Summary survey of Europe—Aristocracy of France—France previous to the Revolution—Revolutionary Symptoms—The Great Powers, 1792–6—William Pitt—Execution of Louis XVI.—The Allies against France—Siege of Toulon—Invasion of Holland—Napoleon—His early youth—Thirteenth Vendemiaire—The Campaign in Italy—Rapid victories of Bonaparte—Expedition to Egypt—Return of Bonaparte—First Consulate—The passage of the Alps—Second Campaign in Italy—Napoleon Emperor—War with England—Alliance between the Great Powers, 1805—Indecision of Prussia—Alexander visits the tomb of Frederick the Great—Battle of Austerlitz—Treaty of Tilsit—Secret understanding respecting Turkey—British orders in Council—Battle of Wagram—Annexation of Finland—Campaign of Moscow—The Grand Alliance, 1813—Battle of Leipsic—Allies enter Paris.
Summary survey of Europe—Aristocracy of France—France previous to the Revolution—Revolutionary Symptoms—The Great Powers, 1792–6—William Pitt—Execution of Louis XVI.—The Allies against France—Siege of Toulon—Invasion of Holland—Napoleon—His early youth—Thirteenth Vendemiaire—The Campaign in Italy—Rapid victories of Bonaparte—Expedition to Egypt—Return of Bonaparte—First Consulate—The passage of the Alps—Second Campaign in Italy—Napoleon Emperor—War with England—Alliance between the Great Powers, 1805—Indecision of Prussia—Alexander visits the tomb of Frederick the Great—Battle of Austerlitz—Treaty of Tilsit—Secret understanding respecting Turkey—British orders in Council—Battle of Wagram—Annexation of Finland—Campaign of Moscow—The Grand Alliance, 1813—Battle of Leipsic—Allies enter Paris.
“The fate of the East depends upon yon petty town,” was the exclamation of Bonaparte to Murat, as he pointed towards Acre, which even his military genius was unable to subdue. Repeated and desperate assaults proved that the consequence which he attached to the taking of it was as great as the words expressed. The imagination reverts from the position of the army of Egypt before that oriental city, and rapidly traversing the events of succeeding history, runs down to the position of the army of the successor of Bonaparte, and of his English and Turkish allies, who, on nearly the precise parallel of longitude, are unitedly engaged in besieging one of the first strongholds of Europe.
In recounting some of the great events of the timeswhich have filled the world with their grandeur, and whose present and future place in history overshadows the preceding ages, a rapidresuméof the situation of Europe, just previous to and at the commencement of the great drama, may be useful, and serve to recall facts and events which may to the general reader have been known but forgotten.
One who stands amid the gardens and grounds of Versailles, and contemplates the enormous luxury and expenditure of its builder, while he recalls his vast wars, his policy, and his intrigues, can better understand the declaration of Louis XIV. to his assembled parliament. “The State! I am the State!” And such an observer can also discover the truth of that statement, that it was that builder who laid the foundations of the French Revolution with the stones of Versailles. The keen sagacity of the polite Chesterfield could detect that approaching revolution a quarter of a century before it took place; and his remarkable prediction shows how rapidly the signs of the gathering storm must have accumulated in the years succeeding the Augustan age of France. The energies of the nation had been devoted to the service and pleasure of the monarch; they now began to be directed to their proper end, the examination of their own interests. From the theatre and the pulpit the genius of the French people hurried precipitately into morals and politics, a sudden revolution took place in the minds of all, and the conflict it produced lasted during a whole century.
The exclusive privileges of the aristocracy, who monopolised every official position, and who alone were eligible to rank in the army,choked the developmentof the greatbody of the people; and while they consumed the revenues of the State they were in a great measure exempt from taxation. Cradled in the luxury of courts, the aristocracy were sunk in vice and effeminacy. And they looked upon the great body of the people as only a necessary appendage to a government in which they had neither right nor control.
In the most martial nation of Europe the private soldier could not, by the greatest daring or genius, elevate himself, because only the aristocracy could obtain rank. The effects of the opposite system were afterwards seen with Napoleon, who boasted that he conquered Europe with the bivouac; with generals raised from the ranks.
The oppressions of the feudal tenure in France exceeded belief; the people were even obliged to grind corn at the landlord’s mill, press their grapes at his press, and bake their bread at his oven on his own terms.
The fermentation which had long been going on in the public mind; “the revolt against eighteen centuries of oppression” began to develop itself rapidly. Yet the monopolizers of all the national rights continued to dispute for a worn out authority. The court, careless and tranquil in the midst of the struggle, were wasting the property of the people while surrounded by the most frightful disorders. When it was told to the effeminate and dissolute Louis XV. that the nation could not suffer much longer, he characteristically said, “Never mind, if it last my time it is sufficient for me!” Such was the eighteenth century.
It was during the years 1787 and ’88, that the French nation first conceived the idea of passing from theory topractice. The weak and vacillating Louis XVI., the least fitted of all men to guide the destinies of a nation in the throes of political convulsion, had successively tried ministry after ministry, and one expedient after the other; yet the ship of state was swiftly approaching the vortex of the whirlpool in which it had entered.
“Upon what trivial events often depend the most important affairs. The mistake of a captain, who bore away instead of forcing his passage to the place of his destination, has prevented the face of the world from being totally changed,” said Napoleon. “Acre,” continued he, “would otherwise have fallen: I would have flown to Damascus and Aleppo; and in the twinkling of an eye, would have been at the Euphrates. I would have reached Constantinople and the Indies, and would have changed the face of the world.” It was thus in the assembly of the Notables, called by the intelligent, brilliant, and careless Calonne, then minister of state, that a member, complaining of the prodigality of the court, demanded a statement of the expenses. Another member, punning on the word, exclaimed, “It is not statements, but States General that we want.” This single random expression struck every one with astonishment, and seized by the people was immediately acted upon; the States General were called, and the public mind was filled with the wildest fermentation: France and Europe were to be immediately regenerated; visionary schemes without number were formed; and that general unhinging of opinions took place, which is the surest prelude of revolution. That revolution now came, and in its tumults and convulsions the Ancient French Monarchy rapidly approached its extinction.Amid frightful disorders, famine appeared; the elements seemed to partake of the savagery of the times; and the severity of the tempests of summer which destroyed the harvests, was succeeded by a winter, 1788–9, of unparalleled rigor. Soon began that vast emigration of the nobility, which was afterwards succeeded by the attempted flight of the king; while all authority but that of the Sans Culottes seemed abolished. Foreign affairs became daily more menacing; the young Emperor, Francis II. of Austria, was gathering his armies, and soon demanded the reëstablishment of the monarchy on its ancient footing. All classes in France now anxiously desired war; the aristocracy hoped to regain their lost privileges with the assistance of Germany; the democracy hoped, amid the tumult of victorious campaigns, to establish their principles.
