was entering the House, about five o'clock, a man of gentlemanly
appearance presented a pistol, and shot him dead--at least, he did
not survive two minutes. In the confusion and consternation the man
might have escaped, but he made no such attempt; he walked up to the
fireplace, laid down his pistol on a bench, and said, in answer to
those inquiring after the murderer, that he was the person. He gave
his name as Bellingham, expressed satisfaction at the deed, but said
that he should have been more pleased had it been Lord Leveson Gower.
In fact, his prime intention was to shoot Lord Gower, but he had also
his resentment against Perceval, and therefore took the opportunity
of securing one of his victims. It appeared that he had been a
Liverpool merchant, trading to Russia, and that, during the embassy
of Lord Leveson Gower at St. Petersburg he had suffered severe and,
as he deemed, unjust losses, for assistance in the redress of which
with the Russian Government he had in vain sought the good offices of
the ambassador. On his return to England he had applied to Perceval;
but that Minister did not deem it a case in which Government could
interfere, and hence the exasperation of the unhappy man against both
diplomatists. The trial of the murderer came on at the Old Bailey,
before Chief Justice Mansfield, on the Friday of the same week. A
plea of insanity was put in by Bellingham's counsel, and it was
demanded that the trial should be postponed till inquiries could be
made at Liverpool as to his antecedents. But this plea was overruled.
Bellingham himself indignantly rejected the idea of his being insane.
He declared that the act was the consequence of a cool determination
to punish the Minister for the refusal of justice to him, and he again
repeated, in the presence of Lord Leveson Gower, that his chief object
had been himself for his cruel disregard of his wrongs. Both Lord
Mansfield and the rest of the judges would hear of no delay; a verdict
of "Wilful Murder" was brought in by the jury, and they condemned him
to be hanged, and he was duly hanged on the following Monday at nine
o'clock, exactly the day week of the perpetration of the act.
[Illustration: ASSASSINATION OF SPENCER PERCEVAL. (_See p._ 23.)]
An attempt was again made on the part of Grey and Grenville to form
a Ministry, but without effect. Overtures were then made to Lord
Wellesley and Canning, who declined to join the Cabinet, alleging
differences of opinion on the Catholic claims and on the scale for
carrying on the war in the Peninsula. In the House of Commons, on
the 21st of May, Mr. Stuart Wortley, afterwards Lord Wharncliffe,
moved and carried a resolution for an address to the Regent, praying
him to endeavour to form a Coalition Ministry. During a whole week
such endeavours were made, and various audiences had by Lords Moira,
Wellesley, Eldon, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, etc., and Moira was
authorised to make proposals to Wellesley and Canning, to Grey and
Grenville. But all these negotiations fell through. Grey and Grenville
refused to come in unless they could have the rearrangement of the
Royal Household. This demand was yielded by the Regent, but Sheridan,
who hated them, did not deliver the message, and so the attempt failed.
But at the same time, apart altogether from this matter, they could not
have pursued any effectual policy. It was therefore much better that
they should not come in at all.
On the 8th of June the Earl of Liverpool announced to the House of
Lords that a Ministry had been formed; that the Prince Regent had been
pleased to appoint him First Lord of the Treasury, and to authorise him
to complete the Cabinet. Earl Bathurst succeeded Liverpool as Secretary
of the Colonies and Secretary at War; Sidmouth became Secretary of
the Home Department; the Earl of Harrowby President of the Council;
Nicholas Vansittart Chancellor of the Exchequer; Lord Melville, the
son of the old late Lord, First Lord of the Admiralty; the Earl
of Buckinghamshire President of the Board of Control; Castlereagh
Secretary of Foreign Affairs; Mulgrave Master-General of the Ordnance;
Eldon Lord Chancellor; Mr. F. Robinson became Vice-President of the
Board of Trade and Treasurer of the Navy; Lord Clancarty President of
the Board of Trade; Sir Thomas Plumer was made Attorney-General, and
Sir William Garrow succeeded him as Solicitor-General. In Ireland, the
Duke of Richmond became Lord-Lieutenant; Lord Manners Lord Chancellor;
and Mr. Robert Peel, who now first emerged into public notice, Chief
Secretary. The Cabinet, thus reconstructed, promised exactly the
policy of the late Premier, and, indeed, with increased vigour. On
the 17th of June the new Chancellor of the Exchequer introduced the
Budget--professedly that of Spencer Perceval--which exceeded the
grants of the former year by upwards of six millions--that having been
fifty-six millions twenty-one thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine
pounds, this being sixty-two millions three hundred and seventy-six
thousand three hundred and forty-eight pounds. New taxes were imposed,
and two more loans raised and added to the Debt.
The effects of the monstrous drain of the war on the revenues of the
country were now beginning to show themselves in the manufacturing
districts, and the workpeople had broken out in serious riots in
Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Cheshire. Instead of attributing their
distresses to the vast system of taxation, they attributed them to the
increase of machinery, and broke into the mills in many places and
destroyed it. This was only adding to the misery by destroying capital,
and stopping the very machinery which gave them bread. A committee
of inquiry was instituted, and the result showed that the members
of Parliament were not a whit more enlightened than the artisans
themselves. Instead of attempting to find some means of ameliorating
the condition of the starving population--which, indeed, they could
not do, for nothing but peace and reduction of taxation, and the
restoration of the natural conditions of commerce could do it,--they
recommended coercion, and Lord Castlereagh brought in a severe Bill for
the purpose,--the first of many such Bills of his, which nearly drove
the people eventually to revolution, and, by a more fortunate turn,
precipitated reform of Parliament. This Bill, the operation of which
was limited to the following March, was carried by large majorities,
and Parliament, thinking it had done enough to quiet hungry stomachs
in the north, was prorogued on the 30th of July, and on the 20th of
September dissolved.
The changes in, and uncertainty about, the Ministry gave great
uneasiness to Lord Wellington, whose operations in Spain depended so
much on earnest support at home. During the latter part of the autumn
and the commencement of winter, whilst his army was in cantonments, he
was actively preparing to surprise the French, and make himself master
of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz. With much activity, but without bustle,
he made his preparations at Almeida. Pretending to be only repairing
the damages to its fortifications, he got together there ample stores
and a good battering train. He prepared also a portable bridge on
trestles, and regulated the commissariat department of his army; he
also had a great number of light, yet strong waggons constructed for
the conveyance of his provisions and ammunition, to supersede the
clumsy and ponderous carts of the Portuguese.
All being ready, on the 6th of January Wellington suddenly pushed
forward to Gallegos, and on the 8th invested Ciudad Rodrigo. Nothing
could be more unexpected by Marshal Marmont, who had never suspected
any attack in winter, and had placed his army in cantonments, and had,
moreover, sent several divisions to distant points. On the very first
evening Wellington stormed an external redoubt called the Great Teson,
and established his first parallel. On the 13th he also carried the
convent of Santa Cruz, and on the 14th that of San Francisco. He then
established his second parallel, and planted fresh batteries. On the
19th he made two breaches, and, hearing that Marmont was advancing
hastily to the relief of the place, he determined to storm at once,
though it would be at a more serious exposure of life. The assault was
rapid and successful, but the slaughter on both sides was very severe.
A thousand killed and wounded were reckoned on each side, and one
thousand seven hundred prisoners were taken by the British. What made
the British loss the heavier was that General Mackinnon and many of
his brigade were killed by the explosion of a powder magazine on the
walls. General Craufurd of the Light Division, was killed, and General
Vandeleur, Colonel Colborne, and Major Napier were wounded. Much
ammunition and a battering train were found in Ciudad Rodrigo. Marmont
was astounded at the fall of the place. The Spanish Cortes, who had
been so continually hampering and criticising Wellington, now created
him Duke of Ciudad Rodrigo. He was also, in England, advanced to the
dignity of an earl, and an annuity of two thousand pounds was voted him
by Parliament.
But Wellington was not intending to stop here. He immediately made
preparations for the siege of Badajoz. He had artillery sent out to
sea from Lisbon, as for some distant expedition, and then secretly
carried, in small boats, up the Setubal, to Alcacer do Sal, and thence,
by land, across Alemtejo to the Guadiana. On the 16th of March, after
a rapid march, he reached, with a strong body of troops, the Guadiana,
crossed, and at once invested Badajoz. By the 26th he had carried
the Picurina and the advanced work separated from the city by the
little river Rivillas, and made two breaches in the city walls. There
was the same want of besieging tools and battering trains which had
retarded his operations before; but the men worked well, and on the
6th of April, there being three breaches open, orders were given to
storm, for Soult was collecting his forces at Seville to raise the
siege. One of the breaches had been so strongly barricaded by General
Philippon, the governor of Badajoz, by strong planks bristling with
iron spikes, and with _chevaux-de-frise_ of bayonets and broken swords,
that no effect could be produced on the obstruction; whilst the French,
from the ramparts and the houses overlooking them, poured down the
most destructive volleys. But the parties at the other two breaches
were more successful, and on their drawing away the French from this
quarter, the spike-beams and _chevaux-de-frise_ were knocked down,
and the British were soon masters of the place. Philippon endeavoured
to escape with a number of men, but he was obliged to throw himself
into Fort San Christoval, on the other side the Guadiana, where he was
compelled to surrender. The loss of the allies was nearly one thousand
men killed, including seventy-two officers, and three hundred and six
officers and three thousand four hundred and eighty men wounded. The
French, though they fought under cover of batteries and houses, lost
nearly one thousand five hundred men; they also delivered up upwards of
five thousand prisoners of their own nation, and nearly four thousand
Spaniards, British, and Portuguese, who had been kept at Badajoz as a
safe fortress. The British soldiers fought with their usual undaunted
bravery, but they disgraced themselves by getting drunk in the wine
cellars during the night of the storming, and committed many excesses.
Wellington, who was extremely rigorous in suppressing all such conduct,
reduced them to discipline as quickly as possible, and on the 8th
Badajoz was completely in his hands. Soult, who was at Villafranca
when he received the news, immediately retreated again on Seville,
briskly pursued by the British cavalry, who did much execution on his
rear-guard at Villagarcia.
Wellington proceeded to put Badajoz into a strong state of defence,
but he was soon called off by the movements of Marmont, who, in his
absence, had advanced and invested both Ciudad Rodrigo and Almeida.
Wellington left General Hill to watch the south, which was the more
necessary as Soult was in strong force at Seville, and Victor before
Cadiz. That general had made a vigorous attack on Tarifa towards
the end of December, but was repulsed with much loss by Colonel
Skerrett. Hill, who had about twelve thousand men, made a successful
attack on some strong forts near Almaraz, on the Tagus, erected by
the French to protect their bridge of boats there--thus closing the
communication between Soult in the south and Marmont in the north. In
these satisfactory circumstances, Wellington broke up his cantonments
between the Coa and the Agueda on the 13th of June, and commenced his
march into Spain with about forty thousand men. Of these, however,
one column consisted of Spaniards, on whom he wisely placed little
reliance, and his cavalry was small and indifferently officered in
comparison with the infantry. Marmont had as many infantry as himself,
and a much more numerous and better disciplined cavalry. As Wellington
advanced, too, he learned that General Bonnet, with a force upwards of
six thousand strong, was hastening to support Marmont. That general
abandoned Salamanca as Wellington approached, and on the 17th the
British army entered the city, to the great joy of the people, who,
during the three years which the French had held it, had suffered
inconceivable miseries and insults; not the least of these was to see
the usurper destroy twenty-two of the twenty-five colleges in this
famous seat of learning, and thirteen out of twenty-five convents.
Troops were left in different forts, both in the city and by the
bridge over the river Tormes, which forts had chiefly been constructed
out of the materials of the schools and monasteries. These were soon
compelled to surrender, but not without heavy loss. Major Bowes and
one hundred and twenty men fell in carrying those by the bridge. After
different manœuvres, Marmont showed himself on the British right,
near San Christoval, where he was met by a division under Sir Thomas
Graham, who had beaten the French at Barrosa. Fresh manœuvres then
took place: Marmont crossing and recrossing the Douro, and marching
along its banks, to cut off Wellington from his forces in Salamanca,
and to enable himself to open the way for King Joseph's troops from
Madrid. This being accomplished, and being joined by General Bonnet,
he faced the army of Wellington on the Guareña. On the 20th of July he
crossed that river, and there was a rapid movement of both armies, each
trying to prevent the other from cutting off the way to Salamanca and
Ciudad Rodrigo. On that day both armies were seen marching parallel
to each other, and now and then exchanging cannon-shots. The military
authorities present there describe the scene of those two rival
armies--making a total of ninety thousand men, and each displaying
all the splendour and discipline of arms, each general intent on
taking the other at some disadvantage--as one of the finest spectacles
ever seen in warfare. The next day both generals crossed the river
Tormes--Wellington by the bridge in his possession, the French by
fords higher up. They were now in front of Salamanca, Marmont still
manœuvring to cut off the road to Ciudad Rodrigo. On the morning of
the 22nd Marmont, favoured by some woods, gained some advantage in
that direction; but Wellington drew up his troops in great strength
behind the village of Arapiles, and Marmont extending his left to turn
the British right flank, Wellington suddenly made a desperate dash at
his line, and cut it in two. Marmont's left was quickly beaten on the
heights that he had occupied, and was driven down them at the point of
the bayonet. Marmont was so severely wounded that he was compelled to
quit the field, and give up the command to Bonnet; but Bonnet was soon
wounded too, and obliged to surrender the command to General Clausel,
who had just arrived with reinforcements from "the army of the north,"
of which Wellington had had information, and which induced him to give
battle before he could bring up all his force. Clausel reformed the
line, and made a terrible attack on the British with his artillery;
but Wellington charged again, though the fight was up hill; drove the
French from their heights with the bayonet once more, and sent them
in full rout through the woods towards the Tormes. They were sharply
pursued by the infantry, under General Anson, and the cavalry, under
Sir Stapleton Cotton, till the night stopped them. But at dawn the same
troops again pursued them, supported by more horse; and overtaking the
enemy's rear at La Serna, they drove it in--the cavalry putting spurs
to their horses, and leaving the foot to their fate. Three battalions
of these were made prisoners. As the French fled, they encountered the
main body of Clausel's army of the north, but these turned and fled
too; and on the night of the 23rd the fugitives had reached Flores de
Avila, thirty miles from the field of battle. The flight and pursuit
were continued all the way from Salamanca to Valladolid.
