Military Career of Napoleon the Great Part 25

A peasant came in the evening and brought with him a b.l.o.o.d.y boot and a grey-hound, both the property, he said, of a great man who was no more; the words on the dog's collar were: "I belong to General Moreau." Moreau was dead. Both his legs had been shot off. It is said he continued to smoke a cigar while the surgeon dressed his wounds, in the presence of Alexander, and died shortly after.

The fatigues Napoleon had undergone between the 15th and 28th of August now overcame him and he was unable to remain with the columns in the rear of Schwartzenberg, but returned to Dresden. Here he learned of Vandamme's failure in an engagement in the valley of Culm with a Prussian corps commanded by Count D'Osterman, wherein the French lieutenant laid down his arms with 8,000 prisoners. This news reached Napoleon, still sick, at Dresden. "Such," he said to Murat, "is the fortune of war--high in the morning, low ere night; between triumph and ruin there intervenes but one step."

No sooner did Blucher perceive that Napoleon had retired from Silesia than he resumed the offensive, still carrying out Moreau's advice, "attack Napoleon where he is not!" and descended from the position he had taken at Jauer. He encountered Macdonald,--who was by no means prepared for him,--on the plains between Wahlstadt and the river Katsbach, on the 26th of August, and after a hard fought day, gained a complete victory. The French lost 15,000 men and 100 guns and fell back on Dresden. Oudinot was defeated on the 23d of August by Bernadotte at Gross-Beeren and Ney suffered like reverses on the 7th of September at Dennewitz, leaving 10,000 prisoners and forty-six guns in the hands of Bernadotte.

Napoleon now recovered his health and activity, and the exertions he made at this time were never surpa.s.sed, even by himself. On the 3d of September he was in quest of Blucher who had now advanced near to the Elbe, but the Prussians retired and baffled him as before. Returning to Dresden he received the news of Dennewitz and immediately afterwards heard that Witgenstein had a second time descended towards Pirna. He flew thither on the instant, the Russian gave way, according to the plan of campaign, and Napoleon returned once more to Dresden. Again he was told that Blucher on the one side, and Witgenstein on the other, were availing themselves of his absence, and advancing. He once more returned to Pirna; a third time the Russian retired. Napoleon followed him as far as Peterswald and once more returned to his centre point.

Bernadotte and Blucher finally effected a junction to the west of the Elbe, despite the heroic exertions of Ney who, on witnessing the combination of these armies retreated to Leipsic. Napoleon now ordered Regnier and Bertrand to march suddenly from Dresden to Berlin in the hope of recalling Blucher, but without success. Meantime Schwartzenberg was found to be skirting round the hills to the westward, as if for the purpose of joining Blucher and Bernadotte, in the neighborhood of Leipsic.

It became manifest that Leipsic was now becoming the common centre towards which the forces of France and all her enemies were converging.

Napoleon reached that venerable city on the 15th of October and almost immediately the heads of Schwartzenberg's columns began to appear towards the south. Napoleon, having made all his preparations, reconnoitred every outpost in person, and distributed eagles to some new regiments which had just joined him. The young soldiers, with a splendid ceremony, swore to die rather than witness the dishonor of France. Five hundred thousand men were now in presence of each other under the walls or in the environs of Leipsic and a grand battle had become inevitable.

At midnight three rockets, emitting a brilliant white light, sprang into the heavens to the south of the city. These marked the position on which Schwartzenberg--having with him the Emperor of Austria, as well as Alexander and Frederick William, had fixed his headquarters. They were answered by four rockets of a deep red color ascending from the northern horizon.

Napoleon now became convinced that he was to sustain, on the morrow, the a.s.sault of Blucher and Bernadotte as well as the grand army of the allies. Blucher was indeed ready to co-operate with Schwartzenberg, and though the Crown Prince had not yet reached his ground, the numerical strength of the enemy was very great. Napoleon had with him to defend the line of villages to the north and south of Leipsic, 134,000 infantry and 22,000 cavalry; while, even in the absence of Bernadotte, who might be hourly looked for, the allies mustered not less than 340,000 combatants, including 54,000 cavalry.

