanding
the stipulations in the treaty of Tilsit, broke off her friendly connexions
with the French Emperor, and prepared to renew the war with Russia.
In the month of November, Napoleon made a journey to Italy, where
important political changes were in progress. Destined, like all the sub-
ordinate thrones which surrounded the French Empire, to share in the
rapid mutations which that government underwent, the kingdom of Italy
was required to alter its Constitution. Napoleon ordered the Legislative
body to be superseded by a Senate appointed and paid by the government.
Yet, in despite of this arbitrary act, he was received with unbounded
adulation in the Italian towns. Their deputies, who waited on him at
Milan, vied with each other in extravagant flattery : he was the Re-
deemer of France, but the Creator of Italy — they had supplicated Heaven
for his victories and his safety — they offered him the tribute of their
fidelity and love forever. Napoleon received their advances graciously,
reciprocated them by projecting costly public works, and answered them
by heavy pecuniary exactions, and admonitions to the inhabitants to train
up their youth to the profession of arms.
These proceedings were followed by further encroachments on the
dominions of Western Europe. The town and territory of Flushing, and
the towns of Kehl, Cassel, and Wessel, on the right bank of the Rhine,
were ceded to France. The Emperor also took possession of Tuscany
22
g-28 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXVIIL
and Rome, and disbanded the papal troops in the latter city. He then
annexed Anoona, Urbcno, Macerata and Carnerino, to the kingdom of
Italy. The importance of these acquisitions, however, consisted mainly
in the principles on which they were made ; for France now, without dis-
guise, assumed the right of annexing neutral and independent states to
her dominions by no other authority than the decree of her own Legis-
lature.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
PRELIMINARY MOVEMENTS OF THE PENINSULAR WAR.
WHEN Napoleon returned from Italy to Paris, he fixed his attention
on the Spanish Peninsula, and considered the means of bringing the re-
sources of both its monarchies under the immediate control of France.
The indignation of the Spanish government had already been roused
to the highest pitch, at hearing of Napoleon's offer to partition their
dominions ; and they saw, at the same time, that fidelity in alliance and
long-continued national service, afforded them no guaranty for the con-
tinued support of the French monarch : but that, when it suited his pur-
pose, he did not scruple to purchase a temporary respite from the hostility
of an enemy by the permanent spoliation of a friend. While this and
various minor causes of offence were fast changing the course of Spanish
policy, the Russian ambassador at Madrid, entered into a private treaty
with Spain on the 28th of August, 1806, in which compact the court of
Lisbon was also included, wherein it was agreed, that as soon as the
French armies were far advanced on their road to Prussia, Spain should
commence hostilities on the Pyrenees, and invite England to cooperate
in the defence of the Peninsula.
This secret negotiation was made known to Napoleon, by the activity
of his ambassador at Madrid ; but he dissembled his resentment, and re-
solved to strike a decisive blow in the north of Germany, before he car-
ried out his ulterior designs on Spain and Portugal. The imprudent
zeal of the Prince of Peace, gave publicity to the treaty before the proper
season arrived ; for, in a proclamation issued at Madrid on the 5th of
October, 1806, he invited " all Spaniards to unite themselves under the
national standards ; the rich to make sacrifices for the charges of a war
which will soon be called for by the common good ; the magistrates to
do all in their power to rouse the public enthusiasm, in order to enable
the nation to enter with glory into the lists which were preparing." This
proclamation reached Napoleon on the field of Jena, the evening after
the battle. He, however, contented himself for the moment, with in-
structing his ambassador to demand an explanation of this extraordinary
manifesto, and afterward professed to be satisfied by the assurance that
the measure was intended to counteract ar anticipated descent of the
Moors. The court of Lisbon, justly alarmed A* this premature disclosure
of their secret designs, speedily disavowed all participation in the pro-
ject ; and, to propitiate the Emperor, required the Earl St. Vincent to
withdraw the British squadron from the Tagus.
1807.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 229
Those events, thus far trivial in themselves, made a great impression
on Napoleon. He clearly saw the risk to which he would be exposed,
if, while actively engaged in a German or Russian war, he were to be
suddenly assailed by the forces of the Peninsula in his rear, where the
French frontier was in a great measure defenceless, and whence the
armies of England might find an easy entrance into the heart of his
dominions. He felt, with Louis XIV., that it was necessary there should
be no longer any Pyrenees ; and as the Revolution had changed the
reigning family on the throne of France, he deemed it indispensable that
a similar change should be effected in the Peninsular monarchies. He
anticipated little opposition from the people either of Spain or Portugal ;
considering them, like the Italians, indifferent to political change, pro-
vided no diminution was made in their private enjoyments.
The peace of Tilsit gave Napoleon an opportunity to carry out these
intentions ; and his first measures were to summon the court of Lisbon
to shut their ports against England, confiscate all English property within
their dominions, and declare war against Great Britain. This was done
on the 12th of August. At the same time, Junot repaired to Bayonne
with an army of twenty-eight thousand men ; and Napoleon, under pre-
tence of anticipating a refusal from the court of Lisbon, seized the Portu-
guese ships in the French harbors. The government of Portugal was,
however, wholly unable to resist Napoleon's demand ; they therefore
closed their ports and declared war against England: but they refused
to confiscate at once the property of the English merchants, and warned
them to send off their effects and embark for their own country as speed-
ily as possible. This modified compliance with his requisitions was far
from satisfying Napoleon, and he ordered Junot to commence his march
into the Portuguese territory. Accordingly, on the 19th of October, that
marshal crossed the Bidassoa with his leading divisions; when the court
of Lisbon declared that if the French troops entered Portugal, they would
retire with their fleet to the Brazils. The threats and concessions of the
court were, however, unavailing; for Napoleon had already resolved on
the destruction of the House of Braganza, as well as the dethronement
of the Spanish House of Bourbon ; and events soon followed, which
lighted up the flames of the Peninsular War.
. In conformity to his orders, Junot pressed on toward Lisbon, and in
such haste, that the mere rapidity of his movements almost disorganized
his army ; and his career through that devoted country was marked by
pillage and rapine at every step. The elements of resistance were not
wanting in the Portuguese capital. It contained three hundred thousand
inhabitants, numerous well-constructed forts, and a garrison of fourteen
thousand men. An English squadron lay in the Tagus — for the British
government, appreciating the circumstances under which Portugal had
been forced to declare war against them, still continued their friendly
offices, notwithstanding such declaration — and Sir Sidney Smith, who had
command of the British ships, held himself in readiness to unite with the
garrison for the defence of the capital. But a little reflection showed
the impolicy of contending with the French troops ; for, although a tem-
porary success over Junot's disordered corps was of easy attainment, his
defeat would have led to the invasion of an overwhelming force which
could not be resisted ; and which, by its march and conquest, would spread
desolation and ruin through the country, to a much greater extent than
230 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXVIII.
Junot's unopposed columns. The alternative of submission was there-
fore adopted ; and the royal family, with their archives, treasure, plate
and most valuable effects, embarked on board their fleet, consisting of
eight sail of the line, three frigates, five sloops and a number of merchant
vessels. Seldom has there been seen a more melancholy procession
than that which preceded their embarkation, or one more calculated to
impress the mind with the magnitude of the calamities brought on the
nations of Europe by Napoleon's unbounded ambition. The insane
queen was in the first carriage ; she had lived in seclusion for sixteen
years, but a ray of light entered her mind at this extremity, and she un-
derstood and approved the noble act of self-devotion : the widowed prin-
cess and the Infanta Maria, with the princess of Brazil, followed ; and
after them came the prince regent, pale, and weeping to leave thus, and
apparently for ever, the land of his fathers. In the depth of the royal
distress, the multitude forgot their own dangers ; and, thronging around
the illustrious fugitives, wept as at the severance of the dearest family
ties. It was some consolation to the crowd, as they watched the receding
sails of the exiled fleet, to see the ships greeted with a royal salute while
passing the British squadron ; a courtesy emblematic of the protection
Great Britain afterward extended to her ancient ally in her darkest hour
of peril.
The fleet had hardly cleared the bar and disappeared from the shores
of Europe, when Junot's advanced guajd, reduced to sixteen hundred
men in the greatest destitution, reached the barriers of Lisbon. No
resistance was offered ; but, on the contrary, as the French soldiers were
literally dying from hunger and fatigue, the humane inhabitants received
them with kindness, and by timely aid saved the lives of those, through
whose instrumentality they were to be subjected to a foreign tyrant.
Junot immediately took military possession of the country ; and as the
detachments of his corps severally arrived, they were quartered in the
capital and the fortresses in its vicinity, over all of which the tricolor
flag now floated.
As the French general, for a time, pursued the policy and enforced the
laws of the supplanted government, the inhabitants began to hope that
they would escape the ordinary calamities of a conquered nation ; but
they were soon undeceived. In addition to the maintenance of the
French troops, whose numbers daily increased, and the burden of whose
support fell on the country as a matter of course, forced loans were ex-
acted to a ruinous amount ; English property of every description was
confiscated, together with the property of the royal family, and that of all
who accompanied their flight; the ports were closed against British
ships, and the trade of the capital sunk at once into insignificance.
Shortly afterward, Junot dissolved the existing government, and took
personal charge of the administration in the name of Napoleon. A sys-
tem of private spoliation and robbery thenceforward ensued, in which all
the invaders participated, from the general-in-chief down to the meanest
soldier. These exactions and oppressions soon roused to the utmost the
indignation of the inhabitants ; but as yet, they were too firmly held in
the conqueror's grasp to be able to act against his authority.
The royal family of Spain, at this period, was divided and distracted
by political intrigue. The king, Charles IV., though not destitute of
ability, was so indolent and so desirous of enjoying, on a throne, the Iran-
1807.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 231
quillity of private life, that, on ordinary occasions, he surrendered him-
self to the direction of the queen and Godoy, known also as the Prince
of Peace. The queen was a woman of spirit and capacity, but sensual,
intriguing, and almost entirely governed by Don Manuel Godoy, a min-
ister whom her criminal favor had raised from the humblest station to the
chief directorship of the affairs of the kingdom. The Prince of Asturias,
afterward Ferdinand VII., and now heir-apparent to the Spanish throne,
was under the guidance of a swarm of flatterers, among whom the Canon
Escoiquiz, an ecclesiastic of remarkable talents, was the most influential ;
so that, in effect, two parties existed at the Spanish court ; one, under the
control of Godoy, and the other, of Escoiquiz. These divisions were
propitious to Napoleon's designs, and he prepared to take advantage of
them by a secret correspondence with Godoy, and by sending Beauhar-
nois, as ambassador to Madrid, to open private conferences with the
prince's party. He at the same time entered into a treaty at Paris, with an
ambassador of Charles IV., by which the partition of Portugal between
France, Spain and some inferior powers, was stipulated; permission
granted for the assembling of forty thousand French troops at Bayonne,
who were to be marched across the Spanish territory to Portugal, in case
of need ; and the integrity of his dominions guarantied to the Spanish
king.
This treaty, known as the treaty of Fontainebleau, was signed by Na-
poleon on the 29th of October. On the 22nd of November, the army of
forty thousand men at Bayonne was increased to sixty thousand ; and
these troops, without any authority from the Spanish government, or any
regard to the fact that their services were not required in Portugal, were
marched across the Spanish frontier, and took the road, not to Lisbon, but
to Madrid. This step was followed by a message from the Emperor to
the Senate, requiring a levy of eighty thousand conscripts from the class
e 1809 ; a demand for which there was no apparent reason, now that
.he continental wars were terminated by the treaty of Tilsit. Soon after,
the French troops, by a succession of fraud and stratagem equally inge-
nious and dishonorable, made themselves masters of the four frontier
fortresses of Spain ; namely, Pampeluna, Barcelona, San Fernando de
Figueras, and St. Sebastians. These conquests gave them the command
of the only passes practicable for an army from France into the Penin-
sula ; and they were made not only during a period of profound peace,
but within a few months of the time when a solemn treaty had been con-
cluded between the two countries, by which France guarantied the integ-
rity of the Spanish territory. Napoleon followed up his success with hip-
accustomed vigor, by ordering fresh troops to the newly-acquired for
tresses, accumulating magazines within their walls, and bestowing minute
attention to the perfecting of their defences. The whole country, from
the Bidassoa to the Duoro, was covered with armed men, the Spanish
authorities in the towns were supplanted by Frenchmen, and before a
single shot had been fired or an angry note interchanged between the
cabinets of Paris and Madrid, the whole of Spain north of the Ebro was
wrested from the crown of Castile.
Napoleon soon made a formal demand for the annexation of the terri-
tory thus acquired to the French Empire, offering in return to cede to
Spain his portion of Portugal ; but this condition was illusory on its face,
as, in defiar.ee of the treaty of Fontainebleau, he had already taken pos-
17
232 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXVTIL
session, in his own name, of the whole Portuguese dominion. Indeed,
Napoleon's purpose to appropriate to himself the entire Peninsula became
now so manifest, that the king resolved to imitate the example of the
Prince Regent of Portugal : he made immediate though secret arrange-
ments to proceed to Seville, and embark thence for America. At the
same time Napoleon, maintaining to the last his detestable system of hy-
pocrisy, sent the king a present of twelve beautiful horses, with a letter
announcing his " intended visit to his friend and ally, the King of Spain,
in order to cement their friendship by personal intercourse^ and arrange
the affairs of the Peninsula without the restraint of diplomatic forms."
But the court of Madrid had at last learned to estimate truly their rela-
tions with France, and the friendship of Napoleon : they therefore hast-
ened their preparations for departure. It was not long before rumors of
the intended flight began to circulate ; and on the morning of March
17th, tumultuous crowds assembled at Aranjuez to prevent the journey.
When the royal carriages were drawn up in front of the palace, they took
possession of them and cut the traces ; they then proceeded to the hotel
of the Prince of Peace, whom they denounced as the author of their
calamities, and ransacked every apartment in search of him. To ap-
pease their wrath, the king issued a proclamation depriving Godoy of his
offices, and banishing him from the court. This measure, however, did
not satisfy them : they seized Don Diego Godoy, a relative of the Prince
of Peace, and conducted him with much personal indignity to his barracks.
At the same time, the royal guards, when sounded as to their willingness
to resist the insurgents, should they attack the palace, answered, that " the
Prince of Asturias could alone insure the public safety." That prince
soon afterward appeared and dispersed the multitude with such ease, that
it was impossible to doubt he had some agency in exciting the revolt.
The night passed off tranquilly ; but on the following day. a fresh tumult
arose in consequence of the discovery and seizure of Godoy by the people.
The guards interfered to save him from immediate execution, and bore
him to the nearest prison ; when the mob, prevented from wreaking their
vengeance on the chief object of their hatred, separated into parties, tra-
versed the streets in various directions, and sacked and pulled down the
houses of Godoy's principal friends and dependents.
At length Ferdinand, to whom all eyes were now turned as the only
person capable of arresting the public disorders, at the earnest entreaty
of the king and queen, repaired to the prison at the head of his guards,
and prevailed on the mob to retire. " Are you yet king ?" inquired the
Prince of Pea'ce, when Ferdinand presented himself. " Not yet," an-
swered Ferdinand, " but soon shall be." In effect, Charles IV.. deserted
by his court, overwhelmed by the opprobrium heaped on his minister,
unable to trust his own guards, and in hourly apprehension that not only
Godoy, but also his queen and himself might be murdered, deemed a
resignation of the crown the only means of securing personal safety to
any of the three : in the evening, therefore, of March 19th, he issued a
proclamation, relinquishing the throne in favor of the Prince of Asturias.
The prince was at once proclaimed king, under the title of Ferdinand
VII. ; an event which, joined to the fall of Godoy, caused a universal
rejoicing. The surrender of the frontier fortresses*, the occupation of the
northern provinces by a hundred thousand French troops, the approach
of Napoleon's Imperial Guard — these were forgotten by the people in
1808.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 233
their triumph over the traitors who had betrayed the nation. The houses
in Madrid were decorated during the day with flowers and green boughs,
and at night a spontaneous illumination burst forth in every part of the
capital.
While the Spaniards were exulting at the accession of a new monarch
to the throne, Murat, at the head of the French troops, rapidly approached
Madrid. On the 15th of March, he set out from Burgos, with the corps of
Moncey, the Imperial Guard, and the artillery, taking the road to Somo-
Sierra. On the same day, Dupont, with two divisions of his corps and the
cavalry, marched for the Guadarama pass, while his third division remained
at Valladolid to observe the Spanish troops in Galicia. As soon as these
forces evacuated Burgos, their place was supplied by the army of reserve
under Bessieres. The whote "body moved on by brigades, taking with
them provisions for fifteen days and fifty rounds of ball-cartridge for each
man : they bivouacked at night with patrols set, and all the other precau-
tions usual in an enemy's territory. They proclaimed, that they were
bound for the camp at St. Roque to act against the English ; but they
belied their pacific declarations by arresting the mails and all Spanish
soldiers whom they met on the road, in order to prevent any intelligence
of their approach from preceding them. On the 23rd of March, Murat
reached Madrid with the cavalry and Imperial Guard, and established
his quarters at Godoy's hotel. This formidable apparition excited much
less notice than it would otherwise have done, in consequence of every
one's being engaged in preparing for the triumphal entry of the new king,
appointed for the following day. Ferdinand came, in accordance with
this arrangement, accompanied by two hundred thousand citizens of all
ranks, in carriages, on horseback and on foot ; and Murat, who saw the
enthusiasm with which the monarch was received, wrote the particulars
to Napoleon, and commented on the probable effect of placing so popular
a prince permanently at the head of affairs in Spain.
Ferdinand, aware of the importance of being recognized by the French
Emperor, was now assiduous in attempts to cultivate a good understanding
with Murat ; but that officer, well knowing Napoleon's designs on the
Spanish throne, steadily repelled his advances. On the other hand,
Charles IV. and his queen daily solicited Murat to take Godoy under his
protection, while the ex-king averred that he had abdicated under com-
pulsion and desired to recall his act. It was easy for Murat, while thus
holding the rival parties in expectation of his support and in dread of his
displeasure, to take military possession of the capital ; which he did ac-
cordingly, and nominated General Grouchy governor of Madrid. En-
couraged by this success, Murat demanded supplies for the food, clothing
and pay of his troops, which were promptly granted. He then hinted
that the French Emperor would be pleased to receive a visit, on the
frontier of the kingdom, from Don Carlos, the king's brother ; and as this
courtesy was readily conceded, Beauharnois ventured to suggest that the
amicable relations between the two potentates would be specially pro-
moted, if Ferdinand would himself proceed as far as Burgos to receive
his illustrious guest. But the suspicions of Ferdinand's advisers were
aroused by this proposal ; and the inhabitants, displeased at the coolness
manifested toward their sovereign by the French authorities, began to
consider their means of expelling the invaders from the country.
On the 26th of March, the French Emperor, who was still at Paris
234 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXVIIL
received intelligence of the tumult at Aranjuez. He immediately sent
a letter to his brother Louis, offering him the crown of Spain; hut Louis,
who, on the throne of Holland, had sufficiently experienced the chains
of servitude and the responsibilities of command, had the good sense to
decline its acceptance. Napoleon at the same time held a conference
at St Cloud, with Isquierdo, the Spanish minister, on the state of public
opinion in the Peninsula, and the feelings with which the people of
" Spain would regard a prince of his family, or even himself, for their
sovereign. Isquierdo replied, "The Spaniards would accept your ma-
jesty for their king with pleasure, and even with enthusiasm ; but only
in the event of your having previously renounced the crown of France."
Napoleon was much struck with this answer, and after some deliberation
he resolved to" get both Charles and Ferdinand into his power. For this
purpose, he sent to Madrid the most unprincipled and adroit of his min-
ions, Savary ; charging him to say and promise in his name, anything and
everything which could induce the reigning monarch to undertake the
journey to Burgos.
When Savary arrived at Madrid, he thus addressed Ferdinand: "I
have come at the particular desire of the Emperor, solely to offer his
compliments to your majesty, and to know if your sentiments toward
France are similar to those of your father. If they are, the Emperor
will shut his eyes to rill that is past; he will not intermeddle in the
slightest degree with the internal affairs of the kingdom, and he will in-
stantly recognize you as King of Spain and the Indies." This gratifying
assurance was accompanied by so many flattering expressions and so
much apparent cordiality, that it entirely deceived Ferdinand and his
counsellors ; and Savary so pressed his entreaties that the king would go
at least as far as Burgos to meet the Emperor, who was already near
Bayonne on his road to Madrid, that all objections were overcome, and
Ferdinand, accompanied by the French envoy, set forth on his journey
on the 10th of April.
The king, in passing through the northern provinces, was received
with the strongest testimonials of devotion ; yet even the simple inhab-
itants of Castile, who were untrammelled by delusions of court intrigue,
beheld with undisguised anxiety the progress of their sovereign toward
the French frontier. When the cavalcade arrived at Burgos, the king's
counsellors were greatly disturbed and alarmed to find that Napoleon
was not there, and that no advices had been received of his approach:
they therefore insisted on his majesty's discontinuing his journey. But
Savary interfered, protesting loudly against a step which, he alleged,
would evince an undue and ungenerous want of confidence in the Em-
peror, and might lead to serious consequences by disturbing the present
good understanding between the two monarchs. " I will let you cut off
my head," said he, " if, within a quarter of an hour after your majesty's
arrival at Bayonne, the Emperor does not recognize you as King of
Spain and the Indies." These words were decisive with the king, and
he recommenced his journey, although the people assembled in crowds
to dissuade him from so doing, and, at Vittoria, even threatened to pre-
vent his advance by force. At that place, too, a faithful counsellor fore-
told in detail the dangers that awaited his interview with the French
Emperor, and suggested a plan for his escape ; but Savary's artifice and
falsehoods overpowered every other consideration, and Ferdinand con-
1808.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 235
tinued his route to Bayonne, whe.e he committed himself to the honor of
Napoleon.
Before the king left Madrid, he intrusted the government to a regency,
of which the Infant Don Antonio was the nominal head; but Murat was
the real centre of authority, the presence of thirty thousand French
troops giving him an influence that could not be resisted. Murat's first
step after the king's departure, was an order for the delivery into his
hands of the Prince of Peace, whom he dispatched to Bayonne, under a
strong guard. He next conferred with the old king and queen ; and on
their reiterating to him that the late abdication was a forced procedure,
he advised the ex-sovereign to repair with his queen to Bayonne, and lay
their grievances at the feet of Napoleon: which he accordingly did.
As the French Emperor had now the royal family of Spain in his
power, he gave Murat minute instructions for carefully and gradually
undermining their influence with the inhabitants, in order to pave the
way for a peaceable usurpation of the throne, with its titles and immu-
nities. But it soon appeared that, capable as Murat had hitherto proved
himself, this task was beyond his powers of dissimulation and intrigue:
he was too much accustomed to the despotic rule of military force, to
assume at once, and in circumstances singularly difficult, the foresight
and circumspection of an experienced diplomatist. After it was known
that both Ferdinand and his father had crossed the frontier, and placed
themselves in the Emperor's power, the previous discontents in the cap-
ital rapidly increased; numberless rencontres ensued between the inhab-
itants and the troops, and Murat was irritated to declare that he would
prevent all assemblages for any purpose in the streets, and punish with
military severity any one who opposed his soldiers in the discharge of
their duty. Both parties now became exasperated in the highest degree,
and during this state of ebullition, matters were brought to a crisis by a
demand from Murat that the remainder of the royal family, consisting of
the queen of Etruria and the Infants Don Francisco and Don Antonio,
should immediately set out for Bayonne. The regency were intimidated
into compliance with this order, but the people interfered to prevent its
execution. While the carriages were in waiting at the palace, an aid-
de-camp of Murat pushed his way through the crowd to hasten their
departure, when the rumor was circulated that this officer was about to
use personal violence toward the young prince. The aid-de-camp was
immediately assailed, and would probably have been killed on the spot,
but for the arrival of a company of French soldiers, who rescued and
bore him to head-quarters.
Murat, enraged at this insult to his authority, sent a detachment of
troops with two pieces of cannon, and by several discharges of grape-
shot on the unarmed multitude around the palace, soon restored order.
But the sound of these cannon echoed from one end of the Peninsula to
the other, and eventually shook the Empire of Napoleon to its foundation.
The whole city instantly flew to arms. All considerations of conse-
quences were forgotten in the intense fury of the moment ; knives, dag-
gers, and bayonets, were seized wherever they could be found; the
gunsmiths' shops were ransacked for fire arms; and many straggling
detachments of French soldiers were surrounded and put to death. Such
a tumultuary effort, however, could not long prevail against the dis-
cipline and skill of regular troops, who, being ordered to charge through
236 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [CHAP. XXVIIL
the streets in great numbers, at length dispersed the populace : the loss
on each side was about three hundred men.
Hitherto, neither party in this affair deserved much blame ; the tumult,
however deplorable in its consequences, was the effect of an unpremed-
itated collision; and the blood that had been shed was the result of pas-
sion and excitement on the part of the belligerents, for which, strictly
speaking, Napoleon, by his infamous invasion of a friendly country, was
personally and solely responsible. But after the fighting had ceased and
the danger was over, Murat, instead of humanely making allowances for
the circumstances of exasperation in which the Spaniards were placed,
and endeavoring to improve the occurrence to his own advantage by
conciliatory measures, immediately se:zed a large number of Spanish
citizens, as they were, in various quarters of the town, walking the
streets or pursuing their avocations, hurried them before a military tri-
bunal, and condemned them to be shot. Preparations were made to
carry this sentence into execution ; the mournful intelligence flew
through Madrid ; and all who missed relations or friends, became over-
whelmed with the agonizing fear that they were among these victims of
French barbarity. While the people remained in this state of excite-
ment, and the approach of night, augmented the general consternation,
the firing began; the regular discharges of heavy platoons at the Retiro,
in the Prado, the Puerto del Sol, and the church of Senora de la Soledad,
then told too plainly that the work of death was in progress. The dis-
mal sounds froze every heart with terror; all that had been suffered
during the heat of the preceding conflict in the streets, seemed as nothing
compared to the horrors of that cold-blooded execution. Nor did the
general grief abate, when the particulars of the massacre became known.
Numbers were put to death, who had no concern whatever in the tumult;
those who suffered were denied the last consolations of religion, and were
slain in pairs, being tied together two and two, and dispatched by re-
peated discharges of musketry.
This atrocious massacre of the citizens of an independent sovereignty
for no greater crime, at most, than the defence of their lawful rights
against the oppression of a foreign tyrant, was equally impolitic and out-
rageous; and the indignation which it excited throughout Spain is inde-
scribable. With a rapidity that could not have been anticipated in a
country where but little internal communication existed, the intelligence
spread from city to city, from province to province, and awakened that
feeling of national resentment which, when properly directed, is the cer-
tain forerunner of great achievements. Actuated by a spirit unknown
in Europe since the first revolutionary movements in France, the people
in every province, without any previous concert, or any direction from
the existing authorities, began to assemble and devise plans for the de-
fence of the kingdom. Far from being intimidated by the enemy's pos-
session of their capital and principal fortresses, they were the more
roused to exertion by these untoward disadvantages. Nor was the
movement one of faction or party ; it animated men of all ranks, classes
and professions; it was universal, unpremeditated, simultaneous; and in
an inconceivably short time, Napoleon found himself involved in a bloody
strife with the whole Spanish nation.
The Princes Don Francisco and Don Antonio, intimidated by the vio-
lence of Murat, and unable to resist his authority, set out for Bayonne on
1808.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 237
the day after the tumult at Madrid, leaving the capital, without any
organized native government, entirely in the hands of the French gen-
erals. But, in the meantime, matters had reached a crisis between Na-
poleon and the royal family. When Ferdinand met the French Emperor
at Bayonne, he was received with marked kindness and courtesy, and in-
vited to dine at the Imperial head-quarters. After the repast, Ferdinand
returned to his hotel, leaving Escoiquiz to confer with Napoleon : but he
had hardly reached his lodgings, when Savary followed him to announce
the Emperor's determination, that he must instantly resign his throne of
both Spain and the Indies in favor of a prince of the Bonaparte dynasty :
and hopes were held out that, should he do this amicably, he might obtain
the Grand-duchy of Tuscany as an equivalent. Ferdinand, though
astounded at this tyrannical perfidy, made no decisive reply at the mo-
ment. He, however, conferred with his counsellors, and eventually re-
fused to accede to the proposal, accompanying -his refusal with a demand
for his passports.
Napoleon was greatly perplexed at the firmness of Ferdinand. It did
not, indeed, cause him to hesitate a moment in his design of dethroning
the Bourbons, but he preferred to do this under the cover of legal forms,
rather than by open violence. He therefore declined for the present to
grant passports to Ferdinand, and referred to Charles IV., hoping to find
in the father a more pliant instrument than the son. In this expectation
he was not disappointed. After the Prince of Peace, the queen and the
old king had been sufficiently wrought upon by flattery and threats, Fer-
dinand was summoned to an interview with them, when Charles com-
manded him to execute a simple and unqualified resignation of the crown,
signed by himself and his brothers. He was given to understand that, in
case of refusal, he and his counsellors would be prosecuted as traitors.
Nevertheless, Ferdinand steadily adhered to his determination, and defi-
nitely refused to resign his claims to the crown, except in a manner so
qualified as to defeat the purposes of the Emperor. But the latter easily
prevailed on Charles to execute a formal abdication in his favor, on con-
dition of maintaining the Catholic religion, of preserving entire the Spanish
dominions, and of granting pensions for life to the several members of the
royal family.
On the day that this convention was signed, a secret deputation reached
Ferdinand from the |*emaining members of the regency at Madrid, inqui-
ring whether they might remove their place of assembly, as they were, in
the capital, subject to the control of the French army; whether they
should declare war against France, and endeavor to resist the further en-
trance of the French troops into the Peninsula; and whether, in the event
of his (Ferdinand's) being unable to return, they should assemble the
Cortes. Ferdinand answered, that as he was deprived of his liberty, he
could lake no steps to save either himself or the monarchy ; that he
.here fore authorized the junta of the government to add new members to
their department, to remove whomsoever they pleased, and to exercis3 all
the functions of sovereignty ; that they were to oppose the entrance of
fresh troops, and commence hostilities as soon as he should be removed to
France ; and, finally, that the Cortes must be convoked to take measures
for the defence of the kingdom, and for such ulterior objects as might re-
quire their attention. The decrees necessary to carry these instructions
into etfect, were taken to Madrid by an officer destined to future celobrity,
Don Joseph Palafox.
238 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXVIII.
Napoleon was soon after relieved from the embarrassment which Fer-
dinand's resolute opposition occasioned, by intelligence of the tumult at
Madrid. He al once changed his ground, denounced the king for the con-
duct of his people, and ended by a significant intimation that his obstinacy
would endanger his own life and that of his brothers. As nothing, now,
could bo gained by resistance, Ferdinand resolved to submit. On the
lOih A May, he signed a treaty assenting to his father's resignation of the
Spanish crown in favor of Napoleon, and receiving in return the title of
Most Serene Highness, with the investiture of the palace, park and farms
of Navarre, and an annuity of six hundred thousand francs from the
French treasury. The same rank, with an annuity of four hundred thou-
sand francs, was conferred on the Infants Don Carlos and Antonio. When
this treaty was completed, the Emperor removed Ferdinand and his
brothers to Bordeaux, wjiere the two princes signed a renunciation of their
rights to the throne, and Ferdinand was compelled to affix his name to a
proclamation, counselling submission to the Spanish people. The three
royal captives were afterward removed to Valencay, and they remained
there during the war.
Having succeeded in dispossessing the Bourbon family, and obtaining a
semblance of legal title to the Spanish throne, Napoleon resolved to cre-
ate his brother Joseph king of Spain, and confer the crown of Naples,
which Joseph then held, upon Murat. On the 6th of June, Joseph was
accordingly proclaimed King of Spain and the Indies at Bayonne, and a
proclamation, issued by Napoleon, convoked an assembly of one hundred
and fifty notables, to meet at that city on the 15th of the same month, for
regulating the affairs of the kingdom. Of the notables thus summoned,
ninety-two, comprising some of the principal nobles and prominent men
in Spain, met at Bayonne in conformity to the proclamation, and formally
accepted the Constitution prepared for them by Napoleon.
This instrument provided, that the crown should be vested in Joseph
Bonaparte and his heirs-male; whom failing, the Emperor and his heirs-
male ; and in default of both, to the other brothers of the Imperial family
in their order of seniority, but on condition that the crown should not be
united with any other crown in the person of one sovereign. A Legisla-
ture was created, to consist of eighty members, nominated by the king.
A Cortes was also decreed, to consist of a hundred and seventy-two mem-
bers, thus composed: twenty-five archbishops and bishops and twenty -five
grandees, on the first bench ; sixty-two deputies of the provinces of Spain
and the Indies and thirty from the principal towns, on the second; and
fifteen from the merchants and manufacturers and fifteen from the depart-
ments of arts and sciences, on the third. The first fifty of these, comprising
the peers, were appointed by the king but could not be displaced by him;
the second class of ninety-two was elected by the provinces and munici-
palities ; and the third was appointed by the king from lists presented to
him by the tribunals of commerce and the universities. The delibera.
tions of the Cortes were to be private, and the publication of any of its
proceedings was denounced under the penalties of high treason. Its
duties were to arrange the national finances and expenditures for three
years at one sitting. The colonies were to have a deputation of twenty-
two persons constantly at the seat of government to superintend their in-
terests ; all exclusive exemptions from taxes were abolished ; entails
permitted only to the amount of twenty thousand piastres, and with the
V608.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 239
consent of the king; an alliance offensive and defensive was concluded
with France, and a promise r^'ven for the establishment of the liberty of
the press within two years after the acceptance of the new Constitution.
On the 9th of July, King Joseph set out for the capital of his dominions,
with a splendid cortege and amid the roar of artillery. Napoleon returned
to St. Cloud, having refused to visit Ferdinand on his route, although per-
sonally requested to do so by the dethroned sovereign. Charles IV., after
testifying his entire satisfaction at the Emperor's proceedings, solicited
permission to remove to Marseilles, where, in ease and obscurity, he lin-
ger^d out the remainder of his inglorious life.
The ministry appointed by Joseph before his departure from Bayonne,
were taken chiefly from the counsellors of Ferdinand ; and this selection,
together with their ready acceptance of their new dignities, throws a deep
shade of doubt over the fidelity with which they had served the Prince of
Asturias during his brief possession of the Spanish throne. Don Luis de
Urquijo, was made Secretary of State ; Don Pedro Cevallos, Minister of
Foreign Affairs ; Don Sebastian do Pinnela, Minister of Justice : Don (ion-
zalo O'Farrel, Minister at War; and Mazaredo, Minister of th^ Marine.
Even Escoiquiz wrote to Joseph, protesting his devotion, and declaring
that he and the rest of Ferdinand's household "were willing blindly to
obey his will to the most minute particular." The Duke del Infantado
and the Prince of Castel-Franco were appointed, severally, to the com-
mand of the Spanish and Walloon guards. Thus, the new king entered
Madrid, where he arrived on the 20th of July, surrounded by the highest
grandees and most illustrious titles of Spain. Nevertheless, his reception
at the capital was gloomy in the extreme. The orders issued for the de-
coration of the houses, were disregarded ; a crowd assembled to see the
cortege, but no shouts welcomed its approach ; the bells of the churches
rang a dismal peal, and every countenance was full of sorrow.
THE Spanish Peninsula, in which a bloody war was now commencing,
and where the armies of France and England found, at last, a perma-
nent theatre of conflict, differs in many important particulars from every
other country on the Continent. Physically considered, it belongs as
much to Africa as to Europe : the same burning sun parches the moun-
tains and dries up the valleys of both. Vegetation, in general, spreads
only where irrigation can be obtained ; and with that powerful auxiliary,
the steepest acclivities of Catalonia and Arragon are clothed in luxuriant
green ; while, without it, vast districts in Leon and the Castiles are
almost destitute of cultivation and inhabitants. The desert tracts of
Spain are so extensive that the country, viewed from the high ridges
which intersect the interior 'provinces, exhibits only a confused group of
barren elevated plains and lofty naked peaks, relieved by a few glit-
tering streams, having on their margins crops, flocks, and the traces
23
CHAPTER XXIX.
CAMPAIGN OF 1808 IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.
240 HIS TORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXIX.
of habitable dwellings. The whole country may be considered as a
vast mountainous promontory, that stretches from the Pyrenees, south-
wardly, between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean sea. On the bor-
ders of the ridge, to the east and west, are plains of admirable fertility;
while the centre consists of an assemblage of heights, in the midst
of which lies Madrid, in an upland basin, eighteen hundred feet above
the level of the sea. This great central region is intersected by three
causeways leading, severally, from Madrid to Bayonne, by the Somo-
Sierra pass, to Valencia, and to Barcelona : in every other quarter, the
roads are little better than mountain paths communicating with walled
towns, built on the summits of hills, and surrounded by olive forests, but
having little intercourse with each other or with the rest of Europe.
There are but two great and rich alluvial plains in Spain ; in one, Valen-
cia, amid luxuriant harvests and the richest gifts of nature, the castanets
and evening dance represent the careless gayety of the tropical regions ;
and in the second, Andalusia, abounding in myrtle thickets and orange
groves, the indolent habits, fiery character and impetuous disposition of the
inhabitants, attest the undecaying influence of Moorish blood and Arabian
descent.
The aggregate of forces destined to operate in this romantic field was
immense. Napoleon had no less than six hundred thousand disposable
French troops under his command, besides a hundred and fifty thousand
drawn from the Confederation of the Rhine, Italy, Naples, Holland and
the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. Nor did the numerical strength of this
host exceed its efficiency. The ranks of the French army were, to a
great extent, filled with veterans who had seen fifteen years of active
service; and who, by their experience, their skill, and their confidence
arising from a hundred former victories, might be considered as nearly
invincible as any soldiers who ever took the field. The disposable Brit-
ish army in the spring of 1808, exclusive of the militia, the volunteers,
and the regular troops occupied in defence of the various colonies of the
Empire, amounted to a hundred thousand men, in the highest state of dis-
cipline, and equipment. The military establishment of Spain, when the
contest commenced, was far from being considerable, as the entire force
that could be brought into action did not exceed seventy thousand men,
who were stationed at remote points, and whose qualities as soldiers were
far inferior to those of the British and French troops.
The first effervescence of public indignation caused by 'the massacres
at Madrid, was followed by a series of revolts in the principal towns
of Spain, which were marked by frightful atrocities : natives of France,
of whatever occupation, were indiscriminately put to death, and the evi-
dences furnished by these bloody deeds of the ruthless character of Cas-
tilian revenge, too truly symbolized the ferocious warfare that was about
to desolate the country. Nor were the early movements of the Spaniards
confined to isolated revolts. In ihe beginning of June, the Spanish troops
at Cadiz, under General Morla, made preparations to capture the French
fleet of five ships of the line and one frigate, then lying in the harbor
of that port. Batteries were constructed to command the whole bay;
and, on the 9th of June, they opened their fire with decisive effect.
The French admiral, finding escape and resistance equally impossible,
entered into negotiations with Morla, and, on the 14th of June, he uncon-
ditionally surrendered the whole flest to the Spanish commander. These
1808.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 241
successes, combined with the universal spirit of resistance throughout the
kingdom, led to a speedy assemblage of volunteer forces, which soon
amounted, in the several provinces, to a hundred and fifty thousand men,
all armed, to a certain extent disciplined, and with an invincible personal
courage, ready to cooperate with and support the movements of the regu-
lar army.
Marshal Bessieres and General Frere made the first demonstration on
the part of the French troops in Old Castile and Leon, where, by a suc-
cession of combats with the ill-organized forces of Spain, they succeeded,
by the middle of June, in disarming all opposition to the new government
in those provinces. In Aragon, however, although that province was
almost destitute of regular troops, the French arms met with more seri-
ous resistance. By great exertions, Palafox and the junta of Saragossa
had succeeded in arming and partially disciplining ten thousand volun-
teer infantry, who were marched out of that city, under Marquis Lazan,
and took post behind the Huecha, to oppose the advance of Lefebvre.
Two actions ensued, in both of which the discipline of the French troops
prevailed, and the Spaniards were driven back to Saragossa, where Pala-
fox reorganized his army, and prepared for an obstinate defence.
Saragossa is situated on the right bank of the Ebro, in the midst of a
fertile plain, abounding in olive-groves, vineyards, gardens, and all the
evidences of long-continued civilization. It contained, at that period,
fifty-five thousand inhabitants. The immediate vicinity of the town is
flat, and in some places marshy. To the south, distant a quarter of a
league, rises Mount Torrero, on the side of which runs the canal of Ara-
gon— a noble work, commenced by Charles V., forming a water commu-
nication, without a lock, from Tudela to Saragossa. This hill commands
the plain on the left bank of the Ebro, and overlooks the town. Several
warehouses and other buildings, constructed for the commerce of the
canal, were now intrenched and occupied by twelve hundred Spanish
soldiers. The city itself, surrounded by a low brick wall, not more than
twelve feet high and three feet thick, interrupted in many places by
houses and convents which were built in its line, and pierced by eight
gates, with no outworks, could scarcely be called fortified. But few
guns fit for service were on the ramparts; the houses were strongly built
of stone or brick, for the most part two stories high, and the massy piles
of the convents, rising in many quarters like castles, offered strong posi-
tions, when the walls of the town should be forced, for a desperate and
inflamed population. Few generals in regular service would have thought
of making a stand in such a city : but Florus has recorded that Numantia
had neither walls nor towers, when it resisted so long and heroically
the Roman legions ; and Colmenar, with a prophetic spirit, said early
in the eighteenth century, " Saragossa is without defences, but the valor
of its inhabitants supplies the want of ramparts."
The resolution to defend Saragossa cannot with justice be ascribed to
any single individual ; the glory belongs to the whole population, all of
whom, in the first movements of confusion and excitement, had a share in
the bold determination. When Palafox withdrew his defeated forces into
the town, he either despaired of being able to defend it, or deemed it neces-
sary to collect reinforcements from other quarters for a prolonged resist-
ance ; and retired with a small body of troops to the northern bank of the
river, leaving the armed population nearly unsupported *o sustain the con-
242 H I S T O R Y O F E U .; O P E . [CHAP. XXIX,
test. Lefebvre, taking advantage of the Spanish commander's absence,
commenced an assault ; but the people intrepidly stood on their defence,
and, after a sharp contest, drove him back from the walls. Animated by
this success, the inhabitants resolved to strengthen the fortifications and
maintain the place. Men, women and children took part in the laborious
duty ; cannon were dragged to the gates, loopholes struck out in the
walls, fascines and gabions constructed with astonishing celerity, and in
twenty-four hours the city was secure from a coup-de-main.
Lefebvre's loss in this affair was very severe, and he became convinced
that regular approaches were indispensable to the reduction of the town.
He therefore withdrew from the gates, and dispatched orders for heavy
artillery to Pampeluna and Bayonne. Meantime, Palafox returned to
the relief of Saragossa with seven thousand infantry, a hundred horse,
and four pieces of cannon ; but having encamped without the walls for
the night, he was attacked by Lefebvre under cover of the darkness, and
completely routed. He, however, made good his own entry into the
city ; and as the battering train of the besiegers soon arrived, Saragossa
was regularly and completely invested.
A contest now ensued which has few parallels in history. The num.
bers, resources and skill of the French troops rendered the exterior de-
fences unavailing, and the slender walls being soon laid in ruins, the
town was summoned to surrender. Palafox rejected the proposal, and
the besiegers advanced to the assault. The combat at the breaches was
long and bloody; but at length the French penetrated into the streets,
and supposed themselves in possession of Saragossa. Here, however, a
desperate resistance awaited them. Every roof and window blazed with
an incessant fire of musketry, which they could not return with effect,
and they fell by hundreds before its withering storm. Powder maga-
zines in different quarters blew up, the houses at various points took fire,
but the battle still raged, day and night, from street to street, from door
to door ; the roar of artillery and musketry, the explosion of bombs, the
glare of conflagration and the cries of combatants continued, without
intermission, for ten entire days, at the end of which time, August 14th,
Lefebvre retreated with immense loss, having been unable to make a
permanent lodgment in any quarter of the town.
A similar reverse awaited the French troops at Valencia, a town as
imperfectly fortified and apparently as incapable of defence as Saragossa.
Moncey, in the expectation of an easy victory, assaulted the place at the
head of eight thousand men; but the unconquerable heroism of the in-
habitants was an. overmatch for his utmost efforts, and he was compelled
to retreat with a loss of two thousand of his best troops.
These brilliant achievements excited the utmost enthusiasm throughout
all Spain, and recruits flocked to the national standards, in the confident
hope of sweeping the invaders across their own frontier. Blake and
Cuesta, two Spanish generals of some note, resolved to unite their forces
and give battle to Bessieres on the plains of Leon. They advanced ac-
cordingly to Rio Seco, with twenty-five thousand men and thirty pieces
of cannon. Bessieres's force did not exceed fifteen thousand, but the
quality of his troops more than atoned for their inferiority of numbers.
Cuesta, who as senior officer took the chief command, made the worst
possible disposition for the battle. He posted Blake, with ten thousand
of his least experienced soldiers, on a rugged plateau nearest the en^my;
180d.] HISTORY OF EUROPF. 243
while he tool; command in person of the remaining fifteen thousand, who
were nearly all regular troops, a mile and a half in the rear. Bessicres
readily took advantage of this insane division -of the Spanish forces.
Making a circuit with a considerable part of his army, he attacked Blake
simultaneously in front, flank and rear, and at the first charge dispersed
the whole division in hopeless disorder across the field. Cuesta advanced
to the relief of his colleague, and at first made some impression on the
French columns as they were confusedly pressing on Blake's retreat;
but Bessieres soon rallied his men, and, by an impetuous and concentrated
attack, broke and totally routed the second Spanish division. Cuesta's
loss in this action was three thousand men killed and wounded, two
thousand prisoners, and eighteen pieces of cannon: the loss of the French
did not exceed twelve hundred men. In the course of the pursuit, the
town of Rio Seco was taken, and given up to the sack and pillage of the
soldiery. The result of this action destroyed the newly-acquired con-
fidence of the Spaniards, and, in a proportionate degree, elevated the
hopes of Napoleon who, when he received the intelligence, exultingly
remarked, "Bessieres has placed Joseph on the throne of Spain ;" and he
congratulated himself with the belief that the war was at an end. But
he never formed a more erroneous opinion.
Soon after the insurrections broke out, Dupont, with a considerable
force, marched into Andalusia ; where, having gained several minor ad-
vantages, he took possession of the city of Cordova, and delivered it to
the pillage of his troops, in the same manner as if it had been carried by
assault. A scene of indescribable horror ensued. Armed and unarmed
men were slaughtered, women ravished, and the churches plundered:
even the venerable cathedral, which had survived the devastation of the
first Christian conquest, six hundred years before, was stripped of its
ornaments, and polluted by the vilest debauchery. Money and articles
of plate, to an enormous amount, were seized both for public purposes
and for the private use of the troops ; and it is important to observe, that
these extremities of ou % ?e were committed against the inhabitants of a
town who had offered Ole or no resistance to the invaders, who were
not formally summoned to surrender, and who therefore, by all rules of
civilized warfare, were entitled to the most liberal terms of capitulation.
Dupont remained several days at Cordova; but at length becoming
alarmed at the insurrectionary movements of the inhabitants in the ad-
joining country, and at the assembling of Spanish troops under Castanos
and Reding, which threatened to cut off his communications with Madrid,
he abandoned his original intention of a farther advance into Andalusia,
and resolved to retreat upon the capital. He immediately organized his
forces for this purpose and set forth, taking, in addition to the ordinary
baggage of his army, a train of wagons loaded with the ill-gotten plunder
of Cordova. His march was for a time uninterrupted, but he soon en-
countered numerous detached parties at the fords and defiles of his route,
from whom he met \\ ith serious opposition and loss ; and when he reached
Andujar, he found himself completely enveloped by the enemy. As his
army was twenty thousand strong, he might, by a vigorous effort, have
cut his way through his antagonist's lines ; but, instead of so doing, he
divided his troops, sent Vedel with a strong detachment toward Carolina,
and himself retreated upon Baylen. He was here attacked by the Span-
iards, and after a desperate but ineffectual resistance, solicited a suspen-
23*
244 HISTORY OF EUROPE, [CHAP. xxix,
sion of arms. Vedel, who had been ordered back to Dupont's assistance
at the commencement of the action, arrived only in time to share its dis-
asters; and, after a brief negotiation, the French general, finding it
impossible to escape the catastrophe, surrendered his entire force to
Castanos on condition of being sent back by sea to France. The pris-
oners, with the garrisons of a number of detached posts on their line of
communication with Madrid, who also surrendered, amounted to twenty-
one thousand men. Two thousand had fallen in the battle, one thousand
were killed in the retreat preceding it, and thus twenty-four thousand
effective troops were for the time lost to France, including all their arms
and artillery.
The account of this defeat reached Napoleon at Bordeaux, and he was
so excited by the news that his attendant ministers were greatly alarmed.
"Is your majesty ill?" said Maret. "No." "Has Austria declared
war ?" " Would to God that were all !" " What, then, has happened ?"
The Emperor recounted the details of the battle, and added, "That an
army should be beaten, is nothing; it is the daily fate of war, and is
easily repaired : but that an army should submit to a dishonorable capit-
ulation, is a stain on the glory of our arms that can never be effaced.
Wounds inflicted on honor are incurable. The moral effect of this catas-
trophe, too, will be terrible. What! he has had the infamy to give up
our soldiers' haversacks to be searched like those of robbers ! Could I
ever have expected that of General Dupont, a man whom I loved and
was rearing up to become a marshal ? He says, he had no other way to
prevent the destruction of the army and save the lives of the soldiers:
but it were far better they had all perished, than suffer this disgrace."
If, however, the capitulation of Baylen was dishonorable to the French,
its subsequent violation was not less so to the Spaniards. As the long
files of prisoners marched across the country toward Cadiz, the revengeful
passions of the populace became excited to see so large a body of men,
stained by robbery and murder committed within the dominions- of Spain,
about to embark for France, for no other purpo^r than to be again let
loose in the Peninsula and commi* similar outrages. The popular indig-
nation soon rose to such a neignt, that Castanos failed in every attempt to
restrain it ; and when, during a collision between the prisoners and the
people at Lebrixa, some of the sacred silver vessels stolen from Cordova
were found among the baggage of the French soldiers, the governor of
Cadiz, in conjunction with the junta of Seville, and in compliance with
the demands of the exasperated populace, sent the vanquished troops to
the hulks in the harbor of Cadiz, where they were confined during the
war, and subjected to such hardships that few of them ever regained their
native country.
Joseph Bonaparte and his adherents were so alarmed at the result of
the battle of Baylen, that they resolved to evacuate Madrid ; and, on the
30th of July, the intrusive king commenced his retreat, having first
ordered eighty pieces of heavy artillery, which he could not remove, to
be spiked, and despoiled the palaces of all their jewels and other articles
of value. The French troops were not molested by the Spaniards on
their march, yet they robbed and burned every village and hamlet near
which they passed. When Joseph arrived at Burgos, he was joined by
Bessieres with his corps, and by Verdier with the force that had been
driven from Saragossa ; and these, together with the division of Moncey,
]808.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 245
enabled him to take post behind the Ebro at the head of fifty thousand
veterans.
The feeling of discouragement among the French troops was not a
little augmented by the ill success of their arms in Catalonia, where
Generals Schwartz and Chabran, with two divisions of above four thou-
sand men each, were severally defeated with great loss by the undis-
ciplined but brave peasantry of that province. These reverses were
followed by a more serious disaster at Gerona. General Duhesme, with
six thousand men and a train of heavy artillery had laid siege to that
town; but he was routed with a loss of nearly half his forces, all his
stores, and thirty pieces of cannon. This accumulation of triumph pro-
duced the happiest effect in animating the courage of the Spaniards ; but
in the midst of their exultation it was observed, with regret, that few
vigorous or efficient measures were adopted by the juntas for prosecuting
the war.
Meantime, Portugal became the theatre of important events. When
the insurrection in the Peninsula first assumed a serious aspect, the
British government resolved to throw their weight into the scale against
Napoleon ; and they accordingly fitted out an expedition under the com-
mand of Sir Arthur Wellesley, who arrived in Mondego Bay on the 31st
of Jury. Pie commenced the disembarking of his troops on the day follow-
ing, despite a strong west wind and heavy surf, and on the evening of the
8th of August, his army of thirteen thousand men bivouacked on the beach.
These troops took the field in the highest spirits and the most perfect state
of discipline and equipment; but their commander had the mortification
to learn, in his first movements, that little reliance could be placed on the
cooperation of the Portuguese soldiers for the defence of their own terri-
tories. Doubtless, this backwardness on their part was owing to their
fears of the French, and their want of confidence in the prowess of their
allies, whom they deemed inadequate to comeiiti with Napoleon's vete-
rans. Sir Arthur nevertheless advanced into the country, and was
received by the people with great enthusiasm.
When Junot learned the arrival of the British troops, he called in his
detached columns for the protection of Lisbon ; and Laborde, to gain
time for the execution of this order, made a stand at Rolica, with five
thousand men and five pieces of cannon. His ground was well o^^^n,
being an elevated plateau between two lofty hills, which, in front of his
lines, were covered with rocky thickets and close underwood of myrtle.
Sir Arthur moved to the attack in three columns ; directing two of them
to make their way over the mountains and turn the flanks of the enemy,
while he led the third in person against the front of the position. As
soon as Laborde saw this combined movement, he fell back precipitately
to a valley higher up in the gorge, where the natural defences of the
ground promised to atone for his inferiority of numbers. The British
columns pressed on in pursuit, and a- spirited contest commenced, which
ended in the retreat of Laborde, with a loss of six hundred men and
three pieces of cannon.
On the day after this action, and while the British troops were threat-
ening the rear of Laborde's division, Sir Arthur ascertained that Junot
was advancing toward him with his whole force, to offer a pitched battle;
he therefore recalled his leading columns, and directed his march upon
Vimiero where he established his head-quarters on the 19th of August
246 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXIX.
Early in the morning of the 21sl, the French army approached the Eng-
lish lines, and Laborde commenced an attack on their centre, which was
promptly repulsed by the 50th regiment under Colonel Walker, who,
throwing his men into echellon obliquely across the front and flank of
an entire French brigade in close column, totally routed them before re-
enforcements could come up. The battle was maintained with great
spirit at all points ; but the French at length gave way, having sustained
a loss of twenty-four hundred men and thirteen pieces of cannon, while
the British loss did not exceed eight hundred. Sir Arthur had now an
opportunity to fall upon and destroy the retreating French columns ; but
Sir Harry Burrard, who had arrived to supersede him in the chief com-
mand, and who, being an officer of the old school, considered one victory
a sufficient achievment for one week, positively forbade the advance of
the troops ; whereupon Sir Arthur, concealing the bitterness of his disap-
pointment under an affected gayety, said to the officers of his staff, " Gen-
tlemen, nothing now remains for us, but to go and shoot red-legged
partridges."
Sir Harry Burrard retained the office of commander-in-chief for a
brief period only, as Sir Hugh Dalrymple reached the British head-quar-
ters on the next day, and superseded him ; so that, within thirty hours,
a pitched battle had been fought, and three generals successively took
the supreme direction of the army. After conferring with his two prede-
cessors, Sir Hugh resolved to advance on the French position at Torres
Vedras ; but at this juncture, a flag of truce from Junot's camp was an-
nounced, and Kellerman came forward with proposals for an armistice.
Negotiations were immediately commenced, which terminated in the
Convention of Cintra. This instrument provided that the French troops
should evacuate the whole kingdom of Portugal, surrender all the for-
tresses they held in its dominions to the British, and be conveyed to
France with the artillery directly appertaining to their corps, and a por-
tion of their ammunition. A separate clause stipulated that the Russian
fleet of ten line-of-battle ships, then lying in the harbor of Lisbon, should
be surrendered to the English commander and conveyed to Great Britain,
there to remain in deposite until six months after the conclusion of a gen-
eral peace : but the officers and crews were to be sent to Russia without
delay, at the expense of the British government. It was further provided,
that the French troops should be allowed to take with them their individ-
ual property ; when, however, it was discovered that their disgraceful
system of pillage in Lisbon had despoiled the palaces, churches, private
houses, public treasury, and even the museums of their most valuable
effects, and that the whole army, from Junot down to the meanest soldier,
had participated in the robbery, the compact was so far modified as to
enforce a restoration of the plunder. The homeward movement of the
troops was now hastened on, and, by the middle of October, not a French
soldier remained on the soil of Portugal.
This triumph, however, great as it undoubtedly was, did not satisfy
the expectations of the British people ; and the three generals were or,
dered home, to answer to a Court of Inquiry, for neglect of duty in allow-
ing Junot's troops so easy an escape. They were eventually acquitted,
but Sir Arthur Wellesley alone was again intrusted with any important
command in the British army. In the mean time, Sir John Moore landed
at Lisbon with a division of fresh troops, and took command of the Eng.
1808.] PI ISTORY OF EUROPE. 247
lish forces. His first care was to put the fortresses of the kingdom in 'a
condition of defence, and establish a central junta at Lisbon to administer
the affairs of the government, in the absence of the Prince Regent. Hav-
ing completed these preparations, he began his march for the seat of war
at the foot of the Pyrenees.
The campaign in the Peninsula had already produced an effect inimi-
cal to France, in some of the other European states. Austria, as early
as the 9th of June, taking alarm at Napoleon's progress, directed the
formation of a landwehr, or local militia, in all the provinces of her do-
minions ; and the Archduke Charles, at the head of the War Department,
had infused great activity into the several branches of the regular army.
Count Metternich, the Austrian ambassador at Paris, when pressed by
the French Emperor for the reason of these movements, alleged that the
cabinet of Vienna was only imitating the conduct of their powerful neigh-
bors, and that since Bavaria had adopted the French system of conscrip-
tion, and organized a National Guard on the French model, it became
necessary for Austria to take corresponding measures in self-defence.
Napoleon had now resolved to pursue the Spanish war to extermina-
tion, and he made new demands on the Senate of Paris for anticipating
the conscriptions of 1809 and 1810 ; but as the immense increase of force
thus obtained still fell short of his wishes, he entered into a new treaty
with Prussia, by which he agreed, on condition of receiving a hundred
and forty millions of francs, to evacuate the Prussian territory, retaining
only the fortresses of Glogau, Stettin and Custrin, which were each to be
garrisoned with four thousand French soldiers, and such garrisons sup-
ported at the sole expense of Prussia. Nor did Napoleon stop here ; but,
proceeding from measures of active preparation to those of a precaution-
ary character, he solicited and obtained an interview with the Emperor
Alexander at Erfurth. The two sovereigns met at that place on the
27th of September, and remained in daily communication until the 14th
of October ; when they separated never to meet again in this world. The
conferences between the monarchs were not reduced to formal or secret
treaties ; at least, the existence of such treaties has never been discov-
ered or avowed : but they were not on that account the less important.
The principal object of Napoleon was, to secure the cooperation of Rus-
sia against Austria, should the latter power attempt a hostile movement
on France, while he was engaged in the Peninsula ; and, in return, he
consented to Alexander's uniting Finland, Moldavia and Wallachia to
the Russian dominions ; and promised the future aid of France in extend-
ing the Muscovite rule over the Asiatic Continent. At the same time, he
agreed to relax somewhat in the terms of his last treaty with Prussia,
reducing the amount of the contribution to a hundred and twenty-five
millions of francs, more than half of which sum was stipulated to be paid
in the promissory notes of the Prussian government. Two other subjects
were introduced at this conference by Napoleon, which, without directly
accomplishing the ends he had in view, excited the distrust and jealousy
of Alexander, and destroyed the confidence and regard that he had lat-
terly entertained toward the French Emperor. These were, a proposal
to divorce Josephine and contract a marriage with the Grand-duehesa
Catherine, Alexander's favorite sister ; and the offer of certain equiva-
lents for the cession of Constantinople to France.
Napoleon reached Paris on the 29th of October ; and, having* dfai
18
248 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXIX
patched Murat to Naples, to take possession of the throne vacated by
Joseph Bonaparte, he set out for Bayonne, to superintend in person the
military operations in the Peninsula, where he had now assembled an
army of no less than three hundred thousand men ; of whom, after de-
ducting the garrisons in the northern fortresses of Spain, together with
the sick and absent, fully one hundred and eighty thousand could be
brought into active service on the Ebro : while his armies of reserve in
France, which were preparing to join their brethren in the Peninsula,
amounted to nearly five hundred thousand.
To oppose this immense force, the Spaniards had but seventy-six thou-
sand men in a condition to take the field. They were thus divided :
Palafox, on the right, occupied the country between Saragossa and San-
guessa, with eighteen thousand; Castanos, in the centre, was posted
at Tarazona, with twenty-eight thousand ; and the left, under Blake,
thirty thousand strong, lay on the rocky mountains near Reynosa. Sir
John Moore was advancing to unite with the Spanish forces ; and the
troops under his command, when joined by Sir David Baird's powerful
reenforcement, would amount to thirty thousand men ; but they were yet
at a distance from the scene of action, and Napoleon resolved to strike a
decisive blow before their arrival. Blake, in the meantime, had assumed
the offensive, and gained some inconsiderable success over detached par-
ties of the French, which he followed up by capturing Bilboa after one
day's investment. Encouraged by this, the Spanish general proposed a
combined attack on the French position ; the nature of the ground, how-
ever, and the want of discipline among the troops, prevented the several
divisions from acting in concert, and Castanos, who first reached the
enemy, was repulsed with loss at Logrono. This check led to dissen-
sions between the commanders, and Palafox retired toward Saragossa,
while Blake, who had unexpectedly received a reenforcement that raised
his numbers to nearly fifty thousand, moved against the French left in
the Biscayan provinces. His march, however, was disorderly, and the
divisions of his army so widely separated, that Lefebvre fell on his ad-
vanced guard, seventeen thousand strong, and totally routed them.
Blake immediately fell back and concentrated his forces at Espinosa,
where his numbers, reduced by defeat and disasters, scarcely exceeded
twenty-five thousand men. Napoleon, who now took the chief direction
of the French army, ordered Victor with a corps of twenty-five thousand
strong, to attack Blake in front, while Lefebvre, with fifteen thousand
troops, marched on his communications in the rear. These movements
were decisive ; for although the Spanish soldiers in detached squadrons
fought with great bravery, they were overpowered by the numbers and
discipline of their assailants, and retreated in the greatest confusion,
leaving nearly ten thousand men killed, wounded and prisoners, on the
field. The routed army fled in two different directions ; Romana, with
nine thousand stragglers made his way into Leon, and Blake, with seven
thousand sought refuge at Reynosa, and there joined a portion of his re-
serves. But he was rapidly pursued by Soult, and driven into the Astu-
rian mountains, after having lost half his men, and all his ammunition
and artillery.
Soult next moved against Burgos, where eighteen thousand of the best
troops in Spain had been hastily assembled under the Count de Belviderer
The Spanish soldiers bravely sustained the attack of the French columns
1808,] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 249
for a short time ; but they soon gave way, leaving behind them twenty-eight
hundred men and all their artillery and stores. Burgos fell into the hands
of the French marshal, and, after being abandoned to pillage, became the
head-quarters of Napoleon, who established himself there on the 12th of
November. On receiving intelligence of this defeat, Castanos retired to
Tudela, and formed a junction with Palafox : their united forces amounted
to forty-three thousand men, with forty pieces of cannon. Marshal Ney
pursued this army, and attacked its outposts on the 21st. The Spanish
troops gave way at all points : fifteen thousand men, without artillery or
ammunition, made their escape with Palafox to Saragossa ; twenty thou-
sand, under Castanos, retreated on Catalayud ; five thousand were killed,
wounded or made prisoners, and the remainder fled in total confusion to
the mountains.
This dispersion of the Spanish troops in the north laid open the road to
Madrid, toward which Napoleon now advanced with the Imperial Guards
and Victor's corps, amounting in all to sixty thousand men. On the 30th
of November, he encountered a serious opposition in the pass of Somo-
Sierra, where twelve thousand Spaniards, with sixteen pieces of cannon,
made a desperate stand, and for a while arrested the march of the whole
French army. Nothing, however, could resist the enthusiasm of Napo-
leon's veterans, when fighting under his own eye. By an impetuous
charge up the rugged ascent of the defile, they carried the Spanish bat-
teries at the point of the bayonet, dispersed the whole covering force, and
hastened on to Madrid without further opposition.
The inhabitants of the Spanish capital were thrown into the utmost
consternation when they learned that the pass of Somo-Sierra had been
forced, and that Napoleon's columns were advancing against their de-
fenceless walls. There were but three hundred regular troops in the
town, with two battalions of new levies : nevertheless, vigorous prepara-
tions were made for defence. Eight thousand muskets and a large num-
ber of pikes were distributed to the people, heavy cannon were planted
on the Retire and in the principal streets, the pavements were torn up,
barricades erected, and the most enthusiastic spirit pervaded the multi-
tude. On the morning of the 2nd, the advanced guard of the French
army reached the heights north of Madrid, and Napoleon, who was very
desirous to gain possession of the Spanish capital on the anniversary of
his coronation and of the battle of Austerlitz, immediately summoned il
to surrender; but the proposal was indignantly rejected.
During the night, the French infantry arrived in great strength, and
early on the 3rd, the Emperor directed an assault on the Retire, the
heights of which entirely command the city. This important post was
speedily carried, and as the town became now indefensible in a military
point of view, a capitulation took place : on the 4th of December, Madrid
was occupied by the French troops. Napoleon did not himself enter the
town, but established his head-quarters at Chamartin, where he received
the submission of the authorities and regulated the affairs of the govern-
ment. In a short time, everything bore the appearance of peace : the
theatres were reopened, citizens crowded the public walks, and the trades
resumed their former activity. By a solemn decree, the Emperor abol-
ished the Inquisition and appropriated its funds to the reduction of the
public debt ; and, in general, the measures taken by Napoleon were well
adapted to secure his own authority and the good will and confidence of
the inhabitants.
n
250 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXIX
While the French Emperor was thus engaged in the civil affairs ot
Spain, and was hastening forward his armies for the complete subjugation
of her provinces, Sir David Baird had landed atCorunnaand formed a junc-
tion with Sir John Moore, and Hope's division had also arrived from the Es-
curial, so that the British army amounted to nearly thirty thousand men.
Sir John Moore, as soon as he heard of the surrender of Madrid and the
great accumulation of force in that quarter, boldly resolved to throw him-
self on the French line of communication and attack Soult, who at that time
lay in fancied security with fifteen thousand men in the valley of the Car-
rion. He accordingly commenced his march on the llth of December;
but, prudently considering, that by some unexpected change in the position
of the French armies he might become involved with forces greatly out-
numbering his own, he combined with his forward movement the prepara-
tions for a retreat, and provided magazines for the latter purpose both on the
route to Lisbon and to Galicia. The English troops proceeded with great
alacrity toward the promised field of combat, and on their way encoun-
tered and defeated several detached parties of the enemy : while Soult,
alarmed at the sudden and near approach of the British, concentrated his
men along the banks of the Carrion in the neighborhood of Saldana, where
General Moore proposed to attack him on the 23rd. The moment that the
advance of the British army was known in Madrid, Napoleon recalled
every division that was moving toward the south, and hurried them by
forced marches to the support of Marshal Soult. On the 22nd of De-
cember, he had reached the pass of Guadarama with overwhelming num-
bers ; on the 26th, his head-quarters were at Tordesillas, his cavalry at
Valladolid, and Marshal Ney at Rio-Seco. Fully anticipating the entire
destruction of the British army, the Emperor now wrote to Soult, " If the
English remain another day in their position, they are undone. Should
they attack you, retire a day's march to the rear : if they retreat, pursue
them closely."
But Sir John Moore was as vigilant as his redoubtable antagonist.
Finding, from the unexpected rapidity of Napoleon's advance, that he
could not safely remain to combat with Soult, he suspended his march on
the 23rd, and on the 24th commenced his retreat toward Galicia, to the
infinite mortification of the British soldiers, who were in the highest spirits
and eager for the contest. On the 26th, Baird's division crossed the Esla,
while Moore, who remained with the rear-guard to protect the stores and
baggage in their passage over the bridge of Castro Gonzalo, was threat-
ened by a body of Ney's horsemen. Lord Paget, however, with two
squadrons of cavalry, overthrew the French detachment, making a hun-
dred prisoners, besides killing and wounding a large number. General
Moore, by a timely retreat, reached Benavente before the enemy, and thus
preserved his own communications entire. The army remained here for
two days, reposing from its fatigues ; but the discipline of the men in three
days of retrograde movement had become seriously impaired. On the
28th, Moore continued his retreat, having first destroyed the bridge over
the Esla, the repairing of which detained Bessieres until the 30th, when
he crossed the river with nine thousand cavalry and followed in pursuit
of the English columns. Soult at the same time passed the bridge of
Mansilla, overspread the plains of Leon with his troops, and captured the
town of that name, which contained a large quantity of military stores
belonging to the Spanish government.
1809.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 251
On the 1st of January, the corps of Soult and Ney, seventy thousand
strong, were joined at Astorga by the Emperor, who, on the road from
Benavente to that place, while riding at a full gallop with his advanced
guard in pursuit of the English troops, was overtaken by a courier with
dispatches. He instantly dismounted, ordered a bivouac fire to be lighted
by the roadside, and, seating himself by it on the ground, was soon so lost
in thought that he became insensible to the snow which fell in thick
wreaths around him. He had ample subject for meditation : Austria had
made hostile demonstrations against France and was preparing to take
the field. He rode on slowly and pensively to Astorga, and remained
there two days writing innumerable dispatches, and regulating at once
the pursuit of the English army, the internal affairs of Spain, and the
organization of the troops of the Rhenish Confederacy. On the 3rd of
January, he returned to Valladolid and proceeded thence by Burgos and
Bayonne to Paris, where he arrived on the 23rd.
The Emperor's withdrawal from Spain made no change in the vigor
of the French pursuit. Soult, with his own corps, twenty-four thousand
strong, pressed rapidly forward and constantly harassed the rear of the
British army, while Ney, moving with still greater celerity, threatened its
flank. Meanwhile, the British rear-guard, commanded by Sir John Moore
in person, maintained its high character for resolution and discipline ; bu,t
the remainder of the troops, disgusted and disheartened by a protracted
retreat through a rough country and in midwinter, broke their ranks,
refused to obey their officers, and became little better than a horde of
stragglers more to be dreaded by friends than enemies. In this deplorable
condition, they reached Lugo late in the evening of the 6th of January.
Here the British general halted, and in a proclamation issued the fol-
lowing day, severely rebuked the men for their insubordination, and
announced his intention to give battle to the French. .Instantly, and as
if by enchantment, the disorder of the troops was at an end. The strag-
glers returned to their ranks, with their arms cleaned, their faces joyful
and their confidence restored : before the morning of the 8th, nineteen
thousand men stood in battle array, impatiently awaiting the attack of the
enemy. But Soult declined the combat, though his army amounted to
twenty-one thousand men, with fifty pieces of artillery in line. Neverthe-
less, Moore had gained the advantage of reorganizing his troops, and was
in much better condition than before for continuing his retreat. During
the night, he broke up from his position, and moved on toward Corunna,
where he arrived on the llth of January. As the troops successively
reached the heights whence the sea became visible, all eyes turned anx-
iously toward the bay, in hopes that the vessels for their transportation
might be awaiting them there ; but the vast expanse was vacant, and a
few coasters and fishing- boats, alone could be descried on the dreary
main. There was now, therefore, no alternative but a battle : the sea
was in front, the enemy in the rear, and a victory was indispensable to
secure the means of embarkation. The troops accordingly made great
efforts to strengthen the land-defences, which, though regular, were very
weak ; and the inhabitants of the town assisted in this laborious duty.
On the 14th, the transports from Vigo hove in sight, and stood into the
bay, when the embarkation of the sick and wounded was immediately
commenced. The greater part of the artillery was next put on board;
for, during all the confusion of the retreat, not one gun had be«n lost.
24
252 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Cm?. XXIX.
While these movements were in progress at the shore of the bay, the
effective portion of the British army, still fourteen thousand strong, was
drawn up with great care by Sir John Moore, on a range of heights, or
rather, of knolls, which form a sort of amphitheatre around the village of
Elvira, at the distance of rather more than a mile from Corunna. The
French, twenty thousand strong, were posted on a higher semi-circular
ridge, distant about one mile from the English position.
From the inactivity of the French troops during the 14th and 15th,
General Moore was led to believe that they had no serious intention of
disquieting his retreat, and he made preparations for withdrawing his army
into the town on the night of the 16th, in order to embark on board of the
transports. About noon on that day, however, a general movement was
seen along the French lines, and at two o'clock, their infantry in four
massy columns descended to the attack. Notwithstanding their inferi-
ority of numbers, the British soldiers stood to their arms with the most in-
vincible resolution, yielding, at intervals, to the pressure of the French
columns, but eventually repelling every assault, with great loss to the
enemy. At the moment when they had forced back the French centre
from Elvina, at the point of the bayonet, Sir John Moore was struck down
by a cannon-shot, and Sir David Baird, also desperately wounded, was
borne senseless from the field. The battle still raged, however, and the
French were fast giving ground, when the sudden approach of night put
an end to the strife, and saved them from destruction. General Hope, on
whom the command of the British army devolved, conceiving that its safe
embarkation was now of more consequence than following up the victory,
withdrew into the town, and the troops were put on board the vessels
without confusion or delay.
After Sir John Moore had received his death- wound, he remained for a
time sitting on the ground and watching the progress of the British charge ;
when he saw that it was successful, and the victory secure, he reluctantly
allowed himself to be conveyed to the rear. As the soldiers placed him on
a blanket to carry him from the field, the hilt of his sword became en-
tangled in the wound, and Captain Hardinge attempted to take it off; but
the dying hero said, " It is well as it is : I would rather it should go from
the field with me." The examination of the wound at his lodgings, shut
out all hope of his recovery, but did not affect his serenity of mind. He
continued to converse in a calm and cheerful voice until a few moments
before his death, and when that event took place, he was wrapped in his
military cloak and laid in a grave hastily dug on the ramparts of Corunna.
A monument was soon after erected over his uncoffined remains by the
gene»»)sity of Marshal Ney.
CHAPTER XXX.
FIRST CAMPAIGN OF 1809 IN GERMANY.
AUSTRIA had improved to the utmost the interval of peace thai fol-
lowed the treaty of Presburg, and by an energetic policy, patiently and
silently pursued, had raised her war establishment to a formidable con-
dition. Napoleon was fully aware of her movements, and more than
once remonstrated against them, on the ground that they were dangerous
to the peace of Europe ; and in reply, the cabinet of Vienna alleged
that their measures were merely precautionary and defensive, while, at
the same time, they were careful not to relax one moment in their efforts.
Although Napoleon was not deceived as to Austria's intentions, yet, while
occupied in the affairs of the Peninsula, her assumption of hostilities took
him by surprise, and it became necessary for him to make extraordinary
exertions in order to commence the campaign on a footing of equality
with his antagonist : indeed, had Austria pressed her offensive operations
with the same vigor as she manifested in preparing for them, she must
have gained important victories before Napoleon could bring his best
troops into the field ; for the flower of the French army was in Spain, and
the forces that he retained in Germany, though powerful in the aggregate,
were as yet scattered in detached masses, from the Alps to the Baltic,
offering an easy triumph to a concentrated and active foe. But it was
not the fate or fortune of Austria to reap advantage from rapid military
evolutions.
The plan of Napoleon, was at the outset strictly defensive, in order to
gain time for assembling his scattered forces into effective masses ; and as
he deemed it unfitting that he should be at the head of his army before it
was prepared for decisive blows, Berthier was dispatched, early in April,
to assume the chief command.
On the 17th of March, Austria had mustered a hundred and forty thou-
sand men on the two banks of the Danube, within eight days' march of
Ratisbon : on the same day, Davoust quitted his cantonments on the Oder
and Lower Elbe, in the north part of Germany ; Massena was yet on the
Rhine, the Bavarians on the Iser, and Oudinot alone at Augsburg. The
French corps could, therefore, have been easily cut off from each other,
and beaten in detail, by a rapid advance of the Imperialists toward Man-
heim ; but the execution of such a design required an alacrity and vigor
practically unknown to the Austrians, who, by hesitating until the French
troops were concentrated on the Danube, lost the great advantage of their
central position in Bohemia. And when, at last, it was resolved to attack
the enemy in Bavaria, the Aulic Council, instead of permitting the Arch-
duke Charles to fall perpendicularly on the French corps scattered to the
south, along the valley of the Danube, ordered him to counter-march the
great body of his men, and open the campaign on the Inn : a gratuitous
and egregious error, which forced his army to march thrice the necessary
distance, and gave the enemy a proportionably increased time to collect
their forces to resist him. This toilsome arid useless march was, how-
ever, at length completed ; the Austrian columns, after moving a hundred
254 II I S T O R Y O F E U R O P E . [Ciur, XXX.
miles back toward Vienna, and crossing the Danube, were arrayed on the
right bank of the Inn, on the 10th of April; and the Archduke prepared
to carry the war into the vast levtSl plains which stretch from the southern
banks of the Danube to the foot of the Alps.
The instructions of Napoleon to Berthier, were clear and precise: if
the Austrians commenced their attack before the 15th of April, he was to
concentrate his army on the Lech, around Donauwerth ; if after that
date, at Ratisbon, guarding the right bank of the Danube from that place
o Passau. But on the 12th of April, by means of the telegraph which
he had established in Central Germany, the Emperor was apprised at
Paris of the Archduke's crossing the Inn. He immediately left the capi-
tal for the seat of war, where he arrived on the 17th of April ; and in the
meantime, the immense forces converging from the mountains of Galicia
and the banks of the Oder to the valley of the Danube, had gradually
reached the frontiers of Germany.
It was high time for him to take the command ; for, great as were the.
faults of the Austrian movements, Berthier had nevertheless brought the
French forces to the verge of destruction. Instead of concentrating them
at Ratisbon or Donauwerth, he dispersed them, despite the remonstrances
of Davoust and Massena, with the insane purpose of stopping at all points
the advance of the Austrians ; and nothing but the tardy march of the
latter saved the French from serious disasters. The Archduke crossed
the Inn on the 10th, at Braunau, and on the 16th, he had barely reached
the Iser, a distance of only twenty leagues. On the same day, however,
he attacked Landshut, and compelled General Deroy, who commanded
the Bavarian garrison, to evacuate the town ; and as the line of the Iser
was thus abandoned, he crossed the river and moved by the great road of
Nuremberg, toward the bridges of Ratisbon, Neustadt and Kellheim, in
order to secure both banks of the Danube. Yet even then, when the
Austrians were greatly superior to the enemy's forces on any one point,
they marched at the rate of but three leagues a day. Nevertheless, the
approach of a hundred and twenty thousand Austrians, even though
moving at a snail's pace, threw Berthier into the greatest consternation.
Contrary to the urgent entreaties of his generals, he compelled Davoust
to strengthen himself at Ratisbon, and ordered Massena to defend the line
of the Lech ; at the same time he directed Lefebvre, Wrede and Oudinot,
to place their several corps in three lines, one behind another, across Ba-
varia— a position so useless and absurd, that more than one of the mar-
shals ascribed his conduct to treachery, although that charge is certainly
without foundation. The result of these joint movements was, that Da-
voust, with sixty thousand men, became gradually hemmed in at Ratisbon
by the Archduke's army, a hundred and twenty thousand strong ; and as
the orders he received from Berthier compelled him to remain there, like
a tiger at bay, no other fate seemed to await him than the disaster which,
four years previously, befell Mack at Ulm.
Matters were in this critical state when Napoleon arrived at Donau-
werth. Having fully informed himself of what had taken place, he dis-
patched the most pressing orders to Massena to hasten, at least with his
advanced guard and cavalry, to PlafFenhofen, a considerable town be-
tween Augsburg and Neusiadt. He also commanded Davoust to march
in the direction of Neustadt and form a junction with Lefebvre. It may
oe presumed that these orders were promptly obeyed, although it was
1809.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 255
impossible for the two marshals to reach the points designated, before the
19th of April. On the 17th, the Archduke detached fifteen thousand men
under the Archduke Louis, to watch the troops of the Confederacy on the
Abeas, while he himself marched with the main strength of his army
toward Ratisbon, to gain possession of the bridge at that place, and, by
thus securing the command of both banks of the Danube, open a free
communication with the two corps, under Klenau, on the opposite side of
the river. The Archduke's light cavalry which, under Hohenzollern,
had been pushed out on the left to cover the flank of the columns pro-
ceeding to Ratisbon, reached Thaun on the 19th, and there unexpectedly
encountered St. Hilaire and Friant, who were covering Davoust's march
through the defile of Portsaal. The two parties simultaneously attacked
each other, and as fresh troops successively came on to the assistance of
their comrades, no less than twenty thousand men, in the aggregate, were
engaged before nightfall. A violent thunder storm finally separated the
combatants, after each side had sustained a loss of three thousand men.
As soon as the two corps of Davoust and Lefebvre were united, Napo-
leon resolved to assume a vigorous offensive, for which, indeed, the rela-
tive position of the armies now presented a tempting opportunity. By
extraordinary exertions, he had brought sixty-five thousand men into one
mass, on the flank of fifty thousand Austrians, who, in four detached corps
under officers acting independently of each other, were scattered over
several leagues of country, and leisurely moving toward a common cen-
tre, where they anticipated a junction with the Archduke and a pitched
battle. Napoleon ordered an immediate and simultaneous attack on these
divisions, commanded, severally, by the Archduke Louis, the Prince of
Reuss, Hiller and Thierry ; and they were so taken by surprise at the
unexpected assault, that they fled on the first charge. Instead of a
regular action, a running fight took place, which continued through the
day, and ended in a loss to the Austrians of eight thousand men. Yet,
notwithstanding this precipitate retreat, they evinced their high discipline,
by maintaining their ranks and keeping possession of every piece of their
artillery.
On the same day that this action took place, April 20th, the Archduke
pressed his attack upon Ratisbon. That town, commanding the only
stone bridge over the Danube below Ulm, was at all times a point of con-
sequence, and was now eminently so from the position of the Austrian
forces. The assault was made on two sides of the town at once ; and
although the slender garrison of three thousand men left by Davoust, de-
fended themselves bravely for a time ; they were forced to yield to the
great preponderance of numbers, and surrendered at discretion.
After the defeat of the four Austrian divisions, Napoleon proposed to
throw himself on the communications of the Archduke ; but, to conceal
his movements he sent Davoust against Ratisbon, with a force sufficient
to command the Archduke's notice, while he in person pushed forward
toward Landshut, whither the columns of Hiller and the Archduke Louis
were retreating. He overtook these troops on the 21st, routed and drove
them through Landshut, made himself master of that town, and inflicted
a loss on the Austrians of nearly six thousand men, of whom the greater
part were prisoners, together with twenty-five pieces of cannon, and a
large quantity of baggage and ammunition. Davoust, in the meantime,
had made his demonstration against the Archduke at Ratisbon, where a
24*
256 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXX.
serious action ensued, and each party suffered a loss of nearly three
thousand men; the. battle was terminated by the approach of night, and
both armies remained on the field ; but as Davoust had accomplished his
purpose of diverting the Archduke's attention from Napoleon's movement,
he with reason claimed the advantages of a victory.
As a general action between the Archduke and Napoleon now became
inevitable, both commanders prepared themselves for the contest ; but there
was this essential difference in their respective arrangements : Napoleon
concentrated his troops into one mass ; while the Archduke, ignorant of
the numbers opposed to him, divided his army into two equal corps, dis-
patched one of them under Kollowrath and Lichtenstein, on the road to
Echmul, and himself retained command of the other in front of Ratisbon.
Thus one half of his army, forty thousand strong, led by Kollowrath and
Lichtenstein, was to contend with more than seventy-five thousand
French troops, flushed with victory, and animated by the Emperor's
presence.
The battle commenced at noonday, on the 22nd of April, by an attack
on the Austrian left wing, followed by a movement against the centre, at
Echmul. The charge on the left was successful, and that portion of the
Imperialist army fell back with severe loss and some confusion ; but the
centre stood firm in spite of every effort of Napoleon, until a division of
reserve, taking advantage of the discomfiture of the left wing, assailed it
in flank, when it retired in good order. The Austrian right had, in the
meantime, held its ground, though assailed by superior numbers both in
front and rear; but when, by the defeat of the centre and left, the whole
French line was enabled to act against this remaining division, it also
gave way and joined the retreat toward Ratisbon. The Archduke now
endeavored to protect the army, which his imprudence had exposed to
such disaster ; and, pressing forward his cuirassiers, interposed a pow-
erful barrier between his own troops and the pursuing columns of the
enemy. The French light-horse were quickly dispersed ; but Napo-
leon's cuirassiers soon came up, and the two rival divisions, equally
brave and equally disciplined, engaged in mortal combat. So vehement
was their onset, and so nearly matched was the strength of the combat-
ants, both armies, as if by mutual consent, suspended their fire to await
its issue : the roar of musketry subsided, the heavy booming of the artil-
lery ceased, and from the melee no sound was heard but the clang of sa-
bres, ringing on the helmets and breast-plates of this redoubtable cavalry;
and when the sun went down, the darkness was illumined by the myriads
of sparks that flew from their swords and armor. Victory at length de-
clared in favor of the French, and the Austrian cuirassiers, after leaving
two-thirds of their number on the field, retreated to Ratisbon. But their
heroic efforts, however fatal to themselves, saved the Austrian army.
During the engagement, the artillery and infantry withdrew unmolested
to the rear, and Napoleon, fearful of falling into some disaster by a fur-
ther pursuit in the night, reluctantly gave orders to the army to halt and
bivouac on the ground they occupied.
The situation of the Archduke became now very critical : he was
threatened in front by the victorious army of Napoleon, and the Danube,
traversed by a single bridge, lay in his rear. The arrival of ree'nforce-
ments had raised his numbers to eighty thousand men ; but he feared to
hazard another battle in such a position, as, in case of disaster, he had no
1809.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 257
means of retreat. He had lost five thousand men in killed and wounded,
and seven thousand prisoners, in the battle of Echmul, besides twelve
standards and sixteen pieces of cannon ; and although Lichtenstein's
corps more than replaced those losses, the spirits of his whole army were
depressed by reverses and fatigue. Besides, the French guards under
Oudinot, had just arrived from Spain, and Massena's corps, which had not
yet been engaged at all, would come into action with the efficiency of
fresh troops. Influenced by these circumstances, he resolved to retire
immediately, and restore the courage and discipline of his men by
repose in Bohemia, before again undertaking active operations. He
threw a bridge of boats over the Danube, and by that and the bridge of
Ratisbon, the troops defiled without intermission, through the whole night.
This movement was executed with such expedition and order, that before
nine o'clock, on the following morning, not only the great body of the
soldiers, but all the guns, baggage and ammunition wagons were safely
disposed on the opposite side of the river.
As soon as Napoleon discovered that the Austrians had escaped him,
he ordered a violent attack on their rear-guard, which had now retired
within the walls of Ratisbon, closed the gates and manned the ramparts
to check his pursuit. He himself reached the scene of action at noon,
and, in his anxiety to press the assault, approached so near the town that
a musket ball struck him on the foot. The pain occasioned by the shot
forced him to dismount ; and for the moment, a belief that he was danger-
ously wounded, created some confusion in the ranks ; but after his foot
had been hastily dressed, he mounted his horse again, and the soldiers
with loud cheers returned to the attack. The defences of the town could
not long withstand the whole French army, and Ratisbon soon fell into
their hands ; but the steadiness of the Hungarian grenadiers and artillery
resisted every attempt to cross the bridge, and the French head-quarters
were for the night established under the walls at the convent of Prull.
Twelve days only had elapsed, since Napoleon left Paris; yet within
that time, he had reassembled his army from its imprudent dispersion by
Berthier, fought the Austrians in several battles, separated Hiller and the
Archduke Louis from the Archduke Charles, thrown the two former back
on the Inn, but with forces too inconsiderable to cover Vienna, and driven
the latter to a retreat toward the Bohemian mountains. Thirty thousand
Austrians had fallen or been made prisoners in the various engagements;
a hundred pieces of cannon, six hundred ammunition wagons, and an im-
mense quantity of baggage had been taken, and the road to Vienna now
lay open to the conqueror. The losses of the French amounted to twenty
thousand men.
Yet, although these brilliant triumphs attended the arms of Napoleon,
where he commanded in person, the war assumed a different aspect in
other quarters ; and it already became manifest, that the invincible vete-
rans of the Republic were wearing out, and that the conscripts of the
Empire were in no respect superior to the improved and invigorated
troops opposed to them. Hiller, who had retired to the Inn after the dis-
aster of Landshut, finding that he was not pressed by the French, but
that Napoleon had moved in another direction, determined to take ven-
geance on the Bavarians, by whom he had been somewhat incautiously
pursued. He therefore turned upon a corps of those troops under
Wrede, who, with the French reserve of Bessieres, were advancing be-
258 H I S T O R Y O F E U R 0 P E . [CHAP. XXX.
yond the defile of Neumarck, and had taken post on the heights of St.
Verti. The Bavarians at first made a stout resistance, but they were
soon overpowered, and though Molitor came up to their support with some
regiments of the Imperial Guard, he, too, was compelled to retreat with
considerable loss.
A more serious disaster about the same time b-fell the Viceroy Eu-
gene Beauharnois, on the plains of Italy, where the Archduke John
moved against him with forty eight thousand men. His own forces, en-
camped at Sacile, did not exceed forty-five thousand. The Archduke
commenced the attack at noon, on the 16th of April ; and after the action
had been maintained for some hours with nearly equal fortune, Eugene's
troops fell into confusion, broke their ranks, and fled in the greatest dis-
order toward the Adige : but for the intervention of night his whole army
would have been destroyed. His loss was eight thousand men, in killed,
wounded, and prisoners, besides fifteen pieces of cannon ; while the Aus-
trians' killed and wounded was something less than four thousand.
The Archduke Charles, finding that Napoleon was resolved to push
forward to Vienna, ordered Hiller to retard the advance by all possible
means, recalled the Archduke John from Italy, and himself formed a
junction with Bellegarde. The French Emperor arrived at Braunau on
the 1st of May, and hastened to the utmost the march of his troops, while
Hiller took post at Ebersbenr to defend the passage of the Traun, and
cover the wooden bridge at Mauthausen. When the French reached the
left bank of the Traun, beyond Scharlentz and in front of Ebersberg,
they found their progress arrested by 'the most formidable obstacles.
Before them lay the bed of the impetuous Traun, nearly eight hundred
yards broad, intersected by sand-banks and islands, and traversed by a
causeway terminating in a bridge three hundred yards long, over the
largest arm of the river. The bridge, closed at its western extremity by
the gate of Ebersberg, was commanded by musketeers posted in the
houses of the town, and by an array of artillery disposed on the adjoining
heights. The hills next the river were covered with infantry, interspersed
with powerful batteries ; and beyond these rose a more elevated range of
heights, clothed with pines and traversed by a single road.
It required no ordinary resolution, to attack thirty-five thousand men
in such a position supported by eighty pieces of cannon ; but Massena,
who led the advanced guard of the army, and burned with a desire to
illustrate his name by some brilliant exploit in a campaign where hith-
erto he had lacked opportunity to distinguish himself, resolved to hazard
an assault. He at first drove in the Austrian outposts on the right bank,
without much difficulty; but when his columns reached the long bridge,
they were swept down by such a storm of musket balls and grape shot,
that they fell back in dismay. General Cohorn immediately led a column
of fresh troops to the head of the bridge ; and although these, in turn,
were struck down by hundreds, they still advanced with desperate reso-
lution up to the gate of Ebersberg, where they were nearly all destroyed.
Ne 'ertheless, as the passage was thus shown to be practicable, though
at L ruinous loss, Massena pushed forward column after column to the
scene of slaughter ; the gate was assailed by troops who seemed utterly
reckless of life, and in the mean time, a powerful detachment had pressed
around to the rear of the town. The gate was speedily forced, the batte-
ries silenced, arid the town taken ; while Hiller, yielding at first to the lire-
1809.1 II I S T O R Y O F E U R O P E . 259
sistible valor, and afterward to the overwhelming numbers of the whole
French army, retired in good order, disputing every foot of ground, until
the approach of night brought the battle to a close. He then withdrew
to Etins, burned the bridge of the river of that name, and retreated to-
ward Amstetten. In this terrible conflict few trophies remained to the
victors; they captured four guns and two standards, and the loss in
killed and wounded on each side, amounted to six thousand men.
As Hiller was unable after this defe.it to resist the French advance,
he continued his retreat to the neighborhood of Vienna ; while Napoleon,
uninformed of the Archduke's movements and fearful of penetrating into
the country without knowing the position of his principal antagonist,
halted for two days at Enns, where he reestablished the bridge, and col-
lected a number of boats, which he already foresaw would be required for
crossing the Danube in front of the capital. On the 8th of May, he re-
sumed his march, and on the 10th, the French eagles with the leading
columns of the army appeared before the walls of Vienna. For a time,
the Archduke Maximilian, who had command of the city, thought of
attempting its defence ; but the project was soon abandoned, and he with-
drew his troops to the north across the bridge of Thabor, which he after-
ward burned. As, however, the town made a show of resistance, Napo-
leon ordered a bombardment to be commenced, when General O'Reilly
sent proposals for a capitulation. The terms were soon arranged, and
were ratified on the morning of the 13th of May. The security of pri-
vate property of every description was guarantied, and the arsenal with
all the public stores were surrendered to the victors.
The French troops took possession of the gates at noonday, on the
13th, and at that time the positions of several corps of the army were as
follows: the corps of Lannes, with four divisions of cuirassiers of the
reserve cavalry, and all the Imperial Guard, was stationed at Vienna;
Massena lay between Vienna and the Simmering, his advanced posts
occupying the Prater and watching the banks of the Danube ; Davoust
was advancing in echelon, along the margin of that river, between Ebers-
berg and St. Polten, having his head-quarters at Melk; Vandamme, with
the Wirtemberg troops, guarded the bridge of Lintz ; and Bernadotte,
with the Saxons and other troops of the Confederation, about thirty
thousand strong, had arrived at Passau, and was moving on to form the
reserve of the army, which, independently of his forces and those of Le-
febvre in the Tyrol, numbered a hundred thousand men.
While such was the posture of affairs in the vicinity of the Austrian
capital, the Archduke Charles was making his way toward the same
quarter, but with a tardiness which, to this day, remains wholly unex-
plained. After learning Napoleon's march toward Vienna, he moved
upon Budweiss, forty leagues northwest of the capital, and arrived there
on the 3rd of May ; on the 4th, he received intelligence of Hiller's defeat
at Ebersberg, which left the road open for the French advance ; and yet
he remained totally inactive at Budweiss for three days. At length, on
the morning of the 8th, he marched to intercept the progress of the in-
vaders ; but his previous delay rendered his present haste unavailing,
and with the utmost efforts, his advanced guard could not reach Hiller's
position until the evening of the 15th, when Napoleon was securely estab-
lished in Vienna.
On the 29th of April, the Archduke John, in conformity to the orders
260 HIS TORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXX
he had received, broke up from his position on the Adige, to unite with
the Austrian grand army for the defence of the capital. But he was so
warmly pursued by Eugene Beauharnois, and conducted his retreat so in-
differently, that the viceroy was enabled to cut off a large portion of his
troops, take his artillery, and capture a number of important fortresses
on the route ; in addition to which disasters, he was eventually forced
into the plains of Hungary, and thereby prevented from taking any im-
mediate part in the important events about to occur near Vienna.
The eyes of all Europe were now turned to the banks of the Danube,
near Vienna, where two armies, each a hundred thousand strong, pre-
pared for a deadly, and, to all appearance, a final conflict. The Danube,
as it approaches the Austrian capital, swells into a wide expanse, and em-
braces several islands in its course : some of these are large and highly
cultivated, but the greater part are small and covered with woods. The
island of Prater, with its beautiful shady avenues and recesses, and that
of Lobau, with its rich inclosures, are the most considerable : the latter
is nearly three miles in length, by two in breadth, and the space between
it and the southern bank of the stream, is studded by several smaller
islands. It was at this point that Napoleon resolved to force a passage
across the Danube, and the whole army was occupied for some days in
the undertaking : at length, everything being in readiness, a strong de-
tachment embarked in boats and effected a landing at Lobau. The
troops now readily established a bridge from the southern shore to that
island ; they next threw a pontoon train across to the northern bank, and
on the morning of the 21st, forty thousand men had defiled to the oppo-
site side of the river, and established themselves in front of the Austrian
position.
The Archduke Charles had, in the meantime, remained with the
greater part of his army on the heights of Bisamberg, carefully observ-
ing the French movements, and offering no obstacle to their progress ; but
resolved, the moment a sufficient number should have crossed the river
and become temporarily separated from the support of the main army, to
fall upon them with his whole force. He also sent instructions to Kol-
lowrath, Nordman, and other officers in command farther up the river,
to collect boats with combustible materials, and float them down to de-
stroy the enemy's bridge. At twelve o'clock, on the 21st, he gave the
signal to advance, and his troops, with loud shouts, rushed from their ele-
vated encampment toward the French position.
The termination of the pontoon bridge rested on the plain of Marchfield,
and on either side of this open space were the two villages of Aspern and
Essling, each distant half a mile from the river. The houses of these
villages were built of stone, chiefly two stories in height, and surrounded
by inclosures and garden walls, so that they were capable of an obsti-
nate defence.
Aspern, into which Massena had not with sufficient promptitude thrown
an adequate garrison, was at first carried by Hiller's advanced guard ;
but Molitor came up with his whole division and not only retook it, but
pursued the Austrian detachment, until the advance of Hohenzollern
drove him in turn back to the village; and as Hiller's column rapidly
followed on, a desperate combat ensued there. The Austrian infantry,
the Hungarian grenadiers, and the volunteer corps of Vienna, strove to
outdo each other in feats of daring and valor; while the several divis-
1809.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 261
ions of Massena's corps, fighting under the veteran marshal's eye, bravely
sustained every attack, and from the streets, gardens, windows and house-
tops, kept up a murderous fire on their assailants. Hour after hour the
battle raged, and when the sun went down, the scene of strife was illu-
minated by the burning houses: at eleven o'clock, the Austrians finally
prevailed, and the village remained in their hands for the night.
The plain between Aspern and Essling, had also been the scene of a
desperate battle. The Austrian artillery were posted in great strength
in this open field, and the French columns were so galled on all sides
by the.ir tremendous fire, that Napoleon ordered a general charge of
cavalry to dislodge them. The light-horse of the Guard first undertook
this service, but they were easily repulsed. The cuirassiers followed
next, but the Hungarian grenadiers formed squares around the guns, and
by their sustained volleys of musketry, stretched nearly one half of those
terrible cavaliers on the plain
The attack on Essling, though not less bloody than the battle in the
other parts of the field, was more successfully resisted, and at nightfall
the village remained in possession of the French troops.
The night was consumed in the most strenuous efforts on both sides to
repair their losses, by bringing forward reinforcements ; and as soon as
the first gray of the summer's dawn shed a doubtful light over the field
on the 22nd, the Austrian columns under Rosenberg renewed the attack
on Essling, and at the same time, Massena came forward in force to
reconquer Aspern. Both assaults were attended with varied success.
Aspern yielded to the impetuosity of Massena's charge, while the Arch-
duke's grenadiers carried Essling at the point of the bayonet, and forced
the enemy back almost to the banks of the Danube. The battle ra^ed
with the utmost fury during the whole day ; Essling was at length retaken
by the French, and Aspern, after having been captured and recaptured
three several times, remained in the hands of the Austrians.
In the meantime Napoleon, resolved to bring this murderous contest to
a conclusion, ordered an attack on the Austrian centre in the plain of
Marchfield. The whole corps of Lannes and Oudinot, together with the
cuirassiers and the Imperial Guard in reserve, moved forward in echelon,
preceded by a powerful train of artillery, and fell with irresistible weight
on the Austrian line. The dense columns of Lannes pressed through the
ranks of their opponents and threw some battalions into confusion, while
the cuirassiers, rushing on with loud shouts, threatened to disorder the
whole Imperialist army. But at this critical moment, the Archduke
proved himself equal to the emergency. He directed the reserve gren-
adiers, under the prince of Reuss, to be formed in squares, and the
dragoons of Lichtenstein to take post behind them; and then, seizing
with his own hand the standard of Zach's corps, which was beginning to
falter, he addressed a few energetic words to the men and led them back
to the charge. The soldiers, thus reanimated, held their ground ; the
column of Lannes was arrested, and the squares among which it had pen-
etrated, poured in upon it destructive volleys from all sides, while the
Austrian batteries, playing at half musket shot, caused a frightful carnage
in the deep masses of the French troops. The cuirassiers made desperate
efforts to retrieve the day, but their squadrons were decimated by mus-
ketry, and at length driven off the field by an impetuous charge of
Liechtenstein's dragoons.
262 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXX.
Hohenzollern now rushed forward, and with a powerful division as-
sailed the flank of the French columns, which, wholly unable to resist
this fresh attack, fell backward in the direction of Essling: at the same
time, intelligence spread through the ranks of both armies, that the flo-
tilla directed against the bridge had destroyed that portion of it which
connected the island of Lobau with the southern bank of the river, thus
cutting off the French army from its supplies and reserves. At this
terrible crisis, Napoleon's courage did not forsake him. He immediately
ordered a retreat over the remainder of the bridge, reaching from the
northern bank to Lobau, and pushed forward the troops that had been
least engaged to hold the Austrians in check during this perilous manoeu-
vre. As the French now fought not to conquer, but to escape their
enemies, the Archduke was enabled to turn his advantages of position to
the best account, and press, with his whole reserve, on the retiring and
discouraged columns of Napoleon. He brought forward all his artillery,
and, by disposing the guns in a semicircular line, concentrated their iron
storm on the narrow line of retreat, so that the slaughter became terrific ;
and, at the same time, his grenadiers and cavalry, by repeated charges
on the indomitable rear-guard, rapidly diminished the numbers, though
they could not disorder the ranks of those dauntless veterans. During
this scene of carnage, Lannes and St. Hilaire were both mortally
wounded. The fire of the Austrian batteries was maintained until past
midnight, when the last of the French troops defiled over the bridge, fol-
lowed by the remnants of the invincible rear-guard; and the Archduke's
soldiers, exhausted with fatigue, sunk to sleep on the ground beside
their guns.
In this memorable battle of Aspern, the first great action in which
Napoleon had been entirely defeated, the French loss exceeded thirty
thousand men, and that of the Austrians was something more than twenty
thousand; but few guns or prisoners were taken on either side. The
Austrians were for several days occupied in burying the dead, and the
waters of the Danube were for an equal length of time polluted with
the floating corses of the combatants.
The situation of the French troops on the island of Lobau, during the
night of the 22nd, was truly deplorable. Cut off from retreat and from
their communications by the destruction of the bridge, menaced by a
victorious enemy, destitute of ammunition and provisions, and threatened
with an inundation by the fast rising waters of the Danube — an escape by
boats to the southern bank, together with an abandonment of all the
wounded, the artillery and the horses, seemed at first to be the only
alternative. But, although this measure was apparently inevitable, and
as such was strenuously urged by Massena, Davoust, Berthier and
Oudinot, Napoleon determined to remain and convert the island into an
impregnable fortress, whence he could subsequently strike a fatal blow
at the Austrian army.
In pursuance of this plan, a large number of boats from the southern
shore were put in requisition ; troops, ammunition and provisions were
brought across to Lobau, fortifications on a gigantic scale were projected,
and, in one month, not only were the works on the island capable of
resisting any attack from the enemy, but three solid bridges connected
the fortress with the south bank of the Danube, and rendered the com-
munication perfect and easy between them.
CHAPTER XXXI.
FKOM THE CAMPAIGN OF WAGRAM TO THE DETHRONEMENT OF THE POPE.
WHILE Napoleon, strongly fortified in his position on the island of
Lobau, was, by hostile demonstrations, leading the Austrians to believe
that he intended to renew the attack on Aspern, he was in fact secretly
preparing to cross the river at a lower point, where the passage was less
cautiously guarded, and whence he could, with little opposition, fall sud-
denly on the flank and rear of the Austrian encampment. In the mean-
time, the Archduke Charles, to resist the assault which he supposed was
to be made on Aspern, erected a vast line of intrenchments, running from
that village across the late battle-field, through Essling, and terminating
on the bank of the Danube. These works consisted of field redoubts and
ravelins united by a curtain, strengthened along their front by palisades,
and armed with a hundred and fifty pieces of heavy artillery.
Behind this formidable barrier, the Austrian commander awaited Na-
poleon's movements, and at the same time, made great exertions to recruit
the numbers and condition of his army. By the end of June, nearly a
hundred and forty thousand men, with seven hundred pieces of cannon,
were assembled under his orders, though not yet concentrated to act upon
one field: the Prince of Reuss guarded the line of the Danube from
Stockerau to Vienna, having his head-quarters at Stammersdorf; Kol-
lowrath lay at Hagenbrunn, on the northwestern slope of the Bisarnberg ;
the reserve of grenadiers were posted at Gerarsdorf ; Klenau occupied
the intrenchments opposite the bridge at Aspern ; Nordman, with the
advanced guard, at Enzersdorf, watched the course of the Danube as far
asPresburg; Bellegarde, Hohenzollern and Rosenberg were at Wagram
and along the bank of the Russbach ; and the reserve cavalry awaited
orders at Breitenlee, Aderklaa, and the villages in that neighborhood.
Thus, the Archduke's army formed two lines : the first stretching twenty
leagues along the course of the Danube : the second, two leagues in the
rear, resting on the plateau of Wagram and the heights of the Russbach.
The Archduke John lay at Presburg, ten leagues from Wagram, with
forty thousand men, whose numbers are not included in the preceding
estimate of the Austrian forces ; and, with a view to bring him into com-
munication with the grand army for a general action, which was now
seen to be at hand, the Archduke Charles dispatched a courier to Pres-
burg on the evening of July 4th, urging him to press on by a forced
march toward Aspern.
On the 2nd of July, Napoleon, who had remained for a time at Schoen-
brunn, rode to Lobau and there established his head-quarters. On the
same day, his reinforcements began to arrive. First, came Bernadotte
with the Saxons from the bank of the Elbe; then, Vandamme came
with the Wirtembergers and troops of the Confederation from Svvabia
and the Rhenish provinces; after him. followed Wrede with the Bava-
rians from the Lech, Macdonald and Broussier from. Carinthia and
Carniola, Marmont from Dalmatia, and Eugene Beauharnois from Hun-
gary. By the evening of the 4th, their numbers amounted to no less
19
26 1 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Cnxr. XXXI.
than a hundred and eighty thousand men, with seven hundred ind fifty
pieces of cannon, concentrated in. one mass, commanded by one general-
in-chief, and prepared to act in concert on a single field of battle.
As soon as the junction of the several corps was completed, Napoleon
ordered his batteries in front of Aspern to open their fire, as if to cover a
landing at that point ; and the moment that this demonstration, together
with the approach of night, had sufficiently arrested the attention of the
Archduke, the Emperor took his station on horseback, at the lower ex-
tremity of the island, where the passage was in fact to be attempted, and
by his personal exertions hastened forward the movement. In the short
space of ten minutes, three bridges, previously prepared in huge single
sections, were thrown across the branch of the river, and soon after mid-
night, three more were added to these, making six in all, over which the
troops defiled with such rapidity that before seven o'clock on the morn-
ing of the 5th, the entire French force, with the principal part of the
artillery, stood on the northern bank of the Danube. The Archduke
was astounded when, early in the day, he took a survey of the enemy's
position, and, instead of beholding the French mustered in great strength
at the bridge of Aspern, descried an enormous black mass of troops on
the plain near Enzersdorf. He saw at a glance that his lines were
turned, that his intrenchments, constructed with so much labor, were
valueless, and that a retreat could alone enable him to maintain his com-
munications, and give or receive battle with advantage. He therefore
immediately called in his outposts ; and his centre, with a celerity rival-
ling the manoeuvres of the French soldiers, fell back in good order to the
plateau of Wagram.
This plateau consists of an elevated plain, in the form of a vast par-
allelogram, rising at a distance of four miles from the Danube, and
stretching thence some miles to the north. The villages of Wagram and
Neusiedel occupy the two southern angles of this plain, the Russbach
runs along its southern front, and half a mile to the south, opposite the
centre of the position, lies the village of Baumersdorf. Beyond the
plateau, the Austrian lines extended over a ridge of heights to the west,
as far as Stammersdorf.
The French army was drawn up in one line on the bank of the river,
and when the order was given -to advance, the several corps moved
forward in a curve, spreading like the folds of a fan to the north, east
and west. Massena, on the left, marched toward Essling and Aspern ;
Rernadotte toward Aderklaa; Eugene and Oudinot between Wagram and
Baumersdorf; Davoust and Grouchy, on the right, in the direction of
Glingendorf, and the corps of Wrede, Marmont and the Imperial Guards
formed a reserve under the Emperor in person.
At six o'clock in the afternoon, Napoleon, having ascertained that the
Archduke John had not arrived, resolved to take advantage of his great
superiority of numbers, and attack immediately ; for he had grouped in
his centre nearly a hundred thousand men, including the reserves, while
the Austrian force on the plateau did not exceed sixty thousand. Pow-
erful batteries were accordingly brought up, which opened a severe fire
on the Imperialist line ; but the Archduke's guns, placed on higher ground,
replied with much greater effect. Oudinot's corps came first into action.
He attacked Baumersdorf, which was gallantly defended by General
Hardegg ; and, with such obstinacy did the latter maintain his ground
1809.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 265
Oudinot was unable to force the village, carry the bridges, or cross the
stream on either side in the rear. Eugene came next in order, and as-
sailed the village of Wagram; but the moment that his column reached
the summit of the heights, it was staggered by a murderous discharge of
grap-o from sixty Austrian guns at half musket-shot. Macdonald, Dupas
and Lamarque pressed forward to sustain the wavering troops ; and with
this preponderance of force, they at length broke the Austrian line, took
five standards and made two thousand men prisoners. At this crisis, the
Archduke hastened to the spot with the regiments of Zach, Vogelsang and
D'Erlach, and arrested the French columns, while Hohenzollern charged
vigorously on its right flank. The struggle was violent for a few mo-
ments; but it ended in the repulse of the French, who, driven headlong
down the steep, fled in confusion across the Russbach. It was now
nearly dark, and the corps of Saxons under Bernadotte, who came to the
aid of the routed columns, mistook the retreating host for the Austrians,
fired upon them as such, and in a moment were themselves overwhelmed
by the fugitives. The disorder became so great and so contagious, that
it spread even to the Emperor's tent; and, during the melee, the two
thousand Austrian prisoners escaped, the five standards were recaptured,
and two French eagles were taken. Indeed, had the Archduke been
fully aware of the extent of the panic, and followed up his success with
a large body of fresh troops, he might have destroyed the French army.
But, ignorant of the prodigious effect of his partial attack, he at eleven
o'clock sounded a retreat, and his men fell back to their original positions.
The brilliant success of this action induced the Austrian commander
to change his plan and prepare to assume the offensive. At two o'clock
on the morning of the 6th, he dispatched another messenger to his brother,
the Archduke John, who was then at Marchcheck, thirteen miles from
the French right flank, whence he might with ease arrive on the field
early in the day ; and his appearance, with forty thousand fresh troops,
would readily decide a previously hard-fought battle. With a view to
such cooperation, Prince Charles resolved to direct his principal attack
against the Emperor's left, at Aspern and Essling ; and he doubted not
that success in that quarter would counterbalance any advantage which
the French might gain in front of Wagram. In the meantime, Napoleon
had planned a grand attack on the Austrian centre, and withdrawn Mas-
sena from his left to lead the assault, leaving at Aspern the single divis-
ion of Boudet to guard the bridges. Thus, the whole strength of the
French army was thrown into its centre and right; Davoust being on
the extreme right ; Massena next to him near Aderklaa ; Marmont, Berna-
dotte, Oudinot and Eugene fronting Wagram ; and Bessieres with the re-
serve in the rear of the centre around Raschdorf.
At daybreak on the 6th, Napoleon, while giving some final orders,
was surprised by the discharge of heavy guns on his left ; and the rapidly
increasing roar and smoke in that direction, indicated that the Austrian
right wing was seriously engaged, and making dangerous progress. He
soon after received information that his own right was menaced by Ro-
senberg, and that Bellegarde had forced back Bernadotte in the centre.
Notwithstanding all his activity, therefore, the French Emperor was
anticipated in the offensive ; and from the fact that the attack of the
Imperialists commenced on his left, he feared that the Archduke John
had come up during the night, and that his right flank was about to bo
266 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXXI
turned with an overwhelming force. Perceiving the dangers of such a
combined attack, which simultaneously threatened both his flanks, Napo-
leon hastened to support the right with his reserve Guards and cuiras-
siers; but as he approached Glinzendorf, the Austrian advance was
arrested; for Prince Charles, finding that the Archduke John had not
arrived, and that Rosenberg would necessarily be defeated by the Em-
peror's charge, ordered that officer to withdraw behind the Russbach.
In the meantime, St. Cyr, while executing the prescribed change of
position, with the leading columns of Massena's corps, had carried the
village of Aderklaa ; but, instead of occupying the houses and strength-
ening himself there, he pressed on until he came within range of the
artillery of Bellegarde's corps, between Aderklaa and Wagram. His
troops were so shattered by this fire, that they fell back in disorder into
the village ; and the Archduke, following up their retreat with a detach-
ment of grenadiers, drove them thence at the point of the bayonet, and
pushed them upon the Saxon contingents ; who, in turn, fled toward Mas-
sena in such confusion, that the French marshal ordered his dragoons to
charge upon them for his personal security. The Archduke in this affair
received a musket-ball in the shoulder, and Massena was thrown from
his horse and severely bruised by the fall.
To arrest this disorder, Napoleon recalled his Guards from the right,
and riding to the centre at the head of the cuirassiers, soon succeeded in
re-forming the broken columns. He then directed Massena's division to
move by battalions in close column toward Aspern ; and this march was
commenced with great regularity, although the ranks were shattered at
every step by the cross-fire of the Austrian batteries. It was high time
that the French left should be relieved by such reenforcement. At ten
o'clock, Kollowrath and Klenau, preceded by sixty pieces of cannon, fell
with irresistible strength on Boudet's division at Aspern, took four thou-
sand prisoners, all the artillery, and drove the routed troops to the edge
of the Danube. The Austrians then reentered the intrenchments in
front of Lobau, regained the redoubts evacuated on the preceding day,
occupied Essling, and pushed their advanced posts so near to the bridges
leading to Enzersdorf, that the French heavy guns on the island were
fired to protect them. Startled by the shouts of the Imperialists, the men
in charge of the French reserve parks and baggage trains were seized
with a universal panic, and fugitives on all sides overspread the field
and crowded to the bridges, crying " all is lost ! the bridges are taken !"
While the Austrian right was thus victorious, their left had experi-
enced a serious reverse. Davoust, early in the day, dispatched two
divisions of his corps by a wide circuit to turn the village of Neusiedel,
and he himself with the other divisions attacked it in front; Oudinot,
at the same time, had been ordered to keep Hohenzollern in check in the
centre of the plateau behind Baumersdorf. At ten o'clock, the first two
divisions had reached their stations, and, after being once repulsed in dis-
order, established themselves on the plateau at the eastern front of the
village. The cuirassiers of Grouchy next came up, and defeated Rosen-
berg's cavalry with great slaughter ; but Hohenzollern's cuirassiers forced
their way to the support of their countrymen, and Grouchy's corps was
in turn broken and driven back ; finally, Monthrun, at the head of a
fresh division of French cavalry, charged tbe Austrian horse and forced
them from the heights. Meantime, Davoust in person had. led his infant.
1809.1 HISTORY OF EUROPE. 267
ry against the village, and carried it after a desperate contest, pressing
Rosenberg's entire corps in the direction of his routed cavalry over the
eastern side of the plateau.
Napoleon now ordered a general attack with his whole force, including
his reserve, on every point of the Austrian position. Macdonald led the
movement by an impetuous assault on the Archduke's centre. tie
charged at the head of eight strong battalions, passed Aderklaa and Brei-
tenlee, and for some distance pushed, without breaking, the Imperialists'
line. As his column proceeded, however, it became enveloped by the
concentrated fire of his opponents, until at last, his eight battalions were
reduced to fifteen hundred men. Napoleon, perceiving that Macdonald
could not much longer sustain this destructive storm, detached Reille
with the Young Guard to support him, saying, as he did so, " Husband
your men as much as possible ; I have now no reserve left but two regi-
ments of the Old Guard." At the same time, he ordered the cuirassiers
and dragoons of Nansouty and Walther to cooperate with Reille's ad-
vance. The charges of cavalry were disastrous to the French : Bes-
sieres, while leading the squadrons on, was struck in the thigh by a can-
non ball, and taken up for dead ; Nansouty succeeded to the command,
but the fire with which he was received cut down his men to such a de-
gree, that they were forced to retire, with a loss of half ofoheir numbers,
before they could even reach the enemy. The infantry, however, were
more successful. As soon as Macdonald saw the Young Guard advan-
cing to his support, he resumed his forward movement ; and the Archduke,
despairing now of maintaining his position, gave orders for a retreat, which
his troops effected in admirable order. He availed himself of every ad-
vantage of ground to retard the pursuit, and the French were so exhausted
that they followed his steps without vigor or enthusiasm. No cannon or
prisoners were taken ; scarcely a charge of cavalry was made ; in fact,
but for the retrograde movement of one army and the slow advance of
the other, it would have been impossible to say which was master of the
field. Napoleon was much chagrined at this indecisive result, and vented
his ill-humor in loud reproaches on the cavalry generals. " Was ever
anything seen like this !" he exclaimed. " Neither prisoners nor guns !
We gain nothing by all this slaughter !" At nightfall, the Austrians took
post along the heights behind Stammersdorf, and the French bivouacked
in the plain at the foot of the hills.
Toward the close of this obstinately contested battle, the Archduke
John approached the field ; but finding that his brother had retreated, he
retraced his steps and arrived at Marchcheck before midnight. Had lie
readied the field at an earlier hour, in conformity to his brother's orders,
it can scarcely be doubted that victory would have declared for the Aus-
trian army. The losses of the battle of Wagram were immense. No
less than twenty-five thousand men on each side were killed or wounded,
and the Austrian right wing took five thousand prisoners.
Two lines of retreat were open to the Archduke when he determined
to relinquish the field ; one, to Olmutz, and the other, to Bohemia : and,
so little did the French troops press their adversaries when the retrograde
movement commenced, the Ernperor was for a time uncertain which of
the two routes they had chosen. The Archduke at length took the latter,
in order to cover Prague, which, next to Vienna, was the greatest military
establishment of the Empire, and stood in a position easily capable of
defence against an invading army.
268 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXXI.
The Austrian retreat was scarcely molested until the troops reached
Znaym, where Prince Charles, finding himself pressed by Massena, halted
and took up a strong defensive position. The French marshal, supported
by Marmont's division, led on his columns with great impetuosity ; but,
although his soldiers gained some temporary advantage, they were soon
arrested by the Austrian batteries, and became so hemmed in by the flank
movements of the Archduke's grenadiers that they were in danger of
being entirely cut off. At this juncture, proposals for an armistice from
the head-quarters of the Imperialists reached Napoleon, who, alarmed for
the safety of Massena and Marmont, acceded to the proposition.
