Y . » • • ^ . .V <}^ O H O v-^ ^■^^ ^^ ^^ * "^^^ ■**» «o^' O,'^ %.*" .'* . . * * A .^'% r ..-'. ^^ 0^ V^^eT:"o\^^^ ?5°^ .,^^ A '\;^"^y^ • ,0' P » £ 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 the 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 XVUL, after his first restoration, Mr. Alison recites its merits and its faults ; in the former enumeration, he says, " prosecution or imprisonment was forbidden, txcept in the cases provided for by law, and according to its forms:" in the latter, he mi PREFACE. Bays, " no provision was inserted to prevent or restrain arbitrary imprisonment, oi 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 paragrapns, 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 otlier. 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, aeem to be inseparable from the first publication of a printed book. Niw VoBK, March, 1845. PUBLltSHEKy JMOiE, I&yC>. The revived interest in the era of Napoleon has created a new demand for the admirable work of Archibald Alison. This abridgment is on the whole the most satisfactory one that has ever been produced. It has run through many editions and is now presented in a modern dress with illustrations. The series of questions on the text has been preserved at the end of the volume. Mr. Gould's work is most highly commended by the best scholars. CONTENTS. 1—8 I CHAPTER I. CAUSES AMD COMMENCEMENT OF THE REVOLUTION. Importance ot tne 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 : - ...--•--- CHAPTER n. FROM THE OPENING OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY TO THE DEATH OF LODIS. 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 Tuilcries — 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 Suflfrage — 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 lanuary 21st, 1793— His interment — Reflections — His character : • - 10 — 18 CHAPTER IIL STATE OF EUROPE PRIOR TO THE WAR. Effects ol the Revolution on other States — Condition of Great Britain — Opinions —Parties — Mr. Fox — Mr. Pitt — Mr. Burke— Condition of Austria — Prussia CONTENTS. PACIK — 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—34 CHAPTER IV. CAMPAIGN OF 1792. French armies take the field — Their numbers — Numbers of the allies — Invasioa 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 — 3& CHAPTER V. FRENCH REPUBLIC FROM THE DEuTH OF THE KING 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, October 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 feehng in Paris — Accusation of Robespien-e — His arrest — ^His execution — lylose of the Reign of Terror : 30 — 38 CHAPTER VI. WAR IN LA VENDEE. Description of La Vendee — Its inhabitants — Commencement of hostilities — Leaders — Orders of the Convention — Bravery and great success of the Roy. alists — Their prisoners — Continued success of theVend^ans — Advance upon Nantes — Republicans gain some success but are at length totally defeated — Renewed efforts of the Convention on a large scale — Devastation oi La Ven. d^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 — Atrociouf cruelties of C arricr : - 39 — 44 CONTENTS. li CHAPTER VII. CAMPAIGN OF 1793. PAOK 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 Mau- 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 : .....-...- 44 — 54 CHAPTER VIH. 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 Koscnisko — Siege of War. saw — The siege is raised — Second siege of Warsaw — Its capture — Termina- tion of the Polish Republic — Reflections : . ... 61 — •• CHAPTER X CONSOLIDATION OF THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT: CAMPAIGN OF 1795. Parties in Paris after the fall of Robespierre — Humane measures of the Conven- tion— Club of La Jeunesse Dor^e— Repeal of the Revolutionary laws, and 2 lil C O N TE N r S. impeachment oi the Jacobin leaders — Insurrection of the Fauxbourgs — Firmness of the Convention^ — Their success— Execution of Jacobin prisoners — The Convention form a new Constitution — Remarlis 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: 6&— 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 suc- 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 Ma sena — Napoleon raises the siege of Mantua — Defeat of the Austrians at ' onato and Salo — Personal danger of Napoleon — Battle of Medola — Wurniser divides his forces — And advances upon Mantua — Action of Caldiero — And of Areola — Battle of Rivoli — Reflections on this cam. paign — Civil war in La Vendue — 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 Genered Washington ; - 74 — 8 ' CHAPTER XIL CAMPAIGN OF 1797. AiTairs in England — Suspension of specie payments in Great Britain — ^Limitau 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 I I CONTENTS. Ziii CHAPTER XiII. EXPEDITION TO EGYPT. PASB. Napoleon returns to Paris — Naval preparations — Precautions of the British gor- eminent — 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~lttl 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. pies — 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 — .Tourdan 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 — .Tunction of Moreau and Macdonald — Suwarrow defeats Macdo. nald — Fall of Turin — King of Naples resumes the throne — Punishment of the insui-gents — 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 — 13t CHAPTER XVI. FROM THE REVOLUTION OF SEPTEMBER 3rD, TO THE CAMPAIGN OF 1800. Progress of the Revolution in France — Elections — Conspiracy of Si6yes — Napo. leon abandons his army in Egypt — His return to France— His residence in Xiv CONTENTS. PACK 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 Greut Britain — Debate in Parliament — Domestic transactions of Great Britain Rupture betvveen England and Russia — Measures of Austria to con- tinue the war — And of Napoleon — Napoleon's ambitious projects and measures: 126^139 CHAPTER XVII. FIRST CAMPAIGN OF 1800. Austrian for".es — 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 theie — 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 CAMFAieN 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 ofl'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 LuneviUe: . . 141—148 CHAPTER XIX. FROM THE PEACE OF LUNEVILLE TO THE DISSOLDTION OF THE NORTHEKlf MARITIME CONFEDERACY. Difficulties between Great Britain and Denmark — British fleet proceeds to Co- penhagen — Treaty with Denmark — Arbitrary measures of Russia — Man. 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 : ... ... MQ — 154 CONTENTS. XY CHAPTICR XX. BXPEDITIONS TO EGYPT AND ST. DOMINGO EUROPE, FROM THE PEACE JF AMIENS TO THE RENEWAL OF THE WAR. tAQM' 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 — Etfects 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 — Revolution 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 Whitvvorth at theTuileries — Eng. land declares war — Imprisonment of British travellers in France : - 155 — 164 CHAPTER XXI. FRANCE, FROM THE PEACE OF AMIENS TO NAFOLEOn'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 Eigland 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 .losephine — Rupture between Spain and Great Britain — The former power declares war against the latter : . - 173 — 17 CHAPTER XXIIL FROM THE OPENING OF THE SPANISH WAR TO THE BATTLE OF AUSTERLITZ. Mapoleon's journey to Italy — Treaty between Great Britain and Russia — Napo. leon assembles his army and flotilla at Boulogne for the invasion o^ 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 — Aiistrians 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 — Insun-ection in Calabria — Battle of Maida — Louis Bonaparte made King of Holland — French naval defeats — DifTerences 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 — ^SOft 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 — Attack on Constantinople — Change of ministry in Great Britain : - - 205— Jil3 CHAPTER XXVI. CAMPAIGN OF FRIEDLAND AND TILSIT. Commencement of the campaign — Siege and capture of Dantzic — Foices" 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. land — 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—219 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 rnc^vements 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 :...-.. 913 — 228 CHAPTER XXVIII PRELIMINARY MOVEMENTS OF THE PENINSULAR WAR. Difterences 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— Affnirs of Spain — Treaty of Fontainebleau — Invasion of Spain — The King, Charles IV. attempts to escape to America — Is prevented — He resigns hiscrownin 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 Frerch under Laborde and Junot — An Armistice is concluded and the French 11 CONTENTS. 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 — ^259 CHAPTER XXX. FIRST CAMPAIGN OF 1809 IN GERMANY. M'lasures 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 Landsliut — And at Ratisbon — Battleof 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. Napoleon 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 Tyr» 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—27^ CHAPTER XXXII. MARITIME WAR ; AND CAMPAIGN OF 1809 IN SPAIN AND PORTtTGAL. 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 — Soiflt 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 — Wei. lington's system of maintaining his troops — And Napoleon's - 274— 28i CONTENTS. Xli CHAPTER XXXIII. EVENTS or 1810 : campaign of Torres vedras. FAGC. Napoleon's position — His want of an heir — Offers of his hand — Makes known his intentions to Josephine — Her (iio;nified 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 — H:? differences with Lucien — And with Joseph — Soult commences operations in Spain — Siege of Cadiz — French and allied forces in Portugal — Massena captures Ciudad Rodrigo 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 siege 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 Retiro — 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 ; 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 — Siniilir operations at Rondschouck — Defeat of the Turks near Battin — Capiur-' of Rond CONTENTS. PA OK s'^houck and Nicopolis! — Turks deff;ited at Rondschouck — They cross the Danube and attack KutiisofF — Their total defeat — Peace between Russiaand 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 — 313 CHAPTER XXXVII. ADVANCE OF NAPOLEON TO MOSCOW. Immense preparations of Napoleon for invading Russia — Forces of Russia — French troops cross the Nieaien — Sufferings of the French beforti 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 Augerenu — 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 — 323 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 — Nnpoleon 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 RCSSIAN CAMPAIGN. Napoleon arrives at Paris — Public depression — Relieved by Napoleon's firmness — Malet's extraordinary Consjiiracy — Its defeat — Napoleon's discontent, notwithstanding — His efforts to recruit the army — Negotiations with the Pope : • 332—335 CONTENTS XXI CHAPTER XL. CAMPAIGN OF 1813. PAOB. Combination of forces to cut off the retreat of the French army— Murat ileserts the army and repairs to Naples — Eugene takes cominniid — Deliverance and policy of Prussia — Her efforts to regain a footing among the Powers of Europe — Treaty with Russia — Insurrection in Saxoiij' — Institution of the Order of the Iron Cross in Prussia — The Tugenbund — Position of the Frencl 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 pussessiop 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 Metter- 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 commander-in-chief : . . - 346 — 353 CHAPTER XLII. DEUVERANCE 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 Tceplitz — 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 maiie a descent into Westphana — Capture Cassel and retire with Jerome's treasures — Ben- ningsen arrives at Tceplitz — 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- sult — 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. hnproved condition of the British army in the Peninsula — Measures of the Cortes — Condition of Cadiz — Wellington's forces and plans — French forces — Bal- I CONTENDS. PAOB lie of Castella — Wellingtc i takes leave of Portugal — He advances to ViU 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 — Napoleon's 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 Valen9ay — 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 uUies — 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 Guillotifere — 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 Empire- 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 de*"eats Soult at Toulouse— Napoleon's embarrass- CONTENTS. XXm PAGK. jnents — 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 Napoloon — 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 lor Elba — Death of Josephine — Louis XVIH. leaves England for France — His entrance into Paris — Treaty of Pans — Lib- eration of the Pope :.. ...... 405 423 CHAPTER XLVH. INTFRNAL AFFAIRS OF ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND THE NORTH OF EUROPE. Kntliusiasm in England on the declaration of peace — Measures in Parliamen; — Affairs of Norway — Bernadotte invades Norway — Norway submits and is annexed to Sweden — British Corn Laws — Difficulties of Louis XVHL — His impolitic measures — His Charter — Its defects — Discontent of the peo- ple — Penury of the government — Errors of the ministers — And of the Bour- bons — Civil regulations — General exasperation : . . . . 424—439 CHAPTER XLVIII. CONGRESS OF VIENNA. NAPOLEON'S FINAL STRU6GLE. 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 retreats 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 Additionel — Outbreaks of the popular feeling — Caulaincourt endeavors to negotiate with the allies— Murat connnences hostilities — Contest in La Vended — New Elections- Divisions in Paris — Napoleon discovers Fouche's treachery — Dares not pun. isli him — Forces of Wellington — And of Blucher — And of Napoleon — Soult takes command — Napoleon sets out for the army — Secret intclli. gence communicated to Wellington by Fouche — Fouche's unparalleled du. plicity — Napoleon crosses the frontier — Battle of Ligny — And of Quatre- Bras — Bkicher retreats to Wavre — Wellington falls back to Waterloo — The Field of WaKi'loo — The Battle of Waterloo — Defeat of the French— 3 XXIV CONTENTS. Flight of xN;i|)iil((ii! — CJnmchy retreats to Laon — Leases in the Battle — Nu. polcon arrives at Paris — Is denounced by the Chamber of Deputies — He abdicates the crown — Chamber of Peers — Advance of the allies — Capita, 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. Pew 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 lo 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 wielded 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 nf 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 mosl 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 de ence of th«^ir walls: but the 3 HISTORYOFEUROPE. iChap. I National Guard who everywhere flew to arms, animated by one common feelinaj 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 theniselves strong in the support of the nobility, the pro- lection 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 reduced 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 formed 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 of the Revolution, the property of the clercy was confiscated to relieve the embarrassed finances of the country. The distinction between the nobility and the baseborn was carried to a leno-th in France of which, in a free country, it is difficult to form an adequate conception. Every person was either noble or roturier ; no middling class, no gradation of rank was known. On the cue 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 *and. and this burden therefore fell exclusively and with insupportable 1789] HISTORY OF EUROPE. Ji 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 cf 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 e.x- ^. ended th«m 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- mg 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. Th^ most important right of a citizen, that of deliberating on the passing oi' laws and the granting of supplies, had fallen into desuetude. For nearlv two centuries the kings, on their own authority, had published ordinance:, possessing all the force of laws, which however could not be legally sanc- tioned but by the repre«entatives 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 efibrt — including the king's voluntary renouncement of liis 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 amphitheat e. werF filled with a bni- 3* I HISTORYOFEUROPE. [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 yielciing to the commons, sent a deputation headed by the Archbisliop 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 corrmnons, 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 Mas 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. 1789.J HISTORYOF EUROPE. 5 At this crisis, ihe measures of the court were marked with a fatal lacil- latioii. Neckar lacked resolution to carry through the only plan that promised securit ' — 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, )y wishing to avoid a rupture with either party, he lost the confidence of ooth, and pursued that temporizing policy, which in civil convulsions is always ruinous. Meanwhile, the pretensions of the commons hourly increased with the uidecision 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, at one 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- ures 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 2.3rd 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 arc never less reasonable than on the first acquisition of power. On the followiig 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 fata! 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 s(Xu as this intelligence transpired, Paris was thrown into the utniosi (j IIISTORyOFEUROPE. (CnAi-. 1. 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 /roops 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 bv 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 rapidlv 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. Derus 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 on 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 crv arose, "To Versailles!" and a motley multitude of drun/cen 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 dravi^n up within the inclosure facing the crowd; while without, was assembled an immense body of the National Guard, with armed men aud 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 3 i HISTORYOFEUROPE, [Chap. I 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 horfie anu hastened to the spot. He made an impassioned harangue to the grenadiers and succeeded in prevailing on thein to stay the fury of the mob. The leadersof 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 emergenc}% the kingdom was divided into eighty-four departments ; each department was subdivided into districts, and each district into cantons. A criminal tribunal wa« 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 the 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- prisinji mat, during all the subsequent changes of the Revolution the popular party should have acquired so irresistible a power, and that, in alnii)s; every part of France, the persons in authority should be found supporting the multitude, on whom they depended for political existence. The finances next occupi i the attention of the Assembly, and it yv&a I79U.J HISTORY OF EUROPE. 9 high time. The nation was subsisting entirely on borrowed money, and ihc public debt had increased during the last three years no less than 1,200,000,000 francs, or nearly two hundred and fifty itiillions 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 firet 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 ; and 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 assignats, 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 nunds 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, wno did not, as in the time of the Crusades, sell their estates, but abandoned them in the hope thai they might soon regain them by the sword. Vain hope ! The Assembly, hi due time, confiscated their property, the republican armies vanquished their battalions, and their inheritances were lost forever. 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 sittings ; leaving the future conduct of the government to a Legislative Assembly who had just been elected on the basis of a universal suifrage. CHAPTER II. KROM TUT! f PPNING 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 know!- 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, Uamas and Vaublanc ; the Girondists or republicans, led by Vergniaud, Guadet, Gen^onne, Isnard, and Brissot ; and the Jacobins, or ultra revolutionists, iet 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 an J 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 [)lace 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 res'.ping substantial advantage. Thus commenced the greatest, the most oloody, and the most eventful war which has agitated mankind since the Fall of the Roman Empire. It rose from feeble i)e- ginnings, but it fi.ially enveloped the world in its commotion. 17J2.J HISTORY OF EUROPE 11 The intelligence of the declaration of war was received with icy 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 eemed impa- tient to receive its invaders. But such displays of patriotism, how strong soever as auxiliary to military discipline, are seldom able to supply it:? 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 frtes. 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 estranged 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 thii'ty 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 hi? 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- ishment should be inflicted by the total destruction of the city of Paris The efTect of this manifesto was, in every particular, unfortunate ; for, from the distance of the invaders at the time of its promulgation, it roused iht! 4. 12 H I S T O R Y O F E U R O P E [CuAf. II people la 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 anci 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, il 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 irtue. 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 difl^ercnt 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 -'f August, on which occasion so many of "the people" were slain. The i7!W.i H 1 S T U R Y O F E U R O P E . l;- Assem. .y strove to resist this sanguinary demand, but tliey were forced lo 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 mipossible; and domiciliary visits through every quarter of the town suppoi ted 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 chietly from the nobles and dissident clergy. Detnton now directed the opera- lions 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. 'I'he 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 lime 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 ihe mob; and the moment they arrived, they were dragged out from the carriages into the inner court of the prison, and there butchered. The (iries 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 [ ;;n 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 nrisoners 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 sliorteti 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 cannibals 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 ho was beset by the assassins, and declared they should not strike lim but through her body. In 14 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Chap. II 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 aa prisons for the occasion. About five thousand persons perished during those massacres, besides some thousands of criminals previously confined in the jails for minor oflences 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 Gth 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 in.-,tructive 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 tne massacre did not exceed three hundred, and about twice as many witnessed and encouraged their proceedings: yet this handful of men governed Paris and Frar^ce 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 msurrectionary 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 — the National Convkntion. Of its members it is sufficient to say tha\ 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 vote.i, i)ut 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 n92.j HISTORYOFEUROPE 18 fhemselves with the Girondists, until terror compelled them to coalesce wi;h 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 ithe first year of the French Republic. Their next care was a considera- 'tion of the finances. From the report of M. Cambon, the minister of thai 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 im.prisonment 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 timy 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 eoftened by every attention the pain of her parents' captivity. Soon» however, the precautions and restrictions of the municipality 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 Ht A* 16 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Chap. U. ihe 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 iheii 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 thf officers who enforced it. The king appeared before the Convention to hear and plead to the .barges on the 11th of December, when, after some debate, it was decided ihat he should have time to prepare his defence and choose his own counsel. Me 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 Jefend 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- mg before it was to be delivered to the Convention, Louis requested hiin to strike it out from his argument. " It is enough for me," said he, "to appear before such judges and demonstrate my innocence : [ 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 he 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 th*" laws ; at the same time, he cannot carry his good intentions into executiorv without the requisite authority. I pardon all those who have injured nie 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 l()r 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 pr jtracted and stormy session of no less than forty hours, and finally decided b) 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 condemne' ♦heir sovereign 1793.J HISTUR\ OF EUROPE. H On the 20th of January, Santerre, with a aeputation 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 sing's last interview with his family was a heart-rending scene. At haA past eight in the evening, the door of his apartment opened and the queen appeared leading by the hand the princess-royal and the j)rin- 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." " Whv 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 conduci 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 al 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 wnen the/ began to bind hi:? 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 scatlbld 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 autiiors of my death and pray God that my wrongs n>ay 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 ihe lifeless corse of his sovereitrii. 18 HIS TORYOF EUROPE. [Chap. Ill 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, with 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- (792.] HISTORY OFEUROPE. 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 miseriet* of poverty expire, amid the universal dominion of the people. Austria, Russia and England were at this time the great powers ol Kurope, 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 j£ "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 when 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 in,vestments. The national revenue amounted to £16,000,000 (seventy-six millions of dol- lars,) and the army ine'ud^d 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 oflSce 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. Moaern his- tory can scarcely furnish another character of such eminence. His earlv 20 HISTOR\OFEUROPE. [Chap. Ill 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 Jive-nnd-twenty years of age, he took his seat in ihe 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, proluced 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 Dauii and Laudohn, in the scientific campaigns with the Great Frederic. Her jj;overnrnent, 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.] li 1 S T O R Y O F E U R O P K . 21 wa*-. amounted to two hundred and forty thousand infantiy, thirty-five titousand cavalry, and one hundred thousand artillery; while the extent o'* the empire and the warlike disposition of the inhabitants furnished inex- haustiole resources for the maintenance of the contest. The military strength of Prussia, raised to the highest pitch of which its resources would admit, by the genius of the great Frederic, rendered ♦.his once inconsiderable kingdom a first-rate power on the Continent. Fls 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 h military despotism, and the liberty of the press was unknown; neverthe less, the public adminiscration was tempered by the wisdom and benefi- cence of its state-policy. In no country o( Europe were private right.* 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 state 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 rien, than for the condition of it.s 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 F^mpire, was a very slight expense to the govern- ment : it was necessary only to issue an order for a certain number of thesn 2'i H I STO K Y O F EU ROPE. [CHiir. "« hardy bands to take the field, and crowds of active young men appeared, equipped at their own cost, mounted on small but indefatigable horses, ana ready to undergo all the hardships of war. (iifted with the individual in- telligence which belongs to the pastoral and savage character, and yet sub- jected 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 Fi-ench or Russian dragoons. The population of Russia, in Europe alone, was nearly thirty-five millions, a*id 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 f^eet 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 ofTering 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 woi'thy to head the enterprise. Placed on the other extremity of the Russian dominions, the forces of Turkey were still less capable of affecting the balance of European power : her troops, too, though ibrmidable 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, undei Victoi 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 fifleen 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 to 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, a.nd cooped up in a corner of Europe, Holland had become a compara- HISTORY OF EUROPE. 7U2,j H I S T O R Y O F E U R O P E . 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 tiiis 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 wJiich marked the Gothic, the fiery enterprise that characterized the Moorish 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 jt 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 wa? 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 commenc-* ment of the struggle. The infantry consisted of one hundred and sixty thousand men, the cavalry of thirty-five thousand, and the artillery often 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 hini- 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- ma!ely the most glorjous 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 e rased the name of hi mother, 24 HIsrORY OF EUROPE. [Clai.III. sayino- that it was not becoming foi- 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 unprecedented 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 Febrjary, 1793, the French Convention declared war against Great B: itain. 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 lo 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 thousa;id 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 Austriar/o 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 a.nd resume offensive operations. But this feeble and irresolute old nan was ill qualified to restore the confidence or efficiency of the army. fie was defeated in his first movement, and at the same time La F'ayette met with a signal over*ihrow. 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 imprpssp>d with the importance of the campaign, and strongly urged the aecessitv of hastening their operations before the French could recover 'rem ibt'ii- discomfiture^ and alarm. 26 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Cuav. IV On flif- 25th of July, the King of Prussia joined the annj, and on the same day the proclamation, already referred to in Chapter II., was issued in ihe 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 nmst have proved, had the allies displayed an energy adequate to the emergency. They advanced, indeed, but with inexplicable slowness and timidity ; took ttie 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 tc 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 tJie 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 Twhich 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. Menehould, 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 iheir rear on Champagne ; while the French rear was at the forest of 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 s? les did not exceed -.792.] HISTORYOFEliROPE 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 tor 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 auch 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 siece of 5* >8 H I S T O R Y () F E U R U P E . i'Jhap. IV. Lisle, one of the strongest towns in Europe, and which, in 1708. had made a e;lorious defence against the united armies of Eugene and Marlljorough. The garrison consisted of ten thousand men, who, with their conunander, 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 storm 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 resu'ts, 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 commenced 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, 179^.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 2<* roturned 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 f The effeci was decisive: the Ausfrians 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 Lov/ 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- licaii conquest. The French Convention issued a decree on the 1.5th 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 tongue^, 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 assents, 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 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Tpap \ . while the troops who had overrun Savoy and Piedmont, were sufr*-"iiig under the consequences of their own plunder and devastation in the iis tricts where they were qu ^rtered. CHAPTER V. FRENCH REPUBLIC FROM THE DEATH OF THE KING TO THE FALL OF 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 it.« 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 unvvili- iniiness 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 ball of the Jacobins urging them to peti- tion tlie Convention for a law reducing the prices of provisions, thp. penalty of which should be death. The demand was refused ; and Marat, on uie 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 th'3 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. TUey accordingly, by a I793.J 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 membersof the Convention ; but the Ja- cobins were not idle in counteracting it. Their leaders accompanied jMarat 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 Bourj^es, 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 o'' 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 th It 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 ibrmerly 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!" 'esounded on all sides, and the hearts of the most resolute began to quail, 82 HISTORYOFEUROPE. .CakP. 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 njisrepreuentations 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 P.evolutionists 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 llonvention was in fact imprisoned within the walls of the Tuileries. With ihese 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 Thev were met by Henriot at the principal gate leading to the Place du £:S3.1 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 innne- 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, 1 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 kw 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 advei'sity 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 gi-eatly 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 v.'as 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 measu" .« in the Convention and launched its thunder against every opposing faction. B/ means of its commissioners, it ruled the provinoes, generals and armies with ab.suiute 34 HISTORY OFEUROPh. [Chap. V sway ; and, soon after, the law of suspected individuals placed ilie 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. Pans soon had forty-eight, and every village througliout 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 electrified 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 representa 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 oT 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 intf- 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 hb- 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 8 knife. He uttered a loud shriek and expired, when some soldiers rushed in, seized Charlotte and conducted her to prison. On her ti'ial, she inter- rupted the witnesses, saying, " These formalities are unnecessary ; I killed Marat." She was condemned to death without delay, and underwent the penalty of her crimt with the same courage as she exhibited in com. mittinff it. DE LAROCHE MARY ANTOINETTE GOING TO EXECUTION 1793/ HISTORYOF EUROPE. 35 RoDespierre 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 wei-e 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 ?" " Pfo." "What then?" " Get rid of him V 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. Ft'W 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- pites deserted throughout the revolutionized districts ; baptisms ceased ; th(! 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 pan of the national property. The Jacobins next proceeded to destroy their former friends and the »rliest sunporters of the Revolution. Bailly, Custine, and tK-^ Duke 6 Sr> H I S T O R Y O t' E U R O P E [Chap. V Orleans, with many others of less note, were successively led to the seal* fold ; and ere long Robespierre, finding his individual plans and aggrand- izement impeded by his rival, managed to cause the accusation and arres; of Danton, with some other powerful antagonists. This la.st measure pro. uuced 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 narnp. 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 e.xecution 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 oft' 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 smallness 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 lin^ I V94.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 37 by ifie si .'e of a trench dug for their graves, and two pieces of cannon loaded wiJi 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 wei-e taken into a meadow, fastened to each other with cords and dispatched by musketry. These fusillades (vera 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 fiast 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 Assemoly : 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, wiiu 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 HISTORYOFEUROPE. fCnAi^. V tion reassemblea 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 Meyla 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 hundrea 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 Lii VENDEE. The district, immortalized by the name of La Vendee, embraces a pan of Poitou, of Anjou, and of the territory of Nantes. The country differs both in its external aspect and the manners of its inhabitants fi-om 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 farnxs, which are small and numerous, are inclosed by stout hedges. The southern part, adjoinina: 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 affbi'ds the greatest obstacle" 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 .lardy 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 able 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 Larochejac- quelein ; M. d'Elbee, a Saxon ; and Stofflet, an x\lsacian, also became dis- tmguished as leaders in this war ; and Charette, the last of this illustrious band, attained great eminence as a Vondc'an chief before the conclusion 40 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Chai- 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 tliousand 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. Tiie 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- tenay, where the Republicans, ten thousand strong with forty pieces of ar- lillery, 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 fcr 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 owr 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 liome, a proceeding that caused no small merr ment to the soldiers. The Vendeans were also successful in other quarters. They gained IVM.\ HISTORV OF EUROPE. 41 victories at Vetiers, Done and Montreuil ; and at length, resolved :o at- tack the important city of Sauniur, 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 wounded. 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 oflfensive, 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 tlio 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 sn 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- gao-ements 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, haffgajre. ammunitinn. and artillerv. Thev were emiallv successfu. u 42 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Chap. VI other qii triers, and the Republican forces quitted the province within a fortnighi 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 invadera far e.xceeding the entire los9 that they had sustained fioni 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 little 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 troops 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 tiieir 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 ( '"November, and found eighteen thousand Republicans drawn up to in- lurcept 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 reenforcement to thirty-five thousand men. The Royalists pursued and attacked them in the streets at midnight. A horrible melee ensued, m which the Vendean women and children — who, driven from their homes L' the Republicans, in October, had been since forced to follow tl'» for lur.es of the army — were trampled and destroyed by thousands. 1794., H i S T O R Y O F E U R () P E . 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 perm.anent 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. Tartholomew, or all the preceding horrors of the Revolution. Their a.^'ocities 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 "very direction, isolate it from all communication with the rest of the 44 HISTORY OF E L R O P E . [Chap. VII world, carrv 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, thoi'^h at intervals Charette descended from his fastnesses and took a bloodv 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 Repub/ican Marnage, in which two per- sons of different sexes, generally an old man and an old woman, or a vouno- 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, in 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 VIL CAMPAIGN OF 1793. The year 1793, was distinguished by the novel measure of treaties ol 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 power? 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 leag'iR, a part 1793.] HISTORYOFEUROPE, 45 of whom should be joined to an independent Prussian, and anothei part to an independent Austrian army. Thus, entire unity of purpos*?, 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, leJ to a want of zeal in the inferior, powers. In addition to all this, Prmce 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 Ihe 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 ai'my 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 t'«em with a loss of twelve hundred men, after which he prepared to risk a general action. 46 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Ch&v. Vll The Austrians, thirty-nine tl.ousand strono;, 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 con- 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 undeilaking, 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 Conde 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 w^ere 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 XVIL, 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 fore(\ A camp of forty thousand men was ordered to form a reserve for the army, a levy 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. NTo limit was fixed to their authority ; but, armed with the despotic po ver of the Convention, and supported b}' a Republican and mutinous soldiery, they 1793.1 HISTORYOFEUROPE. 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 pastern than on the northern frontier. Their forces in that quarter, at the openinfi^ of the campaign, were greatly outnumbered by the allies: jthe entire Prussian and Austrian forces amounting to ninety-five thousand 'men, while the French, under Custine, had not over forty-five thousand in the 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 2"2nd 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 af 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 iri his ovm 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- oolis. They might have reached its gates within fifteen days , and, had .hey 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 eilectual resistance. 7 id HISTORY OFEUROPE. [Chap. VII Dnder 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- tioii. 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 militai'v 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- ion, 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 tbrces 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 diffisrent 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 ihe 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 sustamed 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 [lis a''\ imlage with spirit ; but contented himself with an attack on ihp 1793.] HISTORYOF 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. Nof did the disaster to the French end there: for a panic ensued on this first reverse which communicated itself toall the Republican troops in thatquar- ter, who therpupon 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 Maube.jge, 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 .Tourdan, a young officer, hitherto untried, but who, placed between vie tory and the scaffold, had sufficient confidence in his own talents to accept the perilous alternative. He promptly approached the Austi'ian 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 twelvf. hundred men. In.structed 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 o-f 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; 5j) HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Chap. V II by the Austrians, under Prince Waldeck, on the ri^ht; and by Wurmser, with the main body of Austrians, on the centre. These attacks prevailed at all points, and the French retieated 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 authoritiea 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 ol 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 unhapp)- 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 wlien 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, that 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 Phiiipsberg. Fort Vauban 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 fVon- tier. The campaign on the Spanish frontier, during this year, was charac- terized by some events of military iuiportance. The Spanish government made vigorous efforts to increase their forces in February, and the zeal and 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 ^v a more serious action, on the Ibt of May, when the French werf 1793,] HISTORYOF EUROPE. 