CHAPTER IX.

GLORY AND CONQUEST (1805-1808).

Guizot has said at the commencement of his essay on Washington: "There is

a spectacle as fine as that of a virtuous man struggling with adversity,

and not less salutary to contemplate; it is the spectacle of a virtuous

man at the head of a good cause and assuring his triumph."

There is a spectacle, sorrowful and sad, also salutary to contemplate in

its austere teachings: it is that of a man of genius bearing along in his

train an enthusiastic nation, and squandering all the living forces of his

genius and his country in the service of a senseless ambition, as fatal to

the sovereign as the people, both foolishly dragged along by a vision of

glory towards injustices and crimes not at first foreseen. Such is the

spectacle offered to us by the history of the Emperor Napoleon, and of

France, after the battle of Austerlitz and the Peace of Presburg.

For the moment a stupor seemed to oppress the whole of Europe. Prussia,

humiliated and indignant, had, however, just ratified the treaty of

Schönbrunn; Austria was panting and conquered; England had lost her great

minister: William Pitt died 23rd January, 1806, struck to the heart in his

patriotic passion, by the new victory of the conqueror whom he dreaded for

the liberty of the world. "Roll up this map of Europe," said he when the

news was brought to him as he lay dying in his little house at Putney, "in

ten years time there will be no further need for it." Already his rival

had succeeded him in office, and Fox did not yet foresee that he would

presently be inevitably brought to adopt the policy of resistance to the

long increasing power of Napoleon. He was then making cordial advances

towards him. The Emperor Alexander had not disarmed, but the appeals to

him from the Court of Naples found him immovable. Already the Bourbons

were trembling on the thrones they still occupied.

Napoleon announced it in his thirty-seventh bulletin, dated from Vienna.

"General Saint Cyr marches by long stages towards Naples, to punish the

treason of the queen, and hurl from the throne this criminal woman who has

violated everything that is held sacred among men." Intercession was

attempted for her with the Emperor. He replied, "Ought hostilities to

recommence, and the nation to sustain a war of thirty years, a perfidy so

atrocious cannot he pardoned."

In this struggle between violence and treason the issue could not remain

long doubtful. In the name of Joseph Bonaparte, Masséna commanded the army

which came to take possession of the kingdom of Naples. For the second

time, King Ferdinand and Queen Charlotte took refuge in Sicily. "It is the

interest of France to make sure of the kingdom of Naples by a useful and

easy conquest," the _Moniteur_ had formerly declared, in publishing the

treaty of neutrality agreed to by the House of Bourbon. The work was

accomplished; on the 30th of March, Joseph Bonaparte was proclaimed King

of the Two Sicilies. The city of Gaëta alone was to prolong its

resistance.

Two months later, with the appearance of the national consent, Napoleon

elevated his brother Louis to the throne which he had instituted for him

in Holland. The prince had been ordered to protect this country,

threatened by the Anglo-Swedish army. After the battle of Austerlitz he

presented himself before the Emperor. "Why have you quitted Holland?"

demanded the latter brusquely, "we saw you there with pleasure, and you

should have remained there." "Sounds of a monarchical transformation

circulate in Holland," replied Louis Bonaparte, "they are not agreeable to

this free and worthy nation, nor are they any more pleasant to me."

Napoleon broke out into a passion. "He gave me to understand," says Prince

Louis in his _Mémoires_, "that if I had not been more consulted over this

affair, it was for a subject only to obey." At the same time the Emperor

wrote to Talleyrand, "I have seen this evening Admiral Verhuell. In two

words hear what this question amounts to. Holland is without executive

power. It requires that power, and I will give it Prince Louis. In place

of the Grand Pensionary Schimmelpenninck, there shall be a king. The

argument is that without that I shall not be able to give peace a firm

settlement. Prince Louis must make his entry into Amsterdam within twenty

days." The accession to the throne of the new monarch was celebrated on

the 5th June, 1806.

Napoleon disposed at his will of crowns and appanages, elevating or

dethroning kings, magnificently dowering the companions of his military

life and the servants of his policy. He had at the same time conceived the

idea of forming beyond his States a barrier which should separate them

from the great German powers, always secretly hostile. The dukes and the

electors whom he had made kings, the princes whose domains he had

aggrandized, were to unite in a confederation for the protection of the

new State of Germany. The seat of government was established at Frankfort.

The town of Ratisbon, formerly honored by the assemblies of the Diet, had

been ceded to Bavaria. The Diet was officially informed that Prussia

received a decisive authorization to form in its turn a confederation of

the North. Most of the German States having been forcibly taken from him,

Francis II voluntarily resigned the vain title he still bore; he ceased to

be Emperor of Germany, and became Emperor of Austria.

Meanwhile the overtures of Fox towards France had until now remained

without result. England refused to treat without Russia, whom the Emperor

would not admit to a common negotiation. "Regrets are useless," wrote Fox

to Talleyrand on the 10th April, 1806; "but if the great man whom you

serve, could see with the same eye with which I behold it, the true glory

which would accrue to him from a moderate and just peace, what good

fortune would not result from it for France and for all Europe?"

In the depth of his soul and in his secret thoughts Napoleon now desired

peace. Amongst the English prisoners detained in France after the rupture

of the treaty of Amiens, a few had been exchanged since the advent of Fox

to the ministry; one of them, Lord Yarmouth (afterwards Lord Hertford),

elegant and dissipated, had been commissioned by his government to talk

over familiarly with Talleyrand the chances of peace that existed between

the two nations. Napoleon had conceded Hanover to Prussia as the price of

peace; he was ready to retrocede it to England, free to indemnify Prussia

at the expense of Germany. The negotiation was carried on secretly, the

negotiators meeting as men of the world rather than diplomats. Oubril, an

envoy from the Emperor Alexander, had just arrived in Paris, charged with

reassuring France on the subject of a circumstance which had recently

taken place in Dalmatia. The Russian admiral, Sinavin, animated with

unseasonable zeal, with the aid of the Montenegrins had seized the mouths

of the Cattaro. The Austrian officers, appointed to hand over the

territory to the French, had not opposed any resistance to the Russians.

The two Emperors of Austria and Russia hastened to disavow their agents;

on 20th July Oubril signed with France a separate peace.

This was failing in loyalty towards England, who had refused to treat

without its ally. The Emperor of Russia perceived it; he had thought the

cabinet of London more inclined to conclude peace at any cost. The health

of Fox was giving way, and his successors were likely to be less favorable

to the demands of Napoleon. Alexander declared that he would not ratify

the treaty negotiated by Oubril. This news arrived at Paris on the 3rd of

September, 1806. On the 13th of the same month Fox expired in London,

amiable and beloved to the last day of his life; ardently devoted to his

friends, to freedom, to all noble and generous causes; a great orator and

a great debater; feeble in his political conduct even in opposition,

incapable of governing and of sustaining the great struggle which for so

long agitated Europe. At his death the party of resistance resumed power

in England. In Germany the secret of the negotiations with regard to

Hanover had transpired; the disregard of sworn faith which Prussia had

more than once practised during the war fell back upon herself with

crushing weight. Napoleon thought nothing of his engagements; he had

detached King Frederick William from his natural allies, and showed

himself disposed to snatch from him the price of his compliance. The

nation and the king had with great difficulty accepted the treaty

negotiated by Haugwitz; indignation broke forth on every side. It had

already betrayed itself for a few weeks past by numerous and violent

pamphlets against the Emperor of the French and against the armies of

occupation. Napoleon responded to them by a despotic and cruel act which

was to bear bitter fruits. On the 5th August he wrote to Marshal

Berthier:--

"My cousin,--I imagine that you have had the booksellers of Augsburg and

Nuremberg arrested. My intention is that they should be indicted before a

military tribunal, and shot within twenty-four hours. It is no ordinary

crime to spread libels in places where the French army is stationed, in

order to excite the inhabitants against it. It is a crime of high treason.

The sentence shall set forth that wherever there is an army, the duty of

the commander being to watch over its safety, such and such individuals

convicted of having attempted to stir up the inhabitants of Suabia against

the French army are condemned to death. You will place the criminals in

the midst of a division, and you will appoint seven colonels to try them.

You will have the sentence published throughout Germany." Only one

bookseller of Nuremberg, named Palm, was arrested, and suffered the

terrible sentence. Berthier never forgot the cruel necessity to which he

had been subjected in ordering this odious procedure. "He makes us condemn

under the penalty of being condemned ourselves," said General Hullin, in

reporting the murder of the Duc d'Enghien.