At daybreak on the 16th of October, the battle began on the southern side, the allies charging the French line there six times in succession, and were as often repelled. But it was not sufficient for the Emperor to resist with success and to hold his positions; he had, more than ever, need of a signal triumph, of a decisive victory; and when his enemies failed in their first attack, it was for him to attack them briskly in turn without giving them time to stay the disorder and discouragement of their columns, and to replace by fresh troops the fatigued and beaten soldiers; and this Napoleon did. He at once charged and with such effect, that Murat's cavalry were at one time in possession of a great gap between the two wings of the enemy. The Cossacks of the Russian Imperial Guard, however, encountered the French horse, and pushed them back again, preserving the army of the allies from a total defeat. The combat raged without intermission until nightfall, when both armies bivouacked exactly where the morning light had found them. "The allies were so numerous" said Napoleon at St. Helena, "that when their troops were fatigued they were regularly relieved as on dress parade!" With such a numerical superiority, they could scarcely be definitely beaten; therefore, notwithstanding the prodigies of valor performed by the French army, the victory remained almost undecided. In the centre and to the right the French had maintained their position but on the left treachery made them lose ground.

Marmont commanded on this side. Blucher attacked him with a vastly superior force in numbers and while nothing could be more obstinate than his defense, he lost many prisoners and guns, was driven from his original ground, and occupied when the day closed, a new position, much nearer the walls of the city.

Napoleon became convinced that he must at last retreat from Leipsic and he now made an effort to obtain peace. General Merfeld, the same Austrian officer who had come to his headquarters after the battle of Austerlitz, to pray for an armistice on the part of the Emperor Francis, had been made prisoner in the course of the day, and Napoleon resolved to employ him as his messenger. Merfeld informed him that the King of Bavaria had at length acceded to the alliance, thus adding greatly to his perplexities in finding a new enemy stationed on the line of his march to France.

The Emperor asked the Austrian to request for him the personal intervention of Francis. "I will renounce Poland and Illyria" said he, "Holland, the Hanse Towns, and Spain. I will consent to lose the sovereignty of the kingdom of Italy, provided that state remain as an independent one, and I will evacuate all Germany. Adieu! Count Merfeld.

When on my part you name the word armistice to the two emperors, I doubt not the sound will awaken many recollections."

Napoleon received no answer to his message. The allied princes had sworn to each other to entertain no treaty while one French soldier remained on the eastern side of the Rhine. He therefore prepared for the difficult task of retreating with 100,000 men, through a crowded town, in presence of an enemy already twice as numerous, and in hourly expectation of being joined by a third great and victorious army. During the 17th the battle was not renewed except by a distant and partial cannonade. The allies were determined to have the support of Bernadotte in the decisive contest.

On the morning of the 18th the battle began again about 8 o'clock and continued until nightfall without intermission. Never was Napoleon's generalship or the gallantry of his troops more thoroughly tested than on this terrible day. He again commanded on the south and again, in spite of the vast superiority of the enemy's numbers, the French maintained their ground to the end. On the north the arrival of Bernadotte enabled Blucher to push his advantages with irresistible effect; and the situation of Marmont and Ney was further perplexed by the shameful defection of 12,000 Saxons who went over with all their artillery to the enemy in the very midst of the battle. These Saxons, forming nearly a third of the left, ran over to the Russians, entered their ranks, and at Bernadotte's request discharged their artillery on the French, their fellow-soldiers, whom they had just abandoned!

The loss on either side had been very great. Napoleon's army consisted chiefly of very young men, many were merely boys, yet they fought as bravely as the Guard. The failure of the Emperor was partly occasioned by a want of ammunition; as in the course of five days, having fired more than two hundred and fifty thousand shots, his troops had not sufficient to continue the firing two hours longer. As the nearest reserves were at Magdeburg and Erfurt, Napoleon determined to march for the latter place. He gave orders at midnight for the commencement of the inevitable retreat, and while the darkness lasted, the troops continued to file through the town, and across the two bridges, over the Pleisse, beyond its walls. One of these bridges was a temporary fabric and broke down ere daylight came to show the enemy the movement of the retreating French.

The confusion necessarily accompanying the march of a whole army, through narrow streets, and upon a single bridge, was fearful. The allies stormed at the gates on either side, and, but for the heroism of Macdonald and Poniatowski, to whom Napoleon intrusted the defense of the suburbs, it is doubted whether he himself could have escaped in safety. At 9 in the morning of the 19th Napoleon bade farewell to the King of Saxony who had remained all the while in the heart of his ancient city. The King was left to make whatever terms he could with the Allied Sovereigns.