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, A'ere not yet discouraged : but, after reorganizing their forces, themselves assumed the offensive, and, on the 29th of August, made a spirited attack oil the Spanisii posts fortilied within the territory of France : but they were repulsed with such loss that they could not renew the etrife 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 )mten. The Spaniards made a brave defence, but they were over- p^;wered by numbers, and, at length, lost one thousand men killed, fifteen iiiaidre/d prisoners, and all their artillery and camp equipage. Elated by tiiis 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, witli 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- ! ners. He followed up this victory with great promptness, attacked and ttok 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 tlie French forces, and so terrified those inexperienced troops by his assault, that whole bat- talions disbanded themselves, and fled in confusion under the guns oi 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 oflfthp 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 i.isurrectionists better prepared for defence. During the whole of August and part of September, the besiegers made but little 7* 52 H I S 1' O R Y O F E U R O P h . [Chap Vll 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 24tli of Sep- tember a terrible bombardment and cannonade with red hot shot wa.s commenced, which continued without intei'mission 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, til! ir courage faltered not, nor did the garrison slacken in 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 inaintained 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 eJieniy. 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 0th 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 efic'cted 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 pre^^nt emergency, the inhabitants saw no alternative but to open their harbor to the English fleet which was cruising in the vicinity, and proclaim Louis XVTI. kinc. This was done accordinirlv, and the Knirlish snuad"r«- 171)3.1 H18T0RY0FEUR0PE. 53 entered the harbor. Soon after, a Spanish fleet arrived briu^iriir a consid. erablo body of land-troops, and the allied forces, thirteen thousand stron<;, took possession of 9II 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 nhabitants 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 01 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 hspe 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 lireaching 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. OUioulles 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 ot 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 10th 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 pan ;if 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 th»' 54 HISTORYOF EUROPE. [Chap vn farther maintenance of the exterior defences impracticable ; and in the night, the whole of the allied troops were withdrawn from the promontory lo 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 town. 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, ^nd 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 lo 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 ir 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 liis 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 inhabitant 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 tlie 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 English 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 rnent, by great exertions, bad 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 Joyeuso. On the 28th. Lord Howe hove in sight with the Channel-fleet of England, consisting also of six-and-twenty ships of the 56 HISTORY OFEUROPE. [Cuai'. VIK. line. The French were immediately formed in order of battle, and a partial 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 ofFby 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 gonei-al and was contested with great bravery on both sides ; but the superiority of the British seamen everywhere prevailed. One of the Frencli 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 sixtv 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 oi June captivated the affections of the giddy multitude : the ancient, bui 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, ma)^ 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 proi)Osed one which, had it been vigorously carried into etfrct, might have produced brilliant results : this was, to open the French frontier bv the capture of Landrecy and march with the army in Flanders, throujih Laon direct to Paris, while the Prussian forces, by a forMard movement on the side of Namur, suppoi'ted the operation. This plan, however, Mas not adoj)ted : for the inhabitants of West Flanders j)rotested against having their province made a theatre of war, the Prussians declined any active coriperation, 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 ouenins of the campaign, were as follows : ivy4.i HISTORY OFEUROPE. 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 despotic and (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 inarching 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 Catcau, amounting to nearly one hundred and fifty thousand men. The troops were in the finest condition, the 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 vet 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 tvvo 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- bcrg 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. Whil 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 Souliam 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 stale 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 :->S HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Chap. Vlll Previously to his march, on the lOlh of May, the French arrny crossed ihat rivtT to attack the allies at Grandrengs, and a furious battle ensued, in wiiich 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 bv 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 was 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 "urther attempts to subdue them, produced a change in the Austrian coun- sels, and 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 tbc? 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 etfcjrts 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 recnforce 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 b the 2Gth, on the plains 1794.J HISTORY OF E IJ R O P K . jy of Fleurus: it vvas commenced m 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- umnh. The loss on both sides vvas nearly equal, being between four and five thousand men of each army: but this material advantage ensued to the French, that liy the eastvvardly movement of the Austrians and the pacific intentions of their Emperor, Flanders was in effect abandoned to the Re[)ublican armies, who not long after were enabled to concentrate themselves witiiout 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 oDiiged to take into their service some of the foreign- ers employed in the siege of Toulon. Between two such contendin<»: Dowers as the French and Spanish, victory 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 po.sts 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 h:j August found themselves firmly posted in the Spanish territory, with am- (iO fl I S T O R Y O F E U R O P K . [(.hap. VIII. pie magazines and stores both of provisions atid ammunition. These terri- l)le disasters compelled the Spaniards to sue for peace, which tlie 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 Nirneguen, where the Duke of York was intrenched with thirty thousand men. The Duke made a vigorous sally when the Republicans had taken up their pos-ition, 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 2Sth 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 'f 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 I'rom 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 1 id4.j HISTORYOFEUROPE. 6 dispatched ambassadors to Pichegru's head-quarters with new proposals for peace. The French Generals, desirous to avoid the appearance of subjugatinn; 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 Hotel-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 he ice and made themselves masters of the arsenal of Dordrecht, contain- ing six hundred cannons, ten thousand muskets and immense stores of am- munition, pa::sed through Rotterdam and took possession of the Hague. A body of cavalry now crossed the Zuyder Zee, and summoned the fleet: tlie 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 niice mighty dominion. The Goths, who appeared as suppliants on the I'anube, 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 •^ver been succeeded by her greatest reverses ; the establishment of her 62 HIS TORYOFEU ROPE. Ciur. 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 f alous 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 n^easures 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 -^luch 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 M'as, 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 proscrihirigevervkind 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 urosperity of society denends. 1794.] HISTORYOFEUROPE 68 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 going from province to province to administer justice in person. The nobility carried his sentences into execution with their own armed force ; ;iind as ihere was never any considerable standing army in the service of Jhe 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, ana fhe Polish nation, to their eternal disgrace, allowed this heroic king to bn 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 naiion 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 vvere .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, ^n 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 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Chap. IX. The iiext 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 tlie 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 aesperation, 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 five 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 meti, who, after a pi'olonged contest in the streets for six-and-thirty houi's, 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 thonsnnd veterans, prepared to overrun the southeastern parts of the ITH.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. «R kingdom. Aware of the necessity of striking a blow before the enemy's forces were cnicentrated, Kosciusko, with twelve thousand men, marched to attack the 1-iussian G'neral 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 I'esistance, 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 the spot, nine thousand were made prisoners, and twelve thousand citi- SB II ISTORYOF EUROPE. [Chap. X zens, wiinoul 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. Such 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 worla 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 I 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 tlie vacillation of a Republic without its energy, and the oppres- sion of a monarchy without its stability. Such a system neither cculd 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 I^aris ; that of the Committee, who strove to maintain their Jacobin ascend- iiucy, and that of the Liberators, who labored to overthrow it. The lat- er party was known by the name of Thermidorians, fiom 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, *iowever, and the Thermidorians were cautious about measurinof their 1795. HISTORYOFEUROPE. 61 stren'j-th with them ; but tlie 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 Freron (jried out, " I propose that we purge the earth of that monster, and thai 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 br:)ught 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 cliiklren. At the end of two months, out of ten thousand suspected per- -ions, 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 Dor^e. The contests between them and the Jacobins at length assumed an important character. F^aris 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 tlie 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 Hirondists' 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 impeachin<> 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 T(!rror. This bold measure produced a great agitation, and a revolt was organized in the fauxbourgsto prevent their trial from proceedin"". 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 th" Thermidorians, from considerations of policy, made a humane use o\ 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 Elam. By the fall ri' Robespierre and the execution of his associates, the Ju- oof/ins had log* ihe municipality; the closing of their clubs had deprived ,*<« H I S T O R Y O F E U R O P E . [Chap X. them of their centre of operauons ; and the late exile of so many of their members had taken from them their ahlest 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 fi'om 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 [Mjssession of the seats vacated by the terrified members of the Conven- I'un, and proceeded at once to organize a new government. Everything .-^..'emed 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- vrnedj passed resolutions befitting the emergency, and, when night approached, proceeded with the National Guard and the Jeunesse Doree t) the hall where the insurgents were legislating. A violent contest I nsued, 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 liad 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 erfeetually accomplished by the firmness of ^he 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 rrpudiated ; 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, \v\n\e in the South of France hands 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 reenactpf' .7!>5.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 69 in most of the prisons of that part of the country. The people, exasperated with their remembrances of the Reio;n of Terror, were insatiable in their vengeance. They invoked tiie names of parents, brothers, or sisters, when i-etaliating 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 ew years, the legislative power was divided into two Councils ; that of .he Ftve 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 (atter 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 mipeachment 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 the 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 Kino-, the imprisonment of the Girondists, and the execution of Danton; which hfid 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 ruie are imaginary dangers, coptrad'cted by the experience of mankind. The checks thus imposed on the power of tne people, were the work of their own delegates, chosen by universal suffi'age, during a season of unexampled public excitement, whose proceedings had been marked by a more violent love o^ 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 thev 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 throughoui 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, whrrein the Convention decreed that /wo-Z/t/rds of their own number should be incorporated into the new legislature, and that, therefore, the electors i^hould fill up only the remainder. Tliis rapid stride toward despotism was loudly resisted all over France. The National Guaixl of Paris declared their opposition, and the Jeunesse Doree pledged themselves to resist ii. But the Convention did not waver. 70 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Chaf. 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 tiie 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 desire-d 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 FrencI' 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 aic^ in prosecuting the war against the enemies of the Republic. Austria and England remained firm in their determination to continue the war, and i\lr. Pitt and Thugut, the respective ministers of the two nations, formed 171)5.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 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 .hat 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 byexc.heauer bills. To such an immense extent, thus early in the contest, was the ruinous system of providing for the expense of the year by borrowmi'. 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 fi'om the Dutch Republic. During the wmter of 1794-5, the French government made gteai •efforts to put their navy on a respectable footing ; and, early in March. .T expedition was fitted out at Toulon, consisting of thirteen ships of the line and cariying 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. Florenc, 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 rhe enemy's fleet fell back to the Isles de Hyei"?«. and disembarked their tropps. The object of the expedition was thus entirely frustrated. The campaign in the maritime Alps was opened on the 12th of May, bv 2. successful French attack on the Col Dumont, then occupied by two thousand Piedmontese troops. Soon a^ter, Kellerman having weakened his right by detaching some battalions to Toulon, the Imperialists assumed the jffensive, 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 reenforced 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, clo.sed the campaign in .hat quarter. 72 H I S T R Y O F E U R O P E . [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 for a vigorous prosecution of the war; and their discipline was greatly relaxed. The condition of the Austiians, on the other liand, 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 t«n 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 dc-scent 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 welve 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 tec thousand men, landed in Quiberon Bay on the 27th of June and made theniselvr'si ma=ters of the fort of Penthievre. Their arrival, on^ethc 1795.] H 1 jSTUK Y Of biU KOf ifi 73 with their success in capturiiifj this fort, was the signal for all the Roy- n lists to rise in t.he west, and the Chouan bands crowded in great numbers ;o the camp of the invaders. The Republican forces, however, were on ,he alert, and Hoche, with a considerable body of disciplined troops, advanced to Quiberon. He attacked the Royalist tbrces on the 7th of Jul} , 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 oxtieme; and a body of Chouans from the interior, in connection with (^ount 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 attem.pt 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. Tlie 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 seven 4ve, 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 right wing 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 sti'ong, first encountered a body of only twelve hundred French, ande^ Colonel Rampon, when) 179fi.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 75 ihoy 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 Serrurier moved up to the heiglUs in the rear of Montenotte, and in the morning the Austrians Ibund themselves surrounded on all sides. Th( y 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 Au.s- 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 aflerward with the bulk of his forces, and established a bridire. Thus, one great obstacle to the conquest of Lombardy was 9* 76 HISTORY OFEUR OPE. [L hap. 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 tei'ms 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, Ipaving 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 y-ung and ardent flocked to Milan to welcome him. A succession of ba Is 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 dr'iverance. In the midst of the general joy, a requisition of twenty millions of francs struck the Milanese with astonishment, and wounded them in theii 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 often 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 of that beautiful district, and it first broke out at Pavia, «riip,re the people rose against the garrison, forced it to capitulates Hcd 1796.] HISTORY OF EUROPE 77 shut their gates against the French troops. Napoleon hurried to tiie sec ii;' 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 tei'ritory 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 tha' 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 recnforce 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 treaty. 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 [Chai. XI Meanwhile, Wurmser was approaching at the head of sixty thousaiid 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, reti-red 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 oti* the principal line of retreat toward France. In this extremity, JNapoleon, for the first time during the campaign, called a council of war. He heard the opinions of his officers, all of 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 encounteVed 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 ?»Iincio 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, .\iigereau had been contending with superior numbers at Castiglione, and with difficulty maintained his ground ; but now Napo- leon arrived with reenforcements and the Austrians gave way, retreating toward Mantua, until Wurmser, with fresh troops, came in person tc 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 suadenly sumn oned to surrender by the commander of four thousard Austrians ; who, in the intricate coim 1796 i HISTORYOFEUROPE. 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 b'^fore 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 cortege, 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 had 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 .'Jth, 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. Wurmserthen leisurely retreated to his former station at Roveredoand 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 wa$ completely broken by fatigue and disaster. Napoleon, on the retreat of the Austrians, resumed the blockade uf Mantua. After a repose of three weeks, during which the armies on both sides received considerable reenforcements, 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 ti'oops 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 ,ty the Val Sugana, sieze Verona, and raise the siege of Mantua. But Napoleon, who. by treachery at the Austrian head-quarters, was during ihis 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 row 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 thirt/ f^O HISTORYOFEUROPE. lChap. 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 Galdiero; 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 Galdiero was impreg- nable in front. Napoleon resolved to assail it in flank, and accordingly made a rapid night march by the village of Areola 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 Areola was by no means so decisive as the previous victories of the French: the loss on both sides had been nearl\ 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,., on 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 the 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 gained 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 m 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 than 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 reenforcements 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 FJoche, 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 I! I 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 fa4e for men of such distinguished qualities. The condition of England, at the close of the year 179.'') 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 ca-rying through a Parliamentary reform, nor of acquiring any addition ..o the democratic power, unless, by the success of the French, the prescni ministry were forced to retire from the government. These ill-humors at length bi'oke 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 uroken by a stone, or a bullet from an air-gun ; and on his majesty's return, he was again assailed and narro\vly escaped the fury of the popu- lace. These outrages, however, tended only to strengthen the govern fi'2 HISTORY OF EUROPE. ICeap. X4. ment, by clearly convincing all reasonable men, into what excesses rhc populace would speedily run, if they were not restrained by a firm hand, and also how narrow a line divided England A-nna 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 passea 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 panics here were not greatly dissimilar 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, who was opposed to him, had sixty-two thousand foot and twenty-two thousand horse: but, before the campaign was far advanced, thirty tiiou- sand men, as has already been related, were directed under Wurmser tc reenforce 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 Auslrians 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. lie 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, were forced to retreat. Moreau, who commanded the army on the Upper Rhme, including the divisions of Desaix and St. Cyr, taking advantage of the absence of the Archduke, formed a project for crossing the Rhine rtt 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 :iver, advanced to the intrenchments of) /796.' HISTORYOFEUROPE. 83 Kehl. and carried them at the point of the bayonet. Fronn the magnitude of this undertakino; 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 xo the foot of the mountains (tf the Black Forest at the head of seventy-one thousand men. This cele- 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 M urg, 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 tilt' 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 to 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 tov^ard Stutgard and the right bank of llie Neckar. By this mpans, they drew nearer the army of Wartensleben, M.ul nanu'd a central and interior line of communication. On the 25th, ilie Austrian forces were concentrated on the ricr]i! bank of the Neckar, between Ci'onstadt 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 rigJit wing, and would have gained an important victory, had all his troops come up in time to f)llow the retreating masses of the French. Jourdan, after having remained a i^ew 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 feuporior in force to the pursuing army of Jourdan, he resumed the oiTen- sive, attacking the French advanced guard under Bernadotte, on the 22nd, whom he drove back with loss into the mountains. He then dispatcJied 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 HISTORYOFEUROFE. [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 ignoi'ant 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 ihey 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 Lalin 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. Hei'e, again, the Arcnduke 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 efficientU 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. Tlie 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 an bombardments, the fortress was, on the 9tf) 1796.] HISTORY OFEUROPE. 85 of Januurv, .797, carried by assault. Hsnningen was next invested, and evacuated b"~ capitulation on the J31st of the same month. This event terminated the campaign of 1796 in Germany : a campuign the most remarkable that had yet occurred, excepting that of Napoleon in Italy. In August of this year, the treaty between France and Spain, already ;\ferred 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, without considering how an insular power was to maintain itself against the nava\ 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, altliough the mist which accompanied it enabled the French admiral to olude the vigilance of the Bntish squadron, one ship of the line struck on 86 HISTORY OF EUROPE. C air. Ml the rocks at Ushant, and went down, several others were much damaged, and the fleet was entirely dispersed. On the 31st of Decembei*, 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 kw 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 year v/itnessed 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 c^ disasters was a rapid fall of public securities ; the three per cents sold as low as -nl, having fallen to that from -98, where they stood at the break- inn out of the war. 1797.] H I S T O R Y O F E U R O P E . gl For a long period, the Bank had experienced a pressure fo: moiiev, owing partly to the demand for gold and silver, which resulted irom 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, 1793, 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 linnted in its operatioa 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 tlie 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 tiinety-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 jleet 'ook place. A feeling of discontent had for a long tiiu.' prevailed in the navy, without having attracted the serious attention of the government. It was in part brouffht to a crisis by the insubordinate spirit of the times, but it had its origin 'n 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 \ variety of 8 88 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Chai-. X.i 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 lielm whose capacity was equal to any emergency. They denied the peiition 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 haracter of their enterprise, and man by man, and crew by crew with- drew from their perilous compact, slipped the cables, one after ai illier, 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 mutin> began, every vessel was placed under the control of the governmeni. Parker, the leader of the mutiny, and several of his more proininedt associates we7-e executed ; but the greater part under sentence of deatji, were nardoned bv royal proclamation. I797.J H I S 1 O R Y O F E U R O P E . M9 Hut, wna ever may have been the internal dissensions of the British navy, its external operations were fraught with terror to its enemies. Karly in Feljruary, 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 flpet, and sweeping the liritish 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 rmrnber 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. U consisted of fifteen ships of the line and eleven frigates under the com- mand of De Winter. As soon as Admiral Duncan was apprised bv 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 tiiem were not secured in time and made their rscape : and of (hose that were 90 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Chap. Xll secured, two were retaken by their crews on the homewc.rd jiassacje, and one was so disabled that she went to the bottom ; hut eicjht line-of-battlf ships and two of fifty-six guns were brought safely into Yarmouth Roads. These two victories filled all Europe with astonishment: the first bv the proof it afforded of the decided superiority of British seamanship, the 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. Rut the eflects 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 liglit 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 .luly, 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 fiand. 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 het 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 1796, ren- dered it apparent that the Alpine frontier would be the most assailable point of the Austrian domim'ons 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 Itah^ 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 reenforcements of ti"oops to that quarter; but they were dilatory in their movements, and the most eflicient 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 J797.J HISTORYOFEURCPE 91 of the Taglianicnto. This stream, after descending from the mountains, separates into several fordable l^ranches, 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 tlie 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, vvithdrew 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 fiie order, and precipi- tated themselves into the river. The precision and beauty of the move- ment resembled the exercise of a field-da)^ 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 fumself 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 effjrt 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 forwai'd 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 hib 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 enca'iiped within sixty leagues of Vienna, with an army of forty-five thousand men. But, though Napoleon had thus far conducted the campaign trmmpij- antly, he began now to be embarrased by his success. The Venetian 92 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Chaf. XII provincos, taking advantage of his absence, were preparing to revolt, and threatened his communications in the rear; he had just received a dispatcli from Moreau, announcing his inability to support him in his contemplated advance on the Austrian capital ; arid 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 mai-'ry side wliici the horses could not penetrate; and NELSON 1798.] HISTORY OFEUROPE. 9& 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 mowei 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 shoi-e, 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- tude 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 dignitv on n* 100 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Chap. XIII the conqupror, he replied, "Admiral Nelson's fame will L* coequal with the British name, and it will be remembered that he gained the greatest naval v'ctory on record, when no man will think of asking whether he ivas created a baron, a viscount, or an eari." 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 svvord; 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 11th 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 seaside, 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 Fiench infantry. Their bones still remain in great heap.s amid the sand-hills of the Defert — a monument to the eternal infarnv of Napoleon. ,799.1 H^STORYOFEUROPE 101 The Frencn army pursued its route, and on the 16th of Marcu 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. lie 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 ihe French army in resuming the siege of that place. On the evening of the 7th of May, an unknown fleet was seen on the \erge 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 avRi' • 'i.e 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, wnicn latter fell into the hands of Sir Sidney Smith. AT.cr 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, Nanoleon 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 Mural's cavalry : thus, the whole army of nine thousand men was totally destroyed; an event almost unparalleled in modern warfare. CHAPTER XIV. FEOM 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 ©f 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 orivileges of the provinces were abolished ; the ancient federal Union superseded by a Republic, one and indivisible; the provincial authorities 179«.J H I S T O R Y O F E U R O P E . 103 changed lUcO functionaries emanating from the, 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 roice 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. Alarmrd at the position of affairs, and fearful of losing their influence in Holland the French Directory ordered Gene- ral Daendels to lake 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 orher 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 (ew 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 the older Cantons ; and thus the seeds of disaffection were sown betw( en the 9 104 HISTORY OF EUROPE. |Ci,ap. XfV component parts of the state: yet. practically, this evil was of trilling 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 si.xty 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, I'ose 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 he 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 (Jeneva, 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. I05 twenty thousand strong. Being still desirous to avoid proceeding to exlre. mities, they informed the Directory that they would disband their miKcia 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, H ; moved, on the 2nd of March, toward Fribourg and Soleure, where the revolutionary partisans were the most numerous. His advance was hero- ically opposed hj 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 Scha wen- burgh, in front of Berne, and after an obstinate contest, maintained during the whole day, the Swif=s 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 theii country. 106 HISTORY OFEUROPE. [CuAr. XiV The !'"rencli, 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 (he 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 flao; : 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 r2th 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 «po/i:e disrespectfully of the new authorities, should be punished with death. But while the rich and popular part of Switzerlauu was thus fallino- 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, Undej'walden, 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 wle 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 theru backvvard 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 rt'enforced 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 liad been driven into their valleys, a French corps was rapidly advancing m 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 thf 1798.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. lOT 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 sufPer- mg and humiliation to the conquered people. Forty thousand men lived upon them at free quarters ; and the requisitioiis 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 mei'ely informed, in reply, that Switzerland was a cont quered nation, and must submit to the lot of the vanquished. The Swiss Directors, in disgust resigned th(>ir 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 So "wytzers arrived on the field ; they were too late and too few to retrieve the oattle, 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 tlie 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 Italy were the next to be attacked. Il had long been an avowed object of French Republican ambition, to revo. 12 KJM HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Chap. XIV, lutioiuze the Roman poople, and plant the tricolor flag in the city of BrutLiss: and fortune at length favored the Directory with a pretext for accomplishing this design. Josej)h 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 thp 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 eagt 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 altai', imploring protection from Heaven. Berthier might easily have taken possession of Rome at once, but he preferred to avail himself of the sorry pi-etext of resorting to that step only when the inhabitants invok-ed 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 Fi'ench 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 -egior 1798.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 109 where it is placed, it fears neither th- 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 rinf^s 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 Leo-horn, in March, 1799. After remaining there for a time, he was compelled tc 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 Frencli 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 ;,ci save him from spoliation. Since hirj opening the gates of Italy to France by tne 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 rec uired, and these he was compelled to furnish gratuitously. He was foiced to banish all emi 110 HISTORY OF EUiiOfE. [Chap. XIV. grams from his dominions, and oppress his subjeots by enormous contri- butions for the use of his insatiable allies ; and, at the same time, ma 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 n-iassacre 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 dissemi.iated 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 Director}'^, in the belief that Naples would 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 inefliciont 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 tliousand five hundred, on an open field. Mack novi' speedily retreated with his scattered forct^i to the 1798.J HISTORY OF EUROPE. Ill Neapolitan frontier, vigorously pursued by Championr.et : within seven- leen days from the opening of the campaign, eighteen thousand French veterans had driven before 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 21st 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 Parthenapeian 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 m establishing democratic governments within their dominions, teach thf ]'2* 112 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Chap. XIV. 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 reb.j!- 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 Ii-eland 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- rectioji was on the point of breaking out. But at this juncture, the de- structiDn 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 *nd undisciplined multitude. On the 19th of Febrviary, 1798, Lord Moira made an eloquent speech 1798.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 113 m the Britisn Parliament in favo^ of the insurgents; but the period for accommodation was past. On the same da^, the Irish committees came to a formal resolution to regard no offers from either house of Parliamei t, and agree to no terms but a total senaration from Great Britain. Although the designs of the insurgents were now revealed, the names of the leaderb 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, e.xcepting a few scattered bands in the mountains of Wicklow and We.xford. 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 Pans, 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 oe at an end ; and every pre- paration was made ^o sustain the national independence. The Hanse Tow.is were not fortuiiate 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 fiom 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 reacly 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 Kmperor, and pay, besides, a monthly subsidy of seventy-five thousand pounds. Pau'l at the same time gave an asylum to Louis XVIII. in the capital of Courland, and entertained with munificence the French emi- irrants who souo-ht refuge in his dominions. But all his efforts failed to induce Prus.si!i 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 ihe battle of .Tena. Great Britain also exerted herself for the approaching contest. Tn meet the increased expenses which the treaty with Russia ?nd 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 grr ind with the greatest bravery; lit, HISTORY OF EUROPE. (Chap. XV but the Austrians at length succeeded in cutting off the French left wing so entirely I'rom the main uody, 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 Switzei'land 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 combi led forces of Turkey and Ruasia on the 3rd of March. Massena, who after Jourdan's withdrawal was intrusted with the ooiii- 1799.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. HI maud 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 Kra} 's victorious divisions on his flank. Hg therefore intrenched himself on tlie line of the Limmat and Linth and established his head-quarters at Zurich. The A.rchduke resumed the offensive by a general attack on Massena's whole line, on the 14th of May, which was so far successful that Massena, afler 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 g;eneral, anxious to prevent a junction between Hotze and the Archduke, lefl 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 often 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 feM' 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 hi"" mind, as well as the general character of his tactics, was aptly illustraied by his first order to General Chastelar, chief of the Austrian staff. That oflictr 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 — thai is mv way to reconnoitre !" Moreau, who had superseded Soberer in the cnmmand of the French il8 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Oha^. 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 11th 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 forsed to retreatunder 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. 11 U made gooii his retreat to Loano, where he effected a junctiun 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 Loinbardy, 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 stpp, be 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 thev w(,re 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, na 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 Fiench 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 thesame ground which, nineteen hundred years before, was occupir-d by Hannibal and the Roman legions. The battle was renewed at sit o'clock the fol. lowinir morninff between th*" t.roo- s of Ragrathion ».rd the French left under 120 HISTORYOF 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 'he 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 advarce and throw themselves into the stream. Suwarrow awaited their approach ; and, after a murderous strife, the Republicans were overwhelmed and driven back aci'oss 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 was about twelve thousand men killed and wounded, but the victoiy re- mamed 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, I'eached 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 oneof xhe strongest fortresses in Piedmont, with six hundred and eighteen pieces of cannon, forty thousand mu;".kets, 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 sc nt 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 mercv. 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 I'eceived the royal sanction, and Nelson himself concurred with the king in that o itrageous decision. i:a9.i H I S T O II Y O F E U R P E . 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 (he 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 11th 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 I5th 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 movemen. 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 Tessirio 122 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Chap. XV. with tAV'lve thousand men; and, on the surrender of Tortona, himself followed the same route with seventeen thousand; while Moreau retirea 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 I^immat, 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 reenforcements ; 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 hi.s veterans for the Rhine ; leaving his position to be occupied by Korsakow's 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 cut short by the court of Vienna with the direction to "execute their will, without further objections." The result of these movements was v/hat 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 iii 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, and 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 light 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 F'rench divisions on the road to Winterthur. The French made an obstinate resistance ; but the allied troops, fighting with the courage of despair, were invincib e, and Soon opened a passage 1799.1 HISTORYOFEUROPE. 