Part 13 (1/2)

[Footnote 13: The king of Wurtemberg, who had fifteen hundred men close at hand, did not send them to the aid of the Bavarians, nor did he go over to the allies until the 2d of November.]

[Footnote 14: In November, one hundred and forty thousand French prisoners and seven hundred and ninety-one guns were in the hands of the allies.]

[Footnote 15: Dantzig had formerly sixty thousand inhabitants, the population was now reduced to thirteen thousand. Numbers died of hunger, Rapp having merely stored the magazines for his troops.

Fifteen thousand of the French garrison died, and yet fourteen generals, upward of a thousand officers, and about as many comptrollers belonging to the grand army, who had taken refuge in that city, were, on the capitulation of the fortress, made prisoners of war.]

[Footnote 16: The injustice thus favored by the first peace was loudly complained of.--_Manso._]

CCLXII. Napoleon's Fall

Napoleon was no sooner driven across the Rhine, than the defection of the whole of the Rhenish confederation, of Holland, Switzerland, and Italy ensued. The whole of the confederated German princes followed the example of Bavaria and united their troops with those of the allies. Jerome had fled; the kingdom of Westphalia had ceased to exist, and the exiled princes of Hesse, Brunswick, and Oldenburg returned to their respective territories. The Rhenish provinces were instantly occupied by Prussian troops and placed under the patriotic administration of Justus Gruner, who was joined by Gorres of Coblentz, whose Rhenish Mercury so powerfully influenced public opinion that Napoleon termed him the fifth great European power.[1] The Dutch revolted and took the few French still remaining in the country prisoner. Hogendorp was placed at the head of a provisional government in the name of William of Orange.[2] The Prussians under Bulow entered the country and were received with great acclamation. The whole of the Dutch fortresses surrendered, the French garrisons flying panic-stricken.

The Swiss remained faithful to Napoleon until the arrival of Schwarzenberg with the allied army on their frontiers.[3] Napoleon would gladly have beheld the Swiss sacrifice themselves for him for the purpose of keeping the allies in check, but Reinhard of Zurich, who was at that time _Landammnann_, prudently resolved not to persevere in the demand for neutrality, to lay aside every manifestation of opposition, and to permit, it being impossible to prevent, the entrance of the troops into the country, by which he, moreover, ingratiated himself with the allies. The majority of his countrymen thanked Heaven for their deliverance from French oppression, and if, in their ancient spirit of egotism, they neglected to aid the great popular movement throughout Germany, they, at all events, sympathized in the general hatred toward France.[4] The ancient aristocrats now naturally reappeared and attempted to re-establish the oligarchical governments of the foregoing century. A Count Senfft von Pilsach, a pretended Austrian envoy, who was speedily disavowed, a.s.sumed the authority at Berne with so much a.s.surance as to succeed in deposing the existing government and reinstating the ancient oligarchy. In Zurich, the const.i.tution was also revised and the citizens rea.s.sumed their authority over the peasantry. The whole of Switzerland was in a state of ferment. Ancient claims of the most varied description were a.s.serted. The people of the Grisons took up arms and invaded the Valtelline in order to retake their ancient possession. Pancratius, abbot of St. Gall, demanded the restoration of his princely abbey.--Italy, also, deserted Napoleon. Murat, king of Naples, in order not to lose his crown, joined the allies. Eugene Beauharnais, viceroy of Italy, alone remained true to his imperial stepfather and gallantly opposed the Austrians under Hiller, who, nevertheless, rapidly reduced the whole of Upper Italy to submission.

The allies, when on the point of entering the French territory, solemnly declared that their enmity was directed not against the French nation, but solely against Napoleon. By this generosity they hoped at once to prove the beneficence of their intentions to every nation of Europe and to prejudice the French, more particularly, against their tyrant; but that people, notwithstanding their immense misfortunes, still remained true to Napoleon nor hesitated to sacrifice themselves for the man who had raised them to the highest rank among the nations of the earth, and thousands flocked anew beneath the imperial eagle for the defence of their native soil.

