The armistice was, meanwhile, still more beneficial to the allies. The

Russians had time to concentrate their scattered troops, the Prussians

completed the equipment of their numerous _Landwehren_, and the Swedes

also took the field. Bernadotte landed on the 18th of May in

Pomerania, and advanced with his troops into Brandenburg for the

purpose, in conjunction with Bulow, of covering Berlin. A German

auxiliary corps, in the pay of England, was also formed, under

Wallmoden, on the Baltic. The defence of Hamburg was extremely easy;

but the base intrigues of foreigners, who, as during the time of the

thirty years' war, paid themselves for their aid by the seizure of

German provinces and towns, delivered that splendid city into the

hands of the French. Bernadotte had sold himself to Russia for the

price of Norway, which Denmark refused to cede unless Hamburg and

Lubeck were given in exchange. This agreement had already been made by

Prince Dolgorucki in the name of the emperor Alexander, and Tettenborn

yielded Hamburg to the Danes, who marched in under pretext of

protecting the city and were received with delight by the unsuspecting

citizens. The non-advance of the Swedes proceeded from the same cause.

The increase of the Danish marine by means of the Hanse towns,

however, proved displeasing to England; the whole of the commerce was

broken up, and the Danes, hastily resolving to maintain faith with

Napoleon, delivered luckless Hamburg to the French, who instantly took

a most terrible revenge. Davoust, as he himself boasted, merely sent

twelve German patriots to execution,[14] but expelled twenty-five

thousand of the inhabitants from the city, while he pulled down their

houses and converted them into fortifications, at which the principal

citizens were compelled to work in person. Dissatisfied, moreover,

with a contribution of eighteen millions, he robbed the great Hamburg

bank, treading underfoot every private and national right, all, as he,

miserable slave as he was,[15] declared, in obedience to the mandate

of his lord.

Austria, at first, instead of aiding the allies, allowed the Poles[16]

to range themselves beneath the standard of Napoleon, whom she

overwhelmed with protestations of friendship, which served to mask her

real intentions, and meanwhile gave her time to arm herself to the

teeth and to make the allies sensible of the fact of their utter

impotency against Napoleon unless aided by her. The interests of

Austria favored her alliance with France, but Napoleon, instead of

confidence, inspired mistrust. Austria, notwithstanding the marriage

between him and Maria Louisa, was, as had been shown at the congress

of Dresden, merely treated as a tributary to France, and Napoleon's

ambition offered no guarantee to the ancient imperial dynasty. There

was no security that the provinces bestowed in momentary reward for

her alliance must not, on the first occasion, be restored. Nor was

public opinion entirely without weight.[17] Napoleon's star was on the

wane, whole nations stood like to a dark and ominous cloud threatening

on the horizon, and Count Metternich prudently chose rather to attempt

to guide the storm ere it burst than trust to a falling star. Austria

had, as early as the 27th of June, 1813, signed a treaty, at

Reichenbach in Silesia, with Russia and Prussia, by which she bound

herself to declare war against France, in case Napoleon had not,

before the 20th of July, accepted the terms of peace about to be

proposed to him. Already had the sovereigns and generals of Russia and

Prussia sketched, during a conference held with the crown prince of

Sweden, the 11th July, at Trachenberg, the plan for the approaching

campaign, and, with the permission of Austria, assigned to her the

part she was to take as one of the allies against Napoleon, when

Metternich again visited Dresden in person for the purpose of

repeating his assurances of amity, for the armistice had but just

commenced, to Napoleon. The French emperor had an indistinct idea of

the transactions then passing, and bluntly said to the Count, "As you

wish to mediate, you are no longer on my side." He hoped partly to win

Austria over by redoubling his promises, partly to terrify her by the

dread of the future ascendency of Russia, but, perceiving how

Metternich evaded him by his artful diplomacy, he suddenly asked him,

"Well, Metternich, how much has England given you in order to engage

you to play this part toward me?" This trait of insolence toward an

antagonist of whose superiority he felt conscious, and of the most

deadly hatred masked by contempt, was peculiarly characteristic of the

Corsican, who, besides the qualities of the lion, fully possessed

those of the cat. Napoleon let his hat drop in order to see whether

Metternich would raise it. He did not, and war was resolved upon. A

pretended congress for the conclusion of peace was again arranged by

both sides; by Napoleon, in order to elude the reproach cast upon him

of an insurmountable and eternal desire for war, and by the allies, in

order to prove to the whole world their desire for peace. Each side

was, however, fully aware that the palm of peace was alone to be found

on the other side of the battle-field. Napoleon was generous in his

concessions, but delayed granting full powers to his envoy, an

opportune circumstance for the allies, who were by this means able to

charge him with the whole blame of procrastination. Napoleon, in all

his concessions, merely included Russia and Austria to the exclusion

of Prussia.[18] But neither Russia nor Austria trusted to his

promises, and the negotiations were broken off on the termination of

the armistice, when Napoleon sent full powers to his plenipotentiary.

Now, was it said, it is too late. The art with which Metternich passed

from the alliance with Napoleon to neutrality, to mediation, and

finally to the coalition against him, will, in every age, be

acknowledged a master-piece of diplomacy. Austria, while coalescing

with Russia and Prussia, in a certain degree assumed a rank

conventionally superior to both. The whole of the allied armies was

placed under the command of an Austrian general, Prince von

Schwarzenberg, and if the proclamation published at Calisch had merely

summoned the people of Germany to assert their independence, the

manifesto of Count Metternich spoke already in the tone of the future

regulator of the affairs of Europe.[19] Austria declared herself on

the 12th of August, 1813, two days after the termination of the

armistice.

[Footnote 1: Literally, the general levy of the people.--_Trans._]

[Footnote 2: The exasperation of the people had risen to the utmost

pitch. The French rascals in office, especially the custom-house

officers, set no bounds to their tyranny and license. No woman of

whatever rank was allowed to pass the gates without being subjected to

the most indecent inquisition. Goods that had long been redeemed were

continually taken from the tradesmen's shops and confiscated. The

arbitrary enrolment of a number of young men as conscripts at length

produced an insurrection, in which the guard-houses, etc., were

destroyed. It was, however, quelled by General St. Cyr, and six of the

citizens were executed. On the approach of the Russians, St. Cyr fled

with the whole of his troops. The bookseller Perthes, Prell, and von

Hess, formed a civic guard.--_Von Hess's Agonies_.]

[Footnote 3: The people rose _en masse_ at Ronsdorf, Solingen, and

Barmen, and marched tumultuously to Elberfeld, the great manufacturing

town, but were dispersed by the French troops. The French authorities

afterward declared that the sole object of the revolt was to smuggle

in English goods, and, under this pretext, seized all the foreign

goods in Elberfeld.]

[Footnote 4: Kutusow had, just at that conjuncture, expired at

Bautzen.]

[Footnote 5: The nature of the ground rendered a night march

impossible. The Russian, Michaelofski Danilefski, however, throws the

blame upon an officer in Blucher's headquarters, who laid the

important orders committed to his charge under his pillow and

overslept himself.]

[Footnote 6: It may here be mentioned as a remarkable characteristic

of those times that Goethe, Ernest Maurice Arndt, and Theodore Körner

at that period met at Dresden. The youthful Körner, a volunteer Jæger,

was the Tyrtæus of those days: his military songs were universally

sung: his father also expressed great enthusiasm. Goethe said almost

angrily, "Well, well, shake your chains, the man (Napoleon) is too

strong for you, you will not break them!"--_E. M. Arndt's

Reminiscences._]

[Footnote 7: "Unfortunately there were German princes who, even this

time, again sent their troops to swell the ranks of the oppressor;

Austria had, unfortunately, not yet concluded her preparations;

consequently, it was only possible to clog the advance of the

conqueror by a gallant resistance."--_Clausewitz_. The Bavarians stood

under Raglowich, the Würtembergers under Franquemont, the Saxons under

Reynier. There was also a contingent of Westphalians and Badeners.]

[Footnote 8: Blücher exclaimed on this occasion: "He's a rascally

fellow that dares to say we fly." Even Fain, the Frenchman, confesses

in his manuscript of 1813, in which he certainly does not favor the

Germans: "The best Marshals, as it were, killed by spent balls. Great

victories without trophies. All the villages on our route in flames

which obstructed our advance. 'What a war! We shall all fall victims

to it!' are the disgraceful expressions uttered by many, for the iron

hearts of the warriors of France are rust-grown." Napoleon exclaimed

after the battle, "How! no result after such a massacre? No prisoners?

They leave me not even a nail!" Duroc's death added to the

catastrophe. Napoleon was so struck that for the first time in his

life he could give no orders, but deferred everything until the

morrow.]

[Footnote 9: But they merely encamped in the streets, showed

themselves more anxious than threatening, and were seized with a

terrible panic on a sudden conflagration breaking out during the

night, which they mistook for a signal to bring the _Landsturm_ upon

them. And yet there were thirty thousand French in the city. How

different to their spirit in 1807!]

[Footnote 10: Brother to the unfortunate Henry von Bulow.]

[Footnote 11: Crome was afterward barefaced enough to boast of this

work in his Autobiography, published in 1833. Napoleon dictated the

fundamental ideas of this work to him from his headquarters. His

object was to pacify the Germans. He promised them henceforward to

desist from enforcing his continental system, to restore liberty to

commerce, no longer to force the laws and language of France upon

Germany. L'empereur se fera aimer des Allemands. The Germans were, on

the other hand, warned that the allies had no intention to render

Germany free and independent, they being much more interested in

retaining Germany in a state of division and subjection. The unity of

Germany, it was also declared, was alone possible under Napoleon,

etc.]

[Footnote 12: This arose from hatred to the party that dared to uphold

the German cause instead of a Prussian, Saxon, etc., one, and by no

means by chance, but, as Manso remarks, intentionally, "through low

cunning and injustice."]

[Footnote 13: The king of Saxony was, in return, insulted by Napoleon,

in an address to the ministers was termed _une veille hête_, and

compelled to countenance immoral theatrical performances by his

presence, a sin for which he each evening received absolution from his

confessor. Vide Stein's Letter to Münster in the Sketches of the War

of Liberation.]

[Footnote 14: He also said, like his master, "I know of no Germans, I

only know of Bavarians, Würtembergers, Westphalians," etc.]

[Footnote 15: His written defence, in which he so lyingly, so humbly

and mournfully exculpates himself that one really "compassionates the

devil," is a sort of satisfaction for the Germans.]

[Footnote 16: Poniatowsky's dismissal with the Polish army from Poland

was apparently a service rendered to Napoleon, but was in reality done

with a view of disarming Poland. Poniatowsky might have organized an

insurrection to the rear of the allies, and would in that case have

been far more dangerous to them than when ranged beneath the standard

of Napoleon.]

[Footnote 17: The people in Austria fully sympathized with passing

events. How could those be apathetic who had such a burden of disgrace

to redeem, such deep revenge to satisfy? An extremely popular song

contained the following lines:

"Awake, Franciscus! Hark! thy people call!

Awake! acknowledge the avenger's hand!

Still groans beneath the foreign courser's hoof

The soil of Germany, our fatherland.

"To arms! so long as sacred Germany

Feels but a finger of Napoleon.

Franciscus! up! Cast off each private tie!

The patriot has no kindred, has no son."

All the able-bodied men, as in Prussia, crowded beneath the imperial

standard and the whole empire made the most patriotic sacrifices.

Hungary summoned the whole of her male population, the insurrection,

as it was termed, to the field.]

[Footnote 18: Russia was to receive the whole of Poland, the

grandduchy of Warsaw was to be annihilated. Such was Napoleon's

gratitude toward the Poles!--Illyria was to be restored to Austria.

