RUSSIAN-GERMAN WAR. 



55 



so long been a stranger. Napoleon, therefore, 

 escaped from Elba, and reaseended the French 

 throne March 20, 1815. (See Bonaparte.} Themon- 

 archs being determined to support the Bourbons, the 

 (lamps of war were again kindled. About 770,000 

 soldiers were gathered from Germany, Russia, Bel- 

 gium (which was united into one kingdom with 

 Holland), Britain, and Denmark. Napoleon, on his 

 side, was not idle. From all France, he had con- 

 vened in Paris, to a great champ de Mai, in the 

 beginning of June, 4000 deputies, who swore fidelity 

 to the new constitution and to him. From the 

 20th March, he, Carnot, Davoust, and others, had 

 done every thing to put the army in a respectable 

 state. Their efforts were very much aided by the 

 enthusiasm of the old soldiers, who had, meanwhile, 

 returned home from imprisonment. The Austrian 

 emperor was threatened by a storm in Italy, which 

 seemed to be connected with that in France. Mu- 

 rat, king of Naples, had been obliged to undergo, 

 at the congress of Vienna, a contest with the Bour- 

 bon courts; so much the harder, as Britain was 

 under obligations to the former king of Naples, and, 

 moreover, understood Murat's equivocal behaviour 

 the year before, and therefore declared, in express 

 terms, that he could not remain king. Austria 

 alone, the more faithful to her engagements with 

 him because it was less for her advantage to have a 

 Bourbon for a neighbour, in the south of Italy, spoke 

 in his favour; but either gave up his cause at last, 

 or, at least, Murat thought himself abandoned by 

 her, or believed that the landing of Napoleon would 

 afford him means, during the prevailing fermenta- 

 tion in Italy, to make himself master of the whole 

 pjninsula; so that, on the 4th of April, without 

 declaration of war, he attacked Rome and the Aus- 

 trian line of troops with 50 to 60,000 men. The 

 Austrians, hardly 12,000 men strong, under general 

 Bianchi, retreated, fighting, behind the Po, where 

 they maintained themselves till the troops sent 

 thither in wagons had arrived; after which, general 

 Frimont, who commanded them, advanced again so 

 quickly, and so skilfully, that, twenty days after, 

 Murat was in the most desperate situation ; and his 

 dispirited troops by degrees dispersed, and would 

 not stand an attack. Surrounded, and cut off from 

 the best roads, he saw himself forced to retreat con- 

 tinually through by-paths, where artillery and lug- 

 gage were lost. An attempt to save himself by a 

 truce, failed, from the firmness of the Austrian 

 general ; another, at Tolentino, May 1 3, to im- 

 prove his situation by arms, was frustrated by the 

 valour of his enemy; and, in consequence of this 

 last vain attack, made with desperation, and much 

 personal exposure, his army totally dispersed, and 

 he himself fled to France. His wife was taken to 

 Austria'. The wreck of the army, 5000 strong, 

 laid down their arms behind the river Volturno, 

 May 20. Half the Austrian army, on account of 

 the unexpectedly slight resistance which they had 

 met with, had proceeded to Upper Italy, in order 

 from thence to enter France, over the Alps. But 

 orders from Vienna delayed the invasion, that the 

 Russians might have time to come up. Half of 

 June had consequently elapsed, when the attack 

 was made on the side of Napoleon, equally impetu- 

 ously and unexpectedly. Immediately after the 

 champ de Mai, he left Paris for the army of 150,000 

 select troops stationed on the northern boundary, 

 taking with him the guards assembled at Lyons, 

 and, with them, attacked, at day-break, June 15, 

 more than 200,000 British and Prussians, who were 



encamped along the Dyle and Sambre, under the 

 command of Bliicher and Wellington. Without 

 giving them time to unite, he drove the Prussians 

 back behind the Fleurus, and defeated them at 

 Ligny, June, 16; while Ney attempted to retard, 

 at Quatre Bras, the British, who were hastening 

 on the Brussels road, and prevent their junction 

 with Bliicher. In the battle that took place there, 

 in which the duke of Brunswick fell, Ney was un- 

 able entirely to accomplish Napoleon's object; but 

 neither could Wellington come to the succour of the 

 Prussians, who were, therefore, obliged to make a 

 retreat, in which they were favoured by the dark- 

 ness of the night. The next day, Napoleon de- 

 tached two of his corps d'armee to pursue the Prus- 

 sians, who were retreating to Wavre : with the rest 

 of the army, he advanced, on the Brussels road, to 

 crush the British, as he thought he had crushed the 

 Prussians. Wellington had, meanwhile, assumed a 

 position before the great forest of Soigny, on an ele- 

 vated plain, which formed a natural fortress. (See 

 Waterloo, Battle of.) On the 18th, Napoleon attack- 

 ed this position, in the conviction that the British 

 would not make a long resistance. But all his at- 

 tacks were unsuccessful, and the more he wasted 

 his forces in vain, the more terrible was his defeat, 

 when, towards evening, the army of the Prus- 

 sians, beaten on the 16th, but only the more eager 

 for battle, coming up from Wavre in two divi- 

 sions, fell upon the right wing and rear of the 

 French army, through the defile of St Lambert. 

 Wellington now making a general movement for- 

 ward, in one hour the whole French army was dis- 

 persed, and Napoleon himself carried along with the 

 fugitives. Bliicher ordered all the cavalry to pur- 

 sue the fugitives in the moonlight night. All the 

 artillery and baggage was lost ; no point of retreat 

 was specified ; they who had hoped to be in Brus- 

 sels in the morning, wandered about on the Sam- 

 bre, in the most melancholy condition. Not a sin- 

 gle corps d'armee opposing the conquerors, the 

 fortified places situated in their route, were taken 

 or surrounded. Deputies from Paris, suing for a 

 truce, and announcing Napoleon's abdication, were 

 not heard. The allies advanced, taking advantage 

 of the first consternation. June 27, they were al- 

 ready masters of the main roads leading to Paris, 

 and expected to gain possession of the capital with- 

 out a stroke of the sword. But the two French 

 generals Vandamme and Grouchy, who had pursued 

 the Prussians, after the battle of the 16th, and had 

 driven general Thielemann from Wavre, at the very 

 moment when Napoleon's army was dispersed, made 

 such a rapid and judicious retreat, that, to the sur- 

 prise of both friend and foe, they arrived, with mo- 

 derate loss, under the walls of Paris at the same 

 time with Bliicher and Wellington. Paris was bet- 

 ter fortified that in 1814; but, as the fortifications 

 were surrounded, the city was in danger of being 

 stormed on its weakest side. Grouchy and Van- 

 damme were the less able to encounter the allies, 

 as every day brought accessions to the forces of the 

 Prussians ;vnd British ; a truce was, therefore, made, 

 and Paris evacuated. (See Paris.') All the troops 

 retired behind the Loire, with their baggage, artil- 

 lery, &c., and on the 6th the city was surrendered. 

 Thus the war was essentially decided by the bat- 

 tle of Waterloo. While the Russians, Bavarians, 

 Wiirtembctgers, and Austrians, were coming up 

 from all sides, the French forces stationed in dif- 

 ferent quarters were too inconsiderable to do any 

 thing but shed their blood in vain, notwithstanding 



