By COLONEL CLAYTON, R.A.
(1769-1821)
[Illustration: "The coronation of Josephine". [TN]]
Napoleon Bonaparte, the second son of Charles Bonaparte and his wife,
Letizia de Ramolino, was born at Ajaccio, in Corsica, on August 15,
1769. In 1779 he entered the Royal Military School of Brienne le
Chateau; there he remained till the autumn of 1784, when he was
transferred to the Military School of Paris, according to the usual
routine. An official report on him by the Inspector of Military
Schools in this year speaks highly of his conduct, and notifies his
great proficiency in mathematics and fair knowledge of history and
geography, but says he is not well up in ornamental studies or in
Latin, and, curiously enough, adds that he will make an excellent
sailor. Napoleon lost his father in 1785, and the same year he was
commissioned as second-lieutenant of artillery, in which capacity he
served at Valence and other garrisons. He spent his periods of leave
in Corsica, and appears to have wished to play the leading part in the
history of his native island, showing the first signs of his ambitious
and energetic character. During the critical times following the first
French Revolution, he at first joined the moderate party of Paoli;
but, trying for military power, though by untiring activity and
reckless audacity he succeeded in being elected lieutenant-colonel of
the National Volunteers of Ajaccio, he failed in an attempt to seize
that town and was obliged to return to France. The French Government
soon made an endeavor to crush Paoli and do away with Corsican
privileges, and the islanders rallied round the patriot. Napoleon now
turned against him and attempted to seize the citadel of Ajaccio for
the French; but failing again, with all his relatives he fled a second
time to France.
From this time onward Napoleon looked to France for his career. The
narrow horizon of his native island was no longer wide enough for him,
but from its bracing mountain air and from the quick blood of his race
he drew a magnetic force, which imparted to his decisions and actions
a rapidity and energy that carried all before them, while at the same
time a power of calm calculation, of industry, and of self-control
enabled him to employ his genius to the best advantage. The force of
his personality was so overwhelming that in considering his career the
regret must ever be present that the only principle that remained
steadfast with him, and is the key to his conduct throughout, should
have been the care for his own advancement, glory, and power. Napoleon
now joined the army under Carteaux, which acted against the
Marseillais who had declared against the National Convention and
occupied Avignon. At this time he became attached to the younger
Robespierre, who was a commissioner with the army, and embraced his
Jacobin principles. He was shortly promoted chef de bataillon, and
commanded the artillery at the siege of Toulon, where he highly
distinguished himself, and is generally believed to have been the
author of the plan of attack which led to the fall of the place. He
was then promoted general of brigade.
On the fall of the Robespierres, Napoleon incurred serious danger, but
was saved by powerful influence enlisted in his favor. He was,
however, ordered to take command of an infantry brigade in the Army of
the West. This he considered would stifle his military career, and
neglecting to obey the order, he was in consequence removed from the
list of employed general officers. Disgusted with his apparent lack of
prospects, he was now anxious to be sent to Turkey to reorganize the
Turkish artillery. But on the eve of the 13th Vendemiaire (October 5,
1795) he was appointed second in command of the Army of the Interior
under Barras, and did the National Convention good service next day in
repelling the attack of the Sections of Paris. Influenced partly by
fear and partly by appreciation of his talents, the Directory
appointed General Bonaparte to the command of the Army of Italy, on
February 23, 1796. On March 9th he married Josephine Tascher de la
Pagerie, widow of General Vicomte Alexandre de Beauharnais, and left
Paris for Italy two days later.
On joining the army Bonaparte inaugurated a new era in the wars of the
Republic. Previously the leading motives had been pure patriotism and
love of liberty; Bonaparte for the first time, in his proclamation on
taking command, invoked the spirit of self-interest and plunder, which
was to dominate the whole policy of France for the next twenty years.