Prussia, however, was not only to be excluded from all participation

in the spoil, but the Rhenish confederation was to be extended as far

as the Oder. Prussia would have been compelled to pay the expenses of

the alliance between France, Russia, and Austria.]

[Footnote 19: "Everywhere," said this manifesto, "do the impatient

wishes of the people anticipate the regular proceedings of the

government. On all sides, the desire for independence under separate

laws, the feeling of insulted nationality, rage against the heavy

abuses inflicted by a foreign tyrant, burst simultaneously forth. His

Majesty the emperor, too clear-sighted not to view this turn in

affairs as the natural and necessary result of a preceding and violent

state of exaggeration, and too just to view it with displeasure, had

rendered it his principal object to turn it to the general advantage,

and, by well-weighed and well-combined measures, to promote the true

and lasting interests of the whole commonwealth of Europe."]

CCLXI. The Battle of Leipzig

Immediately after this--for all had been previously arranged--the

monarchs of Russia and Prussia passed the Riesengebirge with a

division of their forces into Bohemia, and joined the emperor Francis

and the great Austrian army at Prague. The celebrated general, Moreau,

who had returned from America, where he had hitherto dwelt incognito,

in order to take up arms against Napoleon, was in the train of the

czar. His example, it was hoped, would induce many of his countrymen

to abandon Napoleon. The plan of the allies was to advance, with their

main body under Schwarzenberg, consisting of one hundred and twenty

thousand Austrians and seventy thousand Russians and Prussians,

through the Erzgebirge to Napoleon's rear. A lesser Prussian force,

principally Silesian _Landwehr_, under Blucher, eighty thousand

strong, besides a small Russian corps, was, meanwhile, to cover

Silesia, or, in case of an attack by Napoleon's main body, to retire

before it and draw it further eastward. A third division, under the

crown prince of Sweden, principally Swedes, with some Prussian troops,

mostly Pomeranian and Brandenburg _Landwehr_ under Bulow, and some

Russians, in all ninety thousand men, was destined to cover Berlin,

and in case of a victory to form a junction to Napoleon's rear with

the main body of the allied army. A still lesser and equally mixed

division under Wallmoden, thirty thousand strong, was destined to

watch Davoust in Hamburg, while an Austrian corps of twenty-five

thousand men under Prince Reuss watched the movements of the

Bavarians, and another Austrian force of forty thousand, under Hiller,

those of the viceroy Eugene in Italy.

Napoleon had concentrated his main body, that still consisted of two

hundred and fifty thousand men, in and around Dresden. Davoust

received orders to advance with thirty thousand men from Hamburg upon

Berlin; in Bavaria, there were thirty thousand men under Wrede; in

Italy, forty thousand under Eugene. The German fortresses were,

moreover, strongly garrisoned with French troops. Napoleon had it in

his power to throw himself with his main body, which neither Blucher

nor the Swedes could have withstood, into Poland, to levy the people

_en masse_ and render that country the theatre of war, but the dread

of the defection of the Rhenish confederation and of a part of the

French themselves, were the country to his rear to be left open to the

allies and to Moreau, coupled with his disinclination to declare the

independence of Poland, owing to a lingering hope of being still able

to bring about a reconciliation with Russia and Austria by the

sacrifice of that country and of Prussia, caused that idea to be

renounced, and he accordingly took up a defensive position with his

main body at Dresden, whence he could watch the proceedings and take

advantage of any indiscretion on the part of his opponents. A body of

ninety thousand men under Oudinot meantime acted on the offensive,

being directed to advance, simultaneously with Davoust from Hamburg

and with Girard from Magdeburg, upon Berlin, and to take possession of

that metropolis. Napoleon hoped, when master of the ancient Prussian

provinces, to be able to suppress German enthusiasm at its source and

to induce Russia and Austria to conclude a separate peace at the

expense of Prussia.

In August, 1813, the tempest of war broke loose on every side, and all

Europe prepared for a decisive struggle. About this time, the whole of

Northern Germany was visited for some weeks, as was the case on the

defeat of Varus in the Teutoburg forest, with heavy rains and violent

storms. The elements seemed to combine, as in Russia, their efforts

with those of man against Napoleon. There his soldiers fell victims to

frost and snow, here they sank into the boggy soil and were carried

away by the swollen rivers. In the midst of the uproar of the

elements, bloody engagements continually took place, in which the

bayonet and the butt-end of the firelock were almost alone used, the

muskets being rendered unserviceable by the wet. The first engagement

of importance was that of the 21st of August between Wallmoden and

Davoust at Vellahn. A few days afterward, Theodore Korner, the

youthful poet and hero, fell in a skirmish between the French and

Wallmoden's outpost at Gadebusch.--Oudinot advanced close upon Berlin,

which was protected by the crown prince of Sweden. A murderous

conflict took place, on the 23d of August, at Gross-Beeren between the

Prussian division under General von Bulow and the French. The Swedes,

a troop of horse artillery alone excepted, were not brought into

action, and the Prussians, unaided, repulsed the greatly superior

forces of the French. The almost untrained peasantry comprising the

_Landwehr_ of the Mark and of Pomerania rushed upon the enemy, and,

unhabituated to the use of the bayonet and firelock, beat down entire

battalions of the French with the butt-end of their muskets. After a

frightful massacre, the French were utterly routed and fled in wild

disorder, but the gallant Prussians vainly expected the Swedes to aid

in the pursuit. The crown prince, partly from a desire to spare his

troops and partly from a feeling of shame--he was also a

Frenchman--remained motionless. Oudinot, nevertheless, lost two

thousand four hundred prisoners. Davoust, from this disaster, returned

once more to Hamburg. Girard, who had advanced with eight thousand men

from Magdeburg, was, on the 27th, put to flight by the Prussian

_Landwehr_ under General Hirschfeld.

Napoleon's plan of attack against Prussia had completely failed, and

his sole alternative was to act on the defensive. But on perceiving

that the main body of the allied forces under Schwarzenberg was

advancing to his rear, while Blucher was stationed with merely a weak

division in Silesia, he took the field with immensely superior forces

against the latter, under an idea of being able easily to vanquish his

weak antagonist and to fall back again in time upon Dresden. Blucher

cautiously retired, but, unable to restrain the martial spirit of the

soldiery, who obstinately defended every position whence they were

driven, lost two thousand of his men on the 21st of August. The news

of Napoleon's advance upon Silesia and of the numerical weakness of

the garrison left at Dresden reached Schwarzenberg just as he had

crossed the Erzgebirge, and induced him and the allied sovereigns

assembled within his camp to change their plan of operations and to

march straight upon the Saxon capital. Napoleon, who had pursued

Blucher as far as the Katzbach near Goldberg, instantly returned and

boldly resolved to cross the Elbe above Dresden, to seize the passes

of the Bohemian mountains, and to fall upon the rear of the main body

of the allied army. Vandamme's _corps d'armee_ had already set forward

with this design, when Napoleon learned that Dresden could no longer

hold out unless he returned thither with a division of his army, and,

in order to preserve that city and the centre of his position, he

hastily returned thither in the hope of defeating the allied army and

of bringing it between two fires, as Vandamme must meanwhile have

occupied the narrow outlets of the Erzgebirge with thirty thousand men

and by that means have cut off the retreat of the allied army. The

plan was on a grand scale, and, as far as related to Napoleon in

person, was executed, to the extreme discomfiture of the allies, with

his usual success. Schwarzenberg had, with true Austrian

procrastination, allowed the 25th of August, when, as the French

themselves confess, Dresden, in her then ill-defended state, might

have been taken almost without a stroke, to pass in inaction, and,

when he attempted to storm the city on the 26th, Napoleon, who had

meanwhile arrived, calmly awaited the onset of the thick masses of the

enemy in order to open a murderous discharge of grape upon them on

every side. They were repulsed after suffering a frightful loss. On

the following day, destined to end in still more terrible bloodshed,

Napoleon assumed the offensive, separated the retiring allied army by

well-combined sallies, cut off its left wing, and made an immense

number of prisoners, chiefly Austrians. The unfortunate Moreau had

both his legs shot off in the very first encounter. His death was an

act of justice, for he had taken up arms against his fellow-

countrymen, and was moreover a gain for the Germans, the Russians

merely making use of him in order to obscure the fame of the German

leaders, and, it may be, with a view of placing the future destinies

of France in his hands. The main body of the allied army retreated on

every side; part of the troops disbanded, the rest were exposed to

extreme hardship owing to the torrents of rain that fell without

intermission and the scarcity of provisions. Their annihilation must

have inevitably followed had Vandamme executed Napoleon's commands and

blocked up the mountain passes, in which he was unsuccessful, owing to

the gallantry with which he was held in check at Culm by eight

thousand Russian guards, headed by Ostermann,[1] who, although merely

amounting in number to a fourth of his army, fought during a whole day

without receding a step, though almost the whole of them were cut to

pieces and Ostermann was deprived of an arm, until the first corps of

the main body, in full retreat, reached the mountains. Vandamme was

now in turn overwhelmed by superior numbers. One way of escape, a

still unoccupied height, on which he hastened to post himself, alone

remained, but Kleist's corps, also in full retreat, unexpectedly but

opportunely appeared above his head and took him and the whole of his

corps prisoners, the 29th of August, 1813.[2]

At the same time, the 26th of August, a most glorious victory was

gained by Blucher in Silesia. After having drawn Macdonald across the

Katzbach and the foaming Neisse, he drove him, after a desperate and

bloody engagement, into those rivers, which were greatly swollen by

the incessant rains. The muskets of the soldiery had been rendered

unserviceable by the wet, and Blucher, drawing his sabre from beneath

his cloak, dashed forward exclaiming, "Forward!" Several thousand of

the French were drowned or fell by the bayonet, or beneath the heavy

blows dealt by the _Landwehr_ with the butt-end of their firelocks. It

was on this battlefield that the Silesians had formerly opposed the

Tartars, and the monastery of Wahlstatt, erected in memory of that

heroic day,[3] was still standing. Blucher was rewarded with the title

of Prince von der Wahlstatt, but his soldiers surnamed him Marshal

Vorwarts. On the decline of the floods, the banks of the rivers were

strewn with corpses sticking in horrid distortion out of the mud. A

part of the French fled for a couple of days in terrible disorder

along the right bank and were then taken prisoner together with their

general, Puthod.[4] The French lost one hundred and three guns,

eighteen thousand prisoners, and a still greater number in killed; the

loss on the side of the Prussians merely amounted to one thousand men.

Macdonald returned almost totally unattended to Dresden and brought

the melancholy intelligence to Napoleon, "Votre armé du Bobre n'existe

plus."

