It was half-past ten at night. The victory was complete on the right and on the left. Napoleon, in his vast career, had not gained a more splendid one. He had for trophies eighty pieces of cannon, few prisoners, it is true, for the Russians chose rather to drown themselves, than to surrender, but twenty-five thousand men, killed, wounded, or drowned, covered with their bodies both banks of the Alle. The right bank, to which great numbers of them had dragged themselves, exhibited almost as frightful a scene of carnage as the left bank. Several columns of fire, rising from Friedland and the neighboring villages, threw a sinister light over that place, a theatre of anguish for some, of joy for others. The French had to regret upwards of eight thousand men, killed or wounded. The Russian army, deprived of twenty-five thousand combatants, weakened, moreover, by a great number of men who hadlost their way, was thenceforward incapable of keeping the field.
The French Emperor slept near the camp-fire, surrounded by his soldiers, who continued to shout “Vive l’Empereur!” They had eaten nothing but a ration of bread, which they had carried in their knapsacks, during their hurried march. But their souls had drunk deeply of the intoxicating nectar of glory, and they felt not the pang of hunger. The night was clear and beautiful. The Russians were not pursued. If Napoleon had had his entire cavalry, with Murat at their head, he could have captured the whole force which, under command of General Lambert, descended the Alle. But only half the cavalry were with the army, and the Russians were left to escape as speedily as possible.
THE CAMP-FIRE AT FRIEDLAND.Page 258.
THE CAMP-FIRE AT FRIEDLAND.Page 258.
THE CAMP-FIRE AT FRIEDLAND.Page 258.
Friedland was a decisive field. Konigsberg surrendered soon afterwards; and the Russians were pursued till they took refuge beyond the Niemen. Here ended that daring march of the French Emperor—the new Alexander—from Boulogne to the Niemen, to crush the only power which could offer any effectual resistance to his arms. In the transport of triumph, the Emperor issued the following noble proclamation to his soldiers:
Soldiers—On the 5th of June we were attacked in our cantonments by the Russian army. The enemy had mistaken the causes of our inactivity. He perceived too late that our repose was that of the lion: he repents of having disturbed it.“In the battles of Guttstadt and Heilsberg, and in that ever memorable one of Friedland, in a campaign of ten days; in short, we have taken one hundred and twenty pieces of cannon, seven colors, killed, wounded, or made prisoners, sixty thousand Russians, taken from the enemy’s army all its magazines, its hospitals, itsambulances, the fortress of Konigsberg, the three hundred vessels which were in that port, laden with all kinds of military stores, one hundred and sixty thousand muskets which England was sending to arm our enemies.“From the banks of the Vistula, we have come with the speed of the eagle to those of the Niemen. You celebrated at Austerlitz the anniversary of the coronation; this year you have worthily celebrated that of the battle of Marengo, which put an end to the war of the second coalition.“Frenchmen, you have been worthy of yourselves and of me. You will return to France covered with laurels, and, after obtaining a glorious peace, which carries with it the guarantee of its duration. It is high time for our country to live in quiet, screened from the malignant influence of England. My bounties shall prove to you my gratitude, and the full extent of the love I feel for you.”
Soldiers—On the 5th of June we were attacked in our cantonments by the Russian army. The enemy had mistaken the causes of our inactivity. He perceived too late that our repose was that of the lion: he repents of having disturbed it.
“In the battles of Guttstadt and Heilsberg, and in that ever memorable one of Friedland, in a campaign of ten days; in short, we have taken one hundred and twenty pieces of cannon, seven colors, killed, wounded, or made prisoners, sixty thousand Russians, taken from the enemy’s army all its magazines, its hospitals, itsambulances, the fortress of Konigsberg, the three hundred vessels which were in that port, laden with all kinds of military stores, one hundred and sixty thousand muskets which England was sending to arm our enemies.
“From the banks of the Vistula, we have come with the speed of the eagle to those of the Niemen. You celebrated at Austerlitz the anniversary of the coronation; this year you have worthily celebrated that of the battle of Marengo, which put an end to the war of the second coalition.
