endeavored to gain a footing on it; exposed to the incessant shower of
Russian cannonade they fell and died in thousands. Victor stood his
ground bravely until late in the evening, and then conducted his
division over the bridge. Behind was left a great number of the
irregular attendants besides those soldiers who had been wounded during
the battle, and guns and baggage-carts in great quantities. The French
now fired the bridge and all those were abandoned to their fate. The
Russian account states that when the Beresina broke up in the Spring
36,000 bodies were found in the bed of the river.
On the 3d of December Napoleon reached Morghoni, and announced to his
marshals that the news he had received from Paris at Smolensk concerning
Mallet's attempt to overthrow his government by announcing the death of
the Emperor, and the uncertain relations with some of his allies,
rendered it indispensable for him to quit his army without further delay
and return to Paris with all possible speed. They were now, he said,
almost within sight of Poland; they would find plenty of everything at
Wilna. It was his business to prepare at home the means of opening the
next campaign in a manner worthy of the great nation.
At Morghoni, on the 5th, the garrison at Wilna met the Emperor and then,
having intrusted to these fresh troops, the protection of the rear, and
given the chief command to Murat, he finally bade adieu to the rulers of
his host. He set off in a sledge at midnight, accompanied by
Caulaincourt, whose name he assumed. Having narrowly escaped being taken
by a party of irregular Russians at Youpranoni, the Emperor reached
Warsaw at nightfall on the 10th of December. Here he met his ambassador,
the Abbé de Pradt, to whom he said, "I quit my army with regret; but I
must watch Austria and Prussia, and I have more weight on my throne than
at headquarters. The Russians will be rendered fool-hardy by their
successes. I shall beat them in a battle or two on the Oder, and be on
the Niemen again within a month--Monsieur L'Ambassadeur, from the
sublime to the ridiculous there is but a step."
Resuming his journey, Napoleon reached Dresden on the evening of the
14th of December, where the King of Saxony visited him, and reassured
him of his fidelity. He then resumed the road to his capital and arrived
at the Tuileries on the 18th, late at night, after the Empress had
retired.
The remnant of the Grand Army meanwhile moved on towards France in
straggling columns. They passed the Niemen at Kowno, and the Russians
did not pursue them into Prussian territory. Here about 1000 men in
arms, and perhaps 20,000 more utterly demoralized, were received with
compassion. They took up their quarters and remained for a time
unmolested, in and near Konigsberg. The French army crossed the Niemen
on the ice, on the 13th of December, defended still by Ney, who had to
fight with the Russians in Kowno. He now fought at the head of only
thirty men and was the last individual of the French army who left
Russian territory, as he did so he threw his musket into the river
defying the enemy with his last breath. When he came up with General
Dumas in Prussian Poland he was scarcely recognizable, and on being
asked who he was replied, with eyes red and glaring, "I am the
rear-guard of the Grand Army; I have fired the last musket shot on the
bridge of Kowno!"
The few who survived all these horrors, men who had fought in all
Napoleon's campaigns, and wore the cross of the Legion of Honor on their
breasts, were now so wasted with famine that they wept when they saw a
loaf of bread!
The total loss in this terrible campaign was somewhere near 450,000 men;
fatigue, hunger and cold had caused the death of 132,000; and the
Russians had taken prisoners of 193,000--including forty-eight generals
and three thousand regimental officers. The eagles and standards left in
the enemy's hands were seventy-five in number and the pieces of cannon
nearly one thousand.
[Illustration: From a Painting by H. Bellange
REVIEW OF TROOPS IN THE PLACE DU CARROUSEL, PARIS]
XIII
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1813
To the premature cold, and burning of Moscow, Napoleon attributed the
failure of his campaign in Russia. His arrival at the Tuileries had been
preceded by the 29th bulletin in which the fatal events of the campaign
were fully and graphically recited. While he had not been able to
conquer the elements he found the Senate and all the public bodies full
of adulation and willingness to obey his commands. However, what had
been foreseen by almost every person of discernment, except Napoleon,
soon followed, viz., an alliance against France by Prussia, Russia and
Austria.
New conscriptions were now called for and yielded; regiments arrived
from Spain and Italy; every arsenal resounded with the preparation of
new artillery. "The wonderful energies of Napoleon's mind," says Scott,
"and the influence which he could exert over the minds of others, were
never so striking as at this period of his reign. He had returned to the
seat of his Empire at a dreadful crisis, and in a most calamitous
condition. His subjects had been ignorant for three weeks whether he was
dead or alive. When he arrived it was to declare a dreadful catastrophe.
* * * Yet Napoleon came, and seemed but to stamp on the earth, and armed
legions arose at his call: the doubts and discontents of the public
disappeared as mists at sunrising, and the same confidence which had
attended his prosperous fortunes, revived in its full extent, despite of
his late reverses."
Ere many weeks had elapsed Napoleon found himself once more in a
condition to take the field with not less than 350,000 soldiers. Such
was the effect of his new appeal to the national feelings of the French
people. Meanwhile the French garrisons dispersed over the Prussian
territory were wholly incompetent to overawe a nation which thirsted
for vengeance. The king endeavored to protect Napoleon's soldiers
but it soon became manifest that their safety must depend on their
concentrating themselves in a small number of fortified towns. Murat now
resigned command of the troops, being succeeded by Eugene Beauharnais
who had the full confidence of the Emperor. The new commander found that
Frederick William could no longer, even if he would, repress the
universal enthusiasm of the Prussians who were clamorous for war. On the
31st of January, 1813, the king made his escape to Breslau, in which
neighborhood no French were garrisoned, erected his standard and called
on the nation to rise in arms. Eugene, thereupon, retired to Magdeburg
and shut himself up in that great fortress, with as many of the troops
as he could assemble to the west of the Elbe. When Napoleon heard that
Prussia had declared war against France he said with perfect calmness,
"It is better to have a declared enemy, than a doubtful ally."
It was now six years since the fatal day of Jena, and in spite of all of
Napoleon's watchfulness the Prussian nation had recovered, in a great
measure, its energies. The people answered the call as with the heart
and voice of one man. Youths of all ranks, the highest and the lowest,
flocked indiscriminately to the standard. The women poured their
trinkets into the king's treasure, the gentlemen melted their
plate,--England poured in her gold with a lavish hand. The thunder of
the cannon of the Beresina had raised the hopes of the House of Bourbon
until Louis XVIII. finally caused to be published in England, and
distributed throughout the Continent, a proclamation in which he
addressed himself to the people adroitly supporting the common opinion
which attributed to Napoleon the prolongation of the war, and promising,
among other things, "to abolish the conscription."
The Emperor of Russia was no sooner aware of this great movement, than
he resolved to advance into Silesia. Having masked several French
garrisons in Prussian Poland, and taken others, he pushed on with his
main army to support Frederick William. Evidently he did not intend to
permit the Prussians to stand alone the first onset of Napoleon, of
whose extensive arrangements all Europe was aware.
The two sovereigns met at Breslau on the 15th of March. Tears rushed
down the cheeks of Frederick William, as he fell into the arms of
Alexander; "Wipe them," said the Czar; "they are the last that Napoleon
shall ever cause you to shed."
The aged Kutusoff having died, the command of the Russian army was now
given to Witgenstein; while that of the Prussians was intrusted to
Blucher, an officer who had originally trained under the great Frederick
and who, since the battle of Jena, had lived in retirement. The soldiers
had long before bestowed on him the title "Marshal Forwards" and they
heard of his appointment with delight. Blucher hated the very names of
France and Bonaparte, and once more permitted to draw his sword, he
swore never to sheathe it until the revenge of Prussia was complete.
Bernadotte, now the Crown Prince of Sweden, and an ingrate,--owing not
only his position but his very existence to Napoleon,--now landed at
Stralsund, and advanced through Mecklenburg while the sovereigns of
Russia and Prussia were concentrating their armies in Silesia. It was
announced and expected that German troops would join Bernadotte, so as
to enable him to open the campaign on the lower Elbe with a separate
army of 100,000 men. Wellington, too, was about to advance once more
into Spain with his victorious armies. Three great armies, two of which
might easily communicate with each other, were thus taking the field
against Napoleon at once.
Ere the Emperor once more left Paris, he named Marie Louise
Empress-Regent of France in his absence. As the time approached when he
was expected to assume the command of his army in the field his devoted
subjects again and again expressed their loyalty to him and to France.
He quitted Paris in the middle of April.
On starting to join his youthful and inexperienced army at Erfurt,
Napoleon said, "I envy the lot of the meanest peasant in my dominion. At
my age he has fulfilled his duties to his country, and he may remain at
home, enjoying the society of his wife and children; while I--I must fly
to the camp and engage in the strife of war. Such is my fate."
"My good Louise" he said at the same time, "is gentle and submissive, I
can trust her. Her love and fidelity for me will never fail(!). In the
current of events there may arise circumstances which decide the fate of
an Empire. In that case I hope the daughter of the Cæsars will be
inspired by the spirit of her grand-mother, Maria Theresa."
In three months an army of 350,000 men was raised, equipped and brought
together, and General Ségur says: "At any hour of the day or night the
Emperor, whatever he was doing, could have told the numbers, the
composition, the strength of every one of the thousands of detachments
of every branch of the service which he set in movement from every part
of the Empire, the way they were uniformed or equipped, the number of
marches each one had to make, the day, the place, even the hour at which
each was to arrive."
On the 18th he reached the banks of the Saale where the troops he had
been mustering and organizing in France had now been joined by Eugene
and the garrison of Magdeburg.
The Czar and his Prussian ally were known to be at Dresden, and it soon
appeared that, while they meditated a march westwards on Leipsic, the
French intended to move eastward with a view of securing the possession
of that great city. He had a host nearly 200,000 strong concentrating
for action while reserves of almost equal numbers were gradually forming
behind him on the Rhine. Napoleon arrived at Erfurt on the 23d of April,
whilst Marshal Ney was taking possession of Weissenfels, after a contest
which caused him to say "he had never at any one time, seen so much
enthusiasm and _sang froid_ in the infantry." And yet the veterans of
Austerlitz, Jena, Friedland and Wagram had nearly all disappeared from
the ranks, and the honor of those eagles, so long victorious, had been
committed to young conscripts, hardly conversant with their exercise,
and by no means habituated to the fatigues of war.
The armies met on the first of May,--sooner than Napoleon had ventured
to hope,--near the town of Lutzen, then celebrated as the scene of the
battle in which King Gustavus Adolphus died. The evening before the
battle Marshal Bessieres was forcing a defile near Poserna, and having,
according to custom, advanced into the very midst of the skirmishers, a
musket-ball struck him in the breast, and extended him lifeless on the
ground. His death was concealed from the brave men he had so long
commanded and by whom he was greatly beloved, until after the victory of
the following day.
The allies crossed the Elster suddenly, under the cover of a thick
morning fog, and attacked the left flank of the French, who had been
advancing in column, and who thus commenced the action under heavy
disadvantages. But the Emperor so skillfully altered the arrangement of
his army, that, ere the day closed, the allies were more afraid of being
enclosed to their ruin within his two wings, than hopeful of being able
to cut through and destroy that part of his force which they had
originally charged and weakened, and which had now become his centre.
Night interrupted the conflict and the next morning the enemy retreated,
leaving Napoleon in possession of the field. His victory was less
complete than was desirable although he lost but ten or twelve thousand
men while the allies lost above twenty thousand.
A great moral effect was, however, produced by the battle. Napoleon, who
had been regarded as already conquered, was again victorious. The
Emperor immediately sent dispatches to every court in alliance with
France, to announce the event. "In my young soldiers," he said, "I have
found all the valor of my old companions-in-arms. During the twenty
years that I have commanded the French troops I have never witnessed
more bravery and devotion. If all the Allied Sovereigns, and the
ministers who direct their cabinets, had been present on the field of
battle, they would have renounced the vain hope of causing the Star of
France to decline."