The crown prince of Sweden and Bulow had meanwhile pursued Oudinot's

retreating corps in the direction of the Elbe. Napoleon despatched Ney

against them, but he met with the fate of his predecessor, at

Dennewitz, on the 6th of September. The Prussians, on this occasion,

again triumphed, unaided by their confederates.[5] Bulow and

Tauenzien, with twenty thousand men, defeated the French army, seventy

thousand strong. The crown prince of Sweden not only remained to the

rear with the whole of his troops, but gave perfectly useless orders

to the advancing Prussian squadron under General Borstel, who, without

attending to them, hurried on to Bulow's assistance, and the French

were, notwithstanding their numerical superiority, completely driven

off the field, which the crown prince reached just in time to witness

the dispersion of his countrymen. The French lost eighteen thousand

men and eighty guns. The rout was complete. The rearguard, consisting

of the Wurtembergers under Franquemont, was again overtaken at the

head of the bridge at Zwettau, and, after a frightful carnage, driven

in wild confusion across the dam to Torgau. The Bavarians under

Raglowich, who, probably owing to secret orders, had remained, during

the battle, almost in a state of inactivity, withdrew in another

direction and escaped.[6] Davoust also again retired upon Hamburg, and

his rearguard under Pecheux was attacked by Wallmoden, on the 16th of

September, on the Gorde, and suffered a trifling loss. On the 29th of

September, eight thousand French were also defeated by Platow, the

Hetman of the Cossacks, at Zeitz: on the 30th, Czernitscheff

penetrated into Cassel and expelled Jerome. Thielemann, the Saxon

general, also infested the country to Napoleon's rear, intercepted his

convoys at Leipzig, and at Weissenfels took one thousand two hundred,

at Merseburg two thousand, French prisoners; he was, however, deprived

of his booty by a strong force under Lefebvre-Desnouettes, by whom he

was incessantly harassed until Platow's arrival with the Cossacks,

who, in conjunction with Thielemann, repulsed Lefebvre with great

slaughter at Altenburg. On this occasion, a Baden battalion, that had

been drawn up apart from the French, turned their fire upon their

unnatural confederates and aided in their dispersion.[7]

Napoleon's generals had been thrown back in every quarter, with

immense loss, upon Dresden, toward which the allies now advanced,

threatening to enclose it on every side. Napoleon manoeuvred until the

beginning of October with the view of executing a _coup de main_

against Schwarzenberg and Blucher; the allies were, however, on their

guard, and he was constantly reduced to the necessity of recalling his

troops, sent for that purpose into the field, to Dresden. The danger

in which he now stood of being completely surrounded and cut off from

the Rhine at length rendered retreat his sole alternative. Blucher had

already crossed the Elbe on the 5th of October, and, in conjunction

with the crown prince of Sweden, had approached the head of the main

body of the allied army under Schwarzenberg, which was advancing from

the Erzgebirge. On the 7th of October, Napoleon quitted Dresden,

leaving a garrison of thirty thousand French under St. Cyr, and

removed his headquarters to Duben, on the road leading from Leipzig to

Berlin, in the hope of drawing Blucher and the Swedes once more on the

right side of the Elbe, in which case he intended to turn unexpectedly

upon the Austrians; Blucher, however, eluded him, without quitting the

left bank. Napoleon's plan was to take advantage of the absence of

Blucher and of the Swedes from Berlin in order to hasten across the

defenceless country, for the purpose of inflicting punishment upon

Prussia, of raising Poland, etc. But his plan met with opposition in

his own military council. His ill success had caused those who had

hitherto followed his fortunes to waver. The king of Bavaria declared

against him on the 8th of October,[8] and the Bavarian army under

Wrede united with instead of opposing the Austrian army and was sent

to the Maine in order to cut off Napoleon's retreat. The news of this

defection speedily reached the French camp and caused the rest of the

troops of the Rhenish confederation to waver in their allegiance;

while the French, wearied with useless manoeuvres, beaten in every

quarter, opposed by an enemy greatly their superior in number and

glowing with revenge, despaired of the event and sighed for peace and

their quiet homes. All refused to march upon Berlin, nay, the very

idea of removing further from Paris almost produced a mutiny in the

camp.[9] Four days, from the 11th to the 14th of October, were passed

by Napoleon in a state of melancholy irresolution, when he appeared as

if suddenly inspired by the idea of there still being time to execute

a _coup de main_ upon the main body of the allied army under

Schwarzenberg before its junction with Blucher and the Swedes.

Schwarzenberg was slowly advancing from Bohemia and had already

allowed himself to be defeated before Dresden. Napoleon intended to

fall upon him on his arrival in the vicinity of Leipzig, but it was

already too late.--Blucher was at hand. On the 14th of October,[10]

the flower of the French cavalry, headed by the king of Naples,

encountered Blucher's and Wittgenstein's cavalry at Wachau, not far

from Leipzig. The contest was broken off, both sides being desirous of

husbanding their strength, but terminated to the disadvantage of the

French, notwithstanding their numerical superiority, besides proving

the vicinity of the Prussians. This was the most important cavalry

fight that took place during this war.

On the 16th of October, while Napoleon was merely awaiting the arrival

of Macdonald's corps, that had remained behind, before proceeding to

attack Schwarzenberg's Bohemian army, he was unexpectedly attacked on

the right bank of the Pleisse, at Liebert-wolkwitz, by the Austrians,

who were, however, compelled to retire before a superior force. The

French cavalry under Latour-Maubourg pressed so closely upon the

emperor of Russia and the king of Prussia that they merely owed their

escape to the gallantry of the Russian, Orlow Denisow, and to Latour's

fall. Napoleon had already ordered all the bells in Leipzig to be

rung, had sent the news of his victory to Paris, and seems to have

expected a complete triumph when joyfully exclaiming, "Le monde tourne

pour nous!" But his victory had been only partial, and he had been

unable to follow up his advantage, another division of the Austrian

army, under General Meerveldt, having simultaneously occupied him and

compelled him to cross the Pleisse at Dolnitz; and, although Meerveldt

had been in his turn repulsed with severe loss and been himself taken

prisoner, the diversion proved of service to the Austrians by keeping

Napoleon in check until the arrival of Blücher, who threw himself upon

the division of the French army opposed to him at Möckern by Marshal

Marmont. Napoleon, while thus occupied with the Austrians, was unable

to meet the attack of the Prussians with sufficient force. Marmont,

after a massacre of some hours' duration in and around Möckern, was

compelled to retire with a loss of forty guns. The second Prussian

brigade lost, either in killed or wounded, all its officers except

one.

The battle had, on the 16th of October, raged around Leipzig; Napoleon

had triumphed over the Austrians, whom he had solely intended to

attack, but had, at the same time, been attacked and defeated by the

Prussians, and now found himself opposed and almost surrounded--one

road for retreat alone remaining open--by the whole allied force. He

instantly gave orders to General Bertrand to occupy Weissenfels during

the night, in order to secure his retreat through Thuringia; but,

during the following day, the 17th of October, neither seized that

opportunity in order to effect a retreat or to make a last and

energetic attack upon the allies, whose forces were not yet completely

concentrated, ere the circle had been fully drawn around him. The

Swedes, the Russians under Bennigsen, and a large Austrian division

under Colloredo, had not yet arrived. Napoleon might with advantage

have again attacked the defeated Austrians under Schwarzenberg or have

thrown himself with the whole of his forces upon Blücher. He had still

an opportunity of making an orderly retreat without any great exposure

to danger. But he did neither. He remained motionless during the whole

day, which was also passed in tranquillity by the allies, who thus

gained time to receive fresh reinforcements. Napoleon's inactivity was

caused by his having sent his prisoner, General Meerveldt, to the

emperor of Austria, whom he still hoped to induce, by means of great

assurances, to secede from the coalition and to make peace. Not even a

reply was vouchsafed. On the very day, thus futilely lost by Napoleon,

the allied army was reintegrated by the arrival of the masses

commanded by the crown prince, by Bennigsen and Colloredo, and was

consequently raised to double the strength of that of France, which

now merely amounted to one hundred and fifty thousand men. On the

18th, a murderous conflict began on both sides. Napoleon long and

skilfully opposed the fierce onset of the allied troops, but was at

length driven off the field by their superior weight and persevering

efforts. The Austrians, stationed on the left wing of the allied army,

were opposed by Oudinot, Augereau, and Poniatowsky; the Prussians,

stationed on the right wing, by Marmont and Ney; the Russians and

Swedes in the centre, by Murat and Regnier. In the hottest of the

battle, two Saxon cavalry regiments went over to Blücher, and General

Normann, when about to be charged at Taucha by the Prussian cavalry

under Billow, also deserted to him with two Würtemberg cavalry

regiments, in order to avoid an unpleasant reminiscence of the

treacherous ill-treatment of Lützow's corps. The whole of the Saxon

infantry, commanded by Regnier, shortly afterward went, with

thirty-eight guns, over to the Swedes, five hundred men and General

Zeschau alone remaining true to Napoleon. The Saxons stationed

themselves behind the lines of the allies, but their guns were

instantly turned upon the enemy.[11]

In the evening of this terrible day, the French were driven back close

upon the walls of Leipzig.[12] On the certainty of victory being

announced by Schwarzenberg to the three monarchs, who had watched the

progress of the battle, they knelt on the open field and returned

thanks to God. Napoleon, before nightfall, gave orders for full

retreat; but, on the morning of the 19th, recommenced the battle and

sacrificed some of his _corps d'armee_ in order to save the remainder.

He had, however, foolishly left but one bridge across the Elster open,

and the retreat was consequently retarded. Leipzig was stormed by the

Prussians, and, while the French rearguard was still battling on that

side of the bridge, Napoleon fled, and had no sooner crossed the

bridge than it was blown up with a tremendous explosion, owing to the

inadvertence of a subaltern, who is said to have fired the train too

hastily. The troops engaged on the opposite bank were irremediably

lost. Prince Poniatowsky plunged on horseback into the Elster in order

to swim across, but sank in the deep mud. The king of Saxony, who to

the last had remained true to Napoleon, was among the prisoners. The

loss during this battle, which raged for four days, and in which

almost every nation in Europe stood opposed to each other, was immense

on both sides. The total loss in dead was computed at eighty thousand.

The French lost, moreover, three hundred guns and a multitude of

prisoners; in the city of Leipzig alone twenty-three thousand sick,

without reckoning the innumerable wounded. Numbers of these

unfortunates lay bleeding and starving to death during the cold

October nights on the field of battle, it being found impossible to

erect a sufficient number of lazaretti for their accommodation.

Napoleon made a hasty and disorderly retreat with the remainder of his

troops, but was overtaken at Freiburg on the Unstrutt, where the

bridge broke, and a repetition of the disastrous passage of the

Beresina occurred. The fugitives collected into a dense mass, upon

which the Prussian artillery played with murderous effect. The French

lost forty of their guns. At Hanau, Wrede, Napoleon's former favorite,

after taking Würzburg, watched the movements of his ancient patron,

and, had he occupied the pass at Gelnhausen, might have annihilated

him. Napoleon, however, furiously charged his flank, and, on the 20th

of October, succeeded in forcing a passage and in sending seventy

thousand men across the Rhine. Wrede was dangerously wounded.[13] On

the 9th of November, the last French corps was defeated at Hochheim

and driven back upon Mayence.

In the November of this ever memorable year, 1813, Germany, as far as

the Rhine, was completely freed from the French.[14] Above a hundred

thousand French troops, still shut up in the fortresses and cut off

from all communication with France, gradually surrendered. In October,

the allies took Bremen; in November, Stettin, Zamosk, Modlin, and

those two important points, Dresden and Dantzig. In Dresden, Gouvion

St. Cyr capitulated to Count Klenau, who granted him free egress on

condition of the delivery of the whole of the army stores. St. Cyr,

however, infringed the terms of capitulation by destroying several of

the guns and sinking the gunpowder in the Elbe; consequently, on the

non-recognition of the capitulation by the generalissimo,

Schwarzenberg, he found himself without means of defence and was

compelled to surrender at discretion with a garrison thirty-five

thousand strong. Rapp, the Alsatian, commanded in Dantzig. This city

had already fearfully suffered from the commercial interdiction, from

the exactions and the scandalous license of its French protectors,

whom the ravages of famine and pestilence finally compelled to

yield.[15] Lubeck and Torgau fell in December; the typhus, which had

never ceased to accompany the armies, raged there in the crowded

hospitals, carrying off thousands, and greater numbers fell victims to

this pestilential disease than to the war, not only among the troops,

but in every part of the country through which they passed.

Wittenberg, whose inhabitants had been shamefully abused by the French

under Lapoype, Custrin, Glogau, Wesel, Erfurt, fell in the beginning

of 1814; Magdeburg and Bremen, after the conclusion of the war.

