A Modern History, From the Time of Luther to the Fall of Napoleon Part 44

"equality," "fraternity," "the public welfare," were heard no more, and gave place to others which equally flattered the feelings of the French people--"the interests of the empire," "the splendor of the imperial throne." From him emanated all glory and power, and the whole structure of the state, executive, judicial, and legislative, depended upon his will. Freedom, in the eyes of the people, was succeeded by glory, and the _eclat_ of victory was more highly prized than any fict.i.tious liberty. The _Code Napoleon_ rapidly progressed; schools of science were improved; arts, manufactures, and agriculture revived.

Great monuments were reared to gratify the national pride and perpetuate the glory of conquests. The dignity of the imperial throne was splendidly maintained, and the utmost duties of etiquette were observed. He encouraged amus.e.m.e.nts, festivities, and _fetes_; and Talma, the actor, as well as artists and scholars, received his personal regard. But his reforms and his policy had reference chiefly to the conversion of France into a nation of soldiers; and his system of conscription secured him vast and disciplined armies, not animated, as were the soldiers of the revolution, by the spirit of liberty, but transformed into mechanical forces. The time was to come, in spite of the military enthusiasm of his veteran soldiers, when it was to be proved that the throne of absolutism is better sustained by love than by mechanism.

[Sidenote: Aggrandizement of Napoleon's Family.]

Napoleon had already elevated his two brothers, Louis and Joseph, to the thrones of Holland and Naples. He now sought to make his brother Joseph the King of Spain. He availed himself of a quarrel between King Charles and his son; acted as mediator, in the same sense that Hastings and Clive acted as mediators in the quarrels of Indian princes; and prepared to seize, not to humble, one of the oldest and proudest monarchies of Europe.

The details of that long war on the Spanish peninsula, which resulted from the appointment of Joseph Bonaparte to the throne of Spain, have been most admirably traced by Napier, in the best military history that has been written in modern times. The great hero of that war was Wellington; and, though he fought under the greatest disadvantages and against superior forces,--though unparalleled sufferings and miseries ensued among all the belligerent forces,--still he succeeded in turning the tide of French conquest.

Spain did not fall without a struggle. The Spanish Juntas adopted all the means of defence in their power; and the immortal defence of Saragossa, the capital of Arragon, should have taught the imperial robber that the Spanish spirit, though degenerate, was not yet extinguished.

It became almost the universal wish of the English to afford the Spaniards every possible a.s.sistance in their honorable struggle, and Sir Arthur Wellesley, the conqueror of the Mahrattas, landed in Portugal in August, 1808. He was immediately opposed by Marshal Junot.

Napoleon could not be spared to defend in person the throne of his brother, but his most ill.u.s.trious marshals were sent into the field; and, shortly after, the battle of Corunna was fought, at which Sir John Moore, one of the bravest of generals, was killed in the moment of victory.

[Sidenote: The Peninsular War.]

Long and disastrous was that Peninsular war. Before it could be closed, Napoleon was called to make new exertions. Austria had again declared war, and the forces which she raised were gigantic. Five hundred and fifty thousand men, in different armies, were put under the command of the Archduke Charles. Napoleon advanced against him, and was again successful, at Abensberg and at Eckmuhl. Again he occupied Vienna; but its fall did not discourage the Austrians, who, soon after, were marshalled against the French at Wagram, which dreadful battle made Napoleon once more the conqueror of Austria. On the 14th of November, 1809, he returned to Paris, and soon after made the grand mistake of his life.

He resolved to divorce Josephine, whom he loved and respected; a woman fully worthy of his love, and of the exalted position to which she was raised. But she had no children, and Napoleon wanted an heir to the universal empire which he sought to erect on the ruins of the ancient monarchies of Europe. The dream of Charlemagne and of Charles V. was his, also--the revival of the great Western Empire. Moreover, Napoleon sought a domestic alliance with the proud family of the German emperor. He sought, by this, to gratify his pride and strengthen his throne. He perhaps also contemplated, with the Emperor of Austria for his father and ally, the easy conquest of Russia. Alexander so supposed. "His next task," said he, "will be to drive me back to my forests."

