Part 12 (1/2)
War was declared on France by Austria and England in 1800, and the First Consul saw hilory He defeated the Austrians at Marengo, while his only rival, Moreau, won the great battle of Hohenlinden At Marengo, the general whom Napoleon praised above all others fell dead on the field of battle The conqueror hilory for glory's sake and France above everything” But ”Alas! it is not per the weakness as he judged it He had done noars waged on a sive Europe a ti on vaster enterprises The victory of Marengo on June 14th, 1800, wrested Italy again froained possession and power in the peninsula It also saved France froed to accept an armistice, a huhty arloried in this success, proposing to Rouget de Lisle, the writer of the _Marseillaise_, that a battle-hy of peace with victory
The Treaty of Luneville, 1801, settled Continental strife so effectually that Napoleon was free to attend to the internal affairs of the French Republic The Catholic Church was restored by the _Concordat_, but made to depend on the new ruler instead of the Bourbon party The Treaty of Amiens in 1802 provided for a truce to the hostilities of France and England
With the world at peace, the Consulate had leisured to reconstruct the constitution The capability of Napoleon ensured the successful perforovernht of his ambitions He drew up the famous Civil Code on which the future laere based, and restored the ancient University of France
Financial reforms led to the establishment of the Bank of France, and Napoleon's belief that nized publicly to the enrolion of Honour
The reence of this military leader was displayed in the reforms he made where all had been confusion France eary of the republican governe of bankruptcy and ruin, and inclined to look favourably on the idea of a monarchy
Napoleon determined that this should be the monarchy of a Buonaparte, not that of a Bourbon The Church had ceased to support the claims of Louis XVI's brother Napoleon had won the _noblesse_, too, {177} by his feats of arn cabinets It ended, as the prudent had foreseen, in the First Consul choosing for himself the old military title of Emperor
His coronation on Decenificence, unequalled since the fall of the majestic Bourbons Napoleon placed the sacred diadem on his own head and then on the head of Josephine, who knelt to receive it His aspect was gloomy as he received this symbol of successful ambition, for the mass of the people was silent and he was uneasy at the usurpation of a privilege which was not his birthright The authority of the Pope had confirmed his audacious action, but he was afraid of the attitude of his arreatest man in the world” Kleber had proclaiypt There ork to do before he reached the suht justly claim such admiration He found court life at St Cloud very wearisome after the peace of his residence at Malht to have been the wife of a huer,” Josephine wrote in a fit of impatience at the restraints i to the title desperately when she knew that it would be taken from her She had been Napoleon's wife for fourteen years, but no heir had been born to inherit the power and to continue the dynasty which he hoped to found
She was divorced in 1809, when he married Marie Louise of Austria
Peace could not last with Napoleon upon the throne of France, determined as he was in his resolution to break the supreotten Egypt and his failure in the Mediterranean He resolved to crush the English fleet by a union of the fleets of Europe He was busied with daring projects to invade England frone The distance by sea was so short that panic seized the island-folk, who had listened to wild stories about the ”Corsican ogre” Nelson was the hope of the nation in the year of danger, 1805, when the English fleet gained the glorious victory of Trafalgar and saved England froar met his death in the hour of success, and, before the year closed, Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz destroyed the coalition led by the Austrian Emperor and the Tsar and caused a whole continent to tremble before the conqueror The news of this battle, indeed, hastened the death of Pitt, the English randisement of France He knew that the French Eht of fame, and that the coalition of Russia, Prussia, and Austria would fall disastrously
”The Prussians wish to receive a lesson,” Napoleon declared, flushed by the nificence of his late efforts He defeated them at Jena and Auerstadt, and entered Berlin to take the sword and sash of Frederick the Great as well as the Prussian standards He did honour to that illustrious Eles over the place where Frederick reposed, and he declared his as conferring more honour than any other treasures
