Chapter IX

GLORY AND CONQUEST (1805-1808).

Guizot has said at the commencement of his essay on Washington: "There is a spectacle as fine as that of a virtuous man struggling with adversity, and not less salutary to contemplate; it is the spectacle of a virtuous man at the head of a good cause and assuring his triumph."

There is a spectacle, sorrowful and sad, also salutary to contemplate in its austere teachings: it is that of a man of genius bearing along in his train an enthusiastic nation, and squandering all the living forces of his genius and his country in the service of a senseless ambition, as fatal to the sovereign as the people, both foolishly dragged along by a vision of glory towards injustices and crimes not at first foreseen. Such is the spectacle offered to us by the history of the Emperor Napoleon, and of France, after the battle of Austerlitz and the Peace of Presburg.

For the moment a stupor seemed to oppress the whole of Europe. Prussia, humiliated and indignant, had, however, just ratified the treaty of Schönbrunn; Austria was panting and conquered; England had lost her great minister: William Pitt died 23rd January, 1806, struck to the heart in his patriotic passion, by the new victory of the conqueror whom he dreaded for the liberty of the world. "Roll up this map of Europe," said he when the news was brought to him as he lay dying in his little house at Putney, "in ten years time there will be no further need for it." Already his rival had succeeded him in office, and Fox did not yet foresee that he would presently be inevitably brought to adopt the policy of resistance to the long increasing power of Napoleon. He was then making cordial advances towards him. The Emperor Alexander had not disarmed, but the appeals to him from the Court of Naples found him immovable. Already the Bourbons were trembling on the thrones they still occupied.

Napoleon announced it in his thirty-seventh bulletin, dated from Vienna. "General Saint Cyr marches by long stages towards Naples, to punish the treason of the queen, and hurl from the throne this criminal woman who has violated everything that is held sacred among men." Intercession was attempted for her with the Emperor. He replied, "Ought hostilities to recommence, and the nation to sustain a war of thirty years, a perfidy so atrocious cannot he pardoned."

In this struggle between violence and treason the issue could not remain long doubtful. In the name of Joseph Bonaparte, Masséna commanded the army which came to take possession of the kingdom of Naples. For the second time, King Ferdinand and Queen Charlotte took refuge in Sicily. "It is the interest of France to make sure of the kingdom of Naples by a useful and easy conquest," the Moniteur had formerly declared, in publishing the treaty of neutrality agreed to by the House of Bourbon. The work was accomplished; on the 30th of March, Joseph Bonaparte was proclaimed King of the Two Sicilies. The city of Gaëta alone was to prolong its resistance.

Two months later, with the appearance of the national consent, Napoleon elevated his brother Louis to the throne which he had instituted for him in Holland. The prince had been ordered to protect this country, threatened by the Anglo-Swedish army. After the battle of Austerlitz he presented himself before the Emperor. "Why have you quitted Holland?" demanded the latter brusquely, "we saw you there with pleasure, and you should have remained there." "Sounds of a monarchical transformation circulate in Holland," replied Louis Bonaparte, "they are not agreeable to this free and worthy nation, nor are they any more pleasant to me."

Napoleon broke out into a passion. "He gave me to understand," says Prince Louis in his Mémoires, "that if I had not been more consulted over this affair, it was for a subject only to obey." At the same time the Emperor wrote to Talleyrand, "I have seen this evening Admiral Verhuell. In two words hear what this question amounts to. Holland is without executive power. It requires that power, and I will give it Prince Louis. In place of the Grand Pensionary Schimmelpenninck, there shall be a king. The argument is that without that I shall not be able to give peace a firm settlement. Prince Louis must make his entry into Amsterdam within twenty days." The accession to the throne of the new monarch was celebrated on the 5th June, 1806.

Napoleon disposed at his will of crowns and appanages, elevating or dethroning kings, magnificently dowering the companions of his military life and the servants of his policy. He had at the same time conceived the idea of forming beyond his States a barrier which should separate them from the great German powers, always secretly hostile. The dukes and the electors whom he had made kings, the princes whose domains he had aggrandized, were to unite in a confederation for the protection of the new State of Germany. The seat of government was established at Frankfort. The town of Ratisbon, formerly honored by the assemblies of the Diet, had been ceded to Bavaria. The Diet was officially informed that Prussia received a decisive authorization to form in its turn a confederation of the North. Most of the German States having been forcibly taken from him, Francis II voluntarily resigned the vain title he still bore; he ceased to be Emperor of Germany, and became Emperor of Austria.

Meanwhile the overtures of Fox towards France had until now remained without result. England refused to treat without Russia, whom the Emperor would not admit to a common negotiation. "Regrets are useless," wrote Fox to Talleyrand on the 10th April, 1806; "but if the great man whom you serve, could see with the same eye with which I behold it, the true glory which would accrue to him from a moderate and just peace, what good fortune would not result from it for France and for all Europe?"

In the depth of his soul and in his secret thoughts Napoleon now desired peace. Amongst the English prisoners detained in France after the rupture of the treaty of Amiens, a few had been exchanged since the advent of Fox to the ministry; one of them, Lord Yarmouth (afterwards Lord Hertford), elegant and dissipated, had been commissioned by his government to talk over familiarly with Talleyrand the chances of peace that existed between the two nations. Napoleon had conceded Hanover to Prussia as the price of peace; he was ready to retrocede it to England, free to indemnify Prussia at the expense of Germany. The negotiation was carried on secretly, the negotiators meeting as men of the world rather than diplomats. Oubril, an envoy from the Emperor Alexander, had just arrived in Paris, charged with reassuring France on the subject of a circumstance which had recently taken place in Dalmatia. The Russian admiral, Sinavin, animated with unseasonable zeal, with the aid of the Montenegrins had seized the mouths of the Cattaro. The Austrian officers, appointed to hand over the territory to the French, had not opposed any resistance to the Russians. The two Emperors of Austria and Russia hastened to disavow their agents; on 20th July Oubril signed with France a separate peace.

This was failing in loyalty towards England, who had refused to treat without its ally. The Emperor of Russia perceived it; he had thought the cabinet of London more inclined to conclude peace at any cost. The health of Fox was giving way, and his successors were likely to be less favorable to the demands of Napoleon. Alexander declared that he would not ratify the treaty negotiated by Oubril. This news arrived at Paris on the 3rd of September, 1806. On the 13th of the same month Fox expired in London, amiable and beloved to the last day of his life; ardently devoted to his friends, to freedom, to all noble and generous causes; a great orator and a great debater; feeble in his political conduct even in opposition, incapable of governing and of sustaining the great struggle which for so long agitated Europe. At his death the party of resistance resumed power in England. In Germany the secret of the negotiations with regard to Hanover had transpired; the disregard of sworn faith which Prussia had more than once practised during the war fell back upon herself with crushing weight. Napoleon thought nothing of his engagements; he had detached King Frederick William from his natural allies, and showed himself disposed to snatch from him the price of his compliance. The nation and the king had with great difficulty accepted the treaty negotiated by Haugwitz; indignation broke forth on every side. It had already betrayed itself for a few weeks past by numerous and violent pamphlets against the Emperor of the French and against the armies of occupation. Napoleon responded to them by a despotic and cruel act which was to bear bitter fruits. On the 5th August he wrote to Marshal Berthier:—

"My cousin,—I imagine that you have had the booksellers of Augsburg and Nuremberg arrested. My intention is that they should be indicted before a military tribunal, and shot within twenty-four hours. It is no ordinary crime to spread libels in places where the French army is stationed, in order to excite the inhabitants against it. It is a crime of high treason. The sentence shall set forth that wherever there is an army, the duty of the commander being to watch over its safety, such and such individuals convicted of having attempted to stir up the inhabitants of Suabia against the French army are condemned to death. You will place the criminals in the midst of a division, and you will appoint seven colonels to try them. You will have the sentence published throughout Germany." Only one bookseller of Nuremberg, named Palm, was arrested, and suffered the terrible sentence. Berthier never forgot the cruel necessity to which he had been subjected in ordering this odious procedure. "He makes us condemn under the penalty of being condemned ourselves," said General Hullin, in reporting the murder of the Duc d'Enghien.

The growing irritation of Germany only awaited an excuse for bursting forth. A despatch of the Marquis of Lucchesini, then minister of Prussia at Paris, gave the protracted irritation of the court of Berlin its opportunity. According to the information received from this diplomatist, the French government was putting pressure upon the German Princes of the North, to prevent them from entering the Confederation projected by Prussia. A letter from King Frederick William and a diplomatic note demanded peremptorily the evacuation of Germany by the French troops, and liberty of action for the German Princes. At the same time the armaments of Prussia, for a long time prepared in secret, became public. Already the Emperor Napoleon had quitted Paris, without Laforest, his minister at Berlin, having been authorized to reply to the demands of the Prussians. "We have been deceived three times," said Napoleon. "We must have facts; let Prussia disarm, and France will re-cross the Rhine, and not before." It was to the Senate and to the soldiers alone that Napoleon now addressed the explanation of his aggressive movements against Prussia.

"Soldiers, the order for your re-entry into France was issued; you had already approached it by several marches. Triumphant fêtes awaited you, and the preparations to receive you had already commenced in the capital.

"But whilst we abandon ourselves to this too confident security, new plots are hatched under the mask of friendship and alliance. War cries have made themselves heard from Berlin. For two months we have been provoked more and more every day.