The battle was now raging all round the walls and at 11 o'clock the allies had gathered close to the bridge. The officer to whom Napoleon had committed the task of blowing up the structure, when the advance of the enemy should render this necessary, set fire to the train much too soon. The crowd of men, urging each other on to a point of safety could not at once be stopped and soldiers, horses and cannon, rolled headlong into the deep, but narrow river. Marshal Macdonald swam the stream in safety, but the gallant Poniatowski, who defended the suburbs inch by inch, and had been twice wounded ere he plunged his horse into the current, sank to rise no more. This order was given to Poniatowski by the Emperor himself: "Prince" said Napoleon to him, "you will defend the southern faubourg." "Sire" he replied, "I have but few people." "Ah!

well! you will defend yourself with what you have." "Ah! Sire, we will maintain it! We are always ready to perish for your Majesty." The ill.u.s.trious, unfortunate Pole kept his word; he was never again to behold the Emperor. Later Napoleon said of him: "Poniatowski was a n.o.ble man, honorable and brave. Had I succeeded in Russia, I intended to make him king of Poland."

The body of the Prince was found on the fifth day by a fisherman. He had on his gala uniform, the epaulets of which were studded with diamonds, and upon his fingers were several rings covered with brilliants, while his pockets contained snuff-boxes of considerable value, and other trinkets. Many of these were eagerly purchased by Polish officers who had been made prisoners. Twenty-five thousand Frenchmen, the means of escape being entirely cut off, now laid down their arms within the city with more than two hundred pieces of cannon. In killed, wounded and prisoners, Napoleon lost at Leipsic at least 50,000 men.

"This defeat at Leipsic" says St. Amand, "was for Napoleon a combination of grief and surprise. Of all the battles he had fought, this was the first that he had lost. Up to that time he could boast that if he had been conquered by the elements he had never been conquered by man; and now he was to know for himself the sufferings he had inflicted on others. He was to learn by personal experience the bitterness of defeat, the anguish of retreat, the desperation of useless bloodshed. War, which up to this time had been a source of gratification to his unparalleled pride, now showed to him its horrors, with its humiliations and inexpressible anguish. The hour had struck when he could make tardy reflections on the emptiness of genius and glory on the intoxication of pride that had turned his head."

The retreat of the French through Saxony was a sad ending to the auspicious beginning which the Emperor had opened the campaign with.

Napoleon conducted himself as became a great mind amidst great misfortunes; he appeared at all times calm and self-possessed, receiving every day that he advanced new tidings of evil, for the peasantry was hostile, supplies scarce, and added to this was the persevering pursuit of the Cossacks who attacked at every opportunity.

The Emperor halted for two days at Erfurt, where extensive magazines had been established, employing all his energies in the restoring of discipline. He resumed his march on the 25th of October, 1813, towards the Rhine. The Austro-Bavarians hastened to meet him and had taken up a position amidst the woods near Hanau before the Emperor reached the Mayne. He came up with them on the morning of the 30th, and his troops charged on the instant with the fury of desperation. Napoleon cut his way through ere nightfall, and Marmont, with the rear, had equal success on the 31st. In these actions the French lost 6,000 men but the enemy had 10,000 killed or wounded, and lost 4,000 prisoners.

The mill on the river Kinzig which runs without the town, was the scene of many desperate struggles. Here the French drove the Bavarians to the banks, precipitating hundreds into the deep stream. The miller, however, at the risk of his life, at length coolly went out, amidst a shower of b.a.l.l.s and stopped the flood-gates, so as to leave a safe retreat to the Bavarians over the mill-dam. The side of the town next to the scene of battle was constantly taken and retaken by the contending armies, and during the night of the 30th the watch-word was changed not less than seven times. Six of the Austro-Bavarian's generals were killed or wounded and both cannon and flags were left in the power of the conqueror.

The pursuit of Napoleon, which had been intrusted to the Austrians, was far from vigorous and no considerable annoyance succeeded the battle of Hanau. The relics of the French host, now reduced to 60,000 men, at length pa.s.sed the Rhine; and the Emperor, having quitted them at Mayence, arrived in Paris on the 9th of November.