Evil as were the passions which he aroused, Napoleon's great military
genius flashed forth in its full brilliancy in this his first
campaign. His power lay in the rapidity and boldness of his decisions,
and in the untiring energy with which he carried them out, confounding
his enemies by the suddenness and lightning rapidity of his blows,
which never gave them time to recover. He found the French army about
thirty-six thousand strong, distributed along the crests of the
mountains from Nice to Savona, and opposing 20,000 Piedmontese under
Colli and 38,000 Austrians under Beaulieu. These two generals had,
however, differing interests: Colli's main object was to protect
Piedmont, Beaulieu's to cover Lombardy. Hence, if Bonaparte could
penetrate the point of junction of the two armies, it was probable
they would separate in their retreat, and could be beaten singly. He
therefore attacked the centre of the allied line, and, driving back
the Austrians from Montenotte on April 12th, turned against the
Piedmontese and defeated them at Millesimo the next day. Losing no
time he left a division under Augereau to keep the Piedmontese in
check, and led the bulk of his army against the Austrians, defeating
them heavily at Dego on the 14th. The allied armies then retreated in
diverging directions as expected, and Bonaparte, following the
Piedmontese, beat them at Ceva and Mondovi, and forced the King of
Sardinia to sign the armistice of Cherasco, leaving him free to deal
with the Austrians. He crossed the Po at Piacenza on May 7th, and
obliged the Austrians to retreat to the Adda. Following them he forced
the bridge of Lodi on May 11th, and entered Milan amid the rejoicings
of the people on the 15th. But his ill-omened proclamation had done
its work; violence and pillage were rampant in the French army, and he
could do little to restrain them. Indeed, he himself showed an example
of plundering, though under more organized forms. Heavy contributions
were exacted, curiosities and works of art were demanded wholesale and
despatched to France; and the Directory, demoralized by the
unaccustomed wealth that flowed in upon them, became fully as eager as
Napoleon for fresh conquests and their accruing spoils.
The Austrians still held Mantua, which Napoleon now besieged,
occupying himself at the same time in consolidating his conquests. The
Austrians made strenuous efforts to save the fortress. They were much
superior in number to the French, but were defeated again and again by
the rapidity and genius of their opponent. Finally, at the end of
October, an Austrian army of 50,000, but mostly recruits, advanced
under Alvinzi. Then followed the three days' battle of Arcola, during
which Napoleon had a very narrow escape, but which ended in Alvinzi's
defeat and retreat on Tyrol. From Arcola Napoleon dated his firm
belief in his own fortune. Once again, in January, 1797, Alvinzi tried
to relieve Mantua. But Napoleon moved in full force on Rivoli, and won
a decisive battle there on January 14th, the Austrian detachment on
the Lower Adige having to lay down their arms next day at Roverbella.
Wuermser capitulated at Mantua on February 2d, Napoleon treating him
with generosity. This first Italian campaign was perhaps the most
skilful of all those of Napoleon. Everything was done accurately and
rapidly, and without throwing away chances. Some of his later
campaigns, though equally brilliant, show him acting more with the
gambler's spirit, running unnecessary risks with almost a blind
reliance upon his star, in the hope of obtaining results which should
dazzle the world.
In political matters during this time Napoleon was acting less as a
servant of the French Directory than as an independent ruler. He
entirely ignored the instructions he received from Paris, levying
contributions, entering into negotiations, and deposing princes at his
own will, and writing that he is not fighting "for those rascals of
lawyers."
[Illustration: Napoleon and the Sphinx.]
Napoleon returned to Paris on December 5, 1797. The Directory, fearing
his ambition, thought they could only keep him quiet by employing him,
and gave him command of the so-called Army of England. But he was bent
on the conquest of Egypt. He appears to have had something visionary
in his temperament, and to have dreamed of founding a mighty empire
from the stand-point of the East, the glow and glamour of which seem
always to have had a certain fascination for him. He therefore
employed the resources of the Army of England to prepare for an
expedition to Egypt, and the Directory yielded to his wishes, partly
no doubt, through the desire of getting him away from France. But
their aggressive policy was at the same time fast bringing on another
European war. The expedition sailed from Toulon on May 19, 1798,
captured Malta from the Knights of St. John by treachery, and,
escaping by great luck from the British fleet under Nelson, arrived at
Alexandria on June 30th. The army was disembarked in haste, for fear
lest Nelson should arrive, and on July 8th Napoleon marched on Cairo.