The Rhenish confederation was dissolved, each of the princes securing

his hereditary possessions by a timely secession. The kings of

Westphalia and Saxony, Dalberg, grand-duke of Frankfort, and the

princes of Isenburg and von der Leyen, who had too heavily sinned

against Germany, were alone excluded from pardon. The king of Saxony

was at first carried prisoner to Berlin, and afterward, under the

protection of Austria, to Prague. Denmark also concluded peace at Kiel

and ceded Norway to Sweden, upon which the Swedes, _quasi re bene

gesta_, returned home.[16]

[Footnote 1: This general belonged to a German family long naturalized

in Russia.]

[Footnote 2: He was led through Silesia, which he had once so

shamefully plundered, and, although no physical punishment was

inflicted upon him, he was often compelled to hear the voice of public

opinion, and was exposed to the view of the people to whom he had once

said, "Nothing shall be left to you except your eyes, that you may be

able to weep over your wretchedness."--_Manso's History of Prussia._]

[Footnote 3: An ancient battle-axe of serpentine stone was found on

the site fixed upon for the erection of a fresh monument in honor of

the present victory.--_Allgemenie Zeitung, 1817._]

[Footnote 4: This piece of good fortune befell Langeron, the Russian

general, who belonged to the diplomatic party at that time attempting

to spare the forces of Russia, Austria, and Sweden at the expense of

Prussia, and, at the same time, to deprive Prussia of her well-won

laurels. Langeron had not obeyed Blucher's orders, had remained behind

on his own responsibility, and the scattered French troops fell into

his hands.]

[Footnote 5: The proud armies of Russia and Sweden (forty-six

battalions, forty squadrons, and one hundred and fifty guns) followed

to the rear of the Prussians without firing a shot and remained

inactive spectators of the action.--_Plotho._]

[Footnote 6: In order to avoid being carried along by the fugitive

French, they fired upon them whenever their confused masses came too

close upon them.--_Bölderndorf._]

[Footnote 7: Vide Wagner's Chronicle of Altenburg.]

[Footnote 8: Maximilian Joseph declared in an open manifesto; Bavaria

was compelled to furnish thirty-eight thousand men for the Russian

campaign, and, on her expressing a hope that such an immense sacrifice

would not be requested, France instantly declared the princes of the

Rhenish confederation her vassals, who were commanded "under

punishment of felony" unconditionally to obey each of Napoleon's

demands. The allies would, on the contrary, have acceded to all the

desires of Bavaria and have guaranteed that kingdom. Even the Austrian

troops, that stood opposed to Bavaria, were placed under Wrede's

command.--Raglowich received permission from Napoleon, before the

battle of Leipzig, to return to Bavaria; but his corps was retained in

the vicinity of Leipzig without taking part in the action, and

retired, in the general confusion, under the command of General

Maillot, upon Torgau, whence it returned home.--_Bolderndorf._ In the

Tyrol, the brave mountaineers were on the eve of revolt. As early as

September, Speckbacher, sick and wasted from his wounds, but endued

with all his former fire and energy, reappeared in the Tyrol, where he

was commissioned by Austria to organize a revolt. An unexpected

reconciliation, however, taking place between Bavaria and Austria,

counter orders arrived, and Speckbacher furiously dashed his bullet-

worn hat to the ground.--_Brockhaus, 1814._ The restoration of the

Tyrol to Austria being delayed, a multitude of Tyrolese forced their

way into Innsbruck and deposed the Bavarian authorities; their leader,

Kluibenspedel, was, however, persuaded by Austria to submit.

Speckbacher was, in 1816, raised by the emperor Francis to the rank of

major; he died in 1820, and was buried at Hall by the south wall of

the parish church. His son, Andre, who grew up a fine, handsome man,

died in 1835, at Jenbach (not Zenbach, as Mercy has it in his attacks

upon the Tyrol), in the Tyrol, where he was employed as superintendent

of the mines. Mercy's Travels and his account of Speckbacher in the

Milan Revista Buropea, 1838, are replete with falsehood.]

[Footnote 9: According to Fain and Coulaincourt.]

[Footnote 10: On the evening of the 14th of October (the anniversary

of the battle of Jena), a hurricane raged in the neighborhood of

Leipzig, where the French lay, carried away roofs and uprooted trees,

while, during the whole night, the rain fell in violent floods.]

[Footnote 11: Not so the Badeners and Hessians. The Baden corps was

captured almost to a man; among others, Prince Emilius of Darmstadt.

Baden had been governed, since the death of the popular grandduke,

Charles Frederick, in 1811, by his grandson, Charles.--Franquemont,

with the Würtemberg infantry, eight to nine thousand strong, acted

independently of Normann's cavalry. But one thousand of their number

remained after the battle of Leipzig, and, without going over to the

allies, returned to Würtemberg. Normann was punished by his

sovereign.]

[Footnote 12: The city was in a state of utter confusion. "The noise

caused by the passage of the cavalry, carriages, etc., by the cries of

the fugitives through the streets, exceeded that of the most terrific

storm. The earth shook, the windows clattered with the thunder of

artillery," etc.--_The Terrors of Leipzig, 1813._]

[Footnote 13: The king of Würtemberg, who had fifteen hundred men

close at hand, did not send them to the aid of the Bavarians, nor did

he go over to the allies until the 2d of November.]

[Footnote 14: In November, one hundred and forty thousand French

prisoners and seven hundred and ninety-one guns were in the hands of

the allies.]

[Footnote 15: Dantzig had formerly sixty thousand inhabitants, the

population was now reduced to thirteen thousand. Numbers died of

hunger, Rapp having merely stored the magazines for his troops.

Fifteen thousand of the French garrison died, and yet fourteen

generals, upward of a thousand officers, and about as many

comptrollers belonging to the grand army, who had taken refuge in that

city, were, on the capitulation of the fortress, made prisoners of

war.]

[Footnote 16: The injustice thus favored by the first peace was loudly

complained of.--_Manso._]

CCLXII. Napoleon's Fall

Napoleon was no sooner driven across the Rhine, than the defection of

the whole of the Rhenish confederation, of Holland, Switzerland, and

Italy ensued. The whole of the confederated German princes followed

the example of Bavaria and united their troops with those of the

allies. Jerome had fled; the kingdom of Westphalia had ceased to

exist, and the exiled princes of Hesse, Brunswick, and Oldenburg

returned to their respective territories. The Rhenish provinces were

instantly occupied by Prussian troops and placed under the patriotic

administration of Justus Gruner, who was joined by Görres of Coblentz,

whose Rhenish Mercury so powerfully influenced public opinion that

Napoleon termed him the fifth great European power.[1] The Dutch

revolted and took the few French still remaining in the country

prisoner. Hogendorp was placed at the head of a provisional government

in the name of William of Orange.[2] The Prussians under Bulow entered

the country and were received with great acclamation. The whole of the

Dutch fortresses surrendered, the French garrisons flying

panic-stricken.

The Swiss remained faithful to Napoleon until the arrival of

Schwarzenberg with the allied army on their frontiers.[3] Napoleon

would gladly have beheld the Swiss sacrifice themselves for him for

the purpose of keeping the allies in check, but Reinhard of Zurich,

who was at that time _Landammnann_, prudently resolved not to

persevere in the demand for neutrality, to lay aside every

manifestation of opposition, and to permit, it being impossible to

prevent, the entrance of the troops into the country, by which he,

moreover, ingratiated himself with the allies. The majority of his

countrymen thanked Heaven for their deliverance from French

oppression, and if, in their ancient spirit of egotism, they neglected

to aid the great popular movement throughout Germany, they, at all

events, sympathized in the general hatred toward France.[4] The

ancient aristocrats now naturally reappeared and attempted to

re-establish the oligarchical governments of the foregoing century. A

Count Senfft von Pilsach, a pretended Austrian envoy, who was speedily

disavowed, assumed the authority at Berne with so much assurance as to

succeed in deposing the existing government and reinstating the

ancient oligarchy. In Zurich, the constitution was also revised and

the citizens reassumed their authority over the peasantry. The whole

of Switzerland was in a state of ferment. Ancient claims of the most

varied description were asserted. The people of the Grisons took up

arms and invaded the Valtelline in order to retake their ancient

possession. Pancratius, abbot of St. Gall, demanded the restoration of

his princely abbey.--Italy, also, deserted Napoleon. Murat, king of

Naples, in order not to lose his crown, joined the allies. Eugene

Beauharnais, viceroy of Italy, alone remained true to his imperial

stepfather and gallantly opposed the Austrians under Hiller, who,

nevertheless, rapidly reduced the whole of Upper Italy to submission.

The allies, when on the point of entering the French territory,

solemnly declared that their enmity was directed not against the

French nation, but solely against Napoleon. By this generosity they

hoped at once to prove the beneficence of their intentions to every

nation of Europe and to prejudice the French, more particularly,

against their tyrant; but that people, notwithstanding their immense

misfortunes, still remained true to Napoleon nor hesitated to

sacrifice themselves for the man who had raised them to the highest

rank among the nations of the earth, and thousands flocked anew

beneath the imperial eagle for the defence of their native soil.

The allies invaded France simultaneously on four sides, Bulow from

Holland, Blucher, on New Year's eve, 1814, from Coblentz, and the main

body of the allied army under Schwarzenberg, which was also

accompanied by the allied sovereigns. A fourth army, consisting of

English and Spaniards, had already crossed the Pyrenees and marched up

the country. The great wars in Russia and Germany having compelled

Napoleon to draw off a considerable number of his forces from Spain,

Soult had been consequently unable to keep the field against

Wellington, whose army had been gradually increased. King Joseph fled

from Madrid. The French hazarded a last engagement at Vittoria, in

June, 1813, but suffered a terrible defeat. One of the two Nassau

regiments under Colonel Kruse and the Frankfort battalion deserted

with their arms and baggage to the English. The other Nassau regiment

and that of Baden were disarmed by the French and dragged in chains to

France in reward for their long and severe service.[5] The Hanoverians

in Wellington's army (the German Legion), particularly the corps of

Victor von Alten (Charles's brother), brilliantly distinguished

themselves at Vittoria and again at Bayonne, but were forgotten in the

despatches, an omission that was loudly complained of by their

general, Hinuber. Other divisions of Hanoverians, up to this period

stationed in Sicily, had been sent to garrison Leghorn and

Genoa.[6]--The crown prince of Sweden followed the Prussian northern

army, but merely went as far as Liege, whence he turned back in order

to devote his whole attention to the conquest of Norway.

In the midst of the contest a fresh congress was assembled at

Chatillon, for the purpose of devising measures for the conclusion of

the war without further bloodshed. The whole of ancient France was

offered to Napoleon on condition of his restraining his ambition

within her limits and of keeping peace, but he refused to cede a foot

of land, and resolved to lose all or nothing. This congress was in so

far disadvantageous on account of the rapid movements of the armies

being checked by its fluctuating diplomacy. Schwarzenberg, for

instance, pursued a system of procrastination, separated his _corps

d'armee_ at long intervals, advanced with extreme slowness, or

remained entirely stationary. Napoleon took advantage of this

dilatoriness on the part of his opponents to make an unexpected attack

on Blucher's corps at Brienne on the 29th of January, in which Blucher

narrowly escaped being made prisoner. The flames of the city, in which

Napoleon had received his first military lessons, facilitated

Blucher's retreat. Napoleon, however, neglecting to pursue him on the

30th of January, Blucher, reinforced by the crown prince of Wurtemberg

and by Wrede, attacked him at La Rothière with such superior forces as

to put him completely to the rout. The French left seventy-three guns

sticking in the mud. Schwarzenberg, nevertheless, instead of pursuing

the retreating enemy with the whole of his forces, again delayed his

advance and divided the troops. Blucher, who had meanwhile rapidly

pushed forward upon Paris, was again unexpectedly attacked by the main

body of the French army, and the whole of his corps were, as they

separately advanced, repulsed with considerable loss, the Russians

under Olsufief at Champeaubert, those under Sacken at Montmirail, the

Prussians under York at Château-Thierry, and, finally, Blucher himself

at Beaux-champ, between the 10th and 14th of February. With

characteristic rapidity, Napoleon instantly fell upon the scattered

corps of the allied army and inflicted a severe punishment upon

Schwarzenberg, for the folly of his system. He successively repulsed

the Russians under Pahlen at Mormant, Wrede at Villeneuve le Comte,

the crown prince of Wurtemberg, who offered the most obstinate

resistance, at Montereau, on the 17th and 18th of February.[7]

Augereau had meantime, with an army levied in the south of France,

driven the Austrians, under Bubna, into Switzerland; and, although the

decisive moment had arrived, and Schwarzenberg had simply to form a

junction with Blucher in order to bring an overwhelming force against

Napoleon, the allied sovereigns and Schwarzenberg resolved, in a

council of war held at Troyes, upon a general retreat.