By the terms of the armistice, the French, as a preliminary to a treaty
of peace, were permitted to retain possession of Upper Austria as far as
the borders of Bohemia, including the circles of Znaym and Brunn, the
district comprised by the course of the Morava to its confluence with the
Taya, the course of the Danube to Raab, and the river Raab by the fron-
tiers of Styria and Carniola to Fiume ; the town of Presburg, the citadels
of Gratz and Brunn, the fort of Sasenburg and the districts of. Tyrol and
Vorarlberg, were also comprehended in this conditional surrender. The
armistice was concluded by the Archduke Charles alone, subject, how-
ever, to the ratification of the Emperor. The cabinet of Vienna, at that
.time assembled at Komorn in Hungary, loudly protested against their
Emperor's affixing his signature to the contract ; but they at length waived
their objections, and it was signed on the 18th of July.
Negotiations for peace were immediately commenced ; and after being
protracted into October, a treaty was concluded on the 14th of that month,
at Vienna. By this treaty, Austria lost territories containing three and
a half millions of inhabitants ; of which Bavaria received the Inn-Viertel
arid the Hansneck-Viertel, Salzburg with its adjacent territory, and the
valley of Berchtolsgaden ; while the Grand-duchy of Warsaw and Russia
obtained certain valuable portions of Galicia. To the kingdom of Italy
she yielded Carniola, the circle of Villach in Carinthia, six districts of
Croatia, Fiume and its territory on the sea-shore, Trieste, the county of
Govici, Montefalcone, Austrian Istria, Cartua and its dependent isles, the
lhalweg of the Save, and the lordship of the Radzuns in the Grisons.
(n addition to this, the Emperor, on the part of his brother, the Archduke
Antony, renounced the office of Grand-master of the Teutonic Order with
its rights and territories. Besides these public articles, some secret ones
were annexed to the treaty. The Austrian army was to be reduced to
one hundred and fifty thousand men ; all persons born in France, Belgium,
Piedmont or the Venetian States, were to be dismissed the service, and a
contribution of eighty-five millions of francs was imposed on the provinces
occupied by the French troops.
The treaty of Vienna was received with marked disapprobation by the
cabinet of St. Petersburg, and it produced an important effect in widening
the breach already formed between the two great monarchs of France
and Russia. In vain did Napoleon assure Alexander, that he had watched
over his interest as he would have done over his own : the Russian Auto
crat could perceive no traces of such regard in the dangerous augmenta
tion of the territories of the Grand -duchy of Warsaw, and he openly
testified his displeasure to Caulaincourt ; but notwithstanding his anger,
he did not hesitate to take the small portion of Gdlicia allotted to him by
the treaty. Napoleon, however, spared no efforts to appease the Czar ;
1809.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 269
and, knowing that a secret dread of the restoration of Poland was the
chief cause of the Autocrat's disquietude, he engaged not only to concur
with him in everything which should tend to efface ancient recollections,
but even declared a desire that " the name of Poland and the Poles should
disappear from every political transaction and from history itself."
As soon as the treaty was ratified, Napoleon set out for Paris ; but,
before quitting Austria, and in the interval between the signature and the
ratification of the treaty, he barbarously gave orders for the destruction
of the ramparts of Vienna. Mines had been previously constructed un-
der the principal bastions, and as the trains were fired one after another
the parapets rose into the air, and the works beneath suddenly swelled
and burst'like a succession of volcanoes. This cruel devastation highly
exasperated the inhabitants : the ramparts, shaded by trees, were the pride
and glory of the capital ; they were associated with the most stirring
events of Austrian history; they had withstood all the assaults of the
Turks ; and had been witness to the heroism of Maria Theresa. The
destruction of these venerable monuments of former days, not in the fury
of battle nor under the pressure of necessity, but in cold blood, after
peace was declared and when the invaders were preparing to withdraw,
was justly regarded as an outrage of the most oppressive and degrading
character, and as such highly disgraceful to the Emperor of France.
While the cabinet of Vienna thus yielded in the strife, and the cam-
paign was drawing to a conclusion on the banks of the Danube, the Tyrol
became the theatre of a desperate conflict, and the shepherds of the Alps
for a time maintained their independence against a power which Austria
could not withstand. Having, by a general insurrection, delivered their
country from the invaders after the battle of Aspern, and spread them-
selves over the adjoining provinces, the brave mountaineers hoped that
their perils were over, and that a second victory on the D.anube would
relieve their Emperor from Fren.cn exaction and oppression ; but soon the
news of the battle of Wagram and of the armistice of Znaym struck them
with dismay. The order speedily arrived for the military evacuation of
Tyrol and Vorarlberg, in conformity to the terms of the armistice ; but the
insurgent peasantry refused to obey, and proceeded to disarm such of the
Austrian soldiers as prepared to comply with the mandate. While the
people were in this state of excitement, Hofer presented himself before a
crowded assembly, and averred that he would spend his blood to the last
drop in defence of the country ; and the multitude, with loud shouts, pro-
claimed him " commander-in-chief of the province so long as it pleased
God."
As the armistice in Germany enabled Napoleon to detach any amount
of force requisite to subdue the insurrection, he sent Lefebvre into the
mountains at the head of thirty thousand men. This general readily
made himself master of Innspruck on the route ; but when he reached the
northern slope of the Brenner, he encountered a mass of undisciplined
peasantry posted behind the rocks and trees, who totally routed him, took
twenty-five pieces of cannon, all his ammunition, and drove him back in
litter confusion to Innspruck. About the same time, a body of seventeen
hundred French troops marched toward the rear of Hofer's position at
Sterzing ; but they were met. at Prutz by a detachment of Tyrolese sharp-
shooters, who almost entirely destroyed them, killing or wounding more
than th»*ee hundred and taking nine hundred prisoners. Encouraged by
270 HISTORY OF EUROPE. ' [CHAP. XXXL
this and several similar victories, Hofer resolved to attack Lefebvre's
whole corps at Innspruck. He marched against that town early in the
morning of August 12th, and, despite the numbers, discipline and well-
approved bravery of the French troops, carried it before nightfall at the
point of the bayonet. The victors/whose numbers were diminished only
nine hundred men, inflicted a loss on the invaders of no less than six
thousand, of whom nearly two thousand were prisoners.
This victory for a time entirely cleared the country of its enemies ;
but it was vain for the brave Tyrolese to hope that they could long con-
tend, with impunity, against the gigantic strength of Napoleon's armies.
An overwhelming force was soon assembled on their frontiers, and the
invasion commenced at so many points that Hofer resolved to submit, and
published a proclamation, enjoining the people to obey a power which they
could not resist. The inhabitants, however, refused to yield, and forced
Hofer to resume the command, which he did with great reluctance, and
gained a brilliant victory over General Rusca, at the old castle of Tyrol.
After this event, the urgent entreaties of Eugene Beauharnois — who,
foreseeing the desperate character of the struggle, generously urged the
inhabitants to submission with a promise of amnesty — finally put an end
to hostilities. Hofer now abandoned all thought of delivering his country,
but he refused to accept the amnesty and submit to the French authorities,
and was therefore proscribed. He for some time evaded the pursuit of
his enemies ; but at length, a detachment of sixteen hundred men sur-
rounded his hiding-place, made him prisoner, and immediately took him
to Mantua to be tried by a military commission. He was at once found
guilty of resisting the French after Eugene's proclamation of amnesty ;
but the members were greatly divided as to the punishment he should
receive. Their deliberations were cut short by a telegraphic dispatch
from the French Emperor, ordering him to be shot within twenty-four
hours. He received his sentence with unshaken firmness, and suffered
its execution in a manner befitting his life and character.
Few events in the history of Napoleon have left a darker stain on his
memory, than the slaughter of this brave man. It is vain to assert in
his justification that Hofer was a rebel. The resistance of the Tyrolese
was a national contest against foreign aggression : their object was not to
rise in rebellion against a constituted government, but to maintain their
allegiance to the Austrian monarchy. These people had, but a few
years before, and against their wish, been forcibly transferred from the
paternal rule of their lawful sovereign to the rude oppression of a foreign
tyrant. A dominion of four years could not annul the political relations
of four centuries. Hofer had never acknowledged Napoleon to be his
master, and by all the rules of civilized warfare, as well as upon every
principle of justice and honor, he was at the worst entitled to be treated
like a prisoner of war.
The British government, in the summer of this year, undertook an
enterprise of some moment on the banks of the Scheldt, having for its
object the capture of Antwerp. This city was one of Napoleon's most
important strong-holds, and contained in its harbor a powerful fleet. Its
formidable strength, and increasing importance as a naval station, to-
gether with its proximity to the British shores, rendered it, in Napoleon's
hands, eminently dangerous to England. At present, its fortifications
were out of repair, and its cannon were dismounted ; its garrison con-
1809.J HISTORY O F EUROPE. 271
sisted oflittle more than two thousand invalids, and the regular army of
France was so absorbed on the Danube and in the Peninsula, that it was
questionable whether the town, if secretly and suddenly attacked, could
receive a support adequate to its protection.
Th? expedition, therefore, was well-timed, and the forces employed
were fully equal to the undertaking ; but the vice in its prosecution was
of the same nature as that which had already rendered abortive so many
schemes of hostility to France ; namely, a wanton and needless delay in
every movement. The armament consisted of thirty-seven ships of the
line, twenty-three frigates, thirty-three sloops, eighty-two gun-boats, be-
sides a fleet of transports, carrying, in addition to the crews of the ships,
forty thousand land troops with two battering trains. This stupendous
force reached the coast of Holland on the 29th of July. On the 3mh,
twenty thousand men were disembarked on the island of Walcheren, who
speedily took possession of Middleburg, and drove the French troops
within the walls of Flushing. At the same time, another detachment
landed in Cadsand, expelled the enemy from that island, and opened the
way for the passage of the fleet up the main branch of the Scheldt. Sir
Richard Strachan, disregarding the batteries of Flushing, then passed
the straits with eighteen ships of the line, and soon both branches of the
river were crowded with British pennants. Ter Vere, a fortress com-
manding the Veergat, was next assailed by the land forces and taken
with its garrison of a thousand men ; Goes, the capital of South Beve-
land, also opened its gates ; after which, Sir John ' Hope, with seven
thousand men, pressed on to Bahtz ; and, such was the consterna-
tion produced by the strength and hitherto rapid advance of the British
forces, this fort, which commanded both channels, was evacuated by its
garrison during the night. The success of the expedition now appeared
certain. More than two-thirds of the distance to Antwerp had been
traversed in three days, the British standards were only five leagues from
the capital, and within four days, at farthest, the whole armament might
have been assembled around its walls.
It is acknowledged by the French military writers, that, owing to the
unguarded situation of Antwerp at this crisis, it must inevitably have
fallen into the hands of the English troops, had they followed up their
invasion with the same spirit as they commenced it. Besides, the orders
communicated to Lord Chatham were explicit on this point : the capture
of Antwerp, and the destruction of the ships building or afloat in the
Scheldt, and of the arsenals and dock-yards in Antwerp, Terneuse and
Flushing, were the principal objects of the expedition; while the reduc-
tion of Walcheren was of entirely subordinate importance. But England
had not two Wellingtons in her service. Lord Chatham, the command,
er-in-chief of the armament, neither inherited the energy of his father,
nor shared the capacity of his immortal brother, William Pitt. Destitute
of experience and indolent in his habits, he was precisely the man to mis-
lead a great undertaking. Reversing, therefore, the tenor of his instruc-
tions, and the dictates of sound sense, he directed his first elaborate effort
to the attainment of the least important object ; and instead of hastening
to an easy victory at Antwerp, he arrayed his strength around Flushing,
which surrendered after an investment of three days, with its garrison of
six thousand men and two hundred pieces of cannon. This was doubt-
less a conquest of some value ; but it was as dust in the balance com-
272 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXXI.
pared with the main objects which the English government had in view,
and for which their orders so clearly provided. While the British sol-
diers were fighting bravely at Flushing, the French and Dutch troops
were hurrying toward Antwerp ; and after the reduction of Flushing,
which event occurred on the 16th of August, the English general so de-
layed his movements, that he did not reach Bahtz until the 26th. In the
meantime, the Antwerp fleet was moved farther up the river, out of reach
of the British ships, and Antwerp itself, occupied in force by regular
troops, was beyond the power of an assault.
As a further advance now became impossible, Lord Chatham fell back
to Walcheren, where he proposed to maintain himself; but after a few
weeks, a distemper, bred by the unhealthy marshes of that island, broke
out among the soldiers, and its ravages were so fatal, that, after taking
the opinions of his officers at a council of war, the commander-in-chiet
resolved to abandon the place and return to England; which he accord-
ingly did in the month of December.
It has already been mentioned, that when the pope, Pius VII., took the
unusual step of going to the French capital to perform the ceremony of
crowning Napoleon, he expected some great concessions in return;
and subsequently, he had from time to time urged his claims on the
Emperor, but always without obtaining either benefits or promises. Nor
did Napoleon merely refuse to reciprocate the obligation: during the
Austrian war of 1805, the French troops seized Ancona, the most import-
ant fortress in the Ecclesiastical dominions ; and when his holiness re-
monstrated against this aggression, Napoleon, instead of heeding his
complaints, avowed himself Emperor of Rome, and declared that the pope
was only his viceroy. This explicit declaration of the French Empe-
ror's intentions, at once opened the eyes and aroused the courage of the
pope; who thereafter, on all occasions, intrepidly maintained a tone and
attitude of defiance toward the conqueror. Napoleon, however, took little
heed of his measures. In the Italian wars that ensued, he overrun and
occupied at pleasure the papal dominions; and, in February, 1808, he
permanently quartered a large body of French troops in Rome. In April
of the same year, he declared the provinces of Urbino, Ancona, Mace-
rata and Camerino — forming nearly a third part of the Ecclesiastical ter-
ritories— irrevocably united to the kingdom of Italy. The pope was next
confined a prisoner in his own palace ; French guards occupied all parts
of the capital ; French officers assumed control of the posts, the press, the
taxes, the whole government, in short ; the papal troops were incorpo-
rated into the French ranks and their own officers dismissed. And
while all these outrages were in progress, the French Emperor constantly
importuned the pope to join the general league, offensive and defensive,
with himself and the King of Naples.
At length, on the 17th of May, 1809, the last act of violence was per-
petrated. Napoleon issued a decree from the camp near Vienna, setting
forth that " the States of the pope are united to the French Empire ; Rome,
so interesting from its recollections and the first seat of Christianity, is
declared an imperial and free city ;" and these changes were ordered to
take effect on the 1st of June following. The pope, in reply to this de-
cree, published a bull of excommunication against Napoleon and all con-
cerned in this high-handed measure. This bull Avas placarded on all the
usual places, and with such secrecy as to escape the knowledge or sus-
1809.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 273
picion of the police. The pope, fearful that the individuals concerned in
printing and circulating the paper might be discovered and punished by
Napoleon's emissaries, used great precautions to avert such a catastrophe ;
but he entertained no fear for himself. On the contrary, he transcribed
the original document with his own hand, that no one else could become
implicated by a fortuitous discovery of the hand- writing.
Napoleon, though unprepared for so vigorous an act on the part of
the sovereign pontiff, was not the less prompt in his measures. He had
long ago conceived the project of uniting the tiara arid the Imperial crown
on his own brow ; but fearing that in Modern Europe this could not be
done directly, he resolved now to attempt it indirectly, by transferring
the residence of the pope to France, where he hoped to control every ec-
clesiastical measure. On the night of the 5th of July, Miollis and Radet,
acting indeed without the express orders of Napoleon in this instance,
though in conformity to the spirit of his previous instructions, surrounded
the Quirinal with three regiments ; thirty men, in profound silence, scaled
the walls of the garden, and took post under the windows of the palace ;
and fifty more effected an entrance by the window of an unoccupied room.
This being done during the night, the gates at six o'clock in the morning
were thrown open, and Radet entered at the head of his troops, proclaim-
ing that his orders were to arrest the pope and the Cardinal Pacca, his
chief counsellor, and conduct them out of Rome. The pope and the car-
dinal, awakened by the strokes of the hatchets used in breaking down the
interior doors, immediately rose ; and as his holiness expected to be mur-
dered on the spot, he called for the ring which his predecessor, Pius VI.,
had worn when dying, and placed it on his finger. To prevent further
violence, the remaining doors were thrown open and the troops entered
the pope's apartment. Radet, pale and trembling with emotion, announced
to the holy father, that he was charged with the painful duty of declaring
that his holiness must resign the temporal sovereignty of Rome and the
Ecclesiastical States, or accompany him to the head-quarters of General
Miollis. The pope replied, that he had higher duties to perform than
obedience to any military chieftain ; and that " the Emperor, if he saw fit,
might cut him in pieces, but he could never draw from him such a resig-
nation." The alternative of arrest was therefore submitted to, and the
pope and Cardinal Pacca took their seats in a carriage escorted by a pow-
erful detachment of French cavalry. Their journey was hastened to
such a degree, that for nineteen successive hours they were not allowed
to rest or take any refreshment. On reaching Florence, they were
separated from each other ; the cardinal was conveyed to Grenoble, and
thence, by a special order of Napoleon, transferred to the state prison of
Fenestrelles, in Savoy ; and the pope was hurried across the Alps by
Mount Cenis into France.
CHAPTER XXXII.
MARITIME WAR J AND CAMPAIGN OF 1809 IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL,
THE ev?nt that first roused the British people from the despondency
caused by the unsatisfactory result of the Peninsula campaign, was a
brilliant achievement of their arms at sea. Early in the year, a French
squadron of eleven ships of the line and seven frigates was assembled in
Basque Roads, under the command of Admiral Villaumer, destined to re-
lieve the Island of Martinique, in the West Indies, which was then threat-
ened by a British fleet. The English government, immediately on
receiving intelligence of this armament, dispatched Lord Gambler, with
eleven ships of the line and a number of frigates, to blockade the French
vessels. Admiral Villaumer, alarmed at the approach of so formidable a
force, weighed anchor and stood for the inner and more protected roads of
Isle d'Aix, and while executing this manoeuvre, one of his line-of-battle
ships went ashore and was lost. The British admiral followed him and
anchored in Basque Roads; and, as the proximity of the hostile fleets, in
so confined a position, rendered them especially exposed to the operation
of fire-ships, the British resolved on that method of attack. Twelve ves-
sels of this description were soon fitted out in the English harbors, placed
under the immediate command of Lord Cochrane, and dispatched to
Basque Roads, where they arrived in the beginning of April.
Villaumer, to guard against this assault, had drawn across the line of
his fleet a strong boom, composed of spars, cables and chains braced
together, and secured at. each end by anchors of an enormous weight.
On the evening of the llth of April, the wind blowing fresh, and from
the most favorable quarter, the fire-ships got under weigh and bore down
on the enemy ; Lord Cochrane taking personal charge of the leading
vessel, which had on board fifteen hundred pounds of powder and four
shells. The moment that the attacking force came within range of the
French fleet, the latter opened a terrible fire of heavy guns and bombs ;
and the danger of the British may be understood from the fact, that their
vessels were all full loaded with gunpowder, and any one of the flaming
projectiles issuing from the French mortars would suffice to explode them.
The Mediator frigate first struck the boom, and she dashed through it
almost without pausing in her course. The fire-ships came on in quick
succession, and the French officers, believing all to be lost, immediately
slipped their cables and drifted ashore in wild confusion. At daybreak
the next morning, one half the French fleet was discovered to be ashore,
and at eight o'clock, only two vessels were afloat. Lord Cochrane, who
had regained his own ship, now made signal to Lord Gambier to advance ;
but that officer, instead of acting with the promptitude that such an emer-
gency required, waited to summon a council of war, and did not get
under weigh until eleven o'clock; then, after having approached to
within six miles of the French squadron, he cast anchor, alleging that
he could not proceed until high water. Meantime, the French admiral,
reassured by the dilatory movement of his antagonists, made great efforts
to get his ships afloat, which the rising tide at length enabled him to do ;
1809.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 275
and Lord Cochrane, stung to the quick at seeing his noble prizes thus
about to escape through the disgraceful negligence of his commander-in-
chief, himself pressed on to the attack in his single frigate ; Captain Bligh
with the bomb vessels and other light craft followed, and a cannonade
was commenced on the most exposed part of the fleet. The Calcutta,
of fifty guns, speedily struck to Cochrane's frigate; the Ville de Var-
sovie, the Aquilon, the Indienne, and the Tonnerre took fire and were
destroyed ; but the remainder of the ships, though considerably injured,
made good their escape under the guns of the batteries on shore. On his
return to England, Lord Gambier was tried by a court-martial for his
conduct in this battle and eventually acquitted; yet Napoleon has him-
self confessed, that "had Cochrane been supported by the admiral, as he
easily might have been, the French ships must all have fallen into the
hands of the British."
The French West India islands, which the defeated squadron was in-
tended to relieve, became now the prey of the victors. Martinique,
Cayenne, and the fortress of St. Domingo were successively captured, and
the French flag was thenceforward entirely excluded from that quarter
of the world. Bourbon and the Isle of France in the Indian Ocean about
the same time surrendered to the British arms, as did also the seven
Ionian islands in the Mediterranean; and in the Bay of Rosas, Colling-
wood captured or destroyed three French ships of the line, two frigates
and eleven smaller vessels of war.
When Madrid fell into the hands of the French, and the English re-
treated to Corunna. the affairs of the Peninsula seemed to be in a despe-
rate condition, There was no force in Portugal on which any reliance
could be placed, excepting eight thousand British soldiers under Cradock,
posted in and around Lisbon : toward the end of February, however, the
arrival of six thousand additional troops, commanded by Mackenzie and
Hill, enabled Cradock to take a position in advance at Saccarino.
The situation of Spain was still more discouraging. Blake's army had
dwindled down to eight or nine thousand ragged and half-starved men,
without stores or artillery, who with difficulty maintained themselves in
the mountains of Galicia ; the remains of the army of Aragon, under
Palafox, had thrown themselves into Saragossa ; a few detachments of
the army of Castanos joined to a mass of fugitives from Somo-Sierra and
Madrid, twenty-five thousand in all. lay in La Mancha ; while ten or
twelve thousand disorganized levies at Badajoz formed a sort of guard
for the Central Junta, which had established itself in that city after the
fall of the capital. The new recruits in Andalusia, Grenada and Valen-
cia were too ill-disciplined and too remote from the scene of 'war, to be
capable of efficient action in the earlier periods of the campaign; and
although in Catalonia, fifty thousand men held Gerona, Rosas, Tarra-
gona, Tortosa, Lerida, and a strong central range of mountains, they
were fully occupied with repelling the invaders in their own vicinity.
Thus, a hundred and twenty thousand men were scattered over the whole
face of the Peninsula, without any means of uniting together, any central
authority to compel their obedience, or any common object on which to
concentrate their efforts. Joseph reigned at Madrid with the seeming
consent of the nation. Registers had been opened for the names of those
who were favorable to his government, and within a few days, no less
than twenty-eight thousand heads of families had, through fear or apathy,
26
276 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXXII
enrolled themselves therein; and deputations from the municipal council,
the council of the Indies, and all the corporate bodies, waited on him at
Valladolid, entreating him to return to the capital and reassurne the royal
functions.
The total French force in the Peninsula, even after the Imperial Guard
had departed for Germany, amounted to three hundred and twenty thou-
sand men, of whom two hundred and forty thousand were actually in the
field. Fifty thousand of them protected the great line of communication
with France, holding on that route three fortresses and sixty- four military
posts of correspondence. The northern provinces of Spain were parcelled
out into military governments, the chiefs of which repressed every attempt
at insurrection, and levied contributions on the inhabitants, not only for
the entire support of their respective corps, but in some cases for the ac-
cumulation of their own private fortunes. Soult was at Corunna, with
twenty-three thousand men ; Ney, with fourteen thousand, occupied As-
turias and the northern coast ; Lannes and Moncey, with nearly fifty
thousand, were charged with the siege of Saragossa ; Victor had estab-
lished himself, with twenty-five thousand, in Estremadura ; Mortier, with
a similar force, lay in the valley of the Tagus ; Sebastiani's corps observed
the enemy's position in La Mancha ; St. Cyr, with forty thousand, was
encamped in Catalonia ; and Joseph held twelve thousand at Madrid.
Neither this mighty array, however, nor the defection of those whose
names filled the registers, drove the people to despair. After the breaking
out of the Austrian war, the withdrawal of the Imperial Guard, and the
encouraging tone of the English government, which promised the aid of
Sir Arthur Wellesley with powerful reinforcements, the inhabitants of
both Spain and Portugal rose with new spirit to maintain the war. Gen-
eral Beresford received from the regency the appointment of field- marshal
in the Portuguese service, and undertook the arduous duty of training the
new levies, of whom twenty thousand were taken into British pay and
placed under the direction of British officers ; the ancient laws of Portu-
gal were enforced ; and the whole male population capable of bearing
arms called out in defence of their country. The Central Junta of Spain,
too, established themselves at Seville, and issued proclamations calling
the people to arms, recommending a general adoption of the system of
guerilla warfare, and avowing their determination never to make peace
while a single Frenchman polluted the Spanish soil.
The French opened the campaign by the investment of Saragossa.
where Palafox had command of fifteen thousand regular soldiers and
nearly forty thousand stragglers, monks, peasants and mechanics. The
defences of the town had been materially strengthened since the former
siege ; arms, ammunition and stores provided in abundance ; new fortifica-
tions, barriers and trenches drawn across the principal streets ; the houses
loopholed, and a hundred and eighty pieces of artillery distributed along
the ramparts. The investment was completed under the direction of
Marshals Moncey and Mortier ; Junot after a time superseded them ; and
at length, Napoleon, dissatisfied with the slow progress of the siege, or-
dered Lannes to assume its direction. Under the influence of these sev-
eral marshals, each of whom strove to outdo his predecessor, the besieging
army gradually approached the city, and battered down its outer defences.
The contest now, as at the previous siege, was waged from street to
street and from door to door, and the French soldiers, unable in any other
1809.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 277
way to gain ground within the walls, commenced a system of mining, by
which they slowly destroyed house after house in the extremities of the
town. Even these catastrophes were turned to account by the garrison ;
for the destruction of the houses left the assailants without cover, and
they fell by hundreds before the unerring aim of the Aragonese marks-
men in the adjoining buildings. The French engineers, finding the men
thus seriously galled by this destructive fire, reduced the quantity of
powder in the mines, so as to destroy only the inside of the houses, leaving
the outer walls undisturbed; and in these half-ruined edifices the inde-
fatigable besiegers established themselves, and pushed on fresh mines
and attacks. The battle was maintained in this manner for more than
three weeks ; and the French soldiers, disheartened at such desperate
resistance, and worn out with the fatigues of so protracted a struggle,
despaired of conquering a town where every house was defended like a
citadel, and every street flowed ankle-deep wiih the blood of its assailants.
" Scarcely a fourth of the place is won," said they, " and we are already
exhausted. We must wait for reinforcements, or we shall all perish
among these ruins, which will become our tombs before we can force the
last of the desperadoes from the last of their dens."
But while depression thus weighed on the spirits of the besiegers, the
miseries of the besieged were becoming insupportable. The incessant
shower of bombs and cannon-balls that fell on the town had, for a month
past, compelled the inhabitants not actually combating, to take refuge in
the cellars ; and the confinement of such a multitude in these narrow
and gloomy recesses, induced an epidemic fever which was now making
fearful ravages. The combined action of pestilence and the sword de-
stroyed thousands every day ; no room could be found for interring the
host of corses, and the living and the dead were shut up together, while
the roar of artillery, the explosion of mines, the crash of falling houses,
and the alternate shouts of the infuriated soldiery, shook the city night
and day above their subterranean abodes.. Human nature has limits to
its powers of endurance, and Saragossa was about to yield ; yet in her
fall, she was destined to leave behind her a name immortal in the history
of the world.
Palafox, finding at length that famine was added to the disasters of the
garrison, and that the attacks of the enemy were increasing in vigor as
the patriots relaxed their efforts, resolved to capitulate, and sent his aid-
de-camp to Lannes with proposals for that purpose. The French mar-
shal, fearful of driving such a body of men to utter desperation, conceded
favorable terms. The garrison was marched out with the honors of war,
and afterward conducted as prisoners to France ; the officers retained
their swords, horses and baggage, and the soldiers their knapsacks ; pri-
vate property and public worship were respected, and the armed peas-
antry dismissed.
When the French troops marched into the town, six thousand dead
bodies lay still unburied in the streets, and sixteen thousand sick, for the
most part in a dying state, encumbered the city : fifty-four thousand hu-
man beings had perished during the siege, of whom only six thousand fell
by the sword. Fifty days of open trenches had been borne by a town
protected by a single wall ; and, for half of that time, the contest was
maintained against forty thousand besiegers, after that feeble wall had
fallen and the place was, in a military sense, defenceless. Thirty-three
278 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXXII
thousand cannon shot and sixteen thousand bombs had been thrown into
the town ; yet, at the close of the siege, the assailants were masters of
but a fourth part of its ruins. Pestilence, not the sword, subdued Sara-
gossa ; and this memorable siege will live in the annals of military he-
roism when the other achievements of modern Europe shall have passed
into oblivion.
Even this devoted city could not escape the pillage and rapacity of the
French marshals. A contribution of fifty thousand pairs of shoes and
eight thousand pairs of boots, with medicines and every requisite for a
hospital, were immediately demanded for the use of the troops ; and the
church of our Lady of the Pillar was rifled by Lannes of jewels to the
value of nearly five millions of francs, which he carried with him into
France for his private benefit — to the infinite mortification of Madame
Junot, who conceived that her husband had an equal right to the precious
spoil, and who, in her vexation, has subsequently revealed the details of
the shameless robbery.
As both the moral and physical strength of Aragon had been concen-
trated in Saragossa, its fall drew after it the submission of the remainder
of the province. The fortress of Jaca, commanding the chief pass through
the Pyrenees from Aragon to France, surrendered with its garrison of two
thousand men ; Benasque and other places followed the example ; and,
before Marshal Lannes was summoned by Napoleon to join the grand
French army on the banks of the Danube, in the middle of March, the
conquest of the territory was so far completed, that Junot thought of un-
dertaking an expedition against Valencia. Nevertheless, the French
commanders had frequent occasion to learn, during the Peninsular War,
that the reduction of towns and fortresses did not imply a subjugation of
the inhabitants of the Spanish provinces. Early in May, Blake, having
recruited the numbers and greatly improved the condition of his army,
made a descent on Lerida. As he reached the bank of the Cinca, he
surprised a detachment of eight companies of French troops separated
from their corps, and made them all prisoners. Flushed with this suc-
cess, he resolved next to att3mpt the deliverance of Saragossa, where the
French garrison, reduced by disease, did not now exceed ten thousand
men. Junot at this time lay ill of the prevailing epidemic, and he had
in consequence been superseded in the command by Suchet. This young
officer issued from Saragossa, at the head of all his disposable forces, to
avenge the loss on the bank of the Cinca, and arrest Blake's progress in
Aragon. He encountered the Spanish general at Alcaniz on the 23rd
of May ; and although he flattered himself with the hope of an easy vic-
tory, his assault was so promptly repulsed that he did not venture to
renew it, but retreated in disorder ; and had Blake vigorously pursued
him, his whole army must have been destroyed. His loss in this action
exceeded a thousand men, while Blake's scarcely amounted to three
hundred.
Before advancing upon Saragossa, the Spanish general remained for a
while in its vicinity instructing his soldiers in the various stratagie of war,
and endeavoring to bring them to a state of discipline that would enable
them to act efficiently against the practiced veterans of France. At length,
on the 14th of June, he approached the town at the head of seventeen
thousand men, and Suchet sallied out with ten thousand to give him battle
under the walls. Previous to the commencement of the action, Blake
1809.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. VJ9
had detached five thousand of his men to Botorrita, with the ridiculous
design which at that time characterized the manoeuvres of all the Spanish
generals — of surrounding the enemy : his force actually engaged, there-
fore, was but twelve thousand men. The Spanish soldiers, though much
inferior to the French in discipline, bravely maintained their ground for
a time against the charges of Suchet ; but they became at last involved
in the broken ground that covered their rear, and retreated with the loss
of a thousand men and all their artillery. The French loss did not ex-
ceed eight hundred men. Blake withdrew in the night to Botorrita,
where he joined the detachment he had so imprudently sent off in the
morning. He thence moved to Belchite with his whole force, determining
to make a resolute stand, should Suchet continue the pursuit ; and had
hardly taken up his position, when the French columns commenced their
fire. Almost at the first discharge, a shell from the enemy lighted on
one of his ammunition-wagons, and the explosion that ensued so scared
the battalion to which the wagon belonged, that the men broke their ranks
and fled. The next battalion followed the example ; the contagion spread
rapidly along the whole line, and Blake was soon left alone with his staff
and a few officers. The Spaniards ran so much faster than the French,
that the latter could take no prisoners ; but they drew their antagonists'
artillery and baggage off the field and returned to Saragossa.
The siege of Gerona, under the direction of St. Cyr, was the next im-
portant step undertaken by the French troops. This town lies on a steep
acclivity rising on the bank of the Ter, and terminating in a bluff preci-
pice garnished with several forts, which constituted the principal strength
of the place. A single wall fifteen feet high defended the upper town ;
the lower, being more exposed, had the protection of a rampart, wet ditch
and outworks. Alvarez, the governor of Gerona, was a brave officer,
fully competent to the task that now devolved on him ; and to express his
resolution of m*aintaining the defence, he issued an order on the 5th of
May, setting forth that whoever spoke of capitulation or surrender should
instantly be put to death.
The French commenced their attack on Monjuich, a fort standing on
a rocky eminence north of the town and separated from it by the valley
of Galligau : it was provided with bomb-proof casements, cisterns* and
magazines, and garrisoned by nine hundred men. The towers forming
its outworks were carried by assault on the 19th of June; after which,
the breaching batteries continued to thunder incessantly on the walls for
fifteen days. By the 4th of July, a breach was effected, and a party led
on to storm it, but they were repulsed with great loss. On the 8th, when
the breach had been enlarged by the continued fire of sixty pieces of
cannon, the attack was renewed with a stronger force, but this also was
bravely repulsed, with a loss to the assailants of a thousand men. St.
Cyr finding now that the place could not be carried by assault, resorted
to the slower but surer operation of the sap and mine which, after the
lapse of a month, prevailed, and the fort having become untenable, it
garrison withdrew into the town.
Although Gerona was greatly exposed by the loss of this fort, as its
guns commanded every part of the city, the governor maintained his
defence with the same resolution as before ; and on the 1st of September,
Blake had the address, in presence of the whole French army, to throw
a convoy of provisions within the walls. St. Cyr after this pressed the
20
?80 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXXII.
.siege with renewed vigor. On the llth, he placed his batteries in posi-
tion against the fortifications of the lower town, and kept up an incessant
storm of cannon balls until three large breaches were effected. On the
19th, the whole French army was divided into fhree columns, and led on
to the assault : but although charge after charge was made with the most
desperate bravery, the firm array of the citizens and garrison remained
invincible, and the assailants were forced to abandon the attempt with a
loss of sixteen hundred men.
St. Cyr now resolved to reduce the place by famine, and changed the
siege into a strict blockade, which ere long brought great distress upon
the inhabitants. But Napoleon grew dissatisfied on receiving accounts
of St. Cyr's slow progress, and he dispatched Augereau to supersede
him. The latter, however, did not alter the plan of attack, but patiently
awaited the result of the famine, and on the 12th of December, he re-
ceived proposals for a capitulation, which he readily granted on terms
honorable to the besieged. The fall of Gerona terminated the campaign
in Aragon and Catalonia.
After the fall of Madrid, the Duke del Infantado, who commanded the
army of the centre which had retreated toward La Mancha, collected
twenty thousand men at Cuenca: and, so little were the Spanish generals
yet aware of the immense inferiority of their troops compared with the
French, he marched toward the capital in the expectation of recapturing
it. Victor set out to meet this force with seventeen thousand men. He
encountered and defeated their advanced guard on the 10th of January,
at Tarancon, upon which the whole fell back to Ulces, where Victor at-
tacked them on the 13th. This action was one of the most disastrous
that took place during the war. The Spanish army suffered a total
defeat ; fifteen hundred men were slain, and nine thousand made prison-
ers with all the artillery, baggage and standards. The French disgraced
their victory by inhuman cruelties inflicted in cold blood on their pris-
oners after the battle was terminated. A similar overthrow awaited
the Spanish arms at Medellin, at which place Cuesta had assembled
twenty-four thousand men. Victor attacked his position with great im-
petuosity, and although some parts of the army stood firm against his
charge, the whole were eventually routed with a loss of ten thousand in
killed, wounded and prisoners, besides all their baggage and artillery.
The French loss did not exceed one thousand men.
In the beginning of February, of this year, Soult received orders to
assume the offensive in Portugal. He accordingly set out from Vigo, on
the coast of Galicia, and reached Tuy, on the banks of the Minho, on the
10th of that month. The river being deep and rapid, and guarded on the
opposite shore by Portuguese troops, he found great difficulty in crossing
it ; but after meeting with a serious repulse, he finally made good the
passage on the 20th. This delay proved important to the Portuguese
cause ; for the fatigue of the French troops was such, that Soult could
not resume his advance toward Oporto until the 4th of March, and was
therefore unable to reach Lisbon before the English reinforcements
arrived under Mackenzie and Hill. On the 6th, Soult overtook the rear-
guard of a body of troops, commanded by Romana, and defeated it with
some loss; on the 13th, he captured the fortified town of Chaves, where
he left his heavy artillery, with his sick and wounded, and on the 17th,
proceeded toward Oporto. His inarch lay through a succe3sion of intri
1809.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 281
cate defiles, and at every step he encountered an annoying opposition
which destroyed his men and so retarded his progress, that he did not
come in sight of Braga until the 20th. Masses of undisciplined men
were assembled for the defence of this town, but they gave way at the
first charge of the French columns, and the place fell into the hands of
the invaders. The French marshal, after a brief halt at Braga, hastened
forward and arrived on the north bank of the Duoro, opposite Oporto, on
the 28th. This city was provided with some means of defence, and the
hatred that the inhabitants entertained toward the French, gave promise
of a brave resistance ; but the military force was in an undisciplined
state, and Soult easily carried the town by assault.
Matters were in this condition in the Peninsula when, on the 22nd of
April, Sir Arthur Wellesley, thereafter known as WELLINGTON, landed
at Lisbon, and took command of the English forces. After deliberately
considering the relative position of all parties, he resolved to proceed
against Soult, and commenced his march for the north of Portugal in
two columns ; one of which, consisting of six thousand foot and one
thousand cavalry, under Beresford, advanced by Viseu and Lamego
toward the Upper Duoro, in order to turn Soult's left and cut off his
retreat by Braga ; the other, under Wellington in person, nearly seven-
teen thousand strong, including sixteen hundred cavalry, moved direct
upon Oporto.
The British advanced posts fell in with the enemy on the llth of May;
but the latter, by a rapid retreat, extricated themselves, crossed the Duoro,
and burned the bridge of boats at Oporto. The English troops were soon
drawn up on the southern bank, and the French battalions lined the other
shore ; but the river rolled between them and apparently no means of
crossing were at hand. Early in the morning of the 12th, General Mur-
ray collected a number of boats four miles above, at Avintas, and passed
over with a considerable body of troops. At the same time Colonel Wa-
ters, with the aid of three boats, effected the landing of a hundred men at
the Seminary of Oporto, who maintained themselves within the walls of
that building until reinforcements arrived to support them. While the
French were endeavoring to dislodge the British from this post, Murray's
columns began to appear on the extreme right, and threatened their line
of retreat ; and as the great body of the English forces were by this time
in line on the northern bank of the river, the French became disordered,
broke, and fled in great confusion, abandoning the town and leaving a
large quantity of ammunition, with fifty pieces of cannon, in the arsenal.
The surprise of this attack was so complete and its success so sudden,
that Wellington, at four o'clock, quietly sat down to the dinner prepared
for Marshal Soult, at the French commander's head-quarters.
The next morning, when Soult had restored order in his ranks and was
deliberately retreating toward Guimaraens, he received intelligence that
Amarante, which commanded the only bridge and defile over the Tamega,
and the only line of retreat practicable for artillery, was already in the
hands of the enemy. This was soon confirmed by the advance of Loison,
who had been defeated at Amarante by Beresford on the 12th, and was
now in full retreat upon Oporto. Soult's situation seemed nearly despe-
rate : the British troops occupied the great road to Braga, and it could be
regained only by cross hill-paths, impassable for cannon and almost
equally so for mules and horses. Yet not a moment was to be lost, for
282 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP XXXII.
the English pursuing columns menaced his rear, and he could hear the
thunder of their horse-artillery at no great distance behind. He there-
fore promptly abandoned his artillery, ammunition and baggage, and
commenced his route across the mountains. On the 17th, after under-
goJng extreme hardships, he reached Montalagre, passed Orense on the
26th, and on the day following joined Ney at Lugo, having sustained a
loss of one fourth part of his whole corps.
Wellington resolved to improve this auspicious commencement of his
campaign by an advance upon Madrid. He marched from Oporto on the
80th of June, reached Orpesa on the 20th of July, where he formed a
junction with Cuesta, and thence hastened toward the capital. The forces
which now threatened the metropolis were veiy considerable in point of
numbers. The English were twenty-two thousand strong, with thirty-
guns; Cuesta had thirty- eight thousand, with forty-six guns; and Vene-
gas, »vho was approaching from the south, was at the head of twenty-six
thousand men. As soon as Joseph received intelligence of their approach,
he sent the most pressing orders to Soult, Ney and Mortier to hasten for-
ward their corps to Toledo, where he himself also marched with eleven
thousand men to check the progress of the invaders. Having, by a junc-
tion with Sebastiani and Victor, assembled at this place an army of fifty-
five thousand men, Joseph resolved to assume the offensive, without waiting
for the three other marshals. He quickly defeated the advanced guard
of Cuesta, and arrived in front of Talavera with his whole force on the
26th of July. On the 27th, a partial action took place between Victor's
troops and the British outposts, which ended disadvantageously to the
French marshal.
Early on the morning of the 28th, the battle was renewed and main-
tained for some hours with great obstinacy ; but toward the middle of the
day, the heat of the weather became so intense that both parties by com-
mon consent suspended the combat. About three o'clock in the afternoon,
the French again advanced to the attack, and the battle now became gen-
eral at all points. The veterans of Sebastiani and Victor fought with
their accustomed impetuosity, and at intervals gained ground upon the
lines of the allied army ; but they were at length driven back and forced
to retreat with a loss of seventeen pieces of cannon and nine thousand
men. Wellington's loss was a little more than six thousand. " The
battle of Talavera," says Jomini, the French historian, " at once restored
the reputation of the British army, which for near a century had declined.
It was now ascertained that the English infantry could dispute the palm
with the best in Europe."
On the 2nd of August, Wellington prepared to march directly upon
Madrid ; but at this moment he received intelligence that the three French
marshals whom Joseph had so strenuously urged to press on to his support
had, by advancing on an eccentric line — which they were enabled to do
through the treachery or cowardice of the Spaniards, who deserted the
pass of Puerto de Banos without firing a shot — placed themselves in the
rear of the British, and threatened their communications with Lisbon.
Had the allied army, fifty thousand strong, consisted wholly of British
soldiers, and could Wellington have relied on a junction and active co-
operation with Venegas, who was pressing toward Madrid from the south,
tie might with great confidence have moved at once ->n the Spanish capital.
But he had already learned that his sole dependence in the field was his
1809.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 283
own army of twenty thousand men : the Spanish artillery was to a cer-
tain degree effective and well served ; but the cavalry was wretched,'
and the infantry, though at times courageous in resisting a charge, was
incapable of important manoeuvres under fire. In these circumstances,
a prudent, defensive policy alone promised a chance of success ; but this
was precisely the system which the ignorance and presumption of -the
Spanish generals rendered them unable to adopt. Wellington, therefore,
to avoid being attacked in front and rear at the same time, deemed it ne-
cessary to divide the allied army ; and he offered Cuesta his option, to
stay with the wounded at Talavera, or march against Soult. The Span-
ish general preferred remaining where he was, and Wellington set out
from Talavera on the 3rd of August with his entire army, excepting two
thousand wounded whom he left in the hospital of that town under the
protection of the Spanish troops. The English commander nevertheless
had the mortification to learn, a few hours after his departure, that
Cuesta had abandoned his post with all his forces, leaving nearly half the
English wounded to their fate. At the same time, he ascertained that
Soult, with thirty thousand men, was pressing on his communications at
Naval Moral ; he therefore altered his route, defiled to the left over the
bridge of Arsobizbo, and took up a defensive position on the Tagus, where
he was immediately followed by Cuesta and his army, who dared not trust
themselves out. of the protection of the British soldiers. The French forces,
joined by Soult and Mortier, now amounted to sixty thousand men ; but
they were exhausted by the fatigues of a forced march, and as the object
of their advance — the relief of Madrid — had been accomplished, they
manifested no disposition to commence hostilities, and for a time a virtual
suspension of arms took place in that quarter. Cuesta resigned his com-
mand, and his army was divided, ten thousand being dispatched to ree'n-
force Venegas, and twenty thousand remained in the neighborhood of the
English army, in the mountains which separate the valley of the Tagus
from that of the Guadiana. The French forces were also separated:
Soult and Mortier occupied Talavera, Oropesa and Placencia ; Ney re-
turned to Leon, and Joseph, with his guards, Dessolle's division and Se-
bastiani's corps, marched against Venegas, whom he totally defeated at
Almonacid.
For nearly a month after Wellington's march to the southern bank of
the Tagus, his army remained in undisturbed possession of their encamp-
ment ; but during the same time, they suffered greatly for want of pro-
visions, by reason of the entire failure of the Spaniards to perform their
contract. Indeed, from the moment Wellington entered Spain, he expe-
rienced the wide difference between the promises and performances of the
Spanish authorities. They were willing to receive British aid in repelling
their enemies, and freely offered the cooperation of their armies in such
undertaking ; but when their soldiers encountered the Frenchmen, they
fled from the field, and when their allies needed food, they left them to
starve : thus throwing, and with deliberate purpose consenting to throwj^
the two-fold burden of war — its cost and its bloodshed — on the party who
had no direct interest in its prosecution.
These causes very naturally led to an estrangement, and at length to
a positive animosity, between the officers and privates of the two armies ;
and eventually, Wellington, finding all his remonstrances disregardedj
gave orders for his troops to retire across the mountains into the valley
!i
284 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXXII.
•of the Guadiana, and he established his head-quarters at Badajoz on the
29th of August, leaving Spain and her armies to their own protection.
After Wellington had withdrawn to the western boundaries of Spain,
the operations of the Spanish troops were for a time confined to a guerilla
warfare, in which they gained considerable success ; and in fact, as the
British commander had already advised them, that was the only method
of defence which the native soldiers were competent to sustain. But the
Spanish officers, gaining courage from such trifling advantages, soon
abandoned the cautious policy in which alone their safety consisted, and
assumed the offensive. A body of fifty thousand men assembled at Ocana,
under the command of Areizaga, on the 12th of November. They were
here confronted by thirty thousand French veterans under Soult, Mortier
and Sebastiani. Nevertheless, the Spanish general, whose ignorance
equalled his presumption, was nothing daunted, and he made his disposi-
tions for the combat in a manner worthy of his military qualities. He
placed the left wing behind a deep ravine, which it could not cross without
falling into confusion, and the right wing in front of a similar ravine,
while the centre occupied the space before Ocana : hence, one wing had
no retreat in case of disaster, and the other could not attack the enemy
even to insure success. Having thus disposed of his army, his next care
was to find a suitable position for himself; and he made choice of one
of the steeples of Ocana, in which he remained during the battle, but
issued no orders for its conduct. The result of such an action hardly
need be told. Four hours of fighting sufficed to place twenty thousand
prisoners, fifty-five pieces of cannon, and all the ammunition, stores and
baggage of the army in the hands of the French ; the remainder of the
Spanish army was so totally dispersed that, ten days afterward, not a
single battalion could be rallied to defend the passes of Sierra Morena.
When the victors approached the town, Areizaga descended from his
steeple and fled.
This overwhelming defeat, together with some minor disasters which fol-
lowed it, clearly proved that the Spaniards were incapable by themselves
to maintain the war ; and as they could not be relied on to form a part
in any combined system of operations, Wellington perceived that the pro-
tection of Portugal must be his main object ; and that if the deliverance
of the Peninsula was ever effected, it must be done by troops who rested
on the fulcrum of that kingdom. He therefore resolved to move his army
from the banks of the Guadiana, where it had suffered great losses from
the fevers incident to the climate, and take post in the frontier province
of Beira, where the troops might recover their health and also guard the
principal road to the Portuguese capital, leading from the centre of Spain.
He accomplished this movement in the beginning of December, and en-
camped his forces in the neighborhood of Almeida.
These movements closed the campaign of 1809 in the Peninsula ; and
in order to form a.n intelligent estimate of the relative merits of the British
and French troops in the subsequent campaigns, the relative advantages
and disadvantages under which the rival armies carried on the war, must
be briefly considered.
The British, in conformity to the established mode of civilized warfare
in modern times, maintained themselves from magazines in their rear ;
and, when compelled to depend on supplies from the provinces in which
they were combating, they paid for them just as they would have done in
1810.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 295
their own country. It followed, therefore, that when the British troops
advanced into the interior districts of the Peninsula, any considerable-
failure in their supplies, or any blow struck by the enemy at their com-
munications, threatened them with total ruin.
The French, on the other hand, fearlessly plunged into the most deso-
late provinces, regardless of their flanks or rear ; and, without magazines
or communications, they wrenched from the inhabitants supplies for a
long period in a country where a British regiment could not, or rather
would not, find subsistence for a single week. " The mode," says the
Duke of Wellington, " in which they provide for their armies is this.
They plunder everything they find in the country : they force from the
inhabitants, under pain of death, all that they have in their houses for
the consumption of the year, without payment, and are indifferent re-
specting the consequences to the unfortunate people. Every article,
whether of food or raiment, and every animal and vehicle of every de-
scription, is considered to belong of right to the French army, and they
require a communication with their rear only for the purpose of conveying
intelligence and receiving orders from the Emperor."
It is easy to see what immense advantages an army acting on these
principles, must necessarily possess over another that conforms strictly
to the rule of equity, and takes nothing from the inhabitants without re-
turning a full equivalent. The one is always free in its movements, the
other is often embarrassed and constantly in danger.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
EVENTS OF 1810 J CAMPAIGN OF TORRES VEDRAS.
THE campaign of Wagram had, by its results, elevated Napoleon to
the highest point of military and political greatness. Resistance seemed
impossible against a power which had vanquished nearly all the armies
of Europe, and contest hopeless with a state which had emerged victorious
from eighteen years of warfare.
What, then, was wanting to a sovereign surrounded with such glory
and wielding such power ? Even this : historic descent and ancestral
renown ; and for this one deficiency, all the achievements of Napoleon
afforded no adequate compensation. The present could not always fasci-
nate mankind ; the splendor of existing fame could not entirely obliterate
the remembrance of departed virtue : the rapid fall of preceding dynas-
ties founded on individual greatness recurred in painful clearness to the
mind ; and the truth was too obvious to be denied or overlooked, that in
the next generation an infant of another race might successfully lay claim
to the magnificent inheritance of the Empire.
With these views, an heir to perpetuate his dynasty became a matter
of paramount necessity to Napoleon ; and he had long meditated the di-
vorce of Josephine, and a marriage with some princess who might bear
children to succeed him. But he did not feel the unconcern so common
to sovereigns in projecting this momentous separation. His union with
286 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXXIII.
the Empress had not been founded on reasons of state, or contracted with
a view to political aggrandizement. It was formed in early youth, based
on romantic attachment, interwoven with all his fortunes, and associated
with his most interesting recollections. Still, these feelings were, with
Napoleon, subordinate to considerations of public policy ; and, whatever
pain the severance of these ties might cost him, he did not for one moment
swerve from the stern resolution he had adopted. The question, therefore,
was debated in the Council of State as a matter of mere national expedi-
ncy, without the slightest regard to private inclinations or oppressed
virtue. It was at length resolved to make advances to the courts both
of St. Petersburg and Vienna; and, without committing the Emperor
positively to either, to be governed by the progress of events as to a final
decision.
Napoleon made this heart-rending communication to Josephine at Fon-
tainebleau, in November, 1809, whither she had hastened to meet him,
on his return from Wagram ; and though he at first received her with
kindness, she was not long in perceiving, from the restraint and embar-
rassment of his manner, that the blow which her observing mind had
already led her to forebode, was in truth about to fall upon her. After
fifteen days of painful suspense, her doubts and fears were brought to a
conclusion on the 30th of November. The royal pair had, on that day,
dined together as usual, but neither spoke a word during the repast ;
and, when it was finished, Napoleon dismissed the attendants, approached
the Empress with a trembling step, took her hand and laid it on his heart,
saying, "Josephine, my good Josephine, you know how I have loved you : it
is to you alone that I owe the few moments of happiness I have had in the
world. But, Josephine, my destiny is more powerful than my will : my
dearest affections must yield to the interests of France." " Say no more,"
cried Josephine: "I expected this — I understand and feel for you — but —
the stroke is not the less mortal." With these words, she uttered a pier-
cing shriek and fainted away.
A painful duty was now imposed on the persons concerned in this
exalted drama — that of assigning their motives and playing their parts
in its last scene before the great audience of the world. On the 15th of
December, the kings, princes and princesses of the Imperial family were
assembled in the Tuileries, and addressed first by Napoleon, who an-
nounced his resolution and the motives which led to it. Josephine replied
with a faltering voice and tears in her eyes, but in words worthy of the
occasion. " I respond," said she, " to the Emperor's sentiments in con-
senting to the dissolution of a marriage which has become an obstacle to
the happiness of France. The union that he contemplates will in no
respect change the feelings of my heart, and the Emperor will ever find
in me his best friend. I know what this act, commanded by policy and
exalted interests, has cost him ; but we both glory in the sacrifices which
we make for the good of our country : I feel elevated by giving the
greatest proof of attachment and devotion that was ever given upon
earth." But, though Josephine used this language in public, she was
far from feeling the same equanimity in her hours of retirement. She
was constantly in tears, she appealed in vain to the Emperor and the
pope for protection, and her grief was so violent and long continued, that
for many months her eyesight became seriously impaired.
The subsequent arrangements were rapidly completed. On the same
J810.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 297
day, the marriage was dissolved by an act of the Senate, the jointure of
Josephine fixed at two millions of francs, and Malmaison assigned as her
place of residence. Caulincourt and Maret were then instructed to make
immediate proposals to the two courts of St. Petersburg and Vienna for
an alliance. The former, in his negotiations with Russia, encountered
delay and evasion ; but Maret's advances were promptly met by Austria.
Preliminaries were soon adjusted. The marriage contract was signed at
Paris on the 7th, and at Vienna on the 16th of February ; and on the llth
of March the marriage was celebrated at Vienna with great pomp : Ber-
thier demanding the hand of the Archduchess Marie Louise, and the
Archduke Charles standing proxy for Napoleon. On the day after the
ceremony, the new Empress set out from Vienna, and was received at
Braunau by the Queen of Naples. She there separated from her Aus-
trian attendants, and continued her journey by short stages, surrounded
by the pomp of splendor and the fatigues of etiquette, to the neighborhood
of Paris.
The matrimonial alliance of Napoleon was too important an element
in the balance of European power, to be disposed of without producing
deep impressions in the minds of those who might deem themselves
slighted on the occasion. Alexander, though not anxious for the con-
nexion, was piqued in no ordinary degree at the haste with which the
marriage had been concluded, and he felt especially annoyed that the
hand of his sister should have been in effect discarded, while the propo-
sals for it were yet under consideration at St.. Petersburg. The event
confirmed the estrangement of feeling toward Napoleon which, on his
part, had been some time increasing ; and this fact had an important
bearing on the French Emperor's future career.
Difficulties of some moment occurred about the same time between
Napoleon and his brother Louis, King of Holland. He had long been
dissatisfied with Louis's government of the Dutch provinces ; for that
sovereign, sensible that the existence of his subjects depended on their
commerce, had done all in his power to soften the hardships they endured,
and purposely avoided enforcing the decrees against English trade with
the rigor demanded by the Emperor. Napoleon resented this disregard
of his orders by compelling Louis to cede to France the Dutch territories
on the left bank of the Rhine, including Walcheren, South Beveland and
Cadsand, which he formed into a new department styled the Mouth of the
Scheldt. This exaction was followed by a series of indignities which at
length induced the king to resign the crown in favor of his son, Napoleon
Louis, after which he set out privately for Toplitz in Bohemia. His ab-
dication took place on the 1st of July ; and on the 9th, Napoleon issued
a decree incorporating the whole kingdom of Holland with the French
Empire.
The Emperor soon after came to an open rupture with his brother Lu-
cien. The difficulty originated in the refusal of the latter to divorce his
wife, an American lady, in order to wed a princess selected for him by
Napoleon. He first removed to Rome ; but, being unable there to escape
the tyrant's persecution, he set sail for America. A British frigate cap-
tured his vessel on its voyage, and he was taken to Malta, but subse-
quently liberated to reside on parole in the British dominions. Letters
from Joseph were about the same time intercepted by the Spanish gue-
rillas, complaining of the rigorous mandates he had received from the
27
288 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXXIII.
Emperor, and declaring a wish to resign his crown and retire to private
life. Thus, while the Emperors of Russia and Austria were negotiating
for the honor of Napoleon's hand, his own brothers preferred to take up
their abode with his enemies rather than endure the tyranny of his im-
perious temper.
The alliance with Austria having relieved Napoleon from all apprehen-
sion of Germanic interference, he determined to complete the subjugation
of the. Peninsula, and moved across the Pyrenees a large portion of the
troops engaged in the campaign of Wagram. His entire forces amounted,
early in the year, to three hundred and sixty-six thousand men. On the
20th of January, an army sixty-five thousand strong, under the nominal
command of Joseph, but really directed by Soult, commenced operations
in Andalusia ; and the Spanish forces were so completely broken in that
province, that the invaders readily made themselves masters of Granada,
Seville and Malaga, within the space of a fortnight. Nothing now was
necessary to bring the campaign to a close in this quarter but the capture
of Cadiz; and Victor hastened on 10 secure that town. The Duke of Al-
buquerque, however, aware of the vital importance of maintaining this
place, pressed forward with nine thousand men to its relief; and, by
forced marches, succeeded in reaching it before the French troops arrived.
He immediately destroyed the bridge of Zuazo and put the fortifications
and garrison into an effective condition, in which undertaking he was
greatly aided by the English fleet in the bay, and by a reenforcement of
five thousand British and Portuguese troops, dispatched to his aid by
Wellington. These movements saved Cadiz : and as several members
of the CentralJunta had there taken refuge from the French pursuit, they
now convened the legitimate government in a regular form, and continued
to administer it, in this place of security, despite all the power of Napo-
leon. When Soult arrived in front of Cadiz, he found that it was safe
from all approaches but a regular siege, and he contented himself with
establishing around it a rigid blockade.
This conquest of the greater part of Andalusia, was followed by similar
success in Catalonia, where the French forces were commanded by Su-
chet and Augereau. The latter general did not, indeed, display his usual
activity, and Napoleon was at length so dissatisfied with his progress that
he sent Macdonald to supersede him ; but in the meantime Suchet had
overrun the province and captured Hostalrich, Mequinenza and Lerida.
The forces directed against Portugal, in May of this year, were very
formidable. The three corps of Ney, Regnier and Junot, under the im-
mediate command of Massena, amounted to eighty-six thousand veteran
soldiers. A reserve of twenty-two thousand, under Drouet, lay at Valla-
dolid ; and General Serras, with fifteen thousand, covered the right of the
army toward Benevente and Leon. The rear and communications of the
French troops were protected by Bessieres with twenty-six thousand men.
To meet this great array, Wellington's entire strength did not exceed
twenty-five thousand British soldiers and thirty thousand Portuguese
regulars, in addition to some thirty thousand native militia ; but the last
of these were of no value in the field, and useful only in desultory opera,
tions, while the Portuguese regulars were far inferior to both the British
and French troops ; so that Wellington's efficient force could hardly be
estimated at more than one third the strength of his opponents. Under
these circumstances, the opening of the campaign was conducted on his
part by strictly defensive operations.
1810.1 HISTORY OF EUROPE. 289
Massena took command of his army on the first of June, and imme-
diately invested the fortress of Ciudad Rodrigo, which surrendered to his
arms on the 10th of July, and on the 15th Almeida was also forced to
capitulate. Wellington deliberately withdrew from these two fortresses
as Massena advanced to besiege them, because he was not strong enough
to resist, in such positions, the whole French army, and because, in re-
gard to Ciudad Rodrigo, his present duties required him not to relieve the
towns of Spain, but to protect the territories of Portugal.
Wellington therefore retreated down the valley of the Mondego, whither
he was followed by Massena on the 21st of September ; but at length,
finding that his men were losing courage under the influence of a con-
tinued retrograde movement, and that the nature of the country offered
more facilities for defence than the ground he had previously traversed,
he took post at Busaco on the 26th, and determined to give battle to the
French commander,
Massena was not ignorant of the strength of Wellington's position or
the danger of his own ; for while lying at the foot of the ridge of Busaco,
he learned that Colonel Trant, commanding ten regiments of militia, had
attacked his reserve artillery and military chest near Tojal, and captured
the whole, together with eight hundred prisoners ; and he learned, further,
that his communications with the Spanish frontier were for the time cut
off by the Portuguese light troops. But Napoleon's orders were peremp-
tory for his advance, and his situation was such that he must necessarily
fight or retreat. He therefore commenced an assault at daybreak on the
27th. The troops of the allied army lay, during the night, in dense
masses on the summit of the mountains, and were not yet astir when
Ney's column, twenty-five thousand strong, approached their left by the
great road leading to the Convent, and Regnier moved against their right,
about three miles distant, by St. Antonio de Cantara. Ney's corps first
came into action under Loison, whose division formed the advanced guard
of the attack. His men pushed bravely up the hill, despite the utmost
efforts of Crawford's artillery, gained the edge of the mountain, and began
to rend, the air with their shouts, when Crawford ordered the 43rd and
52nd regiments to charge from a hollow where they lay concealed. In
a moment, eighteen hundred British bayonets sparkled over the crest of
the hill ; Loison's soldiers wavered, their flanks were overlapped, and as
the English infantry came to the charge, after pouring in upon them three
terrible volleys at a few yards' distance, they broke and rushed headlong
into the valley below. Regnier, on the British right, met with no better
success. His troops at first gained the summit of the ridge in defiance
of every attempt at resistance ; but when they began to deploy in order
to make good their position, they were charged by Generals Leith and
Picton with such impetuosity, that they fled in utter disorder and with
great loss down the sides of the declivity. Massena, seeing at length that
he could make no impression on Wellington's lines, drew off his troops,
after having sustained a loss of nearly two thousand killed and three
thousand wounded ; while the killed and wounded of the allies were
scarcely thirteen hundred men.
The French marshal, however, did not abandon his efforts, but resolved
to undertake, by a flank movement, what an attack in front had failed to
accomplish. He therefore, on the day following, moved by his own right
through a pass in the mountains leading to Sardao, which brought him on
290 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [dup. XXX III,
the road from Oporto to Coimbra and Lisbon. Wellington, without at-
tempting to disturb him in this march, fell back to the lines of Torres
Vedras, now completed and mounted with six hundred guns. Massena
followed at a slower pace ; and, on the 7th of October, Trant, with the
Portuguese militia, fell on his rear and took possession of Coimbra, where
were about five thousand French soldiers, principally sick and wounded.
But this disaster did not cause any change in Massena's dispositions : he
pressed resolutely forward without regard to magazines or communica-
tions, and on the 15th carne in sight of Wellington's defensive position —
an obstacle that he was previously unaware of, but which now rose before
him to bar his further progress toward the Portuguese capital.
The lines of Torres Vedras, on which the English engineers had been
quietly engaged for more than a twelvemonth, consisted of three distinct
ranges of defence, one within another. The first was twenty-nine miles
long, extending from Alhandra on the Tagus to Zezambre on the sea-
coast. The second, about eight miles in the rear of the first, stretched
from Quintella on the Tagus to the mouth of the St. Lorenza. The third
reached from Passo d'Arcos on the Tagus to the Tower of Jonquera.
Within this interior line, was an intrenched camp destined to cover an
embarkation of the troops, should that measure become necessary. Of
the three lines, the second was incomparably the strongest, and it was
there that Wellington originally intended to make his stand ; but the first
was so far completed by the time Massena reached it, that the English
general resolved to undertake its defence.
Massena, with all his resolution, paused at the sight of this formidable
barrier, and employed several days in reconnoitering, while his troops
were gradually collecting at the foot of the intrenchments ; but at length,
being unable to find a single point where he could attack with a prospect
of success, he sent General Foy under a strong escort to Paris, to ask in-
structions from Napoleon. In the meantime, Wellington's army was well
supplied with provisions and everything requisite for maintaining the war;
but the French troops, isolated from their communications, and finding
but little subsistence in the provinces they occupied, began to suffer f. om
famine ; and at length Massena, to escape utter starvation, was compelled,
on the 14th of November, to abandon his position and commence a retreat.
The moment intelligence reached the allied head-quarters that the
French were in motion, Wellington ordered a pursuit, and detached Gen-
eral Hill across the Tagus to move on Abrantes, while he himself led
the bulk of the army on the great road by Cartaxo, toward Santarem.
At this town, Massena made a halt, and took so strong a position that
Wellington deemed it advisable not to attack him ; but he encamped in
front of the French marshal 's lines and narrowly watched his move-
ments. It was soon ascertained that Massena intended to cross the Tagus
and march into the rich province of Alentejo ; but General Hill's vigi-
lance entirely frustrated this attempt ; and, after exhausting the country
in which he lay, Massena, on the 2nd of March, 1811, broke up from his
intrenchments and retreated toward Almeida and Ciudad Rodrigo.
While Wellington was thus gradually driving Massena from his footing
in Portugal, Soult had made such progress in the south as to threaten the
British rear. On the 22nd of January, the latter general, leaving Victor
to maintain the blockade of Cadiz, had advanced with twenty thousand
men as far as the Spanish town of Badajoz, to which he laid siege. The
1811.1 HIS TORY OF EUROPE. 291
ramparts of this fortress were of great strength, its garrison consisted of
nine thousand men, and it was well supplied with ammunition and pro-
visions, so that Soult had little hope of reducing it. But the treachery
of Iinaz, its governor, relieved him from all apprehension on that score;
and in a few days the place, with its magazines and artillery, was shame-
fully surrendered to the French troops. Soult now seemed to be in a
condition to act decisively on Wellington's communications ; but he had
hardly secured this conquest, when he learned that Sir Thomas Graham,
with a considerable force of Spanish and British troops, had planned an
attack on the French blockading force at Cadiz. The English general
leached the heights of Barrosa on the 5th of March, when Victor sallied
from his lines to give battle. The French soldiers came on, as usual, in
columns, and for a time carried everything before them ; but the obstinate
valor of the British soon arrested their progress, and drove them back in
confusion ; indeed, had La Pena, the commander of the Spanish troops on
the field, seconded Graham's efforts, Victor must have been totally de-
feated ; but that base Spaniard, like so many of his countrymen at this
period, refused to act in concert with his allies in the very hour of vic-
tory ; and Graham, disgusted at his detestable stupidity or cowardice,
withdrew to the island of Leon, taking with him his own trophies, which
consisted of six guns, one eagle and three hundred prisoners. This expe-
dition caused Soult to hasten back to Cadiz, leaving Wellington to act
without molestation on Massena's retreat.
Massena was enabled by his great preponderance of numbers to perform
this retrograde movement, in good order. He took the route through the
valley of the Moridego, and moved on gradually until he reached Colorico,
on the 21st of March, where he proposed to make a stand. But Welling-
ton's rapid approach induced him to abandon this project. He retreated
thence upon Coa, threw a garrison into Almeida on the 5th of April, and
the next, day crossed the Portuguese frontier and proceeded to Salamanca.
Nevertheless, although he thus made good his retreat, the losses of his
expedition were enormous. He had marched into Portugal with seventy
thousand men, and had been subsequently reenforced by nineteen thou-
sand ; yet his numbers were so reduced by want, sickness and the sword,
that he now entered Spain at the head of only forty-five thousand troops
of all arms.
Wellington immediately invested Almeida; and as the French had
gone into cantonments on the Tormes, he deemed it safe to send twenty-
two thousand men to the south of the Tagus, to cooperate with the troops
which Beresford had collected for the siege of Campo Mayor and Badajoz,
and he repaired thither himself to conduct the operations. When Napo-
leon heard of this division of the allied forces, he sent orders to Massena
to return from Tormes and relieve Almeida ; and on the other hand, as
soon as Wellington became aware ot the French advance, he hastened
from his head-quarters at Elva, and drew up his covering army, about
thirty thousand strong, at Fuentes d'Onoro.
An engagement between the outposts and skirmishers took place on the
afternoon of May 3rd, but the entire forces did not come into action until
the 4th, when the battle begun on the British right. The attack of the
French was impetuous and well sustained ; the allies gave ground, and
it was apparent that their right wing must soon bo driven from the field
unless they could gain a new defensive position. In this emergency,
27*
292 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXXIII
Wellington drew back his whole centre and right, the left remaining
firm, acting as the pivot on which the backward wheel was formed.
Massena endeavored to take advantage of this delicate movement, so
perilous in front of an army confident of victory, and he ordered the most
desperate charges of his cavalry to break the British ranks. But despite
the onset of the cuirassiers and dragoons, supported by a heavy train of
artillery, the English soldiers retired with perfect regularity and gained
the heights on the banks of the Coa. Massena made no attempt to dis-
lodge this part of the army, but directed all his force against the British
left. The Imperial Guard led the attack with levelled bayonets, but the
Highland regiments met them in the charge with such surprising vehe-
mence, that the front rank of the French veterans was literally raised
from the ground and borne backward some paces while suspended on the
Highland bayonets. The battle terminated with this repulse ; each party
lost about fifteen hundred men, and each retained a portion of the field.
Massena remained in his position for three days, and on the 9th, despair-
ing of either forcing or turning the British lines, he left Almeida to its
fate and retreated across the Agueda to Salamanca, while Wellington
quietly took possession of the abandoned fortress.
The reign of George III. was now drawing to a close. The health of
the venerable monarch had for some time declined, owing in part to grief
occasioned by the protracted illness of his daughter, the princess Amelia;
and when at length, on the 2nd of November, 1810, she breathed her last,
the anguish of the king was so great as to produce a return of the alarming
mental malady which, in 1788, had given such concern to the nation.
Parliament met on the 1st of November, but deemed it advisable to
adjourn from time to time, in expectation of the king's speedy recovery.
This hope, however, at length vanished ; for the mental aberration of
his majesty assumed a fixed character, and Mr. Perceval, on the 20th of
December, brought forward in the House of Commons three propositions,
based on Mr. Pitt's Regency Bill, to the following effect. " First. As the
king is prevented by indisposition from attending to the public business,
the personal exercise of the royal authority is suspended. Secondly. It is
the right and duty of Parliament, as representing all the estates of the
people of the realm, to provide the means of supplying the defect in such
a manner as the exigency of the case may seem to them to require.
Thirdly. For this purpose the Lords and Commons shall determine in what
manner the royal assent must be given to bills which have passed both
Houses of Parliament, and how the exercise of the powers and authori-
ties of the crown shall be put in force during the continuance of the king's
illness." The first proposition passed unanimously. The second, decla-
ring the right of Parliament to supply the defect, was carried with but
one dissenting voice, Sir Francis Burdett?s. But on the third, which de-
creed, in effect, that Parliament should appoint the individual who was
to exercise the royal authority, the opposition took their stand. The de-
bate occurred on an amendment of Mr. Ponsonby, proposing an. address
to the Prince of Wales, with a petition that he would take upon himself
the royal functions. The appointment of the Prince of Wales, with the
title of Prince Regent, was, however, finally decided in the House of
Lords on the 29th of January, by a majority of eight votes.
A negotiation for the exchange of prisoners was this year opened be-
tween the governments of France and Great Britain, which resulted in
1811.J HISTORY OF EUROPE. 293
nothing, by reason of Napoleon's unprecedented demands. Mr. Macken-
zie, on behalf of Great Britain, proposed an even exchange for the na-
tives of the two countries, man for man, which was the only equitable
basis : but when Napoleon discovered that fifty thousand Frenchmen
were in bondage in England, whereas there were only ten thousand
British subjects in France, he insisted, as a sine qua non in the transac-
tion, that the remaining forty thousand should be supplied from the Spanish
and Portuguese rabble, captured during the preceding campaigns in the
Peninsula. As the effect of this would have been to restore to the French
army, fifty thousand efficient troops, while England would gain but ten
thousand ; and especially, as the balance of forty thousand Spanish and
Portuguese could not in a national, political or military point of view be
considered an equivalent to Great Britain for the same number of French
captured by her arms in battle, the British government very properly
declined to accede to Napoleon's demand, and the negotiation was ab-
ruptly closed.
The remaining memorable event of this year was the capture, by the
British forces, of the Island of Java, the last colonial possession of the
French Empire. This noble island, in itself a kingdom, is six hundred
and forty miles long, from eighty to a hundred and forty broad, and con-
tained more than two millions of inhabitants. Its annual production for
export may be rated at one hundred and twenty million pounds of sugar,
and five million pounds of pepper ; it furnishes, besides, rice and grain
for the support of its inhabitants, and yields a lucrative commerce in nut-
megs, cinnamon and other spices. The island surrendered to the land
and naval force of Great Britain, on the 26th of September.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE CORTES ; WAR IN SPAIN; CAMPAIGN OF 1811 ON
THE PORTUGUESE FRONTIER.
IT was with feelings of unmingled admiration that the people of Europe
beheld the able and energetic movements of the Duke of Albuquerque
toward Cadiz, when he outstripped the celerity of the French legions and
preserved the last bulwark of Spanish independence from the arms of the
invader. The subsequent assembly of the Cortes within the impregnable
ramparts of that city promised to give a unity to the Spanish operations,
from the want of which they had hitherto so greatly suffered, at the same
time that it presented a legitimate national authority with which other
powers might treat in their negotiations for the furtherance of the com-
mon cause. Yet from these very events, so fortunate at the moment and
so apparently auspicious for the future, results have arisen deeply perni-
cious to the welfare of the Spanish Peninsula.
The Cortes, in the course of its proceedings in Cadiz, wrought an entire
change, both in the character and policy of the government. The acts
and spirit of its legislation were revolutionary in the highest degree;
and, after a long season of violent debate, the democratic party carried
294 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXXIV.
their own measures by a decided majority, and embodied them in a new
Constitution, embracing the following provisions and enactments. It de-
clared the Roman Catholic faith to be the religion of the state, the su-
preme sovereignty to reside in the nation, and the supreme legislative
power in the Cortes. That assembly assumed the exclusive right of
voting taxes and levies of men ; of regulating the armed force ; of nomi-
nating judges ; of creating a regency in case of a minority, incapacity,
or other event suspensive of the succession ; of enforcing the responsible-
ness of all public functionaries ; and of introducing and enacting laws.
During the intervals of the session, the Cortes was to be represented by a
permanent commission or deputation, to which a considerable part of its
power was committed. The person of the king was declared to be invio-
lable, and his consent was requisite to the passing of laws ; but he could
not withhold his consent more than twice to different legislatures ; and if a
bill were presented him a third time, he was forced to give it his sanction.
He was to hold the prerogative of pardon, but circumscribed within very
narrow limits. He could conclude treaties and truces with foreign powers,
but the consent of the Cortes was requisite to their ratification. He had
command of the army, but the regulations for its government were to ema-
nate still from the Cortes ; and he could nominate public functionaries, but
only from lists furnished by that body. The king could not leave the king-
dom nor marry without the consent of the Cortes : if he did either, he was to
be held as having abdicated the throne. For his assistance in discharging
his public duties, he could appoint a privy council of forty members, se-
lected from one hundred and twenty names presented by the Cortes ; but
these councillors could not be removed except by that power, and in the
whole number there could be only four grandees and four ecclesiastics.
In short, all appointments made by the king were to be under the dicta-
tion of the Cortes. By a subsequent provision it was decreed that the
assembly should sit, as then constituted, in a single chamber : and for
future elections there was to be one member to every seventy thousand
inhabitants, and every man over the age of five-and-twenty, a native of
the province, or who had resided in it for seven years, was entitled alike
to elector be elected.
This Constitution was approved by some and detested by other portions
of the inhabitants. Tn the principal towns, especially those devoted to
commerce, the enthusiasm of the people on this great accession of power,
was loudly and sincerely expressed : while in the lesser boroughs and in
the rural districts, where revolutionary ideas had not spread and the an-
cient faith and loyalty remained uncorrupted, it was the object of un-
qualified denunciation. • Wellington, from the first, clearly perceived and
loudly condemned the pernicious tendency of these measures, not merely
because they diverted the attention of the government from the national
defence, but because they tended to establish democratic principles and
republican institutions in a country wholly unfitted to receive them, and
because they would sow the seeds of future and interminable discord
throughout the Spanish monarchy. His opinions, little heeded at that time,
by reason of the absorbing interest of the contest with Napoleon, have now
acquired an extraordinary interest from the exact and melancholy ac-
complishment that, subsequent events have given to his predictions.
In the meantime, so completely did hostilities seem to be concluded
south of the Sierra Morena, Joseph Bonaparte crossed that formidable
1311-] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 295
barrier ; entered Seville amid the acclamations of the higher classes of
the citizens, who were fatigued with the war and hopeless of its success ;
received from the civic authorities of the town the standards taken at the
battle of Baylen ; and accepted tho services of a royal guard raised for
him in the southern provinces. The benevolent monarch, deceived by
these flattering appearances, indulged the hope that his difficulties were
at an end.
But although Joseph, for a brief period, gave way to this pleasing illu-
sion, he was not long in being awakened from it by the acts of Napoleon.
Early in February, the French Emperor issued a decree organizing into
four distinct governments the provinces of Catalonia, Aragon, Biscay and
Navarre, and charging the military governor of each, with the entire
direction of its affairs. His purpose in this measure was thus explained
in a letter to the French ambassador at Madrid. " The intention of the
Emperor is to unite to France the whole left bank of the Ebro, and per-
haps the territory extending as far as the Duoro. One of the objects of
the present decree is to prepare for that annexation ; and you will take
care, without letting fall a hint of the Emperor's designs, to pave the
way for such change, and facilitate all the measures which his majesty
may take to carry it into execution." Thus, Napoleon, after having
solemnly guarantied the integrity of Spain, first by the treaty of Fon-
tainebleau to Ferdinand, and again by that of Bayonne, to Joseph, was
now preparing, in violation of both engagements, to seize a large part of
the Spanish Peninsula.
Notwithstanding the Emperor's precautions in regard to his ulterior
purposes, Joseph soon took the alarm, and endeavored to protect himself
against his brother's encroachments. But after a tedious negotiation,
during which Napoleon created two additional military governments
north of the Duoro, Joseph became convinced of the incorrigible perfidy
of the Emperor — which destroyed all confidence and all ground of con-
fidence both in his faith and honor, as well as in his written and spoken
words, however solemnly pledged — and, drawing up a formal resigna-
tion of the throne, he hastened to Paris and delivered the document per-
sonally to Napoleon, who was greatly embarrassed at this sudden and en-
ergetic proceeding. The Emperor exerted himself to the utmost to in-
duce Joseph to withdraw his resignation and return to Madrid ; and his
efforts were at last successful. The King of Spain repaired again to his
capital on the 14th of July, 1811, trusting once more to the promises of
Napoleon, and, it is almost unnecessary to add, finding himself in the end
as grossly deceived as ever.
While Soult and Victor were occupied with the blockade of Cadiz,
and were constructing in front of that city lines of intrenchments which
seemed to forbid the hope that the garrison could ever escape, unless by
sea ; Suchet commenced decisive operations in the east of Spain, supported
by a covering army under Macdonald. The Spanish forces in Catalonia
under O'Donnell and Campoverde, were more than twenty thousand
strong, but they were scattered in detached parties among the mountains
and defiles of that province, and, speaking generally, were in a condition
only for guerilla enterprises. Early in September, however, O'Donnell
secretly planned an attack on some detachments of French troops on the
Ampurdan, and, by a judicious combination, he managed to surprise a'
considerable force, and took fifteen hundred prisoners. Macdonald was
21
n
296 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXXIV.
so annoyed at this manoeuvre, that he resolved to avenge it by a move-
ment against Cordova, where Campoverde had stationed himself with the
greater part of his men. The French marshal assailed the position of
Campoverde on the 21st of October, but he was unable to make the
slightest impression on the Spanish lines, and withdrew with some loss
to Gerona.
Suchet commenced his operations in September, by the siege of Tor.
tosa, which lies at the mouth of the Ebro, and in part rests on a ridge
of rocky heights that approach closely to the river. The garrison con-
sisted of eight thousand men, and the population of the town amounted to
ten thousand. Had the governor been a man worthy of the trust reposed
in him, Tortosa might at least have sustained a long siege ; but, owing
to his want of energy and the extraordinary vigor with which Suchet
pressed the attack, it yielded to the French arms on the 2nd of January,
1811.
After the fall of Tortosa, Suchet was for some months absorbed in pre-
parations for one of the most arduous undertakings in the Peninsula;
namely, the siege of Taragona; and while his attention was by this
means withdrawn from the scene of his late victory, one of Campoverde's
generals, named Martinez, made a sudden attack on the town and fortress
of Figueras. This bold manoeuvre was undertaken on the night of the
9th of April, and was so heartily aided by the citizens, that the place
was carried with a loss to the victors of only thirty men, killed and
wounded. About the same time, Macdonald marched fronnLerida for
Barcelona by the circuitous route of Manresa. The bridge at this point
was bravely defended by a few Spanish soldiers, but the French troops
finally routed them and entered the town without further opposition.
When they had passed through, the rear-guard, with surprising barbarity,
set fire to the town and soon reduced seven hundred houses to ashes,
among which were two orphan-hospitals and several other noble estab-
lishments of industry and benevolence. Macdonald, who witnessed the
conflagration from the heights of Culla, made no attempt to extinguish
the flames, but resumed his march the next day, leaving the smoking
ruins to show where a French army had taken its line of march. This
outrage was to a certain extent avenged by the inhabitants of the sur-
rounding country, who assailed the retiring columns in the defiles beyond
Manresa, and slew upward of a thousand men. The war thereaftei
assumed a more savage character, and the Spanish generals directed that
no quarter should be granted to French troops found in the vicinity ot
any town or village given over to the flames.
Taragona is built in the form of a rectangular parallelogram, the
northern part of which is perched on a rocky eminence having its eastern
base washed by the waves of the Mediterranean. The lower town lies
at the southwest, on the banks of the Francoli. The number of inhabit-
ants was about eleven thousand, and the garrison did not exceed six
thousand men. The principal defence on the northeast, consisted in a
line of redoubts connected by a curtain, with a ditch and covered way
running from the sea to the rocks on which the upper town is built. The
approach to the city on the southeast is entirely flat, and protected by a
chain of strong fortifications including a stronghold called Fort Royal.
The upper and lower town were separated by a rampart joining with
Fort Olivo, a large outwork on the rocky heights. The place, in a
1811.J HISTORYOFEUROPE. 297
general sense, was strong, but by no means impregnable ; and its defences
were somewhat aided by three British ships of the line under Commodore
Codrington, which lay at anchor in the bay.
Suchet made his first serious attack against the southern front of the
lower town ; when, finding his men severely galled by the fire of Fort
Olivo, he resolved to storm that formidable post. The assault was made
on the 29th of May, in two columns, and, after a desperate resistance
the garrison yielded to the impetuosity of the French troops. This con
quest was followed by preparations for an assault on the lower town,
which were completed by the 21st of June, when Suchet ordered the
attack at seven o'clock at night. A terrible contest ensued, but the be-
siegers were at length victorious, and carried both the town and Fort
Royal amid all the horrors of massacre and conflagration. The hopes
of Taragona were now centred in the infuriated multitude who crowded
the walls of the upper town, which Suchet prepared to storm on the 29th
of June. The conflict here was more desperate and bloody than at any
other period of the siege ; but the slender garrison that remained could
make no effectual resistance against the overwhelming numbers of the
besieging force, and this last stronghold in Catalonia fell into the hands
of the French troops. Suchet disgraced his victory by another of those
atrocious massacres which marked the bloody career of the French
armies in the Peninsula, and which must ever call down the execration
of mankind on the blood-thirsty tyrant who projected this war, as well as
on the ferocious generals and the brutal soldiery by whom it was main-
tained. After the town had surrendered, these demons were let loose
upon the defenceless inhabitants, and no less than six thousand men,
women and children were butchered within the space of a few hours.
Suchet next invaded the province of Valencia, and laid siege to Sagun-
tum ; a fortress of great strength, perched on the summit of a rock that
is perpendicular on three sides, and accessible from the west only by a
steep and devious road. The investment of the place was completed on
the 28th of September, and an assault, on that day, was repulsed with
great loss to the besiegers. A second attempt to carry the town by storm
was made on the 18th of October, when the leading columns, after being
driven in disorder from the breach, were reenforced by eight thousand
grenadiers of the Imperial Guard, whose charge was generally deemed
irresistible. These redoubtable soldiers gained the breach without fal-
tering for an instant, but as soon as they mounted it, the fire of the Span-
ish infantry, concentrated on them at half-pistol shot, swept down their
ranks with an astounding slaughter and forced them, after a brief strug-
§'e, to retreat to the foot of the hill with a loss of half of their numbers,
n the 24th of October, Blake advanced to the relief of Saguntum at the
head of an ill-organized army of twenty-five thousand men. Suchet
marched with great alacrity to meet him ; and, although, considering the
character of the Spanish troops, it was idle to hope for their gaining a
victory over the veterans of France, they withstood Suchet's assaults
with heroic valor, and retreated from the field after sustaining the com-
paratively small loss of three thousand five hundred men in killed,
wounded and prisoners. The garrison of Saguntum, despairing now of
relief, and being threatened with famine from the close blockade main-
tained by Suchet, capitulated on the 26th of October.
The French commander remained for a time at Saguntum, to collect
298 HISTORY OF EUROPE. ' [CHAP. XXXIV.
reinforcements from Macdonald's covering army ; and in the beginning
of December, having raised his numbers to thirty-three thousand effective
troops, he marched upon the city of Valencia, and commenced the siege
of that capital on the 26th. The place was neither strongly fortified nor
powerfully garrisoned ; and, after a partial bombardment, its governor
surrendered at discretion on the 9th of January, 1812. But this con-
quest, though thus easily achieved, was not the less important, as it
made the French masters of all that portion of the Peninsula, and placed
in their hands an immense quantity of artillery and military stores.
When the retreat of Massena from Torres Vedras had delivered *hat
part of Portugal from the Imperial yoke, and the battle of Fuentes d'-
Onoro had destroyed the French marshal's" hope of retaining a permanent
footing within the Portuguese frontier, Wellington turned his attention
toward Badajoz. This fortress, though not occupying a conspicuous
rank in regard to wealth or population, was, from its great strength and
central position, of the highest consequence to each of the contending
parties : as it formed at once a base for the operations of an invading
army on the mqst defenceless side of the Portuguese capital, and the
strongest link in the iron girdle, which was intended to restrain the
British troops from advancing into the Spanish territories. Therefore,
while Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz remained in the hands of the French
it was impossible for Wellington to feel assured of the safety of Portugal,
or to undertake any serious enterprise for the deliverance of Spain. He
accordingly resolved to lay siege to Badajoz, and in the middle of May,
1811, moved his head-quarters to Estremadura, and dispatched twelve
thousand men to reenforce General Beresford, who had already begun
offensive operations in the designated quarter,
When Soult learned that Beresford was threatening Badajoz, and that
Wellington had resolved on besieging it, he advanced immediately to its
relief at the head of twenty-three thousand men. As he reached the
heights in front of Albuera, he found Beresford posted at that place with
an army thirty-one thousand in numbers, but composed of sixteen thou-
sand Spanish, eight thousand Portuguese, and only seven thousand British
soldiers; so that the preponderance of real strength was clearly on the
side of the French marshal. Soult determined to attack the allies in this
position, and he began the action early on the morning of May 16th, by
an impetuous assault on their right wing, which consisted entirely of
Spanish troops under Blake. The Spaniards stood their ground bravely
for a time, but the superior prowess of the French veterans at length
overcame all their efforts ; they were totally overthrown, and the French,
taking possession of the heights where they were posted, commanded the
whole field with a battery of heavy guns.
The day now seemed lost to the allies. But Beresford, with undaunted
resolution, ordered up the British divisions from the centre to regain the
ground lost on the right. General Stewart led the column of attack
against the heights ; and, after finding that the French ranks could not
be shaken by musketry, he commanded his men to charge with their
bayonets. But while they were deploying for that purpose, three regi-
ments of hussars and Polish lancers, which had taken advantage of a
thick mist to gain their flank unperceived, fell on them with great spirit,
destroyed one battalion and drove back another, while the third remained
isolated on the heights in the midst of its enemies. Reinforcements were
1811.] HISTORY CF EUROPE. 299
speedily moved forward to support this detachment; Dickson's artillery
covered the advance, and Houghton's brigade soon established itself
on the heights: Abercrornby followed with a second division, and these
were presently joined by Lumley's horse-artillery and two columns of
Spanish troops. The battle was thus to a certain degree restored ; but
the superior numbers of the French began gradually to tell in their favor,
and Beresford made preparations for a retreat.
In this extremity, the firmness of one man changed the fate of the day.
While Beresford was issuing orders to withdraw from the field, Sir Henry
Hardinge took on himself the risk of one more throw for victory. He di-
rected Generals Cole and Abercromby to charge, severally, with their
divisions, on the right and left of the French, who were now advancing in
one deep column to drive the allies down the declivity of the mountain.
This order was promptly obeyed, and the men moved resolutely forward
to encounter thrice their numbers of the bravest troops of France. At
first, they were staggered by the enemy's fire ; " Suddenly recovering,
however," says Colonel Napier, in his brilliant History of the Peninsular
War, " they closed on their terrible enemy ; and then was seen with
what strength and majesty the British soldier fights. In vain did Soult, by
voice and gesture, animate his Frenchmen ; in vain did the hardiest ve-
terans, extricating themselves from the crowded column, sacrifice their
lives to gain time and space for the mass to open out on such a fair field ;
in vain did the mass itself bear up, and fiercely striving, fire indiscrim-
inately on friends and foes, while the horsemen hovering on the flanks,
threatened to charge the advancing line. Nothing could stop that aston-
ishing infantry. No sudden burst of undisciplined valor, no nervous en-
thusiasm, weakened the stability of their order : their eyes were bent on
the dark column in their front ; their measured tread shook the ground ;
their dreadful volleys swept away the head of every formation ; their
deafening shouts overpowered the dissonant cries that broke from all
parts of the tumultuous crowd, as, foot by foot, and with a horrid carnage,
it was driven by the incessant vigor of the attack to the farthest edge of
the hill. In vain did the French reserves, joining with the struggling
multitude, endeavor to sustain the fight : their efforts only increased the
irremediable confusion ; and the mighty mass, at length giving way like
a loosened cliff, went headlong down the descent. The rain flowed after
them in streams discolored with blood ; and fifteen hundred unwounded
men, the remnant of six thousand unconquerable British soldiers, stood
triumphant on the fatal hill."
Beresford, seeing the heights thus gloriously won, immediately pre-
pared to secure the victory ; and, so utter was the confusion of the greater
portion of Soult's army, his force would have been totally destroyed, had
not Ruty stood gallantly forth in the rear with his artillery, and, by an
admirably sustained fire, checked the pursuit until the disordered masses
had gained the shelter of the forest beyond the heights. At length, this
sanguinary contest died away on both sides, rather from the exhaustion
of the victors than from any further means of resistance, save in their ar-
tillery, on the part of the vanquished. On the night following the battle,
Soult retreated toward Seville, leaving the allies for a time to prosecute
the siege of Badajoz without further molestation.
On the 23rd of May, Wellington arrived to take command of the army,
and he pressed the siege of Badajoz with all his energy. By the 27th,
28
300 HIS TORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXXIV.
the place was fully invested, and on the 29th the besiegers made an as-
sault on Fort Christ.oval, which, however, was repulsed by the garrison.
Indeed, the fortune of war had decreed that Badajoz should not yet be
delivered from the invader's grasp. Napoleon, as conscious as Welling,
ton of the value of this fortress, had sent orders for extensive preparations
to raise the siege ; and, in fact, for the ulterior purpose of preventing
Wellington's advance into Spain, he at this time reorganized his military
establishment throughout that whole kingdom. The unserviceable and
unimportant fortresses were dismantled and evacuated ; those of conse-
quence were strengthened in their works and garrisons ; magazines of
provisions and military stores were accumulated at various points ; and,
for the first time during the war, a considerable sum of money, amount-
ing in all to forty millions of francs, was forwarded from Paris for the
use of the troops. At the same time, Marmont was ordered to collect his
forces and cooperate with Soult for the relief of Badajoz ; and as this com-
bination, when completed, would place sixty-five thousand men at Soult's
disposal, against whom Wellington could not array more than forty-five
thousand including all the Spanish and Portuguese troops, it became in-
dispensable to raise the siege of Badajoz, which event took place on the
10th and llth of June. On the 28th of the same month, Soult and Mar-
mont effected the junction of their corps at that place.
Soult, after remaining a few days at Badajoz, and putting it in a more
perfect state of defence, withdrew again toward Seville, and Marmont fell
back upon Talavera; while Wellington, who saw that any further at-
tempt on Badajoz would be useless, while such powerful armies were at
hand to relieve it, planned an attack on Ciudad Rodrigo and moved north-
wardly to accomplish that undertaking. His preparations were made
with great skill and profound secrecy ; and for a time seemed to promise
success. But the delay that occurred in transporting his heavy artillery,
eventually caused the discovery of his purpose, and Marmont, with sixty
thousand men, hastened down the valley of the Tagus to oppose him.
This movement prevented Wellington from prosecuting the siege, yet the
approximation of two powerful armies led to the belief that a pitched bat-
tle would immediately take place. But Wellington's inferiority of num-
bers was a sufficient reason for his not assuming the offensive ; and, as
Marmont failed to attack, the crisis passed over without any momentous
occurrence. Some changes of position and some hostile demonstrations
followed, but at length the armies both withdrew, and went into canton-
ments toward the end of September.
This concluded the campaign of 1811, so far as the operations of the
principal armies were concerned, though some affairs of relative import*
ance occurred between detached bodies of the contending powers.
CHAPTER XXXV.
%
WELLINGTON'S INVASION OF SPAIN, 1812.
IN the month of December, 1811. the French armies, in order to estab-
lish eligible winter-quarters and canton themselves in districts where
provisions might more readily be obtained, were so scattered through the
regions of the Upper Tagus and the Duoro, that Ciudad Rodrigo was for
the time entirely abandoned to its own resources, and Wellington took
advantage of this posture of affairs to renew his attempts on that fortress.
To conceal his design, he ordered Hill to assume the offensive in Estre-
madura : and that enterprising officer discharged this duty so effectually
that Soult, believing that the siege of Badajoz was about to be undertaken,
directed all his forces throughout Andalusia to concentrate in that quar-
ter, at the very moment when Wellington was completing his final pre>
parations against Ciudad Rodrigo.
On the 8th of January, 1812, the British light divisions crossed the
Agueda and commenced the investment of the fortress ; in the evening of
that day, they carried by assault an advanced redoubt on the great Teson,
and, on the day following, established the first parallel : on the 13th, the
accumulation of forces enabled the besiegers to storm the Convent of
Santa Cruz. The garrison, alarmed at this rapid progress, made a vigor-
ous sortie on the 14th of January, but without seriously retarding the
approaches ; on the same afternoon the besieging batteries were opened,
and at night the fortified Convent of San Francesco, which flanked the
right of the trenches, was carried by a gallant escalade of the 46th regi-
ment. For three days the breaching batteries played on the ramparts
with the most destructive effect, while the cannon of the town replied with
unabated spirit ; and on the 18th, two breaches having been declared
practicable, Wellington summoned the place. The governor refused to
surrender, and preparations were immediately made for the assault.
The perilous honor of this attack fell on the divisions of Generals
McKinnon and Vandeleur, whose turn of duty placed them on that day in
the trenches. The storming parties received orders not to fire a shot, but
push on with the bayonet ; the bearers of the sand-bags, ladders, and other
engines of assault were not even armed, lest any irregular skirmish should
interfere with their particular duties in smoothing the way for the other
troops. The preparations of the garrison, however, were very formida-
ble: bombs and hand-grenades, ready to be rolled down on tne assailants,
lined the top of the breaches ; bags of powder were disposed among the
ruins to explode when the besiegers began to ascend the slopes ; two
heavy guns, charged with grape, flanked the summit of the larger breach,
and a mine was prepared under it, to be fired if the other defences failed.
But all these obstacles failed to daunt the British troops, and the last words
of Wellington's orders for the day breathed the spirit of the whole army:
" Ciudad Rodrigo must be carried by assault this evening at seven o'clock."
The evening was clear and tranquil ; and the moon, in her first quar-
ter, diffused a doubtful light which, without disclosing particular objects,
rendered their rude outlines distinctly visible. The projecting bastions
30-2 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXXV.
stood forth like giants in the gloom, darkly, yet clearly defined on the ad-
joining shadows; while in their sides, yawning gulfs half filled with ruins,
showed where the breaches had been made and the deadly strife was to
take place. The trenches of the besiegers were crowded with armed
men, among whom not a whisper could be heard nor a movement seen;
so completely had discipline and the absorbing anxiety of the moment
subdued every unruly feeling and stilled every dauntless heart. As the
great clock of the cathedral tolled seven, the word passed softly along that
all was ready ; when the men leaped from their trenches and rushed for-
ward to the storm-, led by their respective forlorn hopes. The garrison
bravely disputed every inch of ground, but the besiegers, with a steady
progress, and in despite of a murderous fire from all points of the ram-
parts, carried everything before them, and, not long after midnight, the
fortress was in the undisputed possession of the allies.
The disorder and outrage, which to a certain extent are inseparable
from the successful storming of a town, followed the capture of Ciudad
Rodrigo; but there was this essential difference between the excesses
committed, on such occasions, by the British and the French troops.
The latter, wi:h deliberate purpose and express permission, added to
their pillage and rapine, the horrors of an indiscriminate violation and
massacre in cold blood; the former, yielding to their national vice,
intemperance, broke open every, receptacle of liquors and wines, in defi-
ance of the strictest commands of their officers, and, under the excite-
ment of intoxication, pillaged churches and set houses on fire : but this
was done only in a limited degree ; the more orderly troops exerted
themselves successfully to arrest the progress of the flames, and not one
unresisting citizen of whatever age or condition was slain.
When Wellington had repaired the defences of Ciudad Rodrigo, he,
with great dispatch and secrecy, undertook a similar expedition against
Badajoz, which place he completely invested by the 17th of March ; and,
in this case, as in the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo, he so effectually concealed
his intentions by threatening movements in other quarters, that the cover-
ing forces of Soult and Marmont were wholly withdrawn from that vicinity
when he commenced the siege. The approaches were at first delayed
by a storm of rain, which continued for some days, and so saturated the
ground that it could not be cut into any regular form ; but on the 25th,
the breaching batteries were opened on an outwork called Fort Picurina,
and the storming party, following up the devastation made by the heavy
guns, carried this post the same evening. The cannon were now advanced
to the fort, and commenced their fire directly on the ramparts of the town.
After a cannonade of five days, three breaches were effected and declared
/practicable, and a strong force, divided into several columns, commenced
the assault. The besiegers made their onset with desperate fury; but
the governor, Philippon, was so well prepared for th ir reception, that,
after a struggle unparalleled for its obstinacy and slaughter, Wellington
was forced to recall the divisions, and prepare fora new attack. No less
than two thousand men had fallen in and around the breaches.
While this tremendous conflict was in progress, Picton had led his
division around to the foot of the rocks on which stood the castle, at an
elevation of more than a hundred feet from the level of the Guadiana;
and he proposed, while the attention of the garrison was drawn to the
assault at the breaches, to scale the rocks and make himself master of
1812.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 303
this stronghold in the rear. His advance, however, was discovered,
and he had not only to scale a precipice, but also to contend against
every description of missile, combined with a storm of musketry, i.i his
ascent. His troops were at first so completely swept off by these various
projectiles, that, at three several times, not one man remained on the lad-
ders: but he still persevered, and at length, in defiance of every impedi-
ment, his grenadiers gained the summit of the rocks, forced the castle, and
firmly established themselves within its walls. About the same time,
Walker made a successful attempt to escalade the bastion of San Vin-
cente ; his whole brigade carried that post by storm, and Philippon,
seeing that further resistance was unavailing, surrendered at discretion.
By the capture of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz, Wellington gained
possession of three hundred and twenty pieces of heavy artillery, five
thousand prisoners, and an immense quantity of military stores ; but,
what was of far more importance, he had also gained the mastery over
the French generals ; their two border-fortresses, alike a barrier for
defensive, and a base for offensive operations, were reduced, and a path
into the heart of Spain lay open to the British army. The ungovernable
wrath of Napoleon, which was poured on the heads of his marshals when
he heard of these disasters, caused a mutual irritation and a disunion of
purpose, that had a sinister influence on the French operations during the
remainder of the war.
These two victories loosened the whole fabric of the French power in
Spain, and Wellington now hesitated whether to deliver his next blow
against Marmont in the north, or Jourdan in the centre of that kingdom.
He finally decided that, as the vital point was on the line of communi-
cation between Bayonne and Madrid, his wiser course would be to move
against Marmont; and he immediately commenced preparations for this
expedition. His first care was to recruit and reorganize his army, which
had suffered severely by fatigue, disease and the sword ; his next, to put
the newly captured fortresses into a complete state of defence, by repair-
ing their fortifications, strengthening their garrisons, and supplying their
magazines.
At length, all things being in readiness, he crossed the Agueda on the
13th of June ; on the 17th, he reached Salamanca, and passed over the
Tormes in four columns by the fords of Santa Martha and Los Cantos.
Marmont retired as the British commander advanced, after throwing gar-
risons into the forts of Salamanca and the castle of Alba de Tormes.
Then was seen the profound hatred which the Spaniards entertained to-
ward their Gallic oppressors, and the vast amount of injury which they
had sustained at their hands. Salamanca instantly became one scene of
rejoicing. The houses were illuminated, the people alternately sang and
wept for joy, and the British army, passing in triumph through the shout-
ing crowd, took post on the hill of San Christoval, about three miles beyond
the town. It is no wonder that the inhabitants evinced such joy at thoir
deliverance from a bondage of four years. Independent of innumerable
acts of extortion and oppression, the French had destroyed thirteen of
twenty-five convents, and twenty-two of twenty-five colleges in that cele-
brated seat of learning ; the stones of which edifices were built up into
three forts, that now, in a military point of view, constituted the strength
of the place.
Wellington presently directed his attention to the capture of these
28*
304 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXXV.
forts, which were reduced on the 27th of June, after a brave defence by
their several garrisons. When the forts surrendered, Marmont, who had
advanced with his whole force to their relief, withdrew behind the Duoro,
and occupied the fortified bridges of Zamora, Toro, and Tordesillas,
which commanded the principal passages of that river. Wellington pur.
sued the French army as far as the southern bank of the Duoro, and made
preparations for crossing, but he found the French position so strong, that
he abandoned his design ; and as, in the meantime, Marmont had received
large reinforcements, and was now evidently taking measures to cut off
his communications with Salamanca, the British general deemed it advi-
sable to fall back to his original position in front of that city. Marmont
followed this retrograde movement on a line parallel to Wellington's
route, and for two days the hostile columns marched not only in sight, but
within half musket shot of each other; yet the respective forces were so
perfectly disciplined, that, during this novel and exciting proximity, every
evolution was performed with field-day precision ; and they were, be-
sides, so nearly matched in strength, that neither general was disposed to
commence an attack, until some contingency should enable him to do so
with advantage.
As the two armies approached Salamanca, on the 20th of July, Wel-
lington took post on his old ground, the heights of San Christoval ; while
Marmont extended his left wing toward the great road which leads to
Ciudad Rodrigo. But the British general soon found good cause for re-
treat; as Jourdan was rapidly approaching to form a junction with Mar-
mont, which would raise the French forces to nearly seventy thousand
men. He therefore changed his position to the ground extending from
two rocky heights, called the Arapeiles, to the Tormes below the fords of
Santa Martha. At this juncture, Marmont took a step that arrested the
allies' retreat. He considered that Jourdan, being the senior marshal,
would on his arrival supersede him in the command, and bear off the glory
of a victory : moreover, he was induced by Wellington's apparent readi-
ness to retreat, to underrate the qualities of that general, and he argued
that it would be far better for him to reap the triumph which his own skil-
ful manoeuvres had already prepared, than yield the bright rewards of his
toil to a rival. He therefore resolved to attack the allied forces without
further delay ; and, with this view, observing that Wellington had not
yet taken possession of the two heights of the Arapeiles, he pushed for-
ward a body of infantry through a wood, and gained one of them without
opposition, which at once placed him on the flank of the allied lines. He
then ordered a detachment to occupy the adjoining height ; but the British,
who were unprepared for the first movement, anticipated him in this, and
covered the post with a force sufficient to maintain it.
Nevertheless, the acquisition by the French of the more distant Ara-
peiles, rendered another change of position necessary on the part of the
allies ; and, while this was in progress, Marmont, conceiving that Wel-
lington had begun a retreat from the field, threw forward his left wing
under Thomiere with such imprudent haste as to separate it from the re-
quisite support of the centre. The instant that Wellington saw this false
movement, he turned to the Spanish general, Alava, saying, " Marmont
is lost !" and immediately ordered his right, under Pakenham, to advance
against Thomiere. The British troops sprang forward at the word, and,
by an impetuous charge, overthrew Thomiere's entire column, killing its
1812.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 305
commander, and making three thousand prisoners. A second British
division now came on against Clausel, who was hastening to Thorniere'g
support, but who arrived only in time to share his defeat : the whole mass
broke at the first charge, and fled from the ground, leaving two thousand
prisoners in the hands of the victors.
Meantime, a bloody contest was going on in the centre, with more doubt-
ful success. Pack, at the head of the Portuguese, attempted to carry the
French Arapeiles, but after bravely gaining the summit of the height, he
was forced down in confusion and with great loss, and the disorder of this
corps, having reached the division advancing to its support, threatened
for a time to change the fate of the battle. Wellington and Beresford,
however, led on their reserves ; and, taking the French columns in flank,
while they were incautiously pursuing Pack's division, forced the whole
mass to a disastrous retreat. Wellington now ordered a general pursuit,
but the approach of night anji a misapprehension as to the route of Mar-
mont's troops, saved the defeated army from any further loss than they had
sustained on the field. The killed and wounded on the part of the allies,
amounted to five thousand two hundred men ; of whom three thousand one
hundred and seventy-four were British ; two thousand and eighteen, Por-
tuguese ; and eight, Spanish. The French loss in the battle exceeded
fourteen thousand men, including seven thousand prisoners, besides two
eagles, six standards and eleven pieces of cannon : and during their re-
treat, owing to Marmont's negligence in not providing magazines for such
a contingency, nearly eight thousand men straggled from the ranks in
search of food, and were for the time lost to the army ; so that the French
force actually suffered a reduction of twenty-two thousand men, by the
battle of Salamanca. Marmont continued his retreat to Valladolid,
where he arrived on the 26th of July : and Wellington, after vainly en-
deavoring to overtake him, moved against the central army of Madrid.
King Joseph, however, who in effect directed the movements of this
army, although Jourdan was its leader, felt himself in no condition to face
the conqueror of Salamanca, and retreated rapidly upon the capital.
Wellington pursued with equal celerity, and when his advanced guard
approached the town, on the llth of August, Joseph with his court re-
tired to Toledo, followed by his troops. Crowds ofpeople from all quar-
ters now hastened to Madrid to witness the entrance of their deliverers,
and long before the British soldiers could be seen on the Guadarama,
every balcony, window and door was thronged with the eager multitude.
No words can express the enthusiasm that prevailed, when the British
standard appeared in the distance, and the scarlet uniforms began by
thousands to glow under the rays of the morning sun. After a time, the
massy columns reached the gates and made their entrance into the Span-
ish capital. The citizens came forward to meet the victorious chief, not
with courtly adulation but heartfelt gratitude ; and their wan cheeks and
trickling tears, as they pressed around him to kiss his hand or touch his
horse, bespoke the magnitude of the evils from which he had come to de-
liver their country. Garlands of flowers and festoons of drapery decora-
ted every street; the inhabitants poured out of their houses to distribute
fruits and refreshments through the ranks, and in the evening a general
illumination gave token of the universal joy.
When Joseph retreated from Madrid, he left a garrison of seventeen
hundred veterans to protect the Retiro, which contained the greatest
306 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Cuxr. XXXV.
arsenal of military stores and artillery that the French possessed in
Spain ; its capture, therefore, was a matter of consequence, for, as the
battering train of Ciudad Rodrigo had fallen into the hands of the allies,
the French could command no heavy guns for prosecuting a siege other
than those now lying in this fortress. Wellington immediately recon-
noitered its defences, and found them to consist of a double set of in-
trenchments ; one, so large that an army was requisite to man the
bastions, and the other so contracted that the garrison, if driven into it,
could not withstand a vigorous cannonade. As soon, therefore, as pre-
parations were completed for an assault, the commander of the place
surrendered at discretion. On the same day, Don Carlos D'Espana was
appointed governor of Madrid, and the Constitution was proclaimed with
great solemnity.
The French affairs in every part of the Peninsula, now for a time ex.
hibited that general tendency toward ruin, that so commonly follows a
great military disaster, and presages the breaking up of political power.
At the same time that the Retiro, with its immense stores of arms and
ammunition, yielded to the British forces, Guadalaxara with its garrison
surrendered to Empecinado ; three hundred men were captured by the
partidas near Valladolid ; six thousand were shut up and blockaded in
Toro, Tordesillas and Zamora, on the Duoro ; Astorga was taken with its
garrison of twelve hundred men ; Torden, also, capitulated ; the castle
of Mirabete was blown up ; Castro Nediales, Santander, Gueteira, Tala-
vera, and the Puerto de Banos were evacuated ; and the French troops in
the valley of the Tagus withdrew to the neighborhood of Aranjuez.
Finally, Soult received orders to abandon Andalusia ; and, on the 25th
of August, he retreated from his lines before Cadiz, leaving behind him
five hundred pieces of cannon and an immense quantity of military stores.
This general withdrawal of forces from the more remote provinces,
however, followed as it was oy a concentration in the centre of the king-
dom, while it demonstrated the magnitude of the losses sustained by the
French, served also greatly to strengthen their position in the vicinity of
the capital, by bringing all their disposable troops into communication
in one mass. Indeed, Wellington was so well aware of this, that he
resolved to attack some of the corps on their route before such a junction
could be effected ; and on the 1st of September he marched from Madrid
for Burgos, intending to unite himself with the army of Galicia, under
Sautaclides, at Palencia. He reached the latter place on the 8th ; but
instead of being joined there by the thirty thousand Spaniards who had
long received British rations as regular soldiers,' he found only twelve
thousand ill-disciplined and half naked recruits, who could not be relied
on for the least effective service. He nevertheless continued his march
to Burgos, where he expected to meet the remains of Marmont's army,
amounting to twenty-two thousand men : but Clausel, who was then in
command of the corps, retired as Wellington advanced, and on the 19th
the latter reached Burgos unopposed, and immediately laid siege to it.
The British commander at first hoped to carry this fortress without delay;
but, after storming the outwork of St. Michael, he found the troops of the
garrison were both too numerous and too resolute to yield to any other
attack than regular approaches. This proved a serious embarrassment,
as the heavy artillery had all been left at Madrid, and it was proposed
to abandon the siege : Wellington, however, persisted, and he gave order*
1810.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 307
to open trenches and proceed in form, hoping that some contingency
would favor his project ; but, after four weeks of laborious effort, during
which every expedient of sap, mine and assault was frequently attempted,
he submitted to necessity and relinquished the undertaking.
While the siege of Burgos was in progress, Soult, with unexpected
rapidity— owing to the abandonment of the defiles on his route by the
Spanish troops — had advanced toward the capital from Cadiz ; and as
General Hill became endangered by this accumulation of force, Welling-
ton ordered him to withdraw from the line of the Tagus, evacuate Madrid,
and fall back to Salamanca, whither he, also, directed his own march.
The two armies formed a junction at Alba de Tormes and San Christoval
on the 8th of November, and on the 9th, they took up a defensive position
on the heights of the Arapeiles. Wellington's entire force amounted now
to fifty-two thousand men, of whom fourteen thousand were Spaniards.
On the llth, Soult and Jourdan, who followed the British line of retreat,
united their respective corps at Mozarbes, and arrayed themselves against
Wellington with no less than ninety-five thousand men. The two French
marshals immediately debated the question of attacking the allies, and
Jourdan was strenuous for giving battle; but Soult, unwilling to risk an
action with' an enemy so advantageously posted, steadily refused his con-
currence, and moved with a considerable part of his corps to the left, so
as to menace the allies' communication with Ciudad Rodrigo.
As the immense superiority of the French in numbers, and especially
in strength of cavalry, rendered it an easy matter for them to outflank
the British position, and as it was evident from their movements that
they did not intend to fight, Wellington resolved to retreat upon Ciudad
Rodrigo ; and, on the 15th of November, he accomplished the difficult
and delicate manoeuvre of a flank march in presence of an army double
his own in efficient force, with a loss of but two hundred men. The
retreat occupied three days, and the allies were not seriously molested
by the enemy. Both armies soon after went into winter-quarters, and the
campaign of 1812 was terminated.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
WAR IN TURKEY; ACCESSION OF BERNADOTTE TO THE SWEDISH THRONE,
FINAL RUPTURE BETWEEN FRANCE AND RUSSIA.
IN the beginning of the year 1810, the cabinet of St. Petersburg —
anxious to improve the opportunity offered by the peace then existing
between Russia and France, and conceiving that the time had arrived for
carrying into effect those clauses in the treaty of Tilsit which ceded to
Russia certain portions of the Turkish dominions — issued an imperial
ukase, by which Moldavia and Wallachia were formally annexed to their
territories, and the Danube, from the Austrian frontier to the sea, declared
to be the southern European boundary of their mighty Empire.
This step was followed by adequate military preparations. The Mus-
covite army on the Danube vas augmented to a hundred and ten thousand
308 1IISTORYOFEUROPE. [CHAP. XXXVI.
men, and placed under the command of Kaminski, a brave officer, but
as yet not much experienced in Turkish warfare. Nevertheless, his first
movements were eminently successful. He commenced the campaign
on the 15th of May ; and between that day and the 17th of June, he
captured the fortresses of Bazarjik, Silistria, Tourtoukai and Rasgrad.
Greatly encouraged by this rapid progress, he dispatched his right wing
against Rondschouck, and himself advanced with forty thousand men to
the siege of Schumla.
This fortress, which in all former wars had proved the limit of Mus-
covite conquest in Turkey, is situated on the northern slope of the Balkan,
where the great road from Belgrade and Bucharest to Constantinople first
ascends the acclivity of the mountains. To the traveller who approaches
it from the hills south of the Danube, it exhibits the appearance of a large
triangular sheet, not unlike the distant view of Algiers over the waves
of the Mediterranean. The town was not regularly fortified, though its
position at the intersection of the principal roads which cross the Balkan
from north to south, rendered it a stratagetical point of the highest import-
ance ; it was protected in front by walls and ditches, and overhung in
the rear by a succession of eminences, that rise one above another until
they are lost in the woody thickets of Mount Hemus. These heights,
owing to the broken character of the ground and the thick brushwood with
which it is covered, are inaccessible to European cavalry and artillery ;
and the vast circuit of the natural defences, renders it almost impossible
to invest or blockade the entire circumference of the place. Kaminski
spent three weeks in unavailing attempts to storm Schumla ; at the end
of which time he withdrew with twelve thousand men, to assist his right
wing in the siege of Rondschouck, leaving the remainder of his army in
front of Schumla to cover the disgrace of an open retreat.
Rondschouck, a Turkish town containing thirty thousand inhabitants,
was defended only by a single rampart and wet ditch, and a garrison of
seven thousand men. The besieging force, after Kaminski's arrival,
amounted to twenty thousand ; and as the Russian batteries had already
partly destroyed the rampart, an assault was ordered on the 3rd of August.
Bosniak Aga, the governor, had not yet fired a shot in reply to the Rus-
sian batteries ; and those soldiers of the attacking force who were not
familiar with the 'Siirkish mode of defending a town, flattered themselves
with the hope of an easy conquest. They advanced to the breach, there-
fore, with great alacrity and confidence ; but the moment they came
within range of the Turkish musketry, a dreadful storm of bullets saluted
them from the roofs, windows and loopholes of the nouses, which literally
destroyed whole columns of the besiegers, and not one man could gain a
footing within the walls. After a time, the Turkish fire slackened, and
two divisions of Russians, supposing the defence to be abandoned, made
their way into the town ; but it soon appeared that this was an artifice to
bring them into the reach of the armed inhabitants and janizaries, who
fell upon them in the streets with muskets, cimeters and daggers, and
cut them entirely to pieces. At noon, the Moslem flag still waved on all
the minarets ; and at six o'clock in the evening, Kaminski sounded a re-
treat, leaving no less than eight thousand killed and wounded men behind
him. He was now forced to limit his operations to a simple blockade,
and remained in that position for some weeks. In the meantime, the
garrison of Schumla made a sally against the Russians around theii
1811.1 HISTORYOFEUROPE. 309
walls, but they were repulsed with great loss : nevertheless^ the Russians,
on the day following, raised the siege of the town and retired to Bazarjik.
While Kaminski lay inactively in front of Rondschouck, an army of
thirty thousand Turks approached that place, and intrenched themselves
on the river Jantra, near Battin. The Russian general, anxious to re-
trieve his late losses, ordered a part of the forces from Bazarjik to join
him, and, advancing upon the Turkish position, made a spirited attack on
the 7th of September. His combinations, however, were imperfect, and
the first assault, led by himself, not having been supported in time by
Kulneff, he was forced to fall back and make preparations for renewing
the battle on the following day. At daybreak on the 8th, his whole force
was in motion, and his men assailed the Turkish intrenchments with such
determined valor that, at the first charge, they swept everything before
them, routed the entire Turkish army with great loss, made five thousand
men prisoners, and captured fourteen guns, two hundred standards, and
a large flotilla laden with provisions for the relief of Rondschouck. That
town soon after surrendered to the Russians, as did also Sistowa, a forti-
fied post near it on the Danube. Kaminski next laid siege to Nicopolis,
which capitulated on the 12th of December ; and he then concluded the
campaign by retiring to winter-quarters in Moldavia, where he was seized
with a malady of which he died in January, 1811. General Kutusoff
succeeded to the command of the army.
The campaign of 1811 was at first confined to defensive operations on
the part of the Russians, as the Emperor Alexander, in the spring of that
year, withdrew fife divisions of the army from the Danube to Poland and
the Vistula. About the middle of June, the Turkish government, encour-
aged by this diminution in the numbers of their enemies, assembled an
army of sixty thousand men and marched against Kutusoff, then in posi-
tion at Rondschouck. A battle took place between the two armies on the
2nd of July, in which the Turks were defeated with a loss of three thou-
sand men ; but Kutusoff abandoned Rondschouck after the action, and
retired to the left bank of the Danube.
