Napoleon Bonaparte; The Man of Destiny.
The first fifteen years of the nineteenth century in Europe yield us
the history of a man, rather than of a continent. France was the centre
of Europe; Napoleon, the Corsican, was the centre of France. All the
affairs of all the nations seemed to gather around this genius of war.
He was respected, feared, hated; he had risen with the suddenness of a
thundercloud on a clear horizon, and flashed the lightnings of victory
in the dazzled eyes of the nations. All the events of the period were
concentrated into one great event, and the name of that event was
Napoleon. He seemed incarnate war, organized destruction; sword in hand
he dominated the nations, and victory sat on his banners with folded
wings. He was, in a full sense, the man of destiny, and Europe was his
prey.
[=A Remarkable Man and a Wonderful Career=]
Never has there been a more wonderful career. The earlier great
conquerors began life at the top; Napoleon began his at the bottom.
Alexander was a king; Cæsar was an aristocrat of the Roman republic;
Napoleon rose from the people, and was not even a native of the land
which became the scene of his exploits. Pure force of military genius
lifted him from the lowest to the highest place among mankind, and
for long and terrible years Europe shuddered at his name and trembled
beneath the tread of his marching legions. As for France, he brought it
glory, and left it ruin and dismay.
We have briefly epitomized Napoleon's early career, his doings in the
Revolution, in Italy, and in Egypt, unto the time that France's worship
of his military genius raised him to the rank of First Consul, and gave
him in effect the power of a king. No one dared question his word,
the army was at his beck and call, the nation lay prostrate at his
feet--not in fear but in admiration. Such was the state of affairs in
France in the closing year of the eighteenth century. The Revolution
was at an end; the Republic existed only as a name; Napoleon was the
autocrat of France and the terror of Europe. From this point we resume
the story of his career.
[=The Enemies and Friends of France.=]
The First Consul began his reign with two enemies in the field, England
and Austria. Prussia was neutral, and he had won the friendship of
Paul, the emperor of Russia, by a shrewd move. While the other nations
refused to exchange the Russian prisoners they held, Napoleon sent
home 6,000 of these captives, newly clad and armed, under their own
leaders, and without demanding ransom. This was enough to win to his
side the weak-minded Paul, whose delight in soldiers he well knew.
Napoleon now had but two enemies in arms to deal with. He wrote letters
to the king of England and the emperor of Austria, offering peace. The
answers were cold and insulting, asking France to take back her Bourbon
kings and return to her old boundaries. Nothing remained but war.
Napoleon prepared for it with his usual rapidity, secrecy, and keenness
of judgment.
There were two French armies in the field in the spring of 1800,
Moreau commanding in Germany, Massena in Italy. Switzerland, which was
occupied by the French, divided the armies of the enemy, and Napoleon
determined to take advantage of the separation of their forces, and
strike an overwhelming blow. He sent word to Moreau and Massena to keep
the enemy in check at any cost, and secretly gathered a third army,
whose corps were dispersed here and there, while the powers of Europe
were aware only of the army of reserve at Dijon, made up of conscripts
and invalids.
[=Movements of the Armies in Germany and Italy=]
Meanwhile the armies in Italy and Germany were doing their best to
obey orders. Massena was attacked by the Austrians before he could
concentrate his troops, his army was cut in two, and he was forced to
fall back upon Genoa, in which city he was closely besieged, with a
fair prospect of being conquered by starvation if not soon relieved.
Moreau was more fortunate. He defeated the Austrians in a series of
battles and drove them back on Ulm, where he blockaded them in their
camp. All was ready for the great movement which Napoleon had in view.
Twenty centuries before Hannibal had led his army across the great
mountain barrier of the Alps, and poured down like an avalanche upon
the fertile plains of Italy. The Corsican determined to repeat this
brilliant achievement and emulate Hannibal's career. Several passes
across the mountains seemed favorable to his purpose, especially those
of the St. Bernard, the Simplon and Mont Cenis. Of these the first
was the most difficult; but it was much the shorter, and Napoleon
determined to lead the main body of his army over this ice-covered
mountain pass, despite its dangers and difficulties. The enterprise was
one to deter any man less bold than Hannibal or Napoleon, but it was
welcome to the hardihood and daring of these men, who rejoiced in the
seemingly impossible and spurned at hardships and perils.
