THE ARMISTICE--BATTLE OF VITTORIA--DEFEAT AT LEIPSIC--THE BRIDGE
BLOWN UP.
An armistice was signed between the allies and Napoleon on June 4,
1813, to last till July 20: six days’ notice to be given of the
recommencement of hostilities. But Wellington seems to have disregarded
it; for, on June 21, he defeated the French army commanded by Joseph
Bonaparte, who had Marshal Jourdan under him, at Vittoria; completely
routing them, and taking 151 pieces of cannon, 415 ammunition waggons,
all their baggage, besides many prisoners.
Needless to say, the caricaturist did not omit his opportunity. ‘Mad
Nap breaking the Armistice’ (June 1813) is said to be taken ‘from
the original Picture at Dresden.’[28] Two messengers bring him their
reports. One is ‘English near Bayonne, Rising in South of France,
200,000 men joined the Bourbon Standard, Revolt at Toulon, Discontent
at Paris, All Spain evacuated, and more losses.’ The other messenger
tells the furious Emperor: ‘Diable! Your Grand Army in Spain is totally
routed, 180 Cannon, 400 Ammunition Waggons, All the Baggage! 9000 head
of Cattle, Military Chest full of money taken. Your brother, King Joey,
gallop’d away on horseback, Devil knows where! M. Jourdain has lost his
wig and stick! and the Enemy pursuing in all directions.’ Bonaparte
is in a towering rage, brandishing a poker, and kicking the last
messenger, to whom he roars out: ‘Away, base slaves. Fresh Torments!
Vile Cowards! Poltroon Joe! Traitor Jourdain! Cursed Anglais! I’ll make
Heaven and Earth tremble for this! but ’tis lies! base lies! Give me my
horse, I’ll mount, and away to Spain! England! Wellington! and Hell!
to drive Lucifer from his Infernal Throne for Treachery to ME!!’ A
frightened general standing by exclaims: ‘My Poor Master! is it come to
this? I must whip on this Strait Jacket, or he’ll break all our bones,
as well as the Armistice.’
As a corollary to this, although it does not belong to Napoleon proper,
I cannot abstain from noticing a picture published July 9, 1813, of
‘Jourdan and King Joe or Off they go--a Peep at the French Commanders
at the battle of Vittoria.’ The British troops have routed the French,
who fly in all directions; King Joseph and Marshal Jourdan, in the
foreground, are doing the same. Says the king: ‘Parbleu Mons^r Marshal,
we must run! a pretty piece of business we have made of it. If my
Brother Nap sends for me to the Congress, the Devil a clean shirt have
they left me! Could you not try your hand at a Convention again, my
dear Jourdan! as our friend Junot did in Portugal?’
But Jourdan replies: ‘Convention! No, ma foi! there is no tricking ce
Lord Wellington, we have nothing to trust to but our heels, but I dont
think they will save us, you need not be uneasy about a clean shirt for
the Congress, Mons^r Joe. Allons donc, run like de Devil! run like your
Brother Nap from Russia.’
George Cruikshank drew (July 8, 1813) a very humorous picture of
‘Boney receiving an account of the Battle of Vittoria--or--the Little
Emperor in a great Passion!’ A ragged postilion, mounted on the back
of a kneeling soldier, holds up a long roll: ‘King Joseph has been
defeated by Wellington with the loss of 151 pieces of Cannon, 415
Ammunition Waggons, Bag and Baggage, Provisions, &c., &c., &c. The
French have _one_ very fine little Howitzer left. One Quarter of the
Army is killed, the other wounded, the third Quarter taken prisoners,
and the English are playing the Devil with the rest.’
Napoleon, before his throne, is stamping, tearing his hair, and
flourishing his sword, to the undisguised terror of his Mameluke
Roustem; he roars out: ‘Oh!--!--!--!--!--!--!--! oh! Hell and the
Devil! Death and D--na--on!!! that cursed fiend John Bull will drive me
mad! Villains! Villains! ’tis all a lie, ’tis false as Hell, I say!!
away with the ---- scroll--it sears my very eyeballs!!! I’ll cut it
in Ten Thousand pieces--I’ll kick ye to the Devil--away with it!!!’
Russia, Prussia, and Austria are spectators. Russia suggests: ‘Now is
the time!’ In this Prussia cordially agrees, and says to Austria: ‘Now
or never, will you not join us?’