Lord Wellington did not give the retreating enemy much time for
repose; within the week he was approaching Valladolid and Clausel was
quitting it in all haste. On the 30th of July Wellington entered that
city amid the enthusiastic acclamations of the people. In his haste,
Clausel abandoned seventeen pieces of artillery, considerable stores,
and eight hundred sick and wounded. The priests were preparing to
make grand processions and sing a _Te Deum_ in honour of Wellington's
victories, as they had done at Salamanca; but he was much too intent
on following up his blows to stay. He was on his march the very next
day. He re-crossed the Douro to advance against King Joseph Buonaparte,
who had set out from Madrid to make a junction with Marmont, but on
arriving at Arevalo Joseph had learnt with amazement of the French
defeat, and diverted his march, with twenty thousand men, on Segovia,
in order to reinforce Clausel. Wellington left a division to guard
against Clausel's return from Burgos, whither the latter had fled,
and, collecting provisions with difficulty, he marched forward towards
Madrid. Joseph fell back as the British advanced. Wellington was at San
Ildefonso on the 9th of August, and on the 11th issued from the defiles
of the mountains into the plain on which Madrid stands. On the 12th he
entered the capital amid the most enthusiastic cheers--Joseph having
merely reached his palace to flee out of it again towards Toledo. He
had, however, left a garrison in the palace of Buon Retiro; but this
surrendered almost as soon as invested, and twenty thousand stand of
arms, one hundred and eighty pieces of ordnance, and military stores
of various kinds were found in it. These were particularly acceptable;
for it can scarcely be credited in what circumstances Wellington had
been pursuing his victorious career. We learn this, however, from his
dispatch to Lord Bathurst, dated July 28th--that is, very shortly
before his arrival at Madrid. After declaring that he was in need of
almost everything, he particularises emphatically: "I likewise request
your lordship not to forget horses for the cavalry, _and money_. We
are absolutely bankrupt. The troops are now five months in arrears,
instead of being one month in advance. The staff have not been paid
since February, the muleteers not since July, 1811; and we are in debt
in all parts of the country. I am obliged to take the money sent to me
by my brother for the Spaniards, in order to give a fortnight's pay to
my own troops, who are really suffering from want of money."
The news of Wellington's defeat of Marmont, and his occupation
of the capital, caused Soult to call Victor from the blockade of
Cadiz; and uniting his forces, he retired into Granada. The French,
after destroying their works,--the creation of so much toil and
expenditure,--retreated with such precipitation from before Cadiz that
they left behind a vast quantity of their stores, several hundred
pieces of ordnance--some of which, of extraordinary length, had been
cast for this very siege--and thirty gunboats. They were not allowed to
retire unmolested. The British and Spanish troops pursued them from
Tarifa, harassed them on the march, drove them out of San Lucar, and
carried Seville by storm, notwithstanding eight battalions being still
there to defend it. The peasantry rushed out from woods and mountains
to attack the rear of Soult on his march by Carmona to Granada,
and the sufferings of his soldiers were most severe from excessive
fatigue, heat, want of food, and these perpetual attacks. General Hill
meanwhile advanced from the Guadiana against King Joseph, who fell back
to Toledo, hoping to keep up a communication with Soult and Suchet,
the latter of whom lay on the borders of Valencia and Catalonia. But
General Hill soon compelled him to retreat from Toledo, and the British
general then occupied that city, Ypez, and Aranjuez, thus placing
himself in connection with Lord Wellington, and cutting off the French
in the south from all approach to Madrid.
But Wellington had no expectation whatever of maintaining his
headquarters at that city. His own army was not sufficient to repel
any fresh hordes of French who might be poured down upon him; and as
for the Spaniards, they had no force that could be relied upon for
a moment. The incurable pride of this people rendered them utterly
incapable of learning from their allies, who, with a comparatively
small force, were every day showing them what discipline and good
command could do. They would not condescend to be taught, nor to serve
under a foreigner, though that foreigner was everywhere victorious, and
they were everywhere beaten. They continued, as they had been from the
first, a ragged, disorderly rabble, always on the point of starvation,
and always sure to be dispersed, if not destroyed, whenever they were
attacked. Only in guerilla fight did they show any skill, or do any
good.
When, therefore, Lord Wellington pondered over matters in Madrid, he
looked in vain for anything like a regular Spanish army, after all the
lessons which had been given to them. The army of Galicia, commanded by
Santocildes, considered the best Spanish force, had been defeated by
Clausel, himself in the act of escaping from Wellington. Ballasteros
had a certain force under him, but his pride would not allow him to
co-operate with Lord Wellington, and he was soon afterwards dismissed
by the Cortes from his command. O'Donnel had had an army in Murcia, but
he, imagining that he could cope with the veteran troops of Suchet, had
been most utterly routed, his men flinging away ten thousand muskets
as they fled. Moreover, Wellington had been greatly disappointed in his
hopes of a reinforcement from Sicily. He had urged on Ministers the
great aid which an efficient detachment from the army maintained by us
in Sicily might render by landing on the eastern coast of Spain, and
clearing the French out of Catalonia, Valencia, and Murcia. This could
now be readily complied with, because there was no longer any danger
of invasion of Sicily from Naples, Murat being called away to assist
in Buonaparte's campaign in Russia. But the plan found an unexpected
opponent in our Commander-in-Chief in Sicily, Lord William Bentinck.
Lord William at first appeared to coincide in the scheme, but soon
changed his mind, having conceived an idea of making a descent on
the continent of Italy during Murat's absence. Lord Wellington wrote
earnestly to him, showing him that Suchet and Soult must be expelled
from the south of Spain, which could be easily effected by a strong
force under British command landing in the south-east and co-operating
with him from the north, or he must himself again retire to Portugal,
being exposed to superior forces from both north and south. The
expedition was at length sent, under General Maitland, but such a
force as was utterly useless. It did not exceed six thousand men; and
such men! They were chiefly a rabble of Sicilian and other foreign
vagabonds, who had been induced to enlist, and were, for the most part,
undisciplined.
[Illustration: MARSHAL SOULT. (_From the Portrait by Rouillard._)]
This armament, with which Sir John Falstaff certainly would not have
marched through Coventry, arrived off Tosa, on the coast of Catalonia,
on the 1st of August. The brave Catalans, who had given the French more
trouble than all the Spaniards besides, were rejoiced at the idea of a
British army coming to aid them in rooting out the French; but Maitland
received discouraging information from some Spaniards as to the
forces and capabilities of Suchet, and refused to land there. Admiral
Sir Edward Pellew and Captain Codrington in vain urged him to land,
declaring that the Spaniards with whom he had conferred were traitors.
Maitland called a council of war, and it agreed with him in opinion.
This was precisely what Lord Wellington had complained of to Lord
William Bentinck, who had propagated the most discouraging opinions
amongst the officers regarding the service in Spain. He had assured
him that a discouraged army was as good as no army whatever. The fleet
then, much to the disappointment of the Catalans, conveyed the force to
the bay of Alicante, and there landed it on the 9th of August. Suchet,
who was lying within sight of that port, immediately retired, and
Maitland, so long as he withdrew, marched after him, and occupied the
country; but soon hearing that King Joseph was marching to reinforce
Suchet, and that Soult was likely to join them, he again evacuated
the country, cooped himself up in Alicante, and lay there, of no use
whatever as a diversion in favour of Wellington, who was liable at
Madrid to be gradually surrounded by a hundred thousand men. Wellington
must proceed against one of the French armies, north or south. Had a
proper force, with a bold commander, been sent to the south, he could
soon have dealt with the northern enemies. A more dubious necessity now
lay before him; but it required no long deliberation as to which way he
should move. Clausel was expecting reinforcements from France, and he
proposed to attack him before they could arrive.
On the 1st of September Wellington marched out of Madrid, and directed
his course towards Valladolid, leaving, however, Hill in the city with
two divisions. He then proceeded towards Burgos, and, on the way,
fell in with the Spanish army of Galicia, commanded by Santocildes,
ten thousand in number, but, like all the Spanish troops, destitute
of discipline and everything else which constitutes effective
soldiers--clothes, food, and proper arms. Clausel quitted Burgos on
the approach of Wellington, but left two thousand, under General
Dubreton, in the castle. Wellington entered the place on the 19th, and
immediately invested the castle. The French stood a desperate siege
vigorously, and after various attempts to storm the fort, and only
gaining the outworks, the news of the advance of the army of the
north, and of that of Soult and King Joseph from the south, compelled
the British to abandon the attempt. General Ballasteros had been
commanded by the Cortes, at the request of Lord Wellington, to take
up a position in La Mancha, which would check the progress of Soult;
but that proud and ignorant man neglected to do so, because he was
boiling over with anger at the Cortes having appointed Lord Wellington
Commander-in-Chief of the Spanish armies. General Hill, therefore,
found it prudent to quit Madrid, and fall back on Salamanca; and Lord
Wellington, on the 21st of October, raised the siege of the castle of
Burgos, and moved to Palencia, to be near to General Hill. At Palencia
Lord Dalhousie joined him with a fresh brigade from England; and he
continued his retreat to the Douro, pursued briskly by the French,
under General Souham. At Tudela Souham halted to wait for Soult, who
was approaching.
Wellington did not feel himself secure till he had crossed the Tormes.
On his march General Hill came up, and once more taking up his old
position on the heights of San Christoval, in front of Salamanca,
which he did on the 9th of November, he declared, in his dispatch to
the Secretary at War, that he thought he had escaped from the worst
military situation that he ever was in, for he could not count at
all on the Spanish portion of his army. On the 10th Souham and Soult
united their forces, now amounting to seventy-five thousand foot and
twelve thousand cavalry; Wellington's army mustering only forty-five
thousand foot and five thousand cavalry. He now expected an immediate
attack, and posted his army on the heights of the two Arapiles for the
purpose; but the French generals did not think well to fight him, and
he continued his retreat through Salamanca, and on to Ciudad Rodrigo,
where he established his headquarters, distributing part of his army
in their old cantonments between the Agueda and the Coa. This was
accomplished before the end of November; and General Hill proceeded
into Spanish Estremadura, and entered into cantonments near Coria. The
French took up their quarters at some distance in Old Castile.
This retreat had been made under great difficulties; the weather being
excessively wet, the rivers swollen, and the roads knee-deep in mud.
Provisions were scarce, and the soldiers found great difficulty in
cooking the skinny, tough beef that they got, on account of the wet
making it hard to kindle fires. The Spaniards, as usual, concealed
all the provisions they could, and charged enormously for any that
they were compelled to part with. In fact, no enemies could have been
treated worse than they treated us all the while that we were doing
and suffering so much for them. The soldiers became so enraged that
they set at defiance the strict system which Wellington exacted in this
respect, and cudgelled the peasantry to compel them to bring out food,
and seized it wherever they could find it. In fact, the discipline
of the army was fast deteriorating from these causes, and Wellington
issued very stern orders to the officers on the subject. Till they
reached the Tormes, too, the rear was continually harassed by the
French; and Sir Edward Paget, mounting a hill to make observations, was
surprised and made prisoner.
As usual, a great cry was raised at the retreat of Wellington. The
Spaniards would have had him stand and do battle for them, as foolishly
as their own generals did, who, never calculating the fitting time and
circumstances, were always being beaten. Amongst the first and loudest
to abuse him was Ballasteros, the man who, by his spiteful disregard
of orders, had been the chief cause of the necessity to retreat. But
it was not the Spaniards only, but many people in England, especially
of the Opposition, who raised this ungenerous cry. Wellington alluded
to these censures with his wonted calmness in his dispatches. "I
am much afraid," he said, "from what I see in the newspapers, that
the public will be much disappointed at the result of the campaign,
notwithstanding that it is, in fact, the most successful campaign in
all its circumstances, and has produced for the common cause more
important results than any campaign in which the British army has been
engaged for the last century. We have taken by siege Ciudad Rodrigo,
Badajoz, and Salamanca, and the Retiro has surrendered. In the meantime
the allies have taken Astorga, Consuegra, and Guadalaxara, besides
other places. In the ten months elapsed since January, this army has
sent to England little short of twenty thousand prisoners; and they
have taken and destroyed, or have themselves retained the use of, the
enemy's arsenals in Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, Salamanca, Valladolid,
Madrid, Astorga, Seville, the lines before Cadiz, etc.; and, upon
the whole, we have taken and destroyed, or we now possess, little
short of three thousand pieces of cannon. The siege of Cadiz has been
raised, and all the country south of the Tagus has been cleared of
the enemy. We should have retained greater advantages, I think, and
should have remained in possession of Castile and Madrid during the
winter, if I could have taken Burgos, as I ought, early in October, or
if Ballasteros had moved upon Alcaraz, as he was ordered, instead of
intriguing for his own aggrandisement."