The growing irritation of Germany only awaited an excuse for bursting

forth. A despatch of the Marquis of Lucchesini, then minister of Prussia

at Paris, gave the protracted irritation of the court of Berlin its

opportunity. According to the information received from this diplomatist,

the French government was putting pressure upon the German Princes of the

North, to prevent them from entering the Confederation projected by

Prussia. A letter from King Frederick William and a diplomatic note

demanded peremptorily the evacuation of Germany by the French troops, and

liberty of action for the German Princes. At the same time the armaments

of Prussia, for a long time prepared in secret, became public. Already the

Emperor Napoleon had quitted Paris, without Laforest, his minister at

Berlin, having been authorized to reply to the demands of the Prussians.

"We have been deceived three times," said Napoleon. "We must have facts;

let Prussia disarm, and France will re-cross the Rhine, and not before."

It was to the Senate and to the soldiers alone that Napoleon now addressed

the explanation of his aggressive movements against Prussia.

"Soldiers, the order for your re-entry into France was issued; you had

already approached it by several marches. Triumphant fêtes awaited you,

and the preparations to receive you had already commenced in the capital.

"But whilst we abandon ourselves to this too confident security, new plots

are hatched under the mask of friendship and alliance. War cries have made

themselves heard from Berlin. For two months we have been provoked more

and more every day.

"The same faction, the same spirit of giddiness which, under favor of our

internal dissensions, conducted the Prussians fourteen years ago into the

midst of the plains of Champagne, rules in their councils; if it is no

longer Paris that they wish to burn and overthrow to its foundations, it

is to-day their flag that they wish to plant in the capitals of our

allies; it is Saxony that they wish to compel by a shameful transaction to

renounce its independence by ranging it in the number of their provinces;

it is, in fine, your laurels that they wish to snatch from your foreheads.

They wish us to evacuate Germany at the sight of their arms. Fools! What?

Shall we then have braved the seasons, the seas, the deserts, conquered

Europe several times allied against us, carried our glory from the east to

the west, in order to return to-day into our country like fugitives who

have abandoned their allies; to hear it said that the French eagle fled in

fear at the mere sight of the Prussian armies?"

It was, in fact, a fourth continental coalition which was beginning to be

formed against France. Prussia alone was then on the scene: long prudent

and circumspect in its conduct, it had been drawn in this time, in spite

of its weakness, by irresistible anger and indignation. Napoleon did not

dread the war. "I have nearly 150,000 men in Germany," wrote he to King

Joseph; "with them I can subdue Vienna, Berlin, St. Petersburg." The reply

that he at last deigned to address to the King of Prussia from the camp of

Gera breathed the most haughty confidence. A few engagements had already

taken place. "Monsieur my brother," wrote Napoleon to Frederick William,

"I only received on the 7th the letter of your Majesty of the 25th

September. I am vexed that you have been induced to sign this sort of

thing. You appoint a meeting with me on the 8th. Like a good knight, I

keep faith with you, I am in the middle of Saxony; believe me I have such

forces with me that all your forces cannot long prevent my victory. But

why spill so much blood? To what end? Sire, I have been your friend for

six years past. I do not wish to profit by that species of giddiness which

animates your council, and has caused you to commit political errors, at

which Europe is still astonished, and military errors of such an enormity

that Europe will soon ring with them. If in your note you had asked

possible things from me, I would have granted them to you; you have asked

for my dishonor: you ought to have been certain of my reply. War is then

made between us, the alliance broken forever; but why make our subjects

kill each other? Sire, your Majesty will be conquered; you will have

compromised the peace of your days and the existence of your subjects

without the shadow of a pretext. I have nothing to gain against your

Majesty. I want nothing, and I have wanted nothing from you. The present

war is an impolitic war."

Napoleon had well estimated the forces of the enemy he was preparing to

crush; he had concentrated under his hand a power superior to all the

resources of the Prussians, whose soldiers were courageous and well

disciplined, but for a long time little exercised in war. Napoleon's

precautions were taken at every point of his vast territory; he had called

new troops under his banners; everywhere he held in check his enemies,

either secret or avowed. At one moment he thought of tendering his hand to

Austria; he wrote to his ambassador at Vienna, M. de la Rochefoucauld: "My

position and my forces are such that I have no cause to fear any one; but

at length all these efforts are burdensome to my people. Of the three

powers, Russia, Prussia, and Austria, I must have one for an ally. In any

case one cannot rely on Prussia: there remains only Austria. The navy of

France formerly flourished through the benefit resulting from an alliance

with Austria. This power also feels the need of remaining quiet, a

sentiment that I partake with all my heart. The house of Austria having

often caused hints to be thrown out to me, the present moment, if it knows

how to profit by it, is the most favorable."

Austria remained immovable, the uneasy spectator of the events that were

preparing. The Russians had not quitted their positions on the Vistula;

already the Prussians had invaded Saxony, compelling that little power to

furnish them with an army of 20,000 men. The old Duke of Brunswick

collected at the same time the contingent of the Elector of Hesse-Cassel,

who had sought in vain to maintain his neutrality. The French army

occupied Franconia; it was across these mountainous defiles that Napoleon

had resolved to march against the enemy divided into two corps, under the

orders of the Duke of Brunswick and the Prince of Hohenlohe. Already

Marshals Davout and Bernadotte were established upon the left bank of the

Saale. The troops of the Prince of Hohenlohe occupied the road from Weimar

to Jena. Marshal Lannes had taken possession of the heights which

commanded this last town. On the morning of the 14th October, the combat

was opened against the corps of the Prince of Hohenlohe; superior in

number to the troops employed by the Emperor Napoleon, but surprised by an

attack of which they had not foreseen the vigor, the Prussian soldiers

were soon thrown into a panic terror. The two wings of the French army,

commanded by Soult and Augereau, already enveloped the enemy when Napoleon

sent forward the guard and the reserves. The centre of the Prussian army

fell back before this enormous mass; the retreat changed into a rout. At

the same moment Marshal Biechel arrived by forced marches to the aid of

the Prince of Hohenlohe; he brought 20,000 men, but in vain did he

struggle to rally and curb the fugitives; he was drawn along and repulsed

by the conquered as well as by the conquerors. French and Germans entered

at the same time into Weimar; already the crowd of prisoners hindered the

march of the victorious army.

At the same hour on the same day, with forces less considerable, Marshal

Davout struggled alone, near Auerstadt, against the enemy's corps,

commanded by the Duke of Brunswick and by King Frederick William. Marshal

Bernadotte had quitted him, obeying literally the orders of the Emperor,

who had enjoined him to occupy Hamburg, little careful, perhaps, of the

danger to which he exposed his companion-in-arms. Davout cut the road of

the Prussians in the defile of Koesen. The Duke of Brunswick, marching

himself at the head of his troops, rushed upon him, violently attacking

our immovable squares under a murderous fire. The old general fell,

mortally wounded; the effort of Prince William and the king remained

equally fruitless. Profiting by the trouble caused by his resistance,

Davout threw his troops forward, and seized the heights of Eckartsberg;

there, protected by his artillery, he could still defend his positions.

The King of Prussia gave orders to retire on Weimar; he counted on joining

the corps of the Prince of Hohenlohe, in order to renew the attack with

all his forces. He had already travelled over half the distance without

being harassed by Marshal Davout, whose troops were exhausted; but

Bernadotte barred his passage; the confused waves of fugitives from Jena

precipitated themselves into the ranks of their friends and compatriots.

Behind them appeared the French soldiers, ardent in pursuit. The king

turned off hastily, by way of Sommerda; the darkness was increasing, and

the disorder increased with the darkness. In a single day the entire

Prussian army was destroyed. "They can do nothing but gather up the

_débris_," said Napoleon.

He took care to crush everywhere these sad remains of a generous and

patriotic effort. Whilst his lieutenants were pursuing the wandering

detachments of the Prussian army, the emperor imposed upon the nation he

had just conquered a contribution of a hundred and fifty-nine millions. He

sent the elector of Hesse to Metz, announcing in a letter to Marshal

Mortier his intention that the house of Hesse should cease to reign, and

would be effaced from the number of the powers. The Saxon prisoners, on

the contrary, were sent back free to their sovereign. Everywhere the

English merchandise found in the ports and warehouses was confiscated for

the profit of the army. The Prussian commerce was ruined like the state.

Napoleon advanced upon Berlin; the King of Prussia sought to reach

Magdeburg, constantly accompanied by the queen, whose warlike and

patriotic ardor excited the rage and the insults of the emperor. "The

Queen of Prussia has been many times in view of our posts," says the 8th

bulletin of the grand army; "she is in continual fear and alarms. Last

night she passed her regiment in review; she continually excited the king

and the generals; she craves for blood. Blood the most precious has

flowed; the most distinguished generals are those upon whom the first

blows have fallen." Gross insinuations aggravated these rude allusions.