12^ fi)r retreat. Unlbrtunately, 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 artiflery and equipages hi 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, am 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- kovv'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 witb the utmost difficulty, persuaded the veteran conqueror to change his plans, and, for the first time in his life, to order a retreat. Preceded by the Austrian division of Aufienberg, the Russians now ascended Mont Bragel, driving before them the detachments of Molitor who disputed every foot of ground, and finally took post at Naefels, whoro I'ii HISTORY OF EUROPE. ^Civ*/. XV he resolutely withstood the Russian advanc?, and resis)ed aM attempts to nislod<;e him. Suvvarrow, bpintjthus foiled, changed his lire of retreut 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 wav, 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 mourntul uniformity of the scene ; and under their shelter, or on the open surface of the mountain, the soldiei's were forced to lie down and pass a long autumnal nigiit. But nothing could overcome the indomitable spirit of the Russians. They struggled on through hardships that would have daunted any other K>ldiers, and at length the straggling army was rallied in the valley of the Rhine, and head-quarters were established at Ilantz, on the 10th of October. In the mean time, Kdrsakow having reorganized his army, hi^lted 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 A'jstrians 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 unnece-ssary 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- tiary, 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 Aberpromby, 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 Ad.miral Story, consist- ing of eight ships of the line, three of fifty-four guns, eight of forty-four and six smaller frigates. At sigjht 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 !79a.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 12.'i remaineJ on the defensive, and thus gave the Republicans time to asseni- ble their forces, to the number of twenty-four thousand, including seven thousand French soldiers. General Brune was placed at the head of this army, and lie attacked the British position on the 10th of September : but, after a well contested action, he was repulsed with 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 Du,ve 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 could look for no further reenforcements ; 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 &ide 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, and the Russians went into winter-quarters in Jersey and Guern.sey. After Suwarrow withdrew from Italy, in September, the command of the Austrian forces devolved on Melas, who, in obedience to the direc- tion;^ 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 12« HISTORYOFiJUROPE. [Lhap. XVI Italy. Championnet, to whom the French forces were intrusted, attempted to raise the siege ; and, for that purpose, made -everal 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- Iral 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. FROM 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. The election of a new third of the Legislature, in May, 1709, 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 j)lace. The people of France were already sufficiently dissatisfied with the conduct of their precedent rulers, when he 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 long - be maintained, and the influence of the daily journals was suddenl) rought to bear with prodigious force against the government. 1799.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 127 A conspiracy was soon organized, of which Sieves 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 bm 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 cojifusion ; 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 hitheito 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 Franct;. Leaving, therefore, Kleber to direct the government, he set out from Alexandria, on the 2'2nd of August, ac- companied by Berthier, Lannes, Murat, Marmont, Andreossy, BerthoUet, Monge and Bourrienne, escorted by a few faithful guides. The |iarty embarked on a solitary part of the beach, in some fishing boats, which conveyed them to two French frigates, lying off the shore. iVapoleon 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- ifter 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 acclannatioD, 128 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Chap. XVI in hailing iiim as the destined saviour of his couiitry. 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 : aid 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 came 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, iri honor of Napoleon. The feast passed off with sombre tranquillity. E': ery 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- mon 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 that 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, ana 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 ai'rangement completed. At daybreak on the 8th (>f November, the bonif-vards were filled with a numerous and .•7i>3.J HISTORY OF EUROPE. 129 splendid cavalry, and all the officers in and around Paris repaired in full dress to the Rue Chantereine. The Council met at the appointed hnu^\ 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 thes- measures carried into effect. 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 ov/n 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 com.menced 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 cf 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 tiie counsel of his brother. Jusi as he began to speak, an officer with t -n grenadiers entered. The officer stepped to Lucien, laid his hand or his shoulder, and whispeed, "Bv l.-^O HISTORY OF EUROPE. ^Chap. XVI vour brother's orders:" the grenadiers shouted, "Down with the assa.^- sins!" and Lucien left the hall with his guard. Meanwhile, Napoleon had descended to the court, mounted on horse- back anc 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 nionths. and vesting the executive power in the mean time in the haiirl of Napoleon, Sifiyes and Roger Ducos, undui- ilte title of provisional consuls- Two commissions of iwenty-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, Fouch^ 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 inN-nial policy of France, but resolving nevertheless to resist her foreign a agressions ; 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, ISOO, 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 renevi^ed for twenty-one years, in <^onsidp • %tion of which, the directors made a loan to the p-overnment of 1800.1 HISTORY OF EUROPE. 131 three millions sterling, for six years without intorest. The union of Ire. land with Great Britain, after a stormy debate 'n 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 twenfv- '»ight temporal and four spiritual ; the former elected for life by the Irish peerage, and tlie Matter, 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 del?t, were but little felt amid the general rise of prices and incom.es I'esulting 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 and 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, after the •secession of Russia was confirmed, he urger'ly recommended the 14 132 HISTORY OF EUROPE. IChap. XVJ Aulic Council to take 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 prcsecuting 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 •lundred 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 court 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 effpctuc»l 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 sam.e day, May 2nd, Mo- reau attacked the main body of Austrians, in the plain before Engen. Kray maintained his ground with great resolution until nightfall, when the French, being reenforced by St. Cyr, renewed the battle and forced the Auutrians to retreat. The loss >n each side was about seven thou- J34 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Chap. XVII. sand men ; but the advantages of the victory remained with the French, hy 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 ; but 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 tlie Imperialist position. Kray now withdrew his defeated left wing, and bravely maintained the action with his centre and right. Both parties redoubled their eflTorts, but at length the day closed, leaving a part of *he 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 fi-om 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 wa.s 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 Saint-e Suzanne, and /bOO.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 1371 drove liim ba^-K in disorder more than two leagues. Moreau, perce'ving 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 knowincr 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 aci") > the Danube at Blindheim, and thence took a position at Hochstedt, which induced Sray 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 often 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 rignt, 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 hack 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 of Genoa. The situation of the French in Genoa was now critical, more especially, as a large and influential part of the mhabitants 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 th 11 136 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Chap. XVIi. were dislodged and driven from their posts with a loss of fifteen hundrnd 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 ihe 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 tlian three thousand men. After this event, nothing remained to the French of their conquests in Italy but the ground which was commanded by the cannoD 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 thai the garrison and inhabitants soon be- gan to sufl^er 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 lo Mi. an, 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 expiore 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, " [s it possible to pass ?" " Yes," ans'vored Marescot, '' but with grea* ItiOO.j HISTORY OF EUROPE. 137 ilifficulty." "Let us set out, then,"' said Napoleon; and on the 9th of May. preparations were begun for the ascent. A hui.dred large fir-trees were provided, each so hollowed as to contain a piece of arlillery ; the carriages of the guns were taken to pieces and placed on the backs of mules; and the ammunition was dispersed among tli8 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 icicessani 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 138 HIrfTORYOFEUROPE. [Chap. XVII was possible for the infantry to pass by a path along tlie face of the cliff, above tiie range of the guns of Bard ; but it was wholly impracticable for artillery. In this extremity, he summoned the fort to surrer. Jer, 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 ihe means of defending it were in hi.s 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- lerv-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 clilTs, 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, v/hich 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 win^-s were equally successful in the movements assigned to them. Thurrea«j, with five thousand men descended to Susa and Novalese ; Moncey, with ?ixteen thousand crossed the St. Gothard, and Bethencourt with a division of Swiss troops ascended the Simplon an^ forced the defile of Gondo. Copj^^equently, more than -\ry 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 TicJro, 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, th^ew the Aus- trians into the utmost embarrassment ; and a general retreat, on their part, was the first consequence of the French advance. Op 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, concentratea 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 Viuvor with a similar force was only two leagues in his rear, he did not hesitau i^ 1800.J HISTORYOFEUROPE. 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 lo 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 lefl, 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 11th 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 Rfelas 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 bv success, was in turn forced back across the stream ; but the French could aot follow up their advantage, and the Austrians, perceiving their weak 14U HISTORY OF E I R O P E [Chap. XVII. ness, returned to the charge, and Victor's line was broken. Thus en.' couraj^ed, 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 accom.panied by the Consul's own guard of reserve, revived the spirit of the fugitives. Napo- leon immediately detached e'ght 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 Desai.x'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 staff, to follow up his success: while Napoleon made arrangements to secure a retreat by the line of Castel Nuovo. It ^^'as now four o'clock ; and Desaix's main body, being the Frencn 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, and 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 irom 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 bemg 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 retn^ated in confusion overturned those who were advancing 1800.] H'STORY OF EUROPE. 141 no its support, and the entire Austrian army became, in those few moments, lone vnass of fugitives, flying across the plain. ' I'he tide of battle being thus suddenly and unexpectedly turned, it was easy to rally the broken Frenc.i divisions, and secure the victory. The loss of the Imperialists was seven thousand killed and wounded, 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 Austiians ; 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 liim 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 diminish 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 Bessieros, 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 Keilernian iliounh promoted with liie other generals, never afterward 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 for a 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, Pizzighitone, Arona, Placentia, Cava, 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 XVIIL. 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 representa ions of the perils of the Em- pire ; but he opposed all such arguments ' y producing the treaty with l^ngland, and poii ting out the disgrace that vould attach to the Imperial i42 HISTORYOFLUROPE. [Chai-. XVIII government if, on the first appearance of clanger, engagements so solemnly entered into were to b abandoned. Nor did the situation of affairs justify any measures of despDndency. 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 Abercromby, joined to the Neapolitan troops and the Imperial divisions in Ancona and 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 Ulm 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 Campo 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, owever, was obstinately bent on saving Malta and Egypt; and insisted on jie naval armistice as a sine qua non; declarinj^ 1800.J HISrORYOFEUROPE. I43 that unless it were agreed to before the 11th of September, he would recommence hostilities in both Italy and Germany. The urgency of '.he 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- ipension of hostilities between all the belligerent powers. By this it was proposed, that an armistice should take 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. Nothinsburg 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 I'aised 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, anc' the substitution in his place of the )"oung Archduke John. In Italv, the ">+al foice under If) 144 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Chap. XVIll Field-marshal Bel legarde 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 Franco and not serving again until regularly exchanged : this noble fortress, tlierefore, with its unrivalled harbor and impregnable walls, was permanently annexec 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, >yithout openly engaging in a war, lent a willing ear to the proposals of Napoleon. But in other parts of Italy, a feeling jf 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 aflerward 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 war- 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 :lefensive, 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 Se 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 ttie outset, however, the most sinister presages attended 1800 H 1 S '1 O R Y O F E U R O P E . 14» 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 dreaiy 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 foresl 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 Avarmly 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 norps 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 Iris pursuit, with a determination of destroying the whole army before it could recover from its disasters. He therefore hastened on to Salzburg, v here his advanced guard became 146 H I S T O K Y O F E U R O P E . [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 alFairs of the Archduke were, however, m 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, and 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 nim 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; wh^n 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 ihc 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 Hvalanches, 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 '>f the count '•y, and expose the troops to destruction from famine He bOO.j HISTORYOF EUROPE. 141 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 hard.ships, 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 Kith 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, desii'ous is 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 \essels 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, l.T HS HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Ceap. 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 fhe 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 fi'om 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 formallj'^ 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. Ou the 25th of July, 1800, the commander of the Danish frigate Freya re- fused to allow liis 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 Tow broadsides _ at the Freya, took possession of her and the ships under her convoy, and' tarried them into the Downs. 1800. 1 HISTORYOFEUROPE 149 At the sanje time, the English cabinet had learned that hostile negotia- ;ions were in progress between the Northern courts relative to neutral rignrs ; and deenaing 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- batt'ie ships moored across the strait from Cronenberg Castle to the Swe- dish shore; but the English fleet passed without the commission of any ace 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 nnon hostility and outrage. He instantly ordered an embargo on all Bruisn stiips 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 brouijht about a general maritime confederacy, hostile to Great Britain, which was signed ^i i.>,ussia, 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 poi't is to be considered under blockade, only when such a force 150 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Chap. XIX. is stationed at its moutli 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, 1801, 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 oflice. 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. Windiiam 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 AfTairs, 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 ISni.] H r S T O R Y O F E U R O P E . 151 House of I'an.cunpnt. From the fact, therefore, of Mr. Pitt's haviiifj sn conspicuousl)'- 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 1o 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 verj 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 mi^ht 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 wood 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 ready 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 the confederated powers to ride triumphant in th<=' British Channel. As yet, however, the hostile fleets were not concen'i ated, 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 adi.Tiral 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 vras commanded by admiral Graves. When the leading ships came within range, tne bat- 12 152 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Chap. XIX t.eries from tbe Danish shoro 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 often 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-Avorks 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 theni 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 tremi^ndous ; more than two tnousand guns poured forth their thunder within a sjtace 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 ^>ar:inh fleet began to slacken; loud cheers from the English saiiora iHOl.J HISTORYOFEUROPE. 153 announced the suii-ender 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, thougb protracted by the Danish government on account of their fears of Russia, was at last concluded in an armistice for fourteen weeks, during which the armed Danish vessels were to remain fn 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 «^vport 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-war 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 efiects 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 oe 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 Duroc to St. Petersburg to counteract the influence of Great Britain; but, though Alexander gave the French minister a flattering reception, he 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 r onths 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 EGfPT AND ST. DOMINGO EUROPE, FROM THE PEACE OF 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 aivl ''1 tlioir standards. Kleber now turned his attention to the main army approactiing tVom 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 ''••om tha* country, and dispatched Sir Ralph Abercromby with a large flee* lb6 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Chap. XX. and fitte(in thousand men, to AlexatKiria. 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 tliousand, 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 bavonets, 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 Mencu 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, m which both parties occupied themselves with reorganizing their forces. On the 9th of May, General Hutchinson 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 kia 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 *he 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 1801 ; H I S T O R Y O F E U R O P E . IST feteram 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 on 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 Csesar 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 eflfort 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 fronj 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 15W HISTORYOF EUROPE [Ceap. XX, eventually both drew off without prizes ; but it was a triumph to thfl '"iitish 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 ith 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 lialf of Guiana, paying vwenty 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 fro?n all apprehension of a struggle with the Continental powers, he bent his attention to the shores of Great Britain, and made great preparation f )r invading that country : while England concentrated her resources for a general defence of the coast. But it was soon apparent that these effbrls, 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, 1>*',)1. By these preliminary articles it was agreed, that hostili- ties between the contracting parties should immediately cease by land and iea. ; 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 : tha^ 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 prt iiminaries 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 tne splen- dor of military pageantry, the calamities of the Revolution, and visitors from other countries flocked to the French metropolis to examine the locali- ses where such frightful scenes had been enacted, and to see the several heroes of the mighty drama. But the active and indefatigable mind of Napol on took no respite du- ring this period of general relaxation. Thinking notning done while aught remained to do, he no sooner attained the highest point of military glory, ^ban 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 oi'iriiiarine forces, he projected an expedition fo the recapturing of St. Domi m^o, which had freed itself Vom the Frencl yoke oy a blo<^ ly insurrectiou during the misrule of th« National Assen"\ v. £801] HISTORYOF 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- .ed. 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 triumpii 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 thrir discipline and experience unavailing. This state of things continued for three months, during which numberless actions took place, and in many, the French suflfered 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. Rut 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 caical. Pestilence and the sword had reduced their numbers to thirteen thoi'sand men in all ; and . 16* 10,) HISI'ORY OF EUROPE. [Chaf. XX. of these, five thousand were in the hospitals, and Le Clerc himself, with several of his best officers, had fallen victims to the climate. 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. DominjTo 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 autliority, no alternative remained but the sword. By the 11th 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 of 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 suppres.sion of the illegal aats of the Directory, and on the 18th their hall was cleared and their doors closed by French bayonets. A new Constitution was then pub- ':i,hed 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. 16i 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 empori-um 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 HISTORY OFEUR OPE. [Chap. XX newspapers. To Napoleon, who was accustomed only to the voice ol' 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- net 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 s^overnment, plainly foreseeing the result, resolved ta 1803.] flISTORYOFEUROPE. 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 expon- enced at witnessing so remarkable a scene. The British government contented itself with replying to these intern- 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, demuncled 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 un' ' the invasion of the allies, in 1814. This severity was the more unpardonable, as the minister of Foreign Affairs had, a few days beforrt, given the Englisfc 164 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Chat. 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. FKANCE, FKOM THE PEACE OF AMIENS TO NAPOLEOn's ASSUMPTION OF THB 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 wliich 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 ot 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 of the hospitals were closed against the indigent sick and wounded. Tf 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 ol 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 Constantino founded a second Rome on the shorir& 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 isto it the weight of the sword. 1801.J 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 Fouche, 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 ^vith 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, ttie Legion of Honor, which gradually extended so as to 166 HISTORY OFEUROPE. [Chap. XXI. 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 i-eestablishment 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 it 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 11th of April, 1802, a grand religious ceremony took place, in honor of the occasion, in ihe 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 HISTORY OF EUROPE. i"? 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 thai 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 chai- 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 forined 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 XVIIL, 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 L, 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 nf the monarchy and Republic were wrought to a consistent shape. To ref')'-m 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- 13 166 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [CHAr. XXL ledge With the desire for social melioration. To retain statutes as they are, without ever modifying them according to the progress of society, is to make 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-fourtlis, if three or more : all entails and limitations were abolished. The effects of such a system, cooperating with the extensive subdivisiop 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 ; and yet, to an impartial spectator, nothing can b( j^oro evident 1804.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 1H9 than that it is precisely this change which has rendered nuguiory 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 tne French people labor, is owing to an instinctive fear, which leads the revolutionary party uo 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 array, 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 t^ 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 Firs* 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, bui 170 H I S T O R Y O F E U R P E . [Chai>. 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. Durmg 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 do Bourbon, and a lineal descendant of the great Conde, that he signed an oider 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 nnce 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 suj)ping 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 wa.s urged so feelingly, that Gencal 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 ilie First Consul," he answered, "to desire an interview." "Your duty is finished," replied Savary, taking the pen o it of his hand ; " thL<» IS 'uy business.'* 1804.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 171 The court then proceeded, without a vestige of evidence against ih« 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 tlie arm of his conductor and asked, " Are they going to leave me to perish in a dungeon, or thron' me into an oubl/etfe .?" 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 s|)nt 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 tlie 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, a.nd 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 misrepreseutations 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 gi'' e 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 my declaration, that I was threatened with being shot if I did not reveal to my inquisitors the secrets of my country." He was remanded «o prison, though the government could show no legal or plausible ground 17* 172 HISTORY OFEUROPE. [Chai-. 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 Moieau 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 rosq 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 othe-s 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- lier 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 ot 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, » MME. DE STAEL i«04.] ■ HISTORYOFEUROPE. 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. JFEOM 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 v/as 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 mainlv 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 pomt, a flotilla capable of transporting an army of on'- hundrd and *ifty 174 II ISTO [i Y O F EU R O PE . [Chaf. XXII. thousand men, with its field and siege equipage, ammunition, stores and horse* ; and at the same time, to provide so formidable a covering naval force <.s 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 ; Loi-d 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, accompanif.d 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.] H I S T R Y O F E U R O P K . 175 The insurreciion 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 tiie 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. Tlie commerce of Britain began to suffer for want of the active protection of former days, and tlie 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 tlie 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, whicli 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 Campo 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, estalx. 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- '•ency ; 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 mora! 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 t»eyond what could have been expected from her resources and power. Russia, under the benignant rule of Alexander, was daily advancing m 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 imorovements 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 ; tliough at this period, and for some years after, she was unable to bring more thzn 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 tlie 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 saci'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 pomp and magnificence. After taking the oath, and 178 HIS T O K V OF EUROPE. [Chjlp. 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 thsnce to Boulogne. It was not Ipng 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 tht blowing up of one of the Spanish ships, and the capture of the other three, with ten millions of dollars on board. The capture of these frigates, before any formal announcement of ho.s- tilities, produced the result which might have been anticipated ; namei v, 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 preparaiions to comnjence 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 11th 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 stales, 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 iNaples, 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 : thov rather, on the con- 18 J80 HISTORY OFEUROPE. [Chap. XXIll. trary, furnished an additional reason for prosecuting that great under- taking, for he was well aware thai if England wrre 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 ofllicer that could be found ; but it soon appeared that kw 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 armv at length came to know in what particular vessel he was to sail, ami 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 lact, 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. Tlie 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 waste furnish thirty- eight, and Spain thirty ; and they were to be thus statior'ed : of the French. 1805.] HIS TORYOF EUROPE. lyl twenty-one al 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 and 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, pto- •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 Villeneuve, 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 t.liips of the line, and cruise to the westward of Cape Finisterre, to inter- •oept 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 18'2 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Chap. XXIU. 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-eighi 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 tour 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, wei'e 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 liis 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 1808 ; and the other was the reor- ganization of the National Guard, which greatly augmented the numbers of that force and, in efl^ect, placed it at the Emperor's disposal. ,805.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 183 Meanwhile, the British government directed their efforts to shut up the combined fleets in the liarbor 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 tiie 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, waf* 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 ol' 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- lesi '"!o'lingwood'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 h^ fell to the deck. "I hope not," said Hardy. "Yes," he replied, •my back-bone is shot through." He was immediately carried below, after he had taken out his handkerchief to 14 184 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Chap. 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 sU 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 ihe 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 trying 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 ar. 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 lemains 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 cressed forward with great energy toward the Rhine. Previous to his 1805.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. ISfj 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 it:i policy of neutrality. During the progress of the negotiation, the Russian 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 I'each 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, sut-li 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 under 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 jn 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 manoeuvre by which Bernadotte at first, and afterward Davoust and Soult, had taken ground in his rear with a hundred thousand men. where thev were establishintj themselves ai me HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Chap. XXIIL Augsbourg, 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 sitbiation ; but, lacking the resolution to adopt the only course of safetj'' that was open to him, a retreat into the Tyrol, he attempted to secure himself by intrenchments at Ulm, and sent orders to General Auftemberg 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, AufTemberg threw his whole 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 AufTemberg 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 11th of October, Ney encountered a body of Austrians, twenty thousand strong, at Hasslach, and a desperate action ensued, in^hich 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 ^his 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 often thousand cavalry, which, by moving in two several directions, created a diversion that enabled him. with a few hund'ed 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 tlian 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 armv 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 eight v 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 at 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 oflfensive 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 Austriar 198 HISTORYOFEUROPE [Chap. XXIII army, and brought official intelligence of the disaster at Ulm, and tlip 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 of Brannau ; 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 KutusofTand 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, 10 ofTer him the former friendship and alliance of Prussia ; but, if he refused, lo declare war, with an intimation that hostilities would com- mence on the 1.5th 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 untL 1805.J HISTORY OF EUROPE. 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 nave .hrown 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 Salzboui'g, 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, establislied 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; fov 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. Tills 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 valle / of the Danube to the capital. Napoleon saw ihf lUi) HISTORY OK K U R O P E . [Chap. XXIII. necessity of wresting this important position from the allies, and directed sixty thousand men to turn their right flank, fifty thousand to manosuvre 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., succeedea, for some days at least, in throwing an impassable barrier be- tvveen his troops and their indefatigable pursuers. He continued his retreat in good order until he reached the vicinity of Stein, where, on the 11th 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 nf Doctoroffhad, 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 corps, 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 foHow up Kutusoff's retreat, and prevent his junction with the Archduke Charles. Murat, deeming it improbable that he could overtake Kutusoff, had recourse lo 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 terns 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 comnunications not only with the Austrians, but also with the re6n- furcing 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 nc 1805.] H I S r O R y O F E U R O P F . 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 connnand 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 c'rive them to the Bohemian mountains ; and they sought to effect this by one of the most hazardous operations in war — a flank march in coluinn 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 .noment 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 nf the error committed by the allies was plainly revealed : they had ;il)andoned the heights of Pratzen, the key to their position, and exposed the flank of their whole army, in detached masses, to the delibe- rate attacks of the French veterans. It was impossible, under such cir cumstances, that the victory could remaia long in doubt. The Russian and Austrian troops fought with desperaS'^ valor against their disadvan- tages, and in parts of the field gained a :emporary success ; but in the *vent, almost every attack of the French prevailed ; the •llied army was 19 192 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Chap. XXIII broken and routod at all points, and at nightfall they were retreating in almost utter disorganization, having lost in killed, Avounded and prisoners, thirty thousand men, besides a hunared 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, ari 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 Flungary 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, y.nd Haugwitz resolved not only to withdraw from the coalition, but to s-^cure 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 Pruaeia^ 1805.J HISTORY OFEU ROPE. 19a 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 compellea 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 -.ve a fourth time trust a court without faith, without honor, without reason ? No ! The dynasty of Naples has 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 affonJed 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 freeaom of the Restoration, the revolt of the barricades and the military government of 194 HISTORY OF EUROPE [Chaf. XX[V 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 ascendrncy 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 ; 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 PRESBTjRG 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 fn>m 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 '■* doubtful whether any new administration, not founded on a coalition I806.J HISTORYOFEUROPE. 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. Fo.x 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 same 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 26tli of .lanuary, 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'sextraordinary 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 Aus^rians, 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 Beauharnois, 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 bouni'« the horizon south of 19* i96 HISTORYOFEUROPE. iOhap, 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 bonuardment 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 hi.t 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 Masscna. 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 on£ 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. !ish blockading fleet had been blown off" the station by violent winds these eleven ships put to sea accompanied by four frigates, and in twd 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.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 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 was 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 ii 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- mportation act against the manufactures of Great Britain. The English f«ople 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 and 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 19H HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Ciur 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, perha)»s, as a salvo to his own sense of justice, he otrered 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, that 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 thai 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 contribution^ 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 Ley en 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 ha for ever separated from the G-rmanic Empire, inde- pendent of any power foreign to the Confederacy, and placed under the J806.] HISTORY OF EIiROPE. I9., 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. Krusemark 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 direc- 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 tlie «cale against France : but a similar attempt to engage Austria in tlie 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 dubiom 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 trocps 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 Russia, 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 2U0 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 eiiher 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 was 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 difTerently 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 Eisenadi ; 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 manoeuvre 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.] H I S T O H y O F E U K r E . 201 flof, on Plauen ; in the centre, Muiat, with Bernadotte and Davousl, moved from Bamberg by Cronach, on Saalbourg; on the left, Lanne-' 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 oflf 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 advantageous! v 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 18th, 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 di'eaming 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 Dravery 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 HISTCRYOFEUROPE. [uhaf. AAiv 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 ignorant. 