He defeated the Mamelukes at Chebreiss and the Pyramids, and entered
Cairo on July 24th. He then occupied himself with organizing the
government of Egypt, but his position was rendered very hazardous by
the destruction of the French fleet on August 1st by Nelson at the
battle of the Nile, and he saw that his dream of founding an empire in
the East could not be realized. He thought, however, that he might
create a revolution in Syria, by the aid of which he might overthrow
the Turkish power, and march in triumph back to Europe through Asia
Minor and Constantinople. He accordingly entered Syria in February,
1799, with 12,000 men, but was brought to a standstill before St. Jean
d'Acre. Failing to capture that fortress, supported as it was by the
British squadron under Sir Sidney Smith, in spite of the most
desperate efforts, he was obliged to return to Egypt. After his
return, Napoleon defeated a Turkish army which had landed at Aboukir,
but learning the reverses that had been suffered by the French arms in
Europe, he resolved to leave Egypt and return to France. He embarked
secretly on August 22d, leaving a letter placing Kleber in command of
the Army of Egypt, and landed in France six weeks later.
He found matters at home in great confusion. The wars had been
mismanaged, Italy was almost lost, and the government, in consequence,
was in very bad odor. The revolution of the 18th Brumaire followed
(November 9, 1799), when the legislature was forcibly closed, and a
provisional executive of three consuls, Sieyes, Roger-Duclos, and
Bonaparte, formed to draw up a new constitution. This was promulgated
on December 13th; the executive was vested in three consuls,
Bonaparte, Cambaceres, and Lebrun, of whom Bonaparte was nominated
First Consul for ten years. He was practically paramount, the two
remaining consuls being ciphers, and the other institutions being so
organized as to concentrate power in the executive. Sieyes became
president of the Senate. The governmental crisis being settled,
energetic steps were taken with regard to the civil war in the west. A
proclamation was issued promising religious toleration at the same
time that decided military action was taken, and these measures were
so successful that all was quiet at home by the end of February, 1800.
Then Napoleon turned his attention abroad. He made overtures for peace
to England and Austria, now the only belligerents, as he wished to
lull suspicion by posing as the friend of peace, not as a military
ruler; but he inwardly rejoiced when they rejected his overtures.
The situation of the belligerents on the Continent was this: the Army
of the Rhine under Moreau, more than one hundred thousand strong, was
distributed along the Rhine from the Lake of Constance to Alsace,
opposed to Kray, whose head-quarters were at Donaueschingen in Baden;
while Massena, with the Army of Italy, was on the Riviera and at
Genoa, opposed to an Austrian army under Melas. Napoleon intended to
gain himself the chief glory of the campaign; so, giving Moreau orders
to cross the Rhine, but not to advance beyond a certain limit, and
leaving Massena to make head as best he could against Melas, with the
result that he was besieged in Genoa and reduced to the last
extremity, he prepared secretly an army of reserve near the Swiss
frontier, to the command of which Berthier was ostensibly appointed.
Outside, and even inside France, this army of reserve was looked upon
as a chimera. Moreau crossed the Rhine on April 24th, and drove Kray
to Ulm, but was there checked by Napoleon's instructions, according to
which he also sent a division to co-operate with the army of reserve.
Napoleon himself went to Geneva on May 9th, and assuming command of
this army crossed the St. Bernard, and reached the plains of Italy
before Melas had convinced himself of the existence even of the army
of reserve, and while his troops were scattered from Genoa to the Var.