Beaten at Lutzen, Alexander and the King of Prussia fell back on
Leipsic, thence on Dresden, and finally across the Elbe to Bautzen. A
want of cavalry prevented their pursuit.
Napoleon entered Dresden on the 11th of May, and on the 12th was joined
by the King of Saxony who still adhered to him. The Saxon troops once
more decided to act in concert with the French. As Napoleon approached
Dresden, he was waited upon by the magistrates who had been treacherous
to him and to their king, and had welcomed the allies.
"Who are you?" Napoleon asked severely.
"Members of the municipality," replied the trembling burgomasters.
"Have you bread for my troops?" inquired Napoleon.
"Our resources," they answered, "have been entirely exhausted by the
requisitions of the Russians and Prussians."
"Ah!" replied Napoleon, "it is impossible, is it? I know no such word.
Get ready bread, meat and wine. You richly deserve to be treated as a
conquered people. But I forgive all from regard for your king. He is the
saviour of your country. You have been already punished by the presence
of the Russians and Prussians, and having been governed by Baron
Stein."
On becoming master of Dresden, the Emperor, as usual, sent proposals of
a pacific nature to the allies, suggesting that a general congress
should assemble at Prague to treat for peace. Neither Russia nor
Prussia, however, would listen favorably to what they considered would
be an admission of their incapacity to realize their boast of speedily
dethroning "the scourge and tyrant of Europe and mankind."
Austria had been sounded, and expressed her willingness to join the
coalition on the first favorable opportunity. She was at this time
increasing her military establishment largely, and a great body of
troops was already concentrated behind the mountainous frontier of
Bohemia. Austria, therefore, was enabled to turn the scale on whichever
side she might choose.
Napoleon now determined to crush the army which had retreated from
Lutzen, ere the ceremonious cabinet of Vienna should have time to come
to a distinct understanding with the headquarters of Alexander and
Frederick William. That victory was the best method of securing
Austria's help, Napoleon clearly saw.
The allies, on their retreat, had blown up the magnificent bridge over
the Elbe at Dresden, and this being replaced in part by some arches of
wood, Napoleon now moved towards Bautzen and came in sight of the enemy
on the morning of the 21st of May. The position of the allies was almost
perfect: in their front was the river Spree; wooded hills supported
their right, and eminences well fortified their left.
The action began with an attempt to turn their right, but Barclay de
Tolly anticipated this movement and repelled it with such vigor that a
whole column of 7,000 dispersed and fled into the hills of Bohemia for
safety.
Napoleon now determined to pass the Spree in front of the enemy, and
they permitted him to do so, rather than come down from their position.
He took up his quarters in the town of Bautzen, and his whole army
bivouacked in presence of the allies.
The battle was resumed at daybreak on the 22d; when Ney on the right,
and Oudinot on the left, attempted simultaneously to turn the flanks of
the position; while Soult and Napoleon himself directed charge after
charge on the centre. During four hours the struggle was maintained with
unflinching obstinacy. The wooded heights, where Blucher commanded, had
been taken and retaken several times, ere the allies perceived the
necessity of retiring or losing the engagement. They finally withdrew,
panic-stricken, continuing their retreat with such celerity as to gain
time to rally on the roads leading to Bohemia, all others being closed
against them. The want of cavalry, however, again prevented Napoleon
from turning his success to account.
During the whole of the ensuing day Napoleon, at the head of the cavalry
of the Guard, urged pursuit and exposed at all times his own person in
the very hottest of the fire. By his side was Duroc, grand master of the
palace--his dearest friend. "Duroc," said the Emperor, on the morning of
the battle, "fortune has a spite at us to-day."
About 7 o'clock in the evening, Duroc was conversing on a slight
eminence, and at a considerable distance from the firing, with Marshal
Mortier and General Kirgener,--all three on foot,--when a cannon-ball,
aimed at the group, ploughed up the ground near Mortier, ripped open
Duroc's abdomen and struck General Kirgener dead on the spot.
Napoleon hastened to Duroc as soon as he heard of the event and was
deeply moved on beholding him. The latter, who was still conscious, said
to the Emperor: "All my life has been devoted to your service, and I
only regret its loss for the use which it might still have been to you."
"Duroc," replied the Emperor, "there is another life! it is there that
you will await me and there we shall one day meet."--"Yes, Sire, but
that will be in thirty years, when you shall have triumphed over your
enemies, and realized the hopes of your country; I have lived an honest
man and have nothing to reproach myself with. I leave a daughter, your
Majesty will be a father to her."
At Duroc's own solicitation the Emperor retired to spare him further
grief. Napoleon had ordered his troops to halt, and he remained all the
afternoon in front of his tent, surrounded by the Guard, who did not
witness his affliction without tears. He stood by Duroc while he died
and drew up with his own hand an epitaph, to be placed over his remains
by the pastor of the place, and who received two hundred napoleons to
defray the expense of a fitting monument. Thus closed the 22d.
That night Napoleon, after dictating the bulletin of the battle, wrote
the following decree, "which," says Alison, "all lovers of the arts, as
well as admirers of patriotic virtue, must regret was prevented by his
fall from being carried into execution:"--"A monument shall be erected
on Mount Cenis; on the most conspicuous space the following inscription
shall be written: 'The Emperor Napoleon, from the field of Wurschen, has
ordered the erection of this monument in testimony of his gratitude to
the people of France and of Italy. This monument will transmit, from age
to age, the remembrance of that great epoch, when, in the space of
three months, twelve hundred thousand men flew to arms, to protect the
integrity of the French Empire.'"
The allies, although strongly posted during the most of the day, had
lost 10,000 men. They continued to retreat into Upper Silesia, and
Napoleon advanced to Breslau and released the garrison of Glogau.
General Regnier obtained fresh advantage over the Russians in the affair
of Gorlitz on the following day, and on the 24th Marshal Ney forced the
passage of the Neiss and in the morning of the 25th was beyond the
Quiess where he met the Emperor.
Meanwhile, the Austrians, having watched these indecisive though bloody
fields, and daily defeats of the allies, sought to bring about an
armistice, but only with a view of gaining them time to recuperate. The
sovereigns of Russia and Prussia expressed a willingness to accept it,
and Napoleon also was desirous of bringing his disputes to a peaceful
termination until the 10th of August. He agreed to an armistice, and in
arranging its conditions, agreed to fall back out of Silesia, thus
enabling the allies to reopen communications with Berlin. On the first
of June the lines of truce to be occupied by the armies was signed, the
French Emperor returned to Dresden, and a general congress of
diplomatists prepared to meet at Prague, England alone refusing to send
a representative alleging that Napoleon had as yet signified no
intention to recede from his position with regard to Spain.
The armistice was arranged purely to gain time. Napoleon's successes,
while unproductive, were dazzling in their execution, and the allies
found it of the utmost importance to stop hostilities until the advance
of Bernadotte, and secure further time for the arrival of new
reinforcements from Russia; for the completion of the Prussian
organization and, above all, for determining the policy of Vienna.
While inferior diplomatists wasted much time in endless discussions at
Prague one interview between Prince Metternich and Napoleon, at Dresden,
brought the whole question to a definite issue. The Emperor, during the
course of their conversation, is said to have asked "What is your price?
Will Illyria satisfy you? I only wish you to be neutral--I can deal with
these Russians and Prussians single-handed."
Metternich answered that the time in which Austria could be neutral was
past; that the situation of Europe at large must be considered. He
declared that the Rhenish Confederacy must be broken up, that France
must be contented with the boundary of the Rhine and pretend no longer
to maintain her unnatural influence in Germany. Napoleon replied, "Come
Metternich, tell me honestly how much the English have given you to take
their part against me?"
At length the Austrian Court sent a formal document containing its
ultimatum, the tenor of which Metternich had indicated in his
conversation. Napoleon was urged by his ministers, Talleyrand and
Fouché, two arch-intriguers, to accede to the proffered terms. Their
arguments were backed by intelligence of the most disastrous character
from Spain. Wellington, on perceiving that Napoleon had greatly weakened
his armies in that country, while preparing for his campaign against
Prussia and Russia, had once more advanced and was now in possession of
the supreme authority over the Spanish armies as well as the Portugese
and English, and had appeared in greater force than ever. The French
had suffered defeat at several points and on the 21st of June, Joseph
Bonaparte and Marshal Jourdan had sustained a total defeat, and the
former was now retreating towards the Pyrenees.
Berthier concurred in pressing upon the Emperor the desirability of
making peace on the terms proposed, or to draw in his garrisons on the
Oder and Elbe, whereby he would strengthen his army with 50,000 veterans
and retire to the Rhine. There, it was urged, with such a force
assembled on such a river, and with all the resources of France behind
him, he might bid defiance to the united armies of Europe, and, at
worst, obtain a peace that would leave him in secure tenure of a nobler
dominion than any of the kings, his predecessors, had even hoped to
possess. "Ten lost battles," he replied, "would not sink me lower than
you would have me place myself by my own voluntary act; but one battle
gained enables me to seize Berlin and Breslau and make peace on terms
compatible with my glory."
Finally, Metternich suddenly broke off all negotiations, and on the 12th
of August, Austria declared war against France. It was an act of bold
and shameless perfidy; but Metternich was richly rewarded for his
treachery by the crowned heads of Europe. It was then that Napoleon
discovered the depth of the abyss on which he had set his foot. He had
lived in the hopes that his alliance with the House of Austria, by
marriage with Marie Louise, would prevent the Archduchess' father from
taking the field against him, but in this he was sadly disappointed.
Austria now signed an alliance, offensive and defensive, with Russia and
Prussia. Thus was consolidated at last the great coalition. The
sovereigns of the nations of Europe had leagued together and sworn to
crush the Emperor of France.
On the night between the 10th and 11th rockets answering rockets, from
height to height along the frontiers of Bohemia and Silesia, had
announced to all the armies of the allies this accession of strength and
the immediate recommencement of hostilities. Napoleon had now been
several weeks with his army at Dresden and it had been fondly hoped by
the populace that on the birthday of the French Emperor, a peace with
Europe would be signed. They had prepared a magnificent festival in his
honor and to celebrate the restoration of peace. Their hopes were
considerably lessened, however, by an order for the fête to take place
on the 10th in conjunction with a grand review of the army. On the great
plain of Ostra-Gehege, near Dresden, the imperial troops were drawn up,
and in the presence of the King of Saxony, the Emperor's brothers,
marshals, and the chief dignitaries of the Empire, Napoleon held his
last review. Twenty thousand of the Old Guard, five thousand of whom
were mounted on fine horses richly caparisoned, with the whole of his
vast army, defiled before their Imperial Commander. At night a banquet
was spread for his gallant veterans.
Military preparations had been progressing on both sides during the
cessation of hostilities. Napoleon now had a force of 250,000 men
distributed as follows: Macdonald lay with 100,000 at Buntzlaw, on the
border of Silesia; another corps of 50,000 had their headquarters at
Zittau, in Lusatia; St. Cyr, with 20,000 was at Pirna on the great pass
from Bohemia; Oudinot at Leipsic, with 60,000; while with the Emperor
himself at Dresden remained 25,000 of the Imperial Guard, the flower of
France.
Behind the Erzgebirge, or Metallic Mountains, and having their
headquarters at Prague, lay the grand army of the allies, consisting of
120,000 Austrians and 80,000 Russians and Prussians; commanded in chief
by the Austrian general Schwartzenberg. The French corps at Zittau and
Pirna were prepared to encounter these, should the attempt to force
their way into Saxony, either on the right or the left of the Elbe. The
second army of the allies, consisting of 80,000 Russians and
Prussians,--called the army of Silesia,--and commanded by Blucher, lay
in advance of Breslau. Lastly, the Crown Prince of Sweden, Bernadotte,
who had been influenced by a belief that he was to succeed to the throne
of France, was at Berlin, with 30,000 of his own troops, and 60,000
Russians and Prussians. Oudinot and Macdonald were so stationed that he
could not approach the upper valley of the Elbe without encountering one
of them, and they also had the means of mutual communication and
support.