"The same faction, the same spirit of giddiness which, under favor of our internal dissensions, conducted the Prussians fourteen years ago into the midst of the plains of Champagne, rules in their councils; if it is no longer Paris that they wish to burn and overthrow to its foundations, it is to-day their flag that they wish to plant in the capitals of our allies; it is Saxony that they wish to compel by a shameful transaction to renounce its independence by ranging it in the number of their provinces; it is, in fine, your laurels that they wish to snatch from your foreheads. They wish us to evacuate Germany at the sight of their arms. Fools! What? Shall we then have braved the seasons, the seas, the deserts, conquered Europe several times allied against us, carried our glory from the east to the west, in order to return to-day into our country like fugitives who have abandoned their allies; to hear it said that the French eagle fled in fear at the mere sight of the Prussian armies?"

It was, in fact, a fourth continental coalition which was beginning to be formed against France. Prussia alone was then on the scene: long prudent and circumspect in its conduct, it had been drawn in this time, in spite of its weakness, by irresistible anger and indignation. Napoleon did not dread the war. "I have nearly 150,000 men in Germany," wrote he to King Joseph; "with them I can subdue Vienna, Berlin, St. Petersburg." The reply that he at last deigned to address to the King of Prussia from the camp of Gera breathed the most haughty confidence. A few engagements had already taken place. "Monsieur my brother," wrote Napoleon to Frederick William, "I only received on the 7th the letter of your Majesty of the 25th September. I am vexed that you have been induced to sign this sort of thing. You appoint a meeting with me on the 8th. Like a good knight, I keep faith with you, I am in the middle of Saxony; believe me I have such forces with me that all your forces cannot long prevent my victory. But why spill so much blood? To what end? Sire, I have been your friend for six years past. I do not wish to profit by that species of giddiness which animates your council, and has caused you to commit political errors, at which Europe is still astonished, and military errors of such an enormity that Europe will soon ring with them. If in your note you had asked possible things from me, I would have granted them to you; you have asked for my dishonor: you ought to have been certain of my reply. War is then made between us, the alliance broken forever; but why make our subjects kill each other? Sire, your Majesty will be conquered; you will have compromised the peace of your days and the existence of your subjects without the shadow of a pretext. I have nothing to gain against your Majesty. I want nothing, and I have wanted nothing from you. The present war is an impolitic war."

Napoleon had well estimated the forces of the enemy he was preparing to crush; he had concentrated under his hand a power superior to all the resources of the Prussians, whose soldiers were courageous and well disciplined, but for a long time little exercised in war. Napoleon's precautions were taken at every point of his vast territory; he had called new troops under his banners; everywhere he held in check his enemies, either secret or avowed. At one moment he thought of tendering his hand to Austria; he wrote to his ambassador at Vienna, M. de la Rochefoucauld: "My position and my forces are such that I have no cause to fear any one; but at length all these efforts are burdensome to my people. Of the three powers, Russia, Prussia, and Austria, I must have one for an ally. In any case one cannot rely on Prussia: there remains only Austria. The navy of France formerly flourished through the benefit resulting from an alliance with Austria. This power also feels the need of remaining quiet, a sentiment that I partake with all my heart. The house of Austria having often caused hints to be thrown out to me, the present moment, if it knows how to profit by it, is the most favorable."

Austria remained immovable, the uneasy spectator of the events that were preparing. The Russians had not quitted their positions on the Vistula; already the Prussians had invaded Saxony, compelling that little power to furnish them with an army of 20,000 men. The old Duke of Brunswick collected at the same time the contingent of the Elector of Hesse-Cassel, who had sought in vain to maintain his neutrality. The French army occupied Franconia; it was across these mountainous defiles that Napoleon had resolved to march against the enemy divided into two corps, under the orders of the Duke of Brunswick and the Prince of Hohenlohe. Already Marshals Davout and Bernadotte were established upon the left bank of the Saale. The troops of the Prince of Hohenlohe occupied the road from Weimar to Jena. Marshal Lannes had taken possession of the heights which commanded this last town. On the morning of the 14th October, the combat was opened against the corps of the Prince of Hohenlohe; superior in number to the troops employed by the Emperor Napoleon, but surprised by an attack of which they had not foreseen the vigor, the Prussian soldiers were soon thrown into a panic terror. The two wings of the French army, commanded by Soult and Augereau, already enveloped the enemy when Napoleon sent forward the guard and the reserves. The centre of the Prussian army fell back before this enormous mass; the retreat changed into a rout. At the same moment Marshal Biechel arrived by forced marches to the aid of the Prince of Hohenlohe; he brought 20,000 men, but in vain did he struggle to rally and curb the fugitives; he was drawn along and repulsed by the conquered as well as by the conquerors. French and Germans entered at the same time into Weimar; already the crowd of prisoners hindered the march of the victorious army.

At the same hour on the same day, with forces less considerable, Marshal Davout struggled alone, near Auerstadt, against the enemy's corps, commanded by the Duke of Brunswick and by King Frederick William. Marshal Bernadotte had quitted him, obeying literally the orders of the Emperor, who had enjoined him to occupy Hamburg, little careful, perhaps, of the danger to which he exposed his companion-in-arms. Davout cut the road of the Prussians in the defile of Koesen. The Duke of Brunswick, marching himself at the head of his troops, rushed upon him, violently attacking our immovable squares under a murderous fire. The old general fell, mortally wounded; the effort of Prince William and the king remained equally fruitless. Profiting by the trouble caused by his resistance, Davout threw his troops forward, and seized the heights of Eckartsberg; there, protected by his artillery, he could still defend his positions. The King of Prussia gave orders to retire on Weimar; he counted on joining the corps of the Prince of Hohenlohe, in order to renew the attack with all his forces. He had already travelled over half the distance without being harassed by Marshal Davout, whose troops were exhausted; but Bernadotte barred his passage; the confused waves of fugitives from Jena precipitated themselves into the ranks of their friends and compatriots. Behind them appeared the French soldiers, ardent in pursuit. The king turned off hastily, by way of Sommerda; the darkness was increasing, and the disorder increased with the darkness. In a single day the entire Prussian army was destroyed. "They can do nothing but gather up the débris," said Napoleon.

He took care to crush everywhere these sad remains of a generous and patriotic effort. Whilst his lieutenants were pursuing the wandering detachments of the Prussian army, the emperor imposed upon the nation he had just conquered a contribution of a hundred and fifty-nine millions. He sent the elector of Hesse to Metz, announcing in a letter to Marshal Mortier his intention that the house of Hesse should cease to reign, and would be effaced from the number of the powers. The Saxon prisoners, on the contrary, were sent back free to their sovereign. Everywhere the English merchandise found in the ports and warehouses was confiscated for the profit of the army. The Prussian commerce was ruined like the state.

Napoleon advanced upon Berlin; the King of Prussia sought to reach Magdeburg, constantly accompanied by the queen, whose warlike and patriotic ardor excited the rage and the insults of the emperor. "The Queen of Prussia has been many times in view of our posts," says the 8th bulletin of the grand army; "she is in continual fear and alarms. Last night she passed her regiment in review; she continually excited the king and the generals; she craves for blood. Blood the most precious has flowed; the most distinguished generals are those upon whom the first blows have fallen." Gross insinuations aggravated these rude allusions. "All the Prussians assign the misfortunes of Prussia to the journey of the Emperor Alexander. The change which has since then taken place in the spirit of the queen, who, from being a timid and modest woman, occupied with her home affairs, has become turbulent and warlike, is quite a sudden revolution. She desired all at once to have a regiment, to go to the Council, and she has led the monarchy so well that in a few days she has conducted it to the edge of a precipice."

A few battles finally opened everywhere the roads to the conqueror; Magdeburg was besieged, Erfurt had surrendered, Marshal Davout occupied Wittemberg, and Lannes occupied Dessau; Bernadotte had thrown himself against Halle, still defended by Prince Eugène of Wurtemberg. The resistance was severe; when the emperor came to visit the battle-field, he recognized among the corpses still scattered upon the ground the uniforms of the 32nd half-brigade. "Still the 32nd!" cried he. "I have had so many of them killed in Egypt, in Italy, everywhere, that there ought to be no more of them." It was with the same accent of indifferent and cold reflection that he was to say much later, in contemplating his sleeping son, "How long it takes to make a man! I have, however, seen fourteen of them cut off by a cannon-shot!"

Napoleon was at Potsdam, in the palace of the great Frederick, the military genius of this prince had for a long time excited his admiration. "At Potsdam has been found the sword of the great Frederick, the sash of a general, which he carried in the Seven Years' War, and his cordon of the Black Eagle," says the 19th bulletin.

The emperor seized upon these trophies with eagerness, and said, "I prefer these to twenty millions." Then, thinking a moment to whom he should confide this precious trust, "I will send it," said he, "to my old soldiers of the Hanoverian War; I will make a present of it to the governor of the Invalides; it shall remain at the Hotel."

On the 27th, for the first time in his life, Napoleon entered in triumph into an enemy's capital. For two days Berlin had been occupied by Marshal Davout. A gloomy sadness rested on all faces, but order was everywhere respected. The Prussian nation had valiantly defended itself, and there was no shame mingled with its sorrow. The dying Duke of Brunswick recommended his subjects to the emperor. The latter, in a passion, recalled bitterly to the old general the wild manifesto published in his name at the commencement of the French Revolution. "If I had the city of Brunswick demolished, and if I did not leave of it one stone on another, what would your prince say? Does not the law of retaliation permit me to do to Brunswick what he wanted to do to my capital? It is the Duke of Brunswick whom France and Prussia can accuse of being the sole cause of this war. Tell the general that he will be treated with all the respect due to a Prussian officer, but that in a Prussian general I cannot recognize a sovereign."