The Empress Josephine heard of the intentions of Napoleon with indescribable anguish, but submitted to his will; thus sacrificing her happiness to what she was made to believe would advance the welfare of her country and the interests of that heartless conqueror whom she nevertheless loved with unparalleled devotion. On the 11th of March, 1810, the espousals of Napoleon and Maria Louisa were celebrated at Vienna, the person of the former being represented by his favorite Berthier. A few days afterwards she set out for France; and her marriage, in a domestic point of view, was happy. Josephine had the advantage over her in art and grace, but she was superior in the charms of simplicity and modesty. "It is singular," says Sir Walter Scott, "that the artificial character should have belonged to the daughter of a West India planter; that, marked by nature and simplicity, to a princess of the proudest court in Europe."

[Sidenote: War in Spain.]

Meanwhile, the war in Spain was prosecuted, and Napoleon was master of its richest and most powerful provinces. Seventy-five thousand men in Andalusia, under Soult; fifty thousand under Marmont, in Leon; sixty thousand under Bessieres, at Valladolid and Biscay; forty-five thousand under Macdonald, at Gerona, to guard Catalonia; thirty thousand under Suchet, twenty thousand under Joseph and Jourdan, fifteen thousand under Regnier, besides many more thousand troops in the various garrisons,--in all over three hundred thousand men,--held Spain in military subjection. Against these immense forces, marshalled under the greatest generals of France, Spain and her allies could oppose only about ninety thousand men, for the most part ill disciplined and equipped.

The vital point of resistance was to be found shut up within the walls of Cadiz, which made a successful defence. But Tortosa, Tarragona, Saguntum, and Valentia, after making most desperate resistance, fell.

But Wellington gained, on the other hand, the great battle of Albuera, one of the bloodiest ever fought, and which had a great effect in raising the spirits of his army and of the Spaniards. The tide of French conquest was arrested, and the English learned from their enemies those arts of war which had hitherto made Napoleon triumphant.

In the next campaign of 1812, new successes were obtained by Wellington, and against almost overwhelming difficulties. He renewed the siege of Badajoz, and carried this frontier fortress, which enabled him now to act on the offensive, and to enter the Spanish territories. The fall of Ciudad Rodrigo was attended with the same important consequences. Wellington now aimed to reduce the French force on the Peninsula, although vastly superior to his own. He had only sixty thousand men; but, with this force, he invaded Spain, defended by three hundred thousand. Salamanca was the first place of consequence which fell: Marmont was totally defeated. Wellington advanced to Madrid, which he entered the 12th of August, amid the enthusiastic shouts of the Spanish population. Soult was obliged to raise the siege of Cadiz, abandon Andalusia, and hasten to meet the great English general, who had turned the tide of French aggression.

Wellington was compelled, of course, to retire before the immense forces which were marching against him, and fell back to Salamanca, and afterwards to Ciudad Rodrigo. The campaign, on the part of the English, is memorable in the annals of successful war, and the French power was effectually weakened, if it was not destroyed.

[Sidenote: Invasion of Russia.]

In the midst of these successes, Napoleon prepared for his disastrous invasion of Russia; the most gigantic and most unfortunate expedition in the whole history of war.

Napoleon was probably induced to invade Russia in order to keep up the succession of victories. He felt that, to be secure, he must advance; that, the moment he sought repose, his throne would begin to totter; that nothing would sustain the enthusiasm of his countrymen but new triumphs, commensurate with his greatness and fame. Some, however, dissuaded him from the undertaking, not only because it was plainly aggressive and unnecessary, but because it was impolitic. Three hundred thousand men were fighting in Spain to establish his family on the throne of the Bourbons, and the rest of Europe was watching his course, with the intention of a.s.sailing him so soon as he should meet with misfortunes.

But neither danger nor difficulty deterred Napoleon from the commission of a gigantic crime, for which no reasonable apology could be given, and which admits of no palliation. He made, however, a fearful mistake, and his rapid downfall was the result. Providence permitted him to humble the powers of Europe, but did not design that he should be permanently aggrandized by their misfortunes.

The forces of all the countries he had subdued were marshalled with the French in this dreadful expedition, and nothing but enthusiasm was excited in all the dominions of the empire. The army of invasion amounted to above five hundred thousand men, only two hundred thousand of whom were native French. To oppose this enormous force, the Russians collected about three hundred thousand men; but Napoleon felt secure of victory.

On the banks of the Niemen he reviewed the princ.i.p.al corps of his army, collected from so many countries, and for the support of which they were obliged to contribute. On the 24th of June, he and his hosts crossed the river; and never, probably, in the history of man, was exhibited a more splendid and imposing scene.