XIV

THE INVASION OF FRANCE

By the defeat of the Emperor in the campaign of 1813 the Confederation of the Rhine was dissolved forever. The princes who adhered to that league were now permitted to sue for forgiveness by bringing a year's revenue and a double conscription to the banner of the Allies.

Bernadotte turned from Leipsic to reduce the garrisons which Napoleon had not seen fit to call in, and one by one they fell, though in most cases, particularly at Dantzic, Wirtemberg and Hamburg, the resistance was obstinate and long.

The Crown Prince of Sweden having witnessed the reduction of some of these fortresses, and intrusted the siege of others to his lieutenants, invaded Denmark and the government of that country severed its long adhesion to Napoleon by a treaty concluded at Kiel on the 14th of January, 1814. Sweden yielded Pomerania to Denmark; Denmark gave up Norway to Sweden; and 10,000 Danish troops having joined his standard, Bernadotte turned his face towards the Netherlands. Holland also revolted after Leipsic, the Prince of Orange returning in triumph from England and a.s.sumed administration of affairs in the November following.

On the side of Italy, Eugene Beauharnais was driven beyond the Adige by an Austrian army headed by General Hiller, and it was not at all likely that he could hope to maintain Lombardy much longer. To complete Napoleon's perplexity his brother-in-law, Murat, was negotiating with Austria and willing, provided Naples was guaranteed to him, to array the force of that state on the side of the Confederacy. Beyond the Pyrenees, Soult, who had been sent from Dresden to retrieve, if possible, the fortunes of the army defeated in June at Vittoria, had been twice defeated; the fortresses had fallen, and except a detached, and now useless force under Suchet in Catalonia, there remained no longer a single French soldier in Spain.

Such were the tidings which reached Napoleon from his Italian and Spanish frontiers at the very moment when it was necessary for him to make head against the Russians, the Austrians, and the Germans, chiefly armed and supplied at the expense of England, and now rapidly concentrating in three great ma.s.ses on different points of the valley of the Rhine. The royalists, too, were exerting themselves indefatigably in the capital and the provinces, having recovered a large share of their ancient influence in the society of Paris even before the Russian expedition. The Bourbon princes watched the course of events with eager hope. The republicans, meanwhile, were not inactive. They had long since been alienated from Napoleon by his a.s.sumption of the imperial dignity, his creation of orders and n.o.bles, and his alliance with the House of Austria; these men had observed, with hardly less delight than the royalists, that succession of reverses which had followed Napoleon in his last two campaigns. Finally, not a few of Napoleon's own ministers and generals were well prepared to take a part in his overthrow.

Talleyrand, and others only second to him in influence, were in communication with the Bourbons, before the allies crossed the Rhine.

"Ere then," said Napoleon, "I felt the reins slipping from my hands."

The Allied Princes issued at Frankfort, a manifesto on the 1st of December in which the sovereigns announced their belief that it was for the interests of Europe that France should continue to be a powerful state, and their willingness to concede to her, even now, greater extent of territory than the Bourbon kings had ever claimed--the boundaries, namely, of the Rhine, the Alps, and the Pyrenees. Their object in invading France was to put an end to the authority which Napoleon had usurped over other nations. The hostility of Europe, they said, was against,--not France, but Napoleon--and even as to Napoleon, against not his person but his system. These terms were tendered to the Emperor himself, and although he authorized Caulaincourt to commence negotiations in his behalf, it was merely for the purpose of gaining time.

Napoleon's military operations were now urged with unremitting energy.

New conscriptions were called for, and granted; every a.r.s.enal sounded with the fabrication of arms. The press was thoroughly aroused and with its mighty voice warned the allies against an invasion of the sacred soil of France. The French Senate was somewhat reluctant, however; they ventured to hint to the Emperor that ancient France would remain to him, even if he accepted the proposals of the allies. "Shame on you," cried the Emperor, "Wellington has entered the south, the Russians menace the northern frontier, the Prussians, Austrians, and Bavarians the eastern.

Shame! Wellington is in France and we have not risen _en ma.s.se_ to drive him back! All my allies have deserted--the Bavarian has betrayed me. No peace until we have burned Munich! I demand a levy of 300,000 men--with this and what I already have, I shall see a million in arms. I will form a camp of 100,000 at Bordeaux; another at Mentz; a third at Lyons.