Napoleon had evidently arranged his troops with the view of making
isolated assaults, and beating them in detail. He was opposed, however,
by generals who were well acquainted with his tactics but none of whom,
except Blucher, was above mediocre in generalship. The three allied
commanders had prepared counter schemes to frustrate his arrangements,
having agreed that whosoever of them should be first assailed or pressed
by the French, they should on no account accept battle, but retreat;
thus tempting Napoleon in person to follow, leaving Dresden open to the
assault of some other great branch of their confederacy, and to enable
them at once to seize all his magazines, to break the communications
between the remaining divisions of his army, and interpose a hostile
force in the rear of them all--between the Elbe and the Rhine.
This plan of campaign is believed to have been drawn up by two of
Napoleon's old marshals--Bernadotte and Moreau--both traitors. The
latter had just returned from America on the invitation of the Emperor
Alexander, whither he had gone after being exiled, and had joined the
Allies in their warfare on the French Emperor.
The first movement was made by Blucher, and no sooner did Napoleon
become aware that he was threatening the position of Macdonald than he
quitted Dresden. He left with his Guard and a powerful force of cavalry
on the 15th of August, and proceeded to the support of his marshal. The
Prussian commander adhered faithfully to the general plan and retired
across the Katsbach, in the face of his enemies. While in pursuit of him
Napoleon was informed that Schwartzenberg had rushed down from the
Bohemian hills and abandoning Blucher to the care of Macdonald, sent his
Guard back to Dresden leaving for the same point himself on the 23d.
Schwartzenberg made his appearance on the heights to the south of the
Saxon capital on the 25th, having driven St. Cyr and his 20,000 men
before him.
The army of St. Cyr had thrown itself into the city of Dresden and on
the 26th were assailed in six columns, each more numerous than its
garrison. The French marshal had about begun to despair when the
Imperial Guard made its appearance, crossing the bridge from the eastern
side of the Elbe, and in their midst was the Emperor himself. His
arrival was most timely and the two sallies executed by those troops,
hot and tired from their long and tiresome march, caused the allies to
be driven back some distance. Night then set in and the two armies
remained very near together until the next morning when the battle was
renewed amidst a storm of wind and rain.
[Illustration: From a Drawing by F. Grenier
INSURRECTION IN MADRID]
The Emperor, by movements most phenomenal, now had 200,000 men gathered
round him, and he poured them out with such skill on either flank of the
enemy's line, that ere the close of the day they were forced to
withdraw. At 3 o'clock the battle of Dresden was definitely gained for
Napoleon. The allied monarchs, in danger of losing their communication
with Bohemia, were obliged to provide for their safety and beat a
retreat leaving in the power of the Conqueror from twenty-five to thirty
thousand prisoners, forty flags, and sixty pieces of cannon.
Napoleon remained on the field until his victory was decided, and then
returned to Dresden on horseback; his gray-coat, and weather-worn hat
streaming with water, and his whole appearance forming a singular
contrast to that of Murat, who rode by his side with all the splendor
of his usual battle-dress. The latter had, however, especially
distinguished himself during the action.
On either side 8,000 men had been slain or wounded and one of the ablest
of all the enemy's generals--Moreau, had fallen. Early in the day
Napoleon had observed a group of reconnoitring officers and ordered that
ten cannon be prepared at once. He believed that he recognized in the
group "the traitor Moreau." He at once ordered that the heavy guns,
charged with all their power, be pointed in that direction. He
superintended the operation and decided himself the angle of elevation,
the aim and the moment to fire. Ten pieces went off at once, carrying a
storm of cannon-shot over the heads of the contending armies. This was
followed by a movement which was thought to indicate that some person of
importance had been wounded.
A peasant came in the evening and brought with him a bloody boot and a
grey-hound, both the property, he said, of a great man who was no more;
the words on the dog's collar were: "I belong to General Moreau." Moreau
was dead. Both his legs had been shot off. It is said he continued to
smoke a cigar while the surgeon dressed his wounds, in the presence of
Alexander, and died shortly after.
The fatigues Napoleon had undergone between the 15th and 28th of August
now overcame him and he was unable to remain with the columns in the
rear of Schwartzenberg, but returned to Dresden. Here he learned of
Vandamme's failure in an engagement in the valley of Culm with a
Prussian corps commanded by Count D'Osterman, wherein the French
lieutenant laid down his arms with 8,000 prisoners. This news reached
Napoleon, still sick, at Dresden. "Such," he said to Murat, "is the
fortune of war--high in the morning, low ere night; between triumph and
ruin there intervenes but one step."
No sooner did Blucher perceive that Napoleon had retired from Silesia
than he resumed the offensive, still carrying out Moreau's advice,
"attack Napoleon where he is not!" and descended from the position he
had taken at Jauer. He encountered Macdonald,--who was by no means
prepared for him,--on the plains between Wahlstadt and the river
Katsbach, on the 26th of August, and after a hard fought day, gained a
complete victory. The French lost 15,000 men and 100 guns and fell back
on Dresden. Oudinot was defeated on the 23d of August by Bernadotte at
Gross-Beeren and Ney suffered like reverses on the 7th of September at
Dennewitz, leaving 10,000 prisoners and forty-six guns in the hands of
Bernadotte.
Napoleon now recovered his health and activity, and the exertions he
made at this time were never surpassed, even by himself. On the 3d of
September he was in quest of Blucher who had now advanced near to the
Elbe, but the Prussians retired and baffled him as before. Returning to
Dresden he received the news of Dennewitz and immediately afterwards
heard that Witgenstein had a second time descended towards Pirna. He
flew thither on the instant, the Russian gave way, according to the plan
of campaign, and Napoleon returned once more to Dresden. Again he was
told that Blucher on the one side, and Witgenstein on the other, were
availing themselves of his absence, and advancing. He once more returned
to Pirna; a third time the Russian retired. Napoleon followed him as far
as Peterswald and once more returned to his centre point.
Bernadotte and Blucher finally effected a junction to the west of the
Elbe, despite the heroic exertions of Ney who, on witnessing the
combination of these armies retreated to Leipsic. Napoleon now ordered
Regnier and Bertrand to march suddenly from Dresden to Berlin in the
hope of recalling Blucher, but without success. Meantime Schwartzenberg
was found to be skirting round the hills to the westward, as if for the
purpose of joining Blucher and Bernadotte, in the neighborhood of
Leipsic.
It became manifest that Leipsic was now becoming the common centre
towards which the forces of France and all her enemies were converging.
Napoleon reached that venerable city on the 15th of October and almost
immediately the heads of Schwartzenberg's columns began to appear
towards the south. Napoleon, having made all his preparations,
reconnoitred every outpost in person, and distributed eagles to some new
regiments which had just joined him. The young soldiers, with a splendid
ceremony, swore to die rather than witness the dishonor of France. Five
hundred thousand men were now in presence of each other under the walls
or in the environs of Leipsic and a grand battle had become inevitable.
At midnight three rockets, emitting a brilliant white light, sprang into
the heavens to the south of the city. These marked the position on which
Schwartzenberg--having with him the Emperor of Austria, as well as
Alexander and Frederick William, had fixed his headquarters. They were
answered by four rockets of a deep red color ascending from the northern
horizon.
Napoleon now became convinced that he was to sustain, on the morrow, the
assault of Blucher and Bernadotte as well as the grand army of the
allies. Blucher was indeed ready to co-operate with Schwartzenberg, and
though the Crown Prince had not yet reached his ground, the numerical
strength of the enemy was very great. Napoleon had with him to defend
the line of villages to the north and south of Leipsic, 134,000 infantry
and 22,000 cavalry; while, even in the absence of Bernadotte, who might
be hourly looked for, the allies mustered not less than 340,000
combatants, including 54,000 cavalry.
At daybreak on the 16th of October, the battle began on the southern
side, the allies charging the French line there six times in succession,
and were as often repelled. But it was not sufficient for the Emperor to
resist with success and to hold his positions; he had, more than ever,
need of a signal triumph, of a decisive victory; and when his enemies
failed in their first attack, it was for him to attack them briskly in
turn without giving them time to stay the disorder and discouragement of
their columns, and to replace by fresh troops the fatigued and beaten
soldiers; and this Napoleon did. He at once charged and with such
effect, that Murat's cavalry were at one time in possession of a great
gap between the two wings of the enemy. The Cossacks of the Russian
Imperial Guard, however, encountered the French horse, and pushed them
back again, preserving the army of the allies from a total defeat. The
combat raged without intermission until nightfall, when both armies
bivouacked exactly where the morning light had found them. "The allies
were so numerous" said Napoleon at St. Helena, "that when their troops
were fatigued they were regularly relieved as on dress parade!" With
such a numerical superiority, they could scarcely be definitely beaten;
therefore, notwithstanding the prodigies of valor performed by the
French army, the victory remained almost undecided. In the centre and to
the right the French had maintained their position but on the left
treachery made them lose ground.
Marmont commanded on this side. Blucher attacked him with a vastly
superior force in numbers and while nothing could be more obstinate than
his defense, he lost many prisoners and guns, was driven from his
original ground, and occupied when the day closed, a new position, much
nearer the walls of the city.
Napoleon became convinced that he must at last retreat from Leipsic and
he now made an effort to obtain peace. General Merfeld, the same
Austrian officer who had come to his headquarters after the battle of
Austerlitz, to pray for an armistice on the part of the Emperor
Francis, had been made prisoner in the course of the day, and Napoleon
resolved to employ him as his messenger. Merfeld informed him that the
King of Bavaria had at length acceded to the alliance, thus adding
greatly to his perplexities in finding a new enemy stationed on the line
of his march to France.
The Emperor asked the Austrian to request for him the personal
intervention of Francis. "I will renounce Poland and Illyria" said he,
"Holland, the Hanse Towns, and Spain. I will consent to lose the
sovereignty of the kingdom of Italy, provided that state remain as an
independent one, and I will evacuate all Germany. Adieu! Count Merfeld.
When on my part you name the word armistice to the two emperors, I doubt
not the sound will awaken many recollections."
Napoleon received no answer to his message. The allied princes had sworn
to each other to entertain no treaty while one French soldier remained
on the eastern side of the Rhine. He therefore prepared for the
difficult task of retreating with 100,000 men, through a crowded town,
in presence of an enemy already twice as numerous, and in hourly
expectation of being joined by a third great and victorious army. During
the 17th the battle was not renewed except by a distant and partial
cannonade. The allies were determined to have the support of Bernadotte
in the decisive contest.
On the morning of the 18th the battle began again about 8 o'clock and
continued until nightfall without intermission. Never was Napoleon's
generalship or the gallantry of his troops more thoroughly tested than
on this terrible day. He again commanded on the south and again, in
spite of the vast superiority of the enemy's numbers, the French
maintained their ground to the end. On the north the arrival of
Bernadotte enabled Blucher to push his advantages with irresistible
effect; and the situation of Marmont and Ney was further perplexed by
the shameful defection of 12,000 Saxons who went over with all their
artillery to the enemy in the very midst of the battle. These Saxons,
forming nearly a third of the left, ran over to the Russians, entered
their ranks, and at Bernadotte's request discharged their artillery on
the French, their fellow-soldiers, whom they had just abandoned!
The loss on either side had been very great. Napoleon's army consisted
chiefly of very young men, many were merely boys, yet they fought as
bravely as the Guard. The failure of the Emperor was partly occasioned
by a want of ammunition; as in the course of five days, having fired
more than two hundred and fifty thousand shots, his troops had not
sufficient to continue the firing two hours longer. As the nearest
reserves were at Magdeburg and Erfurt, Napoleon determined to march for
the latter place. He gave orders at midnight for the commencement of the
inevitable retreat, and while the darkness lasted, the troops continued
to file through the town, and across the two bridges, over the Pleisse,
beyond its walls. One of these bridges was a temporary fabric and broke
down ere daylight came to show the enemy the movement of the retreating
French.