The same harshness characterized the reception by the emperor of the great Prussian nobles. "Do not come into my presence," said he to the Prince of Hatzfeld, who brought before him the civil magistrates of Berlin. "I have no need of your services; retire to your own estates." A letter from the prince to the King of Prussia, giving an account of the entry of the emperor, was intercepted. Napoleon saw treason in this communication, and a decree was immediately sent to Marshal Davout. "The Prince of Hatzfeld, who presented himself at the head of the deputation from Berlin, as entrusted with the civil government of this capital, and who, notwithstanding this office, and the duties which are attached to it, has made use of the knowledge which his position afforded him as to the situation of the French army, to convey intelligence respecting it to the enemy, will be tried before a military commission, in order to be judged as a traitor and a spy.

"Marshal Davout is charged with the execution of this order.

"The military commission will be composed of seven colonels of the corps of Marshal Davout, by whom he will be tried."

In vain all the most faithful servants of the emperor wasted their entreaties in order to obtain mercy for the Prince of Hatzfeld; only the wife of the accused, far advanced in pregnancy, and overwhelmed with terror, succeeded in arresting the anger of the conqueror. "This is most certainly the writing of your husband," said he to the poor woman, who could scarcely support herself. And as she dared not deny it: "Throw this letter into the fire," added Napoleon, "and I shall no longer have any power to procure his death." It was Marshal Duroc who had taken upon himself the introduction of the Princess of Hatzfeld to the palace.

The prince of Hohenlohe, hard pushed by Murat and Marshal Lannes, had capitulated before Prenzlow, on the 28th of October; General Blucher, who had seized by force the free city of Lubeck, in the hope of finding there a place of support, was constrained, on November 7th, to follow his example. On the 8th, Magdeburg surrendered to Marshal Ney. Lannes occupied Stettin, and Davout occupied Custrin. "Sire," wrote Lannes to Napoleon, "I read your proclamation to the soldiers; they all began to cry 'Long live the Emperor of the West!' I beseech your Majesty to let me know if, for the future, you wish me to address my despatches to the Emperor of the West, and I ask it in the name of my corps d'armée."

Napoleon did not reply; this dream of supreme glory, which he had had an idea of realizing in the footsteps of Charlemagne, doubtless appeared to him still beyond his reach. More than one sign, however, betrayed the undying hope, that he was never to realize. It is only by reason and the general good that genius is effectively sustained in extraordinary enterprises. From day to day, and from victory to victory, these great supports of the human mind became less and less visible in the conduct of the Emperor Napoleon.

Hanover and the Hanseatic towns were occupied by the French army; Prussia asked for a suspension of hostilities, in order to treat for peace. But the emperor had conceived a new project. In the ceaseless activity of his thoughts he reasonably enough looked on England as the implacable and invincible enemy who directed and excited against him the animosity of Europe. It was against England that he henceforth directed his efforts. "I am about to reconquer the colonies over the globe," he wrote to the King of Holland. It was in the same spirit that he made his declaration to the Senate: "We have unalterably determined not to evacuate Berlin or Warsaw, or the provinces which have fallen into our hands by force of arms, until a general peace be concluded, the Spanish, Dutch, and French colonies restored, the foundations of the Ottoman power confirmed, and the absolute independence of this vast empire, the first interest of our people, irrevocably secured."

These brilliant pledges of victory, which Napoleon kept in his hand as hostages for the purpose of enforcing submission on England, did not, however, appear to him sufficient; he resolved to strike at the wealth of his enemy a mortal blow, which should exhaust its resources at the fountain-head. On the 21st of November, 1806, he sent from Berlin to Talleyrand a decree, putting England in the Index Expurgatorius of Europe —at least, of that part of Europe which was in submission to his rule. The continental blockade was established and regulated in the following terms:—

"The British Isles are declared in a state of blockade.

"All commerce, and all correspondence, with the British Isles are forbidden. Consequently, letters or packets addressed to England, or to an Englishman, or written in the English language, will not pass through the post, and will be seized.

"Every individual English subject, whatever may be his state or condition, who shall be found in the countries occupied by our troops, or in the countries of our allies, shall be made prisoner of war.

"Every warehouse, all merchandise, all property of whatsoever nature it may be, belonging to an English subject, shall be deemed lawful prizes.

"Commerce in English merchandise is forbidden; any ships coming directly from England or from the English colonies, or having been there since the publication of the present decree, shall not be admitted into any port."

The Emperor Napoleon was right in recognizing, in his declaration to the Senate, that it was lamentable, after so many years of civilization, to recur to the principles, the barbarism, of the first ages of nations; and the pretexts which he adduced for this necessity were as insufficient as the consequences that flowed from his policy were odious. More than once the English had replied by violent and rude proceedings to the proceedings of the same nature in which Napoleon had for a long time been indulging on all seas. They had claimed to interdict the commerce of neutrals by imprudent and unjust "Orders in Council;" a still more inexcusable iniquity fettered at one stroke the commerce of Europe in all its branches, carrying annoyance into all families, and arbitrarily modifying the conditions of all existence. From henceforth, in the poorest household, no one could forget for a single day the power and the vengeance of the Emperor Napoleon, as well as the death grapple between him and England. It is a terrible undertaking for the most powerful of men to change on all sides the habits of life, and lay his hands upon the daily interests, of every one. The continental blockade was in Napoleon's hands a redoubtable weapon against his enemy; the firmness of England and the general distress, were yet cruelly to turn that weapon against his own bosom.

He was not yet satisfied, and Napoleon resolved on making an end of all his adversaries. Russia alone, silent and immovable, remained the ally of England, and its last support. Its armies occupied Poland, always quivering under the hands of its oppressors, ready to rise up against them at the first appeal. It was upon the Vistula that the emperor had resolved to go and seek the Russians, intoxicating the Poles beforehand with the hope of the reconstitution of their country, and assured of finding amongst them inexhaustible stores of provisions, ammunition, and soldiers. "A Pole is not a man," he was accustomed to say, "he is a sabre." He counted on all these sabres being ready to leap from their scabbards at his voice, for the service of Poland. To the disquietude of the court of Vienna on the subject of the insurrections which might be produced in Galicia, Napoleon answered in advance by the promise of Silesia. "The insurrection in Poland is a consequence of my war with Russia and Prussia," wrote he to General Andréossy, recently sent to Vienna. "I have never recognized the partition of Poland; but, a faithful observer of treaties, in favoring an insurrection in Russian and Prussian Poland, I will not mix myself up with Austrian Poland. Does Austria wish to keep Galicia? Would she cede a part of it? I am willing to give her all the facilities she can desire. Does she wish to treat openly or secretly? After these manifestations I ought to say that I fear no one."

At the same time that he entered Poland, Napoleon excited the hostile sentiment of the Porte against Russia. General Sebastiani was charged to say to Sultan Selim: "Prussia, who was leagued with Russia, has disappeared; I have destroyed its armies, and I am master of its fortified towns. My armies are on the Vistula, and Warsaw is in my power. Prussian and Russian Poland are rising, and forming armies to reconquer their independence; it is the moment for reconquering yours. I have given orders to my ambassador to enter into all necessary engagements with you. If you have been prudent up to this time, a longer forbearance towards Russia would be weakness, and cause the loss of your empire."

The King of Prussia had refused to accept the harsh conditions of the armistice; he had resolved to struggle to the end, and to join the remains of his forces to the army of the Emperor Alexander. "Your Majesty has had me informed that you are throwing yourself into the arms of the Russians," wrote Napoleon to King Frederick William. "The future will make it apparent whether you have chosen the best and most effective part. You have taken the dice-box and thrown the dice, and the dice will decide the question." Already the French armies had entered Poland, but they were not there alone; two Russian corps, under the orders of General Benningsen and General Buxhouden, had crossed the Niemen, and advanced towards the Vistula, and soon afterwards they entered Warsaw. Marshals Davout and Lannes sent reports, apparently contradictory, but in reality identical, as to popular feeling in Poland. Davout had found at Posen an extreme enthusiasm; he could scarcely furnish with arms those who pressed forward to ask for them; the same sentiment animated the population of Warsaw, when he made his entry in pursuit of the Russians, who fell back before him. Meanwhile he wrote to the emperor, on December 1st: "Levies of men are very easily made, but there is a want of persons who can direct their instruction and organization. There is also a want of guns. The feeling of Warsaw is excellent, but the upper class are making use of their influence to calm the ardor which is prevalent in the middle classes. The uncertainty of the future terrifies them, and they leave it to be sufficiently understood that they will only openly declare themselves when, with the declaration of their independence, they can also receive tacit guarantees for its maintenance." Lannes regretted the campaign in Poland; he recommended that they should establish themselves on the Oder, and pointed out the inconveniences and dangers of the enterprise they were about to attempt in a sterile and desert country. "They are always the same—frivolous, divided, anarchical; we shall uselessly waste our blood for their sakes, without founding anything durable."