Napoleon's obvious course would now have been to move straight on
Genoa, relieve Massena, and beat in detail as many of Melas's troops
as he could encounter. But this would not have been a sufficiently
brilliant triumph, as the bulk of the Austrian army might have
escaped; and trusting in his star, he resolved to stake the existence
of his army on a gambler's cast. Leaving Massena to be starved out, he
moved to the left on Milan, and occupied the whole line of the Ticino
and Po as far as Piacenza, so as to cut off entirely the retreat of
the Austrians. He then crossed the Po, and concentrated as many troops
as he could spare at Stradella. The strategy was brilliant, but the
risk run excessive. His army was necessarily scattered, while Melas
had had time to concentrate, and he was besides ignorant of the
Austrian position. He sent Desaix with a column to seek information,
and moved himself on Alessandria, where he found Melas. Next day, June
14th, Melas marched out to attack the French on the plains of Marengo,
and despite all Napoleon's efforts, had actually defeated them, when
fortunately, Desaix returned, and his advance, together with a cavalry
charge by Kellermann, changed defeat into victory. Melas, losing his
head, signed a convention next day, giving up almost all North Italy,
though Marmont says that if he had fought another battle he must have
won it. Napoleon returned to Paris with the glories of this
astonishing campaign; but peace did not follow till Moreau, when his
liberty of action was restored to him, had won the battle of
Hohenlinden on December 3, 1800. Then followed the treaty of Luneville
with Germany, in February, 1801, the concordat with Rome, in July,
1801, and the treaty of Amiens with England, in March, 1802, so that
Napoleon was able to figure as the restorer of peace to the world. He
then devoted himself to the reconstruction of the civil institutions
of France, employing in this great work the best talent that he could
find, and impressing on their labors the stamp of his own genius. The
institutions then created, which still remain for the most part, were
the restored Church, the judicial system, the codes, the system of
local government, the University, the Bank of France, and the Legion
of Honor.
France at this period, sick of the failure of republican government,
was gradually veering toward monarchy, and Napoleon knew how to take
advantage of events to strengthen his position, and in due time
establish his own dynasty.
Preparations for the invasion of England had been steadily proceeding,
but Napoleon's aggressive demeanor after becoming emperor alarmed the
European cabinets, so that Pitt was able to revive the coalition, and
in 1805 Napoleon found himself at war with Russia and Austria, as well
as with England. Forced by England's naval supremacy to abandon the
notion of invasion, he suddenly changed front in August, 1805, and led
his armies through Hanover and the smaller German states, disregarding
the neutrality even of Prussia herself, and reached the Danube in rear
of the Austrian army under Mack, which was at Ulm. The surprise was
complete; Mack surrendered October 19th, and Napoleon then marched on
Vienna, which he entered November 13th. But his position was critical.
The Archduke Charles was approaching from Hungary, a Russian army was
entering Moravia, and Prussia, incensed at the violation of her
territory, joined the coalition. A short delay would have surrounded
Napoleon with his enemies, but the czar was impatient, and the Russian
army, with a small contingent of Austrians, encountered Napoleon at
Austerlitz, December 2, 1805, and was signally defeated. This caused
the break-up of the coalition; the Holy Roman Empire came to an end,
the Confederation of the Rhine was formed under French protection, and
the Napoleonic empire was firmly established. Napoleon then entered
into negotiations for peace with Russia and England, endeavoring to
conciliate those powers at the expense of Prussia. The negotiations
failed, but Prussia was mortally offended, and mobilized her army in
August, 1806, about which time Russia finally rejected the treaty with
France. Napoleon acted with his usual promptitude, and advanced
against Prussia before she could get help either from England or
Russia. Although the rank and file of the Prussian armies was good,
their generals were antiquated, and Napoleon crushed them at Jena and
Auerstadt, October 14th, and entered Berlin on the 27th. He had then
to carry on a stubbornly contested campaign with Russia. An indecisive
battle at Eylau was followed by a hardly earned French victory at
Friedland, June 14, 1807, and the peace of Tilsit ensued, by which
Prussia lost half her territory, and had to submit to various
humiliating conditions, while Russia escaped easily, and indeed got a
share of the spoils.
Napoleon was now at the zenith of his power; he was the arbiter of
Europe and the paramount head of a confederation of princes, among
whom the members of his own family occupied several thrones. To reward
his partisans he at this time created a new noblesse, and lavished
upon them the public money. He sent an army under Junot to Portugal,
and another to Spain, which, under Murat, took Madrid. Napoleon then
procured the abdication of the King of Spain and placed his brother
Joseph on the vacant throne. But he did not foresee the consequences.
