Military Career of Napoleon the Great Part 21

he said, "I may conceive the hope of living sufficiently long to elevate, in my mind and after my ideas, the children with which it shall please Providence to bless me. G.o.d knows how much this resolution has cost my heart; * * * I should also add, that, far from ever having to complain, I have on the contrary, only had cause to laud the attachment and tenderness of my beloved wife. She has adorned fifteen years of my life. The recollection thereof will always remain graven on my heart."

Josephine then appeared among them, and not without tears, expressed her acquiescence in the decree. "I believe I acknowledge all these sentiments," she said, "by consenting to the dissolution of a marriage which, at present, is an obstacle to the welfare of France, which deprives it of being one day governed by the descendants of a great man, so evidently raised by Providence to efface the ills of a terrible revolution, and re-establish the altar, the throne, and social order."

The council, after addressing the Emperor and Empress on the n.o.bleness of their mutual sacrifice, accepted and ratified the dissolution of marriage. The t.i.tle of Empress was preserved to Josephine for life and a pension of two million francs, to which Napoleon afterwards added a third million from his privy purse. She then retired from the Tuileries, residing thenceforth mostly at Malmaison, and in the course of a few weeks Austria was called upon for her daughter.

Having given her hand at Vienna on the 11th of March, 1810, to Berthier, who had the honor to represent the person of the Emperor, the young Archd.u.c.h.ess set out for France on the 13th.

On the 28th, as her carriage was proceeding towards Soissons, Napoleon rode up to it, in a plain dress, altogether unattended, and introduced himself to his proxy bride. She had never seen his person till then, and it is said her first exclamation was, "Your Majesty's pictures have not done you justice."

They spent the evening at the chateau of Compiegne and a religious marriage was celebrated on the 1st of April at St. Cloud amidst every circ.u.mstance of splendor; the next day they made their entry into the capital. Napoleon in his exile said that "the Spanish ulcer" and the Austrian match were the two main causes of his ruin;--and they both contributed to it largely, although by no means equally. The Exile's own opinion was that the error lay, not in seeking a bride of imperial birth, but in choosing her at Vienna. Had he persisted in his demands, the Czar, he doubted not, would have granted him his sister; the proud dreams of Tilsit would have been realized, and Paris and St. Petersburg become the only two capitals of Europe. Possibly, then, he would not have had occasion to say that he "set his foot upon an abyss of roses"

when he married Marie.

Had he married a daughter of France, or even an imperial princess of Russia, he could have done so without the sacrifice of the prestige of the n.o.bility, and even the divinity of the people he had so gloriously contended for; but when it was announced that he had contracted an alliance with the House of Hapsburg,--that hated race against whom and whose principles he had fought a hundred battles, they were convinced that no good would come of it--and they were right.

The war, meanwhile, continued without interruption in the Peninsula; whither, but for his marriage Napoleon would certainly have repaired in person, after the peace of Schoenbrunn left him at ease. So illy was that Spanish campaign conducted during Napoleon's absence that not an inch of soil could be counted by the French beyond their outposts. Their troops were continually hara.s.sed and thinned by the indomitable guerrillas who acted singly or in bands as occasion offered.

The Emperor's marriage was speedily followed on the 20th of April, 1811, by the birth of a son and heir whom Napoleon announced to the waiting courtiers in these words: "It is a King of Rome!" The happy event, announced to the populace by the firing of one hundred and one guns, was received with many demonstrations of loyal enthusiasm. Even Josephine joined in expressing her satisfaction at the event which seemed to portend so much for the founding of a Napoleonic dynasty which the Emperor now saw possible by direct lineage.

When the Emperor of Russia was informed of Napoleon's approaching nuptials with the Austrian princess his first exclamation was, "Then the next thing will be to drive us back into our forests." In truth the conferences at Erfurt had but skinned over a wound which nothing could have cured but a total alteration of Napoleon's policy. The Russian nation suffered so much from the continental system that the Czar soon found himself compelled to relax the decrees drawn up at Tilsit in the spirit of those previously declared at Berlin and Milan. Certain harbors were opened partially for the admission of colonial produce and the export of native productions; and there ensued a series of indignant reclamations on the part of Napoleon, and haughty evasions on that of the Czar, which, ere long, satisfied all near observers that Russia would not be slow to avail herself of any favorable opportunity of once more appealing to arms.