Murat dreamed of seating himself on the throne of a restored Poland, and he was angry at the mistrust of the great nobles. Napoleon read in his correspondence a thought that the brilliant chief of the vanguard dared not express; he had said to Davout, at the beginning of the campaign, "When I shall see 40,000 Poles in the field I will declare their independence, not before." In their turn the Poles, long crushed down by harsh servitude, asked for guarantees from the conqueror, who had only delivered them in order to subjugate them afresh. "Those who show so much circumspection, and ask so many guarantees, are selfish persons, who are not warmed by the love of country," wrote the emperor to Murat, already Grand Duke of Berg for several months past. "I am experienced in the study of men. My greatness is not founded on the aid of a few thousand Poles. It is for them to profit, with enthusiasm, by present circumstances; it is not for me to take the first step. Let them display a firm resolution to render themselves independent—let them engage to uphold the king who will be given to them, and then I shall see what I shall next have to do. Let it be well understood that I do not come to beg a throne for any of my relations; I have no lack of thrones to give to my family."

In that conversation with the world which he kept up by bulletins from the grand army, Napoleon spoke of the Poles in other language; but he no longer laid bare the secret of his thoughts. "The army has entered into Warsaw," wrote he from Posen on December 1st. "It is difficult to paint the enthusiasm of the Poles. Our entry into this great city was a triumph, and the feelings that the Poles of all classes display since our arrival cannot be expressed. The love of country and the national sentiment is not only preserved in its entirety in the hearts of the people, but it has even gained new vigor from misfortune. Their first passion, their chief desire, is to become once more a nation. The richest leave their castles in order to come and demand, with loud cries, the re-establishment of the nation, and to offer their children, their fortunes, their influence. This spectacle is truly touching. Already they have everywhere resumed their ancient costume and their ancient customs.

"Shall the throne of Poland be re-established, and shall this great nation reassert its existence and its independence? From the depths of the tomb shall it be born again to life? God alone, who holds in His hands the results of all events, is the arbiter of this grand political problem."

Under the hand of God, which in the depths of his soul he often recognized, the Emperor Napoleon believed himself to be the arbiter of the grand problem of the independence of Poland. He remained personally indifferent to it, resolved on pursuing his own interest, either in aid of, or in contempt of, the interests and aspirations of the Poles.

In spite of the generous cordiality of the population, who lavished their resources upon those from whom they hoped for deliverance, Napoleon and his troops perceived that they had entered a desert. "Our soldiers find that the solitudes of Poland contrast with the smiling fields of their own country; but they add immediately, 'They are a fine people, these Poles!'" Before establishing himself for the winter in this savage country, under a frozen sky, and on a cold and damp soil, it was necessary to push back the enemy. Napoleon only went to Warsaw, and advanced towards the Russians entrenched behind the Narew and the Ukra. Already his lieutenants, Davout, Augereau, Ney, had taken up positions for attack. Furious battles at Czarnovo, at Pultusk, at Golymin, at Soldau, obliged the Russians to fall back upon the Pregel, without disaster to their corps d'armée, although they had been constantly beaten. The rigor of the season had prevented those grand concentrations of forces and those brilliant strokes in which Napoleon ordinarily delighted; the troops advanced with difficulty through impenetrable forests, soaked by the rain: the men fell in great numbers without a battle. In the month of January, 1807, the emperor at last took up his winter-quarters, carefully fortifying his positions, and laying siege to the towns which still resisted him in Silesia. Breslau, Glogau, Brieg successively succumbed. The old Marshal Lefebvre was charged with the siege of Dantzig.

Meanwhile the Russians, henceforth concentrated under the orders of General Benningsen, and less affected than the French by the inclemencies to which they were accustomed, had not suspended their military operations. Soon Marshal Ney, in one of those armed reconnoitering expeditions which he often risked without orders, was able to assure himself that the enemy was approaching us by a prolonged movement, which was to bring him to the shore of the Baltic. Already a few battles had taken place. The weather became cold; ice succeeded to the mud. Napoleon quitted Warsaw on January 30th, resolved to march against the enemy. "Since when have the conquered had the right of choosing the finest country for their winter-quarters?" said the proclamation to the army. Twice a great battle appeared imminent; twice a movement of the Russians in retreat enabled them to escape from the overwhelming forces which Napoleon had been able to collect; a few skirmishes, however, signalized the first days of February. On the seventh day's march General Benningsen entered Eylau.

The French entered in pursuit, and dislodged them. The Russians made their bivouac outside the city whilst the battle was preparing for the morrow. The weather was cold; one half of the country upon which the armies were camped was only a sheet of ice covering some small lakes. The snow lay thick upon the ground, and continued to fall in great flakes. The two armies were composed of nearly equal forces; several French corps, detached or delayed, were about to fail in the great effort which this rough winter campaign required. The troops were fatigued and hungry. "I have wherewith to nourish the army for a year," wrote Napoleon to Fouché, annoyed at the reports current in France as to the sufferings of the soldiers, "it is absurd to think one can want corn and wine, bread and meat, in Poland." The provisions remained, nevertheless, insufficient. "I can assure you," said the Duc de Fezensac in his military souvenirs, "that with all these orders so freely given in January, our corps d'armée was dying of hunger in March."

Long before the dawn of a slowly breaking and cloudy day Napoleon was already in the streets, establishing his guard in the cemetery of Eylau, and ordering his line of battle. The formidable artillery of the Russians covered their two lines; presently the shells fired the town of Eylau and the village of Rothenen, which protected a division of Marshal Soult's. The two armies remained immovable in a rain of cannon-balls. The Russians were the first to move forward, in order to attack the mill of Eylau; "they were impatient at suffering so much," says the 58th bulletin of the grand army. Nearly at the same moment the corps of Marshal Davout arrived; the emperor had him supported by Marshal Augereau. The snow fell in thick masses, obscuring the view of the soldiers; the troops of Augereau turned swiftly to the left, decimated by the Russian artillery. The marshal himself, already ill before the battle, was struck by a ball. The officers were nearly all wounded. The emperor called Murat: "Wilt thou let us be annihilated by these people?" The cavalry shot immediately in advance; only the imperial guard remained massed round Napoleon.

In a moment Murat had routed the Russian centre, but already the battalions were reforming. Marshal Soult defended with difficulty the positions of Eylau; Davout maintained a furious struggle against the left wing of the Russians: the Prussians, preceding by one hour Marshal Ney, who had been pursuing them for several days, made their appearance on the battle-field. The dead and dying formed round the emperor a ghastly rampart; gloomy and calm he contemplated the attack of the Prussians and Russians united, in great numbers, and pressing upon Marshal Davout. The latter glanced along the ranks of his troops: "The cowards will go to die in Siberia," said he, "the brave will die here like men of honor." The effort of the enemy died out against the heroic resistance of the French divisions, who maintained their positions.

The night was falling; the carnage was horrible. In spite of the serious advantage of the French troops, General Benningsen was preparing to attempt a new assault, when he learnt the approach of Marshal Ney, who was debouching towards Althof. The bad weather and the distance retarded the effect of the combinations of the emperor. He had caused much blood to be spilt; victory, however, remained with him; the Russians and Prussians were decidedly beating a retreat. The French remained masters of this most sanguinary battlefield, destitute of provisions, without shelter, in the wet and cold. Marshal Ney, who had taken no part in the action, to which, however, he assured success, surveyed the plain, covered with corpses and inundated with blood. "He turned away from the hideous spectacle," says M. de Fezensac, "crying, 'What a massacre, and without result!'" The Russians had retired behind the Pregel to cover Königsberg. Napoleon re-entered his cantonments. He established his headquarters at the little town of Osterode, directing from this advanced post the works of defence on the Vistula and Passarge, at the same time as the preparations for the siege of Dantzig. On arriving there he wrote to King Joseph: "Staff-officers, colonels, officers, have not undressed for two months, and a few of them not for four; I have myself been fifteen days without taking off my boots. We are in the midst of snow and mud, without wine, without brandy, without bread, eating potatoes and meat, making long marches and countermarches, without anything to sweeten existence, and fighting at bayonet-point and under showers of grape-shot, the wounded very often obliged to be removed on a sledge for fifty leagues in the open air. After having destroyed the Prussian monarchy, we are making war against the remnants of Prussia, against the Russians, the Calmucs, the Cossacks, and the peoples of the north who formerly invaded the Roman Empire; we are making war in all its energy and all its horror." Such vigorous language was not permitted to all. "The gloomy pictures that have been drawn of our situation," wrote Napoleon to Fouché on April 13th, "have for authors a few gossips of Paris, who are simply blockheads. Never has the position of France been grander or finer. As to Eylau, I have said and resaid that the bulletin exaggerated the loss; and, for a great battle, what are 2000 men slain? There were none of the battles of Louis XIV. or Louis XV. which did not cost more. When I lead back my army to France and across the Rhine, it will be seen that there are not many wanting at the roll-call."

It was against Russia and against the vigor of its resistance that Napoleon now concentrated all his efforts. Tardy hostilities had at length commenced between the Porte and Russia. For a moment the Sultan had appeared to hesitate before the demands of the English, united to those of the Russians: Admiral Duckworth forced the Dardanelles at the head of a squadron, and destroyed the Turkish division anchored at Cape Nagara. In spite of the terror which reigned in Constantinople, the energetic influence of General Sebastiani carried the day. The overtures of the English Legation were repulsed; the capital was armed all of a sudden, under the direction of French officers. When Admiral Duckworth appeared before the place, he found it in good condition of defence; thus the English squadron could not leave the Straits of the Dardanelles without sustaining serious damage. For the British navy the evil was small; the moral effect could not but have some influence.