[=Napoleon Crosses the Alps at St. Bernard Pass=]
The task of the Corsican was greater than that of the Carthaginian. He
had cannon to transport, while Hannibal's men carried only swords and
spears. But the genius of Napoleon was equal to the task. The cannon
were taken from their carriages and placed in the hollowed-out trunks
of trees, which could be dragged with ropes over the ice and snow.
Mules were used to draw the gun-carriages and the wagon-loads of food
and munitions of war. Stores of provisions had been placed at suitable
points along the road.
Thus prepared, Napoleon, on the 16th of May, 1800, began his remarkable
march, while smaller divisions of the army were sent over the Simplon,
the St. Gothard and Mont Cenis passes. It was an arduous enterprise.
The mules proved unequal to the task given to them; the peasants
refused to aid in this severe work; the soldiers were obliged to
harness themselves to the cannon, and drag them by main strength over
the rocky and ice-covered mountain path. The First Consul rode on a
mule at the head of the rear-guard, serene and cheerful, chatting with
his guide as with a friend, and keeping up the courage of the soldiers
by his own indomitable spirit.
A few hours' rest at the hospice of St. Bernard, and the descent was
begun, an enterprise even more difficult than the ascent. For five
days the dread journey continued, division following division, corps
succeeding corps. The point of greatest peril was reached at Aosta,
where, on a precipitous rock, stood the little Austrian fort of Bard,
its artillery commanding the narrow defile.
It was night when the vanguard reached this threatening spot. It was
passed in dead silence, tow being wrapped round the wheels of the
carriages and a layer of straw and refuse spread on the frozen ground,
while the troops followed a narrow path over the neighboring mountains.
By daybreak the passage was made and the danger at an end.
[=The Situation in Italy=]
The sudden appearance of the French in Italy was an utter surprise
to the Austrians. They descended like a torrent into the valley,
seized Ivry, and five days after reaching Italy met and repulsed an
Austrian force. The divisions which had crossed by other passes one
by one joined Napoleon. Melas, the Austrian commander, was warned
of the danger that impended, but refused to credit the seemingly
preposterous story. His men were scattered, some besieging Massena, in
Genoa, some attacking Suchet on the Var. His danger was imminent, for
Napoleon, leaving Massena to starve in Genoa, had formed the design of
annihilating the Austrian army at one tremendous blow.
[Illustration: NAPOLEON CROSSING THE ALPS
The renowned exploit of Hannibal leading an army
across the lofty and frozen passes of the Alps, was
emulated by Napoleon in 1800, when he led his army
across the St. Bernard Pass, descended like a torrent
on the Austrians in Italy, and defeated them in the
great battle of Marengo.]
[Illustration: NAPOLEON AND THE MUMMY OF PHARAOH
Strange thoughts must have passed through the mind of
him soon to be Emperor of France, in gazing on the
shriveled form of one of the great monarchs of old
Egypt. Did he not ask himself then: what are glory and
power worth, if this is the end of kingly greatness?]
The people of Lombardy, weary of the Austrian yoke, and hoping for
liberty under the rule of France, received the new-comers with
transport, and lent them what aid they could. On June 9th, Marshall
Lannes met and defeated the Austrians at Montebello, after a hot
engagement. "I heard the bones crackle like a hailstorm on the roofs,"
he said. On the 14th, the two armies met on the plain of Marengo, and
one of the most famous of Napoleon's battles began.
[=The Famous Field of Marengo=]
Napoleon was not ready for the coming battle, and was taken by
surprise. He had been obliged to break up his army in order to guard
all the passages open to the enemy. When he entered, on the 13th, the
plain between the Scrivia and the Bormida, near the little village of
Marengo, he was ignorant of the movements of the Austrians, and was not
expecting the onset of Melas, who, on the following morning, crossed
the Bormida by three bridges, and made a fierce assault upon the
divisions of generals Victor and Lannes. Victor was vigorously attacked
and driven back, and Marengo was destroyed by the Austrian cannon.