The spirit of the nation was roused, and a formidable insurrection
broke out, while a British army, under Sir Arthur Wellesley, landed in
Portugal, defeated Junot at Vimiera, and forced him to sign the
Convention of Cintra, evacuating Portugal. So began the Peninsular
War, which for the future was to paralyze half Napoleon's strength.
In Germany also a spirit of revolt against his tyranny was rising,
Austria at first taking the lead, and this brought on the war of 1809
against that power. Prussia, already beginning to recover her strength
under the military system of Scharnhorst and Stein, was hostile to
Napoleon in sentiment, but was kept down by the pressure of Russia.
Napoleon declared war on the pretext that Austria was arming, and
marching through Bavaria drove the Austrians out of Ratisbon, and
entered Vienna May 13th. Eugene Beauharnais, at the head of the Army
of Italy, drove the Austrians before him into Hungary, defeated them
at Raab, and joined Napoleon. The emperor then tried to cross the
Danube, but was checked at Aspern and obliged to retire to the island
of Lobau. Five weeks of preparation then followed, the peasant war
under Hofer being carried on in Tyrol, and then Napoleon made a fresh
and successful attempt to cross the Danube, and won the battle of
Wagram July 5th. This was followed by the armistice of Znaim and the
treaty of Schoenbrunn, October 20, 1809, by which he obtained a heavy
indemnity in money and considerable accession of territory in
Carniola, Carinthia, Croatia, and Galicia. But he mortally offended
the czar by giving a large portion of the ceded territory of Galicia
to the Duchy of Warsaw--i.e., to Poland.
On December 16, 1809, Napoleon, desirous of an heir, divorced
Josephine, who was childless, and married, April 1, 1810, the
Archduchess Maria Louisa of Austria. He had no doubt the wish also to
get a footing in the circle of the legitimate reigning families of
Europe. A son, to whom the title of King of Rome was given, was born
March 20, 1811.
Still bent on the humiliation of England, Napoleon now tried to effect
his purpose by increasing the stringency of the Continental System,
but this ended in bringing him into conflict with Russia. He first
annexed the kingdoms of Holland and Westphalia, to give him command of
their seaboards, and then prohibited English trade even when carried
in neutral bottoms. The czar, already estranged by Napoleon's alliance
with Austria and his conduct as regards Poland, refused to adopt this
policy, and the relations between them gradually became so strained
that war was inevitable, and Napoleon took the momentous resolve to
invade Russia. With Maria Louisa, he arrived at Dresden May 16, 1812,
and was there greeted by the Emperor of Austria, the King of Prussia,
and other sovereigns. His army for this gigantic enterprise numbered
about six hundred thousand, including French, Germans, and Italians.
He crossed the Niemen on June 24th, reaching Vilna, which was
evacuated by the Russians, on the 28th; and remained at Vilna till
July 16th, hesitating to take the final resolution to invade the heart
of Russia. He made overtures for peace to the czar, who refused to
treat as long as an enemy remained on Russian soil. Foiled here
Napoleon at last decided to go on with his enterprise; so he
advanced, and at first the Russians were in no condition to meet him,
their forces being scattered. If Napoleon could have advanced rapidly
to Smolensk, he might have cut the Russian forces in two, but his vast
host appears to have been unmanageable. Barclay de Tolly and Bagration
succeeded in uniting at Smolensk, but were driven from it on August
18th, after an obstinate defence. At Smolensk Napoleon again hesitated
as to whether he should go into winter-quarters, but eventually
decided to press on to Moscow, trusting to the moral effect of the
fall of the ancient capital. It seems as if, while his superstitious
belief in his star still remained, bodily ailments had caused a
deterioration in his power of rapid decision and in his energy of
action. Meanwhile, great discontent had been caused in Russia by the
continued retreat of the armies. Kutusoff was appointed to the chief
command, and stood to fight at Borodino on September 6th. Napoleon won
the battle, but with unwonted and misplaced caution refused to engage
his Guard, and the victory was almost fruitless.