"All the Prussians assign the misfortunes of Prussia to the journey of the

Emperor Alexander. The change which has since then taken place in the

spirit of the queen, who, from being a timid and modest woman, occupied

with her home affairs, has become turbulent and warlike, is quite a sudden

revolution. She desired all at once to have a regiment, to go to the

Council, and she has led the monarchy so well that in a few days she has

conducted it to the edge of a precipice."

A few battles finally opened everywhere the roads to the conqueror;

Magdeburg was besieged, Erfurt had surrendered, Marshal Davout occupied

Wittemberg, and Lannes occupied Dessau; Bernadotte had thrown himself

against Halle, still defended by Prince Eugène of Wurtemberg. The

resistance was severe; when the emperor came to visit the battle-field, he

recognized among the corpses still scattered upon the ground the uniforms

of the 32nd half-brigade. "Still the 32nd!" cried he. "I have had so many

of them killed in Egypt, in Italy, everywhere, that there ought to be no

more of them." It was with the same accent of indifferent and cold

reflection that he was to say much later, in contemplating his sleeping

son, "How long it takes to make a man! I have, however, seen fourteen of

them cut off by a cannon-shot!"

Napoleon was at Potsdam, in the palace of the great Frederick, the

military genius of this prince had for a long time excited his admiration.

"At Potsdam has been found the sword of the great Frederick, the sash of a

general, which he carried in the Seven Years' War, and his cordon of the

Black Eagle," says the 19th bulletin.

The emperor seized upon these trophies with eagerness, and said, "I prefer

these to twenty millions." Then, thinking a moment to whom he should

confide this precious trust, "I will send it," said he, "to my old

soldiers of the Hanoverian War; I will make a present of it to the

governor of the Invalides; it shall remain at the Hotel."

On the 27th, for the first time in his life, Napoleon entered in triumph

into an enemy's capital. For two days Berlin had been occupied by Marshal

Davout. A gloomy sadness rested on all faces, but order was everywhere

respected. The Prussian nation had valiantly defended itself, and there

was no shame mingled with its sorrow. The dying Duke of Brunswick

recommended his subjects to the emperor. The latter, in a passion,

recalled bitterly to the old general the wild manifesto published in his

name at the commencement of the French Revolution. "If I had the city of

Brunswick demolished, and if I did not leave of it one stone on another,

what would your prince say? Does not the law of retaliation permit me to

do to Brunswick what he wanted to do to my capital? It is the Duke of

Brunswick whom France and Prussia can accuse of being the sole cause of

this war. Tell the general that he will be treated with all the respect

due to a Prussian officer, but that in a Prussian general I cannot

recognize a sovereign."

The same harshness characterized the reception by the emperor of the great

Prussian nobles. "Do not come into my presence," said he to the Prince of

Hatzfeld, who brought before him the civil magistrates of Berlin. "I have

no need of your services; retire to your own estates." A letter from the

prince to the King of Prussia, giving an account of the entry of the

emperor, was intercepted. Napoleon saw treason in this communication, and

a decree was immediately sent to Marshal Davout. "The Prince of Hatzfeld,

who presented himself at the head of the deputation from Berlin, as

entrusted with the civil government of this capital, and who,

notwithstanding this office, and the duties which are attached to it, has

made use of the knowledge which his position afforded him as to the

situation of the French army, to convey intelligence respecting it to the

enemy, will be tried before a military commission, in order to be judged

as a traitor and a spy.

"Marshal Davout is charged with the execution of this order.

"The military commission will be composed of seven colonels of the corps

of Marshal Davout, by whom he will be tried."

In vain all the most faithful servants of the emperor wasted their

entreaties in order to obtain mercy for the Prince of Hatzfeld; only the

wife of the accused, far advanced in pregnancy, and overwhelmed with

terror, succeeded in arresting the anger of the conqueror. "This is most

certainly the writing of your husband," said he to the poor woman, who

could scarcely support herself. And as she dared not deny it: "Throw this

letter into the fire," added Napoleon, "and I shall no longer have any

power to procure his death." It was Marshal Duroc who had taken upon

himself the introduction of the Princess of Hatzfeld to the palace.

The prince of Hohenlohe, hard pushed by Murat and Marshal Lannes, had

capitulated before Prenzlow, on the 28th of October; General Blucher, who

had seized by force the free city of Lubeck, in the hope of finding there

a place of support, was constrained, on November 7th, to follow his

example. On the 8th, Magdeburg surrendered to Marshal Ney. Lannes occupied

Stettin, and Davout occupied Custrin. "Sire," wrote Lannes to Napoleon, "I

read your proclamation to the soldiers; they all began to cry 'Long live

the Emperor of the West!' I beseech your Majesty to let me know if, for

the future, you wish me to address my despatches to the Emperor of the

West, and I ask it in the name of my _corps d'armée_."

Napoleon did not reply; this dream of supreme glory, which he had had an

idea of realizing in the footsteps of Charlemagne, doubtless appeared to

him still beyond his reach. More than one sign, however, betrayed the

undying hope, that he was never to realize. It is only by reason and the

general good that genius is effectively sustained in extraordinary

enterprises. From day to day, and from victory to victory, these great

supports of the human mind became less and less visible in the conduct of

the Emperor Napoleon.

Hanover and the Hanseatic towns were occupied by the French army; Prussia

asked for a suspension of hostilities, in order to treat for peace. But

the emperor had conceived a new project. In the ceaseless activity of his

thoughts he reasonably enough looked on England as the implacable and

invincible enemy who directed and excited against him the animosity of

Europe. It was against England that he henceforth directed his efforts. "I

am about to reconquer the colonies over the globe," he wrote to the King

of Holland. It was in the same spirit that he made his declaration to the

Senate: "We have unalterably determined not to evacuate Berlin or Warsaw,

or the provinces which have fallen into our hands by force of arms, until

a general peace be concluded, the Spanish, Dutch, and French colonies

restored, the foundations of the Ottoman power confirmed, and the absolute

independence of this vast empire, the first interest of our people,

irrevocably secured."

These brilliant pledges of victory, which Napoleon kept in his hand as

hostages for the purpose of enforcing submission on England, did not,

however, appear to him sufficient; he resolved to strike at the wealth of

his enemy a mortal blow, which should exhaust its resources at the

fountain-head. On the 21st of November, 1806, he sent from Berlin to

Talleyrand a decree, putting England in the Index Expurgatorius of Europe

--at least, of that part of Europe which was in submission to his rule. The

continental blockade was established and regulated in the following

terms:--

"The British Isles are declared in a state of blockade.

"All commerce, and all correspondence, with the British Isles are

forbidden. Consequently, letters or packets addressed to England, or to an

Englishman, or written in the English language, will not pass through the

post, and will be seized.

"Every individual English subject, whatever may be his state or condition,

who shall be found in the countries occupied by our troops, or in the

countries of our allies, shall be made prisoner of war.

"Every warehouse, all merchandise, all property of whatsoever nature it

may be, belonging to an English subject, shall be deemed lawful prizes.

"Commerce in English merchandise is forbidden; any ships coming directly

from England or from the English colonies, or having been there since the

publication of the present decree, shall not be admitted into any port."

The Emperor Napoleon was right in recognizing, in his declaration to the

Senate, that it was lamentable, after so many years of civilization, to

recur to the principles, the barbarism, of the first ages of nations; and

the pretexts which he adduced for this necessity were as insufficient as

the consequences that flowed from his policy were odious. More than once

the English had replied by violent and rude proceedings to the proceedings

of the same nature in which Napoleon had for a long time been indulging on

all seas. They had claimed to interdict the commerce of neutrals by

imprudent and unjust "Orders in Council;" a still more inexcusable

iniquity fettered at one stroke the commerce of Europe in all its

branches, carrying annoyance into all families, and arbitrarily modifying

the conditions of all existence. From henceforth, in the poorest

household, no one could forget for a single day the power and the

vengeance of the Emperor Napoleon, as well as the death grapple between

him and England. It is a terrible undertaking for the most powerful of men

to change on all sides the habits of life, and lay his hands upon the

daily interests, of every one. The continental blockade was in Napoleon's

hands a redoubtable weapon against his enemy; the firmness of England and

the general distress, were yet cruelly to turn that weapon against his own

bosom.

He was not yet satisfied, and Napoleon resolved on making an end of all

his adversaries. Russia alone, silent and immovable, remained the ally of

England, and its last support. Its armies occupied Poland, always

quivering under the hands of its oppressors, ready to rise up against them

at the first appeal. It was upon the Vistula that the emperor had resolved

to go and seek the Russians, intoxicating the Poles beforehand with the

hope of the reconstitution of their country, and assured of finding

amongst them inexhaustible stores of provisions, ammunition, and soldiers.