During the summer of 1811 the relations of Russia and France were becoming every day more dubious and when towards the close of it the Emperor of Austria published a rescript granting a free pa.s.sage through his territories to the troops of his son-in-law, England, ever watchful of her great enemy, perceived clearly that France was about to have an ally. Alexander had long since ceased to regard the friendship of the great man as a blessing of heaven. Of the solemn cordiality of Tilsit, and the more recent meeting at Erfurt, there remained in the soul of the Czar naught but the displeasure and resentment arising from extinct affection and deceived hopes.

From the moment in which the Russian government began to reclaim seriously against certain parts of his conduct, Napoleon increased by degrees his military force in the north of Germany, and the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, and advanced considerable bodies of troops nearer and nearer to the Czar's Polish frontier. These preparations were met by similar movements on the other side; yet, during many months, the hope of terminating the differences by negotiations was not abandoned. The regulations of the Continental System were especially objected to by Russia, and the Czar having lent his ear to the representations of the English cabinet, asked that they be dispensed with as he declared he could no longer submit to see the commerce of an independent Empire trammeled for the purpose of serving the policy of a foreign power.

Napoleon admitted that it might be necessary to modify the system complained of, and expressed his belief that it would be found possible to devise some middle course by which the commercial interests of France and Russia might be reconciled. A very considerable relaxation in the enforcement of the Berlin code was at last effected, and a license system arranged which admitted Alexander to a share in the pecuniary advantages. Had there been no cause of quarrel between these powers except what appeared on the face of their negotiations, it is hardly to be doubted but a new treaty might have been effected. The Czar, however, from the hour of Marie Louise's marriage, felt a conviction that the diminution of the Russian power in the north of Europe would form the next great object of Napoleon's ambition. The Czar therefore a.s.sured himself that if war must come, there could be no question as to the policy of bringing it on before Austria had entirely recovered from the effects of the campaign of Wagram, and, above all, while the Peninsula continued to occupy 200,000 of Napoleon's troops.

As concerned the Spanish armies, it might still be said that King Joseph was in military possession of all but some fragments of his kingdom. The English had been victorious in Portugal and the French troops in Spain lost more lives in this incessant struggle, wherein no glory could be achieved, than in any similar period spent in any regular campaign; and Joseph, while the question of peace or war with Russia was yet undecided, became so weary of his situation, that he earnestly entreated Napoleon to place the crown of Spain on some other head. Such were the circ.u.mstances under which the eventful year of 1812 began.

Most persuasive appeals were made to Napoleon by his ministers to refrain from entering into a campaign of aggression against Russia. To Fouche, minister of police, Napoleon is reported to have said, in reply, "Is it my fault that the height of power which I have attained compels me to ascend to the dictatorship of the world? My destiny is not yet accomplished,--the picture exists as yet only in outline. There must be one code, one court of appeal, and one coinage for all Europe. The states of Europe must be melted into one nation, and Paris be its capital."

In the arguments used by Napoleon's advisers at this time they attempted to show him, among other things, the great extent of Alexander's resources,--his 400,000 regulars, and 50,000 Cossacks, already known to be in arms--and the enormous population on which he had the means of drawing for recruits; the enthusiastic national feeling of the Muscovites; the distance of their country; the severity of their climate; the opportunity which a war would afford to England of urging her successes in Spain; and the chance of Germany rising in insurrection in case of any reverses.

With the greater part of the population of France, and especially with the army, the threatened war was exceedingly popular. Russia, the most extensive Empire in Europe, it was fondly imagined, was on the point of falling before the power of the Great Nation; and England would then be left to struggle, unaided, for mastery with France. It was deemed a certain pledge of victory, since the Emperor himself was to lead his veteran legions to the new scene of triumph.

Cardinal Fesch, uncle of the Emperor, appealed to him on other grounds.

The Cardinal had been greatly affected by the treatment of the Pope, and he contemplated this new war with dread,--as likely to bring down the vengeance of heaven upon the head of one who had dared to trample on its vice-regent. Napoleon led the Cardinal to the window, opened it, and pointing upwards, said, "Do you see yonder star?"

"No Sire," replied the Cardinal. "But I see it," answered Napoleon; and the churchman was dismissed.