But I must have grown men: these boys only serve to inc.u.mber the hospitals and the road-sides. Abandon Holland! Sooner yield it back to the sea! Senators, an impulse must be given--all must march--you are fathers of families--the head of the nation--you must set the example.

Peace! I hear of nothing but peace when all around should echo to the cry of war!"

The Senate drew up and presented a report which renewed the Emperor's wrath. He reproached them openly with designing to purchase inglorious ease for themselves, at the expense of his honor. "In your address" he said, "you seek to separate the sovereign from the nation. I alone am the representative of the people. And which of you could charge himself with a like burden? The throne is but of wood, decked with velvet. If I believed you, I should yield the enemy more than he demands; in three months you shall have peace, or I will perish. It is against me that our enemies are more embittered than against France, but on that ground alone am I to be suffered to dismember the State? Do not sacrifice my pride and my dignity to obtain peace. Yes, I am proud because I am courageous; I am proud because I have done great things for France.

* * * You wished to bespatter me with mud, but I am one of those men who may be killed yet not dishonored.

"Return to your homes * * * even supposing me to have been in the wrong, there was no occasion to reproach me publicly; dirty linen should be washed at home. For the rest; _France has more need of me, than I have of France_."

Having uttered these words the Emperor repaired to his council of state and there denounced the Legislative Senate as one composed of one part of traitors and eleven of dupes. "In place of a.s.sisting," he said, "they impede me. Our att.i.tude alone could have repelled the enemy--they invite him. We should have presented a front of bra.s.s--they lay open wounds to his view. I will not suffer their report to be printed. They have not done their duty, but I will do mine--I dissolve the Legislative Senate!"

The Pope was now released from his confinement and returned to Rome which he found in the hands of Murat, who had ere then concluded his treaty with Francis and was advancing into the north of Italy, with the view of co-operating in the campaign against Beauharnais, with the Austrians on one side and on the other with an English force recently landed at Leghorn, under Lord William Bentinck. Ferdinand also returned to Spain, after five years of captivity, amid universal acclamations.

"When first informed of Murat's treason, by the Viceroy (Eugene)," says Bourrienne "the Emperor refused to believe it. 'No!' he exclaimed to those about him, 'It cannot be! Murat--to whom I have given my sister!

Eugene must be misinformed. It is impossible that Murat has declared himself against me.' It was, however, not only possible but true." As St. Amand well says, in speaking of Murat's desertion: "He might have united his forces with those of Prince Eugene and have attacked the invasion in the rear; he would have saved the Empire of France; he would have died on the throne, covered with glory, instead of being shot!"

For a time the inhabitants of the French provinces on the frontier believed it impossible that any foreign army would dare to invade their soil, and it was not until Schwartzenberg had crossed the Rhine between Basle and Schaffhausen on the 20th of December, that they were willing to believe in the sincerity of the Allies and their determination to carry the war into France itself. Disregarding the claim of the Swiss to preserve neutrality, Schwartzenberg advanced through that territory with his grand army, unopposed--an indefensible act in itself, and began to show himself in Franche-Compte, in Burgundy, even to the gates of Dijon.

On the 1st of January, 1814, the Silesian army, under Blucher, crossed the river at various points between Rastadt, and Coblentz; and shortly after, the army of the north, commanded by Witzingerode and Bulow, began to penetrate the frontier of the Netherlands.

The Pyrenees had been crossed by Wellington and the Rhine by three mighty hosts, amounting altogether to 300,000 men and including every tongue and tribe from the Germans of Westphalia to the wildest barbarians of Tartary. "Seven hundred thousand men," says Dumas, "trained by their very defeats in the great school of Napoleonic war, were advancing into the heart of France, pa.s.sing by all fortified places and responding, the one to the other, by the single cry, 'Paris!

Paris!'"

The allies proclaimed everywhere as they advanced, that they came as the friends, not the enemies of the French nation, and that any of the peasantry who took up arms to oppose them must be content to abide the treatment of brigands; a flagrant outrage against the most sacred and inalienable rights of mankind.

Meanwhile, nearer and nearer each day the torrent of invasion rolled on, sweeping before it, with but slight resistance, the various corps which had been left to watch the Rhine. Ney, Marmont, Victor and Mortier, commanding in all about 50,000 men, retired of necessity before the enemy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: From a Painting by H. Bellange