The confusion necessarily accompanying the march of a whole army,
through narrow streets, and upon a single bridge, was fearful. The
allies stormed at the gates on either side, and, but for the heroism of
Macdonald and Poniatowski, to whom Napoleon intrusted the defense of
the suburbs, it is doubted whether he himself could have escaped in
safety. At 9 in the morning of the 19th Napoleon bade farewell to the
King of Saxony who had remained all the while in the heart of his
ancient city. The King was left to make whatever terms he could with the
Allied Sovereigns.
The battle was now raging all round the walls and at 11 o'clock the
allies had gathered close to the bridge. The officer to whom Napoleon
had committed the task of blowing up the structure, when the advance of
the enemy should render this necessary, set fire to the train much too
soon. The crowd of men, urging each other on to a point of safety could
not at once be stopped and soldiers, horses and cannon, rolled headlong
into the deep, but narrow river. Marshal Macdonald swam the stream in
safety, but the gallant Poniatowski, who defended the suburbs inch by
inch, and had been twice wounded ere he plunged his horse into the
current, sank to rise no more. This order was given to Poniatowski by
the Emperor himself: "Prince" said Napoleon to him, "you will defend the
southern faubourg." "Sire" he replied, "I have but few people." "Ah!
well! you will defend yourself with what you have." "Ah! Sire, we will
maintain it! We are always ready to perish for your Majesty." The
illustrious, unfortunate Pole kept his word; he was never again to
behold the Emperor. Later Napoleon said of him: "Poniatowski was a noble
man, honorable and brave. Had I succeeded in Russia, I intended to make
him king of Poland."
The body of the Prince was found on the fifth day by a fisherman. He had
on his gala uniform, the epaulets of which were studded with diamonds,
and upon his fingers were several rings covered with brilliants, while
his pockets contained snuff-boxes of considerable value, and other
trinkets. Many of these were eagerly purchased by Polish officers who
had been made prisoners. Twenty-five thousand Frenchmen, the means of
escape being entirely cut off, now laid down their arms within the city
with more than two hundred pieces of cannon. In killed, wounded and
prisoners, Napoleon lost at Leipsic at least 50,000 men.
"This defeat at Leipsic" says St. Amand, "was for Napoleon a combination
of grief and surprise. Of all the battles he had fought, this was the
first that he had lost. Up to that time he could boast that if he had
been conquered by the elements he had never been conquered by man; and
now he was to know for himself the sufferings he had inflicted on
others. He was to learn by personal experience the bitterness of defeat,
the anguish of retreat, the desperation of useless bloodshed. War, which
up to this time had been a source of gratification to his unparalleled
pride, now showed to him its horrors, with its humiliations and
inexpressible anguish. The hour had struck when he could make tardy
reflections on the emptiness of genius and glory on the intoxication of
pride that had turned his head."
The retreat of the French through Saxony was a sad ending to the
auspicious beginning which the Emperor had opened the campaign with.
Napoleon conducted himself as became a great mind amidst great
misfortunes; he appeared at all times calm and self-possessed, receiving
every day that he advanced new tidings of evil, for the peasantry was
hostile, supplies scarce, and added to this was the persevering pursuit
of the Cossacks who attacked at every opportunity.
The Emperor halted for two days at Erfurt, where extensive magazines had
been established, employing all his energies in the restoring of
discipline. He resumed his march on the 25th of October, 1813, towards
the Rhine. The Austro-Bavarians hastened to meet him and had taken up a
position amidst the woods near Hanau before the Emperor reached the
Mayne. He came up with them on the morning of the 30th, and his troops
charged on the instant with the fury of desperation. Napoleon cut his
way through ere nightfall, and Marmont, with the rear, had equal success
on the 31st. In these actions the French lost 6,000 men but the enemy
had 10,000 killed or wounded, and lost 4,000 prisoners.
The mill on the river Kinzig which runs without the town, was the scene
of many desperate struggles. Here the French drove the Bavarians to the
banks, precipitating hundreds into the deep stream. The miller, however,
at the risk of his life, at length coolly went out, amidst a shower of
balls and stopped the flood-gates, so as to leave a safe retreat to the
Bavarians over the mill-dam. The side of the town next to the scene of
battle was constantly taken and retaken by the contending armies, and
during the night of the 30th the watch-word was changed not less than
seven times. Six of the Austro-Bavarian's generals were killed or
wounded and both cannon and flags were left in the power of the
conqueror.
The pursuit of Napoleon, which had been intrusted to the Austrians, was
far from vigorous and no considerable annoyance succeeded the battle of
Hanau. The relics of the French host, now reduced to 60,000 men, at
length passed the Rhine; and the Emperor, having quitted them at
Mayence, arrived in Paris on the 9th of November.
XIV
THE INVASION OF FRANCE
By the defeat of the Emperor in the campaign of 1813 the Confederation
of the Rhine was dissolved forever. The princes who adhered to that
league were now permitted to sue for forgiveness by bringing a year's
revenue and a double conscription to the banner of the Allies.
Bernadotte turned from Leipsic to reduce the garrisons which Napoleon
had not seen fit to call in, and one by one they fell, though in most
cases, particularly at Dantzic, Wirtemberg and Hamburg, the resistance
was obstinate and long.
The Crown Prince of Sweden having witnessed the reduction of some of
these fortresses, and intrusted the siege of others to his lieutenants,
invaded Denmark and the government of that country severed its long
adhesion to Napoleon by a treaty concluded at Kiel on the 14th of
January, 1814. Sweden yielded Pomerania to Denmark; Denmark gave up
Norway to Sweden; and 10,000 Danish troops having joined his standard,
Bernadotte turned his face towards the Netherlands. Holland also
revolted after Leipsic, the Prince of Orange returning in triumph from
England and assumed administration of affairs in the November following.
On the side of Italy, Eugene Beauharnais was driven beyond the Adige by
an Austrian army headed by General Hiller, and it was not at all likely
that he could hope to maintain Lombardy much longer. To complete
Napoleon's perplexity his brother-in-law, Murat, was negotiating with
Austria and willing, provided Naples was guaranteed to him, to array
the force of that state on the side of the Confederacy. Beyond the
Pyrenees, Soult, who had been sent from Dresden to retrieve, if
possible, the fortunes of the army defeated in June at Vittoria, had
been twice defeated; the fortresses had fallen, and except a detached,
and now useless force under Suchet in Catalonia, there remained no
longer a single French soldier in Spain.
Such were the tidings which reached Napoleon from his Italian and
Spanish frontiers at the very moment when it was necessary for him to
make head against the Russians, the Austrians, and the Germans, chiefly
armed and supplied at the expense of England, and now rapidly
concentrating in three great masses on different points of the valley of
the Rhine. The royalists, too, were exerting themselves indefatigably in
the capital and the provinces, having recovered a large share of their
ancient influence in the society of Paris even before the Russian
expedition. The Bourbon princes watched the course of events with eager
hope. The republicans, meanwhile, were not inactive. They had long since
been alienated from Napoleon by his assumption of the imperial dignity,
his creation of orders and nobles, and his alliance with the House of
Austria; these men had observed, with hardly less delight than the
royalists, that succession of reverses which had followed Napoleon in
his last two campaigns. Finally, not a few of Napoleon's own ministers
and generals were well prepared to take a part in his overthrow.
Talleyrand, and others only second to him in influence, were in
communication with the Bourbons, before the allies crossed the Rhine.
"Ere then," said Napoleon, "I felt the reins slipping from my hands."
The Allied Princes issued at Frankfort, a manifesto on the 1st of
December in which the sovereigns announced their belief that it was for
the interests of Europe that France should continue to be a powerful
state, and their willingness to concede to her, even now, greater extent
of territory than the Bourbon kings had ever claimed--the boundaries,
namely, of the Rhine, the Alps, and the Pyrenees. Their object in
invading France was to put an end to the authority which Napoleon had
usurped over other nations. The hostility of Europe, they said, was
against,--not France, but Napoleon--and even as to Napoleon, against not
his person but his system. These terms were tendered to the Emperor
himself, and although he authorized Caulaincourt to commence
negotiations in his behalf, it was merely for the purpose of gaining
time.
Napoleon's military operations were now urged with unremitting energy.
New conscriptions were called for, and granted; every arsenal sounded
with the fabrication of arms. The press was thoroughly aroused and with
its mighty voice warned the allies against an invasion of the sacred
soil of France. The French Senate was somewhat reluctant, however; they
ventured to hint to the Emperor that ancient France would remain to him,
even if he accepted the proposals of the allies. "Shame on you," cried
the Emperor, "Wellington has entered the south, the Russians menace the
northern frontier, the Prussians, Austrians, and Bavarians the eastern.
Shame! Wellington is in France and we have not risen _en masse_ to drive
him back! All my allies have deserted--the Bavarian has betrayed me. No
peace until we have burned Munich! I demand a levy of 300,000 men--with
this and what I already have, I shall see a million in arms. I will
form a camp of 100,000 at Bordeaux; another at Mentz; a third at Lyons.
But I must have grown men: these boys only serve to incumber the
hospitals and the road-sides. Abandon Holland! Sooner yield it back to
the sea! Senators, an impulse must be given--all must march--you are
fathers of families--the head of the nation--you must set the example.
Peace! I hear of nothing but peace when all around should echo to the
cry of war!"
The Senate drew up and presented a report which renewed the Emperor's
wrath. He reproached them openly with designing to purchase inglorious
ease for themselves, at the expense of his honor. "In your address" he
said, "you seek to separate the sovereign from the nation. I alone am
the representative of the people. And which of you could charge himself
with a like burden? The throne is but of wood, decked with velvet. If I
believed you, I should yield the enemy more than he demands; in three
months you shall have peace, or I will perish. It is against me that our
enemies are more embittered than against France, but on that ground
alone am I to be suffered to dismember the State? Do not sacrifice my
pride and my dignity to obtain peace. Yes, I am proud because I am
courageous; I am proud because I have done great things for France.
* * * You wished to bespatter me with mud, but I am one of those men who
may be killed yet not dishonored.
"Return to your homes * * * even supposing me to have been in the wrong,
there was no occasion to reproach me publicly; dirty linen should be
washed at home. For the rest; _France has more need of me, than I have
of France_."
Having uttered these words the Emperor repaired to his council of state
and there denounced the Legislative Senate as one composed of one part
of traitors and eleven of dupes. "In place of assisting," he said, "they
impede me. Our attitude alone could have repelled the enemy--they invite
him. We should have presented a front of brass--they lay open wounds to
his view. I will not suffer their report to be printed. They have not
done their duty, but I will do mine--I dissolve the Legislative Senate!"
The Pope was now released from his confinement and returned to Rome
which he found in the hands of Murat, who had ere then concluded his
treaty with Francis and was advancing into the north of Italy, with the
view of co-operating in the campaign against Beauharnais, with the
Austrians on one side and on the other with an English force recently
landed at Leghorn, under Lord William Bentinck. Ferdinand also returned
to Spain, after five years of captivity, amid universal acclamations.
"When first informed of Murat's treason, by the Viceroy (Eugene)," says
Bourrienne "the Emperor refused to believe it. 'No!' he exclaimed to
those about him, 'It cannot be! Murat--to whom I have given my sister!
Eugene must be misinformed. It is impossible that Murat has declared
himself against me.' It was, however, not only possible but true." As
St. Amand well says, in speaking of Murat's desertion: "He might have
united his forces with those of Prince Eugene and have attacked the
invasion in the rear; he would have saved the Empire of France; he would
have died on the throne, covered with glory, instead of being shot!"
For a time the inhabitants of the French provinces on the frontier
believed it impossible that any foreign army would dare to invade their
soil, and it was not until Schwartzenberg had crossed the Rhine between
Basle and Schaffhausen on the 20th of December, that they were willing
to believe in the sincerity of the Allies and their determination to
carry the war into France itself. Disregarding the claim of the Swiss to
preserve neutrality, Schwartzenberg advanced through that territory with
his grand army, unopposed--an indefensible act in itself, and began to
show himself in Franche-Compté, in Burgundy, even to the gates of Dijon.