Trusting to this star,--his "Star of Destiny" in which he yet firmly believed,--he was far from being awed when in April, 1812, Russia declared war against France. It was an indefensible violation of the treaty of Tilsit, but it showed Napoleon that Europe was determined to crush him, and he rallied the forces of his Empire for a more terrible conflict than he had yet been summoned to.

Not satisfied with disposing everything for war in the bosom of the Empire, Napoleon, who wished to march into Russia at the head of his vast army of Europe, busied himself in forming and cementing, externally, powerful allies. Two treaties were concluded to this effect; the one with Prussia and the other with Austria on the 24th of February and 14th of March, 1812.

Alexander's minister was ordered in the beginning of April to demand the withdrawal of the northern troops, together with the evacuation of the fortress in Pomerania, in case the French government still entertained a wish to negotiate. Napoleon replied that he was not accustomed to regulate the distribution of his forces by the suggestions of a foreign power. The amba.s.sador then demanded his pa.s.sports and quitted Paris.

The Emperor of France was confident, and seems to have entertained no doubt of his success in the coming campaign. "The war" he said, "is a wise measure, called for by the true interests of France and the general welfare. The great power I have already attained compels me to a.s.sume an universal dictatorship. My views are not ambitions. I desire to obtain no further acquisition; and reserve to myself only the glory of doing good, and the blessings of posterity."

Leaving Paris with the Empress on the 9th of May, 1812, on his way to join the Grand Army then forming on the Polish frontier, the imperial pair were accompanied by a continual triumph. Not merely in France but throughout Germany the ringing of bells, music and the most enthusiastic greetings awaited them wherever they appeared. On May 16th, the Emperor arrived at Dresden where the Emperor of Austria, the Kings of Prussia, Naples, Wirtemberg, and Westphalia and almost every German sovereign of inferior rank had been invited to meet him. He had sent to request the Czar also to appear in this brilliant a.s.semblage, as a last chance of an amicable arrangement, but the messenger could not obtain admission to Alexander's presence.

Marie Louise was now sent back to France and the Russian campaign began.

Marshal Ney, with one great division of the army, had already pa.s.sed the Vistula; Junot, with another, occupied both sides of the Oder. The Czar was known to be at Wilna, collecting the forces of his immense Empire and entrusting the general arrangements of the approaching campaign to Marshal Barclay de Tolly, an officer who had been born and educated in Germany. The season was advancing and it was time that the question of peace or war should be forced to a decision.

Napoleon, before leaving the gay court of Dresden, where he was hailed as "the king of kings," dispatched Count de Narbonne to the Emperor Alexander to make a fresh attempt at negotiation in order to spare the shedding of more blood. On his return Narbonne stated that "he had found the Russians neither depressed nor boasting; that the result of all the replies of the Czar was, that they preferred war to a disgraceful peace; that they would take special care not to risk a battle with an adversary so formidable; and, finally, that they were determined to make every sacrifice to protract the war, and drive back the invader."

Napoleon arrived at Dantzic on the 7th of June, and during the fortnight which ensued, it was known that the final communications between him and Alexander were taking place. On the 22nd the French Emperor broke silence in a bulletin in which he said: "Soldiers, Russia is dragged on by her fate; her destiny must be accomplished. Let us march; let us cross the Niemen, let us carry war into her territories. Our second campaign of Poland will be as glorious as the first; but our second peace shall carry with it its own guarantee. It shall put an end forever to that haughty influence which Russia has exercised for fifty years over the affairs of Europe."

The Czar announced the termination of the negotiations by stating the innumerable efforts to obtain peace and concluded in these words: "Soldiers, you fight for your religion, your liberty and your native land. Your Emperor is amongst you; and G.o.d is the enemy of the aggressor."