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 thai 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 f the stragglers, arriving from different points, made their way into Erfurth, a place capable, under other 1S06.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 20^ Circumstances, of permanent defence ; but the entire number surrendered on the following day, with a hundred and .wenty pieces of cannon, to the first corps of the enemy that approached the town. On the Kith, three thousand men with twenty pieces of cannon, surrendered at Nordhauseti, 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 'lumber of prisoners. The king surrendei'ed the command of the remnants of his army to Mo- henlohe, and retired to Matrdebourfr, 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 taker, 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 rni\. Wherever he directed his march, he found himself opposed by superim forces of the enemy ; and, after undergoing incredible hardships ami 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 Frenci) 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 reenforcements from some ill-defended interior fortresses, found himself at the head of twenty-four thousand men of all arms, including 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 rr.cn under Bernadotte: he nevertheless made an en- trance into the town, and defended it u itil near nightfall with invincible obstinacy ; but his lo5s 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 took piace en the 7th of November. On the ^th, Magdebourg surrendered with 20 204 II 1 S T O R y (; F E U R O P y . fCnAP. XXrv lis garrison of fourteen thousand troops under anns, four thousand in hcns- pital, six hundred pieces of cannon, eight hundred thousand pounds »>f Dowder, and extensive military stores of all sorts. The fortresses rjf 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 an fortunate 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 at Posen, 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 reen- 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.J HISTORYOFEUROPE. 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 EYLAU. Although the campaign of Jena had nearly destroyed the pc^wei 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 tlie 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 whs declined on the part of the government, but the minis- ters proposed thai a ioan shordd be contracted in England, for the service of Russia, and th-ai, 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 th*- power of France. The advanced posts of the allied army had reached the Vistula, though 206 HISTORY OF EURCPE. [Chap. XX"' not in great force, before the French troops caine up ; b it on the arrival of the latter, the allies fell back to Pultusk, and Davous. occupied War- saw on the 30th of November. Wlun, however, the second Russian army, under Buxhowden, approached Pultusk, Kamenskoi resolved on a forward movement. Head-quarters were advanced to Nas-elsk, and the four divisions of Benningsen's corps took post between the Ukra, the Bug, 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 mis, in connexion with his other measures, shoAved 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 lines, and every 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 sue h an order unnecessary, and convinced that it resulted from an approaching insanity, which so- " 1806.J 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. Sackcn and Gallitzin, at Golymin, made a stand against Augereau, who was supported by a part of Davoust's and Murat's corps. Benningsrn 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 same 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 Frencli loss exceeded four thousand men. As the Russian order for retreat still lield 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 axcrted, had at least been stemmed. While the French armies were in cantonments on the .'ight'bank o the Vistula, Benningsen, who had now been appointed to the chief com- mand of the allied forces, resolved to commence an offensive operation against th^ French left under Bernadotte and Ney, who, with nearly seventy tlmusand men, had extended themselves so as to menace Konings- berg, tlie second city of the Prussian dominions, while at the same time they were threatening Dantzic and Graudentz. For this purpose, tlie 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 hi.j head-quarters on the 17th of January On the IPth. the Russian oav- 20* ' 308 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [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 tlie 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 (/ossacks, 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 tovvn, and captured the French marshal's private baggage, among which were found, as in the den of a freebooter, silver plate bearmg 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 i-enewal 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, howevei, 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 Fj-ench 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 a* Landsberg, where he resisted a spirited attack from Davoust's corps ; and, on the following day his rear-guard, under Bagrathion, was assailed i«U7.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 20ft by Murat's cavalry and a large part of the corps of Soult and Ai'^ereau. 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, ilie 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 tne village of Eylau, was commanded by Bagrathion ; and Doctoroff held the reserve in the rear of Sacken. After Napoleon had carefully reconnoitei'ed 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 x\ugereau'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 Ijefore 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 ow^n quarters by a long circuit around the Russian outposts. The battle was now won on Benningsen's centre and right, but Davoust, who 1 ad 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 vith great gallantry to the aid of the left wing, and although Davoust's iroops 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 /brward in pursuit of the retreating army of Napoleon, when night sepa- rated the combatants. 310 HISTORYOFEUROPE. f Cha . XXV. The losses in this battle were prodigious ; twenty-five thousand men 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 ihe 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 I'esurne the siege of Dantzic. The bloody contest of Eylau excited the liveliest hopes among the people of Germany and England, and the gloom and depressioi:i that it diffused through all ranks in France were proportionably deep. The funds fell rapidly, thousands of families were called to mourn the deatv of relatives, and the general despondency was much increased when the message of Napoleon to the Senate, dated March 26tb, 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 foi'ty thousand. This requisition for men N\as 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 nunihf's 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.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 211 While Napoleon was taking those measures which resulted in the battle of Jena, the affairs of Turkey attracted some attention among the powers of Europe. As early as August. 1806, the French Emperor had sent General Sebastiani 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 Walla- chia 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 Turkisli capital in ashes. In timidated by these threats, the Sultan acceded to the demand, and mad j 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 immedialelv «?nsued. •412 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 tliought of nothing but submission. Scbastiani, 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 had occurred in Eng- land. This was the dismissal of the Whig ministry, on the 24th of March and the appointment on the 6th 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.J 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 XXYl. CAMPAIGN OF FRIEDLAND AND TILSIT. The two armies under Benningsen and Napoleon, remamed 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 kw 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, Benningsen 214 U : o T O ,^ Y OF K U R O P E [Chap. XXVI. was jiDle to muster but a hunored and twenty thousand men, which num- ber .i.cluded tne detached corps of sixteen thousand Prussians and Rus- sians, 'inder Lesrocq, in front of Konincrsbertj, and the left wing, fifteen thousand Stionij, under Tolstoy, on the Narew ; so that the force to be relied on iu direct opposition to Napoleon, was scarcely ninety thousand men. The exertions of the Freiich Emperor had assembled a much larger force. Exclusive of an army of observation on the Elbe, and the garrisons and biockadmg corps in his lear, 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 lii.ie to collect into one focus her unwieldy strength, she was now overmatched on her own frontier. After the fall of Dantzic, Benningsen wa^ Iiiduced by the exposed situa- tion of Ney's corps ai Guttstadt, on the riglii bank of the Passarge, mid- way between the two armies, to hazard an attaok on that insulated body. Early on the morning of the 5th of June, the Russian ariny 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 weie so spiritedly main- tained, that the French officers conceived the forcing of the bridge to be the chief object of the Russian commander. Meanvhtle, the real attack was directed against Ney, seven miles to the ngiit oi" ihe Passarge, and seemed to promise perfect success, as the French marsiiar was taken en- tirely by surprise. But the Russians advanced in cieiachments, and strict orders had been given not to begin the battle uniil 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 tiundred prisoners, with several guns and a quantity of magazines, were taken ; but, ownig to the dilatory movements of the Russians, Ney retired with comparatively little loss to Aukendorf, where he passed the night, and the next day he made good hia 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 t^'^ 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 juncture, 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 enemv were seen to emerge from the woods 1808.] HISTORY OF K U R O P K . 2in and advance at a rapid p?.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 butcher} 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 ofT from his supplies at Koningsberg ; and as the French testified a determination to manoeuvre 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 Fi'ench 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 ofT the retreat to the Russian frontier. Under these cir- 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, whict 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 n^'les from Friedland on the Koningsberg road, unsupported as yet by any of the other divisions of the French army. He therefore resolved to attack this 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 n ean time threw three pontoon bridges across the river to provide for a disaster. 16 ?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 Emperor, 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 Kamenskoi, 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, and burned the bridge behind him. The Elmperor 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 Frer.ch com- mander. These advances gave Napoleo the greatest sati.'-f'act on ; for. X«07.j H I S T O R Y O h' i'J V d O P <■; . 211 though as yet victorious over the Muscovite legions, he had learned tc 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 lUates, 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 ol 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 ^rran^rement in regard to them, which his Imperial majesty might choose 218 HISTORY OF EUROPE. fCHAP. XXVH to adopt He also ceded to the King of Saxony the circle of Gotha, ir Lower JiUsatia ; 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 tliree courts of Copenhagen, Stockholn> 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 anu 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 tht seaports of the Adriatic, to France. CHAPTER XXVII. FROM THE PEACE OF TILSIT, TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF HOSTILITIES m 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 fiag more completely from the ocean. Yet, fertile in resource, indomitable in resolution, implacable in hatrtd, 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. Fhe first part of his plan was to combine the European states in one ^reat alliance against England, and compel them to exclude the British flap 1807.] H I S T O R Y O F E U R O P E . V>in and British merchandise from their harbors. The second part was. tn 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. 1806, 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, nr 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, bv 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, custom-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 Br'rlin Decree, by an Order in 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 ar« excluded therefrom ; and the captains of all Hritish vessels are hereby 21* 220 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Chap. XXVII, requirerl to warn every neutral vessel coming from any such port, destined to such (iMier port, to discontinue her voyage ; and any vessel, after being so warned, or aft:er 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 llanse 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 gieat extent of British com- merce and manufactures. Therefore, on the 11th 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 •iuch 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- mg their strict execution impossible, led from the first to a system of unlimited evasion, of which Napoleon himself set the example. He soor 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 oi 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 governments 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 merchaniise, and consigned to the flames, whatever of i8i»7.] H I S T R Y O F E U R O P E . 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." 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 I'eturn 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 Constitu ion was received with .shouts of approval from Calais to the Pyrenees, Napoleon next issued a decree, prohibiting booksellers from jxiblislnng 2-it> H I S T O R Y O F E U R O P E . [Chap. XXVIj. any work, until it had received the sanction of the censors of the press, and subjecting the periodicals and aaily journals to the same restriction. This censorship was carried to sue li an extent, that when the allies en. tered France in 1814, they found a larfje portion of the inhabitants ij^no- rant of the fact, that the battle of Trafalo;ar 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. They 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 corr'_:pt 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 unparalleled 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 chclteau 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 regret 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 Reign 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 p jblic expenditure was immense, and enabled the inhabitants to pav thei/ l«07.] HISTORY OF EUROPF:. 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 industry, 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 pi'O- 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 Ills name, were constructed by the funds wrung from the sufferino 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 ii ■ 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 invet erate asthma, spitting of blood, or mcipient 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, sr had been reguiarly 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. Kleven 224 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAr. XXVJl depots were Lslablislied 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 ijisufficient 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 v/as 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- !).:ig, 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 independei t power, and the only question appeared to be, what fortunate neighbor would acquire her territories, a new and im- 1807.] HISTORY OF EURC?E. 225 proved system was adopted in the several brt/iches of her government, and the foundation laid in present suffering for future triumph. The members of the cabinet whose temporizing aiid unworthy policy had so largely contributed to the downfall of the kingdom, were removed from olfice ; 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, tlie 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 with 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 tyrannv, surrounded by rapacious enemies or impotent friends, and deprived of their commerce, and of a market for the fruits of their mdustry, had no resource but in secret voluntary associations. The universality of suffei 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 '^ugendbund, 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 riovements — provincial committees carried its orders into effect, and an unseen authority was obeyed from one end of the subju- gated provinces to the other. 820 HISTORY 13 F Rl'ROPE. [Chap. XXVIJ. Austria had been bowed 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 not despair of making head against hia 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 and an immense quantity of military 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 Bernadotte 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 coui'se 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 both parties prepared to decide the question by the sword. The 'and troops commenced their disembarkation on the 19th of August, and 1807.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 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 the 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 tc France. The Emperor also took possession of Tuscan% 22 229 H I S T (J R Y OF EUROPE. [Chap. XXVIIL and Rome, und disbanded the papal troops in the latter city. He then annexed Ancona, Urbeno, Macerata and Camerino, 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. PREI lIINARY MOVEMENTS OF THE PENINSULAR WAR. When Napjleon 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 lono--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 cor)|)orate 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 la witiidravv tb'^ IHritish squadron from the Tatrus. ISOi.j HISTORY OF EUROPE. 229 These events, thus far trivial in themseives. 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 Lis'bon, 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 t'lan 230 HIS TO It Y 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 guard, 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 aod oppressions soon roused to the utmost the mdignation 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 al.'ility, was so indolent and so desirous of enjoying, on a throne, the tran i807.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 231 quillity of private life, that, on ordinary occasions, he surrendered him- self to the direction of the quee/i 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 Astuvias, 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 'he Senate, requiring a levy of eighty thousand conscripts from the class ^ 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 hi.' 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. Tlie 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 defiapce of the treaty of Fontainebleau, he had already taken pos- 17 232 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Chap. XXVIIL session, in bis 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 resoived 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 pi-event 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 m 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 Peace, 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 Narvileon's Imperial Guard — these were forgotten by tl e people in 1806.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 233 their triumph over the traitors vvlio 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 1.5th 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 tlie r-avalry, 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 whole 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 agamst 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 everv 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 ^Mlthusiasm 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 oflScer, 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 Pari-? 234 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Chap. XXVIII received intelligence of the tumult at Aranjuez. He immediately stut a letter to his brother Louis, offering him the crown of Spain ; but 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 : " [ 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 all 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 advatice 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 overnowered every other consideration, and Ferduiand coc- 1808.] II I s r <) II V OF p: U R O P E . 2^? tinued his route to Bayoime, whe.c hf- ( ommitted 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 wa> 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; anr! 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 appeai'ed 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 diflicult, 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 it.« execution. While the carriages were in waiting at the palace, an aid- tie-camp of Murat pushed his way through the crowd to hasten their departure, when the rumor was circulated that this oflicer 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 unai'med 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 eftbrt, however, could not long prevail against the dis- ':ipline and skill of regulai troops, who, being ordered to charge through 236 HISTORY OFEUROPE. [Chap. XXVHl the streets In great numbers, at length dispersed the populace: the losa on each side was about three hundred men. Hitherto, neither party in this affair deservrd much blame ; the tumult, however deplorable in its consequences, was tlie effect of an unpremed- itated collision; and the blood that had been s'led 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 seized 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 Solcdad, 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; ihose 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 bloodj strife with the whole Spanish nation. The Princes Don Francisco and ~)on Antonio, intimidated by the vio- lence of Murat, and unable to resist his authority, set out for Bayonne on iH08.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 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 h'm 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 obtair the Grand-duchy of Tuscany as an equivalent. Ferdinand, thougl 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 liis determination, and defi- nitely refused to resign his claims to the crown, except in a manner so qualified as to defeat the purpcses of the Emperor. But the latter easilv 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 remaining 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 i-esist 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 take no steps to save either himself or the monarchy ; that he .herefore authorized the junta of the government to add new members to their department, to remove whomsoever they pleased, and to exercise 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 effect, were taken to Madrid by an officer destnied to future celebrity, Don Joseph Palafox 238 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Chap. XXVUI. Napoleon was soon after relieved from the ennbarrassment which Fer. dinand's resolute opposition occasioned, by intelligence of the tumult at Madrid. He at 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 be gained by resistance, Ferdinand resolved to submit. On the 10th ;)f 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 tlie 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 hia brothers to Bordeaux, where 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 proclamatioi 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 1808.] HISTORY OF EUROPE 2JW consent of the king ; an alliance offensive and defensive was concluded with France, and a promise r^h'en 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- gered 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 de Pinnela, Minister of Justice ; Don Gon- zalo O'Farrel, Minister at War ; and Mazaredo, Minister of the 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 receptior, 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 churchea rang a dismal peal, and every countenance was full of sorrow. CHAPTER XXIX. CAMPAIGN OF 1808 IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. 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 tracee 2.3 240 HISTORY 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 tlie 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 the 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 fleet to the Spanish commander These 1806.] HISIORYOFEUROPE. 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 an 1 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 rjve r, leaving the armed population nearly unsupported *o sustain the con* (42 H I S T O R Y O F E U ii 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 bv 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 co%ip~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 i-everse 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 cflforts, and he was compelled to reti'eat 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 anH Cuesta, two Spanish generals of some note, resolved to unite their forceo 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. Bcssieres'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 hii least experienced soldiers, on a rugged plateau nearest the enemy ; 1808.] HISTORY OF EUROPP. 243 while he tooh command in person of the remaining fifteen thousand, who were nearly all regular troops, a mile and a half in the rear. Bessieres readily took advantage of this insane division of the Spanish ff^rees. Making a circuit with a considerable part of his army, he attacked Jlake 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 Frer.ch columns as they were confusedly pressing on Blake's retreat; but Bessieres soon rallied his men, and, by an impetuous and concentrated atta< k, broke and totally routed the second Spanish division. Cuesta's los.'^ 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 moi'e 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 purposerj and for the private use of the troops; and it is important to observe, that these extremities of outrage were committed against the inhabitants of a town who had offered little 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 w 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 resista ice, s'^'icited a suspen- 2:^* 244 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Chap. XXIX. sion ot arms. Vedel, who had been o/dered 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 wei'e 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 purpose than to be again let loose in the Peninsula and comm'* similar outrages. The popular indig- nation soon rose to such a ueignt, 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, togf ther with the division of Moncey; 1808.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 246 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 July. He 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 coiiiena 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 c'^'^'-'^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 ^ "orn.st 24« H 1 •'■' T O R Y OF EUROPE. [Chat. XXLX. 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, wjio, 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 vv'ay, 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 Fiench 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 statf, " Gen- tlemen, nothing now remains for us, but to go and shoot red-legged pai'tridges." 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 liim ; 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 ti'uce from Junot's camp was an- nounced, and Kellerman came forward vvith proposals for an armistice. Negotiations were immediately commenced, which terminated in tlie 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 providi d, 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 eflfects, 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 troo])s 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.J HISTORYOFEUROPE. 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 landvvehr, 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 mov(>ments, alleged that the cabinet of Vienna was only imitating the conduct of their powerful nei(Th- 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 hus obtained still fell short of his wishes, he entered into a new treaty vith 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 37th 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- mg 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 a.nd 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-duchess Catherine, Alexander's favorit(> sister; and the offer of certain equiva- lents for the cession of Constaiiiinople to France. Napoleon reached Paris on the 29th of October ; and, having dis- 18 248 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Chap. XXIX patched Murat to Naples, to take possession of the throne vacated b^ 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 wdiom, after de- ducting the garrisons in the northcn 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 ro^ ky mountains near Reynosa. Sir John Moore was advancing to unite with the Spanish forces ; and the troops under his command, when joinel 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 raise© 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 tJiousand 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 Belvidere. The Spanish soldiers bravely fustained the '.ttack rf the French columns 1808.1 HISTORY OF EUROPE. 24'.) 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 ailillcry 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 whob French army. Nothing, however, could resist the enthusiasm of Napo leon's veterans, when fighting under his own eye. By an impetuou- 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 Retiro 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 it 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 Retiro, 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 thp town, but established his head-quarters at Chamartin, where he received the submission of the authorities and regulated the affairs of the govern- inent. 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 ^he inhabitants. 250 H I S T O R Y O F E U R O P E . [Chap. XXIX While the French Emperor was thus engaged in the civil affairs ot Spain, and was hastening forward his armies for the complete subjugatior of her provinces, Sir David Baird had landed at Corunna and 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 11th 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 prepaj'a- tions for a retreat, and provided magazines for the latter purpose both on tlie route to Lisbon and to Galicia. The English troops proceeded with great ilacrity 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 Er.glish remain another day in their position, they are undone. Shouhl they attack you, retire a day's march to the rear: if they retreat, pursue them closely." B\:t 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 mm 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. 1 H I S T O R Y O F E U R O P E . 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 ui pursuit of the English troops, was overtaken by a courier with dispatches. He instantly dismounted, ordered a bivouac fire to be ligliled by the roadside, and, seating himself by it on the ground, was soon so Ins' in thought that he became insensible to the snow w.Moh fell in thick- wreaths around him. He had ample subject for meditation . Austria had made hostile demonstrations against France and was preparing to tako the field. He rode on slowly and pensively to Astorga, and remained there two days writing innumerable dispatches, and regulating at oncr> 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 Moorf* in person, maintained its high character for resolution and discipline ; but the remainder of the troops, disgusted and disheartened by a |)rotracted 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. Durinjj the night, he broke up from his position, and moved on toward Corunna, where he arrived on the 11th 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 transpoilation 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 04 2ry2 H 1 S T O R Y O F E U R O r E . fCH*?. XXIX. While these movements were in progress at the shore of the bay, the etfective 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 -ather, of knolls, which form a sort of amphitheatre around the village of tilvira, 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 uncofRned remains by the ge lerisity of Marshal Ney. CHAPTER XXX. FIRST CAMPAIGN OF 18(19 IN GERMANY. Austria had improved to the utmost the interval of peace that 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, whilf occupied in the affairs of the Peninsula, her assumption of hostilities tool- 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 mu,st 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 aggi'cgate, 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 and useless march was, how- **ver, at length completed; the Austrian columns, af*er moving a hundred ^.-.4 H I S T U 1. Y O F E U R O P E . ^Ci:Ar. XXX. miles hack toward Vienna, and crossing the Danube, were arrayed on the right bank of the Inn, on the 10th of Afril ; and the Archduke prepared to carry the war into the vast leved plains which stretch from the southerR banks of the Danube to the foot of the Alps. The instructions of Napoleon to Berthier, were clear and jirecise : if the Austrians commenced their attack before the 15th of April, he waste concentrate his army on the Lech, around Donauwerth ; if after that date, at Ratisbon, guarding the right bank of the Danube from that place n 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 reacher' 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 tbese joint movements was. that Da- voust, with si.xty 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 him.self 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 Plaffenhoff n, a considerable town be- tween Augsburg and NeusLadt. 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 wa." 1809.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 235 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. Bv extraordinary exertions, he had bro".ght 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 thes" 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 th^^ day, and ended in a loss to the Austrians of eight thousand men. Yet, notwithstanding this precipitate retreat, they evinced their high disciplinn. 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 puslied 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 iarge quantity of baggage and ammunition. Davoust, in the meantime, had made his demonstration against the Archduke at Ratisbon, where a 24* 258 H I S T D R Y OF EUROPE. IChap. 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 hia 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 becanne 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 etibrt 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 reenforce- 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.J HIS 'I OR Y OF EUROPE. 257 means of relreai. He had .ost five thousand men in killed and w ounded, 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 bv repose in Bohemia, before again undertaking active operations. He threw a bridge of boats over the Danube, and by that and the brido-e 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 tha! 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 Fi'ench army, and Ratisbon soon ft-ll 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 amoimted 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 HIS T (» Pv Y O F EVK O V E . IChap. 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 bifell 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 Ebersberg 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 Scharlent/. 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 mfantry, 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, wlio 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 bv 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, whore they were nearly all destroyed. Nevertheless, as the passage was thus siiown to be practicable, though at a 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- »ies silenced, and the town taken ; while Hiller, yielding at first to the irre- 1809.1 HISTORY OF EUROPE. 259 sistible valor, and afterward to the overwhelming numbers of the whok French army, retired in good order, disputing eveiy foot of ground, until the approach of night brought the battle to a close. He then withdrew to Enns, 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 defeat to resist the French advance, he contiimed his retreat to the neighborhood of Vienna ; while Napoleon, iminformed of the Archduke's movements and fearful of penetrating into ihe country without knowing the position of his principal antagonist, lialted 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 nt' 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 HISTORY 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 pasition. 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 lo 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 ■iignal to advance, and his troops, with loud shouts, rushed from their ele- vated encampment toward ihe 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 ob.sti- 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, bul 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 lo outdo each other in feats of daring and valor; while the several divis 1809.] H I S T O R Y O F E U R O P C . 261 tons of Massena's corps, fighting under the veteran marslial'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 v/ere posted in great strength in this open field, and the French columns were so galled on all sides by their 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 reenforcements ; 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 tlie point of the bayonet, and forced the enemy back almost to the banks of the Danube. The battle raged with the utmost fury during the whole day ; Essling was at length retaken by the French, and Aspern, after having been captured and recapture/i 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 oolumn 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 Licntenstein's dragoons. 26'J II I S T O R Y O K E V K O V E. [Ciiai-. XXX Hohenzol!orn now rushed forward, and with a powerful division as. sailed the (\i>nk o\ \\\e French cohnnns, whicli, wholly unable to resist tliis fresh attack, tell backward in the direction of Esslinjj: at tiie same tune, intelliijence spread thtvugh the ranks oi' both arniios, that the flo- tilla directed lurainst the bridge had destroyed that portion of it whieii connected the island o( Lobau with the southern bank of the river, thus cuitinof otV the French army t'lx^m its supplies and reserves. At this terrible crisis. Napoleon's courage did not forsake him. He immediat* ly oixiered a retivat over the remainder of the bridge, reaching tVoni the northern bank to Lobau. and pushed forward the troops that hail been least engaged to hold the Austrians in check during this perilous manceu- vre. As the French now tbught not to conquer, but to escape tiieir enenn'ess, 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 NafX>leon. He brought forwa ill all his artillery, and, bv disposing the guns in a semicircular line, concentrated their iron storm on the narix>w line of retreat, so that the slaughter became terrific ; and. at the same time, his grenadiers and cavalry, by repeated charge's on the indomitable rear-guaiil, rapidly diminished the numbers, though thev could not disorder the ranks of those dauntless veterans. During this scene of carnage, Lannes and St. Hilaire were lx>th mortally wounded. The fire of the Austrian batteries was maintained until past midniiiht. when the last of the French troops defiled over the bridge, fol- lowed bv the remnants of the invincible rear-guard; and the ArchdukeV 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 Nape>leon had been entirely defeated, the French loss exceeded thirtv 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 wer^ tor 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 Fivnch ti-oops on the island of Lobau. during the nicht of the ^Qnd. was truly deplorable. Cut otf from retreat and tmm their communications by the destruction of the bridge, menaced by a victorious enemv, destitute of ammunition and provisions, and threatened \vith an inundation by the fast rising waters of the Danube — an escape by boiits to the southern bank, together with an abandonment of all tin wounded, the artillery and the horses, seemed at first to be the only ahernative. But. although this measure was apparently inevitable, and as such w-as strenuously urged by Massena. Davoust, Berthier and Oudinot, Napoleon determined to remain and convert the island into an imprejinable fortress, whence he could subsequently strike a latal blow at the Austrian army. In pursuance of this plan, a lar^e number of boats from the southern shore were put in requisition : troops, ammunition and provisions wer»» 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 ihe south bank of the Danube, and rendered the com- munication perfect and easv between them. CHAPTER XXXI. PKOM THE CAMPAIGN OF WAGRAM TO THE DETHRONEMENT OF THE POPE. While Napoleon, stronj^ly fortified in his position on the i-sland oi 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, wherf ihe passage was less cautiously guarded, and whence he could, with little opposition, fall sud- denly on the flmk 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 intrenchmf-nts, running from that village a;ross the late battle-field, through Essling. and terminating on the bank of the Danube. The.se works consisted of field redoubts and ravelins unit 3d by a curtain, strengthened along their front by palisades, and armed v/ith a hundred and fifty pieces of heavy artillery. Behind this formidable barrier, the Austrian commander awaited Na- poleon's mo/ements, 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 Stockerai; to Vienna, having his head-quarters at Stammersdorf : Kol- lowrath lay at Hagenbrunn, on the northwestern slope of the Bisamberg: the reseive of grenadiers vvere 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 as Presburg; 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 s.ime day, his reenforcements began to arrive. First, came Bernadotte with the Saxons from the bank of the Elbe; then, Vandamme came wjtli the Wirtembergers and troops of the Confederation from Suabia afio the Rhenish provinces: after him, followed Wrede with the Bava- rians from the Lech, Macdotiald and Broussier from Carinthia and Carniola, Marmont from Dahnatia, and Eugene Beauharnois from Hun- grarv. By the evening of the 4th, their numbers amounted to no les» 19 26 1 H I S T O R Y O F E U R O P E . [Ciur. XXXI. than d liundred and eighty thousand men, with seven hundred and 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 .anding at that point; and the moment that this demonstration, together with the approach of night, had sufficiently arresied the attention of ♦he 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 aci'oss 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 Wagrarr. 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 m 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 plate-au did not exceed sixty thousand. Pow- erful batteries were accordingly brought up, which opened a severe nre on the Imperialist line ; but the Archduke's guns, placed on higher grouna. replied with much greater effect. Oudinot's corps came first into action. He attackpd Baumersdorf, which was gallantly defended by General Hardegg ; and, with such obstinacy did the latter maintain his grouna 3aO!).] H I S T O R Y O F E U R O P £ -Jfi.^ Oudinot was unable to force the village, carry tlie oridges, 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 bv a murderous discharge of grap-e 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 arm v. 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 commanlcr 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 Bpssicres 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 ranidiv 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 Im[)erialists commenced on his left, he feared that the Archduke John had come up during the night, and :ha1 his right flank was about to b^- 28(5 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Chap. XXXI turrifd with an overwhelming force. Perceiving tlie 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 pj-escribed 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 orden d 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 tc 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- sa'^d prisoners, all the artillery, and drove the routed troops to the edge of the Danube. The Austrians then renntered 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 froi:t; 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 villatje. 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 Groucliy's corps was. in turn broken and driven back ; finally, Monthrun, at the hi :i of a fresh division of French cavalry, charged t^^e Austrian horse and forced ihem from the heights. Meantime, Davoust in person tiad led his infant I«)9.1 HISTORY OF EUROPE. 2(57 rv a8 HISTORY OF E U .'i O P E . [Chap. XXX i The Austrian retreat was scarcely molested until the troops reache''] Znaym, where Prince Charles, finding himself pressed by Massena. haltcJ and took up a strong defensive position. The French marshal, supported by Marmont's division, led on his columns with great impetuosity ; !)ut, although his soldiers gained some temporary advantage, they were soon arrested by the Austrian batteries, and became so hemmed in by the ilank movements of the Archduke's grenadiers that they were in dan^^er 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 di.stricts of Tyrol and Vorarlberg, were al.so 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 anC [he Hansneck-Viertel, Salzburg with its adjacent territory, and the valley of Berchtolsgaden ; while the Grand-duchy of Warsaw and Russia c'ltained 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 thalweg 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 ;iabinet 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 M^atched 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 Galicia allotted to him by the treaty Napoleon, however, spared no efforts to appease the Czar; i809.] HtSTORYOFEUROPE 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 concui with him in everything which should tend to efface ancient recollections, 3ut 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 tor Paris ; hut, before quitting Austria, and in the interval between the signature and me ratification of the treaty, he barbarously gave orders for the dcstructior: 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 stirrinrience 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 eiVort 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 o< 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 nnm 27-> UlSTdlM' OF i: r R () P E h;uap. XXXI. pared witfi the main olijccts wliicli the Eiiirlisli irorernment liad in \i('\v. and for which tlicir orders so clearly provided. While the British sol- diers were iightinjr bravely at Flusliintf, the French and Dutch troops- were hurrying toward Antwerp ; and after the reduction of Flushing, which event occurred on the Ifith of August, the English general so de- layed his movements, that he did not reach Bahtz until the 20th. In the meantime, the Antwerp fleet was moved farther up the river, out of reach of the British ships, and Antvverp 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 V> 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 VIT., 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 sul)sequently, 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 th(> Austrian war of 1805, the French troops stMzed 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 ])ope 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 th h de- cree, published a bull of excommunication against Napoleon and all con- cerned in this high-handed measure. This bull was placarded on all the asual places, and with such secrecy as to escape the knowledge or sus- 1809.] HIST DRY OF EUROPE. 