The Turks now spent nearly two months in repairing the houses and
fortifications of their released city. Early in September, however, they
resumed the offensive, crossed the Danube, attacked the Russian position
on the 8th of that month so successfully as to endanger Kutusoff's whole
army, and inflicted a loss of more than two thousand men upon the Rus-
sian divisions. But, instead of following up this success, they, in con-
formity to the Ottoman tactics, proceeded to fortify their encampment ',
and thus gave Kutusoff time to recover from his discomfiture and retaliate
upon them. He made preparations for assaulting their intrenchments in
front ; and while these movements occupied the Turks' attention, he se-
cretly dispatched General Markoff with ten thousand men to fall upon
their rear; who so well executed his commission, that the Turks, finding
themselves between two armies, broke from their lines and fled in the
wildest confusion, leaving their tents, baggage, stores, artillery, horses
and camels, together with a prodigious amount of booty, in the hands of
the Russians, whose total loss in the affair was eight men.
Kutusoff next attacked the encampment of the Turks on the right bank
of the Danube ; and he succeeded so well in surrounding their position,
that after a few days the entire army surrendered, and evacuated their
camp without arms or artillery, on condition of being quartered in the
310 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP.
neighborhood of Bucharest, at the expense of the Russians, during the
negotiations for peace then in progress at that place. These negotiations
were eventually prolonged into the month of May, 1812, when a treaty
was concluded, ceding to Russia the territories she had conquered during
the war, on the north of the Danube, and prescribing that river as the
boundary between the two nations.
In 1808, when Norway formed a separate and hostile power in the
Scandinavian Peninsula, Russia undertook to subdue a portion of the
Swedish dominions. The cabinet of St. Petersburg had long beheld with
covetous eyes the valuable province of Finland, stretching almost to the
gates of their own capital, embracing the noble fortress of Svveaborg, and
offering, by its conquest, to render the Baltic sea the boundary of their
Empire, from the mouths of the Vistula to the districts bordering on the
Frozen Ocean. A Russian army was accordingly dispatched to Finland
in the month of February, 1808 ; and the Swedes were so little prepared
for the invasion, that Trevastus, Helsingfors and Abo fell into the hands
of the Muscovite troops almost without resistance. The Russian general
advanced thence to Sweaborg, the Gibraltar of the north, a fortress of the
first class, built on seven rocky islands, armed with seven hundred pieces
of artillery, and garrisoned by six thousand men. Although this place
was nearly impregnable, its governor was far from being incorruptible ;
and under the influence of a large bribe, he basely surrendered the place
to the Russians after a mere show of defence. The conquest of all Fin-
land followed this terrible blow, and the Swedish genertls entered into a
convention with Russia, ceding to that power the whole province east of
the Gulf of Bothnia.
Gustavus, however, the King of Sweden, avowed his determination to
disregard this convention, and renew the war with Russia. But the army
had become dissatisfied with his government, and the opinion generally
prevailed among the more influential classes of Swedish citizens, that the
interest of the country required its ruler to be deposed : a conspiracy was
therefore organized to dethrone the king and elevate his uncle, the Duke
of Sudermania, to the regal dignity. Gustavus soon learned what was
in progress, and hastened from his country-seat, at Haga, to Stockholm,
and shut himself up in his palace surrounded by his guards. He found,
however, that these defenders could not be trusted ; and he was eventu-
ally seized by the conspirators, imprisoned in the Castle of Drottingholm,
and compelled to sign a formal renunciation of the crown. The people
of Stockholm were so entirely prepared for these events, that no disturb-
ance took place there on the change of dynasty, and even the theatres were
open on the night of the abdication, as if nothing unusual had happened.
This bloodless revolution was followed by the elevation of Adlercrantz,
Klingspor and Aldesparre to the highest offices in the Swedish ministry ;
and on the 5th of June, 1809, the Duke of Sudermania was proclaimed
king : he ascended the throne with the title of Charles XIII. The first
care of the new monarch was to conclude a treaty with Russia, which,
however, ceded the whole of Finland to that power. He also declared
his accession to the Continental System ; and, in return, the Duchy of
Pomerania was restored to the Swedish crown, and Prince Holstein Au-
gustenburg, son of the duke of that name, was declared the Crown-Prince,
or, in other words, the successor to the throne.
1810.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 311
The affairs of Sweden seemed now to be permanently settled ; but in
Way, 1810, the Crown-Prince suddenly died, leaving the succession va-
cant. A series of intrigues followed this unexpected event, the object
of which was to procure the election of a new Crown-Prince ; and the
sovereigns of Russia, France and Denmark severally exerted themselves
to gain a preponderating influence in the matter. The choice eventually
fell upon Bernadotte, whose appointment was confirmed by the Swedish
Diet on the 17th of September. Napoleon was both surprised and dis-
appointed at this result, as he would much have preferred to see the King
of Denmark on the Swedish throne ; nevertheless, he advised Bernadotte
to accept the proffered dignity, and advanced him a million of francs for
the expenses immediately consequent on his appointment.
While these events were taking place in the north of Europe, Napo-
leon pursued with undisguised avidity his career of civic aggrandizement.
On the 12th of November, 1810, the Republic of Valais, commanding
the passage of the Simplon into Italy, was incorporated with the French
Empire, on the ground that Napoleon's great public works in that quarter
entitled France to the possession of the territory. The same Senate which
passed this decree, issued another on the 13th of December with the fol-
lowing preamble : " The British Orders in Council, and the Berlin and
Milan decrees for 1806 and 1807, have torn to shreds the public law of
Europe. A new order of things reigns throughout the world ; and, as
new guaranties have become necessary, I consider that the union with
the French Empire of the mouths of the Scheldt, the Meuse, the Rhine,
the Ems, the Weser and the Elbe, together with the establishment of an
interior line of communication between France and the Baltic, is of the
greatest importance ; and I have caused a plan to be prepared, which in
five years will unite the Baltic with the Seine. Indemnity shall be given
to the princes who may be injured by this measure, which necessity re-
quires, and which makes the right of my Empire rest on the Baltic sea."
This immense spoliation extended the limits of France almost to the
frontiers of Russia ; it took from the kingdom of Westphalia a district
containing five hundred thousand inhabitants, and one from the Grand-
duchy of Berg having a population of two hundred thousand ; and, what
was much more serious, it dispossessed of his dominions the Grand-Duke
of Oldenburg, brother-in-law of the Emperor Alexander, besides cutting
off Prussia from the coast of the German Ocean.
When Alexander received intelligence of the spoliation of the Grand-
Duke of Oldenburg, and of the other encroachments in the decree of De-
cember, 1810, he issued an imperial ukase on the last day of that month,
which, under the pretence of regulating affairs of the Customs, materially
relaxed the rigor of the decrees hitherto in force in the Russian Empire
against English commerce, and at the same time virtually prohibited the
importation of many articles of French manufacture. These measures
were followed by the establishment of a coast-guard of eighty thousand
men, which, as might easily be seen, was but a cloak for the 'augmenta-
tion of the regular army. In addition to this, the cabinent of St. Peters-
burg presented a diplomatic note to all the courts of Europe, formally
complaining of the spoliation of the duchy of Oldenburg.
The threatening aspect of these proceedings, which caused great dis-
quietude all over Europe, was for a time forgotten by France, in her
exultation at the birth of an heir to the Empire. This event occurred on
22
312 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXXVI.
the 20th of March. It had been previously intimated, that if the infant
were a princess, twenty-one guns would be fired from the Invalides, but
if it were a prince, a hundred guns would proclaim it. At the first
report, therefore, all Paris was in commotion, and the discharges were
counted with intense interest until the twenty-first gun had been fired.
The g;unners delayed an instant before discharging the next piece, and
every one stood breathless with suspense ; but when the twenty-second
gun was heard, the wildest enthusiasm prevailed, and the universal joy
of the people gave witness of Napoleon's strong hold on their affections.
The scarcely-disguised secession of Russia from the Continental Sys-
tem, had the effect of rendering Napoleon more urgent in exacting the
rigorous execution of his decrees from the other powers in the north of
Europe. He met with the most ready compliance from Denmark ; for
the cabinet of Copenhagen shut the Danish ports against all neutral
vessels whatever, bearing British or colonial produce : but against Prus-
sia he fulminated menacing complaints for her alleged connivance at a
contraband traffic, and the cabinet of Berlin was compelled to sign a
treaty on the 28th of January, 1811, stipulating that the Prussian confis-
cations of British goods should be remitted to France, and placed to the
credit of Prussia on account of her debt to the Empire incurred by the
war-contributions. He assumed a still more alarming tone toward Swe-
den. Charging that, under pretence of a traffic in salt, a large contra-
band trade was still carried on in the Swedish ports, he declared that he
would greatly prefer open war with himself, to such a state of covert
communication with his enemies. " I begin to see," he said, " that I have
committed a fault in restoring Pomerania to Sweden ; and the Swedes
may know, that if the treaty is not carried into execution to the very
letter, my troops shall instantly reenter that province." " Choose," said
he to Bernadotte, " between the confiscation of every English vessel that
approaches your coast, and a war with France. You tell me Sweden is
suffering. Bah ! Is not France suffering ? ' Are not Holland and Ger-
many suffering ? We must all suffer to conquer a maritime peace."
Napoleon followed up his demands on Sweden so peremptorily, that
she was forced to declare war against England ; but even this step did
not relieve her from his exactions : for although the British government,
in view of the circumstances under which the cabinet of Stockholm was
placed, generously forbore to commit hostilities on Swedish merchant-
men, the French captured the Swedish vessels without hesitation, confis-
cated their cargoes, and threw their crews into prison, on the pretext that
they were trading with England and were not furnished with French
licenses. Napoleon next demanded from Sweden two thousand sailors to
join the French navy ; and as they were not immediately furnished, he
raised his demand to twelve thousand. Things proceeded in this manner
until January, 1812, when the French troops entered Pomerania, overran
the country, seized the fortress of Stralsund, confiscated all Swedish ships
> the harbor, and began to levy contributions for the Imperial trea-
sury. These outrages soon led to negotiations between the cabinets of
Stockholm, London and St. Petersburg, which ended in the conclusion of
offensive and defensive treaties between Sweden, Great Britain and Rus-
sia, against France. A renewal of the war being thus resolved on.
Napoleon and Alexander, the sovereigns by whom it was chiefly to be
waged, made immediate preparations for the contest.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
ADVANCE OF NAPOLEON TO MOSCOW.
NAPOLEON undertook the Russian campaign with forces far exceeding
any armament that he had hitherto assembled. The Grand Army alone,
which in the month of June was concentrated in Poland, numbered more
than five hundred thousand effective troops; and the entire resources of
the French Empire and its dependencies could be relied on to furnish
reinforcements to the enormous amount of seven hundred thousand more:
making a total of twelve hundred thousand men, although this whole
force was never actually brought into the field. The Grand Army
had no less than eighty thousand cavalry and thirteen hundred pieces of
cannon : twenty thousand wagons with baggage and magazines followed
the march, and the horses employed in the army for the artillery, the
cavalry and the wagons, amounted to one hundred and eighty-seven
thousand. Of the soldiers^ two hundred thousand were native French;
the remainder were Germans, Italians, Poles, Swiss, Prussians, Aus-
trians and Bavarians, whom the terror of Napoleon's arms had compelled,
however unwillingly, to join this terrible array.
These troops, at the commencement of the campaign, were divided into
five great masses. The first, two hundred and twenty thousand strong,
was under the immediate orders of the Emperor; the second, seventy-five
thousand strong, was commanded by Jerome ; the third, under the vice-
roy Eugene, numbered, also, seventy-five thousand ; the right wing, under
Schwartzenberg, consisted of thirty-thousand men, and the left, under
Macdonald, also of thirty thousand. The remainder, forming the present
efficient reserve, and amounting to seventy thousand men, followed the
course of the advanced corps, and were ready to support any division in
need of their assistance.
The Russian forces actually in the field at the commencement of
hostilities, did not exceed two hundred and fifteen thousand men; of
whom one hundred and twenty-seven thousand were commanded by
Barclay de Tolly, forty-eight thousand by Prince Bagrathion, and forty
thousand by Tormasoff. In addition to these, thirty-five thousand men
were assembled in the interior provinces, and fifty thousand were in Mol-
davia, all of whom eventually aided in the war, and raised the total
strength brought into action during the campaign, though never all col-
lected together at one time, to three hundred thousand men.
On the xJ3rd of June, Napoleon approached the Niemen, and the numer-
ous columns of the Grand Army converged toward Kowno, which, being
the extreme point of a salient angle where the Prussian projected into
the Russian territory, seemed a favorable spot for commencing operations.
As Napoleon rode along the banks of the river, his horse stumbled and
threw him upon the sand ; some one exclaimed, " It is a bad omen : a
Roman would retire." Having reconnoitered the ground, he ordered
the construction of three bridges, and retired to his quarters. The French
infantry were as yet in good order, and had left very few stragglers be-
hind; but the cavalry and artillery had already begun to suffer severely.
314 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXXVII
The grass and hay on the line of march were soon entirely consumed by
the enormous multitude of horses thus accumulated in a comparatively
small space, and it became evident, that want of supplies would prove
a serious obstacle to the success of the expedition.
The passage of the troops was commenced on the 24th of June, and
continued through the 25th, when the whole central army, under the
Emperor, gained the opposite bank ; the viceroy and Jerome crossed, some
days later, at Pilony and Grodno; and on the 2nd of July, Schwartzenberg
and Macdonald respectively passed over the Bug and the Niemen. The
great disparity of force between the French and Russian armies rendered
ft necessary for the latter to maintain a defensive policy ; and, as Napo-
leon's columns advanced, the Russians steadily and slowly retired: nor
was it long before the wisdom of this course plainly appeared. The
sultry heat of the weather at the crossing of the Niemen, was succeeded
by a tempest that fell on the French ranks with terrible severity. Their
horses perished by thousands, from the combined effect of incessant rain
and unwholesome provender ; thirty thousand disbanded soldiers spread
confusion around the whole army ; and when the French troops had been
only six days in the Russian dominions, and when as yet not a single
shot had been fired, twenty- five thousand sick and dying men filled the
hospitals of Wilna and the villages of Lithuania.
Barclay withdrew from Wilna on the 28th of June, and Napoleon en-
tered it a few hours afterward, and remained there seventeen days : a
delay which military historians have declared to be the greatest error in
his whole career. Certain it is, his inactivity on this occasion gave the
Russian commander time to retire in admirable order, and exhibited a
striking contrast to the vigor with which he pursued his retreating enemy
in the campaigns of Ulm, Jena, Ratisbon and Echmul.
While Napoleon was thus halting at Wilna, Jerome and Davoust had
marched against Bagrathion, with the intention of separating his army
from that of Barclay. Two sharp skirmishes occurred between the
French and Russian light parties on' the 9th and 10th of July, both of
which terminated favorably to the Russians, and inspired the army with
a desire for a general action ; but Bagrathion, wisely pursuing the course
laid down in the general orders for the campaign, continued his retreat
and reached the ramparts of Bobrinsk, on the Berezina, on the 18th of
July. Napoleon was so much displeased at this result, that he removed
Jerome from the command and placed the whole force under Davoust's
orders ; this change, however, did not render the French movements suc-
cessful in cutting off* or defeating Bagrathion: for the latter, on the 24th,
formed a junction with Count Platoff, and retired by Mohilow to Novo-
Bichow, whence he crossed the Borysthenes, and, advancing leisurely to
Smolensko, joined the main army under Barclay on the 3rd of August.
In the meantime, Barclay, after leaving Wilna, had retired to an in-
trenched camp at Drissa, on the 14th of July ; on the 16th, he moved to
Polotsk ; and on the 23rd he reache'd Witepsk, where he disposed the
main body of his troops, and posted his vanguard, under Ostermann,
twelve thousand strong, along the wooded heights of Ostrowno. On the
26th, Murat with twelve thousand men, principally cavalry, attacked
Count Ostermann's division, and several severe, though partial actions
ensued without any decisive results ; and meanwhile, both parties brought
up the main body of their forces, so that on the morning of the 27th,
1812.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 315
Barclay's army, to the number of eighty-two thousand men, was drawn up
on an elevated plain covering the approach to Witepsk ; and Napoleon
lay near at hand with one hundred and eighty thousand men, resolved
to attack the Russian position on the following day. At nightfall, his last
words to Murat were, "To-morrow, at five, the sun of Austerlitz !"
But, although Barclay at first resolved to hazard a battle with an army
more than double his own numbers, he afterward changed his resolution,
and ordered a retreat toward Smolensko. Brilliant watch-fires were
kept up during the night to disguise the intended movement, while his
whole army broke up from its encampment, and retired with such expe-
dition and skill that not a weapon, a baggage-wagon, nor a straggler was
left behind. The next morning, when the French advanced guard ar-
rived at the separation of the roads leading to St. Petersburg and Moscow,
they could not discover which of the two routes the Russians had taken.
The condition of the French army was now such that a halt at Witepsk
became indispensable, to repair the disorder and disorganization con-
sequent on the scarcity of supplies, exposure to the weather, fatigues of
the march, and the great prevalence of sickness among the men. Bar-
clay, therefore, continued his march to Smolensko without molestation.
The Emperor Alexander had left the army at Polotsk under the sole
command of Barclay, on the 16th of July, and returned to Moscow to
hasten the military preparations in that quarter. On the 27th, the nobles
and merchants of Moscow were invited to a solemn assembly in the
Imperial palace, where Count Rostopchin, the governor, read to them an
address from the Emperor, soliciting them to contribute to the defence of
the country. The nobles immediately proposed and unanimously voted
a levy of ten in every hundred of the male population, whom they prom-
ised to clothe and arm at thidr own expense: and the merchants with
equal promptitude subscribed a million of dollars for the public service.
Ai this moment, the Emperor entered the hall and declared, amid the
burst of enthusiasm which greeted him, that he would exhaust his last
resources before giving up the contest. By these means, a powerful
auxiliary force was created in the interior districts of the Empire; and,
as the example of Moscow was speedily followed, an immense number
of men soon assembled in various parts of the Russian dominions who, in
the event, greatly contributed to the success of the war. Alexander then
set out for St. Petersburg, where he arrived on the 15th of August.
Toward the end of July, Barclay detached Wittgenstein with twenty-
five thousand men, to maintain a position on the Dwina and cover the
rsad to St. Petersburg. Oudinot was sent by Napoleon to attack this
corps, and he made an assault on the Russian general, on the 31st of
July. The Russian vanguard, under Kutusoff, at first fell into some
disorder, but this was soon remedied by the support of fresh troops, and
Oudinot was at length defeated and forced to retreat across the Drissa,
with a loss of four thousand men. About the same time, Tormasoff, on
the other flank of the Russian armies, finding the Austrians under
Schwartzenberg indisposed to take the offensive, fell suddenly on a corps
of Saxons, commanded by Reynier, at Kobrin, and made prisoners an
entire brigade of their best troops. This disaster so weakened Reynier's
force, that Napoleon was compelled to order the Austrians to his support,
and he thus deprived himself of the aid of Schwartzenberg, on which he
had confidently relied for repaiiing the losses of the army under his own
immediate direction.
9,9*
316 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXX 7IL
When Barclay, by the junction with Bagrathion at. Smolensko, found
himself at the head of more than a hundred and twenty thousand men,
he resolved to hazard an attack on the French right wing, and for that
purpose marched against Murat on the 8th of August; but his combina-
tion was faulty, and he gained only a partial success. To retaliate this
movement, Napoleon resolved to turn the Russian left; and, by crossing
the Dnieper, gain possession of Smolensko, and cut Barclay off from his
communications with the Empire. Accordingly, on the 13th, he suddenly
pushed two hundred thousand men over that river and entered the ter-
ritory of Old Russia. Marshals Ney and Murat, who headed the leading
columns of the army, overtook, near Krasnoi, General Newerofskoi, who
with the rear-guard, seven thousand strong, was slowly retreating toward
Smolensko. This little corps was now suddenly assailed, and nearly
surrounded by eighteen thousand cavalry, without the possibility of being
reenforced, as the main Russian army was on the other side of the river.
Many generals, thus situated, would have deemed resistance impossible,
and proposed a surrender; but Newerofskoi formed his men into a square,
and continued his march in admirable order over the open plains which
adjoin the Dnieper; and, throughout the whole day, resisted the utmost
efforts of the veteran horsemen, who made forty distinct charges on the
square, besides essaying every other expedient known in warfare to dis-
order the ranks of this admirable infantry. Newerofskoi reached Koryt-
nia with unbroken ranks, though he sustained a loss of eleven hundred
men and five pieces of cannon. The next day he united himself with
RaefFskoi, which raised their joint forces to nineteen thousand men, and
the two generals threw themselves into Smolensko, resolved to defend
that place to the last extremity. At daybreak, on the 16th of August,
Barclay again approached Smolensko, where he found the whole French
army drawn up under Napoleon.
The ancient and venerable city of Smolensko is situated on two hills,
which confine within a narrow channel the Dnieper as it flows between
them. The two parts of the town are connected with each other by
bridges over the river. The defences of Smolensko were not very formi-
dable, nor capable of resisting a regular seige. After Napoleon had
briefly reconnoitered the place, he ordered Ney to assault the citadel, but
Raeffskoi repulsed him with great loss. While Ney was rallying from
this defeat, Barclay reached the town on the opposite side, and his columns
defiled rapidly in to reenforce the garrison. Napoleon now supposed
that, the Russian general intended to defend Smolensko with all his forces,
and he prepared for a general attack the next day.
Barclay, however, had no thought of hazarding a battle against such
superior numbers, and in a position where he might easily be cut off
both from his communications and retreat. He proposed merely to hold
Smolensko with such a rear-guard as might keep the enemy in check,
until he had withdrawn the bulk of his army, and he accordingly ordered
Bagrathion to evacuate the town during the night, with the main body,
and take post behind a little stream, distant four miles in the rear: while
he himself remained to guard the movement from interruption. In the
morning of the 17th, Napoleon was greatly exasperated to find the main
army had escaped him, and he ordered a general assault on the town.
But the Russians were prepared for a desperate resistance, and the mur-
derous fire of their artillery and musketry destroyed column after column
1812.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 317
of the beseigers. The combat was continued until seven o'clock in the
evening, when Napoleon drew off his troops, having sustained a loss of
fifteen thousand men, while that of the Russians was nearly ten thousand.
Soon after the cannonade had ceased, and when the whole scene was
shrouded in darkness, save where it was relieved by the watch-fires of
the French army, flames were seen to break forth simultaneously in
several parts of the town, which was soon enveloped in one mighty con-
flagration. A dark band in front marked the yet unbroken line of battle-
ments, a lurid light like that of Vesuvius shone over the extended
bivouacs of the French host, and the lofty domes of the Cathedral, des-
tined to escape the fire, stood in dark magnificence above the ocean of
flame.
At three o'clock the next morning, a patrol of Davoust scaled the walls,
and penetrated without resistance into the interior of the town : but find-
ing neither inhabitants nor garrison, the men Teturned to their division
and made their report, upon which the French advanced guard was
ordered to enter the town. The streets and houses were indeed deserted,
and the invading columns traversed in silence a ruined city, containing
little else than smoking walls and dying men: the Cathedral alone had
withstood the flames. The Russian commander had made his arrange-
ments so judiciously, that all the magazines in the town were destroyed
or removed, the wounded and a greater part of the inhabitants withdrawn,
the bridges over the Dnieper broken down, and his own retreat in perfect
order was secured. The only trophy that remained to Napoleon, was
the abandoned ramparts and the cannon that mounted them.
Orders to pursue were immediately issued, and on the 19th, Ney over-
took Barclay with the rear-guard at Valentina, where the latter was
strongly posted on the opposite side of a ravine. Ney commenced an
attack at once with a few light troops, but reinforcements soon came up
on both sides, and an obstinate battle took place which ended in the re-
pulse of Ney. Napoleon now made new dispositions and a more serious
attack ; but notwithstanding the additional forces brought forward, and
that they charged the Russian lines with the most desperate and untiring
valor, the brave Muscovites maintained their position until nightfall, and,
having effectually protected the retreat of the main army, themselves
retired in (rood order during the night. The whole Russian force
engaged was twenty-five thousand men. that of -the French thirty-five
thousand; and the losses amount-d to eight thousand French and six
thousand Russian soldiers.
Napoleon visited the battle-field the next day ; and afterward reviewed
his troops, to whom he distributed honors and rewards with a liberal
hand — for he found it necessary to support the spirits of his men by some
unusual effort. The soldiers had become discouraged with long, tedious
marches through gloomy forests ; their hearts sank within them at be-
holding the interminable solitudes which surrounded them in every direc-
tion ; and -ne knowledge of their strength in numbers, only increased
their disquietude, by reason of the obvious inadequacy of the country to
provide for their necessities. The young conscripts, who advanced on
the traces of the Grand Army to reenforce its ranks, were shocked and
depressed at the objects that met their view ; dead horses, broken car-
riages, and dying men, obstructed the roads and infected the air ; while
the veterans who combated in front, compared the miserable quarters
Si8 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXXVIL
they had gained among the ruins of Smolensko, with the smiling villages
they had abandoned in tiieir native land. Even the officers shared the
general discontent ; and those who had risen to the highest rank, sighed
to think that, after a life spent in arms, they were reduced, like common
soldiers, to the never-ending hardships of wretched food, incessant fatigue
and squalid habitations.
Nor were the reports of the hospitals and the commissariat calculated
to allay the universal despondency. Already, the march had erst the
allied troops a half, and the native French a fourth, of their original num-
bers. Typhus fever and dysentery, the well-known attendants on mili-
tary expeditions, had everywhere broken out in the most alarming
manner, and swept off thousands in all the great hospitals of the army.
Wilna and Witepsk were become vast charnel-houses, where contagion
completed what the devastations of war had begun ; the accumulation of
corses around the ramparts of Smolensko, gave rise to a new epidemic,
more fatal than the sword of the enemy ; and all the cottages, far and
near, were crowded with wounded men, without food, straw or medical
attendance.
Napoleon was well aware of all this. " The condition of the army,"
said lie, " is frightful ; I know it. At Wilna, one half were stragglers j
now, they amount to two-thirds : there is not a moment to lose : we must
grasp at peace, and it can be found only at Moscow. Besides, the state
of the army is such as to render a halt impossible : constant advance
alone keeps it together ; you may lead it forward, but you cannot arrest
its movement. We have advanced too far to retreat. If I had only mil-
itary glory in view, I should have nothing to do but return to Smolensko,
and extend my wings on either side, so as to crush Wittgenstein and Tor-
masofF. These operations would be brilliant: they would form a glori-
ous termination to the campaign ; but they would not conclude the war.
Peace is before us ; we have to march only eight days to obtain it : when
we are so near our object, it is impossible to deliberate. Let us advance
to Moscow."
On the other hand, the Russian generals began to doubt the policy of a
further retreat. Their object in retiring from the frontier, was to draw
the enemy into a situation where his superiority of numbers might be
diminished by the fatigues and contingencies of such a march ; and these
causes had. already done their work on the invaders. The Russian
troops, too, began to murmur at such constant retreats; and the prospect
of abandoning Moscow, without a struggle, would doubtless drive them to
acts of revolt. Barclay, therefore, after mature deliberation, resolved to
give battle to the French on the first eligible field that he might reach ;
and he dispatched orders for all disposable reinforcements to join him
from the interior districts.
In the meantime, Wittgenstein, following up his success against Oudi-
not, hazarded a general attack on that marshal's lines, in front of Polotsk,
cm the 18th of August, which resulted rather unfavorably to the Russians ;
but on the 22nd, when a division of Bavarians attacked Wittgenstein's
rear-guard, he defeated them with severe loss ; after which, he removed
his head-quarters to Sewokhino, and awaited reinforcements from Fin-
land and St. Petersburg.
Victor, while approaching the Dwina, received orders to occupy Smo-
lensko, and take a general charge of Lithuania. His instructions from
1612.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 319
Napoleon were, to " direct all your attention and forces to the general
object, which is to secure the communication from Wilna, by Minsk and
Smolensko, with the imperial head-quarters. The army which you com-
mand is the reserve of the Grand Army ; if the route by Smolensko
should be interrupted, you must open it at all hazards. Possibly, I may
not find peace where 1 am about to seek it ; but even in that case, sup-
ported by so strong a reserve, well posted, my retreat would be secure
and need not be precipitate." To complete the line of communication
with France, Augereau, with his army of fifty thousand men, was ordered
to advance from the Oder to the Niemen, fifty thousand of the National
Guard wrere moved from the fortresses of the Rhine to the Elbe, and one
hundred and twenty thousand conscripts, of the class of 1813, were
brought forward to the Rhine.
On the 22nd of August, Napoleon set out from Smolensko on his march
to Moscow, following the Russian army, which slowly retired in the direc-
tion of that city. Barclay had arrived at Gjatsk, and was surveying the
ground with a view of selecting a battle-field, when he was superseded in
his command by General KutusofF. This measure became necessary, by
reason of the dissatisfaction of the troops at the destruction of Smolensko,
as well as at their continued retreat, the policy of which they could not
be made to comprehend ; and as Barclay was a Scotchman by birth, it
was thought that concord and submission among the men would be
attained and promoted, by placing them under the orders of a native Rus-
sian. Nevertheless, Barclay had conducted the armies of Russia with
consummate wisdom, and by his masterly retreat before such superior
numbers, he earned a high place in the records of fame.
KutusofF readily fell in with Barclay's views as to risking a battle for
Moscow, and he made a halt for that purpose, on the 2nd of September,
at Borodino. Napoleon reached the field on the 6th, in the afternoon,
and ordered an immediate attack on a redoubt in front of the Russian
position, occupied by GorczakofF with twelve thousand men. The as-
sault, led by Murat, was successful after a desperate struggle ; but the
Russians rallied and returned to the charge, retook and lost the place
three several times during the evening, and finally left it in the hands of
the French.
When the dawn of the 7th of September discovered the Russian army
still in their position, and it was evident that at length a general battle
must take place, a feeling of joy pervaded the French army. The fa-
tigues of the campaign, the distance from home, the dangers of the strife,
were forgotten in the general enthusiasm. At five o'clock, the sun rose
in cloudless splendor; " It is the sun of Austerlitz!" said Napoleon, and
immediately the trumpets and drums sounded, as if to welcome its rising.
The forces on the two sides were nearly equal, amounting to about one
hundred and thirty thousand each ; but the French were greatly superior
in cavalry, and nearly all their troops were veteran soldiers, while a part
of Kutusoff's army had never yet been under fire.
The battle commenced at six o'clock, by an attack with the French
right, under Davoust, on the left of the Russian line. The French col-
umns, covered by their artillery, moved steadily on without firing a shot,
although an incessant storm of balls from all arms shattered their ranks :
Davoust's horse was killed under him, and he himself received a severe
contusion as he fell. Generals Campans, Rapp and Desaix, were also
320 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXXVII.
badly wounded, and this successive loss of the services of their officers,
occasioned some indecision in the French movement ; at length, however,
they carried the redoubts that covered the Russian left. Bagrathion im-
mediately reenforced the routed division, and retook the position ; and
Kutusoff, perceiving that Napoleon was directing great strength against
this part of his line, moved the corps of Bagawouth from the right to its
support. At the same time, Ney received orders to support Davoust,
and he had gallantly made himself master of the disputed redoubt, when
Bagawouth's corps, in turn, dislodged him and drove him back on the plain.
Ney and Davoust, thus repulsed, united their forces for a spirited
attack on the right division of the Russian centre ; and after a combat of
no less than four hours, they found themselves unable to force Kutusoff's
lines, and sent an urgent request to the Emperor for reinforcements.
Napoleon, thinking it time for a decisive charge, ordered up the Young
Guard, and the greater part of the reserve cavalry, to support the two
marshals ; four hundred pieces of cannon were brought to bear on the
redoubts in this quarter, and, under the cover of their fire, these immense
columns advanced to the assault. The fire from the Russian batteries
was concentrated on this mass, and it swept off* whole battalions at once,
but the survivors closed their ranks and pressed on with a firm step to the
ramparts. Bagrathion, perceiving that the French gradually gained
ground, ordered the whole left wing to abandon their intrenchments, and
charge the attacking columns in flank. A terrible contest ensued.
Full eighty thousand men, having seven hundred pieces of cannon, accu-
mulated in a small space, fought with great fury for more than an hour,
without any perceptible advantage to either side, until at last Bagrathion
was severely wounded, and the Russians began to give way. General
Konownitsyn, however, assumed the command, and effected a retreat in
good order to a strong position in the rear, behind the ravine of Seme-
nowskoie, and for the rest of the day maintained his ground against every
assault of the enemy.
In the centre, where Barclay commanded, a desperate conflict was also
waged. The Russians at first lost the village of Borodino, and afterward
the great centre redoubt which formed the strongest point of his whole
position ; but by a determined effort the latter was retaken, a part of
the attacking force made prisoners, and the remainder driven back in
confusion to the Emperor's quarters. Napoleon was now strongly urged
to send forward his final reserve of Imperial Guards ; but for a time he
refused to do so, leaving the routed division to sustain itself against the
Russian cavalry. He, however, at length ordered the charge, and the
impetuosity of those veterans, together with a terrible onslaught of cui-
rassiers in flank, carried the redoubt. The Russian general made seve-
ral attempts to recover it, but without success, and toward evening he
withdrew his whole force to the heights directly in the rear of his original
position. Thus, at the close of the day, the Russians had abandoned
their whole first line of defence; but they had gained a second line,
stronger than the other, where the French did not venture to molest them.
The Russian loss in this terrible battle, amounted to forty-seven thou-
sand men : fifteen thousand killed, thirty thousand wounded, and two
thousand prisoners ; and among the slain, were the brave Bagrathion and
several general officers of distinction. The French lost Generals Cau-
laincourt, Monbrun, and several other officers, together with a total of
1812.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 321
fifty thousand men, of whom twelve thousand were killed, and thirty-eight
thousand wounded. In addition to this, the French lost ten, and the Rus-
sians thirteen pieces of cannon : so that on the whole, the French could
boast of no other advantage in the action than the mere keeping possession
of the battle-field.
The day after the battle of Borodino, the Russians retired by the great
road toward Moscow. The magnitude of his loss, rendered KutusofF un-
willing to risk the remainder of the army in another general action with
the French, who were constantly receiving reinforcements ; but no signs
of confusion marked his route ; and the subsequent retreat was conducted
with such perfect order, that when the French troops reached the point
where the roads to Moscow and Kaluga separate, they were for some time
uncertain, as they had previously been at Witepsk, which of the two the
Russians had followed. Kutusoff reached a position half a league in
front of Moscow on the 13th of September, and held a council of war to
deliberate the question of abandoning the town to its fate. Kutusoff and
Barclay eventually insisted on a retreat, assigning as a reason, that it
was indispensable to preserve the army entire until the new levies could
be incorporated into its ranks, and averring that the abandonment of the
metropolis " would lead the enemy into a snare, where his destruction would
be inevitable." These prophetic words determined the council, and or-
ders were given for the troops to retire in the direction of Kolomna. On
the morning of the 14th, therefore, the army continued its retreat, and in
silent despondency defiled through the streets of the sacred city.
Nothing could exceed the consternation of the inhabitants of Moscow,
when they found themselves deserted by their defenders. They had
been led to believe, from the government reports, that the French were
entirely defeated at Borodino, and that Napoleon's advance to Moscow
was impossible ; they therefore had not thought of preparations for quit-
ting the city. Nevertheless, when their departure thus became unavoid-
able, they made exertions equal to the emergency, and in a short time,
no less than three hundred thousand people left their homes, and reverted
at once to the nomadic life of their ancestors.
At eleven o'clock, on the 14th, the advanced guard of the French army,
from an eminence on their route, descried the minarets of the metropolis;
the domes of more than two hundred churches, and the roofs of a thousand
palaces glittered in the rays of the sun, and the leading squadrons, struck
by the magnificence of the spectacle, halted to exclaim, " Moscow !
Moscow !" and the cry, repeated from rank to rank, reached the Empe-
ror's guard. The soldiers then broke their array and rushed tumultu-
ously forward, while Napoleon in the midst of them gazed impatiently on
the scene. His first words were, " Here is that famous city at last !"
but he immediately added, " It is full time !"
The entry of the French troops into the town, however, dispelled many
of their illusions. Moscow was deserted. Its long streets and splendid
palaces reechoed nothing but the clangor of the invader's march : the
dwelling-places of three hundred thousand people were as silent as a
wilderness. Napoleon in vain waited until evening fora deputation from
the magistrates, or from the chief nobility. No one came forward to
deprecate his hostility, and the mournful truth finally forced itself upon
him, that Moscow, as if struck by enchantment, was bereft of its inhabit-
ants. He nevertheless advanced, and the troops took possession of tho
322 , HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXXVIII,
town, while he established his head-quarters at the ancient palace of the
Czars.
But a terrible catastrophe was at hand. At midnight, on the 15th, a
bright light illuminated the northern and western parts of the city ; and
the sentinels at the Kremlin, soon discovered that the splendid edifices in
that vicinity were on fire. The wind changed repeatedly during the
night, but to whatever quarter it veered, the conflagration extended itself;
fresh fires were perpetually breaking out, and Moscow was soon one sea
of flame. Napoleon clung with great tenacity to the Kremlin, but the
approaching and surrounding fire at last forced him to abandon it, arid
with some difficulty he made his escape to the country palace of Petrow.
sky. The conflagration continued for thirty-six hours, and laid nine-
tenths of the city in ashes.
While these events were in progress, the Russian army retired on the
road to Kolomna; and, after falling back two marches in that direction,
it wheeled to the left, and, by a semi-circular route, regained the road to
Kaluga, and encamped at Tarutino. By this masterly movement, Kutu-
sofl* at once drew near to his reinforcements, covered the richest prov-
inces of the Empire, secured the supplies of his army, and threatened the
enemy's communications.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
THE RETREAT FROM MOSCOW.
NAPOLEON returned to the Kremlin, which eventually escaped the
flames, on the 20th of September, and anxiously awaited the impression
which the intelligence of his success would produce on the Russian gov-
ernment. To aid the anticipated effect, Count Lauriston was dispatched
to the head-quarters of Kutusoff, with authority to propose an armistice,
and Murat had an interview with General Benriingsen. Kutusoff imme-
diately forwarded Napoleon's letter to St. Petersburg, through the hands
of Prince Wolkousky, while the French deputation were amused with
hopes of an arrangement held out to them by the Russian generals.
For a time, the Emperor lay inactive at Moscow, expecting the submis-
sion of the cabinet of St. Petersburg : but day after day, and week aftei
week rolled on, without any answer to his proposals. Meantime, the
early winter of those northern latitudes was visibly approaching, and the
anxiety of the troops in regard to their future movements began to be
loudly and freely expressed. At the same time, the discipline and
efficiency of the army daily declined amid the license which followed
the pillage of Moscow. All the efforts of the officers failed to arrest the
insubordination of the men, and the more so, as the pressure of famine
aggravated their calamities. The food of the officers frequently consisted
of nothing but horse-flesh, and the common soldiers were often on the
point of starving.
Very different from this was the appearance of the Russian camp
at Tarutino. Discipline, order and comfort, reigned there undisturbed
1812.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 323
The levies which arrived from the southern provinces filled up the nu-
merous chasms in the battalions, and all the necessaries of life were
furnished in abundance by the surrounding country. One feeling of
enthusiasm and one purpose of vengeance animated the entire soldiery.
The Cossacks of the Don took arms in a body at the call of PlatofF, and
twenty-two regiments joined the army. The savage aspect of the horses
which these rude warriors brought from the wilderness, with their un-
combed manes sweeping the ground, attested how deeply the innermost
recesses of the Russian Empire were pervaded by that indomitable spirit
of resistance, which brought thence these wild children of the desert to
combat for the national freedom.
While the fate of Napoleon's proposals to Alexander remained in sus-
pense, a sort of armistice prevailed between the two main armies ; but a
guerilla warfare was maintained by the Russian light troops, and espe-
cially by the Cossacks, who formed a vast circle around Moscow, occu-
pied every road, and intercepted the enemy's supplies of forage and pro-
visions. The French cavalry were by this means compelled to tra-
verse large districts in search of food, and their detachments were almost
invariably cut off by their enterprising and active assailants. During
the first three weeks of October, the French lost in this manner more
than four thousand men who were taken prisoners, and the reports from
Murat announced the alarming fact, that one-half of the whole remaining
cavalry of the army had perished in these inglorious encounters.
With these facts in view, the officers were impressed with the most
gloomy forebodings as to the fate of the army, if its stay at Moscow were
prolonged : and Napoleon, although he still flattered himself with a be-
lief that his negotiations for peace would end satisfactorily, saw never-
theless, that if they were to eventuate otherwise, he would be forced to a
disastrous retreat. As early as the 2nd of October, he had given orders
for the evacuation of the Cathedral and adjoining convents of Smolensko —
which had escaped the conflagration of that city, and were then occupied
as hospitals — in order that they might be ready to receive the sick and
wounded followers of his retrograde march ; and on the 6th of the same
month he had written to Berthier, to post his corps in such a manner as to
cover his anticipated retreat to that city. But it was now easier for Na-
poleon to issue orders for the protection of his homeward route, than for
his marshals to obey them. The courage and audacity of the straggling
Russian parties along the whole line of the French communications,
increased with the embarrassments of the invaders ; and not only con-
voys of provisions, but columns in march were intercepted and destroyed
by these indefatigable foes.
During this critical period, Napoleon was wasting invaluable time in
expectation of an answer to his proposals, which were never seriously
entertained by the Russians, and would never have been received at all,
but for the secret purpose of detaining him at Moscow until the approach
of winter had rendered the escape of his army impossible. But on the
13th of October, a fall of snow aroused Napoleon to a sense of his dan-
ger, and he began in earnest to make preparations for retreat.
Kutusoff, who had remained inactive in his encampment, solely because
he was fearful of prematurely awaking Napoleon from his fancied secu-
rity, prepared to resume the offensive as soon as it became evident that
the French were about to retire. He had for some time observed that the
30
324 HI STORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXXVIH
advanced guard, under Murat and Poniatowski, thirty thousand strong,
posted in the neighborhood of Winkowo, kept so negligent a watch at
their outposts, as to offer a tempting opportunity for a surprise. He
therefore placed a large body of men under the command of Benningsen,
with orders to make the attack. Benningsen divided his force into five
columns and hastened to Winkowo, where he. arrived on the morning of
the 18th of October, and assaulted the French position with great spirit :
but as his columns did not all reach their designated positions at one
time, Murat was enabled to retreat with a loss of only fifteen hundred
men, thirty-eight pieces of cannon and all his baggage.
This comparatively trifling disaster accelerated Napoleon's movements.
He left the Kremlin on the morning of the 19th, exclaiming, " Let us
march to Kaluga, and wo to those who interrupt our progress !" He re-
treated from Moscow at the head of one hundred and five thousand com-
batants, with six hundred pieces of artillery ; and in the rear of this im-
posing array, came an almost interminable train of wagons bearing the
spoils pillaged from the devoted city. Napoleon at first advanced on the
old road to Kaluga, which led directly to Kutusoff's encampment ; but
after marching for some hours in that direction, he turned suddenly to the
right, and gained by cross-roads the new and shorter route to Kaluga,
which ran through Malo-Jaroslawitz. This manoeuvre was concealed
from the Russians by the corps of Marshal Ney, which continued to ad-
vance slowly on the old road ; and KutusofF, in the belief that the whole
army had moved on this route, at first sent only Platoff with fifteen regi-
ments of Cossacks to take possession of Malo-Jaroslawitz. On discovering
his error, he dispatched the corps of Doctoroff by a rapid night march to
suppoi t the Cossacks. The French troops had, however, already reached
the place in some force under Eugene, and an obstinate contest ensued,
at the termination of which, late in the evening of the 24th, the viceroy
remained master of a burning town ; but he had purchased it by a loss
of five thousand of his best troops. Moreover, a Russian army of one
hundred thousand men, with seven hundred pieces of cannon, had im-
proved the time consumed in the action to occupy a semi-circular line in
his front, which precluded the possibility of a further advance toward
Kaluga, without a general battle.
Napoleon remained in the neighborhood of Malo-Jaroslawitz during the
night of the 24th, and sent out numerous parties to reconnoitre the Rus-
sian position ; and their reports induced his most experienced officers to
believe that a successful attack was impossible. No alternative remained,
therefore, but to fall back on the Smolensko road ; and the Emperor's
agitation at this juncture was so great, that his attendants dared not
approach him. On returning to the miserable cottage that constituted his
head-quarters, he sent for Berthier, Murat and Bessieres, and seating him-
self at a table on which a map of the country was spread out, he began
to speak to them of the change which the arrival of Kutusoff on the high-
grounds of Malo-Jaroslawitz had made in his situation. After a little
discussion he became meditative, and, resting his cheeks on his hands
and his elbows on the table, he fixed his eyes on the map, and remained
for more than an hour in moody silence. The three generals, respecting
his mental agony, sat also still and speechless. At last, he suddenly
started up and dismissed them, without making known his intentions. But
immediately afterward, he sent orders to Davoust to take his place at the
1812.] HISTORY OF EUROPE 325
head of the advanced guard, saying that he would himself be at the out-
posts with his Imperial Guard, at daybreak. Ney was also directed to
take a position between Barowsk and Malo-Jaroslawitz, after leaving two
divisions to protect the reserve artillery and baggage at the former of
those towns.
Early on the 25th, Napoleon set out in person to examine the ground,
and was advancing, through a confused mass of baggage-wagons and
artillery* when a sudden tumult arose, and the same moment this cry was
heard, " It is PlatofF! they are ten thousand strong !" and a large body
of Cossacks dashed down on the Imperial escort. By a qujck and des-
perate effort the tide of this alarming irruption was turned, and the Cos-
sacks, ignorant of the prize so entirely within their grasp, directed their
attention to the artillery, and carried off eleven guns. After thoroughly
reconnoitering the ground, the Emperor returned to his quarters, and
nothing further was attempted on either side for the day. But the fatal
retreat was definitively resolved on, and early in the morning of the 26th
the men silently and mournfully commenced their march. KutusofF pur-
sued with his main body by a parallel road toward Mojaisk and Wiazma,
while Platoffwith the Cossacks pressed the French rear-guard.
The several French corps marched at intervals of half a day's journey
from each other, and for some days were not seriously harassed by the ene-
my ; but the discouragement of the troops had become very great, and the
dreadful features of the retreat already began to appear. Baggage- wagons
were constantly abandoned, the infantry and cavalry hastened along in
utter confusion, and incessant explosions through the vast column, an-
nounced the number of ammunition carts that were left behind of necessity,
and blown up to prevent their falling into the hands of the Russians. In
fact, the retreat was rapidly becoming a flight ; the troops separated from
the marching columns in quest of plunder or subsistence, and numbers of
horses were slain to furnish food for the hungry multitudes that surrounded
them.
On the 2nd of November, the leading divisions reached Wiazma, and
Napoleon, flattering himself that he had gained several marches of Ku-
tusoff, and would not be disquieted by any further hostilities, continued
his retreat toward Smolensko ; but he was soon undeceived. Davoust's
corps, forming the rear-guard, approached Wiazma on the 3rd, and was
there so severely attacked by Milaradowitch and the Cossacks, that he
was driven through the streets of that town at the point of the bayonet,
and lost more than six thousand men. The corps of Davoust had, pre-
vious to this action, lost no less than ten thousand men by sickness, fatigue
and desertion since the retreat commenced ; and it was now so reduced
that Napoleon directed Ney with his corps to take the rear, and cover,
thenceforward, the movements of the army.
The weather, though cold and frosty at night, had hitherto been bright
and clear during the day ; but on the 6th of November the Russian win-
ter set in with unwonted seventy. Cold fogs first rose from the surface
of the ground, and obscured the face of the sun ; a few flakes of snow
floated in the air ; and gradually the light of day declined, and a thick,
murky gloom overspread the firmament. The wind rose and blew with
frightful violence, howling through the forest or sweeping over the plains
with resistless fury ; the snow soon covered the earth, and numbers of
the troops, in struggling forward, fell into hollows or ditches which were
326 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXXVTIL
concealed by the treacherous surface, and perished miserably before
the eyes of their comrades ; others were swallowed up in the moving
masses of snow which, like the sands of the desert, accompanied
the fatal blast. The soldiers were accustomed to death in its ordinary
forms, but there was something that appalled the stoutest hearts in the
uniformity of this boundless wilderness, which, like a vast winding-sheeU
seemed ready to envelope the whole army. Exhausted with fatigue or
transfixed with cold, they sank by thousands on the road, while clouds of
ravens and troops of dogs that had followed the army from Moscow,
screeched and howled along the march, and often fastened on their vic-
tims before life was extinct. The only objects visible above the snow
were the tall pines, which, with their gigantic stems and funereal foliage,
cast a darker horror over the scene, and seemed to rise up like fr-owning
and gloomy monuments to mark the grave of the expiring host. As night
approached, the sufferings of the soldiers increased : they sought in vain
for the shelter of a rock, the cover of a friendly habitation, or the warmth
of a cheerful fire ; and although, at intervals, a blaze might be seen in
the bivouac, it flashed with a sickly light, and served but to prepare a
miserable meal of rye mixed with snow-water and horse-flesh, for the
starving multitude.
In the midst of these sufferings, the army approached Smolensko ; and,
at the sight of this promised resting-place, the little remaining discipline
of the soldiers gave way : officers and privates, infantry and cavalry,
precipitated themselves in a confused mass toward the town, and, rushing
through the streets, surrounded the gates of the magazines, and shrieked
for the food which they so desperately needed. But bread in sufficient
quantities could not be furnished, and grain in large sacks was thrown out
to the famishing wretches, who eagerly devoured it in its natural state.
Smolensko, however, proved to be no place of refuge to the retreating
army : the few buildings that had escaped the conflagration were insuffi-
cient to shelter even the sick and wounded ; the magazines were nearly
empty by reason of the failure of the convoys, and Napoleon received
such intelligence of the defeat of his two wings and the rapid advance of
Kutusoff on his main body, as rendered a long halt in this desolate town im-
possible. Oudinot had been defeated with immense loss by Wittgenstein,
notwithstanding the reinforcements he had received from Eugene ; Tchi-
chagoff had totally routed the Saxons and Poles on the other flank ; and
Kutusoff, after a series of successes against the rear-guard under Ney, had
pressed forward to the neighborhood of Krasnoi with the whole of the
Russian grand army, and now threatened to intercept Napoleon's retreat.
In this emergency, Napoleon immediately arranged his order of march
and set out from Smolensko on the 14th of November. The remains of
the cavalry, reduced from forty thousand to eight hundred men, were
placed under the orders of Latour Maubourg ; the shattered battalions of
infantry and artillery were blended into newly organized corps ; and the
Emperor took command in person of the united columns of the Young and
Old Guard. The total amount of his troops was nearly seventy thousand ;
but of these, not more than forty thousand were in condition to undertake
offensive movements Early on the morning of the 15th, Napoleon, who
led the retreat from Smolensko, encountered a part of Kutusoff 's army at
Krasnoi; but the Russian general, fearful of driving to desperation such
redoubtable soldiers as the Imperial Guard, confined his operation to an
1812.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 327
affair of artillery, and eventually withdrew until that part of the French
force had passed his position. But the next day, when Eugene followed
with his corps, Kutusoff entirely blockaded the road, and compelled the
viceroy, after a ruinous defeat, to make his escape with a small portion
of his troops across the fields : nevertheless, under cover of night, he
eventually rejoined the Emperor. On the 17th, Kutusoff brought up his
whole force to cut off Davoust, who came next on the line of retreat.
Napoleon, however, heard of his purpose, and countermarched with all the
troops under his immediate command to aid the marshal in this extremity.
A general action resulted from these movements. Prince Gallitzin, with
the Russian centre, commenced the battle by an attack on Roguet and
the Young Guard. After an obstinate contest, in the course of which a
square of the Guard was broken and destroyed by the Russian cuirassiers,
Gallitzin established himself on the Lossmina, near the French centre.
At this time Davoust advanced, moving slowly in the midst of a cloud of
Cossacks ; and, being assailed simultaneously in front and flank by Gal-
litzin and Milaradowitch, his corps was almost totally destroyed. This
success of the Russians forced Napoleon to look out for his own safety ;
and, dreading an attack from the combined Russian corps, he retreated
to Liady with one-half of his Guard ; the other having perished in the
battle.
Ney left Smolensko with the rear-guard on the 17th, and speedily dis-
covered traces of the ruin of the Grand Army. Cannon, caissons, dead
horses, and wounded men impeded his progress at every step ; and a far
more formidable obstacle awaited him in the array of the Russian troops,
who were drawn up on the banks of the Lossmina to intercept his retreat.
He was, however, ignorant of his danger, and approached the Russian
position during a thick fog on the morning of the 18th. Suddenly, the fire
of forty pieces of cannon shattered his leading column, and the fog clear-
ing away, disclosed the heights on his front and flank crested by dense
masses of infantry and artillery. Kutusoff summoned him to capitulate ;
but Ney replied, " A marshal of France never surrenders !" and instantly
charged the Russian batteries. His soldiers closed their ranks and marched
with hopeless devotion against the iron bands of their adversaries ; but
after a number of desperate attempts, they were driven back with a loss
of more than six thousand men. Ney, perceiving that the Russian posi-
tion was impregnable in front, and that Kutusoff was extending his lines
to the north of the great road to prevent him from escaping, formed a col-
umn, four thousand strong, of his most efficient men, and retreated for an
hour on the road to Smolensko, when he turned abruptly to the north and
moved toward the Dnieper. At the village of Syrokenci, his advanced
post met a peasant, who pointed out a place for crossing the frozen river
in safety ; and he succeeded, through the night, in transporting to the
opposite bank three thousand men. without horses or artillery. He even
waited three hours before commencing the passage, to give the stragglers
time to join his little detachment, and during this anxious period he wrap-
ped himself in his cloak, and slept quietly on the margin of the stream.
The remainder of his corps fell into the hands of the Russians. The
general result of these several actions near Krasnoi was the capture of
twenty-six thousand prisoners, three hundred officers, and two hundred and
twenty-eight pieces of cannon, besides ten thousand men killed ; and all
this the Russians accomplished with a loss of but two thousand men.
23
328 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXXVIli
Although the Emperor with a part of the army had escaped these ruin-
ous defeats, he was reduced to the utmost extremity. As the few horsea
that had not perished were reserved for conveying the wounded, Napoleon
himself marched on foot with a birch stick in his hand ; and it was with
great difficulty that he and the body of officers who surrounded him, could
force their way through the crowd of straggling soldiers, camp-followers,
baggage-wagons, and cannon that thronged the road.
The retreating army at length reached Orcha, where, for a time, the
severity of the weather abated ; and, as the magazines of that town were
well supplied, the troops enjoyed great comparative comfort : but their
numbers were wofully reduced. There remained but six thousand of the
thirty-five thousand Imperial Guards : Davoust had saved but four thou-
sand men out of seventy thousand ; Eugene, eighteen hundred out of forty-
two thousand ; and Ney, fifteen hundred out of forty thousand. The
garrison of Orcha and the Polish cavalry in the neighborhood, were added
to these remnants of the army and somewhat increased its efficiency, and
the corps of Victor and Oudinot soon after joined the Emperor. Neverthe-
less, Napoleon was in a very critical situation. He had assembled his
forces and marched directly upon the Beresina ; but on his route, he
learned that Minsk and the bridge of Borissow had fallen into the hands
of the Russians, so that the only passage of the river was lost. Moreover
a sudden thaw, which had carried away the wintry covering of the stream
and filled its waters with masses of floating ice, rendered it apparently
impossible to establish a communication with the opposite shore. Tchi-
chagoff lay in his front, guarding the river ; Wittgenstein occupied an
impregnable position on his right ; and Kutusoff, with the main Russian
army, menaced his left.
Under these trying circumstances, Napoleon displayed his usual genius
and firmness of mind. His entire force, after the junction with Victor
and Oudinot, and also with Dombrowsky, who arrived at this crisis,
amounted to nearly seventy thousand men, of whom forty thousand were
in a condition to fight. He disposed this whole mass into one column,
and directed it against Tchichagoff, whose corps did not exceed thirty-
three thousand men, though he was well posted on the marshy shores and
wooded banks of the Beresina. To conceal his purpose, Napoleon made
demonstrations toward the Lower Beresina, as if he designed to cross the
river there, and unite his forces to those of Schwartzenberg. In the
meantime, the principal part of his forces were collected on the heights
of Borissow ; and as soon as he found that his stratagem had diverted the
attention of the Russians, he commenced the construction of two bridges
over the Beresina at Studienka. A severe frost on the 24th of November,
facilitated the approach of the artillery over the marshy meadows to
the river ; but this circumstance, so far fortunate, greatly hindered the
completion of the bridges, by filling the water with floating ice. Never-
theless, the French engineers were indefatigable in their exertions; a
bridge for foot soldiers was finished, and on the 25th, a brigade of in-
fantry established itself on the opposite bank. It happened that on the
night when this was accomplishing, the Russian general Tchaplitz, who
commanded the western bank of the river at this point, received orders
from Tchichagoff to join him at the Lower Beresina ; and on the morning
of the 26th, the French beheld with astonishment the Russian bivouacs
deserted, and their artillery apparently in retreat. They therefore re-
1812.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 329
doubled their exertions, and soon constructed a second bridge for the
passage of their cannon and wagons, and thus made themselves masters
of the communication. Tchaplitz was soon informed of his error, and
he hastened back to repair it; but he arrived too late ; the French were
established in considerable force on the western bank, and he was com-
pelled to retire.
When TchichagofFand Wittgenstein learned that a division of the French
troops was already posted on the opposite shore, and that it had secured
the passage of the Beresina, they made immediate preparations for attack-
ing the enemy on both sides of the river ; and Wittgenstein, as a pre-
liminary movement, intercepted a detachment of Victor's corps, amounting
to eight thousand men, and forced them to lay down their arms. During
the night of the 27th, it was agreed that TchichagofF, whom YermolofF
had reenforced with the advanced guard of the Russian main army,
should move against the French on the right bank, while Wittgenstein
pressed Victor and the remainder of the French forces on the left.
Tchaplitz began the action on the morning of the 28th, by an attack on
Oudinot ; but the French vanguard having been strengthened by the re-
mains of Ney's corps, the legion of the Vistula, and the Imperial Guard,
he was unable to make good his ground until TchichagofF came up and
restored the day. The contest, however, was without any decisive result.
The Russians failed to cut ofF the retreat of the French, and the loss on
each side amounted to about five thousand men.
Wittgenstein was more successful. By his first charge he drove Vic-
tor to a retreat, and as the only avenue of escape lay across the two
bridges over the Beresina, those conveyances were immediately thronged
with a confused mass of fugitives, who trampled each other in their flight,
and blockaded the passage by the madness of their efForts. As the Rus-
sian corps successively gained ground, their batteries formed a vast semi-
circle, which played incessantly on the bridges, and augmented to des-
peration the terror of the multitude who were struggling to cross over.
In the midst of this confusion, the artillery-bridge broke down, and the
crowds upon it, being pressed forward by those in the rear^ were precipi-
tated into the water and drowned. Infantry, cavalry and artillery now
rushed upon the other bridge, and dashed with their horses and gun-
carriages through the mass of people, crushing some beneath the wheels
and horses' feet, like victims before the car of Juggernaut, and pushing
others over the sides of the bridge.
In these moments of agony, all varieties of character were exhibited —
selfishness with its baseness, cowardice with its meanness, and heroism
with its power and generosity. Soldiers seized infants from their ex-
piring mothers, and vowed to adopt them as their own ; officers harnessed
themselves to sledges, to extricate their wounded companions ; privates
threw themselves on the snow beside their dying officers, and strove, at
the risk of incurring captivity or death, to solace their last moments. In
the midst of this terrific scene, Victor, who had nobly sustained the
arduous duty of covering the retreat during the whole day, arrived with
the rear-guard at the entrance of the bridge. His troops, with stern
severity, opened a passage for themselves through the helpless multitude
who thronged the bridge and the shore adjoining it, whom despair and
misery had at length rendered incapable of exertion, and who now could
neither be persuaded nor forced to cross to the opposite bank. These
880 HISTORY OF EUROPE [CHAP. XXXVIII.
horrors continued throughout the night, and when the morning dawned,
Victor saw the Russian advanced guard approaching ; the destruction of
the bridge, therefore, became indispensable to the safety of the French
army, and orders were given to burn it. A frightful cry arose from the
host on the eastern shore of the river, who were too late awakened to the
realities of their situation : numbers rushed on the burning bridge, and,
to avoid the flames, jumped into the water, while the greater proportion
wandered in helpless misery along the river, and beheld their last, hopes
expire with the receding columns of their countrymen.
This dreadful passage of the Beresina completed the ruin of the Grand
Army, which lost during its continuance, twenty-five pieces of cannon,
sixteen thousand men in prisoners, and twelve thousand in slain. The
corps of Victor and Oudinot were reduced to the deplorable state of the
troops that came from Moscow, and the whole army, having lost all ap-
pearance of military order, marched in a confused mass along .the road
to Wilna, harassed at each step by the Cossacks, who cut off every strag-
gler and made constant attacks on the rear-guard. In the midst of the
general ruin, a number of officers organized themselves into a guard,
called the Sacred Squadron, for the Emperor's protection. The gentle-
men who composed it discharged with heroic fidelity the task assigned to
them, and executed without murmuring all the duties of common soldiers :
but the severity of the cold soon destroyed their horses, and they, as well
as the Emperor, were again compelled to pursue their route on foot
through the snow. At night, their bivouac was formed in the middle of
the still unbroken squares of the Old Guard, who sat around the watch-
fires on their haversacks, with their elbows on their knees, their heads
resting on their hands, and crowding close together, strove by assuming
this posture to repress the pangs of hunger and gain additional warmth.
On the 5th of December, Napoleon arrived at Smorgoni. He there
collected his marshals around him, dictated a bulletin which fully de-
veloped the horrors and disasters of the retreat, explained his reasons for
immediately returning to Paris — which were connected with a conspiracy
soon to be related — and after bidding them ail an affectionate farewell,
set out in a sledge at ten o'clock in the evening for the French capital,
accompanied by Caulincourt and Lobau, leaving the command of the
army to Murat.
The departure of the Emperor increased the disorganization of the
troops. The officers ceased to obey their generals, the generals disre-
garded the marshals, and the marshals set at defiance the authority of
Murat. The private soldiers, relieved from the duty of protecting their
Emperor, forgot everything but the instinct of self-preservation. The
colonels hid the eagles in their haversacks or buried them in the ground ;
the inferior officers dispersed themselves to look after their own safety ;
and indeed, nothing was thought of but the urgent pangs of hunger and
the terrible severity of the cold. If a soldier dropped, his comrades in-
stantly fell on him, and, before life was extinct, tore from him his cloak,
his money and the bread he carried in his bosom ; when he died, some one
of them would sit on his body for the sake of the temporary warmth it
afforded; and when it became cold, he, too/would often drop beside his
companion to rise no more. The watch-fires at night were surrounded by
exhausted men, who crowded like spectres about the blazing piles; and,
in the morning, the melancholy bivouacs were marked by circles of bodies
as lifeless as the ashes at their feet.
1812.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 331
Nevertheless, the fatal retreat continued to Wilna ; and although be-
tween Smorgoni and that city no less than twenty thousand men in strag-
gling detachments had joined the army, scarcely fbny thousand in all
reached its gates. Here, the troops found an abundance of food ; but they
had scarcely begun to refresh themselves from the immense magazines
that the city contained, when the roar of the Russian cannon compelled
them to renew their flight. They rushed out of the gates on the evening
of December 10th, and at the foot of the first hill beyond the town aban-
doned the remainder of their cannon and wagons, including the equipage
of Napoleon and the treasure-chest of the army. The Russians imme-
diately took possession of Wilna, and found within its walls, in addition to
a large amount of magazines and military stores, fourteen thousand sol-
diers and two hundred and fifty officers, who preferred surrendering as
prisoners of war to continuing their march.
On the 12th December the army arrived at Kowno, on the Niemen,
and on the 13th, they passed over the river. As the covering force in
the rear, under the command of Ney, defiled across the bridge, it was
seen that the remnant of the Imperial Guard consisted of but three hun-
dred men. Before quitting Kowno, Ney seized a musket, and made a
final stand with the few men he could rally around him. He maintained
his post for several hours against the whole Russian advanced guard ;
when the retreat of all the men who would march was secured, he
slowly retired ; and he was the last man of the Grand Army who left the
Russian territory.
The first halting place on the German side of the Niemen was Gum-
binnen ; and General Mathieu Dumas had just entered the house of a
French physician in that town, when a man followed him wrapped in a
large cloak, having a long beard, his visage blackened by gunpowder, his
whiskers half burned by fire, but his eyes sparkling with undecayed
lustre. "At last, then, here I am," said the stranger : "what! General
Dumas, do you not know me ? I am the rear-guard of the Grand Army,
Marshal Ney. I have fired the last musket-shot on the bridge of Kowno;
I have thrown into the Niemen the last gun we possessed ; and I have
walked hither, as you see me, across the forests."
The scattered French troops continued to retreat through the Polish
territories, still hunted down by the Russians and Cossacks. They made
a brief stand at Koningsberg, and, hastening thence with an additional
loss of ten thousand men, they finally reached Dantzic in the latter part
of January, 1813, when the Russians gave over the pursuit. The losses
of the French in this disastrous campaign may be thus estimated :
Slain, in battle, 125,000
Died of cold and famine, - ... 132,000
Prisoners, Soldiers, .... 190,000
" Officers, 3,000
" Generals, .... 43
Total loss, - - 450,048
The eagles and standards that fell into the hands of the Russians
amounted to seventy-five, and the artillery, to nine hundred and twenty-
nine guns.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
EVENTS IN FRANCE FOLLOWING THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN.
NAPOLEON outstripped his own couriers in his journey. He traversed
Poland and Germany in an exceedingly brief space of time, and arrived
at Paris on the 18th of December, before the officers of the government
were aware that he had quitted the army. He held a levee at nine
o'clock on the following morning, and, as the news of his unexpected
return spread quickly through the metropolis, it was numerously attended.
The bulletin that he dictated at Smorgoni, containing the details of his
disasters, had not yet reached Paris, and no other feeling than that of
surprise at the sudden reappearance of the Emperor pervaded the minds
of his guests : but in the course of that day the bulletin was received and
published. No words can paint the stupor, consternation and astonish-
ment of the inhabitants, when this terrible overthrow was promulgated.
The calamity was even exaggerated by the public terror ; it was thought
that the old system of concealment and deception had been practiced on
this, as on all previous occasions ; that the army had in fact been utterly
annihilated, and that Napoleon was literally the sole survivor.
Gloom and disquietude, therefore, overspread every countenance at the
levee of the succeeding day, and all felt the utmost anxiety to hear what
details Napoleon himself might furnish as to the actual extent of the
overthrow. The Emperor, on his own part, was calm and collected ;
and, so far from seeking to evade the questions that every one was eager
to put, he anticipated their wishes by a lengthened recital of the events.
" Moscow," he said, in the course of his remarks, " had fallen into our
hands ; we had surmounted every obstacle ; even the conflagration in no
degree lessened the prosperous state of our affairs ; but the rigor of
winter induced upon the army the most frightful calamities. In a few
nights, all was changed, and the losses we then experienced would have
broken my heart if, in such circumstances, I had been accessible to any
other sentiments than a desire for the welfare of my people."
The admissions and firmness of the Emperor had a surprising effect in
restoring public confidence, and dissipating the impression produced by
the greatest external disaster recorded in history. The confidence of the
people in his fortune returned, and his star appeared to emerge from the
clouds that had so deeply obscured it. His words, eagerly gathered and
repeated, soon circulated through the public journals; addresses, con-
taining assurance of unshaken loyalty were presented by the public bodies
of Paris, and similar proofs of devotion speedily followed from all parts
of the Empire. But, though Napoleon was not insensible to these flat-
tering testimonials of attachment, his thoughts were now more occupied
with the incidents of a newly-detected conspiracy, than with a nation's
homage.
This extraordinary event, of which the Emperor received intelligence
a short time before he left the army in Russia, might well arrest his
attention ; as it nearly overturned his government, and showed conclu-
sively that, despite all professions of fidelity, both his own authority and
1812.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 333
the prospects of succession in his family, rested on a sandy basis. An
obscure but able man, named Malet, had, by reason of his restless and
enterprising character, been detained in custody at Paris for more than
four years ; and this person, in the solitude of his cell, conceived a pro-
ject for overturning the Imperial dynasty. In connexion with two
accomplices — Lafon, an old abbe and fellow-prisoner, and Rateau, a cor-
poral of the prison guard — he had long meditated his plan, and the whole
was to rest on a fabricated report of Napoleon's death. To support this
story, he forged a decree of the Senate, abolishing the Imperial govern-
ment, and creating himself, General Malet, governor of Paris. Various
orders on the treasury were also forged, intended to dispel the doubts or
shake the fidelity of the individuals to whom he should address himself.
Having completed these preliminary arrangements, he easily escaped
from his confinement, dressed himself in the uniform of a general of
brigade, and repaired to the barrack-gate of the 2nd regiment and 10th
cohort : but, being denied admission, without the orders of the colonel,
Soulier, he went to the house of that officer and informed him that the
Emperor had been killed on the 7th of October, at Moscow, that the Sen-
ate had taken its measures, and that he had himself been appointed
governor of Paris. The forged decree that he immediately displayed
was well calculated to deceive the most experienced eye, from the pre-
cision with which it had been drawn, and the seeming genuineness of the
signatures appended to it r.but Malet did not rely on this alone. The de-
cree contained the appointment of Soulier as general of brigade, and
Malet exhibited with it a treasury order for one hundred thousand francs
for his use. Deceived, or won, Soulier fell into the snare, and accom-
panied Malet to the barrack-yard.
The chief difficulty of the enterprise was here to be surmounted ; but
Malet proved himself equal to the task he had undertaken. He assumed
a decided tone ; ordered the gates to be opened ; mustered the soldiers by
torch-light ; announced the Emperor's death ; and commanded the drums
to beat that the cohort might assemble and listen to the Senate's decree.
Yielding to the habit of obedience, suspecting no deceit, and familiar
with similar changes during the Revolution, the soldiers instantly con-
formed to these orders. Malet next directed a body of the troops to
march with him to the prison of La Force, where he liberated Generals
Lahorie and Guidal, sturdy republicans, who had long been confined by
orders of Napoleon. They were immediately put in command of detach-
ments, and the three moved in different directions to gain possession of
the principal posts of the capital. These measures were successful.
Savary, the minister of police, was arrested in his bed, and conducted to
prison : Pasquier, the prefect of police, was treated in the same manner ;
the Hotel de Nelle was occupied by Soulier, and Malet took possession of
the Place Vendome. A number of other public functionaries, including
the actual governor of Paris, were also arrested ; and the whole was ac-
complished with such ease, that Malet, conceiving his power to be already
established, imprudently ventured without a sufficient guard into the hotel
of the adjutant-general, Doucet, where he met Laborde ; and that officer,
suspecting something was wrong, intrepidly ordered Doucet's attendants
to arrest Malet. This act of course, disconcerted at a blow the whole
conspiracy ; the deception was exposed ; and the troops with shouts of
" Vive 1'Empereur !" returned to their duty. Nevertheless, the power
334 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XXXIX.
thus suddenly defeated, would in a short time have proved irresistible.
Had Malet succeeded in arresting Doucet, Savary says that, " he would
in a few moments have been master of almost everything ; and in a
country so much influenced by the contagion of example, it is impossible
to say where his success would have stopped. He would have had pos-
session of the treasury, the post-office, the telegraph, and the entire com-
mand of the National Guard. He would soon have learned, by the
arrest of all couriers, the state of affairs in Russia, and nothing could
have prevented him from making the Emperor prisoner on his solitary
journey to France."
The defeat of this conspiracy gave Napoleon abundant cause for self-
gratulation, but its previous existence furnished equal reason for despond-
ency. He saw at once, and for the first time, that the Revolution had in
fact destroyed the foundations of hereditary succession, ard tha* the
greatest achievements of him who had wen the diadem, afforded no secu.
rity that the crown would descend to his heirs — for in the crisis of this
conspiracy, his son seemed, by common consent, to have been overlooked,
and it was as a matter taken for granted, that his own death vacated the
throne and rendered a new election indispensable. Yet, although Napo-
leon was from this moment convinced that his dynasty was unstable, and
the hope of his son's succession at least equivocal, he took extraordinary
measures to secure both against the threatened contingency ; and caused
a decree to be passed jy the Senate, securing, as ingeniously and firmly
as any mere enactment could secure, the claims of his posterity to the
throne of France.
The next care of the Emperor was to raise an army to replace the
one he had lost. He demanded from the Senate an addition to the exist-
ing military force of the Empire, of three hundred and fifty thousand
men, which that obsequious body immediately granted ; and the conscrip-
tion was enforced with such zeal and rapidity, that within a few months
the whole number was actually enrolled for service.
When this important measure was completed, Napoleon set about
reconciling his differences with the Holy See : for, having one half of
Europe openly arrayed against him, and the other half but doubtfully
enlisted under his banners, he could no longer afford to brave the hostility
of the head of the Church. After the pope had been arrested in 1809,
he was brought to Grenoble and thence transferred to Savona, where he
endured the rigorous treatment of a close prisoner. But Napoleon, at
his departure for Moscow, not deeming Savona sufficiently secure, caused
his holiness to be removed to Fontainebleau. Here, though a prisoner,
he had a handsome suite of apartments and was respectably attended, but
was excluded from the society of those he most wished to meet. It has
already been mentioned, that Napoleon's original intention in seizing the
person of the pope, was to compel his holiness to legislate for the Church
in accordance to the Emperor's views, and thus, in effect, unite ihe tiara
and the imperial crown on his own head : but the disasters of the Rus-
sian campaign cut short this splendid project, and awakened Napoleon to
the necessity of an amicable adjustment of his quarrel with the pope.
He therefore opened a communication with the reverend father, which
was graciously received ; and, after a sufficient exchange of compli-
ments, he repaired with the Empress to Fontainebleau and had an inter-
view with his prisoner. The pope was so fascinated with Napoleon's
1813.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 335
powers of conversation and artful complaisance, that he very soon signed
a concordat, which settled the chief points of dispute between the court
of the Tuileries and the Holy See, and that, too, in a manner eminently
favorable to Napoleon's ambitious purposes.
Napoleon manifested, as well he might, the greatest satisfaction at the
finishing of this concordat. The next morning, decorations, presents and
orders were profusely scattered among the chief persons of the pope's
household. The restrictions on the personal freedom of the pope were
removed, and orders were issued for the liberation of the Emperor's
indomitable antagonist, the Cardinal Pacca. But while Napoleon flat-
tered himself that he had surmounted all future difficulties with the
Church, a great change was going on in the papal cabinet. The moment
thai the pope's counsellors learned what had been done, they saw that
their master was overreached, and that the Emperor had wheedled him
into greater concessions than he had demanded when in the plenitude of
his power. They therefore insisted on the formal retraction of the con-
cordat, which the pope accordingly executed on the 24th of March. Na-
poleon, however, with equal moderation and prudence, so far from resent-
ing this proceeding, took no notice of it, but published the concordat as
one of the fundamental laws of the state, and caused its provisions to be
enforced.
The other measures of Napoleon, previous to the renewal of the war
in Central Europe, had reference to the strengthening and organization
of his military establishment ; and it soon appeared that, despite all her
losses, France was still able to take the field with armies of a formidable
description.
CHAPTER XL.
CAMPAIGN OP 1813.
WHEN the French retreating army, by reason of the temporary sus-
pension of the Russian pursuit, had gained a brief respite in which to
recruit its strength and partially reorganize its shattered columns, its
officers entertained a hope that a position on the line of the Vistula could
be maintained ; but the defection of the Prussians on the one hand, and of
the Austrians on the other — who virtually abandoned the cause of Napo-
leon as they approached their respective frontiers — by endangering their
communications with France, rendered this plan impracticable. And,
indeed, the activity of Wittgenstein left the French no extended leisure
for any preparations whatever. On the 15th of January, his vanguard
crossed the Vistula, and, spreading in all directions, circulated proclama-
tions, calling on the inhabitants to take up arms, and join in the great
work of liberating Europe from the thraldom of the tyrant. Wittgen-
stein's troops marched in t\vo columns toward Berlin; one by the route
of Koningsberg and Elbing, and the other by Friedland and Tilsit. On
their march, they made themselves masters of Pillau, with a garrison of
twelve hundred men, and they afterward continued their march unop-
31
336 HISTORY OF EUROPE. CHAP. XL.
posed, and were received with enthusiasm everywhere throughout Old
Prussia. A third column of the Russian army, composed of PlatofFs
Cossacks and some light cavalry, moved upon Dantzic, and commenced
. the blockade of that fortress. A fourth, under the orders of Tchichagoff,
marched through East Prussia, and arrived at Marienberg on the 15th of
January. A fifth, immediately commanded by Tormasoff, and accom-
panied by Kutusoff and the Emperor Alexander in person, advanced
through Wilna and Lithuania, and reached Plozk on the 5th of February.
And a sixth, led by Mil arado witch, Sacken and Doctoroff, followed a
diverging line to the south, by Grodno and Jalowke. On the 24th of
February, these six columns were concentrated at Kalisch, where Alex-
ander established his head-quarters.
In the meantime, Murat, finding himself pressed on all points by the
advancing columns of the victorious Russians, having sustained great
losses in his retreat, and despairing of a final escape from his pursuers,
conceived that the time had arrived when every one should look to self-
preservation ; and, on the 17th of January, he suddenly gave up his com-
mand, and set out post-haste for his own dominions in the south of Italy.
Eugene, on whom the command of the army devolved, made great efforts
to arrest the evil threatened by this unmanly desertion of Murat : but the
utmost that he could accomplish was of little avail in checking the tide of
disaster. He was successively driven from every position, until, on the
12th of March, he took refuge behind the Elbe, and rested on the fortresses
of Torgau, Magdebourg, Wittemberg, and the intrenched camp at Pirna.
The Russians closely followed Eugene's retreat, but during their march
they met with a severe loss in the death of Kutusoff, who expired at
Buntzlau, on the 6th of March, of a malignant fever. Wittgenstein was
promoted to the chief command, and passing onward, soon reached Berlin,
where his head-quarters were established on the llth.
The uninterrupted success of the Russians, and — with the exception
of a few blockaded fortresses — the entire deliverance of Prussia from the
French domination, could not but have a powerful effect on the disposition
of the Prussian cabinet, as well as on the kingdom at large. The king,
individually, inclined to keep faith with France, from a feeling that his
honor would be compromised by deserting his ally in misfortune ; and he
therefore made proposals for a new alliance, more in conformity to the
relative situation of the two powers, and of course much more favorable
to his own interests than the preceding treaty. But at the same time, he
did not neglect to give weight to his proposals, by putting the country in
a condition to maintain a war, if war should be the result of his nego-
tiations.
By a royal decree, dated at Breslau, and issued as early as the 3rd of
February, an appeal was made to young men of all ranks, from the age
of seventeen to twenty-four, not subject to the legal conscription, to enter
the army in the capacity of volunteers, and be annexed to the regiments of
infant^ and cavalry already in the service ; and, lest this appeal should be
disregarded, some clauses of a compulsory nature were incorporated with
the decree. But no compulsion was needed. The disasters of Jena and
Auerstadt, the indignities which they had endured in their capital from
the brutality of Napoleon, and the long career of outrage and exaction to
which they had been subjected by his orders, roused as with a trumpet-
note the entire male population of Prussia, the instant that the hand of
1813.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 337
the oppressor was removed. On all sides, there was a unanimous cry
for arms. The volunteers presented themselves in such multitudes, that
the government functionaries, so far from being able to supply them with
weapons, were not able for a considerable time even to perfect the record
of their names.
But patriotic ardor and devotion, though indispensable elements of
military strength, cannot of themselves create an efficient army : disci-
pline, training, practical organization, must come to the aid of courage and
enthusiasm. Fortunately, in these essentials, without which her utmost
efforts would have proved unavailing, Prussia already stood preeminent.
The wisdom of her government had provided both the framework in her
army, and the experience among her people, capable of rapidly turning
the whole strength of the nation to warlike achievements.
Under these circumstances, the king's proposals for a new alliance
wifh France were entitled to Napoleon's consideration ; but he, either
doubting the faith of Frederic William, or despising his power, flatly
refused to treat on equitable terms. The king, being thus fully exon-
erated from obligation to France, readily acceded to the course which his
ministers had long urged upon him ; namely, a league with Russia, which,
under the designation of the treaty of Kalisch, was concluded on the 1st
of March.
By this treaty, an alliance, offensive and defensive, was established be-
tween Russia and Prussia, for the prosecution of the war with France.
Neither of the contracting powers was to conclude a peace, nor a truce,
without the other's consent ; both were to urge the accession of Austria
to their compact, and to treat immediately with England for the subsidies
of which Prussia stood in great need ; and, by an additional article, the
Emperor of Russia bound himself not to lay down his arms until Prussia
was reconstituted in all respects — statistical, financial, and geographical
— as she had stood anterior to the war of 1806.
This treaty between Russia and Prussia, together with the advance of
their united armies to the Elbe, caused an immediate and general insur-
rection against the power of France, on the right bank of that river : but
Saxony yet remained undecided ; and although the ferment was almost
as vehement in her provinces as in the Prussian states, no symptoms of
disaffection had been exhibited by her government, and it was well known
that the benefits her sovereign had received from Napoleon, bound him to
the interests of France by ties not easily dissolved. Still, the reputation
of the King of Saxony for probity and justice, rendered it of great impor-
tance to obtain, if possible, the moral weight of his adhesion to the Ger-
manic league ; and his states lay so immediately in the theatre of war,
between the hostile countries, that it became of the last consequence to
secure the support of his forces in the field, and the protection of his for-
tresses on the Elbe. The allied sovereigns, therefore, made every exer-
tion to induce Frederic Augustus to join the league; but he steadily
refused to abandon his benefactor. Denmark, also, adhered to the for-
tunes of Napoleon. But Sweden, whose king, Bernadotte, smarted under
the aggressions and indignities of his former master, readily threw herself
into the scale against France ; and the Emperor of Austria, despite his
family alliance with the great military chieftain, was too keenly sensible
of his own interests, and too deeply concerned in the permanence of Eu-
ropean freedom, to neglect this opportunity of aiding to crush the ferocious
338 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XL.
despot whose remorseless ambition had spread death, and misery, and
ruin, over so large a portion of the civilized world. Negotiations were
also opened with Murat, King of Naples ; but for the time they led to no
other result than a widening of the breach between him and Napoleon.
While separate interests were thus beginning to alienate from each other
the members of the great war confederacy which sprung from the military
triumphs of the French Revolution, Prussia was making prodigious efforts
to maintain the position she had so nobly assumed. To increase the
general enthusiasm, Frederic William instituted the order of the Iron
Cross, to reward his subjects for the sacrifices they were called on to
make in behalf of their country; and he requested all classes to pour
their gold and silver ornaments into the public treasury, and receive in
exchange iron ornaments of the same form and fashion, which they might
preserve in their families — a monument at once of past wealth and suc-
ceeding patriotism. Shortly afterward, a proclamation was issued to the
inhabitants of those provinces which the treaty of Tilsit had wrested from
Prussia, inviting them to take up arms for the independence of Germany.
The effect of these measures was magical. The scholars of the univer-
sities, the professors, the burghers, alike took up arms: the cares of in-
terest, the pursuits of science, the labors of education, were forgotten.
Art was turned to warlike preparation; industry to forming implements
for the battle-field; and genius, to fanning the general ardor. Korner
gave vent to the popular sentiment in strains of immortal verse, which
were repeated and sung by thousands and tens of thousands as they
marched to the points of rendezvous. Meanwhile, the women who had
sent their precious ornaments to the treasury, received others in return
beautifully wrought in iron, and bearing this simple inscription, " I gave
gold for iron ; 1813." In a short time, no male inhabitants but old 'men
and boys were to be met in the streets ; and not an ornament of gold or
silver decorated the persons of the women, or the windows of the shops.
Thus arose the famous order of the Iron Cross, in Prussia, and thus com-
menced the beautiful work in Berlin iron, so well known and so highly
prized throughout every country of Europe. It must be confessed that
chivalry cannot boast a nobler fountain of honor, nor fashion a more
touching memorial of virtue.
So long as the French troops maintained their footing on the left bank
of the Elbe, the general fermentation among the inhabitants of the prov-
inces in that quarter, was limited to a sort of passive resistance, which,
nevertheless, proved extremely embarrassing to the French authorities.
But when the allies crossed that river, and the continued advance of the
Russians inspired general confidence in the firmness of Alexander, the
feelings of the people could no longer be suppressed. Insurrections be-
came common, particularly in Bremen, and various parts of Westphalia;
and the parties of Russian horse that traversed the sandy plains of
Norlhern Germany, were swelled by crowds of volunteers. At the same
time, the officers of the states in the Rhenish Confederacy, who had been
made prisoners in the Russian campaign, formed themselves into a legion;
declared every German who should bear arms against his brethren a
traitor to his country, and bound themselves by a solemn oath to combat
Napoleon even unto death. The Tugenbund became now the soul of a
vast conspiracy, the ramifications of which were so extensive, the pro-
ceedings so secret, and the influence so great, that it would have been in
1813.J HISTORY OF EUROPE. 339
the highest degree dangerous, but that it was directed, in its principal
branches, by exalted wisdom, and inspired in all by devoted patriotism.
A Cromwell, or a Napoleon, would have found in its impassioned bands
the ready elements of revolutionary elevation; but none such appeared
in the fatherland. The streams of popular enthusiasm, directed by, not
directing, the rulers of the country, instead of being wasted in the selfish-
ness of individual ambition, were turned, in one overwhelming flood,
against the common enemy.
The positions of the French troops on the left bank of the Elbe, when
the allies resolved to cross that river, were as follows : Davoust occupied
Dessau and the line of the river thence to Torgau ; Victor lay between
the Elbe and the Saale ; Grenier, with his Italians, was a little in the
rear, at Halle ; Regnier, with the remains of the Saxons and Durutte's
division, held Dresden, and stretched along to the foot of the Bohemian
mountains ; and the extreme left under Vandamme, with its head-quarters
at Bremen, occupied Hamburg and the mouth of the Elbe. The earliest
reinforcements from France, twenty-four thousand strong, under Lauris-
Jon, drawn from the first ban of the National Guard, reached Magdebourg
on the 29th of March, and augmented the centre of the army grouped
around that fortress, to nearly fifty thousand men ; while twenty thousand
were in the neighborhood of Dresden, and fifteen thousand on the Lower
Elbe. In addition to these forces, Ney and Marmont each commanded a
body of reserve then forming on the Rhine, and Bertrand's corps was on
its march from Italy, by the route of the Tyrol ; its leading columns
having already reached Augsburg, in the plains of Bavaria. Troops,
important from their numerical amount, though far removed from the
theatre of action and shut up in strongholds, where they could contribute
little to the issue of the conflict, still belonged to France. Their number
in all was nearly seventy thousand men ; five-and-thirty thousand of these
were blockaded in Dantzic, and the remainder were in Thorne, Modlin,
Zamosc, and Graudentz on the Vistula, and Spandau, Stettin, Custrin,
and Glogau on the Oder. The condition of these men, however, was so
miserable, and they were so reduced in physical strength by the hard-
ships of the Russian campaign, that they could not be relied on for opera-
tions in the field; besides, the calamities they had undergone had sown
within them the seeds of a disease more fatal than the sword of the
enemy, and which soon developed itself among those crowded yet ineffi-
cient garrisons.
Of the Prussian forces, there were twenty-five thousand regular troops
in Silesia under the command of Marshal Blucher, besides twenty thou-
sand fresh recruits who garrisoned the fortresses in that quarter; the corps
of D'York, advancing from East Prussia, was fifteen thousand strong ;
Bulow commanded ten thousand near Berlin ; and five thousand lay in
Pomerania. Frederic William, therefore, could at once bring fifty-five
thousand troops into the field, without drawing any reinforcements from
his fortresses. In addition to this, he had thirty-five thousand in a state of
forwardness, to blockade the fortresses on the Oder and act as a reserve
to the armies in the field ; and this body was daily receiving such acces-
sions of force from new levies, that it would soon amount to no less than
one hundred and fifty thousand men.
The Russian armies at this period were much more considerable in the
aggregate, though the losses of the late campaign had seriously thinned
31*
340 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XL,
the ranks of those near the destined theatre of war, and the great proper-
tion of the effective troops were yet on their march from the interior prov-
inces of the Empire, and could not arrive on the Elbe before the middle
of July ; so that, for immediate operations in Saxony, not more than seventy
thousand Russians could be relied on ; and these, added to the fifty-five
thousand Prussians ready to cooperate with them, raised the effective al-
lied force to a hundred and twenty-five thousand men.
The first movement in this campaign was the occupation of Hamburg
by the allies. This town was garrisoned by three thousand French troops
under St. Cyr, but on the approach of Tettenborn with three thousand in-
fantry and the same number of Cossacks, St. Cyr evacuated the place.
About half a mile from the city, the Russian videttes were met by the
greater part of the inhabitants in a mass, who filled all the houses, gar-
dens, fields, lanes, and streets of the suburbs. The magistrates with the
keys of the town appeared at the gates, while thirty maidens, dressed in
white robes, strewed wreaths of flowers before their deliverers. Shouts
of acclamation now arose from the multitude which seemed to rend the
very heavens : " Long live the Russians ! Long live Alexander ! Long
live Old England !" burst from tens of thousands of voices, and the stee-
ples, the houses, and the very earth trembled with their cheers.
The worthy Hamburgers could not cease to express their astonishment,
that so small a body of men had delivered them from the burdensome op-
pression under which they had labored for seven long years ; and their
astonishment was not a little increased when they beheld the hardy chil-
dren of the desert — the Kalmucks and Bashkirs-— disdaining the civilized
luxuries of houses and beds, pile their arms and lie down beside their
steeds in the squares of the city, with no pillow but their saddles, and no
covering but their cloaks.
The evacuation of Hamburg was followed by a similar movement at
Bremen and Lunenburg ; at which latter place, General Morand was so
totally defeated, that his whole force, consisting of three thousand men,
was either killed or made prisoners, and himself slain on the field. A
general insurrection between the Elbe and the Weser immediately ensued,
and the French abandoned that entire district. The Hanse Towns took
up arms and expelled the French authorities, while those portions of the
electorate of Hanover whence the enemy retreated, proclaimed their law-
ful sovereign, the King of England, and a regency was formed of Hano.
verian noblemen at Hamburg, to direct the efforts of the newly-recovered
territory. Here, too, a universal cry for arms arose ; and the call was
so promptly answered by England, that, within two months after Prussia
had declared her intentions, there were landed on the coast of Germany,
for the use of the allies, the entire military equipments for a hundred and
fifty thousand men.
The allies now began to approach the Elbe in force. Wittgenstein
broke up from Berlin and moved thither in two columns : one of which,
commanded by himself, moved toward Wittemburg ; the other, under
Bulow, toward Dessau. Borotel, with fifteen thousand Prussians, marched
in the direction of Magdebourg ; and Blucher, with the army of Silesia,
in conjunction with Winzingerode at the head of ten thousand Russians,
directed his steps toward Dresden from the side of Breslau. The King
of Saxony was in no condition to withstand such forces, and he entered
into a convention for evacuating his capital ; this was acceded to, and
a813.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 341
Davoust, who commanded the French garrison of Dresden, withdrew ac-
cordingly, after blowing up an arch of the beautiful bridge across the
Elbe, and retired to Leipsic. The allies entered the town the next day,
March 26th, to the great joy of the inhabitants ; who, notwithstanding the
adhesion of their sovereign to Napoleon, detested the French alliance and
French domination as heartily as any people in Germany.
Eugene made a last stand at Mockern, a little way in front of Magde-
bourg, on the 4th of April ; but Wittgenstein attacked him so impetuously,
that the intervention of night alone saved him from a total rout. Witt-
genstein the next day pursued him to Magdebourg, where Bulow's corps
established a blockade, while Kleist with another Prussian division took
post at Dessau ; arid in the meantime, Winzingerode, passing through
Dresden, occupied Halle. Thus, the line of the Elbe was effectually
broken at its two extremities, Hamburg and Dresden, although Eugene
maintained the centre resting on Magdebourg.
Napoleon, before setting out to join the army, caused the office and
dignity of Regent of the Empire to be conferred on the Empress. Marie
Louise, with the seat of President of the Council of State. He took his
departure immediately afterward, and reached Mayence at midnight on
the 16th of April, where for eight days he devoted his whole time to the
improvement of the fortifications of that town, and the organization and
discipline of the conscripts. He left Mayence on the 24th, and on the
following day reached Erfurth. The army which he had assembled at
ihis latter place, though deficient in cavalry and artillery, was formidable
in point of numbers, amounting to nearly a hundred and forty thousand
men ; besides which, at least forty thousand were arrayed at Magdebourg
under Eugene.
The allies were not a little disconcerted when they learned the strength
of Napoleon's forces ; but, great as might be the risk of a general action,
they conceived the evils of a retreat at the commencement of the cam-
paign to be still greater ; and they accordingly resolved to move forward
and give battle in the plains of Lutzen. On the first of May, the Prus-
sians were concentrated at Roethe; Wittgenstein, with the main body
of the Russians occupied Zwenkau ; and Winzingerode and, Milarado-
witch, more in advance, observed the enemy on the roads of Naumberg
and Chemnitz. While crossing the defile of Grunebach, the head of the
French column first encountered the allies, whose vanguard, with six
guns, was posted on the heights of Poserna. A partial action took place,
at. the close of which the allies withdrew ; but this trifling advantage on
the part of the French was far more than counterbalanced by the death
of Marshal Bessieres, who was killed by a cannon shot at the first dis
charge of the Russian guns.
On the morning of the 2nd of May, Napoleon, aware that the allies
were not far distant, but ignorant of their intentions to fight, was pressing
on toward Leipsic, when he was suddenly aroused by the discharge of
cannon on his extreme left. He immediately halted his suite, and sur-
veyed the distant combat with his telescope ; after remaining nearly half
an hour in deep meditation, he directed the troops to continue their march
in as close order as possible. Presently, a much louder cannonade
opened on his right, toward Great and Little Gorschen ; and it became
obvious that the principal attack was to be made in that quarter, although
Napoleon could discover no enemy beyond the roofs of the villages.
342 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XL.
In truth, matters had there assumed a serious aspect from the first.
The French infantry occupied the villages of Gross Gbrschen, Klein
Gorschen, Rahno and Kaia, which lie near each other, somewhat in the
form of an irregular square, between Lutzen and Pegau. The plain is
traversed by the deep channel of a rivulet, called the Flossgraben ; and the
allied army had crossed this stream in small compact columns, which
emerging from behind the heights, concentrated themselves in four masses,
without being seen by the French troops. As soon as their formation was
complete they advanced upon the plain, and opened a heavy concentric
fire of artillery on Gross Gorschen ; and General Ziethen, with two Prus-
sian brigades, followed up this attack so vigorously that the French in-
fantry were speedily driven out of the village, and pursued some distance
beyond it. The allies, thus encouraged, pressed forward to Klein Gors-
chen and Rahno, which they carried at the point of the bayonet ; both
villages were soon wrapped in flames, and aid-de-camp after aid-de-camp
was dispatched to Napoleon for reenforeements. The emergency ad-
mitted of no delay , and the Emperor immediately sent orders to Macdonald,
Eugene, Marmont and Bertrand to hasten with their respective corps
toward the point of danger, while he pushed on in the same direction
with the main body of his army.
In the meantime Ney had rallied the broken divisions, and, by a des-
perate charge, retook the villages ; but it was impossible for him to main-
tain them against the impetuosity of the Prussian levies, who returned to
the assault with the coolness of veteran soldiers, and drove the French
back on the plain ; and as this success was promptly followed up by the
allied cavalry, Ney's columns were disordered and several regiments of
conscripts disbanded and fled. Wittgenstein now brought forward his
reserves to complete the victory, forced the French from Kaia, the key of
Napoleon's right, and compelled the whole line to give ground. It was
now six o'clock ; all the French troops who had as yet come into action
were in full retreat, and the battle seemed to be won by the allies. At
this crisis, Napoleon advanced with the central corps, checked the flight
of Ney's defeated columns, and, throwing himself into the midst of the
fugitives, rallied them in a moment. He then pressed on to Kaia, where
the allies were strengthening themselves, and retook that village after a
desperate struggle. Blucher, in turn, now interposed with the Prussian
reserve, the two parties met in the plain between Kaia and Klein Gors-
chen, and both maintained their ground at half musket-shot distance,
exchanging incessant volleys without yielding one step, until the shades
of evening began to overspread the field.
This obstinate conflict, however, though it gave no immediate advan-
tage to either side, was of great importance to Napoleon, as it gained for
him what alone was requisite to save the day — time, namely, to bring
forward his reserves. Bertrand, Marmont, and the Imperial Guard soon
arrived, and presented an array seventy thousand strong, against which
the allies could muster at the decisive point but forty thousand men.
Nevertheless, Wittgenstein maintained his ground against this overwhelm-
ing force until darkness separated the combatants, and his troops bivou-
acked in and around Gross Gorschen. During the night, the allied
sovereigns held a council of war, and decided to commence a retreat the
next morning, which they accordingly did, without the sacrifice of pris-
oners, standards or artiPery. Their loss in the battle of Lutzen amounted
1813., HISTORY OF EUROPE. 343
to fifteen thousand men, killed and wounded ; while that of the French
exceeded eighteen thousand, of whom nine hundred were prisoners.
The allies retired slowly and in admirable order toward Dresden.
The main body reached that city on the 7th of May, and proceeded
thence by the road of Silesia to a strongly intrenched position at Bautzen;
while Milaradowitch, with the rear-guard, after cutting the arches of the
bridge of Dresden^ established himself among the houses on the right
bank of the river.
When the French approached Dresden, the magistrates of the city
came out of the gates and presented themselves before Napoleon. " Who
are you ?" said he in a quick and rude tone. " Members of the munici-
pality," replied the trembling burgomasters. " Have you bread for my
soldiers ?" " Our resources have been quite exhausted by the requisi-
tions of the Russians and Prussians." "Ha! it is impossible, is it ? I
know no such word. Furnish me bread, and meat, and wine. I know
all you have done : you deserve to be treated as a conquered people, but
I spare you from my regard to your king: he is the saviour of your
country." With these words, he turned aside from the city and proceeded
to the suburbs of Pirna, where he dismounted and reconnoitered the banks
of the river, with a view of forcing a passage to the opposite side. He
was not, however, seriously opposed by the allies in this project, and by
the llth of May, he had succeeded in transferring to the right bank a
considerable portion of his army. The next day, the King of Saxony
returned to Dresden, and placed himself and all his resources at the dis-
posal of the French Emperor: a proceeding in the highest degree gratify-
ing to Napoleon, as it proved the adherence of a valuable ally, secured
the protection of a line of fortresses, and restored him to the rank he
most coveted — the arbiter of the destinies and protector of the thrones of
European sovereigns.
But if the adhesion of the King of Saxony was thus a source of satis-
faction, the position now assumed by Austria gave the highest degree of
disquietude to Napoleon. He became convinced, from various develop-
ments, that the Cabinet of Vienna, which of late had pursued a tempo-
rizing policy in its diplomatic communications with France, was likely to
throw its influence and power into the hands of his enemies : he therefore
resolved to intimidate, if possible, the Austrian government, and prevent
a step so fatal to his ambition. He at the same time opened a secret
negotiation with the Emperor Alexander, and endeavored by great con-
cessions to detach him from the league ; but both attempts proved equally
fruitless.
Meanwhile, the allied sovereigns had retired to their fortified position,
around the heights of Bautzen, where they assembled a disposable force
of ninety thousand men : while Napoleon, after incorporating into his
army fourteen thousand Saxon troops, had under his immediate command
fully a hundred and fifty thousand. The allies, therefore, were greatly
overmatched ; and, however strong their position might be in front, it was
liable to be turned by an enemy so superior in numbers.
Napoleon approached Bautzen on the 19th of May, and ordered a par-
tial attack on the allied right, which ended in a loss of nearly two thou-
sand men on each side, without any material advantage having been
gained by either party. In the afternoon of that day, both armies made
their dispositions for a general action; the allies occupying a sort of
24
344 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XL.
semi-circle, convex in front, about two and a half leagues in length, with
their left against the chain of mountains on the Bohemian frontier ; and
Napoleon, while proposing an attack along their whole line, resolved to
direct his greatest effort against their right.
The outposts of the main armies first came in contact with each other
at eleven o'clock, on the morning of the 20th, when the French com-
menced the passage of the river Spree, which flowed between the hostile
camps. The stream was not seriously defended by the allies, and the
entire French force crossed it by five o'clock in the afternoon. The com-
bat was then begun by the French right and centre ; in which the former
was defeated, and the latter was but partially successful ; but both met
with severe loss, and night separated the combatants before any decisive
result could be attained.
The Emperor Napoleon ordered his troops to bivouac in squares on the
ground they had won in the centre ; yet the loss he had sustained proved
the desperate nature of the conflict in which he was engaged, and in-
spired him with melancholy forebodings as to the issue of the battle on
the morrow. The Prussian soldiers, though chiefly young recruits and
brought under fire that day for the first time, had evinced the most heroic
bravery. Not an inch of ground had been wrested from them but by the
force of overwhelming numbers, and more than ten thousand French and
Italians lay weltering in their blood around the heights, from which the
Prussians had drawn off every cannon and every wounded man. Not-
withstanding his losses, however, Napoleon had gained his principal object ;
namely, to compel the allies to bring their chief strength to the support
of their centre, and thus weaken their right, where his main blow was to
be delivered.
At five o'clock, on the morning of the 21st, the battle was renewed by
a French attack on the left of the allied position ; but the Emperor
Alexander had, during the 'night, sent to that point such reinforcements
under Milarado witch, that not only was the first assault repulsed, but
Oudinot, who came up to support the retreating columns, was also driven
back with great loss, and pursued, until Macdonald's advance checked
the victorious Russians. Napoleon was much disconcerted at this
reverse, but he nevertheless pressed his movements against, the enemy's
centre and right, listening anxiously, in the meantime, for the sound of
Ney's cannon ; he having dispatched that marshal by a circuitous route
to turn the position of the allies on its extreme right, and he now waited
only until the success of that manoeuvre should be declared, in order to
terminate the battle at a blow. His directions were, that Ney should
reach the designated point by eleven o'clock ; but at a few minutes past
ten, the roar of the brave marshal's artillery announced that he had an-
ticipated even Napoleon's calculations and was already in action. The
Emperor immediately sent a courier to Paris with a note written in pencil
to Marie Louise, proclaiming that he had gained the victory, and then set
off at a gallop with his staff to his own left, to take advantage of Ney's
success.
In the meantime, the allies, who were unprepared for Ney's attack, made
every effort to resist it and secure a retreat. Blucher was commanded
to check the French marshal's advance at all hazards, and he performed
this duty so intrepidly, that Ney was compelled to halt for reenforce-
raents until one o'clock in the afternoon. The manoeuvres of the allies
1813.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 345
to protect their right, having now had the desired effect of weakening
their centre, Napoleon ordered a grand attack of no less than eighty
thousand men upon this point, and the result was an almost instantaneous
movement of retreat along the whole allied line. The army fell back in
two massy columns ; the Russians by the road of Hochkirch and Lobau,
the Prussians by Wurschen and Weissenberg.
Then were seen the admirable result of modern* discipline, and the
high spirit that animated both armies. Seated on an eminence whence
he could survey a great part of the field, Napoleon directed the move-
ments of more than a hundred thousand men, spread over a surface of
but three leagues in extent, and moving majestically forward like a
mighty wave, crested as with sparkling foam by the blaze and smoke of
a hundred and twenty pieces of artillery. The greater part of this vast
inundation poured into the valley of Neider Kayna, and the declining
sun glanced with indescribable brilliancy on bayonets, helmets, sabres and
cuirasses, which crowded the level space between the mountains ; while
the allies were discerned retiring in dark masses under the shade of the
towering heights in the distance. It was in vain, however, that the
French strove by the most desperate charges of eight thousand cuirassiers
to disorder the firm array of the allied infantry : they moved along with
a steady pace and in unbroken order, until night drew her veil over the
field of carnage and of glory ; and at daybreak on the following morn-
ing, the Russians were still in possession of the heights of Weissenberg,
within cannon shot of the French army.
The loss of the allies in the battle of Bautzen was fifteen thousand
men killed and wounded, and fifteen hundred prisoners; that of the
French amounted to twenty-five thousand.
Early on the 22nd. Napoleon renewed the pursuit and continued it with
unabated vigor during the whole day ; but he could gain no trophy of
victory from his admirably disciplined foes : every baggage-wagon and
cannon was safely conveyed away, and the Emperor vented his spleen,
as at Wagram, on his generals, censuring them in tie severest terms for
allowing standards, prisoners and artillery to escape from such over-
whelming numbers. Duroc was killed by a cannon-ball during this day's
pursuit, and his death spread a gloom not only over the Emperor's mind,
but through the whole army : even the marshals of France were free to
express their disapprobation of a campaign which, with such a prodigious
expense of life, was likely to yield so little permanent advantage. The
advance of the French and the retreat of the allies were, nevertheless,
continued for several days, and were marked by various alternations of
success and disaster, which, on the whole, redounded to the benefit of the
allies. At length, both parties began to wish for a suspension of hostili-
ties : the allied sovereigns desired to gain time for bringing forward their
reinforcements, which were already on the march in great strength : and
Napoleon felt it necessary to ascertain the precise policy and intentions
of Austria, before he trusted himself farther from his resources, and ex-
posed the flank of a longer line of communication to the powerful armies
of that Empire.
With this common disposition to treat, the negotiations were not long
protracted. A convention, termed the armistice of Pleswitz, was there-
fore signed on the 4th of June, which declared a suspension of arms for
six weeks, and designated, as the line of demarcation between the two
346 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHJLP. XLI.
armies, that Poischwitz, Leignitz, Goldberg and Lahn should be held by
the French ; Landshut, Rudelstadt, Bolkershagen, Streigau and Canth,
by the allies ; while the intermediate territory, including the fortress of
Breslau, was to remain neutral, and be occupied by neither party.
CHAPTER XLI.
FROM THE ARMISTICE OF PLESWITZ TO THE RENEWAL OF THE WAR.
GREAT exertions were made by the British cabinet, to take advantage
of the propitious events which marked the early part of the year 1813.
It is difficult to say, whether the alacrity of the nation in submitting to
fresh burdens, or the boundless generosity that transmitted supplies to
Germany, or the efforts made to strengthen the victorious army of Wel-
lington in Spain, or the diplomatic activity which hushed separate inte-
rests and reconciled jarring pretensions, in concluding alliances with other
cabinets — were most worthy of admiration. The position of Great Britain
was indeed lofty and commanding, when she found the Continental states,
after so long a struggle, ranging themselves around her standard, arid
saw the jealousies of rival governments merged in a common sense of
necessity to crush the rapacious tyranny which she alone had uniformly
and successfully opposed. Yet many serious obstacles were to be over-
come, before this consummation could be fully realized ; and difficulties
of no ordinary kind awaited the statesman whose perseverance at length
subdued them, and cemented out of such discordant materials the glo-
rious fabric of the Grand Alliance.
The decided step taken by Prussia, in seceding from her friendly rela-
tions with France, and uniting her fate to that of Russia, by the treaty
of Kalisch, at once, and without any formal convention, reestablished an
amicable understanding between the cabinets of London and Berlin ; and
long before their diplomatic connexions were renewed, immense supplies
of arms, ammunition and warlike stores had been forwarded from the
Thames, and distributed through the Prussian dominions. To accelerate
the conclusion of a regular treaty, Sir Charles Stewart, since the Marquis
of Londonderry, was sent by the British government to the north of Ger-
many as early as April, and he arrived at Berlin on the 22nd of that
month. Learning that the King of Prussia was then at Dresden, he
hastened to that capital, and on the 26th of April it was there agreed, that
England, in addition to the military supplies already sent forward, should
advance two millions sterling to sustain the operations of the Crown-
Prince of Sweden in the northern part of Germany, and a like sum to
enable Russia and Prussia to keep up their armaments in Saxony ; be-
sides five hundred thousand pounds with which the British government
charged itself as the cost of the Russian fleet. In return for these liberal
advances, Russia agreed to maintain two hundred thousand, and Prussia
one hundred thousand men in the field, exclusive of garrisons ; and mat-
ters continued on this basis until the consummation of the armistice of
Pleswitz.
1813.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 347
No sooner, then, were the allied sovereigns delivered, by the convention,
from the pressure of impending hostilities, than they exerted themselves
to effect closer diplomatic relations with Great Britain ; and, as both Sir
Charles Stewart and Earl Cathcart, the English ambassador at the court
of St. Petersburg, were at the allied head-quarters, a treaty of alliance,
offensive and defensive, was promptly concluded. By this treaty, signed
at Reichenbach on the 14th of June, England agreed to furnish Prussia
with funds to the amount of six hundred and sixty-six thousand pounds,
on condition that the latter power should keep eighty thousand men in
the field for the remainder of the year ; she also promised to contribute
her influence toward the aggrandizement of Prussia, if the success of the
allied arms would warrant it, in such geographical and statistical propor-
tions as should at least restore that kingdom to the situation in which it
stood prior to 1806 ; and on the other hand, the King of Prussia consented
to cede to the Electorate of Hanover a part of his possessions in Lower
Saxony and Westphalia, to the extent of three hundred thousand inhabit-
ants, including in particular the bishopric of Hildesheim. By another
and relative treaty, between Russia and Great Britain, it was stipulated
that the latter power should pay to the former a subsidy of thirteen hun-
dred and thirty-three thousand pounds ; and in return, the Emperor Alex-
ander agreed to maintain in the field one hundred and sixty thousand
men : and England formally ratified her previous agreement to maintain
the Russian fleet and crews, lying in her harbors since the convention of
Cintra in 1808, at an annual expense of five hundred thousand pounds.
And as these large subsidies appeared to be inadequate to the daily
increasing cost of the armaments which the allies had on foot or in prepa-
ration, and especially as the want of specie was everywhere severely
felt, the treaty further stipulated, that an issue of paper, to the extent
of five millions sterling, guarantied by the three powers, should be
made by the Prussian states, of which two-thirds were to be at the dis-
posal of Russia, and one-third at that of Prussia : the ultimate liquidation
of the note's was fixed for the first of July, 1815, or six months after the
conclusion of a general peace ; and their payment at that period was
undertaken in the proportion of three-sixths by England, two-sixths by
Russia, and one-sixth by Prussia. And although these treaties, by their
letter, promised the supplies of money only during the year 1813, yet
the high contracting parties agreed to concert anew on the aid they were
to afford each other, in case the war should be prolonged beyond that
period ; and in particular, they " reciprocally engaged not to negotiate
separately with their common enemies, nor to sign any truce, peace or
convention whatsoever, otherwise than by mutual consent."
Notwithstanding the liberal provisions of these two treaties, as already
recited, the scarcity of specie in Germany during the summer became so
excessive, that England was again compelled to interpose ; and, on the
30th of September, entered into an agreement to issue bills from the
British exchequer, in favor of the sovereigns of Russia and Prussia, to
the amount of two «,nd a half millions sterling, payable in specie one
month after the ratification of a general peace, at offices in such towns
in the north of Germany as the cabinets of London, St. Petersburg and
Berlin should designate ; with an option to the holders to fund the amount
of their notes in a stock bearing six per cent, interest. These issues
were immediately made, and they at once supplied a circulating medium,
32
348 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLI.
which passed on a par with specie throughout all Northern Europe : a
memorable instance of the effect of national credit in public transactions,
and of the inexhaustible resources of a country which, after a war of
twenty years, was able not only to supply subsidies of vast amount to
the Continental states, but to guaranty the circulation of foreign dominions,
and cause her own promissory notes to pass like gold and silver through
empires extending from the Elbe to the wall of China, and among na-
tions that, but a few months previously, were arrayed against her in
deadly hostility.
While the allies were thus strengthening themselves for the contest,
Napoleon concluded a treaty with Denmark, on the 10th of July, by
which it was determined that France should declare war against Sweden,
and Denmark against Russia, within twenty-four hours after the denun-
ciation of the armistice ; and that both the contracting parties should concur
with all their forces in the common object ; each power also guarantied
the integrity of the other's dominions. This treaty secured to France a
valuable support at the mouth of the Elbe, and the acquisition of twenty
thousand effective troops — a fact of no inconsiderable importance, since
the advanced position of Marshal Davoust, who occupied Hamburg when
the allies, by their retreat, were forced to abandon it, would otherwise
have required a covering force of similar amount to be withdrawn from
the French army.
Austria now held the balance between the hostile powers; and her
forces, hourly accumulating behind the mountains of Bohemia, threatened
to pour down in irresistible strength on whichever of the two parties
should venture to dispute her will. As yet she had not proclaimed her
definitive intentions, although she had clearly resolved upon them, and
withheld their execution solely from prudential motives. Metternich,
then and ever since the chief director of the Austrian councils, was too
well aware of the insatiable ambition of Napoleon to place the slightest
reliance on his present liberal promises of future forbearance ; at the
same time, that able minister was anxious, if possible, to secure the ad-
vantages of a successful campaign by an armed mediation rather than by
an appeal to the arbitrament of war.
During the first three weeks of the armistice, little progress was made
in the work of negotiation. Difficulties arose at the outset, as to the
parties by whom, and the forms by which, they should be conducted.
The allied sovereigns did not wish their plenipotentiaries to treat directly
with those of France, but desired that both parties should address them-
selves to Austria as the mediating power ; and this proposal was strongly
supported by Metternich, on the part of the cabinet of Vienna. To solve
the first difficulty, he came in person to Getschen, and entered into cor-
respondence with Maret, the French ambassador. Maret insisted on a
categorical answer to the question, whether France was still to regard
Austria as an ally under the treaty of 1812. Metternich replied, that the
duties of a mediator were not inconsistent with those of an ally; and sug-
gested that, in order to facilitate the negotiation, the freaty of 1812 should
not be considered as broken, but only suspended — an expression which
Napoleon justly considered as equivalent to a dissolution of his alliance
with Austria. The other point of difficulty, the forms in which the nego-
tiations should be conducted, was next considered : and here Metternich
found such a diversity of opinion, that he repaired to Dresden in order to
1813.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 349
arrange the matter with Napoleon personally. His interview was pro-
longed till past midnight on the 28th of June.
" You are welcome, Metternich," said Napoleon, as soon as the minis-
ter was introduced, " but why do you come so late ? We have lost nearly
a month; and your mediation, from its long inactivity has become almost
hostile. It appears that it is no longer agreeable to your cabinet to
guaranty the integrity of the French Empire : well, be it so : but why
had you not the candor to make me acquainted with that determination at
an earlier period ? Your doing so might have modified my plans ; per-
haps, prevented me from continuing the war. When you allowed me to
exhaust myself by new efforts, you doubtless little calculated on such
rapid events as have ensued. Nevertheless, I have gained two battles ;
my enemies, severely weakened, were beginning to wake from their illu-
sions, when suddenly you glided among us ; and, speaking to me of ar-
mistice and mediation, you spoke to them of alliance and war. But for
your pernicious intervention, peace would have been at this moment con-
cluded between the allies and France. What have hitherto been the
fruits of your intervention ? I know of none, except the treaties between
Russia, Prussia and Great Britain. They speak of the accession of
another power to their conventions — but you have a minister there, and
perhaps know better than I to whom that refers. You cannot deny, that
since Austria has assumed the office of mediator, she has not only ceased
to be my ally, but has become my enemy. You were in fact about to
declare your hostility, when the battle of Lutzen intervened, and, by
showing you the necessity of augmenting your forces, made you desirous
to gain time. You have two hundred thousand men screened by the
Bohemian mountains ; Schwartzenberg commands them ; he is at this
moment concentrating them in my rear ; and it is because you conceive
yourself in a condition to dictate the law, that you pay me this visit. I
see through you, Metternich. Your cabinet wishes to profit by my em-
barrassments, and to augment them as much as possible, that you may
recover a portion of what you have lost. Your only doubt is, whether
you can gain your object without fighting, or whether you must throw
yourself boldly among the combatants. You do not well know which of
these lines of policy to adopt, and possibly you have come here to seek
light on the subject. Well, what do you want ? Let us treat.7'
To this vehement attack, which embodied more truth than he was
willing to acknowledge, Metternich replied with studied address, " The
sole advantage which the Emperor my master proposes, or wishes to de-
rive from the present state of affairs is, the influence which a spirit of
moderation, and a respect for the rights and possessions of independent
states, cannot fail to command from those who are animated with similar
sentiments. Austria wishes to establish a state of things which, by a
wise distribution of power, may place the guaranty of peace under the
guardianship of an association of independent states." "Speak more
clearly," interrupted the Emperor; "come at once to the point; but do
not forget that I am a soldier, who would rather break than bend. I have
offered you Illyria to remain neutral : will that suffice ? My army is
strong enough to bring Russia and Prussia to reason : all I ask from you
is, to withdraw from the strife." "Ah, sire!" said Metternich, eagerly,
" why should your majesty enter singly into the strife ? Why should
you not double ^rour forces ? You may do so, sire ! It depends on
850 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XL!
yourself to add our armies to your own. But matters have come to that
point, that we. can no longer remain neutral : we must be for you, or
against you."
At these words, the Emperor conducted Metternich into a cabinet apart,
in which stood tables covered with maps, and for a time their conversa-
tion could not be overheard. After a while, the voice of Napoleon was
audible above its ordinary pitch: "What!" said he, "not only Illyria,
ut the half of Italy, and the return of the pope to Rome, and Poland,
nd the abandonment of Spain, Holland, Switzerland, and the Confede-
ration of the Rhine ! And this you call a spirit of moderation ! You are
intent only on profiting by every chance that offers : you alternately trans-
port your alliance from one camp to the other, so as to be always a par-
taker of the spoil, and yet you speak to me of your respect for the rights
of independent states. You would have Italy ; Russia would have Po-
land ; Sweden would have Norway ; Prussia would have Saxony ; and
England, Holland and Belgium : in short, peace is only a pretext ; you
are all eager to dismember the French Empire, and Austria thinks she
has only to declare herself, in order to crown the enterprise ! You pro-
pose, here, with a stroke of the pen to sweep away the ramparts of
Dantzic, Custrin, Glogau, Magdebourg, Wesel, Mayence, Antwerp, Alex-
andria, Mantua — all the strong places of Europe, in short, of which I
obtained possession by dint of victories ! And I, obedient to your policy,
am to evacuate Europe, of which I still hold the half; recall my legions
across the Rhine, the Alps and the Pyrenees ; subscribe a treaty which
would be nothing but one vast capitulation ; and place myself at the
mercy of those of whom I am at this moment the conqueror ! And, it is
when my standards are floating at the mouths of the Vistula and on the
banks of the Oder ; when my victorious army is at the gates of Berlin
and Breslau ; when I am at the head of three hundred thousand men —
that Austria, without striking a blow, without drawing a sword, expects
me to subscribe such conditions ! My father-in-law, too, has matured
such a project, and he sends you on such a mission ! In what a position
would he place me, with regard to the French people ! Does he suppose
that a dishonored and mutilated throne in France can be a refuge for his
son-in-law and grand-son ? Ah ! Metternich, how much has England
given you to make war upon me /"
This violent tirade was delivered while Napoleon strode up and down
the apartment ; and at the last insulting question, which nothing in the
character or conduct of the Austrian diplomatist could for an instant jus-
tify, the Emperor let his hat, that he had hitherto carried in his hand, fall
to the floor. Metternich turned pale, but made no movement to raise it,
as his politeness at any other time would have dictated ; and Napoleon,
after passing and repassing it several times, at length kicked it aside.