The interval of repose now obtained continued through the winter, and
late into the spring of 1813. It was greatly required by the British
army. Lord Wellington stated that the long campaign, commencing in
January, had completely tired down man and horse; that they both
required thorough rest and good food, and that the discipline of the
army, as was always the case after a long campaign, needed restoration;
and he set himself about to insure these ends, not only in the troops
immediately under his own eye, but in those under Maitland and his
successors in the south. He had, even during his own retreat, written
to Maitland, encouraging him to have confidence in his men, assuring
him that they would repay it by corresponding confidence in themselves.
Lord William Bentinck, however, ordered Maitland to return to Sicily
with his army in October; Lord Wellington decidedly forbade it.
Maitland therefore resigned, and was succeeded by General Clinton, who
found himself completely thwarted in his movements by the governor of
Alicante, who treated the allies much more like enemies, and would not
allow the British to have possession of a single gate of the town,
keeping them more like prisoners than free agents. At the beginning
of December a fresh reinforcement of four thousand men, under General
Campbell, arrived from Sicily, and Campbell took the chief command; but
he did not venture to take any decisive movement against the French,
but waited for Lord William Bentinck himself, who now determined to
come over, but did not arrive till July, 1813. Whilst Campbell remained
inactive from this cause, his motley foreign troops continued to
desert, and many of them went and enlisted with Suchet.
CHAPTER II.
THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. (_continued_).
Rancour of the Americans towards England--Their Admiration of
Napoleon--The Right of Search and consequent Disputes--Madison's
warlike Declaration--Opposition in Congress--Condition of
Canada--Capture of Michilimachimac--An Armistice--Repulse of the
Invasion of Canada--Naval Engagements--Napoleon and the Czar
determine on War--Attempts to dissuade Napoleon--Unpreparedness
of Russia--Bernadotte's Advice to Alexander--Rashness of
Napoleon--Policy of Prussia, Austria and Turkey--Overtures to
England and Russia--Napoleon goes to the Front--His extravagant
Language--The War begins--Disillusion of the Poles--Difficulties
of the Advance--Bagration and Barclay de Tolly--Napoleon pushes
on--Capture of Smolensk--Battle of Borodino--The Russians evacuate
Moscow--Buonaparte occupies the City--Conflagrations burst
out--Desperate Position of Affairs--Murat and Kutusoff--Defeat
of Murat--The Retreat begins--Its Horrors--Caution of
Kutusoff--Passage of the Beresina--Napoleon leaves the Army--His
Arrival in Paris--Results of the Campaign--England's Support
of Russia--Close of 1812--Wellington's improved Prospects--He
advances against Joseph Buonaparte--Battle of Vittoria--Retreat
of the French--Soult is sent against Wellington--The Battle
of the Pyrenees--The Storming of San Sebastian--Wellington
forbids Plundering--He goes into Winter-quarters--Campaign
in the south-east of Spain--Napoleon's Efforts to renew the
Campaign--Desertion of Murat and Bernadotte--Alliance between
Prussia and Russia--Austrian Mediation fails--Early Successes
of the Allies--Battle of Lützen--Napoleon's false Account
of the Battle--Occupation of Hamburg by Davoust--Battle of
Bautzen--Armistice of Pleisswitz--Failure of the Negotiations--The
Fortification of Dresden--Successive Defeats of the French by the
Allies--The Aid of England--Battle of Leipsic--Retreat of the
French across the Rhine--The French Yoke is thrown off--Castlereagh
summons England to fresh Exertions--Liberation of the Pope--Failure
of Buonaparte's Attempt to restore Ferdinand--Wellington's
Remonstrance with the British Ministry--Battles of Orthez and
Toulouse--Termination of the Campaign--Exhaustion of France--The
Allies on the Frontier--Napoleon's final Efforts--The Congress
of Chàtillon--The Allies advance on Paris--Surrender of the
Capital--A Provisional Government appointed--Napoleon abdicates
in favour of his Son--His unconditional Abdication--Return of the
Bourbons--Insecurity of their Power--Treaty of Paris--Bad Terms to
England--Visit of the Monarchs to London.
From skirmishing at sea the British had now come to direct war with
the people of North America. From the period of the American colonists
obtaining their independence of Great Britain, they retained a
peculiar animus against the mother country. In the war by which that
independence was achieved by the aid of France, Holland, and Spain,
which all combined to attack Britain on sea and land, the Americans
displayed no traces of the magnanimity that usually accompanies
bravery. They resorted to many dishonourable practices, amongst which
was the breach of contract in retaining prisoners from the army of
General Burgoyne. The same spirit continued to animate them afterwards.
It was natural to suppose that their success would have the usual
effect of making them forget enmity when the cause of it was gone
by; but this was not the case. In all contests of Great Britain with
revolutionary France, they rejoiced over any disasters which befel her,
and were silent in the hour of her victories. Though they were bone of
our bone, and flesh of our flesh, and our population was pouring over
to swell their numbers, they displayed towards us a hostility that no
other nation, France excepted, had ever shown.
But it was not to Great Britain only that this want of generosity was
shown. No people rejoiced more vehemently than they did--none, indeed,
so much--over the fall and execution of Louis XVI. of France, the one
monarch of Europe who had been their chief benefactor, without whose
powerful aid they would have fought and struggled in vain, and who had,
in fact, lost his crown and his head, and his empire to his family,
by sending his soldiers to learn Republicanism amongst them. There
were feasts and public rejoicings in the United States to commemorate
the death of Louis, who was, in fact, the martyr of America. What was
equally extraordinary, whilst they exulted in the French Republic, they
followed with an equal admiration the career of Buonaparte, who crushed
that Republic, and raised up a despotism opposed in its principles to
all the political professions of Americans. But it was the idea that he
was born to humble and, perhaps, blot out Great Britain from the list
of nations, which served to render Napoleon so especially the object
of their unbounded eulogies. His victories were celebrated nowhere so
vociferously as in the United States, through the press, the pulpit,
and in general oratory. With them he was the Man of Destiny, who was
to overthrow all kings but himself, and drive Great Britain from her
dominion of the seas.
[Illustration: VIEW OF WASHINGTON FROM ARLINGTON HEIGHTS.]
During the Republic of France, and in the worst times of Robespierre,
the French had their Minister, M. Genet, in the United States, who
excited the democrats to acts of hostility against Great Britain, and
gave them French authority to seize and make prizes of British vessels
at sea, though they were nominally at peace with England. And though
Washington, then President, protested against these proceedings, the
main body of the people were against him, and were supported in that
spirit by Jefferson, who was Secretary of State. When Jefferson became
President, in 1801, and Madison his Secretary of State, the hatred
to Great Britain was carried to its extreme, and the friendship of
Buonaparte was cultivated with the utmost zeal. When Jefferson was a
second time President, in 1807, he violently resisted our right of
search of neutral vessels, thus playing into the hands of Buonaparte
and his Berlin Decree, in the hope of carrying on a large trade with
the European Continent at our expense. Out of this arose the affair of
the _Leopard_ and the _Chesapeake_ off the capes of Virginia, in which
the _Chesapeake_, refusing to allow a search for British deserters,
was attacked and taken. This put the whole of the democracy of America
into a raging fury, though the boarding of the United States war-sloop,
the _Hornet_, in the French port of L'Orient, for the same purpose,
was passed over without a murmur. To prevent such collisions, Canning,
on the part of the British Government, issued orders that search of
war-ships should be discontinued. This, however, did not prevent
Jefferson from making proclamations prohibiting British men-of-war from
entering or remaining in American ports; and the utmost indignities
were offered to all the officers and crews of our men-of-war who
happened to be lying in American harbours. Moreover, Jefferson issued,
in December, 1807, an embargo against all American vessels quitting
their own ports, because if at sea they did not submit to be searched
to ascertain whether they were carrying goods to French ports, they
were treated as hostile by Great Britain, were attacked and seized.
This was in retaliation of Buonaparte's Berlin Decree, and made
necessary by it. On the other hand, Buonaparte seized any American
or other vessel entering into any port of Europe under the power of
France, which had submitted to search. To prevent this certain seizure
of trading vessels, the embargo was issued, and all merchant vessels
of all nations were prohibited from entering American ports. A more
suicidal act than this could not be conceived, and the people of the
United States soon complained loudly of the consequences. In 1809,
Madison succeeding Jefferson in the Presidency, and Buonaparte having
now rendered matters worse by his Milan Decree, besides his Berlin one,
Madison abolished the general embargo with all nations except France
and Great Britain, and declared this, too, at an end, whenever either
or both of these nations withdrew--the one its Decrees and the other
its Orders in Council. But in 1810 Madison declared that France had
withdrawn its Decrees so far as America was concerned; though this
was notoriously untrue. Numbers of American vessels continued to be
seized in French ports, though the United States Government dared not
complain, nor did they ever recover any compensation from Napoleon; it
was from Louis Philippe that they first obtained such compensation,
and, curiously enough, through the friendly intervention of Great
Britain.
The British Government had done all in its power, except annuling the
Orders in Council, to produce a better tone of feeling in America.
It put up with many insults and violations of neutrality. It sent
Mr. Foster as envoy to the United States to endeavour to adjust all
differences; but in vain. This continued so till 1812, when, on the
20th of May, Mr. Russell, the American _chargé-d'affaires_, presented
Lord Castlereagh with a copy of an instrument by which France had, on
the 28th of April, abrogated its Berlin and Milan Decrees so far as
they related to American vessels. To show an equal liberality, Great
Britain, on the 23rd of June, revoked its Orders in Council so far as
concerned America, on condition that the United States also revoked
its non-Intercourse Act. But this had no effect on the Government of
America, which had already concluded a secret treaty with France,
and was making every preparation for the invasion of our Canadian
colonies. The Americans had the most profound idea of the stability of
Buonaparte, and could not conceive that the expedition that he was now
preparing against Russia would prove his overthrow. But they expected
that Buonaparte would crush Russia altogether, and would rule unopposed
over Europe; that the Government of Great Britain was bankrupt, and
that they might assail her with impunity. Accordingly, all activity was
used in getting ready all kinds of ships to send out as privateers,
calculating on a plentiful spoil of British traders in the waters along
the American coast and amongst the West Indian Isles, before they
could be put upon their guard. At the same time, on the 14th of April
they laid an embargo on all American vessels, so as to keep them at
home; and on the 18th of June the President announced to Congress that
the United States and Great Britain were in an actual state of war.
There was a studied ambiguity in this declaration; it did not candidly
take the initiative, and assert that the United States declared war
against Great Britain, but said that the two countries were, somehow or
other, already in a state of war.
But this declaration did not issue without a violent debate in
Congress, where the moderate party stated that the interests of the
country were sacrificed to a mischievous war-spirit, and in the east
and north of the States there was raised a loud cry for severance, as
there had been in the south when Jefferson laid his embargo on American
vessels. They complained that if, as was now alleged, the French
Emperor had abrogated his Berlin and Milan Decrees in favour of America
as early as the 2nd of March, 1811, why was this not communicated
to England before the 20th of May, 1812? And when England had long
ago declared that she would rescind her Orders in Council when such
a notification could be made to her, accompanied by a repeal of the
American non-Intercourse Act; and when she did immediately rescind her
Orders in Council on this condition, why should there be all this haste
to rush into war with Great Britain? They complained bitterly that
though Buonaparte was professed to have abrogated his Decrees as early
as November, 1810, he had gone on till just lately in seizing American
ships, both in the ports of France and by his cruisers at sea. The
State of Massachusetts addressed a strong remonstrance to the Federal
Government, in which they represented the infamy of the descendants of
the Pilgrim Fathers cooperating with the common enemy of civil liberty
to bind other nations in chains, and this at the very moment that the
European peoples were uniting for their violated liberties.
[Illustration: MEN OF WAR OFF PORTSMOUTH.
FROM THE PAINTING BY CLARKSON STANFIELD, R.A., IN THE CORPORATION ART
GALLERY, GUILDHALL.]
But the condition of Canada was very tempting to the cupidity of
Madison and his colleagues. We had very few troops there, and the
defences had been neglected in the tremendous struggle going on in
Europe. At this moment it appeared especially opportune for invading
the Canadas from the States, as Britain was engaged not only in the
arduous struggle in Spain, but its attention was occupied in watching
and promoting the measures that were being prepared in Russia, in
Sweden, and throughout Germany, against the general oppressor.
