and Ferdinand, overwhelmed by insults and threats, renounced his claim to the crown of Spain on the 6th May. (Concerning the real sentiments of Ferdinand expressed in his intercepted letters, see Bausset, Mémoires anecdotiques sur l'intérieur du Palais.) Charles likewise resigned all his rights in favour of his friend and ally the emperor of the French. Napoleon now issued a decree, appointing his dearly-beloved brother Joseph Napoleon, king of Naples and Sicily, to the crowns of Spain and the Indies. By a subsequent decree, 15th July, he appointed his dearly-beloved cousin, Joachim Murat, grand duke of Berg, to the throne of Naples and Sicily, which remained vacant by the accession of Joseph Napoleon to the kingdoms of Spain and the Indies.' Both these curious documents are signed Napoleon, and countersigned by the minister secretary of state, Maret.

The memorable events which resulted from these nefarious transactions, the occupation of Madrid by Murat, the revolt and subsequent massacre of the people of that city on the 2nd of May, the insurrection which broke out simultaneously in all parts of the Peninsula against the invaders, -the heroic though often unfortunate resistance of the Spaniards, the atrocities committed by the French troops, and the cruel retaliations by the Spanish guerrillas,-the long, murderous war of seven years, from 1808 till 1814, in which the British army acted a conspicuous part,—all these | may be read in the numerous works written expressly on the subject of the Peninsular war. For the military transactions see Colonel Napier, General Foy, and Major Vacani, and the Annals of the Peninsular Campaigns, by Captain Hamilton. For the Spanish view of the subject, see Count Toreno, Historia del Levantamiento, Guerra, y Revolucion de España, Madrid, 1835; and Canga Arguelles, Observaciones sobre las Historias de Southey, Londonderry, Clarke, y Napier. For a general, historical, and political view of Spain during that period, see Southey's History of the Peninsular War. But the work that gives perhaps the best insight into the feelings and conduct of the Spaniards in the various provinces throughout that memorable struggle is the Histoire de la Révolution d'Espagne, by Colonel Schepeler, a Prussian officer, who was himself in the Spanish service during the whole time.

During the seven years of the Peninsular war 600,000 Frenchmen entered Spain at different times by the two great roads of Bayonne and Perpignan. There returned into France at various times about 250,000. The other 350,000 did not return. Making full deduction for those who remained prisoners in the hands of the Spaniards and English and were afterwards set free at the peace of 1814, the number who perished during that war cannot be estimated at less than 250,000, if it does not approach rather 300,000. (Schepeler and Foy.) The loss of the Spaniards, soldiers and peasants, who were destroyed in detail on almost every spot in the Peninsula, cannot be calculated, but it must have been greater than that of the French.

In the year 1808 Napoleon re-established titles of nobility in France. Lefebvre, who had taken Danzig the year before, was the first duke that he created. Many others, both military and civilians, received titles from towns in Italy and Germany, with an income charged upon the revenues or national domains of the conquered countries. Both the titles and the incomes attached to them were made hereditary.

In September, 1808, Napoleon repaired to Erfurt to hold conferences with the Emperor Alexander. The subject of these conferences remained a secret, but it would seem that the question of Turkey was agitated. Napoleon says that the principal obstacle to a partition of that country was Constantinople. It seems however that he consented to Russia encroaching on the frontier provinces of Turkey, as the Russian troops invaded Moldavia and Wallachia soon after the conference. On returning from Erfurt, Napoleon told his Senate that he and the emperor of Russia were irrevocably united in a bond of alliance.

The English in the mean time had reconquered Portugal, and were advancing to the assistance of the Spaniards. King Joseph had been obliged to leave Madrid, and the French armies had withdrawn behind the Ebro. Napoleon resolved to set out for Spain himself. On the 25th October he opened in person the session of the legislative body with one of his characteristic speeches: The hideous presence of the English leopards contaminates the continent of Spain and

Portugal. I go to place myself at the head of my armies, to crown my brother at Madrid, and to plant the French eagles on the ramparts of Lisbon. Two days afterwards he set off for Spain.