He entered Moscow on September 14th, and fire broke out the next
night, the first effect of which was still further to alarm the
Russians, who believed it to be the work of the French. The fire raged
fiercely till the 20th, and a great part of the city was burned to the
ground. Had the victory of Borodino been more decisive the czar might
now have yielded; but as it was he listened to the advice of Stein and
Sir R. Wilson and refused to treat, thus putting Napoleon in a
dilemma. His plans were always made on the basis of immediate success,
and the course to be adopted in case of failure was not considered.
Again he hesitated, with the result that when at last he resolved to
retire from Moscow, the winter, coming earlier than usual, upset his
calculations, and the miseries of that terrible retreat followed. He
left Moscow on October 18th, and, reaching the Beresina with but
12,000 men, was joined there by Oudinot and Victor, who had been
holding the line of the Dwina, with 18,000. His passage of the river
was opposed, but he succeeded in crossing, and on December 6th the
miserable remnant of the Grand Army reached Vilna. Macdonald, Reynier,
and Schwarzenberg, with 100,000 men, on the Polish frontier and in the
Baltic provinces, were safe; but this was the whole available remnant
of the 600,000 with which the campaign commenced.
All Europe now united against him. The French armies were discouraged,
and the allies enthusiastic; but the latter had difficulties to
contend with from their heterogeneous composition and diversity of
interests. The campaign opened with varying fortune. A blow at Berlin
was parried by Buelow at Gross Beeren on August 23d. Napoleon himself
forced Bluecher back to the Katzbach, but had to retire again to defend
Dresden from the Austrians; and his lieutenant, Macdonald, was
defeated in the battle of the Katzbach on August 26th. Napoleon
inflicted a crushing defeat on the Austrians before Dresden on the
27th, but, while preparing to cut off their retreat, was disturbed by
the news of Gross-Beeren and the Katzbach and by sudden illness, and
at Kulm lost Vandamme with 20,000 men. September was spent in
fruitless marches, and toward the end of the month the allies began
their converging march on their preconcerted rendezvous at Leipsic. At
the same time the Confederation of the Rhine began to dissolve. The
kingdom of Westphalia was upset on October 1st, and on the 8th
Bavaria joined Austria. The toils were closing round Napoleon, and
between October 14th and 19th he was crushed in that battle of the
Titans at Leipsic, and, brushing aside the Bavarians, who tried to
stop him at Haynau, on November 1st, led back the remnant of his army,
some 70,000 strong, across the Rhine at Mainz.
The allies now made overtures for peace on the basis of natural
frontiers, which would have left France the fruits of the first
Revolution, viz., Belgium, the left bank of the Rhine, Savoy, and
Nice; but Napoleon could not be content with such curtailment of his
power. Evading at first the proposal, he would have accepted it, but
with suspicious qualifications, when too late. The invasion of France
followed. The allies issued a manifesto on December 1st, saying they
were waging war against Napoleon alone, and advanced with three
separate armies. Schwarzenberg led the Austrians through Switzerland,
Bluecher crossed the Middle Rhine toward Nancy, while the northern army
passed through Holland. Napoleon had yet hopes of success on account
of the forces he still had in the German fortresses, the mutual
jealousies of the allies, his connection with the Emperor of Austria,
and the patriotism which would be aroused in France by invasion. But
the allies gave him no time to utilize these influences, and Paris was
not fortified. Napoleon carried on a campaign full of genius, gaining
what advantage he could from the separation of his enemies. He
attacked Bluecher and won four battles in four days at Champaubert
(February 10, 1814), Montmirail (11th), Chateau-Thierry (12th), and
Vauchamps (13th). These successes would have enabled him to make a
reasonable peace, but his personal position forbade this, and he tried
subterfuge and delay. The allies, however, were not to be trifled
with, and in the beginning of March signed the treaty of Chaumont,
which bound them each to keep 150,000 men on foot for twenty years.