Blucher, upon this, magnanimously resolved to obviate at all hazards

the disastrous consequences of the retreat of the allied army, and, in

defiance of all commands, pushed forward alone.[8] This movement, far

from being rash, was coolly calculated, Blucher being sufficiently

reinforced on the Marne by Winzingerode and Bulow, by whose aid he, on

the 9th March, defeated the emperor Napoleon at Laon. The victory was

still undecided at fall of night. Napoleon allowed his troops to rest,

but Blucher remained under arms and sent York to surprise him during

the night. The French were completely dispersed and lost forty-six

guns. Napoleon, after this miserable defeat, again tried his fortune

against Schwarzenberg (who, put to shame by Blucher's brilliant

success, had again halted), and, on the 20th of March, maintained his

position at Arcis sur Aube, although the crown prince of Wurtemberg

gallantly led his troops five times to the assault. Neither side was

victorious.

Napoleon now resorted to a bold _ruse de guerre_. The peasantry, more

particularly in Lorraine, exasperated by the devastation unavoidable

during war time, and by the vengeance here and there taken by the

foreign soldiery, had risen to the rear of the allied army.

Unfortunately, no one had dreamed of treating the German Alsatians and

Lothringians as brother Germans. They were treated as French. Long

unaccustomed to invasion and to the calamities incidental to war, they

made a spirited but ineffectual resistance to the rapine of the

soldiery. Whole villages were burned down. The peasantry gathered into

troops and massacred the foreign soldiery when not in sufficient

numbers to keep them in check. Napoleon confidently expected that his

diminished armies would be supported by a general rising _en masse_,

and that Augereau, who was at that time guarding Lyons, would form a

junction with him; and, in this expectation, threw himself to the rear

of the allied forces and took up a position at Troyes with a view of

cutting them off, perhaps of surrounding them by means of the general

rising, or, at all events, of drawing them back to the Rhine. But, on

the self-same day, the 19th of March, Lyons had fallen and Augereau

had retreated southward. The people did not rise _en masse_, and the

allies took advantage of Napoleon's absence to form a grand junction,

and, with flying banners, to march unopposed upon Paris, convinced

that the possession of the capital of the French empire must

inevitably bring the war to a favorable conclusion. In Paris, there

were numerous individuals who already regarded Napoleon's fall as _un

fait accompli_, and who, ambitious of influencing the future prospects

of France, were ready to offer their services to the victors. Both

parties speedily came to an understanding. The _corps d'armee_ under

Marshals Mortier and Marmont, which were encountered midway, were

repulsed, and that under Generals Pacthod and Amey captured, together

with seventy pieces of artillery, at La Fère Ohampenoise. On the 29th

of March, the dark columns of the allied army defiled within sight of

Paris. On the 30th, they met with a spirited resistance on the heights

of Belleville and Montmartre; but the city, in order to escape

bombardment, capitulated during the night, and, on the 31st, the

allied sovereigns made a peaceful entry. The empress, accompanied by

the king of Rome, by Joseph, ex-king of Spain, and by innumerable

wagons, laden with the spoil of Europe, had already fled to the south

of France.

Napoleon, completely deceived by Winzingerode and Tettenborn, who had

remained behind with merely a weak rearguard, first learned the

advance of the main body upon Paris when too late to overtake it.

After almost annihilating his weak opponents at St. Dizier, he reached

Fontainebleau, where he learned the capitulation of Paris, and, giving

way to the whole fury of his Corsican temperament, offered to yield

the city for two days to the license of his soldiery would they but

follow him to the assault. But his own marshals, even his hero, Ney,

deserted him, and, on the 10th of April, he was compelled to resign

the imperial crown of France and to withdraw to the island of Elba on

the coast of Italy, which was placed beneath his sovereignty and

assigned to him as a residence. The kingdom of France was

re-established on its former footing; and, on the 4th of May, Louis

XVIII. entered Paris and mounted the throne of his ancestors.

Davoust was the last to offer resistance. The Russians under Bennigsen

besieged him in Hamburg, and, on his final surrender, treated him with

the greatest moderation.[9]

On the 30th of May, 1814, peace was concluded at Paris.[10] France was

reduced to her limits as in 1792, and consequently retained the

provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, of which she had, at an earlier

period, deprived Germany. Not a farthing was paid by way of

compensation for the ravages suffered by Germany, nay, the French

prisoners of war were, on their release, maintained on their way home

at the expense of the German population. None of the _chefs-d'oeuvres_

of which Europe had been plundered were restored, with the sole

exception of the group of horses, taken by Napoleon from the

Brandenburg gate at Berlin. The allied troops instantly evacuated the

country. France was allowed to regulate her internal affairs without

the interference of any of the foreign powers, while paragraphs

concerning the internal economy of Germany were not only admitted into

the treaty of Paris, and France was on that account not only called

upon to guarantee and to participate in the internal affairs of

Germany, but also afterward sent to the great Congress of Vienna an

ambassador destined to play an important part in the definitive

settlement of the affairs of Europe, and, more particularly, of those

of Germany.

The patriots, of whom the governments had made use both before and

after the war, unable to comprehend that the result of such immense

exertions and of such a complete triumph should be to bring greater

profit and glory to France than to Germany, and that their patriotism

was, on the conclusion of the war, to be renounced, were loud in their

complaints.[11] But the revival of the German empire, with which the

individual interests of so many princely houses were plainly

incompatible, was far from entering into the plans of the allied

powers. An attempt made by any one among the princes to place himself

at the head of the whole of Germany would have been frustrated by the

rest. The policy of the foreign allies was moreover antipathetic to

such a scheme. England opposed and sought to hinder unity in Germany,

not only for the sake of retaining possession of Hanover and of

exercising an influence over the disunited German princes similar to

that exercised by her over the princes of India, but more particularly

for that of ruling the commerce of Germany. Russia reverted to her

Erfurt policy. Her interests, like those of France, led her to promote

disunion among the German powers, whose weakness, the result of want

of combination, placed them at the mercy of France, and left Poland,

Sweden, and the East open to the ambition of Russia. A close alliance

was in consequence instantly formed between the emperor Alexander and

Louis XVIII., the former negotiating, as the first condition of peace,

the continuance of Lorraine and Alsace beneath the sovereignty of

France.

Austria assented on condition of Italy being placed exclusively

beneath her control. Austria united too many and too diverse nations

beneath her sceptre to be able to pursue a policy pre-eminently

German, and found it more convenient to round off her territories by

the annexation of Upper Italy than by that of distant Lorraine, at all

times a possession difficult to maintain. Prussia was too closely

connected with Russia, and Hardenberg, unlike Blucher at the head of

the Prussian army, was powerless at the head of Prussian diplomacy.

The lesser states also exercised no influence upon Germany as a whole,

and were merely intent upon preserving their individual integrity or

upon gaining some petty advantage. The Germans, some few discontented

patriots alone excepted, were more than ever devoted to their ancient

princes, both to those who had retained their station and to those who

returned to their respective territories on the fall of Napoleon; and

the victorious soldiery, adorned with ribbons, medals, and orders (the

Prussians, for instance, with the iron cross), evinced the same

unreserved attachment to their prince and zeal for his individual

interest. This complication of circumstances can alone explain the

fact of Germany, although triumphant, having made greater concessions

to France by the treaty of Paris than, when humbled, by that of

Westphalia.

[Footnote 1: His principal thesis consisted of "We are not Prussians,

Westphalians, Saxons, etc., but Germans."]

[Footnote 2: This prince took the title not of stadtholder, but of

king, to which he had no claim, but in which he was supported by

England and Russia, who unwillingly beheld Prussia aggrandized by the

possession of Holland.]

[Footnote 3: Even in the May of 1813, an ode given in No. 270 of the

Allgemeine Zeitung, appeared in Switzerland, in which it was said,

"The brave warriors of Switzerland hasten to reap fresh laurels. With

their heroic blood have they dyed the distant shores of barbarous

Haiti, the waters of the Ister and Tagus, etc. The deserts of Sarmatia

have witnessed the martial glories of the Helvetic legion."]

[Footnote 4: Shortly before this, a report had been spread of the

nomination of Marshal Berthier, prince of Neufchatel, as perpetual

Landammann of Switzerland.--_Muralt's Reinhard_.]

[Footnote 5: Out of two thousand six hundred and fifty-four Badeners

but five hundred and six returned from Spain.]

[Footnote 6: Beamisch, History of the Legion.]

[Footnote 7: Several regiments sacrificed themselves in order to cover

the retreat of the rest. Napoleon ordered a twelve-pounder to be

loaded and twice directed the gun with his own hand upon the crown

prince.--_Campaigns of the Würterribergers._]

[Footnote 8: Blücher's conduct simply proceeded from his impatience to

obtain by force of arms the most honorable terms of peace for Prussia,

while the other allied powers, who were far more indulgently disposed

toward France and who began to view the victories gained by Prussia

with an apprehension which was further strengthened by the increasing

popularity of that power throughout Germany, were more inclined to

diplomatize than to fight. Blücher was well aware of these reasons for

diplomacy and more than once cut the negotiations short with his

sabre. A well-known diplomatist attempting on one occasion to prove to

him that Napoleon must, even without the war being continued, "descend

from his throne," a league having been formed within France herself

for the restoration of the Bourbons--he answered him to his face, "The

rascality of the French is no revenge for us. It is we who must pull

him down--we. You will no doubt do wonders in your wisdom!--Patience!

You will be led as usual by the nose, and will still go on fawning and

diplomatizing until we have the nation again upon us, and the storm

bursts over our heads." He went so far as to set the diplomatists

actually at defiance. On being, to Napoleon's extreme delight, ordered

to retreat, he treated the order with contempt and instantly

advanced.--_Rauschnick's Life of Blücher_. "This second disjunction on

Blücher's part," observes Clausewitz, the Prussian general, the best

commentator on this war, "was of infinite consequence, for it checked

and gave a fresh turn to the whole course of political affairs."]

[Footnote 9: Görres said in the Rhenish Mercury, "It is easy to see

how all are inclined to conceal beneath the wide mantle of love the

horrors there perpetrated. The Germans have from time immemorial been

subjected to this sort of treatment, because ever ready to forgive and

forget the past." Davoust was arrested merely for form's sake and then

honorably released. He was allowed to retain the booty he had seized.

The citizens of Hamburg vainly implored the re-establishment of their

bank.]

[Footnote 10: Blücher took no part in these affairs. "I have," said he

to the diplomatists, "done my duty, now do yours! You will be

responsible both to God and man should your work be done in vain and

have to be done over again. I have nothing further to do with the

business!"--Experience had, however, taught him not to expect much

good from "quill-drivers."]