On the 23rd November, 1808, Napoleon defeated the Spanish troops at Tudela, and on the 4th December Madrid capitulated. He told the Spanish deputation that their grand-children would bless his memory. He then set off for Astorga, expecting to intercept Sir John Moore in his retreat. In this however he did not succeed, and leaving the task of pursuing the English to Soult and Ney, he suddenly quitted Astorga, and returned in great haste to France in January, 1809.

A new Austrian war was on the point of breaking out. This time Austria came single into the field. She had made astonishing exertions to recruit her armies to the number of nearly half a million of men. Austria had apparently no new personal subject of complaint, except the alarm she naturally felt at the rapid strides of Napoleon towards universal dominion. The Archduke Charles commanded the Austrian army of Germany, and the Archduke John that of Italy. The Austrians crossed the Inn on the 9th April, and occupied Bavaria and the Tyrol. Napoleon quickly assembled his army beyond the Rhine, repaired to Augsburg, and by one of his skilful manoeuvres broke the line of the Austrians, gained the battle of Eckmühl, and obliged the Archduke Charles to retire into Bohemia, leaving the road to Vienna open to the French. (For the details of this campaign see General Pelet, Mémoires sur la Guerre de 1809, 4 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1824-26.) On the 12th May the French entered Vienna. The archduke now collected his army on the left bank of the Danube. Bonaparte crossed the river to attack him, and the great battle of Aspern took place, 21st May. The battle remained undecided; but on the following day it was renewed with fury on both sides, when, in the midst of the action, Bonaparte was informed that the bridge in his rear, which communicated with the right bank of the Danube, had been carried off by a flood. He then ordered a retreat, and withdrew his army into the island of Lobau in the middle of the Danube. The loss of the French was very great: Marshal Lannes was among the generals killed. Napoleon remained for six weeks on the island. Having re-established the bridge, and received reinforcements, he crossed once more to the left bank, when he fought the battle of Wagram, 6th July, in which he defeated the Austrians, with a tremendous loss on both sides. Still the Austrian army was not destroyed or dispersed, and the Archduke Charles was for continuing the struggle. Other counsels however prevailed, and an armistice was concluded at Znaim, and this led to the peace of Schönbrunn, which was not signed however till the 14th of October. Napoleon had entertained some idea of dismembering the Austrian empire; he had even addressed an invitation to the Hungarians to form an independent kingdom_under a native ruler, but this address produced no effect. Germany began to be agitated by a spirit of popular resistance against him; bands of partizans under Schill, the Duke of Brunswick, and others, had appeared; Tyrol was still in arms, and he was not quite sure of Russia. The war in Spain continued with dubious success, and the English had landed a considerable force at Flushing. He thought best therefore to grant peace to Austria on moderate conditions. The Archduke Charles disapproved of the peace, and gave up his command. Austria ceded Trieste, Carniola, and part of Croatia, Salzburg, Cracow, and Western Gallicia, and several other districts, to the amount of about two millions and a half of inhabitants. The brave Tyrolese were abandoned to their fate. Hofer and others of their chiefs were seized by the French, taken to Mantua, and there shot. (Life of Andrew Hofer, by Hall; and Inglis's Tyrol.)

