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BOXAPARTE. NAPOLEON I. 



BOVAPARTF. NAPOLK. 





he expected to find provision*, but the (tout resistance ho met at 

 Halo YaroaUvetx induced him reluctantly to turn again to the road 

 by Virata and Viaxma to Smolensk, by which he had advanced. He 

 wu clotely followed by the Russian army, but wa* more especially 

 harasMd by twarmt of Couacki under the Helmut) Platoff. HU rear 

 divisions bad aharp engagement* at Viazmit and at the postage of the 

 Wop. HU army dwindled away apace, through fatigue, privation*, 

 and the eonitant attack* of the Cossacks. It had left Moscow 120,000 

 ttrong, but wa* now reduced to one-half that number of fighting men ; 

 the ret formed a confuted and disorderly mtu* in the rear, with an 

 immenM train of baggage and artillery. In thi* condition they were 

 overtaken on the 6th November by the Runian winter, which that 

 year >et in earlier than nraaL The emaciated frames of soldier* and 

 hone* could not resist thi* fresh enemy, and they dropped by 

 thousands on the road, where they were soon buried under the mow. 

 The bitter frosty night* killed thousands more ; but the winter only 

 compltd the destruction of the army, which had begun during the 

 advance/ in the summer. The wretchednea* and the sufferings of the 

 retreat from Moscow must be read in the work* already referred to. 

 The French at last reached Smolensk, where they found their stores, 

 which had come up so far. Many bad not tasted a piece of bread or 

 Urcuit since they had advanced through that town three months 

 before. On the 14th of November Napoleon left Smolensk with about 

 40.000 men able to carry arum. His rear divisions had now to sustain 

 repeated attacks from the Russian*, and when he arrived at Orcsa, in 

 Lithuania, he had only 12,000 men with arms in their hands. Of 

 40,000 hone* there were hardly 3000 left In tins plight he rcachrd 

 the bank* of the Berezina, where he was joined by a corps of reserve 

 of nearly 60,000, men under Victor and Ondinot The passage of the 

 Beresina, on the 26th and 27th of November, cost him about one-half 

 of bit army thus reinforced. 



On the 3rd of December Napoleon arrived at Malodeczno, whence 

 be issued the famous 29th bulletin, which came like a clap of thunder 

 to awaken Europe. This time he told the whole truth in all iU 

 sternness ; except the guard*, he bad no longer an army. At Smorgoni, 

 where he arrived on December the 5th, he took leave of bis generals, 

 left the command of the army, such a* it was, to Murat, and set off 

 in a cledge with Caulaincourt to return to Paris. He arrived at 

 Wanaw on the 10th, where he had that curious conversation with l)e 

 Pradt, which the bitter ha* to humorously related. Continuing hi* 

 route, he passed through Dresden on the 14th, and arrived at Paris on 

 the 18th of December at night The remains of his uufortunate army 

 were collected by Murat on the line of the Vistula. The report of 

 the chief of the staff, Berthier, dated 16th December, give* a dismal 

 picture of the itate of the troop* after Napoleon left them : " The 

 plunder, insubordination, and disorganisation have reached the highest 

 pitch." The loss of the French and their auxiliaries in this campaign 

 u reckoned by Boutourlin at 125,000 slain, 132,000 dead of fatigue, 

 banger, disease, and cold, and 193,000 prisoners, including 3000 

 officer* and 48 general*. The ' St Petersburg Gazette' stated that 

 the bodies burnt in the spring after the thaw, in Russia proper and 

 Lithuania, amounted to 308,000, of which of course a considerable 

 proportion were Rutaians. In the Berezina alone, and the adjoining 

 aurabs*. 36,000 dead bodie* were eaid to have been found. The 

 French left behind 600 piece* of cannon and 25,000 waggon*, cat- 

 toon*, Ac. 



Napoleon, after hi* return to Paris, exerted himielf to recruit bis 

 army by fresh conscription*, by drafting the national guard* into hi* 

 skeleton battalion*, by recalling all the men he could spare from 

 Kpain, and by sending the sailor* of hi* fleet to serve on land. He 

 thus collected again in Germany, in the spring of 1813, an army of 

 350,000 men. The king of Prussia bad now allied bimielf to Alexan- 

 der, and the allies bad advanced as far a* the Elbe. Austria remained 

 neutral ; she offered her mediation, but Napoleon would hear of no 

 cession on hi* part, in either Germany, Italy, or Spain. He soon after 

 repaired to Germany, where he fought and won the battle of Lutzen, 

 2nd of Hay 1813, from the Russians and I'matian* united. On the 

 2 1 t he attacked them again at ISau tzen, and compelled them to retreat. 

 But these victoria* led to no decitive result*; the allies retired in good 

 order, and lout few prisoners and no guns. Bonai*rte bitU-rly com- 

 plained of this; and hi* general* obaerved to each other, that these 

 were no longer the day* of llarengo, Austerlitz, or Jena, when one 

 battle decided the fate of the war. On the 22nd of May, in another 

 it with the retreating allies, Duroc, hi* old and most faithful 



companion, who wa* one of the few personally attached to him, was 

 truck by a cannon-ball and dreadfully mangled. The dying man was 

 taken to the home of a clergyman near the spot. Napoleon went to 

 ** him, and wa* deeply affected. It wa* the only iuttanoa in which 

 b refuted to attend to the military report* which were brought to 

 him. " Every thing to-morrow," waa hi* answer to his aides-de-camp. 