At such a moment the Americans--professed zealots for liberty and
independence--thought it a worthy object to filch the colonies of the
country which, above all others, was maintaining the contest against
the universal despot. They thought the French Canadians would rise
and join the allies of France against Great Britain. The American
Government had accordingly, so early as in 1811, and nearly a year
previous to the declaration of war, mustered ten thousand men at
Boston, ready for this expedition; and long before the note of war was
sounded they had called out fifty thousand volunteers. Still, up to
the very moment of declaring war, Madison had continually assured our
envoy that there was nothing that he so much wished as the continuance
of amicable connections between the two countries.
As he made these professions, he was, from the very commencement of
the year 1812, and nearly six months before the avowal of hostilities,
drawing the invading force nearer to the frontiers near Detroit.
General Hull had a body of two thousand five hundred men ready for
the enterprise, well supplied with artillery and stores; and scarcely
was the declaration of war made than he hastened over the frontier
line and seized on the British village of Sandwich. There he issued
a bragging proclamation, calling on the "oppressed" Canadians to
abandon the despotism of kingship and become free citizens of free
America. To meet the invasion, the British had in Canada only about
four thousand regulars, and the militia might number as many more. To
make worse of the matter, the Commander-in-Chief, Sir George Prevost,
was a very inefficient officer. But Major-General Brock sent orders
to the British officers at Fort St. Joseph to attack the American
port of Michilimachimac, which he did on the 17th of July, a month
after the American declaration of war. The place was taken, with sixty
prisoners and seven pieces of artillery. This raised the courage of
the Indians in that quarter, who had long thirsted for revenge of the
continual injuries received from the Americans, and they called on
their different tribes to arm and support the British. At the news of
the capture of Sandwich by Hull, Brock sent Colonel Procter to Fort
Amherstberg to operate against him. He also followed quickly himself,
and found Procter besieging Hull in Fort Detroit, to which he had
retreated across the border. By the 10th of August he compelled Hull
to surrender with his two thousand five hundred men and thirty pieces
of artillery. Not only Fort Detroit and a fine American vessel in the
harbour were taken, but, by the capitulation, the whole of the Michigan
territory, which separated the Indian country from Canada, was ceded to
us, much improving our frontier.
Major-General Brock left Colonel Procter to defend Detroit, and marched
hastily towards Niagara, to surprise the American forts in that
direction. But, in the midst of his preparations, he was thunderstruck
to learn that Sir George Prevost had concluded an armistice with
the American general, Dearborn, and that this armistice stipulated
that neither party should move in any manner till the American
Government had ratified or annulled the engagement. Thus Brock had
the mortification of feeling that his hands were tied up, whilst the
enemy, aroused to the danger of their position, despite the truce, were
marching up troops, and strengthening every fort and port along the
line. As soon as a force of six thousand three hundred men and stores
were ready, Madison refused to ratify the armistice. On his part,
Sir George Prevost had done nothing to support Brock, and this brave
officer found himself with only one thousand two hundred men, partly
regulars and partly militia, to repel the swarming invaders.
On the 18th of October the Americans crossed the frontier opposite to
the village of Queenstown with three thousand men, and found only three
hundred British to oppose them. But Brock was with them, and cheered
them so gallantly that they made a desperate resistance. Unfortunately,
Brock was killed, and then the brave three hundred retreated, and the
American general, Wadsworth, posted himself, with one thousand six
hundred men, on the heights behind Queenstown. But the same afternoon
he was attacked by a fresh body of about one thousand British and
Canadians, and had nearly his whole force killed or taken prisoners.
Himself and nine hundred of his men were captured, and four hundred
remained on the field slain or severely wounded. The rest, a mere
remnant, escaped into the woods, or were drowned in endeavouring to
swim back to their own shore. Thus ended Madison's first attempt to
conquer Canada.
At sea he was somewhat more fortunate. He took care to have his
war-ships, such as they were, in readiness for sea at the very instant
that war was proclaimed. The declaration took place on the 18th of
June, and on the 21st Commodore Rogers was already clear of the harbour
of New York in his flag-ship, the _President_, which was called a
frigate, but was equal to a seventy-four-gun ship, and attended by a
thirty-six-gun frigate, a sloop of war, and a brig-sloop. His hope
was to intercept the sugar fleet from the West Indies, which was only
convoyed by a single frigate and a brig-sloop. Instead of the West
India merchantmen, about one hundred sail in number, he fell in with
the British frigate, the _Belvedere_, commanded by Captain Richard
Byron. Though the two other vessels of war were in sight, Byron did not
flinch. He commenced a vigorous fight with the _President_, and held
on for two hours, pouring three hundred round shot into her from his
two cabin guns alone. By the explosion of a gun, Commodore Rogers and
fifteen of his men were severely wounded. About half-past six in the
evening the _President_ was joined by the _Congress_ frigate, and then
Captain Byron cut away several of his anchors, started fourteen tons
of water, and otherwise lightening his ship, sailed away, and left the
_President_ to repair her damages. By thus detaining Rogers for fifteen
hours the West India fleet was out of all danger. Rogers then continued
a cruising sail towards Madeira and the Azores, and captured a few
small merchantmen, and regained an American one, and he then returned
home without having secured a single British armed vessel, but having
been in great trepidation lest he should fall in with some of our ships
of the line.
[Illustration: INVASION OF CANADA: RED MEN ON THE WAR PATH. (_See p._
35.)]
Captain Dacres, of the _Guerrière_, returning to Halifax to refit
after convoying another fleet of merchantmen, fell in with the large
United States' frigate _Constitution_, commanded by Captain Hull. The
_Guerrière_ was old and rotten, wanting a thorough refit, or, rather,
laying entirely aside. In addition to other defects she was badly
supplied with ammunition. The _Guerrière_ had only two hundred and
forty-four men and nineteen boys; the _Constitution_ had four hundred
and seventy-six men, and a great number of expert riflemen amongst
them, which the American men-of-war always carried to pick off the
enemy, and especially the officers, from the tops. Yet Captain Dacres
stayed and fought the _Constitution_ till his masts and yards were
blown away, and his vessel was in a sinking state. In this condition
Dacres, who was himself severely wounded with a rifle-ball, struck, the
only alternative being going to the bottom. The old ship was then set
on fire, the British crew being first removed to the American ship.
Though the contest had been almost disgracefully unequal, the triumph
over it in the United States was inconceivable. Hull and his men were
thanked in the most extravagant terms, and a grant of fifty thousand
dollars was made them for a feat which would not have elicited a single
comment in England. But when our officers and men were carried on board
the _Constitution_, they discovered that nearly one-half--a number, in
fact, equal to their own--were English or Irish. Some of the principal
officers were English; many of the men were very recent deserters; and
so much was the American captain alarmed lest a fellow-feeling should
spring up between the compatriots of the two crews, that he kept his
prisoners manacled and chained to the deck of his ship during the night
after the battle, and for the greater part of the following day.
[Illustration: DUEL BETWEEN THE "GUERRIÈRE" AND THE "CONSTITUTION."
(_See p._ 36.)]
There were three or four more of these utterly unequal fights, in which
the Americans succeeded in capturing small British vessels when at the
point of sinking. Such was the case with the _Macedon_, which, with
a crew of two hundred and sixty-two men and thirty-four boys, fought
the _United States_, with more and heavier guns, and with a crew of
four hundred and seventy-seven men and one boy. The _Macedon_ was a
complete wreck before she struck. Similar cases were those of the
_Java_ frigate, Captain Lambert, which struck to the _Constitution_,
and the British eighteen-gun brig-sloop the _Frolic_, which struck to
the American brig-sloop _Wasp_, of eighteen guns. Here the arms were
equal, but the crews most unequal, for the _Frolic_ had a small crew,
very sickly from five years' service in the West Indies, and the ship
itself was in bad condition. Within a very few hours the _Frolic_ was
re-captured by the British seventy-four gun-ship, the _Poictiers_,
which carried off the American vessel too. In none of these cases was
there anything like an equal fight, the Americans being too shrewd to
risk that if they could avoid it. In all cases a large proportion of
the crews was made up of British deserters. The accounts, however,
which the Americans published of these affairs were as usual of the
most vaunting character.
This was the fatal year in which Buonaparte, led on by the unsleeping
ambition of being the master of all Europe, and so of all the world,
made his last great attempt--that of subduing Russia to his yoke--and
thus wrecked himself for ever. From the very day of the Treaty of
Tilsit, neither he nor Alexander of Russia had put faith in each other.
Buonaparte felt that the Czar was uneasy under the real dictatorship
of France which existed under the name of alliance. He knew that he
was most restless under the mischief accruing from the stipulated
embargo on British commerce, and which, from the ruin which it must
bring on the Russian merchants, and the consequent distress of the
whole population, might, in fact, cause him to disappear from the
throne and from life as so many of his ancestors had done. Timber,
pitch, potash, hemp, tallow, and other articles were the very staple
of Russia's trade, and the British were the greatest of all customers
for these. The landed proprietors derived a large income from these
commodities, and they asked why they were to perish that Buonaparte
might destroy Great Britain, whence they drew their principal wealth.
He knew that Alexander looked with deep suspicion on his giving the
Duchy of Warsaw to the King of Saxony, a descendant of the royal family
of Poland. To this act was added the stipulations for a free military
road and passage for troops from Saxony to Warsaw; and also that France
should retain Dantzic till after a maritime peace. These things seemed
to point to the re-establishment of the kingdom of Poland, and the
demand, at some future day, for the surrender of the rest of the Polish
territory by Russia. So the Poles seemed to interpret these matters,
for they had, since these arrangements, flocked to his standard, and
were fighting Buonaparte's battles in Spain. To these causes of offence
and alarm, which Alexander did not hesitate to express, and which
Napoleon refused to dissipate, were added the seizure of the Duchy of
Oldenburg, guaranteed to Alexander's near relative, and the marriage
alliance with Austria. Alexander, on this last occasion, said--"Then my
turn comes next;" and in anticipation of it he had been strengthening
himself by a secret league with Sweden.
To the Czar it appeared most politic that the war with Napoleon, as it
must come, should come whilst the British in Spain were harassing him
and draining his resources; and, on his part, Buonaparte, resenting the
hostile attitude of Alexander, and suspecting his secret understanding
with Bernadotte, determined, notwithstanding the ominous character of
the war in Spain, to summon an army utterly overwhelming and crush the
Czar at once. It was in vain that such of his counsellors as dared
urged him to abstain from the Russian invasion. They represented the
vast extent of Russia; its enormous deserts, into which the army could
retreat, and which must exhaust so large a host as he contemplated;
the inhospitable climate; the difficult rivers; the unprofitableness
of the conquest, if it succeeded; and the improbability that success
there would put an end to the war in Spain, whilst any serious disaster
would cause the nations to stand up behind him as one man. These were
all arguments of mere policy; for as to the considerations suggested by
morality or justice, these had long been abandoned by Buonaparte, and
therefore were never even adverted to by his friends.
Regardless of all advice, Buonaparte hastened to precipitate matters
with Russia. He seized and confiscated fifty Swedish merchantmen, and
further to express his determination to punish Bernadotte for his
refusal to be his slave--he boasted before his courtiers that he would
have him seized in Sweden, and brought to the castle of Vincennes,
and he is said to have planned doing it--in January of this year he
ordered Davoust to enter Swedish Pomerania and take possession of
it. Buonaparte followed up this act of war by marching vast bodies
of troops northwards, overrunning Prussia, Pomerania, and the Duchy
of Warsaw with them. They were now on the very frontiers of Russia,
and Alexander was in the utmost terror. He saw already four hundred
thousand men ready to burst into his dominions, and as many more
following. He had only one hundred and forty thousand to oppose them;
he had no generals of mark or experience; confusion reigned everywhere.
In the utmost consternation he demanded an interview with Bernadotte,
now the sole hope of Europe, at Abo; and Bernadotte, who had his
objects to gain, took his time. When the Russian Ambassador, in great
trepidation, said to him that the Emperor waited for him, he rose, laid
his hand on his sword, and said, theatrically, "The Emperor waits!
Good! He who knows how to win battles may regard himself as the equal
of kings!"
Bernadotte took his time, and went. It was in March. At Abo, in
a solitary hut, he and Alexander met, and there the final ruin
of Napoleon was sketched out by a master's hand--that of his old
companion in arms. Bernadotte knew all the strength and weakness of
Napoleon; he had long watched the causes which would ultimately break
up the wonderful career of his victories. He listened to the fears
of Alexander, and bade him dismiss them. He told him that it was the
timidity of his opponents which had given to Napoleon the victories of
Austerlitz and Wagram; that, as regarded the present war, nothing could
equal his infatuated blindness; that, treating the wishes of Poland
with contempt, neglecting the palpably necessary measures of securing
his flanks by the alliance of Turkey and Sweden, east and west, he was
only rushing on suicide in the vast deserts five hundred miles from
his frontiers; that all that was necessary on the part of Russia was
to commence a war of devastation; to destroy all his resources, in the
manner of the ancient Scythians and Parthians; to pursue him everywhere
with a war of fanaticism and desolation; to admit of no peace till
he was driven to the left bank of the Rhine, where the oppressed and
vengeful nationalities would arise and annihilate him; that Napoleon,
so brilliant and bold in attack, would show himself incapable of
conducting a retreat of eight hours--a retreat would be the certain
signal of his ruin. If he approached St. Petersburg, he engaged for
himself to make a descent on France with fifty thousand men, and to
call on both the Republican and constitutional parties to arise and
liberate their country from the tyrant. Meanwhile, they must close the
passage of the Beresina against him, when they would inevitably secure
his person. They must then proclaim everywhere his death, and his whole
dynasty would go to pieces with far greater rapidity than it grew.