At length, on the 20th of April, 1792, oppressed with the solemnity and grandeur of the occasion, the declaration of war against Austria was received by the National Assembly of France in solemn silence. Thus commenced the greatest, the most bloody, and the most interesting war which has agitated mankind since the fall of the Roman Empire. Rising from feeble beginnings, it at length involved the world in its conflagration; rousing the passions of every class, it brought unheard of armies into the field; and it was carried on with a degree of exasperation unknown in modern times. “A revolution in France,” says Napoleon, “is always followed, sooner or later, by a revolution in Europe.” Situated in the centre of modern civilization, it has in every age communicated the impulse of its own changes to the adjoining statesThus, the great changes which had taken place in France had excited all Europe, and spread the utmost alarm in all her monarchies.
Austria, Russia, Prussia, and England were at that period, as now, the great powers of Europe, and they were the principal actors in the desperate struggle which ensued. They were in a situation capable of great exertion; years of repose had fitted them to enter upon a gigantic war. England, although she had lost one empire in the west, had gained another in the east; and the wealth of India began to pour into her bosom. The public funds had risen from 57, at the close of the American War, to 99. Her army consisted of 32,000 men in the British Isles, besides an equal force in the East and West Indies; but these forces were rapidly augmented after the commencement of the war, and before 1796, the regular force amounted to 206,000 men, including 42,000 militia. Yet experience proves that Britain could never collect above 40,000 men upon any one point of the continent of Europe. But her real strength consisted in her great wealth, in the public spirit and energy of her people, and in a fleet of 150 ships of the line, which commanded the seas.
England, like other monarchies, had slumbered on contented and prosperous, and for the most part inglorious, during the eighteenth century. A great writer observed, that while America was doubling her population every twenty-five years, Europe was lumbering on with an increase, which would hardly arrive at the same result in five hundred; and Gibbon lamented that the age of interesting incidents was past, and that the modern historian would never again have to record the moving events,and dismal catastrophes of ancient story. Such were the anticipations of the greatest men on the verge of a period that was to usher in a new Cæsar, and to be illustrated by an Austerlitz and a Trafalgar, a Wellington and a Waterloo; and the human race, mowed down by unparalleled wars, was to spring up again with an elasticity before unknown. William Pitt was the great Prime Minister of England at this time, and modern history cannot exhibit a statesman more fertile in resources, and whose expedients seemed as exhaustless as his great abilities. Fox and Burke, each distinguished by a high order of intellect, filled the British Parliament with their reasoning and eloquence.
The great Austrian empire contained at that time nearly 25,000,000 of inhabitants, with a revenue of 95,000,000 florins, and numbered the richest and most fertile districts of Europe among its provinces. The wealth of Flanders, the riches of Lombardy, and the valor of the Hungarians added to the strength of the Empire. Her armies had acquired immortal renown in the wars of Maria Theresa. At the commencement of the war, her force amounted to 240,000 infantry, 35,000 cavalry, and 100,000 artillery. Her court, the most aristocratic in Europe, was strongly attached to old institutions, and the marriage of Maria Antoinette to Louis XVI. gave the Austrian court a family interest in the affairs which preceded and followed the French Revolution.
The military strength of Prussia, raised to the highest pitch by the genius of Frederic the Great, had rendered her one of the first powers of Europe; her army of 165,000 strong was in the highest state of discipline and equipment,and by a system of organization the whole youth of the kingdom were compelled to serve a limited number of years in the army, so that she had within herself an inexhaustible reserve of men trained to arms. Her cavalry was the finest in Europe.
The majesty and power of Russia was beginning to fill the north with its greatness, and in her struggles and battles from the time of Peter the Great, through her wars with Sweden, with Frederic and with the Turks, she had constantly advanced with gigantic strides towards the Orient and the West. Her immense dominions comprehended nearly the half of Europe and Asia; while she was secure from invasion by her position, and by the severity of her climate. The Empress Catharine, endowed with masculine energy and ambition, had waged a bloody war with Turkey, in which the zeal of a religious crusade was directed by motives of policy and desire for the acquisition of new territory which should pave the way for that future expected conquest of the whole of European Turkey, and which should give Russia the shores of the Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmora as her southern boundary, and should make Constantinople, the seat of her commerce and her power over the Mediterranean and the East, the centre through which she might command the world. The infantry of Russia has long been celebrated for its invincible firmness, and the cavalry, though greatly inferior to its present state of discipline and equipment, was formidable. The artillery, now so splendid, was then only remarkable for its cumbrous carriages and the obstinate valor of its men. Inured to hardship from infancy, the Russian soldier is better able to bearthe fatigues of war than any in Europe; he knows no duty so sacred as obedience to his officers. Submissive to his discipline as to his religion, no privation or fatigue makes him forget his obligations. The whole of the energies of the Empire are turned to the army. Commerce, the law, and civil employment are held in no esteem. Immense military schools, in different parts of the Empire, annually send forth the flower of the population to this dazzling career. Precedence depends entirely upon military rank, and the heirs of the greatest families are compelled to enter the army at the lowest grade. Promotion is open equally to all, and the greater part of the officers have risen from inferior stations of society.
The military strength of France, which was destined to oppose and triumph over these immense forces, consisted at the commencement of the struggle of 165,000 infantry, 35,000, cavalry and 10,000 artillery. But her troops had relaxed their discipline during the revolution, and her soldiers had been so accustomed to political discussion, that it had introduced a license unfavorable to discipline. At first they lacked steadiness and organization, but these defects were speedily remedied by the pressure of necessity, and by the talent which emerged from the lower classes of society.
Such was the state of the principal European powers at the commencement of the war. The celebrated 10th of August, 1792, came, and the throne was overturned, the royal family put in captivity, while the massacres of September drenched Paris with blood. The victories of Dumourier rolled back thetide of foreigninvasion to the Rhine. War was declared against Sardinia, 15th September,and Savoy and Nice were seized and united to the French Republic.
“The die is thrown, we have rushed into the career; all governments are our enemies, all people are our friends; we must be destroyed or they shall be free,” exclaimed the orator of the convention. Geneva surrendered to the French without a blow, and the Convention declared it would grant its assistance to all people who wished to recover their liberty. Flanders was overrun by the French in a fortnight, and they committed an aggression on the Dutch by opening the Scheldt, and by pursuing the fugitive Austrians into Dutch territory.