Whether the subsequent marriage of Napoleon with a daughter of the Emperor Francis was in course of negotiation at the time of the peace of Schönbrunn has been doubted, but soon after his return to Paris he made known to his wife Josephine his determination to divorce her. A painful scene took place on this occasion, which is well described by De Bausset, prefect of the imperial household, in his Mémoires Anecdotiques sur l'Intérieur du Palais. Napoleon himself seems to have been sincerely affected at Josephine's grief, but his notion of the necessity of having an heir to the empire subdued his feelings. It is known that from the time of the conferences of Erfurt, and perhaps of

As Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, Napoleon had under his orders the Kings of Saxony, Bavaria, and Würtemberg, the Grand Duke of Baden, and the other German princes. He had also under his protection the Helvetic Confederation, which was bound to furnish him with troops, and to follow his policy. Prussia, humbled and dismembered, lay entirely at his mercy. He could thus dispose of more than eighty millions of people. Never, since the fall of the Roman empire, had so great a part of Europe been subject to the will of one man. Austria was his ally through fear as well as by family connexion; Russia through prudence and self-interest. In Sweden, General Bernadotte had been chosen Crown Prince, and, after obtaining Napoleon's consent, had repaired to Stockholm. Spain, bleeding at every pore, struggled hard, and apparently with little hope of ultimate success. Britain alone continued to defy his power, and held Sicily and Portugal under her protection. Such was the political condition of Europe at the beginning of 1811. In the month of March of that year Maria Louisa was delivered of a son, who was saluted by Napoleon as 'King of Rome,' an ominous title to those Italians who still fancied that the crown of Italy was to be, according to Napoleon's promise, separated from that of France.

Tilsit, he had had in view a marriage with one of Alexander's | of his own. He sacrificed the people of those countries and sisters, and the project had been communicated to the Rus- their interests, as well as the happiness and the greatness sian court, but the empress-mother had always objected of his brothers, to what he conceived to be the interest and to it on the plea of difference of religion. The divorce the glory of France. (Réponse de Lucien Bonaparte aux being consented to by Josephine in presence of commis- Mémoires de Lamarque.) But even his brothers were restive sioners from the Senate, the act was solemnly passed and under this discipline. Louis ran away from his kingdom of registered on the 16th of December, 1809. On the 11th of Holland; Murat was in continual disputes with his brotherMarch, 1810, Napoleon married by proxy the Archduchess in-law (Colletta, Storia del Reame di Napoli), and Lucien Maria Louisa, who soon after set off for Paris. The mar- would not accept any crown under such conditions. riage ceremony was performed at Paris by Cardinal Fesch. The years 1810 and 1811 were the period of Napoleon's greatest power. There is an interesting report made by Count Montalivet of the situation of the French empire in 1810, which displays the gigantic extent of its dominions. One passage which refers to Holland is curious. That country was under the government of Louis Bonaparte, who felt really anxious for the welfare of his Dutch subjects, and did not enforce very strictly the continental system, as it was styled, against English trade. This led to frequent reproofs from his imperious brother, who at last resolved to enforce his own decrees himself by uniting Holland to the French empire. (Louis Bonaparte's Historical Documents and Reflections on the Government of Holland.) Count Montalivet in his report made use of a curious argument to prepare the people's minds for this measure:Holland, he said, 'is in reality a continuation of France; it may be defined as being formed out of the alluvia of the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Scheldt, which are the great arteries of the empire.' And Champagny, minister for foreign affairs, in a report to the emperor said:-' Holland is an emanation of the French empire. In order to possess the Rhine, your Majesty must extend your territory to the Zuyderzee. But even the Zuyderzee was not far enough. By a Senatus Consultum, 13th December, 1810, Holland, Friesland, Oldenburg, Bremen, and all the line of coast to Hamburg, and the country between that town and Lubeck, were annexed to the French empire, of which this new territory formed ten additional departments. The French empire now extended from the frontiers of Denmark to those of Naples, for Napoleon had finally annexed Rome and the southern papal provinces to France. The pope launched a bull of excommunication against Napoleon, upon which he was arrested in his palace on the Quirinal in the middle of the night of the 5th July, 1809, by a party of gendarmes who escaladed the walls, and was carried off to Savona, where he was kept prisoner until he was removed to Fontainebleau. (For an account of these proceedings see Memorie del Cardinal Pacca, with the Rélation de l'Enlèvement du Pape Pie VII. et de son Voyage jusqu'à Florence, par le Baron Radet, in the Appendix.) Radet was the colonel of gendarmes who seized the person of the pope. The papal territory was divided into two departments of the French empire, called of Rome and of the Thraзymene, of which last Perugia was the head town. Napoleon gave his good city of Rome' the rank of second town in the French empire.