The Russians retreated as the allied armies advanced; and, on the 28th of June, Napoleon was at Wilna, where he foolishly remained seventeen days--the greatest military blunder of his life. The Emperor Alexander hastened to Moscow, collected his armaments, and issued proclamations to his subjects, which excited them to the highest degree of enthusiasm to defend their altars and their firesides.

[Sidenote: Battle of Smolensko.]

Both armies approached Smolensko about the 16th of July, and there was fought the first great battle of the campaign. The town was taken, and the Russians retreated towards Moscow. But before this first conflict began, a considerable part of the army had perished from sickness and fatigue. At Borodino, another b.l.o.o.d.y battle was fought, in which more men were killed and wounded than in any battle which history records.

Napoleon, in this battle, did not exhibit his usual sagacity or energy, being, perhaps, overwhelmed with anxiety and fatigue. His dispirited and broken army continued the march to Moscow, which was reached the 14th of September. The Sacred City of the Russians was abandoned by the army, and three hundred thousand of the inhabitants took to flight. Napoleon had scarcely entered the deserted capital, and taken quarters in the ancient palace of the czars, before the city was discovered to be on fire in several places; and even the Kremlin itself was soon enveloped in flames. Who could have believed that the Russians would have burnt their capital? Such an event surely never entered into a Frenchman's head. The consternation and horrors of that awful conflagration can never be described, or even conceived. Pillage and murder could scarcely add to the universal wretchedness.

Execration, indignation, and vengeance filled the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of both the conquerors and the conquered. But who were the conquerors? Alas! those only, who witnessed the complicated miseries and awful destruction of the retreating army, have answered.

[Sidenote: Retreat of the French.]

The retreat was the saddest tragedy ever acted by man, but rendered inevitable after the burning of Moscow, for Napoleon could not have advanced to St. Petersburg. For some time, he lingered in the vicinity of Moscow, hoping for the submission of Russia. Alexander was too wise to treat for peace, and Napoleon and his diminished army, loaded, however, with the spoil of Moscow, commenced his retreat, in a hostile and desolate country, hara.s.sed by the increasing troops of the enemy.

Soon, however, heavy frosts commenced, unusual even in Russia, and the roads were strewed by thousands who perished from fatigue and cold.

The retreat became a rout; for order, amid general destruction and despair, could no longer be preserved. The Cossacks, too, hung upon the rear of the retreating army, and cut off thousands whom the elements had spared. In less than a week, thirty thousand horses died, and the famished troops preyed upon their remains. The efforts of Napoleon proved in vain to procure provisions for the men, or forage for the horses. Disasters thickened, and all abandoned themselves to despair. Of all the awful scenes which appalled the heart, the pa.s.sage of the Beresina was the most dreadful. When the ice was dissolved in the following spring, twelve thousand dead bodies were found upon the sh.o.r.e. The shattered remnants of the Grand Army, after unparalleled suffering, at length reached the bank of the Niemen. Not more than twenty thousand of the vast host with which Napoleon pa.s.sed Smolensko left the Russian territory. Their course might be traced by the bones which afterwards whitened the soil. But before the Polish territories were reached, Napoleon had deserted his army, and bore to Paris himself the first intelligence of his great disaster. One hundred and twenty-five thousand of his troops had died in battle, one hundred and ninety thousand had been taken prisoners, and one hundred and thirty-two thousand had died of cold, fatigue and famine. Only eighty thousand had escaped, of whom twenty-five thousand were Austrians and eighteen thousand were Prussians. The annals of the world furnish no example of so complete an overthrow of so vast an armament, or so terrible a retribution to a vain-glorious nation.

This calamity proved the chief cause of Napoleon's overthrow. Had he retained his forces to fight on the defensive, he would have been too strong for his enemies; but, by his Russian campaign, he lost a great part of his veteran troops, and the veneration of his countrymen.

His failure was immediately followed by the resurrection of Germany.

Both Austria and Prussia threw off the ignominious yoke he had imposed, and united with Russia to secure their ancient liberties. The enthusiasm of the Prussians was unbounded, and immense preparations were made by all the allied powers for a new campaign. Napoleon exerted all the energies, which had ever distinguished him, to rally his exhausted countrymen, and a large numerical force was again raised. But the troops were chiefly conscripts, young men, unable to endure the fatigue which his former soldiers sustained, and no longer inspired with their sentiments and ideas.

[Sidenote: Battles of Lutzen and Bautzen.]