The Emperor Napoleon sought to profit by this circumstance to enter afresh into negotiations with Austria. On the day after the battle of Eylau he sent General Bertrand to the King of Prussia, offering to surrender him his States as far as the Elbe. The messenger was charged with the significant insinuation: "You will give just a hint that as to Poland, since the emperor has become acquainted with it, he attaches to it no value." The sacrifice of a fourth of the Prussian monarchy seemed too bitter for King Frederick William; he replied to the envoy with evasive answers. Napoleon became disdainful as regards the Prussians. It was with Austria that he determined henceforth to treat concerning the affairs of Prussia. "See now my plan, and what you must say to M. de Vincent," wrote he on March 9, 1807, to Talleyrand: "To restore to the King of Prussia his throne and his estates, and to maintain the integrity of the Porte. As to Poland, that will be found included in the first part of the sentence. If these bases of peace suit Austria, we shall be able to understand each other. As for the remark of M. de Vincent, that Prussia is too thoroughly humiliated to hope for recovery, that is reasonable. The end of all this will be an arrangement between France and Austria, or between France and Russia; for there will be no repose for the people, who need it so much, except by this union."

Austria responded to these propositions of alliance by offer of mediation; at the same time, and without ostentation, as a precautionary measure, she was getting ready for war, and was secretly preparing her armaments. The small places in the north of Prussia had fallen, one after another; Dantzig alone was still waiting for the army which was to besiege it. The Prussians had profited by this delay to put the place into a good state of defence. On all sides Napoleon collected fresh forces, as if resolved upon terrifying his secret enemies and crushing his declared ones. The conscription for 1808 was enforced in France by an anticipation of nearly two years; the Italian regiments and the auxiliary German corps were concentrated on the Vistula; the emperor even went so far as to demand from Spain the contingent which the Prince de la Paix had offered him on the day after the battle of Jena. Formerly the Spanish minister had nursed other ideas, and had counted on serving the Prussians; he, however, hastened to despatch 10,000 men to the all-powerful conqueror. An army of reserve had just been created on the Elbe; by the middle of March the town of Dantzig was completely invested.

I do not care to recount the incidents of a siege which lasted more than two months, and which was conducted in a masterly manner by Chasseloup and Lariboisière. Marshal Lefebvre grew weary of the long and able preparations of his colleagues, and wished to begin the actual assault. Authorization for this step was asked of the emperor. "You only know how to grumble, to abuse your allies, and change your opinion at the will of the first comer," wrote Napoleon to the old warrior. "You treat the allies without any consideration; they are not accustomed to be under fire, but that will come. Do you think that we were as brave in '92 as we are to- day, after fifteen years of warfare? The chests of your grenadiers that you wish to push everywhere will not overturn walls; you must let your engineers work, and whilst waiting learn to have patience. The loss of a few days, which I should not just now know how to employ, does not require you to get several thousand men killed whose lives it is possible to economize. You will have the glory of taking Dantzig; when that is accomplished, you will be satisfied with me."

Meanwhile, the Russians and Prussians had resolved upon an attempt to raise the siege of Dantzig: a considerable body came to attack the French camp before the fort of Weichelsmunde. They were repulsed, after a furious combat, by the aid of the reinforcements which had arrived to succor Marshal Lefebvre; and the attempts of the English corvettes to re-victual the town were equally unsuccessful. A previous attack of the Swedes upon Stralsund had brought about no definite result, and their general, Essen, had been constrained to conclude an armistice. Dantzig capitulated at last, on the 26th of May, without having undergone the assault which the French soldiers loudly demanded. As early as the 22nd, Napoleon had written to Marshal Lefebvre: "I authorize Marshal Kalbreuth to go out under the ordinary regulations, wishing to give this general an especial proof of esteem; however, the capitulation of Mayence cannot be taken as a basis, as the siege was less advanced than that of Dantzig now is. I allowed, at the time, an honorable capitulation for General Wurmser, shut up in Mantua; I wish to accord one more advantageous to General Kalbreuth, taking a middle position between that of Mayence and that of Mantua."

All the French corps d'armée occupied entrenched camps, prudently defended against the attacks of enemies; they were suffering from the rigors of the winter, and the large stores of wine found in Dantzig were an important resource for the soldiers. The attempts at mediation by Austria had failed; the campaign of 1809 was being prepared; everywhere the grass was springing up in the fields, affording necessary sustenance for the horses; the wild swans were reappearing in flocks upon the shores of the Passarge. The Emperor Napoleon had fixed upon the 10th of June for the resumption of hostilities.

The Russians forestalled it: Alexander had sent his guard to General Benningsen. "Brothers, uphold honor!" said the young emperor to his soldiers as they began the march. "We will do everything that is possible," cried the troops: "adieu, master!" Already Benningsen was advancing against the corps of Ney, who occupied the advanced posts, but the clever and prudent arrangements of Napoleon had prepared the retreat of his lieutenants; without disorder and without weakness, always victoriously fighting, Marshal Ney fell back upon Deppen; two other attacks upon the bridges of Lanutten and Spanden were likewise repulsed. The concentration of the French corps d'armée began to be effected near Saafeldt, when General Benningsen changed all of a sudden his plan of campaign: passing from the offensive to the defensive, he decided to repass the Alle, in order to protect the entrenched camp of Heilsberg, and by the same movement the town of Königsberg, the last refuge of the resources of Prussia. The retreat of the Russians commenced on the evening of the 7th of June.

Napoleon followed them with almost the whole of his army; the detachments of the vanguard and rearguard had more than once been engaged in partial combats when, on the evening of the 10th of June, the French army debouched before the entrenched camp of Heilsberg strongly supported by the banks of the Alle. Napoleon followed the left bank, seeking to forestall the enemy at the confluence of the Alle and the Pregel, in the hope of seizing Königsberg before the place could be succored. Murat and Davout were already threatening the city.

It was the supreme feature in the genius of Napoleon, that an indomitable perseverance in wisely calculated projects did not exclude the thunderbolts of a marvellous promptitude in resolution and combinations. Uncertainty and want of foresight reigned, on the contrary, in the military councils of the Russians. General Benningsen, formerly in the attitude of attack, now compelled to engage in a defensive march, and projecting the defence of Königsberg, thought it all of a sudden necessary to protect himself against an attack in flank. He crossed the Alle under the eyes of the French, and meeting them on the left bank of the river, he advanced towards the corps of Marshal Lannes, whom the emperor had sent against Domnau; a strong Russian detachment drove from Friedland the regiment of French hussars, who had established themselves there. The whole Russian army attacked Marshal Lannes, who had just collected a few reinforcements. It was to judge badly of the able prudence of the Emperor Napoleon, to hope to encounter a single corps of his grand army: Lannes held out till mid-day upon the field of battle with heroic skill; he sent meanwhile express after express to the emperor, who arrived at a gallop, his face radiant with the anticipation of the joys of victory. "It is the 14th of June," said he, "the anniversary of Marengo; it is a lucky day for us."

Napoleon and his staff had preceded the march of the troops; Lannes and his soldiers recovered their forces in the presence of the invincible chief who had so many times led them to victory. "Give me only a reinforcement, sire," cried Oudinot, whose coat was pierced with bullets, "and although my grenadiers can do no more, we will cast all the Russians into the water."

This was the aim of the emperor as well as of his soldiers; and the positions which General Benningsen had taken, concentred in a bend of the river, rendered the enterprise practicable. The day was advanced, and a few of the generals had been wishing to put off the battle till the morrow. "No!" said Napoleon; "one does not surprise the enemy twice in such a blunder." Then sweeping with his telescope the masses of the enemy grouped before him, he quickly seized the arm of Marshal Ney. "You see the Russians and Friedland," said he; "the bridges are there—there only. March right on before you; enter into Friedland; take the bridges, whatever it may cost, and do not disquiet yourself about what shall take place on your right, or your left, or in your rear. That concerns us—the army and me."

When Marshal Ney had set out, marching to danger as to a festival, the emperor turned towards Marshal Mortier and said, "That man is a lion."

Upon the field of battle, where he had just arrived in face of the enemy, who appeared hesitating and troubled, Napoleon dictated his orders, which he caused to be delivered to all his lieutenants. The troops continued to arrive; all the corps formed again at the posts which had been assigned to them. The emperor checked the impatience of his generals. "The action," he told them, "will commence when the battery posted in the village of Posthenen shall commence to fire." It was half-past five when the cannon at last sounded.

Ney advanced towards Friedland under a terrible fire from the Russians; extricated by the cavalry of Latour-Marbourg, and protected by the artillery of General Victor, suddenly thrown in advance, the French columns had reached a stream defended by the imperial Russian guard. The resistance of these picked troops for a moment threw disorder into our lines, who fell back; when General Dupont, arriving with his division, broke the Russian guard. The French in pursuit of their enemies penetrated into Friedland. The city was in flames; the fugitives fled towards the bridges; a very small number had succeeded in reaching them when this only means of safety was snatched from them; the bridges were cut and set on fire when Marshal Ney took possession of the burning remains of Friedland. At the same moment the corps of General Gortschakoff, pressed by Marshals Lannes and Mortier, fighting valiantly in a position without egress, sought in vain to reconquer the city, and afterwards redescended the length of the river in the hope of finding fordable passages. Many soldiers were drowned, others succeeded in regaining the right shore. Almost the entire column of General Lambert succeeded in escaping. Night at length followed the long twilight; it was ten o'clock in the evening when the combat ceased. The victory was complete; the remains of the Russian army retired upon the Pregel without Napoleon being able again to encounter them. They soon afterwards gained the Niemen. Meanwhile Marshal Soult had occupied Königsberg, evacuated by Generals Lestocq and Kaminsky. The King of Prussia possessed nothing more than the little town of Memel.