[Footnote 11: The Rhenish Mercury more than all. It was opposed by the

Messenger of the Tyrol, which declared that the victory was gained,

not by the "people," as they were termed, but by the princes and their

armies.--_July, 1814_.]

CCLXIII. The Congress of Vienna--Napoleon's Return and End

From Paris the sovereigns of Prussia[1] and Russia and the victorious

field-marshals proceeded, in June, to London, where they, Blucher most

particularly, were received with every demonstration of delight and

respect by the English, their oldest and most faithful allies.[2]

Toward autumn, a great European congress, to which the settlement of

every point in dispute and the restoration of order throughout Europe

were to be committed, was convoked at Vienna. At this congress, which,

in the November of 1814, was opened at Vienna, the emperors of Austria

and Russia, the kings of Prussia, Denmark, Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and

the greater part of the petty princes of Germany, were present in

person; the other powers were represented by ambassadors

extraordinary. The greatest statesmen of that period were here

assembled; among others, Metternich, the Austrian minister, Hardenberg

and Humboldt, the Prussian ministers, Castlereagh, the English

plenipotentiary, Nesselrode, the Russian envoy, Talleyrand and

Dalberg, Gagern, Bernstorff, and Wrede, the ambassadors of France,

Holland, Denmark, and Bavaria, etc. The negotiations were of the

utmost importance, for, although one of the most difficult points, the

new regulation of affairs in France, was already settled, many

extremely difficult questions still remained to be solved. Talleyrand,

who had served under every government, under the republic, under the

usurper, Napoleon; who had retaken office under the Bourbons and the

Jesuits who had returned in their train, and who, on this occasion,

was the representative of the criminal and humbled French nation,

ventured, nevertheless, to offer his perfidious advice to the victors,

and, with diabolical art, to sow the seed of discord among them. This

conduct was the more striking on account of its glaring incongruity

with the proclamation of Calisch, which expressly declared that the

internal affairs of Germany were wholly and solely to be arranged by

the princes and nations of Germany, without foreign, and naturally,

least of all, without French interference.[3] Talleyrand's first

object was to suppress the popular spirit of liberty throughout

Germany, and to rouse against it the jealous apprehensions of the

princes. He therefore said, "You wish for constitutions; guard against

them. In France, desire for a constitution produced a revolution, and

the same will happen to you." He it was who gave to the congress that

catchword, legitimacy. The object of the past struggle was not the

restoration of the liberties of the people but that of the ancient

legitimate dynasties and their absolute sovereignty. The war had been

directed, not against Napoleon, but against the Revolution, against

the usurpation of the people. By means of this legitimacy the king of

Saxony was to be re-established on his throne, and Prussia was on no

account to be permitted to incorporate Saxony with her dominions.

Prussia appealed to her services toward Germany, to her enormous

sacrifices, to the support given to her by public opinion; but the

power of public opinion was itself questioned. The seeds of discord

quickly sprang up, and, on the 3d of January, 1815, a secret league

against Prussia was already formed for the purpose of again humbling

the state that had sacrificed all for the honor of Germany, of

frustrating her schemes of aggrandizement, and of quenching the

patriotic spirit of German idealists and enthusiasts.[4]

The want of unanimity amid the members of the congress had at the same

time a bad effect upon the ancient Rhenish confederated states. In

Nassau, the _Landwehr_ was, on its return home after the campaign,

received with marks of dissatisfaction. In Baden and Hesse, many of

the officers belonging to the army openly espoused Napoleon's cause.

In Baden, the volunteer corps was deprived of its horses and sent home

on foot.[5] In Wurtemberg, King Frederick refused to allow the foreign

troops and convoys a passage along the highroad through Cannstadt and

Ludwigsburg, and forbade the attendance of civil surgeons upon the

wounded belonging to the allied army. In Wurtemberg and Bavaria, the

Rhenish Mercury was suppressed on account of its patriotic and German

tendency. At Stuttgard, the festival in commemoration of the battle of

Leipzig was disallowed; and in Frankfort on the Maine, the editor of a

French journal ventured, unreprimanded, to turn this festival into

ridicule.

Switzerland was in a high state of ferment. The people of the Grisons,

who had taken possession of the Valtelline, and the people of Uri, who

had seized the Livinenthal, had been respectively driven out of those

territories by the Austrians. The Valais, Geneva, Neufchatel, and

Pruntrut were, on the other hand, desirous of joining the

confederation. The democratic peasantry were almost everywhere at war

with the aristocratic burghers. Berne revived her claim upon Vaud and

Aargau, which armed in self-defence.[6] Reinhard of Zurich, the Swiss

_Landammann_, went, meanwhile, at the head of an embassy to Vienna,

for the purpose of settling in the congress the future destinies of

Switzerland by means of the intervention of the great powers.

Talleyrand, with unparalleled impudence, also interfered in this

affair, threatened to refuse his recognition to every measure passed

without his concurrence, and compelled the Swiss to entreat him to

honor the deliberations with his presence. On Austria's demanding a

right of conscription in the Grisons alone, France having enjoyed that

right throughout the whole of Switzerland at an earlier period,

Talleyrand advised the Swiss to make a most violent opposition against

an attempt that placed their independence at stake. "Cry out," he

exclaimed, "cry out, as loud as you can!"[7]

The disputes in the congress raised Napoleon's hopes. In France, his

party was still powerful, almost the whole of the population being

blindly devoted to him, and an extensive conspiracy for his

restoration to the imperial throne was secretly set on foot. Several

thousands of his veteran soldiery had been released from foreign

durance; the whole of the military stores, the spoil of Europe, still

remained in the possession of France; the fortresses were solely

garrisoned with French troops; Elba was close at hand, and the emperor

was guarded with criminal negligence. Heavy, indeed, is the

responsibility of those who, by thus neglecting their charge, once

more let loose this scourge upon the earth![8] Napoleon quitted his

island, and, on the 1st of March, 1815, again set foot on the coast of

France. He was merely accompanied by one thousand five hundred men,

but the whole of the troops sent against him by Louis XVIII. ranged

themselves beneath his eagle. He passed, as if in triumph, through his

former empire. The whole nation received him with acclamations of

delight. Not a single Frenchman shed a drop of blood for the Bourbon,

who fled hastily to Ghent; and, on the 20th of March, Napoleon entered

Paris unopposed. His brother-in-law, Murat, at the same time revolted

at Naples and advanced into Upper Italy against the Austrians. But all

the rest of Napoleon's ancient allies, persuaded that he must again

fall, either remained tranquil or formed a close alliance with the

combined powers. The Swiss, in particular, showed excessive zeal on

this occasion, and took up arms against France, in the hope of

rendering the allied sovereigns favorable to their new constitution,

The Swiss regiments, which had passed from Napoleon's service to that

of Louis XVIII., also remained unmoved by Napoleon's blandishments,

were deprived of their arms and returned separately to Switzerland.

The allied sovereigns were still assembled at Vienna, and at once

allowed every dispute to drop in order to form a fresh and closer

coalition. They declared Napoleon an outlaw, a robber, proscribed by

all Europe, and bound themselves to bring a force more than a million

strong into the field against him. All Napoleon's cunning attempts to

bribe and set them at variance were treated with scorn, and the

combined powers speedily came to an understanding on the points

hitherto so strongly contested. Saxony was partitioned between her

ancient sovereign and Prussia, and a revolt that broke out in Liege

among the Saxon troops, who were by command of Prussia to be divided

before they had been released from their oath of allegiance to their

king, is easily explained by the hurry and pressure of the times,

which caused all minor considerations to be forgotten.[9] Napoleon

exclusively occupied the mind of every diplomatist, and all agreed in

the necessity, at all hazards, of his utter annihilation. The lion,

thus driven at bay, turned upon his pursuers for a last and desperate

struggle. The French were still faithful to Napoleon, who, with a view

of reinspiring them with the enthusiastic spirit that had rendered

them invincible in the first days of the republic, again called forth

the old republicans, nominated them to the highest appointments,

re-established several republican institutions, and, on the 1st of

June, presented to his dazzled subjects the magnificent spectacle of a

field of May, as in the times of Charlemagne and in the commencement

of the Revolution, and then led a numerous and spirited army to the

Dutch frontiers against the enemy.

Here stood a Prussian army under Blucher, and an Anglo-German one

under Wellington, comprehending the Dutch under the Prince of Orange,

the Brunswickers under their duke, the recruited Hanoverian Legion

under Wallmoden. These _corps d'armée_ most imminently threatened

Paris. The main body of the allied army, under Schwarzenberg, then

advancing from the south, was still distant. Napoleon consequently

directed his first attack against the two former. His army had gained

immensely in strength and spirit by the return of his veteran troops

from foreign imprisonment. Wellington, ignorant at what point Napoleon

might cross the frontier, had followed the old and ill-judged plan of

dividing his forces; an incredible error, the allies having simply to

unite their forces and to take up a firm position in order to draw

Napoleon to any given spot. Wellington, moreover, never imagined that

Napoleon was so near at hand, and was amusing himself at a ball at

Brussels, when Blucher, who was stationed in and around Namur, was

attacked on the 14th of June, 1815.[10] Napoleon afterward observed in

his memoirs that he had attacked Blucher first because he well knew

that Blucher would not be supported by the over-prudent and

egotistical English commander, but that Wellington, had he been first

attacked, would have received every aid from his high-spirited and

faithful ally. Wellington, after being repeatedly urged by Blucher,

collected his scattered corps, but neither completely nor with

sufficient rapidity; and on Blucher's announcement of Napoleon's

arrival, exerted himself on the following morning so far as to make a

_reconnaissance_. The duke of Brunswick, with impatience equalling

that of Blucher, was the only one who had quitted the ball during the

night and had hurried forward against the enemy. Napoleon, owing to

Wellington's negligence, gained time to throw himself between him and

Blucher and to prevent their junction; for he knew the spirit of his

opponents. He consequently opposed merely a small division of his army

under Ney to the English and turned with the whole of his main body

against the Prussians. The veteran Blucher perceived his

intentions[11] and in consequence urgently demanded aid from the Duke

of Wellington, who promised to send him a reinforcement of twenty

thousand men by four o'clock on the 16th. But this aid never arrived,

Wellington, although Ney was too weak to obstruct the movement, making

no attempt to perform his promise. Wellington retired with superior

forces before Ney at Quatre Bras, and allowed the gallant and

unfortunate Duke William of Brunswick to fall a futile sacrifice.

Blucher meanwhile yielded to the overwhelming force brought against

him by Napoleon at Ligny, also on the 16th of June. Vainly did the

Prussians rush to the attack beneath the murderous fire of the French,

vainly did Blucher in person head the assault and for five hours

continue the combat hand to hand in the village of Ligny. Numbers

prevailed, and Wellington sent no relief. The infantry being at length

driven back, Blucher led the cavalry once more to the charge, but was

repulsed and fell senseless beneath his horse, which was shot dead.

His adjutant, Count Nostitz, alone remained at his side. The French

cavalry passed close by without perceiving them, twilight and a misty

rain having begun to fall. The Prussians fortunately missed their

leader, repulsed the French cavalry, which again galloped past him as

he lay on the ground, and he was at length drawn from beneath his

horse. He still lived, but only to behold the complete defeat of his

army.