After a pause of a few minutes, during which not a word passed on
either side, Napoleon became more tractable, and, reverting to fair words,
contended for a congress, to continue its sittings even during hostilities,
in case they should recommence. A convention, in consequence, was
made, stipulating that the congress should meet at Prague on the 5th of
July, at latest, and Austria agreed to procure the prolongation of the
armistice to the 10th of August. The convention was based on the me-
diation of the Emperor of Austria, and accepted by Napoleon " for a
general or continental peace." By this means, Mettern;ch gained a great
1813.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 351
advantage over the French Emperor; inasmuch as he drove that mon-
arch from his favorite project of treating for peace with the several
powers separately, and caused him to accede to the mediation of Austria—-
in itself, under the circumstances, a great diplomatic victory.
As yet, however, nothing definitive was declared as to the purposes of
Austria ; and outwardly, it was still a matter of doubt to which side she
would incline ; but at this crisis, big with the fate of Europe and of the
world, the star of England prevailed : intelligence was received of the
battle of Vittoria in Spain ; and the victory there achieved by Welling-
ton, which will be detailed in a subsequent chapter, explained Napoleon's
final submission to Austria as a mediator, and caused that power to de-
cide in favor of the Grand Alliance.
From this moment, all prospect of peace was abandoned : the views of
both parties were mainly directed to war ; and the negotiations at Prague
were used but as a cover to gain time on either side. Napoleon im-
proved to the uttermost the interval thus gained, to strengthen his position
and reenforce his army by hastening forward the conscripts from France;
and, resolving to make Dresden the centre and pivot of his operations, he
proceeded to cover that town and its vicinity with fortifications ori a
gigantic scale, which might be capable, both by their strength and extent,
of protecting his entire military establishment, in case of serious and un-
expected disaster. The numbers of the French Emperor's troops were
in proportion to the magnitude of his undertaking, and the emergency in
which he was placed. His reinforcements had been hastened forward
from France with all possible expedition, and these, in conjunction with
his allies and his own previous musters, presented the following formida-
ble array and disposition : Twenty-five thousand Bavarians, stationed at
Munich, watched the movements of the Austrians, who were assembling
in the neighborhood of Lintz ; Augereau, at Wurtzburg and Bamberg,
held twenty thousand conscripts, as yet inexperienced in the field ; Da-
voust occupied Hamburg, with twenty-five thousand French and fifteen
thousand Danes ; Oudinot, with eighty thousand, was posted in front of
Torgau to observe Bernadotte, who covered Berlin ; and two hundred and
thirty-five thousand, under the immediate command of the Emperor, were
cantoned from Dresden to Liegnitz: in all, four hundred thousand men.
In addition to these, one hundred and fifteen thousand men were in gar-
rison at Dantzic and in the fortresses on the Elbe and the Oder.
The forces of the allie^ were but little inferior in point of numbers to
the immense army of Napoleon. Two hundred and twenty thousand
combatants were assembled in Bohemia, and, from that salient bastion,
threatened the rear and communications of the French Emperor on the
Elbe ; eighty thousand menaced him from Silesia, and ninety thousand
were pressing forward from the north toward a common centre : making
a total of three hundred and ninety thousand men ; of whom one hundred
and twenty thousand were Austrian troops in the finest state of discipline
and equipment.
While these immense hosts were taking the field and preparing to
assume hostilities, the congress at Prague still maintained the form of ne-
gotiation, and its members, though well aware that war was inevitable,
continued to discuss technical points and recommend measures of a
peaceful tendency. On the 7th of August, Metternich transmitted to
Napoleon the ultimatum of the Austrian cabinet, which stipulated for the
32*
352 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLI.
dissolution of the Grand-duchy of Warsaw, and the division of its terri.
tories between Austria, Russia and Prussia, reserving Dantzic for the
latter power : the reestablishment of Hamburg and the Hanse Towns in
their independence ; the reconstruction of Prussia within its ancient do-
minions, having a frontier on the Elbe ; the cession to Austria of the
[llyrian provinces, including Trieste ; and the independence of Holland,
Spain and the Pontifical States. Napoleon spent the 9th in delibera-
tion ; and, on the 10th, he returned an answer acceding to many of the
conditions, but insisting that 'Dantzic should be a free city, and that its
fortifications should be demolished ; he refused the cession of Trieste to
Austria ; and claimed that the Confederation of the Rhine should be ex-
tended to the Oder and the integrity of the Danish dominions guarantied.
These terms, however, were inadmissible ; and, besides, they did not
reach Prague until the llth, when the armistice had terminated and the
congress was dissolved. On the 12th, Austria formally declared war
against France.
General Moreau, since his trial and condemnation by {he First Consul
in 1804, had lived in retirement in the United States of America, behold-
ing' the contest that still raged in Europe, as the shipwrecked mariner
regards the waves of the ocean from which he has just escaped. But the
Emperor of Russia, who entertained a high opinion of the Republican
general, and deemed it not unlikely that he might be induced to contribute
the aid of his great military talents in support of the cause of European
freedom, had some time previously opened a correspondence with him at *
the city of New- York, the result of which was, that Moreau consented to
cooperate with the allies on condition that France should be maintained
in the limits she had acquired under the Republic ; that she should be
allowed to choose her own government by the intervention of the Senate
and political bodies ; and that, as soon as the Imperial tyranny was over-
thrown, the interests of the country should become paramount to those of
the Imperial family. As soon as these preliminaries were agreed on,
Moreau embarked at New- York on board the American ship Hannibal,
and after a voyage of thirty days arrived at Gottenburg, on the 27th of
July, whence he immediately departed for Straslund to hold an interview
with Bernadotte. His subsequent journey from Straslund to Prague was
almost a triumphal procession. The innkeepers entertained him gratui-
tously ; the postmasters supplied him with their best horses, and sent cou-
riers to announce his approach ; and his route was thronged with crowds
who were anxious to catch a glance of so renowned a warrior. Fie reached
the allied head-quarters late at night on the 16th of August ; and the next
morning, the Emperor Alexander visited him, lavished on him every pos-
sible attention, and at once admitted him to the confidence of the allied
sovereigns. Moreau immediately began to study the maps of the country,
and drew up the plan of a campaign, which, in its leading features, was
adopted by the allies.
One difficulty remained to be adjusted at the allied head-quarters ; ihe
appointment, namely, of a commander-in-chief over the armies : and the
nature of this difficulty will be apparent, when it is considered that the
Emperor of Russia, the King of Prussia, Moreau, Bernadotte, Schwart-
zenhurg, Blucher and others, were all eligible to the high office and anx-
ious to obtain it. It was at length, however, conferred on Schwartzenburg,
to whose orders the other chieftains cordially agreed to submit.
CHAPTER XLII.
DELIVERANCE OF GERMANY.
THE first movement in the memorable campaign now about to com
mence, was made by the allies; Blucher having, on the 15th of August,
advanced in great force upon the territories of Silesia, driven back the
French videttes, and compelled the troops in that quarter to retire behind
the river Bober. He was supported by a corps of Russians under Lan-
geron, and another of Austrians under Sacken, and the vigor of their joint
movement was such that the French rapidly lost ground in every direction.
This result was of sinister augury, for the forces under the command,
respectively, of Ney, Lauriston, M armont and Macdonald, were estimated
by Napoleon at no less than a hundred thousand men ; and these were all
retiring without striking a blow to arrest the progress of their antagonists.
The arrival of Napoleon, however, at the head of his main body of
troops, soon changed the state of affairs ; and the allies, now wholly over-
matched, began in turn to retreat, yet in perfect order, and without loss
other than that incident to the fatigues of the march. Indeed, Blucher's
advance and subsequent retreat were parts of the preconcerted plan of the
allies ; who, while Napoleon was thus drawn into Silesia, prepared to
descend from Bohemia upon Dresden, and strike at once at the line of his
communications and the centre of his power. In conformity to this pur-
pose, they pressed forward to the Saxon capital, and began to arrive in its
neighborhood on the 23rd of August. They came in such numbers, that
on the morning of the 25th, a hundred and twenty thousand men with five
hundred pieces of cannon, were assembled around the walls of Dresden.
Moreau counselled an immediate attack before Napoleon could return to
relieve the town, and Alexander warmly supported his views ; but Schwart-
zenberg and the Austrians, insensible of the value of time in a contest
with Napoleon, resolved to await the arrival of Klenau's corps, which was
hourly expected.
In the meantime, Napoleon received .intelligence of the advance upon
Dresden, and hastened to repair the error of his march against Blucher
by a speedy return, leaving Macdonald in command of a force sufficient
to check the Prussian general. He urged forward the movement of his
troops with the greatest energy ; and, although the men were exhausted
by the heat of the weather and the excessive toil of the march, they suc-
ceeded in reaching Dresden on the 26th of August.
At four o'clock in the afternoon of that day, Schwartzenberg, after vainly
waiting for Klenau until he had lost a far greater advantage than any
assistance that officer's corps could render, gave the signal for a general
attack. Immediately the batteries on all the heights around Dresden
were brought forward, and more than a hundred guns in the front line
opened a terrible fire on the town. Bombs and cannon balls ranged over
its whole extent ; many houses were set on fire ; the inhabitants took
refuge in their cellars to avoid the bombardment ; and the frequent burst-
ing of shells in the streets, the thunder of artillery from the ramparts, the
heavy rolling of guns and ammunition-wagons along the pavement, to-
354 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLII
gether with the tumult produced by ihe soldiery as they forced their way
through the crowded avenues, combined to create a scene of indescribable
terror. Every street and square in Dresden was soon thronged with
French troops, more than sixty thousand having defiled over the bridges
since the morning, and the iron storm of the allied artillery fell with de-
structive effect among their dense masses.
The confusion and slaughter greatly increased when the allies advanced
in deep columns to the assault. They carried the redoubts of the city at
several points, and, unaware that Napoleon had returned to Dresden with
a great part of his troops, they were already confident of an easy victory,
when the Emperor ordered a sally to be made by the Young Guard, in
two several directions. This unexpected movement, and the great force
with which it was sustained, decided the day, and the allies rapidly fell
back to their fortified position on the heights.
The weather, which for nearly a week had been sultry and oppressive,
changed during the night to a cold and violent storm of rain : ye* both
parties exerted themselves to prepare for a pitched battle on the follow-
ing morning. By daylight on the 27th, Napoleon drew out his troops to
the number of a hundred and thirty thousand men. His right wing, con-
sisting of the corps of Victor and the cavalry of Latour Maubourg, took
post in front of the gate of Wildsrack, and in the fields and low grounds
extending toward Priesnitz : the centre, under his personal command,
comprising the corps of Marmont and St. Cyr, and having in reserve the
infantry and cavalry of the Old Guard, rested on three great redoubts in
advance of the town ; and the left, under Ney, with four divisions of the
Young Guard and the cavalry of Kellermann, was spread along to the
Elbe, beyond the suburb of Pirna. On the other hand, Wittgenstein, with
his Russians, held the extreme right of the allies toward Pirna ; Kleist,
with the Prussians, lay between St eisec and Strehlen ; Schwartzenberg,
with the corps of Colloredo and Chastellar, and Bianchi's grenadiers in
reserve, occupied the semicircle of heights in the centre, extending from
Strehlen by Raecknitz to Plauen ; and beyond Plauen, on the left, were
posted the corps of Giulay and one division of Klenau's troops, which had
at length come up. But from the extreme left of the allies to Priesnitz,
there was a vacant space destined for the remainder of Klenau's corps,
wholly unoccupied when the battle began, and which of itself was suffi-
cient to insure the defeat of the allies, by leaving one wing unsupported,
and inviting, as it were, a charge of the French cavalry, which must ne-
cessarily be successful, on its flank and the flank of the centre : a more
vicious and fatal disposition, on the part of a commander choosing his own
ground of defence, can scarcely be imagined.
Napoleon was not long in turning to the best account this defect in the
allied line, and the thick mist of the morning favored his manoeuvre so
greatly, that his cuirassiers gained a position within a few yards of the
allies before they were aware that any danger threatened them. At the
same moment, Victor approached the allied left in front, and these two
attacks occurring simultaneously, the whole wing was in a few minutes
broken and destroyed ; more than three-fourths of the whole havir-g been
killed or made prisoners. Notwithstanding this disaster, the allied right
still stood firm against Ney, while the combat in the centre was confined
to a distant cannonade : after a time, however, the first line of the right,
under General de Roth, began to give ground ; when a catastrophe took
1813.] II I S T 0 R Y 0 F E U R O P E . 355
place in the centre that induced the allies to retreat. A cannon ball
from one of the French batteries, more than a mile distant, struck Gen-
eral iMoreau and nearly severed both legs from his body, passing through
his horse in its flight. He was immediately borne to a cottage in the
rear, when he suffered the painful process of amputation with so much
coolness, that he called for a cigar and smoked it during the time he was
under the surgeons' hands. The wound, nevertheless, proved mortal ; arid
at the end of five days he expired with perfect stoicism.
As soon as Moreau was struck down, Schwartzenberg conferred with
the allied sovereigns and generals on the expediency of a retreat ; to
which he was specially moved by learning the fact, that Vandamme with
thirty-five thousand men had taken a strong position in the rear, and
threatened the communication of the allies ; thus rendering their position
extremely hazardous, in case of a more serious overthrow than they had
yet sustained. These considerations prevailed and Schwartzenberg
ordered the retreat. The army moved in three columns. The first un-
der Barclay, with the Prussians of Kleist, on Peterswalde ; the second,
under Colloredo, on Altenberg ; and the third, under Klenau, on Marien-
berg. Wittgenstein took command of the rear-guard ; and Ostermann,
who with a division of Russian guards and cuirassiers had been sent to
oppose Vandamme, was ordered to fall back toward Peterswalde.
The loss of the allies in the battle of Dresden, was not less than
twenty-five thousand men, killed, wounded and prisoners, besides twenty-
six pieces of cannon and eighteen standards ; while the French loss was
scarcely half as great: nor did the disasters of the allies terminate here.
Owing to a misapprehension of orders as to the several lines of retreat,
the Russians and Austrians became crowded together on the same road,
and in the confusion arising from this circumstance a number of baggage
and ammunition-wagons, together with two thousand prisoners, fell into the
hands of the French.
Meanwhile, Vandamme, following his instructions to throw himself on
the rear of the allies and await the issue of events before Dresden, en-
deavored to make himself master of Tceplitz; a point of intersection in
the route of the allies that commanded the entrance into the Bohemian
plains. Ostermann made equally strenuous efforts to secure the im-
portant pass, and the two corps came in contact with each other near
Culm, and about half a league in advance of Tceplitz. A desperate
action ensued, in which Ostermann, though inferior in numbers to the
French general, bravely maintained his ground until nightfall, when both
parties withdrew to renew the battle on the following day. During the
night, Ostermann was largely reenforced by the approaching Russian
columns, and Vandamme's prudent course, in the morning, was to retreat.
But having no orders for such a movement, and presuming that Napoleon
would advance to his aid, he rashly resolved to maintain his position.
Barclay, who had arrived with the reinforcements, took command of the
allied forces the next day ; and after having made able dispositions for the
action, commenced it by a spirited charge of cavalry on Vandamme's
left wing. The French fought for a time with their accustomed bravery ;
but they were overpowered by numbers, and at length fled from the field
in total disorganization, leaving behind them sixty pieces of cannon, two
eagles, and three hundred ammunition-wagons: their loss in killed,
wounded and prisoners during the two days, amounted to eighteen thou-
356 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLIL
sand men; while that of Ostermann and Barclay did not exceed five
thousand.
While such was the course of events in the neighborhood of Dresden
and of the Bohemian frontier, serious disasters attended the French arms
in Upper Silesia, where Macdonald was opposed to Blucher. The former,
impressed with the belief that Blucher had continued his retreat after
Napoleon withdrew from the pursuit to succor Dresden, divided his army
of seventy-five thousand men into five columns, in order to obtain sup-
plies with greater facility, and spread his forces over a front of twenty,
four miles in extent. In this straggling manner, he approached the river
Katzbach, at Leignitz, on the 26th of August. As it happened, however,
the Prussian commander, far from retreating, when he heard of Napo-
leon's march upon Dresden, prepared to assume the offensive ; and the two
generals moving from opposite directions toward a common centre, came
in sight of each other near Leignitz, at four o'clock in the afternoon
of the 26th. Macdonald was surprised at reaching the allies so much
sooner than he expected ; but he still conceived the parties in view to be
outposts of their rear-guard ; and this illusion was confirmed by the dispo-
sitions of Blucher, who concealed the greater part of his left wing be-
hind some intervening hills, on the plateau of Eichholz, and awaited the
movement of his opponents, while he ordered his centre and right to has-
ten with similar precaution toward the more remote divisions of the
French army.
Macdonald pushed forward his columns without much care or support,
and when a portion of his right wing had crossed the ravine of Neisse,
Blucher gave the signal to attack. The surprise was complete ; and the
French right, broken and disordered, fled back upon the main body with
great loss. The simultaneous movement of the allies on Macdonald's
centre and left were equally successful ; and, when night separated the
combatants, the French, with numbers seriously diminished, had been
forced to give ground along their whole line.
The next day, Blucher put his columns in motion to follow up his suc-
cess, while Macdonald drew back his shattered corps toward Goldberg.
The elements, however, seemed to have combined with the allies for his
destruction. The rain which fell in torrents during the night, had nearly
destroyed the roads, and caused a flood that not only rendered the streams
in his rear impassable, but carried away almost all the bridges. Under
these disadvantages, the French could not escape an overwhelming de-
feat. In fact, the battle of the Katzbach — so designated from the name
of the principal river near which it took place — was a counterpart of
Hohenlinden/with a reverse of the contending nations. The French
loss during the two days, in addition to a hundred and three pieces of
cannon and two hundred and thirty ammunition-wagons, was no less than
eighteen thousand prisoners, and seven thousand killed and wounded : a
total "of twenty-five thousand men ; while the loss of the allies did not
exceed four thousand. •
Disasters of inferior magnitude, though scarcely less important in
their consequences, attended the French arms north of the Elbe, in the
direction of Berlin. Bernadotte commanded the allies in this quarter;
and his army, ninety thousand strong, occupied Juterbock, Trebbin, and
the villages of Saarmunde and Bilitz. On the 21st of August, Oudinot,
with about eighty thousand men, broke up from his position, abandoned
1813.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 357
the great route from Torgau to Berlin, and made a flank movement
toward the Wittenberg road. This soon brought him in contact with
Bernadotte's outposts, which he drove in, and established himself on the
heights behind Trebbin. On the following day, both parties made prepa-
rations for a general action near Gross Beeren ; and in the morning of the
23rd, the battle began by an attack with the French right under Ber-
trand. The contest was maintained throughout the day, but it was rather
a battle of manoeuvres than of hard fighting ; and when the French re-
treated, at nightfall, they had sustained a loss of but thirteen cannon, a
quantity of baggage, and something less than five thousand men, of whom
fifteen hundred were prisoners : an almost insignificant result, consider-
ing the numbers engaged. A great moral effect was, however, produced
by the battle of Gross Beeren, as it formed one of a succession of defeats
sustained by the French arms ; and, having been won by inexperienced
troops against veteran soldiers, greatly raised the spirits and courage of
the Prussians, who, at the commencement of the action, thought of Jena
and trembled for their capital. On the 25th, Luckau, with a garrison
of a thousand French troops, fell into the hands of the allies; and Gerard,
who had issued from Magdebourg with five thousand men, was driven
back, with a loss of two-thirds of his numbers and twelve pieces of can-
non. Thus, the general result of the strife in this quarter was, a dimi-
nution in the French ranks of nearly eight thousand men, while the allies
lost something less than four thousand.
Napoleon was at Dresden wjien news of the defeat of Vandamme,
Macdonald, and Oudinot reached him with stunning rapidity, and for a
time he was in doubt which of the three to sustain by his personal efforts;
he at length decided in favor of Macdonald, and directed his steps toward
Bautzen and the banks of the Bober ; at the same time, being dissatisfied
with Oudinot, he gave the command of that marshal's army to Ney.
After the change in his combinations had been completed, sixty thousand
men remained under St. Cyr, Victor and Murat — which last named per-
sonage had eventually resolved to unite his fortunes with Napoleon, and
joined the army on the 17th of August — to make head against the allied
army on the left of the Elbe ; seventy thousand, under Ney, were arrayed
against Bernadotte ; and a hundred and twenty thousand, under the Em-
peror in person, .were opposed to Blucher in Silesia; while Marmont,
with a corps of observation eighteen thousand strong, kept up the com-
munications on the right bank of the Elbe.
On the 4th of September, Napoleon's advanced guard encountered the
van of Blucher's army, strongly posted on the high grounds of Stromberg.
The Prussian marshal soon perceived, from the increased activity in the
French ranks, that the Emperor was before him ; and faithful to the
plan of the campaign and to the instructions he had received, he imme-
diately withdrew his troops. The French continued to advance as he
retired ; but they could not overtake him in force, and at noon on the 6th,
Napoleon, exhausted with fatigue, entered a deserted farm-house by the
road-side, threw himself on some straw, and mused long and profoundly
on the probable issue of a contest in which the allies would not give him
an opportunity of striking a blow in person, while the armies of his mar-
shals, when left to themselves, suffered but a series of disasters. At the
close of his revery, he started up, and ordered the Guard and cuirassiers
to return to Dresden, whither he also repaired, and where his presence
was much needed.
358 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLIL
Ney had, in the meantime, taken the command of Oudinot's army, and
on the evening of the 5th of September established himself between the
villages of Zahna and Seyda. When Bernadotte ascertained that his old
comrade, Marshal Ney, was marching against him, he concentrated his
forces, and moved across the country to regain the great road between
Torgau and Berlin. Tauenzein, with the advanced guard, reached Den-
newitz on the morning of the 6th, where he came suddenly in sight of
the French army, and his detachment, with the left wing of the allies that
supported him, were soon involved with superior numbers, and threatened
with a total defeat. Bulow, however, hastened on with the Prussian
centre, and, after four hours of obstinate fighting, succeeded in carrying
the village of Gohlsdorf and forcing back the French centre and right
toward Ohna. At this juncture, Ney advanced with twenty thousand
fresh troops, compelled Bulow in turn to retreat, retook Gohlsdorf, and
drove the Prussians across the high grounds to their original position.
Here Bulow rallied his men, united them to his reserve, turned upon his
pursuers, and, defeating them with great loss, a second time took posses-
sion of Gohlsdorf. Oudinot now came to the support of Ney's retreating
columns and both parties making a firm stand, for a while maintained
the contest without any visible advantage to either side. Presently, the
Prussian brigade of Borstel appeared on the field, and by a spirited charge
on Oudinot's flank, again forced the French to give grdund. Ney,
finding his whole army endangered by this movement, immediately or-
dered a general retreat ; which, however, was commenced with great
steadiness, and with no other loss than that which followed the rapid dis-
charges of the Prussian artillery.
Hitherto, the battle had been sustained by the Prussians alone, whose
entire force did not exceed forty-five thousand men, while Ney's army
was seventy thousand strong. The Swedes and Russians, composing
nearly half the allied force, had not yet been brought into action ; but
Bernadotte, with his powerful reserve, now came to follow up the victory
which the Prussians with such heroic valor had won. From this moment,
Ney's retreat became a flight ; all order was gone, and he did not succeed
in reuniting his shattered columns until he reached Torgau, on the 8th
of September. His loss amounted to six thousand stand of arms, forty-
three pieces of cannon, seventeen caissons, and three standards, together
with thirteen thousand men, of whom one half were prisoners. The loss
of the allies was but six thousand, of whom nearly five thousand were
Prussians ; a decisive proof that they bore the brunt of the battle, and
earned the glory of the victory.
As soon as Schwartzenberg learned that Napoleon had departed from
Dresden to aid Macdonald, he marched to threaten, a second time, the
Saxon capital ; and he arrived in its vicinity, in great force, on the 8th
of September. Meantime, however, as has been already related, Napo-
leon had precipitately quitted Macdonald with the Guards and cuirassiers,
on the 6th ; reached Dresden on the night of the 8th ; and when, on the
morning of the 9th, Wittgenstein and Klenau opened their batteries on
Dresden, they were equally surprised and disturbed at seeing the Empe-
ror issue from the gates with the finest troops of the French army, to
drive them from their position. As they were wholly unprepared to
resist such an attack, they immediately withdrew ; Wittgenstein taking
the road to Nollendorf, and Klenau that to Marienberg. Napoleon,
1813.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 359
satisfied with this advantage, retired to Dahme, where he received intel-
ligence of Ney's defeat at Denncwitz.
Several days of comparative inaction now ensued, although combats
between detached parties were constantly taking place. Napoleon
seemed to be at a loss in what quarter to direct his forces; while the
allies rejoiced in an interval that brought daily accessions to their ranks,
and lessened the time that must necessarily elapse before Benningsen
could arrive, who, with sixty thousand fresh Russian troops, was expected
to join the army in the latter part of September.
At length, on the 21st, Napoleon made a second movement across the
Elbe, to check the progress of Blucher, who was again driving Macdonald
before him, and had already occupied Bautzen, and extended himself
along the line of the Spree. The Emperor reached the advanced posts of
the allies on the evening of the 22nd, and a skirmish took place, but with-
out any result. He slept that night at a miserable hamlet near Ilartau,
with a few of his Guard around him, the greater part of those troops hav-
ing fallen behind from the exhaustion of incessant marches arid counter-
marches, which led to nothing.
The utmost melancholy prevailed at his head-quarters. The campaign
seemed endless. The soldiers, worn out by fatigue and privation, had
lost much of their former spirit ; sickness and the sword had, in an ex-
traordinary degree, thinned their ranks ; and the generals could not shut
their eyes to the fact that the French army, daily inclosed within a more
contracted circle, and fast diminishing in numbers, was no longer able to
resume the offensive at any point with a prospect of success. On the
23rd, Blucher's army was drawn up in order of battle, yet Napoleon
seemed to be a prey to indecision, and did not venture an attack ; but,
after keeping his men under arms nearly the whole day, he galloped, at
ten in the evening, toward Neustadt, where a body of Austrians arid Rus-
sians was engaged in a skirmish with Lauriston. The next day he re-
turned to Dresden ; and seeing the necessity of contracting his circle of
operations, he ordered Macdonald to withdraw to Weissig, within two
leagues of the Saxon capital ; thereby, in effect, abandoning the whole
right bank of the Elbe to the allies.
Soon after these events, Chernicheff, one of the Cossack commanders,
made a descent into the heart of Westphalia, with a host of his fiery cav-
alry. He crossed the Elbe at Dessau, and, pushing across the inter-
vening country, reached Cassel, the capital of the kingdom, on the 30th
of September. The king, Jerome Bonaparte, with the few troops which
the Emperor had allowed him to retain, precipitately retreated without
firing a shot ; and Chernicheff made his entry into the town, and, amid the
vociferous applause of the people, proclaimed the dissolution of the king-
dom. An insurrection against the French authorities immediately fol-
lowed : students came forward by hundreds to be enrolled in battalions
of volunteers ; crowds assembled in the streets demanding arms ; and the
contagion of revolt spread rapidly to all the villages in the neighborhood
Chernicheff, however, being destitute of both infantry and artillery, could
not maintain himself in the position he had gained, and on the approach of
a body of French troops, he evacuated the city as promptly as he entered
ii : but he did not lose a single man, either in his advance or retreat ; and
he bore off the stores of the arsenal, the royal horses and carriages, and
an immense booty in precious metals and jewels. The moral effect of
25
360 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Cnxr. XLII.
this movement far exceeded the spoils of the victory : the brother of Na-
poleon had been driven from his capital, and his dethronement proclaimed,
by a foreign partisan leading a horde of wild horsemen ; and a dangerous
proof was thus given to the world, of the facility with which these oppres-
sive military thrones, destitute of support from the interests and affections
of the people, might be swept from the earth the moment that the military
power which upheld them was overturned. The consequences of this
achievement, were accordingly soon apparent in the north of Germany :
a Saxon battalion withdrew from the camp of Marshal Ney, and joined
itself to that of Bernadotte ; and the remainder of the Saxon army forbore
to follow the example, solely because of their personal regard for their
sovereign, who made an energetic appeal to their honor. In addition to
this, several Westphalian battalions, after the reoccupation of Cassel. took
an early opportunity of passing over from their fugitive monarch to the
ranks of German freedom.
The arrival of Benningsen at Toeplitz, on the 1st of October, raised the
allied army in Bohemia to a hundred and twenty thousand men, and the
several commanders of this great force resolved to assume the offensive.
Orders were at the same time sent to Blucher and Bernadotte, to unite
their armies under the command of the former, and hold themselves in
readiness to check any advance of the enemy toward Berlin, as well as
to cooperate in a general attack on the French forces in the plains of
Saxony.
Napoleon, with whom an advance upon Berlin had been a favorite
project during the whole campaign, resolved, by a rapid march in that
direction, to prevent the union of Blucher and Bernadotte, and at the
same time destroy one or both of their armies, and strike a decisive blow
at the Prussian capital. He, therefore, left Dresden to the care of St.
Cyr, with about thirty thousand men, and himself departed, on the 7th of
October, at the head of the remainder of his troops, which, when joined
with those of Ney and Macdonald, amounted to a hundred and twenty-
five thousand men. To cover his communications, and keep in check the
allied army of Bohemia, he detached Murat with fifty "thousand men,
composed of the corps of Victor, Lauriston and Poniatowski, to Freyberg ;
instructing him to retard the advance of the enemy as long as possible,
and, when he should become unable to keep his ground, to retire toward
Leipsic and the Upper Mulda. The French Emperor was, nevertheless,
too tardy in his movements to prevent the junction of Blucher and Ber-
nadotte, though he reached Dubenon the evening of the day that Blucher
evacuated it, namely, the 10th of October.
. While Napoleon was making this serious demonstration in Prussia, the
allied army of Bohemia issued from its defiles, and compelled Murat to
fall back toward Leipsic, where the French troops in that vicinity were
already assembling ; and, on the 14th of October, the advanced posts of
the allies came in sight of the steeples of that city. These movements, to-
gether with the abandonment of the Confederation of the Rhine by the
King of Bavaria, who, on the 8th of October, went over with his forces to
the Grand Alliance, forced Napoleon to order an immediate retreat upon
Leipsic.
The city of Leipsic, which is not a place of great extent, is surrounded
by an irregular rampart, forming nearly a square: this rampart consists
of an old curtain of masonry, covered by a ditch almost filled up, without
1813.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 361
a counterscarp, beyond which broad boulevards, planted with trees, afford
a spacious and shady walk for the citizens. The suburbs, stretching be-
yond this verdant belt, were at that period much more considerable than at
the present day, and were then, as now, shut in toward the south and east
by walls containing gates strengthened with palisades ; but toward the
north, on the side of the Partha, they were entirely open. To the west,
the city is bounded by the Elster and the Pleisse, which streams, flowing
in a lazy current to the northwest, inclose between them swampy mead-
ows, nearly two miles in breadth and impassable for carriages ; and al-
though the rivers are not wide, they are deep and muddy, and cannot be
forded either by infantry or cavalry. The swampy meadows constitute
a broad marsh, crossed by a single road running to Lutzen and May-
ence, which leads to the barrier of Machranstadt, and enters the city by
the gate of Halle, over a stone bridge at the same place : there were no
other bridges across the Elster but two built of wood, and intended merely
for the accommodation of foot passengers. The country to the east is a
beautiful plain, well adapted to military evolutions. The hills of Wa-
chau stretch along southeast of the town, and were now occupied by Mu-
rat ; while to the northeast, in the direction of Mockern, the windings of
the Partha, the villages and gentle swells adjoining its banks, present a
variety of obstacles to retard the advance of an approaching army.
On the night of the 15th of October, the disposition of the troops around
Leipsic was as follows : the main army, under Napoleon, lay to the
south and east of the city, at various points in communication with each
other, to the number of a hundred and ten thousand men, commanded in
detail by Bertrand, Poniatowski, Augereau, Victor, Lauriston, Oudinot,
Macdonald, Murat, Latour Maubourg, and Sebastiani. To the north-
west of Leipsic, and so far removed from it as to form a separate army,
were forty-eight thousand men, posted between Mockern and Enteritch,
under the command of Ney, who expected soon to be joined by the re-
mainder of the troops on their march from Duben, thirty thousand strong :
making a grand total of a hundred and eighty-eight thousand men, with
seven hundred and twenty pieces of cannon. The troops under Schwart-
zenberg, who were intended to act against the army directly commanded
by Napoleon, consisted of a hundred and forty-three thousand men, which
number would the next day be increased to a hundred and eighty-one
thousand by the arrival of Benningsen's and Colloredo's reserve, having
in all seven hundred and fifty pieces of cannon. Among the leaders of
this army besides Schwartzenberg, the commander-in-chief, were the
Emperor Alexander, the King of Prussia, the Grand Duke Constantine,
Wittgenstein, Milaradowitch, Litchenstein, Thielman, Platoff, and a host
of others whose names are identified with the wars of this eventful period.
On the opposite side of Leipsic, and directly opposed to Ney, Blucher
was posted with fifty-six thousand men, and on the day following he was
to be joined by Bernadotte with forty-seven thousand, which would raise
the allied force in that quarter to a hundred and three thousand combat-
ants, with five hundred and sixty guns : thus making a grand total, on
the part of the allies, of two hundred and eighty-four thousand men, and
more than thirteen hundred pieces of cannon. -
At midnight on the 15th, two rockets were sent up to a great height
from Schwartzenberg's head-quarters, on the south of Leipsic ; and these
were immediately answered, by two of a blue and one of a red light from
362 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLII.
Blucher's camp on the north. These signals told the assembled myriads
that everything was in readiness, and that the hour had come for the
final struggle. All was tranquil in the French lines: their watch-fires
burned with a steady light, and no moving figures around the flames in-
dicated an intention to retreat : a movement which indeed was impossible
without a conflict.
Precisely at nine o'clock on the morning of the 16th, three guns were
discharged from the centre of Schwartzenberg's army, and immediately
the fire began along the whole line. The French guns replied with
great spirit, the earth literally trembled under the sustained 'discharge of
more than a thousand pieces of artillery, the allied columns in imposing
array moved forward to the attack, and for three hours a desperate
struggle took place at every point, attended by an alternation of success,
but accompanied by no preponderating advantage to either party. At
noon, Napoleon, who had taken post with his Guards and cuirassiers on
the heights behind Wachau, imagined that the allies were sufficiently
exhausted, and resolved to put in force his favorite manoeuvre of a grand
attack on the enemy's centre. This movement, sustained by strong di-
visions of the Old and Young Guard, together with the flower of the
French cavalry, was measurably successful ; the attacking columns
gradually but steadily gained ground, and Napoleon, deeming the battle
won, sent word to the King of Saxony in Leipsic that he had secured the
victory, and desired the bells to be rung to announce it. The intelli-
gence, however, was premature : for Schwartzenberg, seeing the danger
of his centre, ordered up a large body of Austrian reserve infantry and
cuirassiers, who, after a bloody encounter, restored the battle and drove
the antagonist columns in disorder to the heights whence they had issued.
The French Emperor, though greatly disconcerted at this reverse, deter-
mined to make one more effort to retrieve the day ; for he knew that
Benningsen and Colloredo would soon join Schwartzenberg's army, and,
by their preponderating numbers, render desperate his own hopes of suc-
cess. He therefore re-formed his broken cuirassiers, united them to his
entire reserve of Imperial Guards, and precipitated them in one tremen-
dous column upon the victorious allies. The effort, nevertheless, was
vain. Schwartzenberg's troops yielded, indeed, to the first impression,
but they rallied with unconquerable heroism, and withstood every attempt
of Napoleon to break their array, until the approach of night brought the
battle to a close.
A conflict of equal obstinacy had, in the meantime, taken place between
Ney and Blucher on the north of Leipsic, where for the day — as Berna-
dotte had not yet come up — the forces of the two armies were more
equally matched. The result of the battle was, however, an entire de-
feat of Ney, who was driven behind the Partha with a loss of six thousand
men and twenty-two pieces of cannon.
While Napoleon was that night partaking of a frugal supper at his
head-quarters, he ordered Meerfeldt, who had been made prisoner during
the battle, to be brought into his presence. This was the officer who had
come a suppliant on the part of the Emperor of Germany to solicit the
armistice of Leoben ; who had conducted, in behalf of the cabinet of
Vienna, the negotiations that resulted in the treaty of Campo Formio ;
and who, on the night following the battle of Austerlitz, bore the proposals
for a conference which led to the peace of Presburg. The mutations of
1813.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 363
fortune had now brought the same general to the tent of Napoleon, when
the latter, in turn, had become the suppliant, and was about to solicit, not
concede, a suspension of hostilities. The Emperor addressed to Meer-
feldt some obliging expressions on the misfortune he had sustained in
being made prisoner, and dismissed him to the Austrian head-quarters
with proposals for an armistice ; agreeing on his own part to evacuate
Germany and retire behind the Rhine, until the conclusion of a general
peace. " Adieu, general," said he, as he dismissed Meerfeldt ; " when,
on my behalf, you speak to the two Emperors of an armistice, the voice
which reaches their ears will, I doubt not, be eloquent in recollections of
the past!''
But the allied sovereigns were too well aware of their present superi-
ority, either to fall into the snare laid by Napoleon in his proposals for an
armistice, or to sacrifice their advantage, by renewing the battle until
their entire reinforcements should reach the field. Under pretence,
therefore, of referring the proposals to the Emperor of Austria, Schwartz-
enberg obtained the delay requisite to concentrate his forces.
At two o'clock in the morning of the 18th, the French Emperor, finding
that no answer to his propositions had been returned, made arrangements
for the battle that could not now be avoided ; and as the losses already
sustained had seriously reduced the numbers of his troops, he was forced
to contract the circuit of his defence and abandon some of the surrounding
heights to the allies. At nine o'clock, Schwartzenberg, now reenforced
by the entire reserve for which he had waited, commenced a general at-
tack, and at first drove everything before him. He carried several of
the villages intervening between his position and Leipsic, and both his
left and centre were unchecked in their career until Napoleon in person
brought forward his Imperial Guard, and compelled them to yield a por-
tion of the ground they had gained. The success of the right wing was
less decided, although there, too, the allies were clearly victorious ; but
in the afternoon, Schwartzenberg, seeing that eventual success was secure,
and preferring to achieve it by less vehement assaults, in order to save
the needless destruction of his brave troops, withdrew his infantry and
cavalry, and brought forward eight hundred pieces of cannon. These
were immediately disposed on a semicircle of heights of two leagues in
extent ; and, playing with a concentric fire on the dense masses of the
French below, caused a terrific slaughter, which the weaker party were
forced to endure without any adequate means of reply. The corps of
Lauriston and Victor, galled beyond endurance by this frightful storm
of balls, repeatedly rushed forward to carry the allied batteries ; but
whenever their columns came within grape-shot range, the guns were
immediately charged with that destructive missile, which with tenfold
effect swept down to a man the he"ad of every formation as it approached.
This awful scene continued for four hours, during which time the French
veterans stood firm beneath the iron tempest, nor were they relieved
until night put an end to the combat.
Ney. in the meantime, had sustained a terrible assault north of the
city, where Blucher, having been joined by Bernadotte, pressed the
French marshal with numbers, almost in the fearful proportion of
two men for one. Not long after the action began, an incident of
ominous import took place : a brigade of Wirtemberg and another of
Saxon cavalry, together with two brigades of Saxon infantry, abandoned
364 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLIL
the French standards, and passed over to the allies, with twenty-two
pieces of cannon ; and, such was the exasperation of the Saxon gunners,
they halted before reaching the allied lines, and discharged their artillery
at point blank range, and with fatal effect, into the ranks of their former
comrades. The number of men lost to the French by this desertion was
not less than eight thousand : yet, despite this reduction of force, Ney
still maintained a heroic defence throughout the day, although his losses
both in men and position, were very severe.
Night came at last to suspend the work of carnage ; but, after such a
conflict, it was even more terrible than the day, for it brought together
the remembrance of the past and the anticipation of the future. The
incessant roll of musketry and the roar of two thousand pieces of cannon,
were succeeded by an awful silence, interrupted only by a casual shot
from the sentries as they paced their rounds, and the hollow murmur
which escaped from the cries of the horses and the groans of the wounded
men. Soon, the heavens in the whole circumference of the horizon were
illuminated by the ruddy glow of innumerable watch-fires.
Napoleon's marshals, silent and sad, were assembled around him in his
tent, when the commanders of artillery reported on the state of the army.
More than two hundred thousand cannon-shot had been discharged during
the battle, and it was impossible to renew the fight, under any prospect
of success, without an accession of forty thousand fresh troops and an
ample supply of ammunition. But neither the one nor the other could
be obtained. During this eventful conference, Napoleon, overcome with
fatigue, fell asleep in his chair ; his hands were negligently folded on his
breast, and the generals, respecting the respite of misfortune, preserved
a profound silence. At the end of a quarter of an hour he awoke, and,
starting up suddenly, exclaimed, " Am I awake, or is it a dream ?" Soon,
however, recollecting what had happened, he sent a message to the King
of Saxony, announcing his intention to retreat ; and leaving it optional
with that monarch to follow the fortunes of the French, or remain where
he was, and conclude a separate peace with the allies.
By daybreak on the 19th, the French army was in full retreat. Victor
and Augereau, with the cavalry, defiled across the suburb of Lindenau,
and issued upon the causeway that traverses the marshes of the Elster :
but this was the sole avenue of escape. One single bridge was to receive
the entire army, with all its encumbrances of wounded, artillery and
carriages ; for the frail wooden conveyances had at once given way under
the multitude by which they were beset. The loss of the French in the
two days exceeded forty thousand men ; yet sixty thousand remained in
Leipsic, and an equal number was now pressing forward on the road to
France.
As soon as the retreat of the French became known in the allied
camp, an assault on Leipsic was commenced ; but the soldiers within the
walls defended it with unexpected obstinacy. Nevertheless, the over-
whelming numbers of the allies, and their wild enthusiasm at the magni.
tude of the victory, rendered all resistance unavailing. The conquerors
poured like a furious torrent into the town, causing the very steeples to
tremble with their shouts ; while, with an impetuosity that defied all ob-
stacles, they swept on to the western barriers.
At this dreadful moment, the bridge was blown into the air, by the cor-
poral whf" had charge of the mine under it ; and who, misconceiving hi.
1813.J HISTORYOFEUROPE. 365
orders, fired it before the appointed time. A shriek of horror, more ap.
palling than the loudest battle-cry, burst from the dense multitude that
crowded to the edge of the chasm when the arch was found to be de-
stroyed : the ranks immediately broke, the boldest men threw themselves
into the river, and but few of these escaped. Macdonald swam his horse
across, and reached the opposite bank in safety ; but Poniatowski's steed,
having undertaken the same exploit, reeled back on his rider, and the
brave Pole perished in the water. During the assault and retreat, Lau-
riston, Regnier, and twenty other generals, with fifteen thousand soldiers,
were made prisoners, and twenty-three thousand sick and wounded also
fell into the hands of the allies. The total loss of the French in the
three days — two of battle and one of retreat — was no less than sixty
thousand men, while that of the allies was fully forty thousand : a prodi-
gious sacrifice, but one which was atoned for by the deliverance of Europe
from French bondage, and of the world from revolutionary aggression.
The French army continued its retreat for several days with great
rapidity ; and although its flanks and rear were incessantly harassed by
the allied light troops and Cossacks, who cut off an immense number of
stragglers, and captured a large number of cannon, no serious obstacle
interrupted its progress. On the 23rd of October, the Emperor reached
Erfurth with his forces in a state of almost total disorganization ; but as
the fortified citadels in this vicinity inspired the men with a feeling of
security, and especially as the magazines of Erfurth supplied their ne-
cessities and relieved the pangs of hunger, which had nearly consumed
them on their march, a degree of order was at once restored ; and, after
a halt of two days, the troops were in a condition to perform a regular
retreat. Murat quitted Napoleon at this place, and bent his course to
his own dominions. The pretext he assigned for his departure was, the
fear of disturbances at Naples ; but in fact, he had entered into a secret
correspondence with Metternich, and, to secure his crown in the general
wreck, did not hesitate to abandon his brother-in-law and benefactor.
Napoleon was not deceived as to Murat's motives, but he nevertheless
embraced his old companion in arms, and parted from him with a presen-
timent, which the event justified, that he should never meet him again
in this world.
On the 25th, Napoleon resumed his march for the Rhine, at the head
of but ninety thousand men ; and he left behind him, to depend on their
own resources, nearly a hundred and eighty thousand, who were blockaded
in the fortresses of the Elbe, the Oder, and the Vistula. These garri-
sons were composed partly of effective troops, originally posted in the
several strongholds for their defence ; but the greater proportion consisted
of the worn-out veterans of Moscow, and the stragglers of the present
campaign, who added nothing to the strength of the regular garrisons,
but served only to consume their previously straitened supplies, and to
introduce disorganization and disease into their ranks.
While Napoleon, by the rapidity of his movements, was escaping the pur-
suit of ail large bodies of the allies, a new enemy unexpectedly arose on
the line of his retreat. It has already been mentioned that the King of
Bavaria seceded from Napoleon's cause, and joined himself to the Grand
Alliance on the 8th of October. This step was followed by another of simi-
lar moment ; the concentration, namely, of the Bavarian forces under
Wrede, and their threatening movements on. Napoleon's rear. Wrede'g
366 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Ciup. XLIL
entire corps amounted to fifty-eight thousand combatants, ana he crossed
the Danube at Donauwerth as early as the 19th, whence he pushed on
to AschaiTenburg on the 27th ; he there detached ten thousand men to
Frankfort, and on the 29th established himself with the remainder of his
troops in the forest of Hanau, stationing his men across the great road,
and blocking up the retreat of the French toward Mayence.
The forces of Napoleon, when he quitted Erfurth, were, in point of
umbers, greatly superior to the Bavarian army ; but the men soon fell
nto confusion again, and at least ten thousand of them had already strag
gled from their ranks and fallen into the hands of the Cossacks. The
Emperor, therefore, might have eighty thousand men under his command,
but not more than fifty thousand could be depended on as effective troops;
so that the two armies were not very unequally matched in actual strength ;
yet it was to be considered, that this remnant of the French host consisted
of the very choicest of Napoleon's veterans, and they, as well as the strag-
glers that accompanied them, if opposed in their last avenue of retreat,
would necessarily fight with the courage and energy of despair. The
result of the battle, which took place on the 30th, may be anticipated.
Wrede maintained his position with great bravery against the earlier at-
tacks of the French troops ; but his men eventually gave way at all points,
and fell back behind the Kinzig. The next day, Napoleon ordered an
assault on the town of Hanau, which place was carried in a, few hours,
and evacuated by the Austrian garrison ; but when a portion of the French
army had passed on toward Frankfort, Wrede rallied his broken divisions,
recaptured Hanau, and drove Napoleon's rear-guard in confusion from its
walls.
The loss of the Bavarians, in the two days, amounted to ten thousand
men, of whom four thousand were prisoners. Napoleon lost seven thou-
sand ; and of these three thousand were wounded, whom he was com-
pelled to abandon in the forest, for want of carriages to bear them away.
The French Emperor left Frankfort on the first of November, and his
eagles bade A FINAL ADIEU TO THE GERMAN PLAINS — a theatre of his
glory, his crimes, and his punishment.
While Napoleon was retiring across the Rhine, the allies closely fol-
lowed his footsteps, and the forces of Central and Eastern Europe, poured
in prodigious strength down the valley of the Maine. On the 4th of No-
vember, the advanced guard under Schwartzenberg entered Frankfort ;
and, on the same day, the allied sovereigns established their head-quarters
at Aschaffenberg. On the 5th, the Emperor Alexander made his entry
into Frankfort at the head of twenty thousand superb cavalry ; and he
rested there until preparations could be made for crossing the Rhine, and
carrying the war into the heart of France. At the same time, the allied
forces on all sides rapidly approached that frontier stream. Schwartzen-
berg forced the passage of the Nidde, and advanced his head-quarters
to Hochst, within two leagues of Mayence ; while Blucher, on his right,
established himself at Giessen. On the 9th, Giulay received orders to
attack Hochheim, a small town fortified with five redoubts, and garrisoned
by twelve thousand men. The formidable columns of the allies, however,
easily carried the place. This combat was the last of the campaign; 30 far
as the grand armies on either side were concerned ; and the respective
commanders put their forces into winter-quarters. Those of Napoleon,
entirely on the left bank of the Rhine, extended from Cologne on the north
1813.] HISTORYOF EUROPE. 367
to Strasburg on the south ; the greater part being stationed at. Mayence,
Coblentz, and opposite to the centre of the allies around Frankfort. The
grand allied army extended along the right bank of the Rhine from Kehl
to Coblentz.
Bernadotte, whose line of advance was more to the north, in the direc-
tion of Hanover, detached Woronzow with his advanced guard to Cassel,
on the 28th of October. Jerome had previously abandoned his capital ;
the greater part of his army joined the allies, and the few who adhered
to his cause followed him to Dusseldorf, and there crossed the Rhine.
Winzingerode, now coming up with a corps of Russians, organized the
whole kingdom of Westphalia in the interest of the allies ; he also de-
stroyed the revolutionary dynasty in the Grand-duchy of Berg, and united
the forces of that province to the standards of Germany. He next oc-
cupied the Grand-duchy of Oldenberg and East Friedland, and Bulow
marched to Munster on his way to Holland, where the people waited only
for the approach of the allies, to throw off the French yoke and declare
their independence. Bernadotte, on the 6th of November, formed a junc-
tion with Benningsen, fixed his head-quarters at Hanover, and reestab-
lished there the authority of the King of England.
As soon as the battle of Leipsic was decided, Klenau received orders
to unite his corps with that of Tolstoy ; and their joint forces, amounting
to fifty thousand men, commenced the blockade of Dresden, on the 27th
of October. St. Cyr, who had been left by Napoleon to defend this city,
could scarcely muster more than thirty thousand men ; and, as his stock
of provisions was barely sufficient for ten days' supply, he resolved on
the desperate expedient of a sortie, in order to cut his way to Torgau or
Wittenberg. He made this bold attempt on the morning of November
6th, at the head of fifteen thousand of his best troops, but he was speedily
driven back into the town by a detachment of three thousand allies ; and,
seeing then that no hope of relief remained, he entered into a capitula-
tion, in virtue of which he surrendered Dresden, and his troops laid down
their arms on condition of being sent to France, engaging at the same time
not to serve again until regularly exchanged. On the 12th, the French sol-
diers began to defile out of the town in six columns, and proceeded on the
road to France : the entire force consisted of thirty-two generals, seventeen
hundred and ninety-five officers, and thirty-three thousand privates. But
Schwartzenberg and the allied sovereigns disapproved the terms of the
capitulation ; they notified St. Cyr that they should not ratify it, and
gave him the option of being reinstated in Dresden, or conducted with
all his followers as prisoners of war into Bohemia. He of course ac-
cepted the latter proposition, as he was wholly unable to maintain himself
in Dresden ; but he protested loudly and with good reason against this
violation of the compact, which however unwise and absurd on the part
of Klenau — for the garrison was in so helpless a condition that St. Cyr
could have hoped for nothing better than an unconditional surrender —
was, nevertheless, regularly made and completed by a general having
full power in the premises: and the fact that Klenau was so greatly out-
witted by the French marshal, furnished the allied sovereigns with no
apology for annulling his authorized acts.
The fall of Dresden was soon followed by the surrender of Stettin,
Torgau and Dantzic ; and these combined conquests placed in the hands
of the allies upward of u thousand pieces of cannon, and nearly seventy
368 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLH
thousand prisoners ; which latter amount was augmented to eighty thou-
sand by the subsequent capitulation of several minor fortresses. At the
close of the campaign, there remained to Napoleon of all his possessions
beyond the Rhine, only Hamburg, Magdebourg, and Wittenberg on the
Elbe; Custrin and Glogau on the Oder; and the citadels of Erfurth and
Wurtzburg.
The fermentation produced in Europe by the deliverance of Germany,
soon spread to the Dutch Provinces. The yoke of Napoleon — univer-
sally grievous from the enormous pecuniary exactions and the wasting
military conscriptions that accompanied it — had been peculiarly oppres-
sive in Holland, where the habits of the people were so wholly commer-
cial. The Hollanders had for nearly twenty years tasted the dregs
of humiliation in the cup of the vanquished, being compelled themselves
to uphold the system which exterminated their resources, and to purchase
the ruin of their country with the blood of their children. A state of
feeling had therefore long existed among them that must inevitably have
led to a revolt, but for the hopelessness of the attempt : when, however,
the battle of Leipsic had given a death-blow to the tyrant in his external
relations, nothing could resist the universal effort for freedom in this
devoted land. At this period, Napoleon's forces in Holland did not ex-
ceed six thousand French soldiers and two regiments of Germans, which
latter troops were not greatly to be relied on. When the allies under
Bulow, together with a detachment of Russians led by Winzingerode,
approached Amsterdam, the garrison of that town withdrew to Utrecht,
where all the French forces were soon after concentrated. This with-
drawal was the signal fora general revolt. The inhabitants of Amster-
dam rose in insurrection, deposed the imperial authorities, hoisted the
Orange flag, and organized a provisional government with a view to the
reestablishment of the old order of things. Similar changes took place
at Rotterdam, Dortrecht, Delft, Leyden, Haarlem, and the other princi-
pal towns ; the Orange cockade was everywhere mounted, amid cries of
"Orange Boven!" and, after submitting for so many years to foreign
domination, a whole people regained their independence without shedding
a drop of blood in its achievement. The French troops, finding them-
selves threatened on all sides, withdrew entirely from the territories of
Holland.
Simultaneously with these events, an almost total overthrow of the
French domination in Italy, took place. Eugene, after gaining some par-
tial success in that country, was eventually forced back to the line of
the Adige ; and before the middle of December, Trieste and the greater
part of Dalmatia surrendered to the Austrian troops.
CHAPTER XLII1.
THE LIBERATION OF SPAIN.
THE winter that followed the campaign of the Salamanca, though not
distinguished by any warlike achievements, was a season of extraordinary
effort and activity on the part of Wellington. The condition and disci-
pline of the troops had been greatly improved ; the Duoro was rendered
navigable above its confluence with the Agueda; a pontoon train was
formed ; carts adapted to the mountain warfare were constructed ; and a
great number of mules were provided to supply the place of those de-
stroyed in the retreat from Burgos. Large reinforcements, especially in
cavalry, came out from England during the winter ; and, when spring
arrived, the army was prepared to take the field in greater strength, than
at any previous period since the commencement of the Peninsular War.
It now became a matter of the utmost consequence, that some decisive
measures should be undertaken for the more effectual organization of the
Spanish army ; and at length, symptoms of a favorable change, in that
particular, appeared. The fame of Wellington and the services he had
rendered to the cause of Peninsular independence, finally conquered the
sullen obstinacy of Castilian pride, as well as the secret hostility of dem-
ocratic jealousy ; and the British general was, by a decree of the Cortes,
invested with the supreme command of the Spanish forces. The troops
of that monarchy were at the time in so inefficient a state, that Mr.
Henry Wellesley, the British ambassador at Cadiz, advised his brother
not to accept the office, as in his judgment, such acceptance would excite
jealousy and create responsibleness, without increasing strength or con-
ferring power. But the patriotic spirit of Wellington, and his clear
perception of the truth that the French could never be driven across the
Pyrenees, unless by combining the whole power of the Peninsula under
one leader, overcame his repugnance at undertaking so onerous and irk-
some a charge ; and he entered upon the duties of his command, with a
vigor that at least convinced the Spanish authorities of his energy and
zeal in their behalf. He remonstrated in emphatic terms against their
mode of discipline ; and as it was evident that a strong hand would be
requisite to remedy the long-established evils of their system, he insisted
that officers should be appointed solely on his individual recommendation,
that he alone should possess the absolute power of dismissal, and that the
resources of the state, so far* as they were applicable to the pay and sup-
port of the troops, should be applied in conformity to his directions. As
the Cortes hesitated to grant these demands, Wellington repaired in per-
son to Cadiz ; and, after remaining there through the month of January,
1818, succeeded in gaining for his plans the entire acquiescence of that
body. He also, to a certain extent, remodelled and organized the Span-
ish troops.
One result of consequence attended Wellington's visit to Cadiz — it
brought under his immediate notice the miserable state of the government
at that place, ruled as it was by a violent faction, and the prey, alter-
nately, of aristocratic intrigue and democratic fury. He reported the
370 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLTII.
actual position of affairs to the British cabinet, and its members had the
wisdom to follow his advice, namely : on no account to interfere with
the internal disputes of the Cortes and the regency ; but, leaving the
authorities and people at Cadiz to arrange their domestic quarrels and
manage their institutions in their own way, direct every effort to the
prosecution of the war and the expulsion of the enemy from the. Penin-
sula. On this latter principle, Wellington strongly urged the Cortes to
suspend their meditated decree for suppressing the Inquisition; arguing,
that however wise and just its eventual abolition might be, it was to the
last degree inexpedient to propose it at that particular time, when half the
Spanish territory was in the hands of the enemy; as any measure affect-
ing that branch of the Church would certainly alienate the clergy, who
had hitherto been the chief, and latterly the sole, supporters of the war.
This advice, however, was too rational to satisfy men inflamed with polit-
ical passion, and the people received it in sulien silence. As soon as
Wellington departed, the dissensions between the two parties in Cadiz
broke out with more rancor than ever ; and these infatuated men, instead
of giving their attention to the enemy at their gates, occupied themselves
with projects for civil reform. The Inquisition was abolished by a formal
decree, on the 7th of March.; and, as the clergy of Cadiz resisted the
order, and the regency supported them in such resistance, the Cortes in-
stantly removed the members of the regency, and appointed the Arch-
bishop of Toledo, Pedro Agar and Gabriel Cesiar, in their places. The
refractory clergy throughout Spain were then arrested, and thrown into
prison ; and the revolutionary press, true to its principles, poured forth a
torrent of abuse against the British government.
While these disgraceful dissensions were daily weakening the effi-
ciency of the civil authorities, Wellington exerted himself to the utmost
in preparations for opening the campaign ; which, indeed, he was now
able to do on a footing of comparative equality with the enemy. The
Anglo-Portuguese army, mustering seventy-five thousand combatants, of
whom forty-four thousand were British troops, lay along the Portuguese
frontier near the sources of the Coa. The Anglo-Sicilian army, under
Sir John Murray, was in the neighborhood of Alicante, and mustered
sixteen thousand men, of whom eleven thousand were English, and the
remainder foreign troops' from the Mediterranean, in British pay. Co-
pon's Spaniards, seven thousand strong, occupied the mountain country
and upper ends of the valleys in Catalonia. Elio's corps of twenty
thousand men were in Murcia, in the rear of Sir John Murray : but this
force was yet undisciplined, and could not be trusted in presence of an
enemy. The arrny of the Duke del Parque, consisting of twelve thou-
sand «oldiers, was posted in the defiles of the Sierra Morena. The firsl
army of reserve, under the Conde d'Abisal, lay in Andalusia, and num-
bered, nominally, fifteen thousand men ; the greater part were, however.
raw recruits unfit for active service. The only Spanish force on which
reliance could be placed, was the army of Castanos in Estremadura and
on the frontiers of Leon and Galicia: it included all the troops able to
take the field in the west and northwest of Spain, and mustered forty
thousand combatants. Thus, the total force under Wellington's direc-
tion, was one hundred and eignty-five th< usand men. The French troops
in the Peninsula were more numerous, and, as a whole, in a far more ef-
ficient condition : their entire number was not less than two hundred and
1813.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 371
thirty-one thousand. Of these, one hundred and five thousand occupied
a central field, and were ready for action ; sixty-eight thousand, under
Suchet, held Aragon, Valencia and Catalonia ; ten thousand were at
Madrid ; eight thousand in Old Castile and Leon ; and forty thousand
were employed in maintaining the communications in the northern prov-
inces, and waging a partisan warfare with the insurgent Spaniards in
Biscay and Navarre.
The campaign commenced on the llth of April, by an attack of Suchet
on the united forces of Sir John Murray and Elio, thirty-six thousand
strong, who had concentrated themselves at Castella. Suchet began the
action by a spirited charge against the advanced guard of the allies, and
at first made such progress, that Murray, in great alarm, ordered a re-
treat ; fortunately for the honor of the British arms, this order did not
reach the columns engaged until they had rallied, regained their ground,
and were pressing the French to a rapid flight. But here, again, Mur-
ray displayed his military qualities, by commanding the pursuit to be
discontinued, just as the French troops were falling into confusion under
a charge of the British dragoons. Suchet, therefore, escaped with all his
guns and baggage, leaving however, nearly two thousand men, slain and
wounded, on the field.
On the 12th of May, the army of reserve in Andalusia broke up from
Seville, with directions to reach the bridge of Almarez and thence threaten
Madrid on the 24th ; the Duke del Parque, a few days afterward entered
La Mancha ; on the 22nd, Wellington began his March into Spain ; estab-
lished his head-quarters at Ciudad Rodrigo on the 23rd ; and preparations
i^ere so made that, when the advancing columns reached the frontiers of
Biscay or Galicia, they should abandon all communication with Lisbon,
ind draw their supplies from the nearer harbors of those provinces.
Seventy thousand British and Portuguese, and twenty thousand Spaniards,
were ere long so disposed, that they could fall on the front and flank of
the French lines ; and Wellington anticipated success with such con-
fidence that, in crossing the frontier stream, he rose in his stirrups and
waved his hand, exclaiming, " Farewell, Portugal !"
The best effect attended the movements of the Duke del Parque's army,
and those of the reserve from Andalusia ; for they spread alarm in New
Castile, before the route of Wellington's main body became known ; and,
by inducing the belief that a combined attack on the capital was in-
tended, prevented that concentration of force on the Upper Ebro, by which
alone the march of the British general could have been arrested. Accord-
ingly, when the centre and right of the allied army were advancing from
Ciudad Rodrigo to the Duoro, and Graham, with the left wing was toiling
through the Tras-os-Montes, not more than thirty-five thousand French
troops had assembled at Valladolid. This force was therefore compelled
to retreat, and, by the 3rd of June, the entire allied army was in communi-
cation on the northern bank of the Duoro, between Toro and the river Esla.
On the 4th, Wellington took possession of Valladolid, and on the 7th and 8th,
he reached the Carrion, which he crossed at various points. The French
troops hastened to gain the Ebro, abandoned the castle of Burgos on the
14th, after having blown up its ramparts in such haste, that the falling
ruins crushed three hundred of their own men, and thence continued their
route toward Vittoria. King Joseph, who led the retreat in person,
pressed on with all possible expedition, followed by his court, the civil
34
372 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Cuu>. XLIII.
authorities, and many citizens of Madrid, together with the troops that had
occupied the vicinity of the capital. The flight was encumbered with
an endless file of chariots, carriages and wagons, which conveyed a help-
less multitude and their rich stores of spoil toward the fiontier; and
when Joseph reached Vittoria, on the 1 9th, he made a stand, rather with
a vague hope of securing the safe transit of his ill-gotten booty into
France, than with any well-founded expectation of being able to resist
the shock of Wellington's army.
The basin of Vittoria, where the French troops, augmented by reen-
forcements to seventy thousand men, were now drawn up in order of
battle, is about eight miles in length by six in breadth, situated in an
elevated plateau among the mountains. It is bounded on the north and
east by the commencement of the Pyreneean range, and on the west by a
chain of rugged mountains which separates the province of Alara from
Biscay. This basin is intersected by two rows of hills, that cross it
nearly from east to west, and furnish strong military positions ; several
roads lead to and from Vittoria ; but although they are practicable for
guns, the highway to Bayonne, through Gamarra Mayor, was alone ade-
quate to receive the immense train of carriages attached to the French
retreat. Two large convoys had already departed by this route, and
were well on their way to France ; but many more, including the royal
treasure and the guns and ammunition of the army, remained behind ;
and it was therefore of vital consequence to the French to keep open the
road to Bayonne, and above all, not to suffer Gamarra Mayor to fall into
the hands of the enemy.
On the afternoon of the 20th, Wellington carefully surveyed the
French position, which was now maintained by seventy thousand men
and a hundred and fifty pieces of cannon ; while the allied force con-
sisted of sixty thousand British and Portuguese, and eighteen thousand
Spanish troops, with only ninety guns. His dispositions were soon made,
and by daybreak on the 21st his whole army was in motion. The centre
and right speedily surmounted the high ground which screened their
bivouac from the sight of the French, and their masses stood in imposing
strength on the summit of the ridges that inclose Vittoria on the south.
At ten o'clock, Hill, leading the right wing, reached the pass of Puebla,
and began extending his men upon the plain in front, while Murillo's
Spaniards, with surprising vigor, swarmed up the rocky ascent on the
right of his advance. Here, however, the French made a stout resist-
ance. Murillo received a wound, but still kept the field ; and, as the
enemy's line had been strengthened by reinforcements, Hill was com-
pelled to send to the Spanish general's support the seventy-first regiment
and a battalion of light infantry, under Colonel Cadogan. That brave
officer had scarcely reached the summit when he was struck down ; but,
though mortally wounded, he still cheered on his Highlanders, and
watched them with his dying eyes as they moved irresistibly along the
ridge. The French were gradually borne backward ; and Hill, en-
couraged by the progress of the scarlet uniforms on the heights, emerged
from the defile of Puebla, carried by storm the village of Subijana, and
brought his line into communication with Murillo.
Meantime, Wellington with the centre, had surmounted the heights in
his front, and descended into the plain of Vittoria. He met with no
serious opposition until his men reached the bridges in the valley below,
1813.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 373
where the French were posted in great strength, and where, for several
hours, they maintained an obstinate defence. While this contest was in
progress, a decisive blow had been struck by Graham on the left. That
noble officer, who, at the age of sixty-eight possessed the vigor of five-
and-twenty, marched before daylight from his bivouac in the mountains,
and by eleven o'clock, reached the heights above Gamarra Mayor and
Ariega, which were strongly occupied by the French under Reille. The
French, fully aware of the necessity of holding their position, for. a time
resisted the utmost efforts of Graham to dislodge them, but they at length
gave way ; the British troops made themselves masters of their line of
retreat, and the whole French army dispersed in utter confusion over the
plains and mountains on every side.
Never before, in modern times, had such an accumulation of military
stores, combined with so great an amount of private wealth, fallen into
the hands of a victorious army. Jourdan's marshal's baton, Joseph's
private carriage, a hundred and fifty-one brass guns, four hundred and
fifteen caissons, thirteen hundred thousand ball-cartridges, fourteen thou-
sand rounds of artillery-ammunition, and forty thousand pounds of gun-
powder, together with an immediate loss to the enemy of seven thousand
men, constituted the military trophies of the battle of Vittoria — in addition
to the fact, that the organization and efficiency of the French army en-
gaged in the action were annihilated, and its entire force swept, as by a
whirlwind, from the Spanish dominions. The private wealth captured
by the allied army is beyond estimation. It was not the produce of a
sacked town, or the riches of a pillaged province, but the plunder of a
whole kingdom, accumulated during five years of unrestrained rapine.
The military chest alone contained five and a half millions of dollars.
Nothing now remained to complete the expulsion of the French from
the northwestern provinces of Spain, but to drive them from the fortified
strongholds of Santona, Pampeluna, and St. Sebastian. Hill had already
invested Pampeluna, and Graham laid siege to St. Sebastian on the 29th
of June. The garrison of this latter fortress, however, offered an unex-
pected resistance ; and, after expending nearly a month around its walls,
Graham was forced to convert the siege into a blockade, and unite the
greater part of his troops with the main body under Wellington, who atf
this time was preparing to resist a new invasion led on by Soult.
This marshal, whom Napoleon had ordered to Spain when the news
of the battle of Vittoria reached Dresden, arrived at Bayonne on the 3 3th
of July, and immediately commenced repairing the fortifications of that
place. He also devoted his attention to recruiting and reorganizing the
army; and this was carried on with such vigor and success, that he soon.
had at his disposal a hundred and fourteen thousand men, of whom
seventy-six thousand were ready for operations in the field ; the remainder
formed the garrisons of Bayonne, Pampeluna, Santona, and St. Sebastian.
The forces in Catalonia under Su'chet, at the ^ame period, amounted to
sixty-six thousand men. As soon as Soult had completed his arrange-
ments, he marched in several columns toward the Spanish territories.
Each of the contending armies occupied, or moved upon, a line about
eleven leagues in length, extending from the sea on one side, to the
mountains westward of the pass of Roncesvalles on the other. But there
was this difference between the two positions, that, although the British
were on the higher ground, and occupied passes difficult of access, yet
374 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLIII.
their columns, being separated by impassable ridges, could receive sup-
port from each other only by circuitous and slow marches in the rear ;
while the French, grouped in the plain, could readily throw a preponde-
rating force against a weak part of the allied line, and overpower it before
the arrival of reinforcements.
Accordingly, on the 25th of July, Soult, at the head of thirty-five thou-
sand men, ascended the French side of the pass of Roncesvalles ; while
D'Erlon, with twenty thousand, threatened the allied centre by the Puerta
de Maya ; and Villatte, with eighteen thousand, remained in observation
on the Bidassoa. Soult's object in these movements was, to accumulate
forces on Wellington's right more rapidly than the British general could
assemble troops to oppose him ; to relieve Pampeluna, for which purpose
he had under convoy a large supply of provisions ; and then, turning to his
own right, to descend upon St. Sebastian and the forces covering its
blockade. So effectually had Soult disguised his intentions from the
allies, that they were unprepared both for his and D'Erlon's attack ; and,
after a desperate resistance, they were forced to retreat at Roncesvalles
and Puerta de Maya, yielding the two passes to the French troops. D'Er-
Ion, satisfied with his success, remained inactive ; but Soult pressed for-
ward on the 26th, toward Pampeluna. On the 27th, he approached
Sauroren, about four miles in front of Pampeluna, where Picton and
Plill had formed a junction, and made a stand to oppose him ; but he de-
layed his attack until the next day, and thus gave Wellington time to
come up with large reinforcements. The numbers of the contending
armies were nearly equal, the French amounting to thirty-two thousand,
and the allies to twenty-eight thousand, of whom, however, ten thousand
were Spaniards. The allies were posted in two lines on two successive
ranges of heights, and had the advantage of a strong position.
At mid-day on the 28th, the French tirailleurs began with great gal-
lantry to ascend the slopes toward the centre of the first line of the allies,
while Clausel's division moved impetuously toward its left. ClausePs
attack was quickly and totally repulsed ; but the assault along the centre
and right was more successful, and for a time the French soldiers estab-
lished themselves on the ridge. Wellington, however, brought up his
reserves in person, and after a desperate and bloody contest, Soult drew
off his army to a range of hills opposite the allies' position. During the
night, he made preparations for a retreat in the direction of St. Sebastian ;
but before he could commence that movement, Wellington assumed the
offensive, and on the 29th, by a combined attack on different points, en-
tirely defeated him and drove him from his ground. The French loss in
this day's action, was two thousand killed and wounded, and three thou-
sand prisoners, besides a large number of stragglers who abandoned their
ranks ; the total loss of the allies was two thousand killed and wounded.
After this second disaster, Soult retired with all possible expedition up
the valleys of the Lauz and the Guy ; but he was now in a hazardous
predicament. • His troops were exhausted, his numbers greatly reduced,
and it seemed impossible to protect his artillery and baggage in a back-
ward march over the Pyrenees. Graham, with twenty thousand men
threatened him on the side of St. Sebastian ; the victorious allies under
Wellington, were in his rear; and it became evident, that some extraor-
dinary effort could alone save him from destruction. This result was
accomplished by a retreat of almost unexampled rapidity, through the
181'?.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 375
passes leading to the Lower Bidassoa ; and although his troops suffered
an immense loss in their flight through narrow defiles, crowded with their
own fugitives and enfiladed by the destructive fire of their pursuers, he
reached the French territories on the first of August, with a considerable
numerical force in the last degree of disorder.
As soon as Wellington had gained this victory, he prepared to recom-
mence the siege of St. Sebastian. The governor of the place had, in
the meantime, greatly strengthened his defences and repaired the injuries
sustained during the previous siege ; but on the other hand, the besieging
force was also much increased, both in men and in battering cannon.
The heavy guns were brought into position by the 25th of August, and,
on the 26th, their work of destruction commenced. On the 30th, two
breaches were declared practicable. The assault began at twelve o'clock
on the 31st, and the terrible slaughter endured for a time by the besiegers,
disheartened the bravest of the veteran host. Nevertheless, they pressed
on, and, by dint of numbers and perseverance, at length carried the town.
A scene of violence now ensued, which the British historian may well
blush to record. The allies, exasperated at the long continuance of the
assault, and the fearful slaughter of their comrades at the breaches, were
wrought to a pitch of frenzy that placed them beyond the control of their
officers : discipline, order, the common dictates of humanity, were disre-
garded : conflagration, rape, pillage — all the atrocities of which an intoxi-
cated and infuriated soldiery are capable, consummated the storming of
St. Sebastian ; and the next morning, a large portion of that once happy
and prosperous town was a mass of smouldering ashes.
While the siege of St. Sebastian was in progress, Soult made great
efforts to relieve its garrison. He crossed the Bidassoa on the 30th of
August, with thirty-eight thousand men, of whom eighteen thousand were
under his own command, and twenty thousand under ClausePs ; while
Foy, with seven thousand, followed as a reserve. Wellington detached
a considerable force to resist this advance, but he resolved to put the
Spanish troops in a position to receive the first shock of the encounter ;
and, for this purpose, he posted eighteen thousand of them on the heights
of San Marcial, while twelve thousand British and Portuguese were mus-
tered in the rear to support them, in case the Spaniards should require
assistance. Soult made his attack on the 31st, when the Castilian troops,
evincing at last some of their ancient prowess, bravely resisted his charge,
and drove him, with great loss, over the Bidassoa. In this untoward
affair, the French killed and wounded amounted to three thousand six
hundred men, including five generals ; and the loss of the allies was
twenty-six hundred.
The British government now became desirous that the allied army
should cross the frontier, and commence offensive operations in France ;
but Wellington, for several reasons, opposed this movement. Pampeluna,
though closely blockaded and severely distressed for provisions, had no
yet fallen ; and while that fortress remained in his rear, the troops block
ading it could not join themselves to his army, nor could he feel securely
established in the French territories. Besides, the Spanish troops, though
of late much more efficient than formerly in defensive warfare, were as*
Ukely to prove dangerous as serviceable to an invading force. Despite
the numerous and energetic representations of Wellington, the govern-
ment of Cadiz had given its whole attention to political intrigue, and neg-
26
376 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XI III.
lected the army : its troops were neither clothed nor paid by its exertions,
but left to depend on the British rations ; and there was good reason to fear
that, if allowed to enter France, the Spanish soldiers would excite a na-
tional resistance, by the measures of retaliation they might be expected
to 'adopt toward the inhabitants of that country, in consideration of all
they had themselves endured at the hands of the French soldiers. Nor
were these the only difficulties to be encountered. The Cortes, excited
to madness by the incessant efforts of the republican press at Cadiz, now
dreaded nothing so much as the success of the allied arms ; and did all
in their power to thwart the designs of Wellington, whom they openly
accused of aspiring to the crown of Spain. Mutual recriminations soon
rose to such a height, that the British general more than once offered to
resign the supreme command ; and, despairing of success with such
lukewarm or treacherous allies, he advised the cabinet at London, to
demand St. Sebastian as a hostage, and, if this were refused, to withdraw
their forces from the Peninsula.
But weighty considerations induced the British goverment to insist on
an invasion of France, notwithstanding all the arguments that could with
propriety be urged against the measure. They believed with reason, that,
in the present crisis of Napoleon's affairs, the moral effect of such a de-
monstration, even if but partially successful, would greatly promote the
purposes of the Grand Alliance ; and, in this point of view, the object to be
attained was worth all the risk it implied. Wellington desired in the first
instance to reduce Pampeluna, and afterward turn his arms against Su-
chet, who still held Catalonia ; but when he found that the government
had decided otherwise, he, like a good soldier, set himself to execute, to
the best of his ability, an offensive campaign, which, on military princi-
ples, hg deemed premature.
Soult's position on the northern side of the Bidassoa consisted of the base
of a triangle, of which Bayonne was the apex, and the great roads run-
ning thence to Irun, on the sea-coast, and St. Jean Pied-de-Port, in the
interior country, were the sides. The area of this triangle was filled
with rugged mountains, and intersected by ridges and defiles easily capa-
ble of defence. The French army was posted in this wild and rocky
district, and their position, overlooking the valley of the Bidassoa, was
strengthened at various points by field-works, while a complete redoubt
crowned the summit of the Rhune Mountain, that rose twenty-eight hun-
dred feet from the level of the sea, and flanked the eastern extremity of
their line. In the midst of these strong defences, Soult felt secure from
any attempt of the allies to dislodge him ; yet Wellington did not hesitate
to hazard an attack, which he planned in two columns, directing one of
them, twenty-four thousand strong, against the Lower Bidassoa, and the
other, twenty thousand strong, against the Rhune Mountain and its adja-
cent ridges.
A tempestuous night preceded the attack ; and during the darkness and
tumult, Wellington advanced a number of his guns so as to bear on the
enemy's lines, and brought the troops destined to lead the charge close to
the river's banks, at the several points of crossing ; but the tents of the
army were left standing on the heights in the rear, and thus, in the morn,
ing, Soult could not discover that the allies had made any important move
ment. At seven o'clock, on the 7th of October, Lord Aylmer's brigade,
which led the attack, suddenly emerged from behind the ridge that
1813.1 HISTORY OF EUROPE. 377
screened them, and advanced rapidly into the ford : at the same moment,
the allied batteries opened their fire, and, so completely were the French
surprised, Soult was passing his troops in review, in the centre of his po-
sition, when he heard the first guns fired. He immediately set out on a
gallop toward the threatened point ; but before he could arrive, the allies
had carried it, and firmly established themselves on the French territory.
Similar success attended the allied right ; every post in the neighborhood
of the Rhune was forced ; Clausel, who commanded the redoubt on its
summit, retreated during the night, lest his escape should be entirely cut
off, and on the morning of the 8th, the whole ridge, from that mountain to
the sea-coast, was in possession of the allies.
Wellington's *~~* "ire was, now, to prevent plundering on the part of
his troops, and to esraolish that admirable system of paying regularly for
the supplies of the army, which had so largely contributed to his success;
in the Peninsula. He accordingly issued a proclamation to the army, in
which, after recounting the miseries brought on Spain and Portugal by
the exactions of the French soldiers, he declared it would be unworthy of a
great nation to retaliate these evils on the innocent inhabitants of France ;
that he would rigorously punish plundering and every kind of excess ;
and that in all cases, provisions for the men would be regularly paid for,
as had been done in the kingdoms of the Peninsula. At first, neither the
Spanish nor French soldiers credited the declarations of this manifesto—-
so utterly at variance was it from the system by which the former had
been accustomed to suffer, and the latter to profit, during the Peninsular
campaigns. But Wellington was both serious and resolute ; and he soon
gave convincing proof of this by hanging several British and Spanish soU
diers, who were detected in disobeying his orders. While the allies were
thus occupied in France, the siege of Pampeluna was vigorously pressed,
and, on the 31st of October, the garrison of that fortress surrended at dis-
cretion.
Soult had, in the meantime, made good use of the month's respite that
was allowed him, to strengthen his present position on the Nivelle. His
defences consisted of three lines, one behind another, which equalled those
of Torres Vedras in strength and solidity. They ran along a chain of
hills forming, in part, the northern boundary of the valley of the Nivelle,
and stretched from the sea and St. Jean de Luz, on the right, to Mount
Daren on the left, and thence to St. Jean Pied-de-Port ; the line was pro-
tected by a ridge of rocks so rugged that neither army could cross it. A
second line, in the rear of the first, extended from St. Jean de Luz on the
right, to Cambo on the left, and embraced the camps of Espelette, Suraide,
and Sarre ; the principal points where the allied forces were assembled.
A third line was extended behind Santa Pe, on the road to Ustaritz, but
its redoubts were incomplete. To protect these works, Soult had eighty
thousand troops under his command, of whom seventy thousand were
present in the field.
On the 9th of November, Wellington prepared for a general attack ;
and as, after a careful survey, he judged that the French position was
weakest in the centre, he determined to direct his principal effort to that
point. The action began at daylight on the 10th, by an assault on the
French outwork at the Lesser Rhune, which was so far in advance of
the main line, that it required to be carried before the main attack could
commence. This fort, perched on a craggy summit and surrounded by
378 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLIIL
precipices two hundred feet high, was accessible only on the east by a
long, narrow belt of rocks, stretching to the valley of the Nivelle : yet,
despite the great strength of the post, the indomitable bravery of the 43rd
and 52nd regiments, aided by the Portuguese Cac.adores, carried it at the
point of the bayonet ; the walls were scaled, the garrison captured, and
the British colors planted on the highest summit of the castle, at an early
hour in the morning.
The moment that this fort was won, the whole allied lines pressed for-
ward with loud cheers and wild enthusiasm. Point after point yielded to
their charge ; and, although occasionally arrested by the formidable re-
doubts that lay in their way, the flood of war did not the less impetuously
roll on, until these isolated landmarks were overwhelmed and submerged
by the foaming tide. Before night, Soult's army was in full retreat, and
the whole line of the Nivelle, with its superb positions and six miles of
intrenchments, fell into the hands of the allies. On the llth, Soult reached
his fortified camp on the Nive, before Bayonne, which town, situated at
the confluence of the Nive and the Adour, commands the passage of botL
rivers, and he resolved there to make a final stand against the advance of
the allies. The camp, being under the protection of the guns of the for-
tress immediately in its rear, could not well be attacked in front, for which
reason Soult stationed there but six divisions, under D'Erlon. The right
wing, consisting of Reille's divisions and Vilatte's reserve, lay to the west
of the fortress on the Lower Adour, where a flotilla of gun-boats rode at
anchor, while the approach to it was covered by a swamp and an artificial
inundation. The left, under Clausel, posted on the west of Bayonne, was
protected partly by an inundation and partly by a large fortified house,
which had been converted into an advanced work. The country in front,
was inclosed and intersected by woods and hedgerows, and a portion of
D'Erlon's men occupied it beyond the Nive, in front of Ustaritz, and as
far as Cambo. The great advantage of Soult's position lay in this, that
the troops, in case of disaster, might find refuge under the cannon of
Bayonne ; and, as he had an interior line of communication through that
fortress, he could, at pleasure, throw the weight of his forces from one
flank to another upon the enemy.
But, although in a military point of view, Soult was thus advantageously
posted, he had to contend with serious difficulties in the body of his army
and in the country by which he was surrounded. The reaction of the
system of making war maintain war, now pressed with terrible but just
severity on the falling state. Money could not be obtained from Paris ;
and the usual resource of the French government on such emergencies —
that of levying contributions — however warmly approved while foreign
countries bore the burden, was regarded as an intolerable grievance
when it fell upon themselves. Indeed, the exactions of the French au-
thorities became so oppressive that numbers of the peasantry migrated
into the British lines, where they not only escaped forced contributions,
but found a ready market and liberal price for all their commodities.
An official letter, written from Bayonne at this period, says, " The English
general's policy and the good discipline he maintains, does us more harm
than ten battles : every peasant wishes to be under his protection."
Wellington having, on the 8th of December, completed with accuracy
his preparatory movements, ordered the attack to be commenced early
on the following morning ; which was accordingly done, in a manner
1813.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 379
worthy of troops accustomed to victory. But a position like Soult's could
Dot be forced by any hasty assault ; the battle in front of Bayonne was
waged with determined obstinacy for two entire days, and it resulted in
the retreat of the French to a circumscribed line within the protection of
the fortress, and the establishment by the allies of a rigid blockade
around its beleaguered walls.
CHAPTER XLIV.
EUROPE IN ARMS AGAINST FRANCE.
WHEN the campaign of 1813 terminated — when the remnant of the
Grand Army \vended its way across the Rhine, and the once triumphant
Peninsular host abandoned the fields of Spain — the magnitude of the revo-
lution it had effected seemed almost beyond the power of belief. Within
a little more than three months, four hundred thousand French tioops,
flushed with recent victory, had been grouped around the fortresses of the
Elbe ; and two hundred thousand, proud of having driven the British
from the plains of Castile, were prepared to maintain, on the Tormes or
the Ebro, the long disputed dominion of the Peninsula. Yet, of all this
immense force, not more than eighty thousand had gained the left bank
of the Rhine, and but a similar number remained to check the progress
of the invader on the Adour and the Pyrenees : the rest had fallen before
the sword of the enemy, or wasted away under the horrors of the bivouac
and the hospital, or were shut up without a hope of escape in the German
fortresses. The few who had regained their native land, bore with them
an incipient contagion, which rendered their presence a source of weak-
ness rather than strength to their suffering countrymen. The vast fabric
of the French Empire had disappeared like a cloud ; its external influ-
ence, its foreign alliances, had vanished ; the liberated nations of Europe,
with shouts of triumph and songs of gratulation, were pressing forward
in arms to overwhelm its remains ; and the mighty victor, reft of his con-
quests and his defenders, was exposed to the combined attack of those
whom former wrongs had roused to resistance, and recent heroism led to
victory.
The forces of the Revolution had hitherto basked in the sunshine of
prosperity ; but the period now approached when this long career of
fortune was to be succeeded by a more brief, indeed, but also more stri-
king course of adversity ; when the armies of Europe, instead of being
arrayed with France against England, were to be leagued with England
against France ; when disaster was to break in pieces the supremacy of
former times, and the iron was to enter into the soul, not merely of the
sinking nation, but of every family and individual of which it was
composed.
Napoleon set out for Paris from Mayence early in November, and
arrived at St. Cloud on the 9th of that month. For the second time,
within the year, he had returned defeated ; his army lost, his power
shaken, and his glory dimmed. Nevertheless, his energies were equal
330 HIS TORY OF EUROPE [CHAP. XLIV
•to the emergency. He immediately convoked the Council of State, to
whom he made a candid statement of his losses, and represented the ne-
cessity of vigorous measures to avert the danger which threatened the
Empire. The Council, consisting of the secretaries of state, Talleyrand
and Mole, implicitly adopted his views, averred that a dictatorship had
become indispensable, and that vast sacrifices must be demanded from
France. The Emperor set the example of such sacrifice, by appropri-
ating to the public service thirty millions of francs from his private
treasure in the Tuileries ; and he speedily gave earnest of what he ex-
pected from his subjects, and of the despotic power he was about to
exercise, by issuing, of his own authority and without any legislative
sanction, a decree, which caused an addition of nearly one-third to the
land, window and door-tax, three-fifths to the excise duties and salt-tax,
and at the same time doubled the personal tax. Although these imposi-
tions were obviously illegal, even according to the shadow of constitu-
tional freedom that remained to France under the Imperial regime, no
other means remained of replenishing the now totally exhausted treasury.
Public credit, too, was ruined : the three per cents, stood at forty-five ,
the Bank actions of one thousand, at three hundred and four ; and not a
capitalist willing to advance the government a hundred francs could be
found in France.
But, however indispensable these arbitrary exactions might be to the
public necessities, they were by no means acceptable to the nation. The
unparalleled disasters of the last two years, and the continual drain of
the taxes and the conscription on the wealth and population of the Em-
pire, had produced a general discontent, which the influence of the
Imperial government could not stifle, and which its terrors could not
overawe. A general feeling of horror, therefore, spread through the
community at the announcement of new taxes and a further conscription ;
and the unbending character and notorious ambition of the Emperor,
seemed to preclude all hope of the termination of the war but in the
destruction of France itself. The temper of the people was perhaps best
illustrated by the tone of numerous defamatory couplets, which were in-
dustriously circulated, and eagerly received in society : one of these,
affixed to the column in the Place Vendome, which column was sur-
mounted by a statue of the Emperor, bore that " if the blood which the
tyrant had shed were all collected in that square, it would reach to his
lips, and he might drink it without stooping his head."
Nothing could exceed the astonishment of the inhabitants on the west-
ern bank of the Rhine, when they beheld the broken remains of the
French army crossing that river, and spreading like a flood over the
country. The number of the fugitives was so considerable, that the
people, whose zeal and charity were taxed to the utmost, could provide
no effectual remedy for t ^.e suffering host. In the fortified cities, where
the greater portion of the t >ldiers sought a refuge, they endured far more
misery than in the villages. The typhus fever, which they brought with
them from Germany, soon spread to such a degree among the exhausted
crowds within the walled towns, that not only a large portion of the mili-
tary, but also of the citizens, were prostrated on beds of sickness. The
hospitals, churches, halls of justice and private houses, overflowed with
a ghastly and dying multitude ; and the mortality of the disease increased
so rapidly, that "in Mayence alone the number of deaths, for several sue-
1813.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 381
cessive weeks, was not less than five hundred a day. The exhalations
from this mass of dead bodies, which the survivors with all their efforts
could not succeed in burying, poisoned the atmosphere, and spread an
insupportable and pestilential odor throughout the city. In other towns,
when the churchyards and ordinary places of sepulture became over-
charged with corses, and interment in coffins was impossible, the bodies
were thrown into trenches without the walls ; thousands were consigned
to the Rhine, whence they floated down, as from a vast field of carnage,
to the German Ocean ; and even the shores of the Baltic were polluted
by the corses which, borne by the waters of the Elbe, the Oder, and the
Vistula, from the several fortresses on their banks, proclaimed the end
and the recompense of the external Revolutionary government.
The internal government of Marie Louise, as regent, after the departure
of the Emperor for the German campaign, was little calculated either to
attract the admiration or dispel the anxieties of the people. She fulfilled,
with docility, all the forms required by her elevated situation ; and, inca-
pable of apprehending the perils or the duties that attended it, she listened
with impassible temper to the unbounded flatteries which assailed her,
and mechanically made the fearful demands on the blood of her subjects
which the necessities of the state required. In August, she obtained t
temporary respite from the formalities which oppressed her in the capital,
by a journey to Cherbourg, where she beheld the completion of the vast
granite basin in the harbor of that town, commenced under the reign of
Louis XVI., and continued and finished by the unwearied perseverance
of Napoleon. On her return to Paris, in September, she was required to
authorize a demand of tfye Emperor for a conscription of thirty thousand
men from the southern departments ; and, on the 10th of October, she
issued another requisition for two hundred and eighty thousand from the
whole Empire. The conscripts were ordered to be taken in the following
proportions : one hundred and twenty thousand from the class which
would attain the legal age in 1814, and the remainder from the class of
1815 ; this demand, therefore, forced into the army youths of seventeen
and eighteen, who necessarily were hardly capable of bearing arms, and
wholly unfit to withstand the fatigue of a campaign.
Yet even these supplies were inadequate to meet the wants of the Em-
pire, after the disasters of Leipsic had thrown back the French army
behind the Rhine, and the invasion of Wellington had exposed the de-
fenceless condition of the southern frontier. Accordingly, the day after
Napoleon returned to Paris, he called on the Senate for an additional levy
of three hundred thousand men; and as the previous conscriptions had
entirely exhausted the youth of France, this requisition was applied retro-
spectively to the classes which had escaped, or endured and survived,
that terrible ordeal from 1803 to 1813. Thus, within two months, six
hundred thousand men were demanded to recruit the French armies.
Napoleon next prepared to resist the dreaded invasion of the allies;
and he dispatched engineers to the principal fortresses on the northern
frontier, with instructions to repair the walls, arm the ramparts, fortify the
bridges and defiles, and make every possible arrangement for a vigorous
defence. But when the engineers arrived at their posts, and became
acquainted with the deplorable state of the army, as well as with the
want of magazines, provisions, and artillery for putting the fortresses in
a tenable condition, they saw that the Rhenish frontier couM not be main-
382 HISTORY OF'EUROPE. [Cnxt XLIV.
tained. The Rhine presents, indeed, a formidable line of defence, if
guarded by four hundred thousand men ; but it cannot be held by sixty
or seventy thousand soldiers worn out with fatigue, depressed by defeat,
suffering under disease, and unsupplied with piovisicns and ammunition.
Napoleon resolved, therefore, to abandon the Rhine, and fall back across
the Vosges mountains.
Meanwhile, the domestic difficulties of France fearfully increased,
owing in a great measure to the enforcement of the conscription. The
price of substitutes rose to twenty-five thousand, and in some cases to
thirty thousand francs. Families of respectability parted with tliuir whole
fortunes, the earnings and savings of a long life, to save their sons from
destruction : it being universally understood, and not the less true, that
purchasing a substitute for the conscription was bribing one man 1 j sacri-
fice his life for another. Desertion, too, became incessant, ai-d the pre-
fects were constantly occupied in enforcing its penalties. Long files of
young conscripts were everywhere to be seen marching to their places
of punishment, with haggard visages, downcast eyes, and a four-and-
twenty pound shot chained to their ancles; while great numbers, espe-
cially in the mountain districts, driven to desperation by the fate of the
battle-field and the hospital on the one hand, and the alternative of such a
punishment on the other, formed themselves into roving bands, subsisted by
plunder, and bade defiance to the gendarmes and local authorities. Napo-
leon, alarmed at this dangerous and increasing disaffection, adjourned the
meeting- of the Chamber of Deputies to the 19th of December, hoping that,
in the interim, the negotiations already commenced with the allies might
take a favorable turn, and afford at least a prospect of peace, to satisfy the
general desire for it, in which, however, he did not participate. At the
same time, to prevent the discontent from affecting the voice of the Depu-
ties, the Senate passed a cecree in direct violation of the Constitution,
empowering the Emperor to nominate the president of the Chamber, and
prorogating the seats of those deputies whose terms had expired, that the
excitement incident to new elections might be avoided.
While France was thus reaping the legitimate fruits of domestic revolu-
tion and external aggression, England exhibited a memorable example of
the opposite results, flowing from a strictly conservative system of govern-
ment; and she afforded a proof of the almost boundless resources which a
free and orderly country can develope during a protracted and arduous war.
Parliament assembled this year on the 4th of November, and the speech
from the throne dwelt with marked emphasis on the extraordinary success
of the last campaign. It contained also, the important declaration, that
"no disposition to require from France sacrifices of any description incon-
sistent with her honor or just pretensions as a nation, will ever be, on the
part of his royal highness, the prince regent, or his allies, an obstacle to
the conclusion of peace." The address in answer, moved by the adhe-
rents of the ministers, was agreed to in both houses without a dissenting
voice. Still, though the language of the government was thus pacific,
its ministers, like prudent statesmen— who know that the olive-branch is
in vain tendered with one hand, if the sword be not at the same time un-
sheathed in the other — not only admitted no relaxation in their warlike
efforts, but prepared to maintain the contest on a scale more colossal!
than before.
The allied sovereigns at Frankfort had, in the meantime, adopted a
1813.] HISTORY OF EUROPE 383
measure which, more than any other, tended to elevate their cause in
the estimation of mankind, and to sever Napoleon from the support of the
French people. The Baron Saint Aignan, ambassador of France at the
court of Saxe-Weimar, had been made prisoner during the advance of
the allies to the Rhine; and he was received, after his capture, with
marked kindness by Metternich, who assured him, in the most emphatic
terms, of the anxious wish of the allied powers, and especially of his own
sovereign, for a general peace. Five days after this, the assembled
monarchs sent for the count, reiterated in person their pacific desires,
and sent him to Paris with a private letter from the Emperdr Francis to
Marie Louise ; they sent also a diplomatic note signed by the whole con-
ference, stating the conditions on which they were willing to negotiate.
The basis of these conditions was, that France should be restricted to her
natural limits, between the Rhine, the Alps and the Pyrenees ; that
Spain should be restored to its legitimate dynasty ; and that the inde-
pendence of Italy and Germany should be secured to princes of their
native families. The count was assured that if these terms were agreed
to, England would make great sacrifices, and recognize every liberty of
commerce and navigation to which France had any claim, and that
nothing would be insisted on hostile to the dynasty of Napoleon.
To these propositions, Maret, on the part of the French Emperor, re-
plied, that a peace concluded on the basis of the independence of all
nations, as well in a continental as in a maritime point of view, had been
the constant object of his majesty's solicitude ; and he designated the city
of Manheim, on the right bank of the Rhine, as an eligible place for con-
ducting the negotiations. But he avoided saying whether Napoleon
would accede to the terms proposed by the allies — an omission of which
Metternich complained, as that point was vital to any subsequent discus-
sion. Maret again replied, that in admitting as a basis the independence
of all nations, Napoleon had, in effect, admitted all that the allies claimed;
and with this explanation Metternich professed himself satisfied.
Hitherto, therefore, everything seemed to augur well for the opening
of the negotiation; and the better to set forth their views, the allied sove-
reigns published a manifesto, dated Frankfort, 1st of December, 1813. of
the principles on which they were willing to treat, and the objects for
which the Alliance contended: and the history of the world does not
contain a more noble instance of justice and moderation in the hour of
triumph. "The allied powers," it declared, "desirous of obtaining a
general peace on a solid foundation, promulgate, in the face of the world,
the principles which are the basis and guide of their conduct, their wishes
and their determinations. The allied powers do not make war on France,
but on that preponderance of power which, to the misfortune of Europe
and of France, the Emperor Napoleon has long exercised beyond the
limits of his dominions. They desire that France should be powerful and
happy ; that commerce should revive and the arts flourish ; tha! her ter-
ritory should preserve an extent unknown to her ancient kings ; because
the French nation is, in Europe, one of the fundamental bases of the
social edifice ; because a great people can be happy only so long as they
are tranquil ; because a brave nation is not to be regarded as overthrown
when, in its turn, it has experienced reverses, after a struggle in which it
has combated with its accustomed valor : but the allied powers wish to
be themselves happy and tranquil ; they wish a state of peace which, by
35
384 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [CnAr. XLIV
a wise division of power, by a just equilibrium, may hereafter preserve
their people from the calamities, that for twenty years, have oppressed
Europe. The allied powers will not lay down their arms until they
have attained that result; they will not lay them down until the political
state of Europe is secured anew; until the immutable principles of justice
have resumed their ascendant over vain pretensions ; and until the sanc-
tity of treaties has finally secured the tranquillity of Europe."
When sentiments so elevated and generous were proclaimed by the
allied powers, it might reasonably have been expected that the negotia-
tions would immediately commence on the part of the French govern-
ment : assuredly, never before were a defeated monarch and nation thus
invited to concur in the pacification of the world. Nevertheless, Napo-
leon delayed his proceedings by every possible expedient, and six weeks
after Saint. Aignan had been dispatched with these pacific overtures, the
plenipotentiaries were not* yet designated. The allies accepted the basis
suggested by Napoleon, on the 10th of December; but their letter, notify-
ing such acceptance, was not answered by Caulincourt until the 6th of
January — previous to which time the allies had crossed the Rhine at all
points, and carried the war into the French territory : consequently the
negotiation, at a still later period, commenced at Chatillon. Napoleon,
in fact, had now no pacific intentions; but desired, by means of equivoca-
tion and delay, to gain time to complete his defensive preparations.
Nothing could be further from his purpose than to withdraw permanently
behind the Rhine, the Alps and the Pyrenees :' and although the other
sovereigns were desirous of an accommodation, Alexander, thoroughly
penetrating the character of the despot, and with reason doubting whether
actual peace with Napoleon were practicable, believed that the wiser
plan for the alliance was to await the course of military events, and not
enter into engagements which might prove prejudicial to the common
cause. The negotiation, therefore, that at first promised so much, came
to nothing — the views of the contracting parties were so much at variance,
that the great question of peace or war could be decided only by the
sword
Napoleon ostensibly entertained the allies' proposals for peace, to gain
the further benefit of stating to the Chamber of Deputies that negotiations
were in progress. But the members of that body were not to be amused by
vague generalities, nor deceived by specious representations ; and, notwith-
standing the pains taken by almost absolute power to exclude from seats
in the Chamber all but those wholly devoted to Napoleon, it soon appeared
that the action of a large party in that assembly was beyond the Emperor's
control. The first serious business undertaken by the Senate and Cham-
ber was the nomination, by each, of a committee, to whom the documents
connected with the negotiations for peace should be submitted. The
persons designated for this purpose by the Senate, being strongly in the
interest of Napoleon, were accepted by him ; but in the Chamber, a list
of names that had been officially circulated for adoption by the deputies,
was rejected by a considerable majority ; and in its stead, a committee of
individuals, who, with the exception of Laine, were previously unknown,
was appointed. From this it might easily be foreseen, that a serious contest
with his own legislature awaited the Emperor.
At a secret meeting of the Chamber, on the 28th of December, Laine,
chairman of the committee thus appointed, submitted a report, which set
1813.] HISTORY OF EUR OPE. 385
forth that, " to prevent the country from becoming a prey to foreigners,
it is indispensable to nationalize the war : and this cannot be done unless
the people and their sovereign are united by closer bonds. It is neces-
sary to give a satisfactory answer to our enemies' accusation of a desire
for aggrandizement ; and there would be magnanimity in the formal
declaration that the independence of the French people, and the integrity
of its territory, is all that we contend for. It is the duty of the govern-
ment to propose measures which may at once repel the invaders, and
secure peace on a durable basis. These measures would be immediately
efficacious, if the French people were persuaded that their monarch, in
good faith, aspires only to the glory of peace, and that their blood will no
longer be shed but to defend our country and secure the protection of the
laws. Bui these words, * peace' and ' country,' will resound in vain, if
the institutions which secure these blessings are not guarantied. It ap-
pears to the committee, therefore, to be indispensable that, while the gov-
ernment proposes the most prompt and efficacious measures for the security
of the country, his majesty should be supplicated to maintain entire the
execution of the laws which guaranty to the French liberty and security,
and to the nation the free exercise of its political rights.
" Let us attempt no dissimulation : our evils are at their height ; our
frontiers are menaced by the enemy ; commerce is annihilated ; agricul-
ture languishe-s, and industry is expiring : there is no Frenchman who
has not, in his family or his fortune, some cruel wound. The facts are
aotorious, and can never be too often repeated. Agriculture, for the last
$ve years, has gained nothing ; the fruit of its toil is annually dissipated
by the treasury, which unceasingly devours everything to satisfy the
cravings of ruined and famished armies. The conscription has become
a frightful scourge for all France. Since 1810, the harvest of death has
been reaped three times in each year. A barbarous war, without an
object, cuts off all the youth of the land. Have, then, the tears of mothers
and the blood of whole generations become the patrimony of kings ? It is
fit that nations should have a moment's breathing-time, that thrones should
be consolidated, and that our enemies should be deprived of the argument
that we are constantly striving to inflame the world with the torch of
revolution."
The reading of the report, from which these passages are extracted,
raised a storm in the Chamber. It was so long since liberty and political
rights had been discussed within those walls, that the courtiers started as
if they had heard treason proposed. The president interrupted the read-
ing. "Orator," said he, "what you say is unconstitutional." "In
what?" demanded Laine ; "there is nothing unconstitutional here but
your presence !" After some discussion the debate was adjourned to the
30th, and an overwhelming majority voted an address to the Emperor,
and decreed the printing and circulation of Laine's report. Napoleon,
however, ordered the printing to be stopped, refused to receive the address,
and compelled the Council of State to issue a decree dissolving the Cham-
ber of Deputies.
The presence of external danger at this period, extorted from Napoleon
two important concessions in foreign diplomacy, which, of themselves,
implied a total abandonment, on his part, of the chief objects of his Conti-
nental policy, and were calculated to effect an entire change in the re-
lations of the Euror3an states to each other.
386 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLIV.
The former of these was the treaty of Valenc,ay, by which the French
Emperor, abandoning the pretensions of his brother Joseph, agreed to
liberate Ferdinand VII. from his imprisonment, and restore him to the
throne of Spain. It was further stipulated in this instrument, that the
British troops should retire from the Spanish territory ; that Port Mahon
and Ceuta should never be ceded to Great Britain ; that the contracting
parties should guaranty each other's dominions, and maintain the rights
of their respective flags, agreeably to the conditions of the treaty of
Utrecht ; and that the late monarch should receive an annuity of thirty
millions of reals. It was also provided, that the treaty should be binding
when ratified by the regency established at Madrid. The regency and
the Cortes, however, had the sense and firmness to refuse their ratifica-
tion : Ferdinand was, nevertheless, sent back to Spain.
Napoleon's second concession was, a consent to liberate the pope from
his protracted and painful confinement at Fontainebleau. The detention
of the Supreme Pontiff had long scandalized all Christendom, and the
French Emperor had felt the consequence of the general indignation it
excited, in the inveterate hostility of the Peninsular War, as well as in
the readiness with which Austria had joined her forces to those of the
European confederacy. With the twofold purpose, therefore, of taking
this argument from his enemies, and of propitiating Austria — for he never
ceased to expect secret favor from that power, by reason of his matrimo-
nial alliance — he made overtures to the pope early in January, 1814,
offering to restore the territory of the Holy See as far as Perugio. The
pope replied, that the restitution of his dominions was an act of simple
justice which could not be a fit subject of treaty, especially while he re-
mained in captivity. He added, " Possibly, by reason of our faults, we
are unworthy again to behold the Eternal City ; but our successors will
recover the dominions that appertain to them. You may assure the Em-
peror that we feel no hostility toward him ; religion does not permit it ;
and, when we are at Rome, we shall do what is suitable." The neces-
sities of Napoleon, however, forced him to disembarrass himself of the
presence of the pope, even though he could not extort from him anything
with which to prop up the falling Empire of France ; accordingly, on the
22nd of January, his holiness was conveyed from Fontainebleau toward
the southern departments. Yet even in this compulsory act, the grasping
disposition of Napoleon was rendered apparent: for, on various frivolous
pretexts, he threw obstacles in the way of the pontiff's journey, hoping
that a change of fortune in the field would still enable him to recall and
retain so notable a prisoner.
Murat was at this time in negotiation both with Napoleon and with the
allied powers; his purpose being at all hazards to maintain his throne, by
uniting himself to whichever of the belligerent parties was, in his judgment,
likely to prove successful. He eventually came to terms with the allies,
and concluded a treaty with them on the llth of January, by which they
guarantied his dominions, and he agreed to join their forces on the Po
with thirty thousand men. As soon as this treaty was signed, he marched
an army, twenty thousand strong, against Rome, and drove the French
garrison into the castle of St. Angelo.
In the general anxiety to retain dignities and possessions, even Eugene
Beauharnois became infected with the disloyalty of the period. He in-
deed publicly averred, that he would never separav ^ himself from his
J14.) HISTORY OF EUROPE. 397
benefactor, yet in secret he received overtures from the allies, and sent a
plenipotentiary to Chatillon to negotiate for his separate interests. His
purposes were eventually defeated ; but this was owing to the impossibility
of reconciling his pretensions with the ambitious views of Austria, not to
any disinclination on his part to desert the cause of Napoleon.
A more honorable constancy, at least in intention, was exhibited in the
north of Europe: but the march of events could not be controlled ; and
;,he most faithful allies of France were compelled to range themselves on
the side of the European Confederacy. The Danes, jealous of Russia to
the last degree, and hostile toward England for twice invading her shores
and conquering her capital, entertained strong predilections for the
French alliance. Nevertheless, separated from the armies of Napoleon
by the evacuation of Germany ; unable to succor or derive aid from the
corps of Davoust blockaded in Hamburg ; menaced by the forces of
Bernadotte on the south and the fleets of England on the north, the cab-
inet of Copenhagen had no alternative but submission, even at the ex-
pense of severing Norway from their dominions. A treaty was therefore
concluded between Denmark and the allies, on the 14th of January,
stipulating that the former should join the coalition against France, and
furnish for the common cause an army, the strength of which should
thereafter be determined. The King of Denmark agreed to the cession
of Norway to Sweden ; the King of Sweden engaging to maintain invi-
olate the rights and privileges of its inhabitants ; and Denmark received in
exchange the Duchy of Fomerania, and the island of Rugen.
The allied congress at Frankfort, after adjusting the pretensions, deter-
mining the reclamations, and soothing the jealousies of the numerous
princes of the Rhenish Confederacy, had a delicate and complicated task
to fulfil in combining their several powers into one effective league for
the prosecution of the war. TIl£ general enthusiasm, however,reji4e*ed
these difficulties less formidable tliant^evjwpuTd" ha^e^een_aFa^jMj^pr
pe rlolTifancr tKe^previous"^^^^^.^^ oiNapoIeon presented' a syste m ,
____, construction,
against " "*""*
<^^ ^
ano24tiro"f November, 1813, the important objects were secured of provi-
ding for the maintenance of the Grand Army, and regulating the contingents
to be furnished by the German princes who had joined the Confederacy.
Each of these princes agreed to procure at once, on his own credit, a
sum equal to the gross revenue of his dominions: and the sum thus raised
exceeded seventeen millions of florins. The contingent of each state was
rated at double that which it had furnished to the Confederation of the
Rhine; one-half to consist of troops of the line, and the other half of
landvvehr, or militia : in addition to this, corps of volunteers were allowed
to be raised, and the landsturm, or levy en masse, was organized in all
countries that seemed to require such extraordinary precautions. The
troops of the line thus levied, independent of the Bavarian forces, thirty-
five thousand strong, amounted to more than a hundred thousand, besides
an equal number of landwehr. Of these, Saxony furnished twenty thou-
sand ; Hanover, twenty thousand ; Hesse, twelve thousand ; Wirtemberg,
twelve thousand ; and Baden, ten thousand ; the smaller provinces com-
pleted the remainder.
The accession of Switzerland to the Alliance, which took place on the
29th of December, resulted rather from necessity than from voluntary
35*
388 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLIV.
action — the allied forces having first entered the Swiss territories in great
strength, and insisted on the cooperation of the Helvetic Confederacy.
Thus adjured, a majority of the deputies of the old Cantons, Uri, Schwytz,
Lucerne, Zurich, Glarus, Zug, Fribourg, Bale, Sciiaffhausen and Ap-
penzel, annulled the constitution introduced by Napoleon, and promul-
gated the principle that no one Canton should be subject to another
Canton : a declaration which, by virtually raising the hitherto dependent
districts of St. Gall, Thurgovia, Argovia, and the Pays de Vaud, to the
rank of independent members of the Confederacy, laid the foundation of
a more equal government in future times.
The forces which the allied powers had assembled by the end of De-
cember, to cooperate in the projected invasion of France, were thus
disposed. The Grand Army, still under the immediate direction of
Schwartzenberg, numbered two hundred and sixty thousand combatants,
and was destined to act on the side of Switzerland and Franche Compte,
where there were no fortresses except Besancon, Huningen, and Sarre
Louis. The second army, still called the army of Silesia, under the
orders of Blucher, amounted to a hundred and thirty-seven thousand
men, and occupied the northeastern frontier of France, between Mayence
and Coblentz, and threatened it on the side of Champagne and the Vosges
mountains. The third army, under Bernadotte, mustering a hundred
and seventy-four thousand soldiers, lay on the Lower Rhine, between Co-
logne and Dusseldorf, with the iron barrier of the Netherlands, yet in the
enemy's hands, directly in their front. Besides these immense masses,
the allies had collected, or were collecting, reserves from the various
states of the Confederacy, to the number of no less than two hundred and
thirty-five thousand men : these, with eighty thousand under Bellegarde,
destined to act in the north of Italy, and a hundred and forty thousand
British, Portuguese and Spaniards under Wellington in Beam and Cata-
lonia, formed a grand total of ONE MILLION AND TWENTY-SIX THOUSAND
MEN in arms against France. All the troops, of which this stupendous
host was composed, were not yet present in the field, although they could
be eventually relied on : but a large proportion of the whole were actu-
ally organized for efficient operations.
Napoleon could bring but an inadequate force to oppose this enormous
array ; his total musters at all points, scarcely exceeded two hundred
and fifty thousand men for the defence of the Empire. They were thus
distributed : fifty thousand, under Eugene in Italy, maintained a doubt-
ful defensive against the Austrians ; a hundred thousand, under Soult,
in Beam, and Suchet, in Catalonia, struggled against Wellington ; and
Napoleon had at his disposal but a hundred and ten thousand to resist the
invasion of the allies on the Rhine. In explanation of the small num-
bers of these forces, it remains to be said, that the recent conscriptions
had, by reason of evasion or desertion on the one hand, and the actual
deficiency of male population on the other, almost utterly failed.
CHAPTER XLV.
FIRST CAMPAIGN OF 1814.
ON the night of December 20th, 1813, the army of Schwartzenberg,
wo hundred and sixty thousand strong, passed the Rhine, between Shaff-
haussen and Bale, and overspread the adjacent districts of Switzerland
and France. The several corps soon separated themselves under their
different leaders, and took the directions assigned them in the plan of the
campaign. Bubna, with the left wing, marched toward Geneva ; the
centre, under Hesse-Homberg, Colloredo, Prince Louis of Lichtenstein,
Gialay and Bianchi, proceeded by the great road of Vesnoul toward
Langres ; while Wrede, the Prince Royal of Wirtemberg, and Wittgen-
stein, with the right wing, moved across Lorraine and Franche Compte,
until they gained the line of the centre on the road to Langres. Bubna
reached Geneva on the 30th, and the garrison of that town capitulated,
on condition of being sent to France; detachments of his corps afterward
readily made themselves masters of the passes of the Simplon and the
Great St. Bernard; thus interposing between France and Italy, and
cutting off Napoleon's communications with Eugene. The centre, mean-
while, pressed forward through Vesnoul and invested Besancon, Befort
and Huningen ; and Victor, unable to wiVhstand such masses, fell back
from the defiles of the Vosges mountains toward Champagne. The
Emperor in vain dispatched Mortier to the support of Victor; their united
forces were inadequate to make head against the invaders ; and, on the
16th of January, Langres — the most valuable post, in a strategetical
point of view, in the East of France — was abandoned by the two marshals
and occupied by the allies.
The army of Blucher commenced the passage of the Rhine, at several
points, on the 31st of December. Sacken, with one division, crossed at
Manheim by means of a flotilla assembled at the confluence of the Neckar.
D'York and Langeron passed on a bridge of boats at Caube, near Bacha-
rach ; and St. Priest forced his way across opposite Coblentz. In one of
the squares of the last mentioned town, stood a monument erected by the
prefect to commemorate the occupation of Moscow by the French. Its
inscription ran thus : " To the Great Napoleon, in honor of the Immortal
Campaign of 1812." Colonel Mardeuke, who took command of Coblentz,
instead of destroying this monument, embellished it with the following
additional inscription: "Seen and approved by the Russian commander
of Coblentz, in 181 3." Blucher pressed on with great impetuosity, taking,
successively, Kayserbautern, Nancy, Brienne and St. Dizier, which last
place he gained. on the 25th of January.
Indeed, within a month from the invasion of the French territory, nearly
one third of its extent had been wrested by the allies from the grasp of
Napoleon. The army of Silesia had conquered the country from the
Rhine to the Marne, crossed the Sarre, the Moselle and the Meuse, passed
the formidable defiles of the Vosges and Hundswick mountains, and de-
scended into the plains of Champagne. Schwartzenberg had crossed the
Upper Rhine, traversed part of Switzerland, surmounted the lofty ridge
390 IIISTORYOFEUROPE. [CHAP. XLV.
of the Jura, overrun Franche Compte, Lorraine, and Alsace, gained the
plains of Burgundy, and entered into communication with the army of
Silesia, by means of his right wing, while his left occupied Geneva and
the defiles of the Aisne, and threatened Lyons. Thus their united forces
extended nearly three hundred miles in a diagonal line across France,
from the frontiers of Flanders to the banks of the Rhone : all the inter-
mediate country in their rear — embracing a third of the old monarchy,
and comprehending its most warlike provinces — was cut off; its fortresses
being blockaded and its resources lost to Napoleon.
Bernadotte was not long in following the lead of invasion. One of his
corps, under Winzingerode, advanced toward Brussels on the 15th of
January, and forced Macdonald, who commanded the French forces in
that quarter, to fall back upon Namur. The allies took possession of
Juliers and Liege on the 18th ; and on the 26th, Macdonald, in obedience
to the orders of Napoleon, retired toward Laon, abandoning all the open
country of Flanders, and leaving Antwerp to its own resources. Winzin-
gerode immediately occupied Namur, and Bulow established the blockade
of Antwerp.
Before taking command of the army, Napoleon made new arrange-
ments for the administration of the government during his absence. The
regency was conferred by letters patent on Marie Louise, and his brother
Joseph was created lieutenant-general of the Empire. On Sunday, the
23rd, after hearing mass, tjie Emperor received the principal officers of
the National Guard at the Tuileries, where his little son was brought
forward, dressed in the uniform of that corps. Napoleon took the child
by the hand, and advancing into the midst of the circle of guests, thus
addressed them : " Gentlemen, as I am going to join the army, I intrust
to you what I hold dearest in the world — my wife and my son. Let
there be no political divisions ; let the respect for property, the mainte-
nance of order, and, above all, the love of France, animate every bosom.
I will not deny that, in the military operations about to ensue, the enemy
may approach in force to Paris : but it will be an affair of a few days
only. I shall soon be on their flanks and rear, and destroy those who
have dared to invade our country." Then, taking the child in his arms,
he went nrough the ranks of the officers and presented him to them as
their future sovereign. On the day following, he burned his most secret
papers, gave his final instructions to Joseph and the Council of State, and
early on the 25th he set forth on his journey, after embracing the Empress
and his son FOR THE LAST TIME : he never saw them again.
In the afternoon of thai day, Napoleon reached Chalons-sur-Marne,
and, on the 26th, advanced his head-quarters to Vitry. On the 27th, the
army resumed its march, and the vanguard soon encountered Blucher's
Cossacks, who were moving from St. Dizier upon Vitry. These wild
troops, surprised on their route, were easily defeated, and the French
entered St. Dizier, which had been for some days in the hands of the
allies. In the meantime, Blucher, with characteristic impatience, had
divided his centre, and at the head of one detachment, twenty-six thousand
strong, hastened in person to Brienne, while D'York, with twenty thousand,
moved to St. Michel on the Meuse, and Sacken took post with his corps
at Lesmont : so that Napoleon, by his march to St. Dizier, had placed
himself between the corps of the Silesian army, and could fall on its
separate divisions with superior forces. Improving this advantage to the
1814.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 391
utmost, he hastened to attack Blucher, who was so wholly unconscious
of his danger, that, on the morning of the 28th, the French troops had
approached to within a half-day's march of the allied position ; but at
this critical moment Blucher received intelligence of their movements,
and in some degree prepared himself for their assault.
Brienne stands on a hill-side, and its streets rise in successive tiers one
above another, until they reach the summit, which is crowned with a
strong castle. Napoleon made a vigorous attack both on the town and
on the detachment of allies in its front, and he eventually forced the latter
to retire within the walls, but not until they had maintained their ground
long enough to cover the road by which Sacken, who had been ordered
up from Lesmont, had effected a junction with his commander-in chief.
The action continued with great vigor through the remainder of the day ;
but Brienne remained in the hands of the allies, and Blucher retired to
the castle to rest from his fatigue. While taking a survey of the bivouac-
fires from this elevated building, he was startled by loud cries in the
avenues leading to it, and these were followed by the discharge of mus-
ketry and vehement shouts at the foot of the castle. The old marshal
had barely time to descend the stairs, accompanied by a few of his suite,
when the place was surrounded and carried by a body of French grena-
diers, who had stolen unperceived into the grounds. Blucher made his
escape out of the town, which was also speedily evacuated by his troops,
and in the morning, Napoleon occupied it and established his head-quarters
at the castle.
The allied generals, thoroughly alarmed at Napoleon's unexpected ad-
vance, made great efforts to concentrate their forces, and soon brought
together more than a hundred thousand men, under the immediate com-
mand of the Emperor Alexander and the King of Prussia, besides nearly
fifty thousand reserves under Wittgenstein and Colloredo. The centre
of the main body, consisting chiefly of Blucher's Prussians, was posted
on the elevated ridge of Trannes, with Barclay de Tolly in reserve.
The Prince of Wirtemberg commanded the right wing at Getanie ; and
Giulay's Austrians formed the left.
