GENERAL HISTORY. 



[125 



prince, whose plans would not 

 allow him to divide his forces, and 

 who was now, through the failure 

 of the negociations between the 

 allies and Denmark, become a de- 

 clared enemy of that kingdom, 

 found himself under the necessity 

 of recalling these troops. The 

 protection of Hamburg was there- 

 fore abandoned; and on May 30th, 

 general Tettenborne with all the 

 military, evacuated it, and 5,000 

 Danes with 1,500 French, under 

 the command of general Bruyere, 

 made their entry unopposed. A 

 patriotic citizen, Mr. Von Hess, 

 addressed the Burgher guard, of 

 which he had been appointed com- 

 mander, in a last order of the day, 

 conceived in terms worthy of a 

 noble mind feeling the misfortunes 

 of his native country, and yielding 

 to present circumstances, without 

 despairing for the future. *' The 

 events of the war (says he) call the 

 Russian army to more decisive 

 successes. A dark concatenation 

 of impenetrable misunderstandings 

 compels the sons of the north, who 

 were destined to our assistance, to 

 witness our fate, if not with in- 

 difference, at least without doing 

 any thing to avert it." In conclu- 

 sion, he requests his fellow-citi- 

 zens to reserve to other times that 

 ardent feeling of hatred to the 

 despotism which again threatens 

 their desolated town, and to re- 

 move their persons to places where 

 they may await the moment of the 

 overthrow of tyranny. The loss of 

 Hamburg was severely felt by the 

 allies both in a military and a com- 

 mercial view ; and it seems difficult 

 to justify, if not the final desertion 

 of its defence, at least some of the 

 previous measures which only add- 

 ed to its calamities. 



Although Napoleon had asto- 

 nished all Europe with the efforts 

 he had been able to make after the 

 destruction of his veteran armies 

 in the Russian campaign, and by 

 his successes had retrieved . in a 

 great measure that military re- 

 nown w'hich he had been in dan- 

 ger of losing, yet he must have 

 been sensible that his advance from 

 the Saale to the Oder was a series 

 of hard-fought battles, in which his 

 best troops were gradually melting 

 away ; and that the further he 

 proceeded, the more distant he 

 was from his supplies, whilst the 

 allies were gettin^j into the heart 

 of theirs. Additional conquests 

 could no longer form a part of his 

 plan ; and he was to consider how 

 he should retain the advantages he 

 had gained, and his predominance 

 in the system of Europe, against 

 which he saw new confederacies 

 rising. Encouraged, therefore, by 

 the Austrian cabinet, which was 

 now in a state of apparent neutra- 

 lity, he transmitted to the emperor 

 Alexander proposals for an armi- 

 stice, preparatory to a congress for 

 a general peace to be holden at 

 Prague. A cessation of hostilities 

 in consequence took place on the 

 first of June, and the armistice 

 was ratified on the 4th. Its arti- 

 cles minutely described the line 

 of demarkation between the belli- 

 gerent powers during the conti-- 

 nuance of the armistice, and ap- 

 pointed a number of regulations 

 with relation to the besieged towns, 

 and other circumstances. The line 

 on each side proceeded from the 

 frontiers of Bohemia, on different 

 tracks, to the Oder, and thence to 

 the Elbe, down to its mouth, leav- 

 ing a neutral territory between 

 them, not to be occupied by the 