"A Pole is not a man," he was accustomed to say, "he is a sabre." He

counted on all these sabres being ready to leap from their scabbards at

his voice, for the service of Poland. To the disquietude of the court of

Vienna on the subject of the insurrections which might be produced in

Galicia, Napoleon answered in advance by the promise of Silesia. "The

insurrection in Poland is a consequence of my war with Russia and

Prussia," wrote he to General Andréossy, recently sent to Vienna. "I have

never recognized the partition of Poland; but, a faithful observer of

treaties, in favoring an insurrection in Russian and Prussian Poland, I

will not mix myself up with Austrian Poland. Does Austria wish to keep

Galicia? Would she cede a part of it? I am willing to give her all the

facilities she can desire. Does she wish to treat openly or secretly?

After these manifestations I ought to say that I fear no one."

At the same time that he entered Poland, Napoleon excited the hostile

sentiment of the Porte against Russia. General Sebastiani was charged to

say to Sultan Selim: "Prussia, who was leagued with Russia, has

disappeared; I have destroyed its armies, and I am master of its fortified

towns. My armies are on the Vistula, and Warsaw is in my power. Prussian

and Russian Poland are rising, and forming armies to reconquer their

independence; it is the moment for reconquering yours. I have given orders

to my ambassador to enter into all necessary engagements with you. If you

have been prudent up to this time, a longer forbearance towards Russia

would be weakness, and cause the loss of your empire."

The King of Prussia had refused to accept the harsh conditions of the

armistice; he had resolved to struggle to the end, and to join the remains

of his forces to the army of the Emperor Alexander. "Your Majesty has had

me informed that you are throwing yourself into the arms of the Russians,"

wrote Napoleon to King Frederick William. "The future will make it

apparent whether you have chosen the best and most effective part. You

have taken the dice-box and thrown the dice, and the dice will decide the

question." Already the French armies had entered Poland, but they were not

there alone; two Russian corps, under the orders of General Benningsen and

General Buxhouden, had crossed the Niemen, and advanced towards the

Vistula, and soon afterwards they entered Warsaw. Marshals Davout and

Lannes sent reports, apparently contradictory, but in reality identical,

as to popular feeling in Poland. Davout had found at Posen an extreme

enthusiasm; he could scarcely furnish with arms those who pressed forward

to ask for them; the same sentiment animated the population of Warsaw,

when he made his entry in pursuit of the Russians, who fell back before

him. Meanwhile he wrote to the emperor, on December 1st: "Levies of men

are very easily made, but there is a want of persons who can direct their

instruction and organization. There is also a want of guns. The feeling of

Warsaw is excellent, but the upper class are making use of their influence

to calm the ardor which is prevalent in the middle classes. The

uncertainty of the future terrifies them, and they leave it to be

sufficiently understood that they will only openly declare themselves

when, with the declaration of their independence, they can also receive

tacit guarantees for its maintenance." Lannes regretted the campaign in

Poland; he recommended that they should establish themselves on the Oder,

and pointed out the inconveniences and dangers of the enterprise they were

about to attempt in a sterile and desert country. "They are always the

same--frivolous, divided, anarchical; we shall uselessly waste our blood

for their sakes, without founding anything durable."

Murat dreamed of seating himself on the throne of a restored Poland, and

he was angry at the mistrust of the great nobles. Napoleon read in his

correspondence a thought that the brilliant chief of the vanguard dared

not express; he had said to Davout, at the beginning of the campaign,

"When I shall see 40,000 Poles in the field I will declare their

independence, not before." In their turn the Poles, long crushed down by

harsh servitude, asked for guarantees from the conqueror, who had only

delivered them in order to subjugate them afresh. "Those who show so much

circumspection, and ask so many guarantees, are selfish persons, who are

not warmed by the love of country," wrote the emperor to Murat, already

Grand Duke of Berg for several months past. "I am experienced in the study

of men. My greatness is not founded on the aid of a few thousand Poles. It

is for them to profit, with enthusiasm, by present circumstances; it is

not for me to take the first step. Let them display a firm resolution to

render themselves independent--let them engage to uphold the king who will

be given to them, and then I shall see what I shall next have to do. Let

it be well understood that I do not come to beg a throne for any of my

relations; I have no lack of thrones to give to my family."

In that conversation with the world which he kept up by bulletins from the

grand army, Napoleon spoke of the Poles in other language; but he no

longer laid bare the secret of his thoughts. "The army has entered into

Warsaw," wrote he from Posen on December 1st. "It is difficult to paint

the enthusiasm of the Poles. Our entry into this great city was a triumph,

and the feelings that the Poles of all classes display since our arrival

cannot be expressed. The love of country and the national sentiment is not

only preserved in its entirety in the hearts of the people, but it has

even gained new vigor from misfortune. Their first passion, their chief

desire, is to become once more a nation. The richest leave their castles

in order to come and demand, with loud cries, the re-establishment of the

nation, and to offer their children, their fortunes, their influence. This

spectacle is truly touching. Already they have everywhere resumed their

ancient costume and their ancient customs.

"Shall the throne of Poland be re-established, and shall this great nation

reassert its existence and its independence? From the depths of the tomb

shall it be born again to life? God alone, who holds in His hands the

results of all events, is the arbiter of this grand political problem."

Under the hand of God, which in the depths of his soul he often

recognized, the Emperor Napoleon believed himself to be the arbiter of the

grand problem of the independence of Poland. He remained personally

indifferent to it, resolved on pursuing his own interest, either in aid

of, or in contempt of, the interests and aspirations of the Poles.

In spite of the generous cordiality of the population, who lavished their

resources upon those from whom they hoped for deliverance, Napoleon and

his troops perceived that they had entered a desert. "Our soldiers find

that the solitudes of Poland contrast with the smiling fields of their own

country; but they add immediately, 'They are a fine people, these Poles!'"

Before establishing himself for the winter in this savage country, under a

frozen sky, and on a cold and damp soil, it was necessary to push back the

enemy. Napoleon only went to Warsaw, and advanced towards the Russians

entrenched behind the Narew and the Ukra. Already his lieutenants, Davout,

Augereau, Ney, had taken up positions for attack. Furious battles at

Czarnovo, at Pultusk, at Golymin, at Soldau, obliged the Russians to fall

back upon the Pregel, without disaster to their _corps d'armée_, although

they had been constantly beaten. The rigor of the season had prevented

those grand concentrations of forces and those brilliant strokes in which

Napoleon ordinarily delighted; the troops advanced with difficulty through

impenetrable forests, soaked by the rain: the men fell in great numbers

without a battle. In the month of January, 1807, the emperor at last took

up his winter-quarters, carefully fortifying his positions, and laying

siege to the towns which still resisted him in Silesia. Breslau, Glogau,

Brieg successively succumbed. The old Marshal Lefebvre was charged with

the siege of Dantzig.

Meanwhile the Russians, henceforth concentrated under the orders of

General Benningsen, and less affected than the French by the inclemencies

to which they were accustomed, had not suspended their military

operations. Soon Marshal Ney, in one of those armed reconnoitering

expeditions which he often risked without orders, was able to assure

himself that the enemy was approaching us by a prolonged movement, which

was to bring him to the shore of the Baltic. Already a few battles had

taken place. The weather became cold; ice succeeded to the mud. Napoleon

quitted Warsaw on January 30th, resolved to march against the enemy.

"Since when have the conquered had the right of choosing the finest

country for their winter-quarters?" said the proclamation to the army.

Twice a great battle appeared imminent; twice a movement of the Russians

in retreat enabled them to escape from the overwhelming forces which

Napoleon had been able to collect; a few skirmishes, however, signalized

the first days of February. On the seventh day's march General Benningsen

entered Eylau.

The French entered in pursuit, and dislodged them. The Russians made their

bivouac outside the city whilst the battle was preparing for the morrow.

The weather was cold; one half of the country upon which the armies were

camped was only a sheet of ice covering some small lakes. The snow lay

thick upon the ground, and continued to fall in great flakes. The two

armies were composed of nearly equal forces; several French corps,

detached or delayed, were about to fail in the great effort which this

rough winter campaign required. The troops were fatigued and hungry. "I

have wherewith to nourish the army for a year," wrote Napoleon to Fouché,

annoyed at the reports current in France as to the sufferings of the

soldiers, "it is absurd to think one can want corn and wine, bread and

meat, in Poland." The provisions remained, nevertheless, insufficient. "I

can assure you," said the Duc de Fezensac in his military souvenirs, "that

with all these orders so freely given in January, our _corps d'armée_ was

dying of hunger in March."