“Frenchmen, you have been worthy of yourselves and of me. You will return to France covered with laurels, and, after obtaining a glorious peace, which carries with it the guarantee of its duration. It is high time for our country to live in quiet, screened from the malignant influence of England. My bounties shall prove to you my gratitude, and the full extent of the love I feel for you.”
Then followed the interview of Napoleon and Alexander upon the Niemen, and the treaty of Tilsit, by which the two emperors parcelled out Europe as if it were their own. The star of Napoleon had reached its zenith, and truly its lustre dazzled the eyes of the world.
THE CAMP-FIRE AT MADRID.
The war of the Peninsula and the invasion of Russia were the great sources of Napoleon’s overthrow. Having summarily dethroned Ferdinand VII. of Spain, he placed the crown of that kingdom upon the head of his elder brother Joseph. But the Spaniards resisted this transfer from Bourbon to Bonaparte, and having taken the field, with enthusiasm,they defeated and captured a French army, commanded by General Dupont, and drove King Joseph beyond the Ebro. Napoleon then left Paris, (October, 1808,) and placed himself at the head of two hundred thousand men, to crush all opposition in Spain.
In the meantime, the Spaniards had vested the management of their affairs in a central or supreme junta, stationed at their recovered capital of Madrid. The determined spirit of opposition to French interference continued as strong as ever; but the power to act in concert, or maintain well directed efforts in a common cause, already appeared doubtful. The Supreme Junta found it difficult, sometimes impossible, to enforce obedience on their generals; and the provincial juntas were too apt to act independently, and assert their own right to separate command. The English government, at the same time, though promising aid, and making large preparations to afford it, yet continually procrastinated; and when Napoleon invaded the country, the native forces alone were in the field. Three armies had been formed, all intended to co-operate, and amounting to about one hundred thousand men, but, unfortunately, all under independent generals. Blake commanded the army on the western frontier, which extended from Burgos to Bilbao. General Romana, who commanded one of the auxiliary divisions of Spanish soldiers in the French service, had dexterously contrived to escape from the Island of Funen, and had been landed in Spain, with ten thousand men, by British ships. His corps was attached to that of General Blake. The head-quarters of the central army under Castanos, wereat Soria; those on the eastern side, under Palafox, extended between Saragossa and Sanguesa. The Spanish armies were therefore arranged in the form of a long and weak crescent, the horns of which advanced towards France. The fortresses in the north of Spain were all in the possession of the French, and strongly garrisoned.
Napoleon was at Bayonne on the 3d of November, and by the 8th, he had directed the movements of the last columns of his advancing army across the frontier: on the same evening, he arrived at Vittoria, where Joseph held his court. The civil and military authorities met him at the gates, and prepared to conduct him with pomp to the house prepared for his reception; but he leaped off his horse, entered the first inn he observed, and called for maps and detailed reports of the position of the armies. In two hours, he had arranged the plan of the campaign; and by daybreak on the 9th, Soult took the command of Bessieres’s corps, and began to push forward his columns upon the plains of Burgos, against an auxiliary corps, under the Count de Belvidere, designed to support the right flank of Blake’s army. Belvidere was completely defeated at Gomenal; one of his battalions, composed entirely of students from Salamanca and Leon, refused to fly, and fell in their ranks. Blake was then routed at Espinosa, by General Victor, and again at Reynosa, by Soult, whence the wreck of his army fled in disorder, and took refuge in Santander. Nearly the whole of Romana’s corps perished in the cliffs of Espinosa, after the battle. Palafox and Castanos had, meantime, united their forces, and waited the attack of the French under Lannes, at Tudela, on the 22d of November. The Spaniards were on this occasion, also, utterly defeated, with the loss of four thousand killed, and three thousand prisoners. Castanos fled, after the action, in the direction of Calatayud; and Palafox once more threw himself and the remains of his troops into Saragossa, where he was immediately invested closely by Lannes.