Every one knows how well these instructions were carried out; how the
final hope of Napoleon was destroyed by the conflagration of Moscow,
and the terrors of that fearful retreat, in which clouds of Cossacks,
mingling with those of the snow and hail, completed the most horrible
tragedy which the history of wars from the world's foundation contains;
with what consummate ability Bernadotte led his Swedes, through all the
great and eventful campaign of 1813, from Leipsic to Paris, and how he
received his reward--the possession of Norway, and a family compact
between himself and the Czar of Russia; while Denmark, with a fatal
blindness to the signs of the times, adhered to the falling power, and
became, like Saxony, dismembered and debilitated.
To any one viewing the situation of Buonaparte at this moment, it can
appear nothing but an act of madness to invade Russia. The British,
in Spain, were now defeating his best generals, and this would at an
earlier period have caused him to hasten to that country and endeavour
to settle the war in person. It is remarkable that he was not desirous
to cope with Wellington himself, all his ablest generals having failed.
But to leave such an enemy in his rear when he proceeded to the North,
impresses us with the idea that his enormous success had now turned his
head, and that the term of his career had been reached. Besides Spain,
too, there were Prussia and Austria, with whom it was only politic to
enter into some terms of security; for assuredly, if his arms suffered
a reverse in Russia, all these would rise and join his enemies.
The King of Prussia was anxious to unite with Russia, and to furnish
forty thousand men for the common defence. But all his strongest
garrisons were in the hands of France, and Alexander did not advise
him to subject his territories to the certain misery of being overrun
by the French till the contest in Russia was decided; for Alexander
meant to fall back during the early part of the campaign, and could,
therefore, lend no aid to Prussia. It was agreed, therefore, that
Prussia should afford the demanded twenty thousand men and sixty
pieces of artillery to the army of Napoleon, and act according to
circumstances. Prussia was also to furnish the French army with all
that it required during its march across it, the charge to be deducted
from the debt of Prussia to France.
Austria also furnished thirty thousand men, under Prince Schwarzenberg,
but with secret orders to do no more than just keep up appearances, as
Alexander had done during the campaign of Wagram. It was of the utmost
consequence that Turkey should have been conciliated by Napoleon.
Russia had long been ravaging the outlying provinces of that empire,
and nothing could have been more plain than the policy of engaging
Turkey against Russia at this crisis, to divide the latter's attention
by menacing its eastern boundaries. But Buonaparte ever since the
Treaty of Tilsit had been neglecting the Turks, to allow his ally,
Alexander, to make his aggressions on them, and now he altered his
plan too late. When he made overtures, so late as March of this year,
not only to put them in possession of Moldavia and Wallachia, but
to recover the Crimea for the Turks, on condition that they should
invade Russia from the east with a hundred thousand men, his offer
was rejected, the Porte having already been persuaded by the British
to make peace with Russia at Bucharest. Thus France, entering on this
great enterprise, left Spain and Sweden in open hostility, and carried
with her Austria and Prussia as very dubious allies. At the same time
the news arrived of the fall of Ciudad Rodrigo, in Spain, and, with
this, the certainty that Great Britain would do all in her power to
arouse and support the enemies of Napoleon in every quarter.
Under the influence of this persuasion, Buonaparte suddenly made
overtures of peace to Great Britain, though, on the conditions which
he proposed, they were certain to be rejected. The Duke of Bassano
wrote to Lord Castlereagh, offering to secure the independence of Spain
under the present reigning dynasty; that Portugal should continue
under the rule of the House of Braganza, and Naples under Murat. Lord
Castlereagh replied that if by the present reigning dynasty of Spain
was meant King Joseph, there could be no treaty, and there the matter
ended; for even Fouché says that Napoleon's Ministers were ashamed of
so clumsy a proposal of ignorance and bad faith. Failing with Great
Britain, Buonaparte turned to Russia herself, intimating a desire for
peace, but not finding it in his heart to offer any terms likely to be
accepted. In fact, he was now so demented by the ambition which meant
soon to destroy him, that he fancied that a mere mention of peace was
enough to win over any of his enemies in face of his vast armies.
Including the forces of his German and Italian subsidiaries, he had
on foot one million one hundred and eighty-seven thousand men. Of
these, he led four hundred and seventy thousand men into Russia. Italy,
Naples, Austria, Prussia, Würtemberg, Baden, Saxony, Westphalia, and
other Confederates of the Rhine furnished each from twenty thousand to
sixty thousand men. To swell up his French portion, he had called out
two conscriptions, each of a hundred thousand men, in one year, and
had organised a new system of conscription under the name of "National
Guards," which professedly were only to serve in France as a militia
but which were soon drafted off into foreign service. This consisted
of three levies, or bans--"the ban," "the second ban," and "the
arrière ban." They included all who were capable of bearing arms of
all classes. The ban was composed of youths from twenty to twenty-six
years of age; the second ban of men from twenty-six to forty, and the
arrière ban of those from forty to sixty. By such means was the native
population of France being rapidly drawn off into destruction by this
modern Moloch.
On receiving the Emperor Alexander's decisive reply that no terms could
be entered into with Napoleon till he had evacuated both Pomerania
and Prussia, Buonaparte--who professed to be greatly insulted by the
demand--immediately set out from Paris for the northern army, on
the 9th of May, and left his passports for the Russian Ambassador,
which were delivered two days afterwards. Buonaparte, accompanied by
Maria Louisa, proceeded immediately to Dresden, to which place he had
invited, or rather summoned, all his allied and vassal monarchs to meet
him. There, accordingly, were assembled the Emperor and Empress of
Austria--the Empress being the sister of the expelled Duke of Modena,
and mother-in-law of the Empress of the French,--the solitary King of
Prussia (whose queen had perished under the calumnies and insults of
Napoleon), and a crowd of lesser German monarchs. Whilst Napoleon was
playing the host to these crowned heads, and treating them to banquets,
plays, and operas, he was closeted with his cabinet, still planning
fresh humiliations for them when he had utterly extinguished Russia. He
declared to them that he should take Galicia from Austria, and Silesia
from Prussia. He summoned the Abbé de Pradt, now Archbishop of Malines,
and bade him go and promise the Poles the restoration of their kingdom,
so as to induce them to follow him in a mass to Russia. "I will," he
said, "put all Poland on horseback! I am on my way to Moscow. Two
battles there will do the business! I will burn Thoula! The Emperor
Alexander will come on his knees; and then Russia is disarmed. All is
ready, and only waits my presence. Moscow is the heart of their empire.
Besides, I make war at the expense of the blood of the Poles! I will
leave fifty thousand of my Frenchmen in Poland. I will convert Dantzic
into another Gibraltar."
In this wild but confident manner did this now pride-blinded man talk.
And all the time he had no intention whatever of re-establishing the
Poles; he meant only to use them. Once more, however, he sent General
Lauriston and the Count Narbonne to the Emperor Alexander at Wilna.
The pretext was to invite him to Dresden, "where," he said, "all
might be arranged;" the real object was to spy out the forces and
preparations of the Czar. Alexander refused to see Lauriston, and gave
to Narbonne a very curt and warlike answer. The French emissaries found
the Russians neither depressed nor elated, but quietly cheerful and
determined.
[Illustration: THE COSSACK'S CHALLENGE. (_See p._ 42.)]
Buonaparte put his enormous masses in motion. His object was to push
rapidly forward, and beat the Russians by one of those sudden and
decisive blows by which he had won all his victories. He expected
that he should not be able to supply his vast army with provisions
in Russia, and therefore he had had thousands of waggons and carts
prepared to draw his stores. He meant to seize one of the capitals of
the country--St. Petersburg or Moscow; and that, he quite imagined,
would finish the campaign, the Russians being then glad to capitulate;
and he resolved to concede no terms but such as should shut out the
Muscovites from Europe, and replace them with Poles. "Let us march!" he
said to his soldiers. "Let us cross the Niemen; let us carry war into
Russia. The war will be glorious; and the peace will terminate that
haughty influence which she has exercised for more than fifty years on
Europe." But his old general, Bernadotte, had foreseen and defeated his
plans. Alexander had commanded his generalissimo, Barclay de Tolly,
to show only so much opposition as should draw the French on into the
heart of Russia, and then--when they were exhausted by famine along a
line of desolation, and by their march--to harass them on all sides.
Should the French succeed in pressing so far, a Russian Torres Vedras
was prepared for them on the river Düna, at Drissa, so as to protect
St. Petersburg.
Of Napoleon's monster army, Marshal Macdonald commanded the left wing;
the Austrians were on the right under Schwarzenberg; and the main body
consisted of a succession of vast columns commanded by the most famous
French generals, including Bessières, Lefebvre, Mortier, Davoust,
Oudinot, Ney, Grouchy, King Jerome of Westphalia, Junot, Poniatowski,
Regnier, Eugene Viceroy of Italy, etc.; and Murat commanding all the
cavalry. Buonaparte led this centre of two hundred and fifty thousand
men with his Imperial Guard. To oppose this huge army, composed
of numbers and of officers such as the world had not seen before,
Alexander had about two hundred and sixty thousand men. He lay at
Wilna, with Barclay de Tolly and one hundred and twenty thousand men.
In different positions, more northwards, lay Count Essen, Prince
Bagration, the Hetman Platoff, with twelve thousand Cossacks; and,
watching the Austrian right in Volhynia, lay General Tormasoff, with
twenty thousand men. Advancing on them in three vast masses, the French
army approached the Niemen--the King of Westphalia directing his march
on Grodno, the Viceroy of Italy on Pilony, and Buonaparte himself on
Nagaraiski, three leagues beyond Kovno. On the 23rd of June the head of
Napoleon's column came upon the Niemen, and saw the other bank covered
with vast and gloomy forests. As the Emperor rode up to reconnoitre
this scene, his horse stumbled and threw him; and a voice, from the
crowd behind him, was heard saying, "A bad omen! A Roman would return!"
When the head of the column the next morning crossed the river, a
single Cossack issued from the solemn woods, and demanded their reason
for violating the Russian soil. The soldiers replied, "To beat you, and
take Wilna!" The Cossack disappeared, and left all solitary as before.
Three days were required to get the army across, and before they
could pitch their tents they were assailed by a violent thunderstorm,
accompanied by torrents of rain.
The Russians were seen to be falling back as they advanced, and
Buonaparte--impatient to overtake and rout them--pushed forward
his troops rapidly. On reaching the river Wilna it was found to be
swollen by the rain, and the bridges over it were demolished; but
Buonaparte ordered a body of Polish lancers to cross it by swimming.
They dashed into the torrent, and were swept away by it almost to a
man, and drowned before the eyes of the whole army. On the 28th of
June, however, Napoleon managed to reach Wilna, which Barclay de Tolly
had evacuated at his approach, and there he remained till the 16th of
July, for he had outmarched his supplies, few of his waggons having
even reached the Niemen, owing to the state of the country through
which they had to be dragged, and the Russians had taken care to carry
off or destroy all provisions for man and horse as they retreated.
His vast host began, therefore, at once to feel all the horrors of
famine, and of those other scourges that were soon to destroy them by
hundreds of thousands. Meanwhile, the mission of the Abbé de Pradt to
Poland had failed. The abbé, believing in the reality of the promises
of Buonaparte, had faithfully executed his mission. The Poles met in
diet at Warsaw, and expressed their gratitude to the Emperor for his
grand design of restoring their nation. The country was all enthusiasm,
and a host of soldiers would soon have appeared to join his standard,
when Napoleon returned them an evasive answer, saying that he could
not do all that he wished, as he was under engagement to Austria
not to deprive her of Galicia. As to the provinces held by Russia,
he assured them that--provided they showed themselves brave in his
cause--"Providence would crown their good cause with success." This
positive information regarding Austria--this vague statement regarding
Russia, at once showed the hollow hypocrisy of the man, and from that
moment all faith was lost in him in Poland. To have restored Poland
was in the power of Buonaparte, and would have been the act of a great
man; but Buonaparte was not a great man, morally: he could not form
a noble design--he could form only a selfish one. But he immediately
felt the consequences of his base deceit. The Poles remained quiet; nor
did the people of Lithuania respond to his calls on them to rise in
insurrection against Russia. They saw that he had intended to deceive
the Poles, and they felt that, should he make peace with Russia, he
would at once sacrifice them. They were about to form a guard of
honour for him, but they instantly abandoned the design; and thus his
miserable policy destroyed all the effect which he contemplated from
the action of the nations on the Russian frontiers.
During the eighteen days that Buonaparte halted at Wilna he was
actively employed in endeavouring to cut asunder the Russian host.