Besides the French empire, which, thus extended, reckoned 130 departments and 42 millions of people, Napoleon held under his sway the kingdom of Italy, which included Lombardy and Venice, Modena, Bologna, and the other legations and the marches, with above six millions of inhabitants; and the Illyrian provinces, including Dalmatia, Carniola, and part of Croatia, which formed a separate government. The kingdom of Naples, with about five millions more, was also dependent on his will, as well as the kingdom of Westphalia, the grand duchy of Berg, &c. The policy of Napoleon towards the countries which he bestowed on his brothers and other relatives was plainly stated by himself to his brother Lucien, in an interview at Mantua in 1911. In the interior, as well as the exterior, all my relatives must follow my orders: every thing must be subservient to the interest of France; conscription, laws, taxes, all must be in your respective states for the advantage and support of my crown. I should otherwise act against my duty and my interest. No doubt you would like to act the part of a Medici at Florence' (there had been some talk about placing Lucien over Tuscany), but were I to allow you to do so, it is clear that Tuscany, happy and tranquil, would become an object of envy to the French. He would not allow his brothers to identify themselves with their subjects, and to strengthen themselves on their thrones, because he foresaw that it might suit him some day to remove them on the occasion of a general peace, or upon some new scheme

In 1811 the first symptoms of coolness between Alexander and Napoleon manifested themselves. The complaints of the Russian landholders against the continental system, which prevented their exporting by sea the produce of their vast estates, had induced Alexander to issue an ukase, 31st December, 1810, by which colonial and other goods were allowed to be imported into the ports of Russia, unless they appeared to belong to subjects of Great Britain. This last restriction was of course easily evaded, and the trade with England might be said to be in reality opened again. This was soon made a ground of complaint on the part of Napoleon. The Russian emperor, on his side, complained that his relative, the Duke of Oldenburg, had been dispossessed of his territory contrary to the treaty of Tilsit. A third subject of difference was concerning Poland. Napoleon having, by the peace of Schönbrunn, united western Gallicia and Cracow to the duchy of Warsaw, seemed to encourage the prospect of re-establishing the whole of Poland as an independent state. But there was another and a deeper feeling of mistrust and insecurity on the part of the emperor, and the nobility of Russia in general, at the evident assumption of universal dictatorship by Napoleon, especially since his marriage with an Austrian archduchess. At Tilsit he had been willing to share the empire of the world with Russia, but now he would have no brother near his throne. He summoned Sweden, in an imperious manner, to enforce his decrees against the British trade, while his armed vessels and privateers in the Baltic seized upon fifty Swedish merchantmen, which were confiscated, upon the charge of contraband trade with England. Lastly, in January, 1812, General Davoust was sent to take possession of Swedish Pomerania and the island of Rugen. This act of aggression induced the crown prince, Bernadotte, to sign a treaty of alliance with the Emperor Alexander in March, 1812. In the interview between these two princes at Abo in Finland, the plan of resistance to Napoleon was settled. Russia had not yet declared war, but she reinforced her armies, waiting to be attacked. Napoleon was pouring troops into Prussia, Pomerania, and the duchy of Warsaw.