The road to Madrid was now open to Napoleon. He advanced at the head of his guards and the first division of the army, and reached the strong pass of the Somosierra Chain, about ten miles distant from the city, on the 30th of November. The way lies through a very steep and narrow defile, and twelve thousand men, with sixteen pieces of cannon, which completely swept the road, were strongly posted to dispute his passage. On the 1st of December, the French began the attack at daybreak, with an attempt to turn the flanks of the Spaniards. Napoleon rode into the mouth of the pass, and surveyed the scene. His infantry were straggling along the sides of the defiles, and making no efficient progress; but the smoke of the sharp skirmishing fire, mingling with the morning fog, was curling up the rocks, and almost hid the combatants from view. Under this veil, he ordered the Polish lancers of the guard to charge up the road in face of the artillery. They obeyed with impetuous courage. The Spanish infantry, panic struck, fired, threw down their arms, and fled: the Poles dashing onward, seized the cannon in an instant. The whole of the Spanish force fled.
On the 2d of December, the French soldiers celebrated the anniversary of the coronation of King Joseph under the walls of Madrid. The city had been prepared for defence. A strong, but irregular force were in array within the gates. The pavement had been taken up to form barricades; the houses on the out-skirts loop-holed; and a spirit of desperate resolution, similar to that which had immortalized the people of Saragossa, was displayed. The French officer sent to summon the town, narrowly escaped being torn to pieces by the mob. The Emperor then made his dispositions for attack, and long after the camp-fires of his troops had encircled Madrid with flame, and scared the darkness of the night, the work of investure proceeded. The French were in high spirits. Their invincible Emperor was with them, and they had the greatest contempt for the Spaniards. About midnight, Napoleon again summoned the city to surrender; but an answer of defiance was returned; and then, dispositions were made for storming. There was but little sleep that night among besieged or besiegers. The clangor of arms, “the dreadful note of preparation,” resounded on the air until the dawn, when the Emperor was on horseback to direct operations. The Retiro and the palace of the Duke of Medina Celi were stormed, and as terror began to fill the breasts of the citizens, Napoleon again summoned the authorities to surrender. The governor came out to the French, and said he desired a suspension of arms, but was afraid of openly talking of surrender. Napoleon, wishing to avert the horrors of assault, gave a little longer time to the distracted city, whence thereissued, throughout the night, “a sound,” says Napier, with vivid force, “as if some mighty beast was struggling and howling in the toils.” At eight or nine in the morning of the 4th of December, the gates were opened to the conqueror, and the French took possession of Madrid.
Joseph was now restored to his authority in the capital. Corunna followed, and the English were driven out of Spain. Napoleon then returned to Paris. But the subjection of the Spaniards was not complete, and was destined never to be completed by his arms. His ablest lieutenants, although successful for a time, were at length overthrown by the British and Spaniards, under Wellington, and the contest proved but an exhausting struggle, in which were developed the influences which brought the imperial throne to the dust.
THE CAMP-FIRE AT RATISBON.
Napoleon could never trust his allies. Completely beaten, they submitted to the conqueror; and yet they hated as deeply as they feared him, and therefore took advantage of every opportunity to rupture the peace of Europe, and attack his power. No wonder that he lost patience, and treated their representations, when humbled, with contempt. These old legitimates proved themselves as false as they were imbecile, and they deserved thecontempt of a man who was an Emperor by nature. After the peace of Tilset, Napoleon turned his attention to Spanish affairs, and placed his brother Joseph upon the throne of Spain. The Spaniards immediately took up arms to restore Ferdinand VII. to the crown of his ancestors, although they had long suffered from the misrule of the Bourbons. They resisted the armies of France, and being aided by the English, threatened the invaders with a terrible overthrow. This spectacle caused the faithless house of Austria to break all its engagements. Once more the Austrian Emperor resolved to make an effort to destroy the dominion of Napoleon. He collected an army of one hundred and fifty thousand men, which was placed under the command of the brave and skilful Archduke Charles.