Napoleon, finding himself overmatched, and that the allied army, in-
stead of being surprised in detail, was fully prepared for an attack- and
hourly increasing in strength, made dispositions for a retreat; but in
order to effect this manoeuvre, it was necessary to restore the bridge of
Lesmont, the only route by which his columns could cross the Aube.
The allies, however, did not give him time to accomplish this, but, about
one o'clock in the afternoon of February 1st, they commenced a general
attack ; and their enthusiasm, together with their great superiority of
numbers, caused them to prevail against the French centre and left,
which were entirely beaten and driven back ; and, although the right
stood firm, yet before six o'clock, the battle seemed to be decided against
the French. But Napoleon had been too long a conquering general, to
despair of the contest while any chance of victory remained. Being re-
enforced by two fresh divisions under Oudinot, he united these te the
broken remains of his left and centre, and led on a final charge. At the
first onset, he gained ground ; but Blucher pushed forward a powerful
reserve, and forced him, after a desperate struggle, to retreat. Napoleon
returned at midnight to Brienne ; and such was his anxiety lest the allies
should complete the disorder of his retiring columns by a night attack,
27
392 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLV.
he stood for some hours at the windows of the chateau, to see if any
movement around the watch-fires indicated a renewal of the fight. At
four o'clock in the morning, convinced that he was not pursued, he gave
orders for a retreat by Lesmont to Troyes. The French loss in this
action was six thousand men and seventy-three pieces of cannon ; that
of the allies did not exceed four thousand men.
The town of Troyes, which contains twenty-two thousand inhabitants,
lies in a plain at the confluence of the Barce and the Seine ; and though
incapable of long sustaining a regular siege, may be held for some days
against an enemy advancing on the side of the latter river. Napoleon
therefore resolved to make a brief stand at this place, that he might re-
fresh and reorganize his men — and in this purpose he was greatly aided
by the dilatory pursuit of the allies. The Austrians, Bavarians and
Wirtembergers, who from the direction taken by the French retreating
army, found themselves foremost in following it, were so tardy in their
movements that they literally lost sight of the enemy, and for two days
it was unknown at head-quarters whether the French had moved in the
direction of Arcis, Chalons, or Troyes. Indeed, the secret reluctance of
Austria to push matters to extremity against Napoleon was already be-
coming manifest : yet such was the effect of retreat on the spirits of the
French soldiers, combined with the hardships the young conscripts had
undergone since they took the field, six thousand deserted during the
march to Troyes ; and when the army arrived there, it was fully fifteen
thousand weaker than at the time of its departure from Chalons.
Nevertheless, the allies, as if resolved to compensate Napoleon for his
disadvantages by their own incredible stupidity, and apparently forgetting
that concentration was the principle which, in the preceding autumn, had
wrought out the deliverance of Germany, separated their masses to act on
different lines of operation : Blucher, with the army of Silesia, was di-
rected upon Chalons, with instructions to follow thence the course of the
Marne to Paris, while Schwartzenberg marched his forces upon Troyes,
down the valley of the Seine to the same point of rendezvous. The mo.
ment Napoleon became aware of these movements, he evacuated Troyes,
which the allies occupied on the 7th of February, and hastening to No-
gent, where he expected to be joined by a detachment of veterans from
Soult's army in the south, he made preparations both to resist and attack
the forces under Blucher. The Prussian marshal, on the 3rd of Feb-
ruary, passed through St. Ouen — whence D'York had already expelled
Macdonald — and, finding that Macdonald had retired toward Paris by
Epernay, determined to intercept him. He therefore ordered D'York to
follow the French general by the highway through Chateau-Thierry and
Epernay, at the same time directing "Sacken to march on Montmirail, and
Olsoofief to remain at Champaubert until further orders. Blucher him-
self halted at Virtus, to await the arrival of Kleist's corps, which was
hourly expected at Chalons. With the three corps united, he proposed
then to fall on Macdonald's troops, take their grand park of artillery be-
longing to Napoleon's main army, and press on immediately to Paris,
where the utmost consternation now prevailed. While planning and in
part executing this advance, Blucher entertained no fear for his left flank,
although Napoleon lay in that direction ; for he presumed that the Em-
peror would be wholly engrossed with the movements of Schwartzenberg,
.and besides, there intervened between the French head -quarters and the
1814.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 393
army of Silesia a rough and marshy country deemed impassable at that
season of the year.
On the other hand, Napoleon, aware of Austria's forbearing policy,
and, consequently, feeling no apprehension of an attack from Schwartzen-
berg, resolved to fall on the flank that Blucher thus vainly thought secure.
For this purpose, he marched from Nogent, on the 9th of February, with
forty-five thousand of his best troops ; but the difficult character of the
ground on his route, nearly defeated his project. It was only by the
greatest personal exertions that he could alternately urge and compel his
soldiers to drag forward the artillery through the deep clay of the forest
of Traconne. Olsoofief, with five thousand Russians, was at this time
lying at Champaubert, wholly unconscious of the approaching danger ;
and, on the morning of the lOih, his men were deliberately preparing
their breakfast, when the French burst upon them in great force. The
result of the action could not be doubtful when the numbers were so dis-
proportionate ; still, the Russians maintained their ground against a simul-
taneous attack in front and on both flanks, until they had expended their
last round of ammunition. They then retreated, leaving behind them
twelve guns, and three thousand men killed, wounded and prisoners j
Olsoofief himself also fell into the enemy's hands. This battle, insignifi-
cant when compared with the more memorable engagements of the period,
was of vast consequence to Napoleon, for it restored the confidence of his
men, and enabled him to assume a bolder tone in the negotiations still
pending with the allies. He wrote immediately to Caulaincourt, directing
him to gain time and sign nothing ; he also ordered Macdonald to discon-
tinue his retreat ; and, on the morning of the llth, he set off by daybreak
to attack Sacken at Montmirail.
Sacken was not, like Olsoofief, surprised by the advance of the French ;
but his force was greatly outnumbered by them, and he lost in the action
that ensued four thousand men and nine guns. The next day, the battle
was partially renewed by repeated charges on the retiring columns of the
allies, who, after an additional loss of two thousand men and eight guns,
crossed the Marne, broke down its bridges, and gained a respite from Na-
poleon's pursuit. On the 13th, Blucher — who, for want of troops, had
remained inactive at Virtus while his lieutenants were suffering these
defeats — received such reinforcements as enabled him to take the field
with twenty thousand combatants. He immediately assumed the offen-
sive, inarched against Marmont at Vauchamps, and drove him from that
village early in the morning of the 14th; but, while pursuing Marmont's
routed troops, he encountered the vanguard of Napoleon's army, and was
himself forced to retreat. This movement, to the last degree difficult and
perilous, inasmuch as it was to be made over the level ground in his rear,
where the entire French cavalry could act to advantage, was nevertheless
persisted in by the indomitable Prussian marshal, who defended himself
against incessant charges of Grouchy's cuirassiers, and finally, late at
night, cut his way to Bergeres through every opposing obstacle. In this
terrible yet glorious retreat, the allies lost seven thousand men, and the
French scarcely twelve hundred. The next day, Blucher fell back to
Chalons, where, by a rapid concentration of his several corps, he was
enabled, on the 18th, to muster sixty thousand effective troops.
The occupation of Troyes by the allies — which event, as already men-
tioned, took place on the 7th of February — was followed by some political
394 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Ciur. XLV.
occurrences, interesting as having been the first movements in France in
favor of the Restoration of the Bourbons.
Twenty-one years had now elapsed since the execution of Louis XVI. ;
and, during the turmoil of succeeding events, the remembrance of his
race was almost lost in France, and its name had disappeared from the
page of European history. A feeling of loyalty, however, still existed
among a few highly descended nobles in detached parts of the Empirer
and especially in La Vendee, where all classes retained their attachment
for the legitimate dynasty ; and although a great portion of the ancient
noblesse had perished under the guillotine, expired in the revolutionary
prisons, or vanished amid poverty and oblivion in foreign lands, yet enough
of that race and its adherents remained to establish a certain organization
in favor of the Bourbons. The principal branches of this quiescent con-
spiracy were to be found in La Vendee, Brittany, and the south of France ;
yet it had both leaders and members in the capital. There, too, some of
the chief partisans of the Revolution, true to the polar star of worldly
ambition, anxiously awaited the progress of events ; and, without enga-
ging in any overt act against the authority of the Emperor, were secretly
preparing to abandon their principles and their benefactor, the moment
that he should begin to sink under the weight of adversity.
While the royalist party, and these less worthy but more powerful
allies, gradually strengthened themselves against Napoleon, the surviving
members of the royal family were dwelling in exile in different kingdoms
of Europe. The Count d'Artois resided for a time at St. Petersburg, in
1793 ; and the Empress Catharine so far encouraged him as to present
him with a splendid sword, and expressed the hope that " it might open
to him the gates of France, as it had done to his ancestor, Henry IV."
The Count, however, was no soldier ; and he showed so little zeal in his
own cause, that a project, at first seriously entertained, for intrusting to
his command thirty thousand Russians to act on the coast of La Vendee,
was abandoned. At a later period he repaired to London, where he sold
the sword for four thousand pounds sterling, and distributed the money
among the most necessitous of his companions in misfortune. The Count's
elder brother, who afterward became Louis XVIIL, retired from one asy-
lum to another as the French power advanced. Under the title of Count
de Lille, he lived frugally and in retirement at Verona, until the approach
of Napoleon, in 1796, forced him to quit the territories of the Republic.
He then established himself at Blanckenbourg, at which place unsuccess-
ful efforts were made to induce Bonaparte to aid the restoration of the
Bourbons. In 1797, he withdrew to Mittau, in Livonia, where he received
a pension of two hundred thousand roubles a year from the Emperor Paul,
and where, in 1799, he was joined by the Duke and Duchess d'Angou-
leme ; the former of whom had served with credit in the Royalist corps
of the Prince of Conde, while the latter brought to that distant solitude
the recollection of the Temple, and the sympathy and commiseration of
all Europe. The sudden and unexpected accession of Paul to the French
alliance, occasioned the promulgation of a rigorous order to the exiles to
quit the Russian dominions in the depth of winter, January 21st, 1801.
They next took refuge in Prussia, and for a while lived there in undisturbed
retirement. Louis XVIII. subsequently passed into Sweden, whence, on
the 22nd of December, 1804, he issued his protest against N»apoleon's as-
sumption of the imperial dignity. On the breaking out of the war between
1814.] HI STORY OF EUROPE. 395
Russia and France, in 1805, he retired to his former residence at Mittau;
but the peace 'of Tilsit, which again subjected Russia to the influence of
France, compelled him to abandon that asylum, and he embarked with the
royal family on board the Swedish frigate Fraya, and reached Yarmouth
in the middle of August, 1807. He resided in England as a private indi-
vidual, and largely participated in the hospitalities which her nobles and
people have ever bestowed on greatness in misfortune.
Notwithstanding the unwarlike disposition of the Bourbon princes, the
time at length arrived when it was no longer possible for them to remain
in retirement. The approach of the allied armies to the Rhine, the pas-
sage of that river by so large a body of their troops, and the establish-
ment of Wellington in the southern departments of France, not only revived
the dormant flame of loyalty in the French provinces, but called for the
appearance of one or more princes of the blood to concentrate the isolated
efforts of their adherents and assert the pretensions of the exiled family to
the throne. When the allied armies invaded France, therefore, Louis
XVIII. addressed a proclamation to the Senate, calling on them to coop-
erate with him in overturning the tyranny of Napoleon; at the same
time, he addressed, and caused to be widely and secretly circulated, a
letter to all persons in authority who were thought to be favorable to his
views ; in which document he wisely said little of honor and loyalty, but
dwelt at length on injuries to be forgotten, and on titles, dignities and
offices to be preserved. The British government was requested to permit
the Bourbon princes to join the allied armies; and the cabinet of St.
James, after much deliberation, proceeding from a desire to do nothing
which might seem like coercing the French people into a choice of rulers,
granted the request, but restricted the service of the princes to that of vol-
unteers. The Count d'Artois accordingly left his residence at Holyrood
House, and landed at Rotterdam on the 2nd of February ; the Duke d'An-
gouleme embarked for Spain, to join the army of Wellington ; and the Duke
de Berri set sail for Jersey, to aid an anticipated insurrection in Brittany
and La Vendee.
At this juncture, the allied monarchs entered Troyes and, for the first
time, were brought in contact with the royalists of France. The Em-
peror Alexander had a special interview with several of these gentlemen,
who bore on their breasts the cross of St. Louis and the white cockade,
although the wearing of these emblems was prohibited in the Empire under
penalty of death. The Marquis of Widranges and M. Goualt were the
speakers on the occasion: " We entreat your majesty," said they, "in
the name of all ihe respectable inhabitants of Troyes, to regard with favor
our desire for the reestablishment of the Bourbons on the throne." " Gen-
tlemen," replied Alexander, "I receive you with pleasure; I wish well
to your cause ; but I fear your proceedings are premature. The chances
of war are uncertain, and I should be much grieved to see brave men like
you either compromised or sacrificed. We do not come here to force a king
upon France, but to learn her wishes and leave her to declare her inten-
tions." "But she can never make such declaration," said the marquis,
" so long as the knife is at her throat ; nor, while Bonaparte retains his
authority, will Europe ever be tranquil." " For that very reason," an-
swered Alexander, " it must be our care first of all to beat him." Alex-
ander's prudent council soon proved but top prophetic ; on the ciay this
conversation took place, Napoleon defeated the allies at Champaubert, and
36
396 HI STORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLV.
the Marquis of Widranges, disappointed in his hopes of obtaining from
the several monarchs a declaration in favor of the Bourbons, proceeded to
Bale and joined the Count d'Artois ; but M. Goualt rashly remained at
Troyes, and not long after fell a victim to Napoleon's vengeance.
On the llth of February, Schwartzenberg, having allowed his troops a
few days' repose around Troyes, put his columns in motion to follow up
the enemy. The Prince of Wirtemberg took Sens by assault, after a
sharp conflict, and on the same day General Hardegg, with the vanguard
of Wrede's corps, attacked the French rear-guard near Romilly, drove its
commander, General Bourmont, into Nogent, and the next day stormed
that place. Having learned from the prisoners taken in these conflicts
that Napoleon, with the main body of his forces, had diverged toward Se-
zanne, in the direction of Blucher's forces, Schwartzenberg, on the 13th,
ordered the corps of Colloredo and the Prince of Wirtemberg to cross the
Seine at Bray and Point-sur-Seine and move upon Provins and Montereau.
These movements were followed by a series of victories on the side of the
allies. Moret fell into their hands on the 14th; PlatofFtook Nemours on
the 15th ; Seslavin made himself master of Montargis, and pushed his ad-
vanced posts to the gates of Orleans ; and the Cossacks occupied the palace
and forest at Fontainebleau. Auxerre was next carried by assault; and
the allied light troops inundated the plains between the Seine and the
Loire ; Montereau was fortified, and Schwartzenberg advanced his head-
quarters to Nogent. The inhabitants of Paris were now in the great-
est consternation : the retreating columns of Victor were within a few
miles of its gates ; the peasants of La Brie, flying to the capital, reported
that hordes of uncouth and long-bearded savages were cutting down the
trees by the roadside, roasting oxen and sheep whole with the wood thus
obtained, and devouring the meat while it was half raw ; and rumor, mag-
nifying the danger, announced that two hundred thousand Tartars and
Kalmucks were coming to sack and lay waste the metropolis.
At this crisis, Napoleon interposed with his Guards, which body had
been reenforced by a powerful detachment from the veterans of Soult's
army ; and, joining these troops with the corps of Victor and Oudinot,
mustered fifty-five thousand men to check the advance of the allies. He
immediately assumed the offensive. Oudinot, supported by Kellermann's
dragoons, pressed the columns of Wittgenstein, now retiring toward No-
gent ; Macdonald marched in the direction of Bray ; Gerard drove the Ba-
varians back on Villeneuve, Le Comte and Donne Marie ; and Victor
hastened to Montereau to take possession of its bridge over the Seine. Count
Pahlen, who commanded Wittgenstein's advanced guard — which division
now became, by the countermarch, the rear-guard of the corps — was di-
rected to make a stand against the French Emperor at Mormant ; and he,
with great bravery, endeavored to do so: but the numbers of the enemy
completely overwhelmed him, and not only his own detachment, but also a
body sent by Wittgenstein to recnforce him, was utterly destroyed. Vic-
tor, in the meantime, pushed on to Montereau and attacked the allies ; but
the exhaustion of his men, owing to their constant marching for some days
past, prevented his gaining any decided success, and he failed in his prin-
, cipal object, the securing of the bridge. The allies immediately after-
ward withdrew their force, amounting to eighteen thousand men, into the
town of Montereau and the castle of Surville.
Napoleon approached Montereau in great strength on the 18th, and at
1814.] HSTORYOFEUROPE. 397
once attacked the allied position. The Prince of Wirtemberg and Bianchi
maintained their ground, during a greater part of the day, against every
effort of the French troops; but at length, overpowered by numbers, they
were forced to retreat in the direction of Sens, with a loss of five thousand
men, six guns and four standards : the French loss was three thousand
killed and wounded. On the 19th, Napoleon moved from Montereau to
Nogent ; and, after remaining there some days to refresh and rest his
men, he marched to Troyes and offered battle to Schwartzenberg. Their
late defeats, however, had materially depressed the courage of the allies;
and, after a long debate in a council of war, in which Alexander strenu-
ously urged the policy of a general action, they resolved to evacuate
Troyes and retreat. This was done accordingly on the 23rd, and the
French troops immediately took possession of the town.
It has already been mentioned, that in reply to the proposals of the
allies, transmitted by the Count de St. Aignan, Napoleon had professed a
readiness to treat for peace, and that Chatillon was eventually chosen as
the place for conducting the negotiations: this place was therefore de-
clared neutral ground, and the congress commenced its session on the 4th
of February. Its members consisted of Lord Castlereagh, Lord Aberdeen,
Lord Cathcart and Sir Charles Stewart, on the part of Great Britain;
Count Razumoffski, on the part of Russia ; Count Stadion, for Austria ;
and Baron Humboldt, for Prussia. Caulaincourt singly sustained the one-
rous duty of upholding, against such an array of talent and energy, the
declining fortunes of Napoleon. But, though both parties professed an
anxious desire for an accommodation, their views were so dissimilar, that
it was easy to foresee the congress would only deliberate, while the
sword, at last, must decide the points in dispute : and this became the
more evident, as each party made the terms it proposed dependent on the
aspect of military affairs, which was constantly changing.
Great Britain, however, made no demands liable to be affected by the
fluctuations of the war. Her purpose throughout the whole contest had
been, not to force an unpopular dynasty on the French people ; not to
wrest provinces or cities from France ; not to require from that country
indemnification for her enormous expenses during the war : but simply
to provide security for the future; to establish a barrier against the revo-
lutionary propagandism and military violence of the French ; and to
compel their rulers and armies, whether Republican or Imperial, to retire
within their own territories, and relieve foreign nations from the disturb-
ance of their principles and the encroachments of their power. For the
attainment of her objects, Great Britain had uniformly maintained that
no security was so desirable, because none was so likely to be effectual,
as the restoration of the former line of princes, with whom repose wag
possible, and to whom conquest was ?wt, according to Napoleon's maxim,
" necessary to existence :" still, she had never regarded nor proposed that
condition as an indispensable preliminary to an accommodation.
The instructions of Lord Castlereagh froni the British cabinet contained
no projects for the partition of France, as that monarchy existed in 1789,
but the most ample provisions for the establishment of barriers against
her future irruptions into Europe. The reduction of France to her an-
•cient limits ; the forming of a federative union in Germany, which might
secure equal protection to all its states ; the recognition of the Swiss
Confederacy under the guaranty of the great powers ; the restoration to
398 HIS TORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLV.
independence of the lesser states of Italy ; the reinstatement under their
legitimate monarchs of Spain and Portugal ; and the restitution of Hol-
land to separate sovereignty, under the family of the Stadtholders, with
such an addition of territory as might enable them to maintain their dig-
nities — these were the instructions of the British cabinet, so far as France
was implicated; and in these the allied powers concurred. For her own
especial security, Great Britain further insisted, that in the general ad-
justment of affairs, no discussion should be admitted derogatory to British
maritime rights, as settled by existing treaties and the law of nations ;
and that, in the event of any new boundaries, being deemed advisable for
the frontiers of France, they should not include Antwerp, Genoa, or Pied-
mont.
Two points — the restoration of the Bourbons and the destiny of Poland
— were purposely left undecided by the English cabinet in their instruc-
tions to Lord Castlereagh ; and this was done, not because their impor.
tance was overlooked or falsely estimated, but because their solution was
involved in such difficulty, and depended so entirely on contingencies,
that no directions, previously given, could with any certainty prove ap-
plicable to the possible progress of events.
The first success of the allies, and the retreat of the French from
Troyes, greatly modified Napoleon's views in reference to the congress
that had just opened. Alarmed for the safety of his capital, and aware
of the concord subsisting between the plenipotentiaries at Chatillon, he
at length gave Caulaincourt the full powers which that minister had long
solicited, and authorized him to sign anything that might seem necessary
to avoid the risk of a battle, and save Paris from being taken. This
concession was with great difficulty obtained from the Emperor, and the
manner in which it occurred is worthy of remembrance. Caulaincourt
had represented to Napoleon by letter, on the 31st of January, the im-
portance of receiving precise and positive instructions : " the fate of
France," he wrote, " may depend on a .peace or an armistice, to be
concluded within four days ; I must therefore ha;ve entire power to act
in the emergency." When this letter was read, Maret entreated the
Emperor to yield to necessity, and grant the authority so urgently de-
manded. Napoleon, instead of replying, opened a volume of Montes-
quieu, and read the following passage : " I know of nothing more
magnanimous than the resolution of a monarch of our own times, (Louis
XIV.) to bury himself under the ruins of his throne, rather than accept
conditions unworthy of a king. He had a mind too lofty to descend
lower than his fortunes had sunk him ; and he well knew, that though
courage may strengthen a crown, infamy never can." Maret rejoined,
that nothing could be more magnanimous than to sacrifice even glory to
the safety of the state, which would otherwise fall with its monarch.
" Well, be it so !" said the Emperor, after a pause: " let Caulaincourt
sign whatever is necessary to obtain peace : I will bear the shame of it,
but I will not dictate my own disgrace."
The allied powers were unanimous in the terms that they proposed to
France ; and, after the preliminary formalities had been adjusted, they,
on the 7th of February, fully set forth their views in a joint diplomatic
note, to this effect : " Considering the situation of Europe in respect to
France, the allied plenipotentiaries have orders to demand, that France
shall be restricted to her limits as they existed before the Revolution,
1814.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 399
excepting such subordinate arrangements as may be necessary foi mu-
tual convenience, and the restitution which England is ready to make
for such concession : as a consequence of this, France must renounce all
direct influence beyond the future limits of Germany, Italy and Swit-
zerland."
The congress was now, to all appearance, on the eve of accomplishing
a general peace. But at this time, the Emperor Alexander forwarded a
letter to the plenipotentiaries, requesting a suspension of their sittings for
a few days, till he could have an opportunity of a further concert with his
allies, on the terms to be demanded. The congress was therefore ad-
journed to the 17th of February ; and when it was again convened, events
had taken place which rendered accommodation impossible. Napoleon
no sooner ascertained the determination of the allies to separate their
forces, and move in detached masses toward Paris, than he retracted his
concessions to Caulaincourt, and resolved to trust everything to the
hazard of war.
Nor did Napoleon stop here. During his previous alarm, he had writ-
ten to Eugene Beauharnois, that the state of his affairs had reached a
crisis which forced him to disregard all minor considerations, and as the
struggle was evidently to be decided on the soil of France, Eugene must
instantly cross the Alps with all his disposable forces, and hasten to the
vital point on the banks of the Seine. This order, worthy of Napoleon's
genius, and in strict conformity to las system of war, would have brought
forty thousand veterans on the rear of the Austrian grand army at the
most critical period of the campaign. But the triumph over Blucher
restored the Emperor's confidence in his returning fortune to such a de-
gree, that the night following the battle of Montmirail he wrote to Eugene,
countermanding the order to march, and assuring him that he was him-
self adequate to the protection of France. Nay, he was so far misled
by his sanguine temperament, that he entertained anew a project for Ger-
man conquest, and openly said to those around him, " I am nearer to Vi-
enna than the allies are to Paris." Thus, his success restored the rigid
and unbending tone of his character, revived his scheme of universal
dominion, and caused him to reject the throne of Old France proffered
by the allies.
The change in the diplomatic language of Caulaincourt, adopted in
obedience to the Emperor's instructions, produced a decided effect on the
deliberations of the allied powers. The exulting expression of Napo-
leon, that he was nearer to Vienna than they were to Paris, had not been
lost on them ; and Lord Castlereagh, in particular, made great efforts to
convince the Austrian ministers that their country would inevitably be the
first object of the French Emperor's wrath, should his victorious legions
again cross the Rhine. The Emperor Alexander supported the same views,
and manfully combated the despondency then so prevalent at the allied
head-quarters. Metternich, too, brought forward similar arguments; for .
Napoleon's late success had awakened all his former apprehensions, and
he fea-red more for Vienna than for Marie Louise, and was desirous to
prove the sincerity of his imperial master, in pressing the great objects
of the alliance. The result of their combined efforts was the treaty of
Chaumont, completed on the 1st of March.
By this instrument it was stipulated that, in case of Napoleon's refusing
the terms proposed, the four allied powers, Austria, Prussia, Russia, and
3-6*
400 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAF. XLV.
England, should each maintain one hundred and fifty thousand men in
the field ; that, to provide for their maintenance, Great Britain should
pay an annual subsidy of Sve millions sterling, to be equally divided be-
tween the three Continental powers, besides maintaining her own contingent
from her own resources. It was further agreed, that if any one of the
allied sovereigns were attacked, each of the others should forthwith send
to his assistance sixty thousand men, including ten thousand cavalry ;
that the trophies of the war should be equally divided ; that no peace
should be made but by common consent; that this treaty should continue
in force for twenty years ; and that it might be renewed on the expiration
of that period. Besides these public stipulations, several secret articles
were inserted in the treaty providing for the interests of Germany, Italy,
Spain, Portugal, and Holland, as already related in the terms offered to
Napoleon by the congress.
The conclusion of this treaty was a virtual dissolution of the congress
of Chatillon, as it superseded the deliberations of that body. Never-
theless, the congress continued to sit for three weeks longer, the allied
plenipotentiaries firmly insisting on the relinquishment by France of all
its conquests since the Revolution; and Caulaincourt constantly shifting
his ground and endeavoring to elude conditions so rigorous. It was not,
however, of his own choice, that Caulaincourt insisted on Napoleon's
terms'; for he clearly saw the Emperor's risk in thus tenaciously retain-
ing the frontier of the Rhine, and he urgently represented to his sovereign
the necessity of bending to the force of circumstances, and accepting the
monarchy of Louis XIV. as the price of a general pacification. But
Napoleon was inexorable, and the war recommenced with renewed activity.
Previous to the completion of the treaty of Chaumont, and while the
negotiations relating to it were in progress, Blucher had pressed on nearly
to Meaux, in the direction of Paris : and Napoleon, justly alarmed for the
safety of his capital, set out from Troves on the 27th of February, to
intercept the Prussian marshal's advance. On the morning of the 28th,
a detachment of Blucher's light troops, under Sacken, took possession of
that part of Meaux which is situated on the left bank of the Marne : but
while Blucher was making preparations to cross the river, he learned
that Napoleon was threatening his rear ; he therefore immediately drew
off his troops and moved toward Soissons, in order to unite with Winzin-
gerode and Woronzoff, and give battle to the Emperor.
As soon as Schwartzenberg learned that Napoleon had departed from
Troyes, he resolved to resume the offensive on the great road leading
from that town to Chaumont. With this view, he caused the corps of.
Wrede and Wittgenstein, mustering thirty-five thousand men, to be drawn
up opposite Bar-sur-Aube. Oudinot, who commanded at that place, could
not bring more than seventeen thousand men into the field ; so that he
was outnumbered by nearly two to one : yet the strength of his position
atoned for this disadvantage. The action that ensued was contested with
great obstinacy on both sides ; it ended, however, in the defeat of Oudi-
not, who retreated in good order, after sustaining a loss of three thousand
men. The allies lost two thousand, but they gained Bar-sur-Aube, and
— what was of far more importance — obtained a victory that restored the
credit and spirit of the soldiers.
Schwartzenberg did not follow up his success with sufficient vigor, and
he therefore gave Oudinot time to form a junction with Macdonald at La
HISTORY OF EUROPE. 401
Guillotiere ; the French forces, thus united, amounted to thirty-five thou-
sand men. On the 2nd of March, the allies again advanced, and Schwartz-
enberg, having reconnoitered the French position, resolved to make an
attack simultaneously on Macdonald's front and flank ; a plan of assault
which his preponderating numbers rendered feasible. At three o'clock
on the 3rd, the signal was given by the discharge of two guns from
Wrede's corps, and the battle commenced. As soon as Macdonald per-
ceived that both his flanks were turned by the allies, he ordered his
whole force to fall back on Troyes, and made no further effort to main-
tain the action than was necessary to secure his retreat. He lost, how-
ever, two thousand men and nine pieces of cannon. Early on the 4th,
he continued his retreat, evacuating Troyes, which was immediately oc-
cupied by the allies.
Blucher, meantime, had crossed the Marne and made all haste toward
Soissons, to avoid Napoleon's pursuit ; and although, by destroying the
bridge in his rear, he greatly delayed the movements of the French
troops, yet he had serious difficulties to encounter ere he could effect a
junction with Bulow and Winzingerode. These generals were on the
opposite side of the Aisne ; and his only means of communication with
them was a wooden bridge thrown over that river at Soissons, a fortified
town in possession of the French. Blucher therefore had apparently no
power to join his lieutenants, before he would be overtaken by Napoleon.
In this dilemma, the Prussian marshal was delivered from his danger
tn a manner so unexpected, that it almost partook of the character of ro-
mance. Bulow and Winzingerode, aware of the imminent peril of Blu-
cher unless the town and bridge of Soissons could be taken, resolved on
a desperate attempt to carry both by storm : but, previous to commencing
the assault, they sent Colonel Lowernstown to treat with the garrison for
a capitulation. The wily colonel, after considerable difficulty, gained an
interview with the governor of the place, and so wrought upon the fears
of that officer as to persuade him to surrender, on condition of being
allowed to withdraw his garrison and artillery ; and, on the 3rd of March,
without the firing of a shot, the allies took possession of Soissons. Blu-
cher could scarcely realize his good fortune ; while Napoleon, who had
relied on making an easy capture of the veteran marshal and his corps,
was so transported with wrath, that he ordered the governor to be deliv-
ered to a military commission. Blucher's escape was indeed sufficiently
marvellous ; for his rear-guard had scarcely passed the gates of Soissons,
when Marmont and Mortier came in great force upon the ground he had
just abandoned ; so that he must inevitably have been destroyed, but for
the opportune surrender of the fortress that had barred his retreat.
The army of Silesia, after the junction of its several corps, ceased to
retreat, and Blucher took up a strong position communicating with Sois-
sons. Napoleon, however, still resolved to strike a severe blow in this
quarter, and by great exertions he accomplished the passage of the Aisne
at Berry-au-Bac, on the 5th of March. He thence hastened toward the
ground occupied by the allies. Blucher's forces were thus divided .
Bulow, with his entire corps, held the town of Laon ; the plateau of Craon,
a strip of table-land flanked by woods and precipices, was guarded by
Winzingerode's infantry under Woronzow and Strogonoff ; Winzingerode
himself, with ten thousand cavalry and sixty pieces of horse-artillery,
was ordered to fall by cross-roads on the French flank ; D'York took post
402 HIS TORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLV
on the highway between Soissons and Laon, to act as a reserve, and suc-
cor any point where aid might be requisite; and Rudzewitch, with six
thousand men of Langeron's corps, undertook the defence of Soissons.
The action commenced by an attack on the last mentioned place, and
was maintained with great obstinacy on both sides ; but the French with-
drew toward evening, without making any serious impression on the for-
tress. Disappointed in this result, Napoleon, the next day, ordered ar-
assault on Craon. The Russian force on this plateau amounted to twenty
seven thousand men ; while the troops directed against them, under Ney
Victor, Nansouty, and Napoleon in person, were not less than forty thou-
sand strong. The battle began at nine o'clock in the morning, the
columns of Victor taking the lead, and both delivering and receiving a
terrible discharge of artillery. That general after a time was repulsed
with great loss ; but Ney soon arrived to support him, and they renewed
the contest with temporary success : for, although they gained a footing
on the height, Woronzow drove them back again at the point of the bay-
onet. At length, the Russian ammunition began to fail ; and Blucher,
disappointed at the non-appearance of Winzingerode on the French flank,
gave orders for a general retreat toward Laon.
-. This movement was undertaken at two o'clock in the afternoon. Wo-
ronzow formed his men with admirable steadiness, although they were
enduring the fire of a hundred French cannon, and directed the retreat in
ordinary time by alternate squares, placing the artillery at the angles, and
the dismounted guns, with such of the wounded as could be moved, in
front of the march. Napoleon made the most desperate efforts to disorder
the allied squares, by bringing forward all his guns and ordering repeated
charges of his heavy cavalry ; but nothing could break the array of those
admirable troops. They moved firmly along to the extremity of the pla-
teau, and there rapidly took up a new position capable of permanent de-
fence and singularly adapted to the operations of artillery. The ground
was flanked on either side by perpendicular and inaccessible rocks ; and
its area rose in the rear by a gradual slope, so that the cannon could be
placed in tiers, one above another, like the upper and lower decks of a
man-of-war. Everything being in readiness, the infantry marched on till
they came abreast of the first tier of guns, when they faced about, and
dressed in a line with the muzzles of the pieces, while the cavalry defiled
to the right and left behind the frowning batteries. The French troops
were greatly astonished, when the screen of the Russian cavalry was
withdrawn, to behold this formidable array; yet ihey moved on to the
attack with determined bravery. The Imperial Guard led the charge ;
but the moment they came within range of the hostile guns, a storm of
round shot, grape and grenades swept down the heads of their columns,
and the Russian fire was so well directed and so admirably sustained,
that not one living man could cross the fatal line. This terrible cannon-
ade lasted but twenty minutes, when the French withdrew from a position
which they found to be impregnable. Soon after, Woronzow, having
gained time for his cavalry, carriages, and wounded men to reach the
great road from Soissons in his rear, fell back, united himself to the gar-
rison of that fortress, and the whole moved on to the environs of Laon.
Napoleon, in this action won only the field of battle ; no trophies remained
to either party : while the loss of men killed and wounded, was -ix thou-
sand on the side of the allies, and eight thousand on that of the French.
1814.1 HISTORY OF EUROPE. 403
On the following day, Blucher collected around Laon his entire force,
amounting to a hundred and nine thousand men ; and Napoleon came up
to renew the battle, with fifty-two thousand of his choicest troops. Laon,
though a town of great antiquity, is of small extent, containing but sev,en
thousand inhabitants. It stands on the flat summit of a conical hill, three-
quarters of a mile in breadth, and elevated nearly two hundred and fifty
feet above the adjacent plain. It is surrounded with old, irregular walls
and towers, which stand on the edge of the hill, and make the circuit by
following its sinuosities. Gardens, orchards and meadows cover the sides
of this truncated cone, and the roads leading to the town ascend the long
acclivity by a gentle slope. The houses at its foot, fronting the adjacent
highways and villages, were at this time loopholed and filled with mus-
keteers ; a hundred pieces of cannon crowned the ramparts on the sum-
mit ; and numerous other batteries were posted on the commanding
eminences around. The allied army lay on the slopes and in the neigh-
boring villages, having the town for a vast redoubt in its centre, and
extending its wings far into the plain on either side. Winzmgerode's
corps, drawn up in two lines near Aven, composed the right; Bulow
occupied the hill of Laon, the villages of Sermilly and Ardon, and the
abbey of St. Vincent in the centre ; while Kleist and D'York, with the
left, extended from Laon to Chantry along the road leading to Rheims.
Sacken and Langeron, whose men had suffered so severely in the prece-
ding combats, were in reserve behind Laon. The French troops, being
fewer in number, were more concentrated. Marmont was ordered to
advance by the road from Rheims, and form the right ; Mortier, with the
Guards and the reserve cavalry, under Grouchy and Nansouty, were in
the centre, opposite Laon ; and Ney, between that place and Sermilly,
commanded the left.
These dispositions were completed on the evening of the 8th of March,
and during the 9th, several partial actions took place ; but Napoleon
would not venture on a general battle until Marmont came up. Thai
marshal had commenced his march early in the morning of the 9th, from
Berry-au-Bac, and, at one in the afternoon, he issued from the defile of
Fetieux, driving before him the Prussian videttes. Blucher clearly per-
ceived, from the vivacity of the attack, that the principal effort of the
French would be made in this quarter; and that the partial attacks which
had already taken place on the centre, were intended only to divert his
attention, while Napoleon turned his flank and cut off his communica-
tions. Blucher therefore, with equal decision and ability, resolved to
retaliate this movement, by a night attack on Marmont ; who, unsupported
by Napoleon, and unsuspicious of any such manoeuvre, lay greatly ex-
posed in his bivouacs.
The Prussians advanced in perfect silence, at the dead of night, upon
the sleeping army ; and, so complete was the surprise, so universal the
Donsternation, the French merely fired one round of grape and then dis-
persed— each one flying, in the darkness, wherever chance or his fears
directed. In this affair Marmont lost forty pieces of cannon, a hundred
and thirty-one caissons, and two thousand five hundred men taken pris-
oners; the number of killed and wounded was inconsiderable, owing to
the rapidity of the flight ; but the corps was totally dispersed, and disa-
bled from taking any active part in military operations until it could be
reorganized. The loss of the allies did not amount to three hundred
men.
404 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLV.
Napoleon, anticipating a general battle that day, was drawing on his
boots at four o'clock on the morning of the 10th, when two dismounted
dragoons were brought to him. They informed him that they had es-
caped, as by a miracle, from a nocturnal assault on the bivouacs of Mar-
mont ; that the marshal was either killed or made prisoner, and that all
was lost in that quarter. This disaster placed the French Emperor in a
serious dilemma. He could not venture to attack an army so greatly
superior to his own as Blucher's, nor was it easy to see how a retreat
from the victorious allies could be accomplished. He therefore adopted
the wisest course within his reach, namely : a resolution to remain for a
short time on the defensive, and deceive the allies by a display of great
force in front, in order to intimidate them from attacking him, and at the
same time cause them to withdraw from the pursuit of Marmont. This
plan completely succeeded. Blucher had given orders to Bulow and
Winzingerode, to follow the anticipated retreat of Napoleon's main body;
but perceiving that the French stood firm, and were apparently intent
on a pitched battle, he countermanded these orders, and directed the
movements against Marmont to be stopped. At nine o'clock in the morn-
ing, the more effectually to cover his designs, Napoleon ordered a general
attack on the allied position, which was maintained with great spirit for
some hours ; and in the meantime his park of artillery, their baggage and
camp equippage, began to defile in the rear toward Soissons. At four
o'clock, the French troops fell back in good order ; but they kept up a
cannonade during their retreat until nightfall, and from the summit of
the ramparts of Laon the march of the retiring columns could be traced
by the light of burning villages, which the French soldiers themselves set
on fire in the reckless fury occasioned by defeat.
On the night of the 10th, the Emperor slept at Chavignon, and on the
llth, the army continued it's march to the defiles in front of Soissons.
This fortress, which had fallen into the hands of the French when Rud-
zewitch evacuated it on his retreat to Laon, offered the sarce secure retreat
to the French, that it had formerly done to the allied army.
General St. Priest, who commanded a corps of Russians, and formed
part of the reserve of the army of Silesia, had been left at Chalons to
maintain the communication between Blucher and Schwartzenberg ; and,
having learned, during the concentration of the French troops around
Laon, that a great part of the garrison of Rheims had been withdrawn
by Napoleon, he resolved to attack that town. The attempt was made
accordingly, on the 12th of March, and succeeded perfectly, the garrison
offering but little resistance. As, however, the possession of this town
drew the points of communication between the allied commanders much
more closely together, and especially as it brought a powerful body of
troops on his right flank, Napoleon determined to recapture the place,
which he reached by a forced march on the 13th. St. Priest at first at-
tempted to defend his position, under a belief that only a small part of
Napoleon's force's was approaching ; but when he perceived that the en-
tire French army was upon him, he made every effort to escape; this,
however, he did not accomplish until he had lost thirty-five hundred men,
and himself received a mortal wound.
CHAPTER XLVI.
THE FALL OF NAPOLEON.
A FEW days of military inaction now ensued, which enabled the leaders
of the belligerent parties to grant a welcome repose to their troops, and
put them into a more efficient state for taking the field. This interval
gives an opportunity to review the state of Napoleon's affairs in other
parts of his Empire.
After the expulsion of the French army from Holland, in December,
1813, the tri-color flag waved only on Bergen-op-Zoom, Bois-le-Duc,
Gorcum, and some lesser forts ; the main strength of the French force in
that quarter being concentrated at Antwerp. To deceive the allies, at
least by the sound of military preparation, the Emperor, on the 21st of
December, ordered the formation of an army of fifty-five battalions, and
conferred the command on Count Maison. But this force, like most others
of which Napoleon had direction at that period, was formidable only on
paper : and when Maison reached Antwerp, he could not muster more
than twenty thousand men for the defence of all the Low Countries ; and
he saw at once that, so far from thinking of the re-conquest of Holland,
ho could barely provide for the protection of Flanders, which was now
threatened on its maritime frontier by the British, and on the side of the
Meuse, by the Russians and Prussians. He therefore disposed a part of
his troops around Antwerp and Bergen-op-Zoom, and made every possible
preparation for sustaining a siege in both places.
Early in January, 1814, a British division six thousand strong, under
Sir Thomas Graham, landed in South Beveland ; and that officer, having
concerted measures with Bulow, commenced, with him, a forward move-
ment on the 10th. On the 13th, the combined forces came into commu-
nication at Merxhem, and they easily drove the French detachment which
occupied that village into Antwerp. Twelve days later, Bulow made a
successful attack on Bois-le-Duc, which was taken by escalade with its
garrison of six hundred men. He then turned his whole strength against
Maison, who thereupon abandoned Antwerp to its own resources, threw a
garrison of a thousand men into Malines, and himself took post at Lou-
vain. On the 29th, Bulow moved upon Antwerp, and completely invested
it ; not with a view to breach and storm its ramparts, to which the small
battering-train now at his disposal was wholly inadequate, but to bombard
the town, and destroy the fleet constructing in its harbor by Napoleon.
At this crisis, Carnot, who had lived in retirement since the fall of Robes-
pierre, and declined all Napoleon's offers of preferment, came forward
with patriotic devotion, and tendered his services to his sovereign. The
Emperor, appreciating Carnot's motives and abilities, immediately ap-
pointed him governor of Antwerp. The bombardment commenced on the
2nd of February ; but the precautions taken by the garrison, rendered it
for the most part ineffectual, and it was discontinued after three days of
constant firing. At the same time, Bulow received orders to raise the
siege and march with his corps into France, where, as already related,
he united himself to Blucher's army. The British troops, not being in
406 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CRAP. XLVi
sufficient force to maintain themselves in front of Antwerp, withdrew to
their former cantonment between that city and Bergen-op-Zoom ; and
Carnot, acting strictly on defensive principles, and reserving his strength
for ulterior operations, made no attempt to disquiet them in their retreat.
But, although Bulow had passed into France, and the British withdrew
to the frontiers of Holland, the deluge of allied troops flowed without in-
termission over Flanders. Wave succeeded wave, as in those days when
the long- restrained might of the northern nations found vent in the decay-
ing provinces of the Roman Empire. The Prince of Saxe- Weimar,
reeinforced to the amount of seventeen thousand men, kept the field ;
Brussels was soon evacuated ; and Maison, who had retired to Tournay,
was observed by. the allies, from their head-quarters at Ath. Gorcum
surrendered on the 4th of February ; and its blockading force, under the
Prussian general Zielenski, was united to the army of the Prince of Saxe-
Weimar, who now marched against Maison, and pursued him to Mari-
henge. Nothing further of moment occurred until the 8th of March ;
when the prince attacked Maison. and drove him under the cannon of
Lille.
The operations in Italy, at the same period, were of considerable im-
portance. Toward the end of December, 1813, Eugene Beauharnois
retired to the line of the Adige, which he occupied with thirty-six thou-
sand combatants. The Austrians opposed to him, under Bellegarde, were
more than fifty thousand strong, exclusive of the detached corps of Mar-
shall, who observed Venice and Palma-Nuova, in his rear. This dispro-
portion of numbers had already induced Eugene to make arrangements
for a retreat; and this became the more necessary when, on the 19th of
January, 1814, Murat's proclamation against Napoleon was promulged.
Eugene accordingly fell back behind the Mincio on the 3rd of February,
his right resting on Mantua, and his left on Peschiera : while the pur-
suing Austrians took post on an opposite line, extending from Rivoli to the
neighborhood of Mantua.
Eugene's position was exceedingly strong in front, and he might easily
have resisted Bellegarde in that direction ; but the movements of Murat
on his rear rendered it impossible for him to maintain his ground ; and,
the better to effect a retreat, he resolved on the bold, and yet, under the
circumstances, judicious measure of giving battle to the Austrians, in the
hope of forcing them across the Adige, ere Murat could arrive to assail
him. Bellegarde had, at the same time, planned an offensive movement :
the two armies therefore simultaneously moved to the attack, on the 8th
of February, and they were mutually surprised on their march ; but
Eugene turned that circumstance to the best account, as he made pris-
oners of fifteen hundred Austrians in the action, while the killed and
wounded on each side were equal, amounting in all to six thousand men.
On the 9th, Eugene, well satisfied to have thus secured a retreat, con-
tinued his retrograde march across the Mincio.
But, while success was thus nearly balanced in this quarter, serious
disasters attended Napoleon's cause elsewhere in the Italian Peninsula.
The castle of Verona surrendered to the Austrians on the 14th of Feb-
ruary ; Ancona, after a siege of twenty-five days, and a bombardment
of eight-arid-forty hours, capitulated to Murat's forces on the 16th ; and
the native Italian troops in Eugene's service, despairing of final victory,
and unable to endure the fatigues and hardships of a winter's campaign.
1814.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 40?
deserted in great numbers ; so that the viceroy, unable to maintain his
position on the Mincio, drew nearer to the Po, and brought forward all his
reserves from the Milanese states. Not long after, the citadels of Pisa,
Lucca and Leghorn, were surrendered to the allies, on condition that the
garrisons of Volterra, Civita-Vecchia, Florence, and the Castle of St.
Angelo, should be transported to France.
Augereau was at this period seriously engaged in operations, both de-
fensive and offensive, in the vicinity of Lyons. A number of partial
actions had there taken place, but without decisive results, during the
month of February and a part of March ; but on the 20th of the latter
month, the allies concentrated themselves in great force around Lyons ;
and, although Augereau made desperate efforts to defend the town, he
was at length totally defeated, and evacuated it at midnight, taking the
road to Valence, in order to gain the line of the Isere. On the 21st, the
allied standards waved over the ramparts of the second city in the French
Empire.
A considerable respite followed the operations of Wellington and Soult
in the neighborhood of Bayonne ; but, early in February, Wellington,
having received powerful reinforcements and completed his preparations
for an offensive campaign, determined to effect the passage of the Adour.
For this purpose, he collected at the mouth of the river forty large sailing
boats, professedly for the commissariat, but in fact laden with planks and
other materials for building a bridge from that point to the fortress. To
conceal his design, he resolved at the same time to threaten Soult's left
with Hill's corps, while Beresford, with the main body, menaced his
centre. By this means, should the allied left, under Hope, succeed in
passing the river, Wellington expected to cut Soult off from Bordeaux,
and drive him toward the Upper Garonne. The troops of Hill and
Beresford were accordingly put in motion on the 14th of February, and
they, vigorously following up the plan of attack, pressed day after day
on the fortified posts of the French marshal, until they forced him to con-
centrate his troops at Sauveterre. Nevertheless, his attention was not
entirely withdrawn from the Lower Adour ; and when, on the morning of
the 23rd, the allies attempted to cross the river, they found a considerable
body of French soldiers at hand to oppose them. The superior number
and resolution of the allies, however, overcame all obstacles, and before
sunrise on the 24th, their entire left wing was established on the opposite
bank. Two days afterward, Hope commenced and effected the invest-
ment of Bayonne.
Meantime, Wellington, taking command in person of his centre and
right, pursued his career of victory on the Gave d'Oleron. The pontoons
arrived on the 23rd, and he made immediate preparations for crossing that
river, behind which Soult was posted with thirty-five thousand men, cov-
ering the bridge of Sauveterre. Early on the 24th, Hill crossed with
three divisions at Villenave, and Beresford passed over near Montfort with
the entire centre. Soult, now deeming his position at Sauveterre unten-
able, fell back to Orthes, abandoning Bayonne to its fate. He drew up
his army on the summit of a semicircular ridge, facing the southwest,
and extending from the neighborhood of Orthes on the left, to the heights
of St. Boes on the right.
Wellington approached in three columns, consisting of thirty-seven
thousand men of all arms. Beresford, with the allied left, commenced
28
408 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLVI,
the action at daybreak, on the 37th, by turning Soult's right near St.
Boes, and gaining beyond the village the road to Dax. Picton advanced
along the great road to Orthes against the French centre ; and Hill led
the allied right against the enemy's left. There was an interval of a
mile in breadth between Beresford's and Picton's columns, and in the
centre of this space a conical hill rose nearly to the height of Soult's posi-
tion : here, Wellington took his station with his staff, having the whole
field spread out before him like a map. Beresford, after gaining and
overlapping the extreme French right, made a vigorous attack in front
and flank on the village of St. Boes. A violent combat ensued. Reille's
men stood firm; St. Boes was strongly occupied, and the musketry rang
loud and long on the summit of the ridge before a foot of ground was won
by the assailants. At length, however, British valor prevailed, and the
village was carried at the point of the bayonet. The victors pursued the
retreating French along the ridge, but here Reille riiude a determined
stand, and the allies suffered great loss in their ineffectual efforts to dis-
lodge him. While the combat was raging on the French right, Welling-
ton hastened forward Picton's attack on the centre ; and this was so
admirably maintained, that the French rapidly gave way ; when Soult.
finding that Hill was making dangerous progress on his left, ordered a
retreat. In this battle, the French loss amounted to four thousand men
and six guns ; that of the allies, to something less than twenty -five hun-
dred. Soult, after allowing his troops a few hours of repose on the banks
of the Luy-de-Bearn, continued his route toward Tarbes and Twulouse,
while Wellington pushed on to Bordeaux.
The inhabitants of Bordeaux, who throughout the Revolution had been
distinguished for their moderate, or royalist principles, were thrown into
the greatest state of excitement by the advance of the allied army into the
south of France, which promised to relieve them from the iron yoke of
Napoleon ; and their enthusiasm reached its climax when the battle of
Orthes opened the road to their city for the victorious army. The royal-
ist committee, which had existed in that city for nearly a twelve-month,
and comprised a large number of the most respectable and influential
citizens, made great efforts to improve the present favorable aspect of
affairs. They unfolded their designs to M. Lynch, the mayor of the city,
who warmly approved their views, and avowed his desire to proclaim
Louis XVIII. The Marquis de Larochejaquelein was soon dispatched to
Wellington's head-quarters, to request the aid of three thousand men in
support of the royal cause. Wellington, however, wisely judging that
a small British force should not be hazarded on so momentous and distant
an enterprise, and appreciating the value of the movement about to take
place, sent twelve thousand men, instead of three thousand, under the
command of Lord Beresford. But as the allied powers were at that time
still negotiating at Chatillon, and as peace might on any day be concluded,
he was careful to inform the inhabitants of the chances of such an event ;
and he distinctly warned them, that in case they declared in favor of Louis
XVIII., and peace were afterward made with Napoleon, it would not be
in the power of the British government to afford them protection.
Beresford set forward on the 8th of March, and on the 12th reached
Bordeaux. The mayor and civic authorities came out to meet him, at a
short distance from the suburbs, and the former delivered an address, in
which he expressed the joy felt by the people at their liberation from
1814.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 400
slavery. His speech was frequently interrupted with cries of " a has les
aigles !" " vivent les Bourbons !" and at its close he removed his tri-
color scarf, with the Imperial eagles and the badge of the legion of honor,
and in their stead mounted the white cockade. His attendants immedi-
ately followed his example ; enthusiastic cheers rent the sky ; and the
British troops, surrounded by an immense multitude of people, entered
the ancient capital of their Plantagenet ancestors, to reestablish the throne
of the royal race with whom they had for so many centuries been engaged
in hostilities. The Duke d'Angouleme arrived, soon after, at Bordeaux,
and was received with universal acclamation.
Wellington's next offensive movement, was the pursuit and attack of
Soult, who had withdrawn to Toulouse and there taken up a strong posi-
tion. The battle that ensued, was one of the most obstinately contested
in the whole war; but, it ended in the defeat of Soult and the occupation
of Toulouse by the allied forces.
In the midst of these accumulated disasters, Napoleon, though yet re-
maining at Rheims, turned his attention toward Paris. The accounts
from that capital were indeed alarming. The grand army of Schwartzen-
berg was at length gradually but steadily approaching ; Troyes had been
reoccupied, the passage of the Seine at Nogent forced, the light cavalry
again appeared at Fontainebleau, and the entire army might reach Paris
within five days. These events naturally caused great commotion among
the inhabitants of the metropolis. The proximity of a powerful enemy,
the absence of Napoleon, the fall of Lyons, the occupation of Bordeaux,
and the proclaiming, by the people in the south, of Louis XVIII., had
excited the utmost consternation among the Imperial functionaries, and
awakened the wildest hopes of the Royalists.
After deliberately estimating the dangers that surrounded him, Napo-
leon resolved to march against Schwartzenberg. To guard against the
consequences of a surprise while engaged in this expedition, he forwarded
secret orders to Joseph, on the 16th of March, directing him to send the
Empress and the King of Rome across the Loire, should Paris be menaced
by the allies. On the 17th, leaving Marmont and Mortier, with twenty
thousand men, to make head against Blucher, he himself set out with the
remainder of his army to join Macdonald and Oudinot.
Napoleon made his first halt at Epernay, and the worthy inhabitants,
emptied their cellars to refresh his troops. On the 18th, he continued his
march toward Aube, and on the 19th, he effected the junction with his
marshals, which raised his force to fifty-five thousand men. "The next
day he directed his steps toward Arcis, expecting to surprise Schwartzen-
berg by a flank attack ; but that general had on the same day adopted a
similar line of advance, and while Napoleon approached Arcis on the
right bank of the Aube, the allied army, though a little further removed,
was coming up to the same point on the left. As Napoleon found that an
action was now inevitable, though he could not commence it at advantage,
as he anticipated, he took up a strong position on the left bank of the river
and awaited the approach of the enemy. His army occupied a semicir-
cular line, facing outward, each flank resting on the Aube, so that it could
not be turned, while in the rear the town of Arcis offered a secure refuge
in case of defeat. The allies disposed themselves in a much larger semi-
circle, facing inward : Wrede commanded the right, the Russian Guards
and reserves under Barclay formed the centre, and RaiefFsky and Giulay
410 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLVi.
had direction of the left. These dispositions were not completed until
late in the day ; and although the battle commenced immediately there-
after, it was rather a cannonade than a general action, and at ten o'clock
at night both parties retired to rest on the field.
At daybreak on the 21st, the opposing armies were drawn up in order
of battle. It was an awful, yet animating sight, when the rising sun
glittered on the low swelling hills that surround the town of Arcis. A
hundred and fifty thousand men were there silently gazing at each other,
without moving from the ground on which they were placed. The in-
fantry stood at ease, but with their muskets at their shoulders ; the cav-
alry were for the most part dismounted, but every bridle hung over the
horseman's arm ; a word from either commander would instantly have
brought on the shock of arms. Yet that word was not spoken. Hour
after hour passed on, until the long suspense became almost unendurable.
At length, toward one o'clock in the afternoon, the French equipages
were seen defiling to the rear, and decided symptoms of a retreat became
manifest. No movement could be more hazardous than such an one, un-
der such circumstances ; yet, so great was the respect inspired by the
presence of Napoleon, and by the imposing array of his highly disci-
plined troops, Schwartzenberg did not give the signal for attack until
three o'clock.
The allies then advanced rapidly from all points, preceded by a hun-
dred pieces of cannon, and their fire fell with destructive effect on the
retiring masses of the French army. Had Schwartzenberg commenced
his attack earlier in the day, he must have gained a decisive victory ;
but his delay left him nothing to combat but the Emperor's rear-guard ;
and Macdonald maintained such a gallant defence with this corps, that
night came on before the allies reached Arcis. ThelFrench destroyed
the bridge behind them, so that Schwartzenberg could not follow in pur-
suit ; and when ths morning dawned, Napoleon, with the main body of
his troops, was far advanced on the road to Vitry.
The battle of Arcis-sur-Aube was not accompanied by any brilliant
trophies taken in the field, yet it was followed by results fatal to the cause
of Napoleon. The loss of the French amounted to four thousand men,
and six pieces of cannon ; the loss of the allies was nearly as great, but
their victory, by defeating the plans of Napoleon, led to his overthrow.
He had intended to attack the rear of the allied army, and by this ma-
noeuvre so far intimidate Schwartzenberg, as to induce him to fall back
from Paris to defend his communications ; and, considering the Austrian
general's sensitiveness on the subject of flank and rear attacks — no mat-
ter how insignificant the party that made them — the design of the French
Emperor was ably conceived, and evinced a just estimate of the enemy
he had to contend with. But the simultaneous movement of the two
armies essentially changed their relative situations, and, by bringing them
prematurely together, defeated the object Napoleon had in view. Still,
in the strait to which he was now reduced, he had no resource but to at-
tempt anew the plan which had been foiled. To do this, however, re-
quired an immense sacrifice, for it would be necessary to march directly
toward the Rhine, and wholly abandon the defence of Paris ; since his
army was now so reduced by defeat and discouragement that he could not
divide without destroying it, and his success depended on his ability to
withdraw and embody into his ranks the garrisons of the blockaded for-
1814.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. ill
tresses in the rear of the allies. Therefore, on leaving Arcis, instead of
taking the road to Chalons, whence he had advanced, or to Paris, whither
he was expected to retire, he retreated along the chaussee of Vitry in the
direction of the Rhine.
He reached the environs of Vitry at the close of his first day's march,
and summoned the town to surrender : but the governor, who had a gar-
rison of four thousand men and forty pieces of cannon, resolved to stand
the hazard of an assault, and refused to open his gates. This check was
quite unexpected ; but, as Napoleon had no leisure to subdue hostile
cities, he turned aside ; and continuing his route, reached St. Dizier on
the 23rd, where he established his head-quarters for the night. Caulain-
court joined him at this place, and informed him of the dissolution of the
congress at Chatillon. This event, together with the hopelessness of the
war and the seeming extravagance of the march toward the Rhine, com-
pleted the discouragement of the officers. They could foresee no end to
the campaign but defeat, nor any benefit to result from the continuance
of their toil and the expenditure of their blood. Instead of defending
Paris, they were hastening toward Germany: their capital, their country,
their homes must necessarily become the prey of the invaders : and
while everything dear to them was in jeopardy, they were plunging anew
into a warfare which had neither an issue nor an object. A revolution
was openly discussed, as a possible, perhaps a probable contingency ; the
obstinacy of the Emperor in refusing the proposed terms of peace, was
universally condemned, and many doubted his sanity. Every one asked,
" Where is this to end ?" " Whither are we marching ?" " If he falls,
shall we fall with him ?"
The allies were greatly astonished when they learned the direction of
Napoleon's march. A Cossack, who first brought the intelligence, was
so confounded with his own news that he said, " the enemy is retreating,
not on Paris, but on Moscow!" It soon became evident that the French
line of advance was decidedly taken, although Schwartzenberg, suspect-
ing a stratagem, crossed the Arcis with the greater part of his army and
followed in pursuit. The next day, his light troops succeeded in captu-
ring a detachment of French cavalry at Sommepuy, with twenty-three
pieces of cannon ; and, what was of far more importance than prisoners
or artillery, the victors intercepted a packet of dispatches from the French
head-quarters which fully explained Napoleon's designs.
These letters were immediately sent to the Emperor Alexander, who
had scarcely finished reading them at a council of war held atDampierre,
on the 23rd, when intelligence arrived that the army of Silesia had ad-
vanced to Rheims and Epernay, and occupied Chalons. Thus, while
Napoleon proposed to attack the communications of the allies and create
a diversion to save Paris, Schwartzenberg and Blucher effected a junction
in his rear, and a hundred and eighty thousand men stood between him
and his capital. At the same time, news was received of the entry of
the British troops into Bordeaux, and the proclamation of Louis XVIII.,
with the general concurrence of the inhabitants. This combination of
events led to a unanimous decision on the part of the allied sovereigns, to
march directly upon Paris ; and they commenced that movement on the
25th of March. Schwartzenberg and Blucher had designated Fere-
Champenoise as a common rendezvous, and the advanced guards of both
armies came in sight of each other near Soude St. Croix, at eight o'clock
412 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLVI.
in the morning of that day. Mortier and Marmont, who now lay between
the allies and Paris, had in the meantime received orders from Napoleon
to join him at Vitry ; but before they could accomplish this, Schwartzen-
berg's movements placed the grand army across their path : so that when
the allied commanders came into communication on the morning of the
25th, the two marshals, who supposed that the allies were pursuing Na-
poleon, unexpectedly found themselves in presence of the whole invading
force. They therefore fell back in great haste toward Fere-Champe-
noise, whither they were vigorously pursued by the enemy's light troops.
The united corps of Marmont and Mortier amounted to twenty-two
thousand men, and the allied troops which first overtook them consisted
entirely of cavalry and artillery, about twenty thousand strong. The
French defended themselves with desperate bravery against this onset,
but nothing could resist the enthusiasm of the allies ; infantry, cavalry
and artillery, were driven with great loss and in utter confusion through
the town of Fere-Champenoise, on the other side of which, under cover
of night, they at length rallied and re-formed their broken ranks. While
this action was in progress, the centre of the allied grand army encoun-
tered on its march a considerable body of French troops under General
Pacthod, who, with a park of artillery and a large quantity of provisions,
was hastening toward Vitry. The Emperor Alexander took command in
person of a detachment of chosen troops, and charged Pacthod's corps
with great impetuosity. The French general made a noble defence, but
the superior numbers of the allies enabled them to capture the entire
convoy. In these two actions, the French lost seven thousand prisoners
and nearly five thousand men killed and wounded, besides eighty guns,
two hundred ammunition wagons, and all the supplies of provision destined
for Napoleon's army ; while the loss of the allies did not exceed twenty-
five hundred men.
At four o'clock in the morning of the 26th, the grand army marched
by the road through Sezanne toward Paris, now but sixty-five miles dis-
tant; and Blucher advanced to the same point by Montmirail and La
Ferte-Gaucher. Napoleon was in the vicinity of St. Dizier, on the 27th,
when he received intelligence that the allies, far from being disturbed at his
manoeuvres on their rear, were pushing forward upon his capital. The
veil now dropped from his eyes : " Nothing," said he, " but a thunderbolt
can save us !" and immediately concentrating his troops, he hastened
toward Paris by the route of Doulevant, Vassy, Troyes, Sens and Fon-
tainebleau.
Meanwhile, the allies entered a rich champaign country, adorned with
villa?, woods, orchards, and smiling fields — all the charming indications
of long established prosperity : it therefore not only abounded with sup-
plies for the use of the troops, but offered almost irresistible temptations
to the accustomed violence and marauding of a conquering army. These
results were the more to be dreaded from a host consisting of the soldiers
of six different nations, part of whom were men of lawless and savage
habits, and all, smarting under the recollection of unendurable wrongs.
To guard against such excess, Alexander issued a proclamation enjoining
the strictest discipline, and foi bidding the Russians to obtain any supplies
but through the intervention of the mayors and local authorities. Not
satisfied with this, he with his own hand addressed a circular to the com-
manders of corps belonging to the other countries, earnestly requesting
1814.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 413
them to adopt similar measures. The effect of this wise and humane
policy was speedily apparent, and the inhabitants, instead of flying before
the allied columns, soon came to regard them without fear, and furnished
whatever was requisite to their subsistence.
At length, the allied columns approached Paris by the forest of Bondy;
and the sovereigns who accompanied the march, ascended an eminence on
the roadside to the left. The sun had just set, a cool breeze refreshed
the air, and not a cloud was visible in the sky. On the right, lay the
buildings of Montmartre, and beyond them the stately edifices of Paris
burst upon the view.
In the midst of the general consternation that now pervaded the French
capital, the Council of State was summoned to deliberate on the grave
question, whether the Empress and the King of Rome should remain in
Paris to await the issue of its contemplated defence, or be conveyed to a
place of safety beyond the Loire. The minister at war, Clarke, briefly
unfolded the military condition of the city: he estimated the forces of the
allies at a hundred and fifty thousand men, and declared that, with the
means of resistance at his disposal, he could not answer for the safety of
the Imperial family. The matter was debated at some length, and finally
the council decided, by a vote of nineteen to four, that the Empress and
her son should be installed in the Hotel de Ville, and an appeal made to
the people for their protection in that last asylum. When this result was
announced, Joseph produced the letter from Napoleon, dated a fortnight
previous at Rheims, ordering that his wife and son should not, under any
circumstances, be allowed to fall into the hands of the allies ; and that if
their armies approached Paris, the Empress and King of P^ome should be
removed to the other side of the Loire. This order superseded the vote
of the Council and closed its deliberations; and it was subsequently ar-
ranged, that Joseph should remain to direct the defence of the capital,
while the principal officers of state accompanied the Empress in her
retreat.
The departure of Marie Louise, on the 29th of March, completed the
discouragement of the inhabitants. A great crowd assembled at the
Place clu Carrousel, when the carriages drove up to the gates at day-
break ; and, although none ventured to arraign the orders of the govern-
ment, many denunciations were uttered privately against a line of policy
which virtually abandoned the capital to the enemy, by withdrawing those
whose presence was best calculated to preserve authority, and stimulate
resistance. The King of Rome, though but three years of age, cried
violently when the attendants came to remove him: he declared that they
were betraying his papa ; and he clung to the curtains of his apartment
with such tenacity, that all the influence of his governess, Madame de
Montesquieu, was requisite to make him quit his hold. He was still in
tears when taken to the carriage. Marie Louise was calm, but deadly
pale. The mournful procession moved off at eleven o'clock, and took the
road to Rambouillet.
Paris is situated on both banks of the river Seine, and its location is as
well adapted to external defence as to internal ornament and salubrity.
From Mount Valerius on the west, to the fortress of Vincennes on the
east, it is protected by a chain of hills running along the northern bank
of the Seine, and presenting a natural fortification on the north and east:
Clichy, Remain vilb, Belleville, Chaumont and Montmartre are the names
414 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Ciur. XLVI.
affixed to this ridge ; and although at that time it was not strengthened by
field-works, it constituted a formidable line of defence. The plain of St.
Denis, between Montmartre and Romainville, extends to the gates of the
capital ; but this was so guarded by batteries, as to be entirely inaccessi-
ble until the adjoining summits were carried. The defence of the town,
however, depended on the possession of the heights. The stranger, on
his first arrival at Paris, is most struck with the extraordinary beauty and
ariety of its public buildings. The long -established greatness of the
rench sovereigns, the taste for architecture which several of them pos-
sessed, and the durable materials of which the capital is built; have con-
spired, through a succession of ages, to store it with edifices which are
not only imposing in themselves, but are in a high degree interesting from
the picture they present of the changes of manners, habits and taste
during the existence of the monarchy. From the stately remains of the
baths of Julian — now devoted to the humble purpose of a cooper's shop
in the Faubourg St. Germain — to the magnificent structures projected by
Napoleon, and completed by the Bourbons, Paris exhibits an unbroken
series of buildings, still entire, erected in the course of fifteen centuries,
connecting together the ancient and modern world ; and forming, like
Gibbon's History, a bridge that spans the dark gulf of the Middle Ages.
The towers of Notre Dame, rising in the austerity of Gothic taste, and
loaded with the riches of Catholic superstition ; the Hotel de Ville,
recalling by its florid architecture the civil wars of the Fronde and the
League ; the Marais, with its stately edifices, carrying us back to the
early splendor of the Bourbons ; the Louvre, bringing to remembrance
the frightful massacre of St. Bartholomew ; the Pont-Neuf, bearing the
image of Henri IV.; the Tuileries, breathing at once of the splendor of
Louis XIV., and the sufferings of his martyred descendant; the Place
Louis XV., where the orgies of royalty were succeeded by the horrors
of Revolution ; the column of the Place Vendome, which perpetuates the
glories of Napoleon — these form, together, a mass of monuments une-
qualled in interest by any other city of modern Europe, and in the view
of a future age may even exceed the attractions of the Eternal City. All
Paris is historical ; the shadows of the dead arise on every side, and the
very stones seem to speak. The streets in the old part of the town are
narrow ; but this, combined with their straightness, renders them the more
striking, as their buildings are always seen in rapid perspective ; and the
old stone piles, five stories in height, and contemporary with the Crusades,
seem to frown in contempt on the modern passenger. On the banks of
the river, a wider space is discovered : light arches span the rapid stream,
and long lines of pillared scenery attest the riches and taste of a more
refined epoch.
The troops at the disposal of Joseph were entirely inadequate to the de-
fence of Paris. The National Guard, indeed, mustered thirty thousand
men ; but not more than half of them were armed, and a considerable
portion of those were occupied at the several barriers of the city, so that
not more than five thousand could be available for the external fortifica-
tions. In addition to these troops, the garrison consisted of the broken
remnants of fifteen divisions, reduced by the campaigns of two years to
twenty-six thousand mon : they were supported by a hundred and twenty
pieces of cannon, fifty-lhree of which were in position^ and some of them
manned by the youths of the Polytechnic School. Marmont commanded
1814.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 415
the right of this force, which rested on Belleville and Chaumont, with
detachments reaching to Vincennes ; and Mortier took direction of the
left, extending between the canal of Ourcq and Montmartre across the-
great road from St. Denis, with posts as far as Neuilly. Of the allies, a
hundred thousand men were in line, ready to take part in the attack ; the
remainder having been left on the Marne, at Trilpost, and at Meaux, to
guard the communications and observe the movements of Napoleon.
At two o'clock in the morning of the 30th of March, the gtntralc was
beaten in all quarters of Paris, summoning the National Guard to assem-
ble at their different points of rendezvous ; and the call was obeyed with
a promptitude that foretold, at least, a brave struggle for victory. At
five o'clock, the anxious troops on watch at the heights of Romainville,
discovered several dark masses beyond Pn.ntin, on the road from Meaux.
As yet, not a gun had been fired on either side. The level glance of the
sun illuminated the quiet slopes of Romainville, and the dome of the In-
valides began to flash in the effulgence of his earliest rays. Suddenly,
the discharge of artillery was heard on the right ; the dark masses be-
came edged with fire : and soon, the roar of several hundred pieces of
cannon announced to the terrified inhabitants, that the last day of the
Revolution had come.
The firing of musketry commenced, at six o'clock, on that part of the
allied line led by Prince Eugene of Wirtemberg, whose division issued
from Pantin, while Raieffsky moved straight upon Romainville. Marmont,
who had already seen his error in not occupying these villages the even-
ing before, was marching to take possession of them with Beyer's division
of the Young Guard, when he met Prince Eugene's Russians near Pan-
tin. A furious conflict ensued ; and so long as the opposite forces were
equally matched, neither gained any perceptible advantage. But Mor-
tier, finding that his position was not assailed, sent two divisions to Mar-
mont's aid, and the Russians were driven back into the villages. At this
juncture, Raieffsky reached his designated point and commenced an as-
sault on the left. His infantry carried Montreuil and his cavalry pushed
in to Charron, nearly in the rear of the Young Guard at Romainville.
It was now eight o'clock, and f.he Emperor Alexander, who had just ar-
rived at the scene of action, learned with dismay that Blucher's troops
had not yet come up to their post at Montmartre ; that the Prince Royal
of Wirtemberg and Giulay were still far behind; and that Raieffsky was
overmatched. He immediately ordered Barclay to bring forward the
grenadiers and the Russian and Prussian Guard.
Prince Eugene now, in turn, had the advantage; and, as the French
batteries on the heights prevented his forward movement, he sent General
Mesecizoff to .unite with Raieffsky and carry the guns. These forces ac-
cordingly made a spirited assault on the wooded hills of Romainville, and
drove the French back to the heights in the rear of Belleville. At the
same time, Count Pahlen, with a body of dragoons, approached the Bar-
riere du Trone, and captured twenty pieces of cannon served by the
Polytechnic scholars. Barclay now ordered the attack in the centre to
be suspended until the arrival of Blucher on the right, and Giulay and
the Prince Royal of Wirtemberg on the left. At eleven o'clock, the
army of Silesia approached, and moved against Marmont at. La Villette:
the French marshal defended his ground for four hours, but was at last
compelled to retire. The Prince Royal did not reach his position on the
416 HIS TORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLVI
left until near one o'clock ; but he then atoned for the slowness of his
march by the vigor of his onset. He occupied the wood of Vincennes,
blockaded the castle, stormed the bridge of St. Maur, and drove the
French troops in that quarter to Charenton.
The entire allied force being now in communication, a general advance
along the whole line took place ; and the great numerical superiority of
the assailants rendered the charge irresistible.
When Joseph perceived that the day was lost, he authorized the mar-
shals to enter into a capitulation, the terms of which were the immediate
surrender of Paris, and the evacuation of all the fortified posts around its
gates. A perfect silence succeeded the loud roar of artillery, while the
conditions of surrender were discussed : from the banks of the Marne
to those of the Seine, the allies rested on their arms in a semicircular
line six miles long ; masses of cavalry filled the plain ; and three hun-
dred pieces of cannon were ready to pour their destructive thunder on
the capital. Suddenly, a brief and isolated struggle commenced anew
on the heights of Montmartre ; the position was carried at a single charge ;
and eighty-four guns were instantly planted there and brought to bear on
the town. " So, father Paris, you must pay now for mother Moscow !"
exclaimed a Russian artilleryman, with the medal of 1812 on his breast,
as he brandished the linstock over his piece. But a suspension of arms
was agreed upon ; a white flag waved from the summit of Montmartre, the
soldiers stacked their arms, and the bands of all the regiments, advan-
cing to the elevated points around the capital, made the air reecho with
the sounds of martial music.
In the meantime, Napoleon was hastening toward his capital. On
the 29th, the Imperial Guard arrived at Troyes, having marched more
than forty miles in that single day. After a few hours of rest, the Em-
peror threw himself into his travelling carriage, and, as the wearied cui-
rassiers could no longer keep pace with him, he set out alone for Paris.
The most disastrous intelligence reached him every time he changed
horses. He learned, successively, that the Empress and his son had
quitted Paris ; that the allies were fighting on its heights, and that they
had reached its gates. His impatience was now redoubled. He left his
carriage for a post caleclie to accelerate his speed ; and, while the horses
were going at a gallop, he urged the postillions to drive faster. The steeds
flew like the wind ; the wheels of the vehicle took fire in rolling over the
pavement, and yet he was dissatisfied. He reached Fromenteau, five
leagues from Paris, at ten o'clock in the evening; and while changing
horses at the post-house, he overheard some straggling soldiers comment-
ing on the capitulation of Paris. " These men are mad !" said he, im-
petuously; "the thing is impossible; bring me an officer." General
Beillard came up at the moment and related the details of the catastro-
phe. Large drops of perspiration stood on the Emperor's forehead ; and
he turned to Caulaincourt, saying, with a fixed gaze that made the minis-
ter shudder, •'* Do you hear that !"
Berthier now approached, and Napoleon remarked that it was time to
start for Paris. " Caulaincourt," said he, " order the carriage." Then,
unable to restrain his anxiety, he set out on foot, accompanied by Cau-
laincourt and Berthier, speaking incessantly as he hurried on, without
waiting for their answers, or seeming to be conscious of their presence.
" I burned the wheels of my carriage," he said ; " my horses were as
L4.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 417
swift as the wind ; but still I felt oppressed with an intolerable weight.
I asked them to hold out for only twenty- four hours. Miserable wretches
that they are ! Marmont, too, who swore that he would be hewn in pieces
rather than surrender ! And Joseph ran off — my own brother ! To sur-
render my capital to the enemy ! What poltroons ! They had my orders.
They knew that on the 2nd of April I would be here with seventy thousand
men. My brave scholars, my National Guard, who promised to defend
my S0n — every man with a heart in his bosom, would have combated on
my side ! And so, they have capitulated ! betrayed their country — their
brother — their sovereign — and degraded France in the eyes of Europe I
Entered into a capital of eight hundred thousand souls without firing a
shot ! It is too dreadful ! This comes of trusting cowards and fools.
When I am not with them, they do nothing but blunder. What has been
done with the artillery ? They should have had two hundred pieces and
ammunition for a month. Every one has lost his wits ; and yet Joseph
imagines he can lead an army ; and Clarke is vain enough to think him-
self a statesman ; but I begin to believe SaVary is right in pronouncing
him a traitor. Set off, Caulaincourt ! Fly to the allied lines ! Pene-
trate to head-quarters ! You have full powers — fly ! fly !" He then in-
sisted on advancing with the cavalry, which had already evacuated Paris :
but on the reiterated assurances of Belliard, that the capitulation was
concluded, and the capital in possession of an army a hundred arid twenty
thousand strong, he at length consented to return, rejoined the carriages
which he had preceded more than a mile, and drove to Fontainebleau,
where he arrived at six o'clock in the morning.
The terms of the capitulation of Paris were for many hours the subject
of eager discussion. The allies gave a ready consent to the demands of
the French marshals, that Paris should be protected ; its private property
held sacred, and its monuments intrusted to the care of the National
Guard ; but a serious difference arose as to the surrender of the troops.
It was finally agreed, however, that the marshals, with their corps, should
quit Paris by seven o'clock the next morning ; that the public arsenals
should be given up to the allies ; that the National Guard should, at the
option of the victors, either be disbanded or aid the allies in the provis-
ional government of the city ; that the wounded and stragglers found in
or about the town after ten o'clock, should be considered prisoners of
war ; and that Paris should be recommended to the generosity of the
allied powers.
While these negotiations were going on between the delegates of the
hostile parties, the municipal magistrates of Paris repaired to the head-
quarters of the allied sovereigns, to devise some plan for conducting the
internal affairs of the capital. The Emperor Alexander received them in the
most gracious manner. " Gentlemen," said he, " I am not the enemy of the
French nation, but only of one man, whom I once admired and long loved :
a man who, corrupted by ambition and bad faith, came into the heart of my
dominions with fire and sword, and forced me to provide for my future
safety by aiding in his overthrow. My colleagues and mvself have come
here, not to conquer or to rule France, but to discover and support what
France herself deems most suitable for her own welfare. We n-rv nait
only to ascertain, in the declared wishes of Paris, the probable wishes of
the kingdom." He then promised to take under his special charge the
museums, monuments, and public institutions of the capital. On the
418 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLVI.
request of the magistrates that the National Guard should be kept together,
Alexander, turning to the chief of the staff, asked if he could rely on that
civic force. The reply being in the affirmative, he rejoined, that he de-
sired no other guarantee, and that he leferred the details to General
Sacken, whom he had appointed governor of Paris.
When it was currently known in the metropolis, on the 30th of March,
that the capitulation was completed, the Royalists openly declared them-
selves. M. Charles de Vauvineux stood up in the Place Louis XV., and
read to a small assemblage of his partisans, a proclamation issued by
Schwartzenberg on the preceding day ; and at its close, he mounted the
white cockade, and shouted " vive le rot /" At first, only four men followed
his example ; but these, nothing daunted, rode on horseback through the
streets, repeating the old rallying-cry of France, and distributing white
cockades to the people.
Noonday arrived while things were in this state ; and, in conformity to
a previous arrangement, the allied troops began to appear in the Faubourg
San Martin, on their way to* the capital. The Prussian cavalry of the
Guard, preceded by some squadrons of Cossacks, came first ; then the
Prussian light horse ; the Russian and Prussian infantry ; the Russian
cuirassiers ; and the artillery of the whole army. When the superb
array of the Russian household troops passed the barriers, one universal
feeling of enthusiasm seized upon the multitude of spectators. Every
window was crowded ; every roof covered ; and the throng in the streets
became so dense that the troops had great difficulty in accomplishing their
march. The Parisians, passing from the extreme of terror to that of
gratitude, now gave vent in loud applauses to their astonishment and
admiration : for Schwartzenberg's proclamation to them had already been
placarded on every corner, and its conciliatory expressions were known and
appreciated. The grand object of the people's anxiety was to get a
glimpse of the Emperor Alexander, to whom they ascribed their deliv-
erance. When that monarch, with the King of Prussia on his right, and
Schwartzenberg and Lord Cathcart on his left, reached the Porte St.
Martin, the excitement of the multitude reached its climax. Shouts of
" Vive PEmpereur Alexandre !" " Vive le Roi de Prussie !" " Vivent les
Allies!" "Vivent nos Liberateurs !" burst forth from all sides; and the
universal transport resembled the homage of a grateful people to a bene-
ficent sovereign, rather than the reception by the vanquished of their
conqueror, after a bloody and desperate war.
At the close of the procession, Alexander alighted at the hotel of Tal-
leyrand, where the leading members of the Senate, and the most distin-
guished individuals of the capital, were assembled. On the side of the
Royalists, were Baron Louis, the Abbe de Pradt, the Due de Dalberg,
Bourrienne, and Beurnonville : these, with the King of Prussia, Prince
Schwartzenberg, Prince Lichtenstein, Count Nesselrode, and the Count
Pozzo di Borgo, with many others, composed this memorable assemblage.
Alexander opened the discussion, by stating that one of three courses
must be adopted by the allies : They must make peace with Napoleon,
taking the necessary securities against its infringement ; establish a
regency ; or, recall the House of Bourbon. On these momentous ques-
tions he requested the opinion of the personages present, averring, that the
sole wish of the allied sovereigns was to consult the wishes of France,
and to secure the peace of the world. Talleyrand immediately rose, and
1814.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 419
urged that the first and second of these projects were inadmissible, as there
could be no peace in Europe while Napoleon, or any of his race were
on the throne. He finished by saying, that the alternative was to
adopt the third course proposed, which would be generally acceptable,
and which alone offered a remedy for the evils in which the country was
involved. The Abbe de Pradt and Baron Louis, on being asked for their
opinions, avowed themselves Royalists, and added, that a great majority
of the French people entertained the same sentiments. After some fur.
ther discussion on this point, Alexander declared that he would no longer
treat with Napoleon, nor with any member of his family.
The die being thus cast, the next step was to announce the result to the
inhabitants of Paris. This was accomplished by means of an address, in
which the allied sovereigns proclaimed, that they would grant more favor-
able terms to a wise and peaceful government, than to one which required
precautions against the devouring ambition of Napoleon ; that they would
respect the integrity of France, such as she had been under her legiti-
mate monarchs ; and that, wishing Frtince to* be great and powerful, they
would guaranty any convention she might adopt. The address ended
with a request to the Senate, to appoint a provisional government, and
prepare a suitable Constitution for the people of France. Orders were
at the same time sent to the police for the liberation of all persons con-
fined for state offences.
On the first of April, Talleyrand, in his capacity of Arch-chancellor
of the Empire, convened the Senate in their usual hall of assembly.
Only sixty-four of the one hundred and forty members, obeyed the sum-
mons ; but among these were men of distinction, who had been active on
the extreme side of almost every question throughout the phases of the
Revolution. To the proceedings of that day are affixed the names of
Destutt Tracy, Fontanes, Garat, the Abbe Gregoire, Lambrecht, Lan-
juinais, the Abbe de Montesquieu, Roger Ducos, Serrurier, Soules, and
the Due de Valmy. A provisional government was speedily and unani-
mously established, consisting of Talleyrand, president, Count de Beur-
nonville, Count de Jaucourt, the Due de Dalberg, and M. de Montesquieu.
No mention was made of Napoleon, although these very proceedings
were the most decided act of high treason to his authority ; nor of the
Bourbons, though each measure adopted was a direct approach to their
recognition.
When everything was concluded, the Senate adjourned to wait upon
the Emperor Alexander, who received them with great cordiality. In
the course of his remarks to them, he said, " Your provisional govern-
ment asks for the liberation of the French prisoners of war, confined in
Russia. I grant this to the Senate. From the time these men fell into
my hands, I have done what I could to soften the rigor of their lot ; and
no'w, 1 will give orders for their release from captivity. May they
rejoin their families in peace, and enjoy the tranquillity which the
new order of things is fitted to induce !" These wj. JIs secured the free-
dom of a hundred and fifty thousand men ; and such was the vengeance
that Alexander took for the desolation of his dominions. Napoleon, when
he became master of Berlin in 1806, said. " I will make the Prussian
nobility so poor that they shall beg their bread." When he withdrew
from Vienna, in 1809, he blew up the time-honored bastions of the capital ;
and when he evacuated Moscow, in 1812, he gave orders for the destruc.
tion of the Kremlin, the most noble edifice that had escaped the flames,
38
420 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLVI.
On the 2nd of April, the Senate, by a solemn decree, dethroned the
Emperor, and absolved the army and the people from their oaths of alle-
giance. The legislative body, at a subsequent meeting of seventy-seven
of its members, confirmed these acts of the Senate. Declarations of ac-
quiescence in the decree, and of adhesion to the course of the government
now came rapidly in from all points. The public bodies of Paris trans-
mitted addresses filled with invectives against Napoleon, and as the news
reached the provinces, it was quickly responded to by proclamations of
the downfall of the tyrant, and the cordial approval by the people of the
new order of things. Still, not a word was said by the constituted
authorities concerning the return of the Bourbons. On the contrary, the
persons appointed to fill the principal offices in the new government, were
almost all drawn from the Republican party : and in this, Talleyrand
showed his profound knowledge of human nature : he could gain the
Republicans only through the medium of their interests, but he was sure
of the Royalists from the force of their affections.
The next important consideration was, to ascertain the temper of the
French army ; for although its numbers were so greatly reduced, it might
still, with Napoleon at its head, exert a powerful influence on the destinies
of the nation. The matter was not long in suspense. The Moniteur of
April 7th, contained an official correspondence between Schwartzenberg
and Marmont, in which the latter declared his adhesion to the new gov-
ernment, on condition that the life and personal freedom of the Emperor
should be secured, and a fitting asylum provided for the defeated sove-
reign, in some place to be designated by the allied powers ; and that such
of the French troops as, in virtue of the present convention, might pass
over to the allies, should be furnished with secure quarters in Normandy.
These conditions were conceded, and Marmont's entire corps entered the
allied lines, where they were received with acclamation.
When intelligence of these proceedings reached Napoleon at Fontaine-
bleau, he was greatly exasperated, and issued orders to the soldiers yet
under his command to advance immediately on Paris : but his marshals,
who had everything to lose, and nothing to gain by a renewal of hostilities,
strongly opposed the movement, as desperate and unavailing against such
a multitude of foes. Their representations and arguments finally pre-
vailed, and the Emperor signed an abdication in favor of his son, and
appointing Marie Louise as regent. He then sent Caulaincourt, with Ney
and Macdonald, to Paris, to obtain from the conquerors their approval of this
instrument. The efforts of these ambassadors,however, were unavailing :
the allied powers unanimously decided that the sentence of dethronement
pronounced by the Senate could not be disturbed, and they avowed their
determination not to negotiate with Napoleon, nor with any of his family.
Caulaincourt and Macdonald, finding it impossible to accomplish anything
for their Emperor, returned to sympathize with his misfortunes ; but Ney
was more flexible. As feeble and irresolute in political life, as he was
bold and perseveriiii, AI the battle-field, he with little hesitation joined the
party of Talleyrand ; and his formal adhesion to the new government
was promulged in the columns of the Moniteur.
In truth, during the four days following the declaration of the allies
that they would not treat with any member of the Napoleon dynasty, the
cause of the Bourbons completely triumphed. The voice in their favor,
which at first emanated from a few devoted adherents, had now swelled
1814.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 421
into a mighty shout, from nearly all the population of the capital.
Nevertheless, the people were not all moved by a chivalrous feeling of
loyalty, or an abstract repentance for the crimes of the Revolution —
deliverance from evil was their prevalent and all-controlling desire.
When Macdonald and Caulaincourt returned to Fontainebleau, and re-
ported the refusal of the allies to negotiate with them, Napoleon gave vent
to a violent burst of anger ; but. as on a previous occasion, his counsellors
gradually brought him to a cooler examination of his predicament, and
at last prevailed on him to sign an unconditional surrender of the throne.
This instrument was immediately transmitted to Paris, and a formal treaty
between Napoleon and the allies was drawn up, and subscribed on the
llth of April. Napoleon, by this treaty, renounced the Empire of France
and the Kingdom of Italy, for himself and his descendants : but he was
permitted to retain the title of Emperor, and the titles of prince and prin-
cess were conceded to his brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces. The
island of Elba, selected by himself as his place of residence,, was erected
into a principality in his favor ; the Duchy of Parma and Placentia. was
secured to the Empress Marie Louise and her son, in full sovereignty. The
sum of two and a half millions of francs was provided for the annual
income of Napoleon, and two millions more were inscribed on the great
book of France, to descend to his heirs after his decease. A million of
francs, yearly, was also inscribed for the use of Josephine. The princes
and princesses were allowed to retain all their movable estate ; but the
furniture of the palace and the crown jewels were held for France. Fif-
teen hundred of the Old Guard were to escort the Emperor to his place of
embarkation ; and he was at liberty to take with him four hundred sol-
diers for his body-guard. The Poles in the service of France were suf-
fered to return to their own country, with their arms and baggage. The
treaty bore the signatures of Caulaincourt, Macdonald, Ney, Metternich,
Nesselrode, and Hardenberg. Lord Castlereagh, on the part of England,
acceded to this treaty ; " but to be binding on his Britannic Majesty,
enly with respect to his own acts, not with respect to the acts of third
parties."
At noonday on the 20th of April, the Emperor took leave of his Old
Guard, who were drawn up in the court of the palace, and he set out on his
journey, accompanied by four commissioners on the part of the allies :
General Roller, for Austria ; General Schonvaloff, for Russia ; Colonel
Campbell, for England ; and Count Waldbourg-Truches for Prussia. He
was received with respect and in some cases with enthusiasm, by the in-
habitants on the route from Fontainebleau to Lyons ; but, after passing the
latter city, he began to experience proofs of the fickleness of his subjects
and of the general indignation produced by his oppressive government.
At Valence, he saw the walls covered with a proclamation of Augereau,
denouncing his reign and dynasty ; and although the troops were in array
to receive him, they all wore the white cockade : at Orange, loud cries
of " vive le roi !" " vive Bourbon !" greeted his ears ; and at Avignon,
he found his statues thrown down from their pedestals. As he continued
his journey to the south, the general disaffection so increased that on more
than one occasion his life was in danger. He reached Frejus on the
27th ; and on the 28th, set sail for Elba on board the English frigate, the
Undaunted. Captain Usher, the commander of that vessel, in conformity
to the orders of the British government, received him with the honors due
422 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLVL
to a crowned head : a royal salute was fired when he entered the ship,
the yards were manned, and the cheers of the crew rang a loud welcome
to the dethroned sovereign, as he appeared on their quarter-deck. Napo-
leon was so affected by this reception from his onernies, which presented
such a singular contrast to the treatment he had just experienced from
his own subjects, that he burst into tears. During the voyage he as-
sumed a cheerful and affable manner, conversed much with the captain
and officers, and was very inquisitive concerning the details of English
naval discipline. A slight shade passed over his countenance when the
ship came within sight of the maritime Alps, the scene of his early tri-
umph ; but he soon recovered his serenity, and before he arrived at Porto
Ferrajo, he had gained a strong hold on the affections of every man on
board.
Josephine did not long survive the fall of the hero, with whose marvel-
lous fortunes her own seemed to be mysteriously linked. Alexander was
desirous to see and console her in her distress, and, at his request, she
came 4o Malmaison to meet him. While there, she was attacked with a
severe illness, which terminated her life on the 28th of May.
Louis XVIII. left his peaceful retreat at Hartwell on the 20th of April,
and proceeded to London, where he was received with numberless wel-
comes and congratulations. After bestowing upon him every attention in
the British capital, the Prince Regent accompanied him to Dover, whence
he embarked for France on the 27th. The roar of artillery announced
his departure, and the thunder of the English cannon had hardly ceased
to reverberate, when the answering discharge of guns on the French
coast from Calais to Boulogne, announced the arrival of the monarch in
the kingdom of his forefathers.
Louis reached Compeigne on the 29th ; and, the preparations for his
reception at Paris being completed, he made a public entry into that me-
tropolis by the gjate of St. Denis, on the 3rd of May. The Duchess
d'Angouleme was seated at his side ; the Old Guard of Napoleon formed
his escort ; the National Guard kept the streets free for the procession ;
and innumerable officers and privates of the allied armies added, by their
gay and varied uniforms, to the splendor of the scene.
More important duties, however, than receiving and replying to con-
gratulations, awaited the new monarch — the conclusion, namely, of a
treaty with the allied powers, which should satisfy their just and inevi-
table demands, and, at the same time, prove no stumbling-block to the
establishment of his own authority, by concessions that might tend to
injure him in the respect and affections of the people of France. By a
convention already completed, on the 23rd of April, it had been provided
that the French troops should evacuate all the fortresses and territories
beyond the frontiers of France, as she existed prior to 1792 ; that the
allied troops, with the least possible delay, should retire from the domin-
ions of France thus designated ; and that all military exactions, on both
sides, should instantly cease. In virtue of this compact, fifty-three for-
tresses of note, twelve thousand pieces of cannon, with an incalculable
quantity of ammunition and military stores were surrendered by France.
The treaty with Louis XVIII. signed at Paris on the 30th of May, by
the plenipotentiaries of France on the one side, and of Great Britain, Rus-
sia and Prussia on the other, contained little that had not been foreseen
after the details of the convention of April were made known. It stipu-
1814.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 423
lated that France should be reduced to her former limits, as they stood on
the 1st of January, 1792, excepting the cession that had been made of
various small territories — some, to France by the neighboring powers,
and others by France to them — for mutual advantage, and for the sake
of defining more clearly the French frontier. Holland was to be an in-
dependent state, under the sovereignty of the House of Orange, but with
an accession of territory ; Germany was to be independent, but under the
guarantee of a federal union ; Switzerland independent, governed by
itself; and Italy, divided into sovereign states. The free navigation of
the Rhine was expressly stipulated. Malta was ceded in perpetuity to
Great Britain ; and that power agreed to restore to France and her allies
all the colonies taken from them during the war, .excepting the islands of
Tobago and St. Lucie in the West, and the Isle of France in the East
Indies. France was permitted to form commercial establishments in the
East Indies, but under condition, that she should send thither no more
troops than might be requisite for the purposes of police ; and she re-
gained the right of fishing on the Banks of Newfoundland, and in the
Gulf of St. Lawrence. The fleet of Antwerp, consisting of thirty-eight
ships of the line and fifteen frigates, was to be divided between France
and Holland, in the proportion of two-thirds to the former, and one-third
to the latter country. All subordinate points and matters of detail were,
by common consent, referred to a Congress of the great powers to assem-
ble at Vienna in the autumn of that year.
In this general settlement of Europe, after the Revolutionary deluge
had subsided, the fate of Pius VII. must not be overlooked. When Paris
capitulated, 'his holiness was still detained at Provence, and one of the
first measures of the provisional government was, to liberate him and cause
him to be conveyed to the Italian frontier with the honors due to his rank.
On his arrival at Cesina, Murat waited upon him, and exhibited a memo-
rial signed by a number of the nobles and chief inhabitants of Rome, and
by them addressed to the allied powers, praying that the Roman States
might be incorporated with one of the secular states of Italy. His holi-
ness, without looking at the memorial to discover who had thus endeavored
to despoil him of his possessions, generously threw it into the fire. When
he arrived at his capital, some of the nobles who had affixed their signa-
tures to this paper, overcome by his clemency, came to ask his forgive-
ness. " Have we not some faults too, with which to reproach ourselves ?"
replied the pontiff: " let us bury our injuries in oblivion."
29
CHAPTER XLVII.
INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND THE NORTH OF EUROPE.
THE termination of the war excited a degree of enthusiastic joy in the
British dominions, of which it is impossible to give an adequate descrip-
tion. A large number of the inhabitants had come into existence since
the commencement of the contest, and had inhaled with their earliest
breath an ardent desire for its success. Those who were older, felt that
whatever opinions they may have entertained at the outset, the fate and
character of the British Empire had finally been staked on the throw, and
that their own and their children's freedom depended on its result. The
patriots now rejoiced in the victory of the allies, because it secured the
glory and independence of their own country ; the partisans of the aris-
tocracy, because it closed a gulf that threatened to swallow up all ancient
institutions ; and the friends of liberty, because it had been achieved by
the united efforts of the European people, and promised to establish free-
dom in France. The visit of the allied sovereigns to England, whither
they repaired in the summer of 1814, excited these feelings to the highest
pitch. All ranks, from the throne to the cottage, participated the general
enthusiasm. In the anxiety and animation attendant on public events,
the distresses and joys of private life were for a time forgotten : the senti-
ments of the British nation resembled those of a crowded audience in a
theatre, when the genius of the actor, leading the multitude beyond the
barriers of individual restraint, draws from assembled thousands one
unanimous and simultaneous burst of applause.
After the first tumultuous excitement was past, the thoughtful observer,
with the liveliest gratitude for the past and the most sanguine expectations
for the future, pondered on the wonderful events of the war. There
seemed to be a poetical justice in its result, an equity in the retribution
which had overtaken the great and guilty nation, that demonstrated pecul-
iarly the providence of GOD. The wildest anticipations were now in-
dulged in England, as to the subsequent progress of liberty in France.
" Deplorable," it was said, " as have been the excesses, bloodstained as
were the hands of the first apostles of freedom in that country, their labors
have not been in vain. A constitutional monarchy has at last been erected ;
guarantees of liberty established ; her condition under the old monarchy,
compared with the freedom she will enjoy under the Restoration, was
slavery itself. The blood shed by Robespierre, however, was but for a
season : the carnage of Napoleon has passed away : the glorious fabric
of freedom has emerged unsullied from the sanguinary hands of its found-
ers, and a brighter era has opened on the human race from the very
crimes that appeared to overcloud its prospects."
Such hopes are the dream of the poet ; they constitute the charm of the
melodrama, but belong not to the history of man. The crimes of the
Revolution had been too great ; the breaches it made, too wide ; the blood
sned, too profusely lavished ; the injuries inflicted, too serious and uni-
versal— to admit the immediate founding of a pacific and prosperous
society on its ruins. Human passions do not subside, like the waves of
1814.J HISTORY OF EUROPE. 435
the ocean, when the winds are stilled ; and iniquity, once let loose, can-
not be restrained as soon as its original instigators are destroyed.
One of the earliest measures of the Parliament of Great Britain after
the conclusion of peace was, a resolution to provide for the military heroes
of that nation on a scale of munificence proportionate to their services.
The House of Commons, by a unanimous vote, granted four hundred
thousand pounds sterling to Wellington, and pensions of two thousand
pounds per annum were likewise voted, severally, to Sir Thomas Graham,
Marshal Beresford, and Sir Rowland Hill. Wellington was subsequently
created a Duke ; Graham, Beresford and Hill were raised to the peerage ;
the honors of knighthood were bestowed on Picton, Cole, Leith, and others
who bore a prominent part in the contest ; while ribbons and stars were
scattered profusely among their less distinguished brethren in arms.
About the same time, an interesting discussion on the affairs of Norway
took place in Parliament. It had been provided by a treaty between
Alexander and Bernadotte, in 1812, that the latter should receive the
kingdom of Norway in exchange for the continental possessions of Sweden
which he ceded to Denmark ; and Great Britain had not only recognized
this treaty, but promised her armed interference, ifyiecessary, to carry it
into effect. Now, however, when Bernadotte claimed from Great Britain
the performance of her promise, the Norwegians loudly protested against
this compulsory transfer of a free people to the rule of their hereditary
enemies ; they also refused to obey an order of the King of Denmark to
admit the Swedish authorities ; prepared to resist any forcible occupation
of their territory, and dispatched envoys to Great Britain to interest the
English people in their cause. In consequence of these proceedings, Ber-
nadotte assembled an army on the frontier, and some British ships were
sent to blockade the harbors of Norway. The most lively interest was
excited in Europe by these belligerent measures, as well from the import-
ance to the parties concerned of the questions at issue, as from the indi-
cations thus afforded of the intention of the allied powers in regard to other
countries which might, in like manner, be transferred from their legiti-
mate rulers. The subject of British intervention to enforce this treaty,
was warmly debated in Parliament ; the ministry insisting on the policy
to which they stood pledged by the compact, and the opposition contend-
ing for the inalienable * rights of a free people : on the final question, the
majority of the Peers in favor of the ministry was eighty-one, and of the
Commons a hundred and fifty-eight.
Nevertheless, as the resistance of the Norwegians continued, Berna-
dotte commenced actual hostilities to effect the occupation of the country.
He first published a manifesto, promising to the people a constitution on
the footing of national representation, and giving them the power of levy-
ing their own taxes ; but this was disregarded by the Norwegians, as was
also a letter addressed to them by the King of Denmark, counselling them
TO submission, and denouncing Prince Christian, whom they had recently
proclaimed king. Prince Christian, far from being intimidated by the
threatening aspect of affairs, traversed the country, and everywhere en-
couraged the people to defend their rights.
But the engagements of the allied powers to Sweden were too impera-
tive to suffer their giving heed to the appeals of the Norwegians. Mr.
Ariker, the envoy to London from that country, was informed by Lord
Liverpool of the position of the British government, and requested to return
426 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLVIL
home : despite this, however, the Diet of Norway formally conferred the
crown on Prince Christian and his male heirs. M. Morier was subse-
quently dispatched by the British cabinet to effect a pacific settlement of
the differences, and the envoys of the allied powers arrived in Norway
with a similar intention; but all their efforts were fruitless: they there-
fore departed without having accomplished anything, and preparations
were made on both sides for war.
The campaign was opened by an attack, near the Hualorn islands, on
the Norwegian fleet, which the Swedish squadron defeated with trifling
loss to their own ships. Bernadotte followed up this success by an inva-
sion of Norway. His leading columns, under General Gahn, were re-
pulsed in an attempt to force the mountain passes; but this proved only a
temporary disadvantage. Frederickstadt was soon after captured ; the
Norwegian army was routed at Isebro; Sleswick fell into the hands of
the Swedes; preparations were made for bombarding Frederickstein ;
and, after a series of marches and manoeuvres, the army of Christian was
surrounded by superior forces near Moss. This succession of disaster
dispirited the Norwegians, and rendered a further struggle hopeless ; a
convention was therefore concluded with Bernadotte, wherein Christian
renounced his pretensions to the crown, and the King of Sweden con-
sented to govern Norway under the restrictions of a modified constitution
prepared by the Diet of the latter kingdom. The terms of this constitu-
tion, in detail, were highly favorable to the Norwegians, who preserved
the substance, though not the form of independence. Bernadotte has
since ruled them with lenity and judgment, and though many old patriots
still mourn over the loss of their political freedom, Norway has no sub-
stantial reason to regret her union with the Swedish monarchy.
Some important measures relative to the corn laws, took place at this
time, in the British Parliament.
During a greater part of the eighteenth century, England had been, to
a certain extent, an exporting country ; and the land owners had suffi-
cient influence in the legislature to obtain the passage of a law, granting
a bounty of five shillings a quarter on all wheat shipped to foreign states.
By the first statute of William and Mary, c. 12, passed in 1688, exporta-
tion was allowed, and the bounty paid, when wheat should be at or under
48s. the quarter. Throughout the succeeding century, the bounty was
repeatedly suspended, owing to the high price of grain, and numerous
supplementary statutes were passed to alleviate the temporary distress :
the act of William and Mary, however, continued to be the general law
of the country until 1765, when by 3 George III., c. 31, the bounty was
abolished and all import duties were repealed. This state of things con-
tinued until 1791 ; at which time, by 31 George III., c. 30, the old bounty
was revived when wheat should be under 44s. the quarter, and exporta-
tion prohibited when it rose above 46s. The same law imposed a duty of
24s. 3d. the quarter on imported wheat, if prices were under 50s. ; of 2s.
6d. when they were from 50s. to 54s. ; and of 6d. when they exceeded
54s. This scale was to a certain degree modified by 44 George III., c.
108, passed in 1804, which act allowed wheat to be exported when prices
were at or under 48s., with a bounty of 5s. ; if prices were above 54s.,
export was prohibited : on imports, if prices were under 63s., the duty
was 24s. 3d. ; if from 63s. to 66s., 2s. 6d. ; and if above 66s., 6d. The
object of these, and a great number of intermediate and temporary acts,
1814.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 427
was to prevent that grievous evil to which a people are subjected by great
fluctuations in the price of grain ; and to secure, as far as human foresight
could, the advantage of steady supply and uniform value in this prime
article of man's subsistence.
Under the operation of these statutes, Great Britain, for nearly seventy
years, continued to be an exporting country. From 1697 to 1766, ex-
cepting six years of that period, the amount annually shipped was much
greater than that imported, and in some instances this excess reached as
high as nine hundred thousand quarters. After 1766, the balance was
reversed, and especially during the scarcity of 1800, 1801, and 1810, the
total imports ranged from twelve hundred thousand to fifteen hundred
thousand quarters, against an export of from twenty-two thousand to
seventy-five thousand. This was a most important change, and the varia-
tion in prices was hardly less so : for ten years, ending in 1785, the ave-
rage value of wheat was forty-seven shillings and some pence ; for the
same term, ending 1795, it averaged fifty-four shillings; again, to 1805
it averaged eighty-one shillings ; and for the eight years thence ensuing,
it rose to one hundred and one shillings. These facts naturally awak-
ened the anxious solicitude of the legislature and the nation at the close
of the war, when the restoration of a general peace exposed the British
farmer anew to the competition of foreign grain ; and when the great
change in prices, consequent on the suspension of cash payments and
the boundless expenditures of the war, rendered him so much less able
to bear it.
Under the combined influence of foreign exclusion and domestic en-
couragement, in the latter years of the contest, agriculture had greatly
increased. Capital to the amount of several hundred millions sterling
had been invested in land, and had yielded a remunerating return: the
home cultivators, notwithstanding an increase of nearly fifty per cent, in
the population during the preceding twenty-five years, kept pace with the
wants of the inhabitants ; the importation of grain, of late, was trifling in
amount ; and it now became a grave question whether these advantages
should be thrown away — whether, after the nation had rendered itself
independent of foreign countries as regarded its breadstuffs, it should
recommence the importation of grain, and sacrifice what had been gained
by such persevering effort. The matter was debated at great length by
Mr. Huskisson, Mr. Vansittart, Mr. Frankland Lewis and Sir Henry
Parnell, in favor of the Corn Law, and Mr. Rose and Mr. Canning, in the
opposition. A bill was finally passed by large majorities in both houses
of Parliament, establishing the sliding scale, to commence with a duty on
imported wheat of twenty-four shillings, when the price should be ,sixty-
three shillings the quarter ; and this duty was to decrease one shilling for '
every shilling of augmentation in the market price of grain.
Meantime, France was struggling with events consequent on the down-
fall of Napoleon. Probably no task ever fell to the lot of man more
difficult of performance, than that which now devolved on Louis XVIII. : he
had to restrain passion without power, satiate rapacity without money, and
appease ambition without the means of conferring glory. Before the cri-
sis of the final struggle arrived, the general desire was for deliverance ;
but when the conqueror fell, and the parties whose coalition had effected
his overthrow were called to remodel the government, to share the power,
to nominate the members of the administration, irreconcilable differences
428 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLVIL
began at once to appear. Mutual jealousies, as rancorous as those which
had rent the Empire asunder, shook the monarchy at the moment of its
restoration.
The Republicans in the Senate joined Talleyrand and the Royalists,
solely on the promise that their wishes should be consulted in modelling
the new Constitution, and that they should obtain a large share in the ap-
pointments and influence of the government. Extravagant expectations
had consequently been formed with regard to the amount of popular power
hat would follow the Restoration ; and the Constitution of 1791 was openly
canvassed as the basis of the new monarchy.
The sentiments of the French king, however, matured by misfortune
and reflection, were not to be controlled by a party. He determined to
pursue a middle course, between the Royalists and Republicans ; and
hoped, without submitting to such conditions as might alienate the former,
to satisfy the latter by yielding to their reasonable demands. He resolved,
therefore, to make no terms with his subjects, but mount the throne and
grant, of his own free will, such a Constitution as would be acceptable to
the warmest friend of civil liberty. A commission to frame such a Con-
stitution was accordingly formed, consisting of nine members of the
Legislative Body, nine of the, Senate, and four others appointed by the
king. They assembled on the 22nd of May; and on the 27th-, completed
a Charter which was solemnly promulgated to the Senate and Legislative
Body at the Bourbon Palace, on the 4th of June. The king there pro-
duced a speech of his own composition, and announced to the peers and
deputies that he had prepared a Charter, which would then be read to
them. He concluded his address with these words: " A painful recol-
lection mingles with my joy, at thus finding myself, for the first time, in
the midst of the representatives of the people, who have given me such
numerous proofs of their affection. I was born — and I hoped always to
remain — the faithful subject of the best of kings : yet I now occupy his
place. He still breathes, however, in the spirit of this Charter, which,
filled with his sentiments, and embodied by the counsels of many among
you, shall now be read."
These words were answered with loud applause ; but a feeling of sur-
prise and a murmur of dissatisfaction ran through the assembly, when
M. d'Ambray, the chancellor, declared that the king, " taught by twenty-
five years of misfortune, has brought an ordinance of reformation to his
people, by which he extinguishes all parties, as he maintains all interests.
In full possession of his hereditary rights over this noble kingdom, the
king has no wish but to exercise the authority which he has received from
GOD and his fathers, by placing limits to his own power. He has no wish
but to be the supreme chief of the great family of which he is the head.
It is he whb is about to give to the French a Constitutional Charter, suited
at once to their desires and their wants, and to the respective situation of
men and things. '; When the veterans of the Revolution heard this, they
remembered the words of Mirabeau. after Lous XVI., in 1789, had an-
nounced his concessions to the States-General : " The concessions made
by the king would be sufficient for the public good, if the presents of des-
potism were not always dangerous."
In fact, the concessions of the Charter, though prefaced by these inju.
dicious and ominous words, might, at the outset of the revolutionary
troubles, have satisfied the most devoted friends of rational freedom.
1814.] HISTORY OF EtROPE. 439
The great foundations of civil liberty — liberty of conscience and wor-
ship ; freedom of the press ; equality in the eye of the law ; the right
of being taxed by the national representatives only; the division of the
Legislature into two chambers ; and the trial by jury — were, by it, am-
ply secured. The members of the Chamber of Peers, were to be nomi-
nated by the king ; and to consist of six ecclesiastical peers, twenty of the
old noblesse, twelve of the dignitaries . of the revolution, ninety-one of
Napoleon's senators, and six generals of the ancient regime. The pow-
ers of the Legislative Body were greatly enlarged by the Charter ; in-
deed, it rendered that branch of the government the depository of nearly
all the public authority ; and, in consequence, its members received the
new Constitution with sentiments of the most lively gratitude. Yet there
were two things connected with the formation of this chamber, singularly
demonstrative of the scanty elements now existing in France, for the^
construction of a really free monarchy. In the first place, an annual*
pension was secured to each member, of the same amount as had been
granted by Napoleon ; and, in the second place, no person could be
elected a deputy, unless he paid a yearly tax to the government of one
thousand francs ; and the right of voting, was restricted to persons pay-
ing not less than three hundred francs of direct tax annually : a regula-
tion whicl* placed the entire constituency among the more opulent classes,
and limited its numbers to eighty thousand, out of a population of thirty
millions.
The provisions of the Charter, in the abstract, were with care and lib-
erality adapted to the wants of the people. Every public burden was to
be borne equally, by all classes, in proportion to their respective for-
tunes ; universal liberty of conscience and worship was secured, although
the Roman Catholic clergy were alone to receive support from the state ;
free publication of opinions was permitted, subject, however, to the laws
which guarded against the abuses of the press ; a universal amnesty for
the past was proclaimed; the conscription was abolished; the person of
the king was declared sacred and inviolable, his ministers being alone
held responsible for his actions ; the king was invested with the sole
power of proposing laws ; he commanded the forces by sea and land ;
could alone declare war and make peace ; conclude treaties and con-
ventions ; nominate to public emplo3rment, civil and military ; and " was
intrusted with the right of making the regulations and ordinances neces-
sary for the execution of the laws, and the safety of the state." The
cognizance of cases of high treason, was confined to the Chamber of
Peers ; that of ordinary offences, to the courts of law with the aid of ju-
ries; all judges were to be nominated by the king and hold their office
for life, excepting justices of the peace, who were subject to removal.
The code Napoleon was made the common law of France ; the ancient
noblesse resumed, and the new noblesse retained their titles ; the order
of the Legion of Honor was preserved ; the deputies were elected for five
years, but every year one-fifth of th^ir number was to retire, and elec-
tions to that extent were decreed, to fill the vacancies thus made.
These enactments contained the elements of a wise system of govern-
ment; but laws are inoperative without the support of public morality,
and the most careful regulations for the liberty of the subject are vain,
if the spirit necessary to maintain them is wanting in the governors and
the governed. Nor was this lack of harmony between the national
430 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XL VU.
emergencies and the provisions of the Charter, the sole obstacle to its
beneficial operation : it was, in four particulars, unhappily defective.
First, it contained nothing to prevent arbitrary imprisonment, or to deter-
mine the period, during which a person under arrest might be detained
without trial. Secondly, no attempt was made to limit the oppression of
the police — a set of civil functionaries, who impose such excessive and
needless restraints on human action, that their official existence may
safely be deemed incompatible with true freedom. Thirdly, the Charrv
her of Peers, instead of being composed of great proprietors, hereditary
in their functions, respectable from their fortunes, or illustrious from
their descent, was, for the most part, made up of salaried officials, who
enjoyed their seats for life. Fourthly, no provision was made for the
establishment of the Church, or for public instruction on an adequate ba-
sis ; but the teachers in both departments were left to languish, in the
'obscurity and indigence bequeathed to them by the perfidy and rapacity
of the Revolution.
But great as were the embarrassments attendant on the forming of the
Constitution, a still more difficult task was to provide for the destitute
multitudes, which the Revolution had left in France ; to reconcile their
conflicting interests, and calm their furious passions. Restoration is al-
ways a work of peril and uncertainty : Henry IV. perished* under it;
James II. fled from its dangers; and it is no wonder that the feeble dy-
nasty of the Bourbons was unequal to its achievement. The public joy
at their return to France, was equally general and sincere ; for it had its
rise in a sense of relief from impending and insupportable evils. But
when those evils passed away ; when the allied armies no longer bur-
dened the country ; when the conscription ceased to tear families asun-
der, and France was left alone with her monarch, her losses and her
humiliation, the bitterness of the change bowed the nation to the earth.
Entire classes, and those too the most powerful and important, were a
prey to secret alarm or sullen discontent. The holders of the national
domains, several millions in number, endured the greatest anxiety : the
government had indeed guarantied the possession of their estates, but the
government had not been a participant of the iniquity by which their
property was acquired. They felt the same uneasiness at the restora-
tion of the legitimate authority, that the holders of stolen property feel at
the approach of the officers of justice. The regicides, and those who
were implicated in the actual crimes of the Revolution, experienced still
greater apprehension : the unqualified amnesty of the Charter could not
remove their disquietude: conscience told them that they deserved pun-
ishment ; and the fact of the Restoration was a daily act of impeachment
against them. The army, too, was in despair: defeated in the field;
driven back into France ; humiliated in the sight of Europe ; the soldiers
had now the additional mortification, of being disbanded and condemned
to inactivity. The wandering life of camps, the excitement of battle, the
jbys of the bivouac, the terrors of the breach, the contributions from prov-
inces, the plunder of cities, were theirs no longer ; and they found them-
selves scattered over the territories of France, without employment or
the means of support.
The penury of the government was another serious evil of this embar-
rassing period. The Tuileries were besieged from morning till night by
clamorous crowds, composed of men divided from each other in principle
1814.J HISTORYOFEUROPE, 431
as widely as the poles are asunder, but uniting in one loud and importu-
nate cry for employment or relief from the king: one half were Royal-
ists demanding compensation for the losses they had sustained during the
Revolution, or a reward for the fidelity with which they had adhered to
the cause of the exiled monarch and aided his return ; the other, digni-
tari<°«; and officials of the Imperial regime, who had been deprived of all
by the overthrow of Napoleon and the contraction of the dominions of the
Empire. The necessities of the troops were still more urgent. Eight
months' pay was due to them, and ten months' to the commissaries and
civil administrators. To meet these demands, Louis XVIII. had an ex-
hausted treasury, a diminished territory, and a bankrupt people. The
taxes and requisitions of the last two years of Napoleon's reign, had been
so enormous, that the provinces which bore the brunt of war were unable
to endure any imposts whatever ; indeed, such was the general impover-
ishment of the country, the total arrears for the same period amounted to
no less than thirteen hundred millions of francs ; and while, by the most
rigid economy, the government could not reduce its annual expenditure's
below eight hundred and thirty millions of francs, the income did not ex-
ceed five hundred and twenty millions; and even this sum was obtained
with the greatest difficulty, and by adding one-third to the direct taxes.
The genius of Sully and the firmness of Pitt united, could scarcely
have made head with such means against such difficulties ; and it may
well be imagined that Louis and his ministers were unequal to the task.
Striving to please both parties, they gained the confidence of neither.
They had not power or vigor enough to take a decided stand, and yet
possessed sufficient confidence in their legitimate title to hazard a perilous
one. Their system was to retain in their employment all the Imperial
functionaries, civil and military, and indeed to make no change in the
nation but by the substitution of a king for an Emperor, and the introduc-
tion of a few leading royalists into the cabinet. They hoped thus to
secure the power of the Revolution, by injuring none of its interests : but
they forgot that mankind are governed by desires, passions, and preju-
dices, as well as by selfish considerations ; and that Napoleon had so long
succeeded in governing the Empire, only because while, in deeds, he
sedulously attended to the interests of the Revolution, he carefully, in
words and forms, flattered its principles. The capital error of the Bour-
bons lay in this : that while they wholly depended on the physical forces-
of the Revolution, they made no attempt to disguise their aversion to its
kenets ; and that, without endeavoring to establish any adequate counter-
poise to its power, thev irrevocably alienated its supporters.
They abolished the national colors, the object of even superstitious ven-
eration to the French soldiery, and replaced them with the white flag of
the monarchy ; they changed the numbers of the regiments, thus confu-
sing or destroying the recollections connected with many fields of fame,-
and reducing those which had fought at Rivoli, or Austerlitz, to a level
with a newly-raised corps. When the tri-color standards were ordered
to be given up, the veterans of many regiments burned them and preserved
their ashes : the officers generally secreted the eagles, and the men hid
the tri-color cockades in their knapsacks. The designations of the
superior officers were changed : generals of brigade were denominated
marshals of the camp ; and generals of division, lieutenant-generals. Cath-
olic and Protestant soldiers were alike compelled to go to mass, to confess
39
432 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHA.P. XL VII.
and to communicate. The Imperial Guard, which in the first instance
was intrusted with the service of the Tuileries, was soon removed, and
its place was supplied by troops from Switzerland and La Vendee. Six
companies of gardes-du-corps and several red companies of guards were
organized — in short, the military splendor of Louis XV. was revived at
court, and these new troops, in their yet unsullied uniforms, supplanted the
veterans of France in the honorary service of attendance on the palace.