Whilst Barclay de Tolly, under the Czar, commanded the main force,
which had now fallen back from Wilna to Drissa, Prince Bagration
was lying far to the south-east in Poland, at Volkovisk, with seven
thousand Cossacks under Platoff at Grodno, and another body of men
under Dorokhoff as far as Lida. Buonaparte ordered Murat, with his
cavalry, to drive the rear of the main Russian army in the direction
of Drissa. Murat was followed by a division of infantry, under Oudinot
and Ney, whilst the King of Westphalia was ordered to advance eastward
to cut off Bagration's division from all chance of junction with De
Tolly, and Davoust was to attack him in the rear. He himself proposed
to push forward between these bodies towards Vitebsk, and thus threaten
both St. Petersburg and Moscow. By this arrangement he made himself
sure of destroying Bagration's division, or compelling it to surrender.
But contrary to his wont, Buonaparte was found not to advance with his
usual rapidity; and the fact was that there were sufficient reasons
for the delay. His supplies had failed already. The country, already
impoverished by a bad harvest in the preceding year, was swept by the
Russians of all possible provisions; and the vast horde of French,
Germans, and Italians now advanced treading down the unripe corn of the
present. Owing to the state of the roads, flooded by torrents of rain,
the provision-waggons could not get along. Twenty thousand sick men had
to be left behind wherever they could, for they had no good hospitals;
and, in crossing Lithuania, one hundred thousand men fell from fatigue,
from exhaustion, from surprises by the Cossacks, and from diseases
which they brought with them.
Bagration, prevented by Jerome of Westphalia from pursuing his route
towards Drissa, changed his course towards Minsk; but finding himself
outstripped there too, he made for the Beresina, and effected a
passage at Bobruisk. He then ascended the Dnieper as far as Mohilev;
but, finding himself anticipated by Davoust, he attacked that general
in the hope of cutting his way through. In this he failed, after
a sharply-contested engagement, and once more he retired down the
Dnieper, and crossed at Nevoi-Bikoff, which enabled him to pursue his
course for a union with Barclay de Tolly, who was making for Smolensk.
Thus Bagration, though running imminent hazard of being cut off,
managed to out-manœuvre Napoleon himself--a new event in his campaigns.
On his march, his troops had several encounters with the French and
Polish cavalry; but Platoff showed great gallantry, and often severely
punished the enemy.
On the other hand, Barclay de Tolly, anxious to unite with Bagration
and reach Smolensk, abandoned the strong encampment at Drissa, leaving
Wittgenstein near there to watch the enemy and cover the road to St.
Petersburg. The French pursued him with great rapidity, which, though
it endangered his immediate union with Bagration at Vitebsk, yet served
the Russian policy of drawing the enemy into the interior. Murat
continually rushed forward with his cavalry to attack the rear-guard
of De Tolly; but the Russian infantry maintained steady order, and
continually withdrew before him. Every evening he was close upon them;
every morning he found himself again distanced. The Russians appeared
in full vigour, and well supplied with everything; the French were
sinking with famine and fatigue. At Polotsk the Emperor Alexander left
De Tolly, and hastened on to Moscow to prepare the inhabitants for that
grand catastrophe which he already foresaw, and had resolved upon.
On the 14th of July, when Barclay de Tolly was close pressed by
Napoleon, he learned that though Bagration had been repulsed at
Mohilev, he was now advancing on Smolensk; he therefore himself again
retreated before the French towards Vitebsk. At that town he had a
partial engagement with the French; but he quitted it in good order.
Here Murat and most of the other general officers entreated Napoleon
to close the campaign for this year; but he refused. The soldiers were
dispirited by this continual pursuit without result; Murat himself was
heartily sick of endeavouring to get a dash at the enemy and being
as constantly foiled; King Jerome had been disgraced and sent back
to his Westphalian dominions, on the charge of having let Bagration
escape by want of sufficient energy; and Wittgenstein had, to the great
disgust of Napoleon, on the 2nd of July, crossed the river, surprised
Sebastiani's vanguard of cavalry in Drissa, and completely routed
them. These things had embittered Buonaparte; and if he ever intended
to encamp for the winter at Vitebsk, he now abandoned the idea with
indignation. It was still midsummer; the enemy had so far eluded him;
he had not been able to strike one of his usual great blows and send
terror before him. He was impatient of a pause. "Surrounded," says
Ségur, "by disapproving countenances, and opinions contrary to his own,
he was moody and irritable. All the officers of his household opposed
him, some with arguments, some with entreaties, some--as Berthier--even
with tears; but he exclaimed, 'Did they think he was come so far
only to conquer a parcel of wretched huts? that he had enriched his
generals too much; that all to which they now aspired was to follow
the pleasures of the chase, and to display their splendid equipages in
Paris. We must,' he said, 'advance upon Moscow, and strike a blow, in
order to obtain peace, or winter-quarters and supplies.'"
De Tolly halted at Rudnia, half way between Vitebsk and Smolensk,
and there was considerable manœuvring between the rival generals to
surprise one another, but this resulted in nothing but the loss of
several days. On the 14th of August they arrived at the Dnieper, and
Murat dashed across and attacked the rear-guard of the Russians on
the opposite bank. Newerowskoi, the general in command, stood his
ground well, and then made a good retreat to Smolensk. His retreat was
reckoned an advantage on the part of the French; and as it happened to
be Buonaparte's birthday, and the anniversary of the canonisation of
St. Napoleon--whom Buonaparte had had made a saint,--a hundred guns
were fired in commemoration. On the 15th Buonaparte pressed after the
Russians towards Smolensk. The united Russian army now amounted to
one hundred and eighty thousand men, and Buonaparte had already lost
one-third of his active force. Barclay de Tolly, therefore, appeared
here to make a stand, much to the delight of Buonaparte, who cried out,
exultingly, "Now I have them!"
But De Tolly was only remaining to defend the town whilst the
inhabitants carried off with them their movable property. Whilst on
the side of Smolensk, when Buonaparte arrived, all was silent, and the
fields were empty, on the other side it was one vast crowd of people
moving away with their effects. Buonaparte hoped that the Russians
would deploy before the gates, and give him battle; but they did
nothing of the sort, and he determined to storm the place. Its walls
were old but very thick, and it might hold out some time, and the
assault must cost many lives; but Buonaparte determined to make it. The
French, however, learned that the Russians were already in retreat;
and Murat observed that to waste these lives was worse than useless,
as the city would be theirs without a blow immediately. Buonaparte
replied in an insulting manner to Murat, and ordered the assault the
next morning. On this, Murat, driven to fury, spurred his horse to the
banks of the Dnieper, in the face of the enemy, between batteries, and
stood there as voluntarily courting death. Belliard called out to him
not to sacrifice himself--he only pushed on still nearer to the fire of
the Russian guns, and was forced from the scene by the soldiers. The
storming commenced, and Tolly defended the place vigorously, killing
four or five thousand of the French as they advanced to the attack.
But Tolly did not mean to remain longer than was necessary for the
inhabitants to have made a safe distance; he was afraid of Napoleon
making a flank movement and cutting off his way to Moscow. In the night
fires broke out all over Smolensk: they could not be the effect only of
the French shells; and Buonaparte sat watching them till morning. Soon
bridges, houses, church spires, all of wood, were enveloped in roaring
flames. The next day, the 18th of August, the French entered the place
whilst it was still burning around them. The dead, half consumed, lay
around the smoking ruins; and the French army marched through this
ghostly scene with military music playing, but with hearts struck with
consternation and despair at this proof of the inveterate determination
of the Russians to destroy their whole country rather than suffer it to
be conquered. Here they were left without shelter, without provisions,
without hospitals for the sick, or dressings for the wounded, without
a single bed where a man might lie down to die; and all before them
was the same. The Cossacks beset the flanks of march, and burnt down
all villages, and laid waste all fields ere the French could reach
them. Again the officers entreated that they might form an encampment
and remain; but Buonaparte replied still, "They must make all haste to
Moscow."
From Riga Buonaparte learned that Macdonald maintained the blockade,
thus keeping Courland in awe, and alarming St. Petersburg; that St.
Cyr, more to the south, had compelled Wittgenstein, after a severe
battle at Polotsk, to assume the defensive; and that Regnier had
defeated Tormasoff at Gorodeczna, in Poland. But Tormasoff fell back
on the Moldavian army, commanded by Admiral Tchitchigoff; and General
Steingel was marching with the army of Finland to join Wittgenstein.
These distinct successes, therefore, were but of small moment in
comparison with the lowering prospects before him.
Napoleon dispatched Murat with his cavalry, Junot, Ney, and Davoust,
in pursuit of the Russians, whom they overtook at a place called
Valoutina, where a desperate battle was fought, and many men were
killed on both sides; but the Russians moved off again without the
loss of guns, prisoners, or baggage. Buonaparte, on proceeding to the
spot, blamed Junot, imputing to him want of activity in the action,
and threatening to deprive him of his command. The whole road between
Smolensk and Valoutina was strewn with the dead and wounded; and as
he entered the city on his return, he met whole tumbrils of amputated
limbs going to be thrown away at a distance. The scene is said to have
overcome even his senses, so long hardened to human suffering. On
the 24th of August he marched forward to Gjatsk, where his advanced
guard had halted. There he learned, to his great satisfaction, from
a Frenchman long resident in Russia, that the people and the new
levies, impatient of continual retreat and the ravage of their country,
had demanded that Barclay de Tolly, a German, whom they imagined not
sufficiently careful of Russian property and interests, should be
superseded by the old general, Kutusoff, and that they should stand and
fight. This was precisely what Buonaparte wanted, and the prudent De
Tolly knew to be little better than madness, as it must cause a fearful
loss of life, and would not rid the country of the invader, who was
better left to starvation and the elements. But Alexander, though of
De Tolly's opinion, gave way, and the Russians entrenched themselves
on the heights of Borodino, De Tolly most magnanimously continuing to
serve under Kutusoff. There, after a march of two hundred and eighty
versts in seventeen days, the French came up with them; and, after a
halt of two days, they attacked the Russian lines.
[Illustration: THE RETREAT FROM MOSCOW. (_After the Picture by
Meissonier._)]
This most bloody of battles took place on the 7th of September.
There were about one hundred and twenty thousand men engaged on each
side, and the guns on each side are said to have amounted to one
thousand. Before the battle, the priests passed along the ranks of
the Russians, reminding them of the wrongs they had suffered, and
promising paradise to all that fell. Buonaparte, on his side, issued
this proclamation:--"Soldiers! here is the battle you have longed for!
It is necessary, for it brings us plenty, good winter-quarters, and a
safe return to France. Behave yourselves so that posterity may say of
you--'He was in that great battle under the walls of Moscow.'" It was
rather a damping circumstance that the day before the battle Buonaparte
received the news of Wellington's victory at Salamanca. The battle
commenced at seven o'clock in the morning, and continued the greater
part of the day, the Russians, even to the newest levies, fighting with
the most immovable courage. Buonaparte demanded of Caulaincourt whether
the Russians were determined to conquer or die? He replied that they
had been fanaticised by their leaders, and would be killed rather than
surrender. Buonaparte then ordered up every possible gun, on his plan
of battering an army as he would batter a fortress. Still the Russians
fought on furiously, and Berthier urged him to call up his "young
Guard." But he replied, "And if there is another battle to-morrow,
where is my army?"
At length the firing mutually ceased, but the Russians did not quit
their position; it was the French who drew off, and their outposts,
during the following night, were alarmed by the Russian cavalry. The
Russians had fifteen thousand killed and thirty thousand wounded; the
French ten thousand killed and above twenty thousand wounded, and of
these latter very few recovered, for they were destitute of almost
every hospital necessary, even lint. The Russians made one thousand
prisoners and the French about two thousand. The loss of guns on either
side was nearly equal. Had the battle been resumed the next day it
must have gone hard with the French; but Kutusoff was not willing to
make such another sacrifice of his men, and he resumed the policy of
De Tolly and made his retreat, continuing it to Moscow in so masterly
a manner, that he left neither dead, nor dying, nor wounded, nor any
article of his camp equipage behind him, so that the French were at
a loss to know where he had really gone. On the 12th they learned,
however, that he had retreated to Moscow, and Buonaparte instantly
resumed his march. At Krymskoi Murat and Mortier came upon a strong
body of Russians, and were repulsed, with the loss of two thousand men.
The Russian rear-guard then hastened on again towards Moscow.
There, a council of war was called, and it was debated whether they
should make a stand there or not. The conclusion was that they should
not, but should abandon the sacred city--the Jerusalem of Russia--to
the enemy, and, there can now be little doubt, to the flames.
Rostopchin, the governor of the city, had for some time been preparing
for the grand catastrophe. Under pretence of pouring down liquid fire
on the French from a monster balloon, he had employed great numbers
of women in making such a balloon, and men in preparing fireworks and
combustibles--the accumulation of the latter being his real object.
On the 14th of September the Russian army filed through the streets
of their beloved but doomed city, with sad looks, furled banners, and
silent drums, and went out at the Kolomna gate. The population followed
them. Rostopschin had encouraged vast numbers already to transplant
all their wealth and stores from the place, and, as his last act, he
called up two prisoners--a Russian traitor, and a Frenchman who had
dropped hostile expressions. The Russian he ordered, with the consent
of the culprit's own father, to be put to death; the Frenchman he
set at liberty, telling him to go to Buonaparte and say that but one
traitor had been found in Russia, and him he had seen cut to pieces.