273 picion of the police. The pope, fearful that the individual.s 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 vviih 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 and 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 rnornino: 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 dj Mount Cenis into France. CHAPTER XXXIT. MARITIME WAR ; AND CAMPAIGN OF 1809 IN SPAIN AND I'ORTITGAL The event that first roused the Britisn 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 foi' 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, ir 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 enoimous weight. On the evening of the 11th 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 i-ssuing 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 Gambler to advance ; but that officer, instead of acting with the promptitude that such an emer- gency required, waited to summon a coimcil 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 eflforts U) get his ships afloat, which the rising tide at length enabled him to do ; 1809.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 21b 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 aflTairs 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 Ilill, 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 diflSculty 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. XXXIl enrolled themselves therein; and depu ations from the municipal council, •;he council of the Indies, and all the corporate bodies, waited on him at Valladolid, entreating him to return to the capital and reassume 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 chaiged 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 reenforcements, 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 o-uerilla 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 he city, and battered down its outer defences. The contest now, as at nie previous siege, was waged from street to street and from door to door, and the French soldiers, unable in anv otiier 1809.1 HISTORY OF EUROPE. 277 way t'^ gain ground within tho 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 Aragones.? marks- men in the adjoining buildings. The French engineers, finding the men thui- seriously galled by this destructive fire, reduced the quantity of pow ier 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 establislied themselves, and pushed on fresh mines and attacks. The battle v/as 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 wilh the blood of its assailants. " Scarcely a fourth of the place is won,'' said they, " and we are already exhausted. We must wait for reenforcements, 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 thoufzands 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 fail, 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 l.todies 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- -Tian beings had perished during the siege, of whom only six thousand fell by the sword. Fifty days of open ti-enches 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 H IS TO R Y O F E U R OPE . [Ciap. XXXIl 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 i:Ho oblivion. Even this devoted city could not escape the pillage and rapacity of thi- 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 iiie value of nearly five millions of francs, which he carried with him ir to 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 af\er it the submission of the remainder of the province. The fortress of Jaca, commanding the chief pass througli 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 attempt the deliverance of Saragossa, where the French garrison, reduced by disease, did not now exceed len 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 23i(l 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 'o renew it, but retreated in disorder ; and had Blake vigorously pursued him, his whole army must have been destroyed. His loss in this actii n exceeded a thousand men, while Blake's scarcely amounted to three hundred. Before advancing upon Saragossa, the Spanish general remained for a wliile 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 180y.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. ",79 nad 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 preei 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 maintaining 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 5?80 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Cimp. XXXII. .siege with renewed vigor. On the 11th, he placed his hatteries in posi- tion against the fortifications of the l-ower 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 three 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 ihe 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 r2th 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 suflTered 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 termmated. 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 ofl^ensive 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 I'nrtuguese 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 bv 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 march lay through a succeanon of intri WELLINGTON 1809.] HISTOR\ OFEUROPE. 28 1 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 iti 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 11th 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 .hat building until reenforcements 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 262 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Chai XXXIL 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- going 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 tlie 30th 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 ihe metropolis were very 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, who 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 Soiilt, 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 towaid Madrid from the south, he might with great confidence have moved at once on the Spanish capital. But he had already learned that his sole dependencv in the field was his IH09.! HISTORY OF EUROPh:. 2.h:^ own army of twenty thousand men : the Spanish artillery was to a cor- 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 reon- 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 ot 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 throw, 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 disregarded, gave orders for his troops to retire across the mountains into the valley 284 HIS TORYOF EUROPE. [Chap. XXXIT, 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 considei'able success ; and in fact, as the British commander had alread}' 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 notliing 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 m 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 'laggage 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 anv 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 eflfected, 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 suflfered 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 an 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, mu?;t be briefly considered. The British, in conformity to the established mode of civilized warfare m modern times, maintained themselves from magazines in their rear ; and, when compelled to depend on supplies from the provinces in which fhev 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, oi 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 ; 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 ghiry 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 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Chap. XXXIIf. 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 far you — but — the stroke is not the less moi'tal." 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- sen, ing 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 gi ef was so violent and long continued, that for many months her eyesight became seriously impaired. The subsequent arrangements were rapidly completed. On the same 18i0.] H I S T O R Y O f E U R O P E . 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 11th 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 sov> 'reign, 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- «^illas, complaining of the rigorous mandates he had received from th*» 27 288 H I S T O R Y O F E U R O P E . iCuat. XXXIll. Emperor, and declaring a wish to resign liis crown and retire to private life. Thus, while the Emperors of Russia and Austria were negotiating tor 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- |.erious 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 to 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 Central Junta 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 yeai', 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 thf^ 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 ren-ulars, in addition to some thirty thousand native militia ; but the last oflhese 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- Dart bv strictly defensive operations. IWlO.l HISTORY OF EUROPE. 28»' 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 lenoth ftndmg 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 beo-an 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 mouptains leading to Sardao, which brougb'^ him on 290 H I S T O R Y O F E U R P E . [Ca*?. XXXIIl, the road froni 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 came 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, beino- 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 iKon as far as the Spanish town of Badajoz, to which he laid siege. The len.l H IS TOR Y O F EUROP E. 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 Imaz, 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 Mondego, and moved on gradually until he reached Colorico, on the 21st oi" 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 subsecjuently 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 Na|)o- 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 be driven from the field unless they could Jain a new defensive position. In this emergency 27* 292 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Chap. XXXIIl 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 recovcy. 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, *he 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 r'etermine 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 OM 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. [Cuap. 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. In 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 ihem, and because ihey 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 181L] H I S T O R Y O F E U R O P E . 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 the 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 w'nich 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 tiiteen hundred prisoners. Macdonald was 21 296 HIS T O R Y Of EUROPE. [Chap. XXXR SO annoyed at this manoeuvre, that he resolved to avenge it by a move- ment against Cordova, where Campoverde had stationed himself with the o-reater 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 from Lerida 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 bj'- a chain of strong fortifications including a stronghold called Fort Royal. The upper and lower town were separated by a rampart joining with Port Olivo, a large outwork on the rockv heights. T \e place, in a :1811.J HISTORY OF EUROPE. 291 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 towr., 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 handt 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 M^ere 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 tha* 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 ihe 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- gle, to retreat to the foot of the hill with a lossi of half of their numbers. On 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 lime at Sasjuntum. to collect 298 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Chap. XXXIV. reenforcements 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 most 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 heig its 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 ti'oops under Blake. The Spaniards stood their ground bravely for a time, but the superior prowess of the French veterans at length overcame all theii" 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 rio;ht. General Stewart led the column of attack against the heights ; and, after finding that the French ranks could noi 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 hi^ midst of its e.iemies. Reenforcements 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: Abercromby 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 fov 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, ond he pressed the siege of Badajoz with all his energy. By the 2Tth. 28 300 HISIORYOFEUROPE. [Chap. XXXIV t'le place was fully invested, and on the 29th the besiegers made an as- sault on Fort Christoval, 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 11th 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 vvith 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 bodiea 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 th« 1.3th, 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 tht right of the trenches, was carried by a gallant escalade of the 46th regi- ment. For three days the breaching batteries plaved 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 mterfere with their particular duties in smoothing the way for the other troops. The preparations of the garrison, however, were very formida- ble: bombs and nand-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 vi^sible. The projecting bastions .V)l HISTORY OF ELKOPE. [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 bi'avely 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 diiference 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 prepar d for th ir reception, that, after a struggle unparalleled for its obstinacy and slaughter, Wellington was forced to recall the divisions, and prepare for a 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.] HISTORYOFEUROPE 3U3 this stronghold in the rear. His advance, howe\er, 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 tlieir hands. Salamanca instantly became one scene of rejoicing. Tho 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 their 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, u\ a military point of view, constituteJ the strength of the place. Wellington presently directed his attention to the capture of these 28* a04 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Chap. XXXr forts, which were reduced on the 27th of June, after a brave defence by their several garrisons. When ihe forts surrendered, Marmont, who had advanced with his whole force to their relief, v/ithdrew 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 reenforcements, 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 sa 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 bettor 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 ]818.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 305 commander, and making three thousand prisoners. A second British division now came on against Clausal, who was hastening to Thomiere'9 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 Berestbrd, 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 and 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 11th of August, Joseph with his court re- tired to Toledo, followed by his troops. Crowds of people 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. Afler 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, !ie left a garrison of seventeen hundred veterans to protect tie Retire which contained the greatest 306 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Chap. 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 Retire, 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 by 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 ho 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 tho 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 oiher 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 t) e siege : Wellington, however, persisted, and he gave orders 1810.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 301 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 freqvently 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 11th, 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 efllcient 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 va* iugmented to a hundred and ten thousand 308 IJISTORY OF EUROPE. [Chap. XXXVl men, and placed under the command of Kaminski, a brave officer, but as yet not much experienced in Turkish warfare. Ne ertheless, his first movements were eminently successful. He commenced the campaign on the 15th of May ; and between that daj 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 fortifi«^d, 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 Turkish 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 houses, 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 ope-ations to a simple blockade, and remained in that position for some weeks. In the meantime, thf garrison of Schumla made a sally against the Russians around thei» 1811.] 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 hi.s 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 KutusoflT 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 five 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 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Chap. XXXVI neighborhood of Bucharest, at the expense of the Russians, during the negotiations for peace then in progress at that place. These negotiation." 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 Sweaborg, and offering, by its conquest, to render the Baltic sea the boundary of their Empire, from the mouths of the Vistula to the districts boi-dering 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 si.x 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 generals 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 iiis 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. 31 1 The affairs of Sweden seemed now to be permanently settled ; but in IVfay, 1810, the Crown-Prince suddenly died, leavinfj 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, T 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 importa,tion 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- lion 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 lhese proceedings, vvhich 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 Em>ire. This event occurred on 22 aia HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Ciiap. XXXVI the 20th of March. It had been previously intimated, that if the infani were a princess, twenty-one f^uns would be fired from tlie Invalides, but if it were a prince, a hundred jruns 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 "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 p«>ople gave witness of Napoleon's strong hold on their affeetions. The scarcely-disguised secession of Russia from the Continental Sys- tem, had the eff«'ct 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 complian(;e from Denmark ; for the cabinet of Copenhagen shut the Dam'sli ports against all neutral vessels whatever, bearing British or colonial j)roduc(> : but against Prus- sia he fulminated menacing complaints for her alleg(^(l 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. " 1 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 suff'ering? We must all suffer to conquer a maritime peace." Napoleon followed up his demands on Sweden so peremptorily, that she was forced to declare wai* 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 «vaged, made immediate preparations for the contest. CHAPTER XXXVII. ADVANCE OP NAPO: EON 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 reenforcements to the enormous amount of seven hundred thousand more: makino; a total of twelve hundred thousand men, althouorh this whole force was never actually broufrht into the field. The Grand Armv had no less itian 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 wajrons, 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 housand 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 rai.sed 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 23rd of .Tune, Napoleon approached the Niemen, and the numer- ous columns of the Grand Army converged towanl 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 ffw stragglers be- hind ; but the cavalry and artillery had already begun to suflfer severely. 314 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Chap. XXXV 11 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 :he Niemen. The great disparity of force between the French and Russian armies rendered it 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 m 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 reached Witepsk, where he disposed the main body of his troops, and posted his vanguard, under Ostermarui. 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.J HISTORYOFEUROPE 315 Barclay's army, to the number of eighty-two thousaivJ 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 their 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 road 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 tb'p Austrians under Schwanzenberg 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, iind he thus deprived himself of the aid of Schwartzenberg, on which he .lad confidently relied for repaiiing the losses of the army under his own immediate .lirection. 1>,9* 316 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Chap. XXX flL 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 th?t 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 1«18.] 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 th*} 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 'eturned 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 reenforcements 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 good 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 wiiom 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 'tie 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 3x8 H I S T O R Y O 1? E U :i O P E . [Chap. XXXVIJ. they had gained among the ruins of Smolen ^ko, with the smiling villages rhey had abandoned in their 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 ccst 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 he, " is frightful ; I know it. At Wilna, one half were stragglers ; 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 reenforcements 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, on 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 reenforcements from Fin- land and St. Petersburg. Victor, while approaching the Dwiiia, received orders lu occupy Smo lensko, and take a general charge of Lithuania. His instructions from 1612.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 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. Tne 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 I 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 were 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 «till 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. XXXVIF badly wounaed, and this successive loss of the services of their officers, occasioned some indecision in the French movement ; at length, however, they carried the redcjbts 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 reenforcements. 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 jreneral officers of distinction. The French lost Generals Cau- laincourt, Monbrun, and several other officers, together with a total of 1812.] HISTORYOFEUROPE, 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, t? e 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 reenforcenients ; 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 wcnild 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 for a deputation from the magistrates, or from the chief nobility. No one came forward to deprecate his hostility, and the mournful truth finally forced ilself upcm him, that Moscow, as if struck by enchantment, was bereft of its inhabit- ants. He nevertheless advanced, and the troop? took possession of the 322 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Chap. XXXVIII, town, while he established his head-quarters at the ancient palace of the Czars. Bui 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, and 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- aoff at once drew near to his reenforcements, covered the richest prov- inces of the Empire, secured the supplies of his army, and threatened the enemy's communications. CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE RETIIEAT 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 succes^s would produce on the Russian gov- ernment. To aid the anticipated effect, Count Lauriston was dispatched to the head-quarters of Kutusoif, with authority to propose an armistice, and Murat had an interview with General Benningsen. 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 tlie 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 18190 HISTORYOFEUROPE. 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 m 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, solelv 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 Fi'ench were about to retire. He had for some .ime observed that tho 30 324 HISTORY OF EUROPK. [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 Doctorofl^'by a rapid night march to suppoit the Cossacks. The French troops nad, 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 1912.1 HISTORY OF EUROPE 326 head of the advanced guard, saying that he would himself be at the out- post's 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 quick 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 Platoff with 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 cavah'y 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 inquest 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, contumed 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 severity. 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 wpr© 326 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Cuap. XXXVIIL 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-sheet, 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 frowning 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 lai-ge 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 reenforcements 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 ihe 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 undertakf 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.] HISTORYOP^ EUROPE. .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 malve his escape with a small portion of his troops across the fields : neverilieless, 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 innnediate 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 wj.s 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 tnen. 23 328 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Cha". XXXVIll 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, Nanoleon himself marched on foot with a birch stick in his hand ; and it was with great difficulty ihat 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 firmn 'AS of mind. His entire force, after the junction with Victor and Oudi Mt, and also with Dombrowsky, who arrived at this crisis, amounted to nearly seventy thousand men, of whom forty thousand were ill 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 iiiiule demonstrations toward the Lower Beresina, as if he designed to cro;s 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 'jridge 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 ■dpserted, and their artillery apparently in retreat. They therefore re- 1813.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 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 TchichagofT, whom YermolofT had reemforced 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 TchichagofT 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 «ach 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 throncred 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 tlie 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 oeither be persuaded nor forced to cross to the opposite bank. These 380 HISTORYOFEUROPE [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 v/andered 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 all 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 tiie 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 e.xtinct, 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 ^ir.-iess as the a&hes 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 fo^y 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 atid two hundred and fifty officers, who pi'eferred surrendering as prisoners of war to continuing their march. On the r2th 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, 12.5,000 Died of cold and famine, - . - . 132,000 Prisoners, Soldiers, - - . . 190,000 " Officers, 3,000 " Generals, .... 48 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 jrovernment 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 thfeir 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 eflfect 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 vvhich 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 Idia.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 333 the prospects of succession m 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: 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 e.stablished, imprudently ventured without a sufficient guard into the hotel •>f 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 o^ "Vive I'Empereur!" returned to their duty. Nevertheless, the powrr 334 HISrORYOFEUROPE. [Chap. XXXIX. thus suddenly defeated, would in a short time have proved irresistible. Had Malet succeeded in arresting Doucet, Savary says that, " he woulo 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-oflice, 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- gratulat'on, 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 commoi: 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 by 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 thft 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 the 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 Napolef la'r i813.] 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 that the jiope'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 ofher 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 OF 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 two 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- 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 PlatofT's Cossacks and some light cavalry, moved upon Dantzic, and commenced the blockade of that fortress. A fourth, under the orders of Teh ichagofT, marched through East Prussia, and arrived at Marienberg on the 1.5th of January. A fifth, immediately commanded by TormasofT, 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 si.xth, led by Milaradowitch, Sacken and Doctorofif, 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- jireservation ; 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 11th. 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 entei the army in the capacity of volunteers, and be annexed to the regiments of infantry and cavalrv 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 lo Tvhich they had been subjected by his orders, roused as with a trumpet- uote 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, <;hat the government functionaries, so far from being able to supply them with weapons, were not able for a considerable ime even to perfect tlie 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 with 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 secuje 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 refus(!d 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- n)pean freedom, to neglect this opp >rtunity 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, tlie 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 Northern 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 HISTORYOFEUROPE. 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 reenforcements from France, twenty-four thousand strong, under Lauris- ton, 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-thirtv thousand of the^se were blockaded in Dantzic, and the remainder were in Thorne, Modi in, 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 reenforcements 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 spriously thinned 31* 440 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Chap. XL. the ranks of those near the destined theatre of war, and the great propor- 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- Iren 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 '^o 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 (.nsued, 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 conj^inction 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 inio a convention for evacuating his capital ; t' is was acceded to, and i813.] KISTORYOFEUROPE. 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 ; and 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 Vhis 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 I'etreat 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 Dbvious 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 OFEUROPE. [Chap. XL In truth, matters had there assumed a serious aspect from the first. The French infantry occupied the villages of Gross Gorschen, 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 reenforcements. 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 fliglit 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- on«.-ni:, standards or artij'ery. Their loss in the battle of Lutzen amounted 1813.J HISTORY OFEUROPE. 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 11th 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 annies made their dispositions for a general action ; the allies occupying a sort of 24 344 HISTORY OFEUROPE. [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, Jiad 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 reenforcements under Milaradowitch, 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 oflT at a gallop with his staff to his own left, to take advantage of Ney"s success* In the meantime, tlie 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- ments iii'M one o'clock in the afternoon. The manoeuvres of the allies 18I3.J HISTORY OF EUROPE. 345 to project their right, having now had the desired effect of weakening their centre, Naooleon 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 sinoke 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, imtil 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 the severest terms foi 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 reenforcements, 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 hne oi demarcation between the two 346 HISTORY OFEUROPE. [Chap. 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 WAK. Great exertions were made by the British cabinet, to ta^e 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 Britam was indeed lofty and commanding, when she found the Continental states, after so long a struggle, ranging themselves around her standard, and 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 cne hundred thousand men in the field, exclusive (if garrisons ; and mat ters continued on this basis until the consummation of the armistice o' Pleawitz. 1813.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 347 No sooner, then, were the allied sovereigns delivered, by the convention, from the pressure of impendinjr 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 notes was fixed for the first of July, 181.5, 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 Agn 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 and 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 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [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 bv 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 treaty of 1912 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 ofder to 181S.1 HISTORYOFEUROPE 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 en(!mies, 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 ; Scliwartzenberg 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 pav 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.'' 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 th^ 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 ? Wl y should you not double your forces? You may do so, sire! It depends on -H50 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Cbap. XLi 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 Mettemich 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 Illvria, 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 I 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 Sa.xony ; 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 I 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 oi 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 f Mettemch, how much has England given you to make war upon me P' 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. Mettemich 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 pau.se 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 thev 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 Au.stria, an i accepted by Napoleon " for a general or continental peace." By ih? means, Mettemich gained a great 1813.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 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 Prasrue 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 on 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 emercfencv in which he was placed. His reenforcements 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 VVurtzburg 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 eiglity 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. tour 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 allien 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 tlie 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 tor the 352 H I S T O R Y O F E U R O P E . [Chap. XLL dissolution of the Grand-duchy of Warsaw, and the division of its terri. lories 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 11th, when the armistice had terminated and the 3ongress was dissolved. On the 12th, Austria formally declared war against France. General Moreau, since his trial and condemnation by the 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 tliat, 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. He 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 ; ihc 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- zenburg, 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, Marmont and Macdonald, were estimiiied 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 2.3rd 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 lin opened a terrible fire on the town. Bombs ami cannon balls ranged over its whole extent ; many houses were set on fire ; the inhabitants took refuge [n their cellars to avoid the bombardment ; and the frequent burst- ing of .iiells in the streets, the thunder of artillery from the ramparts, the heavj 'oiling of guns and ammunition-wagons along the pavement, to- 354 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Chap. XLII gether with the tumult produced by the 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 Fren'Sjh 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 hi$ 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 : yef 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 fiont 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 Mannont 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, luider 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 Stieisec 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 o£ 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 pari, 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 haviijg 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 catastrophfi took 1813.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 365 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 Moreau 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 ; and 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 CoUoredo, 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 Toeplitz; 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 Toeplitz. 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 reenfo; cements, took command of the allied forces the next day ; and after having made able dispositions for the action, commenced it Ijy 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 less in killed, wounded and prisoners during the two days, am^^unted 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 fjreater 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 diew 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 nof exceed four thousand. Disasters of inferior magnitude, though scarcely less important in their consequences, attended the French arms north of the Elbe, in the airection 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 le.ss 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 when news of the defeat of Vandamme, IVTacdonald, 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 /an 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 o< 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 preseBce Avas much needed. 358 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Chap. XLII 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 centi'e 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 Golilsdorf. Oudinot now came to the support of Ney's i-etreating 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 ground. 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 uesist such an attack, they immediately withdrew ; Wittgenstein taking the road to Nollendorf, and Klenau that to Marienberg. Napoleon, 1813.J HISTORY OF EUROPE. 350 satisfied with this advantage, retired to Dahme, where he received intel- ligence of Ney's defeat at Dennewitz. 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 hi> 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, vvas 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 hiinself 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 Hartau, with a few of his Guard around him, the greater part of those troops hav- ing fallen behind from the exhaustion of incessant marches and 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 j ten in the evening, toward Neustadt, where a body of Austrians and 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 it : 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 360 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Chap. 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 affectiona 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 Duben on 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 ot 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 ur without 1S13.J HISTORYOFEUROPE. 36* 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 currtMit 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 -housand 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, oi\ 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 the.se were immediately answered, by two of a blue and one of a red light frnin 362 HISTORY OPEUROPE. [Chap. XLIL Blucher's camp on the north. These signals >5ld 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 thai 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 confereniie whicli led to the peace of Presburg. The mutations of 1813.] HISTORY OFEUROPE. 383 fortune had now brought the same general to the tent of Napoleon, when the latter, in turn, had beconrij the suppliant, and was about to solicit, not concede, a suspension of hostilities. The Emperor addressed to Meer- feldt some obliging expressions on ihe 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 reenforcements 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. Thest 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 storn. 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 head 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, havmg 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 c f Wirtemberg and another of Saxon cavalry, together with two brigades of Saxon infantry, abandoned 364 IIISTORYOFEUROPE. [Chip. XLIL tlie 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 tli.e 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 ainple 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, artilleiy 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 m 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 wh/" had charge of the mine under it ; and who, misconceivinu hi. 1813.] HISTORY OFEUROPE. 368 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 holiest men threw themselves into the river, and but few of these escapea. MacdonakI 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 pei'ished 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 j^tragglers, 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 plac^ and bent his course to his own dominions. The pretext he assigned ibr 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 2.5th, 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 Wrrde, and their threatening movements on Naptileon's rear. Wrede's 3(i6 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Chap. 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 Aschaffenburg on the 27th ; he there detached ten thousand men to Frankfurt, 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 jf 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 tlie very choicest of Napoleon's veterans, and they, as well as the strag- glers that accompanied them, if opposed in thtir 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 liimself 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 ast 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, extende ' from Cologne on the north 1813.