The battles of Craonne and Laon followed, in which Napoleon held his
own, but saw his resources dwindle. On March 18th the conferences at
Chatillon came to an end, and on the 24th the allies determined to
march on Paris. Marmont and Mortier, with less than thirty thousand
men, could make no head against them, while Napoleon himself tried a
fruitless diversion against their communications. Joseph Bonaparte
withdrew Maria Louisa and the King of Rome to Tours. On March 30th the
allies attacked Paris on three sides, and in the afternoon the French
marshals offered to capitulate. Napoleon, when he learned the real
state of affairs, hurried up in rear of the allies, but was too late,
and had to fall back to Fontainebleau. His position was desperate, and
to add to his difficulties Wellington, whose career of success had
gradually cleared the French out of the Peninsula, had now led his
victorious army across the Pyrenees into France itself.
Napoleon therefore at first offered to abdicate in favor of his son,
but, when he found that would not be sufficient, he signed an
unconditional abdication on April 11, 1814. He was given the
sovereignty of the island of Elba, and the Bourbons, in the person of
Louis XVIII., were restored to the throne of France. But the condition
of affairs was very precarious. The return of the Bourbons was most
unpopular. It indeed restored the parliament, but it unsettled the
position of public men and the title to estates. The army was
disgusted at the appointment to commands of emigres who had fought
against France. The Church began to cause alarm to the holders of
national property; and by the release of prisoners and the return of
the garrisons of German fortresses, very large numbers of Napoleonic
soldiers became dispersed over France. The coalition, too, broke up,
and fresh alliances began to be sought with a view to check the
aggressive spirit which Russia seemed inclined to manifest. Altogether
affairs in Europe and France were in such a state as to make it not
impossible that the magic of Napoleon's name might replace him in
power. He accordingly resolved on making the attempt, left Elba on
February 26, 1815, and landed on the French coast on March 1st. On the
20th he entered Paris, having been joined by the army.
Europe had declared war against him, and a new coalition had been
formed, but only two armies were immediately ready to take the field;
a mixed force under the Duke of Wellington in Belgium, and a Prussian
army under Bluecher in the Rhine provinces. The English army had its
base on the sea, and the Prussian on the Rhine, so that they had
diverging lines of operation. Napoleon's idea was to strike suddenly
at their point of junction before they could concentrate, push in
between them, drive them apart, and then defeat each separately. The
plan was unexceptionable, resembling that of his first campaign in
1796, and the opening moves were successfully carried out. Napoleon
left Paris on June 12th, his army being then echeloned between Paris
and the Belgian frontier, so that the point where the blow would fall
was still doubtful. On the 15th he occupied Charleroi, and was between
the two allied armies, and on the 16th he defeated Bluecher at Ligny
before Wellington could come to his assistance. So far all had gone
well with him; but now, apparently, his energy was not sufficient to
cope rapidly with the difficulties that no doubt beset him through the
shortcomings of his staff, and the spirit of mutual distrust that
reigned among his officers. He did nothing till the morning of the
17th, and it was not till 2 P.M. that he sent Grouchy with 33,000 men
to follow the Prussians in the supposed direction of their retreat
toward Liege, and keep them at a distance while he turned against
Wellington. But he had lost his opportunity; the wasted hours had
enabled the Prussians to disappear, and he did not know the fact that
Bluecher had taken the resolution to move on Wavre, giving up his own
communications in order to reunite with Wellington. The latter had
retired to a previously chosen position at Mont St. Jean, and received
Bluecher's promise to lead his army to his assistance. So on the 18th,
when Napoleon attacked the duke, unknown to him the bulk of the
Prussian army was hastening up on his right flank, while Grouchy was
fruitlessly engaged with the Prussian rear-guard only. This led to the
crowning defeat of Waterloo, where Napoleon's fortunes were finally
wrecked. He fled to Paris, and abdicated for the last time on June
22d; and, finding it impossible to escape from France, he surrendered
to Captain Maitland, of the Bellerophon, at Rochefort, on July 15th.
He was banished by the British Government to St. Helena, where he
arrived on October 15, 1815, and died there of cancer of the stomach
on May 5, 1821.