47 
1821.1 Memoirs of Napoleon. 
the Vistula. The Empress accompanied 
him to Dresden, to visit her own fa¬ 
mily. Arrived in that capital, he spent 
fifteen days with the Emperor of Aus¬ 
tria, the King of Prussia, and nearly 
the whole of the princes of the conti¬ 
nent; holding a court, as it were, coin- 
nosed of kings. 
It was not till the 3d of July that 
he published his causes for complaint 
against Russia, the campaign having 
been opened on the 22d of June. In a 
proclamation bearing the date of the 
latter day, he said, Russia is borne 
away by a fatality, her destinies are 
about to be accomplished.” 
Bonaparte entered Wilna on the 28th 
of June, where he established a provi¬ 
sory government, while he assem¬ 
bled at Warsaw a general diet, for the 
object of restoring, under his auspices, 
the ancient state of Poland. During 
this time the French army continued 
its march, and passed the Niemen on 
the 23d, 24th, and 25th, and arrived at 
Witepsk in the early part of July, to 
direct its route to Smolensk©. In their 
march the invaders obtained several 
victories. The Russians, finding that 
the French were too powerful, adopted 
a plan which, aided by the inclemencies 
of the season of winter, in a country 
like Russia, would produce a victory 
much more certain than the chance of 
the sword. The constitutions of the 
French were little capable of enduring 
a Russian winter; their privations, 
too, were great, and the means to 
procure provisions scanty. These con¬ 
tinued, led to the downthrow of the 
Russian expedition. The French, how¬ 
ever, nothing daunted, pushed on, and 
arrived near Moscow; the battle of 
Borodino took place on the IOth of 
September, so fatal to both armies, in 
which at least 60,000 men perished. 
Napoleon pushed on to Moscow, 
while the Russians retreated. It was 
in this city that the secret plan which 
they had organized was put into effect. 
All the inhabitants had previously eva¬ 
cuated the city by the orders of Count 
Rostopschin; and when Napoleon en¬ 
tered it, four days after the battle, he 
found it not only deserted, but in 
flames! Their palaces, their houses, 
and their churches, w T ere consigned to 
that devouring element, to impede the 
march of the French; and by removing 
the means of shelter and subsistence 
at the same time, destroy their means of 
annoyance. This stratagem, unique in 
modern warfare, was, nevertheless, the 
practice of the Russian government, 
and they adopted it as, perhaps, the 
only mode of saving the Russian enn 
pire. 
The burning of that vast city, while 
it sacrificed so much, preserved the 
empire, and destroyed the resources of 
Napoleon. His winter-quarters were 
the worst that ever invading army took 
possession of. The army remained for 
thirty-five days in the ruins, exposed 
to every privation ; and when, at 
length, it was determined to remove, 
they demolished the remaining monu¬ 
ments of the once flourishing city, the 
palace of the Czars. Tims, by these 
manoeuvres of the Russians, the war 
in Russia was put an end to, and the 
French were compelled to return into 
Poland. Tile Russians had. assembled 
innumerable regiments of militia, who 
harassed the French night and day, 
pursued them from post to post, and, 
seconded by frost and famine, produced 
the destruction of numbers of the 
enemy. Accompanied by Caulincourt, 
Napoleon arrived, on the 10th of De¬ 
cember, at Warsaw. On the 18th of 
December, he entered Paris in the night. 
The following day a bulletin disclosed 
his immense losses. 
On the 10 th of January, 1813, he 
presented to the senate a decree for 
levying an army of 350,000 men, to 
which the senate, without hesitation, 
assented. Having prepared for the 
campaign, which was about to com¬ 
mence early in April, and having now 
to oppose the combined force of Prussia 
and Russia, he set out to take the com¬ 
mand of his army. On the 2d of May, 
having advanced as far as Lntzen, he 
encountered the Russians and Prus¬ 
sians, whom, after a long and obstinate 
resistance, he compelled to retire upon 
Pegau in Misnia. Austria undertook, 
at this moment, to become a mediator, 
and expressed veiy strongly a wish to 
procure for Europe a long and durable 
peace. The overture' and mediation 
did not succeed, and the battle of Baut¬ 
zen followed: the result was a defeat 
to the enemy, whom the French fol¬ 
lowed to Reichenbach, where a very 
sanguinary contest took place with the 
rear-guard. Duroc, Napoleon’s personal 
favourite, was killed. On the 26th an 
armistice took place for some days, and 
negociations were opened, which, how¬ 
ever, were put an end to on the 4th of 
June. During the suspension of hos¬ 
tilities, every means were employed by 
the allies to induce Austria to join the 
league, 