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 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 \o 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 jjroposition, 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 K'enau was so greatly out- witted by the French marshal, furnisiied 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 a thousand pieces of cannon, and nearly seventv 368 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Cuap. XLU 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- aally grievous from the enormous pecuniary exactions and the wasting military conscriptions that accompanied it — had been peculiarly oppres- Siive 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 ii; 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 for a 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 lo 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 pait of Dalmatia surrendered to the Austrian troops. CHAPTER XLIIl. 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 reenforcements, 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. \s the Cortes hesitated to grant these demands, Wellington repaired in p(u-- 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 HISTORYOFEURGPE. [Chap. XLIII 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 iast 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 sul'ien 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 th? 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 army of the Duke del Parque, consisting of twelve thou- sand soldiers, was posted in the defiles of the Sierra Morena. The firsf 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 Esti'emadura and on the frontiers of Leon and Galicia : it included all the troops able to *ake 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 eighty-five thcusand 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.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 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- mces, and waging a partisan warfare with the insurgent Spaniards in Biscay and Navarre. The campaign commenced on the 11th 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 vere so made that, when the advancing columns reached the frontiers of Biscay or Galicia, they should abandon all communication with Lisbon, md 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 tth, 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 tlie 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, fol owed by his court, the civi' 372 HISTORY f) F E U R 6 P E . [Chap. XLTlI. authorities, and niany citizniis of Madrid, together with the troops that had occuy)iod the vicinity of the capital. The fljfrht 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 .loseph reached Vittoria, on the 19th, he made a stand rather with a vague hope of securing the safe transit of his ill-gotten booty into Franc(>, than with any w(dl-foun(l(Hl expectation of being able to resist the shock of Wellington's army. The basin of Vittoria, wh(>re the French troops, augmented by ret^n- 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. Tt 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 th(Mr 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 ke(^p open the road to Bayonne, and above all, not to suffer Gamarra Mayor to fall into the hands of the enemy. On the afl(M-noon of the 20th, W(dlington carefully surveyeam with his dying eyes as they moved irresistil)ly along the ridge. Th(> French were gradually borne backward ; and Hill, en- couraged !)y 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, Wtdlington 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 OFEUROPE. 373 where the French were posted in groat 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 l-'rench, 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 immeoiate 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 e.stimation. 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 (iraham laid siege to St. Sebastian on the 2.')th 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 at this time was preparing to resist a new invasion led on by Soult. This marshal, whom Napoleon had ordered to Spain when the news o{ the battle of Vittoria reached Dresden, arrived at Bayonne on the 1 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 Suchet, at the same period, amounted to sixty-six thousand men. As soon as Soult had completed his arrange- tnents, 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 v/as this difference between the two positions, that, although the British nvere on the higher ground, and occupied passes difficult of access, yet 374 HISTORY OF KU ROPE. [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 reenforcements. 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- lon, satisfied with his succe.ss, 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 Hill 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 reenforcements. 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 Clause I's division moved impetuously toward its left. Clausel's attack was quickly and totally repulsed ; but the assault along the centre and right was more successful, and for a time the Fi'ench soldiers estab- lished themselves on the ridge. Wellington, however, brought up his resei'ves 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- eand 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 il 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 K U R u ? h 375 passes leading to the Lower Bidassoa ; and although his troop: suffered an immense loss in their flight through narrow defiles, crowded with their own fugitives and enfiladed by the destn;cl;-"3 fire of ttieir pursuers, he reached the French territories on the firel 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 injuriet, sustained during the previous siege ; but on the other hand, the besieging force was also much increased, both in men and in battering cannor.. The heavy guns were brought into position by the 2oth 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 disrt 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 prog-^ess, Srult made great efforts to relieve its garrison. He crossed the B aassoa on the 30th oi August, with thirty-eight thousand men, of whom eighteen thousand were ' under his own command, and twenty thousand under Clausel's ; whi?<=' 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 JMarcial, 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 arm> 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 vet 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 likely to prove dangerous as serviceable to an invading force. Despite the numerous and energetic lepresentations of Wellington, the govern- ment of Cadiz had given its whole attention to political intrigue, and neg- 26 ine HISTORY OFEU ROPE, [Chai. XI Hi. 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, m 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 givernment had decided otherwise, he, like a good soldier, set himself to execute, to ihe best of his ability, an ofTensive campaign, which, on military princi- ples, h? deeioed premature. Soull"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. .lean Pied-de-Port, in the mterior 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 redoubi 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 thf army were left standing on the heights ia 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'e brigade, which led the attack, suddenly emerged froir behin 1 ih ■ ) idge that 18131 HISTORYOFEUROPE. 377 screened thom, 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 ce-ntre 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 ■^"■~* "are was, now, to prevent plundering on the part of his troops, and to e»caoIish 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 bv 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 f^r, 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 suflTer, 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 sol- 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 wa:i 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 \>\- .378 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CaAr. XLIil, precipices Im o 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 43rfi and 52nd regiments, aided by the Portuguese Cacadores, 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 11th, 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 both 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 b(?rn 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 countr}'^ 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 commoditifs. 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 movem'^nts, ordered the attack to be commenced early on the following mornmg ; which was accordingly dme, in a manner J813. HISTORY OF EUROPE. 379 worthy of troops accustomed to victory. But a position like Soult's could not 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 lo 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 wended 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 Tornies 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 befor^ 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 Germai 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 tlie 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, hi:j power shaken, and his glory dimmed. Nevertheless, his energies were equal 390 HISTORYOFEUROPE [Cuap. XLIV to the emergency. lie 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 govei'nment 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- jure, 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 tvrant 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 p-aople, whose zeal and charity were taxed to the utmost, could provide no effectual remedy for I le suffering host. In the fortified cities, where the greater portion of the ^ ildiers sought a refuge, they endured far more misery than in the villages. The typhus fever, which they brought with I hem from Germany, soon spread to such a degree among the exhausted f.rowds 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.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 381 cessive weeks, was not hss 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 subject? 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, conmienced under the reign of Louis XVI., and continued and finished b}'' the unwearied perseverance of Napoleon. On her return to Paris, in September, she was required to authorize a demand of the 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, aim the ramparts, fortify the bridges and defiles, and make every possible a-rangement 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 FJienish frontier ctuI ! not be main- .Ifty H I S 'I" O R Y O F E U R O P E . [Cuai X1.IV tained. The Rl.ine 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 provisions 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 their whole fortunes, the earnings and savings of a long life, to save their sons fro.m destruction : it being universally understood, and not the less true, that purchasing a substitute for the conscription was bribing one man to sacri fice his life for another. Desertion, too, became incessant, and the pre- fects were constantly occupied in enfoi'cing 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 slwt 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 migh 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 th-e 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 pi pared to maintain the contest on a scale more colossai than before. The allied sovereigns at Frankfort had, in the meantime, adopted a 1813.] H : S T O R Y i'^ E U R O P E 3«3 measure which, more than any other, tended to elevate their cause in the estimation of mankind, and to sevei 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 Emperor 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, 18i;i. 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 wishe? 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 ano happy ; that commerce should revive and the arts flourish ; tha' her ter- ritory should preserve an extent unknown to her ancient kings ; because tlie French nation is, in Europe, cue of the fundamental bases of the social edifice ; because a great peojde can be happy only so long as the}' 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, bv 3.5 384 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [CaAr. XLIV a wise division of power, by a just equilibrium, may hereafter pn^serve their people from the calamities, that tor twenty years, have oppressed; Europe. The allied powers will not lay down their arms until thev 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 p'-etensions ; and until the sanc- tity of treaties has finally secured the tranquillity of Europe." When sentiments so elevated and generous were proclaimed by the sillied 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- l<>on 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 tlie 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 I81S.J HISTORY OF EUROPE. 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. BuL 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 ; ao-ricul- ture languishes, 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 - 298 H I S T O R Y O F E U R O P E . [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 iiord 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 have 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, the>, 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 restrictt^d to her limits as they existed before the Revolution 1814.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 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, Fra ce 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 tho 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 ihe Seine. This order, worthy of Napoleon's genius, and in strict conformity to his 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 misl(Ml 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 proiTered 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, liad 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, sliould 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 Napoleun's late success had awakened all his former apprehensions, and he feared 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 refusmg *he terms proposed, the four allied powers, Austria, Prussia, Ru.ssia, and 36* 4(U) HISTORY OF EUROPE. rCH... . 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 f^ve 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 )lenipotentiaries 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 Troyes 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 »814 ] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 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 v/as 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 v/as 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 efl^ect a [unction with Bulovv and Winzingerode. These generals were on the opposite side of the Aisne ; and his only means of communication with them was a wooden bridge thi'own 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 m 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 Strogonoflf; 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 pest 402 HISTORY 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, «he 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. Tlie 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, v/ith 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 brmging 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 lino 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 Ax thou- sand on the side of the allies, and eight thousand on that of the French. 1814.1 HISTORYOF EUROPE. 403 On the following day, Blucher collected around Laon 1: .s entire force, amounting to a hundred and nine thousand men ; and Nafoleon 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 seven 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 nms- 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. Winzingerode'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. That 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 3onsternation, the French merely fired one round of grape and then dis- persed — each one flying, in the darkness, wherever chance or his fears directed. Tn 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 wa- 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 404 HISTORYOFEUROPE. i Chap. XLV. Napoleon, anticipating a general battle that day, was drawing on his boots at four o'clock on the morning of the 1 0th, 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 al^ was lost in that quarter. This di.saster 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 11th, the army continued its 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 sarre 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 forces 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 bellige-rent 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 olher 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 twentv thousand men for the defence of all the Low Countries ; and he saw ai 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 Mouse, by the Russians and Prussians. He therefoi'e disposed a part of his troops around Antwerp and Bergen-op-Zoom, and made every possible preparation for sustaining u 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 forwarc 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 tiw-;e, Bulow received orders to raise the «iege and march with his corps into France, where, as already related, ^e united himself to Blucher's army. The British troops, not being in 406 HISTORY OFEU ROPE. [Chap. XLVI sufficient Jorce to maintain themselves m front of Antwerp, withdrew tc their former cantonment between that city and Bergen-op-Zoom ; and Carnot, acting strictly on de-fcnsive 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-quartei's at Ath. Gorcunr 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 Man- 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 Beauharnoig 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 ihe 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 nwvement : vhe two armies therefore simultaneously moved to the attack, on the 8th of February, and they were mutually surprised on their march ; Ijut 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-and-forty hours, capitulated to Murat's forces on the Kith : 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 OFEUROPE. 407 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 a. lies, 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, durino- 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, althougli 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 reenforcements and completed his preparations for an offensive campaign, determined to effect the passage of the Adour. Foi 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, raking 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 lefl, to the heights of St. Boes on the right. Wellington approached in three columns, consisting of thirty-seven ihou&and men of all arms. Beresford, with the allied lefl, commenoe'i 2H 408 HISTORY OFEUROPE. [Chap XLVi the action at daybreak, on the 27th, 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 neai'ly 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 beibre 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 made 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 Toulouse, while Wellington pushed on to Bordeaux. The inhabitants of Bordeaux, who throughout the Revolution iij..! been distinguished for their moderate, or royalist principles, were thrjwn 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 afiairs. They unfolded their designs to M. Lynch, the mayor of the city, who warmly approved their views, and avowed his desire to proclaim Louis XVIIL 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 XVIIL, 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 reachea Bordeaux. The mayor and civic authorities came out tc meet him, at a short distance from the suburbs, and the former delivered an address, io which he expressed the joy felt by the people at their liberation from 1814.i HISTORY OF EUROPE. 409 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 Pari? 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 XVIIl., had excited the utmost consternation among the Imperial functionaries, and awakened the wildest hopes of the Royalists. After deliberately climating 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 5ind 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 Guard.* and reserves under Barclay formed the centre, and Raieffsky and Giula^ 410 H I ST R Y OF E U ROP E . [CoAr. XLVl. had Jirection of the left. These dispositions were not completed until late in the day : and althoush the battle commenced immediately there- after, it was rather a cannonade than a general action, and at ten o'clock at night both parties retirpd 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, sa 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, thai night came on before the allies reached Arcis. * The French destroyed the bridge behind them, so that Schwartzenberg could not follow in pur- suit ; and when the 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 irophies 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 mode 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- ■juired an immense sacrifice, for it would be necessary to march directly toward the Riiine, and wholly abandon the defence of Paris; since his armv was now so reduced by defeat and discouragement that he could not divide without destroying it. and his success depended on his ability tft •withdraw and embodv into his ranks the garrisons of the blockaded for 1814.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 411 iresses in the rear of the allies. Therefore, on leaving Arcis, instead of taking the road to Chalons, whence he had advanced, or to Paris, whithei he was expected to retire, he retreated along the chaussee of Vitry in the dii'ection 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 hazai'd of an assault, and refused to open his gates. This check was quite unexpected ; but, as Napoleon liad no leisure to subdue hostile cities, he turned aside; and continaing 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 f' 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 at Dampierre, 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 liis 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 2.5th of March. Schwartzenberg and Blucher had designated Fere- Champenoise as a common rendezvous, and the advanced guards of both armies came in siijht of each other near Sonde St. Ci'oix, at eiffht o'clock .i t 412 II I S T O R Y O F E U R O P E . [Chap. XLVI in the nrn.mingof that day. Mortier and Marmont, who now lay between the allies and Paris, had in the nieantinme received orders fronn 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 Fcre-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 sreat 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 *his 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 hundi'ed ammunition wagons, and all the supplies of provision destined for Napoleon's army ; while the loss of the allies did not exceed twenty- nve 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, wlien ho 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 villas, woods, orchards, and smiling fields — all the charming indication;* 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 i8l4., HISTORYOFEUROPE. 413 ihem 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 tlie 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 tlie 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 Rome 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 du 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 tiu)se 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, RomainvilH, Belleville, Chaumont and Montmartre are the names 414 H I S T O R Y O F K U R O P E . (Chap. 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 ill 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, er<>cted 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 m 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- tence of Paris. The National Guard, indeed, mustered thirty thousand nien ; 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 tc twenty-six thousand mjn : ihev were supported by a hundred and twenty pieces of cannon, fifty-three of which were in position, and some of them manned by the youths of .lie Polytechnic School. Marmorit commanded 1814.J historyofeuropf:. 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 g^n^rale 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 ^\ve 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 Boyer'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- tnont's aid, and the Russians were driven back into the villages. At this uncture, Raieffsky reached his designated point and commenced an as- sault on the left. His infantry carried Montreuil and his cavalry pushed )n to Charron, nearly in the rear of the Young Guard at Romainville. It was now eight o'clock, and the 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 Giula); 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 Mesenzoff to uinte with Raieffsky and carry the guns. These forces ao 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 Marmort at La Villette ' the French marshal defended his ground for four hours, but was at last compelled to retire. The Prince Roval did not reach his uosition on the 416 HISTORY 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 Prench 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 caUche 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 ofllicer." 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 yon 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^ 1814] 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 wi Btches that they are ! Marmont, too, who swore that he would be hewn in pieces rather than surrender ! And Joseph ran off — my own brother ! 1 o 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 son — 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 ! 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. Wliat 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 liim- self a statesman ; but I begin to believe Savary is right in pronouncinor 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 whh 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 and 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 tlie 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 myself 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 '-^ 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 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [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 roi .'" 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, carae 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 I'Empereur Alexandre !" " Vive le Roi de Prussie !" " Vivent lea 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, aiH to secure the peace of the world. Talleyrand immediately rose, and DE TALLEYRAND I814.J HISTORY OF EUROPE. 419 urged that thn 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 th? 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 France 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, m his capacity of Arch-chancellor of the Empire, convened the Senate in their usual hall of assemblv. 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 JVIontesquieu, 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 now, I 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 vv .^ 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 destrjio- tion of the Kremlin, the most noble ed'fice that had escaped the flames 38 420 HISTORY OFEUROPE. [Chap. XLVI On the 3nd 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 hi's 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 Monitcur of April 7th, contained an ofllicial 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 hosniities, 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 persevering ^ii 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 emaj»ated from a few devoted adherents, had now swelled 1814.] HISTORY OF KUROPE. 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 \c 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 11th 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, «nly 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 Koller, 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 liis 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 1 fndaunted. 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 enemies, 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 to Malmaison to meet him. While there, she was attacked with a severe illness, which terminated h6r 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 gate 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 dir.ed 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 *he 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.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 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 ; CTcrmany was to be independent, but under the guarantee of a federal union ; Switz?rland 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 twc-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.j 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 tha* 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 4814.J fl I S T R Y F E U R O P E . 425 ■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 sub&equentiv 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 pait 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 Norwav look 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 recosnize/l this treaty, but promised her armed interference, if necessary, 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 leo'itl- 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. Anker, 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 01 EUROPE. [Chap XLVII. home : despite this, howevei', 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 povvers arrived in Norway with a similar intention; but all their efforts were fruitless: they there- fore departed without having accomplished anythincj, 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 suflli- 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 i688, 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 176r>, 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. fid. when they were from TiOs. 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. f d. ; and if above 66s., 6d. The object of these, and a great number of mtermediate and temporary acts^. 1814.] HISTORYOFEUROFE 427 was to prevent that grievous evil to which a people are sub ected 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 «;ome instances this excess readied as high as nine hundred thousand quarters. Aftei- 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 hundi-ed 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 179.5, it averaged fifty-four shillings; again, to 1805 it averaged eighty-one sliillings ; 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 closr 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 advantage> 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 XVIIL: 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 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Chap. XLVII. 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 bad 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. Tn full ]>ossession 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 who 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 XVL, 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." !n 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. i814.j HISTORYOFELROPE. 429 The great foundations of civil liberty — lioerty 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, twentv 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, sintfularly 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 which 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 consci'iption 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 employment, 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 moi'alily. 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 »he governed. Nor was this lack of harmony between the national iP,i) HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Chap. XL VII 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 i nprisonment, 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 Cham- ber 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 pyblic 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 woi'k of peril and uncertainty : Henry IV. perished under it; .Tames 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 condenmed to inactivity. The wandering life of camps, the excitement of battle, the joys of the bivouac, the terrors of the breach, the contributions from prov- inces, the plunder of cities, w re 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 besiege! from morning till night by eUiinorous crowds, composed of men divided «rou) each other in princi|)l(" i814.J HISTORYOFEUROPE 431 as widely ay 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- taries 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 Kmpire. 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, bv ihe most rigid economy, the government could not reduce its annual expenditures 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 Imperia. 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 tc 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 -enets ; and that, without endeavoring to establish any adequate counter- poise to its power, they 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 regimc^nts, 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 wei'e changed : generals of brigade were denominated marshals of the camp ; and generals of division, lieutenant-generals. Cath- ♦>iic and Prote-^tant soldiers were alike compelled to go to mass, to confess .39 432 HISTORY Ol-EUROPE. [Chap. XLVU. and to communicate. The Imperial Guard, which in the first instance was intrusted with the service of the Tuileries, was soon removed, ana 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 les.* matei'ial 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 consecratea 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 theii rightful owners of the confiscated national domains, so far as tliey 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 XLVIIl. CONGKESS OF VIENNA. NAPOLEON's FINAL STRUGGLE. While the French government was vainly striving to C-ose the wounds, and mitigate the sufferings induced by the Revolution, negotiations for the adiustment 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 Russia, 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 tc 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 XVIIL 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. Bat 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 discipline 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 wore 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, l!!Jl5. By this compact it was stipulated, that the contracting parties should act disinterested!) 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. T'he 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- ternal attack, and to be directed by a Diet, in which Austria and Prussia 1815.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 435 were each to have two votes, and Bavaria, Wirtemberg, and Hanover, each one vo:e ; 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 af Nassau ; the great fortress of Luxemburg, with its adjacent territory, bemg alone excluded and added to the German Confederation ; and by patent, dated March 16thj 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 arranore- meut, Holland ceded to Great Britain the Cape of Good Hope, Dem- 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 ♦o embrace the nineteen Cantons on an equal footing, and they all form- ally acceded to their Constitution on the 2Tth 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 ? 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 ti'oop, 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 subjec*. averred that .SO* 436 HISTORY OFEU ROPE. [Chat. XLVHL " 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 cre- 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 he 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 theve 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 I'esources 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.] HISrORYOFEUROPE. 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 ai'ena 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 mamtained 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 H I S T O R Y O F E U R O P E . [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 signaled fimits. Murat was among the first to join Napoleon in his en- terprise. His vacillation and weakness had already ruined him with "he 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. Napole-on 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 ihe 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 I'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 Mai'ch, 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 tie 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^v jonsequently 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 mtel 1815.J HISTORYOFEUROPE 438 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 Marchand, marched out from the jjarrison with his retjiment 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 a* 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 Tuii- eries. The two Chambers were immediately convoked ; the Count d'- A.rtois 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 11":°: 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. *ier was placed at the head of the troops in the north of France ; Auge- reau was dispatched to Normandy ; full powers were transmitted tc Massena. at Toulon ; and Oudinot took direction of the forces at Mar 30 440 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Chap. XLVIII 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 Besan^on and Lyons, were in large masses deserting the royal standard. The Count d' Artois, the Duke of Orleans and Macdonald, could make nc 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 returnee 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 owi_ account of his deplorable and disgraceful treachery is perliaps the mos'' 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 Bonanarte appeared to me so extravagant, that I spoke of it with indig- ncaon, 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 enjcrgency was exigent : but all efforts were unavailir g, from the want 1815.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 441 of soldiers to defend the throne. The Chamber of Deputies met, on the 11th 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 'o the minds of all present. The king addressed a few words of comfort tc ?ach 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 Glient. Napoleon arrived at Fontainebleau on the 19tli, 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 py. 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 wokIm 442 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Chap. XLVIH 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 eflect: 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 i'ew 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 hia 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 ihe 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 Em[)eror 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 commani, and the great influence of 1815.] HISTORY OFEUROPE. 443 his name ; but. the fact of such a simultaneous rising against his authoritv 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 iiiio nostilities 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 elTected the destruction of Napoleon ; and all the lesser powers of Europe acceded to these treaties, within a fort- night after their I'atification. On the 31st of March, in a secret meeting held at Vienna, it was re- solved 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 Finance, the measures adopted by the Congress of Vienna, and the necessity of augmenting the mililai\' and naval forces of the Empire. The address was approved of in ihe 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 support her own naval and military establishments, Great Britain granted 40 444 H 1 S T U R Y O F E U R P E . [Chap. XLVHI. and paid to the several allied powers within the year, subsidies to the uniount 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 curi-ency, however valueless, could not be refused ; in short, to meet his emergencies, Napoleon set at vork the old system of terror and compulsion ; and it produced — as for a ime 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 duly 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 Additionei," which in many respects strongly resembled the Charter of Louis XVIII. But in three particulars it materially differed from that instrument ; and these yoints 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.] HISTORYOFEUROPE. 445 Bourbons had done. In the first place, the peeragj 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 mind, and the necessity of the sword in government." "What," exclaimed this fearless writer, " is glory ? Has a lion, which morkes 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 auiong 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 otTered 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 ot one man. The French nation is powerful and free ; its power and freedom are essential to the equilibrium cf Europe ; and it has but to deliver itself from its oppi'essor, 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 peact in Italy, had previously offered to procure for him a recognition of his title by all the sovereigns represented at Vienna, if he »voulss tliaii twenty thousand men were assembled around the Bourbon standard ; and Napoleon, justly alarmed at so seriou? a rising against his authority williin the French territory, dispatched Generals Lamarque and Travot with a large force to quell the disturi). 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, tims 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 restoi-ation. La Vendre is but an incident in the great European war about to br(>ak out in the plains of Belgium. The contest between the Blues and th(> Whites is hencefortl' without an object." By these means Fouche hoped to gain credit wiln Napoleon, with th(; 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 (dosed the frightful gulf of civil war. This complex scheme of the eld policeman was crowned with complete success. One of the Vendean leaders, indeed, Auguste La Rochejaciuelein, refused to follow th(! 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 tlie 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 (lu Rhone and La Vendee, the deputies were appointed by five elect- ors ; and in twenty-nine departments no elections whatever were held.. The I'cspectable citizens in almost every quarter kept aloof from a politi- cal contest dirf^cted by such men as Fouche, Carnot, and other violent Re|)ulil leans ; and men of property .leemed it unnecessary to meddle with an epliemeral legislature, or to ma ;e any efforts fo' or against a cause- 1815.1 HISTORYOFEUROPE. 447 which they conceived would soon be determined by the bayonets of the allies. The df;puties returned were therefore, for the most part, needy and unprincipled adventurers. The new lej^islature was convened at Paris on occasion of the f(';te 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 t) 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- rated in secret correspondence with his enemies, that he at one time re.solved to sacrifice them, at whatever risk to his own safety. When the old Girondist, Lanjuinais, was cho.sen 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, ■' f will return my answer by one of my chamberlains." This message raised a storm in the chamber. To return an answer by a chambf-rlain, 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 TEure, La Fayette, and Gn-nier, 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 I'Empereur" were heard from the ranks ; and a procession of the fOKrH 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, ma.ssacre and revo- lution in the metropolis. In the midst of tins 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 p'ouch'' 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 di.s- "patc*!! fi'Mm Metternich to the minister of police ; and the messenger who conveyed it, having been arrested, revealed various important details o. 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. Carno* 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* 44S HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Chap. XI^VIIT tor dissemblint» The men of the Revolution allow you to reiijn, 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 fail, 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 accom])lished, 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 Finance 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 raise'd 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 witfe 1815.] HISTORY OFEUROPE. 4,4^ 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 ^or the account of the matter given by Fouche in his own memoirs. That unparalleled intriguer, who had been in constant communicatior with Wellington and Metternich ever since Napoleon's return from Elba, haj 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 wa& 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 1.5th, 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 pui'pose, 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 seve'ity-two thousand strong. The orders cf Napoleon to Ney required that -narshal to move early in the morning, and occupy Quatre-Bras be. 450 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Chap. XLVIIl. 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. Amand 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 furioua 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 cotnbat 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 reenforcements, 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 fouglit at Quatre-Bras. About twenty thousand British troops, in ol^edience 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 1815.J HISTORYOFEUROPE. 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 punsue, 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 n-ot 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 colunms, which were now advanced to Quatre-Bras, he ordered a retreat through Genappe to Waterloo. Napoleon foil-owed 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 Bluchor, 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 tliousand 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 tc 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 ihe British batteries. Wellington had stationed General Hill with seven thousand men at Hal, six miles on the right, to cover tlie road from Mons to Brussels ; and he dispatched letters to Louis XVIII. at Ghent, early on the morning of the 18th, recommf nding that monarch to retire to Antwerp, if the eneniy's approach shoula expose him to any danger. Blucher, durmg 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 wh.^le army : he further promised to arrive on the ground by one 452 HISTORYOFEUROPE. [Chap. XLVIIL a'cloclc 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 occui)ied the chrtteau, 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 musketrj' 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 tliey were first discovered. It was now noon. Ney pushed forward his batteries to the most advanced lieights 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 (f 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 canie witliiit twenty yards of the British line. Here they halted; and, lor a time, a 1815.1 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 rushed 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 horse 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 ■ttuarter, he sent forward two powerful detachments of the Young and Old 454 HISTORY OF EUROPE. _Chap. XLVHI Guard ; and after some desperate fighting Bulow was forced back into the wood, wliere 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 if 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, mid at them /" cried Wellingion, 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, four 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, ami 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. Lei 1815.