BONAPARTE. 299 



so heavy an expenditure of treasure and 

 blood, and in furtherance of whose aim at 

 universal conquest the people of Europe 

 were called upon to sacrifice their homes, 

 their children, and their liberties. 



The disasters of his Russian campaign 

 were crowned by the battle of Beresina, 

 where, as one of our most eloquent Eng- 

 lish authors says had he been the hero 

 he vaunted himself, " on the bridge of 

 Beresina he would have died," and not 

 have survived the loss of those brave 

 and numerous cohorts that his insane 

 ambition led into the frozen regions of 

 Northern Europe a force that more re- 

 sembled the army of a Cyrus or a Xerxes 

 than that of a modern European power. 



This decisive and ruinous conflict sealed 

 the first act of his downfall ; while, in 

 the ensuing campaign in Germany, the 

 battles of Lutzen and Bautzen sustained 

 him for a time, till the issue of the well- 

 contested field before Leipsic induced 