Only a portion is given of G. Cruikshank’s ‘A Scene after the Battle
of Vittoria, or More Trophies for Whitehall!!!’ (July 10, 1813). The
Duke of Wellington, on horseback, is receiving the captured colours,
&c., which his officers lay at his feet. He is evidently satisfied
with the result, for he exclaims: ‘Why! here’s enough for three Nights
Illumination!’ A general replies: ‘Three times three, my lord.’ One
presents him with a _bâton_: ‘Here’s Marshal Jourdan’s Rolling pin’;
and another, bringing in a captured standard, points to the group which
forms our illustration, saying: ‘And here comes their last Cannon!!’
The following caricature will do for any time during the year:--‘John
Bull teazed by an Earwig’ bears only the date of 1813, and is by
an unknown artist. The old boy is at his frugal meal of bread,
cheese, and beer, and has been reading the ‘True Briton,’ when he is
interrupted by little Boney, who, perched on his shoulder, pricks his
cheek with a Lilliputian sword. John Bull turns round half angrily, and
says: ‘I tell you what, you Vermin! if you won’t let me eat my bread
and cheese in peace, and comfort, I’ll blow you away, depend upon it.’
To which the insect replies: ‘I will have the cheese, you Brute you--I
have a great mind to annihilate you, you great, over grown, Monster!!!’
[Illustration: A SCENE AFTER THE BATTLE OF VITTORIA, OR, MORE TROPHIES
FOR WHITEHALL!!!]
In October 1813 came out an etching of ‘Tom Thumb and the Giant, or a
forced March to Franckfort. _Kings are his Centinels, vide Sheridan’s
speech._ A letter from Stralsund states that Buonaparte, on his journey
to Paris, sent a Courier to the King of Wi----g[29] with orders for
him to proceed to Franckfort on the Maine, and the latter would meet
him there accordingly.’ Tom Thumb, Napoleon, on horseback, prods on
the King with his sword, telling him at the same time: ‘On, Sir,
to Franckfort, and there await my coming.’ The poor fat King, with
perspiring brows, piteously exclaims: ‘Well, I am going as fast as I
can---- Pretty work this for a Man of my Importance!! Was it for this
you put a Crown upon my head!’
Napoleon’s power was rapidly drawing to an end, and the crushing
defeat he received at Leipsic on October 16, 17, 18, 19, gave it its
death-blow. The news was promulgated throughout England by a ‘London
Gazette Extraordinary’ of November 3. The ‘Times’ of the same date had
hinted of reverses sustained by Napoleon, and on November 4 broke into
jubilation thus: ‘“Justice demands the sacrifice of the Tyrant,”[30]
such was the sentiment which concluded our last article,--a sentiment
not dictated by any feeling of transient growth, but adopted after long
and serious reflection on what is due to the moral interests, which are
the best and surest interests of nations. The French people will now
determine between the sacrifice of their Tyrant, and sacrifices of a
very different description, sacrifices of their lives, their children,
their treasure, their honour.
‘We had already communicated to our readers the private information
which we had received, stating that he had sustained “dreadful
reverses” in a “series of actions,” which had caused him “not only
a great diminution in the numbers of his men, but also a serious
loss of artillery”; and that he had himself “escaped with the utmost
difficulty to a place of comparative, and but comparative, safety.”
Such were the accounts which we believed “would be found to contain a
very moderate statement of the Tyrant’s losses”; but we own our most
sanguine hopes have been exceeded by the Official Statements received
yesterday by Government, and made public; first, in a brief form, by
a letter from Lord CASTLEREAGH to the LORD MAYOR, and a Bulletin from
the Foreign Office; and, afterwards, in most gratifying detail, by an
_Extraordinary Gazette_.’
The ‘Morning Post’ of the same date heads the intelligence as ‘The most
Glorious and Important News ever received;’ and the Prince Regent, who
opened Parliament on November 4, alluded to it in his speech in these
terms: ‘The annals of Europe afford no examples of victories more
splendid, and decisive, than those which have been recently achieved in
Saxony.’ London was brilliantly illuminated, and joy reigned throughout
the kingdom.
One of the first caricatures on the subject is the ‘Execution of two
celebrated Enemies of Old England, and their Dying Speeches, 5 Nov.
1813,’ which was by Rowlandson (published November 27, 1813), and is
stated to be a representation of a ‘Bonfire at Thorpe Hall near Louth,
Lincolnshire, on 5 Nov. 1813, given by the Rev. W. C. to the boys
belonging to the Seminary at Louth, in consequence of the arrival of
news of the Decisive Defeat of Napoleon Buonaparte, by the Allies, at
11 o’clock on y^e 4th, & Louth Bells ringing all night.’
Guy Faux, who is got up like one of the old watchmen, is swinging on
one gallows, and Napoleon, in traditional costume, on another, with a
roaring bonfire under him. Men, women, and boys are rejoicing around.