Lannes was surrounded by overwhelming numbers, and, fighting furiously,
was forced to retreat. In the heat of the battle Bonaparte reached the
field with his guard and his staff, and found himself in the thick of
the terrific affray and his army virtually beaten.
The retreat continued. It was impossible to check it. The enemy pressed
enthusiastically forward. The army was in imminent danger of being
cut in two. But Napoleon, with obstinate persistence, kept up the
fight, hoping for some change in the perilous situation. Melas, on
the contrary,--an old man, weary of his labors, and confident in the
seeming victory,--withdrew to his headquarters at Alessandria, whence
he sent off despatches to the effect that the terrible Corsican had at
length met defeat.
He did not know his man. Napoleon sent an aide-de-camp in all haste
after Desaix, one of his most trusted generals, who had just returned
from Egypt, and whose corps he had detached towards Novi. All depended
upon his rapid return. Without Desaix the battle was lost. Fortunately
the alert general did not wait for the messenger. His ears caught the
sound of distant cannon and, scenting danger, he marched back with the
utmost speed.
Napoleon met his welcome officer with eyes of joy and hope. "You see
the situation," he said, rapidly explaining the state of affairs. "What
is to be done?"
[=A Great Battle Lost and Won=]
"It is a lost battle," Desaix replied. "But there are some hours of
daylight yet. We have time to win another."
While he talked with the commander, his regiments had hastily formed,
and now presented a threatening front to the Austrians. Their presence
gave new spirit to the retreating troops.
"Soldiers and friends," cried Napoleon to them, "remember that it is my
custom to sleep upon the field of battle."
Back upon their foes turned the retreating troops, with new animation,
and checked the victorious Austrians. Desaix hurried to his men and
placed himself at their head.
"Go and tell the First Consul that I am about to charge," he said to an
aide. "I need to be supported by cavalry."
A few minutes afterwards, as he was leading his troops irresistibly
forward, a ball struck him in the breast, inflicting a mortal wound. "I
have been too long making war in Africa; the bullets of Europe know me
no more," he sadly said. "Conceal my death from the men; it might rob
them of spirit."
The soldiers had seen him fall, but, instead of being dispirited,
they were filled with fury, and rushed forward furiously to avenge
their beloved leader. At the same time Kellermann arrived with his
dragoons, impetuously hurled them upon the Austrian cavalry, broke
through their columns, and fell upon the grenadiers who were wavering
before the troops of Desaix. It was a death-stroke. The cavalry and
infantry together swept them back in a disorderly retreat. One whole
corps, hopeless of escape, threw down its arms and surrendered. The
late victorious army was everywhere in retreat. The Austrians were
crowded back upon the Bormida, here blocking the bridges, there
flinging themselves into the stream, on all sides flying from the
victorious French. The cannon stuck in the muddy stream and were left
to the victors. When Melas, apprised of the sudden change in the
aspect of affairs, hurried back in dismay to the field, the battle was
irretrievably lost, and General Zach, his representative in command,
was a prisoner in the hands of the French. The field was strewn with
thousands of the dead. The slain Desaix and the living Kellermann had
turned the Austrian victory into defeat and saved Napoleon.
[=The Result of the Victory of Marengo=]
A few days afterwards, on the 19th, Moreau in Germany won a brilliant
victory at Hochstadt, near Blenheim, took 5,000 prisoners and twenty
pieces of cannon, and forced from the Austrians an armed truce which
left him master of South Germany. A still more momentous armistice was
signed by Melas in Italy, by which the Austrians surrendered Piedmont,
Lombardy, and all their territory as far as the Mincio, leaving France
master of Italy. Melas protested against these severe terms, but
Napoleon was immovable.
"I did not begin to make war yesterday," he said. "I know your
situation. You are out of provisions, encumbered with the dead,
wounded, and sick, and surrounded on all sides. I could exact
everything. I ask only what the situation of affairs demands. I have no
other terms to offer."