The civil regulations of the new government, though not so important
n themselves as those relating to the military administration, were not
less material in their ultimate effects ; for they exposed the court to at-
tacks which in Parisian society are more fatal than any other — those of
ridicule. An ordinance of the police prohibited labor on the Sabbath ;
and this regulation, though expressly enjoined by religion and loudly
called for by the interests of the working-classes, became the object of
unmeasured obloquy, because it circumscribed the pleasures or the gains
of an unbelieving and selfish generation. The restoring of the forms and
ceremonies of the Roman Catholic service in the chapel of the Tuileries
not only excited the ridicule, but also awakened the fears of a revolu-
tionary people, who regarded these rites as the remnants of an exploded
superstition. Female animosity, too, added its bitter venom to the many
other causes that influenced the general discontent : the ladies of the new
noblesse were daily exposed to the cutting sarcasms of those of the ancient
regime ; and not one of the marshals' wives or the duchesses of the Em-
pire was placed in the Royal household. The revival of the ancient
Orders, especially that of St. Louis, gave rise to a rumor that the Legion
of Honor was about to be superseded ; and the excitement on this subject
became so great, that the king found it necessary to issue a public denial
of entertaining such a project. In fact, the civil government of the Res-
toration, while in all essential particulars favorable to the interests of the
Revolution, had nevertheless in language, form and ceremony, introduced
the most antiquated and offensive features of the monarchy: and the
French had discernment enough to see that, in the intoxication of success,
words and forms betrayed the secret thoughts, and that acts favorable to
revolutionary principles were adopted only from state necessity.
The general exasperation rose at length to such a pitch, that the Im-
perialists on the one hand, and the disappointed adherents of the monarchy
.on the other, buried their mutual animosities and antipathies, in order to
decry every measure of the government. The celebration of a solemn
and touching funeral service to the memory of Louis XVI., Marie An-
toinette, and the Princess Elizabeth, was denounced as the commencement
of hostilities against the Revolutionists: the exhumation of the remain*
of several Vendean and Chouan leaders, and their interment in consecrated
ground, was considered a proof of deplorable superstition : the reduction
in the numbers and emoluments of persons employed in the public depart-
ments— rendered unavoidable by the insolvency of the nation — was styled
a wanton attack on the glory of the Empire : even the restitution to their
rightful owners of the confiscated national domains, so far as they had not
been disposed of, combined with a proposal to indemnify the surviving
victims of the Revolution, and tHe disabled soldiers of the Empire, was
pronounced by all the disaffected to be partial and oppressive.
CHAPTER XLVIII.
CONGRESS OF VIENNA. NAPOLEON'S FINAL STRUGGLE.
WHILE the French government was vainly striving to close the wounds,
and mitigate the sufferings induced by the Revolution, negotiations for the
adjustment of the affairs of Europe had commenced, and were yet in
progress at Vienna.
It was originally intended, that the congress of Vienna should begin its
deliberations on the 27th of July ; but the visit of the allied sovereigns
to England, and their subsequent return to their own capitals, caused a
postponement until the 25th of September. Among the members of this
assemblage were, the Emperor of Prussia, the Kings of Prussia, Bavaria,
Denmark and Wirtemberg, Lord Castlereagh, the Duke of Wellington,
Talleyrand, Metternich, and many other persons of distinction from the
lesser European states. These personages maintained in appearance the
most amicable and confidential relations ; yet it was easy to perceive that
their views were widely dissimilar, and that the removal of common dan-
ger, and the division of common spoil had produced their usual effect,
dissension among the victors.
The first difficulty arose from a dispute as to the right of precedence
among the several states represented ; but this was readily settled by a
happy expedient of Alexander, who recommended an alphabetical ar-
rangement, in conformity to which the members should subscribe their
names. A more serious difficulty next occurred ; a question, namely,
which of the states should in their own right, as principals, take part in
the deliberations. The representatives of Russia, Prussia, Austria and
Great Britain, wished to dispose of the territories wrested from Napoleon
and his allies, before entering into conferences with France and Spain.
Talleyrand and the Spanish plenipotentiary resisted this desire, and strove
to show that the treaty of Chaumont had, in effect, ceased with the accom-
plishment of its objects ; and that France, at least, should be admitted to
a full participation in the proceedings. Lord Castlereagh and Metternich,
who early perceived the necessity of a counterpoise to the preponderating
influence of Russia, supported Talleyrand's request ; and it was eventually
agreed, that all questions before the congress should be submitted to a
committee of ministers from the four allied powers just mentioned, together
with those from France, Spain, Portugal and Sweden : the Cardinal Gon-
zalvi, from the court of Rome, was afterward added to the number.
Under this arrangement, several important measures were concluded
by unanimous approval. Belgium and Holland were joined together,
under the title of the Netherlands ; Sweden and Norway were also united ;
Hanover, with a considerable accession of territory taken from West-
phalia, was restored to the King of England ; Lombardy was again placed
under the rule of Austria; and Savoy, under that of Piedmont. But the
affairs of Poland, Saxony, and Genoa, led to serious dissensions. Alex-
ander insisted, that the Grand-duchy of Warsaw should be ceded to Rus-
sia, as an indemnity for her losses and sacrifices during the war ; and
Prussia, being as well from gratitude as position under the influence of
434 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XL VIII.
her powerful neighbor, seconded the views of the Czar; and proposed, on
condition of obtaining Saxony and an indemnity on the Rhine for herself,
to cede the southern provinces of Poland to Russia. France, Austria and
England, however, opposed these sweeping annexations of territory to the
northern powers. Independent of the obvious peril to the other European
states which would be incurred, by adding the greater part of Poland to
Russia, and extending Prussia to the Elbe and the Rhine. Lord Castlereagh
bjected to these proposals, as contrary to the great principles of justice
on which the war against Napoleon had been maintained. Metternich
and Talleyrand adopted the same views ; and here Alexander lost pa-
tience. He anticipated opposition from England and Austria, but he was
unprepared for such a line of policy on the part of France. He openly
charged Louis XVIII. with ingratitude, and manifested his displeasure to
Talleyrand without reserve : ne also entered into communication with
Eugene Beauharnois, espoused the cause of Murat against France as
touching 'the crown of Naples, and spoke of the unfitness of the elder
branch of the House of Bourbon for the throne ; and averred, that a revolu-
tion might yet put the sceptre into the hands of the House of Orleans.
But these divisions were not long confined to mere expressions of ill-
humor ; acts of great moment followed angry words, and all parties pre-
pared for war. Alexander sent orders to halt his armies in Poland on
their return to Russia ; Hardenberg declared that Prussia would not re-
linquish Saxony, and the cabinet of Berlin at once put their troops on a
war footing ; while the Grand-Duke Constantine, at that time in command
of Alexander's forces, prepared the soldiers by proclamations on the one
hand, and strict disciplire on the other, to take the field and renew the
contest without loss of time. Nor were the other powers idle : they, too,
hastened their preparations for resuming hostilities ; and while a congress
assembled for the pacification of the world was professedly deliberating
on the means of accomplishing that object, the various sovereigns therein
represented, were maintaining a million of men in arms for the purpose
of mutual destruction.
The differences were at length brought to a crisis, by the conclusion of
a secret treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, between Austria,
France, and England, on the 3rd of February, 1815. By this compact
it was stipulated, that the contracting parties should act disinterestedly
and in concert to carry into effect the treaty of Paris : that each, to sup-
port the others and the common cause, should maintain in the field a hun-
dred and fifty thousand men. The Kings of Hanover, Bavaria, and
Piedmont, were invited to join the coalition, which they immediately did ;
so that, in effect, the forces of Western and Southern Europe were ar-
rayed against Russia and Prussia. The parties to this treaty took great
pains to keep its existence secret ; nevertheless, it soon transpired to a
certain extent, and had an immediate effect in modifying the views of the
refractory powers. Metternich now took a bolder tone, and his intervention
was decisive. Russia agreed to relinquish several districts of Poland,
and Prussia avowed her determination to be satisfied with a portion of
Saxony on the right bank of the Elbe
The adjustment of this difficulty enabled the congress to dispatch in
detail, matters of secondary consequence. The Germanic States were
united in one confederacy, bound to afford mutual support in case of ex-
tejnal attack, and to be directed by a Diet, in which Austria and Prussia
1815.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 435
were each to have two votes, and Bavaria, Wirtemberg, and Hanover,
each one vote ; but with the reserved right on the part of the great pow-
ers, to make separate war and peace for themselves. It has already been
mentioned, that Holland and Belgium were joined together under the title
of the Netherlands; this measure was now perfected by the reunion of
the seventeen old provinces into a monarchy, under a prince of the House
of Nassau ; the great fortress of Luxemburg, with its adjacent territory,
being alone excluded and added to the German Confederation; and by
patent, dated March 16th, 1815, the King of Holland took the title of
King of the Netherlands and Grand-Duke of Luxemburg, and as such
was immediately recognized by the courts of Europe. By this arrange-
ment, Holland ceded to Great Britain the Cape of Good Hope, Dein-
erara, Essequibo, and Berbice ; and in return, Great Britain restored to
the King of the Netherlands the noble island of Java. The affairs of
Switzerland were readily disposed of. That Confederacy was declared
to embrace the nineteen Cantons on an equal footing, and they all form-
ally acceded to their Constitution on the 27th of May. Italy presented,
in some respects, a more complicated field for diplomacy. The cession
of Lombardy to Austria, and of the Genoese republic to the kingdom of
Piedmont, was indeed readily settled ; but the conflicting claims of Murat
and the old Bourbon family to the throne of Naples, excited a warm de-
bate, which, ere it terminated, led to another of still higher interest.
Toward the end of February, rumors had reached Vienna of a con-
stant correspondence between the island of Elba and the adjoining shores
of Italy, and also of an intended descent by Napoleon on the coast of
France. These rumors soon acquired such consistency that the propriety
of removing the ex-Emperor from Elba, was more than once discussed in
the congress. Alexander opposed any such measure, on the ground that
he had pledged his honor to secure that asylum to his great antagonist,
and he would not forfeit it. Metternich, however, was so strongly im-
pressed with a sense of the impending danger, that he secretly sent a
letter to Fouche, at Paris, inquiring, " What would happen if Napoleon
should return ? What, if the King of Rome with a squadron of horse
were to appear on the frontier 1 and what will France now do, if left to
her spontaneous action ?" Fouche replied, that should a single regiment
of an army sent against Napoleon declare for him, the others would fol-
low the example : if the King of Rome were escorted to the frontier by
an Austrian troop, the nation would instantly hoist his colors : and that,
in case nothing of this sort took place, France, of her own volition, would
soon seek refuge in the Orleans dynasty. The extent of present danger
was, nevertheless, unappreciated by the majority, and all were involved
in a whirl of gayety, splendor and dissipation at Vienna, when intelli-
gence was brought to Metternich at a great ball in the capital, that NAPO-
LEON HAD SECRETLY LEFT ELBA. All minor differences now disappeared
from the congress ; the grasping desires of Russia and Prussia were for-
gotten ; and the most vigorous measures adopted to meet the astounding
emergency.
The cabinet of Vienna took the lead in these proceedings, inasmuch as
Napoleon, relying on his connexion with the House of Hapsburg, had de-
clared by proclamation that he returned to France with the concurrence
of Austria, and was to be supported by the troops of that Empire. Met-
ternich, therefore, to set at rest all question on that subject, averred that
39*
436 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLVia
" it will be worthy of the allied powers, and of the highest importance in
the existing crisis, to express a decided opinion on an event that must ere-
ate a profound sensation in every part of Europe. Napoleon Bonaparte,
in quitting the island of Elba, and disembarking at the head of an armed
force in France, has rendered himself a disturber of the general peace ;
he therefore can no longer claim the protection of any treaty or law.
The powers who signed the treaty of Paris feel themselves, in an especial
manner, called on to declare in the face of Europe in what light they
view this outrage ; and they are prepared to support the King of France
with all their armies, should circumstances render their assistance neces-
sary." These sentiments met with the cordial approval of every member
of the congress ; and a declaration was immediately issued to the follow-
ing effect :
" The powers which signed the treaty of Paris, reassembled in con-
gress at Vienna, being informed of the escape of Napoleon Bonaparte,
and of his entry with an armed force into France, owe it to their own
dignity and to the interest of the nations, to make a solemn announcement
of their sentiments on the occasion. In thus breaking the convention
which had established him in the island of Elba, Bonaparte has destroyed
the sole legal title which is attached to his political existence. By reap,
pearing in France with projects of trouble and overthrow, he has de-
prived himself of the protection of the laws, and made it evident, in the
face of the world, that there can no longer be peace or truce with him.
The powers therefore declare, that Bonaparte has placed himself out of
the pale of civil and social relations ; and that, as the general enemy
and disturber of the world, he is abandoned to public justice. They de-
clare, at the same time, that being firmly resolved to maintain the treaty
of Paris, and the dispositions sanctioned by that treaty, they will employ
all the means at their disposal to secure the continuance of peace; and
although they are firmly persuaded that all France will combine to crush
this last mad attempt of criminal ambition ; yet, should it prove other-
wise, they are ready to give the King of France all necessary assistance,
and make common cause against those who shall compromise the public
tranquillity." The instrument bore the signatures of Metternich, Tal-
leyrand, Wellington, Hardenberg, Nesselrode, and Lowenheim.
Nor did the allied powers content themselves with publishing this man-
ifesto : they proceeded at once to give it efficacy. The Russian troops
in Poland, two hundred and eighty thousand strong, were put in readiness
to march at a moment's notice : and Alexander declared, that " he was
ready to throw into the crusade the three hundred thousand men of whom
he had the disposal, to put an end to these revolts of Praetorian guards."
Austria placed on the war footing her armies in Italy and Germany, two
hundred and fifty thousand strong ; Prussia called out the landwehr and
raised her forces to two hundred thousand men ; the lesser states of Ger-
many mustered their respective contingents, and moved them toward the
Rhine ; England sent forward her troops and her immense resources to
aid in the contest ; Denmark and Sweden, forgetting their recent divi-
sions, began to arm in the common cause ; and. the Swiss Cantons poured
their soldiers toward the French frontier; while Spain and Portugal
joined the general league, and prepared to march their battalions toward
the Pyrenees.
In the meantime, the congress adjusted the details of its yet unfinished
1815.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 437
measures. Russia accepted the Grand-duchy of Warsaw without the
fortress of Thorn and its territories, and it was expressly stipulated that
Poland should not be incorporated with Russia, but form a separate king,
dom, preserving its own laws, institutions, language and religion. Fred-
erick Augustus of Saxony, who since the overthrow of Leipsic, had
inhabited the castle of Fredericksfield as a sort of state-prisoner, was
liberated, and compelled to cede a large portion of his dominions to Prus-
sia and Hanover. Europe sympathized with the unfortunate sovereign
on this partition of his dominions, yet it cannot be denied that he brought
his disasters on himself: he had cast in his lot with Napoleon, largely
participated in the French Emperor's conquests, and to the last resisted
all attempts of the allies to detach him from the interests of France.
The congress of Vienna also established certain edicts for regulating
the navigation of the great rivers of Central Europe, especially the Rhine,
the Neckar, and the Meuse. Moderate duties were prescribed, to be
collected by a central board and allotted to each of the sovereign pro-
prietors in proportion to their respective interests. The tolls amounted
to five hundred and eleven thousand florins per annum. The abolition of
the slave trade occupied, also, the attention of the congress. The British
House of Commons had, long before, petitioned the King of England to
exert his influence with other civilized, nations in this behalf; Denmark,
as early as 1794, had prohibited the traffic; and the court of Rio Ja-
neiro, in 1810, and Sweden in 1813, had entered into treaty with Great
Britain on the subject. The congress of Vienna, however, adopted no
further measures than the issuing of a joint declaration expressive of its
abhorrence of the traffic, and their desire for its total extinction.
With a blindness to the probable course of events which is now scarcely
conceivable, the unreflecting generosity of the allied sovereigns had as-
signed to Napoleon, in independent sovereignty, a little island on the Tus-
can coast, within sight of Italy, within a few days' sail of France, and in a
position, above all others, the most favorable for carrying on political in-
trigues with both of those countries. As if, too, to invite a second descent
into the arena of war, he was placed there with an ample revenue ; an
armed force, which, by the addition of veterans who joined him in small
parties from the neighboring shores, soon exceeded a thousand tried and
experienced soldiers ; and three small vessels of war were at his disposal.
The allied commissioners were indeed on the island, and enjoyed a large
share of the society of the Emperor, but they were merely a kind of
accredited diplomatists at his court ; they could apprise their respective
governments only of what they saw, without having any authority to
restrain the movements of Napoleon, or any force at their command to
interfere with his pleasure. It is true, an English brig of eighteen guns
cruised off the island ; but it was idle to suppose that such a vessel could
blockade even the harbor of Porto Ferrajo. The result should have been
foreseen. A regular correspondence was maintained by Napoleon with
his adherents in France and Italy ; his friends and relations continually
visited him ; and soon, a vast conspiracy was formed — having its centre
in Paris, and its ramifications throughout the army and civil departments
in France — the object of which was, to overturn the dynasty of the Bour.
bons and replace Napoleon on the throne. The defection in the army,
especially among the private soldiers, was almost universal ; they waited
with impatience for Napoleon's appearance among them ; and although
438 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLVIIL
the secret was possessed by thousands and tens of thousands of the troops
in France, it did not in a single known instance transpire beyond its de-
signated limits. Murat was among the first to join Napoleon in his en-
terprise. His vacillation and weakness had already ruined him with
ihe allies, who in consequence neglected his interests at the congress of
Vienna, and he once more threw himself into the arms of France.
All things being at length in readiness, Napoleon, on the 26th of
February, gave a brilliant ball at Porto Ferrajo to the principal persons
n the island. His mother and sister directed the festivities of the even-
ing, while he walked around the room, conversing in the most affable man-
ner with his guests ; at the same time, secret orders were dispatched to
the guards, eleven hundred in number, to hold themselves in readiness on
the quay. Napoleon joined them at half past four o'clock, and the em-
barkation commenced ; by seven o'clock all was completed, and he
stepped on board the Inconstant brig. The destination of the flotilla,
which consisted of seven small vessels, was yet unknown both to the
sailors and soldiers ; but when the squadron was some two leagues from
the shore, Napoleon announced his intention in these words : " Officers
and soldiers of my Guard, we are going to France !" Loud cries of
" Vive 1'Empereur !" answered him ; and for a time, a feeling of wild
enthusiasm took possession of the soldiers. Light winds prevailed during
the voyage, and the vessels made slow progress ; but at length, on the 1st
of March, they cast anchor in the gulf of St. Juan, on the coast of Pro-
vence. The landing was accomplished without opposition, horses were
purchased for the officers with money furnished by Napoleon, and at night
the watches were set and the troops bivouacked as on the eve of the bat-
tle of Austerlitz.
The dangers of the voyage were now past ; but the perils of the shore
remained, and they were sufficient to daunt the most resolute. The con-
spiracy had its adherents in almost every regiment of the army ; but few
of the superior officers were gained, and it was yet uncertain whether the
men would act without their orders. The first attempt failed entirely.
Twenty-five of the Old Guard were sent to Antibes, to seduce the garri-
son in the Emperor's name ; but they were arrested by the commander of
the fortress, General Corsin : and when a second detachment came for-
ward, and began to read at the foot of the ramparts a proclamation of
Napoleon, he dispersed them by a threat of firing on them with his artil-
lery. This check discouraged the soldiers, and for a moment caused the
Emperor himself to hesitate ; but he had gone too far to recede, and at
four o'clock the next morning he took the road through the mountains to
Grenoble. The district traversed by this road was more favorable than
any other to his designs : it contains no great towns or wealthy districts,
and the inhabitants, for the most part holders of the national domains,
were strongly imbued with revolutionary principles. Th^y consequently
received the adventurer with open arms. The little army, under such
circumstances, made rapid progress through the country, and on the 6th
of March the leading companies approached Grenoble. But here they
encountered the advanced guard of the garrison of that town. General
Cambronne, who led Napoleon's party, was alarmed to find from the
steadiness of the royalist troops, that a determined resistance awaited
him ; and he dispatched an aid-de-camp to inform the Emperor. " We
have been deceived," said Napoleon to Bertrand on receiving this intel
1815.] HISTORY OF EUROPE 439
ligence ; " but it is no matter — forward !" He hastened to the head of
the column, and stepping thence toward the hostile troops, he addressed
them in a voice tremulous from emotion : " Comrades, do you know me ?"
" Yes, sire," replied the men. " Do you recognize me, my children ?"
he continued ; " I am your Emperor : fire on me, if you will : fire on
your father: here is my bosom;" and he bared his breast as he spoke.
These words were irresistible. The soldiers broke their ranks and
crowded around Napoleon with loud shouts of " Vive 1' Empereur !" In
a moment every man displayed the tri-color cockade ; the eagles reap-
peared on the standards, and the whole detachment joined the Emperor's
ranks. Hardly was this done, when Labedoyere, in defiance of the orders
of General March'and, marched out from the garrison with his regiment
and joined Napoleon, who, now at the head of three thousand men, ap-
proached Grenoble in the afternoon. Marchand and the prefect did their
utmost to preserve order and keep the troops to their colors ; but the pres-
ence of Napoleon overcame all their arguments ; and finding the soldiers
resolved to abandon the Bourbon cause, they retired from their command,
maintaining at least their own loyalty and honor. Napoleon made his
entry into Grenoble late in the evening, amid the acclamations of the in-
habitants.
On the morning of March 3rd, a telegraphic dispatch announced at
Paris the landing of Napoleon in Provence. M. Blacas, the premier of
the new government, treated the enterprise with contempt, as the last ef-
fort of a madman ; but Louis judged differently. His opinions, however,
were not generally adopted, until the Emperor's advance to Grenoble,
and the defection of the garrison there became known ; when all classes
were filled with alarm, and indescribable confusion prevailed at the Tuil-
eries. The two Chambers were immediately convoked ; the Count dj-
Artois with the Duke of Orleans and Marshal Macdonald, departed for
Lyons to maintain order and secure the loyalty of the troops; the Duke
d' Angouleme set out for Bordeaux to rouse the southern provinces ; the
Duke de Bourbon hastened to La Vendee for a similar purpose ; and the
Duke de Berri assumed the command of an army of reserve to be formed
at Essone and Fontainebleau.
The inhabitants of Paris proved lukewarm in their support of the king,
but the marshals and other dignitaries of the Empire were loud in pro-
testations of loyalty. Soult, minister of war, issued a vehement procla-
mation to the soldiers, stigmatizing the ex-Emperor's enterprise with the
severest opprobium, and conjuring the troops to remain faithful to their
king. The municipalities of Paris and the other large towns, together
with the courts of law, universities and colleges, as well as the marshals
and other officers in command, also sent in assurances of adhesion to
the king. Marshal Ney, in particular, expressed in the loudest terms
his indignation at the Emperor's conduct : and the government so impli-
citly relied on his fidelity, that they intrusted to him the army assembling
at Lons-le-Saulnier to stop the progress of the invaders. On the 7th of
March, he presented himself at the king's levee, at the Tuileries, to take
leave of his majesty previous to assuming the command of the army.
" Sire," said he, " I will bring Bonaparte back in an iron cage." Mor-
tier was placed at the head of the troops in the north of France ; Augo-
reau was dispatched to Normandy ; full powers were transmitted to
Massena, at Toulon ; and Oudinot took direction of the forces at Mar
30
440 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLVIIL
seilles. Everything announced a vigorous resistance ; but, in the mean-
time, Napoleon's advance was unopposed. Defection after defection
occurred in the army ; and it was soon ascertained that the corps of thirty
thousand men, posted by order of Soult on the frontier between Besanc_on
and Lyons-, were in large masses deserting the royal standard. The
Count d' Artois, the Duke of Orleans and Macdonald, could make no
impression either on the troops or on the lower orders of the people ; they
herefore returned, and Napoleon, on the 12th of March, took possession
of Lyons. This great success at once gave him command of the centre
of France ; and considering himself now virtually invested with the su-
preme authority, he issued four decrees ; the first, dissolving the Chambers
of Peers and Deputies, enjoining the members to return forthwith to their
homes, and convoking the electoral colleges for an extraordinary assem-
bly in May ensuing ; the second, banishing anew the emigrants returned
to France, who had not already obtained letters of amnesty from the
Imperial or Republican governments ; the third, abolishing titles of honor
and noblesse and restoring the laws of the Constituent Assembly on that
subject, with an exception in favor of those who had received titles for
services ; the fourth, striking from the list all officers of the army who
had taken commissions since April 1st, 1814, and prohibiting the Minister
at War from granting them pay, even for arrearages.
Marshal Ney, meantime, reached Auxerre on his road to take com-
mand of the army. He there met M. Gamott, his brother-in-law, and a
warm partisan of Napoleon. On this occasion, for the first time, doubts
were instilled into his mind as to the possibility of upholding the Bour-
bons. The Emperor, too, well aware of the vacillating character of his
old lieutenant, caused him to be beset with emissaries, who represented
the hopes of the Bourbons to be irrevocably ruined, assuring him, at the
same time, that " the Emperor feels no rancor toward you : he stretches
out his arms to receive you : he agrees with you as to the stranger : there
will be no more war; the national principles are about to triumph."
These appeals proved too much for the fidelity of the marshal. His own
account of his deplorable and disgraceful treachery is perhaps the most
charitable one for the historian to adopt. " I had indeed," said he, on
his subsequent trial, " kissed the hand of the king, his majesty having
presented it to me when he wished me a good journey. The descent of
Bonaparte appeared to me so extravagant, that I spoke of it with indig-
nation, and made use of the expression charged, relative to the iron cage.
In the night of March 13th — down to which time, I protest my fidelity —
I received a proclamation, drawn by Napoleon, which I signed. Before
reading it to the troops, I submitted it to General Bourmont, who said it
was necessary to join Bonaparte, and that the Bourbons had committed
such follies that they could no longer be supported." On the 14th, this
fatal proclamation, which cost him his life and has disgraced his memory,
was published to the army.
The defection of Ney, followed by that of his' army, at once proved fa-
tal to the royal authority. Not only were all obstacles removed between
Napoleon and the capital, but his advance was aided by every possible
facility : for as the troops sent to oppose him had joined his standard, he
had command of an irresistible military force.
In this extremity, the measures of the government were as vigorous as
the emergency was exigent ; but all efforts were unavailing, from the want
1815.] HISTORY O'F EUROPE. 441
of soldiers to defend the throne. The Chamber of Deputies met, on the
llth of March, in obedience to the summons of the king, and passed loyal
addresses by a large majority; so that the court, for a brief season, be-
lieved the influence of the legislature on the public mind would check the
progress of treason in the army, and arrest the disaffection of the people.
But the time was past when a vote of the legislature could make the wea-
pons drop from the soldiers' hands. The fatal news of Ney's treachery
filled every heart with dismay ; for its result proved that the army had
determined to place the Emperor on the throne, and therefore that all hope
for the Royalists was lost. As a last resource, the king appealed to the
honor and loyalty of the French character. " I have pledged myself,"
said he, "to the allied sovereigns for the fidelity of the army. If Napo-
leon triumphs, five hundred thousand strangers will immediately inundate
France. In you, who are now following other standards than mine, I see
nothing but children led astray : abjure your error : come and throw your-
selves into the arms of your father, and I give you my honor that all shall
be forgotten." But these words were uttered in vain.
On the 19th of March, a review of the National and Royal Guards took
place. Only a small number, however, of the first mentioned corps ap-
peared on the ground ; and when the parade was over, the latter, instead
of taking the road to Fontainebleau, as had been announced, to combat the
enemy, defiled toward Beauvais, evidently for the purpose of covering
the retreat of the royal family. At dinner, on that day, the king informed
the few friends who still remained faithful, that he was about to abandon
the Tuileries. Tears fell from every eye ; and the mournful prospect of
a second exile — of France subjected again to military despotism, van-
quished, overrun, and probably partitioned — arose in gloomy perspective
to the minds of all present. The king addressed a few words of comfort to
each of his guests, and then signed a proclamation dissolving the Cham-
bers, directing the members to separate forthwith, and to assemble again
at such time and place as he should afterward appoint. This proclama-
tion appeared in the Moniteur of March 20th, when Paris was literally
without a government, the king and royal family having departed at mid-
night on the 19th. The party travelled rapidly and the following evening
reached Lille, the capital of French Flanders, where they remained until
the 24th, and then continued their flight toward Ghent.
Napoleon arrived at Fontainebleau on the 19th, and proceeded to Paris
on the 20th. He reached the Tuileries at nine o'clock in the evening.
The moment his carriage stopped at the gates, he was seized by the at-
tendants, borne aloft in their arms amid deafening cheers, through a dense
and brilliant crowd of epaulettes, and hurried up the great stair into the
saloon of reception. Here, a splendid array of ladies of the Imperial
court received him with transports, and imprinted kisses on his cheeks,
his hands, and even his dress : he might well have asked, like Voltaire, on
his last return to Paris, whether the citizens meant to make him die of
joy. He has himself described this entire day as one of the most delight-
ful of his life : and he might have added, that it was also his last day of
unmixed satisfaction.
After Napoleon retired to rest in the Imperial apartments in the Tuile-
ries, he had leisure to reflect on his situation, and the means he possessed
of maintaining himself on the dizzy pinnacle to which he was again ele-
vated. When he stepped ashore on the coast of France, his first words
442 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLVIII.
were, in relation to the congress of Vienna, " There ! the congress is dis-
solved !" but he well knew that his movements would produce exactly
the contrary effect: that his return from Elba would terminate the divi-
sions of the European sovereigns, and that legions as formidable as those
which had already crushed him, would again overspread his dominions.
To meet these forces, he had but a fearfully diminished host : the troops
under arms in France did not exceed one hundred thousand men, and if
all his veterans could be recalled and rallied around his standard, the total
number would barely reach two hundred thousand. Besides, through all
the triumphs of his march from Provence, he had perceived with secret
disquietude, that his adherents were chiefly among the lowest classes, and
that the more respectable peasants in the country and citizens in the towns,
gazed with silent wonder as he passed along. General support, therefore,
from the physical strength of the nation, he could not expect : for the re-
membrance of the conscription was too recent ; the detestation of the war,
too strong ; the exhaustion of the military population, too complete.
The next morning after his arrival in Paris, he was forced to see the
precarious footing of his authority. The Imperialist party were in rap-
tures at his return, but very few of them seemed willing to accept the
perilous honor of a responsible situation under his government. He first
applied to Fouche ; and a stronger proof of the strait to which he was
reduced could not well be furnished, than his commencing with this old
blood-stained regicide. Fouche, aware of his importance as head of the
Republican party, made his own terms. He at first, indeed, asked to be
Minister of Foreign Affairs ; but Napoleon desired him to resume his
former situation at the head of the police ; and he consented to do so, in
the well-founded belief that this office would give him entire command
of the Interior. Cambaceres declined the office of Minister of Justice,
but was induced to accept it on condition that he should not be required
to take part in any public measures. Even Caulaincourt refused the
portfolio of Foreign Affairs ; and M. Mole also refused it, frankly assu-
ring the Emperor that, in his opinion, the drama was concluded, and the
dead could not be revived. Caulaincourt was subsequently compelled,
by Napoleon's peremptory command, to take the rejected office ; and Maret,
under similar compulsion, took the portfolio of Secretary of State ; while
Davoust, who had been in disgrace during the restoration, readily agreed
to fill the place of Minister at War. In fact, the same disinclination for
office was manifested in all the inferior departments of the government ;
and it soon became evident, that the once colossal power of the Emperor
had been almost wholly undermined by his defeat and abdication.
His march to Paris was so rapid, that the inhabitants in many of the
provinces were ignorant of his having advanced beyond Grenoble when
they heard of his arrival at the capital. This sudden and portentous
movement stupefied them ; and far from being disposed to transfer their
allegiance and trample under foot their oaths, the people of Guienne,
Languedoc and Provence, spontaneously took up arms ; the Duke d'An-
gouleme actively commenced the organization of new levies in the south-
ern districts ; and the presence of the Duchess d'Angouleme at Bordeaux,
so excited the loyalty of the inhabitants, that fifteen thousand National
Guards in that city and its departments, declared for the Bourbons.
Napoleon, indeed, soon succeeded in quelling these dangerous outbreaks
by means of the powerful forces at his command, and the great influence of
1815.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 443
his name ; but the fact of such a simultaneous rising against his authority
was ominous ; and he could not fail to reflect that a similar revolt,
when his armies were occupied with repelling foreign invasion, might
lead to much more disastrous results.
When the allied powers at Vienna received intelligence of Napoleon's
marvellous success, and found that the authority of the abdicated Emperor
was again fully established in France, they resolutely prepared to ac-
complish his destruction. They saw, in his elevation to the throne on
the bucklers of his troops, the clearest proof that he would be compelled
to make war : that a rapacious soldiery, which hailed his return as a
restoration to the days of past glory, would never be contented until again
plunged in the career of conquest ; and that even were Napoleon himself
desirous of peace, he would be forced into hostilities by the passions and
necessities of his followers. Acting on these opinions, the Congress con-
cluded a new treaty on the 25th of March, which, in effect, revived the
treaty of Chaumont. The cabinets of Russia, Prussia, Austria and
Great Britain, " engaged to unite their forces against Bonaparte and his
faction, in order to prevent him from again troubling the peace of Europe ;
they each agreed to furnish one hundred and eighty thousand men for the
prosecution of the war ; and, if necessary, to draw forth their entire
military force of every description." By a secret treaty, concluded on
the same day, it was stipulated that the contracting parties should not lay
down their arms until they had effected the destruction of Napoleon ; and
all the lesser powers of Europe acceded to these treaties, within a fort-
night after their ratification.
On the 31st of March, in a secret meeting held at Vienna, it was re-
•olved to form forthwith three great armies from the allied forces ; the
first, of two hundred and sixty-five thousand, chiefly Austrians and Bava-
rians, to be stationed on the Upper Rhine, and commanded by Schwartz-
enberg ; the second, of a hundred and fifty-five thousand Prussians, on the
Lower Rhine, under Blucher ; the third, of a similar number, composed of
English, Hanoverians and Belgians, in the Low Countries, under Welling-
ton. It was further resolved, that military operations should be commenced
early in June ; previous to which time, the Russian army, a hundred and
seventy thousand strong, might be expected to reach the Upper Rhine
from Poland ; and, entering France by Strasburg and Besancon, form a
reserve to the invading armies from the eastward. In addition to the
operations of these large masses, lesser movements were to be made on
the side of Switzerland and the Pyrenees.
From this plan of the campaign, it was evident that the British troops
in Flanders would first be exposed to the shock of war ; and the British
cabinet made exertions proportionate to the emergency. On the 6th of
April, a message from the Prince Regent formally announced to both
Houses of Parliament the events which, in direct contravention of the
treaty of Paris, had recently occurred in France, the measures adopted
by the Congress of Vienna, and the necessity of augmenting the military
and naval forces of the Empire. The address was approved of in the
House of Peers, without a dissenting voice, and in the Commons, the vote
stood two hundred and twenty to thirty-seven. The supplies of men and
money requisite to the present undertaking, were with equal readiness
voted by Parliament ; and in addition to the enormous sums called for to
iupport her own naval and military establishments, Great Britain granted
40
444 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XL VIII.
and paid to the several allied powers within the year, subsidies to the
amount of more than eleven millions sterling.
Nothing that vigor and activity could accomplish was wanting on the
part of Napoleon, to provide means of defence against the prodigious
phalanx of his enemies : yet, owing to the exhaustion of the country and
the apathy or despair of the people, the raising of an adequate force was
totally impossible. His first care was to restore to the old regiments their
numbers and their eagles, so unwisely taken away by the late govern-
ment. He next organized the entire veteran force, now returned from the
fortresses on the Elbe, the Oder, and the Vistula, together with the pris-
oners of the Russian campaign, who had been disbanded by Louis XVIII.,
and dispersed over France. The National Guard was then put in a con-
dition for maintaining the internal defence of the country, so that the
regular troops might all be relied on for offensive operations : and by
these means, the strength of the army was so augmented, that Napoleon
hoped to take the field, by the first of June, with two hundred thousand
effective and veteran troops.
To provide arms and the munitions of war for this number of men,
from the impoverished arsenals and exhausted finances of the country,
seemed a still more difficult task : yet here, too, the Emperor's herculean
efforts were attended with surprising success. Foundries were put in
operation, swords, muskets, and cannon were manufactured, and horses
to a very great extent purchased ; but it may well be believed that the
enormous expense thus incurred was not discharged in ready money ;
orders on the treasury, at distant dates, were lavishly given, and under a
despotic military government, this sort of currency, however valueless,
could not be refused ; in short, to meet his emergencies, Napoleon set at
work the old system of terror and compulsion ; and it produced — as for a
time it always must — magical results.
However absolutely and ably Napoleon might direct his military affairs,
he was forced to intrust his civil administration to Fouche and the repub-
licans— and they steadily pursued one object, namely, providing, by the
revival of a republican spirit in the people, a counterpoise to the Empe-
ror's power. The old regicides and Jacobins were, through Fouche's
intrigues, everywhere called into activity ; and the approaching election,
ordered by Napoleon, came almost entirely under their control. The
language of Fouche to his Republican allies was quite unreserved : "If
that man," said he, " should attempt to curb the Jacobin principles, we
will overturn him at once and for ever." Napoleon was aware of all this,
and greatly desired to resent it ; but his own precarious position compelled
him to dissemble his wrath and continue Foucne in power.
The framing of a new Constitution was also one of the tasks of this
exciting period ; but in a country so habituated to that species of manu-
facture, such an undertaking was a matter of little comparative difficulty.
The president of the commission intrusted with this duty was Benjamin
Constant, and his first draft of a charter was so visionary and democratic
that Napoleon at once rejected it. The Liberal party then prepared
another Constitution, styled by Constant the "Acte Additionel," which in
many respects strongly resembled the Charter of Louis XVIII. But in
three particulars it materially differed from that instrument ; and these
points showed how much more clearly its framers understood the exi-
gencies of the times and the necessity of a bulwark to power, than the
1815.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 445
Bourbons had done. In the first place, the peerage was declared to be
hereditary — not for life only. Secondly, the punishment by confiscation
of property, abolished by Louis XVIII., was restored in cases of high
treason. Thirdly, the family of the Bourbons was for ever proscribed,
and even the power of recalling them denied to the people. While these
articles were thus hostile to a second restoration of the royal family, they
pointed unequivocally to the establishment of a strong monarchy for the
family of Napoleon, and the publication of the " Acte Additionel," on the
25th of April, excited a violent opposition from the two parties that divided
the country. One of the publications of the day, in a journal called the
" Censeur Europeen," was entitled " The influence of the moustache on
the rnind, and the necessity of the sword in government." "What,"
exclaimed this fearless writer, " is glory ? Has a lion, which ma-kes all
the animals of a surrounding country tremble — has he glory ? Or, a
miserable people, who know not how to govern themselves and are to their
neighbors an object only of terror and hatred — have they glory ? If glory
be the attribute solely of men who have benefited their race, where is
the glory of a conquering people ?" The public clamor soon became so
vehement, especially among the Republicans, that Carnot, who felt him-
self compromised with his party by the "Acte Additionel," wrote to the
Emperor, that "dissatisfaction was universal, civil war was on the point
of breaking out, and that it was indispensable to publish a decree autho-
rizing the Chambers to modify the Constitution at the next session, and to
submit such modification to the primary assemblies of the people." Na-
poleon replied, " With you, Carnot, I have no need of disguise : you are
a strong-headed man with sagacious intellect. Let, us first save France :
after that, we will arrange everything. Let us not sow the seeds of dis-
cord when the closest union is requisite to save the country." Carnot
acceded to these views, and from that hour offered no opposition to the
Emperor's temporarily assuming a dictatorial power.
Caulaincourt at this time made great efforts to open a diplomatic inter-
course with the allied powers. This was a matter in which everything
depended on the success or failure of the first step : for if the allies con-
sented to any form of negotiation with the Emperor, they would thereby
virtually recognize his authority and revoke their own decree. But
Caulaincourt's attempts were ineffectual. " We can have no peace," said
Alexander : " there is a mortal duel between me and the Emperor Napo-
leon ; he has broken his word with me. I am freed from my engagement,
and Europe requires an example." " Europe," said Metternich, " has
declared war against Bonaparte. France can and should prove to Europe
that she knows her own dignity too well to submit to the dictation of one
man. The French nation is powerful and free ; its power and freedom
are essential to the equilibrium of Europe ; and it has but to deliver itself
from its oppressor, and return to the principles on which social order
securely rests."
Murat first commenced hostilities in the ever memorable campaign of
1815. Austria, desiring to detach him from Napoleon and preserve peace
in Italy, had previously offered to procure for him a recognition of his
title by all the sovereigns represented at Vienna, if he would declare
for the allies : but, when the infatuated soldier heard of Napoleon's sue-
cess in France, he thought the time had come to secure, not what the al-
lies offered him, but the sovereignty of the whole Italian Peninsula.
446 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [CHAP. XLVIH.
He therefore, with little previous notice of his intentions, crossed the Po
with thirty thousand men, on the 31st of March, and, in an inflated pro-
clamation, called on the Italians to assert their independence. In the
outset he gained sjome slight advantage ; but the Austrian generals, Belle-
garde, Bianci, and Frimont united their forces and attacked him at To-
lentino on the 9th of April. His troops were splendidly equipped and,
on a parade, made as fine an appearance as any soldiers in Europe : but
hey were Neapolitans, and unlike the French veterans whom Murat had
een accustomed to lead, they fled at the very first fire of the Austrian
battalions, and regained their own frontier in the last state of dispersion
and disorganization. Murat himself, entirely deserted by his army, es-
caped to Toulon : and the Sicilian family immediately took possession of
their rightful, and now vacated throne. Their accession was promptly
recognized by all the sovereigns of Europe.
On the first of May, Louis La Rochejaquelein made his appearance on
the coast of La Vendee, and excited a general outbreak in that loyal dis-
trict. In a short time, no less than twenty thousand men were assembled
around the Bourbon standard ; and Napoleon, justly alarmed at so serious
a rising against his authority within the French territory, dispatched
Generals Lamarque and Travot with a large force to quell the disturb-
ance. Simultaneously with the movement of these troops, Fouche opened
a secret negotiation with the royalist leaders in La Vendee. That saga-
cious minister, foreseeing a second restoration, and having already taken
measures to secure his own ascendency when it should occur, thus ad-
dressed the royalists through his emissaries : " Why should the Vende-
ans go to war ? French blood will soon flow in streams sufficiently large ;
their's need not be mingled with it. Let them wait a month or two and all
will be over. Conclude an armistice till the restoration. La Vendee is
but an incident in the great European war about to break out in the plains
of Belgium. The contest between the Blues and the Whites is henceforth
without an object." By these means Fouche hoped to gain credit with
Napoleon, with the Bourbons, and with the nation : with Napoleon, for
terminating the strife in La Vendee ; with the Bourbons, for detaching
twenty thousand men from the standard of Napoleon to check these dis-
turbances, at the most critical period of his fortunes ; .and with the nation,
for having closed the frightful gulf of civil war. This complex scheme
of the eld policeman was crowned with complete success. One of the
Vendcan leaders, indeed, Auguste La Rochejaquelein, refused to follow
the suggestions of Fouche and, engaging, with his little band of heroes,
a greatly superior number of veteran troops, he lost both the battle and
his life : but the others withdrew from the contest and awaited the pro-
gress of events.
The new elections took place in conformity to Napoleon's proclamation,
but they were in all quarters a mere formality, and by no means indi-
cated the true state of the public mind. In many departments, not a
tenth part of the qualified persons came forward to vote : in those of Bou-
ches du Rhone and La Vendee, the deputies were appointed by five elect-
ors; and in twenty-nine departments no elections whatever were held.
The respectable citizens in almost every quarter kept aloof from a politi-
cal contest directed by such men as Fouche, Carnot, and other violent
Republicans ; and men of property deemed it unnecessary to meddle with
an ephemeral legislature, or to make any efforts for or against a cause-
1815.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 447
which they conceived would soon be determined by the bayonets of the
allies. The deputies returned were therefore, for the most part, needy
and unprincipled adventurers. The new legislature was convened at
Paris on occasion of the fete of the Champ de Mai, celebrated with great
pomp in the beginning of June ; and, the " Acte Additionel" being then
and there submitted, was approved by a large majority.
Still, opinions at Paris were greatly divided ; a formidable opposition
to the Emperor arose in this very Chamber of Deputies which his indi-
vidual act had created, and some of his ministers were so deeply impli-
cated in secret correspondence with his enemies, that he at one time
resolved to sacrifice them, at whatever risk to his own safety. When the
old Girondist, Lanjuinais, was chosen president of the chamber, instead of
Lucien Bonaparte, whom Napoleon had designated, the Emperor deter-
mined to refuse his confirmation of the appointment : but he afterward
sent back the committee who brought the announcement, saying, coldly,
" I will return my answer by one of my chamberlains." This message
raised a storm in the chamber. To return an answer by a chamberlain,
was considered a direct insult to the national representatives. At length,
however, Napoleon, of necessity, submitted to the pleasure of the depu-
ties, in the matter of their president ; he was moreover unable to control,
or even to influence the choice of vice-presidents, to which offices M.
Flarequerguis, Dupont de 1'Eure, La Fayette, and Grenier, were seve-
rally elected. Napoleon opened the sitting of the chamber in person ;
but his speech, though abundantly liberal, was coldly received. A re-
view of forty-eight battalions of the National Guard was still more unsatis-
factory : few cries of " vive 1'Empereur" were heard from the ranks ; and
a procession of the fedf.rts of the suburbs, so hideous and disorderly that
it recalled the worst days of the Revolution, followed the march. Every-
thing, in short, announced that the reign of lawyers and adventurers was
recommencing in the Chambers, and that of Jacobins, massacre and revo-
lution in the metropolis.
In the midst of this confusion, the time arrived when it became neces-
sary for Napoleon to take command of the army. For the direction of
public affairs during his absence, he appointed a provisional government,
consisting of fourteen persons, namely: his brother Joseph, president,
Lucien Bonaparte, Cambaceres, Davoust, Caulaincourt, Fouche, Carnot,
Goudin, Molliere. Decres, Regnaud de St. Angely, Boulay de Meurthe,
Desermont and Merlin. The last four, though not holding office other-
wise, were admitted to the council by reason of their powers of oratory,
and the consideration they enjoyed with the popular party. The actual
power of this council rested in the hands of Fouche and Carnot, as they
alone were really in communication with the influential parties of the
country. Napoleon well knew both the power and the treachery of
Fouche, but he did not venture to dismiss or punish him. Just before his
departure, however, he gained some information relative to a secret dis-
patch from Metternich to the minister of police ; and the messenger who
conveyed it, having been arrested, revealed various important details Oi
the correspondence. Napoleon ordered Fouche to be sent for, charged
him, before the council, with being a traitor, and declared that he should
be shot the next morning. Carnot coolly replied to this threat, "You can
shoot Fouche to-morrow, but when he dies, your own power is annihilated."
" How so ?" demanded Napoleon. " This, sire," said Carnot, " is no time
40*
448 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLVIH
tor dissembling. The men of the Revolution allow you to reign, only
because they believe that you will respect their rights. If you destroy
Fouche, whom they regard as one of their surest guarantees, you will
lose their support and cease to reign." Here, again, Napoleon was forced
to yield ; but, before leaving Paris, he said to Fouche, " Like all other
persons who are ready to die, we have nothing to conceal from each other :
if I fall, the patriots fall too; you will play your game ill, if you betray
me. Your party will perish under the rule of the Bourbons: I am your
last dictator — remember that."
Wellington, after careful deliberation, resolved to invade France di-
rectly from Flanders, between the Maine and the Oise ; but in order to
conceal his design, he recommended that the Austrians and Russians
should first cross the French frontier by Befort and Huningen, and when
this was accomplished, that the British and Prussians united, should march
upon Paris by Mons and Namur. He had eighty thousand men under his
orders, and Blucher had a hundred and ten thousand. The British army
was composed of forty-six thousand native troops, fourteen thousand vete-
rans of Brunswick and Hanover, and twenty thousand fresh levies, en-
tirely inexperienced, from Hanover and Belgium. Blucher's forces were
principally veterans, of one nation, inspired with the strongest hatred
against the French, and filled with confidence in themselves and their
commander.
Napoleon's plan of campaign was based on the necessities of his situ-
ation, and the great advantages likely to result from a decided success
in the outset. He had a hundred and twenty thousand men under his
immediate command, all chosen veterans, whom the peace of Paris had
liberated from the various countries with which France had been at war,
and he resolved to interpose this force between the British and Prussian
armies, and defeat them in detail, before their junction should render them
invincible.
On the 2nd of June, Soult was appointed major-general of the army ;
and when he took the command, he issued a proclamation that contrasted
strangely with the one he had, but three months previously, promulgated
as Minister at War to the Bourbons. Napoleon left Paris at one o'clock
in the morning of the 12th of June, breakfasted at Soissons, slept at Laon,
and arrived at Avesnes on the 13th. He found his army concentrated
between the Sambre and Philipville, and the returns, on the evening of
the 14th, gave a hundred and twenty-two thousand men present, under
arms. The camp was placed behind some small hills, a league from the
frontier, in such a situation as to be screened from the view of an ap-
proaching enemy. The arrival of the Emperor raised the spirit of the
soldiers to the very highest pitch; and of this army it may be truly said,
they were firmly resolved to conquer or to die.
Wellington and Blucher were now acting on secret intelligence which
they had received from Fouche. The most vigorous measures had been
adopted by Napoleon to prevent any communication from crossing the
frontier : yet Wellington knew, on the 6th of June, that Napoleon was
expected to be in Laon that day ; and, in consequence, he issued orders to
declare Antwerp, Ypres, Tournay, Ath, Mons and Ghent in a state of
siege the moment that the enemy should cross the frontier. On the 10th,
the British commander received information — but it proved to be prema-
ture— that Napoleon had, on the preceding day, reached Maubeuge with
1815.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 44$
his troops : yet, despite the supposed proximity of such a leader at the
head of such an army, neither Blucher nor Wellington took any steps to
concentrate their forces ; and when the French troops crossed the fron-
tier near Fleurus on the 15th, Wellington's men lay in cantonments from
the Scheldt to Brussels, and Blucher's extended as far as Namur. This
extraordinary inactivity would be both indefensible and inexplicable, but
for the account of the matter given by Fouche in his own memoirs.
That unparalleled intriguer, who had been in constant communication
with Wellington and Metternich ever since Napoleon's return from Elba,
had promised to furnish the British commander not only with information
as to the precise moment when the French would commence hostilities,
but also with a detailed plan of the campaign. Wellington therefore was
in hourly expectation of this intelligence, and quietly awaited its arrival.
Why he did not receive it, Fouche himself has said : " My agents with
Metternich and Lord Wellington had promised everything, and the Eng-
lish general at least expected I would give him the plan of the campaign.
I knew that Napoleon would attack the British army on the 16th, or, at
latest, on the 18th, after having marched right over the Prussians. He
had the greater reason to expect success, inasmuch as Wellington, de-
ceived by false reports, believed that the opening of the campaign might
be deferred till the beginning of July. Napoleon, therefore, trusted to a
surprise, and I arranged my plans in conformity. On the day of his de-
parture, I dispatched Madame D with notes, written in cipher, con-
taining the whole plan of the campaign : but at the same time, I sent such
orders to the frontier as would prevent her reaching Wellington's head-
quarter's until after the catastrophe. This is the true explanation of the
generalissimo's inactivity, which, at the time, excited such universal as-
tonishment."
The French army crossed the frontier at daybreak on the 15th, and
moved upon Charleroi. The Prussian force, which occupied that town,
evacuated it as the French approached, and retired to Fleurus. Thus,
Napoleon's first object, that of taking his enemy by surprise, was accom-
plished, and he now confidently expected to separate the two allied armies.
For this purpose, he dispatched Ney with the left wing, forty-six thousand
strong, to Quatre-Bras, a point of intersection of the roads from and to
Brussels, Nivelles, Charleroi and Namur ; while he himself, with seventy-
two thousand men, pushed on toward Fleurus to assail Blucher, who was
concentrating his army with all possible haste, and falling back upon
Ligny. Wellington received intelligence of these movements at Brussels
on the evening of the 15th, and he immediately sent orders to his troops
to concentrate at Quatre-Bras.
Blucher's army, excepting the fourth corps which had not yet come up,
arrayed themselves, on the 16th, on the heights between Brie and Som-
bref, and strongly occupied the villages of St. Amand and Ligny in front.
The position was well chosen. The villages afforded an excellent shelter
to the troops, while the artillery, placed on a semicircular ridge, between
them, commanded the entire field, and the elevation in the rear, sur-
mounted by the windmill of Bussy, formed a good rallying point in case
of disaster. Blucher's force, in the absence of his fourth corps, amounted
to eighty thousand men, and Napoleon's, as already mentioned, was
seventy-two thousand strong. The orders of Napoleon to Ney required
that marshal to move early in the morning, and occupy Quatre-Bras be-
450 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XT, VIII.
fore the British army could assemble there, and thence march with half
of his men upon Brie, so as to fall on the Prussian rear. His own attack
in front was to be delayed until he heard Ney's guns in the direction of
Brie ; he therefore waited impatiently, with his army prepared for battle,
until three o'clock in the afternoon : but up to that hour not a sound was
heard from the rear, although a loud and increasing cannonade in the
direction of Quatre-Bras, told clearly that a desperate engagement was
there in progress.
At four o'clock Napoleon, fearing that Blucher's fourth corps, under
Bulow, would arrive, gave signal for battle. He made the first demon-
stration against St. Arnand on his left, and this village, after a vigorous
resistance, was carried by the French troops under Vandamme. While
Blucher's attention was drawn to this point, Napoleon's centre, thirty
thousand strong, advanced suddenly upon Ligny and commenced a furious
assault. The action was here contested with the most determined obsti-
nacy. Three times successively the French grenadiers carried the vil-
lage, and three times the Prussians regained it at the point of the bayonet.
Each column of attack was constantly reenforced, and at length the
combat became so desperate, that neither party could drive back its an-
tagonist, but the men fought hand to hand in the streets and houses with
unconquerable resolution. At seven o'clock, the action was yet unde-
cided, and Blucher, in the meantime, had retaken a part of the village of
St. Amand.
Blucher's reserves were at length all engaged, and his situation became
critical ; for the attack of the French centre continued with undiminishing
spirit, and neither Bulow's corps' on the one flank, nor the British succors
on the other, had arrived to take part in the struggle. Indeed, the leaders
on both sides began to look eagerly for reinforcements, for Napoleon at
this time, declared that the fate of France depended on Ney's obeying the
orders he had received. Soon after seven, D'Erlon appeared on the
extreme Prussian right with a part of Ney's force ; and Napoleon, now
entirely relieved, brought forward his reserve for a decisive attack on the
centre. Milhaud's cuirassiers advanced at a gallop, brandishing their
sabres in the air ; the artillery under Drouet rapidly followed, and behind
them came a dense column of the Old Guard. This at'.ack, supported
by D'Erlon's charge on the Prussian right, proved decisive: Blucher's
infantry began to retire; the village of Ligny fell into the hands of the
French, and in the confusion of a retreat, commenced just as night over-
spread the field, the Prussians abandoned several pieces of artillery.
Blucher himself, as he was leading on a body of cavalry to cover his re-
tiring columns, had his horse shot under him, and he lay entangled with
his dying steed, while two charges of the French cuirassiers weie made
and repulsed over the spot where he fell. The French loss in this battle
was nearly seven thousand men, and that of the Prussians fifteen thou-
sand, besides four standards and twenty-one pieces of cannon.
A desperate action had, in the meantime, been fought at Quatre-Bras.
About twenty thousand British troops, in obedience to Wellington's orders,
were already assembled at this point, when Ney approached with his en-
tire corps, forty-six thousand strong. Had the French marshal attacked
with his whole force, he must inevitably have gained a decided victory ;
but, in conformity to orders, as already related, he detached more than
half his troops under D'Erlon to the aid of Napoleon at Ligny, and
UB15.J HISTORY OF EUROPE. 451
thereby, for the time, reduced his army to nearly the same number as the
allies who opposed him. The battle of Quatre-Bras continued until
nightfall, when Ney retreated to Frasnes, one mile in the rear, and the
British, wearied with marching and fighting throughout the day, did not
pursue, but bivouacked on the field. The British loss in this action was
five thousand two hundred men, and that of the French, four thousand
one hundred. No guns and few prisoners were taken on either side;
and the fact that the victors suffered more than the vanquished, was
owing to the want of artillery on the part of the former: for, as the Brit-
ish hastened to Quatre-Bras by a forced march, their guns could not be
brought forward in time to take part in the combat.
During the night of the 16th, intelligence reached Wellington of the
defeat of the Prussians at Ligny, and of their retreat on Wavre. As
this retrograde movement of his allies exposed the flank of his columns,
which were now advanced to Quatre-Bras, he ordered a retreat through
Genappe to WATERLOO. Napoleon followed with the principal part of
his army, and took post nearly opposite to the British lines on both sides
of the high road leading from Charleroi to Brussels. He had detached
thirty-one thousand men under Grouchy to observe Blucher, who was
moving toward Wavre ; and this deduction, with the losses in the actions
of the preceding day, reduced his entire force to eighty thousand men.
Wellington's troops, also reduced by the action at Quatre-Bras, and by
a detachment sent to Hal, were not more than seventy-two thousand
strong ; they were also inferior to the enemy in artillery and, on the whole,
in their quality as soldiers; for the British guns amounted to but a hun-
dred and eighty-six, while the French had two hundred and fifty-two ;
and the British army was in part composed of fresh Hanoverian and Bel-
gian levies, while Napoleon's men were all native veterans, accustomed
to act together and habituated to victory.
The field of Waterloo, rendered immortal by the battle now about to
take place, extends nearly two miles in length, from the chateau, garden,
and inclosures of Hougoumont on the right, to the extremity of the hedge
of La Haye Sainte on the left. The great road from Brussels to Char-
leroi runs through the centre of the field, something less than three-quar-
ters of a mile south of the village of Waterloo, and three hundred yards
in front of the farm-house of Mont St. Jean. The British army occupied
the crest of a range of low hills crossing the high road at right-angles,
two hundred yards in the rear of the farm-house of La Haye Sainte,
which adjoins the road. The French troops, at the opposite side of the
valley, were posted along a corresponding line of hills, stretching on either
side of the hamlet of La Belle Alliance. The summit of these hills af-
forded an excellent position for the French artillery ; but their attacking
columns while marching into the valley and ascending from it, would
necessarily be exposed to a severe cannonade from the British batteries.
Wellington had stationed General Hill with seven thousand men at Hal,
six miles on the right, to cover the road from Mons to Brussels ; and he
dispatched letters to Louis XVIII. at Ghent, early on the morning of the
18th, recommr.nding that monarch to retire to Antwerp, if the enemy's
approach should expose him to any danger. Blucher, during the night
of the 17th, sent word lo Wellington that he would be at Waterloo, not
only with the two corps, which the British commander had requested, but
with his whole army : he further promised to arrive on the ground by one
452 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLVIIL
o'clock in the afternoon, and fall on the French flank after the battle was
fully begun.
The allied army was drawn up in the following order : General Byng's
brigade of Guards occupied the chateau, walled garden, and wood of
Hougoumont ; a battalion of the King's German Legion was posted at the
farm-house of La Haye Sainte ; the divisions of Picton and Chiton lay on
the left of La Haye Sainte, and Cole's division with the Hanoverians,
Brunswickers, and Belgians stood in the centre. The cavalry was in the
rear ; and the artillery was placed along the whole front, and so disposed
as to command the open field between the two armies. The French can-
non were in like manner placed on the summits of the opposite ridge,
distant nearly three-quarters of a mile from the allied line. D'Erlon
commanded on the French right ; Reille and Foy, in the centre ; and Je-
rome on the left in front of Hougoumont. Ney had direction of the
reserve and the Old Guard in the rear.
The village clock of Nivelles was striking eleven, when the first gun
was fired from the French centre, and a quick rattle of musketry followed
as Jerome, with a column six thousand strong, advanced upon the inclo-
sures of Hougoumont. The English light troops fought bravely in the
wood where they were posted, and, though gradually "driven back, con.
tested every tree and bush in their route. The assailants at length car-
ried the wood around the chateau ; but the garden and the chateau itself
were successfully defended against every attack, although a battery of
howitzers played with such effect on the building, that it finally took fire
and burned to the ground.
While this contest was at its height, a dark mass appeared through the
opening of a wood in the direction of St. Lambert. The glasses of the
officers were immediately turned in that direction : "I think," said Soult,
"it is five or six thousand men; probably a part of Grouchy's corps."
Napoleon thought otherwise : he did not for an instant doubt that the troops
were Prussians. Three thousand horse were detached to observe this
corps, two divisions of infantry followed, and an order was soon after
dispatched to Grouchy, requiring him to make all possible haste toward
Waterloo. The cannonade now became animated along the whole line ;
and Ney was directed to lead twenty thousand men from the right and
centre against the farm-house of La Haye Sainte and the troops on~ its left,
in order to force back the British left wing and interpose between it and
the Prussians, who remained stationary in the wood where they were first
discovered. It was now noon. Ney pushed forward his batteries to the
most advanced heights on the French side of the field, and his troops
marched to the attack in four columns : D'Erlon's men on the right moved
against the hedge of La Haye Sainte, Ney led the centre upon the farm-
house, and large masses of cavalry followed to improve any advantage
gained by the infantry and artillery.
Wellington made immediate preparations to resist this formidable move-
ment. He ordered up Sir William Ponsonby's brigade of horse, consisting
of the Scotch Grays, Queen's Bays, and Enniskillens, to the rear of
Picton's division, and stationed Vandeleur's brigade of light cavalry on the
left. A Belgian brigade formed the first line, but this speedily gave way
before the French onset ; and D'Erlon's troops, bravely sustaining a heavy
discharge of musketry and artillery, pressed on until they came within
twenty yards of the British line. Here they halted; and, for a time, a
1815.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 453
murderous fire was maintained on both sides. Picton presently directed
Pack's brigade, from the rear, to fall upon the French line, which it did
with such impetuosity that the enemy broke and recoiled in great disorder.
At this moment, Picton was shot dead with a musket ball, and Kempt,
taking the command, ordered a charge of cavalry on D'Erlon's retreating
column. The shock of this charge was irresistible : in a few seconds the
whole mass was pierced through, the soldiers fell on their faces and called
for quarter, and two thousand prisoners, with two eagles, were taken.
Ponsonby's victorious cavalry, supported by Vandeleur's light horse, next
ruehed on a battery of D'Erlon's guns, consisting of twenty-four pieces,
and carried them almost instantly ; and, still pressing forward, they attacked
a third line of artillery and lancers, and again they were triumphant.
Napoleon, who anxiously watched this onset, exclaimed to Lacoste, his
Belgian guide, " How terribly those gray horsemen fight !" He then com-
manded Milhaud's cuirassiers to charge Ponsonby's brigade ; and these
fresh troops, clad in steel armor, readily overthrew the now exhausted
cavalry. Ponsonby himself was killed in the retreat, and hardly a fifth
part of his men regained their lines ; but a similar body of horse has sel-
dom achieved such success on the field : for they not only destroyed a
column five thousand strong and made two thousand prisoners, but they
carried and rendered useless for the remainder of the day no less than
eighty pieces of cannon.
In this contest, Ney lost all his artillery; one of his columns was
destroyed, and another driven back in confusion. Napoleon, however,
ordered forward fresh columns from the centre, and the farm-house of
La Haye Sainte was enveloped by twenty thousand men. The Hanove-
rians of the King's German Legion, three hundred and eighty in number,
maintained themselves for a time against this overwhelming host, but the
gates were at last forced open and the men nearly all put to death. Having
thus carried the advanced post of the British position, Napoleon ordered
Ney to move forward his columns, supported by a brigade of cuirassiers
against the centre. The strife now recommenced with great fury ; but at
length the French infantry were entirely repulsed, and the cuirassiers
destroyed almost to a man. Nevertheless, Napoleon would not yet aban
don his project of breaking the British centre ; he therefore ordered his
light cavalry to renew the attack, and such was the ardor of the French
horsemen, many of the reserve brigades followed without orders, and in a
short time all the Emperor's cavalry and cuirassiers precipitated them-
selves upon the allied lines. The British infantry, formed in squares,
received the charge of twelve thousand Imperial hors^ without wavering;
and they steadily repelled every attempt of the cuirassiers to disorder
their ranks, while a storm of musketry from the centre of those immovable
squares swept off their frantic assailants with a frightful slaughter.
During this terrible struggle in front of Mont St. Jean and around La
Haye Sainte, Blucher was pressing forward toward the field of battle ;
but the bad state of the roads so impeded his route, that Bulow, who led
the advanced guard, did not emerge from the wood until half-past four
o'clock. Then, however, he appeared at the head of sixteen thousand
men, who, marching in echelon, fell with their front and centre perpen-
dicularly on the French flank. As it was of vital consequence to Napo-
leon to prevent the confusion that must ensue from any disaster in this
quarter, he sent forward two powerful detachments of the Young and Old
454 HISTORY OF EUROPE. ,CHAP. XLVIII.
Guard ; and after some desperate fighting Bulow was forced back into the
wood, where he awaited the arrival of Blucher with the main body of the
Prussian army.
Although Napoleon had thus for a time secured his flank, he knew that
it would soon be assailed by a larger force ; he therefore resolved to make
a final and decisive attack on the British centre before the remainder of
the Prussians could come up. For this purpose, he divided the Imperial
Guard into two columns, which, marching from different parts of the field,
were to unite on the designated point, midway between La Haye Sainte
and the inclosures of Hougoumont. Reille headed the first column ; Ney,
the second ; and Napoleon accompanied the latter a part of the way, to
encourage the men by personal appeals to their courage and loyalty.
Reille led his column to the attack at a quarter past seven o'clock ; but
the concentric fire of the British artillery swept down the assailants with
such slaughter that, though constantly advancing from the rear, they could
not gain one foot of ground beyond the prescribed range of the British
guns. Presently, Ney's masses came on at a rapid pace : the veterans
of Wagram and Austerlitz were thsre ; they had decided every previous
battle, and no force on earth seemed capable of withstanding them. As
Ney was cheering them forward, his horse, struck by a cannon shot, fell
dead under him ; but he bravely continued his course on foot, pointing with
his drawn sabre toward the enemy's ranks.
The impulse of this charge was at first irresistible : the artillery drew
back, and the French grenadiers dashed onward, in full confidence of
victory, to within forty paces of the British infantry — who, to avoid the
fire of Napoleon's cannon, were lying on their faces, by the side of the
road that runs along the summit of the ridge. " Up. Guards, and at them f"
cried Wellington, at this critical instant. The British soldiers sprang to
their feet, poured in one deadly volley upon the advancing column, and
rushed forward with levelled bayonets. The Imperial Guard hesitated —
wavered — broke — and a squadron of British dragoons, following up the
charge of the victorious infantry, drove the disordered mass headlong down
the hill.
From morning till night of this eventful day, the British squares had
stood as if rooted to the earth, enduring every loss and repelling every
attack with unparalleled fortitude : but the hour of victory came at
last. As Ney's broken column fled toward the valley, Wellington caught
sight of Blucher's standards in the wood beyond Ohain, and he at once
commanded all his troops to advance in the order in which they stood ;
the British in line, f<jur deep ; the Germans and Belgians, partly in col-
umn and partly in square. At the same moment, Bulow's and Zeithen's
corps of Prussians, thirty-six thousand strong, emerged entirely from the
wood, and pressing on in double-quick time, joined the attack. Despair
now seized upon the French soldiers : they saw that all was lost, and
horse, foot, and artillery, fled tumultuously to the rear.
Napoleon had intently, though with perfect calmness, watched the pro-
gress of Ney's column, as it rushed up the hill for the final charge ; but
when his veteran Guards faltered and, in the next instant, the British
cavalry swept through their ranks, he turned deadly pale, and remarked
to the guide, " They are mingled together !" The rapid approach of the
British and Prussian cavalry soon rendered it necessary for him to retire ;
and he turned to Bertrand, saying, "It is all over for the present. Let
1815-] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 455
us save ourselves!" He then fled across the fields in great naste, accom-
panied only by a few followers. Meantime, the Old Guard, disdaining
to retreat, threw themselves into four large squares, and strove to stem
the tide of disorder. But their heroic efforts were vain. The British
cavalry charged their flanks ; the mass of French fugitives overwhelmed
their front and prevented their firing, and in a few minutes they were
broken, cut down, and made prisoners, with their generals Duhesme,
Lobau and Cambronne. All resistance now ceased, and Blucher ordered
every man in his army to join the pursuit, which continued during the
whole night. Nine several times the exhausted French soldiers tried to
form bivouacs, but each time they were roused by the Prussian trumpets
and forced to continue their flight : the greater part of the foot soldiers
threw away their arms, and the cavalry, entirely dispersed, rode for life
across the country.
• While this terrible battle was in progress, Marshal Grouchy had been
engaged with Thielman's Prussians, in the neighborhood of Wavre. At
noon-day, he distinctly heard the cannon of Wellington's and Napoleon's
armies, and he was strongly urged by his officers to hasten to Waterloo ;
but his orders were precise, and he refused to move. At five o'clock,
however, a dispatch was brought to him from Soult, enjoining him to
march upon St. Lambert, where Bulow's corps had assumed a menacing
attitude ; but it was then too late to render any efficient aid to Napoleon.
In the morning of the 19th, he received intelligence of the Emperor's
defeat, accompanied by an order to fall back on Laon, which he accord-
ingly did, with his entire force, thirty-two thousand strong.
The loss of the allies in the battle of Waterloo was about twenty thou-
sand men ; and that of the French — in killed, wounded, prisoners, and
deserters — at least forty thousand, including two hundred and twenty-five
pieces of cannon : indeed, after the troops had crossed the Sambre and
regained their own country, they became desperate, sold their arms and
horses, and dispersed to such a degree that they could never again be
assembled together in the field.
Napoleon reached Paris at four o'clock in the morning of the 21st of
June. He immediately sent for Caulaincourt, but his agitation was so
extreme that he could hardly speak. " The army," said he, " has per-
formed prodigies, but a sudden panic seized the men and all is lost. Ney
conducted himself like a madman. I can do no more. I must have a
warm bath and two hours of repose, before I can attend to business."
After he had taken the bath he became more collected, and spoke with
anxiety of the Chambers — insisting that a dictatorship alone could save
the country, and saying that although he would not seize it, he hoped the
Chambers would offer it to him. " I have no longer an army," he added;
" they are but a set of fugitives : I may find men, but how shall I arm
them ? I have no muskets. Nothing but a dictatorship can save the
country." The Deputies, however, had resolved on a different policy
Carnot and Lucien urged a dictatorship ; but Fouche, La Fayette, Dupia
and other leaders of the popular party entered into a coalition to establish
the absolute sovereignty ofvthe National Assembly. " The House of Rep-
resentatives," said La Fayette, " declares that the independence of the na-
tion is menaced. The Chamber declares its sittings permanent. Every
attempt to dissolve it is declared high treason. The National Guards
have, for six-and-twenty years, preserved the internal peace of the country
31
456 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLVIII.
and the persons of its representatives ; and the means of increasing the
numbers of that force must be now considered." This resolution was
carried by acclamation, whereupon Lucien accused La Fayette of ingrat-
itude to Napoleon. " I wanting in gratitude to Napoleon !" exclaimed
La Fayette, indignantly : " do you know what we have done for him ?
Have you forgotten that the bones of our brothers and our children every-
where attest our fidelity to him — amid the sands of Africa — on the shores of
the Guadalquiver and the Tagus — on the banks of the Vistula, and in
the frozen deserts of Muscovy ? Three millions of Frenchmen have per.
ished for one man, who still wishes to fight the combined powers of Eu-
rope. We have done enough for Napoleon ; let us now try to save our
country."
A commission of five of Napoleon's political opponents was appointed,
to confer with two committees from the Peers and Council of State on the
measures required by the emergency ; and, after a brief adjournment, the
Chamber resumed its sittings in the evening. The call for Napoleon's
abdication now became universal. " I propose," said General Solignac,
that a committee wait on the Emperor for his immediate decision." "Let
us delay an hour," cried Lucien. " An hour, but no more," replied So-
lignac." " If the answer is not returned at that time," said La Fayette,
" I will move for his dethronement."
When Lucien went with this commission to Napoleon, he found him
in the utmost agitation, debating with himself, whether to commit suicide
or to dissolve the Chambers by force. Lucien told him distinctly, that he
must either abdicate, or dismiss the Chambers and seize the supreme power;
and recommended him to adopt the latter course. On the other hand,
Maret and Caulaincourt advised the abdication. " The Chamber," said
Napoleon, " is composed of Jacobins, of madmen, who wish for power and
disorder : I ought to have denounced them and drove them from their
places. Dethrone me ! They dare not do it !" " In an hour," replied
Regnaud de St. Angely, " your dethronement, on the motion of La Fay-
ette, will be irrevocably pronounced : they have given you only an hour's
grace — do you hear? Only an hour." Napoleon turned to Fouche and
said with a bitter smile, " Write to the gentlemen to keep themselves quiet :
they shall be satisfied." Fouche wrote accordingly, that the Emperor
was about to abdicate, and the intelligence "excited the liveliest joy among
the Deputies. The abdication was presently drawn and signed by Na-
poleon, in these words : " In commencing the war to sustain the national
independence, I counted on the union of all efforts, of all inclinations, and
of all the public authorities. I had good reason to hope for success, and
I braved all the declarations of the allied powers against me. Circum-
stances now appear to be changed, and I offer myself as a sacrifice to the
hatred of the enemies of France. May they prove sincere in their de-
clarations, and direct their hostility against myself alone ! My political
life is ended ; and I proclaim my son Emperor of the French with the title
of Napoleon the Second. The existing ministers will form the council
of government. The interest which I feel for my son induces me to in-
vite the Chambers to appoint a regency without delay. Let all unite for
the public safety and the maintenance of the national independence."
A stormy scene ensued in the Chamber of Peers when Lucien, Labe-
doyere, arid Count Flahault advocated the claim of the young Napoleon.
Davoust read an exaggerated report on the military resources of France.
1815.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 457
and Carnot commenced a set speech based on Davoust's statements, when
Ney, who had just arrived from Waterloo, rushed in and interrupted him:
" That is false ! it is all false !" said he. " The enemy is everywhere
victorious. We can never again collect sixty thousand men. Welling-
ton is at Nivelles with eighty thousand, and Blucher is following with as
many more : in six or seven days they will be at our gates." Neverthe-
less, Lucien and his partisans proclaimed Napoleon the Second, and en-
deavored to gain the votes of the Peers in his favor ; but the members
adapted a middle course, and appointed Fouche, Caulaincourt, Quenett,
Carnot and Grenier, to carry on the government.
The affairs of France, however, were not to be decided by debates in
the Chambers : an overwhelming foreign force was at hand, and every-
thing depended on negotiation with the allied generals, and on the meas-
ures that might be undertaken to defend the capital. Carnot made great
exertions to strengthen the defence of Paris on the left bank of the Seine,
and in a speech, on the 2nd of July, endeavored to show that resistance was
yet practicable. But Soult and Massena declared that the city could not
be defended ; and a commission of all the marshals and military men in
the capital, to whom the matter was referred, unanimously pronounced a
similar decision. A capitulation was, therefore, concluded with the allied
generals on the 3rd of July, which stipulated that the French troops should,
on the 4th, commence the evacuation of Paris : that they should carry
with them their arms, artillery, caissons and personal effects : that within
eight days, they should.be withdrawn to the south of the Loire : that pri-
vate and public property, except that of a warlike character, should be
preserved sacred. The terms of the capitulation embraced many other
points, and among them was this, which acquired a painful interest by the
event that followed : " Individual persons and property shall be respected ;
and, in general, all persons at present in the capital, shall continue to en-
joy their rights and liberties, without being disquieted or prosecuted in
regard to the functions they exercise or may have exercised, or to their
political opinions or conduct." On the 7th of July, the allied armies took
possession of Paris, entering by the barrier of Neuilly : the British en-
camped in the Bois de Boulogne, ard the Prussians bivouacked in the
churches, on the quays, and along the principal streets. On the 8th, Louis
XVIII., who had followed in the rear of the British army from Ghent,
made his public entrance into the capital, escorted by the National Guard.
The allied sovereigns had already determined, that they would no
longer recognize Napoleon as a crowned head, nor suffer him to remain
in Europe ; and that his residence, wherever it was, should be under such
supervision and restriction, as effectually to prevent his again breaking
loose to desolate the world. He was himself anxious to embark foi
America, and the provisional government did everything in its power to
facilitate his journey. After a melancholy sojourn of six days at Mal-
maison, JNrapoleon set out for Rochefort with a train of carriages, contain-
ing whatever valuables he could collect from the palaces within his reach,
and arrived at that port on the 3rd of July. But he found that the block-
ade of the English cruisers was too vigilant to permit his escape from
Rochefort by sea ; and, after ten days of vacillation, during which every
possible project for flight was canvassed, he resolved to throw himself on
the generosity of the British government. He therefore, on the 13th of
July, sent to Captain Maitland, of the English frigate Bellerophon, the
458 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XLVIII.
following letter addressed to the Prince Regent: "Exposed to the factions
which divide my country, and to the hostility of the great powers of
Europe, I have terminated my political career; and I come, like Themis-
tocles, to seat myself by the hearth of the British people. I put myself
under the protection of their laws ; and claim it from your royal highness
as the most powerful, the most constant, and the most generous of my
enemies." On the 14th, he embarked on board the Bellerophon, and was
received with the honors due to his rank as a general by Captain Maitland,
who immediately set sail with his prisoner for England.
Had the British ministers been acting alone in regard to Napoleon, this
event might have thrown them into great embarrassment — for a more
touching appeal was never made to the humanity of a great nation. But
Britain was a single power of a great alliance in which all the parties
acted together. The ascendency of Napoleon over his troops had recently
been evinced in a manner so striking, and his disregard, for the solemn
obligation of treaties was so notorious, it was obviously out of the question
to think of suffering him to remain in Europe. The English cabinet
therefore, courteously, but firmly informed him, that the determination of
the allied sovereigns was *inal. and that he must be removed to St. Helena.
Napoleon vehemently pretested against this measure, and alleged that
it was a breach of the understanding on which he had surrendered him-
self to Captain Maitland : although in fact he made no terms with that
officer, and had no claim, except on the generosity of the British govern-
ment. After remaining a fortnight in Plymouth Roads, he was taken on
board the Northumberland and set sail for St. Helena, where he arrived
on the 16th of October.
Paris presented a melancholy aspect after the return of Louis XVIII.
The charm of the Revolution, even to the Royalists, was gone. Strong
bodies of infantry and artillery occupied the bridges, and all the principal
points of the town. Detachments of cavalry patrolled every street, and
the reality of subjugation was present to every eye. Blucher kept aloof
from the court, and haughtily demanded a contribution of a hundred mil-
lions of francs for the pay of his troops, as Napoleon had done after the
capture of Berlin. The Prussian soldiers, too, insisted on destroying the
pillar of Austerlit?., as Napoleon had destroyed the pillar of Rosbach ;
and Blueher was so bent upon demolishing the bridge of Jena, that he had
actually run mines beneath its arches. A negotiation ensued between
him and Wellington on this subject, and the bridge was preserved at last
only by Wellington's placing a sentinel on it, and declaring that if it were
blown up, he would consider the act as a rupture with Great Britain, and
govern himself accordingly. The Prussian officers and soldiers assumed
a rude and harsh deportment, and beyond the limits of Paris they indulged
in every kind of pillage — not because they were naturally fierce or un-
generous, but the opportunity to revenge, in part, the deep injuries .their
country had sustained at the hands of Napoleon, was too tempting to be
resisted.
When the allied sovereigns arrived in Paris, they insisted on restoring
to the several states, whence they had been pillaged by Bonaparte, the
valuable curiosities and works of art in the Museum of the Louvre. The
Justice of this demand could not be contested : it was only wresting booty
from the robber. Talleyrand, who had resumed his functions as Minister
of Foreign Affairs, appealed to the article in the capitulation of Paris,
1815.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 459
which guarantied the safety of public and private propeity : but it was
justly replied, that these objects of art, seized contrary to the law ;>f na-
tions, could not be regarded as the property of France. The restitution
was therefore resolved on and commenced forthwith under the care of the
British and Prussian troops, who occupied the Place du Carrousel during
the time of the removal.
The breaking up of the National Museum was an ominous event to
France, for the neighboring powers had territories, as well as pictures, to
reclaim ; and the spirit of conquest and revenge loudly demanded the
cession of many provinces which had been added by the Bourbon princes
to the monarchy of Clovis. Austria claimed Lorraine and Alsace ; Spain,
the Basque Provinces ; Prussia, Mayence, Luxemburg, and the frontier
districts adjoining her territory ; and the King of the Netherlands, all the
French fortresses on the Flemish boundaries. The negotiations on these
points were protracted at Paris until late in the autumn ; at length, how-
ever, in November, 1815,*«the second treaty of Paris was concluded.
By this treaty, France was restricted to her limits as they stood in
1790 ; and therefore lost, of what had been conceded to her by the treaty of
1814, the fortresses of Landau, Sarre-Louis, Philipville, and Marienburg,
with their adjacent territories. Versoix, with a small district around it,
was given to the Canton of Geneva ; the fortress of Huningen was to be
demolished, and France retained the county of Venaisin, the first conquest
of the Revolution. Seven hundred millions of francs were to be paid to
the great allied powers, and one hundred millions to the lesser powers, for
the expenses of the war ; and, in addition to this, one hundred and fifty
thousand allied troops were to occupy, for a period not less than three nor
more than five years, all the frontier fortresses of France, from Cambray to
Fort Louis ; including Valenciennes, Quesnoi, Maubeuge, and Landrecy,
and to be supported entirely at the expense of the French government.
The different powers were also to be indemnified for spoliations suffered
during the Revolution, to the amount of seven hundred and thirty-five
millions of francs. Great Britain relinquished her share of the indem-
nity, amounting to nearly one hundred and twenty-five millions of francs,
in favor of the King of the Netherlands.
The allied powers had been irritated beyond endurance at the treachery
of the whole French army, on the return of Napoleon from Elba ; and
they insisted peremptorily, that the new government should adopt some
measures of severity toward ihe guilty leaders. They at first rendered
a long list of proscriptions, which was finally reduced to fifty-eight per-
sons to be banished, and three to be executed. Ney, Labedoyere, and
Lavalette, were selected for the latter fate ; and were accordingly brought
to trial and convicted, on the clearest evidence, of high treason. Lava-
lette was saved by the heroic devotion of his wife, who visited and ex-
changed dresses with him in prison : but the other two were shot.
The guilt of Ney was obvious ; and probably the penalty of the law
was never inflicted on one who more richly deserved his fate ; but another
question arises : was he not protected by the capitulation of Paris ? An
article of that compact, as already quoted, declared that all persons then
in Paris should enjoy their rights and liberties, without molestation for their
past political opinions or conduct ; and as Ney was at that time in Paris,
it cannot be denied that the protection extended to him. It is true, an
example was required ; and equally true that Ney's treason was more
41*
460 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. XL VIII.
flagrant than that of any other man ; but these facts do not justify the
breach of a capitulation. The very time, above all others, for justice to
interpose, is when public interest or state necessity is urgent on the on9
hand, and an unprotected criminal exists on the other.
Another of the paladins of the French Empire perished not long after,
under circumstances to which the most fastidious sense of justice can
take no exception. Murat, tormented with the thirst for power, and eager
to regain his dominions, was fool-hardy enough to make a descent on the
coast of Naples, with a few followers, in order to excite a revolt against
the Bourbon government. He was seized, tried by a military commission,
and shot.
Napoleon did not long survive his old companions in arms. Although
subjected to little restraint in St. Helena, permitted to ride over the island,
and enjoy a degree of comfort and luxury that bore a striking contrast to
the severity with which he had treated state prisoners ; his spirit chafed
against the coercion of being confined at all. ^Nevertheless, it was indis-
pensable to the peace of the world, that his escape should be prevented ;
and his expedition from Elba had shown, that no reliance whatever could
be placed on his promises or his treaties. Detention and safe custody
therefore became unavoidable ; and every comfort, consistent with these ob-
jects, was afforded him by the British government. He was allowed the
society of the friends who accompanied him in his exile ; he had books in
abundance to amuse his leisure hours ; saddle-horses were at his com-
mand ; Champaigne and Burgundy were his daily beverage ; and the bill
of fare of his table, which Las Cases gives as a proof of the severity of
the British authorities, would be thought by most persons a sumptuous and
luxurious provision. If England had acted toward Napoleon as Napo-
leon did toward his imprisoned enemies, she would have shut him up in a
fortress and murdered him in cold blood — as the Duke d'Enghein was
murdered at Vincennes.
In February, 1821, Napoleon, who had been for some time suffering
with a cancer in the stomach, grew rapidly worse. He dictated his Will,
with a great variety of minute bequests, but obstinately refused to take
medicine. " All that is to happen," said he, " is written down ; our hour
is marked; we cannot prolong it a moment beyond the limit that fate has
predestined." At two o'clock on the 3rd of May, he received extreme
unction, and declared that he died in the Roman Catholic faith. On the
5th, a violent storm of wind and rain arose, and he expired during its
greatest fury, uttering the words, " t£te d'armee." Two singular items
in his will deserve to be recorded : one was a request, that his body
" might repose on the banks of the Seine among the people whom he had
loved so well ;" and the other, a legacy of ten thousand francs to a man
who had been detected in an attempt to assassinate the Duke of Wellington.
Napoleon had previously indicated the spot, in St. Helena, in which he
wished his remains to be deposited. It was a small hollow called Slane's
Valley, where a fountain, shaded with weeping willows, had long been his
favorite retreat. He was laid in the coffin with his three-cornered hat,
military surtout, leather under-dress and boots, as he used to appear on
the field of battle. The body, after lying in state, was carried to the
place of interment on the 8th of May, and buried with military honors :
a stone of great size, but without inscription, covered the grave.
1840.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 401
Time rolled on with its changes. The dynasty of the Restoration proved
unequal to the task of coercing the desires of the Revolution : a new gen-
eration arose, teeming with the passions and forgetful of the sufferings of
former days ; the revolt of the barricades, in 1830, restored the tricolor-
flag, and established a semi-revolutionary dynasty on the French throne.
England shared in the convulsion of the period : a change in her consti-
tution placed the popular party in power ; a temporary alliance, founded
on political passion, not national interest, united her government with that
of France ; and, under M. Thiers's administration, a request was made
by France for the remains of her Emperor.
England granted the request. The body of Napoleon was conveyed
to Havre de Grace in the frigate La Belle Poule, and thence transferred
to Paris. It was interred in the church of the Invalides on the 6th of
December, 1840 ; and although the weather was intensely cold, six hun-
dred thousand persons assembled to witness the ceremony. Louis Phi-
lippe and his court officiated on the occasion; but nothing awakened such
deep feeling as a band of the mutilated veterans of the Old Guard who,
with mournful visages but a military air, attended the remains of their
beloved chief to his last resting-place.
APPENDIX
LMr. Alison's forty-first Chapter, which in the original work follows the campaign of Austitrlitz, in 1805, COD-
lains much valuable information combined with ninny arguments and opinions on which the world U divided.
It w:is omitted in the body of this volume because it could not well be abridged, and because, if given entire, it
would too greatly have interrupted the narrative: it is therefore introduced here in the form of an Appendix and
precisely in Mr. Alison's own words.]
THE BRITISH FINANCES, AND MR.
IT would be to little purpose that the mighty drama of the French Revolutionary wars
was recorded in history, if the mainspring of all the European efforts, the BRITISH
FINANCES, were not fully explained. It was in their boundless extent that freedom found
a never-failing stay, in their elastic power that independence obtained a permanent sup.
port. When surrounded by the wreck 01' other nations ; when surviving alone the fall
of so many confederacies, it was in their inexhaustible resources that England found
the means of resolutely maintaining the contest, and waiting calmly, on her citadel
amid the waves, the return of a right spirit in the surrounding nations. Vain would have
been the prowess of her seamen, vain the valor of her soldiers, if her national finances
had given way under the strain; and the conquerors of Trafalgar and Alexandria must
have succumbed in the contest they so heroically maintained, if they had not found in
the resources of government the means of permanently continuing it. Vain even would
have been the reaction produced by suffering against the French Revolution : vain the
charnel-house of Spain and the snows of Russia, it England had not been in a situation
to take advantage of the crisis ; if she had been unable to aliment the war in the Pe-
ninsula when its native powers were prostrated in the dust; and the energies of awak.
ened Europe must have been lost in fruitless efforts, if the wealth of England had nor
at last arrayed them, in dense and disciplined battalions, on the banks of the Rhine.
How, then, did it happen that this inconsiderable island, so small a part of the Roman
Empire, was enabled to expend wealth greater than ever had been amassed by the an.
cient mistress of the world ; to maintain a contest of unexampled magnitude for twenty
years ; to keep on foot a fleet which conquered the united navies of Europe, and an
army which carried victory into every corner of the globe; to acquire a colonial empire
that encircled the earth, and subdue the vast continent of Hindostan, at the very time
that it struggled in Spain with the land-forces of Napoleon, and equipped all the armies
of the North for the liberation of Germany ? The solution of the phenomenon, unex.
ampled in the history of the world, is without doubt to be in part found in the perseve-
ring industry of the British people, and the extent of the commerce which they maintained
in every quarter of the globe ; but the resources thus afforded would have been in-
adequate to so vast an expenditure, and must have been exhausted early in the struggle,
if they had not been organized and sustained by an admirable system of finance, which
seemed to rise superior to every difficulty with which it had to contend. It is there that
the true secret of the prodigy is to be found.; it is there that the noblest monument to
Mr. Pitt's wisdom has been erected.
The national income of England at an early period was very inconsiderable, and totally
incommensurate to the important station which she occupied in the scale of natiuns. In
the time of Elizabeth it amounted only to JC400,000 a year, and that of James I. to
J&450,000 ; and even including all the subsidies received from Parliament during hia
reign, .£480,000 a year: sums certainly not equivalent to more than JC800,000, or
464 APPENDIX.
£1,000,000 of our money.* That enjoyed by Charles I. amounted, on an average, tc
£895,000, annually : a sum perhaps equal to £1,500,000 in these thnes.t
It was the long parliament which first gave the example of a prodigious levy of money
from the people in England ; affording thus a striking instance of the eternal truth, that
no government is so despotic as that of the popular leaders, when relieved from all con-
trol on the part of the other powers in the state. The sums levied in England during
the Commonwealth, that is, from the 3rd of November, 1640, to the 5th of November,
1659, amounted to the enormous, and, if not proved by authentic documents, incredible
sum of £83,000,000, being at the rate of nearly £5,000,000 a year ; or more than five
times that which had been so much the subject of complaint in the times of the unhappy
monarch who had preceded it.t The permanent revenue of Cromwell was raised from
the three kingdoms to £1,868,000 : or considerably more than double that enjoyed by
Charles I.§ The total public. income at the death of Charles II. was £1,800,000, of James
II. £2,000,000 ; sums incredibly small, when it is recollected that the price of wheat
was not then materially different from what it is at the present moment.||1T
These inconsiderable taxes, however, were destined to be exchanged for others of a
very different character, upon the accession of the house of Brunswick to the throne.
The intimate connexion of the princes of that family with Continental politics, and the
long wars in which, in consequence, the nation was involved, soon led to a more bur-
densome system of taxation, and the raising of sums annually from the people which in
former times would have been deemed incredible. So great was the increase of the
public burdens during the reign of William, that the national income, in the thirteen
years that he sat on the throne, was nearly doubled ; being raised from £2,000,000 a year
to £3,895,000. But the addition made to the public revenue was the least important part
of the changes effected during this important period. It was then that the NATIONAL
DEBT began ; and government was taught the dangerous secret of providing for the
necessities, and maintaining the influence of present times, by borrowing money and
laying its payment on posterity.**
Various motives combined to induce the government, immediately after the Revolu-
tion, to adopt the system of borrowing on the credit of the state. Notwithstanding the
temporary unanimity with which the Revolution had bee^n brought about, various heart-
burnings and divisions had succeeded that event, and the exiled dynasty still numbered
a large and resolute body, especially in the rural districts, among their adherents. Ex-
* Hume v., 412. vi.,112. t Ib. vii., 341. Pebrer, 45.
t " It is seldom," says Hume, " that the people gain anything by revolutions in government, because the new
•ettlement, jealous and insecure, must commonly be supported with more expense and severity than the old;
but on no occasion was the truth of this maxim more sensibly felt than in England after the overthrow of the
royal authority. Complaints against the oppression of ship-money, and the tyranny of the star chamber, had
roused the people to arms, and, having gained a complete victory over Ui2 crown, they found themselves loaded
with a multiplicity of taxes formerly unknown, while scarce an appearance of law and liberty remained in any
part of the administration.'^
The following are some of the items in this enormous aggregate of £83,000,000 raised from the nation during
the Commonwealth— a striking proof of the despotic character of the executive during that period:
Land-tax .................... .............................................. £32,000,000
Excise ....................................................................... 8,000,000
Tonnage and poundage .................................................... 7,600,000
Sale of church lands ..................................................... !. . 10,035,000
Sequestrations of bishops, deans, and inferior clergy, for four years .......... 3,528,000
Sequestrations of private estates in England ................................ 4,564,000
Fee-farm rents for five years ................................................. 2,963,000
Compositions with delinquents in Ireland .................................. 1,000.000
Sales of estates in Ireland ................................................... 3,567,000
Other lesser ............ . .................................................. , 10,074,000
Total ..................... . £83,331,000
"*>EBRER. 139, 140.
§ Of this sum, there was drawn
from England ................................................................ £1,517,274
from Scotland ................................................................ 143,632
from Ireland ................................................................. 207,790
-Ibid, 140. £1,868,716
|| The quarter of wheat from 1636 to 1701,was, on an average ____ 51s. 11*4
from 1700 to 1765 .................. ? .......................... 40*. 64"
from 1764 to 1794 .............................................. 44.v. Id.
In 1835. the average of the quarter in Great Britain was 38s. Sd.. and the average of the last five years was only
48s.— SMITH'S Wealth of Jtations, i., 358, and Corn Average, 1835.
IT Pebrer. 139, 143. ** Pebrer, 59, 60. a Hume vii., U5.
APPENDIX. 465
tensive patronage, and no small share of corruption were necessary to secure the influ-
ence of government over a nation thus divided : foreign wars were deemed requisite
to maintain the ascendant of the Protestant principles, to which the king owed his acces.
sion to the throne, and the Continental connexions of the house of Orange imperiously
required the intervention of Great Britain in those desperate struggles by which the very
existence of the Commonwealth of Holland was endangered. The same causes which
led to the duplication of the public burdens of France by Louis Philippe after the Rev.
olution of 1830, produced a similar increase in the taxes of Great Britain after the
change of dynasty in 1688, and engendered the dangerous system of borrowing on the
security of the assessments of future years.* It was justly thought that the present influence
of government could in this way be increased to an extent altogether impracticable if the
expenditure of each year were to be limited to the supplies raised within itself; and that,
by the distribution of the debt among a great number of public creditors, an extensive and
influential body might be formed, attached by the strong tie of individual interest to the
fortunes of the ruling dynasty; because they were aware that their claims would be dis-
regarded by the legitimate monarchs, if restored to the throne. The expedient, there-
fore, was fallen upon of contracting a debt transferable by a simple power of attorney,
in the smallest shares, from hand, to hand ; and capable of being used almost like the
highest and most valuable species of bank notes, in the transactions of the nation. To
the steady prosecution of this system, and the formation of a secure deposite by its
means for the savings of the nation, much of the subsequent prosperity and grandeur of
England is to be ascribed : but, like all other human things, it has its evils as well as its
advantages; and in the perilous facility of borrowing, which the magnitude of the national
resources and the fidelity with which the public engagements were fulfilled produced, is
to be found the remote but certain cause of financial embarrassments, now to all appear-
ance irremediable.
It is unnecessary to follow the successive steps by which both the public revenue and
the national debt of Great Britain were increased after this period. Suffice it to say, that
both were largely augmented during the glorious War of the Succession ; that the long
and pacific administration which followed effected no sensible reduction in their amount;
that the checkered contest of 1739, and the more triumphant campaigns of the Seven
Years' War, contributed equally to their increase ; and that the disasters of the American
struggle were attended by so great an augmentation of the national burdens, that at its
termination in 1783, in the opinion of Mr. Hume and Adam Smith, they must inevitably
prove fatal in the end to the independence of the nation. At the close of the last con-
test the public revenue was £12,000,000, and the debt .£240,000,000,1 the interest of
which absorbed no less than £9,319,000 of the annual income of the state ; the loans
contracted during the last unfortunate contest having been no less than one hundred
millions.^
* The following is a statement of the budgets of France before and after the Revolution of July. It Is a curt
ous and instructive object of contemplation, to observe a similar convulsion leading, in countries so widely
different in their character, customs and institutions, as France and England were at the accessions of the dynas-
ties of Orange and Orleans to their respective thrones, to a result so precisely similar :
Francs.
1824 951,000,000, or about £38,100,000
1825 946,000.000, or
1826 942,000,000. or
1827 986,000,000. or
1828 939,100,000, or
1829.... , 975,000,000, or
1830 Revolution in July 981,000000, or
1831 Louis Philippe 1.511, OCO'oOO, or
1832 Do. 1,100,000,000, or
1,120,000.000, or
37.800.COO
38,730,000
37.300,000
3?,ti40,000
60,000.000
44.000,000
44,500,000
—See Stat. de France, pubb'shed by government,
t Pebrer, 245.
t The following table exhibits, in a clear and condensed form, the increase of the public revenue, and pro-
ive growth of the debt, from the Revolution in 1668 to the present time:
Debt. Interest. Public Reventu.
National debt at the Revolution £664,263 39,865 2,001,885
Increase during the reign of William 15.730.439 1.271.087
Debt at, the accession of Queen Anne 16,394.702 1,310,952 3,895,205
Increase during the reign of Queen Anne 37,750.661 2,040,416
Debt at the accession of George 1 64.145,363 3,351,368
Decrease during the reign of George 1 2.0.33.128 133.807
466
APPENDIX.
It was at this period that Mr. Pitt cnrne into office, on the resignation of Mr. Fox and
the coalition ministry. His ardent and sagacious mind was immediately turned to the
consideration of the finances, and the means of extricating the nation from the embar-
rassments, to ordinary observers inextricable, in which it had been involved by the im.
provident expenditure of preceding years. It was evident, from a retrospect of history,
that no sensible impression had been rna Je on the debt by any efforts of preceding times ;
that though a sinking fund had long existed in name, yet its operations had been very
inconsiderable; and that all the economy of the long periods of peace which had inter,
vencd since the Revolution, had done little more than discharge a tenth of the burdena
contracted in the previous years of hostility. The interest of the debt absorbed now
more than two-thirds of the public revenue. It was impossible to conceal that such a
state of tilings was in the hignest degree alarming ; not only as affording no reasonable
prospect that the existing engagements could ever be liquidated, but as threatening, at
no distant period, to render it impossible for the nation to make those efforts which ita
honor or independence might require. It was easy to foresee that, in the course of events,
wars and changes would arise, which would render it indispensable for the government
to assume a menacing attitude, and possibly engage in a long course of hostilities ; but
how could any administration venture to assume the one, or the people bear the other,
if an immense load of debt hung about their necks, absorbing alike by its interest their
present revenues, and paralyzing by its magnitude the credit by which their resources
migln be increased on any unforeseen emergency ?
These dangers took strong possession of tne mind of Mr. Pitt; but, instead of sink-
ing in despair under the difficulties of the subject, he applied the energies of his under,
standing with the greater vigor to overcome tliem. Nor was it long before he perceived
by what means this great object could with ease and certainty be effected. The public
attention at this period had been strongly directed to the prodigious powers of accumu-
lation of money at compound interest ; and Dr. Price had demonstrated, with mathe-
matical certainty, that any sum, however small, increasing at that ratio, would in a
given time extinguish any debt, however great.* Mr. Pitt, with the instinctive sagacity
ot genius, laid hold of this simple law u establish a machine by which the vast debt of
England might without difficulty be discharged. All former sinking funds had failed
of producing great effects, because they were directed to the annual discharge of a
certain portion of debt; not the formation, by compound interest, pf a fund destined to
its future and progressive liquidation ; they advanced, therefore, by addition, not multi-
plication, in an arithmetical, not a geometrical progression. Mr. Pitt saw the evil, and
not merely applied a remedy, but m >re than a remedy; he not only seized the battery,
but turned* it against the enemy. Tne wonderful powers of compound interest, the vast
Dtbt.
Debt at the accession of George II £52.0:2,235
Decrease during the peace 5,137,612
l)el)t at the opening of the war, 1739 46,954,623
Increiise during the war 31,338,683
Debt at the end of the vvnr, 1748 78,293,312
Decrease during the peace 3,721,472
Delitat the opening of tlie war, 1756 74,571,840
Increase during the war 72,111,004
Debt at the end of the war in 1763 146,682,844
Decrease during the peace 10,739.793
Debt at the opening of ±e American war, 1776 135,943,051
Increase during the war •. 102,541,819
Debt at the peace of 1783
Decrease during the pence
4,751,261
Debt at the opening of the war, 1793 233,733,609
Increase during the war 295,105.663
Debt at the peace of Amiens, 1st February, 1801 528,839,277
Increase during the second war 335,983,161
Debt at the peace of Paris, 1st February, 1816 864,822,441
Decrease since the peace > 2, 155,207
Debt on the bt'.i of January, ia32 £782.667,234
— MOREAU and PKBRER'S Tablet, 70,89,152,245, and PORTKR'B Part. Tables, i., 1.
A penny laid out at compound interest at the hi-rli df our Saviour, would in the year 1775 have amounted to
a tol'd mass of gold eighteen hundred times the whole weight of the globe.
Interest.
Public Revenue.
£3,217,561
£6.762,463
253.526
2.964,035
6.874,000
1,096,979
4,001,014
6,923,000
664.287
3,396,737
7,127,164
2.444,104
5,840,851
8,523,440
3&4.000
5,476,811
10,365,405
3,843,084
9,319,925
11,962.000
143,569
9,176,356
16.658.814
10,252,152
19^508
34,113.146
12,796,796
32.225,304
72,210,512
3,833,841
£28,341,463
£50,900,000
APPENDIX. 467
lever of geometrical progression, so long and sorely felt by debtors, were now to be
applied to creditors; and, inverting the process hitherto experienced among mankind,
the swift growth of the gangrene was to be turned from the corruption of the sound to
the eradication of the diseased part of the system. Another addition, like the discovery
of gravitation, the press, and the steam-engine, to tlie many illustrations which history
aiK-rds of the lasting truth, that the greatest changes, both in the social and material
world, are governed by the same laws as the smallest; and that it is by the felicitous
application of familiar principles to new and important objects, that the greatest and
moat salutary discoveries in human affairs are effected.
Mr Pitt's mind was strongly impressed with the incalculable importance of this sub.
ject, one before which all wars or subjects of present interest, excepting only the preser-
vation of the Constitution, sunk into insignificance. From the time of his accession to
ofiice in 17d4, his attention had been constantly riveted to the subject, and he repeatedly
expressed, in the most energetic language, his sense of its overwhelming magnitude.
" Upon the deliberation of this day," said he, in bringing forward his resolutions on the
subject, on the 29th of March, 178G, " the people of England place all their hopes of a
full return of prosperity, and a revival of that pubhc security which will give vigor and
confidence to those commercial exertions on which the flourishing state of the country
depends. Yet not only the public and this house, but other nations are intent upon it;
for upon its deliberations, by the success or failure of what is now proposed, our rank
will be decided among the powers of Europe. To behold this country, when just
emerging trora a most unfortunate war, which had added such an accumulation to sums
before immense, that it was the belief of surrounding nations, and of many among our-
selves, that we must sink under it — to behold this nation, instead of despairing at its
alarming condition, looking boldly its situation in the face, and establishing upon a
spirited and permanent plan the means of relieving itself from all its encumbrances,
must give such an idea of our resources as will astonish the nations around us, and
enable us to regain that preeminence to which, on many accounts, we are so justly
entitled. The propriety and even necessity of adopting a plan for this purpose is now
universally allowed, and it is also admitted that immediate steps ought to be taken on
the subject. It is well known how strongly my feelings have been engaged, not only
by the duties of my situation, but the consideration of my own personal reputation,
which is deeply committed in the question, to exert every nerve, to arm every vigilance,
to concentrate my efforts toward that great object, by which alone we can have a
prospect of transmitting to posterity, that which we ourselves have felt the want of — an
efficient sinking fund for the national debt. To accomplish this is the first wish of my
heart, and it would be my proudest hope to have my name inscribed on a pillar to be
erected in honor of the man who did his country the essential service of reducing the
national debt."*t
In pursuance of these designs, Mr. Pitt proposed that a million yearly — composed
partly of savings effected in various branches of the public service, to the amount of
.£900,000, and partly of new taxes, to the amount of .£100,000 — should be granted to
his majesty, to be vested in commissioners chosen from the highest functionaries in the
realm ; that the payments to them should be made quarterly ; and that the whole sums
thus drawn should be by^thern invested in the purchase of stock, to stand in the name
of the commissioners, the dividends on which were to be periodically applied to the
further purchase of stock, to stand and have its dividends invested in the same manner.
In this way, by setting apart a million annually, and religiously applying its interest to
* Parl. Hist., xxvi., 12&3, 1313, 1109.
t It is worthy of especial notice, however, that though thus deeply impressed with the paramount importance
of raising up an effective sinking fund for the reduction of the public debt, Mr. Pitt was equally resolute not to
attempt it by any measure by which the public security might be impaired, and, on the contrary, at the very
•ame time strongly advocated and carried a bill for the fortification of Portsmouth and Plymouth, which
-equired several hundred thousand pounds. " He who would be seduced," said he, " by the plausible and popu-
Inr name of economy : he who would not call it only plausible and popular, he would rather say the sacred
•ame of economy, to forego the reality ; and for the sake of adding a few hundred thousand pounds ;it the out-
•et to the sinking fund, perhaps render for ever abortive the sinking fund itself. Every saving, consistently with
national safety, he would pledge himself to make : but he would never consent to starve the public service, and
to withhold those supplies, without which the nation must be endangered. "a Every measure of this great man
was directed to great and lasting national objects ; he was content to impose present burdens, to forego present
advantages, and incur present unpopularity, for the sake of ultimate public advantage ; theonly principle which
ever yet led to greatness and honor, either in nations or individuals, as the opposite system, gilded by present
popularity or enjoyment, is the certain forerunner of ultimate ruin.
a Parl. Hist, xxvi, 1108.
42
468 APPENDIX.
the purchase of stock, the success of the plan was secured ; because the future accu.
mutations would spring, not from any additional burdens imposed on the people, but
the dividends on the stock thus bought up from individuals, and vested in the public
trustees. The powers of compound interest were thus brought round from the side of
the creditor to that of the debtor — from the fundholders to the nation ; and the national
debt was eaten in upon by an accumulating fund, which, increasing in a geometrical
progression, would to a certainty, at no distant period, effect its total extinction.* " If
this million," said Mr. Pitt, " to be so applied, is to be laid out with its growing interest,
it will amount to a very great sum in a period that is not very long in the life of an
individual, and but an hour in the existence of a great nation ; and this will diminish
the debt of this country so much as to prevent the exigencies of war from raising it to
the enormous height it has hitherto done. In the period of twenty-eight years, the sum
of a million, annually improved, would amount to four millions per annum. But care
must be taken that this sum be not broken in upon. This has hitherto been the bane
of this country ; for if the original sinking fund had been properly preserved, it can
easily be proved that our debts at this moment would not have been very burdensome ;
but this, hitherto, has been found impracticable, because the minister has uniformly,
when it suited his convenience, gotten hold of this sum, which ought to have been
regarded as most sacred. To prevent this, I propose that this sum be vested in certain
dignified commissioners, to be by them applied quarterly to buy up stock ; by which
means no considerable sum will ever be open to spoliation, and the fund will go pn
without interruption. Long, and very long, has the country struggled under its heavy
load, without any prospect of being relieved ; but it may now look forward to the
object upon which the existence of the country depends. A minister could never have
the confidence to come down to the House and propose the repeal of so beneficial a
law — of one so directly tending to relieve the people from their burdens. The essence
of the plan consists in the fund being invariably applied in diminution of the debt ; it
must for ever be kept sacred, and especially so in time of war. To suffer the fund at
any time, or on any pretence, to be diverted from its proper object, would be to ruin,
defeat, and overturn the whole plan."tt
Nor was Mr. Fox behind his great rival in the same statesmanlike and heroic senti.
ments ; but he pointed out, with too prophetic a spirit, the dangers to which the reserved
fund might be exposed, amid the necessities or weakness of future administrations.
" No man," said he, " in existence was, or ever had been, a greater friend to the prin-
ciple of a sinking fund than I have been from the very first moment of my political life.
I agree perfectly with the right honorable gentleman in his ideas of the necessity of
establishing an effective sinking fund for the purpose of applying it to the diminution of
* The following table will exemplify the growth of capital when its interest, at the rate of 5 per cent., is stead-
ily applied to the increase of the principal. Suppose that £20,000,000 is borrowed ; and that, instead of provid-
ing by taxes for the interest merely of this large sum, provision is made for £1,200,000 yearly, leaving the surplus
of £200,000 to be annually applied in the purchase of a certain portion of the stock, by commissioners, for the
reduction of the principal, the dividends on the stock so purchased being annually and progressively employed
in the same manner. The progressive growth in ten years will stand as follows :
First year's surplus £200,000 Sixth £253.078
Second 210,000 Seventh 265,654
Third 220,500 Eighth 278,286
Fou-th 231,250 Ninth 292,114
Fifth 242,562 Tenth 306,661
£2,500,105
The wonderful rate at which this fund increases must be obvious to every observer, and it is worthy of es^cial
notice, that this rapid advance is gained without imposing one farthing additional upon the country, by the
mere force of an annual fund, steadily applied year after year, with all its fruits, to the reduction of the princi-
pal debt,
t Pad. Hist., xxvi., 1309, 1322.
J The speech delivered by Mr. 1'itt on this occasion, which went over the whole details of our financial system,
is one of the most luminous of his whole Parliamentary career. An intimate friend of his luts recorded1. " That
having passed the morning of this most important day in providing and examining the calculations and resolu-
tions for the evening, he said he would take a walk to arrange in his mind what was to be said in the House in
the evening. His walk did not lost above a quarter of an hour, and when he came back he said he believed he
was prepared. He then dressed, and desired his dinner to be sent up ; but hearing that his sister and another lady
re«idine with her in the family, were going to dine with him at the same early hour, he desired that they might
dine together. Having passed nearly an hour with those ladies, and several friends who called on their way to
the House, talking with his usual liveliness and gayety, as if he had nothing on his mind, he then went imme-
diately to the House of Commons, and made that elaborate and far-extended speech, as Mr. Fox called it, with-
out one omission or error." See No. V. WILLIAM PITT, Blackwood's Magazine, xxxvi., 852 : a series of papers
on the character of this illustrious man, by one of the ablest writers of the age, containing by far the best account
•f his policy and character extant in any language.
APPENDIX. 469
the national debt, however widely I may differ from him as to the subordinate parts of
the plan. Formerly, the payment of the national debt was effected by a subscription of
individuals, to whom the faith of Parliament had been pledged to pay off certain specified
portions, at stated periods. Under that system, when the nation, or when Parliament^
stood bound to individuals, the pledge was held as sacred as to pay the interest of the
national debt at present ; whereas, under the new system, when no individual interests
were concerned, nothing would prevent a future minister, in any future war, from com.
ing down to the House and proposing the repeal of the sinking fund, or enabling govern-
ment to apply the whole money or stock in the hands of the commissioners to the public
service. What would prevent the House from agreeing to the proposition ? or was it
at all likely that, under the exigency of the moment, they would not immediately agree
to it, when so much money could so easily be got at, and when they could so readily
save themselves from the odious and unpleasant task of imposing new taxes on them-
selves and their constituents?"* Memorable words from both these great men! when
it is recollected how exactly the one predicted the wonderful effects which experience
has now proved his system was calculated to have produced, in reducing, in a period of
time smaller than the most ardent imagination could have supposed, a debt double the
amount of that which he estimated as so great an evil ; and with how much accuracy
the other pointed out the vulnerable point in its composition, and predicted the cause,
springing from the necessities or weakness of future administrations, which would ulti
mately prove its ruin !
The bill passed both Houses without a dissenting voice ; and on the 26th of May the
king gave it the royal assent in person, to mark his strong sense of the public importance
of the measure.
The sinking fund thus provided was amply sufficient to have discharged all the exist-
ing debt within a moderate period ; and so well aware was its author of its vast pro.
ductive powers, that he observed, that when it rose to four millions, it should be
submitted to Parliament whether it should thenceforth be suffered to increase at com-
pound interest. But the events which followed, soon not only rendered illusory all
danger of the debt being too rapidly reduced, but made an addition to the system
unavoidable to meet the new and overwhelming obligations contracted during the war.
Some expedient, therefore, was necessary to provide for the liquidation of these vast
additional debts ; and it was in the means taken to do so that the extensive foresight
and unshaken constancy of Mr. Pitt are to be discerned. He laid it down as a prin-
ciple, which was never, on any pretence whatever, to be departed from, that, when any
additional loan was contracted for, provision should be made for its gradual liquidation.
"We ought," said Mr. Pitt, "not to confine our views to the sinking fund, compared
with the debt now existing. If our system stops there, the country will remain ex-
posed to the possibility of being again involved in those embarrassments which we
have in our own time severely experienced, and which apparently brought us to the
verge of bankruptcy and ruin. To guard against such dangers hereafter, we should
enact that, whenever any loan shall take place in future, unless it be raised on annui-
ties, which will terminate in a moderate number of years, there should, of course, be
issued out of the consolidated fund,t to the commissioners for the reduction of the
national debt, an additional sum, sufficient to discharge the capital of such loan in the
same period as the sinking fund, after reaching its largest amount, will discharge what
will then remain of the present debt. To do this, one hundredth part of the capital
borrowed would be sufficient to be raised from the country on such emergencies ; for
instance, supposing it were necessary to raise by loan ten millions, .£100,000 should be
raised in addition to the existing funds appropriated to the redemption of the debt, in
order to relieve the country within a given time of this additional burden. In addition
to this, I propose that ,£200,000 a year additional should from this time forward, be
regularly granted out of the ordinary revenue of the country to the sinking fund."
Mr. Fox stated, " that he had ever maintained the necessity of establishing a fund for
reducing the national debt,t and that as strongly when on the ministerial as the oppo-
sition benches. He had not the power to promote it as effectually as Mr. Pitt, but he
wished it as warmly." In pursuance of the united opinion of these great men, it was
* Parl. Hist., xxvi,, 1318.
tThe consolidated fund was a certain portion of the ordinary taxes, which were amassed together and devoted
to certain fixed objects of national expenditure. The surplus of this fund, as it was called, or the excess of thoa*
biaitches of revenue above the charges fixed on them, was annually appropriated, during the war, among th*
ways and means to the current war expenditure.
JParl. Hist., xxix.. 1050, 1058.
470 APPENDIX.
enacted by the statute passed on the occasion, " that whenever, in future, any sums
should be raised by loans on perpetual redeemable annuities, a sum equal to one per
cent, on the stock created by such loan should be issued out of the produce of the con.
solidated fund quarterly, to be placed to the account of the commissioners."* Every
additional loan was thus compelled to draw after itself, as a necessary consequence, a
fresh burden, by the annual payment of which the extinction of the principal might to
a certainty, in little more than forty years, be expected.
Under this system the whole loans were contracted, and the sinking fund was man.
aged till 181)2 ; and as immense sums were borrowed during that period, the growth of
the sinking fund was far more rapid than had been originally contemplated. In that
year an alteration of some importance was made, not, indeed, by Mr. Pitt, but by Mr.
Addington, then chancellor of the Exchequer, with his consent and approbation.
"The capital of the debt," said he, " is now £488,000,000 ; its interest, including the
charges of the sinking fund, .£23,000,000 : it is impossible to contemplate either the one
or the other without the utmost anxiety. What I now propose is, that the limitation
which was formerly provided against the accumulation of the original sinking fund
should be removed; and that both that original fund and the subsequent one, created
by the act of 1792, should be allowed to accumulate till they have discharged the whole
debt." This proposition was unanimously agreed to ; it being enacted " that this fund
should accumulate till the whole existing redeemable annuities should be paid off."
By this act, the original sinking fund of £1,000,000, with the £200,000 subsequently
granted, and the one per cent, on all the subsequent loans, were combined into one
consolidated fund, to be applied continually, at compound interest, till the whole debt
then existing was paid off, which it was calculated would be in forty-five years.t
Under these three acts of 1786, 1792, and 1802, the sinking fund continued to be
administered with exemplary fidelity, not only during Mr. Pitt's life, but after his death,
till 1813, when a total change in the system took place, which eventually led to its ruin,
and has, to all appearance, rendered the financial state of the country almost desperate.
To obtain a clear view of the practical effects of Mr. Pitt's system, it is necessary to
anticipate somewhat the march of events, and give a summary of the operation of the
sinking fund which he established down to the period when it was abandoned by his
more embarrassed and less provident successors.
From the accounts laid before Parliament, it appears that the sinking fund of a mil-
lion which Mr. Pitt established in 1786, had increased by accumulation at compound
interest, and the vast additions drawn from the one per cent, on all subsequent loans,
to the enormous sum of fifteen millions and a half yearly in 1813, while the debts
which it had discharged during that period amounted to no less than £238,231,000 ster-
ling. This great increase had taken place in twenty-seven years, whereas Mr. Pitt had
calculated correctly that his original million would be only four millions in twenty-
eight years : the well-known period of the quadruplication of the sum at compound
interest of 5 per cent. The subsequent £200,000 a year granted, certainly accelerated
in a certain degree the rate of its advance ; but the true cause of the extraordinary
and unexpected rapidity of its increase is to be found in the vast accumulation which
the one per cent, on subsequent loans produced. This distinctly appears from the table
compiled below, showing the sums paid off by the sinking fund in every year from
1786 to 1813, the loans contracted during that period, the stock redeemed by the com-
missioners, and the proportion of each loan paid to them for behoof of the public debt.
It thence appears how rapidly and suddenly the sinking fund rose, with the immense
sums borrowed at different periods during the war ; and when it is recollected that the
loans contracted from 1792 to 1815 were £585,000,000, it will not appear surprising
that even the small sum of one per cent, on each, regularly issued to the national debt
commissioners, should have led to this extraordinary and unlooked-for accumulation.^
It is this subsequent addition of one per cent, on all loans contracted since the in.
stitution of the sinking fund which has been at once the cause of its extraordinary
increase and subsequent ruin. While the nation in general were entirely satisfied with
Mr. Pitt's financial statements, and, delighted with the rapid growth of the sinking
fund, never examined whether the funds for its prodigious extension were provided by
the fictitious supply of loans or the solid growth of the revenue above the expenditure,
* 32 Geo. in., c. 69. t Par!. Hist., xxxvi. 890, 892.
t Table showing the sums paid to the commissioners for the reduction of the national debt in every yeAr
from 1786 to 1816; the stock redeemed by them in each year, the loans contracted, and proportion of those loam
paid to those commissioners in every year for that period ; with the public revenue of tbe state for the saina
APPENDIX.