‘Guy Faux’s Dying Speech. I, Guy Faux, meditating my Country’s ruin,
by the clandestine, and diabolical, means of the Gunpowder plot, was
most fortunately discovered, and brought to condign punishment, by
Old England, and here I bewail my fate.’ ‘Napoleon Buonaparte’s Dying
Speech. I, Napoleon Buonaparte, flattered by all the French Nation that
I was invincible, have most cruelly, and most childishly, attempted
the subjugation of the world. I have lost my fleets, I have lost the
largest, and the finest, armies ever heard of, and I am now become the
indignation of the world, and the scorn, and sport, of boys. Had I
not spurned the firm wisdom of the Right Hon. W^m Pitt, I might have
secured an honourable Peace, I might have governed the greatest Nation;
but, alas, my ambition has deceived me, and Pitt’s plans have ruined
me.’
Rowlandson drew a ‘Copy of the Transparency exhibited at Ackermann’s
Repository of Arts, During the Illuminations of the 5th and 6th of
November 1813, in honour of the splendid victories obtained by the
Allies over the Armies of France, at Leipsig and its Environs.
‘The Two Kings of Terror.
‘This Subject, representing the two Tyrants, viz. the Tyrant
_Bonaparte_, and the Tyrant _Death_, sitting together on the
Field of Battle, in a manner which promises a more perfect
intimacy immediately to ensue, is very entertaining. It is also
very instructing to observe, that the former is now placed in
a situation, in which all Europe _may see through him_. The
emblem, too, of the circle of light from mere _vapour_, which
is so soon _extinguished_, has a good moral effect; and as the
Gas represents the dying flame, so does the Drum, on which
he is seated, typify the _hollow_, and _noisy_ nature of the
falling Usurper.
‘The above description of the subject, appeared in the _Sun_
of Saturday, the 6th of November. These pointed comments
arose from the picture being transparent, and from a circle,
indicative of the strength, and brotherly union, of the Allies,
which surmounted the same, composed of _gas_[31] of brilliant
brightness.’
‘Cossack Sports--or the Platoff Hunt in full cry after French Game’
(November 9, 1813), shows Leipsic in the background, and the river
Elster, into which the Cossacks, plunge, in full cry, after the
‘Corsican Fox.’ The Hetman, Platoff, cries, ‘Hark forward! my boys,
get along! he runs in view--Yoics, Yoics--There he goes--Tally ho!’
His daughter, about whom the story is told (see footnote p. 148), is
in mid stream, lashing her horse, and calling out, ‘Hi! ho! Tally ho!
For a husband!’ An army of French frogs in vain attempt to stop the
Cossacks--they are routed, and fleeing.
A very cleverly drawn caricature is ‘Caterers--Boney Dished--a Bonne
Bouche for Europe’ (November 10, 1813), and it gives us the sovereigns
of Europe seated around a table, on which is a large dish, in the
centre of which poses Napoleon, surrounded with a garnish of his
marshals, seated, and with their hands tied behind them. The different
sovereigns express their opinions upon the dish. Thus Russia says, ‘I
think Brother of Austria, this dish will be relish’d by all Europe.’
‘And I think Brother of Russia they will admire the _garnish_!’ ‘Pray
let Wurtemburg join in that dish.’ ‘And Bavaria, if you please.’
Holland thinks that ‘Donder and Blikins, dat dish will please mein
Vrow.’ Poland says, ‘It is rather too highly seasoned for my taste, but
French.’ The Switzer opines that ‘William Tell never invented a better
dish, I hope we shall have a taste of it!’ Italy swears ‘By the God of
Love! that is better dish den Maccaroni.’ With tears streaming down
his face, a poor monarch prays, ‘Oh dear! oh dear! I hope they won’t
Dish the poor old King of Saxony.’ Prussia remarks to England, ‘We must
reduce the quantity of irritating articles, before we can produce it as
a finished dish--What say you Steward of the Feast?’ who replies, ‘I
agree with your Highness, John Bull prefers moderation.’
On November 10, 1813, was published ‘The Daw Stript of his Borrow’d
Plumes, _vide Gay’s Fables of the Daw and the other Birds_,’ which
shows the different birds despoiling the poor Daw, Napoleon. The
double-headed eagle, Russia, with one beak strips him of his Legion
of Honour, the other head takes off his crown. Austria, Prussia, and
Sweden are rapidly denuding him of his borrowed plumes; whilst Spain,
Poland, and Bohemia are hovering around. The background is taken up
with a Cossack spitting runaway Frenchmen on his lance.
[Illustration: THE DAW STRIPT OF HIS BORROWED PLUMES.]