While the tide of Austrian and Prussian invasion was rolled back to the Rhine, the great frontier city of Germany was wrested from Austria almost under the eyes of the imperial armies; and although the campaign commenced only in August, under the greatest apparent disadvantage to the French, yet before the close of December all this had been accomplished. The execution of Louis XVI. on the 21st Jan., 1793, completed the destruction of the French monarchy, accelerated the Reign of Terror, and brought the accession of England to the league of theAllied Sovereigns; Chauvelin, the French Ambassador, received orders immediately to quit London; and this was succeeded in a few days by a declaration of war, 1st February, 1793, by France against England, Spain, and Holland. The audacity of the Convention, which thus threw down the gauntlet to nearly all of Europe, excited universal astonishment. The feeling of national honor, in all ages so powerful among the French, was awakened to its highest pitch. Every species ofrequisition was cheerfully furnished under the pressure of impending calamity; and in the dread of foreign subjugation the loss of fortune and employment was forgotten only one path, that of honor, was open to the brave. The Jacobins, the ruling power in France, were no longer despised but feared by the European powers, and terror prompts more vigorous efforts than contempt. No sooner did the news of the execution of Louis reach St. Petersburg than the Empress Catharine took the most decisive measures, and all Frenchmen who did not renounce the principles of the revolution were ordered to quit her territory; the most intimate relations were established between the courts of London and St. Petersburg; and a treaty between them, which laid the basis of the Grand Alliance, was signed, 25th March, in which they engaged to carry on the war against France, and not to lay down their arms without restitution of all the conquests which France had made from either of them, or such states and allies to whom the benefit of the treaty should extend. Treaties of the same nature were made with Sardinia and Portugal, and thus all Europe was arrayed against France. A congress of the allies assembled at Antwerp, which came to the resolution of totally altering the objects of the war; and it was openly announced there that the object was to provideindemnitiesandsecuritiesfor the allied powers by partitioning the frontier territories of France among the invading states. Soon after, when Valenciennes and Condé were taken, the Austrian flag, and not that of the Allies, was hoisted on the walls. The Prussians and Austrians, numbering 100,000, were on the Rhine early in the spring, and the Ring of Prussia crossed ingreat force. The French army, inferior in numbers and discipline, retreated. Mentz capitulated to the Allies after a long and dreadful siege, and the French continued to retreat in disorder. But the Allies wasted their splendid opportunity. The French retreated to their entrenched camp before Arras, after which there was no place capable of defence on the road to Paris. The Republican authorities took to flight, the utmost consternation prevailed, and a rapid advance of the Allies would have changed the history of Europe. But from this time dissension began among them; and from this period may be dated a series of disasters to them, which went on constantly increasing until the French arms were planted on the Kremlin, and all Europe, from Gibraltar to the North Cape; had yielded to their arms.
The mighty genius of Carnot, who, in the energetic language of Napoleon, “organized victory,” soon appeared at the head of the military department of France. Austere in character, unbending in discipline, and of indefatigable energy, he resembled the great patriots of antiquity morethan any otherstatesman of modern times, and in the midst of peril and disaster he infused his unparalleled vigor into his department, and France became one vast workshop of arms, resounding with the note of military preparation. The roads were covered with conscripts hastening to their destination; and fourteen armies, and 1,200,000 men, were soon under arms. The siege of Dunkirk, undertaken by the English, was raised, and the Austrian and Prussian armies were driven back to the Rhine.
The siege of Toulon, whose inhabitants had revolted from the horrors of the Reign of Terror, was remarkablefor the horrible carnage with which it was accompanied, as well as for the appearance of a young officer of artillery, then chief of battalion,Napoleon Bonaparte. Its capture, which was owing to his genius, was accompanied by the destruction of nearly the whole French fleet in its harbor by the retreating English. At eight in the evening a fire-ship was towed into the harbor; soon the flames arose in every quarter, and fifteen ships of the line and eight frigates were consumed. The volume of smoke which filled the sky, the flames which burst as it were out of the sea, the red light which illuminated the most distant mountains, and the awful explosions of the magazines formed, says Napoleon, “a grand and terrible spectacle.” The arms of France, on the frontiers of Flanders and elsewhere, now began to be successful, while the dubious conduct or evident defection of Prussia paralysed all operations on the Rhine; and before the close of 1794 the Republican armies, in a winter campaign, invaded Holland and subdued almost the whole of that rich country without a battle. Amsterdam, which had defied the whole power of Louis XIV., was conquered; these successes were followed by others still more marvellous. On the same day on which General Dandels entered Amsterdam, the left wing of the army made themselves masters of Dordrecht, containing six hundred pieces of cannon, ten thousand muskets, and immense stores of ammunition. The same division passed through Rotterdam and took possession of the Hague, where the States General were assembled; and to complete the wonders of the campaign, a body of cavalry and flying artillery crossed the Zuyder Zee on the ice, and summoned the fleet lying frozen up at the Texel;and the commander, confounded at the hardihood of the enterprise, surrendered his ships to this novel species of assailant; and at the conclusion of the campaign, the Spaniards, defeated, were suing for peace. The Piedmontese were driven over the Alps; the Allies had everywhere crossed the Rhine; Flanders and Holland were subjugated; La Vendée pacificated; and the English fled for refuge to Hanover; 1,700,000 men had combated under the banners of France; and peace was concluded soon after between France, Spain, and Prussia.
Napoleon Bonaparte was born at Ajaccio, in Corsica, on the 15th of August, 1769. Corsica is essentially Italian, and to this day a state of society prevails which differs from that of any other part of Europe. The wildest and most deadly feuds are common among its principal families. The people are turbulent and excitable. Napoleon was too great a man to derive distinction from any adventitious advantages, and when the Emperor of Austria, after he became his son-in-law, endeavored to trace his connexion with the obscure Dukes of Treviso, he answered that he was the Rudolph of Hapsburg of his family, and that his patent of nobility dated from the battle of Montenotte. His mother, a woman of no common beauty, being at the festival of the Assumption on the day of his birth, was seized with her pains during high mass. She was brought home and hastily laid upon a couch covered with tapestry representing the heroes of the Iliad, and there the future conqueror was brought into the world. The winter residence of his father was usually at Ajaccio; but in summer the family retired to a villa near the isle of Sanguinere, once the residence of a relationof his mother’s, situated on a romantic spot near the sea shore. The house is approached by an avenue overhung by the cactus, acacia, and other shrubs, which grow luxuriantly in a southern climate. It has a garden and lawn showing vestiges of neglected beauty, and surrounded by a shrubbery permitted to run to a wilderness. There, enclosed by the cactus, the clematis, and the wild olive, is a singular and isolated granite rock, beneath which the remains of a small summer-house are still visible. This was the favorite retreat of young Napoleon, who early showed a love of solitary meditation, during the period when his school vacations permitted him to return home. And it may be supposed, perhaps, that here the magnificence of his oriental imagination formed those visions of ambition and high resolves, for which the limits of the world were, ere long, felt to be insufficient. At an early age he was sent to the military school at Brienne; his character there underwent a rapid alteration; he became thoughtful, studious, and diligent in the extreme.
On one occasion, while the youths were playing the death of Cæsar in their theatre, the wife of the porter, well known to the boys, presented herself at the door, and being refused admittance made some disturbance; the matter was referred to the young Napoleon, who was the officer in command on the occasion. “Remove that woman who brings here the license of camps!” said the future ruler of the revolution. At the age of fourteen he was sent to the military school at Paris, and atsixteenhe received a commission in a regiment of artillery. When the revolution broke out he adhered to the popular side. After thesiege of Toulon, Dugommier, the general in command, wrote to the Convention, “Reward and promote that young man, for if you are ungrateful to him he will raise himself alone.” He commanded the artillery in 1794 during the campaign in Italy. Dumbion, in command of the army, who was old, submitted the direction of affairs principally to Bonaparte. His intimacy with the younger Robespierre, and his refusal of a command in La Vendée in the civil insurrection, led to his being deprived of his rank as a general officer, and he was reduced to private life. But his talents being known led to his being called to the command of the forces in Paris, which triumphed over the sections; his decision saved the Convention. The story of his introduction to and marriage of Josephine is too well known to need repetition.