The allies invaded France simultaneously on four sides, Bulow from Holland, Blucher, on New Year's eve, 1814, from Coblentz, and the main body of the allied army under Schwarzenberg, which was also accompanied by the allied sovereigns. A fourth army, consisting of English and Spaniards, had already crossed the Pyrenees and marched up the country. The great wars in Russia and Germany having compelled Napoleon to draw off a considerable number of his forces from Spain, Soult had been consequently unable to keep the field against Wellington, whose army had been gradually increased. King Joseph fled from Madrid. The French hazarded a last engagement at Vittoria, in June, 1813, but suffered a terrible defeat. One of the two Na.s.sau regiments under Colonel Kruse and the Frankfort battalion deserted with their arms and baggage to the English. The other Na.s.sau regiment and that of Baden were disarmed by the French and dragged in chains to France in reward for their long and severe service.[5] The Hanoverians in Wellington's army (the German Legion), particularly the corps of Victor von Alten (Charles's brother), brilliantly distinguished themselves at Vittoria and again at Bayonne, but were forgotten in the despatches, an omission that was loudly complained of by their general, Hinuber. Other divisions of Hanoverians, up to this period stationed in Sicily, had been sent to garrison Leghorn and Genoa.[6]--The crown prince of Sweden followed the Prussian northern army, but merely went as far as Liege, whence he turned back in order to devote his whole attention to the conquest of Norway.

In the midst of the contest a fresh congress was a.s.sembled at Chatillon, for the purpose of devising measures for the conclusion of the war without further bloodshed. The whole of ancient France was offered to Napoleon on condition of his restraining his ambition within her limits and of keeping peace, but he refused to cede a foot of land, and resolved to lose all or nothing. This congress was in so far disadvantageous on account of the rapid movements of the armies being checked by its fluctuating diplomacy. Schwarzenberg, for instance, pursued a system of procrastination, separated his _corps d'armee_ at long intervals, advanced with extreme slowness, or remained entirely stationary. Napoleon took advantage of this dilatoriness on the part of his opponents to make an unexpected attack on Blucher's corps at Brienne on the 29th of January, in which Blucher narrowly escaped being made prisoner. The flames of the city, in which Napoleon had received his first military lessons, facilitated Blucher's retreat. Napoleon, however, neglecting to pursue him on the 30th of January, Blucher, reinforced by the crown prince of Wurtemberg and by Wrede, attacked him at La Rothiere with such superior forces as to put him completely to the rout. The French left seventy-three guns sticking in the mud. Schwarzenberg, nevertheless, instead of pursuing the retreating enemy with the whole of his forces, again delayed his advance and divided the troops. Blucher, who had meanwhile rapidly pushed forward upon Paris, was again unexpectedly attacked by the main body of the French army, and the whole of his corps were, as they separately advanced, repulsed with considerable loss, the Russians under Olsufief at Champeaubert, those under Sacken at Montmirail, the Prussians under York at Chateau-Thierry, and, finally, Blucher himself at Beaux-champ, between the 10th and 14th of February. With characteristic rapidity, Napoleon instantly fell upon the scattered corps of the allied army and inflicted a severe punishment upon Schwarzenberg, for the folly of his system. He successively repulsed the Russians under Pahlen at Mormant, Wrede at Villeneuve le Comte, the crown prince of Wurtemberg, who offered the most obstinate resistance, at Montereau, on the 17th and 18th of February.[7]

Augereau had meantime, with an army levied in the south of France, driven the Austrians, under Bubna, into Switzerland; and, although the decisive moment had arrived, and Schwarzenberg had simply to form a junction with Blucher in order to bring an overwhelming force against Napoleon, the allied sovereigns and Schwarzenberg resolved, in a council of war held at Troyes, upon a general retreat.