On the 1st of January, 1814, the Silesian army, under Blucher, crossed
the river at various points between Rastadt, and Coblentz; and shortly
after, the army of the north, commanded by Witzingerode and Bulow, began
to penetrate the frontier of the Netherlands.
The Pyrenees had been crossed by Wellington and the Rhine by three
mighty hosts, amounting altogether to 300,000 men and including every
tongue and tribe from the Germans of Westphalia to the wildest
barbarians of Tartary. "Seven hundred thousand men," says Dumas,
"trained by their very defeats in the great school of Napoleonic war,
were advancing into the heart of France, passing by all fortified places
and responding, the one to the other, by the single cry, 'Paris!
Paris!'"
The allies proclaimed everywhere as they advanced, that they came as the
friends, not the enemies of the French nation, and that any of the
peasantry who took up arms to oppose them must be content to abide the
treatment of brigands; a flagrant outrage against the most sacred and
inalienable rights of mankind.
Meanwhile, nearer and nearer each day the torrent of invasion rolled on,
sweeping before it, with but slight resistance, the various corps which
had been left to watch the Rhine. Ney, Marmont, Victor and Mortier,
commanding in all about 50,000 men, retired of necessity before the
enemy.
[Illustration: From a Painting by H. Bellange
NAPOLEON AT THE BATTLE OF WAGRAM]
It now became apparent that the allies had resolved to carry the war
into the interior without waiting for the reduction of the great
fortresses on the Rhenish frontier. They passed on with hosts
overwhelmingly superior to all those of Napoleon's lieutenants, who
withdrew, followed by crowds of the rustic population, rushing onwards
towards Paris by any means of transport. Carts and wagons, filled with
terrified women and children thronged every avenue to the capital.
The Emperor now resolved to break silence to the Parisians and prepared
to reappear in the field. On the 22d of January, 1814, the official news
of the invasion appeared. The next morning--Sunday--the officers of the
National Guard to the number of nine hundred were summoned to the
Tuileries. Napoleon took his station in the centre of the hall and
immediately the Empress, with her son, the King of Rome, carried in the
arms of Countess Montesquiou, appeared at his side.
"Gentlemen," said the Emperor "France is invaded; I go to put myself at
the head of my troops, and with God's help and their valor, I hope soon
to drive the enemy beyond the frontier." Here he took Marie Louise in
one hand and her son in the other, and continued, "But if they should
approach the capital, I confide to the National Guard the Empress and
the King of Rome--my wife and my child!"--Several officers stepped from
their places and approached with tears in their eyes.
The Emperor spent part of the 24th of January in reviewing troops in the
court-yard of the Tuileries, while the snow was falling, and at 3
o'clock in the morning of the 25th once more left his capital, after
having burnt his most secret papers, and embraced his wife and son for
the last time, to begin his fifteenth campaign. Thiers says of this
farewell: "Napoleon, when he left, unconscious that he was embracing
them for the last time, hugged tenderly his wife and son. His wife was
in tears, and she feared she would never see him again. She was in fact
fated never to see him, although the enemy's bullets were not to kill
him. She would certainly have been much surprised if she had been told
that this husband, then the object of all her care, was to die on a
distant island, the prisoner of Europe, and forgotten by her. As for
him, no prediction would have astonished him,--whether the cruelest
desertion, the most ardent devotion,--for he expected anything from men;
he knew them to the core, though he treated them as if he did not know
what they really were."
The Emperor again appointed Marie Louise Empress-Regent, placed his
brother Joseph at the head of her council, gave orders for raising
military defenses around Paris, and for converting many public buildings
into hospitals. He arrived at Chalons ere midnight and found that
Schwartzenberg with 97,000 men, and Blucher with 40,000 men, were now
occupying an almost complete line between the Marne and the Seine.
Blucher was in his own neighborhood and he immediately resolved to
attack the right of the Silesian army,--which was pushing down the
valley of the Marne, while its centre kept the parallel course of the
Aube,--ere the Prussian marshal could concentrate all his own strength
or be supported by Schwartzenberg who was advancing down the Seine
towards Bar.
On the 27th of January a sharp skirmish took place at St. Dizier; and
Blucher, who had committed all sorts of excesses during the last two
days, warned of Napoleon's arrival, at once called in his detachments
and took a post of defense at Brienne--the same town where Bonaparte had
received his military education.
The Emperor marched through a thick forest upon the scene of his
youthful studies and appeared there on the 29th, having moved so rapidly
that Blucher was at dinner in the chateau when the French thundered at
his gates, and with difficulty escaped to the rear through a passage, on
foot and at the head of his staff.
The invaders maintained their place in the town courageously, and some
Cossacks, throwing themselves upon the rear of the French, the Emperor
was involved in the mêlée; he quickly drew his sword and fought like a
private dragoon and General Gourgaud shot a Cossack while in the act of
thrusting a spear at Napoleon's back. The town of Brienne was burned to
the ground by the Prussians in order to cover their retreat.
Alsusieff, the Russian commander, and Hardenberg, a nephew of the
Chancellor of Prussia, were made prisoners and there was considerable
slaughter on both sides. Blucher retired further up the Aube with a loss
of 4,000 men and posted himself at La Rothiere, where Schwartzenberg,
warned by the cannonade, hastened to co-operate with him.
While at St. Helena Napoleon said that during the charge of the Cossacks
at Brienne defending himself, sword in hand, he recognized a particular
tree under which, when a boy, he used to sit and read the "Jerusalem
Delivered" of Tasso. The field had been in those days, part of the
exercise-ground of the students, and the chateau, whence Blucher escaped
so narrowly, their lodging.
Blucher now assumed the offensive, having joined Schwartzenberg, and on
the 1st of February assaulted the rear-guard of the French army. Proud
of their numerical superiority they reckoned upon an easy triumph. The
battle lasted all day. At nightfall the French were left in possession
of their original positions. A battery of guns had been taken, however,
and Napoleon lost on this occasion seventy-three guns, and some hundred
prisoners, besides a number of killed and wounded. The result of this
action was equivalent to a defeat of the French army. The cannoniers
saved themselves, with their baggage, by forming a squadron and fighting
vigorously as soon as they perceived that there was no time to use their
pieces.
The battle of Brienne and the defense of La Rothiere, Dienville and La
Giberie, had gloriously opened the campaign, but Blucher and
Schwartzenberg had such considerable forces at their disposal that
Napoleon might fear being surrounded, or cut off from his capital, if he
persisted in retaining his position in the environs of Brienne. The
allies had now definitely resolved to march on Paris.
While the division of Marmont retired down the Aube before Blucher,
Napoleon himself struck across the country to Troyes which he had
reasons to fear must be immediately occupied by Schwartzenberg. Here he
was joined by a considerable body of his Guard, in high order and
spirits, whose appearance restored, in a great measure, the confidence
of the troops who had been engaged in the defense of La Rothiere. On the
3rd of February the Emperor received a dispatch from Caulaincourt,
informing him that Lord Castlereagh, the English Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs, had arrived at the headquarters of the allies, that
negotiations were to be resumed the morning after at Chatillon, and
requesting him to intimate distinctly at what price he would be willing
to purchase peace.
Napoleon replied by granting Caulaincourt full powers to do everything
necessary "to keep the negotiations alive and save the capital." The
Duke was unwilling to act upon so broad a basis and sent back once more
for a specific detail of the Emperor's purposes.
Napoleon had his headquarters at Nogent, on the Seine, some leagues
below Troyes, when the dispatch reached him on the evening of the 8th of
February, and his counsellors urged him to make use of this, probably
last, opportunity. He was prevailed upon to agree to abandon Belgium,
the left of the Rhine, Italy and Piedmont, but in the night after the
consultation, and before the ultimatum had his signature, he received
information which caused him to change all his views. When Maret visited
him with his dispatches ready for signing Napoleon was poring over his
maps, tracing the route of Blucher on Paris. "Oh here you are!" he
exclaimed as Maret entered, "but I am now thinking of something very
different--I am beating Blucher on the map. He is advancing by the road
to Montmirail; I will set out and beat him to-morrow. Should this
movement prove as successful as I expect it will, the state of affairs
will be entirely changed, and we shall then see what can be done."
The Emperor had learned that Blucher, instead of continuing his march
down the Aube, and in communication with Schwartzenberg on the Seine,
had transferred his whole army to the Marne, and was now advancing
towards Paris by the Montmirail road.
The separation of their forces by the allies was a great blunder and the
Emperor, who at once detected it, could not resist the temptation which
it presented to make one warlike effort more. Napoleon, therefore,
refused to sign the dispatch on the morning of the 9th and having left
small forces to defend the bridge over the Seine at Nogent and at Bray,
commenced his march, with the main body of his army, upon Sezanne,
prepared for one of the most extraordinary and successful manoeuvres
which has ever been recorded in the annals of war.
Forty miles were traversed over a most difficult country, usually
considered impassable in winter,--ere the troops halted with the dark.
Next morning the army moved again with equal alacrity, and at length
debouched on the road by which Blucher's army was advancing, at
Champaubert.
The central division was passing when Napoleon suddenly appeared at this
point, and was altogether unable to resist his assault. They dispersed
in confusion with great loss and fled towards the Marne. The
General-in-chief, Ousouwieff, at the head of twelve regiments was
completely routed. He was taken with 6,000 of his men, and the remainder
were drowned in a swamp, or killed on the field of battle. Forty pieces
of cannon, and all the ammunition and baggage were left in the power of
the victor. Napoleon had now interposed his army between the advanced
guard of the Silesian army, commanded by Sacken, and the rear commanded
by Blucher himself.
The van of the same army turned, on hearing the cannonade of
Champaubert, and countermarched with the view of supporting Alsusieff
only to share the fate of the centre, and were put to flight after the
loss of one-fourth of the division.
Now it was Blucher's turn to be beaten. Napoleon mounted his horse at
midnight on the 13th and came up with him at Montmirail. At 8 o'clock in
the morning the shouting of the soldiers announced the presence of the
Emperor. Blucher would gladly have declined battle, but it was out of
his power. He was conquered but retreated with great skill and courage.
After many hours of hard fighting his retreat became a flight. Blucher
was frequently obliged to defend himself with his sabre during the day,
surrounded by his staff, and chiefly owed his escape to the darkness of
the night.
He retired in alternate squares, sustaining all day the charges of the
French with much loss of life and at length cut his way, at Etoges,
through a column of heavy horse, sent round to intercept him, and drawn
up on the causeway.
On the following day there was a fresh success. A hostile column,
endeavoring to protect Blucher's retreat, was taken at Chateau Thierry,
where the French troops entered pell-mell upon the Russians and
Prussians. Five generals of these two nations were among the prisoners.
Blucher finally crossed the Marne at Chalons. In five days Napoleon's
armies had been successful three times; he had shattered and dispersed
the Silesian army, and above all, recovered the spirits of his own
soldiery.
A column of 7,000 Prussian prisoners, with a considerable number of guns
and standards, reminded the Parisians that the commander of the French
troops had not forgotten the art of warfare and their hopes were
considerably heightened on hearing of these successes against the
allies. But these allied armies, annihilated each day, reappeared
incessantly, and always ready for battle. All Europe was now contending
against the Emperor and her beaten and dispersed soldiers were
immediately replaced by fresh troops. "So alarmed were the Allies at the
near approach of their terrible enemy," says Scott, "that a message was
sent to Napoleon, from the Allied Sovereigns, by Prince Schwartzenberg's
aide-de-camp, Count Par, stating their surprise at his offensive
movements, since they had given orders to their plenipotentiaries at
Chatillon to sign the preliminaries of peace, on the terms which had
been assented to by the French envoy." Napoleon had, however, learned
the meaning of such messages in the course of his career, and paid no
attention to this one.