Blucher, although a veteran of seventy-three, and wounded and

shattered by his fall, was not for a moment discouraged.[12] Ever

vigilant, he assembled his scattered troops with wonderful rapidity,

inspirited them by his cheerful words, and had the generosity to

promise aid, by the afternoon of the 18th of June, to Wellington, who

was now in his turn attacked by the main body of the French under

Napoleon. What Wellington on the 16th, with a fresh army, could not

perform, Blucher now effected with troops dejected by defeat, and put

the English leader to the deepest shame by--keeping his word.[13] He

consequently fell back upon Wavre in order to remain as close as

possible in Wellington's vicinity, and also sent orders to Bulow's

corps, that was then on the advance, to join the English army, while

Napoleon, in the idea that Blucher was falling back upon the Meuse,

sent Grouchy in pursuit with a body of thirty-five thousand men.[14]

Napoleon, far from imagining that the Prussians, after having been, as

he supposed, completely annihilated or panic-stricken by Grouchy,

could aid the British, wasted the precious moments, and, instead of

hastily attacking Wellington, spent the whole of the morning of the

18th in uselessly parading his troops, possibly with a view of

intimidating his opponents and of inducing them to retreat without

hazarding an engagement. His well-dressed lines glittered in the

sunbeams; the infantry raised their tschakos on their bayonet points,

the cavalry their helmets on their sabres, and gave a general cheer

for their emperor. The English, however, preserved an undaunted

aspect. At length, about midday, Napoleon gave orders for the attack,

and, furiously charging the British left wing, drove it from the

village of Hougumont. He then sent orders to Ney to charge the British

centre. At that moment a dark spot was seen in the direction of St.

Lambert. Was it Grouchy? A reconnoitring party was despatched and

returned with the news of its being the Prussians under Bulow. The

attack upon the British centre was consequently remanded, and Ney was

despatched with a considerable portion of his troops against Bulow.

Wellington now ventured to charge the enemy with his right wing, but

was repulsed and lost the farm of La Haye Sainte, which commanded his

position on this side as Hougumont did on his right. His centre,

however, remained unattacked, the French exerting their utmost

strength to keep Bulow's gallant troops back at the village of

Planchenoit, where the battle raged with the greatest fury, and a

dreadful conflict of some hours' duration ensued hand to hand. But

about five o'clock, the left wing of the British being completely

thrown into confusion by a fresh attack on the enemy's side, the whole

of the French cavalry, twelve thousand strong, made a furious charge

upon the British centre, bore down all before them, and took a great

number of guns. The Prince of Orange was wounded. The road to Brussels

was already thronged with the fugitive English troops, and Wellington,

scarcely able to keep his weakened lines together,[15] was apparently

on the brink of destruction, when the thunder of artillery was

suddenly heard in the direction of Wavre. "It is Grouchy!" joyfully

exclaimed Napoleon, who had repeatedly sent orders to that general to

push forward with all possible speed. But it was not Grouchy, it was

Blucher.

The faithful troops of the veteran marshal (the old Silesian army)

were completely worn out by the battle, by their retreat in the heavy

rain over deep roads, and by the want of food. The distance from

Wavre, whence they had been driven, to Waterloo, where Wellington was

then in action, was not great, but was rendered arduous owing to these

circumstances. The men sometimes fell down from extreme weariness, and

the guns stuck fast in the deep mud. But Blucher was everywhere

present, and notwithstanding his bodily pain ever cheered his men

forward, with "indescribable pathos," saying to his disheartened

soldiers, "My children, we must advance; I have promised it, do not

cause me to break my word!" While still distant from the scene of

action, he ordered the guns to be fired in order to keep up the

courage of the English, and at length, between six and seven in the

evening, the first Prussian corps in advance, that of Ziethen, fell

furiously upon the enemy: "Bravo!" cried Blucher, "I know you, my

Silesians; to-day we shall see the backs of these French rascals!"

Ziethen filled up the space still intervening between Wellington and

Bulow. Exactly at that moment, Napoleon had sent his old guard forward

in four massive squares in order to make a last attempt to break the

British lines, when Ziethen fell upon their flank and dealt fearful

havoc among their close masses with his artillery. Bulow's troops,

inspirited by this success, now pressed gallantly forward and finally

regained the long-contested village of Planchenoit from the enemy. The

whole of the Prussian army, advancing at the double and with drums

beating, had already driven back the right wing of the French, when

the English, regaining courage, advanced, Napoleon was surrounded on

two sides, and the whole of his troops, the old guard under General

Cambronne alone excepted, were totally dispersed and fled in complete

disorder. The old guard, surrounded by Bulow's cavalry, nobly replied,

when challenged to surrender, "La garde ne se rend pas"; and in a few

minutes the veteran conquerors of Europe fell beneath the righteous

and avenging blows of their antagonists. At the farm of La Belle

Alliance, Blucher offered his hand to Wellington. "I will sleep

to-night in Bonaparte's last night's quarters," said Wellington. "And

I will drive him out of his present ones!" replied Blucher. The

Prussians, fired by enthusiasm, forgot the fatigue they had for four

days endured, and, favored by a moonlight night, so zealously pursued

the French that an immense number of prisoners and a vast amount of

booty fell into their hands and Napoleon narrowly escaped being taken

prisoner. At Genappe, where the bridge was blocked by fugitives, the

pursuit was so close that he was compelled to abandon his carriage

leaving his sword and hat behind him. Blucher, who reached the spot a

moment afterward, took possession of the booty, sent Napoleon's hat,

sword, and star to the king of Prussia, retained his cloak, telescope,

and carriage for his own use, and gave up everything else, including a

quantity of the most valuable jewelry, gold, and money, to his brave

soldiery. The whole of the army stores, two hundred and forty guns,

and an innumerable quantity of arms thrown away by the fugitives, fell

into his hands.

The Prussian general, Thielemann, who, with a few troops, had remained

behind at Wavre in order, at great hazard, to deceive Grouchy into the

belief that he was still opposed by Blucher's entire force, acted a

lesser, but equally honorable part on this great day. He fulfilled his

commission with great skill, and so completely deceived Grouchy as to

hinder his making a single attempt to throw himself in the way of the

Prussians on the Paris road.

Blucher pushed forward without a moment's delay, and, on the 29th of

June, stood before Paris. Napoleon had, meanwhile, a second time

abdicated, and had fled from Paris in the hope of escaping across the

seas. Davoust, the ancient instrument of his tyranny, who commanded in

Paris, attempting to make terms of capitulation with Blucher, was

sharply answered, "You want to make a defence? Take care what you do.

You well know what license the irritated soldiery will take if your

city must be taken by storm. Do you wish to add the sack of Paris to

that of Hamburg, already loading your conscience?"[16] Paris

surrendered after a severe engagement at Issy, and Muffling, the

Prussian general, was placed in command of the city, July the 7th,

1815. It was on the occasion of a grand banquet given by Wellington

shortly after the occupation of Paris by the allied troops that

Blucher gave the celebrated toast, "May the pens of diplomatists not

again spoil all that the swords of our gallant armies have so nobly

won!"

Schwarzenberg had in the interim also penetrated into France, and the

crown prince of Wurtemberg had defeated General Rapp at Strasburg and

had surrounded that fortress. The Swiss, under General Bachmann, who

had, although fully equipped for the field, hitherto prudently watched

the turn of events, invaded France immediately after the battle of

Waterloo, pillaged Burgundy, besieged and took the fortress of

Huningen, which, with the permission of the allies, they justly razed

to the ground, the insolent French having thence fired upon the

bridges of Basel which lay close in its vicinity. A fresh Austrian

army under Frimont advanced from Italy as far as Lyons. On the 17th of

July, Napoleon surrendered himself in the bay of Rochefort to the

English, whose ships prevented his escape; he moreover preferred

falling into their hands than into those of the Prussians. The whole

of France submitted to the triumphant allies, and Louis XVIII. was

reinstated on his throne. Murat had also been simultaneously defeated

at Tolentino in Italy by the Austrians under Bianchi, and Ferdinand

IV. had been restored to the throne of Naples. Murat fled to Corsica,

but his retreat to France was prevented by the success of the allies,

and in his despair he, with native rashness, yielded to the advice of

secret intriguants and returned to Italy with a design of raising a

popular insurrection, but was seized on landing and shot on the 13th

of October.[17]

Blucher was greatly inclined to give full vent to his justly roused

rage against Paris. The bridge of Jena, one of the numerous bridges

across the Seine, the principal object of his displeasure, was,

curiously enough, saved from destruction (he had already attempted to

blow it up) by the arrival of the king of Prussia.[18] His proposal to

punish France by partitioning the country and thus placing it on a par

with Germany, was far more practical in its tendency.

This honest veteran had in fact a deeper insight into affairs than the

most wary diplomatists.[19] In 1815, the same persons, as in 1814, met

in Paris, and similar interests were agitated. Foreign jealousy again

effected the conclusion of this peace at the expense of Germany and in

favor of France. Blucher's influence at first reigned supreme. The

king of Prussia, who, together with the emperors of Russia and

Austria, revisited Paris, took Stein and Gruner into his council. The

crown prince of Wurtemberg also zealously exerted himself in favor of

the reunion of Lorraine and Alsace with Germany.[20] But Russia and

England beholding the reintegration of Germany with displeasure,

Austria,[21] and finally Prussia, against whose patriots all were in

league, yielded.[22] The future destinies of Europe were settled on

the side of England by Wellington and Castlereagh; on that of Russia

by Prince John Razumowsky, Nesselrode, and Capo d'Istria; on that of

Austria by Metternich and Wessenberg; on that of Prussia by Hardenberg

and William von Humboldt. The German patriots were excluded from the

discussion,[23] and a result extremely unfavorable to Germany

naturally followed:[24] Alsace and Lorraine remained annexed to

France. By the second treaty of Paris, which was definitively

concluded on the 20th of November, 1815, France was merely compelled

to give up the fortresses of Philippeville, Marienburg, Sarlouis, and

Landau, to demolish Huningen, and to allow eighteen other fortresses

on the German frontier to be occupied by the allies until the new

government had taken firm footing in France. Until then, one hundred

and fifty thousand of the allied troops were also to remain within the

French territory and to be maintained at the expense of the people.

France was, moreover, condemned to pay seven hundred millions of

francs toward the expenses of the war and to restore the _chef

d'oeuvres_ of which she had deprived every capital in Europe. The

sword of Frederick the Great was not refound: Marshal Serrurier

declared that he had burned it.[25] On the other hand, however, almost

all the famous old German manuscripts, which had formerly been carried

from Heidelberg to Rome, and thence by Napoleon to Paris, were sent

back to Heidelberg. One of the most valuable, the Manessian Code of

the Swabian Minnesingers, was left in Paris, where it had been

concealed. Blucher expired, in 1819, on his estate in Silesia.[26]

The French were now sufficiently humbled to remain in tranquillity,

and designedly displayed such submission that the allied sovereigns

resolved, at a congress held at Aix-la-Chapelle, in the autumn of

1818, to withdraw their troops. Napoleon was, with the concurrence of

the assembled powers, taken to the island of St. Helena, where,

surrounded by the dreary ocean, several hundred miles from any

inhabited spot, and guarded with petty severity by the English, he was

at length deprived of every means of disturbing the peace of Europe.

Inactivity and the unhealthiness of the climate speedily dissolved the

earthly abode of this giant spirit. He expired on the 5th of May,

1821. His consort, Maria Louisa, was created Duchess of Parma; and his

son lived, under the title of Duke of Reichstadt, with his imperial

grandfather at Vienna, until his death in 1832. Napoleon's stepson,

Eugene Beauharnais, the former viceroy of Italy, the son-in-law to the

king of Bavaria, received the newly-created mediatized principality of

Eichstadt, which was dependent upon Bavaria, and the title of Duke of

Leuchtenberg. Jerome, the former king of Westphalia, became Count de

Montfort;[27] Louis, ex-king of Holland, Count de St. Leu.