Some of the older and wiser counsellors of Napoleon had the courage to remonstrate with him, not on the injustice, but on the impolicy of this new act of aggression. Fouché presented him an eloquent memorial on the occasion. I regulate my conduct,' answered Napoleon, chiefly by the opinion of my army. With 800,000 men I can oblige all Europe to do my bidding. I will destroy all English influence in Russia, and then Spain will easily fall. My destiny is not yet accomplished; my present situation is but the outline of a picture, which I must fill up. I must make one nation out of all the European states, and Paris must be

VOL. V.-T

ter river formed the boundary of the Russian empire. There were 270,000 French, 80,000 Germans of the Confederation of the Rhine, 30,000 Poles under Prince Poniatowski, 20,000 Italians under Eugene, and 20,000 Prussians. On the 22nd of June Napoleon issued a proclamation to his soldiers, saying that the second war of Poland had begun. The fate of Russia must be fulfilled. Let us cross the Niemen, and carry the war into her own territory,' &c. On the 24th and 25th of June Napoleon's army, in three large masses, crossed the Niemen, and entered Lithuania without meeting with any opposition. The Russian army, under General Barclay de Tolli, 120,000 strong, evacuated Wilna, and retired to the banks of the Dwina. Another Russian army, 80,000 strong, under Prince Bagration, was stationed near the Dnieper. On the 28th of June Napoleon entered Wilna, where he remained till the 16th of July. He there received a deputation from the diet of the duchy of Warsaw, entreating him to proclaim the union and independence of Poland. Napoleon's answer was still cold and cautious: he told them that he had guaranteed to the emperor of Austria the part of Poland he still retained; that for the rest they must depend chiefly on their own efforts. (De Pradt, Ambassade de Pologne.)

the capital of the world. There must be all over Europe | bled chiefly between the Vistula and the Niemen, which latbut one code, one court of appeal, one currency, one system of weights and measures. Am I to blame if the great power which I have already attained forces me to assume the dictatorship of the world? (Fouché's Memoirs.) And to De Pradt at Dresden he said, 'I will destroy Russian influence in Europe. Two battles will do the business: the Emperor Alexander will come on his knees, and Russia shall be disarmed. Spain costs me very dear: without that I should be master of the world; but when I become such, my son will have nothing to do but to retain my place.' In calmer times, and after the full experience of disappointment, we find him confirming the sentiments he had expressed on the former memorable occasions. After his return from Elba, he said to Benjamin Constant, I desired the empire of the world, and who in my situation would not? The world invited me to govern it; sovereigns and subjects vied with each other in bending before my sceptre. I have rarely found any opposition in France. And later at St. Helena, If I have been on the point of accomplishing the universal monarchy, it was without any original design, and because I was led to it step after step. The last effort wanting to arrive at it seemed so trifling, was it unreasonable to attempt it? . . . But I had no ambition distinct from that of France, her glory, her ascendency, her majesty, with which my own were identified. Had I lived in America, I should willingly have been a Washington; but had Washington been in France, exposed to discord within and attack from without, I would have defied him to be what he was in America.... (Las Cases, vol. i.) I have been spoiled by success. I have always been in supreme command: from my first entrance into life I have enjoyed high power; and circumstances, and my own energy of character, have been such, that from the instant I gained military superiority, I acknowledged neither masters nor laws.' (Las Cases, vol. iv., part i.)

The events of the memorable Russian campaign of 1812 are known to the world. We can only refer our readers to the works of Segur, and of Colonel Boutourlin, aide-de-camp to the Emperor Alexander; to the memoirs of Oginski; and to the Italian account of Captain Laugier, G Italiani in Russia. By consulting these various authorities, a sum of very correct information concerning that stupendous catastrophe may be obtained.

In the meantime, the French soldiers treated Lithuania as an enemy's country. The provisions ordered by Napoleon to follow his army not having arrived, and the Russians having removed all the stores, the French and German soldiers went about marauding, plundering alike the mansions of the nobility and the huts of the peasants, feeding their horses on the green corn, violating the women, and killing those who resented such treatment. (Oginski and Segur.) Lithuania, a poor and thinly-inhabited country, which had suffered from the bad harvest of the preceding year (1811), was utterly devastated. At the same time, disorganization and demoralization spread fearfully through the enormous masses of the invaders; disease thinned their ranks; 25,000 patients were crowded within Wilna in a few weeks, where there was not accommodation for onethird of the number; heavy rains rendered the roads impassable, and 10,000 horses were lost.