Scarcely had the Parisians seen the prisoners from Montmirail marched
along their boulevards, before they heard that the Cossacks were in
possession of Fontainebleau. Napoleon had left small divisions of his
army to guard the Seine at Nogent and Bray, and the enemy soon
discovered that the Emperor and his chief force were no longer in that
quarter. While he was beating Alsusieff, Sacken and Blucher had made
good the passage of the Seine at three different points, driving the
discomfited guardians of these important places before them.
Schwartzenberg now had his quarters at Nangis, and was, obviously,
resolved to reach Paris, if possible, while Napoleon was on the Marne.
The light troops of the grand allied army were scattering confusion on
both sides of the Seine, and one party of them was so near the capital
as Fontainebleau.
Napoleon now committed to Marmont and Mortier the care of watching the
Chalons road and the remains of Blucher's army, and marched with his
main body on Meaux where on the 15th of February he received
reinforcements of 20,000 veterans from Spain, commanded by Grouchy.
The latter's troops had aided Marmont on the 14th in a victory over
Blucher at the village of Vauchamp which cost the allies ten thousand
prisoners, ten flags, ten pieces of cannon and many prisoners, including
General Ouroussoff, in command of the Russian rear-guard.
On the 16th Victor and Oudinot were engaged with the van of
Schwartzenberg, on the plains of Guignes, when the Emperor came rapidly
to their assistance. The enemy immediately drew back, and concentrated
his strength at Nangis. Napoleon attacked that position on the morning
of the 17th, and with such effect that the allies were completely routed
and retreated after considerable loss. They halted, however, at
Montereau and Victor, who commanded the pursuers on that route, failed
to dislodge them because of greatly inferior numbers. Napoleon came up
on the morning of the 18th and rebuked Victor; then dismissed him from
the service. The marshal, with tears streaming down his face, said: "I
will procure a musket, I have not forgotten my old trade; Victor will
place himself in the ranks of the Guard."
The Emperor was vanquished by this noble language. "Well! Well! Victor,"
said he, tendering his hand, "remain; I cannot restore you your corps,
since I have given it to Gerard, but I award you two divisions of the
Guard; go and take the command of them, and let there be no longer a
question of anything between us."
The attack then commenced with fury and the bridge and town of Montereau
were carried. The defense was long and stern, however, and Napoleon was
occasionally seen pointing cannon with his own hand, under the heaviest
of the fire. The artillerymen protested at the exposure of his person
and entreated him to withdraw. He persisted in his work, answering
gaily, "My children! the bullet that shall kill me is not yet cast." The
inhabitants of Montereau associated themselves with this triumph by
firing from their windows on the Austrians as they passed through the
town.
After distributing praises and rewards to the generals who had
contributed to gaining this battle, Napoleon thought of those who had
delayed their march, or exhibited negligence in their command, and among
those reprimanded were Generals Guyot, Digeon and Montbrun, the latter
for having abandoned the forest of Fontainebleau to the Cossacks,
without resistance.
Pursuing his advantage Napoleon saw the grand army of the invaders
continue their retreat in the direction of Troyes, and on the morning of
the 22d arrived before Mery. This town he found occupied, much to his
astonishment, not by a feeble rear-guard of Schwartzenberg but by a
powerful division of Russians, commanded by Sacken and therefore
belonging to the apparently indestructible army of Blucher. These
unexpected enemies were charged in the streets, and at length retired
out of the town,--which was burnt to the ground in the struggle,--and
thence beyond the Aube. The Emperor then halted, and spent the night of
the 22d of February in a charcoal burner's cottage at Chatres.
Meanwhile negotiations were still pending at Chatillon. Caulaincourt,
receiving no answer to his second dispatch sent to Napoleon at Nogent on
the 8th of February, proceeded to act on the instructions dated at
Troyes on the 3d; and in effect accepted the basis of the Allies. When
Schwartzenberg was attacked at Nangis, on the 17th, he had just received
the intelligence of Caulaincourt's having signed the preliminary
articles, and he, therefore, sent a messenger to ask why the Emperor, if
aware of his ambassador's act, persisted in hostilities; but received no
answer.
Napoleon sent instead a private letter to the Emperor of Austria, once
more trying to gain his friendship. The reply of Francis, written to him
from Nangis, reached Napoleon at Chatres on the 23d. It announced
Francis' resolution on no account to abandon the general cause, but
declared that he lent no support to the Bourbonists, and urged Napoleon
to avert by concession, ere it was too late, total ruin from himself and
his House. Napoleon returned the envoy with a note signifying that now
he would not consent to a day's armistice, unless the Allies would fall
back so as to leave Antwerp in their front. The same evening news came
from Paris that the Council of State had discussed the proposals of the
Allied Powers, and with only one dissenting voice, now entreated the
Emperor to accept them. He was urged, anew, to send to Chatillon and
accept the basis to which Caulaincourt had agreed. He answered that he
had sworn at his coronation to preserve the territory of the Republic
entire, and that he could not sign this treaty without violating his
oath. "If I am to be scourged" said he, "let the whip come on me of
necessity, and not through any voluntary stooping of my own." The truth
of these attempts at negotiation is that the Allies merely desired a
simple suspension of arms, in order to gain time to reinforce
themselves, and also in order to interrupt the too rapid course of
Napoleon's successes in the last eight days. This the Emperor easily
discerned through the maze of the contrary declarations of the foreign
negotiators, and in fact is avowed by the historians of the campaigns of
the Allies.
Napoleon now resolved to push on as far as Troyes, at the same time
permitting proposals for an armistice to be considered at Lusigny, and
negotiations for peace to proceed at Chatillon. The Emperor had
meanwhile requested Oudinot and Macdonald, with their divisions, to
manoeuvre in the direction of Schwartzenberg, in order to keep the
Austrians in check.
Napoleon learned at Troyes, in the night of the 26th of February, that
the Prussian army was in motion. His resolution was soon taken. He again
hastened to the succor of his capital, and came, with the prodigious
celerity which rendered his marches and manoeuvres so distinguishing, to
fall upon the rear of Blucher, who still had Marmont and Mortier in
front. Marching rapidly across the country to Sezanne he received
intelligence that these two generals, finding themselves inferior in
numbers to Blucher, had retired before him in the direction of
Ferté-sous-Jouarre, and were in full retreat to Meaux. This point he
considered as almost a suburb to Paris and he quickened his speed
accordingly. Hurrying on, at Ferté-Goucher he was at once met and
overtaken by evil tidings. Schwartzenberg, having discovered the
Emperor's absence, had immediately assumed the offensive, defeated
Oudinot and Macdonald at Bar-sur-Aube on the 27th, and driven them
before him as far as Troyes; and Augereau, who commanded in the
neighborhood of Lyons, announced the arrival of a new and great army of
the Allies in that quarter. On the 1st of March an important treaty was
ratified at Chaumont between the sovereigns of Austria, England, Russia
and Prussia, by which the four contracting powers bound themselves each
to maintain in the field an army of one hundred and fifty thousand men
until the objects of the war were attained; England, as usual, engaging,
over and above, to furnish a subsidy of four millions sterling. In a
second clause, each of the four powers was bound never to make a
separate peace with the common enemy. About the same time the
commissioners at Lusigny broke up the negotiations for an armistice, on
the plea of inability to settle the line of demarcation.
Napoleon's operations were not checked, however. Having been detained
for some time at Ferté, in consequence of the destruction of the bridge,
he took the direction of Chateau Thierry and Soissons, where he hoped to
receive Blucher, while Mortier and Marmont received orders to assume the
offensive in front of Meaux. The Emperor hoped in this manner to throw
himself on the flank of Blucher's march, as he had done before at
Champaubert; but the Prussian received intelligence of his approach and
drawing his troops together, retired to Soissons. Napoleon proceeded
thither with alacrity, believing that the French garrison intrusted with
the care of that town, and its bridge over the Marne, was still in
possession of it, and would enable him, therefore, to force Blucher into
action with this formidable obstacle in his rear. He did not know that
Soissons had been taken by a Russian corps, retaken by a French one and
fallen once more into the hands of the enemy, ere the Emperor came in
sight of it. He assaulted the place with much vigor but the Russians
repelled the attack. Learning that Blucher had filed his main body
through the town and posted himself behind the Marne, Napoleon marched
up the left bank of the river and crossed it also at Bery.
A few leagues in front of this place, on the height of Craonne, two
Russian corps,--those of Sacken and Witzingerode,--were already in
position, and the Emperor lost no time in charging them there, in the
hope of destroying them ere they could unite with Blucher. The battle of
Craonne began at 11 a. m. on the 7th of March and lasted until 4 o'clock
in the afternoon. The resistance of the enemy was most stubborn and the
Emperor was preparing for a final effort, when suddenly the Russians
began to retreat and he remained master of the field. He followed them;
but they continued to withdraw having been ordered to fall back on the
plateau of Laon, in order to form thereon the same line with Blucher,
who was once more eager for a decisive conflict,--having been reinforced
by the vanguard of Bernadotte's army.
On the 9th of March Napoleon found his enemy strongly posted along an
elevated ridge, covered with wood, and further protected in front by a
succession of terrace walls,--the enclosures of vineyards. There was a
heavy mist on the lower ground and the French were advancing up the hill
ere their movement was discovered. They were met by a storm of cannonade
which broke their centre, and on either flank the French were all but
routed. On all points they were repelled, except at the village of
Athies, where Marmont had some advantage. Night interrupted the
contest, and the armies bivouacked in full view of each other. Napoleon,
although he had suffered severely, resolved to renew the attack and
mounted his horse accordingly at 4 o'clock in the morning of the 10th.
At that moment news came that Marmont's corps had just been assaulted at
Athies and were compelled to fly towards Corbeny.
The battle of Laon continued, all day, however; Napoleon was unable to
turn his adversaries and on the 11th he commenced his retreat, leaving
thirty cannon and 10,000 men. Soissons had been evacuated by the allies
when concentrating themselves for the battle of Laon, and Napoleon threw
himself into that town, and was making rapid efforts to strengthen it in
expectation of the Prussian advance, when he learned that a detached
Russian corps had seized Rheims.
The possession of this city could hardly fail to establish Blucher's
communications with Schwartzenberg, and Napoleon instantly marched
thither in person leaving Marmont to hold out as well as he could in
case that should be the direction of Blucher's march. The Emperor came
upon Rheims with his usual rapidity and on the 13th took the place by
assault.
In this crisis, in which Napoleon was battling against numbers
overwhelmingly his superior, it is remarkable to note the energy with
which he turned from enemy to enemy, and behold his fearless assaults on
vastly superior numbers, his unwearied resolution and exhaustless
invention. In his every movement he seemed a perfect master of warfare;
but he was battling against odds which even his indomitable will,
courage and foresight, could not overcome. It should not be forgotten,
also, that in addition to this extraordinary series of campaigns, he
continued to conduct, from his perpetually changing quarters, the civil
business of his Empire.
The Allies, by a series of victories in various quarters, were now, to
all appearance, in full march upon Paris, both by the valley of the
Marne, and by that of the Seine, at a moment when Napoleon had thought
to defeat their movements by taking up a position between them at
Rheims. When Schwartzenberg learned that the Emperor was at this point
his old terror returned, and the Austrian instantly proposed to fall
back from Troyes. This did not please Lord Castlereagh who announced
that the Grand Army might retire if the sovereigns pleased, but that if
such a movement took place the subsidies of England must be considered
at an end. The Czar also opposed the over-caution of Schwartzenberg, who
then took courage, and his columns instantly resumed their march down
the Seine, to offer battle to Napoleon at Arcis.