Rostopschin then mounted his horse and rode after his countrymen,
having first ordered all the gaols to be set open, and their wretched
inhabitants to be allowed to make their escape.
On the 14th of September the French army came in sight of Moscow, and
the soldiers, worn down and miserable with their long and severe march,
shouted with joy, "Moscow! Moscow!" They rushed up the hill called
the Mount of Salvation, because there the natives coming in full view
of the city kneel and cross themselves. There the splendid spectacle
of the widely-spread ancient capital lay before their eyes, with its
spires of thirty churches, its palaces of Eastern architecture, and
its copper domes glittering in the sun. Interspersed were beautiful
gardens, and masses of noble trees, and the gigantic palace of the
Kremlin rising above in colossal bulk. All were struck with admiration
of the place which had so long been the goal of their wishes. Napoleon
himself sat on his horse surveying it, and exclaimed, "Behold at last
that celebrated city!" But he immediately added, in an under-tone, "It
was full time!" He expected to see trains of nobles come out to throw
themselves at his feet and offer submission; but no one appeared, and
not a sign of life presented itself, no smoke from a single chimney,
not a man on the walls. It looked like a city of the dead. The mystery
was soon solved by Murat, who had pushed forward, sending word that
the whole population had abandoned Moscow! Two hundred and fifty
thousand people had forsaken their home in a mass! The tidings struck
the invader with wonder and foreboding; but he added, smiling grimly,
"The Russians will soon learn better the value of their capital." He
appointed Mortier governor of the place, with strict orders that any
man who plundered should be shot; he calculated on Moscow as their home
for the winter--the pledge of peace with Alexander--the salvation of
his whole army. But the troops poured into the vast, deserted city,
and began everywhere helping themselves, whilst the officers selected
palaces and gardens for residences at pleasure.
Buonaparte took up his residence at a palace in the suburbs. In the
night there was an alarm of fire; it broke out in the quarter full
of bazaars and coachmakers' factories. Napoleon rushed to the spot,
and the flames were extinguished by the exertions of the soldiers.
The next day all was quiet, and such French as lived in Moscow came
out of their hiding-places and joined their countrymen. The following
night the fires burst forth again. At first the conflagration had
been attributed to accident; now it was felt to be the result of
design, and Russians were seen fanatically hurrying from place to place
with combustibles in their hands--the preparations of Rostopschin.
Buonaparte during the day had taken possession of the Kremlin, and it
was in imminent danger. When the fire was discovered near it, it came
with the wind; it was extinguished, but the wind changed, and fire rose
on that side, and again blew towards the palace. This occurred several
times during the night; it was clear that there was a determined
resolve to burn down the Kremlin. The flames defied all the efforts of
the soldiers; they hunted down, according to Napoleon's twenty-first
bulletin, no less than three hundred incendiaries, and shot them on the
spot. These were armed with fusees six inches long, and inflammables,
which they threw on the roofs. Buonaparte, who that day had dispatched
a letter to Alexander proposing peace, was in the utmost agitation.
He walked to and fro in distraction. "These are indeed Scythians!"
he exclaimed. The equinoctial gales rose in all their wild fury.
Providence commenced its Nemesis. The Kremlin was on fire, and all was
raging fire around it; churches, palaces, streets, mostly of wood, were
roaring in the storm. It was with difficulty that Buonaparte could be
induced to leave the Kremlin, and as he did so he said gloomily, "This
bodes us great misfortunes." He began to foresee all the horrors which
followed.
The fire raged with unabated fury from the 14th till the 19th--five
days. Then the city lay a heap of burning ashes. All the wealth which
was left behind was burnt or melted down. But there could be no stay
at Moscow, for all their provisions had to be brought from distant
districts by water carriage in summer, and on sledges in winter. But,
as the Russian population had fled, the Russians were only too glad
to starve out the French. Not a single article of food came near the
place. Alexander returned no answer to Buonaparte's letter. The pledge
which he might have made some concessions to redeem had been destroyed
by his own orders, and Buonaparte had now nothing to offer worthy of
his attention. He and his army were awaiting the attack of the wintry
elements to join them in the extermination of the invaders. Buonaparte
dispatched General Lauriston to Alexander with fresh offers; but
Alexander refused to see him, and turned him over to Kutusoff, who
flattered him with hopes and professions of desire for peace, in order
to put off the time, for every day nearer to winter was a day gained
of incalculable importance. But he said that he must send Napoleon's
letter to St. Petersburg, to the Czar, and await his reply. This was
on the 6th of October, and the reply could not be received before the
26th; there was nothing for it but to wait, and Lauriston waited--a
fatal delay for the French!
Kutusoff had made a dexterous march and encamped at Taroutino, a strong
position near Kaluga, between Moscow and Poland, so as to be able to
cut off the retreat of the French into the fertile plains of Poland,
and to cover Kaluga and Tula, the great Russian manufactory of arms and
artillery. Buonaparte sent Murat with the cavalry to watch the camp of
Kutusoff, and the King of Naples established himself in front of the
Russian lines. Murat entered into a sort of armistice with Kutusoff
whilst waiting for the reply from Alexander, in the hope that thus they
should obtain supplies from the peasants; but neither food nor firing
was obtainable except by fighting for it, nor was the armistice at
all observed, except just in the centre, where Murat lay. From every
quarter Cossacks continued to collect to the Russian army--strange,
wild figures, on small, wild-looking horses with long manes and tails,
evidently drawn from the very extremities of the empire. All Russia
was assembling to the grand destruction of the invaders. Behind the
camp the French could hear the continued platoon-firing, indicating the
perpetual drilling of the peasantry that was going on. Other bodies of
peasants formed themselves into troops of guerillas, under the chiefs
of their neighbourhood. The whole of the Russian population since the
burning of Moscow had become grimly embittered, and had taken arms to
have a share in the mighty revenge that was coming. And now, as the
sudden descent of winter was at hand, the same men who had pretended
to admire the soldier-like figure and gallantry of Murat--who galloped
about in all his military finery in front of the Russian camp--began to
ask the officers if they had made a paction with winter. "Stay another
fortnight," they said, "and your nails will drop off, and your fingers
from your hands, like rotten boughs from a tree." Others asked if they
had no food, nor water, nor wood, nor ground to bury them in France,
that they had come so far?
Murat sent continual intelligence of these things to Napoleon, and
urged him to commence his retreat without another day's delay. But, as
if deprived of sense and spirit, Buonaparte continued to linger on in
Moscow, vainly hoping for the answer from Alexander, which never came,
for the Czar not only refused to read the letter of the French Emperor,
but snubbed Kutusoff for sending it to him, or receiving Lauriston for
a moment. Sometimes Napoleon resolved to make an entrenched camp of
Moscow, and pass the winter there, but then came the recollection that
he could procure no provisions. Then, when he resolved upon retreat,
he could not renounce his old habit of plundering the country that he
invaded, collecting all the pictures, images, and ornaments of the
churches which had escaped the fire, and loading them on wains. He had
the gigantic cross on the tower of Ivan the Great, the tallest steeple
of Moscow, taken down, vainly hoping to display these memorials of
his visit to Moscow with the other spoils of the nations in Paris. He
determined to drag away all his artillery with him, and ordered twenty
thousand horses to be bought for the purpose of trailing all this
encumbrance over a vast marsh, where all the Cossacks and fierce tribes
of Russia would dog his heels, and where winter was sure to prostrate
his hosts. But no horses were there, and the command was sheer madness.
But at length the thunder of the Russian cannon roused him from this
delirious dreaming. Kutusoff, inducing Murat by a stratagem to declare
the armistice at an end, attacked his position and defeated him, with
a loss of two thousand men killed, and one thousand five hundred taken
prisoners. He took his cannon and baggage, and drove him from his
entrenchments. The only food found in the French camp was horseflesh
and flayed cats; the King of Naples had no better for his table--thus
showing the miserable straits to which they were reduced. On the 19th
of October Buonaparte marched out of Moscow, leaving, however, a strong
garrison in the Kremlin, under Mortier, for it would appear that he
still intended to return thither. The army which followed him still
consisted of nearly one hundred and twenty thousand men, accompanied
by five hundred and fifty pieces of cannon, and two thousand artillery
waggons. Buonaparte spoke with affected cheerfulness to his generals,
saying that he would march by Kaluga to the frontiers of Poland,
where they would go into comfortable winter quarters. After the army
came another host of camp-followers of French who had been resident
at Moscow but dared not remain behind, and a vast train of carriages
loaded with baggage and the spoils of Moscow.
[Illustration: RETREAT OF THE FRENCH FROM RUSSIA. (_See p._ 50.)]
Buonaparte endeavoured to manœuvre so as to get into Kutusoff's rear,
and thus to have the way into the fertile provinces beyond him open.
He sent forward Delzon to occupy Maloi-Jaroslavitz, a very strong
position; but Kutusoff penetrated his design, made a rapid march, and
encountered Delzon in the very streets of Maloi-Jaroslavitz. A severe
battle took place, and the French finally recovered Maloi-Jaroslavitz,
but only to find it, like Moscow, in flames, and to lose Delzon and his
brother, as well as some thousands of men. Beyond the burning town they
also saw Kutusoff and one hundred thousand men drawn up in a position
which the French generals declared impregnable. Buonaparte received
this information with expressions of consternation unusual to him. He
determined the next morning to examine this position for himself, and
in so doing was very nearly captured by a band of Cossack cavalry. A
council of war was held in a wretched weaver's hut, and he reluctantly
concluded to forego this route, and take that by Vereiva and Viasma,
the same by which he had advanced on Moscow. This was, in fact, to
doom his army to perdition; for all the way by Borodino, Smolensk, and
Vitebsk, the country had been ravaged and desolated in coming; there
was nothing in it to keep alive an army. Had he waited only a few
hours, he would have found Kutusoff himself retreating from his strong
defiles from fear of being outflanked by the French, and their making
their way beyond him to the fertile provinces. Thus the two armies were
each in retreat at the same moment, but Buonaparte's was a retreat upon
death and horror.
At Vereiva, where Buonaparte halted on the 27th of October, Mortier
arrived from Moscow, having blown up the Kremlin with gunpowder, and
with it a crowd of Russians who had rushed in at the moment of his
evacuation. Mortier on his march had also surprised and captured
General Winzengerode. From this place Buonaparte issued a bulletin,
announcing that not only Moscow but the Kremlin was destroyed; that
the two hundred thousand inhabitants of Moscow were wandering in the
woods existing on roots; and that the French army was advancing towards
St. Petersburg with every means of success. Such was the audacity of
lying by which he hoped to conceal the truth from Paris. At this moment
he was exasperated almost to frenzy by his prospects, and since the
defeat of Maloi-Jaroslavitz he had been gloomy and unapproachable from
the violence of his temper. On the march the army passed with horror
the field of Borodino. "The ground," says Segur, "was covered with
fragments of helmets and cuirasses, broken drums, gun-stocks, tatters
of uniforms, and standards steeped in blood. On this desolate spot lay
thirty thousand half devoured corpses. A number of skeletons, left on
the summit of one of the hills, overlooked the whole. It seemed as if
here death had fixed his empire. The cry, 'It is the field of the great
battle!' found a long and doleful murmur. Napoleon passed quickly; no
one stopped; cold, hunger, and the enemy urged us on. We merely turned
our faces as we proceeded to take a last melancholy look at our late
companions in arms."
On the 6th of November came down that fierce Russian winter of which
Buonaparte had been so long vainly warned. A thick fog obscured
everything, and snow falling in heavy flakes blinded and chilled the
soldiers. Then commenced wild winds, driving the snow around their
heads in whirls, and even dashing them to the earth in their fury.
The hollows and ravines were speedily drifted full, and the soldiers
by thousands disappeared in the deceitful depths, to reappear no more
till the next summer revealed their corpses. Numbers of others fell
exhausted by the way, and could only be discovered by their following
comrades by the slight hillocks that their bodies made under the snow.
Thus the wretched army struggled and stumbled to Smolensk, only to
find famine and desolation, seeming to forget, in the mere name of a
town, that it was now but a name, having been burnt by the Russians.
On commencing this terrible march of the 6th of November Buonaparte
received the ill news that there was insurrection in Paris--that
produced by Mallet, but soon put down; and also that Wittgenstein
had driven St. Cyr from Polotsk and Vitebsk, and reoccupied the
whole course of the Düna. To clear his retreat of this obstruction,
Buonaparte dispatched Victor to repulse Wittgenstein and support
St. Cyr. But this was only part of the evil tidings which came in
simultaneously with winter. Two thousand recruits from France, under
Baraguay d'Hilliers, had been surprised and taken prisoners on the
road to Kaluga, and other detachments in other quarters. On arriving
at Smolensk Buonaparte's troops had acquired such a wild, haggard, and
ragged appearance that the garrison at first refused to admit them;
and many perished before they could be relieved from the stores. They
had no shelter amid the terrible frost but wretched sheds, reared from
half-burnt timber, against the fire-blackened walls.