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 455 us save ourselves!" He then fled across the fields in gx-ea-t naste, acoom. 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 Carabronne. 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* { ieces 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 of the 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 countrr 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 ui 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 01 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 doit!" " 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 M'rote 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 mclinations, 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 ihe 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 mduces me lo in- vite the Chambers to appoint a regency without delay. Let all unite for ttie public safety and the maintenance of the national independence." A stormy scene ensued in the Chamber of Peers when Lucien, Labe- doyere, and Count Flahault advocated the ilaim of the young Napoleon. Davousl read an exaggerated report on the military resources of France. lbJ5.] H I S T O R Y O F E U R O P E . 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 adopted 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 ir the capital, to whom the matter was referred, unanimously pronounced a similar decision. A capitulation was, therefore, concluded with the allie« 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 witliin 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 theii 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, ai d the Prussians bivouacked in the churches, on the quays, and along the principal streets. On the 8th, Louia 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, Napoleon 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, dui'ing 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 Belleropho", the 4^8 HISTOB. Y OF EUROPE. [Chap. XLVIIl. 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 generour. 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 Ivlaitland, 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 ^nal. 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 tiie bridges, and all the principal points of the tr-.wn. Detachments of cavalry patrolled every street, and the reality of suojugation 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 Blucher 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 thej'' 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 liooty from the robber. Talleyrand, who had resumed his functions as Ministei of Foreign Affair appealed to the article in the capitulation of Paris^ 1815.] HISTORY OFEUROPE. 459 which guarantied the safety of public and private property : but it was justly replied, that these objects of art, seized contrary to the law jf 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 monaichy 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, ^f 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 the 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 m 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 caimot be denied that the protection extended to him. It is true, an example was required ; and equally true that Nev's treason was mure 41* 460 HISTORY OF EUROPE. [Chap. XLVIIl. 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 one 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 governm'^nt. 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 becanip 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 oredestined." At two o'clock on the 8rd 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, " tHe d'arm^e." 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 ^^alley, 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. 184U.] HISTORY OF EUROPE. 461 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 F'-ance ; 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. AFPENDIX. : Mr. Alison's forty-first Chapter, which in the orig.nal work follows the campaign °f ;2to';ia"rd?;.dr l>recisely in Mr. Alison's own words.) THE BRITISH FINANCES, AND MR. PITt's SYSTEM OF PINANCIAl. POUCr. .mid the w»ves, the retun, of . . 'gl »P "' . ™ J ," ,m',„. if her national finances to take advantage of the cii&is , il sne nau ut energies of avvak. ninsula when its native P°---f^--;f ^eTs efiin ' f th ^eT^ England had no. How, then, did t liapptnuai ^^^ ^^^^ amassed by the an Empire, was enabled to ^ .^P'^"'^^^^;;^^^^^ magnitude for twenty cient mistress of the world ; to maintain a c°"f ^\^;\ . , ^ j^^ ^f Europe, and an years ; to keep on foot a fleet which <=°37^f .j'^y^^'^^^racquir?^ colonial empire army which can-ied victory "^^Vl^^the "st cont nent of HinSostan, at Mie very time that encircled the <^-'h-d subdue thejast continent o ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^.^^ that it struggled in Spam with '^^ If "^"'"'f , l,, /,oK,tj, ,, „f the phenomenon, unex- of the North for the liberation "f Germany T^e '."lutio ot P ^^^^^^_ ampled in the history of the world is -^ '° ^ ^^^^J^^J J,, ^ P^J Uich they maintainea ringindustiTo t-Bntishpeopl^^ afforded would have been in- in every quarter of the g'«'l^ ' ;"' ' ^ ^een exhausted early in the struggle, adequate to so vast an expendUuie and must '^'^'^ "^' , , ^j^^^ j fi„a„ee, which if they had n„t been organized -. ^J -"^'^^h^.^' ^^.^^^^^^ It is there that S:^ii;S:?^he;-Si^IJ^tiir^t;here that the noblest monument to Mr. Pitt's wisdom has been erected. inconsiderable, and totally reign, £480,000 a year: sums certainly not eqmvaie.it to 464 APPENDIX. £1,000,000 of our money.* That enjoyed by Charles I. amounted, on an average, tc je895,000, annually : a sum perhaps equal to £1,500,000 in these times.t It was the long parliament which first gave the example of a prodigious levy of money from the people in England ; afTording 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 Enghuid 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 Bum 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 .Fames 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. ||ir 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 tiie 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 efTected 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 been brought about, various heart- burnings and divisions had succeeded that event, and the exiled dynasty still numbered n large and resolute body, especially in the rural districts, among their adherents. Ex- * Hume v., 412. vi., 112. t lb. vii., 341. Pebrer,45. X " It is seldom," says Hume, " that the people gain anything by revolutions in government, because the new •ettlenient, jealous and insecure, must commonly be supported with more expense and severity than the old ; but on no occasion was the truth of tiiis 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, havnig gained a complete victory over the 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. "a The following are some of the items in this enormous aggregate of X83,000,000 raised from the nation durinc the Commonwealth— a striking proofofthe despotic character of the e.\ecutive 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, forfouryears 3,528,000 Sequestrations of private estates in England 4,564,000 Fee-farm rents for five years 2,963,000 Compositions with deUnquents in Ireland 1,000,000 Sales of estates in Ireland 3,567,000 Other lesser 10,074,000 Total £83,331,000 -Pkbrer. 139, 140. t Of this sum, there was drawn from England £1,517,274 from Scotland 143,&32 from Ireland 207,790 -Ibid, 140. £1,868,716 II The quarter of wheat from 1636 to 1701, was, on an average 51s. lUd from 1700 to 1765 40s. 6d. from 1764 to 1794 44s. 7rf. In 1835, the average of the quarter in Great Britain was 38s. Sd., and the average of the last five years wa» only 48s.— Smith's Wealth of J^ations, i., 358, and Corn Jlverage, 1835. T Pebrw.139, 143. ** Pebrer. 59, 60. a Hume vii.. 115. 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 ol 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,t 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 curi ous and instructive object of contemplation, to observe a similar convulsion leading, in countries so widely different in their character, customs and institutions, as I^ance and England were at the accessions of the dynas- ties of Orange and Orleans to their respective thrones, *• a result so precisely similar : Francs. 1S24 951,000,000, or about £38,100,000 1825 946,000,000, or " 37,800,000 1826 942,000,000. or " 37,600,000 1827 986,000,000. or " 38,730,000 1828 939,'X)0,000, or " 37,300,000 1829 975,000,000, or " 3?,»40,000 1830 Revolution in July 981,000 000, or " 38,930,000 1831 Louis Philippe I,511,00o!o00, or " 60.000,000 1832 Do. 1,100,000,000, or " 44.000,000 1833 1,120.000.000, or " 44,500,000 — tsee Stat, de France, published by government, t Pebrer, 245. J The following table exhibits, in a clear and condensed form, the increase of the public revenue, and pro Cnwiveero'vth of the debt, from the Revolution in 1668 to the present time: Debt. Interest. Public Revenue. Naional debt at the Revolution £664,263 39.865 2,001,885 licrease during the reign of William 15,730,439 1,271,08/ 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 5,691,803 Decrease during the reign of George I 2,053,12 8 133.807 466 APPENDIX. It was at this period that Mr. Pitt came into office, on the resignation of Mr. Fox and the coalition ministry. His ardent and sagacious mind was immediately turned to tlie consideration of the finances, and the means of extricating the nation trom 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 made on the debt by any eflorts 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- vened since the Revolution, had done little more than discharge a tenth of the burdens contracted m the previous years of hostility. The interest of the debt absorbed now more than two-thirds of the public reveime. It was impossible to conceal that such j state of things was in the highest 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 its 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 tlie 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 might be increased on any unforeseen emergency ? Tliese dangers took strong possession at the mind of Mr. Pitt ; but, instead ot sink- ing in despair under the difficulties of the subject, he applied tlie energies of his under, standing with the greater vigor to overcome them. 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 to 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 more than a remedy ; he not only seized the battery, but turned it against the enemy. The wonderful powers of compound interest, the vast Debt. Interest. Public Revenue. Debt at the accession of George U £52.0J2,2i5 X3,2I7,50l £6,76-2,463 Decrease during the peace 5,137,612 233,526 Debtattheopening.if the war, 1739 46,954,623 2,964,035 6,874,000 Incre;ise during the war 31.338,689 1,096,979 Debt at the end of the war, 1748 78,293,312 4,061,014 6,923,000 Decrease during the peace 3,721,472 _^j^] Delit at the opening of the war, 1756 74,571,840 3,396,737 7,127,16* Increase during tlie war 72,111,0M 2.444.104 Debt at the end of the war in 1763 146,(^,844 5,840.851 8,523,440 Decrease during the peace 10.739.793 364,000 Debt at the opening of the American war, 1776 1K,943,051 5,476,811 10,365,405 Increase during the war 102,541,819 3,843.084 Debt at the peace of 1783 2ii8,4.U870 9,319,925 U,96a.000 Decrease dui'iiiy; tlie peace 4,751,261 " 143,569 Debtattlieopeningof the war, 1793 233,733,609 9,176,356 16,658,814 Increase during the war 295,105.66^ 10,252,152 DebtatLliepeaceof Amiens, 1st February, 1801 528,839,277 19,428,508 34,113.148 Increase during the second war 335,983,164 12,796,796 Debtatthepeaceof Paris, 1st February, 1816 864,822,441 32,225.304 72,210,512 Decrease since the peace ^2.155,207 3,883,841 Debt on the 5t:i of January, 1832 £782,667,234 £28,341,463 £50,990,000 — MoREAU and Pebker's Tables, 70,89,152,245, and Porter's Pari. Tables, i., 1. A penny laid out at compound interest at the hiith of our Saviour, would in tlie year 1775 have amounted in a anhA mass of gold eighteen hundred times the whale weielit of the globe. APPENDIX. 4(J7 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 tiie gangrene was to be turned from tlie corruption of the sound to the eradication of ilie diseased part of tlie system. Another addition, like the discovery of gravitation, the press, and tlie steam-engine, to the many illustrations which history aflords ol the lasting trutli, that the greatest changes, both in t!ie social and material world, are guverned 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 most salutary discoveries in human afi'airs 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 office in 1784, 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, 1786, " the people of England place all their hopes of a full return of prosperity, and a revival of that public security which will give vigor and confidence to tiiose 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; tor 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 from a most unf'M"tunate 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 efiorts 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 ni)- heart, and it would be my proudest hope to have my name inscribed on a pillar to he 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 them 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 * I'arl. Hist., xxvi., 1295, 1313, 1109. t It is worthy of especial notice, however, that though thus deeply impressed with the paramount importance of raising up an etfective sinking fund for the reduction of the public debt, Mr. Pitt was equally resolute not to ittempt it by any measure by which the public security might he impaired, and, on the con I rury, at the very «ame time strorifrly advocated and carried a bill for the fortification of Portsmouth and Plymouth, which -etjuired several hundred thousand itounds. " He who would be seduced," siiid he, " by the plausible and pc |mi lat name of economy : he who would not call it only plausible and popular, be would rather say the sMcreil Bftme of economy, to foreeo the reality ; and for the sake of adding a lew hundred thousand pounds at tlii? (.iii jet to the sinking fund, perhaps render for ever abortive the si nkin{< fund itself. Every saving, cunsisleiulj uilli 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 greai man was directed to great and lasting national objects ; he was content to impose present borders, to forego presenl advantages, and incur present unpopularity, forthe sake of ultimate public advantage ; tbetnly principle which ev«r yet led to greatness and honor, either in nations or individuals, as the opposite systeu, gilded by present oopularity or enjoyment, is the certain (brcrunner of ultimate ruin. a Pari. Hist., \r -i, 1108. ^2 468 APPENDIX, the purchase of stock, the success of the plan was secured ; because the future accu. mulations would spring, net 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 tlie enormous height it has hitherto done. In the period of twenty-eight years, the sura of a nullion, annually improved, would amount to four millions per auniim. But care must be taken that this sum be not broken in upon. This has hitherto been the bane of tills 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 on 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 era/., is stead ily applied to the increase of the principal. Suppose that £20,000,000 is borrowed ; and tliat, inste.i i of provid- ing by ta.xes for the interest merely of this larcesum, provision is made for j£l,200,000 yearly, leaving the surplus of £200,000 to be annually applied in the purchase of a certain portion of ibe stock, by commissioners, for the reduction of the pinicipal, 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 Se>^:ond 210,000 Seventh 265,654 Third 220,500 Eighth 278,286 Fourth 231,250 Ninth 292,114 Fifth SJ2,562 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 especial notice, that this rapid advance is gained without imposing one farthmg 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 Pari. Hist., xxvi., 1309, 1322 t The speech delivered by M". I'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 h.is recordeti. " Thai having passed the morning of -his most important day in providing and examining the calculations and resolu- tions for the evening, he said 'le would take a walk to arrange in his mind what was to be said in the House in the evening His walk did not last above a quarter of an hour, and when he came back he said he believed li was preptired. He then dressec, and desired his dinner to be sent up; but hearing that his sister and another lady leiiding with her in the family were going to dine with him at the same early hour, he desired that they miglit dine together. Having passed nearly an honr with '.hose ladies, and several friends who called on their way to the House, talking with his usual livehness 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 paper* on the character of this illustrious man, by one of the ablest writers of theage, containine bv tar the bo*' uccoimi •f liis policy and character extant in any languase APP ENDIX. 409 the national debt, however wiaely 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 )f 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, unde; the new system, when no individual interests were concerned, nothing would prevent a future minister, in any future war, from com- injj do>-'n to the House and proposing the repeal of the sinking fund, or enabling govern, mcnt t ' 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! wh?n 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 fiom the necessities or weakness of future administrations, which would uiti mately prove its ruin 1 The bill passed bv.h Houses without a dissenting voice ; and on the 26th of May the kmg gave it the royd- ?.jsent 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 «jf 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 danger? hereafter, we should enact that, whenever any loan shall take place in future, unless it be raised on aimui. 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, JC100,000 should be raised in additit)n 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 £200,00^^ a year additional should from this time forward, be regularly granted out of the orOiUary 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 • Pari. Hist., xxvi,,1318. t The 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 tlioM branches of revenue above the charges fixed on them, wa» annually appropriated, during the war, amoDf th« ways and means to the current war expeni '.iture. : Pari. Hist., xxix.. 1050, 1058. 470 A P P E N D I X . enacted by the statute passed on the occasion, " that whenever, in future, any sumft 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 tlius 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 litde more than forty years, be expected. Under this system the whole loans were contracted, and the sinking fund was man- aged till 1802 ; 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,(J00 ; 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 sh'Hild 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, vvhich 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 mterest, and the vast additions drawn from the one per cent, on all subsequent loans, to the enormous sum o( fifteen millions and a half yearly in 1813, while the debts which it Iwd 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 compour.d 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 18l3, the loans contracted during that period, the stock redeemed by the con - 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 £58.5,000,000, it will not appear surprising that even the small sum of one per cent, on each, regularly issued to the national deb 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. m., 0. 69. t Pari. Hist., xxxvi. 890, 892. t Table showing the sums paid to the commissioners for the reduction of the national debt in every year ItoTs, 1786 to 1816 ; the stock redeemed by them in each year . the loans contracted, and iiropcrtion of those loam f>«L a to those commissioners in every year for that period- with the public revenue of tlie state for the sain* 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 i^ums 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 aimually 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 genera! 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 I'und were rapidly diffused and generally credited — the delusion of Mr. Pitt's system — the jiiggle so long practiced on the nation, were in every mouth ; the meanest political quacks, the most despicable popular demagogues, ventured to discharge their javelins 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 oidy 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 : tlie 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 lime.— MoREAu's Tables ; Pbbrkr's Tables, 153, 154, 246 ; Pari. Pap., 1822., &c., 145 ; Porter's Pari. TabUa, i 1; CoLtjUHOUN. 292, 294. Table showing the progressive growth of the sinking-fund. , Expenditure, including ni- terest of debt, funded & un- I'unded, nnd »JMkins-fund. Years. Sinking-fund Stock re- deemed by sinking-fund. Loans contracted. Proportion of loan paid to sinking-fund. Total charee of debt, inclu- ding sinking fund. Revenue. 1792 £1,458,504 £1,5071,00 £16,179,347 £9,437,862 £16,382,435 1793 1,534,970 l,062,feo £4,500,000 17,431,767 9.890,904 17,674,395 1794 l,630,t;i5 2,174,405 12 907,451 jei.630,615 22,754,366 10.715.941 17,440.809 1795 1,672,000 2,804,945 42,090,646 1.872,200 29.305,477 11,081,159 17,374,890 1796 2,143,r^96 3,(m,4ao 42,736,196 2.143,5.95 39,751.091 12,345, 87 18,243,876 1797 2,639,724 4,390,670 14.620,000 2,639.724 40,791, .'-iSS 13,t«:ll29 18,668,925 1798 3,369,218 6,716,153 18,000,000 3,361,752 50,739,857 16,405, t02 20,518,780 1799 4,294,325 7,838,109 12,500,000 3.984.252 51,241,798 20,108,88.3 23,607,943 1800 4,619,871 7,221,338 18,500,000 4,288,208 59,296,081 21,572,8()7 29,604,008 1801 4,767,992 7,315,002 34,410,000 4,620,479 61,617,988 21,661,029 28.08,5,829 1802 5,310,511 8,091,454 23.000,000 5,117,7;;3 73,072,468 23.808,8!)5 28,221,183 1803 5 922 979 7,733,421 10,000,000 5,685..542 62,373,480 23,436,804 38,401.738 1804 6,287,940 10,527,243 10,000,000 6,018,179 54.912,890 23,066,212 49,3;i5,978 1805 6,&->l,200 11,3*5,692 21,526,699 6,521,394 67,619,475 26,ai9,646 49,(>32,471 1806 7,615,16/ 12,234,064 18.000,000 7,181,482 76,0:36,796 28.963,702 53,698,134 1807 8,323,329 12.807,070 12,500.000 7,829,.'=.88 75,1.54.548 30,336839 58,902,291 1808 9.479,165 14,171,407 12,000,000 8,908,673 78,369,689 32,0.52,.337 61,524,113 , 1809 10,188.607 13,965,824 19,532,000 9,555,&53 84,797,080 32,781 ,.3.92 63,042,746 1810 10,904,451 14,352,771 16,311,000 10,170,104 88,892,551 33,98i.223 66,029,349 1811 11,660,601 15,65ft, 194 24,0('(1.!'<10 10,813,016 94.360,728 33,2'18,933 64,427,371 1S12 12,502,860 18,147.245 27.8'i,ra5 11„543,881 99 004,241 36,3'^790 63,327.433 1813 13,483,160 21,108.442 58,7t8,l(>0 12,439,(S1 107.644,(»3 38,443,147 63,211,422 1814 15,379,262 24,120,86? 18.iin(_i,('(i0 14,181,006 122,233,6(X) 41,7,3.3,-235 70,926,215 1815 14,120,963 19,149,684 45,13i7,'.«i 12,748,231 129,742,390 42,902,430 72,131 214 1816 13,452,696 »" 580,098 3,000,000 11,902,051 130.305 958 43,fi02.999 66.S34.4d4 * Hamilton OQ the Sinking Fund, and others. 32 472 APPENDIX. to be considerable, Mr. Pitt's sinking fund may now, to all practical purposes, be con. •idered as dfistroyed.* 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 analyses 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 efl>cfs 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 aa 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 i'und which would speedily and certainly * The following table exhibits the progression and decUne of tlie sinking fund iVoni the time of its being lirst instituted m 1786, till it wns broken upon by Mr. Vansittait in 1813, and till its virtual extinction in 1832. Table showing its progressive growth, decline, and final extinction. Years. Stock redeem- ed. Money ai)plied to reduption of Total am't of funded Years. Stock redeem- ed. [Mipney appliet to reduction o Tot;il am't r of funded debt debt. 1 debt. debt. 1786 £.500.000 £239,693,900 1811 £17,884,234 £13,075,977 £624,301,936 1787 £662,000 1,000,000 239,200,719 1812 20,733,3.54 14,078,577 635,583,448 17ffi 1.503,000 1,000.000 237,697,665 1813 24.246,059 16.064.057 661,409,9,58 1789 1.506.000 1,155,000 236,191,315 1814 27,522.230 14,830,957 740.023,.535 1790 1,558.000 1,2;JO,000 234,632,465 1815 22,.t99,653 14,241,397 7,52,857,236 1791 1,587,.500 1,371.000 233,044,965 1816 24,001.085 13,945,117 816.311,940 1792 1,507,100 l,4:58..-)04 231,.537,865 1817 23,117,541 14,.514.457 796,200,192 1793 1,9(2.650 1,634,972 209,614,446 1818 19,460,982 1,5.3.39,4^ 776,742.403 1794 2,174,403 1872,9,57 231,034.718 1819 19,648,496 16,305,590 791,867,314 1795 2,804,945 2.143,697 247,877,237 1820 31,191,702 17,499,773 794.980.480 1796 3,083,455 2,63;i,9;36 301,861,306 1821 24,.518,8a5 17,219.957 801,565,310 1797 4,3!I0,6;0 3,393.214 355,323,774 1822 23,605.931 18.889,319 795,312,767 1798 6,790.023 4.093,164 381,525,836 1823 17,966,680 7.4S2.325 796,530,144 1799 8,102.875 4,528,.568 414,936,334 1824 4.828.530 10,6,-,2,0-)9 791,701,612 1800 9.550.094 4,908,379 423,367,547 182.5 10,553,732 6,093,475 781,123,222 1801 10,713,168 5,528,315 417.147,164 1826 3,313,834 5.621,231 778,128.2(3 1802 10,491,325 6,114,033 497.043,489 1827 2.886,528 5,704,706 783,801,, 39 1803 9,4*i,389 6,494,694 522,231,786 1828 7,281,414 4.667,965 777,476,890 1804 13,181,667 7,436,929 528,260,642 1829 6,035,414 4,569,485 772,322,540 1805 12,860,629 9,402,608 545,803.318 1830 6,425,465 4„545,465 771,251,932 1806 13.759,607 10,i)2.),419 573,529,932 1831 3,304,729 2,673,907 757,486,997 1807 15,341,79;t 10 185,.');9 593,6.94,287 1832 9,079 6,821 1808 16,0. 4,962 601,733,073 1833 1809 lt),tf'l,68;i 11,359,570 604,287,474 1834 1810 16.656,643 12,095,691 614,789,(191 1835 —Porter's Par!. Table.-!, i., and ii., 6, 8, : Pebrer's, Tables, 247: Moreau's Tables. N.B. — Thistableexhibits the progress of the snjking fund and stock redeemed in Great Britam and [reland, 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 tiie operation of the sinking fund during war, but always kn)ked lbrvv:ird 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 tlie 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 fir to go, as things are circumstanced. If the reduction of the debt be confined to the operations of that fund, and the expenses of the war continue to mipede our plans of econ(miy, 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 equi'lly wise and not less practiciible to make provision for ths amount of 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 prmciple, if duly carried into practice, with the assistance of the sinkmg fund to cooperate, will enable us not to owe inor ^ than we did at its conimenceinenl. / cannot, indeed, take it upon me to say that the war will not stop the progress of liquidation, but it llie means I have Miiiitod on are adopled and resolutely adhered to, it will leav» us at least stationary. "—/'n»-i. Hist., xxxiii :fK.3. 1054. 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 'or its ffomplete and effective operation, which, although overshadowed and subdued by the vast contraction of debt during war, came instantly into powerful operation the aioment 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 jiroved utterly nugatory. Mr. Pitt was perfectly aware of the natural impatience of 'axation of mankind in general, and the especial desire always felt that, when the excite- ment of war ceased, it-5 expenditure should draw to a termination. He foresaw, there, fore, that it would be impossible to get the popular representatives at the conclusion of (he 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 Tiestimable object, was to have the whole machinery constructed and in full activity du- 'ing war, so that it might be al once brought forward into full and t fficitnt operation upon the conclusion of hostilities, without any legislative act or fresh imposition what, ever, by the mere termination of the cimtraction 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 than eightv- 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, >y annual votes, how much of the sinking fund was to be applied to the current servicet^ if the year, and how much reserved for its original and proper destination, the encroach- nient on the fund has gone on continually increasing, till at length it has, to all practical pmposes, 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 even of respect for it is gone. If such has been the fate ot 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. "t * Funded debt on January 5, 1816 je816,311,940 Unfunded do 48,510.501 Total £864,aS.441 Total debt on 5th January, 1833: viz.. Funded ^£754.100,549 Unfunded 27,752.ffiO 781,853,199 Paid off in sixteen years ^682,969,242 —Annual Finance Statei>itmt,l?S3, and Pebrer, 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 inipfirtant financial details, there is the clearest indication of the laslinfr and permanent system to which he looked forward with per- fect justice for the entire liqiiidntion of tlie public debt. One of these resolutions was, "That, snpiiiisini; the price of 3 per cent stock to he on an average, after the year 1800, j£90 in time of peace. an(! jG75 iii time of unr, and the proportion of peace and wnr to bellinsanie as for the liist liundreit years, the iivernfre price cif pfiic^.inil *ar will be about jE8."i : that tlip «liciie(lelil ireiiled in each yfvir of tlie prCient wur will he red =."neil m :ilii>' the nation and its government had posessed sufficient resolution to have resumed tne 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, and 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 deht 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 tlie 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 XISS.OOO, and of war to that of X168,000; that the amount of the sum annually applicable to the reduction of the debt would in the course of the same period gradually rise from j£5,000,000 to jEIO, 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 1810, to the amount in the whole of £10,500,000, and about 1846, further taxes to the amount of X4, 200,000, being the sum applicable fiom 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 this 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 1896 Table 1., showing what the Sinking Fund, accumulating at 5 per cent., if maintained at £15,000,000 a year would have paid off from 1816 to 1836. 1816 £15.000,000 Brought forward £212,660,625 1817 15,750,000 1827 25,5:0,240 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 1823 21,005,038 1833 34.816,000 1824 22,055,281 1834 35,524,625 1825 23.157,018 1835 37,238,312 24,315,572 1836 39.099,214 CaiTy forward £212,660,625 Total in 20 years £534.127,430 Table 11., showing what the Sinking Fund, if maintained from the taxes at £10,000 000 sterling, widif aoe»- rulating at 4 per cent, only, would have paid off from 1816 to 1836. 1816 £10,000,000 Brought forward £138,343,700 1817 10,400,000 1827 16,032,580 1818 10,816.000 1828 16 673 880 1819 11,264,000 1829 17,340 832 1820 11,71.5,560 1830 18,034 464 1821 12,671,544 1831 18,754.840 1822 13.178,404 1832 19,505,032 1823 13.705.510 1833 20285232 1824 14.2.53.760 1834 21,096.640 1825 14.822.948 1835 21,930,504 1826 15,415,941 1836 23107 724 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 £531,027,4i)* rterling money would have redeemed a tenth more of the stock, or £587,000.000 of the stock. Sup>osing it bought, in the second case, at an average at 85, which would probably have bejn about the mark, the £342,000. 300 sterling money would have purchased nearly a seventh more of stock, oi £385,357,000, being just about » Half ol' the debt existing at this moment. n Pari. Hist., xxxiv.. 1155. APPENDIX. 475 Everytnnig, therefore, conspires to demonstrate that Mr. Pitt's system for the reduc ton of the national debt was not only founded on just principles nnd profound fore- Bight, 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 ia any impartial mind that, if that system hud been resolutely adhered to, the whole debt contracted duri,500 £44,815,539 Laid on in the same time 5,813,000 Nett taxation reduced £36,312,500 Of which was direct 18,690,000 Indirect 17,490,000 £36.180,000 ~-fi«e Purl. Paper. 14th June. 1833, and Budget, 1831, / iW. Deb. 476 APPENDIX. deep lines i>\ part) distinction, and, amid mutual compliments from the opposition t(i 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 eighuand. 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 (jf 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 t\\e improvidence of later times, of separating, in the annual accounts of the na- 'ion, tIK war charges from the permanent expenses, and providing for the former by jaiis and temporary tuxes, for the most part in the direct form, while the latter were ,nel by lasting imposts, which were not to be dimimaiied till the burdens to which they \> 'e 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 thi other hand, the indirect taxes should have been regarded as a sacred fund set apart for the permanent expenses of the nation, the interest of 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 je42,000,000, 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 tlje peace, £42,115,000'. Mutht have been repealed, viz. : Property-tax and war malt ,£17,547,000 War duties on goods 1,I54,00C Annual malt and hides 2.13f),000 Salt and assessed taxes 4,185,000 Candles 600.000 Soap-tax 800 000 House-tax 1,200,000 £27,625,000 Ijeavinir to support the sinking fund 14,490,000 £42.115,000 BOildaB £6,813,000 of fresh t.ii.\e> imposed during the same period APPENDIX 477 *nd invaluable qualities of providing amply for the necessities of tlie 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, sufTered 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 scventy-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 tlie 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. Rni'spil hii in-rpt „^^VHT^'- ■ Imports. Kaisea uv taxes. Great Britain Great Britain and Ireland. and Ireland 1813 je63,211,000 je38,2a),283 ^25,163.411 1814 70,936,000 Records destroyed hy Hru. 1815 72,131,000 52.573.034 33,755,264 1816 76,834,000 58,624,600 32,987,306 1830 £55,824,802 £69,691.302 £46,24.5.24! 1831 54,810,190 71,429,004 49.7I3.*H) 1832 50,9!W,315 76.071,572 #».586,241 — Pbbritr's TahUs, 1,59. 341 ; Porter's Pari. Tables, i.. 48. and ii 49. 47.S APPENDIX. progressively rising to twenty or thirty millions, annually applied to the recemptiou of stock, must have had a prodigious effect, both in upholding credit and spreading com. tnercial 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 oi the commissioners, must have been maintained at a very high level ; it is probably not going too far to say, that since 1820 they would have been constantly kept from 90 to 100. The effect of such a state of things in vivifying and sustainnig 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 notion 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 nmst have operated like a great forcing, pump, which drew a large portion of the capital of the country annually out of its un- productive investment in the public funds, and directed it to the various beneficial channels of private employment. Doubtle-^ j 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 ot 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 innnediately 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 tlie 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 g'ling 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 oidy. even with reference to present advantage, to one side of the account. They toigot ttiat, 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 of, 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 (|uarters 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 spared, 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 expendi- ture, which the too rapid reduction of so many indirect taxes, and consequent abandon APPENDIX 479 ment of the siniung fund, necessarily occasioned, and which the maintenance of its 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 had 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 Gastlereagh made a most manly endeavor, in 1816, to induce the people to submit for a few years to that eteyated rate of taxation by which alone permanent relief from the national embarrassments could be expected ; but he committed a signal error in the tax which he selected for the struggle, and deviated as much from Mr. Pitt's principles in the effort to maintain tliat heavy impost as subsequent administrations did in their abandonment of others of a lighter character. The income-t;ix, 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 impcjs^^ible 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 contest 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 preoonderance 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 iJ 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 differ, 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 full 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 proim.Ay 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 th< conclusion deducible from the fact, that it was to its vigorous 43 4y0 APPENDIX. and happy application at the close ol" the war that the extraordinary successes by whictt it was distinguislied are in a great degree to be ascribed.* But this system, like everything good in human affairs, las 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 lor 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 discha'-ging ; the natural disposition to get a present command of money, and leave the task oi 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 fainilies 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.t It is no impeachment of the wisdom of this system, so far as finance goes, that the expectations of a speedy termination of die contest were constantly disappointed, and that debt to the amount of £116,000,000 was contracted before the Continental peace of Campo Forinio in 1797, without any other result than a constant nddition 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 issne. 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 BO easy to find an apology. But after the peace of Campo Formio this system of lavish annual borrowing, in expectation of an iinmediate and decisive result, necessarily required a modification. * Loans contracted by the British government in the latter years of the war. 1812 £24,000,000 I 1814 £58,763,000 1813 27,871,000 | 1815 18,500,000 Of these great loans upward of £12,000,000 was, in 1813, 1814, and 1815, applied annually to fijreign powers ; ;a eonsequence of which, the whole armies ot Europe came to be arrayed in British pay on the banks of the Rhine: while, at the same time, the Duke of VVellinjitdn, at the head of 60,0CO men, was maintained on the soutbenr frontier of France.— Moreau's Tables; 1'ebrer, 246. ♦ Loaii Contracted. 1793 £4,500,000 1794 12,907,451 1795 42,030,349 1796 42.736,196 1797 14,629,000 i:il6.8e3JS6 — MoREAO's TMes APPENDIX. 481 lireal Britain was then left alone in the struggle. Her Continer.tal allies had all disap- peared from the field of battle ; and the utmust 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 continui d 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 has 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 tlieir 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, appe irs essen- tially necessary. I propose, with this view, to reduce the loan for this year (179S) 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 *.o 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 pre threefold. One great point is, that the plan should be diffused as extensively as oossible, without the necessif ot such an investigation of properly as the customs, the manners, and the pursuits of ne people would render odious. The next is, that it should exclude those who are leas , able to contribute or furnish means of relief. The third, that it should admit of thosf 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 I e kept in view in the discussioH of the proper method to be adopted for meeting the larg( deficiency, which, from the roi? 482 APPENDIX traction of the loan, it will become necessary to make gocd by taxation within ihe pres. ant 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 tiiat 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 of citizens. This was 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, wliereas 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 imposed, however, were, acccording to Mr. Pitt's plan, to be contmued only for a limited time, and kept up only as a war burden. " I propose,'' said he, " that tlie 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 oflf all that principal and inter- mediate interest. If you feel yourselves equal to this exertion, its efliects 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, tlie 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."! 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 annd the necessities or profusion of future years ; and which, from the heavy burdens which it imposes at the moment, an'l 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 the funding system, it was found to be impossible to continue the new plan to the fidl extent originally contenv plated by its author. In the next year, the war again broke out under c irciimstancea the most favorable to the European powers, and soi".nd policy forbade a niggardij • Pari Hist., xxxiii., 1012, 1015. t Pari. Hist., xxiiii. 1076. t Pari. Hist., xxziii., 1054. 1055. APPENDIX. 483 iiystem 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 >var in a single campaign. Impressed with these considerations, Mr. Pitt proposed the income, tax in 1799 ; a great step in financial improvement, and, if considered as a war impost, and rsgulated 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 waa 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 princip'.sn, he proposed that no income under £60 a year should pay anything; that from thai up to .£200 a year, it should be on a graduated scale ; and that for jC200 a year and upward, it should be ten per cent. No one was to be called on to disclose to the comm.issioners ; 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 jC102, 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 r.r>- due severity upon some classes, and improper lightness on others. A person possessino permanent and independent income might spend what portion of it he chose wiiluju: injury to his heirs; but income resultir^ from personal industry or from profession .-tjud in a very different situation, for it was necessary that a part of the income of tiicse descriptions should be laid by as a provision for old 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 « Pari. Hist., xxxiv.. 6. 6. 1 Pari. Hist., x-xiv . fi. 18. ?2. 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 tl.e more extravagant , and far better that such insulated individuals should escape, than ihe far-spread injustice should be inflicted, wliich would result from the adoption of the proposed alteration."* The income-tax, notwithstanding these objections, was adopted by the House ol Commons in the year 1799 ; the loan of that year being, for Great Britain and Ireland, jei8,500,000, besides :C3,000,000 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 jE120,000,000 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, hovvever, 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 speedil.v 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 conmiuted 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 inortgage obliged Mr. Pitt, in 1801, to return to his old mode ot 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 boldqy funded at once the whole of this je56,000,000, as well as .£40,U00,000 of unfunded debt which existed at the end of the war; and for the whole of this immense sum of i^96, 000,000 he contrived to find sufficieut 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 extraordinac. efforts intended during the continuance of the war — to make the supplies raised within the year as nearly as possible equal its expenditure.}; 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 i;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 oi stock and contracting of loans ; and, independent of all considerations of good faith, which would induce the House to cling to it as their she et.anchor for the future, they were pledged to support it, having had positive experier ee of its utility. And of the vast importance »>. raising a great part of the supplies within the year, no better proof can be desired than is furnishe 1 by the fact that during the first ten years of the war • Pari lliM.. i\xiv., 134. 147. Tib. xxxiv.. lisa i Pari. Deb., viii., 57S. 576. APPENDIX. 485 the increase of the debt was jC253j000,000, being at the rate, on an average, of twenty, five millions a year;* whereas during the three years of the present war, trom 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. Pi-tt 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 tlie principals of which the war taxes were not mortgaged, as was done in 1799, were all pi-ovided for in this mitigated form. Tiie wisdom of this arrangement cannot be better stated than in the words of Mr. Hume : " The b^st taxes are such as are levied upon consumjition, 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. sensibly; they naturally produce sobriety and frugality, if judiciously imposed; and, being confounded with the natural price of the 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. "t 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, md 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 the 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 industiy 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 aver yet was ruined by indirect taxation; nor can it be so, for before it becomes oppres. aive it must cease to be productive. Many, however, have been exterminated by much smaller sums levied in the direct form, that method of rajsing the supplies being attended with this most dangerous quality, that it is often most productive when it is trenching mo«t deeply on the sources of future existence. Nor is there any foundation for the obvious reply to this argument, based on the ob- * Ann. Ree- 18P6. 70. Pari. I>eb.. vi.. Sb7. 570. t Hume's Essays, i., 366, 3G6. 