In 1796 Bonaparte took command of the forces destined to operate against Italy. With an army destitute of almost every thing, he, in a short time, overran Piedmont, conquered a peace with Sardinia, passed the Po and crossed the Adda at the Bridge of Lodi. The nervous eloquence of Napoleon, in his address to his soldiers, and the splendor of his success, intoxicated Paris with joy. The first day, they heard that the gates of the Alps were opened; the next, that the Austrians were separated from the Piedmontese army; the third that the Piedmontese army was destroyed and the fortresses surrendered. The rapidity of this success, the number of prisoners, exceeded all that had yet been witnessed. Every one asked, who was this young conqueror whose fame had burst forth so suddenly, and whose proclamations breathed the spirit of ancient glory?
“The 13th of Vendemiaire and the victory of Montenotte,” said Napoleon, “did not induce me to think myself a superior character. It was after the passage of Lodi that the idea shot across my mind that I might become a decisive actor on the political theatre; then arose for the first time the spark of great ambition.”
With pomp and splendor Napoleon made his triumphal entry into Milan, to the sound of military music and the acclamations of an immense concourse of spectators. The rapidity of the French victories in Italy, and the destruction of the Austrian armies, sent to oppose them, crowned Napoleon as the greatest chieftain of his time. The marshes of Arcola, the heights of Montebello, and the plain of Rivoli witnessed his successive glories. But while the arms of Republican France were conquering in Italy, they suffered reverse and defeat under Moreau on the frontiers and the Rhine; and the Archduke Charles drove back the French legions who had dared to penetrate Germany. At the close of the year the death of the great Empress, Catharine of Russia, and the accession of Paul to the throne, changed, in many important respects, the fate of the war.
In the midst of threatened invasion from France, a general panic seized England, and while the public funds had fallen from 99 to 51, a run commenced on the Bank of England, which was on the verge of bankruptcy. This caused those orders in Council in February, 1797—suspending specie payments, which, although only considered temporary at the time, continued a quarter of a century. The defeat of the Spanish fleet at St. Vincent, by Nelson and Collingwood, soon quelled the fear of invasion in England.
The army of Napoleon in Italy opened the campaign of 1797 by attacking, early in March, the Archduke Charles before he had received his reinforcements. Napoleon arrived by rapid marches, with his army in front of the Austrians, who had chosen, on the line of the Julian Alps, the river Tagliamento on which to oppose the French. By a feint, Napoleon deceived the Austrians, crossed the river, charged them with fury, and drove them back with considerable loss. They retreated by the blue and glittering waters of the Isonza, and in twenty days the army of Charles was driven over the Julian Alps, and the French were within sixty leagues of Vienna; pushing forward, they came within sight of its steeples. But unsupported, and with Italy in insurrection behind his back, Napoleon proposed peace to Austria. Delay after delay occurring in the negotiation, Napoleon declared if the ultimatum of the Directory was not accepted in twelve hours, he would commence hostilities. The time having expired, he entered the presence of the Austrian ambassador, and taking up a porcelain vase of great value, and which had been presented by the Empress Catharine to the ambassador, he declared energetically, “The die is cast, the truce is broken, war is declared. But mark my words, before the end of autumn I will break in pieces your monarchy, as I now destroy this porcelain;” and with that he dashed it in pieces on the ground. Bowing, he retired, mounted his carriage, and despatched a courier to the Archduke, to announce that hostilities would commence in twenty-four hours. The Austrian plenipotentiary, thunderstruck, forthwith agreed to the ultimatum, and the celebrated treaty of CampoFormio was signed the next day; and thus terminated the Italian campaign of Napoleon, the most memorable in his military career.
Returning to Paris, Napoleon was soon anxious to resume those schemes of ambition which continually occupied his mind. The expedition for the conquest of Egypt sailed with pomp from Toulon, and after occupying Malta, and narrowly escaping the English fleet under Nelson, the French army landed at Alexandria. Victory after victory soon completed the subjugation of the Land of the Pharaohs, while at the battle of the Nile the French fleet was almost entirely destroyed by Nelson.
Cut off by this disaster from Europe, Napoleon projected that expedition to Syria, which, unsuccessful at Acre, returned to Egypt in time to destroy the Turkish army, which had landed at Aboukir. Reverses in the Alps, the loss of Italy, the retreat of the French to Zurich, and the capture of Corfu by the Russians and English, determined Napoleon to return to France, which he accomplished in a small frigate, which escaped the English cruisers. Arrived in Paris, he found the government in disorder, and without a head, and, while disaster surrounded the country, its armies had been beaten, and its finances were in hopeless confusion.
On the celebrated 18th Brumaire (8th November), Napoleon having command of the troops in Paris, accomplished that sudden revolution which placed him at the head of affairs. His schemes of ambition began now to ripen, and France soon felt in all her departments the energy of his mighty genius. One of his first acts was to propose peace with England. Disregarding the ordinaryrules of negotiation, Napoleon addressed a letter personally to George III., proposing peace. This letter was replied to by Lord Grenville, the Prime Minister, who declined the proposition.
Disappointed in his hopes of negotiating peace, Napoleon prepared with renewed vigor for war. The campaign was the most important of his life. Its daring and success are almost unparalleled in history.
Crossing the Alps, the highest chain of mountains in Europe, without roads, his artillery had to be dragged over narrow foot-paths, up the rugged sides of frowning mountains, and on the brink of awful precipices covered with snow; while provisions and stores for a whole army had to be carried by sheep-paths on the backs of men. Arrived at Geneva, having deceived the Austrians as to his intentions, he asked General Marescot, whom he had despatched to survey Mont St. Bernard, “Is the route practicable?” “It is barely possible,” replied the engineer. “Let us press forward then,” said Napoleon. Arrived at the little village of St. Pierre, everything resembling a road ended. An immense and apparently inaccessible mountain reared its head amidst general desolation and eternal frost, while precipices, glaciers, and ravines appeared to forbid access to all living things. Yet, surmounting every obstacle, the passage was accomplished; and a French army of 30,000 men precipitated themselves, apparently from the clouds, on the plains of Italy, and appeared to the thunderstruck Austrians, cutting off their retreat from Genoa, and completely dividing their forces; speedily marching upon Milan, leaving the Austrian army under Melas, behind him, he returned to attack them,and at the battle of Marengo gained the most important of his victories. By the close of 1801 the continental states had all concluded peace with France, leaving her with the most enormous aggrandizements of territory. A short interval of peace occurred with England in 1802, which was broken by a declaration of war in June, 1803, and all the English residents between the ages of eighteen and sixty were detained as hostages. Hanover was seized by the French, and the English retaliated by blockading the Elbe and the Weser.