[=Napoleon Returns to France=]
During the night of the 2d and 3d of July, Napoleon re-entered Paris,
which he had left less than two months before. Brilliant ovations met
him on his route, and all France would have prostrated itself at his
feet had he permitted. He came crowned with the kind of glory which is
especially dear to the French, that gained on field of battle.
Five months afterwards, Austria having refused to make peace without
the concurrence of England, and the truce being at an end, another
famous victory was added to the list of those which were being
inscribed upon the annals of France. On the 3d of December the veterans
under Moreau met an Austrian army under the Archduke John, on the plain
of Hohenlinden, across which ran the small river Iser.
[=Moreau and the Great Battle of Hohenlinden=]
The Austrians marched through the forest of Hohenlinden, looking for no
resistance, and unaware that Moreau's army awaited their exit. As they
left the shelter of the trees and debouched upon the plain, they were
attacked by the French in force. Two divisions had been despatched to
take them in the rear, and Moreau held back his men to give them the
necessary time. The snow was falling in great flakes, yet through it
his keen eyes saw some signs of confusion in the hostile ranks.
"Richepanse has struck them in the rear," he said, "the time has come
to charge."
Ney rushed forward at the head of his troops, driving the enemy in
confusion before him. The centre of the Austrian army was hemmed in
between the two forces. Decaen had struck their left wing in the rear
and forced it back upon the Inn. Their right was driven into the
valley. The day was lost to the Austrians, whose killed and wounded
numbered 8,000, while the French had taken 12,000 prisoners and
eighty-seven pieces of cannon.
The victorious French advanced, sweeping back all opposition, until
Vienna, the Austrian capital, lay before them, only a few leagues away.
His staff officers urged Moreau to take possession of the city.
"That would be a fine thing to do, no doubt," he said; "but to my fancy
to dictate terms of peace will be a finer thing still."
[=The Peace of Luneville=]
The Austrians were ready for peace at any price. On Christmas day,
1800, an armistice was signed which delivered to the French the valley
of the Danube, the country of the Tyrol, a number of fortresses, and
immense magazines of war materials. The war continued in Italy till the
end of December, when a truce was signed there and the conflict was at
an end.
Thus the nineteenth century dawned with France at truce with all her
foes except Great Britain. In February, 1801, a treaty of peace between
Austria and France was signed at Luneville, in which the valley of
the Etsch and the Rhine was acknowledged as the boundary of France.
Austria was forced to relinquish all her possessions in Italy, except
the city of Venice and a portion of Venetia; all the remainder of North
Italy falling into the hands of France. Europe was at peace with the
exception of the hostile relations still existing between England and
France.
[=The Peace of Amiens=]
The war between these two countries was mainly confined to Egypt,
where remained the army which Napoleon had left in his hasty return
to France. As it became evident in time that neither the British land
forces nor the Turkish troops could overcome the French veterans in the
valley of the Nile, a treaty was arranged which stipulated that the
French soldiers, 24,000 in all, should be taken home in English ships,
with their arms and ammunition, Egypt being given back to the rule of
the Sultan. This was followed by the peace of Amiens (March 27, 1802),
between England and France, and the long war was, for the time, at an
end. Napoleon had conquered peace.
During the period of peaceful relations that followed Napoleon was by
no means at rest. His mind was too active to yield him long intervals
of leisure. There was much to be done in France in sweeping away the
traces of the revolutionary insanity. One of the first cares of the
Consul was to restore the Christian worship in the French churches and
to abolish the Republican festivals. But he had no intention of giving
the church back its old power and placing another kingship beside
his own. He insisted that the French church should lose its former
supremacy and sink to the position of a servant of the Pope and of the
temporal sovereign of France.
Establishing his court as First Consul in the Tuileries, Napoleon began
to bring back the old court fashions and etiquette, and attempted to
restore the monarchical customs and usages. The elegance of royalty
reappeared, and it seemed almost as if monarchy had been restored.
A further step towards the restoration of the kingship was soon taken.
Napoleon, as yet Consul only for ten years, had himself appointed
Consul for life, with the power of naming his successor. He was king
now in everything but the name. But he was not suffered to wear his new
honor in safety. His ambition had aroused the anger of the republicans,
conspiracies rose around him, and more than once his life was in
danger. On his way to the opera house an infernal machine was exploded,
killing several persons but leaving him unhurt.