Blucher, upon this, magnanimously resolved to obviate at all hazards the disastrous consequences of the retreat of the allied army, and, in defiance of all commands, pushed forward alone.[8] This movement, far from being rash, was coolly calculated, Blucher being sufficiently reinforced on the Marne by Winzingerode and Bulow, by whose aid he, on the 9th March, defeated the emperor Napoleon at Laon. The victory was still undecided at fall of night. Napoleon allowed his troops to rest, but Blucher remained under arms and sent York to surprise him during the night. The French were completely dispersed and lost forty-six guns. Napoleon, after this miserable defeat, again tried his fortune against Schwarzenberg (who, put to shame by Blucher's brilliant success, had again halted), and, on the 20th of March, maintained his position at Arcis sur Aube, although the crown prince of Wurtemberg gallantly led his troops five times to the a.s.sault. Neither side was victorious.

Napoleon now resorted to a bold _ruse de guerre_. The peasantry, more particularly in Lorraine, exasperated by the devastation unavoidable during war time, and by the vengeance here and there taken by the foreign soldiery, had risen to the rear of the allied army.

Unfortunately, no one had dreamed of treating the German Alsatians and Lothringians as brother Germans. They were treated as French. Long unaccustomed to invasion and to the calamities incidental to war, they made a spirited but ineffectual resistance to the rapine of the soldiery. Whole villages were burned down. The peasantry gathered into troops and ma.s.sacred the foreign soldiery when not in sufficient numbers to keep them in check. Napoleon confidently expected that his diminished armies would be supported by a general rising _en ma.s.se_, and that Augereau, who was at that time guarding Lyons, would form a junction with him; and, in this expectation, threw himself to the rear of the allied forces and took up a position at Troyes with a view of cutting them off, perhaps of surrounding them by means of the general rising, or, at all events, of drawing them back to the Rhine. But, on the self-same day, the 19th of March, Lyons had fallen and Augereau had retreated southward. The people did not rise _en ma.s.se_, and the allies took advantage of Napoleon's absence to form a grand junction, and, with flying banners, to march unopposed upon Paris, convinced that the possession of the capital of the French empire must inevitably bring the war to a favorable conclusion. In Paris, there were numerous individuals who already regarded Napoleon's fall as _un fait accompli_, and who, ambitious of influencing the future prospects of France, were ready to offer their services to the victors. Both parties speedily came to an understanding. The _corps d'armee_ under Marshals Mortier and Marmont, which were encountered midway, were repulsed, and that under Generals Pacthod and Amey captured, together with seventy pieces of artillery, at La Fere Ohampenoise. On the 29th of March, the dark columns of the allied army defiled within sight of Paris. On the 30th, they met with a spirited resistance on the heights of Belleville and Montmartre; but the city, in order to escape bombardment, capitulated during the night, and, on the 31st, the allied sovereigns made a peaceful entry. The empress, accompanied by the king of Rome, by Joseph, ex-king of Spain, and by innumerable wagons, laden with the spoil of Europe, had already fled to the south of France.

Napoleon, completely deceived by Winzingerode and Tettenborn, who had remained behind with merely a weak rearguard, first learned the advance of the main body upon Paris when too late to overtake it.

After almost annihilating his weak opponents at St. Dizier, he reached Fontainebleau, where he learned the capitulation of Paris, and, giving way to the whole fury of his Corsican temperament, offered to yield the city for two days to the license of his soldiery would they but follow him to the a.s.sault. But his own marshals, even his hero, Ney, deserted him, and, on the 10th of April, he was compelled to resign the imperial crown of France and to withdraw to the island of Elba on the coast of Italy, which was placed beneath his sovereignty and a.s.signed to him as a residence. The kingdom of France was re-established on its former footing; and, on the 4th of May, Louis XVIII. entered Paris and mounted the throne of his ancestors.