The Emperor was now struggling to decide which of two courses to pursue;
should he hasten after Blucher on the Marne, what was to prevent
Schwartzenberg from reaching Paris ere the Silesians, already victorious
at Laon, could once more be brought to action by an inferior force:
should he throw himself on the march of Schwartzenberg, would not the
fiery Prussian be at the Tuileries long before the Austrian could be
checked on the Seine? There remained a third course--namely, to push at
once into the country in the rear of the Grand Army and thus strike the
advancing Allies, both the Austrians and Prussians, with terror, and
paralyze their movements. Would they persist in their cry, "On to
Paris!" when they knew Napoleon to be posting himself between them
and their resources, and at the same time relieving and rallying around
him all the garrisons of the great fortresses of the Rhine? While
Napoleon was thus tossed with anxiety for means to avert, if it were yet
possible, the visitation of these mighty armies upon Paris, and unaware
of Castlereagh's very effective threat, the capital showed small
symptoms of sympathizing with him. The machinery of government was
clogged in every wheel, and the necessity of purchasing peace by
abandoning him was the common burden of conversation.
[Illustration: From a Drawing by Eug. Charpentier
ARRIVAL OF THE GRAND ARMY AT MOSCOW]
In this extreme situation, the gravity and peril of which he measured
with a glance, the Emperor felt that he could only escape by a striking
and decisive action, and he did not hesitate to direct the intended blow
towards Schwartzenberg, whose approach already spread alarm throughout
the capital. The Emperor Alexander, on learning the successes of
Napoleon at Craonne and Rheims, had feared that Schwartzenberg, by
approaching the capital alone, would be again beaten separately, and
that all these daily and isolated defeats would end by discouraging the
troops of the Coalition, already filled with apprehension and alarm. The
Czar, therefore, insisted in that council of war held at Troyes, that
the two grand allied armies should forthwith manoeuvre so as to effect
their junction in the environs of Chalons, in order to march thence on
Paris, and crush everything which might be opposed to their passage.
This advice had prevailed and Napoleon met, on the 20th, before Arcis,
the entire army of Schwartzenberg, which was bearing in a mass for this
town, in order to cross the Aube, and rapidly gain the plains of
Champagne where the junction was to be effected.
This sudden change of system in the military operations of the Allies
completely disarranged all the plans of Napoleon, who quickly perceived
the difficult and perilous position in which he was placed, by
encountering an army three times as strong as his own, where he had only
thought to find a rear-guard. However, he quickly decided to take the
chance by casting into the struggle the weight of his own example, and
reckoning his personal dangers for nothing. His cavalry had orders to
attack the Austrian light troops while the infantry debouched from
Arcis; but they were repulsed by the overpowering numbers opposed to
them and driven back upon the town. In this extremity, Napoleon evinced
the same heroic and almost reckless courage which he had shown at Lodi
and Arcola, and on other occasions. He threw himself, sword in hand,
among the broken cavalry, called on them to remember their former
victories, and checked the enemy by an impetuous charge in which he and
his staff-officers fought hand to hand with the invaders. "Surrounded in
the crowd by the charges of cavalry," says Baron Fain, in a volume
called "The Manuscript of 1814," giving an account of the engagement at
Arcis, "he freed himself only by making use of his sword. On divers
occasions, he fought at the head of his escort, and, far from avoiding
the dangers, he seemed, on the contrary, to brave them. A shell fell at
his feet; he awaited its bursting, and disappeared in a cloud of dust
and smoke; he was believed to be lost; presently he arose, flung himself
upon another horse, and again went to place himself beneath the fire of
the batteries! * * * Death would have nothing to do with him!"
In spite of the prodigious efforts of the French army, and the
unchangeable heroism of its chief, the battle of Arcis could not hinder
the passage of the Aube, by the Austrians. The Emperor retired in good
order, on the 21st, after having done the enemy much harm, and held him
in check for a whole day; but Schwartzenberg ended by gaining the road
which was to conduct him to Blucher.
Napoleon now decided on throwing himself upon the rear of the Allies.
They were for some time quite uncertain of his movements after he
quitted Rheims, until an intercepted letter to Marie Louise informed
them that he was at St. Dizier, where Napoleon had slept on the 23d. He
continued to manoeuvre on the country beyond this point for several
days. Having seized the roads by which the Allies had advanced, he took
many prisoners of distinction on their way to headquarters and at one
time the Emperor of Austria himself escaped narrowly a party of French
hussars. At St. Dizier, Caulaincourt rejoined the Emperor and announced
to him the definite rupture of the negotiations with the Allies. This,
however, was no surprise; but was expected. The only real discomfiture
it caused was among the malcontents in the army, whose chief regret was
at being from Paris, and who asked each other, barely out of hearing of
the Emperor, "Where are we going? What is to become of us? If he falls,
shall we fall with him?"
On the 26th of March the distant roaring of artillery was heard at
intervals on the boulevards of Paris and the alarm began to be violent.
On Sunday the 27th, Joseph Bonaparte held a review in the Place
Carrousel. That same evening the allies passed the Marne at various
points and at 3 o'clock in the morning they took Meaux. The regular
troops now marched out of the capital, leaving all the barriers in
charge of the National Guard. On the 29th the Empress, her son, and most
of the members of the Council of State, set off attended by 700
soldiers, for Rambouillet from which they continued their journey to
Blois. Queen Hortense, afflicted at seeing the Empress-Regent and her
son abandon the capital to intriguers and conspirators, strongly pressed
her to remain, and said with a prophetic conviction: "If you leave the
Tuileries, you will never see them again!"
"One of the most astonishing circumstances of the moment," says Pons de
L' Herault, a historian of the period, "is undeniably, the obstinacy
with which the King of Rome refused to depart. This obstinacy was so
great, that it became necessary to use violence in order to remove the
young prince. The cries of the infant-king were heart-rending. He
repeated several times: 'My father told me not to go away!' All the
spectators shed tears." The young prince had declared again and again
that "his papa was betrayed" and his declaration has never been
satisfactorily accounted for and can only be explained by the
supposition that he had heard the subject discussed among those who
considered that all was lost in abandoning the capital.
Joseph now published the following proclamation: "Citizens of Paris! A
hostile column has descended on Meaux. It advances; but the Emperor
follows close behind, at the head of a victorious army. The Council of
Regency has provided for the safety of the Empress and the King of Rome.
I remain with you. Let us arm ourselves to defend this city, its
monuments, its riches, our wives, our children--all that is dear to us.
Let this vast capital become a camp for some moments; and let the enemy
find his shame under the walls which he hopes to overleap in triumph.
The Emperor marches to our succor. Second him by a short and vigorous
resistance, and preserve the honor of France."
The appeal did not produce the results hoped for. Some officers urged
Savary to have the streets unpaved and persuade the people to arm
themselves with stones and prepare for a defense such as Saragossa. He
answered, shaking his head, "the thing cannot be done."
On the 30th the Allies fought and won the final battle. The French
occupied the whole of the range of heights from the Marne at Charenton,
to the Seine beyond St. Denis; the Austrians beginning the attack about
11 o'clock towards the former of these points, while nearly in the midst
between them, a charge was made by the Russians on Pantin and
Belleville. The French troops of the line were commanded by Marmont and
Mortier; those battalions of the National Guard, whose spirit could be
trusted, and who were adequately armed, took their orders from Marshal
Moncey and formed a second line of defense. The scholars of the
Polytechnic School volunteered to serve at the great guns, and the
artillery though weak in numbers, was well arranged. At the barrier of
Clichy, in particular, the Allies met with a spirited resistance. The
pattern of the French soldiers, the brave Moncey, was there, with his
son, and with him Allent, the leader of his staff; celebrated artists
and distinguished writers surrounded him and shared his perils. Among
the former was Horace Vernet whose Napoleonic pictures have since
become famous in two continents. The defense of the city, while brave
and determined was ineffectual, and courage was at length compelled to
yield to numbers.
By 2 o'clock the Allies were victorious at all points except Montmartre.
Marmont then sent several aides-de-camp to request an armistice and
offer a capitulation in order to save the capital. The Czar and the King
of Prussia professed their willingness to spare the city, provided the
regular troops would evacuate it.
Blucher meanwhile continued pressing on at Montmartre and shortly after
4 o'clock, the victory being completed in that direction, the French
cannon were turned on the city and shot and shells began to spread
destruction within its walls. The capitulation was drawn up at 5
o'clock, close to the barrier St. Denis.
It was not until the 27th that Napoleon distinctly ascertained the fact
of both the allied armies having marched directly on Paris. He instantly
resolved to hasten after them, in hopes of arriving on their rear ere
they had mastered the heights of Montmartre. Arriving at Doulevent on
the 29th he received a message from Lavalette, his Post-Master General,
who wrote: "The partisans of the Stranger are making head, aided by
secret intrigues. The presence of the Emperor is indispensable--if he
desires to prevent his capital from being delivered to the enemy. There
is not a moment to be lost!"
Urging his advance accordingly, Napoleon reached Troyes on the night of
the 29th, his men having marched fifteen leagues since daybreak. General
Dejean, his aide-de-camp, rode on before him bound for Paris to announce
to the Parisians that the Emperor flew to succor them.
On the 30th Macdonald attempted to convince him that the fate of Paris
must have been decided ere he could reach it, and advised him to march,
without further delay, so as to form a conjunction with Augereau. "In
that case," said the marshal, "we may unite and repose our troops, and
yet give the enemy battle on a chosen field. If Providence has decreed
our last hour, we shall at least die with honor, instead of being
dispersed, pillaged and slaughtered by Cossacks."
The Emperor was unwilling to abide by the counsel of his marshal, but
continued to advance; finding the road beyond Troyes clear he threw
himself into a postchaise and traveled on before his army at full speed.
At Villeneuve L'Archereque he mounted on horseback and galloping without
a pause, reached Fontainebleau late at night. Here he ordered a
carriage, and taking Caulaincourt and Berthier, drove on towards Paris.
He was still of the belief that he was yet in time--until, while he was
changing horses at an inn called "La Cour de France," but a few miles
from Paris, General Belliard came up, at the head of a weary column of
cavalry marching towards Fontainebleau, in consequence of the provisions
of Marmont's treaty with the Allies. He was too late! Paris had
capitulated!
Leaping from his carriage as the words reached his ears, the Emperor
exclaimed, "What means this? Why here with your cavalry, Belliard? And
where are the enemy? Where are my wife and boy? Where Marmont? Where
Mortier?"
Belliard, walking by his side, told him of the events of the day. Still
the Emperor insisted on continuing his journey although again informed
there was no longer an army in Paris; that the regulars were all coming
behind, and that neither they nor he himself, having left the city in
consequence of a convention, could possibly return to it. It seemed
impossible for him to comprehend the astounding intelligence of Belliard
who said; "Paris is surrounded by one hundred and thirty thousand
enemies."
Napoleon bade Belliard turn with his cavalry and follow him. "Come" said
he "we must return to Paris,--nothing goes aright when I am away--they
do nothing but blunder!" As he progressed he continued, "You should have
held out longer--you should have raised Paris--they cannot like the
Cossacks--they would surely have defended their walls. Go! Go! I see
everyone has lost his senses. This comes of employing fools and
cowards."
The Emperor and Belliard continued Paris-ward, until they were met, a
mile beyond the post-house, by the first column of the retreating
infantry. Their commander, General Curial, reiterated what Belliard had
said. "In proceeding to Paris," he said, "you rush on to death or
captivity." The Emperor then became at once perfectly composed and
abandoned his design, gave orders that the troops, as they arrived,
should draw up behind the little river Essonne, and dispatched
Caulaincourt to Paris to ascertain if it were yet possible for him to
interpose in the treaty. Having taken this measure he turned back
towards Fontainebleau.
Caulaincourt reached the Czar's quarters at Pantin early in the morning
of the 31st of March where he found a deputation from the municipality
of Paris waiting to present the keys of the city and invoke the
protection of the conqueror. The Czar received them immediately on
arriving and promised that the capital, and all within it, should be
treated with perfect consideration.
Caulaincourt then found his way to Alexander; but he was dismissed
immediately. The Allies had practically agreed in favoring the
restoration of the Bourbons, ere any part of their forces entered the
capital, and a proclamation signed, "Schwartzenberg, Commander of the
Chief of the Allied Armies" was distributed throughout Paris in which
there were many phrases not to be reconciled with any other position.