The Emperor Alexander had rejoined his troops, vanquished and decimated in spite of their courage; the King Frederick William placed himself close to his ally, at Tilsit. Peace had become necessary for the Russians; for the Prussians it had long been so. Napoleon resolved on negotiating for himself. In response to the request for an armistice, he proposed an interview, with the Emperor Alexander. It was in the middle of the Niemen, upon a raft constructed for this purpose, that the two emperors met.

Alexander was young, amiable, winning, drawn along at times by chivalrous or mystical sentiments and enthusiasms, at other times under the dominion of Oriental tastes and passions. No one could be more capable of being influenced by the charm of a superior genius and an extraordinary destiny, and the personal ascendancy of a man who knew at once how to please and how to vex.

Napoleon wished to captivate his vanquished enemy, whom he desired to make his ally; he succeeded in doing so with ease. Master of the destinies of the world—in his own idea more so than he even was in reality—he had resolved upon offering to Alexander compensations which might satisfy him, whilst distracting his attention from the conquests and encroachments which Napoleon reserved for himself. On the eve of Austerlitz, Napoleon had said to Prince Dolgorouki: "Ah well! let Russia extend herself at the expense of her neighbors!" It was the same thought that he was about to present to the young monarch, humiliated and conquered, wishing to display it before his eyes in order to blind him more completely.

The Russians and Prussians were equally irritated against England. She had granted them money, but her military efforts had not corresponded with her promises; and it was to her obstinate hatred of France that the two monarchs attributed the origin of their defeats. "If you have a grudge against England," said Alexander, "we shall easily understand each other, for I have myself to complain of her as much as you have." It was in this first interview the sole effort of Napoleon to develop in the mind of Alexander the sentiments of anger and weariness by which he had been inspired by the selfishness which he imputed to Great Britain and the inability and weakness which he recognized in Prussia, and to engage the Russian emperor to become friendly with the only power which could offer him a glorious and profitable alliance. In the mind of the emperor, we have already said, the necessity for a continental alliance had long since made itself felt. "Austria or Russia," he had said to Talleyrand. Napoleon offered his hand to the Emperor Alexander.

The city of Tilsit was neutralized, and the two emperors established their quarters there. Before quitting the opposite shore of the Niemen, Alexander presented the King of Prussia to Napoleon in that floating pavilion on the river which flowed between the two nations. Honest, moderate, and dignified even in his profound abasement, Frederick William neither experienced nor exercised in any degree the seductiveness to which the Emperor Alexander succumbed, and which he was in his turn capable of displaying. He entreated his ally to make constant and persevering efforts in his behalf, which Alexander felt himself compelled to do not without a secret ill feeling. It was with an ostentatious display of graciousness and condescension that Napoleon ceaselessly reminded the young Czar that he accorded no favor to the King of Prussia except out of regard for his entreaties.

"In the midst of the war in which Russia and France have been engaged," wrote Napoleon, on the 4th of July, 1807, "both sovereigns, enlightened as to the situation and the true policy of their empires, have desired the re-establishment not only of peace, but of a common accord, and by the force of reason and truth have wished to form an alliance, and to pass in a single instant from open war to the most intimate relations. The boundless amity and confidence which the high qualities of the Emperor Alexander have inspired in the Emperor Napoleon have caused his heart to seal that which his reason had already approved and ratified. The protection of the emperor will result in the King of Prussia being allowed to re-enter into the possession of all the countries which border on the two Haffs, extending from the sources of the Oder to the sea. Solely with a desire of pleasing the Emperor Alexander, a large number of fortified towns will be restored to the King of Prussia. The policy of the Emperor Napoleon is that his immediate influence should be bounded by the Elbe; and he has adopted this policy because it is the only one which can be reconciled with the system of sincere and constant amity which he wishes to maintain with the great empire of the north."

Under the veil of this apparent moderation the pretensions or resolutions of the Emperor Napoleon were thus summed up: King Frederick William recovered Old Prussia, Pomerania, Brandenburg, Upper and Lower Silesia; he would abandon all the provinces to the left of the Elbe, which were to constitute, with the Grand Duchy of Hesse, a kingdom of Westphalia, destined for Joseph Bonaparte. The Duchies of Posen and Warsaw, snatched from Russian Poland, were to form a Polish State under the title of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, of which the Elector of Saxony, recently elevated to the royal dignity, received the gift, on condition of maintaining a military road across Silesia. All the States founded by Napoleon were to be recognized. Russia was charged with the mediation between France and England; France became arbitrator between Russia and the Porte.

It was much, and indeed too much, for Prussia, torn asunder without being completely destroyed, reduced to the half of its territory, and deprived of its most important towns—for Dantzig became a free city, and Magdeburg formed part of the new kingdom of Westphalia. When these hard conditions were revealed to Frederick William by the Emperor Alexander, the unfortunate king protested against a ruin so complete. He conceived, for a moment, the vain hope of obtaining from Napoleon some concessions, by bringing to bear on him the influence of the genius and beauty of Queen Louisa. This princess quitted Memel to present herself at Tilsit. "She is charming," wrote Napoleon to the Empress Josephine; but this cold appreciation of the accomplishments of the woman exercised no influence upon the resolutions of the conqueror and the politician. The queen in vain brought into play all the resources of her intellect and her charming graces; in vain presenting to the conqueror a rose which she had just plucked, she ventured to ask for Magdeburg in exchange for her flower. "It is you who have offered it to me, madame," said Napoleon, roughly. Queen Louisa quitted Memel, humiliated and sorrowful down to the very depths of her soul. Her children and her people were never to pardon us for their wrongs.

Alexander had loyally defended his friend, and felt assured of having obtained for him all that it was possible to obtain; in his secret thoughts he consoled himself for the concessions he had been constrained to make for others as well as for himself, by the dazzling prospects which Napoleon knew so well how to open brightly to his view. To the north and south the young Czar believed himself master of new territories, long objects of ambition to the Russian Empire. The Sultan Selim had just fallen at Constantinople before a revolt of the Janissaries; he was a prisoner in his own palace, and the government which was about to succeed him would naturally be hostile to French influence. Napoleon then found himself free to abandon to Russia a large part of that Ottoman Empire always coveted by her. "Constantinople! never!" Napoleon had said, in exclamation to himself, heard by one of his secretaries; "the empire of the world is at Constantinople!" But the débris of the Turkish power were of a character to satisfy all the claimants; and in case Turkey should not accept the peace, the secret treaty concluded between France and Russia assured to the Czar all the European provinces, with the exception of Constantinople and Roumelia. In case of the cabinet of London refusing the mediation of Russia, Alexander engaged himself to declare war against England. Should Portugal and Sweden, equally subject to European influence, participate in the same refusal, it was agreed that the Emperor Napoleon should send an army into Portugal, and that the Emperor Alexander should enter Sweden. Finland lay very convenient for the Russian Empire. "The King of Sweden is in truth your brother-in-law and your ally," said Napoleon; "let him follow the changes in your policy, or let him undergo the consequences of his ill-will. Sweden is the geographical enemy of Russia. St. Petersburg finds itself too near to Finland. The good Russians must no longer hear from their palaces at St. Petersburg the cannon of the Swedes."

The treaty of Tilsit was concluded on the 7th of July, 1807, and was signed on the 8th. The King and Queen of Prussia departed immediately, full of bitter sorrow and discouragement. The two emperors separated on the 9th, with a cordiality at that time sincere in its ostentatious display. More than once they had together passed their troops in review; yet once again they showed themselves to the two armies. Napoleon decorated, with his own hand, a soldier of the Russian army, who had been pointed out to him by the Czar. At last he accompanied Alexander to the shores of the Niemen, waiting upon the bank until his friend and ally had reached the farther shore. Then entering his carriage, he took the road to Königsberg, and immediately afterwards that to France, charging Berthier and Marshal Kalbreuth with the regulation of the details of the evacuation of Prussia, and the payment of the war contributions with which the conquered countries were to be crushed down. On the 27th of July, at six o'clock in the morning, the emperor re-entered Paris, which he had quitted the preceding year, and which, since then, he had so many times intoxicated with the report of his victories. The military glory was brilliant and even dazzling; the political work remained precarious, by its nature as well as by its immensity. Empires founded upon conquest are necessarily fragile, even when the war has been undertaken from serious and legitimate motives. When the war is carried on through the ambition of a man or a people, in scorn of right or justice—when it injures at once the interests, the pride, and the repose of all nations—no genius or brightness of glory can succeed in assuring its duration, or legitimatizing its success. France perceived this in the midst of the enthusiasm of victory. England repeated it with malicious confidence, in the hope of confirming the courage of its people. Once more the latter power found itself alone, in face of the ever-increasing might of France and the incomparable genius of its sovereign.