Napoleon reviewed the greater part of his troops on the battlefield of Friedland, and having a.s.sured them of still more splendid victories over the same enemy, issued his final orders to the chief officers of his army. The disposition of his forces when the campaign commenced was as follows:--The left wing, commanded by Macdonald, and amounting to 30,000 men, had orders to march through Courland, with the view, if possible, of outflanking the Russian right, and gaining the possession of sea coast in the direction of Riga. The right wing, composed almost wholly of Austrians, 30,000 in number, and commanded by Schwartzenberg, was stationed on the Volhynian frontier. Between these moved the various corps forming the grand central army under the general superintendence of Napoleon himself, viz., those of Davoust, Ney, Jerome Bonaparte, Eugene Beauharnais, Prince Poniatowski, Junot and Victor; and in numbers amounting to 250,000 men. The communication of the centre and the left was maintained by the corps of Oudinot, and those of the centre and the extreme right by the corps of Regnier, who had with him the Saxon auxiliaries and the Polish legion of Dombrowski. The chief command of the whole cavalry of the host was a.s.signed to Murat who was in person at the headquarters of the Emperor, having immediately under his order three divisions of horse--those of Grouchy, Montbrun and Nantousy.

Augereau, with his division was to remain in the north of Germany to watch over Berlin and protect the communications with France. Napoleon's base of operations, as will be seen by the map, extended over full one hundred leagues, and the heads of his various columns were so distributed that the Russians could not guess whether St. Petersburg or Moscow formed the main object of his march.

[Ill.u.s.tration: From a Painting by Lionel Royer

THE 14TH LINE AT EYLAU]

The Russian army, under de Tolly, had its headquarters at Wilna, and consisted, at the opening of the campaign, of 120,000 men. Considerably to the left lay "the second army," as it was called, of 80,000 men under Bagration with whom were Platoff and 12,000 of his Cossacks; while at the extreme of that wing, "the army of Volhynia," 20,000 strong, commanded by Tormazoff, watched Schwartzenberg. On the right of de Tolly was Witgenstein with 30,000 men and between these again and the sea, the corps of Essen 10,000 strong. Behind the whole line two armies of reserve were rapidly forming at Novogorod and Smolensk, each, probably, of about 20,000 men. The Russians actually in the field at the opening of the campaign were, then, as nearly as can be computed, 260,000; while Napoleon was prepared to cross the Niemen at the head of 470,000 men.

The Czar was resolved from the beginning to act entirely on the defensive and to draw Napoleon, if possible, into the heart of his own country ere he gave him battle. The various divisions of the Russian force had orders to fall back leisurely as the enemy advanced, destroying whatever they could not take with them, and halting only at certain points where intrenched camps had already been formed for their reception.

The difficulty of feeding half a million men in a country deliberately wasted beforehand, and separated by so great a s.p.a.ce from Germany, to say nothing of France, was sure to increase at every hour and every step. Alexander's great object was, therefore, to husband his own strength until the Polar winter should set in around the strangers, and bring the miseries which he thus foresaw to a crisis.

Napoleon, on the other hand, had calculated on being met by the Russians at, or even in advance of their own frontier, (as he had been by the Austrians in the campaign of Austerlitz and by the Prussians in that of Jena); of gaining a great battle, marching immediately either to St.

Petersburg or Moscow, and dictating a peace within the walls of one of the Czar's own palaces.

On June 24th the Grand Imperial Army, consolidated into three ma.s.ses, began their pa.s.sage of the Niemen,--Jerome Bonaparte at Grodno, Eugene at Pilony, and Napoleon himself near Kowno. The Emperor rode on in front of his army at two o'clock in the morning to reconnoitre the banks, escaping observation by wearing a Polish cloak and hat; his horse stumbled and he fell to the ground. "A bad omen--a Roman would return,"

some one remarked. After a minute investigation he discovered a spot near the village of Poinemen, above Kowno, suitable for the pa.s.sage of his troops, and gave orders for three bridges to be thrown across at nightfall. The first who crossed the river were a few sappers in a boat.

All was deserted and silent on the foreign soil, and no one appeared to oppose their proceedings with the exception of a single armed Cossack, who asked, with an appearance of surprise, who they were and what they wanted. "Frenchmen," was the reply; "we come to make war upon your Emperor; to take Wilna, and deliver Poland."

The Cossack struck spurs into his horse and three French soldiers discharged their pieces into the gloomy depths of the woods, where they had lost sight of him, in token of hostility. There came on at the same moment a tremendous thunder storm. Thus began the fatal invasion.