The war with Great Britain, and a conspiracy to overthrow the authority of the First Consul, which was discovered, served as a ladder for Napoleon to mount from the Consulate to the Imperial Dignity; and on the 3d May, 1804, the senate communicated to Napoleon this address: “We think it of the last importance to the French people to confide the government of the Republic to Napoleon Bonaparte—Hereditary Emperor.”
The Empire was proclaimed at St. Cloud, 18th May, 1804; and Napoleon was crowned by Pope Pius VII., on the 2d December, in the church of Notre Dame. War was declared by Spain against England, after she had unwarrantably attacked and seized four large Spanish frigates filled with cargoes of immense value. The rising hostility of Russia and Sweden at this moment incensed the French government still more against England, to whose influence she attributed their conduct. All appearances foretold the beginning of another general eruption.
On the 11th of April, 1805, a treaty offensive and defensive was formed between Russia and England, the object of which was to put a stop to what they consideredthe encroachments of the French government, and to form a general league of the states of Europe.
The accession of Austria was finally obtained to the alliance, after great difficulty and delay: the deplorable state of her finances, and the vacillating policy of her government, being (then as now) stumbling-blocks in the way of negotiation. On the 31st of August, Sweden was also included. But notwithstanding all the efforts of England and Russia, it was found impossible to overcome the scruples of Prussia, who inclined towards the French in hopes of obtaining Hanover, promised her by France as a reward for her neutrality. For ten years Prussia had flattered herself that by keeping aloof she would avoid the storm, that she would succeed in turning the desperate strife between France and Austria to her own benefit by enlarging her territory, and augmenting her consideration in the North of Germany; but at once all her prospects vanished, and it became apparent, even to her own ministers, that this vacillating policy was ultimately to be as dangerous as it had already been discreditable. On the 25th of Oct., the Emperor Alexander arrived at Berlin, and employed the whole weight of his great authority, and all the charms of his captivating manners, to induce the King to embrace a more manly and courageous policy; and on the 3rd of November a secret convention was signed between the two monarchs for the regulation of the affairs of Europe, and the erection of a barrier against the ambition of the French Emperor. The conclusion of the Convention was followed by a scene as remarkable as it was romantic. Inspired with a full sense of the dangers of the war, the ardent and chivalrous mind of the Queenconceived the idea of uniting the two sovereigns by a bond more likely to be durable than the mere alliances of cabinets with each other. This was, to bring them together at the tomb of the great Frederick. The Emperor who was desirous of visiting the mausoleum of that illustrious hero, accordingly repaired to the church at Potsdam, where his remains are deposited.
And at midnight the two monarchs proceeded together by torchlight to the hallowed grave. Uncovering when he approached the spot, the Emperor kissed the pall, and taking the hand of the King of Prussia, as it lay on the tomb, they swore an eternal friendship to each other, and bound themselves by the most solemn oaths to maintain their engagements inviolate in the great contest for European independence in which they were engaged.
It would have been well for the Allies, if, when Prussia had thus taken her part, her cabinet had possessed sufficient resolution to have taken the field instead of continuing in her old habit of temporizing, and thus permitting Napoleon to continue without interruption his advance on Vienna. But her long indecision had been her ruin. Her territory had been violated by France, who, while apparently her ally, was reserving for her only the melancholy privilege of being last destroyed.
In the meantime, a combined force of English, Russians, and Swedes, thirty thousand strong, had been landed in Hanover, and the Prussian troops occupying that Electorate had offered no resistance—a sure proof to Napoleon of a secret understanding between the Cabinet of Berlin and that of London.
While she was thus giving daily proofs of her indecisionand treachery, the ever-vigilant Bonaparte was pouring his armies through Bavaria into Austria and concentrating his divisions for the sweeping victory which was so soon afterwards destined to scatter to the winds the opposing allies.
We now come to the campaign of Austerlitz; the most remarkable, in a military point of view, which the history of the war afforded.
In the beginning of August the French army was cantoned on the heights of Boulogne; and by the first week of December, Vienna was taken, and the strength of Austria and Russia prostrated.
The allied armies presented a total of 80,000 men, including a division of the imperial guard under the Grand Duke Constantine, brother of the Emperor of Russia.
The forces which Napoleon had to resist this great array hardly amounted to 70,000 combatants.
On the 30th November, 1805, the light troops of the Allies were seen from the French outposts marching across their position towards the right of the army. Napoleon spent the whole of both days on horseback at the advanced posts watching their movements. At length on the morning of the 1st Dec. the intentions of the enemy were clearly manifested, and Napoleon beheld with “inexpressible delight” their whole columns dark, and massy, moving across his position at so short a distance as rendered it apparent a general action was at hand. Carefully avoiding the slightest interruption to their movement, he merely watched with intense anxiety their march, and when it became evident that the resolution to turn the right flank of the French army had beendecided upon, he exclaimed, prophetically—“To-morrow, before night-fall, that army is mine.”
At four in the morning the Emperor was on horseback. All was still among the immense multitude concentrated in the French lines. Buried in sleep the soldiers forgot alike their triumphs and the dangers they were about to undergo. Gradually, however, a confused murmur arose from the Russian host, and all the reports from the outposts announced that the advance had already commenced along the whole line.
Gradually the stars which throughout the night had shone clear and bright began to disappear, and the ruddy glow of the east announced the approach of day. At last, the “Sun of Austerlitz” rose in unclouded brilliancy on that field of blood.
The French army occupied an interior position, from whence their columns started like rays from a centre, while the allies were toiling in a wide semicircle round their outer extremity.
His marshals, burning with impatience, stood around Napoleon, awaiting the signal for attack. At last the word was given, and on they rushed to the onslaught.
The results of the conflict in different sections of the battle-field were various, the Russians and French alternately being victorious, till Napoleon, seeing there was not a moment to be lost, ordered Marshal Bessières with the cavalry of the guard to arrest a terrible onslaught of Russian cuirassiers of the guard, two thousand strong, which had already trampled under foot three battalions of the French. Instantly spurring their chargers, the French precipitated themselves upon the enemy.The Russians were broken and driven back over the dead bodies of the square they had destroyed.
Rallying, however, they returned to the charge, and both imperial guards met in full career! The shock was terrible! and the most desperate cavalry action that had taken place during the war ensued. The infantry on both sides advanced to support their comrades. The resolution and vigor of the combatants were equal. Squadron to squadron, company to company, man to man, fought with invincible firmness. At length, however, the stern obstinacy of the Russian yielded to the enthusiastic valor of the French. The cavalry and infantry of the guard gave way, and after losing their artillery and standards, were driven back in confusion almost to the walls of Austerlitz, while from a neighboring eminence the Emperors of Russia and Germany beheld the irretrievable rout of the flower of their army.
This desperate encounter was decisive of the fate of the day. The Russians no longer fought for victory, but for existence. Great numbers sought to save themselves by crossing with their artillery and cavalry a frozen lake adjoining their line of march. The ice was already beginning to yield under the enormous weight, when the shells from the French batteries bursting below the surface, caused it to crack with a loud explosion. A frightful yell arose from the perishing multitude, and above two thousand brave men were swallowed up in the waves. At noon the allies gave way, and commenced their retreat in the direction of Austerlitz.