After partial engagements at Mohilow and Witepsk, the Russians continued their retreat upon Smolensk, in the interior of Russia. Napoleon determined to follow them. Before Napoleon set off from Paris for the Russian expe-Forward marches alone,' he observed, 'can keep such a dition, he directed Maret, Duke of Bassano, to write a letter vast army in its present condition together; to halt or retire to Lord Castlereagh proposing negotiations for peace, on the would be the signal of dissolution. It is an army of attack, basis of the uti possidetis. He was willing this time to let not of defence; an army of operation, not of position. We Sicily remain under Ferdinand, and Portugal under the must advance upon Moscow, and strike a blow in order to House of Braganza, but he insisted on Spain being secured obtain peace, or resting quarters and supplies.' (Segur.) to his brother Joseph. It must be observed that Lord He crossed the Dnieper, and entered Russia Proper with Wellington had just taken possession of Badajoz and Ciudad about 180,000 men, leaving a body of reserve at Wilna and Rodrigo, and was advancing into Spain towards Madrid, the corps of Macdonald on the Dwina, towards Riga. In which he shortly after entered upon gaining the battle of his march through Lithuania, no less than 100,000 men Salamanca. The English minister immediately replied, had dropped off from his ranks, and were either dead or that England's engagements with the Spanish Cortes, sick, or had been taken prisoners by the Cossacks, or were acting in the name of King Ferdinand VII., rendered the straggling and marauding about the country. acknowledgment of Joseph impossible.

The Russian minister, Prince Kourakin, still remained at Paris. Early in May he presented an official note to the Duke of Bassano, stating that the matters in dispute between the two empires might easily be made the subject of amicable negotiations, provided the French troops should evacuate Pomerania and the duchy of Warsaw, where they could be for no other purpose than that of threatening the frontiers of Russia. Napoleon pretended to be exceedingly angry at this demand, which he said was insolent, adding that he was not used to be addressed in such a style, and to have his movements dictated by a foreign sovereign; and he sent Prince Kourakin his passports. On the 9th of May he himself set off with his empress for Dresden, where he had invited the kings of his own creation, Bavaria, Würtemberg, Saxony, Westphalia, and his other tributaries, to meet him. The emperor of Austria also repaired to Dresden with his empress. The king of Prussia came too, as he had just signed a treaty with Napoleon, by which he placed 20,000 men at his disposal in the approaching campaign. Austria agreed to furnish 30,000 men to act against Russian Poland. Napoleon sent the Count de Narbonne to Wilna, where the emperor Alexander then was, to invite him to come to Dresden, but Alexander declined. After brilliant festivals, Napoleon quitted Dresden for Thorn, where he arrived on the 2nd of June. His immense army was assem

On the 16th of August the two hostile armies met under the walls of Smolensk. But the Russians, after carrying off or destroying the provisions, and allowing time to the inhabitants to remove themselves, evacuated Smolensk, which their rear-guard set on fire. They continued their retreat upon Moscow, and Napoleon followed them. The battle of Borodino, near the banks of the river Moskwa, was fought on the 7th September. The two armies were nearly equal in numbers, 120,000 each. After a dreadful slaughter on both sides, the Russian general sounded a retreat, and the French were left in possession of the bloody field; but the French took hardly any prisoners or guns: 15,000 Russians, and about 10,000 Frenchmen lay dead. Next day the Russian army continued its retreat; and on the 14th September it traversed the city of Moscow, which most of the inhabitants had already evacuated. On that same day the French entered Moscow and found it deserted, except by the convicts and some of the lowest class, who lingered behind for the sake of plunder. On the evening of this day a fire broke out in the coachmakers' street, but it was put down in the night. On the next day, 15th, Napoleon took up his residence in the Kremlin, the antient palace of the Tzars. On the following night the fire burst out again in different quarters of the city, and no exertions of the French could stop it: the wind spread the flames all over the city, and on the third day Napoleon was obliged to leave the Krem