The pa.s.sage of the troops was impeded for a time; as the bridge over the Vilia, a stream running into the Niemen, had been broken by the Russians. The Emperor, however, despising this obstacle, ordered a Polish squadron of horse to swim the river. They instantly obeyed; but on reaching the middle the current proved too strong for them, broke their ranks, and swept away and engulfed many of them. Even during their last struggles the brave fellows turned their faces towards the sh.o.r.e, where Napoleon was watching their unavailing efforts with the deepest emotion, and shouted with their dying breath, "Vive l'Empereur!"

Three of these n.o.ble-spirited patriots uttered this cry when only a part of their faces was above the waters. The army was struck with a mixture of horror and admiration. Napoleon watched the scene apparently unmoved, but gave every order he could devise for the purpose of saving as many of them as possible, though with little effect. It is probable that his strongest feeling, even at the time, was a presentiment that this disastrous event was but the beginning of others, at once tremendous and extensive.

As these enormous hosts advanced into the Russian territory Alexander withdrew his armies as deliberately as the invader pushed on. Wilna, the capital itself, was evacuated two days before the French came in sight of it, and Napoleon took up his quarters there on the 28th of June. Here it was found that all the magazines, which he counted on seizing, had been burnt before the Russians withdrew. Already the imperial bulletins began to denounce the "barbarous method" in which the enemy resolved to conduct his defense.

Napoleon remained twenty days at Wilna during which time he redoubled his efforts to secure quant.i.ties of provisions which were to be conveyed along with his army; these were to render him independent of the countries through which he might pa.s.s. The destruction of the magazines at Wilna rea.s.sured him that he had judged well in departing from the old system of marauding, which had been adopted in previous campaigns with success. At the end of this period Napoleon became aware that while the contracts entered into by his war minister were adequate for the army's needs, the handling of such enormous quant.i.ties of provisions, under the most favorable circ.u.mstances, must be slow and in some degree uncertain.

Thus the Emperor found himself under the necessity, either of laying aside his invasion for another year, or of urging it in the face of every difficulty, all of which he had forseen except the slowness of a commissariat department.

When Napoleon arrived at Wilna, he was regarded by the people as their liberator. A deputation was sent to him by the Diet of Warsaw entreating his a.s.sistance towards the restoration of their ancient kingdom, the re-establishment of Poland having been proclaimed. They came, they said, to solicit Napoleon the Great to p.r.o.nounce these few words: "Let the kingdom of Poland exist!" and then it would exist; that all the Poles would devote themselves to the orders of the fourth French dynasty, to whom ages were but a moment, and s.p.a.ce no more than a point.

Napoleon's reply was not satisfactory, "In my position, I have many interests to reconcile," he said "and many duties to fulfill." His answer was so extremely guarded, that the Poles became dissatisfied and offered little or no support to the French. "Had Poland been regenerated" says Bourrienne, "Napoleon would have found the means of succeeding in his expedition. In his march upon Moscow, his rear and supplies would have been protected, and he would have secured that retreat which subsequent reverses rendered but too needful."

During this delay Alexander was enabled to withdraw the troops which he had been maintaining on the flanks of his European domains and bring them all to the a.s.sistance of his main army. The enthusiasm of the Russian nation appeared in the extraordinary rapidity with which supplies of every kind were poured at the feet of the Czar. From every quarter he received voluntary offers of men, money, and whatever might a.s.sist in the prosecution of the war. The Grand d.u.c.h.ess Anne, whose hand Napoleon had solicited, set the example by raising a regiment on her estate. Platoff, the veteran hetman of the Cossacks, promised his only daughter and 200,000 rubles to the man by whose hand Napoleon should fall. n.o.blemen everywhere raised troops, and displayed their patriotism by serving in the ranks themselves and entrusting the command to experienced officers chosen by the government.

Napoleon at length re-entered the field without having done much to remedy the disorders of his commissariat. He at first determined to make St. Petersburg his mark, counting much on the effects which a triumphal entry into the capital would produce throughout the country, but his troops meeting with some reverses at Riga and Dunaburg, he changed his plans and resolved to march on Moscow instead.

The centre of the army was now thrown forward under Davoust with the view of turning Barclay's position and cutting off his communication with Bagration. This brought about an engagement with the latter on the 23rd of July near Mohilow, the French remaining in possession of the town. The Russian commander in retreating informed Barclay that he was now marching, not on Vitepsk, but on Smolensk.