Long before the dawn of a slowly breaking and cloudy day Napoleon was

already in the streets, establishing his guard in the cemetery of Eylau,

and ordering his line of battle. The formidable artillery of the Russians

covered their two lines; presently the shells fired the town of Eylau and

the village of Rothenen, which protected a division of Marshal Soult's.

The two armies remained immovable in a rain of cannon-balls. The Russians

were the first to move forward, in order to attack the mill of Eylau;

"they were impatient at suffering so much," says the 58th bulletin of the

grand army. Nearly at the same moment the corps of Marshal Davout arrived;

the emperor had him supported by Marshal Augereau. The snow fell in thick

masses, obscuring the view of the soldiers; the troops of Augereau turned

swiftly to the left, decimated by the Russian artillery. The marshal

himself, already ill before the battle, was struck by a ball. The officers

were nearly all wounded. The emperor called Murat: "Wilt thou let us be

annihilated by these people?" The cavalry shot immediately in advance;

only the imperial guard remained massed round Napoleon.

In a moment Murat had routed the Russian centre, but already the

battalions were reforming. Marshal Soult defended with difficulty the

positions of Eylau; Davout maintained a furious struggle against the left

wing of the Russians: the Prussians, preceding by one hour Marshal Ney,

who had been pursuing them for several days, made their appearance on the

battle-field. The dead and dying formed round the emperor a ghastly

rampart; gloomy and calm he contemplated the attack of the Prussians and

Russians united, in great numbers, and pressing upon Marshal Davout. The

latter glanced along the ranks of his troops: "The cowards will go to die

in Siberia," said he, "the brave will die here like men of honor." The

effort of the enemy died out against the heroic resistance of the French

divisions, who maintained their positions.

The night was falling; the carnage was horrible. In spite of the serious

advantage of the French troops, General Benningsen was preparing to

attempt a new assault, when he learnt the approach of Marshal Ney, who was

debouching towards Althof. The bad weather and the distance retarded the

effect of the combinations of the emperor. He had caused much blood to be

spilt; victory, however, remained with him; the Russians and Prussians

were decidedly beating a retreat. The French remained masters of this most

sanguinary battlefield, destitute of provisions, without shelter, in the

wet and cold. Marshal Ney, who had taken no part in the action, to which,

however, he assured success, surveyed the plain, covered with corpses and

inundated with blood. "He turned away from the hideous spectacle," says M.

de Fezensac, "crying, 'What a massacre, and without result!'" The Russians

had retired behind the Pregel to cover Königsberg. Napoleon re-entered his

cantonments. He established his headquarters at the little town of

Osterode, directing from this advanced post the works of defence on the

Vistula and Passarge, at the same time as the preparations for the siege

of Dantzig. On arriving there he wrote to King Joseph: "Staff-officers,

colonels, officers, have not undressed for two months, and a few of them

not for four; I have myself been fifteen days without taking off my boots.

We are in the midst of snow and mud, without wine, without brandy, without

bread, eating potatoes and meat, making long marches and countermarches,

without anything to sweeten existence, and fighting at bayonet-point and

under showers of grape-shot, the wounded very often obliged to be removed

on a sledge for fifty leagues in the open air. After having destroyed the

Prussian monarchy, we are making war against the remnants of Prussia,

against the Russians, the Calmucs, the Cossacks, and the peoples of the

north who formerly invaded the Roman Empire; we are making war in all its

energy and all its horror." Such vigorous language was not permitted to

all. "The gloomy pictures that have been drawn of our situation," wrote

Napoleon to Fouché on April 13th, "have for authors a few gossips of

Paris, who are simply blockheads. Never has the position of France been

grander or finer. As to Eylau, I have said and resaid that the bulletin

exaggerated the loss; and, for a great battle, what are 2000 men slain?

There were none of the battles of Louis XIV. or Louis XV. which did not

cost more. When I lead back my army to France and across the Rhine, it

will be seen that there are not many wanting at the roll-call."

It was against Russia and against the vigor of its resistance that

Napoleon now concentrated all his efforts. Tardy hostilities had at length

commenced between the Porte and Russia. For a moment the Sultan had

appeared to hesitate before the demands of the English, united to those of

the Russians: Admiral Duckworth forced the Dardanelles at the head of a

squadron, and destroyed the Turkish division anchored at Cape Nagara. In

spite of the terror which reigned in Constantinople, the energetic

influence of General Sebastiani carried the day. The overtures of the

English Legation were repulsed; the capital was armed all of a sudden,

under the direction of French officers. When Admiral Duckworth appeared

before the place, he found it in good condition of defence; thus the

English squadron could not leave the Straits of the Dardanelles without

sustaining serious damage. For the British navy the evil was small; the

moral effect could not but have some influence.

The Emperor Napoleon sought to profit by this circumstance to enter afresh

into negotiations with Austria. On the day after the battle of Eylau he

sent General Bertrand to the King of Prussia, offering to surrender him

his States as far as the Elbe. The messenger was charged with the

significant insinuation: "You will give just a hint that as to Poland,

since the emperor has become acquainted with it, he attaches to it no

value." The sacrifice of a fourth of the Prussian monarchy seemed too

bitter for King Frederick William; he replied to the envoy with evasive

answers. Napoleon became disdainful as regards the Prussians. It was with

Austria that he determined henceforth to treat concerning the affairs of

Prussia. "See now my plan, and what you must say to M. de Vincent," wrote

he on March 9, 1807, to Talleyrand: "To restore to the King of Prussia his

throne and his estates, and to maintain the integrity of the Porte. As to

Poland, that will be found included in the first part of the sentence. If

these bases of peace suit Austria, we shall be able to understand each

other. As for the remark of M. de Vincent, that Prussia is too thoroughly

humiliated to hope for recovery, that is reasonable. The end of all this

will be an arrangement between France and Austria, or between France and

Russia; for there will be no repose for the people, who need it so much,

except by this union."

Austria responded to these propositions of alliance by offer of mediation;

at the same time, and without ostentation, as a precautionary measure, she

was getting ready for war, and was secretly preparing her armaments. The

small places in the north of Prussia had fallen, one after another;

Dantzig alone was still waiting for the army which was to besiege it. The

Prussians had profited by this delay to put the place into a good state of

defence. On all sides Napoleon collected fresh forces, as if resolved upon

terrifying his secret enemies and crushing his declared ones. The

conscription for 1808 was enforced in France by an anticipation of nearly

two years; the Italian regiments and the auxiliary German corps were

concentrated on the Vistula; the emperor even went so far as to demand

from Spain the contingent which the Prince de la Paix had offered him on

the day after the battle of Jena. Formerly the Spanish minister had nursed

other ideas, and had counted on serving the Prussians; he, however,

hastened to despatch 10,000 men to the all-powerful conqueror. An army of

reserve had just been created on the Elbe; by the middle of March the town

of Dantzig was completely invested.

I do not care to recount the incidents of a siege which lasted more than

two months, and which was conducted in a masterly manner by Chasseloup and

Lariboisière. Marshal Lefebvre grew weary of the long and able

preparations of his colleagues, and wished to begin the actual assault.

Authorization for this step was asked of the emperor. "You only know how

to grumble, to abuse your allies, and change your opinion at the will of

the first comer," wrote Napoleon to the old warrior. "You treat the allies

without any consideration; they are not accustomed to be under fire, but

that will come. Do you think that we were as brave in '92 as we are to-

day, after fifteen years of warfare? The chests of your grenadiers that

you wish to push everywhere will not overturn walls; you must let your

engineers work, and whilst waiting learn to have patience. The loss of a

few days, which I should not just now know how to employ, does not require

you to get several thousand men killed whose lives it is possible to

economize. You will have the glory of taking Dantzig; when that is

accomplished, you will be satisfied with me."

Meanwhile, the Russians and Prussians had resolved upon an attempt to

raise the siege of Dantzig: a considerable body came to attack the French

camp before the fort of Weichelsmunde. They were repulsed, after a furious

combat, by the aid of the reinforcements which had arrived to succor

Marshal Lefebvre; and the attempts of the English corvettes to re-victual

the town were equally unsuccessful. A previous attack of the Swedes upon

Stralsund had brought about no definite result, and their general, Essen,

had been constrained to conclude an armistice. Dantzig capitulated at

last, on the 26th of May, without having undergone the assault which the

French soldiers loudly demanded. As early as the 22nd, Napoleon had

written to Marshal Lefebvre: "I authorize Marshal Kalbreuth to go out

under the ordinary regulations, wishing to give this general an especial

proof of esteem; however, the capitulation of Mayence cannot be taken as a

basis, as the siege was less advanced than that of Dantzig now is. I

allowed, at the time, an honorable capitulation for General Wurmser, shut

up in Mantua; I wish to accord one more advantageous to General Kalbreuth,

taking a middle position between that of Mayence and that of Mantua."