Those who escaped being made prisoners succeeded before nightfall in reaching Austerlitz, already filled withthe wounded, the fugitives and the stragglers from every part of the army.
Thus terminated the battle of Austerlitz.
The loss of the allies was immense. Thirty thousand (30,000) men were killed, wounded, or made prisoners. Of the latter were 19,000 Russians, and 6,000 Austrians, most of whom were wounded. Almost the whole of their baggage fell into the hands of the victors. One hundred and eighty pieces of cannon, four hundred covered wagons, and forty-five standards, were taken, and the disorganization of the combined forces was complete.
Twelve thousand French had been killed and wounded, making the frightful sum total of that dreadful day’s carnage, 42,000 men.
On the 6th of Dec. an armistice was concluded at Austerlitz, and Alexander sent to Berlin the Grand Duke Constantine to ascertain if the Prussian King was prepared to join with him, according to the principles which he had sworn to adhere to at the tomb of the great Frederick, in the vigorous prosecution of the war. But the disaster of Austerlitz had wrought a perfidious change in the policy of the Prussian Cabinet.
An ambassador was sent to Napoleon to congratulate him upon his success, and to propose a treaty. Napoleon broke out into a vehement declamation against the policy of the Prussian Cabinet, and expressed his determination now to turn his whole forces against them; but at last yielding, the treaty was concluded, and a new alliance entered into between Prussia and France, the former receiving as a reward Hanover, with all the other continental dominions of his Britannic Majesty.
During the year 1807, disagreements sprang up between France and Prussia, which resulted at the battle of Jena, (Oct. 14th) in the total discomfiture of the latter, and triumph of Napoleon, who now became master of the whole country from the Rhine to the Vistula. Passing the sanguinary contests of Eylau and Friedland, we come to the treaty of Tilsit, the arrangement of which took place under circumstances eminently calculated to impress the imagination of mankind.
Certain misunderstandings having arisen between England and Russia, and the latter power being somewhat crippled for the moment by numerous defeats, an armistice was proposed by Alexander, and accepted by Napoleon, on the 22d of June, which ended in the treaty of Tilsit.
There was little difficulty in coming to an understanding, for France had nothing to demand of Russia, except that she should close her ports against England! Russia nothing to ask of France but that she should withdraw her armies from Poland, and permit the Emperor to pursue his long cherished projects of conquest in Turkey.
The armistice having been concluded, it was agreed that the two Emperors should meet, to arrange, in a private conference, the destinies of the world.
It took place accordingly on the 25th June. On the river Niemen, which separated the two armies, a raft of great dimensions was constructed. It was moored in the centre of the stream, and on its surface a wooden apartment surmounted by the eagles of France and Russia, was framed with all the magnificence which the time and circumstances would admit.
This was destined for the reception of the Emperors alone; at a little distance was stationed another raft less sumptuously adorned, for their respective suites.
The shore on either side was covered with the Imperial Guard of the two monarchs, drawn up in triple lines. At one o’clock precisely, amid the thunder of artillery, each Emperor stepped into a boat on his own side of the river, accompanied by a few of his principal officers. The splendid suite of each monarch followed in another boat immediately after.
The bark of Napoleon advanced with greater rapidity than that of Alexander. He arrived first at the raft, entered the apartment, and himself opened the door on the opposite side to receive the Czar; while the shouts of the soldiers drowned even the roar of the artillery.
In a few seconds Alexander arrived, and was received by the Conqueror at the door on his own side. Their meeting was friendly, and Alexander expressed his dissatisfaction with his ally, the Government ofGreat Britain.
“I hate the English,” said he, “as much as you do, and am ready to second you in all your enterprises against them.” “In that case,” replied Napoleon, “everything will be easily arranged, and peace is already made.” And peace was made. A treaty was concluded between France and Russia, also between France and Prussia, by which the latter ceded to Napoleon about half her dominions, and Alexander and Napoleon, deeply impressed with the genius of each other, became, for the time being, intimate friends. By the provisions of this celebrated treaty, Russia was assigned the Empire of the East, while France acquired absolute sway in the Kingdoms of theWest, and both united in cordial hostility against Great Britain.
France being the ally of Turkey, Napoleon could do no less than arrange for the evacuation of Moldavia and Wallachia (at that time occupied by Russian troops); but it is supposed there was a secret understanding between the two Emperors, that ultimately, Wallachia, Moldavia, and Bulgaria were to fall into the possession of Russia, while France was to arrange to her liking, the affairs of Greece and the Spanish Peninsula.
But the sagacity of Napoleon would not permit him to agree to the cession of Constantinople and Roumelia, and rivalry for the possession of that Capitol was one of the principal causes which afterwards brought about the disastrous campaign of Moscow.
As a consequence of the downfall of Prussia, the neutrality of Austria, and the accession to the confederacy of Alexander at Tilsit, Napoleon was emboldened to attempt the carrying out of his long cherished “Continental System” of combining all the Continental States into one great alliance against England, and to compel them to exclude the British Flag and British merchandise from their harbors.
It was at this time that he promulgated the famousBerlin Decree, which declared the British Islands in a state of blockade, and subjected all goods of British produce or manufacture, to confiscation within his dominions, or those of the countries subject to his control, and prohibited all vessels from entering any harbor, which had touched at any British port.
As a retaliatory measure the celebratedOrders inCouncilwere issued by the British Government (on the 11th Nov. 1807), which proclaimed France and all the Continental States in a state of blockade, and declared all vessels good prize, which should be bound for any of their harbors, excepting such as had previously cleared outfromor touchedata British harbor.
This was followed on the 17th December, by theMilan Decree, which declared that any vessel, of whatever nation, which shall have submitted to be searched by British cruisers, shall be considered and dealt with as English vessels, and every vessel of whatever nation, comingfromor boundtoany British harbor, shall be declared good prize.
England, being mistress of the seas, enforced with unfeeling rigor her orders in council, entailing immense losses upon the commerce of neutral States, but more particularly upon America, which ultimately brought about the war between herself and the great Republic; while France, comparatively powerless on the ocean, invoked the aid of privateers and seized upon all British persons and property within her grasp.
Since the defeat of Austria at Austerlitz, in 1805, the Cabinet of Vienna had adhered with cautious prudence to a system of neutrality. Still the Imperial Government had been successfully at work to fill up the ranks of their decimated armies, and to place themselves again in a position of strength.
Napoleon was no sooner informed of these military preparations than he demanded an explanation of their import.
Austria made professions of pacific intentions, but stillcontinued to arm herself; the war in Spain, which Napoleon had at this time on his hands, leading her to suppose that he would not for so slight a cause undertake another contest.
In the meantime, the wily Metternich, Austrian Ambassador at Paris, was endeavoring to maintain apparently amicable relations with the French government, while every effort was made to induce Alexander to join with Austria; but the Czar had pledged his word to Napoleon, and was not inclined to break a personal engagement of such importance.