[Footnote 1: From London, Frederick William went to Switzerland and

took possession of his ancient hereditary territory, Wälsch-Neuenburg

or Neufchâtel, visited the beautiful Bernese Oberland, and then

returned to Berlin, where, on the 7th of August, he passed in triumph

through the Brandenburg gate, which was again adorned with the car of

victory and the fine group of horses, and rode through the lime trees

to an altar, around which the clergy belonging to every religious sect

were assembled. Here public thanks were given and the whole of the

citizens present fell upon their knees.--_Allgemeine Zeitung, 262_. On

the 17th of September, the preparation of a new liturgy was announced

in a ministerial proclamation, "by which the solemnity of the church

service was to be increased, the present one being too little

calculated to excite or strike the imagination."]

[Footnote 2: Oxford conferred a doctor's degree upon Blücher, who,

upon receiving this strange honor, said, "Make Gneisenau apothecary,

for he it was who prepared my pills." On his first reception at

Carlton House, the populace pushed their way through the guards and

doors as far as the apartments of the prince-regent, who, taking his

gray-headed guest by the hand, presented him to them, and publicly

hung his portrait set in brilliants around his neck. On his passing

through the streets, the horses were taken from his carriage, and he

was drawn in triumph by the shouting crowd. One fête succeeded

another. During the great races at Ascot, the crowd breaking through

the barriers and insisting upon Blücher's showing himself, the

prince-regent came forward, and, politely telling them that he had not

yet arrived, led forward the emperor Alexander, who was loudly

cheered, but Blücher's arrival was greeted with thunders of applause

far surpassing those bestowed upon the sovereigns, a circumstance that

was afterward blamed by the English papers. In the Freemasons' Lodge,

Blücher was received by numbers of ladies, on each of whom he bestowed

a salute. At Portsmouth, he drank to the health of the English in the

presence of an immense concourse of people assembled beneath his

windows.--The general rejoicing was solely clouded by the domestic

circumstances of the royal family, by the insanity of the aged and

blind king and by the disunion reigning between the prince-regent and

his thoughtless consort, Caroline of Brunswick.--Although the whole of

the allied sovereigns, some of whom were unable to speak English,

understood German, French was adopted as the medium of conversation.--

_Allgemeine Zeitung, 174._]

[Footnote 3: "There are moments in the life of nations on which the

whole of their future destiny depends. The children are destined to

expiate their fathers' errors with their blood. Germany has everything

to fear from the foreigner, and yet she cannot arrange her own affairs

without calling the foreigner to her aid.--Who, in the congress,

chiefly oppose every well-laid plan? Who, with the dagger's point pick

out and reopen all our wounds, and rub them with salt and poison? Who

promote confusion, provoke, insinuate, and attempt to creep into every

committee, to interfere in every discussion? who but those sent

thither by France?"--_The Rhenish Mercury._]

[Footnote 4: Fate willed that Stein should not be called upon to act

with firmness, but Hardenberg to make concessions. Stein disappeared

from the theatre of events and was degraded to a lower sphere.

Hardenberg was created prince.]

[Footnote 5: Napoleon had such good friends among the Rhenish

confederated princes that Augustus, duke of Gotha, for instance, even

after the second occupation of Paris, on the return of his troops in

the November of 1815, prohibited any demonstrations of triumph and

even deprived the _Landwehr_ of their uniforms, so that the poor

fellows had to return in their shirt-sleeves to their native villages

during the hard winter.--_Jacob's Campaigns._]

[Footnote 6: An attack upon Berne had already been concerted. Colonel

Bär marched with the people of Aargau in the night time upon Aarburg,

but his confederates failing to make their appearance, he caused the

nearest Bernese governor to be alarmed and hastily retraced his steps.

The Bernese instantly sent an armed force to the frontier, where,

finding all tranquil, the charge of aggression was thrown upon their

shoulders.]

[Footnote 7: Vide Muralt's Life of Reinhard.]

[Footnote 8: Blücher was at Berlin at the moment when the news of

Napoleon's escape arrived. He instantly roused the English ambassador

from his sleep by shouting in his ear, "Have the English a fleet in

the Mediterranean?"]

[Footnote 9: The blame was entirely upon the Prussian side. The

Saxons, as good soldiers, naturally revolted at the idea that they

would at once be faithless to their oath and mutinied. General

Müffling was insulted for having spoken of "Saxon hounds." Blücher

even was compelled secretly to take his departure. The Saxon troops

were, however, reduced to obedience by superior numbers of Prussians,

and their colors were burned. The whole corps was about to be

decimated, when Colonel Romer came forward and demanded that the

sentence of death should be first executed on him. Milder measures

were in consequence reverted to, and a few of the men were condemned

to death by drawing lots. Kanitz, the drummer, a youth of sixteen,

however, threw away the dice, exclaiming, "It is I who beat the

summons for revolt, and I will be the first to die." He and six others

were shot. Borstel, the Prussian general, the hero of Dennewitz, who

had steadily refused to burn the Saxon colors, was compelled to quit

the service.]

[Footnote 10: For a refutation of Menzel's absurdly perverted relation

of these great events, the reader is referred not only to the Duke of

Wellington's despatches and to Colonel Siborne's well-established

account of the battles of Ligny, Wavre, Quatre Bras, and Waterloo, but

also to those of his countrymen, Muffling, the Prussian general, and

Wagner.--_Trans._]

[Footnote 11: Shortly before the battle, Bourmont, the French general,

set up the white cockade (the symbol of Bourbon) and deserted to

Blucher, who merely said, "It is all one what symbol the fellows set

up, rascals are ever rascals!"]

[Footnote 12: The surgeon, when about to rub him with some liquid, was

asked by him what it was, and being told that it was spirits, "Ah,"

said he, "the thing is of no use externally!" and snatching the glass

from the hand of his attendant, he drank it off.]

[Footnote 13: Against all expectation to aid an ally who on the

previous day had against all expectation been unable to give him aid,

evinced at once magnanimity, sense, and good feeling.--_Clausewitz_.]

[Footnote 14: A Prussian battery, that on its way from Namur turned

back on receiving news of this disaster and was taken by the French,

is said to have chiefly led to the commission of this immense blunder

by Napoleon.]

[Footnote 15: The Hanoverian legion again covered itself with glory by

the steadiness with which it opposed the enemy. It lost three thousand

five hundred men, the Dutch eight thousand; the German troops

consequently lost collectively as many as the English, whose loss was

computed at eleven or twelve thousand men. The Prussians, whose loss

at Ligny and Waterloo exceeded that of their allies, behaved with even

greater gallantry.]

[Footnote 16: The French were extremely affronted on account of this

communication being made in German instead of French, and even at the

present day German historians are generally struck with deeper

astonishment at this sample of Blücher's bold spirit than at any

other.]

[Footnote 17: Ney, "the bravest of the brave," who dishonored his

bravery by the basest treachery, met with an equally melancholy fate.

Immediately after having, for instance, kissed the gouty fingers of

Louis XVIII. and boasting that he would imprison Napoleon within an

iron cage, he went over to the latter. He was sentenced to death and

shot, after vainly imploring the allied monarchs and personally

petitioning Wellington for mercy.--Alexander Berthier, prince of

Neufchatel, Napoleon's chief confidant, had, even before the outbreak

of war, thrown himself out of a window in a fit of hypochondriasis and

been killed.]

[Footnote 18: Talleyrand begged Count von der Goltz to use his

influence for its preservation with Blücher, who replied to his

entreaties, "I will blow up the bridge, and should very much like to

have Talleyrand sitting upon it at the time!" An attempt to blow it up

was actually made, but failed.]

[Footnote 19: Many of whom were in fact wilfully blind. Hardenberg, by

whom the noble-spirited Stein was so ill replaced, and who, with all

possible decency, ever succeeded in losing in the cabinet the

advantages gained by Blücher in the field, the diplomatic bird of ill

omen by whom the peace of Basel had formerly been concluded, was thus

addressed by Blücher: "I should like you gentlemen of the quill to be

for once in a way exposed to a smart platoon fire, just to teach you

what perils we soldiers have to run in order to repair the blunders

you so thoughtlessly commit." An instructive commentary upon these

events is to be met with in Stein's letters to Gagern. The light in

which Stein viewed the Saxons may be gathered from the following

passages in his letters: "My desire for the aggrandizement of Prussia

proceeded not from a blind partiality to that state, but from the

conviction that Germany is weakened by a system of partition ruinous

alike to her national learning and national feelings."--"It is not for

Prussia but for Germany that I desire a closer, a firmer internal

combination, a wish that will accompany me to the grave: the division

of our national strength may be gratifying to others, it never can be

so to me." This truly German policy mainly distinguished Stein from

Hardenberg, who, thoroughly Prussian in his ideas, was incapable of

perceiving that Prussia's best-understood policy ever will be to

identify herself with Germany.]

[Footnote 20: Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 285.]

[Footnote 21: It was proposed that Lorraine and Alsace should be

bestowed upon the Archduke Charles, who at that period wedded the

Princess Henrietta of Nassau. The proposition, however, quickly fell

to the ground.]

[Footnote 22: Even in July, their organ, Görres's Rhenish Mercury, was

placed beneath the censor. In August, it was said that the men,

desirous of giving a constitution to Prussia, had fallen into

disgrace.--Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 249. In September, Schmalz, in

Berlin, unveiled the presumed revolutionary intrigues of the

_Tugendbund_ and declared "the unity of Germany is something to which

the spirit of every nation in Germany has ever been antipathetic." He

received a Prussian and a Wurtemberg order, besides an extremely

gracious autograph letter from the king of Prussia, although his base

calumnies against the friends of his country were thrown back upon him

by the historians Niebuhr and Runs, who were then in a high position,

by Schleiermacher, the theologian, and by others. The nobility also

began to stir, attempted to regain their ancient privileges in

Prussia, and intrigued against the men who, during the time of need,

had made concessions to the citizens.--Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 276.]

[Footnote 23: The Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 349, laughs at the report of

their having withdrawn from the discussion, and says that they were no

longer invited to take part in it.]

[Footnote 24: On the loud complaints of the Rhenish Mercury, of the

gazettes of Bremen and Hanau, and even of the Allgemeine Zeitung, the

Austrian Observer, edited by Gentz, declared that "to demand a better

peace would be to demand the ruin of France."--Allgemeine Zeitung,

Nos. 345, 365. On Görres's repeated demand for the reannexation of

Alsace and Lorraine, of which Germany had been so unwarrantably

deprived, the Austrian Observer declared in the beginning of 1816,

"who would believe that Görres would lend his pen to such miserable

arguments. Alsace and Lorraine are guaranteed to France. To demand

their restoration would be contrary to every notion of honor and

justice." In this manner was Germany a second time robbed of these

provinces. Washington Paine denominated Strasburg, "a melancholy

sentry, of which unwary Germany has allowed herself to be deprived,

and which now, accoutred in an incongruous uniform, does duty against

his own country."]

[Footnote 25: The Invalids had in the same spirit cast the triumphal

monument of the field of Rossbach into the Seine, in order to prevent

its restoration. The alarum formerly belonging to Frederick the Great

was also missing. Napoleon had it on his person during his flight and

made use of it at St. Helena, where it struck his death-hour.]

[Footnote 26: He was descended from a noble race, which at a very

early period enjoyed high repute in Mecklenburg and Pomerania. In

1271, an Ulric von Blücher was bishop of Batzeburg. A legend relates

that, during a time of dearth, an empty barn was, on his petitioning

Heaven, instantly filled with corn. In 1356, Wipertus von Blücher also

became bishop of Ratzeburg, and, on the pope's refusal to confirm him

in his diocese on account of his youth, his hair turned gray in one

night. Vide Klüwer's Description of Mecklenburg, 1728.]

[Footnote 27: His wife, Catherine of Würtemberg, was in 1814, attacked

during her flight, on her way through France and robbed of her

jewels.--_Allgemeine Zettung, No. 130._]

* * * * *