 Me had a few day* before lost another of hi* old brother-officers, 



An armistice wa* now agreed to on the 4th of June, and Bonaparte 

 returned to Dresden, where Mettemich came with freah offer* of 

 mediation on the part of Austria. Austria proposed a* a principal 

 addition that Germany should be evacuated by the French arm*, and 

 UM bonndariM of the French empire should bo fixed at the Rhine, a* 

 Napoleon bimaelf had repeatedly dtcland. But Napoleon would not 



bear of giving up the new department* which ho ha.l annexed a* far 

 a* Hamburg and Lubeck, nor would he resign the protectorate of 

 Germany. This led to a warm dincti?sion, in which Napoleon said he 

 only wished Austria to remain neutral while he fought the K 

 and Prussians, and he offered to restore to her the Illyrian province* 

 as the price of her neutrality. Metternich replied that things had come 

 to that pass that Austria could no longer remain neutral; the must 

 be either with France or against France ; that Germany had been long 

 enough tormented by these wars, and it was time she should bo left 

 to rest and to national independence. The conferences however were 

 carried on at Prague without coming to any agreement ; and in the 

 midst of this tho armistice expired on tho 10th of August, and Austria 

 joined the alliea. 



A eerie* of battles was fought about Dresden on the 24th, 25th, and 

 27th of Augunt, between the Auntrians and Prussians on one side and 

 the French on the other, in which the latter had the advantai: 

 in pursuing the allies into Bohemia, Vandamine, with a corps of 30,000, 

 waa surrounded and made prisoner with 8000 men at Culm. Ouiiinot 

 was likewise worsted at Gross lioeren by the Swede* and Prussian* 

 under Bemadotte. Ney, who was tent by Napoleon to replace Oudinot, 

 lost the battle of Dennewitz on the 6th of September, near IWlm. 

 On the Katzbacb, in Silesia, Blucher routed the French opp<> 

 him. The month of September passed in this desultory warfare, 

 Napoleon's armies losing ground and strength on every side. Bavaria 

 mode a separate peace with Austria. The Saxons and other German 

 troop* began to forsake the French cause. At last, afti r a painful 

 struggle between pride and necessity, Napoleon was obliged to begin 

 his retreat upon Leipzig, followed by the allies. At Leipzig he deter- 

 mined to make a final stand. "One victory alone," he said, "and 

 Germany might still be his." On the 16th of October the first battle 

 of Leipzig took place. It was fought gallantly on both sides, but the 

 allies had now a great superiority in numbers, and the French were 

 driven close upon the ramparts of the town. The 17th passed without 

 fighting; on the 18th the battle was renewed, the French divisions 

 lost ground, and a body of 10,000 Saxons left them and went over to 

 the enemy. Napoleon now mode his dispositions to effect his retreat 

 towards the Rhine, But while his army was filing out of Leipzig by a 

 long bridge, or rather a succession of bridges, in the morning of tho 

 19th, the allies forced their way into the town after a desperate 

 once, and the bridge being blown up, 25,000 Frenchmen were obliged 

 to surrender prisoners of war. The retreat from Leipzig was nearly as 

 disastrous to Napoleon a that from Moscow. His army w.is com- 

 pletely disorganised. He was however able to fight hi* way at Hanau, 

 30th of October, through the Bavarian)!, his late alliea, who now wanted 

 to oppose his passage. At last he reached the Rhine, and passin 

 the 70,000 or 80,000 men, all that remained out of an army of 350,000 

 with which he had begun the campaign, he placed them on the left bank, 

 while he set off for Paris, where he arrived on the 9th of November. 

 About 0,000 men left in the Prussian garrisons, Magdeburg, D;iu/.ig, 

 Stettin, &c., surrendered to the allies. 



The enormous losses and reverses of the French armies, and the 

 approach of the allies to the frontiers of France, produced a strong 

 feeling of dissatisfaction in that country. The legislative body tthowed 

 for the first time a spirit of opposition to the headlong system of 

 Napoleon. A committee was appointed to draw up a report on the 

 state of the nation ; Rayuouard, I.ainr, Galloi*, and other memUm 

 who had a character for independence, were of the committee. Tin- 

 report which they laid before the legislative body, 2Sth of Dec 

 1813, expressed a desire for peace consistent with the honour and tho 

 welfare of France, and a wish to know what step* the emperor had 

 taken to attain so desirable an object and it ended by raying that 

 " while the government will take the most effective measures for the 

 safety of the country, his Majesty should be entreated to maintain and 

 enforce the entire and constant execution of the laws which ensure to 

 the French citizen* the rights of liberty, property, and security, and 

 to the nation the free exercise of its political right*." The legislative 

 body by a large majority ordered the report to be printed. This was 

 a language which Napoleon had not been used to. He immediately 

 ordered the doors of the hall of the legislative body to be closed and 

 guarded by soldiers, and the copies of the report to bo seized at tho 

 printer's. On the 81st an imperial decree adjourned the logicl.it ivi- 

 body. On the 1st of January 1814, several members of the legislative 

 body having appeared at hit levee, be gave vent to his ill-humour in 

 a violent address, told them that they wero not the representatives 

 of the nation, but only the representatives of the individual depart- 

 ments; that he was the only representative of the people; that tin ir 

 report and the address founded upon it wore seditious; that they 

 ought not thus publicly to have commented on his conduct ; and he 

 cudrd by saying, " France stands more in need of me than I stand in 

 need of France," The senate, more subservient, had already passed a 

 decree for a new conscription of 300,000 men, including all those who 

 had escaped the conscriptions of former years. The taxes were at the 

 same time ordered to be doubled ; but the people were weary of these 

 never-ending sacrifices, and in many departments it was found difficult 

 to collect either men or money. Napoleon's disposable army on the 

 Rhine amounted to no more than from 70,000 to 80,000 men. He had 

 to contend with twice that number, bcsidi s numerous reinforcements 

 which were hastening through Germany. Meantime conferences were 