Meanwhile the second and rear divisions of the army under Davoust and
Ney were labouring hard to reach Smolensk, assailed by all the horrors
of the season, and of the myriad Russians collected around them, who
killed all who straggled or fell behind from fatigue and starvation.
The rearguard of Ney suffered most of all, for it was not only more
completely exposed to the raids of the Cossacks and of the enraged
peasants, but they found every house on their way burnt, and nothing
around them but treeless, naked plains, over which the freezing winds
and the hurrahing Cossacks careered in deadly glee. At the passage
of the Dnieper, it was only by stupendous exertions that Ney saved
any part of his army. He lost many men, and much of his artillery.
On the 13th of November, as he approached Smolensk, he was appalled
by the apparition of the remains of the army of Italy pursued by a
cloud of Cossacks, who were hewing them down by thousands. Eugene,
the Viceroy of Italy, had been sent with this division on a northward
route to support Oudinot, who was retreating before Wittgenstein; but
he had found it impossible to reach Oudinot, and had again made for
Smolensk. His passage of the river Vop had been no less destructive
than the passage of the Dnieper by Ney. He had lost all his baggage
and twenty-three pieces of cannon and was only saved by the fortunate
arrival of Ney.
Buonaparte allowed his army, now reunited in Smolensk, five days' rest
and enjoyment of the stores there, and on the 14th of November he
again marched out to force his way into Poland. The second division,
under Davoust, followed on the 16th, and the rear, still under Ney,
on the 17th. The worn-down Italians of Prince Eugene could not move
till the 15th, and did not overtake Buonaparte and assume their proper
position till the 17th. The road which Buonaparte was taking was by
Wilna, Krasnoi, and Borissov to Minsk; at the last two places he had
his stores. But his way was now hemmed in on all sides by Russian
armies. Wittgenstein was already at Vitebsk, and thence advanced on
Borissov on the Beresina, where Buonaparte hoped to cross; whilst
Tchitchagoff, who had joined Tormasoff, and thus raised their force
to sixty thousand men, had driven the Austrians, under Schwarzenberg,
back on the Bug, and had taken Minsk on the very day that Napoleon
marched out of Smolensk. At the same time Kutusoff, with the grand army
of Russia, was marching in a parallel line on the left flank of the
Emperor, ready to fall on him whenever he was reduced to extremities by
the other converging Russian forces. Now was coming the grand crisis.
The elements were fighting fearfully against him; his men were wearied,
half-starved, and disheartened; his enemies on all sides were alert
with hope and revenge. Had Kutusoff used more alertness, and secured
the passage of the Beresina as it ought to have been secured, the event
which Bernadotte had planned must have taken place, and Buonaparte,
with the remainder of his army, must have remained a prisoner there.
As it was, the extreme caution of Kutusoff saved Buonaparte and the
little remnant of his army that ever reached France again. Buonaparte
left Smolensk with only forty thousand, instead of four hundred and
seventy thousand men, which he had on entering Russia, and a great
part of the Italian division of Eugene was cut off by the Russians
before the Viceroy could come up with Buonaparte. Napoleon, therefore,
halted at Krasnoi, to allow of the two succeeding divisions coming up;
but Kutusoff took this opportunity to fall on Buonaparte's division,
consisting of only fifteen thousand men, and attacked it in the rear
by cannon placed on sledges, which could be brought rapidly up and as
rapidly made to fall back.
Sir Robert Wilson, the British Commissioner, urged Kutusoff, indeed,
to make one general and determined attack on Buonaparte and this
small body before the other divisions could come up; and there
can be no doubt that, had he done so, he would have destroyed the
division utterly, and made himself master of Napoleon's person. But
though Kutusoff had fought the battle of Borodino, he had now grown
over-cautious, and did not do that which it was the plan of Barclay de
Tolly, whom he superseded, to do when the right moment came. Whilst
Kutusoff was thus timidly cannonading, the division of Davoust came
up, and he retired, allowing both Buonaparte and Davoust to secure
themselves in Krasnoi. As for Ney, he was left behind wholly surrounded
by the Russians who had harassed the rear of Davoust, and were thus
interposed between Davoust and himself, as well as swarming on his own
flanks and rear. Napoleon could not wait for him, even at Krasnoi. He
learned that the Russians were drawing fast towards his crossing-places
at the Dnieper and the Beresina; that Prince Galitzin with a strong
force was about to occupy Krasnoi; that the Dnieper at Liady would be
immediately in the hands of the enemy. He therefore called Mortier,
and squeezing his hand sorrowfully told him that he had not a moment
to lose; that the enemy were overwhelming him in all directions; that
Kutusoff might have already reached Liady, perhaps Orcha, and the last
winding of the Dnieper was yet before him. Then, with his heart full of
Ney's misfortunes, he withdrew, in despair at being forced to abandon
him, towards Liady. He marched on foot at the head of his Guard, and
often talked of Ney. He called to mind his _coup-d'œil_, so accurate
and true, his courage, proof against everything--in short, all the
qualities which made him so brilliant on the field of battle. "He is
lost! Well! I have three hundred millions in the Tuileries; I would
give them all were he restored to me!"
And, in truth, Ney was in the most terrible of situations. When he left
Smolensk he was at the head of eight thousand men, but followed by
an army of stragglers, whom the cannon of Platoff caused to evacuate
Smolensk instantly, leaving behind him five thousand sick and wounded.
When they reached the battle-field of Krasnoi they saw the carcases of
their late comrades lying in heaps on the ground, and, a little beyond,
the Russians in full force occupying the banks of the Losmina, and
crowding all the hills around. In spite of this, Ney endeavoured to
cut his way through, but failed, after a dreadful slaughter, and only
saved one thousand five hundred men of his whole force by retreating
and taking another route to the river, where he lost all his baggage,
and such sick as he brought with him, for the ice broke with their
weight. Pursued by the Cossacks, he came up with Davoust's division
on the 20th of November. "When Napoleon," says Segur, "heard that Ney
had reappeared, he leaped and shouted for joy, saying, 'Then I have
saved my eagles! I would have given three hundred millions sooner than
have lost him.'" The losses which troubled Napoleon were those which
endangered his own safety or reputation; he thought little of the
hundreds of thousands who had perished through this mad expedition; but
he rejoiced over the safety of Ney, because he deemed it a pledge that
his own escape was also assured.
Napoleon's grand army had now dwindled down to twelve thousand men,
with about thirty thousand stragglers, who added little to his
strength. They were in Poland, and provisions were now more abundant;
but they had still to cross the Beresina, and at this moment he heard
of the fall of Minsk, and that Victor and Oudinot, instead of attacking
Wittgenstein, had quarrelled about the manner of doing it, and so had
not done it at all. Wittgenstein and Kutusoff were thus at liberty
to attack his flanks, and Tchitchagoff to occupy the Beresina before
him. On this, he turned from the route to Minsk and made for Borissov.
At Borissov was a bridge of three hundred fathoms in length, and
this he had sent Dombrowski to secure and hold; but now he heard of
Dombrowski's defeat, that the bridge was in the hands of the Russians,
and that they had broken it down. In his agony, he stamped his cane on
the ground, and exclaimed, looking upwards--"Is it, then, written that
we shall commit nothing but errors?"
Here he heard his faithful servants, Duroc and Daru, whispering, as
they thought he slept, of their critical situation, and caught the
words "prisoner of State." On this, he started up, and demanded whether
the reports of his Ministers were yet burnt, and being answered in
the negative, he had both them and all documents which could give
information of his affairs to the enemy put into the fire. Segur says
that amongst these were materials for writing his life, for, like
Cæsar, he had determined to be his own historian. In tracing the map
for a passage over the Beresina, his eye caught the word Pultowa, and
he said, "Ah! Charles XII.--Pultowa!"
The crossing of the Beresina, in the circumstances, was a desperate
design, but there was no alternative but surrender. Tchitchagoff
was posted with his army on the opposite or left bank; Wittgenstein
and Platoff were pressing down to join them; and Kutusoff, with the
grand army of Russia, was in the rear, able, if he could have been
induced to do it, to drive Buonaparte and his twelve thousand men
into the Beresina, and destroy them. After reconnoitring the river
Napoleon determined to deceive Tchitchagoff by a feint at passing at
Borissov, but really to make the attempt at Studienka, above Borissov.
He therefore kept up a show of preparations to cross at Borissov,
but got ready two bridges at Studienka, one for the artillery and
baggage, the other for the troops and miscellaneous multitude. At this
juncture he was joined by Victor and Oudinot with their fifty thousand
men well provided with everything. Thus he was now possessed of
sixty-two thousand men besides stragglers; and his design of deceiving
Tchitchagoff succeeding so completely that the latter withdrew his
whole force from opposite to Studienka and concentrated it at Borissov,
he began on the 26th of November to cross the river, and had a strong
force already over before Tchitchagoff discovered his error and came
back to attack him. So far all went so well that Buonaparte again
boasted of his star.
But whilst Tchitchagoff attacked the French on the right bank,
Wittgenstein attacked them on the left. The Russians then threw
a bridge of pontoons over the river at Borissov, and, being in
communication, attacked the French vehemently on both sides of the
river at once. Buonaparte and the troops who were over the river
forced their way across some marshes over wooden bridges, which the
Russians had neglected to destroy, and reached Brelowa, a little above
Borissov on the other side. But terrible now was the condition of
the forces and the camp-followers who had not crossed. Wittgenstein,
Victor, and Oudinot were engaged in mortal combat on the left bank at
the approach of the bridge, the French generals endeavouring to beat
off the Russians as the troops and people pressed in a confused crowd
over the bridges. Every moment the Russians drove the French nearer to
the bridges, and the scene of horror became indescribable. The throngs
rushed to make their way over the bridge; the soldiers, forgetting
their discipline, added to the confusion. The weak and helpless were
trampled down; thousands were forced over the sides of the bridge, and
perished in the freezing waters. In the midst of the struggle a fierce
tempest arose, and deluges of rain fell; and to carry the horror to the
highest pitch, the bridge over which the baggage was passing broke
down, plunging numbers of sick, and women and children, into the flood,
amid the most fearful cries and screams. But all night the distracted
multitude continued to press over the sole remaining bridge under the
fire of the Russian artillery, and amongst them passed the troops of
Victor, who gave up the contest on the left bank, and left those who
had not crossed to their fate. Thousands of poor wretches were seen, as
morning dawned, huddled on the bank of the river, amid baggage-waggons
and artillery, surrounded by the infuriated Russians, and in dumb
despair awaiting their fate. To prevent the crossing of the Russians,
the French set fire to the bridge, and left those behind to the mercy
of the enemy.
[Illustration: NAPOLEON ABANDONING HIS ARMY. (_See p._ 54.)]
No scene in history ever was fraught with such multiplied horrors.
Thirty thousand French perished in that fatal passage of the Beresina;
and had Kutusoff done what he might, not a man, not Napoleon himself,
could have escaped. But this cautious old general was contented that
winter should finish the work. In the first few days after Napoleon had
quitted Smolensk the Russians had taken twenty-six thousand prisoners,
including three hundred officers, and two hundred and twenty-eight
guns, with numerous standards. They had killed ten thousand Frenchmen,
and now thirty thousand more had perished. That was enough for Kutusoff.
On assembling his remnant of an army in Brelowa, Buonaparte beheld a
state of general disorganisation prevailing. Perishing with cold and
hunger, every man was only mindful of himself. In a short time the
whole village was pulled down to make camp-fires of the timber, for
the weather was fiercely cold. He could scarcely prevent them from
stripping off the roof under which he had taken shelter. He set out on
his march for Wilna on the 29th of November. The army hurried along
without order or discipline, their only care being to outstrip the
Russians, who were, like famished wolves, at their heels; the Cossacks
continually cutting down numbers of their benumbed and ragged comrades,
who went along more like spectres than actual men. The thermometer was
at twenty degrees below zero.
On the 3rd of December Buonaparte announced to his officers his
intention to leave them and make the best of his way to Paris. He
pleaded the state of affairs there, and especially the conspiracy
of Mallet; but he was now approaching the frontiers of Prussia, and
as he knew that he had declared that, if he returned successful, he
would deprive Frederick William altogether of his crown, he was as
apprehensive of that monarch as of the Russians themselves.
But he went on to Smorgony, and there, the remains of the army
having come up, he called a council of war on the 5th of December.
He told his generals that he had ordered Ney to reorganise the army
at Wilna, and had appointed Murat, King of Naples, generalissimo in
his absence. He assumed a tone of great confidence, promised his army
good winter-quarters beyond the Niemen, and assured them that he was
hasting away to present himself directly at the head of one hundred and
twenty thousand men to keep the Austrians and Prussians firm to their
alliance, and thus to make those he left behind more secure than he
could do by staying with them. He then passed through the crowd of his
officers, who were drawn up in an avenue as he passed, bidding them
adieu with forced and melancholy smiles. He then stepped into a sledge
with Caulaincourt and shut themselves in, and Duroc and Lobau followed
in another sledge; and thus the man who entered Russia with nearly half
a million of men, stole away, leaving the miserable remnant of his vast
army to the elements and the Russians!