The royalists welcomed with exultation the dawn of the 31st and issued
proclamations of their own appealing for restoration, besides parading
the streets without interruption from either the civil authorities or of
the National Guard, although decorated with the symbols of their cause.
At noon the first of the Allied troops began to pass the barrier and
enter the city, and the triumphal procession lasted for several hours.
Fifty thousand troops, horse, foot and artillery, marched along the
boulevards and in their midst appeared the youthful Czar and the King of
Prussia, followed by a dazzling suite of princes, ambassadors and
generals.
The Czar repaired to the hotel of Talleyrand where a council was
convened. Alexander and Frederick were urged to re-establish the House
of Bourbon. They hesitated: "It is but a few days ago" said the Czar,
"since a column of five or six thousand troops suffered themselves to be
cut in pieces before my eyes, when a single cry of '_Vive le Roi!_'
would have saved them." One of those present answered "Such things will
go on as long as you continue to treat with Bonaparte even although at
this moment he has a halter round his neck." The Czar did not understand
this allusion until it was explained to him that the Parisians were busy
pulling down Napoleon's statue from the top of the great pillar in the
Place Vendome.
Alexander now signed a proclamation asserting the resolution of the
Allies "to treat no more with Napoleon Bonaparte, or any of his family."
That same evening the Czar, by his minister, declared that "Louis XVIII
will immediately ascend the throne." A few days later myriads of hands
were busy in every corner of the city pulling down the statues and
pictures and effacing the arms of Napoleon.
Caulaincourt returned to Fontainebleau in the night between the 2d and
3d of April and informed Napoleon that the monarchs he had so often
spared, and whose royal destinies he could have closed after Austerlitz,
Jena, and Wagram, refused to treat with him,--and demanded his
abdication. He added that the Allies had not yet, in his opinion, made
up their minds to resist the scheme of a regency, but that he was
commissioned to say that nothing could be arranged as to ulterior
questions, until he, the Emperor, had formally abdicated.
Napoleon was not yet prepared to give up his throne; the news both
irritated him and made him indignant. He again wished to try the lot of
arms; but his old companions-in-arms declared they would take no further
part in the war. The next day, the 4th of April, he reviewed some of his
troops, addressed them on "the treasonable proceedings in the capital,"
and announced his intention of instantly marching thither, being
answered by shouts of "Paris! Paris!" Nearly 50,000 men were now
stationed around Fontainebleau. On parade, Napoleon looked pale and
thoughtful, while his convulsive motions manifested his internal
struggles, and he did not stop many minutes. On retiring to the
chateau, after the review, the Emperor was followed by his marshals, who
informed him that if he refused to negotiate on the basis of his
personal abdication, and persisted in risking an attack on Paris, they
would not accompany him. He paused for a moment in silence--then a long
debate ensued, ending in his drawing up and signing the following: _The
Allied Powers having proclaimed that the Emperor Napoleon was the sole
obstacle to the re-establishment of peace in Europe, he, faithful to his
oath, declares that he is ready to descend from the throne, to quit
France, and even to relinquish life, for the good of his country; which
is inseparable from the rights of his Son, from those of the Regency in
the person of the Empress, and from the maintenance of the laws of the
Empire._
_Done at our Palace of Fontainebleau, April the 4th, 1814._
NAPOLEON.
Caulaincourt was appointed to bear this document to Paris and the
marshals proposed that Ney should accompany him. It was suggested that
Marmont should also form a part of the deputation but he being in
command at Essonne, Macdonald was named in his stead. The officers now
desired to know on what stipulations, as concerned the Emperor
personally, they were to insist. "On none," he answered; "obtain the
best terms you can for France--for myself I ask nothing." They then
departed.
Shortly afterwards Napoleon asked Oudinot if the troops would follow
him. "No, Sire" answered the marshal, "you have abdicated."
"Yes, upon certain conditions."
"The soldiers" resumed Oudinot, "do not comprehend the difference; they
think you have no more any right to command them."
"Well then," said Napoleon, "it is no more to be thought of; let us wait
for accounts from Paris."
Marmont, whom he had loaded with favors, had in the meantime joined the
Allies, and by a nocturnal march of his army passed over into the midst
of the enemy, enabling them to appear more exacting than ever, and which
caused Napoleon to denounce his treason to the army by an order of the
day in which he scanned the conduct of the Senate who had also, on April
2d, declared Napoleon Bonaparte and his family expelled from the throne
of France. "Marshal Marmont's desertion was a mortal blow to the
Imperial cause," says Meneval. "It decided the Emperor Alexander, who
till then had appeared to hesitate on the question of a regency, to
exact in the name of the Allied Powers, the unconditional abdication of
the Emperor." Talleyrand said dryly, when someone called Marmont a
traitor, "his watch only went a little faster than the others," and in
this he spoke truthfully, for officers of all ranks now rapidly
abandoned the camp at Fontainebleau, and presented themselves to swear
allegiance to the new government, impatient to enjoy in peace the honors
and riches with which Napoleon had loaded them.
Caulaincourt, Ney and Macdonald, on being admitted to the presence of
the Czar, the act of abdication was produced. Alexander was surprised
that it should have contained no stipulations for Napoleon personally;
"but I have been his friend" said he "and I will willingly be his
advocate. I propose that he shall retain his imperial title, with the
sovereignty of Elba, or some other island."
When Napoleon's envoys retired from the presence of the Czar it still
remained doubtful whether the abdication would be accepted in its
present form, or the Allies would insist on an unconditional surrender.
At length they signified their intention to accept of nothing but an
unconditional abdication. These terms were finally borne by the marshals
to their waiting chief. The marshals returned in the night about twelve.
Ney entered first: "Well, have you succeeded?", said Napoleon.
"Revolutions do not retrograde," answered the veteran marshal, "this has
begun its course; it was too late: tomorrow the Senate will recognize
the Bourbons."
"Where shall I be able to live with my family?"
"Where your Majesty pleases; for example, in the isle of Elba, with a
revenue of six millions."
"Six millions! that is a great deal for a soldier as I am. I see very
well I must submit."
The form of abdication submitted by the marshals was to the following
purport:
1st. The imperial title to be preserved by Napoleon, with the free
sovereignty of Elba, guards, and a navy suitable to the extent of that
island; a pension, from France, of six millions of francs annually.
2d. The Duchies of Parma, Placentia and Guastalla to be granted in
sovereignty to Marie Louise and her heirs, and
3d. Two millions and a half of francs annually to be paid, by the French
government, in pensions to Josephine and other members of the Bonaparte
family.
Napoleon hesitated when he received the formal ultimatum of the invading
powers. He thought seriously of continuing the war, but the group of his
personal followers had been rapidly thinned by desertion.
On the 11th of April he at length abandoned all hope and the next day
executed an instrument called the treaty of Fontainebleau formally
"renouncing for himself and his heirs, the thrones of France and Italy."
Concerning the act Napoleon said, "I blush for it; what avails a treaty,
since they will not settle the interests of France with me. If only my
personal interests are concerned, there is no need of a treaty. I am
conquered; I yield to the fate of arms. All I ask is, not to be
accounted a prisoner of war." To all suggestions referring to his
providing for his future wants he replied, "What matters it? A horse and
a crown a day are all I want!"
"Napoleon, when he affixed his name to the abdication" says Baron Fain,
his secretary, "made two or three scratches, and a dent, with the stump
of his pen, or back of a knife, on the little, round, claw-footed,
yellow table, on which it was signed. After the resignation of the
Empire, he spent his time either in conversation in his apartment, or in
a small English garden at the back of the palace.... Napoleon, during
those days of distress, was seated alone for hours and amused himself by
kicking a hole, a foot deep, with his heel, in the gravel beneath.... At
the moment of Bonaparte's abdication, he remarked that instruments of
destruction had been left in his way; he seemed to think that they were
placed there purposely, in order that he might attempt his own life; and
with a sardonic smile, said, 'Self-murder is sometimes committed for
love--what folly! Sometimes for the loss of fortune--there it is
_cowardice_! Another cannot live after he has been disgraced--_what
weakness_! But to survive the loss of Empire, to be exposed to the
results of one's contemporaries,--_that is true courage_!'"
XV
EXILE TO ELBA
The armies of the Allies had gradually pushed forward from Paris and now
nearly surrounded Fontainebleau. When the last of the marshals had
quitted Napoleon's presence for the night, after imperiously demanding
his resignation, he revolted at the humiliations he had to undergo and
disgusted at their cowardice, exclaimed: "These men have neither hearts
nor entrails. I am conquered less by fortune than by the selfishness and
ingratitude of my brothers-in-arms!" The same night, in a fit of despair
he swallowed a weak poison contained in a bag that he had worn around
his neck since 1808. The palace was aroused by his cries and Dr. Yvan
hastily summoned by his valet. An antidote was given him and his life
saved. To Caulaincourt he said an hour later: "God would not allow it. I
could not die. Why did they not let me die? It is not the loss of my
throne that makes existence insupportable to me. My military career is
enough glory for one man. Do you know what is more difficult to bear
than reverses of fortune? It is the baseness, the horrible ingratitude
of men. I turned my head away with horror from the sight of their
meanness and their contemptible selfishness, and I am disgusted with
life. What I have suffered during the last three weeks, no one can
tell."
Some months later, while at Elba, Napoleon ascribed his ruin entirely to
Marmont, to whom he had confided some of his best troops, and a post of
the greatest importance, as a person on whose devotion to him he could
most depend. "For how could I expect to be betrayed," he said, "by a man
whom I had loaded with kindness from the time he was fifteen years of
age? Had he stood firm, I could have driven the Allies out of Paris, and
the people there,--as well as throughout France,--would have risen, in
spite of the Senate, if they had had a few troops to support them."
The Emperor remained long enough at Fontainebleau to hear of the
restoration of the Bourbon Monarchy, and on the 20th of April, the
commissioners of the Allied Sovereigns having arrived, he once more
called his loyal officers about him and signified that they were
summoned to receive his last adieu. A few of the marshals and others who
had sworn fealty to the new monarch were also present. "Louis" (the
King), Napoleon said, "has talents and means: he is old and infirm; and
will not, I think, choose to give a bad name to his reign. If he is
wise, he will occupy my bed, and only change the sheets. He must treat
the army well, and take care not to look back on the past, or his time
will be brief. For you, gentlemen, I am no longer to be with you;--you
have another government; and it will become you to attach yourselves to
it frankly, and serve it faithfully as you have served me."
As he passed along he beheld all that now remained of the most brilliant
and numerous courts in Europe, reduced to about sixteen individuals, who
thus waited to manifest their regard and respect for the fallen Emperor.
Junot, had died the year before, and Caulaincourt and General Flahault
were absent on missions. Napoleon shook hands with them all; then
hastily passing the range of carriages, he advanced towards the relics
of the Imperial Guard which he had desired to be drawn up in the
courtyard of the castle. He advanced to them on horseback and tears
dropped from his eyes as he dismounted in their midst. "Soldiers of the
Old Guard," said he, "I bid you farewell! During twenty years you have
been my constant companions in the path of honor and glory. In our last
disasters, as well as in the days of our prosperity, you invariably
proved yourselves models of courage and fidelity. With such men as you,
our cause could not have been lost; but a protracted civil war would
have ensued, and the miseries of France would thereby have been
augmented. I have, therefore, sacrificed all our interests to those of
the country. I depart: you, my friends, will continue to serve France,
whose happiness has ever been the only object of my thoughts, and still
will be the sole object of my wishes. Do not deplore my fate. If I
consent to live, it is that I may still contribute to your glory. I will
record the great achievements we have performed together. Farewell, my
comrades! I should wish to press you all to my bosom. Let me at least
embrace your standard."
[Illustration: From a Painting by E. Meissonier
RETREAT FROM MOSCOW--"1814"]