lin, where he stood in imminent danger. The fire raged till
the 19th, when it abated, after destroying 7682 houses,
about four-fifths of the town. This burning of Moscow has
been attributed to a premeditated plan of the Russians; but
Count Rostopchin, the governor, has denied this positively.
'Several individuals,' he says, 'set fire to their own houses,
rather than leave them in possession of the invaders, and
the French soldiers seeking for plunder, or for wine and
spirits in the cellars, where they got intoxicated, did the
rest. (La Verité sur l'Incendie de Moscow, par le Comte
Rostopchin, Paris, 1823.)

The markets of Moscow used to be supplied, not from the
immediate neighbourhood, but from a considerable distance
in the interior, and especially from the southern districts
towards Kaluga, where the Russian army was now posted.
The French therefore could get no provisions, and they were
obliged to live chiefly on the flesh of their horses, which was
salted down.

|

125,000 slain, 132,000 dead of fatigue, hunger, disease, and cold, and 193,000 prisoners, including 3000 officers and 48 generals. 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 Russians. In the Berezina alone, and the adjoining marshes, 36,000 dead bodies were said to have been found. The French left behind 900 pieces of cannon and 25,000 waggons, cassoons, &c.

Napoleon, after his return to Paris, exerted himself to recruit his army by fresh conscriptions, by drafting the national guards into his skeleton battalions, by recalling all the men he could spare from Spain, and by sending the sailors of his 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 had now allied himself to Alexander, and the Allies had advanced as far as the Elbe. Austria remained neutral; she offered her mediation, but Napoleon would hear of no cession on his part, in either Germany, Italy, or Spain. He soon after repaired to Germany, where he fought and won the battle of Lutzen, 2nd May, 1813, from the Russians and Prussians united. On the 21st he attacked them again at Bautzen, and obliged them to retire. But these victories led to no decisive results; the Allies retired in good order, and lost few prisoners and no guns. Bonaparte bitterly complained of this, and his generals abserved to each other, that these were no longer the days of Marengo, Austerlitz, or Jena, when one battle decided the fate of the war. On the 22nd May, in another engagement with the retreating Allies, Duroc, his old and most faithful companion, who was one of the few personally attached to him, was struck by a cannon-ball and dreadfully mangled. The dying man was taken to the house of a clergyman near the spot. Napoleon went to see him and was deeply affected. It was the only instance in which he refused to attend to the military reports which were brought to him. Every thing to-morrow, was his answer to his aides-de-camp. He had a few days before lost another of his old brother-officers, Bessieres.

An armistice was now agreed to on the 4th June, and Bonaparte returned to Dresden, where Metternich came with fresh offers of mediation on the part of Austria. Austria proposed, as a principal condition, that Germany should be evacuated by the French arms, and the boundaries of the French empire should be fixed at the Rhine, as Napoleon himself had repeatedly declared. But Napoleon would not hear of giving up the new departments which he had annexed as far as Hamburg and Lubeck, nor would he resign the Protectorate of Germany. This led to a warm discussion, in which Napoleon said he only wished Austria to remain neutral while he fought the Russians and Prussians, and he offered to restore to her the Illyrian provinces as the price of her neutrality. Metternich replied that things had come to that pass that Austria could no longer remain neutral; she must be either with France or against France; that Germany had been long enough tormented by these wars, and it was time she should be 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 the armistice expired 10th August, and Austria joined the allies.