471
a few more sagacious observers began to inquire into the solidity of the whole system,
and mistaking its past operation, which had been almost entirely during the war, for
its permanent character, loudly proclaimed that it was founded entirely on a delusion ;
that a great proportion of the rums which it paid off had been raised by loans ; that, at
all events, a much larger sum than the amount of the debt annually redeemed had been
annually borrowed since the commencement of the war ; that it was impossible that a
nation, any more than an individual, could discharge its debts by mere financial opera-
tions ; and that the only way of really getting quit of encumbrances was by bringing
the expenditure permanently under the income.*
These doctrines soon spread among a considerable part of the thinking portion of
the nation ; but they made little general impression till the return of peace had diverted
into different channels the attention of the people, formerly concentrated on the career
of Napoleon : and Democratic ambition, taking advantage of national distress, had
begun to denounce all that had formerly been done by the patriots who had triumphed
over its principles. Then they speedily became universal : attacks on the sinking fund
were rapidly diffused and generally credited — the delusion of Mr. Pitt's system — the
juggle so long practiced on the nation, were in every mouth ; the meanest political
quacks, the most despicable popular demagogues, ventured to discharge their javelina at
the giants of former days ; and a system on which the greatest and best of men in the
last age had been united, in commendation of which Mr. Fox had vied with Pitt, and
Sheridan with Burke, was universally denounced as the most complete and ruinous de-
ception that ever had been palmed off by official fraud on the credulity of mankind.
Had these doctrines been confined to the declamation of the hustings or the abuse of
newspapers, they would have furnished the subject only of curious speculation on the
way in which principles, just to a certain extent, and truths, undeniable as they were
originally stated, became perverted, when they were employed as an engine for the
purposes of faction or ambition. But, unhappily, the evil soon assumed a much more
serious complexion : the prevailing ideas spread to tho Legislature, and the statesmen
who succeeded to the government, imbued partly with the declamation of the period,
influenced partly by the desire of gaining a temporary popularity by the reduction of
the public burdens, without any regard to the interests of future times, went on bor-.
rowing or abstracting from the sinking fund till it was totally extinguished during the
great convulsion of 1832 : and the commissioners for the reduction of the national debt
issued an official intimation that their purchases for the public service had altogether
ceased. The principle acted upon since that time has been to apply to the reduction
of debt no more than the annual surplus of the national income above its expenditure ;
and as that surplus, under the present Democratic system, can never be expected
time.-MoREAu's Tables ; PEBRIR'S Tables, 153. 154, 246 ; Par/. Pap., 1822., &c., 145 ; PORTER'S. Par/.
i., 1 ; COLQUHOUN, 292, 234.
Table showing the progressive growth, of the sinking-fund.
Years.
17&3
Sinking-fund
Stock re-
deemed by
inking-fund.
14,171,407
13.9&5.824
14.352771
15.ffi9.194
18,147,245
21,108.442
24,120.867
"
Loans
contracted.
* Hamilton on the Sink inn Fund, and others.
Proportion of
loan paid to
sinking-fund.
£1.630,615
1.872,200
2,143,595
2,639:724
4,620,4
5,117,7
5,ti85,542
6,018,179
0,521,394
7,181,482
7,8^),5K8
8,908,673
9|S65,853
10,170,104
10,813,016
14,181,006
12,748,231
11,902,051
32
Expenditure,
includinc in
;erest of debt, of debt
fondled & un-
funded, and
tin king-fund.
.£16,179,347
17,434,767
22.754.366
29.305,477
39.751091
40,791,533
50789857
51,241,798
59,296.081
61,617,988
54,912,890
67,619,475
76,056,796
75,154 548
4,797,080
88,892, 551
J. 360.728
004.241
,644,085
122.235.fi60
129,74
Total charsre
if debt, inclu-
ding sinking
fund.
Revenue,
17,440.e
17,374,?
472
APPENDIX.
to be considerable, Mr. Pitt's sinking fund may now, to all practical purposes, be con.
sidered as destroyed.*
In the preceding observations, the march of events has been anticipated by nearly
thirty years, and changes alluded to which will form the important subject of analysis in
the subsequent volumes of this, or some other history. But it is only by attending to
the dissolution of Mr. Pitt's system, and the eflbcts by which that change has been, and
must be attended, that the incalculable importance of his financial measures can be
appreciated, or the wisdom discerned which, so far as human wisdom could, had
guarded against the evils which must, in their ultimate consequences, dissolve the
British Empire.
It is perfectly true, as Mr. Hamilton and the opponents of the sinking fund have argued,
that neither national nor individual fortunes can be mended by mere financial opera-
tions, by borrowing with one hand while you pay off with another ; and unquestionably
Mr. Pitt never imagined that, if the nation was paying off ten millions a year and bor-
rowing twenty, it was making any progress in the discharge of its debt. In this view,
it is of no moment to inquire what proportion of the debt annually contracted was applied
to the sinking fund ; because, as long as larger sums than that fund was able to dis-
charge were yearly borrowed by the nation, it is evident that the operation of the system
was attended with no present benefit to the state : nay, that the cost of its machinery
was, for the time at least, an addition to its burdens. But all that notwithstanding, Mr.
Pitt's plan for the redemption of the debt was not only founded on consummate wisdom,
but a thorough knowledge of human nature. He never looked to the sinking fund as
the means of paying off the debt while loans to a larger amount than it redeemed were
contracted every year ;t he regarded it as a fund which would speedily and certainly
* The following table exhibits the progression and decline of the sinking fund from the time of its being first
instituted in 1786, till it was broken upon by Mr. Vansittart in 1813, and till its virtual extinction in 1832.
Table showing its progressive growth, decline, and final extinction.
Total am't i «f L- ^ I Money applied I Total ana't
of funded Years. btockjfdeem|to reduction of of funded
debt. ed- debt. | debt.
debt
£13,075,977
14,078,577
16.064,057
14,830,957
H,241,a97
13,945,117
14,514.457
15.339,483
16,305,590
17,499,773
17,2 19.£
18,889,319
7.482,325
10,652,0:>9
6,093,475
5.621,231
5,704,706
4.667,965
......
13;759,607
15,341,799
16,0..4,962
16,181,68!)
16.656,643
— PORTKR'S Purl. Tables, i., and ii., 6, 8, : PKBRER'S, Tables, 247 : MORKAU'S Tables.
N. B. — This table exhibits the progress of the sinking fund and stock redeemed in Great Britain and Ireland,
which explains its difference from the preceding table, applicable to Great Britain alone.
t Mr. Pitt's speech on the budget, in 1798, affords decisive evidence that he labored under no delusion on the
subject of the operation of the sinking fund during war, but always looked forward to its effects when loans had
ceased by the return of peace, as exemplifying its true character, and alone effecting a real reduction of the debt.
" By means of the sinking fund," said he, " we had advanced far in the reduction of the debt previous to the
loans necessarily made in the present war, and every year was attended with such accelerated salutary effects as
outran the most sanguine calculation. But, having done so, we have yet far to go, as tilings are circumstanced.
If the reduction of the debt be confined to the operations of that fund, and the expenses of the war continue to
impede our plans of economy, we shall have to go far before the operation of that fund, even during peace, can
be expected to counteract the effects of the war. Yet there are means by which I am confident it would be pos-
sible, in not many years, to restore our resources, and put the country in a state equal to all exigences. Not. only
do I conceive that the principle is wise and the attempt practicable to procure large supplies out of the direct
taxes from the year, but I conceive that it is equally wise and not less practicable to make provision for the
amount o'f the debt incurred and funded in the same year ; and if the necessity of carrying on the war shall entail
upon us the necessity of contracting another debt, this principle, if duly carried into practice, with the assistance
of the sinking fund to cooperate, will enable us not to owe mon than we did at its commencement. / cannot,
indeed, take it upon me to say that the war will not stop the progress of liquidation, but if the means I have
pointed on are adopted and resolutely adhered to, it will leave us at least stationary."— Parl. Hist., xxxiii
1053,1054.
ffi
1788
1789
1790
1791
1792
1793
1794
1795
>s
1798
1799
1800
1801
1802
1803
1804
1805
1808
1,503,000
1,506,000
1,558,000
1,587,500
1,507,100
1962,650
2,174,405
2,804,945
3,083,455
4,390,670
6790023
8,102.875
9.550,094
10;713,168
10,491,325
9,436,389
13,181,667
12,860,6
1811
1812
1813
1814
1815
1816
1817
1818
1819
1824
1825
1826
1827
1828
1829
1830
1834
1835
£17,884,234
20,733,354
24.24H.O.?*
27522,230
22,599.653
24,001.083
23,117
19,648,496
§,191,702
,518,885
,605.931
} 7,966,680
4.
3.3W,834
7J281.414
6,033,414
6,425,465
3,304,723
9,079
APPENDIX. 473
effect the reduction of the debt in time of peace. And the admirable nature of the
institution consisted in this, that it provided a system, with all the machinery requisite
for its complete and effective operation, which, although overshadowed and subdued by
the vast contraction of debt during war, came instantly into powerful operation the
moment its expenditure was terminated. This was a point of vital importance ; indeed,
without it, as experience has since proved, all attempts to reduce the debt would have
proved utterly nugatory. Mr. Pitt was perfectly aware of the natural impatience of
taxation of mankind in general, and the especial desire always felt that, when the excite,
ment of war ceased, its expenditure should draw to a termination. He foresaw, there,
fore, that it would be impossible to get the popular representatives at the conclusion of
the war to lay on new taxes, and provide for a sinking fund to pay off the debt which
had been contracted during its continuance. The only way, therefore, to secure that
Inestimable object, was to have the whole machinery constructed and in full activity du.
ring war, so that it might be at once brought forward into full and efficient operation
upon the conclusion of hostilities, without any legislative act or fresh imposition what,
ever, by the mere termination of the contraction of loans.
The result has completely proved the wisdom of these views. Crippled and mangled
as the sinking fund has been by the enormous encroachments made upon it by the ad-
ministrations of later times, it has yet done much during the peace to pay off the debt ;
amply sufficient to demonstrate the solidity of the principles on which it was founded.
In sixteen years, even after these copious reductions, it has discharged more-man eighty-
two millions of the debt, besides the addition of seven millions made by the bonus of 5
per cent, granted to the holders of the five per cents., who were reduced to four : that it
has paid off in that time nearly ninety millions.* It is not a juggle which, in a time so
short in the lifetime of a nation, and during the greater part of which Great Britain was
laboring under severe distress in almost all the branches of its industry, was able, even
on a reduced scale, to effect a reduction so considerable.
Nor has the experience of the last twenty years been less decisive as to the absolute
necessity of making the provision for the liquidation of the debt part of a permanent
system, to which the national faith is absolutely and unequivocally bound, and which
depends for no part of its efficiency upon the votes or financial measures of the year.
Since this ruinous modification of Mr. Pitt's unbending, self-poised system was intro-
duced ; since the fatal precedent was established of allowing the minister to determine,
by annual votes, how much of the sinking fund was to be applied to the current service?
of the year, and how much reserved for its original and proper destination, the encroach,
ment on the fund has gone on continually increasing, till at length it has, 'to all practical
purposes, swallowed it entirely up. The sinking fund, when thus broken upon, has
proved, like the chastity of a woman, when once lost, the subject of continual subsequent
violation, till the shadow <ven of respect for it is gone. If such has been the fate of
this noble and truly patriotic establishment, even when no increased burden was required
to keep it in activity, and the temptation which proved fatal to its existence was merely
the desire to effect a reduction of taxes long borne by the nation, it is easy to see how
utterly hopeless would have been any attempt to make considerable additions to the
annual burdens upon the conclusion of hostilities with a view to effect a diminution of
its public debt : and how completely dependent, therefore, the sinking fund was for its
very existence upon Mr. Pitt's system of having all its machinery put in motion at the
time the loans were contracted during war, and its vast powers brought into full view
without any application to the Legislature, by the mere cessation of borrowing on the
return of peace.l
* Funded debt on January 5, 1816 £816,311,940
Unfunded do 46.510,501
Total £864,832,441
Total debt on 5th January, 1833: viz.,
Funded ." £754,100,549
Unfunded 27,752,650
-781,853.199
Paid off in sixteen years £82,969,242
—Annual Finance Statemmt,l8Z3, and PKBRER, 246, and PORTER'S Parliamentary Tables, ii., 6.
t In Mr. Pitt's Financial Resolutions in the year 1799, which embrace a vast variety of important financial
details, there is the clearest indication of the lasting and permanent system to which he looked forward with per-
fect justice for the entire liquidation of the public debt. One of these resolutions was, "That, supposing the
price of 3 per cent, stock to be on an average, after the year 1800, £90 in time of peace, and £75 in time of war.
and the proportion of peace and war to be the same as for the last hundred years, the average price of peace and
war will be about £85 ; that the whole debt created in each year of the present war will be redeemed in about
474 APPENDIX.
Not a shadow of doubt can now remain that Mr. Pitt*s and Mr. Addington's antici-
nations were well founded, and that, if their system had heen adhered to since the
peace, the whole national debt would have been discharged by the year 1843. The
payment of eighty millions, under the mutilated system, since 1815, aftords a sample of
What might have been expected, had its efficiency not been impaired. Even supposing
that, for the extraordinary efforts of 1813, 1814, and 1815, it had been necessary to bor-
row from the commissioners the whole sinking fund during each of these years, still, if
the nation and its government had posessed sufficient resolution to have resumed the
system with the termination of hostilities, and steadily adhered to it since that time, the
debt discharged by the year 1836 would, at 5 per cent., have been nearly six hundred
millions, and the sinking fund would now have been paying off above forty millions a
year. Or, if the national engagements would only have permitted the sinking fund to
have been kept up at ten millions yearly from the produce of taxes, and if the accumu-
lation were to be calculated at four per cent., which, on an average, is probably not far
from the truth, the fund applicable to the reduction of debt would now have been above
twenty millions annually, arid the debt already discharged would have exceeded three
hundred and thirty millions ! A more rapid reduction of funded property would not
probably have been consistent, either with a proper regard to the employment of capital,
or the due creation of safe channels of investment, to receive so vast an annual discharge
from the public treasury.*
forty years from such year respectively, and the whole of the capital debt existing previous to 1793 will be
redeemed in about forty-seven years from the present time; that from 1808 to 1833 (at which ti ne the capital
debt created in the first year of the present war would be redeemed, and the taxes applicable to the charges
thereof would become disposable,) taxes would be set free in each year of peace to the amount of .£133,000, and
of war to that of £168,000; that the amount of the sum annually applicable to the reduction of thedel>t would in
the course of the same period gradually rise from £5,000,000 to ,£10,400,000; and that, on the suppositions before
stated, taxes equal to the amount of the charges created during each year of the present war will be successively
set free, from 1833 to 1840, to the amount in the whole of £10,500,000, and about 1846, further taxes to the amounS
of £4,200,000, being the sum applicable fiora 1808 to the reduction of the debt existing previous to 1793 ; making
in all, when the whole debt is extinguished in 1846, a reduction of £19,000,000 yearly."a Such was the far-seeinj
and durable system of thia great statesman ; and experience has now proved that, if his principles had been ad-
hered to, and the taxes applicable to the charges of the debt had not been imprudently repealed, these antici-
pations would have been more than realized, notwithstanding the vast increase of the debt since that time.
* Tables showing the progressive growth of the Sinking Fund of fifteen or ten millions, since 1816 to 1836,
Table I., showing what the Sinking Fund, accumulating at 5 per cent., if maintained at £15,000,000 a year
ve paid off from 1816 to 1836.
1816 £15.000,000 Brought forward £212,660,625
1817 15,750,000 1827 25.530,240
1818 16.537,500 1828 26,839,360
1819 17.363,870 1829 28,181.423
1820 18.231,973 1830 29,590,464
1821 19,143,566 1831 31,579,590
1822 20,100,774 1832 33.158,577
1833 34,816.000
1835 37,238,312
1836 39,099,214
Carry forward £212,660,625 Total in 20 years £534,127,430
Table II., showing what the Sinking Fund, if maintained from the taxes at £10,000 000 sterling, and if acco-
relating at 4 per cent, only, would have paid off from 1816 to 1836.
1816 £10,000,000 Brought forward £138,243,700
1817 10,400,000 1827 16,032,580
1818 10,816.000 1828
1829 17,340,832
1820 11,715,560 1830 18034464
I*21 12,671,544 1831 is',754',840
1822 13.178,404 1832 19,505,032
1823 13,705.540 , 1833 20,285,232
1824 14.253,760 1834 21.096,640
I825 14,822,948 1835 21,930,504
18K 15,415,944 1836 23107724
Carry forward £138,243,700 Total in 20 years £331,005,428
Supposing the stock, in the first case, purchased on an average at 90 by the commissioners, the £534,027.4t>*
Herling money would have redeemed a tenth more of the stock, or £587,000.000 of the stock. Supposing it
bought, in the second case, at an average at 85, which would probably have bean about the mark, the £342 000.
aOO sterling money would have purchased nearly a seventh more of stock, or £385,357,000, being just about a
half of the debt existing at this moment.
a Parl. Hist., xxxiv.. 1155
APPENDIX.
475
Everything, therefore, conspires to demonstrate that Mr. Pitt's system for the reduc
tion of the national debt was nut only founded on just principles and profound fore-
sight, but an accurate knowledge of human nature and a correct appreciation of the
principles by which such a salutary scheme was likely to be defeated, and the means
by which alone its permanent efficiency could be secured. And no doubt can now re-
main in any impartial mind that, if that system had been resolutely adhered to, the
whole debt contracted duri/ig the war with the French Revolution might have been
discharged in nearly the same time that it was contracted.
What is it, then, which has occasioned the subsequent ruin of a system constructed
with so much wisdom, and so long adhered to, under the severest trials, with unshaken
fidelity ? The answer is to be found in the temporary views and yielding policy of sue-
ceeding statesmen; in the substitution of ideas of present expedience for those of per-
manent advantage ; in the advent of times, when government looked from year to year,
not from century to century ; in the mistaking the present applause of the unreflecting
many for that sober approbation of the thoughtful few, which it should ever be the chief
object of an enlightened statesman to obtain. When a Greek orator was applauded by
the multitude for his speech, the philosopher chid him : " For," said he, " if you had
spoken wisely, these men would have given no signs of approbation." The observa-
tion is not founded on any peculiar fickleness or levity in the Athenian people, but on
the permanent principles of human nature, and that general prevalence of the desire for
temporary ease over considerations of permanent advantage, which it is the great ob-
ject of the moralist to combat, and to the influence of which the greatest disasters of
private life are owing. And, without relieving subsequent statesmen of their full share
of responsibility for an evil which will now in the end probably consign the British Em-
pire to destruction, it may safely be affirmed that the British people, and every individ-
ual among them, must bear their full share of the burden. A general delusion seized
the public mind. The populace loudly clamored for a reduction of taxation, without
any regard to the consequences, not merely on future times, but their own present advan-
tage ; the learned fiercely assailed the sinking fund, and, with hardly a single excep-
tion, branded the work of Pitt and Fox as a vile imposture, unfit to stand the test of
reason or experience ; the opposition vehemently demanded the remission of taxes; the
government weakly granted the request. Year after year passed away under this mis-
erable delusion ; tax after tax was repealed amid the general applause of the nation ;*
the general concurrence in the work of destruction for a time almost obliterated the
Table showing the amount of direct and indirect taxes repealed since 1814.
Nett produce. Gross produce.
1814, War duties on goods, &c £932,000 £948.861
1815, Ditto 222,000
1816, Property -tax and war malt 17,547,000
1817, Sweet wines 37,000 37,812
1818, Vinegar, &c 9,500 9,524
1819, Plate glass, &.c 269,000 273.573
181X), Beer in Scotland 4,000 4,000
1821, Wool 471,000 490,113
1822, Annual malt and hides 2,139,000 2,164,037
1823, Stilt and assessed taxe.- 4,185,000 4,286,389
1824, Thrown silk and salt 1,801,000 1,805,467
1835, Wine, salt, &c 3,676,000 3,771.019
1836, Rum and British spirits 1,967,000 1,973,915
1827, Sumps 84,000
1828. Rice.&c 51,000
1830, 8ilk,&c 126,000 126,406
1830, Beer, hides, and sugar 4,070,000 4,264,423
1831, Printed cottons, and coals 1,588.000 3,189,312
1832, Candles, almonds, raisins. &c 747,000 754,996
1833, Soap, tiles, &c 1,000,000 1.100,000
1834, House duty 1,200,000 1,400.000
£42,125,500 £44,845.539
Laid on in the same time 5,813,000
Nett taxation reduced £36.312,500
Of wl.ich was direct 18.690.000
Indirect 17.490.000
< Part. Paper, Mth June, 1833, and Budget, 1834, Parl. Deb.
£36.180,008
476 APPENDIX.
deep lines of party distinction, and, amid mutual compliments from the opposition to
the ministerial benches, the deep foundations of British greatness were loosened, the
provident system of former times was abandoned ; revenue to the amount of forty-two
millions a year surrendered without any equivalent, and the nation, when it wakened
from its trance, found itself saddled for ever with eight-and-twenty millions as the inte-
rest of debt, without any means of redemption, and a Democratic constitution which
rendered the construction of any such in time to come utterly hopeless.
The people were entitled to demand an instant relaxation from taxation upon the ter-
mination of hostilities ; the pressure of the war taxes would have been insupportable
when its excitement and expenditure were over. The income-tax could no longer be
endured ; the assessed taxes and all the direct imposts should at once have been re-
pealed; no man, excepting the dealers in articles liable to indirect taxation, should
have paid anything to government. This was a part, and a most important part, of Mr.
Pitt's system. He was aware of the extreme and well-founded discontent which the
payment of direct taxes to government occasions; he knew that nothing but the ex-
citements and understood necessities of war can render it bearable. His system was
therefore to provide for the extra expenses of war entirely by loans or direct taxes, and
to devote the indirect taxes to the interest of the public debt and the permanent charges
of government, those lasting burdens which could not be reduced without injury to the
national credit or security on the termination of hostilities. In this way a triple ob-
ject was gained : the nation during the continuance of war was made to feel its pres-
sure by the payment of heavy annual duties, while, upon its conclusion, the people
experienced an instant relief in the cessation of those direct payments to government,
which are always felt as most burdensome ; and at the same time the permanent char-
ges of the state were provided for in those indirect duties, which, although by far the
most productive, are seldom complained of, from their being mixed up with the price
of commodities, and so not perceived by those who ultimately bear their weight. Mr.
Pitt's system of taxation, in short, combined the important objects of heavy taxation
during war, instant relief on peace, and a permanent provision for the lasting expenses
of the state, in the way least burdensome to the people. The influence of these admi-
rable principles is to be seen in the custom so long adhered to, and only departed from
amid the improvidence of later times, of separating, in the annual accounts of the na-
tion, the war charges from the permanent expenses, and providing for the former by
loans and temporary taxes, for the most part in the direct form, while the latter were
met by lasting imposts, which were not to be diminished till the burdens to which they
were applicable were discharged.
Following out these principles, the income tax, the assessed taxes, the war malt tax,
and, in general, all the war taxes, should have been repealed on the conclusion of hos-
tilities or as soon as the floating debt contracted during their continuance was liquida-
ted ; but, on the other hand, the indirect taxes should have been regarded as a sacred
fund set apart for the permanent expenses of the nation, the interest 6f the debt, and
the sinking fund ; and none of them repealed till, from the growth of a surplus after
meeting those necessary charges, it had become apparent that such relief could be af-
forded without trenching on the financial resources of the state. That the growth of
population and the constant efforts of general industry would progressively have ena
bled government, without injuring these objects, to afford such relief, at least by the re
peal of the most burdensome of the indirect taxes, as the salt tax, the soap and candle
tax, and pan of the malt tax, is evident, from the consideration that the taxes given up
since the peace amount to X42,000,OtfO, and consequently, after the repeal of the in-
come tax, assessed taxes, and these oppressive indirect taxes, an ample fund for the
maintenance of the sinking fund, even at the elevated rate of fifteen millions a year,
would have remained.* Thus Mr. Pitt's system involved within itself the important
* Total taxes repealed since the peace, £42,115,000;
Mieht. have been repealed, viz. :
Property-tax and war malt £17,547,000
War duties on goods I.ISI.OOO
Annual malt and hides 2,139,000
Salt and assessed taxes 4,185,000
Candles
Soap-tax 800000
House-tax 1,200,000
£27.635,000
Leaving to support the sinking fund..; 14,490,000
£42115,000
Baatdoc £5,813.000 of fresh taxes imposed during the same period.
APPENDIX 477
and invaluable qualities of providing amply for the necessities of the moment, affording
instant relief on the termination of hostilities, and yet reserving an adequate fund for
the liquidation of all the national engagements in as short a time as they were con-
tracted.
If, indeed, the nation had been positively unable to bear the burden of the sinking
fund of fifteen millions drawn from the indirect taxes, it might have been justly argued
that the evil consequences of its abandonment, however much to be deplored, were
unavoidable, and, therefore, that the present hopeless situation of the debt may be the
subject of regret, but cannot be reproached as a fault to any administration whatever.
But, unfortunately, this is by no means the case. To all appearance, the nation has
derived no material benefit from a great part of the taxes thus improvidently abandoned,
but has, on the contrary, suffered in all its present interests, as well as future prospects,
from the change.
In proof of this, it is only necessary to recollect that during the war the nation not
only existed, but throve under burdens infinitely greater than have been imposed since
its termination, and that, too, although the exports and imports at that period were little
more than half of what they have since become. During the last four years of the war,
the sum annually raised by taxes was from sixty-five to seventy-five millions, while
twenty years after it was from forty-five to fifty; although, during the first period, the
exports ranged from forty-five to sixty millions, and the imports from twenty-five to
thirty ; while, during the latter, the exports had risen to seventy-five millions, and the
imports to forty-five.* Without doubt, the prosperity of the latter years of the war
was, in a great degree, fictitious; most certainly it depended to a certain extent on the
feverish excitement of an extravagant issue of paper, and was also much to be ascribed
to a large portion of the capital of the nation being at that period annually borrowed
and spent in an unproductive form, to its great present benefit and certain ultimate em-
barrassment. It is equally clear that, if this had gone on for some years longer, irrepa-
rable ruin must have been the result. But there is a medium in all things. As much
as the public expenditure before 1816 exceeded what a healthful state of the body poli-
tic could bear, so much has the expenditure since that time fallen short of it. Violent
transitions are as injurious in political as private life. To pass at once from a state
of vast and unprecedented expenditure to one of rigid and jealous economy, is in the
highest degree injurious to a nation ; it is like making a man who has for years drank
two bottles of port a day suddenly take to toast and water. ' It may sometimes be una-
voidable, but, unquestionably, the change would be much less perilous if gradually ef-
fected.
It was unquestionably right, at the conclusion of the war, to have made as large a
reduction as was consistent with the public security in the army and navy, and to stop
at once the perilous system of borrowing money. Such a reduction at once permitted
the repeal of the whole direct war taxes. But having done this, the question is, Was it
expedient to go a step farther, and make such reductions in the indirect taxes, of which
no serious complaint was made, as amounted to a practical repeal of the sinking fund?
That was the ruinous measure ! The maintenance of that fund at twelve or fifteen
millions a year, raised from taxes, with its growing increase, would, to all appearance,
have been a happy medium, which, without adding to, but, on the contrary, in the long
run diminishing the national burdens, would, at the same time, have prevented that vio-
lent transition from a state of expenditure to one of retrenchment, under the effects of
which, for eighteen years after the peace, all branches of industry, with only a few in-
tervals, continued to labor.
No one branch of the government expenditure would have gone farther to uphold,
during this trying time, the industry and credit of the country, and diffuse an active
demand for labor through all classes, than that which was devoted to the sinking 'fund.
Such a fund, beginning at twelve or fifteen millions a year derived from taxes, and
» Official value. Official value.
ain
and Ireland. and Ireland
1813 ............................ ..£63,211,000 £38,226,283 £25,163.411
1814 .............................. 70,936,000 Records destroyed by fire.
1815 .............................. 72,131,000 52.573,034 33.755.2t4
1816 .............................. 76,834,000 58,624,600 32,967.3%
1830 ............................. £55,824.802 £69,691.302 £46,245,241
1831 ............................. 54,810,190 71,429,004 49.713.86y
1832 .............................. 50.9^315 76.071,572 44.586,241
— PEBRER'S Tables, IM, 341 ; PORTER'S Pwrl. Tables, i.. 48. and u., 49.
478 APPENDIX.
progressively rising to twenty or thirty millions, annually applied to the redemption of
stock, must have had a prodigious effect, both in upholding credit and spreading com-
mercial enterprise through the country. It would have produced an effect precisely
opposite to that which the annual absorption of the same sum, during the war, in loans
occasioned. The public funds, under the influence of the prodigious and growing pur-
chases of the commissioners, must have been maintained at a very high level ; it is
probably not going too far to .«ay, that since 1820 they would have been constantly kept
from 90 to 100. The effect of such a state of things in vivifying and sustaining com-
mercial enterprise, and counteracting the depression consequent upon the great diminu-
tion of the government expenditure in other departments, must have been very great.
The money given for the stock purchased by the commissioners would have been let
loose upon the country ; their operations must have continually poured out upon the
nation a stream of wealth, constantly increasing in size, which, in the search for profit,
able investment, could not have avoided giving a most important stimulus to every
branch of national industry. The sinking fund must have operated like a great forcing,
pump, which drew a large portion of the capital of the coun'ry annually out of its un-
productive investment in the public funds, and directed it to the various beneficial
channels of private employment. Doubtle, i the funds necessary for the accomplishment
of this great work must have been drawn fiom the nation, or the proceeds of the stock
purchased by the commissioners, just as the produce of the taxes is all extracted from
the national industry; but experience has abundantly proved that such a forcible direc-
tion of a considerable part of the national income to such a productive investment, is
often more conducive to immediate prosperity, as well as ultimate advantage, than if,
from an undue regard to popular clamor, it is allowed to remain at the disposal of indi.
viduals. It is like compelling a spendthrift and embarrassed landowner not only to pro.
vide annually for the interest of his debts, but to pay off a stated portion of the principal,
which, when assigned to his creditors, is immediately devoted to the fertilizing of his
fields and the draining of his morasses. Nor is this all. The high price of the funds
consequent upon the vast and growing purchases of the commissioners would have gone
far not only to keep up that prosperous state of credit which is essential to the well-
being of a commercial country, but would have induced numbers of private individuals
to sell out in order to realize the great addition to their capitals which the rise of the
public securities had occasioned. To assert that this forced application yearly of a
considerable portion of the national capital to the redemption of the debt would have
altogether counteracted the decline in the demand for labor consequent on the transi.
,tion from a state of war to one of peace, would be going farther than either reason or
experience will justify ; but this much may confidently be asserted, that the general
prosperity consequent on this state of things could not have failed to have rendered the
taxation requisite to produce it comparatively a tolerable burden ; that the nation would,
to all appearance, have been much more prosperous than it has been under the opposite
system, and, at the same time, would have obtained the incalculable advantage of having
paid off, during these prosperous years, above two-thirds of the national debt. This
prosperity doubtless would have been partly owing to a forced direction of capital ; but
whatever danger there may be in such a state of things while debt is annually contracted,
there is comparatively little when it is continued only for its discharge ; and when an
artificial system has contributed to the formation of a burden, it is well that it should
not be entirely removed till that burden is reduced to a reasonable amount.
Every one, when this vast reduction of indirect taxes was going on, to the entire
destruction of the sinking fund and Mr. Pitt's provident system of financial policy,
looked only, even with reference to present advantage, to one side of the account. They
forgot that, if the demands of government on the industry of the nation were rapidly
reduced, their demands on government must instantly undergo a similar diminution ; that,
if the Exchequer ceased to collect seventy millions a year, it must cease also to expend
it. Every reduction of taxation, even in those branches where it is not complained bf,
was held forth as an alleviation of the burdens of the nation, and a reasonable ground
for popularity to its rulers ; whereas, in truth, the relief even at the moment was more
nominal than real, as though a diminution of those burdens was effected : it took place
frequently in quarters where they were imperceptible, and drew after it an instantane.
ous and most sensible reduction in the demand for labor and the employment of the
industrious classes, at a time when it could ill be spare.d, from the same effect having
simultaneously ensued from other causes. Great part of the distress which has been
felt by all classes since the peace was the result of the general diminution of expend!,
ture, which the too rapid reduction of so many indirect taxes, and consequent abandon.
APPENDIX 479
ment of the sinking fund, necessarily occasioned, and which the maintenance of ita
machinery till it had fulfilled its destined purpose would, to a very great degree, have
alleviated. It augments our .regret, therefore, at the abandonment of Mr. Pitt's finan-
cial system, that the change hud not even the excuse of present necessity or obvious
expedience for its recommendation, but was the result of undue subservience to partic-
ular interests, or desire for popularity on the part of our rulers, uattended even by the
temporary advantages for the sake of which its incalculable ultimate benefits were re-
linquished.
Lord Castlereagh made a most manly endeavor, in 1816, to induce the people to
submit for a few years to that elevated ntte of taxation by which alone permanent relief
from the national embarrassments cuuld be expected ; but he committed a signal error
in the tax which he selected for the struggle, and deviated as much from Mr. Pittfs
principles in the effort to maintain that heavy impost as subsequent administrations did
in their abandonment of others of a lighter character. The income-tax, being a direct
war impost of the most oppressive and invidious description, was always intended by
that great statesman to come to a close with the termination of hostilities ; and its
weight was so excessive, that it was impossible and unreasonable to expect the people
to submit any longer to its continuance. Nothing could be more impolitic, therefore,
than to commit government to a content with the people on so untenable a ground. It
was the subsequent repeal of indirect taxes to the amount of above five-and- twenty
millions a year, when they were not complained of, and the fall in the price of the taxed
articles, from the change in the value of money, had rendered their weight impercepti-
ble, which was the fatal deviation from Mr. Pitt's principles. The administrations by
whom this prodigious repeal was effected are not exclusively responsible for the result:
it is not unlikely, that from the growing preponderance of the popular branch of the
Constitution, it had become impossible to carry on the government without the annual
exhibition of some such fallacious benefit, to gain the applause of the multitude; and it
is more than probable that, from the excessive influence which in later years it acquired,
the maintenance of any fixed provident system of finance had become impossible. But
they are to blame, and posterity will not acquit them of the fault, for not having con-
stantly and strenuously combated this natural, though ruinous popular weakness; and
if they could not prevail on the House of Commons to adhere to Mr. Pitt's financial
system, at least laid on them the responsibility of all the consequences of its abandon-
ment.
It was impossible to explain Mr. Pitt's system for the reduction of the debt, without
anticipating the course of events, and unfolding the ruinous results which have followed
the departure from its principles. The paramount importance of the subject must plead
the author's apology for the anachronism : and it remains now to advert, with a aiffer-
ent measure of encomium, to the funding system on which that statesman so largely
acted, and the general principles on which his taxation was founded.
It is evident that in some cases the funding system, or the plan of providing for ex-
traordinary public expenses by loans, the interest of which is alone laid as a burden on
future years, is not only just, but attended with very great public advantage. When a
war is destined apparently to be of short endurance, and a great lasting advantage may
be expected from its results, it is often impossible, and, if possible, would be unjust, to
lay its expenses exclusively upon the years of its continuance. In ordinary contests,
indeed, it is frequently practicable, and when so, it is always advisable, to make the
expenses of the year fall entirely upon its income, so that at the conclusion of hostilities
no lasting burden may descend upon posterity. But in other cases this cannot be done
When, in consequence of the fierce attack of a desperate and reckless enemy, it has
become necessary to make extraordinary efforts, it is altogether out of the question to
raise supplies in the year adequate to its expenditure : nor is it reasonable, in such
cases, to lay upon those who, for the sake of their children as well as themselves, have
engaged in the struggle, the whole charges of a contest of which the more lasting bene-
fits are probably to accrue to those who are to succeed them. In such cases, necessity
in nations, not less than individuals, calls for the equalization of the burden over all
those who arc to obtain the benefit ; and the obvious mode of effecting this is by the
funding system, which, providing at once by loan the supplies necessary for carrying on
the contest, lays its interest as a lasting charge on those for whose behoof the debt had
been contracted. Nor is it possible to deny, amid all the evils which the abuse of this
system has occasioned, its astonishing effect in suddenly augmenting the resources of a
nation : or to resist the conclusion deducible from the fact, that it was to its vigorous
43
480 APPENDIX.
and happy application at the close of the war that the extraordinary successes by which
it was distinguished are in a great degree to be ascribed.*
But this system, like everything good in human affairs, has its limits ; and if extra-
ordinary benefits may sometimes arise from its adoption, extraordinary evils may still
more frequently originate in its abuse. Many individuals have been elevated, by means
of loans contributed at a fortunate moment, to wealth and greatness ; but many more
have been involved, by the fatal command of money which it confers for a short period,
in irretrievable embarrassments. Unless suggested by necessity and conducted with
prudence ; unless administered with frugality and followed by parsimony, borrowing is,
to nations not less than individuals, the general road to ruin. It is the ease of contract-
ing compared with the difficulty of discharging ; the natural disposition to get a present
command of money, and leave the task 01 paying it off to posterity, which is the temp,
tation that, to communities not less than single men, so often proves irresistible. Opulent
nations, whose credit is high, become involved in debt from the same cause which has
drowned almost all the great estates in Europe with mortgages : the existence of the
means of relieving present difficulties, by merely contracting debt, is more than the
firmness either of the heads of families or the rulers of empires can resist. And there is
this extraordinary and peculiar danger in the lavish contraction of debt by government,
that by the great present expenditure with which it is attended, a very great impulse is
communicated at the time to every branch of industry, and thus immediate prosperity
is generated out of the source of ultimate ruin.
Mr. Pitt was fully aware both of the immediate advantages and ultimate dangers of
the funding system. His measures, accordingly, varied with the aspect which the war
assumed, and the chances of bringing it to an immediate issue, which present appear,
ances appeared to afford. During its earlier years, when the Continental campaigns
were going on, and a rapid termination of the strife was constantly expected, as was the
case with the Spanish Revolution in 1823, or the Polish in 1831, large loans were annu-
ally contracted, and the greater part of the war-supplies of the year were raised by that
means ; provision being made for the permanent raising of the interest, and the sinking
fund for its extinction, in the indirect taxes which were simultaneously laid on, and to
the maintenance of which the national faith was pledged, till the whole debt thus con.
tracted, principal and interest, was discharged/!" It is no impeachment of the wisdom
of this system, so far as finance goes, that the expectations of a speedy termination of
the contest were constantly disappointed, and that debt to the amount of £116,000,000
was contracted before the Continental peace of Campo Formio in 1797, without any
other result than a constant addition to the power of France. The question is not
Whether the resources obtained from these loans were beneficially expended, but whe-
ther the debts were contracted yearly under a belief, founded on rational grounds, that
by a vigorous prosecution of the contest, it might speedily be brought to a successful
issue. That this view, so far as mere finance considerations are concerned, was well
founded, is obvious from the narrow escapes which the French Republic repeatedly
made during that period, and the many occasions on which the jealousies of the allies,
or the niggardly exertion of its military resources by Great Britain, threw away the
means of triumph when within their grasp. The financial measures of the British
ministry, therefore, during this period, were justifiable and prudent : the real error con.
sisted in the misapplication, or undue husbanding of its land-forces, for which it is not
so easy to find an apology.
But after the peace of Campo Formio this system of lavish annual borrowing, in
expectation of an immediate and decisive result, necessarily required a modification,
* Lonns contracted by the British government in the latter years of the war.
1812 £24.000,000 I 1814 .£58,763000
1813 27.871,000 | 1815 18,500,000
Of these gre;it loans upward of £12,000,000 was, in 1813, 1814, and 1815, applied annually to foreign powers ; in
consequence of which, the whole armies of Europe came to he arrayed in British pay on the banks of the Rhine;
while, at the same time, the Duke of Wellington, at the head of 60,000 men, was maintained on the southern
frontier of France.— MOREAU'S Tables; PEBRER, 246.
t Loan Contracted.
1793 £4,500,000
1794 12,907,451
1795 42.030.346
1796 42,736,196
1797 14,629,000
—MOREAU'S Tables
APPENDIX. 481
Great Britain was then left alone in the struggle. Her Continental allies had all disap.
peared from the field of battle ; and the utmost that she could now expect was to con-
tinue a defensive warfare, till time or a different series of events had again brought their
vast armies to her side. To have continued the system of borrowing for the war ex-
penses of the year, in such a state of the contest, would have been to go on with meas-
ures which were likely to lead to perdition. The war having now assumed a defensive
and lasting complexion, the moment had arrived when it became necessary to bring the
taxes within the year nearer to a level with the expenditure. This change, and the
reasons for it, are thus detailed in Mr. Pitt's speech on the budget for the year 1798 :
" Nineteen millions is the sum which is required for extraordinary expenses in the
present year. According to the received system of financial operations, the natural and
ordinary mode of providing for this would be by a loan. I admit that the funding sys-
tem, which has so long been the established mode of supplying the public wants, is not
yet exhausted, though I cannot but regret the extent to which it has been carried. If
we look, however, at the general diffusion of wealth and the great accumulation of
capital ; above all, if we consider the hopes which the enemy h,as of wearing us out by
the embarrassments of the funding system, we must admit that the true mode of pre-
paring ourselves to maintain the contest with effect and ultimate success, is to reduce
the advantages which the funding system is calculated to afford within due limits, and
to prevent the depreciation of our national securities. We ought to consider how far
the efforts we shall exert to preserve the blessings we enjoy will enable us to transmit
the inheritance to posterity unencumbered with those burdens which would cripple their
vigor, and prevent them from asserting that rank in the scale of nations which their
ancestors so long and gloriously maintained. It is in this point of view that the object
ought to be considered. Whatever objections might have been fairly urged against the
funding system in its origin, no man can suppose that, after the form and shape which it
has given to our financial affairs, after the heavy burdens which it has left behind it, we
can now recur to the notion of making the supplies raised within the year, on such a
scale of war expense as we are now placed in, equal the expenditure. If such a plan,
how desirable soever, is evidently impracticable, some medium, however, may be found
to draw as much advantage from the funding system as it is fit, consistently with a due
regard to posterity, to afford, and at the same time to obviate the evils with which its
excess would be attended. We may still devise some expedient by which we may
contribute to the defence of our own cause and to the supply of our own exigencies, by
which we may reduce within equitable limits the accommodation of the funding system,
and lay the foundation of that quick redemption which will prevent the dangerous con-
sequences of an overgrown accumulation of our public debt.
" To guard against the undue accumulation of the public debt, and to contribute that
share to the struggle in which we are engaged which our abilities will enable us, with-
out inconvenience to those who are called upon to contribute, to afford, appears essen-
tially necessary. I propose, with this view, to reduce the loan for this year (1793) to
twelve millions, and to raise seven millions by additional taxation within the year. 1
am aware that this sum does far exceed anything which has been raised at any former
period at one time ; but I trust that, whatever temporary sacrifices it may be necessary
to make, the House will see that they will best provide for the ultimate success of the
struggle, by showing that they are determined to be guided by no personal conside-
rations, and that while they defend the present blessings they enjoy, they are not regard-
less of posterity. If the sacrifices required be considered in this view ; if they be taken
in reference to the objects for which we contend, and the evils we are laboring to avert,
great as they may be compared with former exertions, they will appear light in the
balance.
" The objects to be attained in the selection of the tax to meet this great increase
ore threefold. One great point is, that the plan should be diffused as extensively as
possible, without the necessif of such an investigation of property as the customs, the
manners, and the pursuits of' ne people would render odious. The next is, that it should
exclude those who are leasi able to contribute or furnish means of relief. The third,
that it should admit of thosr, abatements which, in particular instances, it might be pru-
dent to make in the portion of those who might be liable under its general principles.
No scheme, indeed, can be practically carried into execution in any financial arrange,
ment, much more in one embraced in such difficult circumstances as the present, with
such perfect dispositions as to guard against hardships in every individual instance; but
these appear to me to be the principles which should be kept in view in the discussion
of the proper method to be adopted for meeting the large deficiency, which, from the con-
482 APPENDIX
traction of the loan, it will become necessary to make good by taxation within the pros,
ent year."*
In pursuance of these admirable principles, Mr. Pitt proposed to treble the assessed
taxes, which fell chiefly on the rich, such as servants, horses, carriages : and that the
house and window tax, which in a great measure are borne by the middling ranks, should
only.be doubled ; both under various restrictions, to restrain their severity in affecting
the humbler class < f citizens. This w;is agreed to by the committee of the House of
Commons ; and thus the first step was made in the new system of contracting the loan
within narrower limits, and making the supplies raised within the year more nearly
approach to its expenditure. But the produce of the tax fell greatly short of the expec-
tations of government, as they had calculated on its reaching seven millions, whereas it
never cleared four millions and a half; a deficiency which rendered a recurrence to
borrowing necessary in that very year.t
The trebled assessed taxes thus imp.jsed, however, were, acccording to Mr. Pitt's plan,
to be continued only for a limited rime, and kept up only as a war burden. " I propose,'*
eaid he, " that the increased assessment now voted shall be continued till the principal
and interest of the loan contracted this year shall be discharged : so that after the seven
millions shall have been raised within this year, the same sums continued next year,
with the additional aid of the sinking fund, will pay off ail that principal and inter-
mediate interest. If you feel yourselves equal to this exertion, its effects will not be
confined to the benefits I have stated in the way of general policy; it will go to the
exoneration of the nation from increased burdens. Unless you feel that you have a
right to expect that, by less exertion, you will be equally secure, and indulge in the hope
that, by stopping short of this effort, you will produce a successful termination of the war,
you must put aside all apprehensions of the present pressure, and by vigorous exertion,
endeavor to secure your future stability, the happy effects of which will soon be seen
and acknowledged. I am aware it will be said it would be fortunate if the system of
funding had never been introduced, and that it is much to be lamented that it is not ter-
minated ; but if we are arrived at a moment which requires a change of system, it is some
encouragement for us to look forward to benefits which, on all former occasions, have
been unknown, because the means of obtaining them were neglected. Raise the pres-
ent sums by taxation in two years, and you and your posterity are completely exonerated
from it; but if, on the other hand, you fund its amount, it will entail an annual tribute
for its interest, which in forty years will amount to no less than forty millions. These
are the principles, this is the conduct, this is the language fit for men legislating for a
country, that from its situation, character, and institutions, bears the fairest chance of
any in Europe for perpetuity. You should look to distant benefits, and not work in the
narrow, circumscribed sphere of short-sighted, selfish politicians. You should put to
yourselves this question, the only one now to be considered, 'Shall we sacrifice, or shall
we save our posterity a sum of between forty and fifty millions sterling?' And above
all, you should consider the effect which such a firm and dignified conduct would have on
the progress and termination of the present contest, which may, without exaggeration,
involve everything dear to yourselves, and decide the fate of your posterity. "i Here
was a great change of system, and a remarkable approximation to a more statesmanlike
and manly mode of raising the supplies required for the existing contest. Instead of
providing taxes adequate to the interest merely of the sums borrowed, direct burdens
were now to be imposed, which in two or three years would discharge the whole prin-
cipal sums themselves : an admirable plan, and the nearest approximation which was
probably then practicable to the only safe system of finance, that of making the supplies
raised within the year equal or nearly equal to the expenditure, but which was soon
departed from amid the necessities or profusion of future years ; and which, from the
heavy burdens which it imposes at the moment, and from its withdrawing as much capi-
tal from the private employment of labor as it added to the public, was necessarily at-
tended both with greatly more suffering, and far less counteracting prosperity, than the
more encouraging and delusive system of providing for all emergencies by lavish bor-
rowing, which had previously, and for so long a period, been adopted.
The new system, thus commenced, was continued with more or less resolution during
all the remainder of Mr. Pitt's administration. But in spite of the clear perception which
all statesmen had now attained of the ultimate dangers of ihe funding system, it was
found to be impossible to continue the new plan to the full extent originally contenv
plated by its author. In the next year, the war again broke out under circumstances
the most favorable to the European powers, and sound policy forbade a niggardly
* Par) Hist., xxxiii., 1042, 1045. t Purl. Hist., xxxiii. 1076. I Purl. Hist., xxxiii., 1054. 1055.
APPENDIX. 483
system of finance, when, by a great combined effort, it appeared possible to attain,
during the absence of Napoleon on the sands of Egypt, all the objects of the war in a
single campaign. Impressed with these considerations, Mr. Pitt proposed the income,
tax in 1~99 ; a great step in financial improvement, and, if considered as a war impost,
and regulated according to a just scale, the most productive and expedient that could
be adopted. The grounds on which this great addition to the national burdens was
proposed, were thus stated by Mr. Pitt: "The principles of finance which the House
adopted last year were, first, to reduce the total amount to be at present raised by loan;
and next, to provide for the deficiency by a temporary tax, which should extinguish the
loan within a limited time. The modifications, however, which it became necessary to
introduce into the increase of the assessed taxes last year, considerably reduced its
amount, and it is now necessary to look for some more general and productive impost,
which may enable us to continue the same system of restraining the annual loan within
reasonable limits. With this view, it is my intention that the presumption on which
the assessed taxes is founded shall be laid aside, and that a general tax shall be imposed
on all the leading branches of income. No scale, indeed, can be adopted which shall
not be attended with occasional hardship, or withdraw from the fraudulent the means
of evasion ; but I trust that all who value the national safety will cooperate in the
desirable purpose of obtaining, by an efficient and comprehensive tax upon real ability,
every advantage which flourishing and invigorated resources can confer upon national
efforts."*
In pursuance of these principles, he proposed that no income under £60 a year
should pay anything; that from that up to £200 a year, it should be on a graduated
scale ; and that for £200 a year and upward, it should be ten per cent. No one was
to be called on to disclose to the commissioners ; but if he declined, he was to be liable
to be assessed at the sum which they should fix : if he gave in a statement of his
receipts, he was, if required, to confirm it on oath. Funded property was to be assessed
as well as ar*y other sources of income, and the profits of tenants were to be estimated
at three-fourths of the rack-rent of their lands. The total taxable income of Great
Britain he estimated at .£102,000,000 a year, and calculated the produce of the tax at
ten millions sterling. In consideration of" this great supply, he proposed to reduce the
trebled assessed taxes to their former level, and to restrict the loan to £9,500,000, for
which the income-tax was to be mortgaged, after the mortgage imposed for the loan of
the former year had been discharged.!
In opposition to this bill, it was urged by Sir William Pultney and a considerable
body of respectable members, " That the general and wise policy of the country, from
the Revolution downward, had been to lay taxes on consumption, and consumption only ;
and to this there was no exception but the land tax, which was of inconsiderable
amount ; for even the window tax was a burden on a luxury which might be diminished
at pleasure. Now, however, the dangerous precedent is introduced of levying a heavy
impost, not on expenditure or consumption, but income : that is, of imposing a burden
which by no possibility can be avoided. If this principle be once introduced, it is
impossible to say where the evil may stop : for what is to hinder the government to
increase the tax to a fifth, a third, or even a half; that is, to introduce the confiscations
which have always distinguished arbitrary governments, and have been in an especial
manner the disgrace of the French Revolution? The great danger of this tax, there,
fore, is, that it not only sanctions a most odious and dangerous inquisition into
every man's affairs, but it is so calculated as to weigh with excessive severity on the
middling orders of society, while it would bear but slightly in comparison upon the
highest, and totally exempt the lowest. It would destroy the middling class, and do it
soon ; it would totally prevent the accumulation of small capitals, the great source of
general prosperity, and then we should have only two classes in the community, and a
miserable community it would be, of noblemen and peasants. The principle that
every man should contribute according to his means is doubtless just ; but is this a
contribution according to means? Quite the contrary ; it is a tax which falls with un-
due severity upon some classes, and improper lightness on others. A person possessing
permanent and independent income might spend what portion of it he chose without
injury to his heirs ; but income resulting from personal industry or from profession stood
in a very different situation, for it was necessary that a part of the income of these
descriptions should be laid by as a provision for eld age or helpless families. Expen-
diture, therefore, is the only sure criterion of taxation, because it alone is accommodated
to the circumstances or necessities of each individual taxed : and if a few misers
* Parl. Hist., xxxiv., 6. 6. t Parl. Hist, xxxiv.. 6. 16, «.
43*
484 APPENDIX
under such a system, may avoid contributing their proper share, they are only postponing
the day of payment to their heirs, who in all probability will be t'ue more extravagant,
and far better that such insulated individuals should escape, than the far-spread
injustice should be inflicted, which would result from the adoption of the proposed
alteration."*
The income-tax, notwithstanding these objections, was adopted by the House of
Commons in the year 1799 ; the loan of that year being, for Great Britain and Ireland,
£18,500,000, besides .£3,000,000 of Exchequer bills. But in comparing the amount
of the loans which would have been necessary if this system of increasing the supplies
raised within the year had not been adopted, with that actually contracted under the
new system, it was satisfactorily shown by Mr. Pitt that no less than .£120,000,000
would ultimately be saved to the nation by the more manly policy, when the interest
which was avoided was taken into account : a striking proof of the extraordinary dif.
ference to the ultimate resources of a country, which arises from raising the supplies
within the year, and providing them in great part by the funding system.t
The regulation of Mr. Pitt, however, in regard to these direct taxes, was, in one im-
portant particular, a deviation from his general financial policy, and the embarrassing
consequences of this deviation speedily became conspicuous. At the first imposition
of the treble assessment, it was intended as an extraordinary resource, which there was
no likelihood would be required beyond one or two years, and, in consequence, it was
mortgaged for a considerable proportion of the loans contracted in the years when it was
in operation ; and the same principle was continued when it was commuted for the
income-tax. But when this system continued for several years in succession, it came
to violate the principle that these direct taxes, being a painful impost, should be con-
tinued only while the war lasted ; for in the years from 1798 to 1801 the amount thus
fixed as a preferable burden on the direct war taxes was no less than fifty-six millions.
The magnitude of this mortgage obliged Mr. Pitt, in 1801, to return to his old mode of
contracting loans, by providing, in the increase of indirect taxes, for their interest and
the sinking fund required for their redemption ; and in 1802, when Mr. Addington came
to arrange the finances for a peace establishment, he got quit altogether of this embar
rassing load on the direct taxes, which would- have required them, contrary to all prin-
ciple, to be continued for nine years after the war had ceased, and boldly funded at
once the whole of this £56,000,000, as well as £40,000,000 of unfunded debt which
existed at the end of the war; and for the whole of this immense sum of £96,000,000
he contrived to find sufficient taxes, even when adhering to Mr. Pitt's system of making
provision in the funding of loans, not only for its annual interest, but the sinking fund
destined for its redemption. There can be no doubt but this was a very great improve-
ment, and that it restored this branch of our finances to their true principle, which is,
that the whole sums required for the interest and redemption of the debt should be
raised by indirect taxes, and direct burdens reserved only for the extraordinary efforts
intended during the continuance of the war — to make the supplies raised within the
year as nearly as possible equal its expenditure.t
The changes which have now been mentioned embraced' all the leading principles
of Mr. Pitt's financial system. In subsequent years the same policy was adopted which
had been introduced with so much success in later times, of augmenting as much as
possible the supplies raised within the year, and diminishing as much as might be the
loan which it was still necessary annually to contract. And of the success with which
this system was attended, and the rapid growth of the machinery erected for the ex-
tinction of the debt, the best evidence is preserved in the honest testimony of his Whig
successor in the important office of chancellor of the Exchequer : " In the year 1803,"
said Lord Henry Petty, afterward Lord Lansdowne, " the proportions of the sinking
fund to the unredeemed debt was as one to eighty-two; the former being £5,835,000,
and the latter £480,572,000. But in the year ending the 1st of February, 1806, the
sinking fund amounted to £7.566,000, and the unredeemed debt was then £517,280,000,
making the proportion one in sixty-eight. After this, it is unnecessary for me to enter
into any eulogium on the sinking fund, or to detain the House with any panegyric on
its past effects or future prospects. Its advantages are now fully felt in the price ot
etock and contracting of loans ; and, independent of all considerations of good faith,
which would induce the House to cling to it as their sheet-anchor for the future, they
were pledged to support it, having had positive experience of its utility. And uf the
vast importance of raising a great part of the supplies within the year, no better proof
can be desired than is furnished by the fact that during the first ten years of the war
• Parl Hist., «xiv., 134. 147. T Ib. xxxiv., 1153. t Part. Deb., viii., 573. S1&
APPENDIX. 485
die increase of the debt was .£253,000,000, being at the rate, on an average, of twenty.
live millions a year;* whereas during the three years of the present war, irom 1803
downward, the total sum borrowed has been £36,000,000, being at the rate of twelve
millions a year only."
With the exception, however, of the war taxes thus imposed for a special purpose,
and which were pledged to be temporary burdens, enduring only for the year in which
they were raised, or at most for a year or two after it, all the other taxes imposed by
Mr. Piit were in the indirect form. And in particular, the interest of the loans annually
contracted, when laid as a permanent burden on the nation, and for the immediate re-
demption of the principals of^which the war taxes were not mortgaged, as was done in
1799, were all provided for in this mitigated form. The wisdom of this arrangement
cannot be better stated than in the words of Mr. Hume : " The b-rst taxes are such as
are levied upon consumption, especially those of luxury, because such taxes are least
felt by the people. They seem in some measure voluntary, since a man may choose
how far he will use the commodity which is taxed. They are paid gradually and in-
sensibiy; they naturally produce sobriety and frugality, if judiciously imposed; and,
being confounded with the natural price of tbe commodity, they are scarcely perceived
by the consumers. Their only disadvantage is, that they are expensive in the levying.
Taxes, again, upon possessions, are levied without expense, but have every other dis-
advantage. Most statesmen are obliged to have recourse, however, to them, in order to
supply the deficiencies of the other. Historians inform us that one of the chief causes
of the destruction of the Roman state was the alterations which Constantine introduced
into the finances, by substituting a universal direct tax in lieu of almost all the tithes,
customs, and excise which formerly composed the revenue of the Empire. The people
in all the provinces were so grinded by this imposition, that they were glad to take
refuge under the conquering arms of the barbarians, whose dominion, as they had fewer
necessities and less art, was found to be preferable to the refined tyranny of the Ro-
mans."! It is to be regarded, therefore, as a capital excellence in Mr. Pitt's financial
measures, that he not only provided in permanent imposts for the interest of the whole
public debt and the sinking fund necessary for its redemption, but made that provision
exclusively in taxes in the indirect form, the burden of which is imperceptible, and is
never the subject of any general complaint ; whereas the direct taxes, which are always
felt as so oppressive, were reserved, as a last resource, for the unavoidable exigencies
of war, and specially set apart for those years only when the excitement and necessities
of the actual contest were experienced.
In addition to these forcible reasons for ever, except in cases of obvious necessity,
and when its resources are exhausted, preferring indirect to direct taxation, there is
Another of perhaps still greater importance, which has never yet met with the attention
it deserves. It has often been observed with surprise by travellers, that though the
sums which are extracted from the people in a direct form by the Turkish pachas or the
Indian rajahs have frequently the effect of totally ruining industry, yet they are incon-
siderable when compared to the immense revenue derived from the customs and excise
in the European states, without any sensible impediment to its exertions. The reason
is obvious : it consists in the difference upon the meadows beneath, between drawing
off water from the fountain-head and drawing it off at a vast distance below, after it has
fertilized innumerable plains in its course. If you abstract money in a direct form from
the cultivator or the artisan, the revenue taken goes at once from the producer to tht
public treasury ; but if you withdraw it from the person who ultimately sells the manu-
factured article to the consumer, it has, before it is withdrawn, put the industry of a
dozen different classes of persons in motion. The sum received by the government
may be the same in both cases : but how immense the difference between the effect
upon general industry when it is seized upon by the tax-collector early in its course, and
only withdrawn after it has given all the encouragement to different branches of employ,
ment it is capable of effecting ! Fifty different individuals are often put to their shifts
to meet the burden of an indirect tax — a direct one falls in undivided severity on one
alone. So important is this distinction, that it may safely be affirmed that no nation
ever yet was ruined by indirect taxation; nor can it be so, for before it becomes oppres.
sive it must cease to be productive. Many, however, have been exterminated by much
smaller sums levied in the direct form, that method of raising the supplies being attended
with this most dangerous quality, that it is often most productive when it is trenching most
deeply on the sources of future existence.
Nor is there any foundation for the obvious reply to this argument, based on the ob-
* Ann. Reg. 1806. 70. Purl. Deb., vi., 567. 570. t Home's Essays, I, 365. 366.
486 APPENDIX.
aervation, that if the productions of industry are taxed in the person of the consumer, he
must diminish the quantity which he can purchase, and thus industry will be as effe-ctu-
ally paralyzed as if the impost were laid directly upon the producer. Plausible as this
argument undoubtedly is, the common sense and experience of mankind have every,
where rejected its authority. No complaint was made during the war of fifty-five mil.
lions levied annually, by means of indirect taxes, on the people of Great Britain ; but
BO burdensome was the income-tax, producing only fourteen millions a year, felt to be,
that all the efforts of government could not keep it on for one year after its termination.
When the voice of the people was directly admitted, through the portals opened hy the
Reform Bill, upon the Legislature, it was not the forty-two millions levied'annually in the
indirect form, but the four million and a half extracted directly by the assessed taxes,
which was ma^e the subject of such loud complaint that a great reduction in those bur.
dens became indispensable. The people, however unfit to judge of most matters in
legislation, may be referred to as good authority in the estimation of the burdens which
are most oppressive upon them at the moment. Nor is it difficult to perceive the reason
of this universal opinion among all practical men, how adverse soever it may be to the
theoretical opinions of philosophers. Indirect taxes, if judiciously laid on, and not car-
ried to such an excess as to render them unproductive, often do not, in reality, fall on
any one individual with overwhelming severity; they are defrayed by the economy, skill,
or improved machinery of all the many persons who are employed in the manufacture
of the taxed article. The burden is so divided as to be imperceptible. Portioned out
among fifteen or twenty different hands, the share falling on each is easily compensated.
A slight increase in the economy of the manufacturer, a trifling improvement in the
machinery of its production, in the many hands engaged in its preparation, more than
extinguish the burden. The proof of this is decisive : the manufactures of England not
only existed, but prospered immensely, under the combined pressure of the heavy in-
direct taxation and the enormous rise of prices occasioned by the suspension of cash
payments during the war; many of them, though the value of money had fallen to a half
during its continuance, were sold at half the price at its termination which they were
at its commencement. Of all the parts of Mr. Pitt's financial system, none was more
worthy of admiration than that which provided for all the permanent expenses of the
nation in the indirect taxes: of all the errors committed by his successors, none has been
more prejudicial than the obstinate retention of direct, and the lavish relinquishment of
indirect taxes.*
* It results from these principles, that when an indirect tax is very heavy, and laid on a raw material, or one
ubjected to but a slight manufacturing process, it is frequently impossible for the producer either to compensate
the tax by increased skill or economy of the article or luy it upon the consumer. In such cases the tax ceases to
be an indirect impost on consumption; it becomes a direct burden on production, and if unduly heavy, may ter-
minate in the total ruin of the class on whom it was imposed, A signal instance of this occurred in regard to the
heavy impost duties upon sugar. The burden formerly of 30s., then 27s., and now of 24s. the hundred weight on
West India sugar, was little felt during the war, when that article sold for forty or forty-five pounds the hogshead
(from £6 to £6 10s., the cwt. ;) but when, on the return of peace, prices fell to .£12 or £15 the hogshead, (from 50s.
to 60s. the cwt., including duty,) it became intolerably severe. It then became nearly a hundred per cent, on the
rude material ; the same as if a duty of fifty shillings a quarter had been laid on wheat raised in England for the
home consumption. Nor had either the planter or refiner the means of eluding this tax to any considerable de-
gree, by either raising the price of the article to the consumer, or diminishing by economy or machinery the cost
of its production : the cost of raising rude agricultural produce can hardly ever be diminished to any considera-
ble extent by the application of machinery ; and the stoppage of the slave-trade necessarily, in the first instance
at least, increased the cost of production, while the only way in which it seemed possible to render the burden
tolerable was by augmenting the quantity raised, which necessarily depressed to an undue extent the price which
it bore in the market. Being unable to diminish the cost of production from these causes, all the efforts of the
planters to make head against their difficulties and defray the interest of their mortgages, by raising more exten
•ive crops of sugar, only tended to lower prices and throw the taxes as an exclusive burden on themselves.
The proof of this is decisive : the price of sugar in America is generally higher than in England, if the duty be
deducted, sometimes by fully a third. In 1831, the price per cwt. was in Great Britain 23s. 8d., excluding duty,
while in America it was 36s. per cwt. in the same year. Taking into view the greater expense of freight lo Bri
tain than America from these islands, there can be ao doubt that almost the whole tax has been paid in many
years by the producers, amounting though it now does to 100 per cent. Nothing more is requisite to explain the
almost total ruin which has fallen on these splendid colonies, even before the last fatal measure of emancipating
the slaves was carried into effect.— See Commons1 Report, 1832, on West Indies, p. 7.
In all fiscal measures on this subject there is one principle to be constantly kept in view, to the neglect or over-
sight of which, more than anything else, the ruin of the West Indies is to be ascribed. This is, that while many
branches of manufacturing industry possess the means, by improvements in machinery or the division of labor,
of compensating very heavy fiscal burdens, the raisers of rude produce can hardly ever do the same : so that, unless
they can succeed in laying the tax upon the consumer, which is very often altogether beyond their power, they
are forced to pay it entirely themselves, and it becomes a ruinous direct burden on industry. No doubt can ex-
ist on this head, when it is recollected not merely how slight is the improvement which agriculture has ever re-
ceived from the aid of machinery, but that, while in the most highly civilized stales, such as England, the cost
of raising manufactures is always, notwithstanding heavy taxes and a plentiful currency, less than in ruder
APPENDIX. 487
Such were the genera^ features of Mr. Pitt's financial policy. Decried by the spiri*
Df party during his own' lifetime, and that of the generation which immediately suc-
ceeded ; stigmatized by the age which found itself oppressed by the weight of the bur-
dens he had imposed, and which had forgotten the evils he had averted; obliterated
almost, amid the temporary expedients and conceding weakness of the governments by
whom he was succeeded, it is yet calculated to stand the test of ages, and appears now
in imperishable lustre from the bitter and experienced, though now irrevocab e conse-
quences of its abandonment. Grandeur of conception, durability of design, far-seeing
eagacity, were its great characteristics. It was truly conceived in a heroic spirit. Bur-
dening, perhaps oppressing the present generation, it was calculated for the relief of fu-
ture ages: inflicting on its authors a load of present odium, it was fitted to secure the
blessings of posterity when they were mouldering in their graves. Founded on that
sacrifice of the present to the future which is at once the greatest violence to ordinary
inclinations, the invariable mark of elevated understanding, and the necessary antece-
dent of great achievements, it required for its successful development patience, self-
denial, and magnanimity in subsequent statesmen equal to his own. It fell because such
virtues could not be found in the age by which he was succeeded. In contemplating
his profound plans for the ultimate and speedy liberation of England, even from the
enormous burdens entailed on its finances by the Revolutionary war, we feel that we
are conversing with one who lived for distant ages, and who voluntarily underwent, not
the fatigues which are forgotten in the glory of the conqueror, but the obloquy conse-
quent on the firmness of the statesman in the prosecution of what he felt to be for the
ultimate good of the nation. In comparing his durable designs with the" temporary ex-
pedients of the statesmen who preceded and followed him, we experience the same
painful transition as in passing from the contemplation of the stately monuments of an-
cient Egypt, wrought in granite, and calculated for eternal duration, to that of the gaudy
but ephemeral palaces of the Arabs, who dwell amid their ruins, and whose brilliancy
cannot conceal the perishable nature of the materials of which they are composed.
While doing justice, however, to the great qualities of this illustrious financier, it is
indispensable not to draw a veil over his faults ; and the application of his own princi-
ples to the measures which he sometimes adopted will best explain the particulars in
which he was led astray.
I. The first great defect which history must impute to the financial measures of Mr.
Pitt, is having carried too far and continued too long the funding system, and not earlier
adopted that more manly policy of raising as large a portion as possible of the supplies
within the year, the benefits of which he himself afterward so fully explained. During
the years 1793 and 1794, indeed, when formidable armies menaced France on every
side, and the iron barrier of the Netherlands was broken through to an extent never
achieved by Marlborough or Eugene, a speedy termination of the war might reasonably
be expected, and it was just, therefore, to lay the vast expenses of those years in a great
degree on the shoulders of posterity. But after that crisis was passed ; after Flanders
and Holland had )'ielded to the victorious arms of Pichegru ; after Spain had retired
from the struggle, and the Republic, instead of contending for its existence on the Rhine,
was pursuing under Napoleon, the career of conquest in Italy, it had become evident
that a protracted contest was to be expected, and measures of finance suitable to such
a state of things should have been adopted. The resolute system of raising a consider-
able portion of the supplies within the year should have been embraced, at latest, in
1796, and the enormous loans of that and the two following years reduced to one half.
Those loans amounted to seventy-five millions ; if forty millions had been raised in the
time by taxation, in addition to the imposts actually paid, the difference in the sum since
paid by the nation down to this time, on account of the loans of those years, would have
been above £120,000,000 ! So prodigious is the difference in the ultimate accumula-
tion of burdens, between the energetic and intrepid system of raising a large portion of
the supplies within the year, and the more acceptable but delusive policy of providing
at the moment only for the interest, and leaving to posterity the charge of providing for
the liquidation of the principal.
II. But if the insidious advantages of the funding were to be preferred to the ultimate
states, it is always much greater of producing agricultural produce. Great Britain can undersell the world in
manufactures, but her farmers would be ruined without acorn-law; a fact strikingly illustrative of this vitul
distinction, and pointing to a very different rate of indirect taxation when applied to rude produce and manu-
factured articles, which has never yet met with adequate attention.— See BERNARD'S Theory of the Constitit
tion. 356, 358; a work which, amid much exaggeration and declamation, contains many just and profound ob-
•crvations on the changes the country has undergone during the last half century, and is deserving of much mow
attention than it has received. q o
488 APPENDIX.
benefits of the taxing system, it was indispensable that the warlike resources of the state
should have been put forth on a scale and in a way calculated to reap sudden advan.
tages commensurate to the immense burdens thus imposed on posterity ; that the con.
test, if gigantic and expensive, was at least to be short and decisive. That the military
power of England was capable, if properly directed and called forth, of making such an
effort, is now established by experience.
The more the history of the campaigns from 1793 to 1800 are studied, the more
clearly will it appear that the armies of France arid the coalition were very equal! ;
poised ; that the scale sometimes preponderated to one side and sometimes to the other,
but without any decisive advantage to either party. After three years of protracted
strife, the Republican armies, in the close of 1795 were still combating for existence on
the Rhine, and gladly accepted a temporary respite from the victorious arms of Clair-
fait : after three additional years of desperate warfare, they were struggling for the
frontiers of the Var and the Jura with the terrible armies of Suvvarrow and the Arch-
duke Charles. No doubt can remain, therefore, that the forces on the opposite sides of
that great contest were, at that period at least, extremely nearly matched. With what
effect, then, might the arms of England have been thrown in upon the scene of war.
fare ; and how would the balance, so long quivering in equilibrium, have been sub-
verted by the addition of fifty thousand British soldiers on the theatre of Blenheim or
Ramilies I Herein, therefore, lay the capital error of Mr. Pitt's financial system, con-
sidered with reference to the warlike operations it was intended to promote, that while
the former was calculated for a temporary effort only, and based on the principle of
great results being obtained in a short time by an extravagant system of expenditure,
the latter was arranged on the plan of the most niggardly exertion of the national
strength, and the husbanding of its resources for future efforts, totally inconsistent with
the lavish dissipation of its present funds. No one would have regretted the great
loans from 1793 to 1799, amounting though they did to a hundred and fifty millions
sterling, if proportional efforts in the field had at the same time been made ; and it
was evident that nothing had been omitted which could have conduced to the earlier
termination of the war ; but our feelings are very different when we recollect that du-
ring these six years, big with the fate of England and the world, only 208,000 men were
raised for the regular army, and that a nation reposing securely in a sea girt and inac-
cessible citadel never had above twenty thousand soldiers in the field, and that only in
the first two years of the war, out of a disposable force of above a hundred thousand.
Mr. Pitr's plans for military operations were all based on the action of Continental ar-
mies, while the troops of his own country were chiefly employed in distant colonial ex.
peditions ; picking up pawns in this manner at the extremity of the board, when by
concentrated moves he might have given checkmate to his adversary at the commence-
ment of the game. His military successes, in consequence, amounted to nothing, while
his financial measures were daily increasing the debt in a geometrical progression :
and thence, in a great measure, the long duration and heavy burdens of the war.
III. But the greatest of all Mr. Pitt's errors, and the one which was the most inex-
cusable, because it was most at variance with the admirable foresight and enduring for-
titude of his other financial measures, was the extent to which he carried the ruinous
system of borrowing in the three per cents. ; in other words, inscribing the public cred-
itor for £100 in the books of the Bank of England, in consideration of only sixty ad-
vanced to the nation. That this policy had the effect of lowering the interest of the
loans contracted, and thereby diminishing the burdens at the moment, may be perfectly
true, but what was the advantage thus gained, compared to the enormous burden of
saddling the nation with the payment of forty pounds additional to every sixty which
it had received ? The benefit was temporary and inconsiderable ; the evil permanent
and most material. Of the seven hundred and eighty millions which now compose the
national debt, about six hundred millions has been contracted in the tl.reo per cents. ,
and if this whole debt were to be paid off at par, the nation would have to pay, in all,
two hundred and fifty millions more than it ever received. Supposing it to be redeemed
by a sinking fund at 80, on an average, which, taking a course of years together, of
peace and war, is probably not far from the mark, and which coincides with Mr. Pin's
estimate in 1799, the surplus to be paid above what was received would still be tvvo
hundred millions.
Nor have the evils of this most improvident system of borrowing been limited to the
great addition thus unnecessarily made to the capital of the national debt. Its effect
upon the burden of the interest has been equally unfortunate. Doubtless the loans
were, in the first instance, contracted during the war on more favorable terms, as to in
APPENDIX.
469
terest, than could have been obtained if the money had been borrowed in the five per
cents. ; that is, if a bond for .£100 had been given for each £100 only paid into the
treasury. But, as a set-off against this temporary and inconsiderable advantage, what
is to be said to the experienced impossibility, with funds so contracted, of lowering the
interest in time of peace ? It is impossible to lower the interest of the three per cents,
till interest generally falls below three per cent. ; because, if it were attempted when
the rate was higher, ail the stockholders would immediately demand their money, and
government, being unable to borrow below the market rate, would become bankrupt.
Nevertheless, it may safely be affirmed that interest, on an average, since 1815, has
not exceeded, if it has reached, four per cent. Had the national debt all been con.
tracted in the five per cents, it might all have been subjected to the operation which
in 1824 proved so successful with the five per cents., and which, on .£157,000,000 only
of the debt, the amount of that stock, saved the nation at that time £1,700,000 a year,
to which is to be added the half of that sum since gained by the reduction of the same
stock to three and a half, which, after taking into view the dissentients, has saved the
nation, for ever, £2,400,000 yearly. Calculating the interest of the £600,000,000 in the
three per cents. (£360,000,000 sterling) at £18,000,000 a year, the proportion of this
annual burden, which would have been saved by the first reduction of one per cent.,
would have been £3,600,000, and by the second of half per cent., £1,800,000 more;
in all £5,400,000 for ever. The sum already saved to the nation, on interest alone, paid
since 1824, would have been above fifty millions sterling. Every twenty years, in fu-
ture, the sum saved, with interest, would exceed a hundred and fifty millions a year !
The temporary reduction of interest obtained by contracting the debt in this ruinoua
manner will bear no sort of comparison with these serious losses with which the sys.
tern was ultimately attended. It appears, from the curious table of loans contracted
during the war, compiled by Moreau, that the difference in the interest of the loans in
the three per cents, and the five per cents, was seldom above a half per cent., gene
rally not more than a quarter.* What is the additional burden thus undertaken during
the contest, to the permanent reduction which the opposite system would have enabled
government to have effected on the return of peace ? Even supposing the difference
of interest on the loans while the war lasted had been on an average one per cent.,
what was this burden, during its continuance, to the reduction of the interest for ever to
four or three and a half per cent. ? This thing is so clear that it will not admit of an
argument ; and if the public necessities had rendered it impossible to have raised
the additional interest during the year, it would have been better to have con.
tracted an additional loan every year while the disability lasted, to defray the additional
interest, than, by contracting the debt on such disadvantageous terms, disabled poster,
ity for ever from taking advantage of the return of peace to effect a permanent reduc-
tion of the public debts. So strongly, indeed, has the impolicy of this mode of con-
tracting debt now impressed itself upon the minds of our statesmen, that by a solemn
* Take, for example, the fblowing loans, contracted in the three and five per cents, at different periods during
the war :
Sums borrowed, ac-
tually paid into
Treasury.
Interest.
Rate per cent.
1TO4. Loan
n 5 per cents
£1,007,451
10806000
£96.326
502 791
5 per cent.
1,490,646
80*494
do
17,777,163
841,374
4f per cent.
1796. Loan
do
n 5 per cents
2,024,889
8,500,000
101,744
493 T45
5 per cent.
1797. I.odii
do
n 5 per cents
i;, 815,918
13000000
1,006,242
825 500
5i per cent.
1801 Loan
2'22?;012
lll'380
1806. Loan
1807. Loan
do
1809 Lo'in
n 3 per cents
n 5 per cents
n 3 per cents
27,519,544
1,293,200
10,800,000
7932100
1,344,487
64,660
512,400
408878
5| per cent.
5i per cent.
4i p,er^nt> : ,but £l® of ^och created tot
each £60 paid.
do
1811. Loan
do
1814. Loan
do
n 3 and 4 per cents.. .
n 5 per cents
n3 and 4 per cents...
n c per cents
11600000
4,909,350
11,925,243
5,549,400
12 345 076
538',433
258,315
569,500
277,470
574362
41 per cent.
5* per cent.
4? per cent.
5 1-7 per cent
1815 Loan
. • J *
10 313 000
603310
r j j-
do
n 3 and 4 per cents...
27;ooo;ooo
1,617,400
5i per cent.
— SeeTEBRER's Tables, 246, from MOREAU.
It clearly appears, from this most instructive table, that the difference between the interest paid on loans in ttw
three and five per cents., from the beginning to the end of the war, varied only from a half to an eighth per cent.
And the real difference was even less than here appears, for the public creditors were, frequently in the 3 per cents.,
inscribed for much more than £100 in consideration of £60 advanced. In particular, in 1807, they received no less
than £140 of stock fur each £60 paid.
490
APPENDIX
resolution in 1824, Parliament pledged itself never again, under any pressure, to bor-
row money in any other way than in the five per cents. ; a resolution worthy of the
British Legislature, and which it is devoutly to be hoped no British statesman will ever
forget, but which is too likely to be overlooked, like so many other praiseworthy deter-
ruinations, amid the warlike profusion or Democratic pressure of subsequent times.*
It is true, as Mr. Pitt contemplated the extinction of the whole public debt before the
year 1846 by the operation of the sinking fund, and had provided means, which, if stead-
ily adhered to, would unquestionably have produced that result even at an earlier pe.
riod, the disastrous effects which have actually occurred from this mode of contracting
so large a portion of the debt are not to be charged so strongly as an error in his finan-
cial system. In the contracting of loans, present relief was, in his estimation, the great
object to be considered, because the means of certainly redeeming them within a mod-
erate period, on the return of peace, were simultaneously provided. It was of compar-
atively little importance that the interest of the three per cents, could not be reduced
•i tiring peace, >.vhen the speedy liquidation of the principal itself might be anticipated ;
and the addition of nearly double the stock to the sum borrowed appeared of trifling
moment, when the only mode of redeeming the debt which any one contemplated was
the purchase of stock by the sinking fund commissioners at the current market rates.
Still, though these considerations go far to excuse, they do by no means exculpate Mr.
Pitt in these measures. Admitting that the reduced rate of interest during the war
might be considered as a fair set-off against the enhanced rate for the pacific period of
nearly the same amount which elapsed before the debt was discharged, still what is to
he said in favor of a system which redeems at 85 or 90 a debt contracted at 58 or 60 ?
In looking forward to this method of liquidating the debt, as calculated to obviate all
the evils of inscribing the public creditor for a larger amount of stock than he had ad-
vanced of money, Mr. Pitt forgot the certain enhancement of the price of stock by the
admirable sinking fund which he himself had established, and that the more strongly
and justly he elucidated tne salutary tendency of its machinery to uphold the public credit,
the more clearly did he demonstrate the ruinous effect of a method of borrowing which
turned all that advance to the disadvantage of the nation in discharging its engagements.t
* The author was early in life impressed with the disastrous effects of this borrowing in the three per cents., but
it was long before he foiinu any converts to an opinion now generally received. In the year 1813, when a student
at college, he maintained the doctrines stated in the text on this subject, in a company consisting of the most emi-
nent and intelligent bankers in Scotland ; and, in particular, contended that, if Mr. Pitt could not have afforded
to pay annually from the taxes a larger interest for his loans than h«* actually undertook, he should have " bor-
rowed a little loan to r» v the interest of the great loan, rather than have contracted debt, in the three per cents."
They all, however, disputed the justice of the opinion, maintaining that money could not have been obtained on
other terms, and the "little loan" became a standing joke against the author for many years after. Should
tliese lines meet the eye of Mr. Anderson of Moredun, one of the oldest and most vnlued oftlie author's friends,
and now one of the leading partners of the highly respectable firm of Sir William Forbes &. Co., of Edinburgh.
he will recur, perhaps, not without interest, to this incident,
f It is a common opinion, that the great expenses of Mr. Pitt's administration were owing to the subsidies so
imprudently and needlessly advanced to foreign powers, to induce orenablethem to carry on the contest. This,
however is a mistake. The loans and subsidies to foreign powers during the whole war only amounted to £j2.-
528.470 ; of which no less than .£33,000,000 were advanced during the last three years. At Mr. Pitt's death the
•urn was only JC6.370.000. The subsidies granted, with the years when they were received, and the other items of
the expenditure of the war, were as follows.— { MORE AU.)
Subsidies
to Foreign
Powers.
Army.
Binary.
Civil List.
Ordnnnce.
Navy Total
Total charge
of Debt,
Funded and
Unfunded.
Tot;«l
Expenditure
,
1795
1795 !
17»7 i
I'm '
im !
1801
1802
£2,198,200
4,000
810.500
99,509
120,012
325,000
2,613,178
200,114
1805 I -
JSS i
1812 |
1813
I8J4
Totals
1,400.000
2,050,000
2.660,1«J
2 977.747
5,315,838
11.294.416
10,024,624
11,035,248
53,128,470
£4,167,312
9,209.236
14.562,737
7,986,2W[ 3,165,854
9,898716 4,241,433
91971889 3,906,000
8838208 5,34 ,174
6,951,1931 2,6S),063
8,134,315 3,165,092
12183891 3,560.804
10,758,343 6,261,387
9283 492 5 829000
9,956,684! 5,431,867
11,353390 '
12,591,041!
11,357,623;
13,753,163 10,116:196
15, 382, 050 9,605,313
18,500,98), 10,968,5:15
16.532.fl4M 17.662,610
23.172.137
384.787.438
£1,021,536
1,027,7C1
1,025,842
1,125,053
1.081,046
1,111,376
1,208,067
1,247,420
1,290,136
1,500,7
2,590,000
5,847,762
5.872.054
1,425,545
1,417,517
1,914,104
1,676,323
1,680,061
1,724,147
1,696,994
1,651,207
1, 582,097
1,748,349
1,708, 52'!
1,675,1.V2
1.682.021
32,936,125
1715X55
2,221516
1,918,967
2,l«->,909
1,50' ',733
1,827,150
3,5.50,142
4,782,289
5,511,0t>4
4,190,748
5,108,960
4,374.184
4.iM2.33'J
4,557,509
4,252,416
3,404,ri82
4.480,729
£2,464,307
4,219,1,56
8,135,140
7,780,868
11,984,031
12,. 591, 728
13,036,490
£10,715,941
11,081,159
_j
71,082.262"
17,303,370
11, 704,405
7,979,878
11,759,352
14,466,998
16,084,028
16.775.762
17,467,891
19,236,0-17
20,0.54,412
19.540.679
20,500.339
2l.996.B24
21,931,567
16.373.870
328,236.415
6~19.830.173 '
£22,754,366
29.305.477
39,751,091
40,761,583
50,739,857
51.241.7P8
59.29IJ.OS1
61,617,988
73.072,468
62.373.480
54.912.899/
67,619.475
76,0>6,79o
75.154,548
78,369,158:)
84,797,080
88,792,551
74.360.728
,
107.fc4l.08i
122,2r,,660
139.742. 399
1,490,000.888
APPENDIX. 491
To Mr. Pitt's financial system there belongs a subject more vital in its ultimate effects
than any which has been considered, and the whole results of which are far from being
exhausted. The SUSPENSTON OF CASH PAYMENTS in 1797, already noticed in the trans-
actions of that year, was a measure of incomparably more importance than any financial
step of the past or the present century, and, when taken in conjunction with the almost
total destruction of the Spanish mines in America, in consequence of the revolution
which broke out in that country in 1808, and the subsequent and unavoidable resump-
tion of cash payments, by the bill of 1819, in Great Britain, opened the way to a series
of changes in prices, and, of consequence, in the relative situation, power, and influence
of the different classess of society, more material than any which had occurred since the
discovery of the mines of Potosi and Mexico, and to which the future historian will per-
haps point as the principal cause of the great revolution of England in 1832, ami the
ultimate fall of the British Empire. This important and vital subject, however, so mo-
mentous in its consequences, so interesting in its details, requires a separate chapter for
its development, and will more appropriately come to be considered in a future volume,
when the effects of the momentary changes during the whole war are brought into view,
and the commencement of another set of causes, having an opposite tendency from the
rapid decay of the South American mines at its close, is, at the same time, made the
subject of discussion.
At present, it only requires to be observed, that the effects of the suspension of cash
payments, whether good or evil, are not fairly to be ascribed to Mr. Pitt. They were
not, like the consequences of the issue of assignats in France, the result of a barbarous
and inhuman confiscation, nor like subsequent changes in this country, of theoretical 01
abstract opinions. They were forced on the British statesman by stern necessity.
Bankruptcy — irretrievable national bankruptcy stared him in the face if the momentous
step were any longer delayed. Once taken, the fatal measure could not be recalled ; a
resumption of cash payments during the continual pressure and vast expenditure of the
war was out of the question. The nation has had ample experience of the shock it
occasioned, and the protracted misery it produced, at a subsequent period, even in the
midst of profound peace. To have attempted it during the whirl and agitation of the
contest, would at once have prostrated all its resources.
No doubt, however, can remain, that the suspension of cash payments contributed
essentially to increase the available resources of Great Britain for carrying on the war.
An extension of the circulating medium, especially if accompanied by a great and in-
creasing present expenditure, never fails to have this effect. It is when the subsequent
stoppage or contraction takes place that the perilous nature of the experiment becomes
manifest. Great immediate prosperity to all around him is often produced by the prod-
igality of the spendthrift; but if he trenches deep, amid this beneficent profusion, on
the resources of future years, the day of accounting will enevitably come alike to him-
self and his dependents. In seeking for the causes of the vast and continued warlike
exertions of England during the war, and of the apparently boundless financial resour-
ces which appeared to multiply, as if by magic, with every additional demand, just as
in investigating the causes of the difficulties under which all classes have labored since
the peace, a prominent place must be assigned to the alterations on the currency, as pro-
ductive of present strength as they were conducive to future weakness. No financial
embarrassments of any moment were experienced subsequent to 1797 ; in vain Napo-
leon waited for the blowing up of the funding system, and the stoppage of England's
financial resources ; year after year the enormous expenditure continued ; loan after
loan, with incredible facility, was obtained, and at the close of the war, when the reve-
nues of France and all the Continental states were fairly exhausted, the treasures of
Great Britain were poured forth with a profusion unexampled during any former period
of the struggle. No existing wealth, how great soever, could account for so prodigious
an expenditure. Its magnitude points to an annual creation of funds, even greater than
j those which were dissipated. It is in the vast impulse given to the circulation by the
' suspension of cash payments, and subsequent extension of paper credit of every descrip.
This most instructive table proves at a glance how little share either the foreign subsidies or civil expenditure
had in the vast outlay of seventeen hundred millions during the war. The first was only a thirty-third, the latter
hardly a fifteenth of the total expenditure. The vast sums absorbed by the debt is a striking feature, amounting to
more tlwn a third of the whole ; but it was in a certain degree unavoidable. The cost of the navy, nmouming
to about a fifth, is not to be regretted, for it eave England the naval dominion of the globe. It was the pro
digious expenditure for the army, amounting to almost a fourth of the whole, which is the real subject of regret,
attended as it was with no exploits worthy of being recorded till the last eight years of the war ; coinciding thus
\vith what every other consideration indicates, that it wn. the niggardly use of that arm. and the ignorance whjch
prevailed as to its efficacy, which was the real reproach to Mr Pitt's administration.
44
492
APPENDIX.
tion, that one great cause is to be found of the never-failing resources of Great Britain
during so long a period. Her fleets commanded the seas; her commerce extended into
every quarter of the globe ; her colonies embraced the finest and richest of the tropical
regions , and in the centre of this magnificent dominion was the parent state, whose
quickened and extended circulation spread life and energy through every part of the
immense fabric. Great as was the increase of paper in circulation after the obligation
to pay in specie was removed, it was scarcely equal to the simultaneous increase in ex.
ports, imports, and domestic industry ; and almost boundless as was the activity of Briu
ish enterprise during those animating years, it must have languished from want of com-
mensurate credit, if not sustained by the vivifying influence of the extended currency.*
It is evident, also, that the funding system, with all its dangers and ultimate evils, of
which the nation since the peace has had such ample experience, was eminently calcu-
lated to increase this feverish action cf the body politic, and produce a temporary flow
of prosperity, commensurate, indeed, to the ultimate embarrassments with which it was
to be attended, but still exciting a degree of transient vigor, which could never have
arisen under a more cautious and economical system of management. The contracting
and immediately spending loans, to the amount of thirty or forty millions a year, in ad.
dition to a revenue raised by taxation or equal amount, had an extraordinary effect in*
encouraging every branch of industry, and enabling the nation to prosper under burdens
which at first sight would have appeared altogether overwhelming. Government is pro-
verbially a good paymaster, and never so much so as during the whirl and excitement of
war. The capital thus sunk in loans was, indeed, withdrawn from the private encour-
agement of industry, but it was so only in consequence of being directed into a channel
where its influence in that respect was still more powerful and immediate than it ever
would have been in the hands of individuals : it was in great part dissipated, indeed, in
a form which did not reproduce itself, and afforded no means of providing for its charges
hereafter ; but still that circumstance, how fatal soever, to the resources of the state in
future times, did not diminish the temporary excitement produced by its expenditure.
Under the combined influence of this vast contraction of loans and extended paper cir-
culation, the resources of the nation were increased in a rapid and unparalleled progres-
sion: exports and imports doubled, the produce of taxes was continually rising, prices
* Table showing the amount of Bank Notes in circulation from 1792 to 1815, with the Commercial Paper under
discount at the Bank during the same period, and the Gold and Silver annually coined at the Bank, with Jie
Exports, Imports, and Revenue for the same period.
'.
•£§
3
ii-
1
ft
Js.s
Jjj
d
I
-2
3
tu
||
1
jil
"3
o
1
il
sLag
c>
If
A
n
EH
G1-1^
o^o
a
1791
11,307,380
1,171,863
11,307.380
19,859,358
24,904,850
17,864,464
1,540,14
1793
11,388.910
__
2,747,430
11,388,910
19,659,357
20,390,179
17,707,983
1794
1795
S
1798
10,744,020
14,017,510
10,729,520
9,674,780
11,647,610
,867^585
1,448,220
2,946,500
3505,000
5,350,000
4,490,600
2,558,895
493,416
464, 680
. 2,600,297
2,967,565
10,744,020
14,017,510
16,729,520
11,114,120
13,095,830
22,294,893
23.736.889
23,187,319
21,013,956
2i.122.203
26,748,082
27,123,338
30,518,913
28,917,010
27.317,087
17,899,294
18,456,298
18,548.628
19,852,646
30,492,995
-
1799
11,494,150
1,465.650
5,403,900
449,962
12,959,610
24,066,700
99 5^6 ^37
35,311,018
1800
1801
15,372,980
13,578,520
12,574,860
1.471,540
2,634,760
2,612,020
6,401,900
7.905,100
7,523,300
189,937
450,242
437,019
16,854,800
16,203,280
15,186,880
28,257,781
30,43.5,268
28.308,373
»<38l!617
34,838,564
37.873,324
34,069.457
35,516,351
37,111,'=20
1,905,43%
1804
12,350,970
12.546,560
2.9(8 9f!0
4,531,270
10,747,600
9.982,400
596,445
15.849.aSO
17.077.8 »
25,104.541
26,454,281
28,075.239
31,071,108
38,203,937
45,515,152
—
1805
1806
13,011,010
13,271,529
4,860.160
4,458.600
11,365,500
12.380.100
54i(i68 17,870,'170
405,106! 17,730,120
27,341.720
25,504 478
30,540.491
32.984.101
50,555,190
54,071,908
—
1807
12,840 790
4,109,89(1 ! 13;484;600
None. ' 16.9V1.680
23,326,845
8n,.588,u84
59,406.731
1808
1809
14,093.690
14,241,360
4,m',m 15.'475.'700J
371,714
298,946
14,183,860
18,542.860
25,660,9:13
30,170 2^2
29,956,629
45,667.216
(G, 147.601
63,879,802
—
1*10
15,159,180
5,860,420
20,070,600
316,936
21 019 600
37.613,294
42,656.843
67,825,597
2,406.044
ill
16,246.130
15951,290
7,114,090
7,4-57,030
14,355,400
14,291,600
312,263
None.
2:3.360,220
23,408,320
25,240,704
24,923, 22
Records
37,8^7,2 2
27,982,977
65,309,K>0
6,5,752,125
2,474.774
2,478,799
1813
15,407,320
7,713.610
12,330,200
519,722
23,210,930
destroyed
68,302,830
—
1814
16,455,540
8,345,540
13,285,800
None.
24,801,080
32,622,771
-,1 V* 3T-8
70.2.W.313
1815
1816
18,226,400
i8.on.aflo
9!OOT|400_ 11I416I400
None.
None.
27,261,650
27,013,620
31,822,053
98,374.921
57!4?0!4T7
48,216.186
72.203.142
62.»^0,711
2,643,593
—Parl. Drb., vii., xiv., xv. ; j3pp. Part. Hist., xxxv., 1563. COLQBHOITN, 99. MORKAU'S Tables, and PEBRER,
279. MARSHALL'S Digest, pp. 97, 147, 236.
Thus, in the twenty-four years from 1792 to 1816, the circulation of England, including the large and smaM
notes and commercinl p;iper discounted at the Bank, was. more than tripled : the revenue tripled, and theexporU
more than doubled: the imports increased a half. The increase of commercial paper from 1792 to 1810 wa»
tnenfold: indicating, perhaps, the greatest and most rapid rise in mercantile transactions in the wholr history
«f the world.
APPENDIX. 493
of ever) sort quickly rose, interest was high, profits still higher, and all who made their
livelihood by productive industry, or by buying and selling, found themselves in a state
of extraordinary and increasing prosperity. That these favorable appearances were, to
a certain extent, delusive ; that the flood of prosperity thus let in upon the state
was occasioned by exhausting, in a great degree, the reservoirs of wealth for future
emergencies ; and that a long period of languor and depression was to follow this fever-
ish and unnatural tract of excitement, is indeed certain ; but still the effect at the moment
was the same, and in the activity, enterprise, and opulence thus created were to be found
the most powerful resources for carrying on the contest. How beneficial soever to the
finances of the state, in future times, it might have been to have raised the whole sup-
plies by taxation within the year, it was impossible that from such a prudent and parsi-
monious system there could have arisen the extraordinary vigor and progressive creation
of wealth which resulted from the lavish expenditure of the national capital in maintain-
ing the conflict ; and but for the profuse outlay, which has been felt as so burdensome
in subsequent times, the nation might have sunk beneath its enemies, and England, with
all its glories, been swept for ever from the book of existence.
Had Mr. Pitt's system, attended as it was, however, with this vast expenditure of
capital instead of income on the current expenses, made no provision for the ultimate
redemption of the debt thus contracted, it would, notwithstanding the prodigious and
triumphant results with which it was attended, have been liable to very severe repre-
hension. But every view of his financial policy must be imperfect and erroneous, if
the sinking fund, which constituted so essential a part of the system, is not taken into
consideration. Its great results have now been completely demonstrated by experience ;
and there can be no question that, if it had been adhered to, the whole debt might have
been extinguished with ease before the year 1840 : that is, in nearly as short a time
as it was created. Great as were the burdens of the war, therefore, he had established
the means of rendering them only temporary ; durable as the results of its successes have
proved, the price at which they were purchased admitted, according to his plan, of a
rapid liquidation. It is the subsequent abandonment of the sinking fund, in consequence
of the unnecessary and imprudent remission of so large a proportion of the indirect taxes,
which is the real evil that has undone the mighty structure of former wisdom ; and for
a slight and questionable present advantage, rendered the debt, when undergoing a rapid
and successful process of liquidation, a lasting and hopeless burden on the state. The
magnitude of this change is too great to be accounted for by the weakness or errors of
individuals : the misfortune thus inflicted upon the country too irreparable to be ascribed
lo the improvidence or short-sighted policy of subsequent governments. Without excul-
pating the members of the administrations who did not manfully resist, and, if they could
not prevent, at least denounce the growing delusion, it may be safely affirmed that the
great weight of the responsibility must be borne by.the nation itself. If the people of
Great Britain have now a debt of seven hundred and seventy millions, with hardly any
fund for its redemption, they have to blame, not Mr. Pitt, who was compelled to con.
tract it in the course of a desperate struggle for the national independence, and left
them the means of its rapid and certain liquidation, but the blind Democratic spirit,
which first, from its excesses in a neighboring state, made is expenditure unavoidable,
and then, from its impatience of present sacrifice at home, destroyed the means of its
discharge. " All nations," says M. Toqueville, in his profound work on American
Democracy, " which have made a great and lasting impression on human affairs, from
the Romans to the English, have been governed by aristocratic bodies : the instability
and impatience of the Democratic spirit render the states in which it is the ruling power
incapable of durable achievements."* The abandonment of a system fraught with such
incalculable future advantages as the sinking fund, but requiring a present sacrifice for
its maintenance, affords decisive evidence that the balance of the Constitution had
become overloaded in reality, before it was so in form, on the popular side, and that
the period had arrived when an ignorant impatience of taxation Was to bring about that
disregard of everything but present objects which is the invariable characteristic of the
majority of mankind. With the prevalence of aristocratic rule in England, that nobta
monument of national foresight and resolution progressively prospered : with its decline
the efficiency of the great engine of redemption was continually impaired amid the
general influence of the unthinking multitude ; and at length, upon its subversion by the
great change of 1832, it finally, to all practical purposes, was destroyed. Irretrievable
ultimate ruin his thus been brought upon the state ; for not only is the burden now fixed
* Toqueville. ii,. 237
494 APPENDIX.
upon its resources inconsistent with the permanent maintenance of the nntional inde.
pendence, but the steady rule has been terminated, under which alone its liquidation
could have been expected. But if the sun of British greatness is setting in the Old, it
is, from the same cause, rising in renovated lustre in the New World. The imp-itience
of the Democratic spirit, both in the British isles and on the shores of the Atlantic ; the
energy it developes, the insatiable desires it creates, the national burdens which it per-
petuates, the convulsions which it induces, all conspire to impel the ceaseless wave of
emigration to the West ; and the very distresses consequent on an advanced stage of
existence force the power and vigor of civilization into the primeval recesses of thi"
fore-t. In two centuries the name of England may be extinct, or survive only under the
shadow of ancient renown ; but a hundred and fifty millions of men in North America
will be speaking its language, reading its authors, glorying in its descent. Nations,
like individuals, were not destined for immortality ; in their virtues, equally as their
vices, their grandeur as their weakness, they bear in their bosoms the seeds of mortality ;
but in the passions which elevate them to greatness, equally as those which hasten their
decay, is to be discerned the unceasing operation of those principles at once of corrup.
tion and resurrection which are combined in humanity, and which, universal in commu-
nities as in single men, compensate the necessary decline of nations by the vital fire «•
which has given an undccaying youth to the human race.
QUESTIONS.
NOTE — The figures in the margin denote the pages in the history to which the questions refer
CHAPTER I.
1 . Why is the era of Napoleon important
in History?
With what other great eras is that of Na-
poleon to be ranked and compared ?
To what must the extraordinary ferocity
and destructiveness of the French Revolution
be attributed ?
For how long a period, previous to the
Revolution, had France enjoyed the bles-
sings of peace ?
2. Who flew to arms when the insurrec-
tion finally broke out ?
What are the names of the French Philos-
ophers who interfered in politics before the
Revolution ?
Why were not the public authorities alarm-
ed at the speculations of these Philosophers ?
Who was Madame Roland ?
What did she do, when but nine years old ?
Of what class of people were the bishops
and the more powerful clergy composed ?
What were the character aud conduct of
the humbler clergy ?
How many classes of people were there in
France?
How numerous were the aristocracy or
privileged class ?
On whom did the taxes principally fall ?
3. Where did the rich landholders usually
reside ?
What was the consequence of their living
abroad ?
What was the state of education among
the French peasantry ?
What was the extent of the royal prerog-
ative previous to the Revolution ?
What was the moral character of the
court of Louis XV. ?
What was the immediate cause of the Rev-
olution ?
On what day and year were the States-
General convened ?
What might that day, strictly speaking, be
called ?
Where was the Assembly of the States-
General convened ?
4. Of what members was the Assembly
composed ?
What did the members do when the King
seated himself on the throne ?
Who was King of France at this time ?
What took place on the Gih of May and j
for several weeks afterward ?
44*
Which of the three orders in the Assembly
endeavored to bring about a union between
the three ?
How did they propose to accomplish this?
What reply was made by the commons?
and who was the member that gave the
reply ?
5. What was the conduct of the Court at
this crisis ?
What should Neckarhave done ? and what
did he?
What did the commons finally resolve
upon ?
What course was pursued by the King?
Who, among the nobility, was the first to
abandon his principles and his high trust^
and join the Revolutionary party?
How did the King endeavor to repair the
consequences of his own imprudence ?
Whom did he dismiss and banish ?
6. How did the people receive the intelli-
gence of his banishment ?
Who headed the tumult in the Palais-
Royal ?
What did he urge the people to do ?
What body of troops was organized after
the mob had broken open the arsenals and
armed themselves with muskets and cannon?
What took place on the 14th of July?
7. What was done in the French provinces
after the capture of the Bastile ?
What was the condition of the inhabitants
of Paris after these events ?
What did they resolve to do ?
Who was the commander of the National
Guard ?
What did the people do when they arrived
at Versailles?
What did La Fayette do, after order was
partially restored ?
What took place, early the next morning,
at the Palace f
8. What course was adopted by the mob
and by the Assembly, after La Fayette had
protected the Palace and its inhabitants from
immediate destruction ?
How long a time elapsed between the
meeting of the States-General and the im-
prisonment of the King in his own capital ?
Into who»e hands did the real administra-
tion of (.he government fall after the King's
imprisonment ?
9. What measures were first taken by the
Assembly to relieve the embarrassment of
the national finances ?
496
QUESTIONS.
What was the value of the church lands
How were they sold ?
How were they paid for ?
What kind of money eventually came into
ordinary use in France ?
What did the nobility do, when they founc
that the Assembly were detei mined to ruin
the country?
When did the National Assembly close its
sittings ?
What was the title of the Assembly that
succeeded to the administration of the gov-
ernment ?
How long had the Revolution now been in
progress ?
CHAPTER II.
1 0. What was the character of the mem-
bers composing the Legislative Assembly?
When did the Assembly commence its
sittings ?
How were the members divided ?
What were the names of those three
parties ?
Who were the leaders of the three parties ?
Wherein consisted the real strength of the
Jacobins ?
What measures did the Assembly take
with regard to the clergy ?
Did the King approve these measures ?
Against what nations did the Assembly
declare war ?
1 1 . How did the people receive this
measure ?
What was the result of the first encounters
between the French and their enemies ?
What was the conduct of the King, after
the Assembly disbanded his guard ?
How did the Girondists proceed after the
King had estranged himself from them ?
What was now the only hope of the King
and Court ?
What proclamation was issued by the Duke
of Brunswick ? and what was the effect of it
on the people of France ?
1 2. What personal danger now threatened
the King ?
By whom was he defended in this ex-
tremity ?
On what day did this take place ?
What was next done with the royal family?
Which party did La Fayette seek to sup-
port?
What fate overtook him ? and what course
was pursued toward him by the Assembly ?
Who now had actual control of the French
governmei t ?
What were they called ?
What did they first demand of the As-
sembly ?
1 3 . Was the appointment of this Revo-
lutionary Tribunal granted to them?
What steps were immediately taken by
this Tribunal ?
How many people, and of what class,
were arrested ?
Who directed the operations of the Tri-
bunal?
Who were assembled around the Hotel de
Ville on the morning of the 2d of September ?
Who were at that time confined in the
Hotel de Ville?
How were they removed thence ? and
where were they carried ?
What was done to them there ?
What took place immediately afterward in
the prison of the Abbaye ?
Who presided over this prison tribunal ?
_ Who was first summoned to appear before
him ? and what was his fate ?
What was the fate of those who followed
him?
What demand was made by the mob after
this butchery had proceeded for some time ?
What is related of Mademoiselle de Som-
brieul ?
1 4. How many people were massacred at
this period?
How long did the massacres continue ?
What was done with the bodies of the
slain ?
Were the people of Paris capable of re-
sisting these outrages ?
Why did they not do so ?
What public body succeeded the Legisla-
tive Assembly in the government ?
Who were the leaders of the National
Convention ?
Of what parties was it composed ?
15. What was the first measure of the
Convention ?
When was the Republic proclaimed
What was done with the Calendar ?
What amount of assignats had been issued
for the expenses of the government during
three years ?
What change was made in the constitution
at the instance of the Duke of Orleans ?
What measure was undertaken by the Gi-
rondists ?
For what great event did the Jacobins now
prepare ?
What was the nature of the charges
against Louis XVI.?
What treatment did he and the other mem-
bers of the royal family experience while
confined in the Temple ?
16. Who undertook to defend the King
on his trial?
What advice did the King give his son
n his Testament ?
On what day and year did the trial com-
mence ? and how long did it continue ?
What was the result of the trial ?
By what majority was the King condemned
o death ?
How many of the Girondists voted for his
death?
What was their subsequent fate ?
1 7. When the King received his sentence,
vhat did he demand ? and what was granted
o him ?
Describe the last interview of the King
with his family.
On what day and year was he conducted
o the scaffold ?
How was he conducted thither ?
Who attended the King- in Lis last mo-
ments ?
QUESTIONS.
497
18. Where was the body removed?
Where did the execution take place ?
Who were afterward executed on the same
spot?
How is that place now ornamented ?
What was the character of Louis XVI.?
CHAPTER III.
What was the effect of the French Revo-
lution on the adjoining kingdoms of Europe?
19. What nations, at this time, were the
most prominent and powerful in Europe ?
For how long a period had Great Britain
enjoyed peace before the Revolution broke
out?
What was the amount of her national debt
at this time ?
How many soldiers can Great Britain mus-
ter at one point on the continent of Europe ?
In what, chiefly, did the strength of Great
Britain consist ?
What were the opinions of the people of
Great Britain on the French Revolution ?
who approved it? and who were alarmed
at it?
Who was at the head of the party approv-
ing it?
Who was the leader of the opposite party ?
What was the character of Pitt ?
20. How old was he when he was made
Chancellor of the Exchequer ?
How did he maintain himself in the strug-
gle with his political opponents ?
Of whom was a third party composed?
Who was the leader of this party ?
Of what great work is he the author ?
What nation was the most formidable con-
tinental rival of France at this time ?
How many inhabitants did Austria then
contain ?
What was her form of government ?
What was her military strength at that
time?
21. What was the military strength of
Prussia ?
What was the population of Prussia ?
What was the system of Prussia's military
organization ?
What was the Prussian form of govern-
ment ?
What was the situation of Russia ?
What was the military strength of Russia ?
22. What was the population of Russia ?
What national triumph had Sweden re-
cently achieved ?
What was her position in the political scale
of Europe ?
What was the condition and importance
of Turkey?
And of Italy ?
And of Piedmont, ?
23. And of Holland ?
And of Switzerland ?
What were the characteristics of the peo-
ple of Spain?
In what class of the Spaniards did the
strength of the country consist?
What was the military strength of Spain?
What was the military strength of France ?
What had caused a decline of discipline ID
the French troops ?
How was this evil remedied ?
Who ascended the Austrian throne at this
time ?
How old was he when he began to reign I
What was the character of his reign ?
What did he say, when ordering the news-
papers to discontinue their praise of him ?
24. What measures Avere taken by the
French Jacobins to extend their Revolution-
ary principles to other countries ?
What countries were revolutionized by
them ?
What decree was passed on the 19th of
November by the Convention ?
Against whom did the French Convention
declare war on the 3d of February, 1793?
CHAPTER IV.
25. What generals had command of the
French armies at the opening of the cam-
paign of 1792 ?
What was the state of discipline in these
armies ?
What forces were arrayed against the
French ?
Where did the French troops make their
first invasion ?
What was the result of that invasion ?
What did the Prussians say of the French
soldiers ?
26. What fortresses had the French on
their eastern frontier ?
What course should the allies have
adopted?
What course did they adopt ?
Who took command of the French troops
to resist the invaders ? •
What forced Dumourier to retreat to St.
Menehould ?
What was the position of the two armie*
after this retreat f
What battle now took place ?
What was the result of the battle ?
How does an indecisive action affect an
invading army ?
27. What effect did this battle have on
the minds of the French soldiers ?
What was the secret cause of the Duke of
Brunswick's inactivity ?
What was Dumourier's motive in negotia-
ting with the allies ?
What did he propose to the allies?
What did the allies do, in accordance to
his proposals ?
28. What town did the Austrians besiege
in the Low Countries ?
How did that siege progress and terminate ?
After the repulse of the Austrians from
Lisle, what towns did Custine capture?
At what place did Dumourier encounter
the Austrian forces on the 6th of November ?
What young French officer distinguished
himself in the battle of Jemappes ?
29. What was the result of this battle?
What were the consequences which fol-
lowed the defeat of the Austrians 1
498
QUESTIONS.
What did the Revolutionary party in Flan-
ders gain by the success of the French ?
Where did the King of Prussia gain ad-
vantage over the French?
What was the condition of the French ar-
mies at the close of the campaign ?
CHAPTER V.
3O. What difficulties did the people of
Paris have to encounter in February and
March, 1793?
What course did Marat recommend in the
newspaper of which he was editor ?
Did the people follow his suggestion ?
How did the shopkeepers like the result of
their own revolutionary principles when ap-
plied to themselves ?
What Tribunal did the Jacobins now or-
ganize ?
What were the powers of the Revolution-
ary Tribunal ?
Who held the office of Public Accuser in
this Tribunal ?
3 I . What did the Girondists propose to
do, to counteract the effects of this Tribunal ?
What was the result of the trial of Mnnit ?
What was next proposed by Guadet in be-
half of the Girondists ?
What did Barere propose as a substitute
for Guadet's project?
Which of the two was adopted ?
What was first done by the Commission of
Twelve?
What course did the municipality adopt
after the arrest of Hebert ?
How did Fsnard reply to the mob ?
What did the conspirators next undertake ?
How many of the Sections joined them ?
How many Sections could the Commission
of Twelve rely on?
32. What report was made by Garat to
the Girondists while surrounded by the mul-
titude (
What ensued in the Convention ?
What was done by the Girondists the next
morning ?
Who took command of the Jacobin forces ?
What measure did he compel the Conven-
tion to adopt ?
Were the Revolutionists satisfied with this
triumph ?
What demonstration did they make on the
2d of June ?
What announcement was made to the Con-
vention by Lacroix ?
What did the members then do, at the
recommendation of Danton ?
33. What took place between the mem-
bers and 'he soldiers ?
What declaration was made by Marat after
the members returned to the hall ?
What did Couthon propose ?
What became of the proscribed members?.
What party had now the entire control of
the Convention ?
What committees had the management of
public affairs ?
How were opinions divided in the Prov-
inces*
What department, in the Provinces, gave
the first signal of insurrection against th*
Jacobins ?
Why was not the insurrection more suc-
cessful *
What powers were now assumed by the
Committee of Public Safety '.
34. What was the law in regard to sus-
pected persons ?
How numerous did the Revolutionary Com-
mittees now become ? and of what class
were they composed ?
What was the character of their proceed-
ings, as reported by Laplanche ?
What changes in the division of time were
made by the Convention ?
When did they make the year commence?
What female enthusiast distinguished her-
self at this time ?
What act did she commit ? and how was
she punished ?
35. How was the royal family treated
after the King's death?
What was the fate of the young prince?
And of the Queen?
What followed the execution of the Queen?
What measures were taken by the Conven-
tion in regard to Christianity ?
What were the consequences of their thus
abjuring the Christian religion?
What inscription was placed on the public
cemeteries ?
3Ci. What leaders among the Jacobins
were first led to the scaffold ?
Whom did Robespierre cause to be arrested?
What did Danton and Desmoulins say on
their trial ?
What was their fate ?
What was the real question before the
Convention in all the trials at this period?
Who became sole dictator of the Republic
after the death of Danton ?
What was now the number of prisoners in
Paris ? and in France ?
What number of these were executed daily
in Paris?
How many were executed in Arras, by
order of Le Brun ?
What was done by Carrier, at Nantes?
37. And by Collot d'Herbois, at Lyons?
What effects did these continued massacres
have, at length, on the people of Paris?
What conspiracy did they organize ?
What was Robespierre's deportment be-
fore the Convention ?
Who advocated Robespierre's cause ?
How did Tallien interrupt St. Just ?
What was the decision of the Convention?
What course was pursued by the partisans
of Robespierre after he was arrested ?
38. Were the Convention intimidated by
Robespierre's partisans ?
What order was given by Henriot ?
Did the artillery-men obey him ?
Which side did the National Guard take ?
How was Robespierre arrested at the Ho.
tel de Ville ?
What took place at his execution?
On what day was he executed ?
What is the number of victims massacred
during the Reign of Terror ?
QUESTIONS.
499
CHAPTER VI.
39. What were the character and situa-
tion of the inhabitants of La Vendee ?
What part did they take in the Revolution ?
Who were the principal Royalist leaders
in La Vendee (
4 <>. What number of troops did the Yen-
deans muster ?
Whit orders did the Convention issue to
their own troops ?
What was the first achievement of the
Royalists?
What was a remarkable feature of this
victory ?
What towns did the Royalists next cap-
ture ?
What did Lescure do to encourage his sol-
diers at the attack on Fontenay ?
What did the Royali*ts do with their pris-
oners ?
4 1 . What important town was next taken
by the Royalists ?
Where did the Royalists meet with dis-
aster ?
What three Republican generals were suc-
cessively defeated in their invasions of Ven-
dee ?
42. What was the whole number of reg-
ular troops conquered in these battles by the
Royalists ?
What measures were now taken by the
Convention to bring the war to a close ?
How were the proceedings of the Repub-
licans reported to the Convention by Bourbotte
and Turreau?
What took place on the very day that
Bourbotte and Turreau made this Report to
the Convention ?
At what towns were the Royalists again
victorious ?
43. How did the Royalists treat their
prisoners ?
Why were these numerous victories of so
little value to the Royalists ?
What ensued at the attack of Mons by the
Republicans ?
Who commenced a war of extermination
against the Vendeans?
What were his troops called ?
44. What orders aid he give his troops ?
What was done by Carrier at Nantes?
How many children were massacred by
Carrier ?
CHAPTER VII.
By what was the year 1793 distinguished?
What number of troops were mustered by
the allies ?
And how many by the French?
What advantages of position had the
French ?
4.1. What quality, essential to victory,
was wanting by the allies ?
Who was the leader of the allies? and
how was he qualified to be their leader ?
What difficulties had the French troops to
contend with ?
How did the French provide money to
carry on the war ?
With what siege did the French open the
campaign ?
What young officer had command of the
Austrian grenadiers ?
Which side had the advantage at the open-
ing of the campaign ?
Who took command of the French after
their retreat to Louvain ?
46. Where did he encounter the Austri-
ans in a general action ?
Who gained the battle ?
What were Dumourier's political projects
at this time ?
How did he succeed in his plans?
What did he do when his plans were dis-
covered and defeated by his countrymen ?
What congress of ministers was now
formed at Antwerp ?
What were their opinions as to the condi-
tion of the French Convention ?
What resolution did they adopt ?
What was the effect of this ?
What measures were taken by the Conven-
tion ?
41. What was the result of the war on
the eastern frontier of France?
What town of importance was there cap-
tured by the allies ?
What was the result of the war on the
Flemish frontier?
What was the position of the allies after
defeating the French at the camp of Csesar ?
What might the allies now have done?
and what did they do ?
48. How did the Convention proceed in
preparations for continuing the war ?
Who was at the head of the French mil-
itary department ?
What was his character ? and his misfor-
tune ?
What has he asserted in his defence ?
What improvement in the military art did
he originate ?
What success did the Austrians gain at
Quesnoy ?
How did the English conduct the siege ot
Dunkirk ?
What French general was sent to relieve
Dunkirk?
How did he succeed at first ?
49. How did he fare at Courtray ?
How did the Revolutionary Tribunal rec-
ompense his services ?
Who now took command of the French
army of the north ?
How did he succeed ?
Who had command of the French on the
Moselle ?
What was the result of his attack on the
Prussians at Permasin ?
Where did the French intrench themselves ?
50. What was the result of the allies'
attack on the lanes at Weissenberg ?
What did the inhabitants of Strasburg pro-
aose to Wurmser ?
What was Wurmser's reply ?
What was done by the Republicans to the
nhabitants of Strasburg ?
500
QUESTIONS.
What measure was now contemplated by
the King of Prussia ?
What induced him to forego his intentions ?
What directions did he, nevertheless, give
to the Duke of Brunswick ?
What was accomplished by the French
troops under Generals Pichegru and Hoche ?
What was the result of the campaign on
the western side of the Spanish frontier ?
5 1 . What was the result on the eastern
side?
In what two battles on this frontier, were
the French totally defeated ?
In what three towns, in the south of France,
were insurrections organized against the Jac-
obins ?
Which of the three was first attacked by
the troops of the Convention ?
Which one did they next attack ?
52. How did the garrison and citizens of
Lyons defend themselves?
What exploit was performed by Precy ?
What was done by Couthon after the Re-
publicans had taken possession of Lyons ?
How were his directions carried out ?
How long did the work of destruction pro-
ceed in Lyons ? and what was its expense to
the government ?
What course was now adopted by the in-
habitants of Toulon ?
53. How many troops were mustered for
the defence of Toulon ?
How numerous were the Republican forces
sent against Toulon ?
Who commanded the Republican forces ?
And who the garrison of Toulon ?
Under whose superintendence did the Re-
publicans make their first attack on the forts
of the harbor ?
54. What plan did Bonaparte suggest and
execute to compel the garrison to evacuate
Toulon ?
What offer was made by the British admi-
ral to the inhabitants of Toulon?
How many availed themselves of this
offer?
How many French ships did the allies de-
stroy before they sailed from Toulon ?
What was the fate of the remainder of the
inhabitants of Toulon ?
CHAPTER VIII.