All the French _corps d'armée_ occupied entrenched camps, prudently

defended against the attacks of enemies; they were suffering from the

rigors of the winter, and the large stores of wine found in Dantzig were

an important resource for the soldiers. The attempts at mediation by

Austria had failed; the campaign of 1809 was being prepared; everywhere

the grass was springing up in the fields, affording necessary sustenance

for the horses; the wild swans were reappearing in flocks upon the shores

of the Passarge. The Emperor Napoleon had fixed upon the 10th of June for

the resumption of hostilities.

The Russians forestalled it: Alexander had sent his guard to General

Benningsen. "Brothers, uphold honor!" said the young emperor to his

soldiers as they began the march. "We will do everything that is

possible," cried the troops: "adieu, master!" Already Benningsen was

advancing against the corps of Ney, who occupied the advanced posts, but

the clever and prudent arrangements of Napoleon had prepared the retreat

of his lieutenants; without disorder and without weakness, always

victoriously fighting, Marshal Ney fell back upon Deppen; two other

attacks upon the bridges of Lanutten and Spanden were likewise repulsed.

The concentration of the French _corps d'armée_ began to be effected near

Saafeldt, when General Benningsen changed all of a sudden his plan of

campaign: passing from the offensive to the defensive, he decided to

repass the Alle, in order to protect the entrenched camp of Heilsberg, and

by the same movement the town of Königsberg, the last refuge of the

resources of Prussia. The retreat of the Russians commenced on the evening

of the 7th of June.

Napoleon followed them with almost the whole of his army; the detachments

of the vanguard and rearguard had more than once been engaged in partial

combats when, on the evening of the 10th of June, the French army

debouched before the entrenched camp of Heilsberg strongly supported by

the banks of the Alle. Napoleon followed the left bank, seeking to

forestall the enemy at the confluence of the Alle and the Pregel, in the

hope of seizing Königsberg before the place could be succored. Murat and

Davout were already threatening the city.

It was the supreme feature in the genius of Napoleon, that an indomitable

perseverance in wisely calculated projects did not exclude the

thunderbolts of a marvellous promptitude in resolution and combinations.

Uncertainty and want of foresight reigned, on the contrary, in the

military councils of the Russians. General Benningsen, formerly in the

attitude of attack, now compelled to engage in a defensive march, and

projecting the defence of Königsberg, thought it all of a sudden necessary

to protect himself against an attack in flank. He crossed the Alle under

the eyes of the French, and meeting them on the left bank of the river, he

advanced towards the corps of Marshal Lannes, whom the emperor had sent

against Domnau; a strong Russian detachment drove from Friedland the

regiment of French hussars, who had established themselves there. The

whole Russian army attacked Marshal Lannes, who had just collected a few

reinforcements. It was to judge badly of the able prudence of the Emperor

Napoleon, to hope to encounter a single corps of his grand army: Lannes

held out till mid-day upon the field of battle with heroic skill; he sent

meanwhile express after express to the emperor, who arrived at a gallop,

his face radiant with the anticipation of the joys of victory. "It is the

14th of June," said he, "the anniversary of Marengo; it is a lucky day for

us."

Napoleon and his staff had preceded the march of the troops; Lannes and

his soldiers recovered their forces in the presence of the invincible

chief who had so many times led them to victory. "Give me only a

reinforcement, sire," cried Oudinot, whose coat was pierced with bullets,

"and although my grenadiers can do no more, we will cast all the Russians

into the water."

This was the aim of the emperor as well as of his soldiers; and the

positions which General Benningsen had taken, concentred in a bend of the

river, rendered the enterprise practicable. The day was advanced, and a

few of the generals had been wishing to put off the battle till the

morrow. "No!" said Napoleon; "one does not surprise the enemy twice in

such a blunder." Then sweeping with his telescope the masses of the enemy

grouped before him, he quickly seized the arm of Marshal Ney. "You see the

Russians and Friedland," said he; "the bridges are there--there only.

March right on before you; enter into Friedland; take the bridges,

whatever it may cost, and do not disquiet yourself about what shall take

place on your right, or your left, or in your rear. That concerns us--the

army and me."

When Marshal Ney had set out, marching to danger as to a festival, the

emperor turned towards Marshal Mortier and said, "That man is a lion."

Upon the field of battle, where he had just arrived in face of the enemy,

who appeared hesitating and troubled, Napoleon dictated his orders, which

he caused to be delivered to all his lieutenants. The troops continued to

arrive; all the corps formed again at the posts which had been assigned to

them. The emperor checked the impatience of his generals. "The action," he

told them, "will commence when the battery posted in the village of

Posthenen shall commence to fire." It was half-past five when the cannon

at last sounded.

Ney advanced towards Friedland under a terrible fire from the Russians;

extricated by the cavalry of Latour-Marbourg, and protected by the

artillery of General Victor, suddenly thrown in advance, the French

columns had reached a stream defended by the imperial Russian guard. The

resistance of these picked troops for a moment threw disorder into our

lines, who fell back; when General Dupont, arriving with his division,

broke the Russian guard. The French in pursuit of their enemies penetrated

into Friedland. The city was in flames; the fugitives fled towards the

bridges; a very small number had succeeded in reaching them when this only

means of safety was snatched from them; the bridges were cut and set on

fire when Marshal Ney took possession of the burning remains of Friedland.

At the same moment the corps of General Gortschakoff, pressed by Marshals

Lannes and Mortier, fighting valiantly in a position without egress,

sought in vain to reconquer the city, and afterwards redescended the

length of the river in the hope of finding fordable passages. Many

soldiers were drowned, others succeeded in regaining the right shore.

Almost the entire column of General Lambert succeeded in escaping. Night

at length followed the long twilight; it was ten o'clock in the evening

when the combat ceased. The victory was complete; the remains of the

Russian army retired upon the Pregel without Napoleon being able again to

encounter them. They soon afterwards gained the Niemen. Meanwhile Marshal

Soult had occupied Königsberg, evacuated by Generals Lestocq and Kaminsky.

The King of Prussia possessed nothing more than the little town of Memel.

The Emperor Alexander had rejoined his troops, vanquished and decimated in

spite of their courage; the King Frederick William placed himself close to

his ally, at Tilsit. Peace had become necessary for the Russians; for the

Prussians it had long been so. Napoleon resolved on negotiating for

himself. In response to the request for an armistice, he proposed an

interview, with the Emperor Alexander. It was in the middle of the Niemen,

upon a raft constructed for this purpose, that the two emperors met.

Alexander was young, amiable, winning, drawn along at times by chivalrous

or mystical sentiments and enthusiasms, at other times under the dominion

of Oriental tastes and passions. No one could be more capable of being

influenced by the charm of a superior genius and an extraordinary destiny,

and the personal ascendancy of a man who knew at once how to please and

how to vex.

Napoleon wished to captivate his vanquished enemy, whom he desired to make

his ally; he succeeded in doing so with ease. Master of the destinies of

the world--in his own idea more so than he even was in reality--he had

resolved upon offering to Alexander compensations which might satisfy him,

whilst distracting his attention from the conquests and encroachments

which Napoleon reserved for himself. On the eve of Austerlitz, Napoleon

had said to Prince Dolgorouki: "Ah well! let Russia extend herself at the

expense of her neighbors!" It was the same thought that he was about to

present to the young monarch, humiliated and conquered, wishing to display

it before his eyes in order to blind him more completely.

The Russians and Prussians were equally irritated against England. She had

granted them money, but her military efforts had not corresponded with her

promises; and it was to her obstinate hatred of France that the two

monarchs attributed the origin of their defeats. "If you have a grudge

against England," said Alexander, "we shall easily understand each other,

for I have myself to complain of her as much as you have." It was in this

first interview the sole effort of Napoleon to develop in the mind of

Alexander the sentiments of anger and weariness by which he had been

inspired by the selfishness which he imputed to Great Britain and the

inability and weakness which he recognized in Prussia, and to engage the

Russian emperor to become friendly with the only power which could offer

him a glorious and profitable alliance. In the mind of the emperor, we

have already said, the necessity for a continental alliance had long since

made itself felt. "Austria or Russia," he had said to Talleyrand. Napoleon

offered his hand to the Emperor Alexander.