It is the mournful effect of a weakening of the moral sense in the chief of a state, to enfeeble that moral sense at the same time, and by an inevitable contagion, amongst his rivals and adversaries. In presence of the continental blockade, and of the resolution which the Emperor Napoleon had announced of imposing it upon the whole of Europe, the English cabinet, henceforth directed by the inheritors of the policy of Pitt, by Canning and Lord Castlereagh, resolved upon using violence in its turn. Fearful of seeing the maritime forces of Denmark pass into the power of Napoleon, England violated the neutrality of this little kingdom, and forestalled the secret conditions of the treaty of Tilsit. Lord Cathcart, at the head of a considerable squadron, was charged with the duty of summoning the Prince Regent to deliver to him the Danish fleet, as a pledge of the loyal intentions of his country; he offered at the same time to defend the Danish territory and all its colonies. The prince responded with bitter irony, "Your protection? Have we not seen your allies waiting for succor more than a year, without receiving it?" Copenhagen was bombarded; Sir Arthur Wellesley, whose name, for the first time, became known in Europe, effected his disembarkation with a corps of 10,000 men. The prince saw himself compelled to capitulate, and deliver to the English his fleet, with all the materiel of his arsenals. Vehemently did Europe reprobate this act of violence. The English cabinet made public the article of the Treaty of Tilsit, which had furnished the motive for its aggression. But any effort at mediation was now ridiculous. The Emperor Alexander perceived it to be so. On the 11th of November, Lord Leveson Gower, then Ambassador of England at St. Petersburg, received his passports, and the Czar haughtily adhered to the French alliance. "I deem it prudent to close one's eyes against the orders which English mercantile vessels have received to quit Russian ports," said General Savary, whom Napoleon had accredited to the Emperor Alexander. The latter treated the French envoy with distinction, but the court and world of St. Petersburg had not forgotten the part that Savary had taken in the murder of the Duke d'Enghien; he remained isolated in his palace, and even in the saloons of the emperor. The Russian declaration of war was responded to by the manifesto of England. "Publish the treaty of Tilsit, with the secret articles," said Canning; "they have not been communicated to England, but we are acquainted with them, nevertheless; they will explain to Europe our conduct and our fears, as well as the change of attitude on the part of Russia." The Emperor Napoleon was already regretting the magnificent prospect which he had opened before the Czar on the side of Turkey; the government of the Sublime Porte had adroitly accepted the mediation of France. Napoleon sought to excite the covetousness of the Russians towards the north; M, de Caulaincourt, who had replaced Savary at St. Petersburg, pushed forward with ardor the war against Sweden, and the conquest of Finland. As a consequence of the English aggression, Denmark had cast itself into the arms of France; it accordingly became easy to close against England the passage of the Sound. The Czar and his favorite counsellor, M. de Romanzoff, returned ceaselessly to the hopes that Napoleon had led them to conceive. "The ancient Ottoman Empire is played out," said the Russian minister; "unless the Czar lays his hand on it, the Emperor Napoleon will be soon obliged to announce in the Moniteur that the succession of the Sultans is open, and the natural heirs have only to present themselves."

In the meantime, and as a constant menace against an ally whom he was not completely satisfying, Napoleon was prolonging his occupation of the Prussian territory, under the pretext of the alleged slowness of payment of the war contributions; he was organizing provisionally the government of Hanover, which he had reserved as a future bait for the English government; and he was treating with Spain for the passage of troops necessary for the invasion of Portugal. This power, constantly faithful to the English alliance, having refused to give in its adhesion to the continental blockade, the emperor had sent against it General Junot with 26,000 men. The negotiations with Madrid had not been completed, and the French soldiers had already entered Spanish territory. A second army was preparing to follow them. Austria remained disquieted, and ready to take offence; a convention favorable to her was signed at Fontainebleau, on October 10th. On the 27th the eventual and provisional partition of Portugal was accepted by the Spanish envoy, Yzquierdo. A kingdom of Southern Lusitania was assigned to the Queen of Etruria, who renounced her Italian possessions; the independent principality of Algarve was to be constituted for the Prince de la Paix; the emperor reserved for himself the centre of the country, conquered by anticipation. A Spanish corps was to join the French troops for the invasion of Portugal. General Junot marched upon Lisbon. Vast projects, unjustifiable in their nature, were linked with this invasion of the Peninsula, necessarily entailing blunders and crimes as dangerous as lamentable. Napoleon had resolved upon driving the Bourbons from all the thrones of Europe, in order to replace them with Bonapartes. He set out for Italy with the view of completing one part of his work before laying his hand on Spain.

Quitting Paris on November 16th, the Emperor surprised Eugène Beauharnais (whom he was about solemnly to adopt) by assuring to him the succession of the crown of Italy. He ran through the north of the Italian peninsula, reorganizing at Venice the public services, which had fallen into desuetude; decreeing the creation of a commune on Mont Cenis; and providing for the needs of travellers by the new route which he had opened. At Mantua he had an interview with his brother Lucien, whom he would have wished to place upon the throne of Portugal, but that the latter remained obstinately rebellious against the authority of his all- powerful brother, who required of him the rupture of an already old union with Madame Jouberthon. Having returned to Milan on the 13th of December, Napoleon published there, on the 17th, a decree destined to aggravate the rigors of the continental blockade. By reprisals as unjust as awkward, directed against decree of Berlin, the English Cabinet had promulgated, on the 11th of November, 1807, an Order in Council which compelled the ships of all neutral nations to touch at an English port to import or export merchandise, paying custom-house dues averaging 25 per cent. The ships which neglected this precaution were to be declared lawful prizes. In response, the Emperor Napoleon decreed that any vessel touching at an English port, or submitting to inspection from an English ship, should be by that very fact deneutralized, and become in its turn a lawful prize. In this insensate rivalry, which ruined at the same time the commerce of England and of the world, the Cabinet of London had taken no care to modify, in favor of the United States, the rigor of its ordinances. This was for England the occasion of grave difficulties, and of a war at one time dangerous. Arbitrary interference and violence were the rule on all the seas.

Through difficulties and sufferings which threatened to destroy the army placed under his orders, General Junot arrived at the gates of Lisbon. He had to struggle with no other enemy than the bad roads and the want of provisions. Terror had seized upon the royal house of Portugal. The Moniteur of November 13th already contained an article upon the fall of the illustrious house of Braganza. "The Prince Regent of Portugal loses his throne," said the official journal; "he loses it influenced by the intrigues of the English; he loses it for not having been willing to seize the English merchandise at Lisbon. What does England do.—this ally so powerful? She regards with indifference all that is passing in Portugal. What will she do when Portugal shall be taken? Will she go to seize Brazil? No; if the English make this attempt the Catholics will drive them out. The fall of the House of Braganza will remain another proof that the fall of whatever attaches itself to the English is inevitable."

The Prince Regent of Portugal had thought it possible to arrest the march of General Junot by sending to him emissaries charged to make all the submissions required by Napoleon. The envoys had not been able to meet the French army, scattered and decimated by the ills it had undergone; it advanced, however, and the news of its approach drove the Court of Portugal on board the ships which were still to be found at the mouth of the Tagus. On November 27th the mad queen, her son the prince regent, her daughters, and nearly all the families of distinction in Lisbon, accompanied by their servants, crowded on board the Portuguese fleet, resolved to take their flight to Brazil. From seven to eight thousand persons, with all their portable property, thus obstructed the mouth of the Tagus, protected by the English fleet; on the 28th a favorable wind permitted them to sail. When General Junot entered Lisbon, on the 30th of November, at eight o'clock in the morning, the treasures which he was charged to seize were beyond his reach. He established himself without resistance in the capital, soon overwhelmed with confiscations and war contributions. "Everything is more easy in the first moment than afterwards," wrote the Emperor to Junot on the 13th of December, 1807. "Do not seek for popularity at Lisbon, nor for the means of pleasing the nation; that would be failing in your aim, emboldening the people, and preparing misfortunes for yourself. The hope that you conceive of commerce and prosperity, is a chimera with which one is lulled asleep."

Jerome Bonaparte had been declared King of Westphalia on the 8th of December. On the 10th the act announced by the treaty of Fontainebleau was consummated. The Queen Regent of Etruria, Maria Louisa of Bourbon, declared to her subjects, in the name of her son, that she was called upon to reign over a new kingdom. Tuscany then fell directly into the hands of the Emperor Napoleon, who confided its government to his sister, Eliza Baciocchi, to whom he had already given the principality of Lucca and Piombino.

Submission or flight! such was the only alternative that seemed to remain to continental sovereigns in presence of the exactions and the imperious will of Napoleon. The Pope alone, as already for two years past, was still resisting his demands, and was evincing an independence with regard to him which was every day irritating more and more the all-powerful master of Europe. Sadly disabused of the illusions and the hopes which had drawn him to Paris for the coronation of Napoleon, Pius VII. had preserved in his personal communications with the emperor a paternal and tender graciousness. He had much to obtain and much to fear on the part of the conqueror. Returning to Italy in the month of June, 1805, he said, in his allocution to the cardinals: "We have clasped in our arms at Fontainebleau this prince, so powerful and so full of love for us. Many things have already been done, and are only the earnest of that which is yet to be accomplished."

Meanwhile, the Code Napoleon had been applied to Italy, authorizing divorce, and taking the place of the Italian Concordat, which declared the Catholic religion to be the religion of the State. The Pope had complained of it, not without warmth, and had received on the part of the emperor assurances which were as vain as they were futile. But already the conflict was becoming personal and more pressing; the refusal of the Holy Father to dissolve the marriage of Jerome Bonaparte with Miss Paterson (June, 1805), at once produced antagonism between the conscience of the Pope and the views of Napoleon as to the elevation of his family to the new or ancient thrones which he destined for them in Europe. Pius VII. had long studied canonical interdictions; he consulted neither his ministers nor his doctors; it was a personal reply he addressed to the emperor. "It is out of our power." said he, "to pronounce the judgment of nullity; if we were to usurp such an authority that we have not, we should render ourselves culpable of an abominable abuse before the tribunal of God; and your Majesty yourself, in your justice, would blame us for pronouncing a sentence contrary to the testimony of our conscience and to the invariable principles of our Church."