486 APPENDIX. eervation, that if the prodiictiors of industry are taxed i i the person of the consumer, h« must diminish the quantity wHch he can purchase, and tiius industry will be as effec'.u- ally paralyzed as if the impost were laid directly upon the producer. Plausible as thia arg.ument 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 oi ipdirect taxes, on the people of Great Britain ; but so 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 by 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 tux by increased skill or economy of the article or l.iy it upon the consumer. In such cases the tax ceases to be an indirect impost on consumption ; it becomes a direrl 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 lelt during the war, when that article sold for forty or forty-tive pounds the hogshead (trom j£6 to;£6 10s., thecwt. ;) but when, on the return of peace, prices fell to £12 or £15 the hogsiiead, (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 F.ngland 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 icist of its production : the cost of raising rude agricultural produce can hardly ever be diminished to any coiisidera ble extent by the application of machinery ; and the stoppage of the slave-trade necessarily, in the liist instance at least, increased the cost of production, while the only way in which it seemed possible to render the burdea tolerable was by augrnentingthe 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 eftorls of the planters to make head against their ditliculties and defray the interest of their mortgages, by niising n.oie exteii sive 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 duly be deducted, sometimes by fully a third. In 1831, the price per cwt. was in Great Britain 23s. 8d., excluiling duty, while ill America it was 36s. per cwt. in the same year. Taking into view the greater expense of freight to Bri tain than America from these islands, there can be rio doubt that almost the whole tax has been paid in many years by the producers, amounting through it now does to 100 per cent. Nothing more is requisite to explain the nimc.st total ruin which has fallen on these splendid colonies, even befi)re the last fatnl measure of emancipating tlie slaves was carried into effect.— See Commons' Rejaort, 1832, on IVest 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 Bight of which, more than anything else, the ruin of the West Indies is to be ascribed. This is, that while many lifanches 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 layingfhe 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 cnxt of raising manufactures ig always, notwithstanding heavy taxes and a plentiful currency, less than in ruder APPENDIX. 487 Such were the general features of Mr. Pitt's financjal policy. Decried by ihe spiri* of party during his own lifetime, and that of the generation which immcdiaiely 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 sagacity, 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 tliey 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 earlief * 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 yielded 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 179(5, 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 tho- alnmate slates, it is always much greater of producing agricultural produce. Great Britain can undersell the world ia manufactures, but her farmers would be mined without a com-law; a fact strikingly illustrative of this vital distinction, and pointing to a very ditVerent 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 Conttitu tion. 356, 35S; a work which, amid much exaggeration and declamation, contains many jUst and profound ob- servations on the changes the country has undergone durthg the last half century, and is deserving of much mora attentitin than it has received. qq 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 diz^ected and called forth, of making such an effort, is now established by experience. The more the history of liie campaigns from 1793 to 1800 arc studied, .he mora clearly will it appear that the armies of France and the coalition were veiy equall* 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 fe'uwarrow and the Aich. duke Charles. No doubt can remain, therefore, that the forces on the opposite sides o( that great contest were, at that period at least, extremely nearly matched. With what effect, then, might *.he 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 ! 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 he 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 tor 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 wliich 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. Pitt'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 ine^. cusable, because it was most at variance with the admirable foresight and enduring for- titude of his other financial measures, was the extent to whicli 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 tha national debt, about six hundred millions has been contracted in the tl.ren 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. Pitt's estimate in 1799, the surplus to be paid above what was received would still be tno 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 eflect upon the burden of the interest has been equally unfortunate. Doubtless the loans were, in the first instance, contra" id daring the war on more favorable terms, as to in APPENDIX. 4H9 torest, than could have been obtained if the money had been borrowed in the five pei cents. ; that is, if a bond for £100 had been given for each £100 only paid into the ireasury. But, as a set-off against tliis tenipuiary 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, all 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. tare, 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 ruinou* 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 contracteo 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 4.'overnment to have eiiiected 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 /or evir to Tour or three and a half per cent. ? This thing is so clear that it will udt admit of an argument ; and if the public necessities had rendered it impossible to have raised ihi! 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- trading debt now impressed itself upon the minds of our statesmen, that by a solemn * Take, for example, the folowing 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. ;ei ,907,451 10,806,000 1,490,646 17,777,163 2,034,889 8,500,000 1, 815,918 13,000,t>00 2,227,012 27,519,544 1,293,200 10,800,000 7,932,100 11,600.000 4,909,350 11,925,243 5,549,400 12,345,0-6 10,313.000 27,000,000 X96.^26 502,791 80,494 841,374 101,744 493,145 1,006,242 825,500 111,380 1,344,487 64,660 512,400 408,878 .538,4.33 2)8.315 569.500 277,470 574,362 603,310 1,517,400 5 per cent. 43 per cent. 5J per cent. 43 per cent. 5 per cent. 5;. per cent. 51 per cent. 5? per cent. 5i per cent. 51 per cent. 5i per cent. 4S Pe'" cent. ; but JE140 of stock created each ;e60 paid. 5t percent. 4i per cent. 5J per c«nt. 4; per cent. 5 1-7 per cent 4j per cent. 54-5 per cent. 5i per cent. fan do ill Sand 4 per cents... do in 3 iind 4 per cents... do in 3 and 4 per cents... — SeePuBRER's Tables, 2^, from Moreau. It clearly appears, from this most instructive table, that tlie difference between the interest paid on loans in th« three and five per cents., from the beginning to the end of the war, varied only from a half to an eishth per rent. And the real difference was even lesstlmn here appears, for the publiccreditors were, frequently in the 3 per cents . inscribed for much more tlian £100 in coiisideration of £60 advanced In particular, in 1807. they received ao le»< -"^n £140 of stock for each £.(0 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 i3 devoutly to be hoped no British statesman will ever forget, but which is too likely to be overlooked, like so many other praiseworth deter, niinations, amid the warlike profusion or Democratic pressure of subsequent tir.'es.* It is true, as Mr. Pitt contemplated the extinction of the wkole 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 tliat result even at an earlier pe. iod, the disastrous efl'ects which have actually occurred from this mode of contracting BD 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 hisestimation, 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 'luring 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 war 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 exculpute 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 be said in favor of a system which redeems at 85 or 90 a debt contracted at 58 or 60 ? In looking forward to this meth(jd of liciuidating the debt, as calculated to obviate ail the evils of inscribing the public creditor for a larger amount of stock than he had ad vanced of money, Mr. Pift forgot the certain enhancement of the price of stock by the ailmirable 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 tiu-ned all thatadvnnce to the disadvantage of the nation in discharging its engagements. t * The iiiitlxir was early in life impressed with the disastrous effects of this borrowing in the three per cents., but it was long het'ore he f any converts to nil opinion now generally received. In the year 1813, when j.studenl iilcolle^'e, he maintained the doctrines stated in the text on tliis subject, in a company coiisisling of I lie niosiemi nent and intelligent bankeis in Scotland ; and, in particular, contended tliat, if Mr. Pitt could not have afforded lo pay annually froiii the taxes a larger interest for his loans than li<> actually undertook, he .»hould have " bor- rowed a tittle loan to pivv tht-; interest of the great loan, rather than have conlracteddebl in the three per cents."" Thfy all, however, disi'iiied 111=! justice of the opinion, maiiilaining that money (-oijld 'ml have been obtained on other leriiis, and the " little lo; i" became a standing joke iigainst the author for many years after. Should these lines meet the eye ot Mr. Anderson of Moreduii, one of the oldest and most valued of the au'hor's friends, and now one of the leading' partners of the highly respectable tirm of Sir William Forbes &, Co., of Edinbiirgii. he will recur, perhaps, not without interest, to this inciilent. t It is a common opinion, that the great expenses of Mr. Pitt's administration were owing to the subsidies so iiiiprndenlly and needlessly advanced to foreign powers, to induce orenabletliem to carry on the contest. This. I uwever is a mistake. Tne loans and subsidies to foreign powers during the whole war only amounted to j£52, 518,470; of which no less than £33,000,000 were advanced during the last three years. At Mr. Pitt's death the sum was only X6,370,000. The subsidies granted, with the years when they were received, and the other items of tlie expenditure of the war, were as follows.— (Moreau.) Subsidies Army. Civil List. Ordnunce. Total charge of Debi, T(>t;il to Foreign Powers. O'-din-y- ^ma";: Navy Total. Fnnde.l and Unfunded. Expenditure f7^ £2,198,200 £4,167,312 £1,021, .536 £843,603 £2,4«>4.3»7 £10,715,911 £22,7-->l,.36fi 1794 4,000 9,209,236 1,027,761 1, -500,767 4,219,1.-^; 11,081,1.59 29,.305,477 179.5 SlO.fiOO 14,562,737 1,025.812 1,9t«,n08 8,135,140 12,:^45,9S7 39,751 ,001 1796 99,.j0e 13,738,350 1,125,0,3 3.590,0W 7,78'J,8i8 13,683,129 40,76l,-=«3 1797 16,208,690 1,081,1146 2.121,552 11,981.031 16,405,402 ,50.739,8 7 1798 120,012 7,986,297[ 3,165,854 1.111,376 1,71.5,355 12,591,728 20,108,885 .51.211,708 179P .■Q-^ooo 9,898,716 4,241,4.33 1,208,067 2,221, nin 13,OW,490 21,572.867 m 2fl6.0«l T800 2,i;l3,178 9,471,889 3,906,000 1,247,4'30 i,ois,:ii;r 14,8'J9,488 21,661.029 61,617,088 1801 200,114 8,838,208 5,34 ,i74 l,-290.1Sfi 2.1 ■ q'lo 17,303.370 23,808,895 73 072,418 180S 6,951,193 2,63 .,063 1,3:«.766 1.50 ;7.33 11,704,400 2->,436,894 62,.373480 1803 ^ 8,1.34,.315 3,165,092 1,42'., ->45 1,^.'7.150 ",979,878 25,066,212 54,91 2,8'X) 1801 12,183.801 3,-560 8'l4 I.4I7.5I7 3,511,142 11,759,352 26 669,646 67,619.475 ISO". l0,7-8,:^-^ 6,2i';i.-W 1,914,104 -',-"8!->i1 14,466,998 28,963,702 76,0-|i;,-9ii I80« 9 28' 493 5.829,000 1,6-7i;.32i 5,511,0i^ 16,084,028 30,336,859 7-5.1-54.-54^ iS07 ^ 9i95ii}:81 .5.431. S(;7 l,i»>,061 4.K10.74R 16,775,762 32,052,537 ;8,3i;o,(:8» 18(18 1,400,000 11,353,390 ,5.817,7b"2 1,721,14/ 5.1 08,9 ;o 17,467,891 32,781, .592 81,797,080 1809 2,0"i0,000 12,'91,041 5.8-2,'l54 i,6'tii.'i:M 4,374.184 19,236,037 33.9*; 2.33 88,79-3.5."i1 1810 2.(iH0,103 11,357,623 7,178,6"7 1,6M,29; 4.652,3.33 20,054,412 35,'j48.933 74,.360,728 1811 2,977.747 13,7-^.3,163 lO.IIf. 196 1.582,1197 4,557. 0:1 19,-54'l,679 36,388,790 99,604:241 1812 .5,31.5,828 15,:»3 0-0 OfiO-.,313 1.748.:>49 4,252,416 20,500,.339 38,443,147 107.644,08'. 1813 11. 294.411; 18,501,18'i in,ft,;8,V55 1,708,536 3,-1 14,-82 21,996,624 41,755,2-35 122,235,660 1814 10,024,f)24 16,-532.04 '".'-12.610 1.675.1-2 4,480,729 21,961,567 42,9'2,440 129,742.:ffl9 181.-) 11.035,248 23,172.137 1,fj82,ll21 2,963,8.12 16,373,870 43,902,989 130,305,O-.8 'rotjiis ,53.128.470 384.787.4,38 32,9;3(;.l-25 71,082.2i;2" 328,"236,41.5 619.830.178 1,490.000,88? APPENDIX. 491 To Mr. Pitt's financial system there belongs a subject more vital in its ultimate eflects than any which has been considered, and the whole results of which are far from being exhausted. The Suspension of Cash Payments in 1797, already i.oticed 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 tukea in conjunction with the almost total destruction of the Spanish mines in Americ/t, 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 ditferent classess of society, more material than any which had occurred since the discovery of the mines of Potosi and Mexico, and tu which the future historian will per- haps point as the principal cause oi the great revolution of England in 1832, and 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 or 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 resuur. ces which appeared to multiply, as it' 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 piocligious an expenditure. Its magnitude points to an annual creation of funds, even greater than 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 hew 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, amoiintinfr tu more than a third of the wliole ; but it was in a certain degree unavoidable. The cost of the navy, amounting to about a fifth, is not to be regretted, for it eave England the naval dominion of the globe. It was tlie pro digious expenditure for the army, amounting to almost a fourth of the whole, which is the real subject of regret, attenJed as it was with no exploits worthy of being recorded till the last eight years of the wnr; coinciding thus with whatevery ot ler consideration indicates, that it w.-i, the niggardly use of that arm, and the ignorance whicii orevailed as to its efficacy, winch «as 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 (luring 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 of the body politic, and produce a temporary flow of prosperity, commensurate, indeed, to the ultimate embarrassments with which it waa to be attended, but still exciting 3 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 paymasttM', and never so much so as during the wiirl 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 aflTorded 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 *Tableshowingthe amount of Bank Notes in circulation from 1792 to 1815, with the Commercial Paper under iiscount at the Bank during the same period, and the Gold and Silver annually coined at tlie Bank, with Jie Expoi-ts, Imports, and Revenue for the same period. i .He S — ii ■^3 '3 "a o'a = c 61^ ^1 •^ C S C3 - eq g ~ _i2M -fa 9 S5 5 l|- "3 Hi '0 a-M a h:| ill a H 19,6.59,358 24,901,850 a 1732 11,307,380 1,171,863 11.307,380 17,864.464 1,510.14 1793 11,388,910 — —. 2,747,430 11.388,910 19,659.357 20,390,179 17,70;,983 1794 10.744,020 — — 2,5.58,895 10,744,020 22,294.893 26,748,082 17,899,294 179,5 14,017..510 — 2,946,500 493.416 14,017.510 23.7ai.889 27,123.338 18,4-56,298 1796 10,729,,520 — 3.50.5,000 464,*3 16,729,.520 23,187,319 30,518,913 18,548.628 1797 9,674,780 ,867,585 5,350,000 2,600,297 11,114,120 21,013,956 28,917,010 19,852,646 1798 11,647,610 1.448,220 4.490,600 2,967..56.5 13,095,830 25,122,203 27,317,087 30,4*3,995 1799 11,494,1.50 1,465,6.50 5,4*fi0 2,612,020 7,.523..300 437,019 1.5,186,880 28.308.373 37.873,324 .37,111,1:20 ... 18o:i 12,350,970 2,;W8,960 10,747,600 596,445 1.5.849,980 25,104,.541 28,075.239 38,203,937 1804 I2..'>t6,.560 4,531,270 9.982,400 718,a97 17,077,830 26,454,281 31,071,108 45,515,1.52 ISO.-) 18 011,0111 4.860, IfiO 11,.36)„500 54,668 17,870,170 27,341,720 30,.540.491 50,.5.55,190 — 1806 1:1.271,529 4,4'iS.600 12,.380,100 405,106 17,730,120 25,.504 478 32,984,101 .54,071,908 1807 12,840, 7!til 4,109,R!1 1 1.8,4.'4,600 None. 16,950,680 23,326,845 30,.588,0R4 .59,406,731 1808 U.iffiifitKt 4,605,170 12,!r,o,100 371,714 14,183,860 25,1560,953 29,956,629 62,147.601 1809 14,241,360 4,301 ,,5(X) 15,475.700 298,946 18,.542,»50 30,170.2:12 45.^67.216 63,879,802 ISIO 15,159.180 5,8ti0.420 20,070,600 316,936 21,019 600 37.613,294 42,656,843 b'7,825,.597 2.406.044 1811 16,246.130 7,114,0«) 14,355,400 312,263 23.360,220 25.240,704 37,837,2 2 ft5,309,l(X) 2.474.774 1812 15 951,290 7,457,030 14,291,600 None. 23.408,330 24,!)23, 22 Rp,-.,r,ls (lestro.voil 27.982,977 65,752,125 2.478.799 3813 15,407,320 7,713,610 12,a30,200 519,722 23,210,930 68,302,860 - 1814 16,455..540 8,345,.540 13,2^5.800 None. 24,801.080 32',622',771 .51. 3^^.318 70,240,313 _ 1815 18,226,4-10 18,021, 2-^ 9,n35,2'i0 14,917,100 None. 27,261,650 31,822,053 .57.420.437 72,203,142 1816 9,1X11,400 11,416,400 None. 1 27,013,620 26,374,921 48,216.186 62,640,711 2,648,5^ —Pari. Dch., vii., .\iv., .vv. ; J]pp. Par/. Hist., xxxv., 1563. Colqhhoun, 99. Moreau's Tables, and Pebrer. »79. Marshall's IHsest, pp. 97, 147, 236. Thus, ui the twenty-tour years IVomi 1792 to 1816, the circulation of Engliind„ including the Large and small notes Mild coninien-inl pnper discounted at the Bank, was more than tripled: the revenue tripled, and theexporli morethnn do.ibled : the imports increased a half. The increase of commercial paper from 1792 to 1810 w«i tnenfolii: indicating, perhaps, the sreatest and most rapid rise in mercantile transactions in the wholr historr jfthe world. APPENDIX. 493 of ever) sort quickly rose, interest was high, profits still higher, and all (v-ho made their livelihood by productive industry, or by buying and selling, found then.selves in a state of extraordinary and increasing piosperity. That these favorable appearances were, to a certain extent, delusive ; that the flood of prosperity thus Id in upon the state was occasioned by exhausting, in a great degree, the reservoirs d' wealth for future emergencies ; and that a long period of languor and depression w ;i^ to follow this fever- ish and unnatural tract of excitement, is indeed certain ; but still the effect at tiie 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 rained 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 Vviil; v.iiich it was attended, have been liable to very severe repre- hension. But every view of his financial policy must be imperfi'ct 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 tiie 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 affinned that the great weight of the responsibility must be borne by the nation itself. If tlie people of Great Britain have now a debt of seven hundred and seventy millions, witli 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 i:s 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 pi)pular 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 nobis monument of national foresight and resolution progressively prospered : with its decline the eflSciency of the great engine of redemption was continually impaired amid the general influence of the unthinking multitude ; /.nd at length, upon its subversion by the great change of 1832, it finally, to all practical purposes, was destroyed. Irret!ie\able oltimale ruin his thus been brought upon the state ; for not only is the burden now 'ixad * Toqueville, i:., 237 494 APPENDIX. upon its resources inconsistent with the permanent maintenance of the national 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 U3, from the same cause, rising in renovated lustre in the New World. The impatience 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 th»" forest. In two centuries the name of England may be extinct, or survive on!y maer thf ehad-ow of ancient renown ; but a hundred and fifty millions of men in North America wiil 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. Mots— Tba fifnres In the margin denote the pages in the history to which the qnestlona nlin 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 brolr*'i. 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 victory 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 ? 84. 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 thif time? QUESTIONS. 50b l^'hiti agency had the French in these dis- turbances ? What forces did the French prepare to »end to Ireland ? What reports were put in circulation as to the object of this great armament ? What occurred to the expedition after il set sa^il ? 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 name year? What was his character — as given by an Singlish historian I 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 fteet? 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 St. 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 by 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 ? 9 1 . 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 manceuvres and actions of the two contending parties, as related in the next paragraph ? What, now, embarrassed Napoleon ? 92. What proposals did he make to the A.ustrians ' What was agreed on at Leoben ? What treaty was concluded on the 9th ot April ? 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 tlie result of these measures? What was done by the Senate ? And by Napoleon ? What took place at Verona on the Hth of April ? 9*. What was done by General Chabranf What took place, in the meantime, at Venice ? What was done by the French troops in Venice ? What took place at Berlin, I6th of No- vember ? Who succeeded the King of Prussia on the throne ? What took place in Genoa ? 95. How did Napoleon interfere? What was the result ? Where did Napoleon establish himself? Who were now assembled at MontebeUot What treaty was the result of the negotv 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? Whieh party did Napoleon resolve to sup- port ? Of what were the more numerous party destitute ? What restrained them in their proceed- ings 34 91, Had the Directory any scruples? What measures did they take ? What did they do with their opponents ? How did they govern France ? CHAPTER Xlli. What did Napoleon do, after the peace ot Campo Formio ? What expedition did he soon afler propose » 604 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 tlieir 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? 1 0(>. What remark did Mr. Pitt make on this subject? What was the effect of the battle of the Kile on the French ? And what were its effects in Europe ? Where did Napoleon march after being thus cut off from intercourse with Europe ? What 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 ? 101. 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? 102. 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 ehaiige of government forced upon them by the French ? What 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- tCvwer'i What measures were taken by the new Directory ? What was ddie by General Daendelsf What sort of government was finally estab iisheJ in HoUaud ? 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 ? 1 04 . Would this defect have been ot 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 i What was the second expedient? What, finally, did Napoleon do? What decision did he give when called on, at Montebello, to adjust the difiiculties he had himself created ? What Ibllowed in other districts of Swit- zerland ? What bold step was finally taken by the Senate of iJerne ? 1 05. What did the Directory do, in an- swer to the proposition of the Swiss ? What took place when peace was found to be impossible i Who had command of the Swiss troops ? What error did D'Erlach commit? What was the result of the insurrection at this time ? 1 06. 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? lOT. What was the condition of the Swiss after peace was restored? What course was pursued by the French authorities ? What Cantons again resisted the French t What was their fate ? What was tiie next object of attack? 108. What had long been an avowed object of French Revolutionary 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 of the Directory in declaring war against Rome ? Who was pope at this time ? How did Berthier manage to get possession of Rome? Whsit did the Directory demand of the pope ? What was his reply ? 1 09. Relate what was dor e to the pope. What was the result of the ■ ruel treatipear of the pope? QUESTIONS. 505 Wh t as done in Rome by the French -iroops ? What was done in the Roman States ? What was done in the Cis- Alpine Republic ? What was the treatment of the King of Sardinia ? 1 1 0. 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 ? What 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 oy their sov- ereign ? Who commanded the French troops led Tigainst 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 ? 5 14. What had France done during one year of nominal peace ? What course was adopted by the other Evropean powers on account of these en- wfoachments ? CHAPTER XV. What had the Emperor of Austria done, wlule apparently at peace with France? What was done by Russia ? And by Elngland 1 To whom did the Emperor of Russia give an asylum ? What course was adopted by Prussia ? What might Prussia have done ? i ! 5. How was she rewarded seven years afterward ? What lax 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 dicl 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 2<). What was the result of the second day's action ? How many days, in all, did the battle con- tinue ? 606 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 after 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 ? 1 '-J I . 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 ? 12ii. 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 imdertake 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 fleet? 125. What did the combined forces of Russia and Great Britain effect ? What was their situation notw hstanding their victory? What expedition did they undeitoke, tc*^ 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 sui 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 f 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 aU eyes turned in this 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 Sigyes and Napoleon ? 129. What decree was passed by the Council in the morning of November Mth ? What was done in the Council of Ancients ? 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 ofiice 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 first 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 ? 1 3 1 • What domestic measures of im- portance were adopted by Parliament ? What had bei;n 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 2. What did the Archduke Charles recommend to ihe Aulic Council ? What reply did the Council make ? What measures were taken by Napoleon to prepare for war ? What 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 ♦,o 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 ? 13-1. What was the result of the battle of Moeskirch ? For what purpose did ICray 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 f 135, What expedient 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, ^ader Melas, com- mence operations in Italy? How did Melas succeed in his various "Atacks ? What was, now, the situation of the French ? 136. Against what towns were the efforts ot the Austrians now directed ? What measures were taken by Massena to defend Genoa ? What was the result of Soult's attack on ohe 13th of May ? 45 How did the siegyj of Genoa finally end ? Where did Napoleon esolve lu cross the Alps? What conversation took place bet wee u him and Marescot ? 13*. Describe the ascent to St. Bernard. What did the monks furnisli to the sol- diers ? What arrested the march of the troops after they began to descend i>ii liie other side of the mountain ? What was the situation df 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 tliij 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 Marengo progress up to eleven o'clock ? What did Napoleon accomplish when he arrived with the right wing of liis 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 F'rench ? How did Kellerman accomplish this ? 1 1 1 . What was the result of the battle ? What was the effect of the battle ? How did Napoleon reward KellermEin for gaining the battle of Marengo ? What followed after the battle? CHAPTER XVIII. What occurred two days before intelU- 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. Julicn take to Paris ? What was provided in reference to th« 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 naved armistice ? 143. What did Napoleon insist m ? What was done, when it was found that Great Britain would not accede to Napoleon's demands ? What plot was discovered on the snime day? 508 QUESTION is. 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 ot 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 and terminate ? What did Moreau discover from the man- ner of the Archduke's retreat ? 14. 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 importJince 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.aent 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 ' S14 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 ? "i^O. 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 ? '^.tl. 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 were taken by the French? How were these fortresses tal What was the general result of the battle of Echmul ? How did ihe 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 ? 358. Where did Hiller 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 ? '^59. 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 ? iSOO. 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 Aspern? 361 . 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 ? 363. 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 F^nch that night? What plan did Napoleon resolve on ? How did he accomplish this ? CHAPTER XXXI. 363. 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 ? 364. 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 ? 36.'>. What was the result of Eugene's attack ? What was accomplished by Macdonald, Dupas, and Lamarque ? What, in turn, was accomplished by the Archdulve ? What occurred between the Saxons and the French ? Wliat 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 ? 366. 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 Aspern ? What took place on the Austrian left? 367. 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 ? 368. 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? 369. What declaration did Napoleon make 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 piace in the Tyrol about this time? Who took command of the Swiss ' QUESTIONS. 517 How did Lefeb'Te succeed in his expedi- tion against the Swiss ? 370. What was the result of Hofer's attack oil Innspruck ? What was done by Hofer when he found the French assembled against him in over- whelming numbers ? What WPS Hofer's fate? Wha. is said of Napoleon's conduct tow- urd Hofer ? What expedition was this year undertaken b} the British ? •-57 1. What armament was sent on this exp'-dition ? What was accomplished by the British in three days ? How did they afterward follow up their success ? 37i2. What 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. 374. Where was Admiral VLUaumer block- aded by Lord Gambier ? To what sort of attack were the French ships exposed ? How did Villuumer 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 1S09? 376. 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- fossa ? 377. How long did the fight continue? What was said by the French soldiers? What was sufiered by the inhabitants of Saragossa ? What name has Saragossa left behind her ? On what terms was Saragossa surren- dered ? What was the condition of the town wheal the French took possession? 37S. What had, in reality, subdued Sara, 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 ? 379. 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? 3SO. 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 ? 381. 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? 383. 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 ? 3S3. What course was Wellington forced to adopt, by reason of the cowardice and inefficiency of the Spanish troops ? What did Wellington ofier 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 wiUing to re- ceive ? What did they do for themselves ? What course did Wellington finally adopt? 384. What was the only kind of warfare that the Spaniards were capable of main* tainiug ? 518 QUESTIONS. Wtio had command of the Spaniards at Ocana ''. How did he arrange his troop.; ? Where did he hide himself after this ar- rangemt— t ? What was the result of the battle ? Wiiat became of Areizaga? What resolution was taifen by Wellington ? What was the British mode of warfare ? 385. What was the French mode of war- fere ? What resulted from this difference ? CHAPTER XXXIII. What was now wanting to Napoleon ? What, in this view of the case, became necessary 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- qjjence ? 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 ? 388. 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- iect? ^Vhat 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 ? 389. 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 ? W^hat were the losses in the action ? 290. 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 ? 391. 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 Masseaa's retreat ? What were his losses, nevertheless ? Where did the French attack Wellinglen. on tlie 4th of May ? 393. 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 .o 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? 393. What prevenlrd 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 Coriez ? What was the character of its legislation ? 394. 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 ( 396. What place was captured by Suchrt 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 ? Wliat 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 ? 398. What other town did Suchet capture' What was the consequence of this capture QUESTIONS. M9 To what place did Wellington turn his attention ? Why was Badajoz a place of importance ? What was done by 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 ? 399. 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 ? 3 GO. 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? 3 02. 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 sxpedition did Wellington under- take, arte/ the capture of Ciudad Rodrigo ^ What was the result of the first assault ? What was achieved by Picton in the mean- time? 3 03. 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 ? 304:. 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 WeJlington to check his retreat ? What preliminary movements were made \y the two armies before the battle began ? 3 05. What was the result of the battle of the Arapeiies ? What was the loss, respectively, of the British, Portuguese, and Spaniards f 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 ? J f f 3 00. What military spoils did Welling- ton gain by the capture of the Retiro? 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 ? 3()'4 . 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 ti> give battie ? CHAPTER XXXVI. What ukase was issued by Russia in 1810? 3 08. Who was placed in command of the Russian troops ? What did he accomphsh between the 15th of May and tlie 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 ? 3 09. 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 residt 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 ? 3 1 0. What was the substance of the treaty concluded between Russia and Turkey? What expedit'on was undertaken by the Russians in ISOS What places did the Russ'ans capture at this time ? What conquest followed these successes ? What was done by Gustavus, King ol Sweden ? What was done to Gustavus by his people I Who was made King in his place r 620 QUESTIONS. What measures were taken by Charles XIll.? 311. What occurred to the Crown Prince, in iSlO? What was the object of the intrigues thai followed ? On whom did the choice of Crown Prince faU? 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 ? 313. 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 ujK)n 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 ? What 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 Nai'oleon's troops had al- ready begun to suffer ? 314. What rendered it necessary for the Russians to adojU 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 thai 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 Ml Wittgenstein ' What was accomplished by Tormasoff about the same time f 316. What great brilliant retrept 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 nth? 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 ? What 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 wtre 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'squalitiesasageneral? Where, and for what purpose, did Kutusoff maly 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 ? 3 23. 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 manoeuvre 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 ? 3'i5. What disaster did he escape the next morning ? How was the march of the several French :orps arranged ? What took place on the march, before the Fren h 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 retrpat ? 32T. What occurred to Eugene on the next day ? What was undertaken by Kutusoff on the 17lh? What movement did Napoleon make, in consequence ? What was the result of the battle ? Where was Ney's retreat interrupted? What ansvi^er did Ney make to Kutusoff's 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 aU 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 WiJna? 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 t 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? 3 33. 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 how ww he finally interrupted '. 522 QUESTIONS. 334. What Jias Savary said of this con- spiracy ? What did Napoleon learn from the exist- ence of this conspiracy ? What measures did he take to prevent Buch a result ? What measures did he take to raise an army? What did he next set about? What had been the pope's situation for a ]ong 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, aa the right bank of the Elbe ? What was the position of Saxony? What course did the King of Seixony adopt ? What was done by Denmark? and by Sweden ? What were the views of the Emperor of Austria ? 33S. WTiat order was instituted in Prussia? What sacrifices did the institution of this order inijily ? What inscription was placed on the iron ornaments ? What secret society became now the soul of the general insurrection ? 3.39. 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 ? 340. What was the effective force of the Russians ? What was the first movement in the cam- paign ? How were the allies received in Hamburg? At what were the Hamburgers astonished T 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 aUies 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 attacli 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 brilliant 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. 340. 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 ? 34'y. What were the conditions of the treaty of Reichenbach ? QUESTIONS. 523 ■What were the conditions of another and relative treaty between Russia and Great Britain ? What arrangement was made on account of the want of specie ? What further arrangements became neces- sary in the month of September, by reason of the scarcity of specie f 34 8. What was thus accomplished by 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 of power ? What was Metternich anxious to do ? What were the preliminary proceedings in the negotiations that ensued between the various powers ? 349. What is the substance of Napoleon's remarks to Metternich ? What conversation followed this long harangue of Napoleon ? 35(). 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 XLIl. 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 irhen 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 7 What was the result of the French attack an the allied left ? How did the allied right and centre main- tain themselves? 35 5. 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 ? rVhat was the final result of his expedition? 356. What took place between Macdon- ald 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 ? 35 7. 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 ? 3 5 8. 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 tlie proof that the Prussians earned the glory of this victory? What were the circumstances of Schwartz- enberg's advance upon Dresden and retreat from 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 army? What was done on the 23d ? What exploit was accomplished by Cher- niche ff"? 360. What reflections followed this achievement? What were the consequences of it? For what purpose did Napoleon leave Dres- den on the 7th of October? To what place did Nanoleon subsequentlj retreat ? jjl QUESTIONS. Oesciifio llio cily of l.(>i]>^i^■. .'t)th of October? How were Schwarizenborsj's troops posted? What signals were made ai niidniglit from the allied camps > Sii'I. How did the action commence on the Kith ? What was accomplished up to the hour of noon > What manoeuvre did Napoleon tlien under- take ? How did this manceuvre succeed? What eliort did Napoleon next make ? How did this succeed ? What was the result of the conflict be- tween Ney and Hhicher ? Who had an interview that evening with Napoleon ? :J«»:I. What proposals did Napoleon send Ihronarh 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 tlie ISlli ? How did ihe allies succeed? What did Schwarlzenberg do in the after- noon ? What was undertaken by l.auriston and Victor ? How did they succeed ? What incident took plac on the north of Leipsic, where Blucher and Ney were con- tending ? 3«»4. What ^vas 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 wasopen for the French re- treat ? What was tlie result of the allies' attack on Leipsic ? What took place at this moment? ;{«>,>. What ensued after the bridge was destroyed ? What betell 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 i Who abandoned him at this jilace ? What new enemy did Napoleon encounter on his retreat ? 3««. 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 Schwarlzenberg enter Frankfort? In w hat positions did the sevenil ;irinies go into w inter quarters ? 367. What were Bernadotte's movements? What was undcrtalvcn by Klenau after the battle of Leipsic ? How did the blockade of Dresden tcrmi- Bate ? What w(re the terms of the capitulation SB wade bv Klenau ? What was done by the allied soverci^s ir reference to this capitulation ? W hat other places and military spoils fall into the hands of the allies? :MiS. What remained to NaiMdeon? What took jilace in Holland? What took Jilace in Italy ? CHAPTER XLlll. 'Mi9. What was done by Wellington in the winter that followed the campaign of Salamanca ? What did Wellington inidertake, 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 ? 37 I. What were the numbers, condition, and position of the French troops ? Where was the campaign commenced ? How did this action prog'ress and terminate? What were Wellingtoirs feelings and what was his remark, as he crossed the frontiers of Spain ? What occurred at Burgos as the French withdrew ? Who led the French retreat? 37'i. How was his flight encumbered ? For what purpose did he make a stand at Vitloria ? What is the position of Vittoria ? By what amoimt of forces was Vittoria defended ? What was the number of Wellington's troops ? W hat success had Hill in leading the Brit ish right wing to the attack? How did Wellington succeed in the centre? 373. How did C.raham succeed on tlie \el\ ? \Vhat was the result of the battle of Vit- toria ? What spoils of victory fell into the hands of the conquerors ? What now remained to he done by Wel- lington ? Svho took command of the French troops? How many men had Soult at his disposal? What groinul was occupied by each of the conunidinc armies '. What dili'erence was there between the positions ? 37 I. What movements were made by Soult and his generals ? What three objects had he in view? How did Souk and D'Erlon succeed in their 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 thr» next day ? What were the losses on each side ' What, now, was Soult's condition ' QUESTIONS. 52t How did he entually escape ? 375. What did Wei" after this ? 375. What did Wellington undertake 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? , 3 7 CJ. What occurred between Wellington and the Cortcz ? Why did the British government insist on the invasion ? What course did Wellington adopt when his views were overruled ? Describe Snult's position on the northern side of the IJidassoa? How did Wellinijtnn plan his attack? What was the' effect of Wellington's leav- ing his tents standing on the heights ? 3 7 7. How complete was the surprise of Souli ? 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 ? 3 7S. How did he succeed in his attempt •n the Lesser Rhune ? How did the allies progress after this fort was captured ? How did ihe battle terminate ? Where did Soult arrive on the 11th? Describe Souk's position at Bayonne. Whatdifficulties liad Soult tocontend with? What was said in a French official letter from Bayonne ? When did Wellington attack Soult's po- sition ? 3 79. 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 ? 380. 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 peopl2 of France ? What was affixed to the column in the Place Vendume ? What was sulFcred by the soldiers and in- habitants on the western bank of the Rhine ? 3H1. What touk place at Mayencc ? 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 th(! true condition of things? 38'i. 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? 3'-<3. What measure was adopted by the allied sovereigns ? On what basis were they willing to treat for peace ? What course was pursued by Maret ? W^hat manifesto was published by the allies ? 381. What answer might have been ex- pected from Napoleon ? What course did he adopt, nevertheless? What was Na])oleon's motive in pretend- ing to desire j)eace 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 ? 38.5. What eU'ecl was produced by the reading of this report ? What did the j)resident of the Chamber say to Lainc ? What was Lainr's bold reply ? By what vote was Laine's report adopted ? What was done by Napoleon ? 38C>. What were the terms of the treaty of Valencay ? Wliat 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- hamais? What was the disposition of the Danes toward Napoleon ? What were they, nevertheless, fori ed to do? What treaties were concluded at Frankfort in November ? What power acceded to the alliance on the 29th of December ? 3>*8. How were the forces of the allied powers, prepared to invade France, divided and posted ? What was the grand total of all these armies ? What forces had Napoleon? and how were they distributed ? Why had he so few men at bis command * 5'irt QUESTIONS. CHAPTER XLV. iiS9, When did Schwartzenberg cross the ahine ? How many men had he then at his disposal? How did they spread themselves upon the Krench territory? When did Blucher cross the Rhine ? What monument did his soldiers discover i& Coblenlz ? What was its inscription ? What other inscription did Colonel Mar- deuke cause to be recorded on the monument ? What was accomplished by the allies ■ft'ithin a month from their invasion of the French territory? .'$00, 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- cher, after Napoleon took the field ? How did Napoleon tal?tr /Vi " '^v. l'^ C*'"^. >>°-^^,_ ^0' 4> ^ * 4 Ox •'