The campaign of 1813 was opened in Germany, signalized by the battles of Lutzen and Bautzen, in which the French had the advantage. Saxony still remained true to Napoleon, and he established his head-quarters in Dresden. The allies retreated, but only to prepare for more vigorous operations. England n.o.bly a.s.sisted, and immense supplies were sent to the mouth of the Elbe, and distributed immediately through Germany. While these preparations were going on, the battle of Vittoria, in Spain, was fought, which gave a death blow to French power in the Peninsula, and placed Wellington in the front rank of generals. Napoleon was now more than ever compelled to act on the defensive, which does not suit the genius of the French character, and he resolved to make the Elbe the base of his defensive operations. His armies, along this line, amounted to the prodigious number of four hundred thousand men; and Dresden, the head-quarters of Napoleon, presented a scene of unparalleled gayety and splendor, of licentiousness, extravagance, and folly. But Napoleon was opposed by equally powerful forces, under Marshal Blucher, the Prussian general, a veteran seventy years of age, and Prince Schwartzenberg, who commanded the Austrians. But these immense armies composed not one half of the forces arrayed in desperate antagonism. Nine hundred thousand men in arms encircled the French empire, which was defended by seven hundred thousand.

[Sidenote: Battle of Leipsic.]

The allied forces marched upon Dresden, and a dreadful battle was fought, on the 27th of August, beneath its walls, which resulted in the retreat of the allies, and in the death of General Moreau, who fought against his old commander. But Napoleon was unable to remain long in that elegant capital, having exhausted his provisions and forage, and was obliged to retreat. On the 15th of October was fought the celebrated battle of Leipsic, in which a greater number of men were engaged than in any previous battle during the war, or probably in the history of Europe--two hundred and thirty thousand against one hundred and sixty thousand. The triumph of the allies was complete.

Napoleon was overpowered by the overwhelming coalition of his enemies.

He had nothing to do, after his great discomfiture, but to retreat to France, and place the kingdom in the best defence in his power.

Misfortunes thickened in every quarter; and, at the close of the campaign, France retained but a few fortresses beyond the Rhine. The contest in Germany was over, and French domination in that country was at an end. Out of four hundred thousand men, only eighty thousand recrossed the Rhine. So great were the consequences of the battle of Leipsic, in which the genius of Napoleon was exhibited as in former times, but which availed nothing against vastly superior forces. A grand alliance of all the powers of Europe was now arrayed against Napoleon--from the rock of Gibraltar to the sh.o.r.es of Archangel; from the banks of the Scheldt to the margin of the Bosphorus; the mightiest confederation ever known, but indispensably necessary. The greatness of Napoleon is seen in his indomitable will in resisting this confederation, when his allies had deserted him, and when his own subjects were no longer inclined to rally around his standard. He still held out, even when over a million of men, from the different states that he had humbled, were rapidly hemming him round and advancing to his capital. Only three hundred and fifty thousand men nominally remained to defend his frontiers, while his real effective army amounted to little over one hundred thousand men. A million of his soldiers in eighteen months had perished, and where was he to look for recruits?

[Sidenote: The Allied Powers Invade France.]

On the 31st of December, 1814, fourteen hundred and seven years after the Suevi, Vandals, and Burgundians crossed the Rhine and entered without opposition the defenceless provinces of Gaul, the united Prussians, Austrians, and Russians crossed the same river, and invaded the territories of the modern Caesar. They rapidly advanced towards Paris, and Napoleon went forth from his capital to meet them. His cause, however, was now desperate: but he made great exertions, and displayed consummate abilities, so that the forces of his enemies were for a time kept at bay. Battles were fought and won by both sides, without decisive results. Slowly, but surely, the allied armies advanced, and gradually surrounded him. By the 30th of March, they were encamped on the heights of Montmartre; and Paris, defenceless and miserable, surrendered to the conquerors. They now refused to treat with Napoleon, who, a month before, at the conference of Chatillon, might have retained his throne, if he had consented to reign over the territories of France as they were before the Revolution. Napoleon retired to Fontainebleau; and, on the 4th of April, he consented to abdicate the throne he no longer could defend. His wife returned to her father's protection, and nearly every person of note or consideration abandoned him. On the 11th, he formally abdicated, and the house of Bourbon was restored. He himself retired to the Island of Elba, but was allowed two million five hundred thousand francs a year, the t.i.tle of emperor, and four hundred soldiers as his body guard. His farewell address to the soldiers of his old guard, at Fontainebleau, was pathetic and eloquent. They retained their attachment amid general desertion and baseness.