[Illustration: NAPOLEON BONAPARTE]
[Illustration: MEETING OF TWO SOVEREIGNS
Pope Pius VII, at the request, almost the command, of
Napoleon, came from Rome to France in 1804 to crown
the great conqueror Emperor of the French. He was very
ceremoniously received by Napoleon, and treated with
every outward show of honor. Years afterwards he was
brought to France and forced to reside there, as the
virtual captive of the Emperor.]
[=The Punishment of the Conspirators and the Assassination of the
Duke d'Enghien=]
Other plots were organized, and Fouché, the police-agent of the time,
was kept busy in seeking the plotters, for whom there was brief
mercy when found. Even Moreau, the victor at Hohenlinden, accused of
negotiating with the conspirators, was disgraced, and exiled himself
from France. Napoleon dealt with his secret enemies with the same
ruthless energy as he did with his foes in the field of battle.
His rage at the attempts upon his life, indeed, took a form that has
been universally condemned. The Duke d'Enghien, a royalist French
nobleman, grandson of the Prince of Condé, who was believed by Napoleon
to be the soul of the royalist conspiracies, ventured too near the
borders of France, and was seized in foreign territory, taken in haste
to Paris, and shot without form of law or a moment's opportunity for
defence. The outrage excited the deepest indignation throughout Europe.
No name was given it but murder, and the historians of to-day speak of
the act by no other title.
The opinion of the world had little effect upon Napoleon. He was a law
unto himself. The death of one man or of a thousand men weighed nothing
to him where his safety or his ambition was concerned. Men were the
pawns he used in the great game of empire, and he heeded not how many
of them were sacrificed so that he won the game.
[=Napoleon Crowned Emperor of the French=]
The culmination of his ambition came in 1804, when the hope he had long
secretly cherished, that of gaining the imperial dignity was realized.
He imitated the example of Cæsar, the Roman conqueror, in seeking the
crown as a reward for his victories, and was elected emperor of the
French by an almost unanimous vote. That the sanction of the church
might be obtained for the new dignity, the Pope was constrained to come
to Paris, and there anointed him emperor on December 2, 1804.
The new emperor hastened to restore the old insignia of royalty.
He surrounded himself with a brilliant court, brought back the
discarded titles of nobility, named the members of his family princes
and princesses, and sought to banish every vestige of republican
simplicity. Ten years before he had begun his career in the streets of
Paris by sweeping away with cannon-shot the mob that rose in support of
the Reign of Terror. Now he had swept away the Republic of France and
founded a French empire, with himself at its head as Napoleon I.
But though royalty was restored, it was not a royalty of the old type.
Feudalism was at an end. The revolution had destroyed the last relics
of that effete and abominable system, and it was an empire on new and
modern lines which Napoleon had founded, a royalty voted into existence
by a free people, not resting upon a nation of slaves.
[=The Great Works Devised By the New Emperor=]
The new emperor did not seek to enjoy in leisure his new dignity. His
restless mind impelled him to broad schemes of public improvement. He
sought glory in peace as actively as in war. Important changes were
made in the management of the finances in order to provide the great
sums needed for the government, the army, and the state. Vast contracts
were made for road and canal building, and ambitious architectural
labors were set in train. Churches were erected, the Pantheon was
completed, triumphal arches were built, two new bridges were thrown
over the Seine, the Louvre was ordered to be finished, the Bourse to
be constructed, and a temple consecrated to the exploits of the army
(now the church of the Madeleine) to be built. Thousands of workmen
were kept busy in erecting these monuments to his glory, and all France
resounded with his fame.
Among the most important of these evidences of his activity of
intellect was the formation of the _Code Napoleon_, the first organized
code of French law, and still the basis of jurisprudence in France.
First promulgated in 1801, as the Civil Code of France, its title was
changed to the _Code Napoleon_ in 1804, and as such it stands as one
of the greatest monuments raised by Napoleon to his glory. Thus the
Consul, and subsequently the Emperor, usefully occupied himself in the
brief intervals between his almost incessant wars.