The city of Tilsit was neutralized, and the two emperors established their

quarters there. Before quitting the opposite shore of the Niemen,

Alexander presented the King of Prussia to Napoleon in that floating

pavilion on the river which flowed between the two nations. Honest,

moderate, and dignified even in his profound abasement, Frederick William

neither experienced nor exercised in any degree the seductiveness to which

the Emperor Alexander succumbed, and which he was in his turn capable of

displaying. He entreated his ally to make constant and persevering efforts

in his behalf, which Alexander felt himself compelled to do not without a

secret ill feeling. It was with an ostentatious display of graciousness

and condescension that Napoleon ceaselessly reminded the young Czar that

he accorded no favor to the King of Prussia except out of regard for his

entreaties.

"In the midst of the war in which Russia and France have been engaged,"

wrote Napoleon, on the 4th of July, 1807, "both sovereigns, enlightened as

to the situation and the true policy of their empires, have desired the

re-establishment not only of peace, but of a common accord, and by the

force of reason and truth have wished to form an alliance, and to pass in

a single instant from open war to the most intimate relations. The

boundless amity and confidence which the high qualities of the Emperor

Alexander have inspired in the Emperor Napoleon have caused his heart to

seal that which his reason had already approved and ratified. The

protection of the emperor will result in the King of Prussia being allowed

to re-enter into the possession of all the countries which border on the

two Haffs, extending from the sources of the Oder to the sea. Solely with

a desire of pleasing the Emperor Alexander, a large number of fortified

towns will be restored to the King of Prussia. The policy of the Emperor

Napoleon is that his immediate influence should be bounded by the Elbe;

and he has adopted this policy because it is the only one which can be

reconciled with the system of sincere and constant amity which he wishes

to maintain with the great empire of the north."

Under the veil of this apparent moderation the pretensions or resolutions

of the Emperor Napoleon were thus summed up: King Frederick William

recovered Old Prussia, Pomerania, Brandenburg, Upper and Lower Silesia; he

would abandon all the provinces to the left of the Elbe, which were to

constitute, with the Grand Duchy of Hesse, a kingdom of Westphalia,

destined for Joseph Bonaparte. The Duchies of Posen and Warsaw, snatched

from Russian Poland, were to form a Polish State under the title of the

Grand Duchy of Warsaw, of which the Elector of Saxony, recently elevated

to the royal dignity, received the gift, on condition of maintaining a

military road across Silesia. All the States founded by Napoleon were to

be recognized. Russia was charged with the mediation between France and

England; France became arbitrator between Russia and the Porte.

It was much, and indeed too much, for Prussia, torn asunder without being

completely destroyed, reduced to the half of its territory, and deprived

of its most important towns--for Dantzig became a free city, and Magdeburg

formed part of the new kingdom of Westphalia. When these hard conditions

were revealed to Frederick William by the Emperor Alexander, the

unfortunate king protested against a ruin so complete. He conceived, for a

moment, the vain hope of obtaining from Napoleon some concessions, by

bringing to bear on him the influence of the genius and beauty of Queen

Louisa. This princess quitted Memel to present herself at Tilsit. "She is

charming," wrote Napoleon to the Empress Josephine; but this cold

appreciation of the accomplishments of the woman exercised no influence

upon the resolutions of the conqueror and the politician. The queen in

vain brought into play all the resources of her intellect and her charming

graces; in vain presenting to the conqueror a rose which she had just

plucked, she ventured to ask for Magdeburg in exchange for her flower. "It

is you who have offered it to me, madame," said Napoleon, roughly. Queen

Louisa quitted Memel, humiliated and sorrowful down to the very depths of

her soul. Her children and her people were never to pardon us for their

wrongs.

Alexander had loyally defended his friend, and felt assured of having

obtained for him all that it was possible to obtain; in his secret

thoughts he consoled himself for the concessions he had been constrained

to make for others as well as for himself, by the dazzling prospects which

Napoleon knew so well how to open brightly to his view. To the north and

south the young Czar believed himself master of new territories, long

objects of ambition to the Russian Empire. The Sultan Selim had just

fallen at Constantinople before a revolt of the Janissaries; he was a

prisoner in his own palace, and the government which was about to succeed

him would naturally be hostile to French influence. Napoleon then found

himself free to abandon to Russia a large part of that Ottoman Empire

always coveted by her. "Constantinople! never!" Napoleon had said, in

exclamation to himself, heard by one of his secretaries; "the empire of

the world is at Constantinople!" But the _débris_ of the Turkish power

were of a character to satisfy all the claimants; and in case Turkey

should not accept the peace, the secret treaty concluded between France

and Russia assured to the Czar all the European provinces, with the

exception of Constantinople and Roumelia. In case of the cabinet of London

refusing the mediation of Russia, Alexander engaged himself to declare war

against England. Should Portugal and Sweden, equally subject to European

influence, participate in the same refusal, it was agreed that the Emperor

Napoleon should send an army into Portugal, and that the Emperor Alexander

should enter Sweden. Finland lay very convenient for the Russian Empire.

"The King of Sweden is in truth your brother-in-law and your ally," said

Napoleon; "let him follow the changes in your policy, or let him undergo

the consequences of his ill-will. Sweden is the geographical enemy of

Russia. St. Petersburg finds itself too near to Finland. The good Russians

must no longer hear from their palaces at St. Petersburg the cannon of the

Swedes."

The treaty of Tilsit was concluded on the 7th of July, 1807, and was

signed on the 8th. The King and Queen of Prussia departed immediately,

full of bitter sorrow and discouragement. The two emperors separated on

the 9th, with a cordiality at that time sincere in its ostentatious

display. More than once they had together passed their troops in review;

yet once again they showed themselves to the two armies. Napoleon

decorated, with his own hand, a soldier of the Russian army, who had been

pointed out to him by the Czar. At last he accompanied Alexander to the

shores of the Niemen, waiting upon the bank until his friend and ally had

reached the farther shore. Then entering his carriage, he took the road to

Königsberg, and immediately afterwards that to France, charging Berthier

and Marshal Kalbreuth with the regulation of the details of the evacuation

of Prussia, and the payment of the war contributions with which the

conquered countries were to be crushed down. On the 27th of July, at six

o'clock in the morning, the emperor re-entered Paris, which he had quitted

the preceding year, and which, since then, he had so many times

intoxicated with the report of his victories. The military glory was

brilliant and even dazzling; the political work remained precarious, by

its nature as well as by its immensity. Empires founded upon conquest are

necessarily fragile, even when the war has been undertaken from serious

and legitimate motives. When the war is carried on through the ambition of

a man or a people, in scorn of right or justice--when it injures at once

the interests, the pride, and the repose of all nations--no genius or

brightness of glory can succeed in assuring its duration, or

legitimatizing its success. France perceived this in the midst of the

enthusiasm of victory. England repeated it with malicious confidence, in

the hope of confirming the courage of its people. Once more the latter

power found itself alone, in face of the ever-increasing might of France

and the incomparable genius of its sovereign.

It is the mournful effect of a weakening of the moral sense in the chief

of a state, to enfeeble that moral sense at the same time, and by an

inevitable contagion, amongst his rivals and adversaries. In presence of

the continental blockade, and of the resolution which the Emperor Napoleon

had announced of imposing it upon the whole of Europe, the English

cabinet, henceforth directed by the inheritors of the policy of Pitt, by

Canning and Lord Castlereagh, resolved upon using violence in its turn.

Fearful of seeing the maritime forces of Denmark pass into the power of

Napoleon, England violated the neutrality of this little kingdom, and

forestalled the secret conditions of the treaty of Tilsit. Lord Cathcart,

at the head of a considerable squadron, was charged with the duty of

summoning the Prince Regent to deliver to him the Danish fleet, as a

pledge of the loyal intentions of his country; he offered at the same time

to defend the Danish territory and all its colonies. The prince responded

with bitter irony, "Your protection? Have we not seen your allies waiting

for succor more than a year, without receiving it?" Copenhagen was

bombarded; Sir Arthur Wellesley, whose name, for the first time, became

known in Europe, effected his disembarkation with a corps of 10,000 men.