The French ambassador left Vienna finally, on the 28th Feb., 1809, and in April active hostilities broke out thus kindling again the flames of war.
Warsaw, garrisoned by the French, was taken by the Austrians, at which time occurred an event of significant importance.
In pursuing the Austrians, a courier was taken with despatches from the RussianGeneral Gortschakoffto the Austrian Arch-Duke, congratulating him on the capture of Warsaw, and breathing a wish that he might soon join his armies to the Austrian Eagles.
This letter was immediately forwarded to Napoleon, who remarked, “I see, after all, I must make war upon Alexander.”
The Czar disavowed the letter, and attempted explanations, but a breach was opened which was never again healed.
Austria endeavored to win Prussia to her side after the battle of Aspern (unfavorable to Napoleon), and secret negotiations were carried on. But the Prussian governmentreplied to Austria’s overtures, that they had every disposition to assist her, but could not take part in the contest till the views of Russia in regard to it were known.
In the meantime the struggle continued, and after a great number of contests, in some of which Napoleon’s chances were desperate, finally, on the 5th of July, 1809, was fought the celebrated battle of Wagram, under the walls of Vienna, which resulted in victory to Napoleon, though at so dear a price as almost to equal a defeat. 50,000 men were killed and wounded.
The peace of Vienna followed on the 14th of October, and was of so humiliating a nature that it was received with marked disapprobation by the Cabinet ofSt. Petersburg, andwas attended with a most important effect in widening the breach which was already formed between the two Emperors.
The Turkish empire at this time was in a state of decay, and the people, from the inefficiency of the government, and the constantly recurring insurrections, in a state of misery.
But amid the general decay, the matchless situation of Constantinople still attracted a vast concourse of inhabitants, and veiled under a robe of beauty the decline of the Queen of the East.
This celebrated capital, the incomparable excellence of whose situation attracted the eagle eye of Alexander, had long formed the real object of discord between the Courts of Paris and St. Petersburg.
War had been formally declared by Russia against Turkey, in Jan., 1807, in consequence of a dispute aboutthe hospodars, or governors, of Wallachia and Moldavia. Soon after, the conspiracy of the Janizaries broke out against the reforms of the Sultan, assisting materially Russia’s designs.
In the beginning of the year 1810 anImperial Ukaseappeared, annexing Moldavia and Wallachia, which for three years had been occupied by their troops, to the Russian Empire, and declaring the Danube, from the Austrian frontier to the Black Sea, the southern European boundary of their mighty dominion.
A bloody war was the consequence, in which both parties made prodigious efforts, and neither gained decisive success, until the peace of Bucharest was concluded on the 28th of May, 1812.
Russia was as anxious as Turkey for the cessation of hostilities, being desirous of withdrawing her armies from the Danube to engage in the formidable contest which was impending over them with Napoleon.
Sweden was summoned to join in the alliance against Great Britain, to which the Swedish monarch did not accede. Alexander consequently declared war, and on the 28th of March, 1808, the following Imperial Ukase appeared at St. Petersburg:
“We unite Finland, conquered by our arms, for ever to our Empire, and command its inhabitants forthwith to take the oath of allegiance to our throne.”
The Swedish Monarch, however, not being willing to surrender so important a portion of his dominions, was forced to abdicate; and his successor endeavored to conclude a peace with Russia, and to retain Finland through appeals to Napoleon.
The latter was, however, bound to Alexander by the treaty of Tilsit, and refused to interfere. The Czar, determined to retain his conquest, marched an army across the gulf of Bothnia, on the ice, in March, 1809, and arrived by the middle of that month on the Swedish side, en route for Stockholm.
This had the effect to intimidate the court of Stockholm, who therefore ceded Finland, and peace was concluded Sept. 17, 1809.
On the 13th Dec., 1810, Napoleon formally annexed to the French Empire the Hanse towns and the Duchy of Oldenburg. This measure irritated Alexander, who now grew apprehensive lest some of his ill-gotten gains should be wrested from him, and that the restoration of Poland might next be thought of.
A convention was drawn up at St. Petersburg, and signed by the representatives of France and Russia, by which it was stipulated, that “The kingdom of Poland shall never be reëstablished; and the name of Poland and Poles shall never in future be applied to any of the districts, or inhabitants; and shall be effaced for ever from every public and official act.”
Napoleon, however, refused to ratify it, and thus again exasperated the Czar, who commenced to place Poland in a state of defence, which, in its turn, excited the jealousy of the French Emperor.
Alexander, therefore, published, on the 31st of Dec., 1810, an order, containing a material relaxation of the rigour of the decrees hitherto in force in the Russian Empire against English commerce.
On the 24th Feb., 1812, the Cabinet of Prussia concluded a treaty offensive and defensive with France; and a royal edict appeared prohibiting the introduction of colonial produce, on any pretence, from the Russian into the Prussian territory. Austria being at this time in close alliance with France, another treaty was concluded March 14, 1812, between them, placing a considerable part of her resources at Napoleon’s command.
In consequence of the overbearing demands of Napoleon, the Swedish Government allied itself with Russia on the 5th of April (1812), and with Great Britain on the 12th of July following.
The differences between Alexander and Napoleon had now become so serious, that war was inevitable. But Napoleon knew the foe he had to grapple with, and proposed terms of peace to Great Britain on the 17th of April, hoping to be left to meet the Russians single-handed, and thus humble the overweening pride of the Czar. His proposals were, however, rejected.
Down to the very commencement of hostilities, notes continued to be interchanged between the representatives of the two Emperors, which did little more than recapitulate the mutual grounds of complaint of the two cabinets against each other. Finally, on the 24th of April, Alexander sent to Napoleon his ultimatum, offering an accommodation on condition that France would evacuate Prussia, and come to an arrangement with the king of Swedenwhich remained without any answer, on the part of the French Government.
Both prepared for the worst, and on the 23d of June, Napoleon arrived on the banks of the Niemen, with his countless hosts, for the invasion of Russia.
The armies at his command, at this time, amounted in the aggregate, to the enormous sum of 1,250,000 men; and the force which entered Russia, during the year 1812, was 647,158 men—187,111 horses, and 1372 cannon.
The regular forces of the Russians amounted, at the close of 1811, to 517,000 men, 70,000 of whom were in garrison, and the remainder dispersed over an immense surface.
To oppose the invasion of the French, the Russians had collected about 200,000 men, and upwards of 800 pieces of cannon. The forces of the French, therefore, exceeded those of the Russians, by nearly 300,000 men; but the former were at an immense distance from their resources, and had no means of recruiting their losses; whereas the latter were in their own country, and supported by the devotion of a fanatical and patriotic people.
The face of the country on the Western frontier of Russia is in general flat, and in many places marshy; vast woods of pine cover the plains, and the rivers flow in some places through steep banks, in others stagnate over extensive swamps, which often present the most serious obstacles to military operations. The villages are few and miserable.