Napoleon's anger remained warm, but he had surmounted the difficulty by dissolving by an imperial decree the marriage of his brother, and by causing him soon after to marry a princess of Wurtemberg. The disagreement with the Court of Rome, which was soon to break forth, depended on his all-powerful will, and caused him no care. In the movement of the troops, necessitated in October, 1805, by his campaign against Austria, the emperor had charged General Gouvion St. Cyr to traverse the States of the Church in order to take up a position in Lombardy. Upon the route lay the town of Ancona. The French troops received an order to seize the place and establish a garrison there, an order which was immediately executed.

In spite of the difficulties which had recently arisen between the emperor and himself, the Pope thought that Napoleon and the French Revolution were much indebted to him personally. Europe took this view, and frequent reproaches had been addressed to the Court of Rome by the powers who were enemies or rivals of France. It was, then, with astonishment, mingled with indignation, that Pius VII. learnt the news of the occupation of Ancona; he wrote, on the 13th November, 1805, a personal and secret letter to the emperor:—"We avow frankly to your Majesty the keen chagrin that we experience in seeing ourselves treated in a way that we do not think we have in any degree merited. Our neutrality has been recognized by your Majesty, as by all other powers. The latter have fully respected it, and we had especial motives for thinking that the sentiments of amity which your Majesty professed with regard to us would have preserved us from such a cruel affront. We will tell you frankly, since our return from Paris we have experienced only bitterness and trouble, and we do not find in your Majesty a return of those sentiments which we think ourselves warranted in justly expecting from you. That which we owe to ourselves is to ask from your Majesty the evacuation of Ancona, and, if met with a refusal, we should not see how to reconcile therewith a continuation of a good understanding with the French minister."

It was from Munich, on the morrow of the battle of Austerlitz and of the peace of Presburg, that Napoleon at length responded, on the 7th of January, 1806, to the letter of the Pope, in the midst of the concert of adulations and transports which were lavished on him by the vanquished as well as by his courtiers. The protest of Pius VII. recalled to him the disagreeable remembrance of an independent authority, and one which he had not been always able to submit to his will; the anger of the despot broke forth with violence at once spontaneous and measured: "Your Holiness complains that since your return from Paris you have had nothing but causes of sorrow. The reason is, that since then all those who were fearing my power and testifying their friendship have changed their sentiments, thinking themselves authorized to do so by the power of the coalition; and that since the return of your Holiness to Rome I have experienced nothing but refusals to all my designs, even those that were of the utmost importance to religion; as, for example, when it was a question of hindering Protestantism from raising its head in France. I look upon myself as the protector of the Holy See, and by this title I have occupied Ancona. I look upon myself, like my predecessors of the second and third dynasty, as the eldest son of the Church, as alone bearing the sword to protect it and to shelter it from being defiled by Greeks and Mussulmans. I should ever be the friend of your Holiness, if you would only consult your heart and the true friends of religion. If your Holiness wishes to send away my minister, you are free to do so. You are free to receive in preference the English and the Caliph of Constantinople. God is the judge who has done most for the religion of all the princes who reign."

Napoleon had excluded his brother Jerome from the succession to the Empire, but he affected to dread for France the possibility of a Protestant sovereign. It was with an increase of coarse violence that he wrote on the same day to his uncle, Cardinal Fesch: "Since these imbeciles think there will be no inconvenience in a Protestant occupying the throne of France, I will send them a Protestant ambassador. I am religious, but I am not a bigot. Constantine separated the civil from the military, and I also may appoint a senator to command in my name at Rome. Tell Consalvi— tell even the Pope himself—that since he wishes to drive my minister from Rome, I should be well able to re-establish him there. For the Pope, I am Charlemagne, because, like Charlemagne, I unite the crown of France with that of the Lombards, and my empire borders on that of the East. I expect then that his conduct towards me shall be regulated from this point of view. Otherwise I shall reduce the Pope to the position of Bishop of Rome."

The French troops did not evacuate Ancona, and the French minister remained at Rome. But soon new subjects of disagreement arose between Napoleon and the Pope, always a scrupulous observer of the neutrality which he thought due from him to all the powers. The emperor had already required that all the ports of his allies should be closed against English commerce; in proportion as his enemies became more numerous and his arbitrary power more oppressive, he extended his pretensions even over the countries neutral by situation and by state obligations. Joseph Bonaparte had just been proclaimed King of Naples; the house of Bourbon occupied in Italy only the ridiculous throne of Etruria, already on the point of being taken from them. Napoleon wished to exact from the Pope an interdiction of his ports and his territory to the exiles or the refugees who had from time immemorial been accustomed to seek an asylum in Rome. "Your Holiness would be able to avoid all these embarrassments by going forward in a straight road," wrote Napoleon to Pius VII., on February 22, 1806. "All Italy will be subject to my laws. I will not touch in any way the independence of the Holy See; I will even repay it for the injuries which the movements of my armies may occasion to it; but it must be on the condition that your Holiness will show the same regard for me in temporal affairs as I show for you in spiritual ones, and that you will cease your useless consideration for the heretical enemies of the Church, and for the powers who can do nothing for you. Your Holiness is sovereign of Rome, but I am its emperor. All my enemies ought to be yours. It is not proper then that any agent of the King of Sardinia, any Englishman, Russian, or Swede, should reside at Rome or in your states, neither that any ship belonging to these powers should enter your ports. Those who speak any other language to your Holiness deceive you, and will end by drawing down upon you misfortunes that will be disastrous." He added in his letter to Cardinal Fesch: "Say plainly that I have my eyes open, that I am not deceived any more than I choose to be; that I am Charlemagne, the sword of the Church, the emperor; and that they ought not to know that there is an empire of Russia. I make the Pope acquainted with my intentions in a few words. If he does not agree, I shall reduce him to the same position which he occupied before Charlemagne."

It was against Cardinal Consalvi, formerly the clever and firm negotiator of the Concordat, that the emperor, assisted by Cardinal Fesch, nursed his suspicions and his anger; he regarded him as systematically hostile to France; but the attachment of the Pope for his minister remained unshakable; it was from Consalvi alone that a voluntary submission might be hoped for. "If he loves his religion and his country, tell Consalvi, plainly," wrote the emperor to his uncle, "that there are only two courses to select from—either to do always what I wish, or to quit the ministry."

The moderation and prudent resolutions of the Roman ministry showed itself in the response of the Pope to the requirements of Napoleon. Already an obscure Englishman—Mr. Jackson, for a long time accredited to the King of Sardinia—had excited the mistrust of Napoleon, who insulted him in official documents. "An English minister, the disgrace of his country, found in Rome an asylum. There he organized conspiracies, subsidized brigands, hatched perfidies, bribed assassins; and Rome protected the traitor and his agents—becoming a theatre of scandal, a manufactory of libels, and an asylum of brigandage." The only crime of Jackson had been to keep his court au courant with the state of affairs in Rome. Quietly, and with all the respect his character merited, Cardinal Consalvi prevailed on Mr. Jackson to quit Rome. The cardinals were assembled in secret Consistory. Cardinal Fesch was not summoned; he was informed that they were aware of his opinions, and that his station as ambassador disqualified him for the Council of the holy father.

The Consistory did not deceive itself for a single instant as to the consequences that the concessions demanded by Napoleon would forcibly draw in their train. "We all saw," says Cardinal Consalvi in his memoirs, "that far from admitting the neutrality of the Holy See, Bonaparte expected it in the capacity of feudatory and vassal to take up the quarrels of France in no matter what war the latter might subsequently be engaged. The Holy See might then see itself, any morning or evening, attacked by Austria or Spain, or by all the Catholic or non-Catholic powers. What! the sole ambition or greed of France was to have the right of despoiling the holy father of his title of the common father of the faithful, and of compelling the representative of a God of Peace and the head of the religious world, to sow everywhere desolation and ruin, by keeping in a perpetual state of war the nations owing fealty to the tiara."

So many reasons, human and divine, as evident to common sense as to conscience, decided the response of the Pope. He was moderate, tender, prudent; but he replied categorically to the requirements of the emperor. Pius VII wished to remain neuter, and not to drive from his states the English or the Russians; he did not admit the claim of the emperor to exercise over Rome a supreme protectorate. "The Pope does not recognize, and never has recognized, any power superior to himself. Your Majesty is infinitely great; you have been elected, crowned, consecrated, recognized emperor of the French, but not emperor of Rome. There exists no emperor of Rome."

There was a good deal of boldness in repelling so haughtily the imperial pretensions; the Pope and Cardinal Consalvi were soon involved in a still more dangerous course. The accession of the new King of Naples had been announced to the court of Rome, by Cardinal Fesch, in arrogant terms: "The throne of Naples being vacant by a penalty incurred by the most scandalous perfidy of which the annals of nations have ever made mention, and his Majesty having found himself under the necessity of shielding this country, and the whole of Italy, from the madness of an insensate court, has judged it suitable to his dignity to confide the destinies of this country, which he loves, to a prince of his own house. The undersigned doubts not but that the Pontifical Government will see in this happy event a new guarantee of the system of order, justice, and consistency, which he has always had at heart to establish in all the places which have submitted to his influence."

To this circuitous demand for the recognition of Joseph Bonaparte, the Pope replied by urging his ancient feudal rights over the kingdom of Naples—"agreements," said Cardinal Consalvi, "which have always been observed, especially in the case of conquests; not only at the establishment of a new dynasty, but also at the commencement of each new reign."