Davoust was the last to offer resistance. The Russians under Bennigsen besieged him in Hamburg, and, on his final surrender, treated him with the greatest moderation.[9]

On the 30th of May, 1814, peace was concluded at Paris.[10] France was reduced to her limits as in 1792, and consequently retained the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, of which she had, at an earlier period, deprived Germany. Not a farthing was paid by way of compensation for the ravages suffered by Germany, nay, the French prisoners of war were, on their release, maintained on their way home at the expense of the German population. None of the _chefs-d'oeuvres_ of which Europe had been plundered were restored, with the sole exception of the group of horses, taken by Napoleon from the Brandenburg gate at Berlin. The allied troops instantly evacuated the country. France was allowed to regulate her internal affairs without the interference of any of the foreign powers, while paragraphs concerning the internal economy of Germany were not only admitted into the treaty of Paris, and France was on that account not only called upon to guarantee and to partic.i.p.ate in the internal affairs of Germany, but also afterward sent to the great Congress of Vienna an amba.s.sador destined to play an important part in the definitive settlement of the affairs of Europe, and, more particularly, of those of Germany.

The patriots, of whom the governments had made use both before and after the war, unable to comprehend that the result of such immense exertions and of such a complete triumph should be to bring greater profit and glory to France than to Germany, and that their patriotism was, on the conclusion of the war, to be renounced, were loud in their complaints.[11] But the revival of the German empire, with which the individual interests of so many princely houses were plainly incompatible, was far from entering into the plans of the allied powers. An attempt made by any one among the princes to place himself at the head of the whole of Germany would have been frustrated by the rest. The policy of the foreign allies was moreover antipathetic to such a scheme. England opposed and sought to hinder unity in Germany, not only for the sake of retaining possession of Hanover and of exercising an influence over the disunited German princes similar to that exercised by her over the princes of India, but more particularly for that of ruling the commerce of Germany. Russia reverted to her Erfurt policy. Her interests, like those of France, led her to promote disunion among the German powers, whose weakness, the result of want of combination, placed them at the mercy of France, and left Poland, Sweden, and the East open to the ambition of Russia. A close alliance was in consequence instantly formed between the emperor Alexander and Louis XVIII., the former negotiating, as the first condition of peace, the continuance of Lorraine and Alsace beneath the sovereignty of France.

Austria a.s.sented on condition of Italy being placed exclusively beneath her control. Austria united too many and too diverse nations beneath her sceptre to be able to pursue a policy pre-eminently German, and found it more convenient to round off her territories by the annexation of Upper Italy than by that of distant Lorraine, at all times a possession difficult to maintain. Prussia was too closely connected with Russia, and Hardenberg, unlike Blucher at the head of the Prussian army, was powerless at the head of Prussian diplomacy.

The lesser states also exercised no influence upon Germany as a whole, and were merely intent upon preserving their individual integrity or upon gaining some petty advantage. The Germans, some few discontented patriots alone excepted, were more than ever devoted to their ancient princes, both to those who had retained their station and to those who returned to their respective territories on the fall of Napoleon; and the victorious soldiery, adorned with ribbons, medals, and orders (the Prussians, for instance, with the iron cross), evinced the same unreserved attachment to their prince and zeal for his individual interest. This complication of circ.u.mstances can alone explain the fact of Germany, although triumphant, having made greater concessions to France by the treaty of Paris than, when humbled, by that of Westphalia.

[Footnote 1: His princ.i.p.al thesis consisted of ”We are not Prussians, Westphalians, Saxons, etc., but Germans.”]

[Footnote 2: This prince took the t.i.tle not of stadtholder, but of king, to which he had no claim, but in which he was supported by England and Russia, who unwillingly beheld Prussia aggrandized by the possession of Holland.]

[Footnote 3: Even in the May of 1813, an ode given in No. 270 of the Allgemeine Zeitung, appeared in Switzerland, in which it was said, ”The brave warriors of Switzerland hasten to reap fresh laurels. With their heroic blood have they dyed the distant sh.o.r.es of barbarous Haiti, the waters of the Ister and Tagus, etc. The deserts of Sarmatia have witnessed the martial glories of the Helvetic legion.”]

[Footnote 4: Shortly before this, a report had been spread of the nomination of Marshal Berthier, prince of Neufchatel, as perpetual Landammann of Switzerland.--_Muralt's Reinhard_.]

[Footnote 5: Out of two thousand six hundred and fifty-four Badeners but five hundred and six returned from Spain.]

[Footnote 6: Beamisch, History of the Legion.]