Josephine did not long survive the fall of the hero she had loved, and with whose fortunes her own were mysteriously united. She died on the 28th, and her last hours were soothed by the presence of the Emperor Alexander, who promised to take her children under his protection. Of all the great monarchs of his age, he was the most extensively beloved and the most profoundly respected.

[Sidenote: Peace of Paris.]

The allies showed great magnanimity and moderation after their victory. The monarchy of France was established nearly as it was before the Revolution, and the capital was not rifled of any of its monuments, curiosities, or treasures--not even of those which Napoleon had brought from Italy. Nor was there a military contribution imposed upon the people. The allies did not make war to destroy the kingdom of France, but to dethrone a monarch who had proved himself to be the enemy of mankind. The peace of Paris was signed by the plenipotentiaries of France, Great Britain, Russia, Prussia, and Austria, on the 30th of April; and Christendom, at last, indulged the hope that the awful conflict had ended. The Revolution and its offspring Napoleon were apparently suppressed, after more than three millions of men had perished in the struggle on the part of France and of her allies alone.

Great changes had taken place in the sentiments of all cla.s.ses, since the commencement of the contest, twenty years before, and its close excited universal joy. In England, the enthusiasm was unparalleled, and not easy to be conceived. The nation, in its grat.i.tude to Wellington, voted him four hundred thousand pounds, and the highest military triumphs. It also conferred rewards and honors on his princ.i.p.al generals; for his successful operations in Spain were no slight cause of the overthrow of Napoleon.

But scarcely were these rejoicings terminated, before Napoleon escaped from Elba, and again overturned the throne of the Bourbons. The impolitic generosity and almost inconceivable rashness of the allies had enabled Napoleon to carry on extensive intrigues in Paris, and to collect a respectable force on the island of which he was const.i.tuted the sovereign; while the unpopularity and impolitic measures of the restored dynasty singularly favored any scheme which Napoleon might have formed. The disbanding of an immense military force, the humiliation of those veterans who still a.s.sociated with the eagles of Napoleon the glory of France, the derangement of the finances, and the discontents of so many people thrown out of employment, naturally prepared the way for the return of the hero of Marengo and Austerlitz.

[Sidenote: Napoleon's Return to France.]

On the 26th of February, he gave a brilliant ball to the princ.i.p.al people of the island, and embarked the same evening, with eleven hundred troops, to regain the sceptre which had been wrested from him only by the united powers of Europe. On the 1st of March, his vessels cast anchor in the Gulf of St. Juan, on the coast of Provence; and Napoleon immediately commenced his march, having unfurled the tricolored flag. As he antic.i.p.ated he was welcomed by the people, and the old cry of "_Vive l'Empereur_" saluted his ears.

The court of the Bourbons made vigorous preparations of resistance, and the armies of France were intrusted to those marshals who owed their elevation to Napoleon. Soult, Ney, Augereau, Ma.s.sena, Oudinot, all protested devotion to Louis XVIII.; and Ney promised the king speedily to return to Paris with Napoleon in an iron cage. But Ney was among the first to desert the cause of law and legitimacy, and threw himself into the arms of the emperor. He could not withstand the arts and the eloquence of that great hero for whose cause he had so long fought. The defection of the whole army rapidly followed. The king was obliged to fly, and Napoleon took possession of his throne, amid the universal transports of the imperial party in France.

The intelligence of his restoration filled Europe with consternation, rage, and disappointment, and greater preparations were made than ever to subdue a man who respected neither treaties nor the interests of his country. The unparalleled sum of one hundred and ten millions of pounds sterling was decreed by the British senate for various purposes, and all the continental powers made proportionate exertions.

The genius of Napoleon never blazed so brightly as in preparing for his last desperate conflict with united Christendom; and, considering the exhaustion of his country, the forces which he collected were astonis.h.i.+ng. Before the beginning of June, two hundred and twenty thousand veteran soldiers were completely armed and equipped; a great proof of the enthusiastic ardor which the people felt for Napoleon to the last.

The Duke of Wellington had eighty thousand effective men under his command, and Marshal Blucher one hundred and ten thousand. These forces were to unite, and march to Paris through Flanders. It was arranged that the Austrians and Russians should invade France first, by Befort and Huningen, in order to attract the enemy's princ.i.p.al forces to that quarter.

Napoleon's plan was to collect all his forces into one ma.s.s, and boldly to place them between the English and Prussians, and attack them separately. He had under his command one hundred and twenty thousand veteran troops, and therefore, not unreasonably, expected to combat successfully the one hundred and ninety thousand of the enemy.