The prince saw himself compelled to capitulate, and deliver to the English

his fleet, with all the materiel of his arsenals. Vehemently did Europe

reprobate this act of violence. The English cabinet made public the

article of the Treaty of Tilsit, which had furnished the motive for its

aggression. But any effort at mediation was now ridiculous. The Emperor

Alexander perceived it to be so. On the 11th of November, Lord Leveson

Gower, then Ambassador of England at St. Petersburg, received his

passports, and the Czar haughtily adhered to the French alliance. "I deem

it prudent to close one's eyes against the orders which English mercantile

vessels have received to quit Russian ports," said General Savary, whom

Napoleon had accredited to the Emperor Alexander. The latter treated the

French envoy with distinction, but the court and world of St. Petersburg

had not forgotten the part that Savary had taken in the murder of the Duke

d'Enghien; he remained isolated in his palace, and even in the saloons of

the emperor. The Russian declaration of war was responded to by the

manifesto of England. "Publish the treaty of Tilsit, with the secret

articles," said Canning; "they have not been communicated to England, but

we are acquainted with them, nevertheless; they will explain to Europe our

conduct and our fears, as well as the change of attitude on the part of

Russia." The Emperor Napoleon was already regretting the magnificent

prospect which he had opened before the Czar on the side of Turkey; the

government of the Sublime Porte had adroitly accepted the mediation of

France. Napoleon sought to excite the covetousness of the Russians towards

the north; M, de Caulaincourt, who had replaced Savary at St. Petersburg,

pushed forward with ardor the war against Sweden, and the conquest of

Finland. As a consequence of the English aggression, Denmark had cast

itself into the arms of France; it accordingly became easy to close

against England the passage of the Sound. The Czar and his favorite

counsellor, M. de Romanzoff, returned ceaselessly to the hopes that

Napoleon had led them to conceive. "The ancient Ottoman Empire is played

out," said the Russian minister; "unless the Czar lays his hand on it, the

Emperor Napoleon will be soon obliged to announce in the _Moniteur_ that

the succession of the Sultans is open, and the natural heirs have only to

present themselves."

In the meantime, and as a constant menace against an ally whom he was not

completely satisfying, Napoleon was prolonging his occupation of the

Prussian territory, under the pretext of the alleged slowness of payment

of the war contributions; he was organizing provisionally the government

of Hanover, which he had reserved as a future bait for the English

government; and he was treating with Spain for the passage of troops

necessary for the invasion of Portugal. This power, constantly faithful to

the English alliance, having refused to give in its adhesion to the

continental blockade, the emperor had sent against it General Junot with

26,000 men. The negotiations with Madrid had not been completed, and the

French soldiers had already entered Spanish territory. A second army was

preparing to follow them. Austria remained disquieted, and ready to take

offence; a convention favorable to her was signed at Fontainebleau, on

October 10th. On the 27th the eventual and provisional partition of

Portugal was accepted by the Spanish envoy, Yzquierdo. A kingdom of

Southern Lusitania was assigned to the Queen of Etruria, who renounced her

Italian possessions; the independent principality of Algarve was to be

constituted for the Prince de la Paix; the emperor reserved for himself

the centre of the country, conquered by anticipation. A Spanish corps was

to join the French troops for the invasion of Portugal. General Junot

marched upon Lisbon. Vast projects, unjustifiable in their nature, were

linked with this invasion of the Peninsula, necessarily entailing blunders

and crimes as dangerous as lamentable. Napoleon had resolved upon driving

the Bourbons from all the thrones of Europe, in order to replace them with

Bonapartes. He set out for Italy with the view of completing one part of

his work before laying his hand on Spain.

Quitting Paris on November 16th, the Emperor surprised Eugène Beauharnais

(whom he was about solemnly to adopt) by assuring to him the succession of

the crown of Italy. He ran through the north of the Italian peninsula,

reorganizing at Venice the public services, which had fallen into

desuetude; decreeing the creation of a commune on Mont Cenis; and

providing for the needs of travellers by the new route which he had

opened. At Mantua he had an interview with his brother Lucien, whom he

would have wished to place upon the throne of Portugal, but that the

latter remained obstinately rebellious against the authority of his all-

powerful brother, who required of him the rupture of an already old union

with Madame Jouberthon. Having returned to Milan on the 13th of December,

Napoleon published there, on the 17th, a decree destined to aggravate the

rigors of the continental blockade. By reprisals as unjust as awkward,

directed against decree of Berlin, the English Cabinet had promulgated, on

the 11th of November, 1807, an Order in Council which compelled the ships

of all neutral nations to touch at an English port to import or export

merchandise, paying custom-house dues averaging 25 per cent. The ships

which neglected this precaution were to be declared lawful prizes. In

response, the Emperor Napoleon decreed that any vessel touching at an

English port, or submitting to inspection from an English ship, should be

by that very fact deneutralized, and become in its turn a lawful prize. In

this insensate rivalry, which ruined at the same time the commerce of

England and of the world, the Cabinet of London had taken no care to

modify, in favor of the United States, the rigor of its ordinances. This

was for England the occasion of grave difficulties, and of a war at one

time dangerous. Arbitrary interference and violence were the rule on all

the seas.

Through difficulties and sufferings which threatened to destroy the army

placed under his orders, General Junot arrived at the gates of Lisbon. He

had to struggle with no other enemy than the bad roads and the want of

provisions. Terror had seized upon the royal house of Portugal. The

_Moniteur_ of November 13th already contained an article upon the fall of

the illustrious house of Braganza. "The Prince Regent of Portugal loses

his throne," said the official journal; "he loses it influenced by the

intrigues of the English; he loses it for not having been willing to seize

the English merchandise at Lisbon. What does England do.--this ally so

powerful? She regards with indifference all that is passing in Portugal.

What will she do when Portugal shall be taken? Will she go to seize

Brazil? No; if the English make this attempt the Catholics will drive them

out. The fall of the House of Braganza will remain another proof that the

fall of whatever attaches itself to the English is inevitable."

The Prince Regent of Portugal had thought it possible to arrest the march

of General Junot by sending to him emissaries charged to make all the

submissions required by Napoleon. The envoys had not been able to meet the

French army, scattered and decimated by the ills it had undergone; it

advanced, however, and the news of its approach drove the Court of

Portugal on board the ships which were still to be found at the mouth of

the Tagus. On November 27th the mad queen, her son the prince regent, her

daughters, and nearly all the families of distinction in Lisbon,

accompanied by their servants, crowded on board the Portuguese fleet,

resolved to take their flight to Brazil. From seven to eight thousand

persons, with all their portable property, thus obstructed the mouth of

the Tagus, protected by the English fleet; on the 28th a favorable wind

permitted them to sail. When General Junot entered Lisbon, on the 30th of

November, at eight o'clock in the morning, the treasures which he was

charged to seize were beyond his reach. He established himself without

resistance in the capital, soon overwhelmed with confiscations and war

contributions. "Everything is more easy in the first moment than

afterwards," wrote the Emperor to Junot on the 13th of December, 1807. "Do

not seek for popularity at Lisbon, nor for the means of pleasing the

nation; that would be failing in your aim, emboldening the people, and

preparing misfortunes for yourself. The hope that you conceive of commerce

and prosperity, is a chimera with which one is lulled asleep."

Jerome Bonaparte had been declared King of Westphalia on the 8th of

December. On the 10th the act announced by the treaty of Fontainebleau was

consummated. The Queen Regent of Etruria, Maria Louisa of Bourbon,

declared to her subjects, in the name of her son, that she was called upon

to reign over a new kingdom. Tuscany then fell directly into the hands of

the Emperor Napoleon, who confided its government to his sister, Eliza

Baciocchi, to whom he had already given the principality of Lucca and

Piombino.

Submission or flight! such was the only alternative that seemed to remain

to continental sovereigns in presence of the exactions and the imperious

will of Napoleon. The Pope alone, as already for two years past, was still

resisting his demands, and was evincing an independence with regard to him

which was every day irritating more and more the all-powerful master of

Europe. Sadly disabused of the illusions and the hopes which had drawn him

to Paris for the coronation of Napoleon, Pius VII. had preserved in his

personal communications with the emperor a paternal and tender

graciousness. He had much to obtain and much to fear on the part of the

conqueror. Returning to Italy in the month of June, 1805, he said, in his

allocution to the cardinals: "We have clasped in our arms at Fontainebleau

this prince, so powerful and so full of love for us. Many things have

already been done, and are only the earnest of that which is yet to be

accomplished."

Meanwhile, the Code Napoleon had been applied to Italy, authorizing

divorce, and taking the place of the Italian Concordat, which declared the

Catholic religion to be the religion of the State. The Pope had complained

of it, not without warmth, and had received on the part of the emperor

assurances which were as vain as they were futile. But already the

conflict was becoming personal and more pressing; the refusal of the Holy

Father to dissolve the marriage of Jerome Bonaparte with Miss Paterson

(June, 1805), at once produced antagonism between the conscience of the

Pope and the views of Napoleon as to the elevation of his family to the

new or ancient thrones which he destined for them in Europe. Pius VII. had

long studied canonical interdictions; he consulted neither his ministers

nor his doctors; it was a personal reply he addressed to the emperor. "It

is out of our power." said he, "to pronounce the judgment of nullity; if

we were to usurp such an authority that we have not, we should render

ourselves culpable of an abominable abuse before the tribunal of God; and

your Majesty yourself, in your justice, would blame us for pronouncing a

sentence contrary to the testimony of our conscience and to the invariable

principles of our Church."