Napoleon remained among the ruins of Moscow for five weeks. He had sent Lauriston to the Russian head-quarters with a letter for the Emperor Alexander; the letter was forwarded to Petersburg, but no answer was returned. Napoleon was deceived in his calculations upon the temper of Alexander, and of the Russian people. At last, on the 19th October, seeing no chance of making peace, Napoleon began his retreat. The weather was fine and moderately cold. He attempted first to retire by Kaluga, where he expected to find provisions, but the stout resistance he met at Malo Yaroslavetz induced him reluctantly to turn again to the road by Vareia and Viazma to Smolensk, by which he had advanced. He was closely followed by the Russian army, but was more especially harassed by swarms of Cossacks under the Hetman Platoff. His rear divisions had sharp engagements at Viazma and at the passage of the Wop. (G Italiani in Russia.) His army dwindled away apace, through fatigue, privations, and the constant attacks of the Cossacks. It had left Moscow 120,000 strong, but was now reduced to one-half that number of fighting men: the rest formed a confused and disorderly mass in the rear, with an immense train of baggage and artillery. In this condition they were overtaken on the 6th November by the Russian winter, which that year set in earlier than usual. The emaciated frames of soldiers and horses could not resist this fresh enemy, and they dropped by thousands on the road, where they were soon buried under the snow. The bitter frosty nights killed thousands more; but the winter only completed the destruction of the army, which had begun during the advance in the summer. The wretchedness and the sufferings of the retreat from Moscow must be read in the works already referred to. The French at last reached Smolensk, where they found their stores, which had come up so far. Many had not tasted a piece of bread or biscuit since they had advanced through that town three months before. On the 14th November Napoleon left Smolensk with about 40,000 men able to carry arms. His rear divisions had now to sustain repeated attacks from the Russians, and when he arrived at Oresa, in Lithuania, he had only 12,000 men with arms in their hands. Of 40,000 horses there were hardly 3000 left. In this plight he reached the banks of the Berezina, where he was joined by a corps of reserve of nearly 50,000 men, under Victor and Qudinot. The passage of the Berezina, 26th and 27th November, cost him about one-half of his army thus reinforced. On the 3rd December Napoleon arrived at Malodeczno, whence he issued the famous 29th bulletin, which came like a clap of thunder to awaken Europe. This time he told the whole truth in all its sternness: except the guards, he had no longer an army. At Smorgoni, where he arrived on the 5th December, he took leave of his generals, left the command of the army, such as it was, to Murat, and set off in a sledge with Caulaincourt to return to Paris. He arrived at Warsaw on the 10th, where he had that curious conversation with De Pradt, which the latter has so humorously related. Continuing his route, he passed through Dresden on the 14th, and arrived at Paris on the 18th December at night. The remains of his unfortunate army were collected by Murat on the line of the Vistula. The report of the chief of the staff, Berthier, dated 16th December, gives a dismal picture of the state of the troops after Napoleon left them: The plunder, insubordination, and disorganization have reached On the 16th the highest pitch. The loss of the French and their auxi-October the first battle of Leipzig took place. It was liaries in this campaign is reckoned by Boutourlin at fought gallantly on both sides, but the allies had now a

A series of battles were fought about Dresden on the 24th, 25th, and 27th August between the Austrians and Prussians on one side and the French on the other, in which the latter had the advantage. But in pursuing the allies into Bohemia, Vandamme, with a corps of 30,000, was surrounded, and made prisoner with 8000 men at Culm. Oudinot was likewise worsted at Gross Beeren by the Swedes and Prussians under Bernadotte. Ney, who was sent by Napoleon to replace Oudinot, lost the battle of Dennewitz 6th September, near Berlin. On the Katzbach, in Silesia, Blücher routed the French opposed to him. The month of September passed in this desultory warfare, Napoleon's armies losing ground and strength on every side. Bavaria made a separate peace with Austria. The Saxons and other German troops began to forsake the French cause. At last, after a painful struggle between pride and necessity, Napoleon was obliged to begin his retreat upon Leipzig, followed by the allies. At Leipzig he determined to make a final stand. One victory alone,' he said, and Germany might still be his.