Napoleon collected an army much inferior in number to that of the enemy, and with his usual rapidity advanced to the attack. The Empress Josephine accompanied him as far as Strasburg, and there watched the event of the campaign, although its termination was destined to be so melancholy for herself.
The Archduke Charles’s plan was to act upon the offensive. His talents were undoubted, his army greatly superior in numbers to the French, and favorably disposed, whether for attack or defence; yet, by a series of combinations, the most beautiful and striking, perhaps, which occur in the life of one so famed for his power of forming such, Buonaparte was enabled, in the short space of five days, totally to defeat the formidable masses which were opposed to him. Napoleon found his own force unfavorably disposed, on a long line, extendingbetween the towns of Augsburg and Ratisbon, and presenting, through the incapacity, it is said, of Berthier, an alarming vacancy in the centre, by operating on which the enemy might have separated the French army into two parts, and exposed each to a flank attack. Sensible of the full, and perhaps fatal consequences, which might attend this error, Napoleon determined on the daring attempt to concentrate his army by a lateral march, to be accomplished by the two wings simultaneously. With this view he posted himself in the centre, where the danger was principally apprehended, commanding Massena to advance by a flank movement from Augsburg to Pfaffenhoffen, and Davoust to approach the centre by a similar manœuvre from Ratisbon to Neustadt. These marches must necessarily be forced, that of Davoust, being eight, that of Massena between twelve and thirteen leagues. The order for this daring operation was sent to Massena on the night of the 17th, and concluded with an earnest recommendation of speed and intelligence. When the time for executing these movements had been allowed, Bonaparte, at the head of the centre of his forces, made a sudden and desperate assault upon two Austrian divisions, commanded by the Archduke Louis and General Hiller. So judiciously was this timed, that the appearance of Davoust on the one flank kept in check those other Austrian corpsd’armee, by whom the divisions attacked ought to have been supported; while the yet more formidable operations of Massena, in the rear of the Archduke Louis, achieved the defeat of the enemy. The victory, gained at Abensberg,upon the 20th of April, broke the line of the Austrians, and exposed them to farther misfortunes. The Emperor attacked the fugitives the next day at Landshut, where the Austrians lost thirty pieces of cannon, nine thousand prisoners, and much ammunition and baggage.
MARSHAL LANNES.
MARSHAL LANNES.
MARSHAL LANNES.
On the 22d of April, Napoleon manœuvred so as to bring his entire force, by different routes upon Eckmuhl, where the Archduke had collected full one hundred thousand men. Here, perhaps, was one of the most splendid triumphs of military combination ever displayed. The Austrians were attacked on all sides about two o’clock in the afternoon. They fought with stubborn courage, and the Archduke displayed great bravery. But nothing could avail against the overwhelming attack of a scientific adversary, and about dusk the Austrians were completely defeated. All the Austrian wounded, a great part of their artillery, and twenty thousand prisoners, remained in the hands of the French, and many more prisoners were taken during the pursuit. Davoust, whose services were conspicuous on this occasion, was created Prince of Eckmuhl.
On the 23d, the Austrians made an attempt to cover the retreat of their army, by defending Ratisbon. Six regiments occupied the town, and seemed determined upon a vigorous defence. The Emperor himself came up to order the attack. Ratisbon is situated on the Upper Danube, across which it communicates with its suburb Stadt-an-Hop, by a bridge a thousand German feet in length. It is one of the oldest towns in Germany, and has an antique aspect. Its streets are narrowand irregular, and its houses, although lofty, are old fashioned and inconvenient. Many have tall battlemented towers, loop-holed for musketry, etc. Among the most striking public buildings are the cathedral, an old Roman tower, and the bishop’s palace. The ramparts are dilapidated, and scarcely useful for defence.