55. What was the strength of the French
navy at the commencement of the war ?
What was the strength of the British
navy ?
What conquests were made by the British
fleet in the West Indies ?
And in the Mediterranean?
For what purpose and with how many
ships did Admiral Joyeuse put to sea on the
20th of May, 1794?
What was the strength of the British
fleet, under Lord Howe ?
56. What was the result of the battle
that took place on the 1st of June ?
How were the Republicans consoled for
this defeat *
What was the effect of Lord Howe's vic-
tory in England ?
57. What were the number and disposi-
tion of the troops on both side's, at the open*
ing of the campaign of 1794?
Why was the French government enable*!
to raise such an immense number of soldiers ?
What was the result of the siege of Lan-
drecy ?
On what points of the allied line were the
French defeated ?
On what point were they successful?
58. Where were the French, under Jour-
dan, defeated?
What was the result of the campaign in
West Flanders ?
What did the Emperor of Austria resolve
to do?
How was the siege of Charleroi conducted ?
and how did it finally terminate?
59. At what place was a battle fought
between the French and the allies on the
26th of June ?
What was the result of the battle of
Fleurus ?
What was the result of General Dumas'
operations in Piedmont ?
And of Bonaparte's on the frontiers of
Nice?
What was the situation of the Spanish
troops at the commencement of 1794?
What was the result of their combats with
the French forces ?
60. What did the Spanish government do
after these defeats ?
What did the French gam by a treaty of
peace with the Spaniards ?
What was done by Jourdan and Kleber on
the left bank of the Rhine ?
And by Moreau in the Low Countries?
And by Pichegru ?
With what success did the French open
their winter campaign?
What was done by
>y the States-General of
Holland ?
How did the Convention reply to their pro-
posals ?
What was done by the Prince of Orange ?
6 1 . How was Amsterdam taken by the
French ?
What other towns submitted in the same
manner?
How was the Dutch fleet captured ?
CHAPTER IX.
What was, formerly, the extent of the
kingdom of Poland ?
What was Poland formerly called ?
What kingdoms and countries are frag-
ments of the Polish dominions ?
What ancient conquerors came out from
Poland ?
62. What is the cause of the various
revolutions that have taken place in Poland?
What were the form and characteristics of
her government ?
How did the Poles secure unanimity in
their legislation *
QUESTIONS.
501
And how did they justify this ?
Who were the clergy in Poland ?
What was the maxim of the Polish no-
bility ?
What was their constant policy ?
63. What was the chief duty of the King ?
How were his sentences enforced ?
What is illustrated in the history of John
Sobieski ?
With how many troops did he attack and
defeat eighty thousand Turkish veterans
trongly intrenched?
With how many did he defeat three hun-
dred thousand Turks at Vienna ?
What was the effect of that victory ?
How was he afterward treated by his own
people ?
What did he prophesy on his death-bed ?
Who always reigned in Poland after So-
bieski's death ?
64:. By whom was Poland partitioned in
1793?
What was now the condition of Poland ?
Whom did the Poles choose for their
leader ?
Where was Kosciusko educated?
Where had he afterward served with dis-
tinction ?
What was the result of his first encounter
with the enemies of Poland ?
What took place in Warsaw, after the vic-
tory of Ralsowice ?
What was now done by the Russians and
Prussians ?
65. What occurred at Sckoczyre ?
What was the result of the siege of War-
saw?
What was the result of Kosciusko's attack
upon General Fersen, on the 4th of October ?
What occurred to the Poles after the fall
of Kosciusko ?
Upon what town did Suwarrow now ad-
vance ?
What was the result of his attack upon
Praga?
How many soldiers and citizens were
slain ?
66. What feeling was produced in Europe
by the fall of Poland?
What lines did Campbell, the poet, write
on this occasion ?
Is this fine poetry historically just?
What were the true causes of
the fall of
Poland ?
CHAPTER X.
What parties remained in Paris, after the
fall of Robespierre ?
Of whom were the Thermidorians com-
posed ?
61. What proposal was made by Barere
on the 30th of July ?
What was heard in the assembly when
Tinville's name was pronounced ?
What did Freron propose ?
What was done with Tinville ?
What measures did the Convention next
adopt ?
Whom did the Thermidorians enlist on
their side ?
What decree did the Convention pass in
relation to the Jacobin clubs ?
What laws of the Revolutionary govern-
ment did the Convention now repeal?
Who did they impeach ?
What was the result of the trial of these
men ?
What sentence was passed upon them ?
68. What was done by the Jacobin mob
on the 20th of May, 1795 ?
How did the Convention act through their
committees ?
What punishment did the Convention
inflict on the Jacobins ?
What was the character of the Constitu-
tion that the Convention now formed ?
What was done in the south of France ?
69. How many Constitutions had been
formed in France within a few years ?
How was the legislative power now di-
vided ?
What were the powers, respectively, of
the Five Hundred and the Ancients ?
With whom was the executive power
lodged?
What powers had the Directory ?
What regulations were made with regard
to the elective franchise ?
What is it important to recollect concern-
ing this Constitution ?
What additional clause in the Constitution
was decreed by the Convention ?
How was this received by the people ?
Who opposed its adoption ?
10. What had the Convention to rely on
for support ?
What decision was given by the soldiers ?
What did the Sections resolve to do ?
Whom did the Convention appoint to lead
the troops ?
How did Menou acquit himself of his trust ?
Who was appointed to succeed him ?
For whom did Barras obtain the appoint-
ment of second in the command ?
What disposition did Bonaparte make of
his forces ?
Which party was victorious ?
What course did many of the allied pow
ers pursue early in the year 1795 ?
Which powers remained firm in their hos-
tility to France ?
1 1 . What new treaty did they form ?
What other power joined the new alliance
in February ?
What naval operations took place in the
winter of 1794-5?
What was the result of the campaign in
the maritime Alps ?
12. What success was gained by Jourdan
on the Rhine ?
What did the Austrian commander, Clair-
fait, accomplish in the same quarter ?
What expedition was undertaken by the
Royalist emigrants in this year ?
Where did their troops land ?
13. What did the resident Royalists d<j>
on this occasion ?
Who led the Republican troops to oppose
the invasion ?
502
QUESTIONS.
What was the result of Hoche's attack?
What was done by Tallien ?
What colonial conquest was made by the
British in September of this year ?
CHAPTER XL
74. Who, in the month of March, 1796,
ubmitted to the Convention a plan for a cam-
aign in Italy ?
On whom was the command of the army
of Italy conferred?
^ What were the numbers and what the con-
dition of this army ?
What force had the allies to oppose them ?
Where did Bonaparte first encounter the
allies ?
For what was the battle of Montenotte
celebrated ?
75. What was the effect of Bonaparte's
victory ?
What was the general result of a series of
smaller actions that followed the battle of
Montenotte ?
What course was pursued by the King of
Sardinia ?
How did Napoleon deceive Beaulieu?
What advantage did Napoleon gain by this
artifice ?
76. With whom did Napoleon next make
% treaty of peace? and what was the price
of the treaty?
At what bridge did a desperate action take
place between the French and Austrians ?
Into what city did Napoleon make a tri-
umphant entry ?
How was he received by the Milanese ?
How did Napoleon return their hospital-
ities?
What was the Duke of Modena compelled
to do?
What measures were taken by the French
to revolutionize these countries ?
What took place in Pavia?
77. What course was adopted by the Ve-
netian Senate?
What important fortre'j Tras now invested
by Napoleon ?
What towns did he laic possession of
while the blockade of Mantua was in prog-
ress?
What was done by Murat at Leghorn ?
78. What Austrian force was now brought
ilgainst Napoleon ?
What was the result of the Austrian at-
tacks on the French line ?
What measures did Napoleon adopt after
these defeats ?
What was Napoleon's position when
Wurmser crossed the Mincio and retook
Salo?
How did he extricate himself?
79. What occurred to him at Lonato ?
What was the result of the battle at
Medola ?
What had Wurmser accomplished iit his
brief expedition ?
What did he also lose by it ?
What policy was still pursued by the
Aulic Council ?
By what means was Napoleon made aware 01
the secret plans of the Austrian commander 1
What advantage was this to Napoleon ?
SO. What did Wurmser finally accom-
plish by his efforts to relieve Mantua?
Where was Napoleon defeated in a pitched
battle for the first time in this campaign * '
How long did the battle of Arcola cor.
tinue ? and what was its final result ?
Where was a great battle fought on the
14th of January ?
By what artifice did Napoleon save him-
self from a total overthrow?
How did the battle terminate ?
What was the fate of Mantua?
8 ! . Where did Napoleon next direct his
troops ?
And with what success ?
What was the grand result of the cam-
paign of 1796?
What occurred in La Vendee and Brittany ?
What was the condition of England at the
close of 1795?
What outrages were committed by the
populace in England ?
*•*'£. What very unusual course was taken
by Mr. Fox and his party after the passage
of a bill in the House of Commons to which
he and they were opposed ?
What reply was made by the French gov-
ernment to the British proposals for peace ?
Who was appointed to command the
armies on the Rhine ?
Who opened the campaign in that quarter ?
What induced the French to retreat, when
the two hostile armies were brought nearly
into contact with each other ?
What exploit was accomplished by Mo-
reau?
83. What was the result of Moreau's
ictory at Renchen ?
What was the result of the battle at
Malsch ?
What was the result of the battle near
Esslingen ?
What was the result of the battle at
Neresheim ?
4. What saved the French army a.
Amberg ?
In how many more instances during this
campaign were the French under Jourdan
defeated?
What great exploit was achieved by Mo-
re au ?
What was the result of the battle at Em-
mendingen ?
What prevented the destruction of Mo-
reau's army at Schliengen?
Where did Moreau retreat ?
What was the result of the Archduke's
attack upon Kehl ?
85. What other town was captured in the
same month by the Austrians ?
What were the conditions of the treaty
Between France and Spain ?
What course did Spain pursue toward
Great Britain ?
What proposals were made by Mr. Pitt ?
and what was the result ?
What took place in Ireland at this
ime?
QUESTIONS.
503
What agency had the French in these dis-
turbances ?
\Vhat forces did the- French prepare to
send to Ireland ?
What reports were put in circulation as to
the object of this great armament ?
What occurred to the expedition after it
set sail ?
86. What European sovereigns died at
the close of this year ?
What was the character of the Empress
Catherine ?
What distinguished American died in the
same year?
What was his character— as given by an
English historian ?
CHAPTER XII.
What was the aspect of affairs in England
at the commencement of 1797?
8T. What was the situation of the Bank
of England?
What course was adopted in behalf of the
Bank?
How long did the suspension of specie
payments continue ?
What effect upon the affairs of the govern-
ment was produced by the suspension ?
What famous event occurred in England at
this time ?
88. What is related of the mutiny of the
fleet?
Where did another and more serious mu-
tiny break out ?
Who was the leader of this mutiny ?
How did this mutiny progress and termi-
nate ?
89. What great naval action took place
in February of this year ?
What was the result of the battle of Cape
8t. Vincent?
What British naval officers distinguished
themselves in this battle ?
What naval action took place in October ?
What was the result of the battle of Cam-
perdown ?
90. What circumstances distinguished
these two British victories ?
What effects did they produce in England ?
What great British statesman died in July
of this year ?
What policy was pursued hy the Emperor
Paul?
What frontier of the Austrian dominions
was the most assailable in 1797?
How did the Directory regard Napoleon ?
What was the fault of the Austrian move-
ments ?
Where did Napoleon make his first attack ?
91. What stratagem did Napoleon resort
to?
How did the stratagem operate ? and what
was the result of the battle ?
What was the result of the mano3uvres and
actions of the two contending parties, as
related in the next paragraph ?
What, now, embarrassed Napoleon?
Austrians ?
, ,
. What proposals did he make to the
34
What was agreed on at Leoben ?
What treaty was concluded on the 9th of
April i
Who signed it on behalf of the French
government ?
What were its conditions ?
What is said of the partition of Venice ?
What three events had shaken the power
of Venice ?
What three things had deteriorated the
character of the Venetians ?
93. What was the present situation of
Venice ?
What propagated democratic principles
among the Venetians ?
What course did Napoleon secretly pursue
in regard to the spread of Revolutionary
doctrines ?
What was the result of these measures ?
What was done by the Senate ?
And by Napoleon?
What took place at Verona on the 17th of
April ?
9*. What was done by General Chabran?
What took place, in the meantime, at
Venice ?
What was done by the French troops in
Venice ?
What took place at Berlin, 16th of No-
vember ?
Who succeeded the King of Prussia on the
throne ?
What took place in Genoa ?
9. '5. How did Napoleon interfere ?
What was the result ?
Where did Napoleon establish himself?
Who were now assembled at Montebello ?
What treaty was the result of the negoti-
ations at Montebello ?
What was, now, the domestic state of
France ?
96. What was the result of the election
in May, 1797?
How was the Directory divided?
In what did the strength of the two par-
ties, out of the Assembly, consist ?
What was the proportion of Jacobins and
of Royalists among the deputies ?
What did the Jacobin members of the
Directory especially fear ?
What measures did they adopt ?
What distinguished politician sided with
them?
Which party did Napoleon resolve to sup-
port ?
Of what were the more numerous party
destitute ?
What restrained them in their proceed-
ings?
9T. Had the Directory any scruples?
What measures did they take ?
What did they do with their opponents ?
How did they govern France?
CHAPTER XIII.
What did Napoleon do, after the peace of
Campo Formio?
What expedition did he soon after propose ?
504
QUESTIONS.
What was professed to be the destination
of the armament ?
98. What was done by the British gov-
ernment ?
What was the strength, naval and mili-
tary, of the French armament ?
Of what fortress did the French take pos-
session on their voyage ?
What was done by Nelson ?
What occurred on the night of the 29th of
June ?
When did the French land in Egypt ?
What place did they capture ?
Where did the French encounter Mourad
Bey?
99. What was the result of the battle of
the Pyramids?
What did Nelson do, in the meantime ?
What was his plan of attack on the French
fleet?
What was the result of the battle of the
Nile?
What honors were bestowed on Nelson ?
0 OO. What remark did Mr. Pitt make on
this subject ?
What was the effect of the battle of the
Nile on the French ?
And what were its effects in Europe ?
Where did Napoleon march after being
thus cut off from intercourse with Europe ?
Wrhat town in Syria did he attack ?
What was the result of his attack ?
What was done with the prisoners taken
by Napoleon ?
What sort of monument are the bones of
these murdered men ?
1 0 1 . What place was next invested by
the French?
Who commanded the British squadron at
Acre ?
What did he capture from the French ?
What was the result of Napoleon's first
two attacks ?
What fleet came now to the aid of Acre ?
What was the result of Napoleon's final
attack ?
Where did Napoleon next attack the
Turks?
1O2. What was the result of the battle
of Aboukir *
CHAPTER XIV.
What measures were taken in England to
resist the contemplated invasion of the
French ?
How were the Dutch pleased with the
change of government forced upon them by
the French ?
WThat did the Dutch assembly undertake
to do?
How were they overawed and controlled
in their deliberations ?
What were the provisions of the new Con-
stitution ?
1 03. How was the sitting terminated ?
What did the people of Holland soon dis-
cover ?
What measures were taken by the new
Directory ?
What was d<,ne by General Daendels?
What sort of government was finally estab
lishedin Hollaud? •
What nation did the French Directory next
attack ?
What was the character of the govern-
ment in Switzerland ?
What was the situation of the people?
What was the chief defect in the Helvetic
Confederacy ?
I O4:. Would this defect have been of
much importance if the Swiss had not been
interfered with by the French ?
What was the first expedient adopted by
the French to raise difficulties and insurrec-
tions in Switzerland ?
What was the second expedient ?
What, finally, did Napoleon do ?
What decision did he give when called on,
at Montebello, to adjust the difficulties he
had himself created ?
What followed in other districts of Swit-
zerland ?
What bold step was finally taken by the
Senate of Berne ?
1 O5. What did the Directory do, in an-
swer to the proposition of the Swiss ?
What took place when peace was found to
be impossible ?
Who had command of the Swiss troops ?
What error did D'Erlach commit?
What was the result of the insurrection at
this time ?
1 O6. What took place after the French
captured Berne ?
What was the substance of the new Con-
stitution ?
What Cantons rejected this Constitution ?
Who took the lead in resisting it ?
What was the result of Reding's insur-
rection?
1OT. WThat was the condition of the
Swiss after peace was restored ?
What couise was pursued by the French
authorities ?
What Cantons again resisted the French ?
What was their fate ?
What was the next object of attack ?
1O8. What had long been an avowed
object of French Revolutipnary ambition ?
Who was appointed ambassador to Rome ?
Why was General Duphot appointed to
accompany Joseph ?
What was done by the French on the 27th
of December ?
What was done by the papal ministers ?
What happened to Duphot ?
What was really the cause of this catas-
trophe ?
What was evinced by the promptitude o
the Directory in declaring war against
Rome ?
Who was pope at this time ?
How did Berthier manage to get possession
of Rome?
What did the Directory demand ot tne
pope ?
What was his reply?
1 O9. Relate what was done to the pope.
What was the result of the cruel treatKient
of the pope ?
QUESTIONS.
505
What was done in Rome by the French
troops ?
What was done in the Roman States ?
What was done in the Cis- Alpine Republic ?
What was the treatment of the King of
Sardinia?
lip. What kingdom next occupied the
attention of the French intriguers ?
What occurred in Naples after the battle
of the Nile ?
What expedition was undertaken by the
Neapolitan troops under General Mack ?
AVhat was the success of the expedition ?
111. What was done by the Neapolitan
court after the defeat of their troops ?
What course was pursued by the people
after they were thus deserted by their sov-
ereign ?
Who commanded the French troops led
against Naples ?
How were the attack and defence of Na-
ples conducted?
How was the battle terminated ?
Where did the Revolutionary principles
next develope themselves ?
112. What portion of the Irish were
Catholics ?
For what purposes were they now leagued
together ?
What was the name taken by the members
of this league ?
What inducements to join this Society
were held out to the lower classes ?
What was the motive submitted to the
country at large ?
What opposition society was formed ?
What question became difficult to decide,
as between the two societies?
What information had the British govern-
ment on this subject ?
What interfered with the projects of the
insurgents ?
What did they proceed to do, nevertheless ?
How were these disorders repressed ?
What was done by Lord Moira ?
113. What was the resolution of the
Irish Committees ?
How were the insurgents finally subdued ?
What decree occasioned a disturbance
between France and the United States of
America?
What took place by reason of this decree ?
What success had the American envoys at
Paris ?
What course was adopted by the Americans
in retaliation ?
What neutral towns were subjected to
French spoliation ?
114. What had France done during one
year of nominal peace ?
What course was adopted by the other
European powers on account of these en-
troachments ?
CHAPTER XV.
What had the Emperor of Austria done,
while apparently at peace with France ?
What was done by Russia ?
And by England ?
To whom did the Emperor of Russia give
an asylum ?
What course was adopted by Prussia ?
What might Prussia have done ?
115. How was she rewarded seven years
afterward?
What tax was proposed by Mr. Pitt?
What was the condition of the French
forces ?
What French general opened the campaign
on the Rhine ?
What was the result of his first move-
ments ?
Where did he attack the Austrians 20th of
March ?
116. What was the result of the battle
of Liptingen ?
What opportunity was now presented to
the Archduke Charles ?
What prevented him from improving it ?
What was accomplished by Scherer in the
earlier part of the campaign in Italy ?
Where was he finally defeated by the Aus-
trians ?
How did he conduct himself after his
defeat ?
What place surrendered to the Turks and
Russians in March ?
Who took command of the French forces
after Jourdan withdrew ?
117. Who attacked Massena's lines on
the 14th of May?
What was the loss on each side in this
battle ?
Where did the Archduke again attack
Massena on the 5th of June ?
How did the Archduke succeed in this
attack ?
What did Massena do after the battle ?
Who joined the Austrian forces on the
Mincio ?
What was Suwarrow's favorite weapon ?
What was his opinion of reconnoitering ?
Who succeeded to the command of Sche-
rer's army ?
118. How did he fare in contending with
Suwarrow ?
Into what town did Suwarrow make a tri-
umphal entry ?
Where did he pursue and attack Moreau
on the 27th of May ?
What spoils of war did he gain by the
capture of Turin ?
119. What had now occurred to the
French within three months ?
What took place at Naples while these
events were in progress ?
What was Macdonald ordered to do?
What did he propose to do in connexion
with Moreau ?
What was done by Suwarrow ?
Where did Macdonald attack the allied
forces ?
What was the result of the first day's
action ?
On what battle-ground did the hostile
troops encamp ?
1 2O. What was the result of the second
day's action ?
How many days, in all, did the battle con-
tinue?
506
QUESTIONS.
What was the final result ?
What occurred on the morning of June
20th?
What did Suwarrow do, in consequence of
this?
What citadel now surrendered to the allies ?
What was done by the King of Naples
nfter Macdonald retreated ?
What was done with the French garrisons ?
What was done with the Neapolitan insur-
gents?
Why were these executions unjustifiable ?
What course did Nelson pursue, in regard
to these executions ?
121. What person of distinction suffered
among the rest (
What three important fortresses now sur-
rendered to the allies ?
Who was appointed to supersede Moreau
in command of the French troops ?
What were his qualifications for the com-
mand ?
Where did he expose himself to the allies?
What befell him in the battle ?
Who took the command after his death ?
What was the result of the battle ?
122. What order was issued to the Arch-
duke Charles, in Switzerland, by the Aulic
Council ?
What was done by Massena after the
Archduke withdrew?
Where did Korsakow collect his forces ?
How did Massena plan his attack on
Zurich ?
How did he succeed?
What resolution was formed by Korsakow ?
123. What error did he commit in ar-
ranging his columns ?
With what losses did he effect his escape ?
Where was Suwarrow opposed by the Re-
publicans on the 21st of September?
What was said and done by him when his
troops were checked in their ascent ?
How did the Russians answer this appeal ?
What was Suwarrow's situation when he
reached Altdorf ?
What terrible defile did he undertake to
pass?
What had he to encounter in this passage ?
What was his situation when he reached
Mutten ?
What was he compelled to do, for the first
time?
1 24. By what route did he retreat, after
being checked by Molitor at Naefels ?
What sort of ground did he pass over on
this route ?
To what did this succession of disasters
lead?
What took place in consequence of their
jealousies ?
What treaty was formed between Russia
and Great Britain ?
What was accomplished by the British
troops ?
What was accomplished by the British
feet?
125. What did the combined forces of
Russia and Great Britain effect ?
What was their situation notwithstanding
their victory?
What expedition did they undertake, to
relieve themselves?
How did they succeed in this ?
What were they compelled to do on the
17th of October?
What were the conditions of their sin
render?
Who succeeded Suwarrow in the command
of the allied forces in Italy ?
What place did he besiege ?
126. What error did Championnet com-
mit in his attack on the allied position ?
What was the result of his attack ?
What was the result of the siege of Coni ?
What two other fortresses surrendered ?
CHAPTER XVI.
Through what changes had the French
Revolution now passed ?
What last stage remained ?
What was the result of the election of
1799?
Who succeeded Rewbell in the Directory ?
What was the feeling of the people ?
What new influence was brought against
the government ?
12T. What changes took place in the
Directory?
What was done to control the Jacobins ?
How was the new Directory liked ?
What measure did they take to protect
themselves ?
What remark was made by Si&yes, in the
troubles and difficulties that ensued ?
Toward whom were all eyes turned in thi»
emergency ?
How did Napoleon, in Egypt, learn the
position of affairs in France ?
What resolution did he adopt ?
With whom did he embark to return to
Europe ?
When did he arrive in France ?
What was the effect of his arrival ?
128. How was he received by the Di-
rectory ?
What projects had been on foot previous
to his return ?
What took place at his residence in the
Rue Chantereine ?
Where was a banquet given on the 5th ot
November ?
What was arranged between Sieyes and
Napoleon ?
129. What decree was passed by the
Council in the morning of November &th ?
What was done in the Council of Ancients I
What was done in the Council of Five
Hundred?
What was done with the Directory ?
What was resolved on by the Five Hun-
dred at St. Cloud ?
How was Napoleon received when he ap
peared in the hall of the Five Hundred ?
How was he removed?
130. How did he address the troops ?
How did the grenadiers conduct them-
selves ?
What office did Napoleon assume as th»
result of the proceedings at this time ?
QUESTIONS.
507
Whom did he appoint minister of Foreign
Affairs and of the Police ?
Who were associated with him as Consuls ?
What was one of Napoleon's tirst meas-
ures on arriving at the Consular throne ?
What did he~propose ?
What did Lord (irenville reply?
How was the debate on the question of
continuing the war decided in the British
Parliament ?
131. What domestic measures of im-
portance were adopted by Parliament ?
What had been the condition of the peo-
ple of Great Britain since 1797?
What measures were taken to alleviate
the evils of the famine of 1799?
What was the feeling of Russia toward
Great Britain ?
How did Napoleon take advantage of this ?
13 t. What did the Archduke Charles
recommend to the Aulic Council ?
What reply did the Council make ?
What measures were taken by Napoleon
to prepare for war ?
Whac measures did he introduce into the
domestic and civil departments of the gov-
ernment ?
Where did he take up his residence on the
19th of February ?
What was, on that day, in effect, restored
to France ?
CHAPTER XVII.
133. What were the strength and position
of the Austrian forces under Kray at the
opening of the campaign of 1800?
Who had command of the French forces ?
What was Moreau's plan for opening the
campaign ?
Which party had the advantage in the pre-
liminary movements and actions of the cam-
paign ?
134. What was the result of the battle
of Moeskirch ?
For what purpose did Kray move upon
Biberach ?
How did he succeed ?
What brought the French army to a stand ?
What effort was made by Moreau to drive
Kray from his stronghold ?
135. What exp3dient did he try after
Suzanne was defeated ?
What was Kray's conduct on this occasion ?
What was the result of Moreau's subse-
quent attack upon Kray's position at Ulm ?
What led to a suspension of hostilities in
this quarter ?
How did the Austrians, under Melas, com-
mence operations in Italy?
How did Melas succeed in his various
attacks ?
What was, now, the situation of the
French ?
136. Against what towns were the efforts
of the Austrians now directed ?
What measures were taken by Massena to
defend Genoa ?
What was the result of Soult's attack on
the 13th of May ?
45*
How did the siege of Genoa finally end?
Where did Napoleon escme iu cross the
Alps?
What conversation took place between
him and Marescot ?
131. Describe the ascent to St. Bernard.
What did the monks furnish to the sol-
diers ?
What arrested the march of the troops
after they began to descend on the other side
of the mountain ?
What was the situation (if this fort ?
What was done by Napoleon?
138. How did the Austrian commander
answer Napoleon's summons to surrender ?
By what artifice did Napoleon escape this
dilemma ?
How many French troops crossed the
Alps?
139. What was the result of the battle at
Montebello ?
What was now the position of Melas ?
What did he resolve to do ?
Where did Napoleon resolve to give battle
to Melas ?
Did Napoleon expect to be attacked ?
140. How did the battle of Marenge
progress up to eleven o'clock ?
What did Napoleon accomplish when he
arrived with the right wing of his army ?
What was said by Desaix and Napoleon at
four o'clock ?
What was the result of Desaix's charge?
Who saved the battle for the French ?
How did Kellerman accomplish this ?
141. What was the result of the battle?
What was the effect of the battle ?
How did Napoleon reward Kellerman for
gaining the battle of Marengo ?
What followed after the battle ?
CHAPTER XVIII.
What occurred two days before intelli-
gence was received of the battle of Marengo?
What course was taken by Thugut, the
Austrian minister ?
142. What was the condition of Aus-
tria notwithstanding the battle of Marengo ?
What did the Austrian cabinet resolve
to do?
What letter did the Count St. Julien take
to Paris ?
What was provided in reference to the
articles signed by the Count St. Julien ?
What notice was given on the 15th of
August ?
What proposal did Napoleon make to
Great Britain ?
What was the object of this novel propo-
sition ?
What did the British government reply to
this proposal for a naval armistice (
1 43. What did Napoleon insist in ?
What was done, when it was found that
Great Britain would not accede to Napoleon's
demands ?
What plot was discovered on the
day?
508
QUESTIONS.
What was the condition and strength of
the French armies ?
What was the strength of the Austrians ?
How was their efficiency impaired ?
144. What fortress in the Mediterranean
was captured by the British in September ?
What conquests did the British make in
the West Indies ?
Who was now the pope ?
What induced the pope to listen to Napo-
eon's proposals ?
How were the French regarded in other
parts of Italy ?
How were the Austrians posted ?
What was their true policy ?
What took place between the two contend-
ing parties on the 29th of November ?
Where did Moreau retire ?
What was the error of the Archduke John ?
What did he resolve upon afterward ?
145. How did the battle of Hohenlinden
progress arid terminate ?
What did Moreau discover from the man-
ner of the Archduke's retreat ?
146. With what success did his troops
pursue the Austrians ?
Who arrived and took command of the
Austrians ?
What was their condition ?
What did the Archduke therefore solicit ?
Where did Macdonald undertake to cross
the Alps?
Relate the particulars of this passage of
the Alps.
147. What other difficulties had Mac-
donald to encounter ?
What brought military operations to an
end in this quarter ?
How was Napoleon pleased with this ar-
mistice ?
Where did Napoleon now direct a corps to
advance?
What was done by the Queen of Naples ?
What were the conditions of the treaty
between Naples and France ?
148. What step was taken by Napoleon
under cover of this treaty ?
What treaty was made between France
and A ustria ?
What were the conditions of this treaty ?
Why were those conditions remarkable ?
CHAPTER XIX.
What subject was now much discussed hi
Europe ?
What took place in the straits of Gibraltar,
in December?
What took place on the 25th of July, ]SOO?
149. What did the British government
learn, which induced them to anticipate an
attack ?
What measures did they pursue, in conse-
quence ?
What was the result of these measures ?
What course was pursued by the Emperor
of Russia ?
What was done when Russia made com-
mon ;ause with the northern powers ?
What were the terms of the treaty be-
tween these powers ?
15O. What would have been the effect of
this code of maritime law if recognised and
practised ?
What, therefore, did Mr. Pitt resolve upon ?
What was done by the British government
and the House of Commons ?
What was the result of this measure ?
What circumstances led to Mr. Pitt's res-
ignation ?
15*. What was the real question on
which Mr. Pitt resigned ?
What was said by Bignon upon this ?
What were the forces of the maritime
league ?
What expedition was undertaken by Great
Britain to anticipate the movements of their
enemies ?
How did the British fleet pass the Sound ?
152. How was Copenhagen defended ?
153. What was the result of the battle
of Copenhagen ?
What was done by Prussia on the same
day?
What event now altered the aspect of
affairs ?
Who succeeded the Emperor Paul ?
What were the causes and the manner of
Paul's death?
What proclamation was made by Alexan-
der on coming to the throne ?
What was one of his first acts ?
154. To whom, and to what effect, did he
write a letter ?
What was the substance of the treaty
between Russia and Great Britain ?
How was Napoleon pleased with this
treaty ?
What course was adopted by Denmark and
Sweden ?
CHAPTER XX.
155. What was the Turkish army, de-
stroyed at Aboukir ?
Where did Kleber now turn his attention ?
What were the conditions of the conven-
tion entered into between the French and
the Turks ?
What course was taken by Great Britain,
in reference to this convention ?
What were the result and consequences of
the battle of Heliopolis?
What was done by the British government?
156. What was the result of the battle of
Alexandria ?
What great loss did the British sustain ?
Where was Belliard defeated ?
On what conditions did he surrender?
On what conditions did Menou surrender?
What were the military results of this
conquest ?
157. What did Napoleon do in reference
to Egypt, and how did he succeed?
What took place between the British,
Spanish, and French fleets after Sir James
Saumarez sailed from Gibraltar, July 12th?
What terrible catastrophe happened to the
Spaniards ?
QUESTIONS.
509
15S. What treaty was now made between
Spain and France ?
What was Portugal compelled to do, in
consequence ?
To what did Napoleon now direct his at-
tention ?
What took place, notwithstanding these
hostile preparations ?
What \\as the feeling in Europe, when
peace was declared ?
What did Napoleon next undertake?
159. What armament did he despatch to
the West Indies ?
What measures were taken by Toussaint ?
What was the result of the campaign ?
How did the French observe the conditions
of the treaty?
What was, now, the condition of the
French troops ?
160. What Europeon measure produced
relief to the negroes and discomfiture to the
Trench ?
What was the comparative condition of
St. Domingo in 17S9 and 1832?
What was the eleventh article of the
treaty of Luneville ?
What did the allies understand by thjs ?
How did Napoleon choose to interpret it?
What did Napoleon undertake in Holland ?
What was the conduct of the Dutch Legis-
lature ?
What does the conduct of the Dutch prove ?
161. What was done by the great mass
of the inhabitants in Holland ?
What revolutions took place in Italy ?
What public works did Napoleon construct
in that quarter ?
What was the condition of England during
this time?
What was the first cause of irritation that
sprung up between France and Great Britain ?
162. What demands did Napoleon make
of Great Britain ?
What did the British government reply?
What complaint did the French journals
make?
How did the English reply ?
What soon became manifest from these
things ?
Itttf. Who was ordered to take command
of the British fleet in the Mediterranean ?
What took place at the Tuileries between
Napoleon and Lord Whitworth?
What resulted from all this ?
What barbarous act did Napoleon now
commit ?
CHAPTER XXI.
164. What was the condition of France
when Napoleon seized the reins of power?
What would it be well for those to show,
who reproach Napoleon for establishing a
despotic government ?
165. What was one of Napoleon's first
measures ?
What event did he make use of as a pre-
text for persecuting the Jacobins?
Who were, actually, the authors of this
pint?
What did Napoleon, nevertheless, insist
upon ?
Who suffered by reason of this decree of
the Senate ?
What measure did Napoleon adopt to re-
store the ranks of society ?
What did the final adoption of the Legion
of Honor prove, in regard to Napoleon's dis-
cernment ?
166. What other important measure did
Napoleon introduce ?
Was this done by Napoleon because he
had any respect for religion ?
Who expressed disapprobation at this pro-
ceeding ?
How did the people of France receive this
new measure ?
What was published on the 29th of April ?
How many persons returned to France in
consequence of this ?
What was introduced in May ?
What tuition was avoided in the decree ?
What did the Legislature do, on the 8th of
May?
What did the Council of State do after-
ward ?
By what vote was Napoleon made Consul
for life*
167. What inference is to be drawn from
this vote ?
What changes in the Constitution now
ensued?
What had the government now become ?
How was the inconsistency of the Parisian
multitude evinced?
What communication did Napoleon make
to Louis XVIII.?
What answer did Louis return ?
What great civil undertaking did Napoleon
commence in this year ?
168. What is, now, the clearest proof of
the wisdom of the Code Napoleon ?
What did Napoleon say of this Code ?
What law was too firmly established for
Napoleon to disturb it ?
How did he modify it ?
What was the great and crying sin of the
Revolution ?
What consequences have followed that con-
fiscation ?
169. How is this explained and illustrated
in this History ?
Who, of Napoleon's officers, was opposed
to him ?
What course was pursued by Moreau ?
What Republican general took direction of
the Royalist party "!
To whom did Pichegru communicate his
conspiracy ?
170. Were Moreau's principles similar to
Pichegru's?
What was done by the police ?
What did Napoleon ascertain during the
examination of the prisoners ?
Who did Napoleon affect to believe this
was ?
What subsequently appeared ?
What did Napoleon do, nevertheless ?
Where was the Duke d'Enghien arrested?
What sort of trial was he subjected to ?
510
QUESTIONS.
171. What sentence was pronounced by
the court?
How was this atrocious sentence carried
out ?
What was the feeling in Paris, when this
murder was known ?
Who was found murdered in prison soon
after this ?
Who was suspected of being implicated in
this murder ?
1 7 2. Who else was found murdered in
prison ?
What occurred on Moreau's trial?
Where did Moreau go, after his trial?
What was done by Napoleon in the midst
of these bloody events ?
By what vote was his assumption of the
imperial throne approved?
What was said by Madame de Stael of the
folly of the French court at this period ?
CHAPTER XXII.
173. What neighboring states did Napo-
leon occupy with his troops on the teconi-
mencement of the war?
What was done in Italy ?
What great project did Napoleon under-
take ?
174. What harbor was chosen as a place
of rendezvous ?
How many vessels were assembled at Bou-
logne ?
What was Napoleon's secret design ?
What measures were taken in England ?
What occurred in Ireland at this time ?
175. What events in England led to the
reappointment of Mr. Pitt ?
What took place in the currency of Aus-
tria during these times ?
1 7 C>. What was the population of Aus-
tria in 1801 ?
What was the population of Prussia in
1804?
What was the number and character of
the Prussian troops ?
How did the Emperor Alexander com-
mence his reign ?
177. What was the population of Russia
in 1804?
What was the number of the Russian sol-
diers ?
What effect was produced on the minds of
the sovereigns and the people of Europe
when intelligence reached them of the mur-
der of the Duke d'Enghien, Pichegru, and
Wright ?
What extraordinary arrangement did Na-
poleon make in reference to his coronation ?
178. By whom was the crown placed on
Napoleon's head ?
By what was the close of this year
marked ?
What first occasioned a remonstrance on
the part of Great Britain ?
What was discovered not long after?
What orders were issued by the British
Cabinet ?
How were these orders executed ?
How much money was ta*>.en in the thie*
ships ?
What course was taken by Spain ?
CHAPTER XXIII.
179. For what purpose did Napoleon
journey through Italy ?
What were the five objects set forth in the
treaty between Great Britain and Russia?
What other of the principal powers ol
Europe joined the league against France ?
What power refused so to join ?
ISO. What new system of organization
did Napoleon introduce into his armies ?
How was the flotilla organized ?
What naval force did he rely on to sustain
the contemplated invasion of England ?
181. Of what did the British government
now become aware ?
What orders did they issue, in conse-
quence ?
What was done by Nelson ?
What had Villeneuve done in the mean-
time ?
What final orders did Villeneuve receive
from Napoleon ?
What information did Nelson receive at
Antigua?
What did he then do ?
What was the result of Nelson's foresight
and discretion ?
What orders did the Admiralty issue ?
Where did Sir Robert Calder come in sight
of the French fleet ?
182. What was the result of the action
that ensued?
Why was this action, so trivial in itself, so
important in its consequences ?
What was Napoleon's feeling when he
heard of the interruption of his plans ?
What new project did he form on the
instant ?
What is said of the accuracy of his plans
and of the corresponding accuracy with
which they were executed ?
183. Where did Nelson now repair?
How did Villeneuve manifest his fear ot
Nelson?
What stratagem did Nelson practise tc
draw Villeneuve out from Cadiz ?
Where did Nelson discover the allied fleet,
on the 21st of October?
What order did Nelson issue to his fleet ?
What was said by Nelson and Collingwood,
respectively, as the ships were going into
action ?
How was Nelson wounded soon after this 1
184. What direction did he give to Hardy
just before he died?
What was the result of the battle of Traf-
algar ?
What was the consequence of Hardy's
neglecting to obey Nelson's dying com-
mands ?
What occurred in England after the battle
of Trafalgar?
185. What was the result of Napoleon's
negotiations with Prussia ?
QUESTIONS.
What request was made of Prussia by the
Russian minister ?
What did the refusal of Prussia enable
Napoleon to do ?
Waat course had Bernadotte orders to pur
sue when he reached Anspaoh ?
What was the effect of this violation o
Prussian neutrality ?
What was the feeling of the King ant
Cabinet of Prussia, when they heard of this
violation ?
Wriat did they learn from it ?
What course did they adopt in consequence
of it?
What was now Mack's situation at Ulm?
188. How did General Auffeaiberg distiu
guish himself?
What project was undertaken by the Arch-
duke Ferdinand ?
How did he carry it into execution ?
187. What was Mack now compelled to
do?
What faults were committed by the Aulic
Council ?
What took place at Verona ?
188. What was done by the Archduke
Charles, when he heard of the exposure of
Vienna ?
What were Napoleon's movements after
his success at Ulm ?
Who now approached to cover Vienna ?
What was done by Prussia at this crisis ?
How did the Prussian government and
minister perform their promises, as embod-
ied in their treaty with Russia ? '
189. What would have been the effect on
the campaign of Prussia's acting boldly and
honestly at this time ?
Wrhat was accomplished by Ney and Au-
gereau in the Tyrol ?
Where did Napoleon establish his head-
quarters on the 6th of November ?
For what purpose did he detach Mortier
with twenty thousand men ? '
What reply did Napoleon make to the
Count Giulay ?
190. What took place between Kutusoff
and the French forces ?
What was done by the Emperor Francis
as the French approached his capital ?
What stratagem was practised by Murat
to overtake Kutusoff?
What was the result of it ?
191. Where did Napoleon march when
he found that the junction of the allies was
inevitable ?
What was done by both Napoleon and
Alexander to gain time ?
What did Napoleon recommend to Haug-
witz ?
What position was taken by the French
troops at Austerlitz ?
What plan of attack was formed by the
allies?
What remark was made by Napoleon,
when he saw the allies commence this stupid
manoeuvre ?
192. What was the result of the battle of
Austerlitz ?
What agreement immediately followed the
battle?
511
proposal was made by Alexander to
the government of Prussia?
What had the Russian diplomatist po«y ia
view?
What compact was made between Napo
Icon and llaugwitz ?
193. What were the conditions of the
treaty of Presburg ?
What were the secret articles of that
treaty ?
By what unprecedented measure was the
treaty of Presburg followed ?
What effect had the dissolution of the
European confederacy on Mr. Pitt ?
What has Chateaubriand said of Mr. Pitt?
What is the true cause of Pitt's fame ?
194. How is Pitt now regarded in Ensr-
land ?
CHAPTER XXIV.
What was the position of the several king,
doms of Europe after the peace ot Presburg?
195. What statesman did the King of
England consult with after the death of Mr,
Pitt ?
What office did Mr. Fox take ?
What policy, in relation to the war, was
pursued by the new cabinet ?
Of what was this fact significant ?
What was the financial condition of France
on the return of Napoleon to Paris ?
What military monument was now con-
structed in Paris ?
What was done in regard to Naples ?
How did Joseph Bonaparte enjoy this ac-
quisition of power ?
198. What is said in regard to the battle
of Maida ?
Who was made King of Holland ?
What now took place between the naval
forces of Great Britain and France ?
197. What difficulties arose between
Great Britain and the United States of
America?
How were these difficulties adjusted ?
What was the nature of the embarrass-
ment experienced by the Cabinet of Berlin
when news was received of the treaty be-
tween Napoleon and Haugwitz ?
198. What course did the King of Prus-
ia adopt ?
What was the result of the negotiations
jetween Prussia and France ?
What was done by the British government
when they learned the perfidious conduct of
Prussia ?
What were the motives of Prussia in con-
senting to this infamous treaty with France ?
How far was the latter object accomplished?
What hostile measures did Napoleon take
oward Prussia?
What did he also do against Austria?
199. What was done, in turn, by the
Emperor Francis ?
What proposals did Napoleon make to
England *
What did this provoke the King of Prussia
to do?
512
QUESTIONS.
What success did Prussia meet with in her
attemuts to conciliate the European powers ?
What repiy aid Austria make ?
From what quarter did Prussia receive
unexpected encouragement ?
Why ivas the whole weight of the contest
now to fall on Prussia alone ?
2OO. What had Prussia neglected in un-
dertaking this war ?
What were the views and the errors of the
Duke of Brunswick ?
Of what were all the Prussians unaware ?
With what manoeuvre did the Prussians
propose to open the campaign ?
Wrhat was the fault of this plan ? and what
other manoeuvre did it resemble ?
What were Napoleon's movements ?
2O I. WThat movements next took place
on both sides ?
When did the battle of Jena take place ?
How did it result ?
How did the French and Prussians come
into collision at Auerstadt?
202. What was the result of the battle
of Auersta/lt?
What took place while the Prussians were
Retreating at night ?
What was the loss of the Prussians in
these two battles ?
What other losses did the Prussians sus-
tain as a consequence of these defeats ?
What occurred to Hohenlohe on the 28th
of October?
203. Under what circumstances was the
fortress of Custrin surrendered to the French ?
What corps of the Prussians had yet
escaped destruction ?
What was Blueher finally compelled to do ?
204. What did the King of Prussia seek
to obtain?
What reply was made by Napoleon ?
What was done by Napoleon in Berlin to
wound the feelings of his vanquished antag-
onists ?
How did he treat the brave old Duke of
Brunswick ?
What followed in the rear of the French
armies ?
205. What was the general result of the
campaign of Jena ?
CHAPTER XXV.
What were the numbers, respectively, of
the French and allied troops ?
Who were the principal officers of the
allied forces ?
What application, and for what reason,
was made by Russia to Great Britain ?
What answer was returned by Great Brit-
ain ?
Was this creditable to Great Britain ?
2OS. What took place on Napoleon's
arrival at Warsaw ?
What was the result of several actions
that took place between the French and allied
forces, as related on pages 206 and 207?
2O7. What were the opinions throughout
Europe when this result was known ?
What expedition was undertaken by Ben
ningsen ?
208. What was the result of this attack ?
What was found among Bernadotte's pri-
vate baggage ?
Where, after a series of partial actions
and retreats, did Benningsen resolve to make
a stand?
209. What was the strength of the two
armies ?
What was the result of Augereau's attack
on the Russian right ? ^
Whas success had Soult in his attack on
the Russian centre ?
What forces did Napoleon interpose to
check the advance of the Russian centre ?
What was the fate of this column ?
What success had Davoust on the Russian
left?
In what condition was Napoleon's whole
army, when night separated the combatants ?
210. What were the losses in the battle
of Prussich-Eylau ?
How long, and under what circumstances,
did Napoleon remain at Eylau?
What step did Napoleon at length take?
Why did the King of Prussia refuse to
treat for peace ?
What was Napoleon compelled to do,
when his attempts at negotiation failed ?
What effect was produced in Europe by
the battle at Eylau ?
What demands on France were made by
Napoleon ?
211. What was done by Sebastjana, in
Turkey, to create a misunderstanding be-
tween that country and Russia ?
What was threatened by Mr. Arbuthnot?
What insult was offered to a Russian brig?
W7hat new threats did this call forth ?
What was done by the Sultan ?
When did the Divan declare war against
Russia?
Against whom did they declare war in
January ?
212. What was done by Sir John Duck-
worth ?
Into what danger did the British fleet now
tall?
How did they escape ?
What was the result of the naval action on
the 1st of July?
What change of ministers took place in
England ?
What effect was produced on continental
affairs by this change ?
CHAPTER XXVI.
213. How long, after the battle of Eylau,
did the two armies remain quiet ?
What was the situation and what the con-
dition of Dantzic ?
What was the result of the siege of Dant
zic?
214. What were the numbers, respect-
ively, of the French and allied troops at the
reopening of the campaign ?
Where did Benningsen propose an attack
after the fall of Dantzic ?
QUESTIONS.
513
What was the result of the attack ?
Why was it not more successful?
What was the result of Napoleon's attack
Upon Benningsen on the 10th of June?
How did Benningsen learn that another
attack was contemplated by the French?
'2 1 5 . What was the result of this attack ?
To what place did Benningsen retreat by
a forced march ?
What is the situation of Friedland ?
Where did Benningsen resolve to make
a preliminary attack on the French?
How was this attack to be made ? and
what was necessary to be considered in
making it ?
2 1 1>. What circumstances brought on a
general action ?
What remark was made by Napoleon,
when he came up ?
What result was inevitable, considering
the relative position of the two armies ?
How did the Russians defend themselves?
What were the movements of the Russians
after the battle ?
What considerations induced Alexander to
wish for peace ?
211. How was Napoleon disposed for
peace ?
What had France to ask from Russia ?
And what had Russia to demand from
France ?
What took place on the 25th of June ?
What were the conditions of the treaty
between France and Russia ?
What were the conditions of the treaty
between France and Prussia?
218. What effect did the conditions of
this treaty have on Prussia ?
What was the substance of the secret con-
vention ?
CHAPTER XXVII.
What were the two parts of the plan now
devised by Napoleon to subdue the kingdom
of Great Britain ?
2 1 9. What measures did he, at the same
time, take in reference to constructing a
French navy ?
. What was the substance of the Berlin
Decree ?
How was this Decree received by Holland ?
And in the north of Germany ?
What reply was made by the British gov-
ernment ?
2 2O. What new order was issued by the
British government on the 1 1th of November ?
What decree did Napoleon issue in reply ?
To what did the extravagance of these
measures lead ?
221. What was done in regard to li-
censes ?
How was Napoleon received in Paris after
the war ?
What did Napoleon now eradicate ?
222. What was done in regard to books
and newspapers ?
What degree of ignorance among the peo-
ple resulted from the censorship of the press ?
Wha* occurred to Madame de Stael f
223. What effect had Napoleon's gov-
ernment on the internal prosperity of France ?
What was cultivated for making sugar ?
How were the public works, undertaken by
Napoleon, paid for ?
What became of individual freedom?
What sort of Penal Code was enacted ?
What were the circumstances that aggra-
vated the effects of this law ?
What were the nature and operation of the
conscription ?
224. What were the penalties of evading
the conscription ?
What political changes took place in the
Duchy ot Warsaw?
What took place in Westphalia ?
Where, beside, was this plan of govern
ment adopted ?
225. What took place in Prussia?
Who had chief direction of the Prussian
government ?
What system was applied to the Prussian
military department ?
What clause in the treaty did Scharnhorst
evade ?
How did he evade it?
What secret society was formed in Prussia?
226. What measures were taken by
Austria ?
What took place in Sweden ?
How did the British government discover
the intentions of France toward Denmark?
What was Great Britain now menaced
with ?
What steps did she take ?
What proposal was made by the British
envoy ?
What did Denmark reply ?
227. What was done, by the British ?
How did the action result ?
What prizes did the British take to Eng-
land?
What were the progress and result of the
negotiations for peace at this time ?
What government broke off its friendly
relations with Napoleon ?
What took place in Italy?
What territories and towns were ceded to
France ?
228. In what did the chief importance of
these proceedings consist ?
CHAPTER XXVIII.
On what, and for what purpose, did Napo-
leon fix his attention, on his return to Paris ?
What had excited the indignation of the
Spaniards ?
What treaty was made between Spain and
Russia?
How did Napoleon discover this treaty ?
229. What did Napoleon see as the con-
sequences of this and its concomitant pro-
ceedings in Spain and Portugal ?
What senti.nent had he in common with
Louis XIV.?
What gave Napoleon an opportunity to
carry out his views ?
What did he require of Portugal ?
What was done at Bayonne ?
514
QUESTIONS.
What was Junot next ordered to do ?
What was the condition of Lisbon ?
Wherein consisted the impolicy of resist-
ance on the part of the Portuguese ?
230. What was done by the royal family
of Portugal ?
What was done by the British squadron as
the exiled family passed them ?
How were the French soldiers received in
Lisbon ?
What policy was at first pursued by Junot ?
What did he soon afterward do ?
Who was King of Spain at this time ?
231. By whom was he controlled ?
Who was the heir apparent to the Spanish
throne ?
By whom was he chiefly influenced ?
What course was pursued by Napoleon ?
What was done on the 22d of November ?
What fortresses \vere taken by the French?
How were these fortresses taken?
What had now been done before hostilities
were proclaimed between Spain and France ?
What demand was next made by Napo-
leon ?
232. Why was the condition he proposed,
illusory ?
What did the King of Spain resolve to do ?
What letter was sent to the King by Na-
poleon ?
What was done by the people of Madrid
when the King attempted to flee the country?
Who was appealed to, to insure the public
safety ?
What was done by the King on the 19th
of March?
Under what title did the Prince of Asturias
ascend the throne ?
233. What was Murat doing in the mean-
time ?
How did he march through Spain ?
When did he arrive at Madrid ?
What was done toward Murat by Ferdi-
nand and Charles IV., respectively?
What did Murat do with Madrid ?
What proposals did he make to Don Car-
los and Ferdinand?
234. To ytfiom did Napoleon offer the
crown of Spain?
What was said by Isquierdo, when Napo-
leon proposed to take that crown himself?
What did this answer induce Napoleon to
undertake ?
What instructions did he give to Savary ?
What was done by Savary?
And by Ferdinand?
What occurred at Burgos ?
What warning did the King receive at
Vittoria ?
What did he do, nevertheless ?
235. What was was done by Murat after
Ferdinand's departure ?
What directions were given to Murat by
Napoleon ?
What encounter took place in the streets
of Madrid?
What was done by Murat to restore order?
How was this outrage revenged by the
Spaniards ?
23 6. How far was either party, thus far,
in fault ?
What further outrage was perpetrated by
Murat ?
What were the consequences of this mas
sacre throughout Spain ?
237. What occurred, in the meamhne,
between Napoleon and Ferdinand ?
What answer was made by Ferdinand to
Napoleon's demands?
What course did Napoleon next adopt ?
W7hat course did Ferdinand still persist in?
What was finally done by the old King ?
What secret deputation reached Ferdi-
nand ?
What answer did he send back ?
238. What course did Napoleon take
when he heard of the disturbances in Madrid ?
What was done by Ferdinand ?
Where were Ferdinand and his brothers
removed?
What was now done with the throne of
Spain and of Naples ?
What was provided by the new Constitu-
tion in Spain f
239. When did the new King arrive at
Madrid ?
How was he received ?
CHAPTER XXIX.
What sort of a country is the Spanish Pen-
insula, physically considered?
240. What were the number and charac-
ter of Napoleon's troops, with which he was
prepared to overrun Spain ?
What events in the principal towns of
Spain followed the massacres in Madrid?
What did the Spaniards achieve in the
harbor of Cadiz ?
241. Where, and with what success, did
the French open the campaign ?
Where did~Palafox prepare for defence ? .
What sort of fortifications and defences
had Saragossa ?
What did Colmenar say of Saragossa ?
242. Who took part in the defence of Sar-
agossa ?
How was the town defended after the
French entered the streets?
How long did this continue?
What had the French accomplished by that
time?
What other Spanish town made a brave
defence ?
What effect had these events on the minds
of the Spaniards ?
What military preparations did they make?
243. What was the error of Cuesta's dis-
positions for the battle ?
What was the result of the action ?
What remark was made by Napoleon
when he heard of the battle?
Of what town did Duppnt take possession ?
What outrages did he suffer his troops to
commit ?
What is it important to observe in regard
to this ?
What induced Dupont to retreat from Cor-
dova ?
244. What was the result of his retreat ?
QUESTIONS.
515
What was said and done by Napoleon
when lie heard of this surrender ?
What occurred to the French prisoners on
their in.irch toward Cadiz ?
What was done when they reached Cadiz ?
Waat \va.f done by Joseph Bonaparte on
the 30th of July ?
What was done by the French troops on
their march ?
2 i5. What took place in Catalonia ?
And at Gerona?
Who was sent to Portugal in command of
the British troops ?
What did Sir Arthur discorer in regard to
the Portuguese soldiers?
Where, and with what success, did Sir
Arthur first encounter the French troops ?
Where did Wellington await the attack of
Junot ?
2 lii. What was accomplished by Col.
Walker ?
What was the result of the battle ?
What prevented Sir Arthur from destroy-
ing the French retreating columns ?
What was said by Sir Arthur on this
occasion ?
Who succeeded Sir Harry Burrard in com-
mand of the British troops ?
What was proposed through Kellerman ?
In what did the armistice terminate ?
What was provided by the Convention of
Cintra ?
What was stipulated in a separate clause ?
What was further provided ?
How and for what reason was this latter
provision modified ?
What was done in Great Britain in refer-
ence to the Convention of Cintra?
Who of the three British commanders was
retained ?
Who, while their trials were in progress in
England, took command of the British troops
in Portugal ?
247. What new treaty did Napoleon
make with Prussia ?
Where did he solicit and obtain an inter-
view with Alexander ?
What occurred at this interview to destroy
the confidence of Alexander in Napoleon ?
248. What forces did Napoleon assemble
against Spain ?
What number of troops could Spain muster?
Who were in command of the several
Spanish corps?
What was undertaken by Blake, and how
did he succeed in his several attempts?
Where was Blake finally driven by Soult ?
249. What was the result of Soult's
attack at Burgos ?
What was the result of Ney's attack at
Tudela ?
Where did Napoleon direct his march ?
What means of defence had the inhabit-
ants of Madrid ?
When did the French take possession of
Madrid ?
What was the appearance of Madrid soon
after ?
What did Napoleon abolish ?
250. What plan did Sir John Moore pro-
pose?
4,6
What was done by Napoleon when he
heard of Moore's advance ?
What did Napoleon write to Soult ?
What movement did Moore make in con-
sequence of Napoleon's advance ?
251. By whom was Napoleon overtaken
on the '1st of January?
What did he do { and what did he leara
from the despatches ?
Where did he go after gaining this infor-
mation ?
What was the condition of the British
army on its retreat ?
To what place did Moore still further re-
treat on the llth of January ?
What was now the only alternative for the
British General ?
252. What were the numbers of troops
in the two armies ?
What was the result of the battle of Co-
runna ?
What great loss did the British sustain?
How was Sir John Moore buried ?
Who erected a monument to his memory ?
CHAPTER XXX.
253. How had Austria improved the in-
terval of peace ?
What would have been the result, had
Austria pressed her operations more vigor-
ously ?
How were the armies of both nations situ-
ated on the 17th of March?
What could easily have been done to the
French ?
What order was given by the Aulic
Council?
What was the effect of this order ?
254. What were Napoleon's instructions
to Berthier?
How did Berthier manage, despite these
nstructions ?
By what further movements did both the
Archduke Charles and Berthier evince great
stupidity ?
Vhat was the result of their joint move-
ments ?
Who now arrived to take command of the
French troops ?
255. Where did the Archduke Charles
move with the main body of his army ?
What was the result of the action at
Thaun?
When Napoleon resolved to assume a vig-
orous offensive, what was the relative posi-
ion of the two armies ?
What was the result of Napoleon's attack ?
What town did the Archduke Charles cap-
ure on the same day ?
What town did Napoleon capture on the
2 1st of April?
256. What was the essential difference
n the arrangements of the two command-
ers, when they prepared for battle?
What was the effect of this division of the
Austrians ?
What was the result of the attack on the
Austrian left, centre, and right ?
516
QUESTIONS.
How did the Archduke endeavor to pro-
tect his army's retreat ?
What occurred between the Austrian and
French cuirassiers ?
Which finally prevailed ?
What did the Austrian cuirassiers accom-
plish, though defeated ?
257. What was the general result of the
battle of Echmul ?
How did the Archduke effect his retreat ?
What occurred to Napoleon in his attack
on Ratisbon ?
What was the result of the attack ?
What had taken place in twelve days ?
What now became manifest in regard to
the French troops ?
258. Where did Killer defeat Wrede's
Bavarians ?
What occurred to Eugene Beauharnais?
Where was Napoleon resolved to march ?
What obstacles did the French encounter
at Ebersberg?
Describe the assault of the long bridge.
What was the result of the attack ?
259. Did Napoleon encounter any other
obstacles of importance on his march to
Vienna ?
On what day did he take possession of
Vienna?
What was the Archduke Charles doing in
the meantime ?
260. What advantage did Eugene Beau-
harnais gain over the Archduke John ?
What was the size of the two armies now
assembled near Vienna ?
What are the size and situation of the
Island of Lobau ?
Where did Napoleon cross the Danube ?
What was the plan of the Archduke
Charles ?
Where did the bridge over the Danube ter-
minate?
What are the names of the two villages on
each side of this point ?
How did the battle progress, during the
day, at As pern?
261. What took place on the plain ?
How did the attack on Esslin terminate ?
How was the night passed ?
How did the battle progress during the
next day ?
What measure did Napoleon adopt to
bring the contest to a close ?
How did the Archduke meet this move-
ment ?
What was the result of the French at-
tack ?
262. What movement was made by Ho-
henzollern ?
What intelligence now spread through the
ranks?
What order did Napoleon give ?
What enabled the Archduke now to turn
his advantage to the best account ?
How did he improve his advantage ?
What was the result of the battle of As-
•pern ?
What was the situation of the French that
night?
What plan did Napoleon resolve on ?
How did he accomplish this ?
CHAPTER XXXI.
263. What preparations did Napoleon
make to cross the Danube ?
What was done by the Archduke to op-
pose him ?
What number of soldiers had the Arch-
duke Charles, and how were they stationed ?
264. How many men had Napoleon ?
What expedient was resorted to by Napo-
leon to deceive the Archduke ?
How and . where did the French actually
cross the river?
What was seen and done by the Archduke ?
How is the plateau of Wagram situated?
How did the French advance ?
What was the result of Oudinot's attack
on the Austrian lines ?
265. What was the result of Eugene's
attack ?
What was accomplished by Macdonald,
Dupas, aud Lamarque?
What, in turn, was accomplished by the
Archduke ?
What occurred between the Saxons and
the French ?
What might the Archduke now have done ?
What was proposed and done by the Arch-
duke on the morning of the 6th of July ?
What was Napoleon's plan at the same
time?
How was Napoleon surprised on the morn
ing of the 6th ?
266. What checked the Austrian advance?
What took place between St. Cyr and the
Archduke ?
How did Napoleon re-form the broken
columns ?
What was done by Kollowrath and Klenau
at As pern?
What took place on the Austrian left?
267. What movement did Napoleon now
undertake ?
What did Napoleon say to Reille ?
What occurred to the French cavalry ?
How did the French infantry succeed?
How did the Archduke conduct his re-
treat ?
What was said by Napoleon after the re-
treat ?
What would have happened had the Arch-
duke John arrived earlier on the field ?
What were the losses in the battle of Wa-
gram?
What line of retreat did the Archduke
take?
268. Where was his retreat arrested?
What occurred at this juncture ?
What were the conditions of the treaty of
Vienna ?
What effect had this treaty on the cabinet
of St. Petersburg?
269. What declaration did Napoleon mako
to pacify Alexander ?
What barbarous order did Napoleon give
before going to Paris ?
How was this destruction effected?
Why was this so great an outrage ?
What took place in the Tyrol about this
time?
Who took command of the Swiss ?
QUESTIONS.
517
How did Lefebvre succeed in his expedi-
tion against the Swiss ?
270. What was the result of Hofer's
attack on Innspruck ?
What was done by Hofer when he found
the French assembled against him in over-
whelming numbers ?
What was Hofer's fate ?
What is said of Napoleon's conduct tow-
ard Hofer ?
What expedition was this year undertaken
by the British ?
271. What armament was sent on this
expedition ?
What was accomplished by the British in
three days ?
How did they afterward follow up their
success ?
272. WKat took place at Antwerp while
the British were wasting time in approaching
it?
What did the pope expect from Napoleon,
in return for his concessions ?
What return did Napoleon make, so far as
military operations were concerned ?
What was next done to the pope person-
ally ?
What was done by Napoleon on the 17th
of May ?
How did the pope reply to this ?
273. What did Napoleon resolve to do?
How was the pope arrested ?
What was done with the pope after his
arrest ?
CHAPTER XXXII.
274. Where was Admiral Villaumer block-
aded by Lord Gambier ?
To what sort of attack were the French
ships exposed ?
How did Villaumer prepare for defence ?
How did the British commence the attack?
What was done by Lord Gambier ?
What did this enable the French to do ?
275. What was done by Lord Cochrane?
What did Napoleon say of these proceed-
ings?
What colonial conquests were made by
Great Britain ?
What was done by Collingwood ?
What was the situation of Spain in the
beginning of 1809?
276. What were the number and position
of the French troops ?
Who was appointed Field-marshal in the
Portuguese service ?
What measures did he take ?
What measures were taken by the Central
Junta of Spain ?
How did the French open the campaign ?
How was the contest now waged at Sara-
gossa ?
277. How long did the fight continue?
What was said by the French soldiers ?
What was suffered by the inhabitants of
What name has Saragossa left behind her ?
On what terms was Saragossa surren-
dered?
WThat was the condition of the town when
the French took possession ?
278. What had, in reality, subdued Sanu
gossa ?
What, rapacious acts were committed by
the French Marshals ?
What consequences followed the fall of
Saragossa ?
What was undertaken by Blake ?
What success had he at first ?
279. What ridiculous plan of fighting had
all the Spanish commanders at this time ?
What was the result of Blake's attack on
Saragossa ?
What occurred at Belchite to frighten the
Spaniards ?
How fast did the Spaniards run after this?
What was next undertaken by the French ?
Who was the governor of Gerona ?
Where did the French commence their
attack ?
How did the contest proceed?
How did St. Cyr change his plan?
280. What was the result of the assault
on the town ?
What did St. Cyr undertake when he found
he could not carry Gerona by assault ?
What was the fate of Gerona at last ?
What was the result of the action at Ulces,
January 13th?
Where were the Spaniards next defeated ?
Who was sent into Portugal ?
Toward what place did Soult direct his
march ?
281. When did he arrive opposite to
Oporto ?
Who now took command of the British
troops in Portugal ?
Where did Wellington march ?
What was the result of Wellington's attack?
How completely did Wellington surprise
Soult ?
In what condition was Soult on the next
morning?
282. What .course did Soult adopt to
escape ?
Where did Wellington next advance ?
Where did Joseph arrive on the 26th of
July?
What was the result of the battle of Tal-
avera ?
What was said of the battle by Jomini ?
What intelligence did Wellington receive
on the 2d of August ?
283. What course was Wellington forced
to adopt, by reason of the cowardice aiid
inefficiency of the Spanish troops ?
What did Wellington offer to Cuesta ?
How did Cuesta perform the duty devolved
on him ?
What took place for nearly a month after
Wellington's march to the Tagus?
What did Wellington experience, from the
moment he entered Spain ?
What were the Spaniards willing to re-
ceive ?
What did they do for themselves ?
What course did Wellington finally adopt?
284. What was the only kind of warfare
that the Spaniards were capable of main-
taining ?
518
QUESTIONS.
Who had command of the Spaniards at
Ocana ?
How did h« arrange his troops ?
Where did he hide himself after this ar-
rangomc..t ?
What was the result of the battle ?
What became of Areizaga?
What resolution was taken by Wellington ?
What was the British mode "of warfare?
285. What was the French mode of war-
fare ?
WThat resulted from this difference ?
CHAPTER XXXIII.
What was now wanting to Napoleon ?
What, in this view of the case, became
accessary to Napoleon ?
286. What resolution did Napoleon adopt?
How did he communicate this resolution to
Josephine ?
How did she receive it ?
What did she afterward suffer in conse-
quence ?
287. What was done for Josephine?
To what courts were proposals made for
Napoleon's marriage ?
By whom were the proposals accepted ?
What was the name of the new Empress ?
What effect had this marriage on Alex-
ander ?
What took place between Napoleon and
his brother Louis ?
What took place between Napoleon and
Lucien?
What was Joseph desirous to do ?
288. Where did Soult commence opera-
tions in Spain ?
How did he succeed?
What town did Victor attempt to capture ?
Who interfered with and defeated his pro-
ject?
What success had the French in Catalonia ?
What forces were directed against Portu-
gal, and by whom were they commanded ?
What force had Wellington to meet the
French ?
289. What towns were taken by Massena?
Why did not Wellington defend these
towns ?
Where did Wellington take post to give
battle to Massena?
What was the result of the French attack ?
What were the losses in the action ?
' 29O. Where did Wellington fall back ?
Describe the lines of Torres Vedras ?
What course was pursued by Massena
when he had reconnoitered Wellington's po-
sition ?
What was done by Wellington when Mas-
sena retreated ?
Where did Massena at length retreat ?
What Spanish town did Soult besiege ?
291. How was he enabled to capture Ba-
dajoz ?
What was undertaken by Sir Thomas
Graham ?
What prevented Sir Thomas from defeat-
ing Victor ?
What was the final success of Massena's
retreat ?
What were his losses, nevertheless ?
Where did the French attack Wellington
on the 4th of May?
292. By what manoeuvre did Wellington
protect his right wing ?
What was the result of the charge of bay-
onets between the Imperial Guard and the
Highlanders?
How did the battle terminate ?
What occurred to George III., King of
England ?
What three propositions were made in the
House of Commons by Mr. Percival ?
How was the third proposition eventually
decided ?
293. What prevented the exchange of
prisoners from taking place between France
and Great Britain ?
What remaining memorable event took
place in this year ?
CHAPTER XXXIV.
What was the result, in the first instance,
of the preservation of Cadiz ?
What, nevertheless, has resulted from the
proceedings of the Cortez ?
What was the character of its legislation ?
294. What provisions and enactments
were made by the party in power?
How was this constitution received by the
people ?
What was Wellington's view of it ?
How have his predictions corresponded to
the subsequent events ?
295. What took place at Seville ?
What instructions did Napoleon give to his
ambassador at Madrid ?
What was done by Joseph, when he be-
came convinced of the incorrigible perfidy of
Napoleon ?
What was he afterward persuaded to do ?
And what did he find, in the end l.
296. What place was captured by Suchpt
on the 2d of January ?
What was achieved by Martinez ?
What was done by Macdonald at Man.
resa?
How did the inhabitants of Manresa, in
part, revenge this ?
What place was next besieged by Suchet?
How was Taragona situated and defended ?
297. How did the siege progress and ter-
minate ?
What outrage was perpetrated by Suchet
after Taragona surrendered ?
What must this and similar events call
down from mankind ?
What place did Suchet besiege after the
surrender of Taragona ?
What was the result of the first two at-
tacks on Saguntum ?
What was the result of Blake's attempt to
relieve Saguntum?
What was the result of the siege ?
298. What other town did Suchet capture?
What was the consequence of this capture7
QUESTIONS.
519
To what place did Wellington turn his
attention ?
Why "was Badajoz a place of importance ?
What was done hy Soult ?
•Where did he find Beresford posted ?
What was the result of Soult's attack on
the right wing ?
What measures did Beresford take to re-
store the day ?
299. What preparations did he finally
make ?
Who changed the fate of the day?
What orders did he issue ?
What was the result of the British charge ?
What French officer saved Soult's army on
its retreat ?
300. What compelled Wellington to
raise the siege of Badajoz?
What siege did he next undertake ?
.What prevented his pursuing the siege of
Ciudad Rodrigo ?
CHAPTER XXXV.
301. What enabled Wellington to renew
his attempt upon Ciudad Rodrigo ?
How did he conceal his design ?
What progress was made in three days ?
Who had charge of the assault ?
What orders were given to the men ?
What were the preparations of the garrison?
What were Wellington's orders for the
day?
0 O2. At what hour did the assault com-
mence ?
How did it result ?
What outrages were committed in the
town?
What is the essential difference between
the outrages of the British and French on
these occasions ?
What expedition did Wellington under-
take, afte/ the capture of Ciudad Rodrigo ?
What was the result of the first assault ?
What was achieved by Picton in the mean-
time ?
303. What was done by Walker ?
What was the result of the siege ?
What did Wellington gain by the capture
of these two places ?
What did Wellington next undertake ?
What took place at Salamanca on Welling-
ton's arrival ?
What had the French done in Salamanca ?
3O*. How far did Wellington pursue the
French ?
What induced him, in turn, to retreat?
What was there novel and exciting in his
retreat ?
Where did Wellington take up a position ?
What step was taken by Marmont that
induced Wellington to check his retreat ?
What preliminary movements were made
by the two armies before the battle began ?
3O5. What was the result of the battle
of the Arapeiies ?
What was the loss, respectively, of the
British, Portuguese, and Spaniards'
What was the French loss ?
35
Against what army did Wellington now
march ?
When did he reach Madrid ?
How was he received by the people of
Madrid ?
3O6. What military spoils did Welling-
ton gain by the capture of the Retire?
What various disasters now overtook the
French in Spain ?
To what place did Wellington lay siege on
the 19th of September?
What was lacking in his preparations for
this siege ?
3OT. How did the siege terminate?
With what amount of troops did Welling-
ton take up a position on the heights of the
Arapeiies ?
What amount of French troops were ar-
rayed against Wellington ?
Why did not the French, with such supe-
rior numbers, attack the British position ?
What did Wellington do, when the French
declined to give battle ?
CHAPTER XXXVI.
What ukase was issued by Russia in 1810?
3 OS. Who was placed in command of the
Russian troops ?
What did he accomplish between the 15th
of May and the 17th of June?
To what fortress did he next lay siege ?
What is the position of Schumla ?
What were its defences ?
What success had Kaminski in the siege ?
What other place did he besiege ?
What was the result of the first assault ?
And of the second ?
309. What force approached Kaminski,
while he lay in front of Rondschouck ?
What was the result of Kaminski's first
attack on this Turkish army ?
What was the result of his attack the next
day?
What successes followed this victory of
the Russians ?
What befell Kaminski after this ?
Who succeeded him in the command ?
How did the campaign of 1811 commence?
What was the result of the battle at
Rondschouck on the 2d of July ?
What was the result of the Turkish attack
on Kutusoff, 8th of September ?
How did Kutusoff revenge this defeat ?
What was the Russian loss in this affair ?
Where did Kutusoff next attack the
Turks ?
What was the result of that attack ?
310. What was the substance of the
treaty concluded between Russia and Turkey?
What expedition was undertaken by the
Russians in 1808?
What places did the Russians capture at
this time ?
What conquest followed these successes ?
What was done by Gustavus, King ot
Sweden ?
What was done to Gustavus by his people ?
Who was made King in his place ?
520
QUESTIONS.
What measures were taken by Charles
XIII.?
311. What occurred to the Crown Prince,
in 1810?
What was the object of the intrigues that
followed ?
On whom did the choice of Crown Prince
fall ?
What decrees were passed by the Senate
of Napoleon in 1810?
What was the effect of the second decree ?
What was done by Alexander, when he
heard of the spoliation of the Grand-Duke of
Oldenburg ?
312. What occurred in Paris, on the 20th
of March ?
What arrangements were made about the
guns from the Invalides ?
What effect had the secession of Russia
from the continental system ?
What was done by Denmark ?
And by Prussia ?
What did Napoleon say in regard to Swe-
den ?
What was Sweden forced to do ?
Why did not her declaration of war free
her from Napoleon's tyrannical exactions ?
What further outrages were committed
upon Sweden by Napoleon ?
What treaty was made in consequence of
all these outrages ?
CHAPTER XXXVII.
313. With what forces did Napoleon un-
dertake the Russian campaign ?
How were these troops divided at the
commencement?
Whai forces had the Russians actually in
the field ?
What point did Napoleon reach on the
23d of June ?
What incident occurred on the banks of
'.he river ?
What did some one exclaim ?
What part of Napoleon's troops had al-
ready begun to suffer ?
314. What rendered it necessary for the
Russians to adopt a defensive policy?
What occurred to the French before a shot
had been fired, and when they had been but
six days in the Russian dominions ?
How long did Napoleon remain in Wilna ?
What is said of this delay in Napoleon's
movements ?
What was the result of the first skirmish-
ing that took place between the French and
Russians ?
315. Where was Barclay's army drawn
up on the 27th of July ?
What remark did Napoleon make when he
resolved to attack Barclay on the next day?
What resolution was adopted by Barclay ?
How did he execute this resolution ?
What was done at Moscow by the Russian
nobles and merchants ?
Where did Wittgenstein take up a position ?
What was the result of Oudinot's attack
on Wittgenstein ?
What was accomplished by Tormasoff
about the same time f
31tt. What great brilliant retreat and de-
fence were made by the Russian general,
Newerofskoi ?
Where did Barclay find the French army
drawn up under Napoleon ?
What is the situation of Smolensko ?
What was the result of Ney's assault on
the citadel ?
What did Napoleon suppose and what did
he do?
What was, in fact, Barclay's plan ?
What movement did he accomplish ?
What was the result of Napoleon's assault
on the 17th?
317. What followed at night, when the
cannonade had ceased ?
What did Davoust discover the next morn-
ing? .
What had the Russian commander accom-
plished ?
What were Napoleon's trophies ?
WThat was the result of the action on the
19th?
What was done by Napoleon when visiting
the battle-field ?
What did the young conscripts discover,
on their march to join the army ?
318. What were the feelings of the vet-
erans and the officers, in front?
What diseases broke out in the army ?
What had Wilna and Witepsk become ?
What did the Russian general begin to
doubt ?
319. When did Napoleon set out from
Smolensko ?
By whom was Barclay succeeded in com-
mand of the Russian troops ?
What were Barclay's qualities as a general ?
Where, and for what purpose, did Kutusoff
make a halt on the 2d of September?
What was the number of troops in each
army?
320. What was the result of Davoust's
and Ney's attack on the Russian left ?
How long a time did Davoust and Ney con-
tend, without success, against the right of
the Russian centre ?
What request did they send to the Em-
peror ?
What force did Napoleon send, in reply?
What movement was made by Bagrathion ?
How did the contest here terminate ?
What was the result of the attack on the
centre, where Barclay commanded ?
What was the result of the whole battle ?
What were the losses in the battle of
Borodino ?
321. How did Kutusoff conduct his re
treat from Borodino ?
When did Kutusoff reach Moscow?
What course did he adopt in regard to the
defence of Moscow ?
What was done by the inhabitants of Mos-
cow, when the troops were ordered to aban-
don the town to its fate ?
What was said by Napoleon whea he came
in sight of Moscow ?
322. What terrible catastrophe took place
after the French occupied Moscow ?
QUESTIONS.
521
What portion of Moscow was destroyed
by the fire ?
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
For what purpose did Napoleon remain
inactive at Moscow ?
What change in the weather took place
while he thus waited ?
What was the condition of his troops in
the meantime ?
What was the condition of the Russian
troops ?
323. What was accomplished by the
Cossacks during the interval that Napoleon
awaited a reply from Alexander ?
What orders did Napoleon issue in antici-
pation of his retreat ?
For what secret purpose were Napoleon's
proposals received by the Russians ?
What induced Napoleon to make prepara-
tions for retreat ?
324. What event still further hastened
Napoleon's movements ?
With how many troops did he leave Mos-
cow?
By what mano2uvre did he conceal his line
of march?
What was the result of the action at Malo-
Jaroslawitz ?
What position was taken by Kutusoff du-
ring the action ?
What occurred at Napoleon's head-quarters
on the night of the 24th of October ?
325. What disaster did he escape the
next morning ?
How was the march of the several French
corps arranged ?
What took place on the march, before the
French were seriously harassed by the Rus-
sians ?
What occurred to Davoust's corps on the
3d of November ?
What had Davoust lost previous to this
action ?
What change in the weather took place on
the 6th of November ?
326. How did the soldiers bear this
change ?
How did they fare at night ?
What place did they soon reach?
What occurred when they arrived at Smo-
lensko ?
What compelled Napoleon to continue his
retreat beyond Smolensko ?
What new organization of his troops did
he make when he departed from Smolensko ?
What opposition did Napoleon encounter
on his retreat?
327. What occurred to Eugene on the
next day ?
What was undertaken by Kutusoff on the
17th?
What movement did Napoleon make, in
consequence ?
What was the result of the battle ?
Where was Ney's retreat interrupted ?
What answer did Ney make to KutusofPs
summons ?
How did Ney escape a total defeat ?
How did he find a place to cross the
Dnieper ?
What was the general result of the ac-
tions near Krasnoi ?
328. What was now Napoleon's personal
condition ?
Where did the French gain some respite
from their sufferings ?
What occurred to place Napoleon in a
very critical situation ?
What movement did he undertake ?
How did he conceal his intentions ?
How many bridges did the French con-
struct?
329. What preparations were made by
Tchichagoff and Wittgenstein ?
What was accomplished by the Russians
on the right bank ?
What was done by Wittgenstein on the
left?
What occurred to the artillery-bridge ?
What ensued when the bridge broke down ?
What touching incidents took place at this
dreadful crisis ?
What was done by Victor and his rear-
guard?
330. What was Victor forced to do in
the morning, when the Russian advanced
guard approached ?
What did the passage of the Beresina
complete ?
What was now the condition of all the
troops ?
When did Napoleon reach Smorgoni ?
What step did he there take ?
Who was left in command of the army ?
Describe the condition and sufferings of
the troops after Napoleon's departure.
331. Where did the army next make a
halt?
How long did they remain at Wilna ?
Who and what did the Russians find in
Wilna?
What was done by Ney at Kowno ?
What took place at the house of a French
physician in Gumbinnen?
When did the Russians give over the pur-
suit?
What were the losses of the French in the
Russian campaign ?
CHAPTER XXXIX.
332. When did Napoleon arrive at Paris ?
What was the effect of the news of his
disasters on the Parisians ?
What was Napoleon's deportment ?
What did he say of the expedition ?
What chiefly occupied his thoughts at this
time?
333. Who was at the head of this con-
spiracy ?
Who were his accomplices ?
How did he support his story ?
How did he manage after he escaped from
prison ?
Where did he meet the chief difficulty ?
How did he then proceed? and howwma
he finally interrupted?
522
QUESTIONS.
334. What has Savary said of this con-
spiracy ?
What did Napoleon learn from the exist-
ence of this conspiracy ?
What measures did he take to prevent
mich a result ?
What measures did he take to raise an
army?
What did he next set about ?
What had heen the pope's situation for a
long time ?
335. What was arranged between Napo-
leon and the pope ?
What was done by the pope's counsellors?
What was France able to do, despite her
losses ?
CHAPTER XL.
Who abandoned the cause of Napoleon
after the disasters of the Russian campaign ?
What movements were made by the Rus-
sians in January and February ?
336. What was done by Murat ?
What were Eugene's movements after he
took command ?
What loss did the Russians meet with ?
Who succeeded Kutusoff ?
What effect had the Russian successes on
the people of Prussia ?
What course was pursued by the King of
Prussia ?
What decree was issued from Breslau ?
What clauses were introduced into this
decree ?
Why were these clauses unnecessary ?
337. What had the Prussians now, in ad-
dition to patriotic ardor and devotion ?
How did Napoleon treat the King of Prus-
sia's overtures ?
What did the King then do ?
What treaty was then made by Prussia ?
What resulted from this treaty, and from
the advance of the Prussians and Russians,
on the right bank of the Elbe ?
What was the position of Saxony ?
What course did the King of Saxony
adopt ?
What was done by Denmark? and by
Sweden ?
What were the views of the Emperor of
Austria ?
338. What order was instituted in Prussia?
What sacrifices did the institution of this
order imply ?
What inscription was placed on the iron
ornaments ?
What secret society became now the soul
of the general insurrection ?
339. How were its influences directed ?
What were the numbers and what the po-
sitions of the French troops on the left bank
of the Elbe ?
What were the position and strength of
the Prussians ?
i4O. What was the effective force of the
Russians ?
What was the first movement in the cam-
paign ?
How were the allies received hi Hamburg ?
At what were the Hamburgers astonished?
What other towns were taken by the allies?
What towns freed themselves from their
oppressors ?
What contributions were made by England?
What progress was now made by the allies
up to the 5th of April ?
341. What was done by Napoleon before
setting out to join his army ?
Where did the allies resolve to give battle?
What occurred to Napoleon on the morn-
ing of May 2d ?
342. What order of march was taken by
the allies before they were seen by the
French troops ?
Where did the allies attack? and with
what success ?
What did Ney strive to accomplish ? and
how did he succeed ? .
What was accomplished by Wittgenstein
What was done by Napoleon ?
How did the action terminate ?
What were the losses in the battle of
Lutzen?
343. How and where did the allies re«
treat ?
What took place between Napoleon and
the magistrates of Dresden ?
What was done by the King of Saxony on
the 12th of May?
Where did the allies retire ?
To what were they liable in this position ?
344. What was the result of Napoleon's
attack on the 20th ?
How had the Prussian soldiers behaved ?
Where was the attack of the French made
on the morning of the 21st ?
How did this attack progress ?
What occurred a few minutes past ten
o'clock ?
What note did Napoleon send to Paris ?
What was the result of Ney's attack ?
345. What was the result of Napoleon's
attack on the centre ?
What brilliar.t scene was presented on the
retreat of the allies?
What success had the French cuirassiers
in attempting to disorder the allied columns ?
Where did the allies retire ?
What were the losses in the battle of
Bautzen ?
What success had Napoleon the next day ?
How long did the allies continue to re-
treat ?
What was at length wished for by both
parties ?
Why did they wish for this?
What took place accordingly?
CHAPTER XLI.
346. What was the position of Great
Britain at this crisis ?
What compact was made by Sir Charles
Stewart, on behalf of the British govern-
ment ?
What did the governments of Russia and
Prussia agree, in turn, to do ?
347. What were the conditions of the
treaty of Reichenbach ?
QUESTIONS.
523
What were the conditions of another ant
relative treaty between Russia and Grea
Britain ?
What arrangement was made on accoun
of the want of specie ?
What further arrangements became neces
sary in the month of September, by reasoi
of the scarcity of specie ?
348. What was thus accomplished bj
the national credit of Great Britain ?
What treaty did Napoleon conclude with
Denmark ?
What advantages did he gain by this
treaty ?
What nation now held the balance o
power ?
What was Metternich anxious to do ?
What were the preliminary proceedings in
the negotiations that ensued between th<
various powers ?
349. What is the substance of Napoleon's
remarks to Metternich ?
What conversation followed this long
harangue of Napoleon ?
350. What, again, did Napoleon reply
With what words did he conclude his re-
marks ?
What actions followed these words ?
351. What advantage did Metternich at
length obtain over Napoleon ?
What intelligence induced the Austrian
government to join the allies against Napo-
leon?
What total amount of forces did Napoleon
muster to continue the war?
What numbers had the allies in the field ?
352. Where had General Moreau resided
since 1804?
Who opened a correspondence with him ?
What course was taken by Moreau ?
How was he received in Europe ?
Who was appointed commander-in-chief
of the allies?
CHAPTER XLII.
353. What was the first movement in
the campaign ?
How did the allies succeed in this move-
ment ?
What was the result when Napoleon ar-
rived ?
What was the preconcerted plan of the
allies ?
How many men had the allies assembled
around Dresden on the 25th of August?
What was Moreau's advice ?
Why was it not followed ?
What movement was made by Napoleon ?
What was at length done in the afternoon
of_the 26th of August *
354. Of what were the allies unaware
when they moved on to assault Dresden ?
What was the result of that assault ?
What were the position and numbers of
Napoleon's troops on the morning of the 27th?
What were those of the allies ?
What defect existed in the allied position ?
What was the result of the French attack
on the allied left ?
How did the allied right and centre main-
tain themselves ?
355. What catastrophe induced the allies
to retreat ?
What was the order of retreat adopted by
the allies?
What were the losses in the battle of
Dresden ?
What losses did the allies sustain after the
battle ?
What was undertaken by Vandamme ?
What was the final result of his expedition?
356. What took place between Macdon-.
aid and Blucher in upper Silesia ?
What was the result of Blucher's attack
at the ravine of Neisse ?
What took place to impede Macdonald;s
retreat ?
What was the result of the battle of the
Katzbach ?
What were the losses on each side ?
What took place between Bernadotte and
Oudinot north of the Elbe ?
35T. Where did both armies prepare for
a general action ?
What was the result of the action of Gros
Beeren ?
What moral effect was produced by that
battle ?
What was the general result of the contest
in this quarter ?
What movement did Napoleon make when
he heard of these several defeats?
How were his troops divided and by whom
commanded after he had completed the
change in his combinations ?
Where did Napoleon's advanced guard
encounter the van of Blucher's army ?
What movement was made by Blucher ?
What was the subject of Napoleon's mu-
sing in the farm-house ?
Where did he move, at the close of his
revery ?
358. Where did the allies under Berna-
dotte encounter the French under Ney ?
How did the battle of Dennewitz progress
while it was sustained by the Prussians
alone ?
What resulted when the Swedes and Rus-
sians came into the field ?
What were the losses in the battle ?
What is the proof that the Prussians earned
the glory of this victory ?
What were the circumstances of Schwartz-
enberg's advance upon Dresden and retreat
"rom it on the 9th of September ?
359. Where did Napoleon next move to
an attack ?
Where did he sleep on the night of the 22d?
What feeling now pervaded the French
rmy?
What was done on the 23d ?
What exploit was accomplished by Cher-
icheff?
3 GO. What reflections followed this
achievement?
What were the consequences of it ?
For what purpose did Napoleon leave Ores-
[en on the 7th of October/
To what place did Napoleon subsequently
etreat ?
524
QUESTIONS.
Descnbe the city of Leipsic.
361. How were Napoleon's troops dis
posed around Leipsic on the loth of October
How were Schwartzenberg's troops posted
What signals were made at midnight from
the allied camps ?
362. How did the action commence on
the 16th?
What was accomplished up to the hour o
noon?
What manoeuvre did Napoleon then under
take?
How did this manoeuvre succeed ?
What effort did Napoleon next make ?
How did this succeed ?
What was the result of the conflict be-
tween Ney and Blucher ?
Who had an interview that evening with
Napoleon ?
363. What proposals did Napoleon send
through Meerfeldt to the allies ?
What were Napoleon's parting words to
this officer?
What was the fate of these proposals ?
How did the battle begin on the 18th?
How did the allies succeed ?
What did Schwartzenberg do in the after-
noon ?
What was undertaken by Lauriston and
Victor ?
How did they succeed ?
What incident took place on the north of
Leipsic, where Blucher and Ney were con-
tending ?
364. What was the result of the action
here?
What scene took place, at night, at Napo-
leon's head-quarters ?
What was done by the French on the 19th ?
What road was open for the French re-
treat ?
What was the result of the allies' attack
on Leipsic?
What took place at this moment ?
365. What ensued after the bridge was
destroyed ?
\Vhat befell Poniatowski ?
What was the total loss of the French in
the battle of Leipsic ?
What was the loss of the allies ?
How was this loss atoned for ?
Where did Napoleon halt on his retreat ?
Who abandoned him at this place ?
What new enemy did Napoleon encounter
on his retreat ?
366. Where did the Bavarians make a
stand ?
What was the result of the battle of
Hanau ?
When did Napoleon bid a final adieu to the
German plains ?
When did Schwartzenberg enter Frankfort?
In what positions did the several armies go
into winter quarters ?
367. What were Bernadotte's movements?
What was undertaken by Klenau after the
battle of Leipsic ?
How did the blockade of Dresden termi-
nate ?
What were the terms of the capitulation
as made by Klenau ?
What was done by the allied sovereigns in
reference to this capitulation ?
What other places and military spoils fell
into the hands of the allies?
368. What remained to Napoleon ?
What took place in Holland ?
What took place in Italy?
CHAPTER XL1II.
369. What was done by Wellington in
the winter that followed the campaign of
Salamanca ?
What did Wellington undertake, in regard
to the improvement of the Spanish troops ?
How did he succeed in this undertaking?
370. What was done by Wellington in
Cadiz ?
How was his advice relished by the Cortez ?
What did the Cortez proceed to do {
What number of efficient troops was Wel-
lington able to muster ?
371. What were the numbers, condition,
and position of the French troops ?
Where was the campaign commenced ?
How did this action progress and terminate?
What were Wellington's feelings and what
was his remark, as he crossed the frontiers
of Spain ?
What occurred at Burgos as the French
withdrew ?
Who Jed the French retreat ?
372. How was his flight encumbered ?
For what purpose did he make a stand at
Vittoria ?
What is the position of Vittoria?
By what amount of forces was Vittoria
defended ?
What was the number of Wellington's
troops ?
What success had Hill in leading the Brit
ish right wing to the attack ?
How did Wellington succeed in the centre ?
373. How did Graham succeed on the left ?
What was the result of the battle of Vit-
loria ?
What spoils of victory fell into the hands
of the conquerors ?
What now remained to be done by Wel-
lington ?
Who took command of the French troops?
How many men had Soult at his disposal ?
What ground was occupied by each of the
contending armies {
What difference was there between the
sositions ?
374. What movements were made by
Soult and his generals ?
What three objects had he in vtew?
How did Soult and D'Erlon succeed in
:heir attacks ?
Where did Soult press forward to ?
Whom did he find near Pampeluna?
How did he commence the battle?
How did the action terminate ?
What was the result of the action on the
next day?
What were the losses on each side ?
What, now, was Soult's condition ?
QUESTIONS.
How did he eventually escape ?
375. What did Wellington undertake
after this ?
How did the siege of St. Sebastian end ?
What took place after the town was cap-
tured?
How did Soult succeed in his efforts to
raise the siege ?
What did the British government now de-
sire ?
Why did Wellington oppose this ?
376. What occurred between Wellington
and the Cortez ?
Why did the British government insist on
the invasion ?
What course did Wellington adopt when
his views were overruled ?
Describe Soult's position on the northern
side of the Bidassoa?
How did Wellington plan his attack ?
What was the effect of Wellington's leav-
ing his tents standing on the heights ?
377. How complete was the surprise of
Soult ?
How was the crossing of the river accom-
plished ?
What was Wellington's first care on enter-
ing the dominions of France ?
What proclamation did he issue ?
What proof did Wellington give of being
in earnest ?
When did Pampeluna surrender ?
What defences had Soult completed, mean-
while ?
How many troops had Soult to protect
these works ?
Where did Wellington resolve to attack ?
378. How did he succeed in his attempt
on the Lesser Rhune ?
How did the allies progress after this fort
was captured ?
How did the battle terminate ?
Where did Soult arrive on the llth?
Describe Soult's position at Bayonne.
What difficulties had Soult to contend with?
What was said in a French official letter
from Bayonne ?
When' did Wellington attack Soult's po-
sition ?
379. How long did the battle continue?
What was its result ?
CHAPTER XLIV.
What had been accomplished by the allies
within a little more than three months ?
What change was now to take place in the
affairs of Europe ?
38O. What was done by Napoleon on his
return to Paris ?
What example was set by Napoleon ?
What measure of arbitrary exaction did he
enforce ?
What was the condition of the public
finances?
What effect did these reiterated oppres-
sions of Napoleon begin at last to have on
the people of France ?
What was affixed to the column in the
Place VendOme ?
What was suffered by the soldiers and in-
habitants on the western bank of the Rhine ?
381. What took place at Mayence ?
What took place in other towns ?
What was the character of Marie Louise's
government ?
What conscriptions were ordered in Sep-
tember and October?
What was the age of youths forced into
the army?
What still further demand was made by
Napoleon the day after he returned to Paris ?
What orders did Napoleon issue to his
engineers ?
What did they see when they became ac-
quainted with the true condition of things ?
382. What domestic difficulties arose in
France ?
What took place in England at the same
time ?
What declaration was made in the speech
from the British throne ?
383. What measure was adopted by the
allied sovereigns ?
On what basis were they willing to treat
for peace ?
What course was pursued by Maret ?
What manifesto was published by the
allies ?
384. What answer might have been ex-
pected from Napoleon ?
What course did he adopt, nevertheless?
What was Napoleon's motive in pretend-
ing to desire peace at all ?
What was the disposition of the French
Chamber of Deputies ?
What is the substance of the report sub-
mitted in the Chamber by Laine ?
385. What effect was produced by the
reading of this report?
What did the president of the Chamber
say to Laine ?
What was Laine's bold reply ?
By what vote was Laine's report adopted ?
What was done by Napoleon ?
386. What were the terms of the treaty
of Valencay ?
What other concession was made by Na-
poleon ?
How did Napoleon succeed in attempting
to make conditions with the pope ?
What was done by Murat f
387. What was done by Eugene Beau-
harnais ?
What was the disposition of the Danes
toward Napoleon ?
What were they, nevertheless, forced to do?
What treaties were concluded at Frankfort
in November ?
What power acceded to the alliance on
the 29th of December ?
3H8. How were the forces of the allied
powers, prepared to invade France, divided
and posted ?
What was the grand total of aU these
armies ?
What forces had Napoleon? and ho-w were
they distributed ?
Why had he so few men at his command I
526
QUESTIONS.
CHAPTER XLV.
389. When did Schwartzenberg cross the
Rhine ?
How many men had he then at his disposal?
How did they spread themselves upon the
French territory ?
When did Blucher cross the Rhine ?
What monument did his soldiers discover
in Coblentz ?
What was its inscription ?
What other inscription did Colonel Mar-
deuke cause to be recorded on the monument ?
What was accomplished by the allies
within a month from their invasion of the
French territory ?
390. What was done by Napoleon before
taking command of the army?
What address did he make to the National
Guard ?
What did he do, on the day following ?
What false movement was made by Blu-
eher, after Napoleon took the field ?
How did Napoleon take advantage of this ?
391. What is the situation of Brienne ?
How did Napoleon succeed in his attack
on Brienne ?
What movements were now made by the
allies ?
What did it become necessary for Napo-
leon to do ?
What, at first, was the result of the allies'
attack on Napoleon's position, on the 1st of
February ?
How did Napoleon succeed in his final
charge ?
What was he fearful of at night ?
392. Where did he retreat ?
How did the allies conduct the pursuit ?
What losses did Napoleon suffer on the
retreat ?
What, on the other hand, was done by the
allies, as if to compensate Napoleon for his
losses ?
What was done by Napoleon when he dis-
covered the stupidity of his enemies ?
What plan was devised by Bluchrr ?
Why had Blucher no fear of Napoleon in
these movements ?
393. Why had Napoleon no fear of
Schwartzenberg ?
What did he therefore undertake ?
What obstacles did he encounter on his
march ?
What took place at Champaubert ?
Why was so small a battle of so great
importance to Napoleon ?
What did Napoleon accomplish against
Sacken ?
Where did Blucher attack Marmont?
What checked Blucher's success ?
What difficulties had Blucher to encounter
in his retreat ?
How did he accomplish his retreat, never-
theless ?
394. How many years had now elapsed
since the execution of Louis XV I . ?
Where was a quiescent conspiracy formed
among the adherents of royalty ?
Wh^re did the exiled members of the
royal family reside in the meantime ?
What present was made to the Count
d'Artois by the Empress Catherine ?
What use did the Count make of this sword'?
What were the fortunes of the Count de
Lille ?
395. What was called for by the ap-
proach of the allies on the Rhine and of
Wellington in the south of France ?
What proclamation was made bv Louis
XVIII.?
What was done, subsequently, by the dif-
ferent members cf the royal family ?
What took place when the allies entered
Troyes?
What was requested of the Emperor Alex-
ander ?
What reply did Alexander make ?
What further conversation ensued?
How soon did Alexander's words prove
prophetic ?
396. What success did Schwartzenberg
gain after leaving Troyes ?
What was learned from the French pris
oners?
What movements were made in conse-
quence?
What success had the allies after these
movements ?
What was now done by Napoleon ?
What was the fate of Wittgenstein's ad-
vanced guard ?
Where did Victor attack the allies ?
How did he succeed in this attack ?
397. Who next attacked the allies at
Montereau ?
What was the result of this action ?
What town did Schwarizenberg evacuate
as Napoleon approached ?
What place had been appointed for con-
ducting the negotiations for peace ?
When did the congress commence its
session ?
Who composed this congress on the part
of the allies f
Who represented Napoleon ?
What soon became evident ?
What were the purposes of Great Britain
throughout the war?
398. What were Lord Castelreagh's in-
structions from his government ?
What points were purposely omitted in
these instructions?
What modified Napoleon's views in refer-
ence to the congress ?
What instructions did he then give Cau-
lain court ?
What correspondence took place between
Caulaincourt aud Napoleon ?
What occurred between Maret and Napo-
leon in reference to this correspondence ?
What diplomatic note was issued by the
allied powers on the 7th of February ?
399- What, now, seemed likely to be
accomplished?
What delayed this result?
What had taken place when the congress
resumed its sittings?
What new directions did Napoleon give to
Caulaincourt ?
What took place between Nupoleon and
Eugene ?
QUESTIONS.
527
What, therefore, was the consequence of
his temporary success at this crisis ?
What change took place in the congress ?
What treaty resulted from the change ?
4OO. What were the terms of the treaty
of Chaumont ?
What advice did Caulaingourt give to Na
poleon ?
Where was Oudinot attacked by the allies ?
What was the result of the action ?
With whom did Oudinot then form a
junction ?
4O I. Who conducted the attack on Mac-
donald's position ?
What was the result of the attack ?
How was Blucher occupied in the mean-
time ?
What was it necessary for Blucher to do,
in order to form a junction with Bulow and
Winzingerode ?
What remarkable circumstance enabled
him to cross the bridge ?
How narrow was this escape of Blucher ?
What did Napoleon still resolve to do ?
How were Blucher's troops divided ?
4:02. How did the action proceed on the
first day ?
> Where did Napoleon order an assault the
next day ?
What was the result of this attack ?
How was Blucher's retreat conducted ?
What was the nature of the ground at the
extremity of the plateau ?
What movements were made by the in-
fantry and by the cavalry ? .
What progress was made by the French
Imperial Guard when they approached this
position ?
What movements were subsequently made
by the allied troops ?
What did Napoleon gain in this battle ?
What were the losses on each side ?
4O3. What was done by Blucher on the
following day ?
Describe the town of Laon ?
What was the position of the allied troops ?
What was the position of the French troops?
For what did Napoleon wait before com-
mencing a general battle ?
What did Blucher perceive ?
What did he resolve to do, in consequence
of this ?
What was the result of Blucher's night-
attack?
4.O4-. How did Napoleon hear of this
disaster ?
What course did he resolve upon to escape
his present dilemma ?
How was his plan executed? and how did
it succeed ?
What was accomplished by General St.
Priest ?
What eventually befell himself and his
corps of Russians ?
CHAPTER XL VI.
4O5. Where did the tricolor-flag wave
after the expulsion of the French from Hol-
land?
47
Where was the French force concentrated ?
WTho was sent to the defence of Antwerp ?
What forces were sent against Antwerp ?
With what view did Bulow invest Antwerp?
Who was now made governor of Antwerp?
What was the result of the bombardment?
4:06. What subsequently took place in
Flanders ?
What position was taken by Eugene in
December ?
What compelled him to retreat ?
What bold measure did he resolve on after
retreating behind the Mincio ?
How did Eugene succeed in his attack ?
What conquests were made in other parts
of Italy by the allies?
407 . Where was Augereau now engaged ?
What was the result of the allies' attack
on Lyons ?
What was undertaken by Wellington in
February ?
How did he succeed ?
Where did Soult take up a position, after
abandoning Bayonne to its fate ?
What force did Wellington bring to attack
Soult at Orthes?
408. How was the action at Orthes com-
menced?
What was the height and position of the
conical hill where Wellington took his
station ?
How did the attack on St. Boes progress
and terminate ?
What was the result of the battle of
Orthes ?
What were the losses on each side ?
Where did Wellington now advance ?
What had taken place in Bordeaux ?
What did the citizens request of Welling-
ton through La Rochejaquelein?
What did Wellington do, in answer?
Who took command of these twelve thou-
sand men ?
How was he received at Bordeaux ?
4:09. Where had Soult withdrawn in the
meantime ?
What was the result of Wellington's attack
there ?
What was now the position of the allies
under Schwartzenberg?
What movement was made by Napoleon
on the 20th of March?
What simultaneous movement was made
by Schwartzenberg ?
What was the effect of these joint move-
ments ?
How did Napoleon arrange his troops ?
How were the allies posted ?
410. What was the result of the first
day's contest ?
Describe the position and appearance of
the two armies on the following morning.
What movement on the part of the French
finally induced the allies to attack ?
How did the battle terminate ?
What effect had this battle on the cause of
Napoleon ?
Why was this ?
411. What movement did he make, in
place of advancing to Paris ?
What took place at Vitry?
528
QUESTIONS'.
What was tne feeling of the army at St.
Dizier ?
What was discussed and what was said ?
What important capture was made at
Sommepuy ?
What was done by the allies, while Napo-
leon proposed to attack their communica-
tions ?
What decision was taken by the allied
sovereigns ?
412. What directions had been given by
Napoleon to Mortier and Marmont?
What prevented their obeying the order ?
Where did they fall back I
What was the result of the allies' attack
upon them ?
What other success was at the same time
gained by the allies ?
What was said by Napoleon when he
received intelligence of the advance of the
allies upon Paris ?
What temptations were presented to the
invading soldiers?
What measures were taken by Alexander
on this subject ?
413. What was the effect of these
measures ?
What was done in the French capital ?
What did the council resolve on by a vote
of nineteen to four ?
Describe the departure from Paris of Na-
poleon's family.
How is Paris situated?
41 IT. Give a brief description of Paris,
as related on page 414.
What troops had Joseph Bonaparte at his
disposal ?
415. How were the troops placed for the
defence of Paris ?
What numbers of the allies were arrayed
against Paris ?
How did the battle commence, at six
o'clock, on the 30th of March?
How did the action progress at Romain-
ville?
What order was issued by Alexander ?
When did Blucher arrive ?
416. What was accomplished by the
Prince Royal ?
What was the result of the general ad-
vance of the whole line ?
What was done by Joseph, when he per-
ceived the day was lost ?
What took place on the heights of Mont-
martre ?
What was said by a Russian artilleryman,
as he brandished the linstock over his gun ?
What was Napoleon doing, meantime ?
What intelligence reached him as he ad-
meed ?
What took place at Fromenteau ?
What is the substance of his remarks, as
he hurried along on foot with Caulaincourt
and Berthier?
4 1 7 . Where did he at length retire ?
What were the terms of the capitulation
of Paris?
What was said by Alexander to the magis-
trates of Paris ?
418. What was done in Paris by the
Royalists ?
At what hour did the allied troops enter
Paris ?
What was the feeling of the inhabitants ?
With what shouts did they welcome their
deliverers ?
What three courses, to be considered by
the allies, were stated by Alexander ?
419. Which one of the three was
adopted ?
How was this announced to the citizens ?
What orders were sent to the police ?
What was done by Talleyrand on the 1st
of April ?
How many members obeyed the sum-
mons ?
Who were among these ?
What government was established ?
What was said by Alexander to the
Senate ?
What was said by Napoleon when he took
possession of Berlin ?
How did his conduct contrast with Alex-
ander's ?
4 2O. What was done by the Senate on
the 2d of April ?
What policy was pursued by Talleyrand ?
What was the next important consider-
ation ?
What was the decision of the troops ?
What was done by Napoleon, when he
heard of this ? .
What did he subsequently do ?
What answer was returned from Paris by
the allies ?
What was done by Macdonald and Cau-
laincourt?
What was done by Ney ?
421. What was the prevalent desire of
the people of France ?
What instrument did Napoleon sign after
the return of Caulaincourt and Macdonald ?
What were the terms of the treaty be-
tween Napoleon and the allies, subscribed on
the llth of April?
What signatures did this treaty bear?
Who accompanied Napoleon on his journey
from Fontainebleau ?
What did Napoleon see at Valence ?
What, also, at Avignon ?
How far did the popular dissatisfaction
increase, as he journeyed south ?
In what vessel did he embark for Elba?
422. How was he received on board this
vessel ?
How was he affected by this reception ?
What was Josephine's fate ?
When did Louis XVIII. make his entry
into Paris ?
What duties awaited Louis XVIII. on
ascending the throne of France ?
What had been provided by the convention
of April 23d ?
What did France surrender in virtue of this
compact ?
423. What were the conditions of the
treaty of Paris ?
What was done to the pope ?
What was presented to him by Murat at
Cesina ?
What did he do with this paper ?
What reply did he make to the nobles?
QUESTIONS.
529
CHAPTER XLVII.
424. What were the feelings of the peo-
ple of England on the termination of the
war?
What expectations were indulged by the
more unreflecting portions of the commu-
nity?
Were these expectations well-founded ?
425. What was voted by the House of
Commons to Lord Wellington ?
What was also voted to Sir Thomas Gra-
ham and others ?
What honors were conferred on several of
the British officers ?
What interesting question arose at this
time in Parliament ?
What was the origin and nature of the
dilemma in which the British government
stood?
How was the question decided ?
What was done by Bernadotte ?
426. What success did Bernadotte meet
with in his invasion of Norway?
What effect had these disasters on the
Norwegians ?
What were the terms of the convention
made between Norway and Sweden?
How have the Norwegians prospered under
the rule of Bernadotte ?
What other subject of great public interest
was discussed in the British Parliament ?
427. What had been the effect of foreign
exclusion and domestic encouragement of
grain in the latter years of the war ?
What question, then, was presented for
consideration ?
Who were in favor of the Corn Law ?
Who opposed it ?
What bill was finally passed ?
What task now devolved on Louis XVIII. ?
428. On what conditions had the Repub-
licans joined Talleyrand and the Royalists?
What was looked on as the basis of the
new monarchy ?
What course was resolved on by Louis ?
Who were appointed to prepare a Consti-
tution ?
When was the instrument, thus prepared,
promulgated ?
How did the King conclude the address
with which he introduced this charter ?
What was said afterward by D'Ambray?
What was remembered by the veterans of
the Revolution, when they heard the remarks
of D'Ambray?
429. What several things were amply
secured by the charter ?
How was the Chamber of Peers to be com-
posed ?
What did the Legislative Body become ?
What two things were connected with the
formation of this chamber ?
What was the limit and proportion, of the
constituency ?
What were the various further provisions
of the Charter ?
What did all these enactments contain ?
What renders laws inoperative?
On what condition are regulations for lib-
erty vain ?
430. In what four particulars was the
Charter defective ?
What, in France, was now a still more dif-
ficult task than the forming of a Constitution ?
In what instances has Restoration proved
a work of peril ?
What occurred when the former evils of
France passed away ?
What was the condition of the army ?
What was another serious evil ?
431. Who made demands on the govern-
ment for support ?
What was due lo the troops ?'
What, nevertheless, was the condition of
the treasury ?
What was the financial condition of the
country at large ?
What was the amount, respectively, of the
annual income and expenditure ?
What did Louis and his ministers lack, in
this emergency ?
What system did they adopt?
What was the capital error of these
measures ?
What did they proceed to do, in reference
to the troops and the organization of the
army?
432. What was the substance of the mil-
itary regulations as regarded the palace ?
What was done in regard to the Sabbath ?
What was the effect of this ordinance ?
What other causes of grievance and dis-
turbance occurred in the administration of
civil affairs ?
What, in fact, was the nature of the civil
government of the .Restoration ?
To what pitch did the general exasperation
at length rise ?
What several public ceremonies took place?
and how were they regarded by the disaf.
fected people ?
CHAPTER XLVIII.
433. When did the Congress of Vienna
commence its deliberations ?
Who were among the members of this
Congress ?
What was the first difficulty that arose
among the members ?
How was this adjusted ?
What difficulty came next ?
How was this eventually disposed of?
What national affairs were settled under
this decision ?
434. What took place in reference to
Poland, Saxony, and Genoa?
What course was taken by Alexander,
when he lost patience at the proceedings of
France ?
What followed these angry words ?
What seemed likely to be the result of the
deliberations of a Congress met to arrange a
pjace ?
What brought these matters to a crisis ?
What were the provisions of this treaty?
What was its effect when it transpired ?
435. What various national affairs were
now adjusted ?
530
QUESTIONS.
What reached Vienna toward the end of
February ?
What was discussed in consequence of
these rumors ?
What did Alexander say to this proposal?
What questions were propounded by Met-
lernich to Fouche ?
What replies did Fouche send ?
What intelligence reached Vienna at this
time?
What had Napoleon proclaimed, in refer-
ence to Austria ?
436. What was averred by Metternich,
in answer to this ?
What declaration was issued by the con-
gress ?
Who signed this instrument ?
How did the allies proceed to give it
efficacy ?
437. What unfinished details of the busi-
ness before the congress were now adjusted ?
What was done in reference to the slave
trade ?
Under what circumstances had the unre-
flecting generosity of the allies placed Na-
poleon in Elba ?
What result followed from all this, which
should have been foreseen ?
43N. Who was among the first to join
Napoleon in his enterprise ?
What was done at Porto Ferrajo on the
26th of February ?
What was done during the night by Napo-
leon and his guards ?
What was the size of the flotilla ?
When and where did the troops make their
landing in France?
What was, now, the chief difliculty of
Napoleon ?
What was the result of the attempts to
gain over the garrison of Antibes ?
What course did Napoleon take ?
What did he encounter at Grenoble ?
What did he say to Bertrand?
439. What did he do and say to the
troops that opposed him ?
What was the conduct of the soldiers ?
What was done by the garrison of Gren-
oble ?
WThen did intelligence of Napoleon's return
reach Paris ?
What was done at Paris ?
What was the feeling of the inhabitants
of Paris ?
What was the course of the marshals and
dignitaries of the empire ?
What was said and done by Marshal Ney?
440. What occurred in the army as Na-
poleon moved on ?
Of what town did he take possession on
the 12th of March?
What was the effect of this?
What four decrees did he issue ?
What were the proceedings of Marshal
Ney?
What is his own account of his treachery?
What followed Ney's defection ?
441. What was done by the King's gov-
t rnment ?
What final appeal did the King make ?
What effect had this appeal ?
When did the King announce his intention
of abandoning the Tuileries ?
What prospect offered itself to his guests?
Where did the royal family go t
When did Napoleon reach Paris?
flow was he received at the Tuileries ?
What has he said of this day ?
442. What might have been the sub-
stance of his reflections that night ?
What did he discover the next morning?
What did his application to Fouche prove ?
What course was taken by other distin-
guished men, in reference to the acceptance
of office ?
What soon became evident ?
443. For what did the powers at Vienna
resolutely prepare ?
What did they bee, in Napoleon's elevation
to the throne ?
What new treaty was now concluded?
What was the secret treaty ?
What three great armies was it resolved
to form ?
444. What sum of money was voted and
paid by Great Britain to the several allied
powers within the year?
What men did Napoleon embody in his
army ?
What efforts did he make to prepare arms
and the munitions of war for his troops ?
To whom was Napoleon forced to intrust
the administration of the civil government?
What did Fouche say to his Republican
allies ?
What was the title of the new constitu-
tion, prepared by the Liberal party ?
445. In what three particulars did this
Constitution differ from the charter of Louis
XVIII.?
What effect was produced by the publica-
tion of the u Acte Additionel?"
What was the title of an article published
in the Censeur Europeen?
What did this fearless writer say ?
What was written to the Emperor by
Carnot ?
What did Napoleon reply ?
What was attempted by Caulaincourt ?
What was said on this subject by Alex-
ander ?
And by Metternich?
Who commenced hostilities in this cam-
paign ?
What offers had been made to him ?
446. What was the result of the action
at Tolentino?
What was done in La Vendee by La Roche-
jaquelein ?
What was said by Fouche to the Vendeans ?
What three objects did Fouchfe seek to
attain ?
How did his complex scheme succeed?
What was the result of the new elections ?
What was done by the respectable citizen*
in regard to the election?
447. What sort of men were the new
deputies?
What did Napoleon encounter in this Cham-
ber of his own creation ?
What occurred in tbi election of president
of the Chamber ?
QUESTIONS.
How was Napoleon's speech received by
the Chamber ?
How was he -welcomed in reviewing the
National Guard ?
What, in short, did everything announce ?
What became necessary in this confusion ?
What provisional government did Napo-
leon appoint ?
With whom did the actual power of this
council rest ?
What did Napoleon discover, just before
his departure ?
What did Napoleon threaten to do with
Fouche ?
What did Carnot reply?
448. What further conversation took
place ?
What were Napoleon's final remarks to
Fouche ?
What was Wellington's plan of campaign ?
With what forces did he propose to unite ?
How many men had Wellington ?
How many had Blucher?
How many had Napoleon ?
What did Napoleon resolve to do?
Who was appointed major-general of the
French army ?
Where did Napoleon join his army?
449. What account does Fouche give of
his intrigues with the allies ?
Where did the French troops move on the
15th of June ?
What did Napoleon now expect to accom-
plish ?
Where, and with what force, did he send
Ney?
Where did he march himself?
Where did Wellington concentrate his
troops ?
Where and how was Blucher's army posted?
450. For what did Napoleon wait, before
he commenced his attack on Blucher?
When did he give the signal for battle?
How did his attack on St. Amand succeed?
How did the battle progress in the centre ?
How did it stand at seven o'clock ?
For what did the leaders on both sides
begin to look with eagerness ?
Which party received such reinforcements?
What movement did Napoleon now make ?
What was the result of the attack ?
What occurred to Blucher personally ?
What were the losses in the battle of
Ligny ?
Where had another desperate action been
fought in the meantime ?
451. What was the result of the battle
of Quatre-Bras?
What movement did Wellington make
when he heard of Blucher's defeat ?
What movement was made by Napoleon?
What number of troops had Napoleon at
Waterloo ?
What number had Wellington ?
In what, besides in the number of his men,
was Wellington's army inferior to Napo-
leon's ?
How were the British posted at Waterloo ?
How were the French posted ?
What word was sent by Blucher to Wel-
lington ?
47
531
the
452. How, and at what time, did
battle of Waterloo begin ?
How did this first attack result?
What was seen while this contest was ia
progress ?
What did Soult say?
What did Napoleon think ? and what move-
ment did he order in reference to the new
comers?
What movement was made by Ney, at
noon ?
What orders were issued by Wellington to
repel Ney's attack ?
How did the French attack, at first, suc-
ceed ?
453. What was done by Pack's brigade ?
What was the result of Kempt's charge of
cavalry ?
What was done by Ponsonby's cavalry and
yandeleur's light horse ?
What was said by Napoleon, as he watched
the progress of the British cavalry?
What movement did Napoleon order?
How did Milhaud succeed ? -
What had been achieved by the British
cavalry ?
What was the result of the attack on La
Haye Sainte ?
What movement was next made by Ney ?
How did this succeed ?
What still further movement was ordered
by Napoleon to break the British centre ?
How did the British infantry receive this
charge ?
At what hour, and with what force, did
Bulow enter upon the battle-field ?
What direction did he give to his columns ?
What counter-movement was made b)
Napoleon ?
454. What was the success of the French
attack ?
A'ith what motive did Napoleon order a
final attack on the British centre ?
How did he. prepare for this attack ?
What success had Reille ?
Who followed on at a rapid pace ?
What men composed Ney's column?
How near to the British infantry did Ney's
column advance ?
What was the position of the British in-
fan try ?
What order was now given by Wellington ?
What was done by the British soldiers?
What followed this charge of the bayonet ?
Who appeared on the field at this crisis ?
What took place among the French sol-
diers ?
What did Napoleon do and say when he
saw the British cavalry sweeping through
his ranks ?
What did he do and say when the allied
cavalry approached ?
455. What was done by the Old Guard?
How were the pursuit and retreat con-
ducted ?
What were Grouchy's movements ?
What were the losses in the battle of Wa-
terloo ?
When did Napoleon reach Paris ?
What did he say to Caulaincourt ?
What did he say after he had taken a bath *
532
QUESTIONS.
What had the Deputies resolved on ?
What was said by La Fayette ?
456. What reply was made by Lucien ?
What was La Fayette's indignant answer?
What was said in the Chamber in the
evening ?
What course did Napoleon finally adopt ?
What was the substance of his abdication ?
What took place in the Chamber of
Peers ?
45 7. What declaration was made by
Soult and Massena?
What was concluded with the allied gen-
erals ?
What were the terms of the capitulation ?
What course did Napoleon take ?
When he found it impossible to escape,
what did he resolve upon 1
458. What did he send to Captain Mail-
land?
What did the British cabinet resolve to do
with Napoleon ?
When did he arrive at St. Helena ?
WThat was the appearance of Paris after
the return of Louis XVIII. ?
What was undertaken by Blucher ?
What was the deportment of the Prussians
in Paris?
459. What great public restitution wat
now insisted on and made by the allies ?
What followed the breaking up of the Na-
tional Museum ?
What treaty was finally concluded?
What were the provisions of this treaty ?
What did the allied powers now insist
upon, in regard to the guilty leaders of the
late revolution ?
What was the fate of these leaders ?
What is said in regard to Ney ?
460. What was the fate of Murat?
What was Napoleon's condition in St
Helena?
What would England have done; had she
treated Napoleon as he treated his impris-
oned enemies ?
When did Napoleon die?
What items in his will are memorable ?
Where and how was Napoleon buried ?
461. What changes followed with the
course of time ?
What request was made by France of
England ?
What was done with the body of Na-
poleon ?
Who attended his remains to their final
resting-place ?
THE JUID.
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023