Rowlandson gives us (November 25, 1813) ‘A Long pull, a Strong pull,
and a pull altogether.’ Here we see the allies’ ships riding freely
on the ocean, the sun of tyranny setting, and the allies giving all
their strength in helping to float the Texel fleet, which the Dutch are
assisting them to launch. Napoleon and his brother Joseph are in the
background, the former dancing with rage, and crying out, ‘Oh Brother
Joe--I’m all Fire. My Passion eats me up. Such unlooked for storms of
ill fall on me. It beats down all my cunning, I cannot bear it. My ears
are filled with noise, my eyes grow dim, and feeble shakings seize
every Limb.’ Joseph, whose crown has dropped off, says, ‘Oh Brother
Nap, brother Nap, we shan’t be left with half a crown apiece!’
[Illustration: A LONG PULL, A STRONG PULL, AND A PULL ALTOGETHER.]
‘The Corsican toad under a harrow’ (Rowlandson, November 27, 1813)
also alludes to the defection of Holland, the agonised Emperor calling
out, ‘Oh, this heavy Dutchman! O’ had I enough to bear before!!!’
[Illustration: THE CORSICAN TOAD UNDER A HARROW.]
Rowlandson gives us (November 29, 1813) ‘Dutch Nightmare, or the
Fraternal Hug, returned with a Dutch Squeeze,’ which represents
Napoleon lying on a state bed, suffering the tortures of nightmare, his
incubus being a very heavy Dutchman, who sits upon his breast calling
out, ‘Orange Boven,’ and puffing his smoke right into the face of his
victim.
Mr. Grego credits Rowlandson with the ‘Head Runner of Runners from
Leipsic Fair’ (March 2, 1814), but both the design and drawing
manifestly show that it is not by him. On the contrary, its internal
evidence clearly shows it to be a German engraving, and much earlier in
date, the town in the background being labelled Maynz. Napoleon is here
represented as a running courier, and the speed at which he is going
is shown by his being able to keep pace with a hare. The top of his
staff is Charlemagne--or, as in the etching, Carolus Magnus. In his
rapid flight he is losing from his wallet all the things entrusted to
him--Italy, Holland, Switzerland, the Rheinbund, &c.
[Illustration: HEAD RUNNER OF RUNNERS, FROM LEIPSIC FAIR.]
His flight from Leipsic was well caricatured, and one episode, the
premature blowing up of the bridge over the Elster, came in for severe
comment. Colonel Montfort had orders to blow up the bridge, which was
mined, as soon as the last of the troops had passed over. He, however,
entrusted this duty to a corporal and four miners. The corporal,
hearing shouting and cannonading, thought the allies were in possession
of the city and pursuing the French forces. He therefore fired the
bridge, which blew up, cutting off the retreat of four _corps d’armée_,
and more than 200 cannon. Of course, the men so circumstanced had no
option but to yield themselves as prisoners, after many had been driven
into the river and drowned.
At Dresden still our hero staid,
Because to budge he was afraid,
And when he did, it was to meet
At Leipsic, a severe defeat:
The bridge here, as the story goes,
Nap wished to blow up with his foes;
This to a col’nel he imparted,
Who was, perhaps, too tender hearted.
For to a captain, (so we’ve heard)
The Colonel the task transferred,
And he a corporal employ’d,
By whom the bridge should be destroy’d;
But scarce had Nap the bridge passed thro’,
When, helter skelter, up it flew!
It seems the truth cannot be traced;
Either the corp’ral was in haste,
Or by some means, ’tis suspected,
’Twas just as Boney had directed;
For the Explosion soon confounded
His waggon loads of sick and wounded:
And by these means, as oft he did,
He got of them immediate rid.
[Illustration: NAPOLEON’S FLIGHT FROM LEIPSIG.]
‘Bonaparte’s Bridge, to the Tune of This is the House that Jack built’
(December 1, 1813), supposed to be drawn by _la Nourrice du Roi de
Rome_, is in eight compartments, which are thus described:--
This is the bridge that was blown into air.
These are the Miners who had the care
Of mining the Bridge that was blown into air.
This is the Corporal stout and strong,
Who fired the Mine with his match so long,
Which was made by the Miners, &c.
This is the Colonel of Infantry,
Who ordered the Corporal stout and strong
To fire the Mine, &c.
This is the Marshall of high degree
Who whispered the Colonel of Infantry
To order the Corporal, &c.
This is the Emperor who scampered away,
And left the Marshall of high degree
To whisper the Colonel, &c.
These be the thousands who cursed the day,
Which made him an Emperor, who scampered away, &c.
These are the Monarchs so gen’rous and brave,
Who conquer’d the Tyrant, and Liberty gave,
To thousands & thousands who cursed the day, &c.