The French soon effected a breach in the ancient walls, but again and again were they repulsed by a tremendous fire of musketry. At length there was difficulty to find volunteers to renew the attack. Such a storm of death appalled even brave men. But nothing could daunt the impetuous Lannes. His courage was of the kind that rose with the danger. He rushed to the front, seized a ladder, and fixed it against the wall. “I will show you!” he shouted, “that your general is still a grenadier!” In spite of the tremendous fire, the troops followed the example of their glorious leader, for whom there were never laurels enough—scaled the walls, and continued the fight in the streets of the town, which was set on fire.
A detachment of French, rushing to charge a body of Austrians, which still occupied one end of a burning street, were interrupted by some wagons belonging to the enemy’s train. “They are tumbrils of powder,” cried the Austrian commanding, to the French. “If the flames reach them, both sides perish.” The combat ceased, and the two parties joined in averting a calamity which must have been fatal to both, and finally, saved the ammunition from the flames. At length the Austrians were driven out of Ratisbon, leaving much cannon, baggage, and prisoners, in the hands of the French.
In the middle of this lastmelee, Bonaparte, who was speaking with his adjutant, Duroc, observing the affair at some distance, was struck on the foot by a spent musket-ball, which occasioned a severe contusion. “That must have been a Tyrolese,” said the Emperor, coolly, “who has aimed at me from such a distance. These fellows fire with wonderful precision.” Those around remonstrated with him for exposing his person; to which he answered, “What can I do? I must needs see how matters go on.” The soldiers crowded about him in alarm at the report of his wound; but he would hardly allow it to be dressed, so eager was he to get on horseback, and show himself publicly among the troops.
That night the Emperor fixed his quarters in Ratisbon, and the watch-fires of his victorious troops illumined the air for miles around. There was much revelry that night. A glorious, decisive campaign of five days had prostrated the foes of the Emperor, and why should not the soldiers rejoice? The following proclamation was issued by the Emperor:
“Soldiers—You have justified my expectations; you have made up for numbers by your courage; you have gloriously marked the difference which exists between the soldiers of Cæsar and the armies of Xerxes.“In a few days, we have triumphed in the three battles of Tann, Abensberg and Eckmuhl, and the affairs of Peissing, Landshut and Ratisbon. One hundred pieces of cannon, fifty thousand prisoners, three equipages, three thousand baggage wagons, all the fundsof the regiments, are the result of the rapidity of your your courage.“The enemy intoxicated by a perjured cabinet, appeared to have lost all recollection of us; they have been promptly awakened; you have appeared to them more terrible than ever. But lately, they had crossed the Inn, and invaded the territory of our allies; but lately they had promised themselves to carry the war into the bosom of our country. Now, defeated, dismayed they fly in disorder; already my advance-guard has passed the Inn; before a month we shall be at Vienna.”
“Soldiers—You have justified my expectations; you have made up for numbers by your courage; you have gloriously marked the difference which exists between the soldiers of Cæsar and the armies of Xerxes.
“In a few days, we have triumphed in the three battles of Tann, Abensberg and Eckmuhl, and the affairs of Peissing, Landshut and Ratisbon. One hundred pieces of cannon, fifty thousand prisoners, three equipages, three thousand baggage wagons, all the fundsof the regiments, are the result of the rapidity of your your courage.
“The enemy intoxicated by a perjured cabinet, appeared to have lost all recollection of us; they have been promptly awakened; you have appeared to them more terrible than ever. But lately, they had crossed the Inn, and invaded the territory of our allies; but lately they had promised themselves to carry the war into the bosom of our country. Now, defeated, dismayed they fly in disorder; already my advance-guard has passed the Inn; before a month we shall be at Vienna.”
As Sir Walter Scott says: “It was no wonder that others, nay, that he himself, should have annexed to his person the degree of superstitious influence claimed for the chosen instruments of Destiny, whose path must not be crossed, and whose arms cannot be arrested.” When before had Europe witnessed such a campaign? So much glory was enough to intoxicate even Napoleon, and we have yet to see that his deep draught of the nectar was fatal.
BATTLE OF ESSLING.Page 275.
BATTLE OF ESSLING.Page 275.
BATTLE OF ESSLING.Page 275.