NAPOLEON I 



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NAPOLEON I 



dino and elsewhere the avalanche of French 

 overwhelmed Russian resistance. Napoleon 

 pushed on to Moscow, only to find the city in 



NAPOLEON'S LINE OF MARCH 

 AGAINST MOSCOW 



and behind him a country utterly dev- 

 astated. It has been claimed that the weary 

 marc-h back began the breaking up of that 

 mighty intellect which had ruled Europe so 

 long. What war could not do to the army of 



Coalition Against France. Prussia, Russia, 

 Sweden and Spain were roused and joined 

 (Ireat Hritain against Napoleon. The allies 

 were defeated at Liitzen, Bautzen and Dresden, 

 but the allies were able to reenforce their 

 armies, while Napoleon was fighting with the 

 total remnant of his strength. Disaster over- 

 took him at Leipzig and in the "Battle of the 

 Nations," October, 1813, he was completely 

 defeated. Raising with herculean efforts a new 

 army, he confronted the allied hosts from Janu- 

 ary to March, 1814. The Duke of Wellington 

 was advancing on Paris from the south. Napo- 

 leon was outnumbered; his prestige was gone; 

 his trusted veterans had been left amid Rus- 

 sian snows; he had but an army of recruits to 

 depend on. 



Elba, Waterloo, then Saint Helena. In April, 

 1814, Napoleon abdicated. With the title of 

 emperor and six million francs, he retired to 

 the island of Elba and Europe breathed freely 

 only for ten months, however. Escaping from 

 Elba, Napoleon, everywhere joined by old fol- 

 lowers, made a triumphal entry into Paris, and 

 the allied armies once more took the field 

 against him. On June 16, 1815, he defeated 

 Bliicher at Ligny, while Marshal Ney, who had 



THE TOMB AND COFFIN OF NAPOLEON 



the "Little Corporal" the piercing cold and 

 famine on the plains of Russia accomplished. 

 Swarms of Cossacks hung like jackals on their 

 flanks; the weakened veterans, heroes of num- 

 berless battles, succumbed to cold and disease, 

 and of that gallant army of 600,000 only about 

 25,000 left the country. It was the beginning 

 of the end for Napoleon. Leaving Murat in 

 command, he hastened to Paris to organize a 

 fresh army before the news of his terrible dis- 

 aster reached Western Europe. But his prestige 

 was gone. England and Russia at once assumed 

 the direction of the destinies of Europe. 



joined him after declaring he ought to be kept 

 in an iron cage, fought the British at Quatre 

 Bras, under Wellington, who fell back on 

 Waterloo. On June 18, he was attacked at 

 Waterloo by Napoleon, whose army was totally 

 defeated in the most historic battle of modern 

 times. Fleeing to Paris, Napoleon again abdi- 

 cated and tried to escape from France. Failing 

 in this, he surrendered to the captain of a 

 British man-of-war, who conveyed him to Eng- 

 land, nominally a guest, in reality a prisoner. 

 He was then conveyed to Saint Helena, a for- 

 bidding, desolate island in the Atlantic, off the 