The wants of such a prodigious accumulation of troops speedily exhausted all the means of subsistence which the country afforded, and the stores they could convey with them. Forced requisitions from the peasantry became, therefore, necessary, and so great was the subsequent miserythat the richest families in Warsaw were literally in danger of starving, and the interest of money rose to 80 per cent.
Napoleon reached Wilna on the 28th of June, the Russians receding as he advanced, and destroying everything before them. On the 15th of August, the starving army reached the city of Smolensko, which was burned by the Russians, and abandoned on the 18th.
The losses in the meantime by battle, exposure, want, and sickness, were fast decimating the French ranks. The soldiers were seized with disquietude as they contrasted their miserable quarters amid the ruins of Smolensko, with the smiling villages they had abandoned in their native land; but amid the universal gloom, their Emperor was ever present, and by words and deeds of kindness, sustained their drooping spirits.
Leaving Smolensko, Napoleon pressed forward, and on the 5th of September, arrived at Borodino where the Russians had made a stand to oppose their march upon Moscow.
On the 7th, two days subsequently, was fought the bloody battle of Borodino, the most murderous and obstinately contested of which history has preserved a record.
The Russian force was 132,000 men, with 640 pieces of artillery.
The French consisted of 133,000 men, with 590 pieces of cannon.
There were killed 15,000 Russians and 12,000 French, besides upwards of 70,000 wounded on both sides, making a total loss of 100,000 men in this one battle.
The French were, however, victorious, and reached Moscow on the 14th. The Holy City was found to beevacuated, not only by the Russian army, but by the inhabitants, and as the French hosts defiled through the silent streets, it was like entering a city of the dead.
Not a sound was to be heard in its vast circumference! the dwellings of three hundred thousand persons seemed as silent as the wilderness.
Evening came on! With increasing wonder the French troops traversed the central parts of the city, recently so crowded with passengers, but not a living creature was to be seen to explain the universal desolation. Night approached! an unclouded moon illuminated those beautiful palaces, those vast hotels, those deserted streets—all was still!
The officers broke open the doors of some of the principal mansions in search of sleeping quarters. They found every thing in perfect order; the bedrooms were fully furnished as if guests were expected; the drawing-rooms bore the marks of having been recently inhabited; even the work of the ladies was on the tables, the keys in the wardrobes—but still not an inmate was to be seen. By degrees a few of the lowest slaves emerged pale and trembling from the cellars, and showed the way to the sleeping apartments, and laid open every thing which these sumptuous mansions contained; but the only account they could give was that the whole of the inhabitants had fled, and that they alone were left. The persons intrusted with the duty of setting fire to the city, only awaited the retreat of their countrymen to commence the work of destruction. The terrible catastrophe soon commenced. On the night of the 13th a fire broke out in the bourse, and spread to the streets in the vicinity. At midnight, onthe 15th, a bright light was seen to illuminate the northern and western parts of the city; fresh fires were then seen breaking out every instant in all directions, and Moscow soon exhibited the spectacle of a sea of flame agitated by the wind. But it was chiefly during the nights of the 18th and 19th that the conflagration attained its greatest violence. At that time the whole city was wrapped in flames, and volumes of fire of various colors ascended to the heavens in many places, diffusing a prodigious light on all sides, and attended by an intolerable heat. These balloons of flame were accompanied in their ascent by a frightful hissing noise, and loud explosions, the result of the vast stores of oil, tar, rosin, spirits, and other combustible materials, with which the greater part of the shops were filled. The wind, naturally high, was raised by the sudden rarefaction of the air to a perfect hurricane. The howling of the tempest drowned even the roar of the conflagration; the whole heavens were filled with the whirl of the burning volumes of smoke, which rose on all sides, and made midnight as bright as day, while even the bravest hearts, subdued by the sublimity of the scene, and the feeling of human impotence in the midst of such elemental strife, sank and trembled in silence. Imagination cannot conceive the horrors into which the remnant of the people who could not abandon their homes were plunged. Bereft of every thing, they wandered amid the ruins eagerly searching for a parent or a child: pillage became universal, and the wrecks of former magnificence were ransacked alike by the licentious soldiery and the suffering multitude.
In addition to the whole French army, numbers flockedin from the country to share in the general license; furniture of the most precious description, splendid jewellery, Indian and Turkish stuffs, stores of wine and brandy, gold and silver plate, rich furs, gorgeous trappings of silk and satin were spread about in promiscuous confusion, and became the prey of the least intoxicated among the multitude. A frightful tumult succeeded to the stillness which had reigned in the city when the troops first entered. The French soldiers, tormented by hunger and thirst, and loosened from all discipline by the horrors which surrounded them, often rushed headlong into the burning edifices to ransack their cellars for wines and spirits, and beneath the ruins great numbers miserably perished, the victims of intemperance and the surrounding fire. Napoleon abandoned the Kremlin on the evening of the 16th. Early on the following morning, casting a melancholy look to the burning city, which now filled half the heavens with its flames, he exclaimed after a long silence, “This sad event is the presage of a long train of disasters.”
Thus vanished the hopes of those indefatigable soldiers who had endured so much, and fought so well. To reach the fabulous city whose domes and minarets were now fallen—had been the dream of their ambition—the goal which once attained, would give rest and food to their weariness and hunger.
Thus Napoleon found himself possessed of a heap of burning ruins without food for his famishing soldiers and horses.
All negotiations with the Russian authorities having failed, a retreat was decided upon, and the Emperor leftMoscow on the 19th of October, at the head of 105,000 combatants. The disasters of that retreat are too well known to require recapitulation.
Suffice it to say that the survivors of the French army, who entered Russia 500,000 strong, were but 20,000. The total loss of the campaign, in killed, prisoners, died from cold, fatigue, and famine, was over 450,000. And on the 13th of December, the wretched remnant of the French army passed the bridge of the Niemen. The losses of the Russians were also so great that at the end of the campaign not above 30,000 men could be assembled around the head-quarters of the Emperor Alexander.
On the 10th Dec., early in the morning, a travelling carriage in great haste drove into the Hotel d’Angleterre, at Warsaw. It was a small travelling britschka placed without wheels on a coarse sledge, made of four pieces of rough fir-wood, which had been almostdashed to piecesin entering the gateway. The travellers were ushered into a small dark apartment, with the windows half-shut, and in a corner of which a servant girl strove in vain to light a fire with green damp billets of wood, which, after kindling for a moment, gradually went out, leaving those in the apartment to shiver with cold during three hours of earnest conversation.
The travellers were Napoleon and his friend Caulaincourt, who five days previously had bidden the remnant of his retreating army, in Russia, an affectionate farewell, and started for Paris.
At length, it being announced that the carriage was ready, they mounted the sledge, and were soon lost in the gloom of a Polish winter. Outstripping his couriersin speed, on the 18th Dec., at 11 at night, the Emperor arrived at the Tuileries, before the Imperial government was even aware that he had quitted the army. And early next morning, while the streets of Paris were yet vacant, he was buried in state papers, investigating and arranging the disorganized affairs of the empire.