By the Treaty of Tilsit, concluded with Alexander of Russia on a raft upon the River Niemen, Prussia suffered new huenius had vanished There was {179} even undue haste to give up fortresses to the conqueror The country was partitioned between Russia, Saxony, and Westphalia, created for the rule of Jeros noith the ease of a born autocrat His brother Joseph beca of Holland
A new nobility sprang up, for honours enerals who had helped to win his victories The new E in disinterested affection He paid handsomely for the exercise of the hu in a private book such items as ”Fifteen napoleons to Menneval for a box on the ear, a war-horse to my aide-de-camp Mouton for a kick, fifteen hundred _arpens_ in the ied him round my room by the hair”
These rewards drained the eainst the Corsican adventurer who had dared to place all Europe under the rule of Buonaparte The family did not bear their elevation huher rank and office Joseph was raised to the exalted state of King of Spain after the lawful king had been expelled by violence The patriotis kingdoed to send his best arlish hero, Sir Arthur Wellesley, was pushi+ng his way steadily toward the Pyrenees and the French frontier
The expedition to Russia had been partly provoked by the Ee with Marie Louise of Austria There had been talk of a e between Napoleon and the Tsar's sister Then the {180} arrangeer necessary after the hu of Austria Napoleon wished to throw off his ally, Alexander, and was ready to use as a pretext for war Russia's refusal to adopt his ”continental systened to crush the co other countries to trade with her, was thus, as events were to prove, the cause of Napoleon's onfall
The enormous French army made its way to Russia and entered Moscow, the ancient capital, which the inhabitants burned and deserted In the army's retreat from the city in the depth of winter, thousands died of cold and hunger, and 30,000 men had already fallen in the fruitless victory at Borodino
Napoleon was nearing his downfall as he struggled across the continent in the dreadful march which reduced an army of a quarter of a million men to not more than twelve thousand He had to meet another failure and the results of a destructive i by Austria, Russia, and Prussia, who coainst him The Allies issued at Frankfort their faainst the Empire” They compelled Napoleon to abdicate, and restored the Bourbon line A court was formed for Louis XVIII at the Tuileries, while Napoleon was sent to Elba
Louis XVI's brother, the Count of Artois, came back, still admired by the faded beauties of the Restoration The pathetic figure of Louis XVI's daughter, the duchess of Angouleietting her late revolutionary sentirew very weary of his inaction on the isle of Elba He had spent all his life in military pursuits and ret of his old veterans when he welcouards sent to him Perhaps he hoped for the arrival of his wife, too, as he paced up and down the narroalk by the sea where he took exercise daily But Marie Louise returned to her own country
Napoleon found soovernularly to the people He ht seem to have lost ambition as he read in his library or played with a tareat audacity was foro back to France once more and appeal to the armies to restore hiain with the nation which was inspired with the lust for military successes The life in the Tuileries seeures There was little resistance when the news came that Napoleon had landed and put himself at the head of the troops at Grenoble
He had appealed to the ancient spirit of the South which had risen before in the cause of liberty Feudalism and the oppression of the peasants would return under the rule of the Bourbons, he assured thean to look upon the abdicated Eel of Deliverance The people of Lyons were equally enthusiastic, winning warenerally fell from the lips of Napoleon ”I love you,” he cried, and bore theht, and again the eagle of the Empire flew from steeple to steeple on every church of Paris
{182}
The Hundred Days elapsed between the liberation frole for supreainst the Eland and Prussia that met the French on the field of Waterloo in 1815 From March 13th to June 22nd Napoleon had had titon The splendid powers of the once indefatigable French general were declining Napoleon, who had not been wont to take advice, now asked the opinions of others The dictator, so rapid in co to a decision, hesitated in the hour of peril He was defeated at Waterloo on June 18th, 1815, by Blucher and Wellington together The battle raged fro and ended in the rout of the French troops The Emperor performed a second ti broken, surrendered on board the _Bellerophon_ to the English